Leave uncut the corners of your fields...
The residents/members at Yahel obey the laws as stated in Torah. This is important to them to live Jewishly. They are therefore obligated to leave the corners of their fields unpicked, so those in need can come and help themselves. Well, guess what? Here in the desert, miles from nowhere, nobody came. So the council had a meeting and after much discussion they came up with a plan that would fulfill the mitzzvah. They figured out that the quantity the corners represented was two percent of their crops. They therefore set aside two percent of their gross income for Tzedakah.

They have "adopted" a kids camp and do work with Downs' Syndrome kids and adults. Mike Chernick stated "This is the only kibbutz in the world that observes these laws. They have also sponsored the Pumelos for Peace program in which Israeli, Palestinian, American, and other Arab teens get together for days. The kids are all English speakers.

The Dairy Herd, a Shabbat problem:
Cows must be milked three times per day, seven days per week. It takes three hours for each milking of all the cows. This equals nine hours ow work. How then is dairy herd to be milked on Shabbat? They studied through Torah. The Orthodox Kibbutz decided that the Law requires milking on Shabbat to relieve the animals, but they cannot use the milk produced. Yahel decided not to go around the law. To destroy Shabbat milk would mean taking away one-seventh of the profitability. So they decided to leave it as a "Torah-newt" situation. When an issue cannot really be resolved it is called Tafue, or non-decision. This is a Talmudic tradition when no answer is available.

The Art Gallery in the Barn:
Miriam Stern-Chrenick, Mike's wife, is an artist. She has decorated the walls of one of the dairy buildings with cartoons of cows using word plays.
In Hebrew, cow is 'Para.'
Para bole - cow in the shape of a bowl.
cow bowling
Paralyze cow
Para chute - cow shooting
Para psychology - Cow shrinking a cow
And at the shed where artificial insemination occurs, there are pictures of a cow and a bull. The cow is under a lamp looking sexy; bull looking horny. Someone once came to Yahel to learn how to artificially inseminate cows. After days of tiral and error and failure, she burst into the dining room waving the insemination equipment in the air and yelling "I'm a father, I'm a father!!"

Pomellos
One of the cash crops are Pomello trees. Pomellos are a citrus fruit, with a yarmulake (not a hybrid.) The grow easily and abundantly in the desert land and there's an orchard full . Yahel is on the Jordanian border which is marked by two barbed wire fences on either side of a 4 to 6 foot no-man's land.
One day, before the Jordanian-Israeli treaty, Yahel got a call from the IDP that there were footprints coming over the fence from Jordan. They realized, the Jordanian soldiers stationed there watch the Pomello laden trees as they are wilting from the heat. So, Dan Goldstein, the man in charge of the agricultural part of the operation, loaded some huge boxes with pomellos, and drove it up to the place where the "break-in" occurred. He put a sign on them saying "Help yourselves, Enjoy." Pretty soon there was a constant stream of "takers." Cars and trucks would drive up and fill up.
One day, Yahel got a call from the Governor of the town near the border asking if he could visit. They invited him for a meal and became fast friends. They still call each other periodically.
A few years ago when Israel negotiated with Jordan, the border was set at the low point in the valley where the Arhava river flows at flood time. The Yahel fields are all east of that low point because that is the only arable silt in the Arhava. In the negotiations, Jordan readily agreed that the Kibbutz could keep their fields, in return for Israeli concessions elsewhere. whether one has to do with the other, who knows. But certainly, people to people, good will goes a long way.

Aileen in front of the Arches at Timna.