Page 26 - HaMizrachi Yom HaAtzmaut 5783 USA

The Right and Wrong

Ways to

Encourage Aliyah

Rabbi Elie Mischel

I t is the great disappointment of our America have no future! How can they be How, then, can Religious Zionists encour-

time.
age more Jews to come home? What is
blind to the sky-high assimilation rates
the best way to convey our message? The
and rising antisemitism?!” “They are
In the 75 years since the establish-
ment of the State of Israel, we have repeating the failure of the Babylonian answer can be found by looking back-
witnessed miracles upon miracles. Though Jews who refused to return to Israel and wards, to a time when Am Yisrael was still
surrounded by enemies, Israel has flour- build the Beit HaMikdash!” Some frustrated young in the Land and struggled with
ished and grown. Prophecy after prophecy olim have gone so far as to pick fights on many of the same challenges we face
is being fulfilled before our eyes. And yet, social media, accusing people of making today.
after 2,000 years of longing for the Holy South Florida the “new Jerusalem” and
Land, hundreds of thousands of Orthodox hypocritically praying for the building of Elkana: unique in his generation
Jews around the world have said: “thanks Jerusalem three times a day while expand-
but no thanks, we’ll stay right where we ing their synagogues in the Diaspora. When we think of Elkana, the father
are.” of Shmuel HaNavi, it is usually as one of
I agree with many of these points. I also many “supporting actors” in Tanach. He
Many olim struggle to understand why so
many of their friends and family refuse believe that G-d is sending us all a clear is generally known as Chana’s husband,
to make the leap and move to Israel. Once message to come home. But it is also the man married to two warring wives
you are here, once you’ve experienced Yom obvious that attacking Diaspora Jewry who somehow did not jump out of an open
HaAtzmaut with our people in our Land, has achieved little more than resentment window. But as the Sages emphasize, there
it all becomes so clear. This is where we and frayed relationships, counterproduc- is far more to this man than meets the eye.
belong; this is home. tively making it harder for Jews living in “There was one man (ד ָח ֶא ׁשי ִא) from
exile to absorb the teachings of Religious
Unsurprisingly, the longer you live in Ramatayim-tzophim… and his name was
Israel, the harder it becomes to relate to Zionism. Telling an older woman that she Elkana” (Shmuel I 1:1). Honing in on the
those who choose to live in exile. And so should make Aliyah now, since “you don’t unusual description of Elkana as “one
it’s not shocking that every few weeks want to make Aliyah in a box,” as someone man,” the midrash states that “whenever
another article written by an exasperated recently told my friend’s mother (really!), a verse describes a person as the ‘one,’ it
oleh appears on Arutz Sheva, excoriating likely won’t have the desired effect. People means this person was unique in his gen-
Diaspora Jews for not returning home. don’t appreciate being yelled at – even if eration” (Bamidbar Rabbah 10:5). But what,
The arguments are familiar: “Jews in you’re making a fair point. precisely, made Elkana so unique?

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