In one month I will be making aliyah with 400 other Americans. This comes as the result of a brilliant organization being founded, called Nefesh B'Nefesh. If making aliyah is your bag, but financially its not a viable option, I suggest you log on to www.nefeshbnefesh.org.
But I digress.
When I left Israel 5 years ago, after my shana ba'aretz, I promised I would return soon to stay. Months turned to years, and I'm embarrassed to say that I never made it back. 5 years and I never made it back.
I started college at Brandeis University. I had a religious revolution sometime in the middle and completed college at Yeshiva University/Stern College. Afterwards, I should have made aliyah, but was tied to a relationship in America. Sach hakol I enrolled in law school in America.
Then 9/11 happened and things heated up in Israel. The two combined to create the nagging feeling that I was doing something wrong....I had planned to be a pro-bono lawyer, serving the public.
But which community was mine...which people did I want to serve. As one of 2 orthodox Jews at my law school, and the most visible Jew around I often took a verbal beating after Israel would take a physical one. That served to make me realize that I was being educated to serve the wrong country.
During winter break I went on Birthright to Israel. This was an interesting experiment for me because in the past I had always been with Orthodox groups/schools/locations. I wanted to ascertain that I still felt like I was with my people, even when we did not share all of the same customs. I found that I was able to relate to and grow with Jews from all walks of life and still feel like I was finally at home.
I still worried about the realities of this potential move. I have student loans to pay off and I am not fully fluent in Ivrit...not enough to attend law school. While on Birthright I visited the grave of Rachel Hameshoreret, Rachel the Poetess, a true Zionist if there ever was one. Her epitaph reads (loosely, in English): " Wings spread, prepared to fly, each man on his Mount Nebo, over a bountiful land."
And all I could think was "What is my Mount Nebo, my Har Nevo?" AND I REALIZED IT WAS IN FACT THAT HAR NEVO!! Why was I pretending to stand on har Nevo, looking wistfully at the Land of Israel, the Promised Land? I wasn't like Moshe, I could enter Eretz Yisrael. And I resolved to do just that.
The day after I returned from Birthright I waltzed into the Aliyah office in Phildelphia and told the Shaliach that I wanted to make aliyah. I told him I had a few obstacles, and asked how we could circumvent them. And you know what...we found ways. Just like Herzl said, "Im tirtzu, ein zu agadah." "If you will it, it is not a dream."
And in 30 days, I will touch down in Israel, part of a historic flight of American olim, to a historic land. And when I arrive as an Olah Chadasha, I will finally be home.
Please be in touch with me if you're going...I have about 15 friends there and could use a few more....
N'siyah tovah to all,
Noa Resi Hirsch