What comes first: the chicken or the egg?

This is the famous philosophical question that is asked all the time.

The reason I’m thinking about it over the last few days is that I came across a Facebook post about a young woman, a young mother, who is desperately homesick and isn’t sure she wants to stay in Israel.

She’s navigating motherhood for the first time. Her husband is working all day, and she feels like she has no help, and everything in this country takes 5 steps to achieve that might be achieved in 1 step in the US, where deliveries come within a couple hours, customer service is paramount, and navigating life in your mother tongue makes things just so much easier in general.

She admitted to knowing that by leaving she would be giving up a more spiritually connected lifestyle for an easier materialistic one, but she was honestly not happy here. My heart broke for her.

There were hundreds of responses. I scanned them and one thing became crystal clear: most people who commented were not Israeli. There were a couple here and there who said they actually felt that life was easier here: friends became family, and were always available to lend a helping hand. Living in small communities and neighborhoods of like-minded people gave them a stronger sense of belonging. And education was definitely more affordable.

But those opinions were a drop in the bucket.

Most of the people urged her to leave; that a happy mother was a happy wife which made a happy life.

I actually don’t disagree with that statement.

I also believe that some things need to happen in the right time, and maybe living in Israel right now wasn’t the right time for her.

But one person argued (and I’m paraphrasing) that we are all in Galut anyways, and since it says that when the Moshiach/Messiah comes, Hashem/God will bring all the Jews to Israel from all four corners of the Earth, why not wait it out in the US where things are easy and more comfortable?

That made me so terribly sad.

My reaction and my response was not for or about this young mother’s plight – she should do what is best for her and her family – but rather it was about this other woman’s comment.

Imagine if every single Jew had the same attitude? What then? The Moshiach comes and we all converge to Israel, to a barren land with no agriculture, no water, no progress, no technology, no medical advancement?

She referred to the quote from Yeshayahu 11:12:

וְנָשָׂא נֵס לַגּוֹיִם וְאָסַף נִדְחֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וּנְפֻצוֹת יְהוּדָה יְקַבֵּץ מֵאַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת הָאָרֶץ

“He will  a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.”

I felt she was taking something from the Torah and using it to fit her narrative.

She’s basically saying that because this is in the Torah, we can stay wherever we are and just wait. And since it says the four corners of the Earth, there obviously is a reason Jews SHOULD be scattered everywhere.

I would like to believe that that interpretation is incorrect.

I present an alternative way of thinking.

Here’s where the chicken and the egg come in.

How do we know that perhaps Moshiach will ONLY come when Hashem sees an effort made by His people to go all in? To leave the easy and comfortable life for something most definitely more complicated? Maybe Hashem is waiting for US to show a little hishtadlut – effort, and a whole boatload of Emunah – faith.  Maybe Hashem wants us to show good faith, by coming and laying the groundwork for a nation coming home. To build, to plant, to gain strength, to make this land into something worth fighting for. Maybe THAT’S the price that needs to be paid in order for Moshiach to come.

I think the goal here is to take the gift that God gave us – the land of Israel – and to reach for that. THAT should be our target, what we aim for. It might not work for everyone, but the attitude should be the right one.

Hishtadlut matters, and building your environment for success is an important lesson to teach our kids. When kids see how hard parents work to make their Aliyah a success, the fruits of that hard labor is that the kids build a deeper and stronger connection with this land. After all, these are the future Jewish leaders of the next generation and we want them to be fired-up and passionate about this land, and share in its success.

And you can see that in the kids who are raised here. They have a straight-up hardcore patriotism for this country and a fervent desire to protect and defend. They think beyond their personal bubble and care about more than just themselves.

God knows – and this is not a pun – that it is not easy to live here. Amazon at best is a ten day wait, and you need to go somewhere random to pick it up. You order something local on-line and it may take 2 weeks to get to you. Reading and understanding teacher’s notes sometimes require a translator (I did not have Google translate when my kids were in school….) and I haven’t even touched on the fact that we have been in a war on seven fronts for the last 3 years.

I was at a shiur last night given by Rabbi Ira Kosowski and Rabbi Doron Perez who co-wrote a book about tefillah, specifically the Shema.

It says ואהבת את ה’ אלוקיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך

The general translation is: love Hashem.

But when you break it down, we understand לבבך – your heart. We understand נפשך – your soul.

But what is מאדך?

Technically the word מאד means a lot. Or much.

So how do you love Hashem with your heart, your soul and your…. much?

It actually means your everythingness. Which really isn’t even a word. But basically it means, love Him all the way. Go all in. When you think you love enough, push for more. Because it’s there.

Hashem WANTS that relationship with us – it’s amazing if you think about it. But it requires a lot from us. It requires action and not passivity. It requires being present and not standing on the sidelines. It requires a willingness to step out of our comfort zone and say, here we are. We are not perfect and we will stumble along the way, but we are showing up and we’re not sitting and waiting.

When we make Aliyah – with all of its difficulties, we are saying: Hineni! I am here!

Somewhere along the line, the way we have educated our children about Israel as a homeland has failed. But let me be clear: Whether or not someone decides to make Aliyah is not the point here. That’s for each individual to decide. It’s the thoughts that surround it and how we present those thoughts to our children that matter. Change your mindset, have the right attitude, and help your children build the kind of spiritual and meaningful intention when it comes to Israel.

Our future as a nation depends on that.