Rose-Colored Glasses
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And while the traffic jams in Israel are getting worse all the time, thank God you are delayed on your way to Jerusalem and not on your way to Manhattan. It seems to me that Moshe would have been more than happy to wait the extra twenty minutes it takes in the morning to travel from the surrounding suburbs to downtown Jerusalem, now that almost everyone has his own car.
Yes, if Moshe were alive today, I’m certain he would prefer living in the Land of Israel rather than living in Brooklyn. What do you think?
tell a friendAbout the Author: Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Creativity and Jewish Culture for his novel "Tevye in the Promised Land." For the past several years, he has written a popular and controversial blog at Arutz 7. A wide selection of his books are available at Amazon. The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of The Jewish Press
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Who is keeping score of good deeds? HaShem.
Moses said: “And now Israel, listen to the statutes and laws that I am teaching you to do, so that you will live and come to occupy the land that G-d, L-rd of your fathers is giving you.” (Deut 4:1).
Me’Am Lo’Ez Vol 16 page 46, “…that I am teaching TO DO…” “This teaches that one should not think that the main thing is the study of Torah but not its observance. Moses therefore stressed “to do.” The goal is to keep the commandments and do good deeds. It is similarly taught in the Mishnah, “The main thing is not expounding, but doing” – and keeping the commandments.” Tzvi already eloquently expounded on doing the commandment of living in Israel.
It is related in the Talmud (Ta’anit 21b) that every day a heavenly voice (bath kol) emanated from the Academy on High and sent greetings to Abba Umna. Abbaye, who was one of the leading scholars of that time, was only greeted every Friday afternoon, while Rava, another leading scholar of that period, was only greeted on the day before Yom Kippur. These great sages were very upset when they discovered that Abba Umna was greeted every day on High and they were only greeted once a week or once a year. It was then revealed to them that they could not match Abba Umna when it came to good deeds.
Living in Israel makes one do many good deeds more so than in any other place on earth. One good deed leads to another good deed. To start this Holy Chain Reaction of good deeds is to first come to Israel. Maybe then your name will be mentioned every day on High. קן יהי רצונ.
Tell that to the Jews in the USA who want to know if they can do here what they want or hope to do there. Add to that the fact that they do not think they have to learn the language of our land, which is Hebrew and you have a thriving Jewish community in Brooklyn. *sigh*
I've always heard that it is very very expensive to live in Israel and that there are no jobs…………..
The correct perspective to have in order to make Aliyah a success is “I love HaShem so much that I am willing to do any kind of work in Israel so long as I am allowed to live there.” Then you’ll find a job, make a living, get married, raise a family, learn and DO Torah, grow spiritually closer to HaShem and be thankful for the rest of your life that you PUT YOUR TRUST IN HASHEM and not in some ‘Head Hunter’ money focused job seeking developer who is here today and gone tomorrow.