Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
Summer vacation begins. It's a long vacation that is also long on boredom for some of our youth. Yet we should also remember the maturity shown by our young people in demonstrating their independence and initiative, as in the following example:
Yael Goldstein studies at the Amit Yeshurun Ulpana (religious girls' high school) in Petah Tikva. A "Yom Chesed" (Day of Kindness) was marked by 80 girls who cut their hair under the auspices of the Zikaron Menachem organization so that wigs could be made from their hair for sick women. This is the fifth time (!) that Yael had done this. "At the age of 5 I contributed my hair for the first time," she told me. "And since then, this is my routine: I grow out my hair and contribute it once every two years. It touches me deeply that it's so easy to help someone who became ill, and also gives me a good feeling throughout the process. Each millimeter of hair that I grow draws me closer to my goal. It really does not bother me at all that my hair does not look as good after it's cut. How I look is not the main thing."
This coming Shabbat, in the first haftarah to be read after the long vacation for high school students has begun, a passage appears that reminds us of the main thing that is demanded of us, which is not grades or diplomas: "He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord demands of you; but to do justice, to love practicing kindness, and to walk humbly before your God." (Micah 6:8)
Have a successful vacation doing kindness.
