“On Rosh HaShanah we begin to build and reveal the holiness of Eretz Yisrael. And during the Ten Days of Repentance, through the tshuva we do and through our petitions for mercy, we bring forth the ten levels of holiness of Eretz Yisrael, until Yom Kippur when we merit the most exalted level of the holiness of Eretz Yisrael, which is the Holy of Holies, and thus the High Priest can enter there… And after that, on the holiday of Sukkot, our worship with the Four Species, our “weapons of war,” comes to vanquish the forces which stand in the way of coming to Israel, those who speak evil about the Land, and to forge the way to Eretz Yisrael via the Clouds of Glory which went before us, and this is embodied by the succah… until Shemini Atzeret when the Yichud is fully completed, and this is an aspect of conquering the Land of Israel. This is why our simcha is increased, because a person must make Aliyah to the Land of Israel with joy, as we say in our prayers, ‘Bring us in joy to our Land’” (“Likutei Etzot HaMishulash” Vol.3, pgs. 238-240, Edition Sifre Rebanu Nachman of Breslov).
The Jewish People prayed for almost two-thousand years to return to the Land of Israel. Now that Hashem, in His infinite kindness, has allowed us to come home, it doesn’t make sense to me to leave the Holy Land on Rosh HaShanah for any reason in the world. Also, flying to the Ukraine for Rosh HaShanah from New York, Paris, or Melbourne, when one can easily come to Jerusalem, is equally puzzling to me, especially when our Sages teach that all prayers ascend straight to Heaven in Eretz Yisrael, without any celestial intermediaries or spiritual static caused by the impurity of foreign lands (Ramban, Vayikra, 18:25. “Orot,” Eretz Yisrael, 4, Rabbi Kook)
A few years ago, someone asked the kabbalist, Rabbi Leon Levi, of blessed memory, if it was OK to go to Uman for Rosh HaShanah. The Rabbi replied that it wasn’t a good idea, explaining that Rosh HaShanah establishes what will be in the coming year, and if a man deserts his wife and family on Rosh HaShanah, it isn’t a good harbinger for shalom bayit, and the Ukraine-bound enthusiast will surely suffer for it in the course of the year. He said that a trip to Uman, and to the gravesites of other holy Tzaddikim on the same trip, is something that can be considered once in a lifetime, if it will add to one’s awe of Hashem, but that there was no shortage of holy Tzaddikim buried in Eretz Yisrael itself, including our incomparably holy Forefathers, and Rebbe Nachman’s teachers, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and the Arizal, to mention just a few.
In Hollywood, before I became a baal tshuva, I suffered from a severe case of ulcerative colitis, which caused me daily bouts of intestinal bleeding. Learning about Tashlich in a book about Judaism for beginners, I walked to the Pacific Ocean on Rosh HaShanah and hurled my cortisone pills into sea, asking Hashem to heal me, which He did in a miraculous fashion. Several years later, I was happily learning Torah in Machon Meir Yeshiva in Jerusalem when my parents phoned from America, asking me to come to New York for their fortieth wedding-anniversary party. I was so happy learning Torah in Israel that I didn’t want to interrupt my studies even for a very short visit to New York, even for the great mitzvah of honoring one’s parents, but they let me know, in the most dramatic Jewish fashion, that I would destroy their celebration if I refused to come. So I gave in and flew to New York. When I landed at Kennedy Airport, I followed the crowd to pick up my luggage. On the way, I stepped into a restroom, and lo and behold, a tsunami of blood poured out from my body. “Oh, no!” I thought. “Why did I ever come back to America?!”