Exchange We Can Believe In

Even now that I have returned from my two month exchange program, I still cannot believe I went. Foreign exchange programs seem to only exist in movies, a distant concept that does not occur in real life.
Yeshiva University’s High School for Boys turned this idea into a reality. The vision of the Head of School, Rabbi Mark Gottleib, and Mrs. Tova Rosenberg the head of MTA’s Hebrew Language Department has made the unimaginable a reality.
On January 26th, Rosh Chodesh Shvat, ten sophomores from MTA began their first day at Yeshivat Makor Chiam, an Israeli High School founded on the teachings of Rav Adin Steinsaltz, internationally known for his multivolume translation and commentary to the Talmud.
In exchange for four Israeli juniors, these ten Americans received the opportunity of a life time, a chance to experience and benefit from a culture different from any other Israeli high school let alone an American one. The school’s ideologies have no appropriate label, except unique. There isn’t any place like it. They have a refreshing perspective on educational methods, judiaism and life.
The unique Makor Chiam experience started immediately on the first day, Rosh Chodesh, when the recitation of hallel is customarily said, but their hallel is nothing like any I have ever seen. There, it is done with instrumental accompaniment, and breaks for dancing following every paragraph. The guitar seemed out of place around the neck of the shliach tzibur, the leader of the service, but when the bongo came out the ten Westerners knew immediately that this trip will be interesting to say the least.
This is only one incident that sticks out that would be impossible to find in most modern, Jewish high schools. They have a love for their religion. There is no dress code, nor anything close to a Dean of Discipline. The students there have a great amount of freedom which they use to strive to get closer to God. They sing by halel, not because they are forced to or because it is routine, but because they want to. And they enjoy it.
They have such a love for things we take for granted, and they have worked hard for it too. Last year, only two weeks before the attack on Mercaz HaRav, they had their own terrorist scare. Two extremists breached the school’s security dressed as security personal. The terrorists were even greeted warmly by the faculty when they interrupted a staff meeting, but when one turned a gun on a dorm counselor while another drew a knife all smiles were quickly forgotten.
Luckily, the room the terrorists decided to attack, was where the armed staff members were at the time and not the weakly defended Study Hall where all the children were gathered that Thursday night for the weekly mishmar, the extra learning program. There were only minor injuries among the staff which quickly healed, but you can never heal this fear that these kind of attacks cause.
The most important philosophy that we have learned in Makor Chiam, that makes this passion for torah, and their religion as a whole, possible, is the phrase shortened to Blit"z. It stands for Beli Tzinyot "without mockery." That anyone can do anything without the fear of being made fun of by their peers. Without the worry of onlookers and their judging eyes, or invasive disheartening comments, one is able to experience Judaism any way they like. Anyone can just be themselves without fearing his peer's reaction.
The unique social contract of Blit”z is what allows the Makor Chiam students to observe Judaism in their ‘unique’ way, such as their singing during weekday prayer services, something the typical high school students would immediately alienate. The only way, in my opinion, one can experience Judaism in such an unusual yet laudable fashion is without the fear of whether or not you will receive your peer’s approval.
It is a completely different society there, and this idea and environment is what allows them to find a way to enjoy life and there religion, even if it looks weird or different. They have no need to neither worry about being judged nor find the need to seek approval.
While I traveled around the globe to seek such a society, my friends and I began to wonder why this passion and freedom of worship cannot be found closer to home. Only then did it become apparent to us that this is the exact reason why we were sent. To return and spread our knowledge of what could be, and hopefully it will be.