Moving to Israel - Not Kedai for most people

The Brisker Rav said it long ago. The purpose of Zionism is to eradicate Judaism. And here we are, the High Court of ignoramuses has decreed a draft on all Haredim. We knew this day would come. Or more precisely, the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Shmuel Auerbach, Rav Avigdor Miller, Rav Shimon Schwab and numerous other great rabbis knew it would come. They warned us. The army which tells young men “You don’t listen to the rabbis anymore. You listen to us,” is no place for Haredim. I have been in Israel for a decade, and I have met all kinds of soldiers, including the so-called Haredi soldiers and the so-called Dati-Leumi soldiers. The gap between them and a proper Haredi is a galaxy. One is religious and one is not. The Haredim can tolerate their barely religious brothers when they are going about their own business, but when they are trying to destroy them, they are no longer brothers. What about me? I’m not really Haredi but I try. I know it’s the right way. I certainly don’t interfere in their

    Israel, it’s not me, it’s you. Background: I made Aliyah nearly a decade ago while in my early 20’s from a major U.S. city. I served in the army as a combat soldier, became fluent in Hebrew, I work in an Israeli company, and all in all have assimilated well to Israeli society. Now, lately I’ve become fed up with the constant level of stress living here. It’s become so bad now I suffer from chronic headaches. My actual physical health is being affected by living here. Seriously, I ended up in the ER because my head didn’t stop pounding for over a week. The diagnosis… “you’re way too stressed out”. It feels like nearly everything you do will incur the highest possible level of stress for the given task. You want to go shopping? Count on someone cutting you in line. You want to take a cab? More than likely the driver will try to cheat or overcharge you. I consistently discover “errors” in my paycheck, always to my loss. At some point you lose count of all the times you receive some bi

 Here is what Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik said about aliyah: "It is ridiculous to tell a young man, who does a good job, or has prepared or trained himself to do a good job [here in the U.S., that he must instead go to ארצ ישראל]. "Good job" means to spread Torah, or to lead an exemplary life which serves as an example to others through personal contact - there are many ways to convert and educate Jews. I am not giving up on American Jews. If I feel that in my town, or in my village, I will accomplish a lot, and when I come to Eretz Yisrael so I or my influence will be reduced to zero, my place is here, not there. Some who went to Eretz Yisrael achieved the same objectives they would have in the Diaspora. But only some! I know of many who fail. They don't admit it. It's nice on their part not to admit it."  (Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, The Rav Thinking Aloud, pp. 242-3).

Well, there's something very good about the land of Israel and that's the holiness, where it hasn't been reduced or eliminated by all the sin of the state. The Charedi communities are good, but that doesn't mean you should move to one of them from a Western country because it won't be good for you. You'll lose many mitzvos and probably will not be able to deal with the stress, poverty, etc. Kevrei tzadickim are good, but most people here rarely go to them. I know people who seem to never to go, not to kever Rachel, not to Hebron. Years go by, and they never go. Part of the reason is those places are hard to get to, and dangerous.  Visitors to Israel see those places more than the residents do.  And Chutz has those too, especially Eastern Europe.  I won't say the state has been good in giving Jewish refugees a safe haven, because Israel isn't safe, and because the Zionists closed off entry into Western countries that were taking them in. As for Ethiopians

M odern Orthodoxy in Israel is nothing of what you remember it to be in America. In America, Zionism, aliyah, and Israeli politics are ubiquitous but it's all sort of intellectual. It's books and lectures. We debate the topic, with a Zionist slant to be sure, but it's like a college class. What's much more real are careers, shul - particularly issues involving women, and schooling issues. You go to shul and meet professors, lawyers, accountants, doctors, maybe even an engineer if he is over 50. In Israel, it's all about land, Arabs, and guns. It's like living on a military base. And the talk is so different than in America. I wouldn't even call it talk, it's barking. I don't know why Hebrew, a semitic language, would sound harsher than English, a Germanic language, but it sure does. Maybe it's the aggressiveness and anger of the typical Israeli that makes is so. People don't appear to converse here. Now, it's not so wonderful in Jewish Ne