Moving to Israel

As we celebrate Lag BaOmer - the 33rd day of the Omer, which is, according to the Talmud, the time when 24,000 of of Rabbi Akiva’s students died from a divinely sent plague - here in Israel and we take in the atmosphere of happiness and bonfires, I wanted to point out a great article by Yonatan Sredni that reminds of us of the historic days’ true meaning and some inspiring things we can learn from it. I thought this article would be very apropos for the blog as Yonatan is a fellow Oleh who moved to Israel from America out of the heart of Silicon Valley.

The piece is especially poignant as it reminds us not to just count the Omer and light fires on this day but to do so while also learning a lesson from the tragic circumstances of Rabbi Akiva and his students and to make sure such a colossal lapse in judgment is not repeated by us and future generations.

Enjoy Lag BaOmer and, as the great Rabbi Akiva used to preach “Veahavta le-raiacha kamocha” - Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Ari

In an act contrary (and some would say in defiance) to the policies of President Barack Obama, a group of Jewish students from the United States spent last week working in hilltop communities throughout Samaria. The significance of this should not be lost on all of us as Obama is pressuring Israel to cease all construction in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, and the students are volunteering in some of the very Jewish villages which the U.S. is asking the Israeli government to demolish.

This is, in this author’s humble opinion, a tremendously positive event for Israel as many of the university students participating in the program voted for Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential campaign but “oppose his imperialist approach to the Middle East.” They are showing that, while they approved of is political policies in the run up to the election, they oppose the administration’s efforts to shrink the State of Israel and ethnically cleanse our people from the heart of our land. In addition, the have transformed their disappointment in Obama into action by volunteering in the very communities that he is trying to destroy.

We can only hope that the upper echelon of America, Israel’s closest ally and friend, is able to see such occurrences from the very people that voted for them and begins to understand that a united, strong Israel is in the best interest of the entire West and free world at large.

Ari