Mishpucha is the first Hebrew word that I learned during my trip to Israel four months ago, it means “family.” Depending on where you’re from, what you believe, or what you love, family can take on a different meaning. Where I’m from, family includes the people that have the same blood line. This would include your grandparents, parents, siblings, children, etc. However, in Israel, family, or mishpucha, has a much wider connotation. There, it means that everyone who is Jewish is family, so if you are Jewish and have come to Israel from far away, then don’t worry, because you’re coming home to family. It’s a beautiful thing.
Personally, I am not religious. My parents divorced when I was four and I split my time between them, attending synagogue when I was with my mother, and church when I was with my father. Obviously, I was a bit confused when I was constantly being taught opposing views every other week. As I grew older, I shunned religion entirely not wanting to do with any of it.
However, in Judaism, if your mother is Jewish, then you automatically are too. Maybe you don’t practice the religion, but being Jewish isn’t necessarily about a religion, it’s about culture and history… it’s about mishpucha.
In January, I went to Israel with a birthright group called Awesome Israel. When I went into it, I was a little bit nervous because I thought everyone would be extremely religious and I wouldn’t fit in, but after the first few minutes, I realized I was in a group of forty young adults just like me. Whether they were orthodox, conservative, had a bar or bat mitzvah, or never learned Hebrew at all, there was something binding us: we were all Jewish in some way. We were mishpucha.
I made so many amazing friends while I was there that I still keep in contact with. One, whom I am very close to was an Israeli soldier there. Her grandmother left Germany to live on a Kibbutz in northern Israel. She wanted to come to a place where she could feel at home, and would be surrounded by other people like herself, whom she could call her mishpucha. To this day, she still lives on the Kibbutz and is very happy there. Her granddaughter, my good friend, is not extremely religious herself, but still honors her family’s heritage, religion, and culture, because that is her mishpucha.
After visiting Israel, I’ve given lots of thought to what mishpucha means, and one thing I truly cherish above most things is my own mishpucha. Mishpucha to me, means the group of people whom I love and understand and we accept one another for what we are regardless of what the rest of the world says or does. My mishpucha includes my parents, grandparents, siblings, and the rest of my immediate blood family, those who share my heritage, and the many determined wanderers like myself, whom I meet that share the same dreams to see the world. I’ve added many mishpucha along my journeys and look forward to many more. The perks I’ve found from my mishpucha, is that I am able to find them everywhere, therefore, I feel at home everywhere I go.
I’d really love to hear about what mishpucha means to you in your corner of the world!
Forever wandering and wondering,
Brianna Leilani
BriannaLeilani 