Israel: the Great Stuff - Part 2

Part of The Yom Haatzmaut Project
Part 2 of 2 -- for part 1, click here.

3. Easy to live as a Torah Jew
There's a famous saying, hilariously corrupted in the movie Anchorman, that goes, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.' I'm proud of how Israel has built a society where keeping the Mitzvot is very easy and very convenient. When we consider the secular and sometimes anti-religious tendencies of a significant part of the founders of the secular Zionist movement, and those who breathed real life into their ideas in building up the state in the days of the Chalutzim, we realize that the strong influence of Torah on the State is not something we should take for granted.*

It's Israeli law, I understand, that every government building has to have a Mezuza on its doors. That's fantastic! That's amazing! And until very recently, it has been completely forbidden to buy or sell Chametz on Pesach! Incredible! Understand that it's not just the Torah-observant Jews who are keeping Pesach in Israel: even the shops, retailers, and industrial suppliers do not deal in chametz on Pesach, whether they want to or not!

And the Jewish holidays are all national public holidays too. You don't have to ask your boss for yet another leave period from work, and earn yourself the jealous envy of your co-workers, who think you're just using religion as a weak excuse to get off work. In Israel, it's all part of how the society works.

Another incredible part of this, something that I really love, is how Israelis work on the Jewish calendar, in years, months, and days of the week. Why use the idol-based names of the week and month, and of course year count, when you can use those that the Torah uses: names, dates, and concepts that are deeply rooted in Torah and Torah concepts. These, and many other similar institutions, bring the very fabric of Israeli society a bit closer to Torah, and allow Torah-true Jews to live their lives in the ways of the Torah, which is amazing and, as I said above, not to be taken for granted.

4. A close society: one big family
Lastly, I'm proud of the wonderfully open and alive society and culture in Israel. You can get on a bus and have the deepest, most personal conversation with a total stranger. And when you get off the bus, it doesn't feel at all weird. It feels right, and normal, and something in your heart says, Wow! That was incredible. And in Israel, as is almost a cliché to say, the children belong to everyone. If your child is crying, strangers will stop to find out why, and will have no reserve in telling you what you should or should not be doing. I've done this myself, on a crowded bus! (I offered to take a crying child, whose cries seemed to be ignored by its mother, and to comfort it and feed it) And this is not weird, or abnormal. It's part of the fabric of society. Sure, there is often a lot of tension, and lots of energy to steam off, but at its core, it is a society of brotherliness, closeness, and a connection to one's fellow citizen that is incredibly special. Sure, there are feuds between sectors of the society, and, sure, there are problems. But deep down, there are bonds of friendship, love, and trust that I am so fiercely proud of, and that I can't wait to become part of.

Conclusion
I end with the proud and excited announcement that I will be making aliyah in the next few months; packing up and starting a wonderful, exciting new chapter of my life in Israel. I know very well of the issues and problems, and even of the dangers that loom overhead in Israel. But while they disturb me, they don't affect my desire, and decision, to make Israel my real home; or to look at it another way, to finally come home, to where I really belong.

Because, while it's so easy to focus on the negative (I often find myself doing this), it's so much more empowering, inspiring, and rewarding (and often challenging!) to focus on the positive. One thing I have personally gained from this special Tzipiyah.com Yom Ha'atzma'ut project, and which I hope many of you have, too, is the reminder that there is so much positive in Israel: so many good things that happen every day, and so many good processes that are being played out from day to day, mingled in with the negatives that we see. The negatives are real, but our focus on them, or off them, is our choice. To see the good, you just need to open your eyes!

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* In fact, most of this is the fruits of the hard efforts of great people like Rav Kook, Rav Goren, the Chazon Ish, and others, who worked immensely at planting, and fostering, a Jewish nature and spirit in the Yishuv in Palestine and in the young State of Israel.