Aliyah Magazine is the voice of the Aliyah Community, but what does Aliyah actually mean? 

Aliyah is a unique word, although describing it as a term might be more accurate? 'Ascending' is perhaps the nearest English equivalent to this ancient Hebrew word, yet even that offering fails to fully capture its more subtle meaning. This word can encompass both a physical and spiritual ascent, when one is undertaking the act of Aliyah, but with an additional dimension of embracing a far greater power than we can ever hope to achieve alone. Therefore, there is also a mystical element involved. Yet, we've just explored this word as an active verb. 

In simple Hebrew, an act of driving up a hill can also use this term. One's corporate body rising to a higher physical plain is an easy concept to grasp. In Hebrew, there is also a noun to describe the subject undertaking this physical act. A male would be called an Oleh, a female an Olah, and a mixed group of people collectively as Olim. How often is the word 'ascender' used in the English language? Well actually there is such a word to describe a mechanical device used for ascending on a rope, but I've heard no common usage of this word to describe people in the act of ascending a height. So we're heading into unchartered territory here, should we want to find a ready made interpretation in English.

Observant Jews worldwide are familiar with the expression of getting an Aliyah to the Torah. What does this imply? The Torah in this instance relates to a holy scroll, authored by G-d and handwritten on special parchment. This scroll is brought out for public reading in a house of Jewish worship, such as a synagogue. Most synagogues usually have a few stairs leading to the desk that supports the  scroll to be read from. However, there is no set regulation to having to ascend steps to fulfill the honor of making Aliyah to the Torah. However, there is a spiritual act involved for the Oleh, the person ascending. 

To summarize before moving on, we have established that Aliyah can involve both a physical and a spiritual ascent, but one can be separate from the other. Two men can both ascend to the place where the scroll is being read, but only the one who received the calling, can properly be associated with the act of making Aliyah to the Torah. Therefore, on a spiritual plain, this term also relates to the actual higher force that one is moving towards.

In Judaism, Aliyah is also the accepted term for the act of a Jew moving to his homeland in Israel. In a similar way from our previous example of two men ascending steps to the Torah, but only one of them is actually about to make a more fuller holy connection with its G-d given words, so the same principle can be associated with a Jew making Aliyah to the land of Israel. Some Olim receive a higher calling than others, Accordingly, one might be attracted to make Aliyah for economical reasons, while another for more religious ones. Yet here is a significant point, the most simplest meaning of the word Aliyah can be applied to both men. In other words there are also degrees in which one can make Aliyah.

So now we have grasped the basic concept that Aliyah involves the simple act of going up somewhere, but can also be attached to the ultimate source of life, depending on where that calling originates from. There is another concept in Hebrew of 'having kavanah' that roughly means a sense of direction. Perhaps the second man who accompanied the other to the Torah, just wanted to look at the words written in the scroll, or more closely hear the words of the reader? In such a case, although his calling was not announced through being invited by name to come to the Torah, surely his sense of direction (kavanah) would entitle him to at least an inner less public Aliyah? There is no established answer to this question as only a higher authority can read the hearts of men and women alike. However, it is with this latest thought in mind that I make the point that Aliyah is a universal calling.                                         

Providing one can consciously undertake an act of Aliyah, it is possible to reach the very gates of heaven itself. It is no coincidence that many eastern cults embrace the art of mediation to help focus their mind with kavanah, and then make a degree of Aliyah, through a spiritual ascent. In Judaism however, the spiritual act of Aliyah is undertaken for the key purpose of serving G-d. Jews also do that when making Aliyah to Israel, and regardless of the level of calling they received, their act is still a valid one. In deed, Jews still need to continue making Aliyah, even after arriving in Israel. In this case it is an entire life long journey to ascend the spiritual heights of Judaism. Yet the journey is a very physical one and involves simple to perform acts, just like ascending a hill...however if one is aware of the holy ground upon which that hill rises from, than even such a simple act of walking can be raised to a higher level of awareness.

Aliyah as a universal calling is also a simple act and can lead to untold heights of spiritual blessing. It is important to be aware that each has his or her own destiny, and some are destined for a higher calling. However, supporting the call for Jews to make Aliyah to the Jewish Homeland is certainly an act that should rightfully entitle the donor to also be considered part of an Aliyah Community. Aliyah is a universal calling that will one day involve the nations rising to the task of guiding Jews home. That day will be a blessing for all the good peoples of the earth to share in...one universal Aliyah!          

Please visit us on Aliyah Magazine

An open letter to the Respect Party of the United Kingdom. 

From the office of Aliyah Magazine, I address this open letter to the Rt. Hon George Galloway, a true friend of the Jewish State of Israel. Today, I learnt about your gallant exit from an Oxford University debate, when you discovered to your horror that your opponent was a Jew from Israel. That was obviously an unfair trick to have been enticed into an auditorium to share a debating podium with someone you detest, even though you never met him before. 

The Respect motto includes the words Peace, Justice and Equality,,,very British and politically correct. You have also shared your enlightened opinions with the Jewish population of the United Kingdom, reaching out to them as a separate people, and G-d forbid having nothing to do with Israel. Well, I'm grateful to you for doing these wonderful acts.

You see your Rt. Hon George Galloway, that I also once belonged to that elite movement of Jews thoroughly entrenched in British culture and far removed from living in Israel. Sadly, I didn't have a voice of wisdom such as yours, to remind me that being a Jew is something vastly different then being part of the Children of Israel. Surely, Judaism must be a later invention discovered on the green English playing fields of Eton...perhaps? However, you did see fit to actually show concern that Jews in England might be misled enough into considering themselves as part of the Jewish State of Israel. When you raised the question that Jews in England are somehow different, at the same time that surely would have got them asking themselves...different from what?    

At this stage let me introduce myself. I am the founder of Aliyah Magazine, dedicated towards enlightening Jews that they should come home to live in their natural Jewish Homeland. Now they might have mistaken their true roots as being British, if you hadn't planted a seed of doubt in their mind otherwise. Accordingly, you greatly assist me in proving my point. Oh, and the more you suggest otherwise, the more you'll get the message through as to where my people truly belong. The truth being that a Jew has an inner yearning to be united with his people, and the more you try and convince them that 'you are their kind of people', well...the more they'll wake up and know differently.

Therefore, kindly continue to demonstrate your wonderful acts of peace, justice and equality..for all but Jews in Israel. In fact, shout it out louder as I want them to get your message loud and clear. Once again, you are proving yourself a wonderful loyal ally to the Jewish State of Israel and will help me to encourage more Jews to realize where they truly belong!

Dear readers, this article will be shown to that British Member of Parliament, so maybe you'd want to warmly welcome him through our comments section. That's if he'll consider himself able to actually read on the same page as yourselves?           

Aliyah Magazine explores the Aliyah process within Israel itself, as well as the important need for Jews to come home. The election of the 19th Knesset, an event covered by both Aliyah Magazine & Israel National News, serves to underline this vital point.      

Did Israel just witness the beginnings of a new Jewish revival during the recent elections? From the relative safety of one's political or religious camp, it is easy to avoid embracing a larger picture of what took place, but a brief step outside from that comfort zone can lead to an exhilarating revelation. There appears to be not just a move towards a general center of Israeli society, but towards the actual inner establishment of the Jewish state itself.

I recently had the pleasure of co-producing and hosting a pre-election special, which was aired on Israel National News, amongst other key media networks. We were fortunate enough to have had the presence of party representatives from across the political spectrum. It was widely publicized that a virtual handshake took place at the end of the show between the male Shas representative and the female Meretz candidate. That incident happened after each participant made a unity statement, which encouraged Jews to make Aliyah and cast a vote, for whomever their conscience dictates. Events that followed made that gesture appear almost prophetic in nature. Israeli voters virtually changed the landscape of the nation's political platform, and the call for unity needed to be extended across the board.              

So what actually did happen? It would be easy to accuse Lapid's party of hostility towards the religious elements in Israeli society, based on their party stance to draft the Haredim (ultra orthodox). Yet, one of the key participants on our show was Dov Lipman of Lapid's party, Yeish Atid, now a newly elected MK. Actually, he's more correctly entitled as Rabbi Dov Lipman, and that's not a show title, he is a genuine and sincere representative of the Jewish clergy. Uri Banks, representing another surprising newly elected large political block, Bayit ha Yehudi, also wore a yamulke, and his party is also focused upon integrating Jews more into the Jewish state of Israel. So, can that be interpreted as an attack on the important need for Torah scholars? Hardly, considering the equal weight given to the need to maintain the Hesder system, whereby Jews learn in a yeshiva, and serve in the IDF. 

However, these are still early days and it's of upmost importance to preserve and guard Jewish religious values as well as issues concerning Jewish sovereignty over the Shomron & Judea. That means closely examining the core issues that led to the nation's swing to its present position, and reminding the newly elected MK's to focus on those key issues, rather than others. A prime example has been ultra orthodox attitudes against serving in the IDF on one hand, and still expecting large grants from the government on the other. Such attitudes can be taken as an insult against the majority of young Israelis who are not exempt from conscription. That is G-d forbid not to say that Torah study should be relegated in any way, but only to apportion more respect towards the need for serving Israel. My concern is that there should be no backlash against the ultra orthodox position in other matters of placing orthodox Judaism in its important place. However, that doesn't negate one's responsibility towards the overall interests of the Israeli nation, specially in regards to IDF service. In this regards, the ultra-orthodox will need to sit up and take notice of their fellow Jews, even if they suffer loss of face and some humility in the process. True Jewish values will eventually surface, meanwhile a better understanding of the nation's need for unity may also eventually surface, albeit with some loss of position on fundamental issues.                        

The IDF is not an anti-religious body, it is nothing less than the vehicle for serving the very defense of Israel, which allows us to maintain places of Torah study. In some ways, the hot debate between the need for Torah scholarship, without maintaing a viable defense force, is what eventually weakened many Jewish communities prior to WW2. From a truly religious perspective, Jews need both. The problem here really got worst when both sides looked down upon each other. But what added fuel to the fire was an adopted position of leaving the defense of Israel in anyone else's hand, but one's own. Now doesn't that sound familiar, specially for Jews living in the Diaspora?

What is essentially taking place in Israel today is a realization that the status quo cannot be maintained, whereby the burden of public service is unequally distributed. This means a shift towards a more centered position, which can only bring unity where it truly counts, the well being of the Jewish State of Israel. Perhaps, the changing winds might also reach beyond our shores, and help in gathering the rest of our splintered nation back into the fold? Jews need Hashem, but are taught to need and help each other. Hopefully, the coming days will be one of further unity, resulting in a far stronger Israel, both in a spiritual and physical sense.

Is it possible to Google 'Making Aliyah' and really find the answers to what's in your mind? I remember when I first used that search term, in the early days of Google, a long long time ago! In some ways it felt a little like trying to communicate with G-d using a pair of dice. I had no idea what to expect, nor from whom. My mind was like an empty vessel, what I was really searching for was the very tools to help me refine an inner search. After all, isn't making Aliyah all about ascending to a higher level of existence in the first place? Accordingly, I needed to acknowledge my humble starting place from where I would begin such a journey.

That starting place was a somewhat even more difficult location to identify. The Jewish Diaspora can conjure up all sorts of wild notions ranging from a benign haven, to an ever present and growing threat. I had to acknowledge that to varying degrees both concepts held a modicum of truth. I felt the answer laid somewhere in the middle. After all, a softer existence anywhere that provides all the trappings of comfort, can be a hard habit to break. Yet, I discovered a high price to pay for every day of imagined bliss in what I mistook for Utopia. A closer examination of local attitudes served to confirm an unescapable truth. Jews are guests in an adopted land, and sometimes even unwelcome ones. How many Jews living in the Diaspora actually bother to take into consideration local feelings of animosity towards Jews living in their midst? It was far easier to cry foul, and place such attitudes on blatant Anti-Semitism. But does that really get to the heart of the matter. As we find a cluster of other Jews, or local citizens that we have quietly learnt to blend in with, does that genuinely lead us to feeling completely at home?

At this point it is quite correct to bring Israel into the equation. Of course there is extreme hatred towards Jews living in Israel. However, there is a fundamental difference at play. Here we know where we belong, while in the Diaspora we can only play games in pretending that's the case.

So making Aliyah on a fundamental level can be a task of asserting ones' right to ascend to a place of true belonging. Yes, Jews in Israel are certainly more assertive about matters pertaining to one's basic rights of survival in one particular country. It goes beyond a herding instinct of safety in numbers. There is such an underlying sense of belonging to a homeland, that one can only gasp in amazement as to exactly how any Jew can feel even something close to that sensation elsewhere. Here it is body and soul, and extends beyond a survival instinct in matters concerning survival on a comfort level.

In Googling 'Making Aliyah' one can also have in mind economic factors, why not? Everyone should carefully consider economic survival and questions of providing for one's family anywhere in the world. Only in Israel, failure to reach a basic level of income is a far more serious issue. Going down is the exact opposite of making Aliyah, and should be avoided. However, there is also a self defeatist element at play that thrives on negativity in the Jewish Homeland, and needs to be guarded against at all times. That's not to say that one should neglect such matters of extreme importance, but only to place it in better perspective. A Jew living in Israel is akin to  a marriage. The land of Israel is a partner to every Jew, and the universal marriage maxim of 'for better or worse' also applies to living in Israel. This involves adopting a positive attitude at the very beginning of tying the knot with Israel.

Therefore, making Aliyah is a lofty enterprise and should be undertaken with the same type of commitment as betrothal. In both cases, we ascend through the hallway of a higher divine presence. In Israel, one needs to have faith in G-d to provide for one's needs. Just like a lack of rain that requires G-d fearing men to fast and pray for water, so there is a need to constantly check in with the one above in times of hardship. The amazing thing is that it can actually work!

This leads to the fundamental question of what we are even doing in the Diaspora in the first place? Well look at the Bible, or even decent history books. Many were displaced from our homeland for insufficient lack of faith in the first place. We have to face the harsh reality that the Diaspora is not our original homeland, and that we are still faced with tests that requires an inner search to help us to rise above them.

Israel is the Jewish Homeland and we have to learn how to make the best of it. If times are hard we need to discover the wonderful path of sharing both our abundance of material blessings as well as voicing our needs, to fellow Jews. We cry out to G-d, but the answer more often than not is delivered through the medium of those living here on earth. We should also listen to the voice of suffering Jews finding it hard to make ends meet in Israel, and strive to help them make a livelihood here. However, we should also be fully aware that other voices trying to dissuade us from making Aliyah, can also be part of our test.

So after entering 'Making Aliyah' don't be surprised to find a range of often disconnected results. But don't lose track of the journey making Aliyah involves, both from the starting point and a more meaningful life in Israel.  Jews do not belong in any Diaspora, nor should we turn Israel into one.

Israel is a shared enterprise and G-d willing every Jew will make Aliyah to the full extent of that meaning.

Google just the one word 'Aliyah' and hopefully you'll also find us in the top few pages of your search. Please visit us on Aliyah Magazine

Let's just go with the flow and imagine Jews being settled comfortably anywhere in the world except for Israel? After all, didn't the Jewish Diaspora manage quite well without the moral and emotional intrusion of having a Jewish homeland in Israel to be concerned about? Which flow could one possibly be referring to, if one actually exists? 

Amongst a whole host of issues, I also refer to the rationale suggesting that Jews living in Israel are a nation apart, and a different breed of people altogether from other Jews. If you ever read the comments section of many Israel related articles you'll immediately know the kind I mean. "You need to change your leaders before expecting us to make Aliyah" - "Don't expect me to live in a police state" - "If you can't send your children to march into Gaza then I won't be marching into the arrivals terminal at Ben Gurion Airport" And so the list goes on. Well perhaps you've worn me down, maybe you're right after all? We don't need to have voters, have police protect us against rapists and criminals, or even have an IDF at all. In fact, what am I doing in Israel in the first place, surely the real Jewish homeland is out there in the Diaspora. It seems that the majority of Jews have got it right after all, which leads to the ultimate conclusion, why bother with Israel in the first place?

I began by thinking about some of the positive consequences of reaching that state of affairs. Muslims and Nazis would be nice to Jews. Jonathan Pollard would be a free man and not the target of patriotic American Jews, who feel that their religious ranks were betrayed by his loyalty to a Jewish state instead of solely to the USA. Jews could serve in their own country's defence forces, and even fight against other Jews in the process, after all, it's not like anyone has a shared homeland to unite around. Revisionist Judaism could go well beyond their German predecessors in substituting Berlin for Jerusalem. Our prayers could just be directed towards the national capital of the country we happen to live in. 

Most important of all, Jews won't have to feel like their easing their conscience by supporting Israel from afar, they can direct their love for Judaism to the Jewish Diaspora...the Jewish Homeland.

Well, we're going to be discussing this idea plus lot's more on Israel National News' next live interactive broadcast event. Aliyah Fever is returning after the recent Hanukah show produced for Arutz Sheva by Israel Vibes. Join us live on Arutz Sheva tomorrow night - Wednesday December 19th at 7pm Israel time. Your comments can even be made live on air where we can see you! You are also invited to visit Aliyah Magazine where you can discover if I really did succumb to the idea of a Jewish Homeland in the Diaspora.