15 Tammuz 5783 | ט"ו תמוז ה'תשפ"ג
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| Wikipedia. I learned Torah across the street from the building site for about two years before it was finished. |
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For some who can’t make it right now, it may be as simple as “asking permission.”
It was, for me. We visited Israel for the first time in August 2005, right before the gerush from Gush Katif, and we were here for it. So I knew that we weren’t coming here for the political system — rather, in spite of it. (I did put "Eretz Yisrael" in the title, not Medinat Yisrael, for a reason.)
My desire had been there since 1967. I was eleven then, and my family was not religious at all.
Back to 2005. When I returned to my then-work place, I looked around the office space I shared with another employee, looked up to God and uttered the request that, b”H, set the wheels in motion: “May I please come home?”
I felt I was asking on behalf of my husband as well because…marriage…makes us one. And asking permission is a middah! It acknowledges that Someone Else owns the place, and we have to go through Him first.
And once you ask, you’d better mean it!
A warning: Expect a lot of dysfunction among our people. We have been C-PTSD'd to death and need time to heal. The Land is meant for our healing, but the system of governance blocks that, too much. However, thinking about returning to "hutz la-aretz" makes me shudder at how much more we're blocked there, than here. At least we can be ourselves here, to a large extent. A big step upward, in my humble opinion.
As I think of that, tears are coming to my eyes…we visited one more time, in 2006; it took two years to arrange our move,
but I didn’t complain, unless you call my obsession with going there a complaint...
It wasn’t long after that request, after our first visit, when a young lady came to my synagogue to speak about aliyah. She was the first of a number of people who came to help us and others who wanted to come.
What’s even stronger is that I had two relatives who came on aliyah in the early 1980s, who passed away before completing even one year. I don’t know how that happened, so please don’t take this as boasting on my part. I thank God for the merit for my husband and me to be here almost 16 years now.
On natural terms, it is not a good time to move, especially when danger is obvious, rampant and neglected (or even encouraged?) by the authorities; however, if you and your family personally have the Owner's approval, you should be able to expect an easier time of getting here, and living here, than if you don't. And, He may well have an important assignment for you here, which you wouldn't have been able to accomplish over there!
If you've had the desire to make aliyah and couldn't, for whatever reason, even if you asked haShem and haven't been answered positively yet, please send me a note with your Hebrew name and your mother's Hebrew name, and I will pray for you, be"H, b"n. I'm on your side!
Whatever you do, don’t give up!
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