Why would you leave America?

You imagine that when you come to Israel that the Israelis are going to be impressed with your big sacrifice, that they are going to embrace you as a long lost brother who has come to join them in the building the Jewish society. That's how Modern Orthodox rabbis, who when it comes to Israel live in fantasy land, portray it.

What really happens is that the Israelis look at you like you're crazy. Why would you come to a war torn strife-filled country where everyone struggles to earn a living? Why wouldn't you stay in history's most affluent and safest country, where people are polite, where the government respects religious choice, where there's no draft? Are you crazy?

Yeah, you are crazy to come here. And the Israelis have nothing to do with you. I moved into an apartment building where there was one neighbor on my floor. Two apartments. They never spoke to us, never invited us into their home. They knew we were olim, fresh off the plane. Nothing. No help. Didn't lend us a tomato. They would have get togethers with friends and family and never invite us. The noise would resound through the wall. Nobody in the apartment building ever invited us to anything. The only apartment I ever entered was the vaad habayis, the building manager, to pay my rent. Oh, by the way, the vaad habayis used to dry her laundry in the stairway, women's underwear and all. That should give you a sense of what the Dati Leumi are like over here.

Recently, I had a rare conversation with an Israeli. He was a Duchinsky chosid so he was nicer (the Chassidim here in general are more approachable, but they speak no English), and we managed a two minute exchange in broken Hebrew (mine) and broken English (his). That's what I get here, every six months a two minute exchange with another human. Anyway,  he told me how there's no future in Israel, that he wants to move to America. 

I thought of the Aliyah salesman who told me a few years ago, the future is in Israel. I have heard this a few times from people. "The plug has been pulled out on America," said the son-in-law of a fairly famous rabbi to me 40 years ago. Of course, since then American Orthodox Jewry has grown so much in every way, schools, books, communities, wealth, wedding halls. It is incredible how much American Jewry has grown. Meanwhile, Israel is on the verge of collapse. I really do hope this man regrets his foolish prediction. This was a long bearded man in a black suit by the way. He had no clue how much Zionism had affected his mind and caused him to give bad advice, which is a sin. 

The Brisker Rav said, “Two things are certain: 1) Zionism is idolatry, and 2) every Jew living in Eretz Yisroel stumbles in Zionism.” (Uvdos Vehanhagos Leveis Brisk, v. 4 p. 197)

Seems to me that the ones who move here stumble the most. Israelis know that this place is nuts. The ones who move here were crazy to begin with, but by the time this place is through with them, there's no sanity left. They just keep telling themselves, "I live in Israel. I'm so lucky." Meanwhile, their kids are off the derech, and their own religious level plummets. But they live in Israel. Who needs Torah?

But who is the craziest of all, well at least the most shameful of all? It's American rabbis who pressure their congregants to move to Israel. Find me somebody more shameful in the Orthodox world than the American aliyah salesman who lives in America. He knows nothing about this lunatic asylum. He sits in his big house and fantasizes, and sells you his fantasies. And you fall for them. And the Israeli looks at you in amazement, actually it's more like disgust. Why would you leave America?

When the Brisker Rav came to Eretz Yisroel [in 1941] they asked him if he planned to go back or to stay. He replied, “Do I plan to go back?? I plan to run away!!” (from Israel)

After the Brisker Rav came to Eretz Yisroel someone remarked to him, “The Rav is certainly happy now that he merited to fulfill the mitzvah of living in Eretz Yisroel.” He replied, “If not for the great destruction that the Germans, yimach shmam, have brought on the Jews of Europe, I would have stayed there until the coming of Moshiach. I had no specific desire to come to Eretz Yisroel. Only need and desperation brought me here.”

So let's get straight about this, America is not Germany. We have to get passed the Holocaust trauma. Every place on the planet is not about to become Nazi Germany. Why not say that Israel could  become like the 2nd Temple period just before the Churban? The Romans came and slaughtered 1 million Jews? You mention this every time you bentch, it's in the fourth bracha.

The American Congress just passed a resolution against anti-Semitism. Three Presidents of powerful Ivy league colleges were forced to resign because they weren't seen as doing enough to protect Jews on campus from mild quantities of hostility that have arisen due to criticism of Israeli bombing of Gaza. America is a very safe country for Jews and has been that way during all the 40 years since I was told that the plug has been pulled out on America. So why would you want to come to Israel, which we are told daily, hourly is under existential threat? Why wouldn't you want to live in the country that has by far the most powerful military in the world and is protected by two oceans?  It's because you are crazy and the Israelis know it.