Heaven on Earth

Israel, to borrow from Lincoln, is "the last best hope on earth." There is a vibrancy here that is  found nowhere else, an unquechable thirst for life that defies death, an uncompromising  optimism looking towards the future. There is an excitement here about living that simply takes your breath away.

I just went to the neighborhood clinic.  I needed to get a shot. The person who gave me the shot was a middle-aged Arab lady with adequate, if halting, Hebrew. Many nurses in Jerusalem are Arabs and in every Jerusalem pharmacy Arabs are the ones, more often than not, that prepare and hand you your prescriptions. It's about time the world was aware of this reality. Let me add that there are no more tolerant people on earth than Israelis. We accept every color, gender, and religion without a second thought. Our enemies, however, misjudge our kindness, mistaking it for weakness.

No one really knows, except those who are there, in the Land of Israel It's a love affair between you and God. It's a love affair between you and every Jew. And I am not sure which love is stronger, although there is really no difference since "a part of God  above" exists inside every Jew. 

To be a Jew is not just to disagree but to turn the world upside down. A Jew greets you with shalom aleichem (peace upon you). You return the greeting with aleichem shalom (upon you peace).

So I am standing in the check-out line at the supermarket.  I have five rolls in a bag and the check-out lady says   "You can get 6 for 10 shekels.  It's less than if you get only 5."  So I went back and got another roll. The check-out lady was busy and could have just rung up 5 rolls but she just wanted to be kind to me.  This sort of thing happens all the time.  You only need to give a small opening to the kindness of others. Still, the check-out lines move kind of slowly here.  But once you accept that, it is really a blast waiting in line.  You can say hello to the people in front of or behind you, strike up a conversation, it happens all the time.

Let me tell you about Chaim. The gentlest soul I have ever known. He has two children with severe mental disabilities and a difficult wife. Thank God he has a son who is normal and has already brought him a healthy grandson. Chaim has no teeth and a lot of what he says I do not understand. It doesn't matter. I love Chaim and he loves me. This is what happens in the Land of the Jews.  There is a connection to people you feel that is so very, very deep. Chaim stutters.  Despite this, he often leads prayers and, despite severe problems in enunciation and many stops and starts, he perseveres. This is Israel.  Will and determination are beyond measure.  Never has the world seen anything like it.

Deep respect of one for the other is found among everyone in the Land of the Jews. Sometimes, this trait is hidden.  It may be covered by a brashness that you could mistake for dislike or disrespect.  But it is only superficial circumstances that make it seem like there is distance between people. Underneath, there is a breathtaking tolerance for each and every person. And a sense of decency that you find nowhere else in the world.

You drive to your destination in Judea or Samaria not really to take care of business but to give a hitchhiker a ride. You walk down the street not really to go to the grocery story but to give someone directions who stops to asks about the location of a furniture store. You live life not really for your own pleasure, but to do something for someone else.

Here's what I love about Sephardic Jews. They have a deep respect for you. They don't ask you questions about you. You get to know each other by your smiles, your words of Torah, your deep sense of belonging to the same people, the same family. Nothing can come between you, the bond between you is unshakable and unbreakable.

Take anyone in Israel. The time it would take to tell all the stories surrounding that person would keep you up half the night and then some.

Teshuva means repentance but much more.  Refinement would be a better translation. Teshuva literally means return.  Return to G-d. Rav Kook says that teshuva is embedded in the world and that it is inevitable. The world improves because of teshuva. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Land of the Jews. Wherever you look you see building. Building, building, building.

Today, I drove to Kiryat Arba along with some hitchhikers. I love picking up hitchhikers.  Like everyone in Israel, they are so intensely involved in whatever they are doing, whether sending messages on their phones, reading, sleeping, but never just looking out the window. Why is Israel the most rapidly developing nation on the planet? Focus. Israelis are the most focused people on earth, and every moment is precious to them. When they asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe the key to his prodigious achievement, he said focus.  "I devote myself completely to whatever I am doing at a particular moment," the Rebbe said.  "Nothing can distract me from the matter at hand." He could have been talking about every man, woman, and child in the Land of the Jews. Sometimes I engage a child in conversation and am astonished by the focus and powers of concentration exhibited from a tender age.

                                                         אהבה ממבט ראשון Love at First Sight אריק איינשטיין   מילים:  אריק איינשטיין לחן:  שם טוב לוי מה שהרס אותי                                       What destroyed me  היה הצחוק שהיה לך בעיניים                     Was the laughter in your eyes כשאמרת נעים מאוד                                 When you said hello מה שהמיס אותי                                      What melted me היה החום שזרם ממך                               Was the warmth that flowed from you כשנתת לי ידך                                          When you gave me your hand היתה זאת אהבה ממבט ראשון                   It was love at first sight כמו בסיפורים                                           Like in the stories אהבה ממבט ראשון                                   Love at first sight מה שהרס אותי                                         What destroyed me היה הכן שהיה לך בעיניים                           Was the sincerity in your eyes כשפגשת א

A word about praying. There is a significant difference, generally speaking, between Ashkenazic and Sephardic praying. Ashkenazic praying is faster than Sephardic praying. The Ashkenzim say the first and last lines of each particular prayer out loud. The Sephardim pronounce every word of each prayer out loud. Don't get me wrong.  I have been to slow Ashkenazic prayer services and fast Sephardic ones.  But as a rule, among the common people, Sephardim are slower. Why is this? Simple answer:  Sephardim are more comfortable with G-d than Ashkenazim.  When you are comfortable with someone, why would you want to rush through your meeting and leave?

On my way to shul this morning, I said Shabbat shalom to someone in shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt who was having his morning cup of coffee while smoking a cigarette. He said Shabbat shalom back to me. When my friend Dov was leaving shul after kiddush following the morning prayer, he kissed me on the top of my head.  As a boy, Dov somehow survived the Holocaust in Hungary and then made his way to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of the Jews.  There is something about certain Jews who arrived here in the 1940's.  They love Israel and the love shines through them. When we sit for kiddush, Dov is always putting herring or kugel in front of me.  He wants to please me and I don't even know why. But I definitely know that I love Dov and Dov loves me.

I am just walking this morning to do my Shabbat shopping and someone stops me to ask if there is a place around here where he can pray. I direct him to a shul in an adjacent supermarket. Yes, in Israel you can find a shul in a supermarket called Osher Ad.  It caters to religious customers but anyone can buy there or pray there. When you do a favor for another Jew in Israel, when you help someone out using Hebrew words, you are filled with happiness. As Shlomo Carlebach famously said.  "You did a favor for a Jew today?  Gvald!  Gvald!" Oh how I wish I spoke Yiddish!  It is the language of intimacy from the old country. Still, speaking Hebrew to your fellow Jews, you feel a closeness to them. You want to hug and kiss every Jew you see.  You want to stop every Jew and say, "I just wanted to tell you how much I love you for being you, for being here."

It's like this . . . In the Land of the Jews, you identify with everyone and everything.  More than that, you are everything.  You see someone wearing a blue shirt?  You are that blue shirt.  You see a stone, a tree?  You are that stone, you are that tree. You see a ponytail encircled by a rubber band?  You are that rubber band. This is known as love.