Dvar Torah: The Message of Sukkot As it Applies to Aliyah

From the works of Hagaon Harav Shaul Yisraeli zt”l - Drasha for Sukkot 5708 (1947)

The verse says: “All citizens in Israel shall sit in the sukkot in order that your generations shall know…” (Devarim 23: 42-43).

There is a lot to be learned from the message of the mitzva of sitting in the sukka

So what does sitting in a sukkah symbolize? There are 2 conflicting opinions. One opinion says that the sukkot we sit in symbolize the actual booths that bnei Yisroel sat in while coming to Eretz Yisroel after leaving Mitzrayim. The other opinion says that sukkot symbolizes the “clouds of glory” that accompanied bnei Yisroel in their sojourns through the desert.

Yom Kippur Outreach in Israel

"More than 71% of Israeli Jews between the ages of 18 and 35 said they planned to fast on Yom Kippur..."

"on Yom Kippur the Jewish State is essentially closed down, with no public transportation or electronic broadcasts, and practically no open stores or services.."

Yom Kippur in Israel

The majority of the Jews of Israel attended prayers at the nation's synagogues during the Yom Kippur holiday, which lasted from Sunday evening through Monday night. As every year, there are some unique aspects to Yom Kippur as it is marked in the Jewish State.

Yom Kippur Celebrated In Israel

A Soldier's Mother is undoubtedly one of the most impressive blogs coming out of Israel. It is written by Paula Stern from Malei Adumim who has made an incredible impact in Israel with her Writepoint, LTD that trains olim for careers after they make aliyah. Her blog is a leader of all blogs. Through A Soldier's Mother, she started the Tweet for Shalit campaign, and she provides the world with a positive view of life in Israel written by an insider.

Here is her most recent post on Yom Kippur in Israel:

Yom Kippur is an amazing day in Israel. It is the one day that no one goes anywhere. In almost all cities in Israel, cars don't move, taxis, buses - nothing. Everyone stays home or goes to the synagogue. It is the time we take out the past year, look it over, and do our best to make good on what we did bad; make better what we can; and beg...really beg...for the year to come.

Only In Israel List

Its been common for OLIM to make "Only In Israel" lists of what they find special about living in Israel.

Here is one that Aliyah Blog posted in 2005 after he had just made aliyah:

Dvar Torah: Israel Is Excellent When Jews Live There

I came across an interesting Ohr Hachaim recently in parashat Eikev.

5770: A Response to Our Tefillos: Settlements Off The Negotiation Table

Personally, I don't think that this is a coincidence for this to happen right after Rosh Hashanah.

Here is an exceprt from the New York Times:

In Mideast Peace Bid, Obama Pivots in His Demands

UNITED NATIONS — President Obama, who has met immovable resistance from Israel over his demand for a full freeze on settlements in the West Bank, is largely setting that issue aside as a first step toward restarting Middle East peace talks.

Rav Kook Derasha (1933) Warning About Hitler

Background Note

Rav Kook delivered this well-known sermon in the Old City of Jerusalem on Rosh Hashanah, 1933. It was a time of mixed tidings. On the one hand, ominous news of the beginning of Hitler's reign in Germany became more troubling with each passing day. On the other hand, the Jewish community in Israel was flourishing. Immigration from central Europe was increasing. Educated immigrants with needed skills and financial means were arriving; they contributed greatly to developing the country's economy. It seemed that the footsteps of the redemption could be heard.

Email From A New Oleh (First 10 Days in Israel)

NOTE If you decide to make aliyah, this ketter could eventually be about you. :)

Here is an email sent out to Baltimore's Chug Aliyah from a previous Baltimoreans' first 10 days living in Israel after making aliyah. The names were changed for the sake of their privacy.

Letter #1 - An immigrant's life (first 10 days)

Nefesh B'Nefesh Year in Review 5769

Shabbos Rosh Hashanah: The Worst And Best Things

(This is the weekly dvar Torah from Rabbi Gottlieb of Shomrei Emunah who is taking a year sabbatical in Eretz Yisroel)

The Power and Passion of Shabbos

The unique feature of Rosh Hashanah this year is, of course, that we only blow the shofar on the second day of Yom Tov. On Shabbos, however, Chazal (Rosh Hashanah 29b) ruled that we must refrain from this important mitzvah because we are afraid “shema ya’avirenu daled amos b’reshus ha-rabbim” – lest someone carry the shofar in the public domain and thereby violate the Shabbos. This phenomenon occurs every few years and, in fact, just three years ago the first day of Rosh Hashanah also fell out on Shabbos.

Carlebach Blasting Day & Night in Chevron

Anyone living in a community in Yehuda or Shomron, or in areas of Yerushalayim for that matter, is too familiar with the seemingly never-ending wail of the muezzin, emanating from mosques in Arab villages. Many a complaint has been filed by Jews over the extreme volume, but by-and-large, authorities opt to ignore this under the guise of permitting Muslims to exercise religious freedom, give them a larger dose of that freedom than enjoyed by most shuls.

Veteran Chevron resident and activist Baruch Marzel has decided he has had enough, and is retaliating, with the sound of music. Marzel explained that Jews who use the Machpelah at night are compelled to wrap it up by 11:00pm while Muslims often hold weddings that continue into the early morning hours, until 2:00am or 3:00am. They are permitted to blast the speakers, as they do five times daily, and he is simply unwilling to tolerate the situation.

As such, Marzel rented a commercial sound system and vows to play Carlebach tunes round-the-clock, confident that he will succeed where Israeli authorities have not.

Rosh Hashanah package for Shalit makes it past Gaza border

The father of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit on Thursday transferred over the Gaza Strip border a Rosh Hashana package for his son, who has been in Palestinian captivity for more than three years.

While the package made it past the Karni border crossing, the Shalit family does not know whether Hamas will allow it to reach their son.

Shana Tova!

The Video That Will Improve Your Tefillot This Rosh Hashana

Daven on Rosh Hashanah For A Better World

The famous author of the "Touched By a Story" series, Rabbi Yechiel Spero, gave a shiur recently in Baltimore about "Teshuva."

One idea Rabbi Spero had for improving prayer during Rosh Hashanah was that a person should make a list of all of the good and all of the bad things that have happened this past year, both globally and in one's personal life. For the good, you would include that there is less terrorism in Israel, you got that raise, etc. For the bad, you would include the kedoshim in India, Madoff, the car accident you might have had this year, etc. Once you complete your list, take a look at it, contemplate on how all of those things, both good and bad, the occured over the course of this year were determined last Rosh Hashanah!

This Rosh Hashanah, based on your tefilot, Hashem will be making the decrees for all of the good and bad things that will happen this upcoming year. Rabbi Spero suggests that you take that list and put it in your siddur to remind you of the koach of your tefillot and if you have any trouble with having kavana during the long tefillot, just take out the paper to remind yourself what it is that you are doing.

Marriage Proposal At Nefesh B'Nefesh Aliyah

Yes, someone actually got engaged at last week's Nefesh B'Nefesh Aliyah Trip.

It was reported in a post last week on the Jewish Journal's Blog:

Nefesh B'nefesh Aliyah Trip Last Week

Mr. Jacob Richman is an oleh who made aliyah 25 years ago and has a high internet prescense through his different websites that help people interested in making aliyah with all sort of things, such as help for people looking for a computer job in Israel, help in learning Hebrew, etc.

Appreciating Aliyah

The following is an inspirational article about what a woman's aliyah experience after 20 years living in Eretz Yisrael:

Every morning, when the radio alarm wakes me up with the Shema and a chapter of Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), I know why I made aliyah.

The week before Pesach, as I watch the garbage collectors emptying garbage containers many times to completely clear the area of every bit of chametz – and then distributing special containers in which to burn our chametz, I count my blessings that I live here in the Jewish state.

Baltimore Pilot Trip to Israel Over Thanksgiving

This is a recent post from the aforementioned Chug Aliyah:

The Baltimore Chug Aliyah is currently planning a pilot trip from Baltimore for people who need more information about what making aliyah involves. The tentative dates are Nov 22-27, 2009, which includes Thanksgiving. The tentative price is $750-800 per person plus airfare. This includes the entire land package (hotels, most meals, lectures on different aspects of life in Israel, including mortgages, health care and education plus tours of 12-18 communities under the personal guidance of Ronda Israel and Ilene Bloch-Levy). Airfare will be priced separately after we have a solid group.

We have already identified four couples as potential participants. We need at least 10 people to make this trip happen and, because the timing is tight, we need to move quickly. We are planning an organizing meeting right after Sukkot. It is not necessary to commit to the trip to attend the meeting, but we do need to know if it's something you want to be invited to.

Please let me know if you are a potential Baltimore-based pilot trip participant by emailing me ASAP at rivkah30@gmail.com.

thanks and Shana Tova,
Rivkah Lambert Adler

Email List Serve Supporting Religious Aliyah in Baltimore

To follow-up on my previous post, I stumbled across a list serve for Baltimoreans wanting to make aliyah.

The list-serve's webpage is: Baltimore Chug Aliyah and you can join the group by clicking the link and following the directions. The cool part of it is a great to meet other people interested in making aliyah in Baltimore and you can ask questions to other people in the group by sending an email to everyone.

Here is the group's official description:

Baltimore's Chug Aliyah is a loose association of like-minded people considering aliyah in the long term (sometime before Moshiach comes) or already planning for aliyah from Baltimore. This is the electronic version of the Baltimore Chug Aliyah that meets in person. Any Jew from Baltimore with an interest in aliyah, no matter how tentative, is welcome to attend meetings and participate in this online group.

Please introduce yourself to the group after you've subscribed.

This online group provides a way for members of the Baltimore Chug Aliyah group to talk to each other between meetings, to ask questions of one another, to share articles and websites about topics related to making aliyah and to get chizuk (strength) from one another.

Baltimore Chug Aliyah list is actively moderated. This means posts are screened before they are posted. Please be patient, as messages may not appear for a few hours.

Should We Be Encouraging Mass Aliyah?

Ever since I first started to learn "Eim Habanim Semeicha" by Rav Teichtal, one question started to fester inside me: "Why don't our Rabbis in Chutz L'aretz stand up and demand that we all make aliyah?" If most poskim agree that yishuv l'aretz is a mitzva d'oritta, and seforim extol the great kedusha that is present in Eretz Yisroel, then shouldn't we all be picking up and leaving? Yet even a Young Israel rabbi will at the most only talk about how important it is to support Israel (they might even say a "mi sheberach" for Israeli soldiers) but they don't stand on the bima and yell: "Jews, its time for us ALL to move!"

So when I have a question and the answer actually matters to me, I call Israel and speak to Rabbi Zev Leff, Mora D'asra of Moshav Matisyahu. He is one Rabbi whose opinion I always respect and who I believe will give me a truthful, non-political answer.

Rabbi Leff said that it is appropriate that Rabbis do not encourage mass aliyah and that there can only be such an aliyah after moshiach comes. He stressed that since making aliyah is intrinsically an individualistic decision because ever Jew has different circumstances, different family dynamics, different sensitivities, etc, that it could never be appropriate, until the days of moshiach, for every single Jew to live in Israel.

However, he did encourage me to make aliyah (fyi - Rabbi Leff is the editor of To Dwell in The Palace (Perspectives of Eretz Yisroel, published first in 1991 through Feldheim). He said if I feel a pull to come move to Israel, that is a positive feeling. And in order to keep that feeling going, I should surround myself with friends who share my love of Eretz Yisroel and who might also be considering aliyah so that we can be mizchazek each other. He added though that a desire to live in Israel should be part of a greater yearning to live a life of greater kedusha and a desire to be closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

Madonna In Israel

Um....let me just say that its interesting to me that a pop singer singing in Israel can be such a stir in a small country like Israel. Her presence made front page news on every newspaper and was talked about nonstop on Israeli TV (I was some Israeli TV to practice my Hebrew using the Internet). Here is some of what was mentioned in the media last week about Madonna being in Israel:

A Post About Hitchhiking In Israel

The world is blessed to have Laura Ben-David, Nefesh B'Nefesh's pre-aliyah advisor, and author of "Moving On Up - An Aliyah Journal," writing posts again after a respite during the month of August.

Her latest post is from September 6 and is titled: "Top 5 Things To Never Do In a Tremp" and I have included a quote from her post below. Click here to see the complete post on her blog.

First of all, you may be asking, “What in heaven’s name is a tremp?”

For the uninitiated, in Israel a tremp (adapted from the European slang “tramp” but with an Israeli accent) is basically a ride for the carless or the cheap. Also known as hitchhiking in other parts of the world, in Israel this cultural mainstay is almost an informal carpool system. As I do have a car but I am often cheap, I have found myself to be both a tremper and a giver of tremps; often on the same day.

Tremping, as my daughters have taught me, is a fine art form. While standing at a ‘trempiada’ (place where trempers wait for potential rides) it is important to be standing at the part of the curb where the people going to your destination are most likely to stop. Apparently this knowledge is somewhat of a sixth sense for Israelis, but what those who immigrate as adults never seem to cultivate.

It is important to know sign language when tremping so that the driver need not stop and ask you where you are going; rather he can make meaningful gestures that clearly indicate where he is heading. These gestures include pointing downwards with his index finger, signifying that he is staying in the area. Or else he can point in one direction or another, indicating that he is going in that direction, but further away. Then, as he’s zooming by, if the tremper is planning on heading in the same direction, he can use the sign language of throwing his whole body in front of the car to be sure the driver stops to let him on. This is a dangerous practice I might add.

There are a number of signs used by drivers when they can’t/won’t pick up trempers. Hand held out, palm-down, waved from side to side indicates a full car. Rotating the index finger in a circle indicates that the driver is not actually going anywhere, just ‘around the block’. I have not yet figured out the signs for ‘I’m not in the mood to pick you up’, ‘I’m in too much of a rush’, ‘I am talking privately in my car and don’t want you listening in’ or any of the other reasons that inspire guilt, yet not enough guilt to slow down and actually give someone a lift. To assuage my guilt, I will usually use a made-up hand motion so that they think that they simply did not understand what I was saying, but that I wasn’t just ignoring them.

Living in Israel Is One Big Reunion

Rabbi Gottleib, the rov of Shomrei Emunah in Baltimore who is currently on a year sabbatical in Eretz Yisroel, added the following message to his weekly Dvar Torah that is emailed out from Shomrei:

Earlier this week someone told me that Israel is more than just a country, it is one big reunion.

We have all had experiences of running into long lost friends at the Kotel, or other places, and it certainly adds to the magic of being in Israel. We have been fortunate to see and speak with numerous Shomrei members and other Baltimoreans who live in Israel and tonight we are looking forward to having Shabbos dinner with (...). Israel reminds us that the Jewish people are truly "one big mishpacha!"

Israeli College Using Talmudic Methods for Teaching Math

This is just another cool thing that could only happen in Israel.

According to Dr. David Zeitun, head of Orot College in Elkanah, Israel has low math scores in comparison to other countries. In order to counteract this, Orot College is basing some of their math cirriculum on algorithms and pedagogical techniques developed by Jewish Sages over the generations. Dr. Zeiten believes this will help to improve Israeli students’ dwindling math achievements and motivate new Torah-oriented math teachers.

West Bank Settlers Send Obama Defiant Message

(I posted this article from the New York Times from July 30, 2009 because of my previous post about settlers).

West Bank Settlers Send Obama Defiant Message

NERIA, West Bank — In this land of endless history and ethereal beauty, several thousand Jewish settlers gathered on a dozen West Bank hills with makeshift huts and Israeli flags over several days this week to mark an invented anniversary and defy the American president, conveying to his aides visiting Jerusalem what they thought of his demand for a settlement freeze.

I Am Truly Inspired By Israeli Settlers (Video)

"I love this place. I was in England a few years ago and I just felt something was missing. It wasn't my land, I had nothing to do with it." - Shira Gilad of Ramat Migron.

Why I Am Inspired

Okay, I'll admit it, I am truly inspired by Israeli settlers. Especially settlers like the ones below, Shira Gilad and her husband who lives in a place like Ramat Migron.

This not about Halacha because honestly I have no idea what the halacha is about settling new places of Eretz Yisroel.

What I am inspired about is first, the love of Eretz Yisroel that Shira has. As she says: "I love this place. I was in England a few years ago and I just felt something was missing. It wasn't my land, I had nothing to do with it." That is for sure the proper haskofo all yiddin. Eretz Yisrael should feel like home to us and chutz l'aretz should feel alien. I am not sure that all religious Jews feel this way. Shira's love of Eretz Yisroel is so special that she is willing to give up modern amenities to live simply in a simple tent on a hill (the area is beautiful though).

Shira takes her love for Eretz Yisroel and makes it practical, by living in Ramat Migron.

Second, I admire how Shira, and many similar settlers, are so confident and courageous in the face of such adversity like the media and those opposed to Israeli settlers. The video below is obviously made by an English television company that is not supportive of the State of Israel and settlers and yet, Shira, although shy, answers every question confidently and emotionally. Its not easy to stand up for something when you feel like the whole world is against you.

Its unfortunate that their settlement has been destroyed so many times before and I think its really stupid that the world media blames the precensce of small "tent" settlements like the one below as the reason for why Arabs don't make peace with Israel.

Thank you Mr. Rafi G. for orginally posting this video on your blog, Life in Israel.

Ohr Hachaim on Parshat Ki Tavo: Simcha Only In Eretz Yisroel

The Pasuk (Devarim 27)
והיה כי תבוא אל הארץ

The Ohr HaChaim On The Pasuk
אמר והיה לשון שמחה להעיר שאין לשמוח אלא בישיבת הארץ

The Ohr Chaim made aliyah at the age of 45.

!שבת שלום

Despite All of The Differences, Israelis Stick Together

One of the things I miss about Israel (and hope to experience one day soon) is the closeness that everyone feels with each other. Its known to be a small country and news travels from one end to the other quickly. I think that is why Israelis are always fighting - its like how siblings fight. And I find this closeness to be across all divisions, irrespective of the different groups with their different political and religious views. I truly felt on an Egged bus, with the chilonim on one side, and the Charedim on the other side, that everyone was in "it" together.

Anyways, I read a story on Aliyah Blog today that I though demonstrates this idea well:

Should I Make a Pilot Trip Before I Make Aliyah?

My mind has been all wrapped in whether I should make a pilot trip this week.

Why I Am Making A Pilot Trip

Originally, I thought no way.

Amazing True Facts About Israel (Video)

New Growing Jewish Community at Mount of Olives

In my most recent trip to Israel, we had a delightful suprise when we visted Har Hazesim to visit my wife's grandparent's kever (her grandparents are buried near the Holtzbergs and we always marvel at the foresight that her grandparents had to be buried at Har Hazasim, giving her children, grandchildren,etc an added reason to visit Israel). The last time we were there, there was no Jewish prescense by Har Hazesim. This time, however, there was a thriving Jewish prescense in the middle of the mountain (tons of Israeli flags popping out of everywhere). It seems a small settlement with a few building started there. This community is called Maaleh HaZeitim. There are currently 51 families living there and they are in the process of building another 60 housing units.

I was delighted to see that there are plans to expand that community nearby. There was a request (that is expected to be granted) to build a Jewish housing project of 104 units at the foot of Jerusalem’s Mt. of Olives, down the block from the Maaleh HaZeitim. Jerusalem reclamation activist Aryeh King says that Jewish construction there, within walking distance of the Western Wall, is “of tremendous importance… This is the only way to prevent the division of Jerusalem.” The new neighborhood is to have a library, mikveh (ritual bath), and a synagogue, and will be connected to Maaleh Zeitim by a walkway.

(Source: Arutz Sheva)