Zionism from New Jersey to God’s Land
I was raised in a modern orthodox home and attended typical modern orthodox schools in New Jersey. My family was zionist and we visited Israel for both mine and my brother’s bar mitzvah in 1991 and 1993 respectively. We marched in the Israel Day Parade and if a charity sent a calendar to our home and it was missing Israel Independence day then it was less likely to get any money in return.
Ultimately my entire family moved to Israel based on the religious zionist dream. I am proud of my upbringing, happy with my parents and teachers.
At the start of this year, my son started attending a Yeshiva in Bet El where I was privileged to spend Yom Kippur with over 800 people in the massive study hall. It was amazing. During the service, I remember thinking that father Jacob had his famous dream of the angels going up and down the ladder. When he wakes up from that dream he says “God is in this place and I didn’t realize.” He is rubbing his eyes and almost pinching himself as he passed through the land without the realization that this is God’s land.
At that moment, I had an awakening where I too felt like Jacob. I too had been living in Israel for 17 years and not appreciated where I was standing. I was overcome by this deep sense that I was standing in God’s land and that this is the actual place where the biblical stories unfolded and where the prophecies are being realized.
After continuing to think it over I realized that there was something lacking in my zionist upbringing. It was ultimately secular zionism practiced by religious people. It was zionism that looked at the Start-Up Nation, Jaffa Oranges, and the IDF as the main goal of our return to the land where religious Jews also have a role to play. This philosophy is not wrong, it is just not complete. Much of my zionist education was missing the real importance of Israel’s heartland including much of Judea and Samaria. Until my son started learning in Beit El, I hadn’t visited most of the biblical land of Israel.
I would imagine that many Jews living in America as well as those who have immigrated to Israel feel similar to myself in this regard; scared to travel to Judea and Samaria and feel that there isn’t a strong need to, as we can go to the Kotel and Hebron once or twice a year. I am not saying this to be cynical as those places are filled with religious meaning and spiritual connection. I am simply pointing out that until recently, I had abandoned the majority of biblical Israel in favor of a more comfortable life on the ‘other side of the line.’
Will we let the Samaria become the new Gaza? What will happen if God forbid rockets are shot from Jenin to Ariel or Shiloh? There are many that still have this idea that biblical Israel is not worth fighting for and that we should give it up for a Palestinian state.
We must Keep God’s Land as this is the promise that was made to the forefathers. The Start-Up Nation is a plus but the ultimate goal is the merging of the physical and spiritual in all of the land that was promised.
Rabbi Rami Goldberg
Director of Strategic Relations at Israel365
rami@israel365.com
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