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‘The Things Money Can’t Buy’ – Eretz Yisrael Is for the Discerning Investor!

It’s a Package Deal

Various Perspectives and Experiences of English speakers Living in Eretz Yisroel

I want people to know that life in many places here in Eretz Yisroel—the lifestyle, values, and education system—is very different than that in America. I love this life, but it is different, and it does have its challenges. People shouldn’t come here thinking they can continue living just like they did in America, only with the perks of living in Eretz Yisroel. Sometimes the challenges actually “are” the positives. That’s because life here is just “different.”

Many communities in Eretz Yisroel are more polarized, and the penalties for non-conformity are higher. Adults who hate labels and stereotypes and see themselves as a unique mix of the best of multiple worlds will have a hard time in those communities. Take a city like Beitar for example where I live—even if they befriend like-minded people, no chinuch system here supports that attitude. Children need clarity, harmony between home and school, and a peer group to which they feel they belong. From my observation, the children of adults who try to raise their kids in the almost non-existent middle ground (i.e. between Chareidi and Modern Orthodox), usually wind up going up or down spiritually—and unfortunately, down is much easier than up. When I was in seminary, somebody advised me that if I wanted to live here, I should pick the group that I wanted to be part of and conform to their standards. It was good advice, and I took it.

It’s harder to acquire gashmiyus but easier to acquire ruchniyus. It’s harder to make money, but easier to get the things that money can’t buy.

People here live in more crowded conditions and smaller apartments. This fosters more interaction with neighbors. As a general rule, Americans value self-sufficiency, while Israelis value chessed. Borrowing, lending, and helping neighbors is a way of life, including passing along things that you don’t need, from leftovers to clothing and from furniture to appliances. My older children spend a lot of time outside, riding bikes, building forts, and otherwise keeping themselves busy with their friends. They are certainly not plugged into screens. This lifestyle also fosters independence. Children in Eretz Yisroel are more independent than their American counterparts. Our six and seven-year-old boys are able to travel to their local schools by themselves on public buses.

It’s a simpler and more wholesome life. I feel like I’m raising my kids in a previous generation.  Also, I’m raising my kids in a Chareidi bubble. While at some point our children will encounter the bigger world, the values and norms of that world will be abnormal to them.

A word about finances: Tuition, childcare, and healthcare are substantially cheaper here. Just to shock you, cheider is around 300 shekalim (about $85) per month, while if you send your girls to the “public” Beis Yaakov schools (as opposed to private schools), there is no tuition. Over three months of paid maternity leave is no joke either. If you live in a place like Beitar, you can easily live without a car. The standard of living is also lower. Then again, income is also substantially lower. (This is especially true if the husband is learning, which is more common here than it is in chutz la’Aretz).

I don’t know how to describe it, but there is just more spirituality in the air. Emuna, bitachon, and yiras shomayim come a lot easier here. I think that this is a function of Eretz Yisroel itself, plus of the nature of the Chareidi community here.

This focus on ruchniyus leads to some major differences in the boys’ chinuch system. The American system tries to produce well-rounded students who know some kodesh and some chol and are somewhat prepared to both learn and work. In contrast, the Israeli Chareidi system in many communities is designed to produce talmidei chachamim. It’s a higher-risk, higher return investment. A kid who makes it will go so much further than he would in America (at least in the Torah-studies department), but there are more kids who don’t make it, and would need extra parental input to make them happy with being well-rounded, shiur-going, working men. It is definitely true that “success” is far more narrowly defined for boys here, especially during their school years. As for adults, roughly half of the men in Beitar work. It is also true that at least in the Litvish world, learning is considered the most prestigious.

I speak as the mother of two boys with ADD/ADHD who works very hard to help them succeed within the system. One started Ritalin and is now one of the top boys in his class and loving the experience. The other is in a kita mekademet, a special education environment within a regular school, with smaller class sizes, more individual attention, built-in therapies, etc. I am very glad that this classroom exists within a regular cheider, with no extra costs involved. When I lived in L.A., no such option existed. There are definitely many ways to help children who are struggling, although some of these struggles would be alleviated by a more flexible system.

It is a package deal; but I chose this package, and I’ve never regretted it.

Finally! An American-Style Kehillah Coming to Beitar B!

In America, your shul is also your social kehillah and support system, but in Eretz Yisroel’s Chareidi Litvish community, this is not so common. First of all, the Israelis usually have a lot more family support. Secondly (perhaps consequently), Israelis tend to have a shtieble mentality, where they daven each tefilla wherever it happens to be most convenient, as opposed to seeing themselves as belonging to a particular shul.

American immigrants, usually without nearby family, sorely lack this support. Thus, so far, Beitar addresses this need with the mere presence of other chutznikim. The Beitar N’shei has a few melave malkas each year, organizes meals in case of need (after birth, etc.), and operates a very popular email list. In Beitar A, there are two English-speaking kehillos, Rabbi Friedman’s Yeshivas Birkas Mordechai and Rabbi Stern’s shul, Ohel Torah. As for Beitar B, my husband’s friend, Rabbi Zevy Stark, is building an American-style shul/kehillah. 

– Shira Yael Klein, Beitar Illit

This article is part of our Eretz Chemdah series featuring Anglo-Chareidim living in, settling, and building up Eretz Yisroel. A joint project of Avira D’Eretz Yisroel, Kedushas Tzion and Naava Kodesh, coordinated by Yoel Berman – info@naavakodesh.org.

Reprinted with permission from Naava Kodesh.

Eretz Yisrael – A Privilege, Not a Burden!

Eretz Chemdah: An Inside View – Ratzon HaShem

Ratzon HaShem

I came to learn in Eretz Yisroel after three years in Beis Medrash (post high school). I grew up in Lakewood, New Jersey, and, like most of my friends, when I came to learn in Eretz Yisroel I had no long-term intentions. I came to do the two-year Eretz Yisroel experience. Like most bochurim, this obviously included Shabbos seudos at the homes of many different types of people.

At one of those Shabbos meals, the question was posed: “How can people live in chutz la’Aretz if there is a mitzvah to live in Eretz Yisroel?”

I was put on the spot because honestly, I had never thought of it. I was indeed aware there is a mitzvah according to the majority of opinions, but somehow that all was theoretical knowledge. I totally ignored the step of applying my knowledge to my actions—I just honestly never thought about it.

After that Shabbos seudah, I decided to research the topic a little bit, until I discovered that Reb Moshe Feinstein ztz”l wrote a teshuva that there is no obligation to live in Eretz Yisroel, rather it is a mitzvah kiyumis—a mitzvah that one gets sechar for doing—but is not an absolute chiyuv to do.

I was happy. As far as I was concerned the “issue” was resolved. There is a legitimate opinion that there is no chiyuv to live in Eretz Yisroel, therefore I could live happily ever after in Lakewood. Case closed.

Sometime after that I had a conversation about this with a talmid chacham I knew. He told me something that changed my life. He asked me if, as a Yid, I saw mitzvos as a burden, or am I happy to be part of the Am Hanivchar (Chosen Nation) excited to do ratzon HaShem even if it isn’t the easiest thing. Without too much thought, I knew that the answer was the latter—a Yid has to be happy with his mitzvos and not look at it as if it is a burden.

He told me, even if we accept Reb Moshe’s view (which I understood not to be the pashtus), why does that give you the security to live in chutz la’Aretz? You have a mitzvah that is definitely ratzon HaShem to live in Eretz Yisroel, so even if it is not a chiyuv, shouldn’t you want to try to do it? He added, you don’t think it is easy? Many mitzvos aren’t easy and that just increases the sechar, as the Mishna in Avos says, “l’fum tza’ara agra.”

This talmid chacham continued to note that the many maalos of living in Eretz Yisroel mentioned throughout the Torah and chaza”l such as, “Eretz asher Einei HaShem…” meaning HaShem’s special Hashgacha Pratis in this Land or the famous gemara (Kesuvos 110b) stating the difference between one who is living in Eretz Yisroel and one who is living in chutz la’Aretz, concerning their relationship with HaShem. I once again was aware of these maalos, but somehow, I never thought about trying to apply them to my life. He asked me to forget about if it is a chiyuv or not, am I not interested in all these maalos?

I thought about this for a while and took it to heart. The reason a Yid is in this world is to do ratzon HaShem, not to look for loopholes in it. The ratzon HaShem in this case is very clear—HaShem wants Yidden to live in Eretz Yisroel.

I was just a bochur at the time, but when I started shidduchim my condition was clear. I went back to the States for shidduchim like the norm, but I knew that for the long term, I needed to live in Eretz Yisroel. My parents thought I wasn’t being rational, but they agreed I can “try” my condition for a year, and to rethink it if I still don’t find my bashert by then. A year passed and I started getting nervous, but then HaShem sent me my bashert, and B”H she agreed with my condition eagerly.

We got married B”H and started off in Yerushalayim, which was the normal place chutznikim my age lived. I continued learning in the same yeshiva I did as a bochur. My wife B”H found work for an American company through the computer. Neither my parents or my in-laws were financially supporting our stay in Eretz Yisroel, but we had Siyata Dishmaya and my wife had decent work. After a little less than a year, however, we realized that we barely could afford our budget, and this was without the added expenses that come with children. It was a hard but obvious decision: We knew we had to move out of the mainstream Yerushalayim to somewhere where the expenses were much cheaper.

After looking at the various options and spending a Shabbos here and there, we moved to the community we thought made the most sense.

B”H we are very happy, and I thank HaShem daily for letting me live my dream in Eretz Yisroel, as the gemara says, “duchta deMoshe v’Aharon lo zachu lah…” a place where even Moshe and Aharon did not merit….

 

Adjusting

For me, adjusting to our new community outside Yerushalayim wasn’t such a big deal. I continued learning in the same yeshiva in Yerushalayim, taking a bus every day.

For my wife, it was more challenging. We moved from a mostly English-speaking community to a building where almost nobody knew English. It took time, but eventually, she got connected to the English-speaking community there and also learned to make friends with our Israeli neighbors.

The chutznik community gave us a lot of chizuk. It wasn’t a group of people of which most were moving back after 2-3 years. It was an oylam of people doing the same thing we were doing.

– Yekusiel A., Gush Etzion

This article is part of Matzav.com’s Eretz Chemdah series featuring English speakers, living in, settling, and building up Eretz Yisroel. For more info please contact info@naavakodesh.org or visit naavakodesh.org/eretz-chemdah

Reprinted with permission from Naava Kodesh.

Eretz Yisrael Is a Jew’s ‘Natural Habitat’

This Is Our Own

Various Perspectives and Experiences of English speakers Living in Eretz Yisroel

As a Jew, this is my real home. It’s my own culture, my own alphabet all around me. Prophecies come alive. A large portion of our Torah is relevant only here.

It’s only my first day in Eretz Yisroel and I already receive Bircas Kohanim. When I buy any produce, I have to make sure terumos and ma’aseros were separated or do it myself. This is HaShem’s special Land and His Presence is manifested also by His special rules for what grows here. It makes His Presence feel even more real.

For the Chinese, it’s China. That is their natural habitat and that is where they thrive. For the Japanese, it’s Japan. For the Spaniards, it’s Spain. For us Yidden, it’s Eretz Yisroel. This Land is suited to us, and we to the Land. Any place in golus has not held us for more than a few hundred years. We cannot really thrive anywhere else, not even in Williamsburg or Lakewood. This Land has grown the largest concentration of world-recognized gedolim from across the Torah spectrum.

If you were to dig under my former house in Brooklyn, you would probably find nothing, maybe mechanical oil. Anywhere in our Land, the ground is saturated with history—our own history. There are kivrei tzaddikim all around. Even Adam HaRishon is buried here, and that’s world history.

Not so far outside of the Williamsburg bubble I lived in, kosher food is just a small percentage of what’s available. In our own country, the percentages are the other way around.

My first exposure to the beautiful fabric of this nation we are part of was in Uman on Rosh Hashana. (I always say if you would like to see how we will look like after the redemption, just come to Uman Rosh Hashana. It’s a yearly rehearsal of the geula hosted by Rabbi Nachman.) I identified strongly with a scene from a story of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, where two people lost in a forest take shelter in a tree from where they hear the scary sounds of all the different kinds of wild animals. At first, they were shaken with fear and did not pay attention to the sounds, but as they paid closer attention, they heard there was a very wondrous sound of music and song which was an extremely awesome and powerful pleasure to hear. It was me who was lost in that scary forest of all different kinds of Eretz Yisroel’s people in Uman, originally as foreign and scary to me as the “wild animals” in the story, but as time went on and I became more comfortable with the “sounds,” I picked up on the beauty and wonder of the makeup of Am Yisroel.

Back in Williamsburg, I would daven at “The Shtiebel,” where there is a big map of Eretz Yisroel hanging on the wall and the mizrach was designed to resemble the Kosel. Eretz Yisroel is the primary subject over there. Also, many Israelis would pass through in another shul that I attended, some of them collecting funds for marrying off their children. I would tell them that creating such a necessity for them to fundraise abroad, is HaShem’s way of making sure to bring a lifeline—the atmosphere of Eretz Yisroel—to us Yidden in chutz la’Aretz.

After the second year I was in Uman Rosh Hashana, as a chosson already, I took the opportunity to continue for a short visit to Eretz Yisroel, primarily to get hadracha from R’ Yaakov Meir Shechter, shlit”a. I of course also went around to the mekomos hakedoshim, including Meron, Tzefas, and T’veria. A short while before that, I remember saying from R’ Nosson of Breslov’s Likuttei Tefillos, “vezakeini lavo l’Eretz Yisroel,” and not understanding why it’s such a zechus to come to Eretz Yisroel, but I figured that if he wrote it, I’m not going to skip it. It took some more time for my connection to Eretz Yisroel to develop, and for the first seven years of married life, I was still in Williamsburg.

At one point in time, I decided to quit my full-time job and become self-employed as an IT guy. At that time, one of the Israelis who knew me heard that I was free from my job, so he offered me a job in Eretz Yisroel with a very generous weekly salary, but only if I would give an answer that I am ready to move there within two weeks. It was too short of a notice for me, but it did make me aware that a decent parnossa is possible in Eretz Yisroel.

I always knew that I didn’t want to invest heavily in being connected to chutz la’Aretz, so I was glad that my first car lease in NY was only for twenty-four months. I didn’t want any magnetizing ratzon keeping me from moving on.

A lot of people I know don’t think of Eretz Yisroel as a normal place to live comfortably. They are not aware that there are tens, if not hundreds and thousands, of chutznikim that are living here and enjoying it . With research, you can find people here just like you—Yeshivish, Heimish, or any type of Chareidi.

There is an important teaching of R’ Nachman to keep in mind though—the middah of arichus apayim (patience) is a prerequisite for being zoche to Eretz Yisroel, and Eretz Yisroel is a catalyst for developing arichus apayim. Be excited, but don’t jump into things; you’ve got to have bitachon, but be careful and calculated. Flexibility is also of utmost importance.

After the Holocaust, America was an amazing and beautiful stop, but why stay in golus if HaShem is “screaming” in His way that we should come home?

Vacation Is Over, but We’re Still Here

One year, while we were still living in the US and our oldest child was six years old, we made a calculation that instead of going to the mountains for the summer we could financially pull off a five-week summer vacation in Eretz Yisroel.

Once here, it ended up working out for us to stay for Elul and Tishrei as well, so we enrolled our children in the local mosdos. Once they were accepted to the mosdos, why should we go back?

As an IT freelancer, I still worked with my customers remotely. Eventually, I migrated from working remotely with clients from abroad in NY. I launched my “Computer Expert” services in the local market in the Yerushalayim area, and I now perform as a Chassidic singer with my own music band for kumzitzim and boutique events.

During the first winter, we ended up going back to the US for a month and a-half for the weddings of two siblings. My children attended their original schools, and this way we all had the chance to part from our family and friends before coming back to our new life in Eretz Yisroel, which started almost by chance—or more accurately—by the Hashgacha Pratis that surrounds us here.

– Yosef Zev Braver, Romema, Yerushalayim

 

This article is part of our Eretz Chemdah series featuring Anglo-Chareidim living in, settling, and building up Eretz Yisroel. A joint project of Avira D’Eretz Yisroel, Kedushas Tzion and Naava Kodesh, coordinated by Yoel Berman – info@naavakodesh.org.

Reprinted with permission from Naava Kodesh.

Eretz Yisrael: Subdue the Gashmiyus to See the Ruchniyus

Living in Eretz Yisroel

Eretz Chemdah: An Inside View

September 12th, 2019

Various Perspectives and Experiences of English speakers Living in Eretz Yisroel

If you had told me fifteen years ago that in 2019 I’d be living with my husband and six children, bli ayin hara, in an old three-bedroom Yerushalami apartment with no car, I would have laughed in your face. Coming from suburban America with two to three-story houses, one car per driver in the family, and a normal American lifestyle, I could never have pictured spending the rest of my life living on a kollel budget in Yerushalayim. I lived a whole ten days as a married adult in America, so I really can’t compare based on my own personal experiences. What I can share with you is how I fell in love with Eretz Yisroel and Yerushalayim in particular, and why after almost eleven years I can’t imagine moving back to the US.

My mother-in-law constantly reminds us of the original plan to go to Eretz Yisroel, learn for a few years, come back, receive smicha and a psychology degree, and maybe go into kiruv or something to that effect. Neither my husband nor I am sure exactly how it happened. We came for ten months, were zoche to have our first child, moved out of a shoebox and into a larger apartment, and the “it’s time to go home” conversation never came up. After our third or fourth child was born, we realized that the conversation never came up because we were already home.

Until you’ve experienced it yourself, it’s impossible to fully describe the way Yiddishkeit is an active part of daily life in Eretz Yisroel, and especially in Yerushalayim. The country, even summer activities, revolve around the Jewish calendar. One hears the music playing throughout the city on Erev Shabbos, listens as the siren announces that Shabbos is starting, watches as the streets empty as it gets closer to Shabbos, and then enjoys the noisy laughter as the kids play in the street all Shabbos long. Also, one knows that the big theme parks and water parks will have separate days for men and women during Bein Hazmanim. When one sees the city covered in Succahs, and with the arba minim and succah decorations sold on every corner, it brings such a sense of warmth and joy. In December, the lampposts are decked out in lights and Menorahs as opposed to trees and Xmas decorations. Two weeks before Pesach, why is that ten-year-old dragging a huge log down the street? Oh right, it’s getting close to Lag Ba’omer. What’s that music I hear? The kids all run outside to join yet another Hachnasas Sefer Torah, a common, joyful occurrence on the Har Nof streets.

I feel so blessed to be raising my kids in Eretz Yisroel, where they are growing up in a Jewish country, surrounded by a frum environment and minimal physical needs. Tuition prices are great here. Schooling for the girls is basically free and the boys’ tuition is only about $80 a month. My children’s mother tongue is Hebrew, which means that they are learning HaShem’s Torah in their native language. Torah is taught to them with such a geshmak—it’s beautiful! The girls get a double curriculum, though the boys basically just get limudei kodesh. We’ve supplemented to fill in the gaps that are important to us. I love the fact that the younger kids are off in the afternoons. I’m blessed to be working from home on a flexible schedule, so I get to spend quality time with the kids on a daily basis.

The neighborhoods are havens for kids. Schools and communities offer a variety of enjoyable after-school programming and activities for the kids. These could include programs such as sports teams, arts, music, and others. Concerts and puppet shows are arranged for all the big vacations and even during the school year. When the boys come home after a long day of learning, the lobbies turn into soccer fields and the sidewalks are their bike paths. Within a five-minute walk from my apartment there are four large parks and so much space to play jump rope, hopscotch, and any other game the kids can dream up.

Israeli kids are super independent. By the age of eight, my kids run over to the supermarket to get ice cream and can go to the candy store all by themselves (all of which happen to be across the street). Being that the schools here are all within walking distance, it’s quite common for the older children to pick-up/drop-off the younger children, which is helpful if you don’t have a car.

Coming from an out-of-town community, it took me a while to adjust to having sixteen families living in my building, thousands of frum people living on my block, and tens of thousands in my community. After a bit of time though, I developed my own community. On a daily basis, my neighbors and I borrow and return items, whether it be food, last-minute baking supplies, clothes, baby Tylenol for the grandchildren who came to visit, or even the last-minute bathing cap for a school swim trip.

Aside from the fact that you can now get most American products in Eretz Yisroel, I’ve also found that like any diet, after time on that diet you lose your craving for the forbidden foods. I’m no longer craving or even needing extra padded Q-Tips or three-ply toilet paper. Through living a less gashmiyusdik life in Eretz Yisroel, you’re really zoche to see the shining light of HaShem and the ruchniyus involved in your daily life.

Snowstorm Weekend

About five years ago in Yerushalayim, there was a huge snowstorm on a Thursday. The entire city shut down. Right across the street from our building is a large supermarket. The workers could not get home, so they slept in the store that night, which was amazing for us, as they were one of the few stores in the whole city that was open on Erev Shabbos. No cars could get out because, unlike America, Eretz Yisroel gets so few large snowstorms that it’s not worth the money to invest in snowplows. Eventually, they used some tanks to clear the main roads. So, on that Friday, many of my neighbors were totally homebound. Being elderly, they could not brave the walk across the street in over a foot of snow. My sweet neighbor made Challah for every family in the whole building so that they would all have Challah for Shabbos! Another neighbor had a Sefer Torah, so all the residents in the building davened together for all of the Shabbos tefillos without needing to venture outdoors. It was a very special, only-in-Eretz Yisroel type of weekend! 

– Bashi Rosen, Har Nof, Yerushalayim

This article is part of our Eretz Chemdah series featuring Anglo-Chareidim living in, settling, and building up Eretz Yisroel. A joint project of Avira D’Eretz Yisroel, Kedushas Tzion and Naava Kodesh, coordinated by Yoel Berman – yoel@naavakodesh.org.

Reprinted with permission from Naava Kodesh.

Rabbi Pinchas Winston’s Eretz Yisrael Experience

Eretz Chemdah: An Inside View

4:41 pm

Various Perspectives and Experiences of Anglo-Chareidim Living in Eretz Yisroel

Soul Connection

When I came to learn at a yeshivah in Yerushalayim in 1982, it was only for a year. At that time, the Land was still quite foreign to me, as I was used to life back in Canada. I was just more comfortable living on the other side of the ocean.

That quickly changed over the course of the year, and I had come to love being in Eretz Yisroel, becoming more connected to the Land and feeling so much closer to Hashem. It was the place to be Jewish, so I chose to stay here another year—which led to another year. By the fourth year, it was clear to me that I wanted to live in Eretz Yisroel, and I made that clear as well when I started shidduchim.

I was married in 1985, and we first rented an apartment in the Old City to be close to my yeshivah. I started working part time and learning part time while my wife did some secretarial work for a local hotel. To make additional money, I also helped a rabbi transcribe his classes that he had planned to publish in book form.

In our second year of marriage, we moved to the Har Nof neighborhood in Yerushalayim. Unlike our apartment in the Old City, this one was unfurnished, which presented a problem since we did not have the money to furnish it ourselves. Then came the miracle. Another couple who had decided to return to North America asked us to use their furniture while they were gone so that they didn’t have to put it in storage. Their furniture was quality made and included a Maytag washer and dryer. Overnight we had a fully furnished apartment at no cost.

A job opportunity opened up for me in Canada around 1988, which I took in order to make money quickly so I could at least make a deposit on an apartment in Eretz Yisroel. We did not return until 1993, by which time we had purchased a home in a place called Telz-Stone (about 12 minutes outside of Yerushalayim, off the Tel Aviv-Yerushalayim highway). Originally, I had wanted to live in Yerushalayim, but we were able to get more value for our money in this new area. We have loved it here ever since.

I had part-time teaching jobs while I wrote books on Torah philosophy full time. This would not have been so promising had the Internet not become so available, changing the way people do business. Once upon a time, you had to bring your product to the market. Now you could do that from your home, even thousands of miles away from other people. The market could come to you even if you weren’t there. I run an American non-profit organization from my home in Eretz Yisroel, managing everything through the Internet. Thanks to Skype, I can even make low-cost long-distance phone calls.

I have Skyped my parents on a daily basis for many years already, and we can talk to each other face-to-face through our computers. It doesn’t replace being together in person, but it is a great second to this. I have remained close to them, learning with them and others over Skype or similar video conferencing platforms, making the distance between us seem quite insignificant. When used properly, technology is a tremendous asset and provides us with so many opportunities. It is far easier to live in Eretz Yisroel today, now that one can still maintain connections that are thousands of miles away.

That’s especially important to me, because now when I leave the Land, I am like a fish out of water. I have a soul connection with this Land, and I derive so much life from it. I have a sense of inner peace that I never had living abroad. You don’t need the same material things here that you felt you needed while living outside the Land. The sense of personal fulfillment I feel while living here more than compensates for them.

Now, when I see all the construction and improvements being made in the country, it is even more exciting. We may look at this as the way of any expanding country, but historically it represents more than that. Hashem runs the world and He is behind everything. He seems to be preparing for something great, and I am grateful to be living here as it happens. Though it’s not about avoiding struggle, as yisurim are part-and-parcel of life everywhere in this world. It’s about working hard for the things you value most and keeping the things that matter most to you. For me personally, Eretz Yisroel has been worth every challenge that I have had to deal with while being there, because I am where I believe I need to be and WANT to be.

The Bottom Line

Eventually, I wrote a book about the importance of settling in Eretz Yisroel today. It was really about the centrality of Eretz Yisroel in Torah growth, which points to the importance of at least doing what one can to move here. It was based upon another important sefer called “Tuv HaAretz,” writings from the Arizal about the Land. The bottom line is that Hashem is everywhere, but as the gemora says, this is the place where we connect to Him the best. Learning Torah and performing mitzvos comes alive in Eretz Yisroel, as does the history of the Jewish people. There’s nothing like it anywhere else in the Jewish world.

– Pinchas Winston, Telz-Stone

This article is part of Matzav.com’s Eretz Chemdah series featuring Anglo-Chareidim living in, settling, and building up Eretz Yisroel. A joint project of Avira D’Eretz Yisroel, Kedushas Tzion and Naava Kodesh, coordinated by Yoel Berman – yoel@naavakodesh.org.

Republished from Matzav.com.