Rishon, Sheini

Two of my children made "aliyah" in the past two months, and it has made me so proud, yet it has been such a bittersweet experience for me. In the words of our Rabbis "maasei avot siman labanim." My father always tells the story of the time that he took two of his daughters' (not me) to the airport with their families in order for them both to make aliyah. I now personally experienced the feelings that he had when he said "I brought you up your whole lives to love and believe in Israel and how could you do this to me?" While he said these words in partial jest, these true feelings ran deep inside of me for the past few months.

Though it is hard to let go, I think that it is a parents' responsibility to trust their children to make mature decisions even if we have some concerns about the outcome. I pray that H.K.B.H. will watch over them and take good care of them in the merit of their brave choices. Each one of them had a story that I would like to share, because I think that we hear so many negative things about the bureaucracy in Israel and in the media.

So, first...my daughter. When I asked her how school was, aside from telling me that it was hard, and the language....she spoke of how beautiful it was that her education courses were being taught using examples from Rav Kook and learning things from the Tanach. Wow....that really impressed me.

My son left this past Sunday without even having a place to live. The dorm at the University where he would be learning was full and all of the apartments that were being advertised in the area were looking for girls. So right before Yom Tov, I emailed the head of admissions and told her that we were quite concerned. After all my son would be a new Oleh without his family and what would he do if nothing turned up? The answer that I got shocked me. It began with a statement that his anxiety was normal and that he shouldn't worry. But here's the amazing part...it went on to say that he was welcome to live in HER house (her children were grown and away) until he found a place. Next came her cell phone number and a directive to call her as soon as he landed! We are an amazing people! Could you imagine that happening in an American University? Of course, he has no plans on taking her up on her offer. It isn't his style, and we all have bitachon that something will work itself out. B.H. we have loads of relatives there so he won't be homeless even though he'll have an enormous commute until he finds something.

So...when the tears come and that pain of having a piece of my heart missing when I think of them being so far away, I just conjure up these stories and know that THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME! May we all be zochim to follow in their footsteps!