Link in the Chain of Jewish History-Tyler Bienstock
Alexander Muss has been the experience of a lifetime for me. I am so blessed to have this opportunity and am so grateful to share it with all my readers on this blog. The sights I have seen so far have all been breathtaking and hearing the stories behind them have changed me as a person. Also, the wonderful people here who are mature and caring have had a huge impact on my character since coming here. Alexander Muss in Israel has been an amazing experience and has me rethinking several everyday concepts that I would never think twice about at ho
me.
When I first arrived in Israel and was quarantined with my new friends, the head of school, Dr. Mark Shinar, gave us all a lesson through poems he thought were worth sharing with us. There were about five poems he read to us, but one in particular stood out to me. He read the poem Frog in a Well, by Alice Schertle. The poem was about a frog in a well describing his own small world. The part that I found fascinating was how the frog in the poem had no idea there was a huge world beyond his well. Dr. Shinar explained how the frog is like us in a few ways. He went on to tell us how every one of us are trapped in our small well looking at a small portion of the world with our limited point of view. This had me thinking at night, wondering what the poem meant until it hit me. By exploring a whole new country in an entire different part of the world was expanding our well to see more of what is beyond our own limited perspectives.
You probably are wondering what this poem and a frog has so much to do with my experience here and how Alexander Muss has changed me. However, I was wondering how it would impact me in the future but I figured out every moment I bonded with new people, every time I learned about a new sight, every trip to a new and exciting place to encounter a new lesson for me was widening my own well bit by bit. These meaningful moments with friends and teachers in a new way I never have has changed me. Being less than five feet away from Benjamin Netanyahu while breaking fast at the Western Wall has changed me. Learning about my ancestors 3000 years ago and walking the same path they walked has changed me. So many more factors and ways that this incredible place has changed me I haven’t even realized yet is the best feeling. Knowing you are part of something bigger than yourself and finding who you are. That is how this place has changed me already.
Tyler Bienstock
9/23/21