A Happy Man

The following article was originally published on Revava.org:

A Happy Man

By: David J. Heimowitz

It’s true, I am a very happy man. First of all, I was born a Jew. I was born into G-d’s chosen people and I am smart enough to be proud of it and never to deny it. I remember how old Jewish women on the lower east side of Manhattan loved to say with their eastern European accents “every body is de same”. Well every body is not the same. We Jews are better. We are chosen.

Next, I live where I am supposed to be living, in Israel. G-d, in His infinite wisdom, gave the Jewish people a special land in which to dwell. G-d, the Creator of the universe and all that is therein, decided to remove the peoples who dwelled within His special land and to give it to us. He was certainly entitled to do so, after all, everything belongs to Him. I do not apologize for displacing others, I am proud that G-d desired that I do so. Because of the sins of our ancestors we were punished and sent into a very long and bitter exile from our home. Then G-d decided that enough is enough and allowed us to return home from our punishment. I am very happy that G-d allowed me to understand the necessity of returning home, which is something that the vast majority of my brethren, religious and non-religious alike, fail to understand.

Lastly, I am very happy that I chose to make aliyah out of the desire to do so, and not out of the necessity of running for my life. In so doing I proved my love for G-d. He gave me a present and I said thank you and took full advantage of it. Of course, all of my brethren in the exile should follow my example, but alas, they look for reasons not to do so. Sadly, it is anything but difficult to come up with excuses not to make aliyah.

My brethren in the exile say that our leadership in Israel is below contempt. Of course this is true, but why punish G-d because of the sins of our so-called leadership? We make aliyah for G-d, not for corrupt politicians, not for hypocritical jurists and not for the self-hating media. Granted, we are in dire need of new institutions of government, but why wait in the exile until G-d provides us with proper leaders who are worthy of our respect? Our very act of making a massive aliyah may well force G-d’s hand and obligate Him to give us proper leadership. Even if not, by making aliyah we will truly be worshipping G-d, not through meaningless acts of ritual, not by tucking our pants into our socks, but by showing G-d that we have true faith in Him and that we unequivocally believe what He wrote in the Bible, especially in the fifth book, Dvarim.

Not only are one hundred percent of the Jewish people meant to live together in Israel, we are meant to do so by ourselves, with no foreigners influencing us. Similarly, we are meant to observe all of the mitzvoth within Israel. The mitzvoth have no place in the exile, just as the Jew has no place in the exile. Be happy men, women and children like me, come home while you can still do so by choice, while you can still show G-d that what you do, you do out of love for Him and not out of necessity.

The writer is a chasid of Rabbi Meir Kahane and made aliyah 29 years ago because of the Rabbi’s teachings.