Random Thoughts of the Day...

It's been a while since I last posted and a lot has happened. The big ones being that I finally got my Israeli passport and with it my "officially" being approved for Aliyah by the Jewish Agency.

I knew that since I got my Mac I was going to find less time to write, partly due to the fact that now I have some other outlets for my creative juices, like recording music (which actually got some airtime last week on Israel National Radio), as well as just getting used to the new system. I must say the transition from PC to Mac has been very smooth and I can't see myself going back unless it's because of economic reasons.

Anyways this blog is about Torah and Israel so I have to get some stuff off of my chest.

I make Aliyah in the number of day that are listed on the side screen of this page.

And I am terrified.

I know that I've been all gung-ho about Aliyah ever since I came back from Israel that last time (2 years, 2 weeks and 3 days) and I did something that I said that I wouldn't do.

I got comfortable.

It's hard not to in the Exile, that's one of it's tests.

It's the story of Purim. I discovered something interesting last year about the whole Purim story, that the king before Achashvairosh allowed the Jews of Persia to return to Eretz Yisrael to rebuild the Beit Hamikdash.

And their resonse?

"We don't want to go, we like it here, we're going to stay."

So imagine this, a Jews, in the Exile, going to Daf Yomi at night and Vatikin in the morning. Who has the most inspiring Shabbos meals and is someone who is true leader in the Jewish community. Goes to the big government event of the year and makes sure that there is enought Kosher food with every type of hechsher that every sect of Judasim holds by to make sure that the JEWS CHAS V'SHALOM WERE TO DO SOMETHING TREIF!!

And they eat off of the Kalim of the Beit Hamikdash.

I talked to one of my old Rebbeim last week about something he had said in my sister Bais Yaakov class, regarding Aliyah. He had said that it's not a good idea to make Aliyah with kids, because it is in a sense going to end up being the kids who will take the hardest hot from the culture shock, especially if they don't want to go in the first place.

I can't comment on making Aliyah with kids, because I am not married yet and do not have kids of my own. I can however say that he is right in a sense and that it is hard to know what the effect will be on the kids because that might be one the most unpredictable part of the Aliyah as a family equation.

There have been families with kids who have thrived and families who have fallen, but the point is that in order to have a smooth transition from the Exile into the Land of Israel, is for young couples and singles to make Aliyah before there are any kids in the picture.

And that is going to start with education.

Rabbi Fass said that America does not need to pack up it's bags and go tomorrow, but the mentality around Aliyah has to change. There still is the sense that Israel is a charity cause and not something to be taken seriously when it comes to the idea of what the Torah says and actually live there. And people who make Aliyah still kind of get the looks from people who say "s/he's strange."

The trick is education, the groups in America that are educating about Israel as a state are the more modern groups, yet there are also more likely the more affluent group and more rooted in materialism.

The more charadi/yeshivish world don't talk about Aliyah, yet are more committed to Torah in the Exile.

I don't know what the answers are, but I do know that the idea around Aliyah has to change. Israel is no longer a charity organization that serves the purpose of being a refuge for fleeing Jews from countries that are persecuting them. It is now a thriving country (and in some ways more stable that even the United States.)

Which leads me to one more point that I think that a fitting end to Jewish life in America (if Mashiach doesn't come, which will hopefully be by the time you read this) if, as what's happening right now, the American economy would collapse, bringing with it an end to the prosperity this country has enjoyed for decades.

As Natan Sharansky said "In Russia I had to break out of Iron Curtain. You in America need to break out of Golden Curtain."

I don't run the world, that's up to G-d. All I can do is do my best to see it is truthfully as it is and do whatever I can to leave the world a little better than the way I found it.

On a final note, everyone should have, in the back of their minds, that Israel is where home is and not get too comfortable in the Exile. Otherwise, as Jewish history has proven time and time again that it repeats itself, and will we be in Israel drinking on kalim of the Beit Hamikdash.