Our speech, the spies, and coming home

(My blog post today is based on and prompted by an article written by Yishai Fleisher in the JewishPress.com entitled Light Onto the Nations from the Comfort of Home )

"By challenging ourselves to amend our speech we can help close a wound that wants to heal after two-thousand years of pain. And by speaking well of the land of Israel, we will melt all the fears and the doubts that fill our hearts today and we will ignite a burning desire in our nation to fall in love with our homeland, and to finally make it our home."


This week's parsha is Shelach, and is always an interesting one for me. My husband reminds me every year that at the summer camp he used to work at, his campers would act out the parsha and he had the dubious honor of playing the grapes. Yes. My husband, with a degree in Judaic Studies and years of leading experiential education and informal Jewish learning, takes great pride in his role as an inanimate object. He does this every year we retell the story of the spies who were sent into the Land to give a report to Moses and the Jewish people. Huge grapes.

Without getting too far into the parsha, that was not the purpose of my post today, I will recap to give some context to my thoughts and to Yishai's article. 

Moses sends twelve spies to the land of Canaan. Forty days later they return, carrying a huge cluster of grapes, a pomegranate and a fig, to report on a lush and bountiful land. But ten of the spies warn that the inhabitants of the land are giants and warriors “more powerful than we”; only Caleb and Joshua insist that the land can be conquered, as G‑d has commanded. The people weep that they’d rather return to Egypt. G‑d decrees thatIsrael’s entry into the Land shall be delayed forty years, during which time that entire generation will die out in the desert. (Thank you Chabad.org).

Only two spies came back with a positive report of the Land. Only two out of twelve. It didn't seem to be enough, and so the Bnei Yisrael became frightened of the prospect of making their new home in the Land G-d gave them, and the rest is Biblical history.  

They say people who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. Well I think many of us have learned from history; it's sort of hard not to seeing as how we repeat the exact same Torah parshiot every single year. While there are plenty of frustrating things about moving anywhere, to any new country especially, and there are plenty of things that I wish were different, or improved, and plenty of reasons why people complain about Israeli bureaucratic policies, and there are even plenty of blogs, newspapers, and various media outlets amplifying such complaints and calls for change (Don't worry, my blog will also dive into that as well; its not all roses and falafel) - but this week needs to be different. 


And so in an effort to make sure I do not repeat our mistakes, I want to dedicate this blog post to writing about the positive experience my husband and I have had coming home. The positive attributes of life in Israel and the benefits which I believe, await any Jew who wants to return to Israel. I know we may not represent every person who has made Aliyah. Indeed the two spies did not speak for the whole group. But I also know our success is not isolated or unique. So with this, I want to represent the two of the twelve that are all too often overlooked. Its sometimes easier to see the fear that lies in change, instead of the possibility that lies in new opportunities. 

My husband and I have known for years that we were making Aliyah. In fact, it was the topic of conversation on our very first date in Eugene Oregon. But the wheels started turning and the plan was put into action about 3 years ago in Boston, Massachusetts. I had just moved there to take my job at the Consulate General of Israel to New England  and Ben was finishing up his job at a Northern California Hillel. We got married, he moved to Boston, and began life as "adults". We wanted to get some professional experience in the States, make a little bit of money, begin to pay back our student debt, and settle into our first few years of marriage before turning our world upside.


After about six months in Boston, I figured I would get a head start on the process. I wasn't sure exactly when we would be making the big move but I knew that if something came up, a job opportunity, a zombie invasion,  I wanted to have it all ready to go. I opened our tik  on the Nefesh B'Nefesh website  and began filling out the paperwork online. The first few phases were pretty straight forward and easy to follow. Standard information.  Then, there came the documentation. Providing official copies of birth certificates, wedding certificates, passports, transcripts, ketubahs- since Ben is from Portland, I am from Atlanta, and we were living in Boston- that part took time. Talking to vital records in two States, learning what an apostille is and then paying to get them, sending all these records across the country via ensured and expedited mail . . .I took it easy and decided to work on one piece of documentation a week. I happened to have an "in" with some people at the Israeli Consulate (ie: I sat next to the women who issued Oleh Visas and told her to please give me my Oleh Visa and after smiling and looking over my paperwork, she gave me my Oleh Visa). A year later I had it all collected and ready to go. To be fair, a super organized and motivated person could have done it all in a few weeks, maybe a month, but I am a long term kind of girl so I took my sweet time. 


Then I met with the Jewish Agency representative who came to Boston twice a month from NY. Scheduling that was pretty easy and meeting with him was very pleasant. We eat lunch during the meeting and talked a lot about his daughters. 


My sister lives in Israel with her husband so they were both very helpful. I signed up for the Maagar Meida apartment finding website and received emails of apartment listings in the neighborhoods I wanted to look in. I told my sister which ones I liked and she and my brother in law went and checked them out and sent us pictures. (ACTUAL OFFER: I REALIZE NOT EVERYONE HAS FAMILY IN ISRAEL TO DO THIS SO IF ANYONE IS CONSIDERING ALIYAH AND WOULD LIKE ME TO HELP THEM LOOK AT APARTMENTS, IF IT WOULD MAKE YOUR ALIYAH EASIER- I WILL HAPPILY HELP YOU WITH THIS). We found one we liked, within the budget we decided on (which was entirely based on what the Sal Klita, government absorption basket, provides- since we didn't have jobs lined up and were coming with almost no money), and decided to go for it. We had an Israeli who lived in Brookline help us with the contract, signed it, sent it, and voila- we were renting an apartment in Jerusalem. The only snafu was that my sister and brother in law had to write out 12 predated checks for rent and give them to the land lord before we arrived in case we turned out to be nut cases. I should take a moment to thank Stacey and Yehuda for going out on a limb for us like that and thank Kochava, our landlord, for being so trusting. 


We started selling a lot of our stuff on craigslist to local people in and around Boston. We also started giving away a ton of stuff to friends and family. We knew we were going to be moving to Israel so we had never invested in property, or a car, or any nice furniture, or anything nice for that matter (nicest things I own are my sheitle and my laptop). I asked a few Israelis in the community who the best international movers were and everyone said Isaacs. So I called Isaacs, they guy came and looked at our books, dvds, dishes and appliances (which were mostly wedding gifts, no way was I leaving those behind) and a bed. The guy laughed at me because we just barely met the minimum shipping requirement. We decided two other friends of ours making Aliyah from Boston could throw their stuff in with ours to bulk the shipment and save everyone a little money. He gave us a quote, it sounded fair, we signed, and voila- our shipment was arranged and ready to go.  


We booked our flight through NBN and once we had the date of our flight, the countdown was on. I think those last few months moved quickly for everyone. I think our friends and community in Boston, who we had come to love dearly, were thrown for a loop when we started selling things. It hit home for everyone once the apartment started to empty. Our cat definitely sensed something was happening. I will dedicate another post to what we had to go through to get him to Israel . . .


People were generally supportive those last few months. But every now and then we would receive a comment from one of our friends that rang something like 'it's so great your moving to our homeland, so . . . are you really doing this?'  and 'It's wonderful your actually doing this, I wish I could do it too were it not for [insert excuse here]' or one of my personal favorites 'it's so crazy your actually doing this, do you know what you are getting into?' It was almost as if once we had decided we were really doing this, all we were was a mirror for people.  Our decision made them examine their own. They looked at us and they saw themselves and so they used us as a soundboard to voice their own frustrations, hopes, dreams, fears about some deep desire/ anxiety diaspora Jews have about living in Israel. 


We made it to Newark, NJ- got on the plane, and headed home. The hustle and bustle at the airport was more frantic than normal; a cat, and our lives essentially packed neatly in 6 bags.  65 new Olim, 5 cats, 3 dogs, far too many Jewish males trying to determine the best way to shove bags overhead, and 12 hours later- we landed at Ben Gurion Airport. People clapped and sang when we landed. It was nice, but honestly, not new for me. That usually happens when you land in Israel. But something did feel different. When you are on the road traveling for a while, you are living out of a suit case, probably don't have every thing you would like, feeling comfortable but not quite settled- that's what America felt like for me. And when those wheels touched down and we landed in Israel-it was a very palpable sense of ease. Like now, sigh, I can unpack. Those York Peppermint Patty commercials come to mind. A quick montage of falafel, Tel Aviv Beaches, orange groves, people smoking inside the mall, the shuk, the shabbat alarm, traffic and horns, sunrise on Masada, Israeli kids with big hair screaming everywhere, the kotel, a swerving taxi, tichels and kippahs- it all whooshed over me in a flash. Home. 


NBN representatives ushered us through the special Ministry of Absorption offices near the airport and we signed some papers, got health insurance, our Teudat Zahut, and cash money in hand! It was also the first night of Hanukkah so everywhere we went someone offered us sufganiyot!  Because we had arranged our apartment in advance, we took a free taxi from Lod directly to our front door step. My sister met us there, opened the door, and greeted us in our new apartment. Our Isaacs shipment came the next week. The first few days my sister took Ben and I to the municipal offices to switch the gas, water, and electricity into our names, she took us to the Bank and we opened an account and ordered checks. We got food and toilet paper- essentials- at our local super market. We went and got cell phones the 3rd day in Israel. Didn't have to pay anything upfront! We provided NBN with our account information and within two weeks we had a direct deposit into our account, the first payment of Sal Klita had arrived! 


Until our gas was turned on and in our names, we ate almost every meal out those first few days. It was wonderful. Real restaurants! Kosher food! I gained a million pounds that first week which I am still trying to work off. Everywhere we went, when people heard we were new olim they said 'B'Hatzlacha!' Everyone wished us luck and success and blessings. One of the first nights we ate at an Asian restaurant near our house. Ben and I liked the menu, the decor, the food- deciding to take full advantage of our new Israeli identities we summoned the chutzpa to write in bullet points, on a napkin, Ben's kitchen and work experience and his cell phone number. We gave that napkin to the waitress and asked if she would pass it off to the manager, or perhaps the chef. She did. Ben got a call the next day. He began working two days after that. A job in Israel, within the first week of arriving. Hashem was already showering his blessings on us.  


I was looking for work and trying to leverage the networks and connections I had from my time at the Consulate in Boston when a friend emailed me and reminded me that his friends who had a consulting company in Israel might be hiring (shout out Gordon Dale). I emailed the founders of the consulting company and went in for an interview. Many of the clients of this consulting company were organizations I had worked with in Boston through the Consulate and we had a lot of mutual contacts so that helped quite a bit. I began work within a week. A job in Israel within the first month of arriving. More blessings. 


Within a month, both Ben and I had found jobs and were working. We have a nice, modest, but very comfortable apartment in Jerusalem, we are in full swing shul shopping on Shabbats, trying to find minyans and communities that tickles our fancy. We were receiving our Sal Klita money directly into our accounts, we were staying connecting to family and friends the whole time on skype. Our klita was, and has been, thank G-d, very smooth. None of the horror stories you often hear, or the hyperbolic tales of missing luggage, having no money, leaking apartments. None of that. We were, and still very much are, blessed in our decision to come home. 


And I know its not always that smooth for people. I know for every positive experience we have had, someone can match it with a negative one, or maybe two for that matter. But we are doing okay. We are young, we have degrees of higher education (and yes, we also have student debt back in the States but we are managing that just fine- the US government is surprisingly flexible these days) we are positive, thankful, and optimistic.  We live within our means, we stay focused, and we don't compare every little thing to life in the United States. 


Sometimes people need to hear the good stuff. Sometimes we need to listen, we need to want to hear the story of the two spies. We came home and I firmly believe Hashem has blessed us because of it. I also believe that many of the barriers and obstacles that keep people from coming home and living in our land reflect more the anxiety of the Jew, and less the opportunity the Land can afford us. 


So next time you hear someone speak about the troubles and toils of someone they know who has made Aliyah, try to recall my post and our experience, try to add a positive comment and "speak well of the Land"and perhaps reframe that conversation. As Yishai wrote, "we need to ignite the burning desire in our nation to fall in love with our homeland." 


Shabbat Shalom.