I was thinking how much I hate the suburbs. I'm an outdoor kind of guy. I need trees, mountains, fields. Instead I'm surrounded by lots and lots of concrete. I love the sheer naturalness of it.
So why don't I move out of the city, you might ask. Simple. I'm a frum Jew. Probably any other religion wouldn't have problem with it. Simply drive to Church on Sunday, or make sure to have your prayer rug with you.
Let's see, for a frum Jews to live a successful Jewish life he requires a long list of things. To name a few: a Shul, a Bais Medrish, a Rabbi, Kosher food, Judaica store, and most importantly, a mikvah.
Granted in the era of online shopping, you could probably order kosher food, and anything you might need from a Judaica store (to name a few, Tzizit, Tfillin, Kippot, Lulav, Etrog, Sukkah, Matzah, Sefarim,), you might even be able to manage a long distance relationship with a Rabbi. But there are really 2 things that a Jew needs to live successfully: 1) a Mikvah to keep the Family Purity laws, which then leads to the next most important thing, 2) other Jews (there are two meanings in that). It would be almost impossible to lead a Torah lifestyle with other Torah observant Jews. There have been many cases of people from frum families who isolate themselves and then threw off the yoke of Torah. I have a case of that in my family.
Now this leads back to my original problem of wanting to find a Torah lifestyle outside of the suburbs, or worst (shudder) the city.
Lets think, what Jewish community in America can I do that in?
LA? No
Chicago? No
Baltimore? No
Miami? No
New York? (laugh) no
My solution? I'll give you three guesses.
1) Canada
2) Africa
3) Israel
It is possible to live any conceivable lifestyle in Israel. You want mountains? Got it. You want to live on a beach? Got it. Lake? Yup. Forest? You bet.
And if you get lonely you can always move back the city or suburbs, as Israel has plenty of those as well.
And here's the kicker, you can live a fully Torah lifestyle in ANYONE OF THESE ENVIRONMENTS!
Yep, for Jews Israel is definitely the way to go.
You've gotta love being wished a Shabbat Shalom from every person you meet on Friday, from the Non-frum bus driver to the Arab selling pistachios in the shuk.Come and enjoy!
2 comments:
I hope that you make the aliya trip. However before you do there is some constructive criticism you must know and for that I have also opened a blog where I tell the not so good stuff about the religious zionist movement http://torahandzionism.blogspot.com/ I have however written a a very powerful pro aliya book on the parsha of the week entitled "torah and zionism?" which is printed by the Lulu.com In the book I go through the parsha of the week and tell why aliya should basically be done NOW.
Sigh. Don't you just feel as if you are "fading," the longer you are stuck in Chu"l? I just discovered your blog; and today I have had time only to read your first and your most recent posts. B'hatzlacha, in getting Home soon. May Hashem bless you, that you should stay strong in your convictions and your love of Jews and the Land, and that your voice should only grow in its ability to bring your brothers and sisters to an awareness that there's no place like Home. For the likes of us, the work will only begin then. For we must then help to bring our sisters and brothers to achdut, the only answer.
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