Word Prompt – ALIYAH – Cheryl Kupfer

On the anniversary of the passing of very close relatives, it’s customary to do mitzvos in the merit of the deceased’s soul. It is considered to be an aliyah – an elevation for their neshama.

But aliyah isn’t just the uplifting of a soul. In a quite different meaning of the same word, aliyah refers to the men, women and children who have uprooted themselves and have returned home to the land of Israel. Just as the soul has “moved up” to a higher level of existence in their heavenly home, so too have olim moved up physically and spiritually by coming back to the place of their origin.

When I was 11, in 1965 before the Six-Day War and the reunification of Jerusalem, I flew to Israel with my father, a survivor of the Shoah, and a group of other survivors for some kind of commemoration. Perhaps it was the 20^th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps. When we landed after a long and difficult journey (in those days each seat had “barf bags” for a reason) – I actually felt that this was the return part of the flight. I sensed I had returned home. Going back and landing in Toronto felt like a visit. I was born there, but was not native to the land. That reality has been greatly reinforced in the last few years.

After a lifetime, after another long and difficult journey – due to a challenging bureaucratic aliyah process, I am finally coming home for good.