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Another factor in this ephemeral but unexpressed serenity is that people here are basically satisfied with their lives. Survey after survey over all of the years show that at least three quarters of the Israeli population express itself as being happy with their lives. This is a far higher percentage than that recorded in the polled population of the United States or Western countries generally. The lesson of the rabbis that wealth can only truly be measured by one’s satisfaction level of the life and assets that one possesses is certainly true here in our society. Again I attribute this to the fact that people have a sense of a higher purpose - albeit again usually unexpressed but still present - in just living here. There is a sense of history and destiny that shrouds the life of every Jew living in the Land of Israel. It gives our lives here a certain surreal and spiritual quality that compensates for any imagined material lack that one may think is present in one’s life. The Torah community in America can have very little influence on American life generally - rather the opposite is true. American life strongly impacts the Jewish community and its Torah community as well. This fact is true in all exiles and diasporas since Jews are always a small minority of the population. Here in Israel there is a large Torah community that impacts all of Israeli life in various ways and strength and here we are always dealing with a Jewish community that is the strong majority population of the country. That contributes to an underlying sense of pride and purpose that leads to satisfaction in one’s life and to this sense of serenity that permeates our country and its people.
The Torah itself states that outside the Land of Israel the Jews would always be burdened by having a lev ragoz - a troubled, dissatisfied, frustrated sense of spirit and life itself. The tensions of living in the exile are omnipresent. One is driven either towards assimilation into the general non-Jewish society with the accompanying feelings of subliminal alienation and regret or towards a constant struggle to retain one’s Jewish identity in the face of an overwhelmingly negative cultural majority. In any event psychological serenity and satisfaction are rare to find between these choices of life attitudes and practices. The lev ragoz haunts Jewish life in the exile and is part of the life and community of Jewish existence in the exile. The Torah views this type of life in the exile as "dwelling in darkness" - the description it gives of the great Babylonian Talmud itself since it was composed in the exile of Babylonia. Israel, the land and the people who dwell in it, experiences a Jewish life that exists nowhere else. This is probably another key to the serenity of life and purpose of existence that living in the Land of Israel brings to all those who live there.
Army and War "If Haredim Should Serve in the IDF, So Should You"
IDF Service for Young Jewish Men from America
Rabbis in Midrash
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The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
Chukat "HOW ENTEBBE STOLE THE BICENTENNIAL
The Difference Between Historic & Eternal"
As we approach America's 250th birthday, it's worth remembering her 200th Bicentennial birthday, on Jul. 4th 1976, when Israel "stole the show" by shocking the world & miraculously saving 101 hostages in a foreign continent. As Pres. As Pres. Trump decides which countries get priority in his new Middle-East, it's worth reminding him of the difference between historic events and eternally historic ones. This obviously connects with this week's parsha, as well!
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 6 - The Parable of the King of India
The advantages of testimony over circumstantial evidence or philosophical speculation.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 5- "Proofs of G-d"
This may be the most important class of the entire book, where we finally get to the Jewish proof of the existence of G-d and truth of the Torah. We should follow His own direction where He tells us how to get to Him: through the Nation of Israel: Jewish history, Jewish prophets (and today, prophecies fulfilled), and national reward & punishment towards Am Yisrael.
Ein Aya One Humanity, One Creator, One Jerusalem
Rav Kook innovatively and beautifully explains this aggadeta where our sages say that after Jerusalem was destroyed her cinnamon fragrance is only found locked in a particular kingdom's treasury.
