To all gap year students not staying in Israel
In this article I speak to all the young men and women who came to Israel post high school for a gap year and are now leaving to continue their lives abroad. (I also speak to young adults who previously spent a gap year in Israel and are currently abroad; this article is very much applicable to you as well, but for ease of writing I shall direct my words towards those who are currently on their gap year, without intending to exclude the rest of you.)
Many of you may have spent a year or more studying in a yeshiva or seminary. Perhaps some of you worked on a kibbutz, or took an internship. All of you, however, have been through a transformative experience. During your time here in Israel, you have been touched by the Jewish people’s destiny, and learned things about yourself that you never knew. You have strengthened your connection with Am Yisrael as a whole and learned to love the Land of Israel and the Torah of Israel.
And now you are leaving. For one reason or another, you will not be staying in Israel next year; you will be returning to the country where you grew up to attend college, or to begin working, but you will not be here next year.
In this article I want to speak to you all directly from the heart, and offer not only words of comfort, but advice and practical strategies on how to make it through your time in chutz la’aretz while holding on to your connection with Eretz Yisrael, and how to make it back to Israel sooner rather than later.
I can write this because I was once in your position. Four years ago I was approaching the end of my shana bet (second year) in yeshiva, when like many others I had to quickly pack up and catch the next flight out of Israel when COVID broke into our lives and turned the world upside down. I then spent the next three years doing my Bachelor’s degree in Manchester UK, where I grew up, but promised myself that I would move back to Israel as soon as I graduated. Baruch Hashem, I was able to fulfil my word and made Aliyah last August, and I am currently working as a madrich in my old yeshiva.
But it isn’t simple to make it back to Israel after a prolonged time in chutz la’aretz. To illustrate this, I take my yeshiva, Lev HaTorah, as a case in point. This year we have had around ten or so different madrichim that have come and gone over the course of the year. All were once shana aleph (first year) students here, but only one of use has spent considerable time outside Israel since their own shana aleph – namely, myself. The vast majority of the others served in the IDF and are now back learning in yeshiva following their army service. The fact that there is one madrich who came back to Israel following university in chutz la’aretz shows that this path is possible to follow. But that there is only one madrich who took this path shows it isn’t nearly as commonly done. It is undoubtably easier to make Aliyah and integrate into Israeli society if you stay on in Israel after your initial year here, and much harder to return after a prolonged absence.
BUT – it isn’t impossible. It can be done.
And while I would deeply urge all of you to stay in Israel if you can – especially considering the heightened antisemitism in chutz la’aretz since October 7th – if your personal circumstances force you to leave Israel for now, as mine did, this article is for you. I want to draw on my experiences to give you the tools you need to make it back as soon as you can.
The most central idea to internalize is that however strong a connection to Eretz Yisrael you have developed throughout your time here, that connection must be actively maintained. Israelis see with clarity how the true place of all Jews is here in Israel, and often question incredulously why so many Jews choose to remain in chutz la’aretz. After your time spent in Israel, you may be feeling similar emotions, and might already be set on Aliyah.
However, there is no guarantee you will feel the same way after spending a few years away! The materialistic environment of chutz la’aretz can cause a Jew to get comfortable there and make him or her question how necessary living in Israel actually is. The affluent lifestyle of many Jewish communities in chutz la’aretz undoubtedly constitutes a major obstacle to making Aliyah for many Jews, and without regularly reminding yourself the importance of Eretz Yisrael and living here, your burning desire for Aliyah can gradually fizzle out.
On a more metaphysical level, Eretz Yisrael is a spiritually pure place, a place of kedushah (it’s not called “The Holy Land” for nothing) while chutz la’aretz is a spiritually impure place (the Vilna Gaon compares it to a graveyard, based on the prophet Yehezkel’s vision of the dry bones coming back to life in Yehezkel Ch. 37). Just by being within the borders of Eretz Yisrael you absorb kedushah, but remaining in the impure environment of chutz la’aretz eats away at the bond of kedushah you built with the Land – unless you fight to hold onto it.
So how do you maintain that bond?
The first thing you must do is get hold of some sefarim about the centrality of Eretz Yisrael and the importance of living here – preferably while you are still in Israel. Many such books have been written in English – some of my recommendations are: Eretz Yisrael in the Parshah, by Moshe D. Lichtman, the abridged Eim HaBanim Semeicha, by Rav Yissachar Shlomo Teichtel hy”d, Rise from the Dust, by Tzvi Glatt hy”d, Torat Eretz Yisrael – the teachings of Rav Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook with commentary by HaRav David Samson, To Dwell in the Palace, by Tzvia Ehrlich Klein, and Aloh Na’aleh, by Rabbi Yerachmiel Roness, and there are many others. Make sure you take at least one or two such sefarim back with you, and make it a habit to learn from them at least once a week – perhaps every Shabbat. Don’t be afraid to pay a little money for them, it will be well worth it.
Secondly, visit Israel as often as you can. Every visit you make during your time away will serve to strengthen and rejuvenate your connection with Eretz Yisrael and remind you why living here is so important. Additionally, Rav Kook taught that a Jew living in chutz la’aretz can only maintain their connection to Eretz Yisrael for as long as they feel uncomfortable in their surroundings. Once they start feeling at home there, that’s a sign they’ve lost the connection and have to return to Israel to refresh it. If you are going to college, there are organizations that offer fellowships which include stipends towards a return flight to Israel during the winter break – take advantage of these if you can.
On the topic of feeling uncomfortable in chutz la’aretz, this is another important point. Having spent a year absorbing the atmosphere of Eretz Yisrael, when returning to your community in chutz la’aretz, your shul, even your house, you may feel a sense of discomfort or restlessness being back in your familiar environment. Keep in mind: This discomfort is a good thing! You want to feel uncomfortable in chutz la’aretz, because it reminds you that your true home is here in Israel. Daven regularly that this discomfort continue throughout your entire stay in chutz la’aretz, so that when you have the option to return (e.g. when you finish your degree), it will propel you to easily make Aliyah. Not that making Aliyah is easy, but the obstacles to overcome will purely be ones of a bureaucratic nature, since the decision to leave the comfort and familiarity of your surroundings and move to a completely new place – a choice that every potential oleh must make for themselves – won’t be so hard for you.
Feeling uncomfortable alone, however, is not enough – there is also a paradigm shift you must make for yourself. If you’re anything like me, when you came to Israel at the beginning of the year, you did so with the mindset that the US was your home (insert Canada, England, Australia etc. as appropriate) and that you were only coming to Israel for a “gap year. Following this year you would continue on the well-trodden path of going to college, getting a job, and becoming a good citizen of the country where you grew up.
After your time in Israel, hopefully you are feeling differently, but if you want to make it back here one day soon, you need to shift your perspective. You need to see Israel as your home, the place you truly belong, and the country where you grew up as a place where you just happened to grow up, but not as your true homeland. View yourself as an Israeli shaliach who has come to strengthen and contribute to the community for the time that you are there, but certainly not with plans to settle there long-term.
All of you who can should learn your family history and remind yourself how you ended up growing up where you did in the first place – in my case, I only grew up in England because my great-great-grandparents made their way there after fleeing the Pale of Settlement due to harsh persecution. And they only grew up there because… At the end of the day, we are only growing up in galut because of an injustice that was committed against our ancestors, and now that our generation have the opportunity to right it, how can we not?
You may have noticed I have been using a lot the term chutz la’aretz, which literally means “outside the Land.” This is deliberate. The specific place outside Israel where you find yourself (London, Montreal, Los Angeles etc.) is a moot point; anywhere outside Israel should solely be viewed as “chutz la’aretz.” Don’t use the term “Diaspora” – saying “I’m a Diaspora Jew” sounds too nice, and makes it sound more acceptable to be permanently living outside Israel. If you are serious about making it back, say it for what it is – “I’m a Jew in galut.”
Now I want to speak more about the idea of being a shaliach. At the same time that I was earning my degree, my friends from yeshiva were fighting on the front lines in the IDF. There were times when I felt very inferior to them, and felt that I, sitting in a lecture hall in university, was not doing nearly as much for Am Yisrael as they. Try your best to avoid feelings like these as they serve only to make you feel miserable and inadequate. Instead, remind yourself of the saying of Rabbi Mordechai Pogremansky from pre-war Lithuania: “A Jew is never lost on their journey. Wherever they find themselves, Hashem has a reason for sending them there.” Every Jew has a different path, and if you have made a rational, fully informed decision to return to chutz la’aretz for the time being, know that Hashem is sending you there for a purpose, to do some task that your peers in Israel could not. Your job will then be to figure out what your role is, and to fulfill it with all your might.
In my shana bet, one of my rabbis said something which has stayed with me ever since. Regardless of where you find yourself, the most important thing is for every Jew to be moser nefesh (self-sacrificing) for the sake of Am Yisrael. For some, this mesirat nefesh takes the form of risking their lives to fight our enemies on the front lines. But for those who find themselves outside Israel, there are other ways to be moser nefesh.
You could volunteer in a local Jewish school to learn with pupils and perhaps educate on the importance of Eretz Yisrael (I myself helped out at my old high school) – the impact you could have, when the pupils see someone not much older than them taking Torah seriously, is inestimable. Working in a Jewish summer camp is another fantastic way to contribute to Am Yisrael. If you have ideas for personal projects that could help Am Yisrael, devote some time to them as well. The most important thing is to constantly see yourself on a mission to strengthen and contribute to Am Yisrael wherever you are – allow yourself to be motivated by that sense of mission that comes from being a shaliach for Am Yisrael.
While engaged in your shlichut, remain ever-conscious of the material temptations of chutz la’aretz, for it is all too easy to get caught up in them. Remind yourself that “not by bread alone does man live” (Devarim 8:3) – human beings are a combination of body and soul and need both physical and spiritual nourishment. Israel may in some ways be a less affluent country that the Western countries where many Jews today grow up. But it is the best place to be, in that its environment is both physical and spiritual, thereby able to satisfy both body and soul. Neither the US, Canada, England nor Australia can claim the same. (While at university, I wrote a poem about the materialistic atmosphere I felt myself to be trapped in and yearning to return to the spirituality of Eretz Yisrael. Those who wish can read the poem here.)
Learn Torah! Being kove’ah itim le’Torah – setting aside time for daily Torah study – is one of the single most important things you must do to keep your connection to Eretz Yisrael alive. Though some people might claim that the Jewish people’s connection to Israel has nothing to do with Torah, the opposite is the truth. Eretz Yisrael at its core is a spiritual place, and a pure Jewish soul naturally yearns for the atmosphere of Eretz Yisrael, but many of us are not yet at the level where we are completely in sync with our souls.
Over the course of this year, particularly if you have been studying in a yeshivah or seminary, you may have begun to feel more serene, more joyful, more fulfilled, like you are living life in the way it’s meant to be lived. This feeling, which is hard to write down in words, is a sign that you are becoming more in touch with your soul, and Torah study is the essential ingredient that puts us in sync with our souls. This doesn’t mean you have to spend hours a day learning Gemara, but make sure you set aside time to learn some Torah every single day.
Finally, and most critically: Tefillah! Ask Hashem for help! Without His help, all the strategies I have outlined here will come to nought. Living in Israel is an invaluable gift bestowed upon us by Hashem, and like everything else in life, one cannot make it back to Israel without Divine assistance. Ask Hashem every day for help with guarding your connection to Eretz Yisrael and making Aliyah as soon as you are able. Remember that your time in chutz la’aretz is not a sprint, but a marathon, so you will need to be constantly vigilant about this and make it part of your daily routine to request Hashem’s help in this area.
I want to close by citing the Malbim’s commentary on a passage from Bereishit. In Bereishit (2:10-14), the Torah describes four rivers that flow out of Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden) to several parts of the world. These rivers are the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris and the Euphrates.
The Malbim describes how the four rivers represent on a deeper level the different paths humanity would choose after being expelled from Gan Eden. The first three rivers symbolize respectively the three negative character traits which “remove a person from this world” (Pirkei Avot 4:28): Jealousy, lust and glory. The Pishon represents pursuit of material wealth, the Gihon represents lust, and the Tigris represents pursuit of honor and power.
But the fourth river, the Euphrates, represents the spiritual path. This is the path of moderation, the path of character refinement, the path of chesed, the path of study and growth – in short, the path of Torah. And while all the rivers flow out of Gan Eden, the Euphrates is the only one of the four that flows all the way to Eretz Yisrael – the Kuzari (2:14) teaches that the Euphrates river is the northern border of Eretz Yisrael.
Those of you who have spent a year here in Israel have been in a “Gan Eden” of sorts. Everything has been provided for you, leaving you free to focus on your own self-development. But now you are leaving this Gan Eden, and the choice you must make is which river’s course to follow.
You could follow your non-Jewish peers and build a life centered on climbing the corporate ladder, where success is defined by attaining a prestigious salary and living in a twelve-room house. You could spend your life gathering followers on social media, or seeking fame and power in other places. Or, you could take what you’ve learned this year, and follow the river less travelled, the river whose value is little known but eternally greater.
So I implore you: take the spiritual path. Guard and reinforce your bond with Eretz Yisrael. Set aside time for daily Torah study. Share what you have learned this year with others who did not merit the opportunities you did, and become a role model for Jews around you. Shun the materialism which chutz la’aretz tempts you with. And never stop asking for Hashem’s help in keeping you on track throughout your journey. If you do this, then with His help, one day you will make it back to Eretz Yisrael.
May it be soon.