I Am Still Living the Dream

I recently flew to Washington, DC to attend an AIPAC conference with American students. Towards the end of my return flight, I found myself getting excited as we approached Israel. I was surprised that after 3,871 days of living in Israel (I count every day), having come back to Israel after countless trips abroad, and having been away from Israel for only eight days, returning back to Israel wouldn’t still be exciting. As counterintuitive as it was, I was excited to land back in Israel.

As the plane began its descent, I thought about why I was so happy to be landing back in Israel. My joy didn’t stem from ending a 35 hour fiasco of a trip with multiple layovers, or just simply returning to my own home, or even about seeing my family. I was specifically excited about returning to the land of Israel. I also realized that I was even more excited to return that day than I was ten and a half years ago when I moved here or 38 years ago when I visited Israel for the first time. When I lived in America, I frequently traveled both domestically and internationally. I took dozens of trips, and I don’t remember ever getting excited about returning to my home in New Jersey, California, or Florida. On this latest flight, I sat in my cramped coach seat looking at my fellow Israelis and their excitement and began to contemplate our excitement to return to the land of Israel.

Like any meaningful relationship, my relationship to the land of Israel grows stronger with time. Just as a spouse is better appreciated after decades of marriage, the land of Israel is better appreciated each day one lives in its borders. The rationale is simple. People appreciate the things they’ve worked hardest to acquire. While the Talmud says that the land of Israel is a gift from God, the Talmud also teaches that one only acquires the land of Israel through pain and suffering. Israel’s earliest pioneers and its most recent immigrants will both testify to the veracity of the Talmud’s teachings about the land of Israel being both a gift and a source of pain. But the gift is worth the pain.

On a personal level, living in Israel was always a dream of mine. When my wife Aliza and I got engaged we decided to go for a walk after a Shabbat dinner and discuss where we would live after our wedding. It was a very short conversation. Aliza and I had met in Israel, dated in Israel, and both wanted to continue to live in Israel. We knew we could succeed as individuals outside of Israel, and we experienced tremendous personal and professional success during the 10 years we lived in America, but to become part of the national success and rejuvenation of the Jewish people, we needed to move back to the land of Israel. Aliza and I decided to start our lives in Israel.

On a national level, the land of Israel is the home of the Jewish people. Many Jews live in many different places, but the Jewish people are only home in the land of Israel. This is the Jewish homeland, the place where Jews can achieve national prominence and success. Individual Jews might experience success outside of Israel’s borders, but the Jewish people have never and will never achieve national success outside of the land of Israel.

The Torah was meant to be studied in the land of Israel, the Mitzvos were given to be fulfilled in the land of Israel, and Jews were meant to pray to God in the land of Israel. While the individual can improve themselves by studying Torah, fulfilling the Mitzvos, and praying outside of the land of Israel, their relationship with God is meant to be developed by engaging with God, the Torah, and the mitzvos, as a nation together in its homeland.

An individual Jew can succeed outside of the land of Israel. They can raise a wonderful family, have a superb profession, sanctify God’s name to the outside world, become a Torah scholar, a righteous Jew, and raise children to be the same, but they will be missing the added virtue of national success, prominence, and pride they can experience by living their life in the Jewish people’s national homeland.

I am also privileged to live in a town that pioneers building and growth in the land of Israel. While Mitzpe Yericho is far from a town on the periphery of the country – we are a suburban garden town and only a twenty-minute ride from Jerusalem, we are building more homes, community centers, and parks. Our development settles the land and enlarges the permanent Jewish footprint on the Jewish homeland. Although my personal involvement is limited to cheering on my neighbors, paying a higher tax bill, and supporting my wife Aliza (she’s the mayor) when I can, I’m still a participant to a magical rejuvenation of the Jewish people on their national homeland.

The notion of nationhood speaks to some Jews and to others it doesn’t enter their minds or heart. For me, the nationhood of the Jewish people is one of the most major factors of my life. I think about it constantly. It plays a role in my family life, personal life, professional life, and my relationship with God. My life takes on greater meaning because I live as a member of the Jewish people in the Jewish homeland.

Every day that I live in the land of Israel and think about being part of the national dream of living in the land of Israel, I grow to appreciate it more. Sometimes, I can even feel my appreciation growing from hour to hour. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me that even though I’d been living the dream in the land of Israel for over 3,871 days, even though I’d returned to the land of Israel countless times after trips abroad, and even though I’d only been away for eight days, I was overjoyed to have returned to the land of Israel.