Here are two very different videos from our activities of the week. Matan had the culmination of his month of initiation into Bnei Akiva on Saturday night. The entire yishuv comes out for a show put on by all of the kids in their various units. Matan’s group was surprisingly good! Josh took this video of them doing their routinue…and even if you aren’t related to Matan, you might actually enjoy it. Two amazing things from the activities that night.

1. The Rav of the yishuv spoke before the performances and he said that 20 years ago there were 4 (yes FOUR) Bnei Akiva kids in the yishuv. They had to figure out how to get to Alon Shvut (a neighboring community) for Shabbat for their Bnei Akiva activities because they certainly didn’t have enough kids to do them here. This year – Saturday night – hundreds upon hundreds of kids were participating in the same place – right here in Neve Daniel. Amazing what the vision and determination of a few can create.

2. After Matan’s performance, we came home, but Matan went on to watch the rest of the shows. We told him to come home when it finished and to wake up if we weren’t up. Low and behold, he woke us…at midnight! How amazing is that to be able to sleep while knowing that your 9 year old son isn’t home and that he’ll be walking home by himself at midnight. It’s truly an amazing thing to live in a yishuv.

The other video is just because I’m Zeli’s mom and I think his crawling system is the funniest, and cutest thing in the entire world. Sue me for gloating over my kid : ) .