My sojourn at Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan, where I served as a kibbutz volunteer for five months in 1982-1983, blessed me with memories to cherish a lifetime. One of those experiences occurred immediately after our volunteers' trip to the Golan Heights. While we were there, near the former Syrian bunker overlooking the Sea of Galilee, I spotted an eagle in the sky with a snake in its talons and pointed it out for all to stand in awe and ooh and aaah! I love God's good creation.

While having breakfast with around 10 other people, all kibbutzniks except for one volunteer girl from France, in the kitchen of the matgeria - the chicken incubator where the eggs were stored, chicks hatched, then inoculated and sent to Europe (David, a Moroccan Jew, used to make the best shukshuka) - I used my very limited Hebrew to mention how the volunteers had just visited Ramot HaGolan (the Golan Heights). I was very happy to have seen part of the biblical inheritance of shevet Menashe ben Yosef (the Tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph), especially since the descendants of Menashe today are Americans. I said,