Coming joyfully to our land

BRING US IN JOY TO OUR HOMELAND
שתעלינו בשמחה לארצנו

Sometimes I find myself turning a line from the davening over and over again in my mind. It could be a line that I have said millions upon millions of times without ever really considering the meaning behind it or a line that suddenly seems significant to me.

Such was the case with this line, “God should bring us up to OUR land in happiness.” And when I considered the meaning of this pasuk, I always thought, “Why not? Why wouldn’t we come, happily, to the land that He has given us?” This is OUR land, our PROMISED land, the fertile soil where we are meant to grown and flourish.

But when you consider the 2,000 years of galut, it seems to be that more frequently Jews came to Israel because they were running from (where they resided) instead of running to our beautiful land.

Before I became an observant Jew, my thought pattern evolved from a point of negativity – I was sure that a holocaust was possible, even likely or inevitable, to occur in the United States. I was obsessed with reading Holocaust literature and fearful of terrifying events that might take place, causing great suffering and separating me from those whom I loved.
I comforted myself with the realization that our situation as Jews was different in the 1970s than it had been in the 1940s…we now had a place that would never close its doors in our face (as the United States did when the St Louis, was denied entry and the 1,000 Jews onboard the ship forced to return to Europe!). We now had a country of our own! Israel would HAVE to accept us!

It seemed to me unfair and rather selfish to ask the Israelis to please maintain, defend, protect and develop their country for me, so that I would have a safe haven to escape to, so I felt it only right to become a Zionist. I defined Zionism as being a supporter of the State of Israel. It took me a bit longer to understand that being a Zionist meant moving to Israel. I read stories of people who correctly interpreted the political situation in Europe and made all efforts to leave but waited too long and reached their conclusions too late. Doors slammed shut in their faces. I felt that I needed something to keep me in touch daily, so I wouldn’t “miss the boat” and waste my opportunity to run to Israel.

I concluded that religious observance would be my “canary in the mine” and by having a daily contact with my people and my God, I would be astute enough to get out in time. I sat down with my beloved parents and explained to them what the changes that I was hoping to make in my life entailed. My mom feared that I would refuse to eat in their house, that I would limit my choices in life, that I would miss out on so many things that life had to offer me. My dad listened. He didn’t ask many questions. At the end of the conversation, he said that he would respect and support me in any way that he could as I forged my path towards Orthodox Judaism, but he felt that all my reasons were very negative. He said that he was sure that I would find many positive and beautiful things on my journey but that it seemed fundamentally wrong to him to make such a comprehensive life change based on negative reasoning.

I moved forward, learned what I could, where I could, became exposed to various forms of religious practice and found my place, my peace and my people. Thank God I was blessed to meet my wonderful husband although I felt a need to tearfully confess my past, certain that if he would know that I came from a Conservative background he would no longer pursue the relationship. Thank G-d, I was wrong; we married in 1980, were privileged to fulfill the mitzva of aliya l’aretz in 1981 and are the proud parents of 5 Israeli children who have given us 16 beautiful Israeli grandchildren.

I found my positive reasons for the choices I made, and my dad was blessed to know all of his grandchildren and more than half of his great-grandchildren! I recited the blessing that God should bring us up to our land in joy with great happiness!

I always say that Lech Lecha is my favorite Torah reading. I am certain that when HaShem told Avram to leave his homeland, his birthplace and his father’s house He wasn’t speaking to Avram alone. His call was a cry to all Avram’s descendants, to all Jews, to come to Israel; to the Land that HE would show us; and I could never understand why so many others didn’t hear the call to come home.

God never said that He was giving us an easy path; He never said “leave where you are because it is better where I am taking you…” but it was clear to me that EASY and BETTER were never the point. This is ” eretz chemda tova u’rechava “(a good and spacious land of delight) that HE gave to our forefathers. This is the land flowing with milk and honey that God promised to give US and our OFFSPRING forever.

History has shown, time and time again, that the nation described as stubborn” and “stiff necked” responds better to a push and shove than to a call to move forward. We tend to choose running from rather than running to.

A brief look at history proves that no nation has provided a haven for its Jewish citizens for too long. Jews assimilated, and contributed and became active citizens of every country that they found themselves in, and at some point in time each country expelled them at best.
The unprecedented increase in antisemitism throughout the world is shocking and frightening. The news is filled daily with reports of Jews being harassed, physically harmed, threatened, killed anywhere in the world stretching from Bondi Beach in Australia, to Iceland (Rabbi Shmuley Boteach warned Jews that it is dangerous to visit Iceland at the present time) to Paris, and London, to Crete, Greece to the “City of Brotherly Love” in Philadelphia, PA.
I believe that there is a message to be interpreted from the vast geographic regions where antisemitism flares and the distinctions (are there any really?) between “Zionism” and “Judaism” become topics for debate. The message? There is only one place that Jews should call home, Israel.

And it seems like history repeats itself over and over again; Jews adapt, accept, maybe protest but a US politician wins an election and speaks in Arabic in his acceptance speech and the response is “well, it was only a few words.” It was “only” a yellow star, “only” a boycotting of Jewish businesses, “only” a expulsion of Jews from public jobs…and we adapted, we adjusted, and far too often, we died….

I don’t know what the future holds for American Jewry, and I hope and pray that we never experience anything remotely resembling the horrors of the Holocaust. I was recently at a shiur where Rav Shimon Lapid mentioned how the Baal Shem Tov encouraged all his students to move to Israel, and how the Vilna Gaon did as well. It bothered me tremendously that I was not hearing similar cries in our times. So I did a little research and was assisted a bit by AI: This is what i discovered: Rabbi Riskin, formerly of Lincoln Square Synagogue and later of Efrat, in beautiful Gush Etzion, called for his congregation to move to Israel back in the late 1970s. I was blessed to participate in his shiurim on the Upper West Side and heard him speak of aliyah frequently. Rabbi Don Weber, an American reform rabbi from New Jersey, was quoted as saying “every Jew should have a valid passport”. Rabbi Leo Dee expressed his concern about the future of Jewish communities in the diaspora and called for all Jews to make aliyah, saying that the rise in antisemitism was “G’ds way of calling the Jewish people back home.” Rabbi Yaakov Behrman, a Chabad rabbi residing in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, wrote about the importance of keeping passports ready amid rising antisemitism. In January of 2026, he wrote an article in the Jerusalem Post in which he quoted his young daughter. When she was asked, “What is the most precious thing in your house?” She answered, “Our passports.” On May 8, 1972, Rabbi Meir Kahana”’ z”l ‘, declared “Aliyah is no longer a luxury for the American Jew – it is a necessity!” I heard him speak many times, but the speeches that I remember the most were the ones where he described the beauty of walking with his children in Eretz Benyamin. He repeated his call frequently, in a most simple and eloquent manner “Time to Come Home!”

I say why “run from” when there are so many many reasons to “run to”? I moved to Israel at the age of 25 and am now 70. That translates into a full two thirds of my life spent in my beloved country. The years don’t make any difference at all; my eyes still well up with tears when I stand to sing “Hatikvah.” The sight of our beautiful flag flying in the breeze still brings a chill to my spine. I am so grateful to be able to pick the fruits from my own trees, growing in my own yard and to be able to fulfill the mitzvah of hafrashat t’rumot. When I separate challah dough each week, I not only pray for those who need a blessing and for the safeguarding of all of our soldiers, and the full recovery of all of our injured, but I beg God to allow me to bring this dough to the Beit haMikdash instead of double wrapping it and throwing it in the trash…because any day now we are going to greet the Moshiach, and be blessed with the Geula and don’t you want to be here??

People talk to me and say that they WOULD move here, but their kids are there; or their elderly parents depend upon them. I say that is time to start having those discussions, investigating options and making sure that all documents are in order because it really truly is TIME TO COME HOME!