For 18 months, my husband and I drove up to the kibbutz from Bnei Brak every single Shabbos

As told to Sarah Pardes by Ricky Siton

I

live in Bnei Brak, but the paths of Kibbutz Givat Hashlosha are as familiar to me as the streets of my native city. I first visited the secular kibbutz on Shabbos Hagadol and was enchanted. I felt the charm not only of the place, but of its people.

My initial visit was followed by many more. For 18 months, my husband and I drove up to the kibbutz from Bnei Brak every single Shabbos. We stayed in an apartment that was rented out by Ayelet HaShachar, a nonprofit organization created to bring together religious and nonreligious Jews in Israel. I was hired to be director of the organization’s chavrusa project.

We had five small kids at the time, and to drive up there every Friday with all our food — not just for ourselves but for the guests we brought from Bnei Brak to complete a minyan, plus all the guests from the kibbutz — was no simple matter. The three-hour drive home on Motzaei Shabbos, after cleaning the apartment, was no less difficult, but I welcomed the challenge.