Life is full
of miracles and my life is definite proof of that fact. This week, throughout
the Jewish world, we are scheduled to read the Torah portion, Shelach. This
is the section that deals with the Sin of the Spies*and how they slandered the
Land of Israel putting fear into the hearts of all the Jews who had come out of
Egypt under the leadership of Moses. It records The Almighty’s edict that all
of the Jewish men between the ages of twenty and sixty would die in the desert
and not enter the Land of Israel. This
Sin of the Spies has continued until today as many still rebuff the idea that
the Land of Israel is a land of milk and honey, a good, good place to live.
Somehow or
other I was an exception. That is nothing but miraculous for a Jewish girl from
Kansas. I grew up in a town of two hundred and fifty thousand people and among
them no more than two hundred families were Jewish. From the fourteen Jewish
kids my age in town I believe only six of us married Jews. Not only did I marry
a Jewish man but I committed myself to follow the laws of the Torah and live as
an Orthodox Jew. And if that wasn’t enough, somehow my husband and I were able
to ignore the warning of the spies and decide to move to the Land of Israel.
We came to
the land flowing with milk and honey with five children and lots of idealism. It
was not always easy but there was never a day I was not thankful we had made
the move. Probably the hardest part was the holidays and seeing all the
grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who came to visit their relatives here
in Shilo.
My husband, a wise man, told
me that we were building our own family and some day we would see relatives
coming to us. Indeed, miraculously, the children are all married, most with
children, and during the holidays our house overflows with loved ones.
What a
miracle for a girl from Kansas! Others can have that same miracle. This Shabbat
when I will listen to the words of the Torah portion I will be praying for all
of the Jews world over to come home. Then together we can bring Redemption and
rebuild the Holy Temple.
*see the
article, Sin of the Spies, from May 30th, 2013
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