The Perils of Facebook (Is Aliyah Really a Good Thing?)

Widespread are reports that implicate Facebook as the culprit and instigator of much dangerous situations: cyber-bullying, sketchy hookups with strangers, etc.  I've had my share of such experiences, one of which I'll share below.

Take the following picture of a real facebook comment and responses from my Facebook account.  This was from last April.  (Names have been purposely blurred to hide the identity of the other facebook users involved.)

It all started with me posting a status: 

I am at a Yom Ha'atzmaut event in Baltimore.   

One of the features of the event was that all the families making aliyah from Baltimore that year stood on stage, and received an official farewell from the community.  After the event was over, I commented on my own status that:

Going up on stage [for the farewell at the Yom Haatzamaut event] was striking for several reasons. I was amazed how many kids there were. I think it's the first year that there are so many young families with little kids going on aliyah. yeah.....!

I go to sleep that night, believing that the conversation was over.  However, I wake up the next morning to 7 new emails from Facebook indicating that people had commented on my status.

First there was Jim (fictional name), who replied that:

Actually, it's too bad so many people are leaving to Israel because it hurts Baltimore's local zionist school and community

(Note: the person's status does not show up in the above JPEG because he erased it after he realized the commotion that it started.)

We all understood what Jim was getting at; it's reminscient of Reuven Spolter's 2004 Orthodox Union article that noted that modern orthodox communities in the U.S. were shrinking because of loss of community members to aliyah.  However, many of my friends are staunch Zionist, and they couldn't let Jim get away with speaking pejoratively about aliyah.

 Mike (again, a fictional name) replies to Jim

Unfortunate? Aliyah unfortunate? Get your emunah together, man. The Jewish future is in Eretz Yisrael. If you are truly a Maamin then you should WANT your US yeshiva's enrollment's to dwindle precisely because so many are making aliyah. Chasdei Hashem that we live in such special times and are wittnessing Kibbutz Galuyot. Get with the program. Hashem's program, that is.

Agreeing with Mike was Nancy, who previously had made aliyah from Baltimore and had stood on precisely that same stage during the Yom Ha'atzmaut ceremony, several years before:

 I'm happy to hear the numbers are going up again. Our year (07) we were more families than that all with 4+ kids. There is nothing sad about it except the families sitting in the audience who still don't realize that a successful Tzioni school can't and shouldn't be able to survive outside Eretz Yisroel. Am Yisroel belongs in Eretz Yisroel and there is nothing more special than that.  What a kiddush Hashem it is for the world to see the Jewish people return home after thousands of years because of choice not neccesity.

The rest of the comments welcomed my family to Israel.

It's beyond the scope of this post to discuss my view point of this matter, but it's worthwhile to note that this is just of many incidents in which a simple, and ostensibly innocent, Facebook status spiraled out of control, serving as a platform for a discussion of various opinions that I never intended.

Tu B'Shvat in Israel (My First!)

Today was the Jewish holiday, Tu B'shvat——the 15th of the Hebrew month Shvat——referred to in the Talmud as the "New Year for the Trees" because it's the date used for calculating the beginning of the agricultural cycle (for the purpose of biblical tithes involving trees and fruit).

Outside of Israel, this holiday often passes barely noticed, languishing in the realm of the minor holidays.  However, in the Land of Israel, every Jewish holiday is an important one, and Tu B'shvat is celebrated as a major reason for rejoicing, accompanied by different customs.  For example, here in Israel it's customary to partake of a feast of fruits (a.k.a. the Tu B'shvat Seder!) that was first instituted by the famed 16th century kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Tsfat.

Additionally, it's become a time to plant trees in Israel: the Jewish National Fund (JNF) organizes tree-planting activities across the country.  This custom took particular significance this year in the wake of the destructive fire that consumed over 1 million trees in the Carmel Forrest a few months ago in Israel's north.  Below is an advertisement from the JNF that was widely distributed throughout Israel, encouraging donations to help replant of Carmel's forrest.

It feels very special as a new immigrant to Israel to be in Israel on Tu B'Shvat.  For one thing, you end up celebrating a Jewish holiday that is improperly neglected outside of Israel.  More than that, however, Tu B'Shvat these days is all about planting trees, i.e. creating roots, and as an oleh hadash in his first year here, that is exactly what I am doing.  I am settling in the Land of Israel, every moment trying to plant my own family's roots here, as we make Israel our new home.

I especially felt a lot of pride when my son (pictured below) planted his first tree today in Israel, in front of his school.

It's Time To Be An Optimist For Israel

The present economic situation continues to be dismal in the United States. Meanwhile, things are looking up and hopeful in Israel.

For example, compare the following 2 news stories from this week. Zillow.com, a real estate website in the U.S., reported that the U.S. housing market is now worse than the 1929 depression.

Meanwhile, the Taub Center for Social Policy studies, published a study that the Israeli public's sense of well-being is at an all-time high.

An experience this week resonated tremendously within me, really bringing home this thought about how fortunate I am to have picked up and moved to Israel.

I was waiting for the bus by the Binyani Haumah alongside a throng of other stand-byers waiting for their own buses. 

A sight caught my attention in the horizon (picture at the bottom of this post), so I turned to the person closest to me, nodding to the distance.  "Ma?" snorted my neighbor, so I pointed again with a smile that flickered across my face, and asked in Hebrew, "Don't you see that amazing sight; it's so beautiful!"  He looked puzzled, and in hopelessness, I decided to look away instead of trying to explain to him what was going on in my head.  

But I was reminded of a chapter in  in the book, To Dwell In The Palace, which is a collection of essays addressed to religious Jews in the West concerning aliyah.

In one essay, "It Will Seem impossible" by Yisroel Amishav, the writer encourages the reader to discount "troubling reports" about the the economic and political situation here in the Land of Israel.  Instead, Amishav cajoles us to make our own independent assessments about what it's like in Israel.  

In Amishav's own words:

 "Have you, by any chance, been to visit the holiest city in the world lately.... If you had, you would have seen some puzzling sights.  You would have, if you looked up as you walked, seen more cranes than you could count."

Luckily, I had my iPod touch with me and was able to take a picture.  Here it is.  Click on it to see it enlarged, and to see even more cranes that are cut off from the picture below.

The View From Aish HaTorah's World Center

Next time you're in Jerusalem's Old City, I recommend you make a stop at Aish Torah's World Center, take the elevator to the top floor, and walk onto Aish's roof.

From the roof, you can see the entire Kotel plaza, the cemetery on the Mount of Olives, and a large portion of the Temple Mount (including the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque).  In my opinion, the view from Aish's roof is unmatched compared to other views in the Old City.

Here is a short video clip I took with my iPod Touch last time I was on Aish's roof.

Aish's roof also houses a large, detailed replica of the Second Temple (see picture below).  It's lachrymose to view this replica of the Second Temple, a reminder of the glory days of Jewish history, juxtaposed to the current Temple Mount.