aliyah, yipee!

So Rabbi Jeremy Wieder of YU is making aliyah. How do I know that? It's because any time a rabbi in the Modern Orthodox world makes aliyah they bring out the brass band to celebrate as if it's the biggest event in his life, as if nothing has mattered until then. Same when Yosef Blau made aliyah. Tell the world, it's so exciting. 

What kind of message is that? Have they ever finished Shas, married off a kid, done a chesed, had a spiritual epiphany, wrote a book, engaged in kiruv?

None of that matters, only moving to Israel matters. I think they look at it as evidence of tzidkus, because how could anyone not live in Israel, so all the good people come. That's the philosophy. And that philosophy is shallow. A Jew is judged by the mitzvos he does. Where can he do more? Living in Israel isn't even obligatory. There are many mitzvos that are more important. So what we have here is yet another trick of the yetzer hara, a trick to get people away from mitzvos.