L’Shana Haba’ah B’Ara D’Yisrael—Next Year in Israel: Living the Dream?

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March 22 2017
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If I’ve learned anything in the eight-plus years since leaving the rabbinate for Aliyah, it’s this: Americans don’t appreciate being lectured by olim about Aliyah. Slogans like, “If I could do it, anyone can!” and Facebook posts like, “Living the Dream! The bus driver wished me Chag Sameach!” probably don’t help. Thus, having been tasked with writing as a RIETS alumnus who made Aliyah, I’m in somewhat of a quandary. I want to write about Pesach and living in Israel. I should promote Aliyah. But that’s probably the last thing those in the Diaspora want to read. So I won’t. Instead I’ll share a sense of unease I feel each year at this time.


Every year as I prepare for Pesach, I find the Seder somewhat challenging. From the text of the Haggadah it seems clear to me that Chazal never envisioned the Seder as we experience it today. Their vision of geulah did not only include conquering and settling the Land. They could not imagine a Jewish State and Jewish land without a Beit Hamikdash. They assumed that shivat Zion, the return to Zion, would obviously include the offering of the korban Pesach. How do I know this? It’s intrinsic in the text from the very beginning of Maggid:


הָשַׁתָּא הָכָא, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּאַרְעָא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל, הָשַׁתָּא עַבְדֵי, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּנֵי חורִין.


Now we are here; next year we will be in the Land of Israel; Now we are slaves, next year we will be free.


In the final blessing of Maggid we recite:


כֵּן ה’ אֱ-לקֵינוּ וֵא-לקֵי אֲבותֵינוּ יַגִּיעֵנוּ לְמועֲדִים וְלִרְגָלִים אֲחֵרִים הַבָּאִים לִקְרָאתֵנוּ לְשָׁלום, שְׂמֵחִים בְּבִנְיַן עִירֶךָ וְשָׂשִׂים בַּעֲבודָתֶךָ. וְנאכַל שָׁם מִן הַזְּבָחִים וּמִן הַפְּסָחִים אֲשֶׁר יַגִּיעַ דָּמָם עַל קִיר מִזְבַּחֲךָ לְרָצון.


…So too Hashem, our God and the God of our forefathers, will bring us to festivals and other holidays that will come upon us in peace, joyous in the rebuilding of Your city and rejoicing in Your service. And we will eat there from the Zevachim and the Pesachim whose blood will arrive on the wall of Your altar according to Your will….


To the authors of the Haggadah, there are only two options: there or here; freedom or slavery. In the Haggadah we find no middle ground. There is only the degradation and suffering of galut on the one hand, or the boundless joy and freedom of Redemption on the other. Chazal could not envision a time when we would, on the one hand, enjoy a wonderful, sunlit Chol Hamoed morning in Jerusalem, when we might park at the Mamilla Mall, walk through a bustling Old City toward the Temple Mount, only to stop at the lower plaza and accept the blessing of the kohanim at the remnants of the Retaining Wall to the complex. 


They could not imagine a time when a Jew would live — as I do — a mere forty-minute ride from Jerusalem, but would spend the evening of the Seder at his home in Yad Binyamin, rather than bringing his entire family to camp out in Yerushalayim as they enjoyed the meat of the shelamim and a bit of lamb from the Korban Pesach.


And yet, there we are. So close, and yet so far from realizing that ultimate dream. We’re not “living the dream” because what we have now is not the dream, but a small sliver of a fragment of the dream. 


There is a great deal for which we must be thankful. Here in Israel the Hallel of Pesach becomes intertwined with both the mourning of Yom Hazikaron ( יקר בעיני ה' המוותה לחסידיו— “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints”), as well as the boundless joy of Yom Ha’atzmaut. 


At the same time, the binary nature of the Seder night reminds us that with all that we have achieved, and the great blessings we enjoy, our work is far from done. The dream remains … but a dream.

Machshava:
Israel Pesach 

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    Learning on the Marcos and Adina Katz YUTorah site is sponsored today by Judy & Mark Frankel & family l'ilui nishmos מרדכי בן הרב משה יהודה ע"ה and משה יהודה ז"ל בן מאיר אליהו ויהודית and by the Polinsky Family to commemorate the 5th Yahrzeit of Gil Polinsky, Gedalyahu Gootmun Chaim ben Yaakov Dov