First and foremost, I have to give credit to my one and only absolutely incredible Rabbi, Rav Dovid Abramovitz for the incredible "shmutz la'aretz" pun. Secondly, I need to apologise to everyone (absolutely everyone involved in this project..readers, bloggers and especially Dan!) for my lack of writing over the past while. I had been, unfortunately, preoccupied with preparations for my departure from the holy land. I thought I would be able to stay, but l'tsaari, my funding fell through (aka my parents wanted me to come back, get a degree and THEN make aaliyah..any other way and it would be coming out of my pocket!). So now it's back to the sitting around and dreaming of returning home...
I think that's what everyone feels. It's almost as if we have been genetically preprogrammed with a homing device set on "Israel". Things can be just great outside of the country..we live comfortable lives, eating our OU food that's easy and convenient to buy..we have restaurants, shuls, community centres, shiurim, kollels, community schools, great Rabbis, easy lives...what more can we really ask for?
Here's how I explained it to my parents. As we all know, everyone has a bashert, as it says that forty days before a child's birth it's "soul mate's" name is announced in heaven. This person has the other half of our neshamas, they complete us and compliment us, they support us, and the love that we have for them is incomparable to any other. However, it's possible to get married to someone who isn't your actual bashert. You may love and be in love with them, live happily ever after with them, raise a wonderful family..and never know they weren't the bashert assigned for you back in heaven. Had you been with your true bashert, things may have been that smidgen more amazing, that drop more incredible. But you had no way of knowing any of this, and as the saying goes, "ignorance is bliss"; you are perfectly content where you are, thinking that this is as good as it gets.
And that's perfectly okay.
As I told my parents, though, Israel is my true bashert. Sure, I could stay in North America and be content, comfortable. Realistically, the life there is harder; it's a struggle and it's not so easy. But isn't that the deal with any solid relationship? You may fight, but real love overcomes it. True connection overrules anything and everything else. So if I'm blessed enough to know who my real bashert is, why would I marry some shmendrick who's just okay?
I think it's so important to keep it in mind that our "homes" outside of Israel are not really our homes. It's not where we are meant to be. They should just be a stop on the way to our true destination. And I know there's so many reasons a person can come up with to justify not going back, but think about it..G-d doesn't want you chilling out in your fancy home driving your North American car doing chesed work for Israel. That's all commendable and well and good but it's not your true purpose. It's easy to be distracted by the material comforts that just make this feel "right". But it's like walking on the street in the dark-you may look up and think the light is coming from the street lamp. Only looking at the small picture will obviously make it easy to say you need to say. But if you were to look at the whole frame, you would see the long run,the workings in Hashem's ultimate plan...you would see the light of the moon.
We are returning to Eretz Yisrael. We are waiting for redemption, not only to leave galut and the suffering therein, but much more than that; to reveal the entire light, to pour the flow of life until the holy of holies, the source of Israel, the source of her elevated soul, that illuminates us in the special land, the Holy Land, the land of life and the land of light.
HaRav Kook, Orot HaRiyah (p.63)
