I get it, I really do. We become attached to our surroundings. We sink deep roots. We build families and homes. We invest time, money, sweat, blood, and even tears into the places we call home. No one willingly leaves a home unless they have a better offer, and forced evacuation is not one of them.
This is why not one day goes by that I do not thank God for sending me to Eretz Yisroel when I was just starting out. I had no desire to live here when I was young, so I could easily have been like so many others who stayed where they had grown up, close to family, in a place they recognize and where opportunity seems plentiful. Easily. I don’t consider it to be a stroke of genius that I chose to make aliyah and build my family here instead. Just fantastic mazel.
I wonder how long I would have stayed, had I built my home abroad, before moving to Eretz Yisroel. Would I have come? What would it have taken to make me even consider making aliyah to a middle-eastern country that is surrounded by enemies and the source of so much controversy today? Would I have been a die-hard who would have held out until the end…until it became TOO LATE to get to Eretz Yisroel?
We know what too late means. It’s usually what we end up being at the end of each exile. We usually see signs that it is time to go. We usually assume that they are NOT signs that it is time to go. We usually end up staying until we WISH we had recognized the signs to go.
But how many people learn that part of Jewish history? How many people take the time to understand the mentality of the people who got stuck in the wrong part of exile at the wrong time? How many people even know where to look to find out what constitutes a sign from God that it is time to leave one home for another? Historically, dangerously few.
So when I heard that many Ukrainian Jews are looking forward to being able to return back to their destroyed homes in the Ukraine to rebuild, it hurt. For all we know, one of the main reasons for this entire war is to uproot the Jews of the Ukraine who otherwise might not have left, especially for Eretz Yisroel. It reminded me of the 100,000 Jews who rejected the chance to leave Germany between 1933-39 claiming to be “just as German as the next German.” They all perished in the Holocaust.
What’s the big deal about Ukrainian Jewry? If God is really ingathering the Jews, then why doesn’t He go after Western Jewry in America, Canada, England, etc.?
Because He always starts at the edges and works His way to the center. It’s not just about bringing the Jewish people home. It is about giving Jews a chance to DECIDE to come home, while they can still make that choice. More than being about coming home to the Promised Land, life is about making free will choices. That’s the REAL purpose of Creation.
So you can be sure, unfortunately and tragically, that by the time what is happening to Ukrainian Jews happens to Western Jewry, it will be REALLY bad in the world. That’s not me talking. That’s Jewish history talking. And just to provide some perspective, the period of Kibbutz Golios has already been going on for hundreds of years and several generations. The GR”A focused his attention on it back in 1740 and pushed his students to jump start the process.
In fact, we’re at the end of it. Not the beginning or the middle of it, even though so many Jews remain outside of Israel. There is now more than enough information and sources on this site that emphasize this point. It’s a far more credible claim than the opposite one that we have loads of time left to think geulah. FAR more credible.
But why take my word for it, which most people who are unwilling to consider aliyah at this time will do anyhow. But I truly believe, for what it’s worth, that this will be the last chance we will have to and be able to learn from history and do things differently. Perhaps allilos will prevent that, but I would be very remiss if I didn’t try to point it out.