Tzipiyah.com

Ever since I went on my senior class trip in elementary school I realized that I want to live in Israel. As I toured the country with my class I realized that Israel is different that any other country and I felt that it was the place I belonged. I have visited numerous countries around the world and I have never felt the same feeling as I did when I was in Israel.

When I would try to explain this feeling to other people I wasn’t able to and I could never understand why. Later I realized that this feeling has something to do with the neshama(the soul) and since it is something spiritual it can not be put into words. Ever since that trip, that feeling has always remained with me and I feel that the only place where I belong is in Israel. It is the only place I can call my true home. Since I discovered this feeling I have also been faced with a dilemma that is common to people who want to make aliyah but for various reasons they are prevented from doing so. I have this burning desire to live in Israel but at this moment I am unable to move and it pains me not to be able to live in the Eretz Hakodesh that was promised thousands of years ago to Avraham Avinu.

Thank G-d I have been able to return to Israel many times, but every time I have to leave I am faced with the same dilemma. I have always heard that everything is in Hashem’s control and that whatever one’s life situation is, is what has been chosen for that individual by Hashem. This means that even the place where one lives is also determined and if they are supposed to live in that specific place, any plans they make to leave that place with not follow through. I have always believed this to be true, but it took a while for it to finally sink in. It was only after I came back from my recent trip to Israel that I took this lesson to heart.

Before I boarded the plan I thought to myself, why is it that I am able to visit Israel but I am not able to live there? Then I thought about this lesson and it became clear that for some reason that I am currently not aware of I need to continue living in Los Angeles. There is a reason why Hashem has not allowed me to live in Israel and I need to accept this. I also realized that though I am forced to live in Chutz L’aretz it doesn’t mean I should give up on my dream, but at the same time I need to accept my current life situation and make the best of what I can before I can finally return home forever. May we all merit to return back home soon with the Geulah Shelamah. AMEN!

It is with great pride and joy that Tzipiyah.com would like to announce that one of our writers, Debbie, is making Aliyah today!

Yes, Debbie is today becoming an active participant in the most incredible movement of the world’s history. She is making her own destiny tied into the destiny of the Jewish People. Wow! Mazal Tov!

Debbie, I would like to wish you on behalf of Tzipiyah.com and all of our readers the warmest Mazal Tov. May you keep being an inspiration for all of us, not only with your powerful writing but also with your inspirational actions through which you show us Torah is not just theoretical but rather, torah is Torat Chayim - a living Torah.

May this Aliyah be the start of many new aliyot for your as you keep going higher and higher in both your physical and spiritual accomplishments.

Mazal Tov! Bekarov Etzel Kulanu! Soon by all of us!

Yesterday, I sat down in a comfortable armchair in my local Aliyah Office, and began to fill out a form. “I declare… that I request citizenship of Israel… I intend to attain Immigrant status upon my arrival in the country” (paraphrased). As I read these words and filled out my details, I marveled at the profundity of what I was doing: Here I was, attaching myself to the State of Israel, and advancing the process of becoming a citizen of Israel, and even, perhaps, an Israeli …

I’ve been reading Exodus, by Leon Uris. From a historical perspective, I’ve found it incredibly enlightening, broad in its settings, vivid in its descriptions. From an emotional perspective, I’ve found it to be moving, gripping, and deeply intense… From a Jewish-historical perspective, I’ve gained a much broader view of the beginnings of the epic drama of the final return of the Jews to their Homeland, after millenia of wanderings and exiles in many forms and reincarnations. And this has shed a new light onto my forthcoming Aliyah… Here are a couple of things I’ve personally gained through reading and digesting this book:

1. A deep admiration for the Jews who gave so much to build the State, including Herzl for all his tremendous efforts on the part of Klal Yisrael (this despite his Torah-disconnected vision and point of view; despite his faults, he really had great mesirut nefesh (dedication and self-sacrifice) for the sake of the Jewish Nation)
2. An appreciation for the State itself, our sovereignty over Israel, and the systems that are in place to allow easy and convenient Aliyah… to think of shiploads of Holocaust refugees turned back to perish by the British in the waters of then-Palestine leaves me feeling greatly privileged….
3. As Dan has said recently, (it’s a concept that Rav Kook deals with) the Jews who turned their backs on the traditional Torah lifestyle as practiced by the Jews of the ghettos in Eastern Europe, and were drawn into the Enlightenment, and specifically the socialist and Zionist movements, were not simply rebelling: they were seeking very deep and essential aspects of Judaism that did not — and could not — find real expression in the crushed, downtrodden Jewish existence in the bitter exile in Eastern Europe. They were searching — consciously or subconsciously — for a connection to Eretz Yisrael, and for the social and communal expression of Jewish life, as a nation, in the Land of Israel. Unfortunately, because they did not find this in religious Torah life in Eastern Europe, they turned their backs on Torah to a large degree. (We still feel the ramifications of this process today.) I have learnt how these Jews were answering deep spiritual yearnings, callings from within, which led them to undergo so much work, toil, sweat and blood, for the sake of the Jews in the Land of Israel. Without their efforts, wars, swamp drainages, and developments, we would almost certainly not have a State of Israel today.
4. Perspective: I have a clearer understanding of Israeli politics today from a deeper understanding of the origins of the State. And, in line with insights I have gained over the Yom Ha’atzma’ut period, I more deeply realize that this Redemption that we are privileged to be part of is a process. A dramatic, incredible process. This time is called Chevlei Mashiach - the Birthpangs of Mashiach. When a baby is born, the mother goes through excruciating pain, and indeed, her life is in danger. Of course, this is an essential part of the creation of new life; the process is traumatic, difficult, painful, but the results are rewarding and the greatest blessing. It happens in stages, and we have to be patient: the end result is not yet here, but we’re getting there.
5. We have to take action. This is perhaps one of the most defining aspects of the Religious-National outlook: we know that G-d is running the world and orchestrating His plan, but we understand that a great part of the ‘responsibility’ for its success rests squarely on our shoulders. We are not privy to His plans, and we must look at the world through the only eyes we have: our own. We need to be practical, pragmatic, and also idealistic, hopeful, and faithful; just like Ya’akov’s ladder, which stood firmly on the ground, while its top reached the Heavens.

Coming back to my Aliyah, I’m filled with more inspiration, more hope, and a deeper feeling of personal and National destiny. We’re still trying to turn a hodge-podge of many different returned and returning exiles and wanderers back into ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, a kingdom of priests (teachers and exemplifiers) and a holy nation, and I do believe it’s happening, slowly but definitively.

We’re still trying to reconnect with our Holy Land, our G-d, and ourselves — personally and nationally. And, slowly but surely, we are getting there; whether we see it today or not.