A Flourishing, Live Country

Forty-seven years ago I came to Israel for the first time. My seven-week tour kept me busy with museums, hikes, holy sites, swimming, working on a kibbutz, tourist stores, and attractions. During my free time I met distant relatives and hung out with friends from other groups. I had a wonderful time but the thought of Aliyah didn’t seriously enter my lexicon.

Two years later I returned, this time with my husband, for three months. Most of that time was spent on a kibbutz but we managed to get some sightseeing in. Once again moving to Israel wasn’t part of our vision for the future. Eight years later that all changed.

This Shabbat in Israel we’ll be reading the Torah portion, Shelach*. In this portion the Sin of the Spies is dealt with. We’ll read how the spies 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. 

For eight years my husband and I heard the words of Joshua and Calev in this Torah portion: The Land that we passed through to spy, the Land is very, very good. If HaShem desires us, He will bring us to the Land, give to us a Land that flows with milk and honey” (Numbers, Chapter 14, verses 7 and 8). For eight years the words didn’t move us at all. And then we came to Israel for a summer vacation. That vacation became a pilot trip and we made up our minds we must move to the Holy Land.

It took us two years to make all the arrangements. They were two very hard years but we persevered and made it. Now thirty-three years later I am so thankful that the words of Shelach entered our hearts. Spiritually, culturally, politically, and practically I know we made the right decision.

In 1972 I perceived Israel as a lovely vacation spot. Now, after years of being here, I know it is much more. I’ve found myself getting very good medical treatment where once I looked at famous stained glassed windows. I’ve done my own shopping at open-air markets that I once thought were just tourist sites. And I’ve prayed with all my heart at spots that I once supposed were only museums.

Israel is a flourishing, live country. It’s my hope that all Jews will hear the words of Joshua and Calev. It’s my prayer that they will all come home.

*Because of the two-day holidays outside Israel the Diaspora’s Torah portions will be out of sync with what’s read in Israel until the middle of the summer. Next week Shelach will be read there.

  

My novel, Growing With My Cousin, a good summer read, is available at Jewish bookstores and on line at  http://www.feldheim.com/growing-with-my-cousin.html or

https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Cousin-Ester-Katz-Silvers/dp/194635113X/