Almost 2,000 years have passed since the destruction of the Jewish community in Israel and the start of a harsh and bitter exile. For those 2,000 years every single generation has cried oceans of tears to have the opportunity that I and every single Jew today have. The chance to fight for the Jewish people and live in the Jewish homeland.
It is a bloodline-altering decision to end the continuous cycle of suffering that my family has endured ever since we were expelled from Israel by the Romans.
My great-great-grandfather would have killed just to have the chance to make the decision that I have, to leave the exile behind and join the Israeli Defense Forces as a Lone Soldier.
The responsibility weighs heavily upon my shoulders. I could have stayed in America, gotten a decent paying job, and sent my kids to Jewish day school, praying to G-d that they do not throw away Judaism. But that would be continuing the problem. I would have been like every other American Jew, stuck in the rat race of exile, just trying to hang on to whatever essence of Judaism I can grasp on to. The disconnect from G-d and the Jewish people in exile is suffocating. You cannot truly be part of the Jewish nation or its story if you are not living and contributing in Israel.
The future of the Jewish people is not in America. That is a difficult truth for most exile-immersed Jews to comprehend. A Jewish lawyer whose salary is six or seven figures and whose house is large enough to house five migrant families, doesn’t want to hear that the life he has built for himself and his family is meaningless in the large story of the Jewish people. The thought does not come to his mind that in three generations he could have no Jewish descendants.
American Jews are naive because they believe that they belong in places like Teaneck, Brooklyn, and even Lakewood. We must wake up and realize that the exile is poisonous to not only our worldly existence, but also to our souls as it is devoid of any semblance of G-d. As the Talmud states:
Anyone that resides in Israel is considered as who has a G-d, anyone who resides outside of Israel is considered as one who has no G-d (Ketubot 110b).
After 18 years of living as an observant Jew in America, I have come to realize and accept these facts about the state of the Jewish people in exile. That is why 30 of my friends and I have decided to change the destinies of our families and are leaving the Diaspora behind us to join the Israeli Defense Forces, through Yeshivat Torah V’Avodah. This opportunity is staring every young Jew in the face. It has never been so easy to join the IDF as a so-called ‘chutsnik’ (someone from outside of Israel). There are dozens of programs that help prepare you before your service. Such as: Garin Tzabar, Yeshivat Torah V’Avodah, Yeshivat Lev HaTorah, and many more. There are even more organizations that are here to help you throughout your service, like: the Michael Levin Base, Chayal El Chayal, the Lone Soldier Center, and many others.
The alternative to joining the IDF is certainly an easier option. Instead of fighting to defend the Jewish nation from the ultimate evil, Hamas, one could go to a secular college. I’m not degrading the few Jews who fight for Israel on college campuses, even though fighting antisemitism and advocating for Israel on college campuses is important, it is not the frontlines. The main fight is here, in Israel, soldiers are needed to fight against Hamas and Hezbollah and to defend the first Jewish nation-state in 2,000 years.
If you make the tough choice to make aliyah and join the army, you will be writing a whole new chapter of the Jewish story. Your kids will be Israeli, it opens countless opportunities for them to advance the Jewish people they can grow up to be: army officers, politicians, life-saving doctors, or charity workers. The positive impact this one decision will have on the future of the Jewish nation cannot be measured.
The chance to change your destiny and the destiny of your children is in your hands, you can either continue the never-ending cycle of disconnection in the Diaspora or strengthen the Jewish people and the world. The choice is yours.
