Thoughts on my Aliyah Journey Post October 7th

Though I am fortunately living now in my 9th year post aliyah, I am sharing my thoughts that I previously shared privately when I commemorated my 8th aliyah anniversary in Israel, while slightly adapted, as the message carries significant meaning to me living as an Oleh in a post October 7 Israel.

I wanted to share some ideas that come to mind about the significance of the number 8.

In Jewish thought 7 is thought of as representing the natural order of the world:

• 7 colors of the rainbow
• 7 days of the week
• 7 year cycle of working the land and resting the land to prepare it for the next 7 year cycle.

By contrast, in Jewish thought, 8 is considered to be rising above nature.

In Jewish law, right after 7 cycles of the 7 year shemitta cycle there is the 50th year, the Yovel (jubilee) year, in which the natural events of the world are put on hold or reversed. Debts are canceled, slaves are freed, land is returned to their original owners.

The Torah was given on the day following 7 weeks from Pesach, in which the Torah describes one as being able to see the sounds of the shofar blast (however that is practically interpreted), and receiving the Torah by a metaphysical God.

Similarly, Tehillim chapter 119, whose topic of discussion is that of the Torah, consists of 22 paragraphs in the Alef-Bet structure, each consistenting of 8 verses, alluding to the totally of the Torah, from A to Z (or א to ת), being in a metaphysical state.

The splitting of the sea occurred on the 8th day following the Exodus, another supernatural event, occurring on day 8.

The Land of Israel also fits in to this category.

The Gemara in Berachot 18 that says there are 3 things are acquired through suffering:

1. Torah
2. The World to Come
3. The Land of Israel

Things that come naturally to a person don’t entail hard work.

I described how receiving the Torah was metaphysical.

The World to Come is a type of super natural existence, however one would exactly define the World to Come.

The third is the Land of Israel, whose existence is physical but is governed in a metaphysical manner by God (see Deuteronomy 11:10-12).

Similarly, when discussing the creation of the natural world, the Torah describes it in Genesis 1:31 as “very good”, though when discussing the Land of Israel, the Torah describes the land in Numbers 14:7 as “very very good”, alluding to the metaphysical element.

During one’s life, in which we live in the natural world 7 days a week, we try to live in a Godly way and aim for that 8th dimension.

For many of us, our connection to Israel has only increased since October 7, despite the unspeakable horrors, tragedies, and bombings that we have endured and still endure. It is a connection that is very difficult to explain to others, seemingly defying any logic, and can only be explained metaphysically. As explained, things that are natural come easy to us. Israel has definitely not come to us easily.

Though the fact that Israel continues to exist today despite it’s our more than 2 millenia of persecution, pogroms, holocaust and Islamic terror, defies natural order and is a testament to God’s ultimate protection of the Jewish people.

It is my hope that we as a people are able to live up the ideals that are represented by the number 8. To put in the hard work necessary in order to protect Israel. To continue to live our lives to the fullest in Israel, despite the massive challenges ahead, and to understand that in the end, we will be alright.

Despite the challenges, or maybe more precisely, because of the many challenges and complexities that living in Israel entails, there is nowhere else where I would rather be.