The heavens opened up last night and showered us with torrential rains. I had just returned from an assembly of all the Ulpans in Israel and although everyone was extremely tired, spontaneous singing and dancing burst forth all across this side of Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu. Amidst the thunder, lightning and torrential rains, young Jews from all over the world danced with joy, barefoot in the muddy soil - OUR muddy soil - thanking God for answering our prayers and bringing us, upright and proud, to this Land of our soul.
When I filled out the psychological evaluation at the draft office, there was a question which asked, "Do you ever feel joy for days at a time"? It was amidts all sorts of other very serious psychological disorders. I answered yes, and it does indeed happen quite often here. In Ulpan the other day we read a ridiculous essay on the "three stages" of absorption. Stage one: Euphoria, Stage two: Depression, and Stage three:(I forgot what word it used but the basic gist of it was the ability to happily hide ones head in the sand and say) "Ein ma laasot (Nothing you can do, accompanied by an exilic shrug and a break of eye contact)." All that is utter rubbish. I imagine that the Jewish Agency as well as certain elements in the Army assign that particular essay and the question on the evaluation as part of their "fall into line and take a number" attitude toward the citizens of this country, but it is so utterly irrelevant in the environment in which we here at Ulpan Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu find ourselves. Depression and hopelessness are the key ingredients for the disease of passivity that us Jews are infected with so easily. When we are convinced that all of our glorious unprecedented victories, accomplishments and miracles in the past are over and done with we are willing to follow pied pipers off of cliffs in Oslo, or to fence ourselves into a cage while our enemies rattle their sabers against the bars. Rabbi Nachman wasn't kidding around when he said "Ein shum yeush l'olam klal" - 'There is no place for surrender/sadness/hopelessness in this world.'
Here, on the Jordanian border, 10 km from Beit Shean and a couple km from the Shomron, we know full well the irrelevance of passivity. We came from four corners of the world. Argentina, Mexico, America, South Africa, England, Canary Islands (yes, there are Jews there), Brazil, Uruguay, France, Russia, Sweden and Denmark. The foreign cultures we have all absorbed over our long multi-generational journey through the exile are no match for the common future that we are focused on building here in the Promised Land. There is no depression here. We see the ingathering of the exiles going on right under our noses and we are in an environment that does not allow the nay-sayers and cup-half-empty folk to have their way with us. Our exposure to the tough, righteous, joyful Jews that take us into their homes as adoptive families, lifts us far away from the death-cult of passivity and self-centeredness.
We wake up with the dawn, go from Tefilla to breakfast to work. Some pick dates, others pomegranates. Some people work in the fish pools, a handful work in the kitchen, the chicken coops and the dairy. Still others work in the spice factory, the organic gardens, or with the bees. I myself have mostly been working in the greenhouses, planting Fava Beans, Wheat grass and Sunflowers, infesting them with harmful bugs, collecting the bugs to feed to the good bugs, which the kibbutz then sells as a natural effective alternative to pesticide usage for farmers all over the world.
Ulpan is five days a week, alternating between mornings and afternoons. We took a trip together to Yerushalayim a couple weeks ago and over and over again ran into people who had taken the ulpan 10, 20, 25 years ago and had gone strait from there onto their particular fixing of the Land of Israel. In my experience and research I have not witnessed a more effective way to ensure that Aliya is not a lonely or overwhelming process than here on kibbutz. Laundry, food, health, and everything else are taken care of for the five month duration of Ulpan, allowing olim to effectively learn Hebrew while preparing to go to the army, find a job or continue their education. There is an all encompassing arrangement to take care of soldiers who wish to stay on the kibbutz as well.
All this with the key component of Jewish labor. When one arrives here, and immerses completely in a whole country that used to exist mostly in conversations, on the internet news sites, and in their photo albums - the realization that this vast Jewish project has been going on without them for a long time and can seemingly continue without them is often a bit overwhelming and disempowering. But to pick up a shovel and build this magical land together with someone who has been here since the beginning transmits and energizes the oleh chadash with the holy insanity that drives us Jews to continue building despite an unrepentant world shouting at us to tear it all down. The manual labor of the oleh chadash remind him or her that there is a promise we received from the Boss. It reminds us that perhaps our parents and community were wrong to somehow discard manual labor from the ranks of our people with a snobbish distaste. As we work the land underneath the scorching sun and dance through the fields under the gentle rains we are cradled by God. We step a little closer to the career of so many of our great Jewish leaders (no, not UJA president, or even shul president): Shepherding. I neglected to mention that there are goats, sheep, cows, horses, donkeys, rabbits, ducks and lizards here.
Life is very good here, even by the standards of the Metropolitan Jew (I am living in the literal Upper East Side of this country after all). Listening to all the stories from those who have come Home to Israel as their countries become less and less Jew-friendly, I often wonder what will be the fate of North American Jewry. What is the fate of a people that in the spirit of 'Berlin is our Jerusalem' have come to believe that 'Jerusalem is our Disneyland'? What is the fate of people who so often utter the words "Israel NEEDS a strong diaspora"? Are we really gonna wait for you guys to wake up until the train exits the station? Not everybody left Egypt. By the time God removes the clouds of doubt that maintain our free choice its always too late.
As I speak with the head of security and dates here at Sde Eliyahu, a fellow Oleh from New Jersey, I worry that we are simply a different breed of Jew. I worry that he and I are Israelis who happened to be born in America and that our message is no match for the siren song of the American fleshpots and the new suburban Jerusalems who compete for the souls of our brothers and sisters in the Old country. Is that just the way it works? Do we always just have to wait for God to turn up the heat or can we inspire our people to arise and return, upright, to our Land?
Am I just a guy in Times Square with a sandwich board reading "The End is Nigh"? I am specifically asking the Jew who reads this article and believes sincerely that I am simply a different kind of person than he - are you so sure that you are right? Are you so certain of the irrelevance of history, your Torah and current events? Do you think you are more self-aware than the Jews of Germany in the thirties?
The sun rises over the Gilad mountains and the sets over the Gilboa mountains. These mountains have seen it all before. Jews coming Home, the Land welcoming us with greenery, and ten out of twelve spies returning to the US with the narcotic of negativity to share with all their friends and neighbors to get rid of the aching guilt of a Jewish soul whose yearning is stifled by none other than the comfortable body within which it resides.
My brothers and sisters, the Jewish people are under attack again. Please take a moment and think about coming Home and pitching in. There are many empty rooms here waiting to be inhabited by Jews who want to get their hands dirty. The next session of Ulpan begins in February. Email ulpan@seliyahu.org.il for more information.
Gal Einai v'Abita Niflaot m'Toratecha
B'ahavat Yisrael,
Ezra HaLevi
Kumah.