The Land of Milk and Honey - Learning & Values

Question:

Our dream to move to Israel is finally becoming reality. We are making aliyah next month. I know it will be challenging. Any advice?

Answer:

Israel is unlike any other country in the world. Every other place you could live, as long as you like it there all is fine. But with Israel it isn't enough that you like it there. Israel has to like you too.

Israel is a land with a soul of its own. It is the Holy Land, the place of divine blessing. If Israel finds you worthy, she shares her blessing with you, and no matter how hard life gets there, you will feel at home. But if you are undeserving of her holiness, you won't feel settled there for long.

The move to Israel is called making aliyah, which means "going up." This is not merely because Israel has a higher altitude to its surrounding countries. You need to go up to Israel because Israel is one step closer to heaven than the rest of the world. To reach Israel you need to be going upwards in your spiritual life. It is a land of higher spiritual frequency that has little tolerance for stagnant souls. Only those who are willing to grow can feel at home there.

So along with all the paperwork and preparations for moving, prepare your soul for the journey ahead. Take a step up in your own spirituality by choosing a new mitzvah to observe, and taking on a new project of Torah study. The aliyah ascent begins now, long before you set foot in the Holy Land.

Life in Israel is not always easy. But for a soul on the way up, it really is a land flowing with milk and honey.

By Aron Moss

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December 27, 2010

The Suez canal

Ever since the Suez canal was taken away from its true owners - the Jewish nation, one can't stop wondering: "Why is G-d letting those criminals pass through it?"

Israel has access to two seas.

The problem of the modern train system is also how well it is maintened by the local people. Is it just some foreign investment or is it part of the Israel nation? Are strikes in the modern, fully automated sea ports going to affect the World Economy in some way?

The era of the escalated terrorism and piracy in the world offers new challenges for those who wish to trade.

Those that hide the pirates and the terrorists - are they not going to be punished by the G-d?

Also - if every country has pre-detrmined amount of jobs to offer ... how can there be economic development? Why can't one country, for example Israel, offer new jobs to those who, in some way, make humanity richer by their very presence in this world?

Hear-O-Israel!

Zayan Sechel
Eilat, Israel

July 23, 2010

Living in the Land

My advise to would-be immigrants coming to the Land of Israel, is that you should expect to find many things that do not please you. Many of the people living here are badly educated and behave in ways that the Jews living in their centers in the US or Europe would not understand. It is as if after 2,000 years of living in the diaspora, those survivors who actually managed to get back home are now able to relax, without the formal constraint that previously applied. Please bear with us and put up with the many trials of our crazy bureaucracy and forgotten Jewish customs, lack of care and disregard for one's fellow, now that we are under a different kind of scrutiny.

For all that it is our home, spiritual and physical, and in my opinion, since it is comparatively easy to move here, that a conscious Jew should at least try to make alliyah.

David Chester
Petach Tikva, Israel

July 23, 2010

Aliyah

Other than not finding employment, and thereby a lack of income, I find life in Israel to be positive. Be prepared for pomises and non-performance..
If you have specific questions, I will be happy to assist in giving answers or at least direction to finding answers.

alex rosenfeld
rishon lezion, isr

July 22, 2010

The Land of Milk and Honey

My family made alyiah in the end of 2004. We enjoy being here and love the land of Israel. We lived there for a period of 1999-2000-2001, and decided to come home for good as soon as my husband could take early retirement from work.
1) If you manage financially, everything will go well.
2) There are SO many things that are not being told you but everyone assume that you know ...
3) Contact the AACI (if you come from the USA or Canada!) As soon as you arrive and find out everything you need to arrange for arrival.
4) Agree with the first posted note about the spiritual in Israel (Jerusalem in particular), but if you do not have good life material and economically, it is difficult to focus 100 percent on the spiritual - if you do not have enough money to buy food or pay bills. Bills that you rarely understand any of ...
5) But welcome to Israel!

Naomi
Jerusalem, Israel

July 22, 2010

secular jews in Israel

Um, speaking as an observant "settler," those "secular jews in Israel" are keeping more mitzvot than you've forgotten just by living and dealing with life here. Your mitzva was to remind them, with ahavat hinam (un-calculated love), instead of the opposite (and right after Tisha B'av, how sad).

If you (likely) hid behind "anonymous" on your visit, it's no wonder they took one look at you and thought, "what a 'snob distant adulterated version' of a Jew this is!" and crossed the street.

Me, I stand behind what I write,
Shabbat Shalom,
Dave
Efrat, IL

Dave
Efrat, IL

July 18, 2010

high spiritual ascent???

then how do you explain the great majority of secular jews in Israel? You can walk in Tel Aviv for hours without seeing a mezuza or a man with a kippah. Even the language spoken in the streets of Haifa or Tel Aviv doesn't sound like hebrew but like some snob distant adulterated version of it.
I have felt more an unwelcome stranger there than in the streets of new york...

Anonymous
flushing, nY