Shalom All,

Next week, more than 1.5 million kids will be returning to school - 2 of
them my own personal contribution to the current education system. I just
came back from buying everything Roy and Bar need for school, from books to
erasers, knowing that I will quickly discover something forgotten - special
pencils? Another book? - and that the only question is how fast I will
discover it. It always amazes me how both my sons, who on regular basis love
to be as different as possible only to prove to us that they are indeed 2
separate entities (sometimes it feels like they are 5 separate people…), are
exactly the same when it comes to taking care of anything connected to
school: books are easily lost, pencils misplaced, notes from the teachers
forgotten…

Growing up in Tel-Aviv, the first day of school was always festive,
especially after I started attending "Gimnasia Hertzlia" - the same school
my father, and indeed most of my family, attended. The year always started
with a special Kabbalat Shabbat, singing the following song:

"Here, in the beloved land of our forefathers
all our hopes will come true
here we will live and here we shall create
a life of freedom, a life of liberty.
Here the lord will dwell
Here the language of the Torah will flourish…"

"The Gimnasia", as we called it, was the first Hebrew school of modern
times, and we all took pride in the fact that it was established even before
Tel-Aviv was born - 100 years ago, exactly, this coming year. Naming it
after Hertzl himself and conducting all activities - formal and informal -
in Hebrew, the founders were sending out a message: this is the future of
the Jewish people. The above song was written, sung and spread throughout
the country by the students.
For many years, the school was the source of culture, music and lyrics,
sending harmonies of romance, march and longing that spread throughout the
land; songs that were initiated in the sun-stricken classrooms and carried
by us students as we marched through the hills on our endless field-trips.
And what field trips! Carrying a small tent that would easily be swept away
in the middle of the night by a slight breeze, a knapsack, home-made food
and water, we would march from Metulla to Eilat, measuring the earth with
our footsteps, leaving our mark on the stones, making up scary stories in
the middle of the night at the campfire, memorizing the Biblical and
historical scenes in the places where they actually happened, living the
songs we were singing:

"Because 7 times more beautiful
our land will be,
if you measure her beauty with your footsteps."

Looking back, school was not just a place of study - it was THE place of
renewal, rebirth and creation of the newly growing Jewish independence in
Israel. It gave us pride, connection, compassion, commitment and a strong
sense of ownership, values and senses that have been branded into my soul
ever since.
My children, our children, may you all be blessed during the coming school
year with at least half the richness that I was lucky to receive from my
school. It will make you happier people. Believe me. I know from personal
experience.

Shabbat Shalom,
Liat