Midway through the week, one of the students - an armored commander, brought up the idea to invite his 20-year-old educand, suffering from CP and wheelchair-bound, from an ultra-Orthodox family to spend Shabat at the Yeshiva. He has been treating him for six years and he has wanted to allow him a special experience outside the home and the institution where he lives.
The apprentice attended us with prayers at classes and dinners and nodded happily. He seemed to enjoy every moment and we enjoyed his special presence.
Then about an hour before Shabbat, three students on their way from Jerusalem to the Yeshiva, on Route 443, identified an ultra-Orthodox couple with a baby next to a vehicle on fire near an Arab village. The couple was on their way to spend Shabbat in the Center. The students, one of them a paramedic and two of them, commanders in the armored force, kept them away from the vehicle for fear it might explode.
Indeed, shortly after, the vehicle exploded.
Without hesitation, they decided to host the family at the Yeshiva for Shabbat; students evacuated one of their apartments and prepared it to host the family, and of course, they were hosted in the Beit Midrash and Shabbat meals. (A Ponevezh Chassid in the Beit Midrash of a Zionist Hesder Yeshiva)!
On Saturday night after making Havdallah, and the moving farewell from the educand that the students handled so nicely, and the excited family that the students hosted at the Yeshiva, we said our goodbyes and realized, what a wonderful generation we have, of amazing students who are "out there" giving and doing good for the people of Israel.