Changing Realities in Bet Shemesh

I went to the melave malka in Bet Shemesh last night, It was actually at the edge of RBS B, in the caravan of a small Litvishe shul surrounded by hassidic shuls, including the one that many of the extremists daven in. Of course it ran on Jewish time, which is something I almost never consider, meaning I actually got there on time and we waited around, and helped set up the room...

It was a really nice, albeit simple event. It was much smaller than what I had expected, and the organizer had told me he was going to be keeping this one small. There were a few of us from RBS A, someone from Sheinfeld, a number of haredi fellows, both Litvishe and hassidic, both from the immediate area and from Yefe Nof, and there was a group of Bnei Akiva madrichim from Sheinfeld and other parts of Bet Shemesh.

There were some speeches, some food, some music singing and dancing, and overall it was very nice.

Will anything come of it? I do not know. Personally I am skeptical about the efficacy of these types of events. I would not have gone at all had I seen someone announce it - I only went because the organizer called me about it.

That being said, it was nice we could all sit together, chat with people we would normally never cross paths with. And, it cant hurt to do nice things with nice people and change our own perceptions, even if just slightly, as well as other people's perceptions of us.