Earlier this week I watched a brief AISH video by Lori Palatnik about the song we sing at the end of the seder – Le Shana Haba b’Yerushalayim (Next Year in Jerusalem). In this message, Lori asks how many people really mean those words. I found this surprising since she doesn’t live in Israel and this is a question most often used when challenging Jews to come home.

Many of the comments on the AISH page under the video are sad and surprising. I wonder how some people can be so blind to the dangers and negativity in their own surroundings; they look at their galut through rose colored glasses while viewing Israel (the unknown!) through the lens of the worst media propaganda available to them. Some have even visited Israel and had negative experiences during a vacation that has solidified their resolve to never live here! Imagine making a life-changing decision based on a few unpleasant experiences because you weren’t open to exploring and appreciating a different culture (or traveling to the communities in Israel that are densely populated by Americans) while on vacation! I wonder how many of their ancestors ran away from the US because their early experiences left a bad taste in their mouths (very few, I’m sure).

And then at the other extreme, there’s the convert who said “I am a convert. A year after I said these words the first time, I was in Jerusalem (without all the helps and money a jew can get for his aliya). It’s true: Whoever really means it can make it.” Why is it that a convert “gets it”, but someone who has spent their entire life immersed in Torah life and culture doesn’t? Continue reading “Le Shana Haba b’Yerushalayim!”