Spying Out The Land: Part IV

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Written by Shmuel Katz

Thursday, 23 June 2011 09:47

Ten Reasons Why You Should Live In Israel

If it is June, it must be time for yet another one of my â€œten more reasons to come live in Israelâ€ lists. Inspired by a Nefesh Bâ€™Nefesh program, each year, around the week of Parashat Shelach, I compile a list of 10 reasons (one for each of the spies who persuaded Am Yisrael to protest entering Israel in last weekâ€™s parashah) that you should join us here in Israel. You can find lists I, II, and III on www.5tjt.com.

It is a shame that Parashat Shelach falls in June, at least for this purpose. The summer is generally the â€œseason of aliyah,â€ with most of the yearâ€™s immigrants coming from June through September. However, in order to make a summer aliyah, one really needs to start the process in the late summer or fall (sometimes even as late as Jan/Feb can also workâ€”I know of one family that started the process in April and still made it). For the time being, at least, those who have decided to come are already committed and those who are unsure will not be seriously evaluating their decision for several months. If Shelach came out in September, I think this appeal would be much more effective.

Since I do not control the calendar, I will have to make do with this week. Another ten reasons you should come live in Israel:

10. Tuition. This is the only item that appears on all four of the top ten lists. Look at your tuition bill for the upcoming year. Take off the last zero, double it, and make it a shekel number instead of a dollar number. That is what you are likely to pay.

Four kids in school? One of them in high school? Is your full tuition bill around $60,000? Your bill here (1 in high school, 3 in elementary school) is around 12,000 shekelsâ€”or a little over $3,500. Even adding fees for afterschool activities and private tutors to make sure the kids are up to speed will leave you with an outrageously smaller bill.

9. Yamim Tovim are generally only one day. Another repeat from two of the prior lists. The evidence on this one is overwhelming. This year, once again, we will be having a three day Rosh Hashanah. But that is all. The rest of our Tishrei season contains single day chagim. Conversely, you guys will be having a three day chag three out of four weeks in that month.

Thatâ€™s not all! This year you get an added bonus! Shavuot begins on Motzaei Shabbat, meaning that you will have a fourth three day chag in 5772! In contrast, we will have only one three day chag, with a surprising two other two day chagim (the final day of Pesach is a Friday and the aforementioned Shavuot landing on Saturday night).

8. The leader of our government (Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu) gets more/louder applause and a better welcome from the U.S. Congress than does the leader of your government (President Barak Obama). An item that I listed last year as well.

7. Broaden your career options. Tired of your chosen vocation? Move to Israel! So many people switch careers here that it should be listed as a career in and of itself. Lawyers turned gardeners. Doctors turned vintners. Even yeshiva administrators turned into newspaper publishers.

If you donâ€™t want to totally switch careers, many people here open some form of business as a second income. I know a web designer who manufactures liquor, a pediatrician who makes wine, and many other people who simply broaden their career horizons here.

6. Improve your Torah learning. Not for the reasons you might think. The vast majority of sefarim are written in Hebrew (or at least translated from whatever language they were written in, into Hebrew). Living in Israel forces most people to vastly improve their spoken Hebrew skills, which leads to a deeper understanding of the written word. This also applies to davening and understanding things like berachos a little better.

5. Passion in life and in politics. Letâ€™s face it. You have to be a little fanatical to uproot your family and move 6,000 miles to live in Israel. People who are fanatical in one area, especially this one, tend to be fanatical in other parts of their lives as well. So, we have people who believe very passionately in their causes and have proven that they will go to great ends to achieve their goals. I am not saying that there arenâ€™t many committed and passionate people in galut. I just think there are more here and that the greater numbers lead to much more community involvement. And we feed off of each other.

4. Land of Opportunity. It seems like the entire country is â€œunder construction.â€ There are so many new communities that spring up each year that everyone has a chance to make their own mark in his or her own way. Shuls, chesed organizations, volunteeringâ€”you name it, the opportunities are there to not only get involved, but to lead, in a very meaningful way. You can be the president of your shul or help run the food pantry, because this ever-developing land has a lot of needs.

3. Early Friday? No problem. No more running to catch that last minute train and hustle in to the house just minutes before Shabbat starts on those early winter Fridays. Most people donâ€™t even work on Fridays and those who do have no problem making Shabbat without undue stress. No longer will your coworkers semi-jokingly tease you about taking half the day off and make you feel uncomfortable about your need to leave early and then make up the time elsewhere.

2. Gain a greater appreciation for your daily miracles. We live in a land that clearly survives as a nation through Divine Providence. Rockets land in preschool yards just minutes before the children arrive or after they have left. Terrorists are identified through extraordinary intelligence information. It often seems that the entire world has lined up to have a hand in our imminent destruction. Yet, thankfully, something happens to throw a wrench in their gears.

Our daily lives are no exception. Coincidences are the norm here. Often, you can bump into someone who is going to the exact place you need to send a package to or someone who can give your kid the ride to the afterschool program you canâ€™t get home to take care of. You begin to recognize that someone is pulling the strings upstairs.

1. It is a mitzvah. If you noticed, this is (to my great shame) not a repeat of an item that I included in any prior list. In preparing to write this column and reviewing my prior lists, I was absolutely astounded to discover that I had not included this fact before.

I refer not only to the mitzvah of living in Israel, but also to the many other mitzvot that can only be observed here. Separating terumot and maâ€™asrot. Birchat Kohanim every single day. There are so many examples of mitzvot that you simply miss out on. How can you continue to fail to capitalize on this great opportunity? v

Shmuel Katz is the editor of Koleinu (www.koleinu.co.il), a new Israeli newspaper affiliated with the Five Towns Jewish Times. Shmuel, his wife Goldie, and their six children made aliyah in July of 2006. Prior to his aliyah, Shmuel was the executive director of the Yeshiva of South Shore in Hewlett. You can contact him at shmuel@katzfamily.co.il.