As we are coming upon our 2-year aliya anniversary, and our kids are winding down the school year, and the 3 weeks are beginning I wanted to share a few thoughts.
We have been attending end of the year tekesim (ceremonies.) When attending these events, I typically understand about 70% of the words, although 100% of the emotions are felt. As an oleh chadash parent- every time our kids take a big step in their lives - every time they pepper Hebrew words into their English or roll their eyes at our attempt to speak Hebrew, make new Israeli friends, it’s a massive win for them and us.
When your child learns to love Torah; when the stories of our forefathers come alive because they can tell you full narratives of our people, when they recognize places on the maps near our home because they learned about them first from Tanach- and they did it all in Hebrew- it’s huge. Sitting in Shul with Yehuda (9 years old) this Shabbat and reading the weekly Torah portion with him, he can understand the stories while hearing these parshiyot for the very first time. The weekly Torah portion comes alive as the nations of Israel is marching towards entering the land of Israel. While discussing the weakly current Torah portion of the week at our Shabbat table, we are literally able to look out our window and see the mountains of Moab, where the Jewish people entered the land for the very first time. While taking a walk to the other side of our community we can see the city of Ashkelon that Tali (our 11-year-old) is learning about in Navi. The pride that she has when telling us this, is simply indescribable. They are not just learning it, they are living it.
Yesterday we took the kid’s to Jerusalem so that we could walk through the old city on the day that thousands of years ago was surrounded by the Romans that ultimately led to the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Jewish people from their land. Ahuva, our 4-year old was so excited to go to the old city yesterday so she could walk through the different gates that she recently learned about in Gan and is reading about in a book about Yerushalayim. She was especially sad that we couldn’t make it to her favorite “shar”- Gate (with her adorable Hebrew accent) Shar Harachamim, since the current security situation is not ideal to go visit that gate. She is truly learning to long for the days when the Beit Hamikdash is rebuilt, and we will once again be able to enter these gates.
Our kids have become fluent with the Hebrew language and are continuing to be fluent with the land of our ancestors.
Fluency that will always be foreign to Sarah Raskas and I as immigrants. These moments - as an immigrant parent, are worth every minute of sacrifice we invested to get here.
To be strange and foreign all my days so my children can be natives, so my family will always have a home, here in our homeland.
There are days like this morning where I pass a “neighbor” on Derech Avot path (the way of our ancestors’ path) while I am on my mountain bike with my cycling computer, wireless headphones, connected to my iPhone 11, pedaling up a hill, while he is sitting on his donkey hitting it to go faster on his way to work. (I got to the top faster 
)
Then there are mornings where I am in the office in Tel Aviv looking down, and up from the 31st floor, seeing all the high-rise office towers that are tenanted with start up’s of the latest innovations and creativity that the entire world is chasing through multiple recent IPO’s. We have become a leading nation in so many sectors and are living the “light onto the nations” mantra.
Seeing our past and future play out in front of us, knowing that G-D willing our children will be native Israeli’s who will hopefully play a significant role in the future of our state makes us so very proud that we made the big move. #כאןזהביתכאןזהלב
Late breaking update for my American tuition paying friends- I just got a call from Yehuda's school on the 2nd to last day of school. Perhaps they saw my post?
They told me that for some reason they never collected tuition for the year. I asked them how much I owe, and they said 1,050 shekel (approximately $350.) They said that I can split it into 3 payments If I wish.
This post was inspired by a post from Shira Lankin Sheps
