Are you in Israel?

2

#4

I’m here. Almost 4 years.

shlishi,

they know that there’s no bracha in counting people 🙂

amichai I’ll trade you position #2 for your #6 and an icecream?

my heart is in E”Y…does that count? (no pun intended 😉

??? ????? ???? ???? ????

Do we count if we have an apartment or karka in Eretz Hakodesh?

“we are here in the beautiful galil! join us!”

we are anxiously awaiting your most gracious tickets 🙂

Iconcur, where in the Galil are you?

im in the gloriouse Yerushalaim ir hakodesh!!!!

I am also in Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh, so count me in!!!

I’m in Yerushalayim!

I’ll be there soon!!! Achakeh lo b’chol yom sheyavoh

you people are lucky 😀

This is for TikkunHatzot: I actually am thinking of moving to israel but not so fast Im thinking about going there and trying it out and them making aliya that way… Im just curious how did you emotionaly handle giving up certain things like saying goodbye to your family and yes i will say this but luxery items as well? I so desperatly want to go back and i plan on it but i heard time and time again how its not easy to live there.

Yes when ppl move to Israel they give up certain things that in America are must haves.. how do u emotionaly deal with the detaching yourself from it? or does it go away once a person is already in Israel. btw to give alil backround of me I was in israel last year for seminary and came back and now i work but not one day goes by that i dont want to live there bc its an important place to me but its hard to say goodbye to family and things. anyone who wants to comment besides TikkunHatzot please do so. Im open to hearing anything.

@Lil B…I can sum up my answers with the statement “Everything happens for a reason”.

A lot of my choices that I made when I was younger, actually prepared me very well for my move.

I was in the military when I was younger, so I’m used to living in the middle east out of a backpack/suitcase…But if you make Aliyah through something like NBN, then you won’t have to do what I did.

My relatives (parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc.) is a lot different & more complex. It hurt. There is no way around it. It hurt. (Even though my relationships also are a little more complex halachically)

but i heard time and time again how its not easy to live there.

Yes, I’ve read that 10 out of 12 people said that…it must’ve been in the Shelach Times or something.

But seriously, if a person is wanting to live & raise their family according to Torah, then there is not enough GOOD things to say about Israel.

Is it “hard” to walk up & down the winding staircases in the old city? I don’t know, is it “easy” in America to find a bus that’ll take you pray at the Machpelah Cave & Kever Yishai V’Ruth for less than $7, and still be back in time for dinner?

Is it “hard” in Israel to put up with the Palestinians & they’re constant provoking behavior? I don’t know, is it “easy” in America to walk to the Kotel to daven & say Tehillim to H-shem?

When people say that living here is hard, ask why they don’t also mention about how it’s also INCREDIBLY EASY to do many ENORMOUSLY spiritual things here as well.

Im just curious how did you emotionaly handle giving up certain things like saying goodbye to your family and yes i will say this but luxery items as well?

Saying goodbye to family and close friends was the hardest thing about leaving. At that point, I had only seen my father cry twice (when his mother died, and his sister several year later). My in-laws came in for our last few days as well. As hard as it was, we knew that we were doing the right thing. It was hard for all our parents as well, as we have their only grandchildren.

Everything else was easier. We weren’t living with tons of luxuries, so it wasn’t so hard. We sold the house and van and that was that.

Yes when ppl move to Israel they give up certain things that in America are must haves

Most of those things you are talking about are not “must haves” here. We even manage without a car. (Our kids are older, they can take buses or tremp.) It’s a simpler life, which I am grateful for. I live in a pretty quiet neighborhood, the shule has shiurim and minyanim all the time. Some of the streets are closed on Shabbat and chagim. There is compromise on certain things with the secular folks that shows respect between them and the dati’im. I paid far, far less to have my kids in high school here than I did in America. B”H, we are managing.

I understand that we (my wife and I) will always be “greeners,” but my kids are well integrated and are at least half Israeli now.

do people realy suffer finacialy even with 2 incomes like in America?

Lil B, what do you mean by “suffer?”

Lil B — You ask some interesting questions, and the best way to get a real feel for life here is to talk to lots of people you know who have made the move. As far as my experiences go, I’ll try to address some of your questions:

1) Missing family and friends is to me by far the hardest part of moving here. The people who I’ve spoken to who have been here longer than us also say that is one thing that just doesn’t go away — particularly at times of simchos (when you miss simchos in the U.S. and when you make your own simchos and have much fewer family members). I just keep reminding myself of the tremendous zchus I have to actually be living here, when so many great gedolim throughout the years tried so hard to get here and didn’t. It doesn’t make it hurt less, put it helps me keep my perspective!

2) As far as finding the time for mekomos kedoshim, in a sense you are right. When you live here you need to deal with all the day to day life, and it’s not like when you come visit and can spend the entire time “chaping” mekomos kedoshim. However if you make it a priority it certainly can happen. We live in Beit Shemesh, so a trip to the Kosel is even more difficult then from Yerushalayim. After our first few months here we realized that we needed to “schedule” it in or we would never end up going, so we decided to make a point of trying to go every Rosh Chodesh. Either we hire a babysitter in the evening and go ourselves, or we take off the afternoon (the kids have half day of school anyway on Rosh Chodesh) and go as a family. The point is that of course a person must make the effort, but in NY even all the effort in the world wouldn’t find us hopping on a bus or driving a car to the Kosel!

3) Financially salaries are much lower here, although if both you and your husband work there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do fine — although in general the standard of living here is much less. That is not necessarily a bad thing — there’s a lot less pressure to “keep up”. Costs are much higher here for almost everything, especially anything considered “luxury”, but most things are available for a price. So if it’s a few particular items that you really miss (my husband can’t stand the Israeli mustard, so we buy the American stuff), it may be worth the “splurge”.

But as far as your broader question, in a certain sense yes, “it’s just like living anywhere else”, because you still have to deal with jobs, schools, shopping, laundry, etc. But when you stop and focus on the details, it’s not the same. The very fact that the focus here is so much less materialistic makes you “suffer” much less from a materialistic perspective. Instead of feeling that you constantly need to work more and more to have “enough” money, you realize that maybe “enough” has a different meaning, and your life becomes that much easier. Additionally you are living in a society that when all is said and done is a society of Jews. The “holidays” are OUR holidays, the calendar is OUR calendar, the taxi driver and the customer service rep at the electric company are both fellow Jews. I recently bought a new frying pan and saw it was made in China. I wasn’t sure if it was produced by a Jewish company or just imported, so I called the customer service number on the package. When I got through I started trying to explain my question (in my less than perfect Hebrew), and the woman cut me off “are you asking about if it needs ‘tevilah’?” Well, I got my answer, and another reminder as to why life here is not “the same”.

And of course, the bottom line is that it is a mitzva to be here! Yes there are valid heteirim to stay in America, and everyone has their own shailah, but it certainly is a huge factor!

i’m not a resident but… 4 years on a student/tourist visas in jerusalem

lil b – i know a kid who was rewarded by his rebbe for being good in class and was taken with some other kids to kever rochel, the kotel, and tunnel tours one evening/night. another kid was taken during a lunch break with few others to the kever of dan to say some tehillim and then return to class.

i’ve never heard of such field trips in america.

oh, and even if you’re working in secular place: i know of someone who worked in a completely secular hospital in a totally secular city, but during pesach the guards would ask everyone as they would enter if they have chametz in their bags.

on pesach and succos, kotel area is filled with people, and not just tourists.

every 4 steps you walk in israel is a mitzvah – can’t say the same for anywhere in America.

18) whatrutalkingabt

Glad to be here : )

19)ilovetheholyland

alot of the so called luxuries that you have in america are non-entities in Eretz Yisrael. it may be hard to give up but once in israel you probably wont even realize that youre missing them. also everything there has a much higher elevation of ruchnius, and people there are not as focused on gashmius indulgance.

Very true.

Back in the US, I had a car, bed, privacy, extra pairs of shoes, my own bathroom, a big kitchen, air-conditioning & a roof over my head. These were considered “neccesities” that everyone expected to have. However, now I don’t have any of these & I don’t even miss them.

….however, the things I now notice that I’m lacking are things such as certain middos.

Ummm Tikkun you don’t have a roof over your head in Israel? Even by E”Y standards, living in some sort of home or dwelling or abode is obviously a necessity and not a luxury. How do you get by? And how on earth do you survive without AC in that heat??