Advocate for Israel...On my own terms.

The hardest aspect of blogging about daily life in the settlements of Israel, is not slandering Eretz Yisrael. The Zohar asks, how could the Israelite spies from the desert, who were such great leaders of Israel, speak such slander about the promised land?

The answer is frightening.

The Zohar writes that the spies realized that if Bnei Yisrael would cross the Jordan immediately after the spies' return from their mission (which was the correct game plan), then the Beit HaMikdash would be built and a king would be anointed. There would be no destruction of the Temples, no Exiles, No terrible periods of tragedy for the Jewish people -- rather we would have immediately entered the period of ultimate geula.

So what was the downside? The spies figured out that upon the anointment of a Jewish king, their leadership roles would disappear. In order to hang on to their political positions of power, they sacrificed the Jewish people for 38 more years in the desert, the destruction of 2 Temples, 2 periods of exile, and the deaths of countless Jews throughout the ages.

According to the midrash, not only did the spies make their announcement to all of Israel, but they went from tent to tent to personally spread their message of gloom and doom if Israel would enter the promised land of Eretz Yisrael.

To this day, we still see many of the same narrow-minded politicians advancing themselves at the expense of the Jewish State or the Jewish people. While there are those leaders who unselfishly dedicate their lives to further the Jewish people in their homeland, too many not only ignore the Klal, but even go so far as to attack them.

Though Israel today is wrought with problems, its imperative to go from house to house to mitaken the sins of the spies through the teaching of love for Israel. Israel is not only the political Zionist entity, which is getting more and more difficult daily for many Jews to identify with, but our national homeland which belongs to the entire Jewish people. Many of us have gone door to door in Israel talking about our love of the land, before and after the Disengagement. Many of us have even made extreme financial and personal sacrifices out of love of living in our land.

When I criticize many of the problems in our country today, it is out of love for Eretz Yisrael. Yet, when HaAretz blasts away at settlers, religious Jews, and any viewpoint they disagree with; are they really advocates for Israel? HaAretz is read around the world by many "Zionists", yet does it really advocate anything for Israel? Who's Israel? Which Israel?

Does my criticism of Israel mean that I'm advocating something else?

My Hakarat Hatov for the privilege of living in Israel is my primary reason for blogging, and connecting to others in the hope of bringing more and more Jews back home.

If you want to know more I'll be more than happy to help.