Anything but Aliya

Rebbe Nachman couldn’t say enough good things about the Land of Israel. It’s therefore no wonder that the Yetzer Hara (the evil inclination, or “EI”) wages an ongoing battle on both Rebbe Nachman’s teaching and Aliya (immigration) to the Land of Israel.

 

The EI will do anything in the world to keep a Jew from moving to the Land of Israel. When the EI hears the word Aliya – it goes on the warpath. And, once a person has made Aliya and has moved to Israel, the EI doesn’t give up; it still fights tooth and nail to convince a person how terrible Israel is, Heaven forbid, and how good life once was in New York, LA, Chicago, Miami, or Toronto.

 

Why does the EI get so upset about a Jew living in the Land of Israel? On a national scale, the EI doesn’t want Geula (redemption), including Mashiach and our Holy Temple. Every Jew who comes here hastens the Geula. On an individual level, the EI wants you and your children wallowing in the diaspora, stressed and depressed, and not coming home to where your soul belongs. The Yetzer doesn’t want you attaining your soul correction, so he fights to keep you away from here and gives you fifty reasons to remain in the Diaspora.

 

With so much opposition from the Dark Side, a person with spiritual awareness can begin to realize the value of living in the Land of Israel.

 

The holiness of the Land of Israel is honey for the soul. Rebbe Nachman teaches that emuna leads to having one’s prayers answered. All prayers rise by way of the Land of Israel. A person’s prayers are strongest in the Land of Israel, to the extent that they can work miracles, above the limitations of nature.

 

The Land of Israel is the place to acquire emuna, for one sees Hashem’s hand very clearly here, every single day, especially in recent current events.

 

Rebbe Nachman teaches that the Land of Israel is the place for children. Our forefathers were barren outside of Israel, but Abraham and Sarah came here and had children. This can work for you too.

 

The Land of Israel can save a person from all evil, because of its high-level kedusha. Only in Israel can a person attain the level of emuna where natural restrictions and limitations don’t affect him at all, for here is the place of upper-level holiness.

 

The air of the Land of Israel makes a person’s brain function better. The Talmud teaches that a person can fulfill his intellectual potential only in the Land of Israel. That’s understandable, because the more emuna a person has, the better his or her mind functions. Since the Land of Israel is the land of emuna, one can attain a broadening of the mind here.

 

Rabbi Zeira fasted 100 times in order to forget the Babylonian Talmud, so that he could have a clean mind to learn the Torah of Eretz Yisrael.

 

Every Jew has a share in the Land of Israel – it’s your home!

 

The Torah teaches that Hashem’s eyes never depart from the Land of Israel. Therefore, those who are privileged to dwell here enjoy a maximum measure of Divine providence over their lives.

 

The Land of Israel is the source of blessings, for all blessings are derived from here.

 

There’s an optical illusion that money is easier to come by outside of the Land of Israel. That’s another trick of the Evil Inclination.

 

Why do you pray three times a day for the in-gathering of the exiles if you have no intention of coming here?

 

It is surprising the extent to which Shabbat-observant people don’t want to come to the Land of Israel. Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who had nothing but good to say about every Jew, said that if a Jew doesn’t earnestly strive to come to the Land of Israel, and if he doesn’t long for the Land of Israel, and pray to come here and beg Hashem to let him have a foothold in the Land of Israel – then he won’t have a share in the redemption of our people in the Land of Israel! Are you waiting for Mashiach before you come?

 

Mashiach will say, “Now you’ve come? Where were you when we needed you?”

 

The Land of Israel is the place to get to know Hashem. The Land of Israel is the place where body and soul find unity and happiness. You can change your life for the better by coming here. If you yearn for fulfillment, emuna, fulfilling your potential, raising your children the best way possible, living as a Jew, and attaining personal freedom, there is no better place on earth than the Land of Israel!

 

Ask Hashem to take you home to Eretz Yisrael. I sincerely hope to see you here soon, with Mashiach, the in-gathering of the exiles, and the full redemption of our people speedily and in our time, amen.