D’var Israel – September 10 2016

When asked to introduce ourselves to you, we were challenged to find a few pieces of information that will convey to you the answer to the question – “who are Gil and Noga?”

So for that matter we will ask, and also answer, a few different questions:

1st question – where are we from?

Well, I’m from the city of Haifa, and I’m from a small Moshav called Shdema.

But why is this relevant? Because there is a reason we answered Shdema and Haifa, instead of Israel, or the Middle East for that matter. Because our identity is very locally based. Even though Haifa isn’t all that small, and I wasn’t born in Shdema, as I grew up it felt like my own, and it still does.

There are several places in Israel in which I may not feel at home, but there are no such places in Shdema, or in Haifa, and I know there will never be.

2nd question – who are the important people in our lives?

Our families, and a group of close friends that each one of us have. We will not elaborate too much on them, but we will ask again – why is this relevant? The important people in our lives are relevant, because they influenced our personalities more than anything else. The fact that we see it that way also says something about us.

3rd (and last) question – what is important to us?

So far we’ve talked about what influenced us, but what have we done to become who we are? What choices have we made to bring ourselves to this day? We will name a few:

• I have decided to practice piano, only to quit it later and practice guitar, which brought me to my decision to go to a middle school of arts.
• I have decided to join the Israeli Scouts at the age of 10, right after I came back from a stay of 5 years in Thailand.
• I have decided to pursue the role of the quarterback on my American Football team, and later to pursue excellence in that role.
• I have decided to be a counselor in the Scouts, and later a head of 9 counselors.
• I have decided to dress up as a Hawaiian girl on Purim…
• And WE have decided to leave our homes, and the important people in our lives, in order to be Shinshinim at Holy Blossom.

There is also another thing we have decided. We have decided to ask specific questions today instead of others, starting with the first one – “who are Gil and Noga?”. We could have asked “who are we?”, but we chose to include our names. We chose to include our names in the question because it represents us. Ironically, it is the only choice in our lives, in which we weren’t involved in any way.

And now, as we come to a new place, we have many decisions to make, but we are not at our homes anymore, and our families and friends aren’t around either. So we welcome you to join.

[green_message] For the full archive of our Shinshinim D’var Israel postings, please click here.[/green_message]