Why Make Aliyah?
Why is a Jew wiling to leave a comfortable lifestyle, where he lives in a big house, he makes a good living, he owns 2.5 cars and white picket children? Because the soul of a Jew is connected to the soul of the Land of Israel. The Land of Israel calls out to the Jew everyday and says "Come home, come home my child." Israel is the Promised Land, the Land promised to the Jews. A born Israeli or a Jew living at the farthest end of the world have equal rights to the Land of Israel. In reality there are no new immigrants to Israel. A Jew that makes aliyah, that is to say, who ascends both physically and spiritually to Israel, has moved home. We do not call someone living in his own home an immigrant. We call him an owner. Every Jew whether born a Jew or a convert has a birthright to the land.
Many have chosen to make aliyah, others are thinking about it, and yet others say "when the Messiah comes I will move." But the last category is not so simple. A person has to yearn to live here. The desire to move to Israel will not suddenly appear when the Messiah comes. What the Messiah will do is facilitate your move to the Holy Land but the desire to live here has to be there before. This is illustrated at the Exodus of Egypt. Only those who desired to leave Egypt left and the 80% that didn't desire to leave never made it out even though the gates were wide open.
So if you suddenly find yourself panicking because you're very comfortable where you are in life and to be honest, you have zero desire to move to Israel, what can you do? You can pray for the desire to want to live in Israel. Our rabbis said that there are three things that we have to toil for in this world. One of the three is the Land of Israel. Perhaps we can say that the desire itself to being in Israel is also a part of the toiling. We have to ask our Heavenly Father to put in us and those close to us the desire to move to Israel.
And what will guarantee that your move here will be a permanent move and not a temporary one. The key is to one, disconnect from the old country and two to be humble. You may be used to gentle speaking, to someone bagging your groceries. Anybody who lives here knows that this doesn't always happen. But that doesn't make us bad! That's what makes us unique and different and Israeli! We are a people with fire, a people with passion. Come here knowing that you have to adapt to the Israeli culture and that they don't have to adapt to yours (the humility part) and you will love living in the Holy Land and you will be thankful every day of your life that you finally made it home.
Tachlit
What do you enjoy the most about Israel?
