If in the days of the Temple, the Talmud says that those who have not experienced the joy of the Simchas Beis Hashoeva in Jerusalem have never experienced true joy in their life, walking down the streets of downtown Jerusalem in 2024 certainly gives one a taste, despite the war, if only a subtle fleeting one of the jubilation that once was and a yearning for what will be again.
As I walked down the luminescent streets, I heard the laughter of the children, felt the violinists pulling heartstrings, jugglers juggling, singers performing. What a magical experience. What a palpable vibe everyone can feel and see. Jerusalem in all its grandeur. No, the Jewish people in all of its majestic grandeur. Masses of Jews united in joy to celebrate our holy festival and collectively remember our Holy Temple.
Of all the enchanting sights and sounds, nothing was more exhilarating than hearing all of the American English in the streets. Having made aliyah from Monsey in 2018, hearing the New York accents, familiar names, familiar faces, felt like a reunion. But just as reunions are fleeting events that happen and then disappear in time, so too was this reunion.
But there was a different feeling I had from this reunion. A longing and a sadness that goes beyond the feelings that usually come with reunions.
When I overhear a phone conversation of a fellow New Yorker telling his friend that his return flight is the day after Isru Chag, I feel pangs of anguish and sorrow. Why does he need to leave so soon? Didn’t he just feel the same magic that we all just felt walking down the streets? How can he so easily turn his back on that?
When I hear the American yeshiva boys talking on the light rail about each one's plans about returning to the US, going to college, starting medical residency, my heart breaks into a million pieces. Do they realize how much their talents and genius are needed here? Do they realize the impact that a few frum boys can have on this tiny Jewish country, the only Jewish country? Do they even understand the possibilities that exist for them here?
Don't they understand the historical context of having the ability to return to our Holy Land after a long and bitter exile of 2,000 years? Why is going back to the US such an easy choice for so many after their years of study in Israel or annual family vacations?
Of course, I never say anything. I wouldn’t want to burden them with my aliyah snobbery. I wouldn’t want to give them a sense of guilt or inadequacy. I wouldn’t to insult their adherence to Daas Torah by making it appear that there was anything wrong hashkafa-wise with their lifestyle choices. If anything, they probably see me as an anomaly, going against the American haredi grain, opting to follow the Daas Torah of Israeli rabbanim over the American ones, as it relates to the choice to make aliyah with a family. So I always remain silent, keeping the heartache to myself.
But then I remember the Chabad rabbi, twenty years ago who saw a secular Russian 19 year old kid from New Jersey who did not keep Shabbat or kashrut. But for some reason he saw me and believed in me. He believed in me enough to tell me the truth without sugarcoating. He did not expect me to start keeping Shabbat after our first encounter. But he did believe in me enough to tell me that a lifestyle of Torah and mitzvot was unequivocally the right way for me.
I may not have been ready at that point for many reasons, but he believed in me enough to tell me that this is the emes and it is what I should choose as soon as the opportunity arises . He wasn’t afraid of insulting my intelligence or my ability to make my own decisions and get advice from the right people. Quite the contrary. It was because he respected my intelligence and ability to make the correct choices in life, he felt comfortable telling me unequivocally what he felt was the right thing to do.
Because of a few chance encounters with this Chabad Rabbi from the University of Maryland, I changed course over several years and now have a Torah observant family living in Israel. What he did for me and for many other students was pure Ahavas Yisrael. Love of a fellow Jew. Not Shabbat snobbery or Kashrut snobbery or Kippah snobbery. Genuine love and concern for one's fellow Jew. I owe much to this rabbi for his concern and his honesty.
In America, most religious Jews do not even see aliyah as something that they should strive for. Unfortunately, well meaning Jews see aliyah as either an unrealistic or irresponsible choice- not something that every Jew should strive for and grasp when the moment is ripe. They don't have a rabbi to tell them that this is the goal we should aim for, and if we arent ready, it's ok. But that this is the ultimate goal of every Jew and a mitzvah deoraisa according to R Chaim Kanievsky ztl.
There are problems in Israel. There are risks, challenges and difficulties with aliyah. Eretz Yisrael niknes byissurim. Our Sages told us that Israel is acquired through suffering. How dare I tell another Jew to do something that might cause him or her to make a choice that will cause them pain, distress, anguish?
When a Jew decides to do teshuva, there are a plethora of challenges and difficulties that await him or her. Raising children without a family support network, cultivating shalom bayis and chinuch based on no practical experience from one’s childhood. There are the financial difficulties of raising a large family, paying steep tuition which to the outside world may seem crazy and reckless. In Israel, there is the added ssue of army service to face.
And yet the Rabbis of Chabad, Aish HaTorah, Ohr Somayach, Neve, Machon Meir and others carry on with their holy mission of Jewish outreach despite the difficulties and despite the challenges. How can they take on the responsibility to encourage people to do something that will inevitably pose them with so many new challenges that they have never experienced nor are equipped to take on?
The reason they are able to do so is because they believe that God wants His children to return, and when the Jewish people show a will, God will show the way. Return to Judaism must mean a return to the Jewish homeland. It may be hard. It may be painful. But we believe that God is good, and if we do our bit, He will do His.