The Brownsteins in the Land of Israel
Chapter
20:
Our
First Anniversary in Israel: You are Wholeheartedly Invited!
The
Full Chronicle
July
15, 2004
[CONTINUED]
Click Here for the real ending.
I rely on the
input of several people when I create a Chronicle.
To a person, they each believed that what I initially wrote below to
finish this chronicle would not have been well received by my friends in America -- most of my readers.
I'm sure they are correct. But
it is virtually incomprehensible for me to believe that people who make Aliyah
from America could have any opinion other than what I state below.
Equally incomprehensible, especially for those who know me well, is the
notion that you do not know how I feel about the need for Aliyah. And just as clearly, you are not reading my chronicles
because of my style or because of the cute pictures; there seems to be an
interest in my thoughts. Thus,
below are my clear views on Jews in the Diaspora.
It is also important to note that much of my comments are directed at the
Orthodox community who engage daily in traditional Jewish prayer.
Those of you who may be offended by my remarks, please accept my apology.
Those of you who have often complained to me that you never really know
what I am feeling and thinking, here is. (It's
not too late to hit the "back" button!):
I don't want to sound like an
insufferable ex-smoker on his first day out of rehab talking about fresh breath,
the great taste to food, and all my extra energy. And I don't want to seem
like an obnoxious Baalei
Teshuvah extolling the virtues of Shabbat.
But, I have come to believe that the majority of my readers have been
following our journey wistfully, knowing deep in their hearts that they, too,
belong here. I have viewed my role
as one of "chizuk" or giving strength to those who truly yearn to live
in the Land of Israel. So, in a
nutshell, obviously I believe, on the whole, that all Jews belong in Israel and
that such an event would help bring about "Geula" (redemption) and
make the State of Israel a hundred times stronger than it is today.
Whether or not you agree that politically Israel can live without
American money and Jewish pressure on American politics, it is hard to argue
that Israel would not be far stronger with hundreds of billions of dollars more
in American Jewish assets at home in Israel and the billions of dollars in added
tax revenue.
So, what I'm saying is, without
wanting to belittle my first 40 years -- in America: I believe that it's time
for American Jewry to forgo their lives of Costco, Starbucks, and Nordstrom's
(all of which is available here in one form or another, believe it or not).
There, I said it.
I believe
that American Jewry needs to commit to trading in vain daily prayers for the
return to Zion for the real thing, Zion. To be very specific, we pray
three times
a day the Amidah (or Shemoneh Esrei), Within the central prayers we repeat the following pleas in Hebrew to the Almighty:
1)
Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the ensign to gather our exiles,
and gather us from the four corners of the earth. Blessed are You, O Lord, who
gathers the dispersed of his people Israel.
2) Return in
mercy to Jerusalem Your city, and dwell in it as You have promised. Rebuild it
soon in our day as an eternal structure, and quickly set up in it the throne of
David. Blessed are You, O Lord, who rebuilds Jerusalem.
3)
Be pleased, O Lord our God, with Your people Israel and with their prayers.
Restore the service to the inner sanctuary of Your Temple, and receive in love
and with favor both the fire-offerings of Israel and their prayers. May the
worship of Your people Israel always be acceptable to You. And let our eyes
behold Your return in mercy to Zion. Blessed
are You, O Lord, who restores his divine presence to Zion.
Think about it. Imagine if you lived in an
American protectorate, Guam or Puerto Rico, and everyday you pled of the
President of the United States to be included as one of the United
States. And imagine if every single
day he said the same thing to you: "we are here for you as soon as you
decide to be here with us. It is
completely in your hands." Like
Dorothy's ruby slippers.
What does it mean to ask the
Almighty everyday to sound the great shofar of our freedom to gather us from
the four corners of the earth? In
the starkest terms, you are the exiles. Starker
yet, it is an empty prayer if you do not intend to fulfill it, unless of course
you are praying for the other exiles, which is entirely possible and laudable.
Even so, what is it mean to
plead with the Almighty to rebuild Jerusalem soon? This is not just about the building of the Third Temple; this
is about creating the type of atmosphere and infrastructure that promotes a
Torah observant world that is intended to bring Moshiach (the Messiah). On the concrete basis, it is no secret that Bill Clinton
convinced a former Israeli Prime Minister to offer parts of Jerusalem and the
Temple Mount itself to non-Jews. Included
in that ill-fated bequeathment was a plot of land just south of the wall of the
Old City called Ir David, or the City of
David.
King David's palace is thought to be directly underneath this land.
I have been
told that 60% of all the events in the Bible took place there.
Unbelievable archaeological and biblical treasures and sites have been
uncovered at Ir David. Yet none of this would
have been possible with Arafat running the show, nor should non-Jews rightfully
have been the caretakers of this almost holy plot of land, especially after
seeing the sorry, desolate, despoiled state of the Kotel when we finally
liberated it in 1967.
Instead, miraculously, a group of people saw the horror of what had been
offered and took it upon themselves to quietly buyout the Arabs living over the
Ir David. Why?
Because our numbers there now make it impossible to give away Ir David in Oslo
9, or whatever.
So, with a track record, just think about the power of a million or
two more Jews living in the area surrounding Jerusalem.
The United States government, through George Bush, stated that all future
negotiations must take into consideration the demographics on the ground.
Be part of the demographics. Be
part of history.
What could be more explicit then
to request of the Almighty to let our eyes behold Your return in mercy to
Zion?
"I'd like to order
cheesecake." "You ordered a cheesecake. It's in front of you."
"I'd like to order
cheesecake." "You already ordered a cheesecake.
It's in front of you. Look."
"I'd like to order
cheesecake." "Listen. You
already ordered a cheesecake. It's
all right in front of you. Open
your eyes!"
"I'd like to order
cheesecake." "The restaurant is closed. Please leave."
Now it's time to ask you to take a moment
and ask yourself a very painful question: What are you building in America?
What does it mean to pray three times for the speedy rebuilding of
Jerusalem when you are spending your life, your energy, your resources rebuilding West LA and Long Island?
Again, I suppose it's the other people who need to speedily rebuild
Jerusalem. Pico needs you.
Is it even practical for you to move to
Israel? The reality is that moving
to Israel now is far easier now than ever.
Many of my friends have enough equity in their homes to live here for
years. And as long as we are speaking frankly, just how many of
the approximately 5 million historic immigrants to Israel ever landed with so
much as a pair of sticks to rub together, let alone six figures in the bank,
college degrees, and retirement plans? The other side of the coin, of
course, is that a family of three sending kids to private day school and paying
for their own health-insurance, by moving to Israel, immediately reduces these
annual expenditures from over $60,000 -- after-tax -- to next to nothing.
So why are you not here?
Is it the big house? Hey,
you can get 4,000 feet of American-style luxury within the Green Line for
$500,000. Is it your profession?
You would be surprised by what you can do here.
Is it security? I don't want
to frighten you, but I listen to the American news too. I hear about Homeland Security threat levels, and pending
attacks with dirty bombs and chemical weapons and suitcases filled with just
enough bad stuff floating into LA Harbor to take out a good chunk of the
Southland. Forget about the street
violence, and the traffic violence, and the television violence; you have real
threats to deal with in America now. Believe
it or not, Israel is safer.
Perhaps it is your belief as a
Zionist that your future generations should and will actually live here.
Maybe you believe that it will be easier for them to come than for you.
If so, think again. Harsh
probabilities suggest they will have less of a chance of making Aliyah than you;
children do what their parents do, on the whole.
Your kids will "commit" themselves in the same way you have.
And the same statistics also suggest that those Jews living in America may not even
have Jewish progeny within three generations.
Perhaps it's time to think about setting the ultimate example for your
kids.
Maybe you think your kids are
too old to adjust to Israel. Kids
adjust. It's true that the older
they get, the harder it is. And, to
be very candid, we
made the conscious decision to come when our oldest was seven so her adjustment
would be almost seamless. But, as parents, we make hard decisions concerning
professions and housing as part of the normal course of life. Yet no
decision you will ever make will create a greater positive impact on your, your
children's lives, and your people. Tell your kids not
to worry. There are summers to
return to visit friends and cheap Israeli airlines.
There is the Internet for daily contact with IM and e-mail. And it costs less to call America from Israel than to call
from Century City to Anaheim. Your
kids will adjust and grow stronger and wiser, and have a deeper, more visceral
love the Jewish people, and respect you more for making the right decision.
Perhaps you are afraid of
sending your 16-year-old boy into the army in two years. I would be lying if I didn't say that I'm afraid for my
five-year-old baby, too. But the
number of military deaths in Israel in non-combat (i.e. all-out war) is
minuscule, from statistical standpoint, as is all-out war. It
is also extremely easy for Orthodox children to find alternative service.
But even if your son or daughter serves, they will grow in ways that they
never could in America and will
make you far prouder than a degree from UCLA, which they can get afterwards
anyway.
Looking at the reality of North
American Aliyah, out of about 6 million North American Jews, last year the
Brownstein family constituted one quarter of 1% of all North American Aliyah.
That is, in a word, pathetic. People
are currently jumping up and down about the 1,500 North American Jews arriving this month with
Nefesh B'Nefesh. But who,
realistically, can view this as an achievement?
Only those who correctly frame it within the dismal context of how
difficult it is to entice people of means into Aliyah.
How depressing is that?
Preparing
for Tisha B'Av we read in the Haftorah:
I raised and nurtured children and they betrayed Me. An ox knows its
keeper, a donkey the hand that feeds it, but Israel does not know - My people do
not perceive. I'm sorry, but how much clearer can it be?
So, if I may, from now on
I urge you, each time you pray for us here in the Promised Land, and each time
you pray for the fulfillment of all of our dreams, including a vibrant Jewish
People, also think about the concept of the rubber hitting the road.
Think about the futility of pushing 4,000 pounds uphill on cement, as
opposed to a simple cross-vector shove. No,
here in the State of Israel we are no longer draining malarial swamps and
splitting stones with chisels. We
have DSL, malls, "American" toilet paper, coffee houses...and we have
each other. The only thing we are missing is you.
Anyway, thanks for reading between the lines this far.
I
appreciate and look forward to your comments and greetings.
As you know, we are in the middle of a membership drive,
so please get me the e-mail addresses of people whom you want to add.
(Let them know ahead of time, so I don't get in trouble with the spam
police).
Please stay tuned for Chapter 20: The Dentist.
All the best,
Rich Brownstein
PO Box 8130
91081 Jerusalem
ISRAEL
Phone: (310) 597-4230 (Free From America)
Phone: 011-972-2-6733-491
CURRENT DISTRIBUTION: 481 worldwide
NOTE:
No tires were harmed in this story.
All characters and events are purely fictional.
If you want to add someone to this list, or remove
yourself, just e-mail rich@brownsteins.net and let him know.
He's cool about it. Honest.
I know him.
Please freely distribute to those with too much time on
their hands.
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CHRONICLE