KUMMUNIQUE

Shalom! We are proud to present another issue of Kummunique.
This issue is filled with Aliyah and Eretz Yisrael inspiration - so enjoy!

In this issue you will find:

1. "Happy Tu B'Shevat!" by Malkah Fleisher
2. "Aliyah, Post-Amona" by Ezra Halevi
3. "I Just Don't Understand" by Go´el Jasper.

Great explanation of Tu B'Shvat

Great Tu B'Shvat Seder

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1. "Happy Tu B'Shevat!" by Malkah Fleisher

This edition of the Kummunique is dedicated to all you great trees out there, those of you who give us fruit, and those who give us shade, those who adorn our front yard, and those who will sacrifice this week so that words of Torah and love of Israel can be printed for spiritual and inspiring Shabbat reading.

It is customary on Tu B'Shevat to eat the Seven Species, the seven mystical fruits with which G-d adorned Israel, and by which the Jewish people praise her:

"For the L-rd thy G-d brings thee into a good land, a land of water courses, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and [date] honey; a land in which thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it... When thou hast eaten and art replete, then thou shalt bless the L-rd thy G-d for the good land which he has given thee." (Devarim 7-10)

Going to the Land of Israel = delicious, abundant food = thankfulness to G-d. For those of you math types, you will therefore infer that going to the Land of Israel = thankfulness to G-d (sounds like a good reason to move to Israel).

So let's be thankful for the Land of Israel by enjoying the things G-d Himself personally recommends:

Malkah's Ultimate Land of Israel Cake

1/2 cup chopped dried figs
1/2 cup chopped dried dates
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup pomegranate juice (with 2 Tablespoons of honey mixed in)
1 and 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3 eggs
Grated rind of 1 etrog (or 1 lemon)
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Put all the dried fruits into a container, add the pomegranate juice, and mix. Cover and let stand 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan, line with parchment paper and grease it with margarine or butter. Drain the fruits, reserving the jice. Dry the fruits, and toss with 1/4 cup flour. Sift the rest of the flour with the baking powder. Cream the butter, sugar, and eggs, then stir in half of the flour mixture. Add the etrog/lemon rind and 2 T of the juice. Add the remaining flour, the fruit mixture, and the almonds, mix until everything is incorporated. Bake about 50 minutes, cool for 15, and thank G-d for the amazing Land of Israel.

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2. "Aliyah, Post-Amona" by Ezra Halevi
From Kumah

A friend I grew up with in Albany, New York wrote the following in response to what some have been calling a good old-fashioned 'pogrom' in Amona. He wrote it in the talkback section of an IsraelNN.com article posting live pictures as the battle in Amona raged:

"After wasting so much time and energy to try and better a state that I thought was reishit smichat geulatenu [the beginning of the flowering of our redemption -ed.] I now understand that good and evil can not mix, that this State is truly evil (this is hardly the first example, just one of the more shocking). Though I will continue to identify as a member of the Jewish People, I can no longer side with the "Israelis." This is an evil state and an evil society, and I will not volunteer to continue to be a part of it.

"Goodbye Israel. You broke my heart."

I shed a tear after reading it, and realized that although I have been in news-writing mode for the past few years, hesitant to write opinion pieces, I must address this issue.

My first emotion was anger. Anger at the Israelis-by-lack-of-Green-Card presuming to lead this mighty nation to national assimilation who are demoralizing a good member of the tribe along the way. Then came pain - pain that a good man, who laid it all on the line for the Land of Israel is now saying, "We are grasshoppers in their eyes and are but grasshoppers in our own eyes," - just like ten of the twelve spies sent by Moses to scout out the land before our people first left exile for the Promised Land. Pain and frustration that grew as I looked elsewhere and saw emails from others, who have not even finished their Aliyah paperwork but are talking about reconsidering.

Of course all the pain, frustration and anger subsided once I took note of the part of the glass that is full: There is an Aliyah Revolution afoot, like it or not. And the rise of Nefesh b'Nefesh and planeloads of olim-by-choice aren't due to any economic boom or enlightened government here in the Jewish State during these years since the collapse of the Oslo Accords and the launch of the Temple Mount War (merely translating the Arabic 'Al-Aksa Intifada'). This Aliyah does not consist only of activists, nor does it consist largely of settler-types like myself. It contains within it suburbanites , Hassidim, good ol' earthy American Jewish hippies alongside PhD students and hipsters who are just way too cool for the Exile. This Aliyah is not about escaping some outside force (economic hardship, Jew-hatred) - it is about Israel simply being the place for the Jew who wants to do Jewish in 5766.

Everybody is coming and everybody is needed here. But for a moment, I am just going to address my homies, if you will, those Jews who are tuned-in, but are considering dropping out (of the Jewish Project) due to seemingly insurmountable odds. I for one, don't see Ehud Olmert, some consistently-wrong polling agencies and a steep decline in journalistic standards of the English-language Israel News sites plus a couple over-quoted organizations funded by Europe and misguided American Jews to be 'insurmountable.'

I don't know what you saw in Amona, but I am sorry if my coverage of the blood and brutality of the Yassam riot police gave you the wrong impression. What I saw on the beautiful mountain of Amona , where Abraham stood and was shown all of the Land of Israel by the Most High, was a glimpse of the Land of Israel . It was the glimpse that we American Olim, (we American ascenders, literally) saw for a moment, or longer, that initially brought us to consider staying here and making it our home, leaving perfectly excellent lives in the Exile.

I saw dedicated youth, some having dragged the adults in their personal sphere of influence along. And when I say 'youth,' I mean to include post-army grads, and entire families - families who expected Amona to be a festival of democratic carry-me-away-gently protest like back in the days of ' Nam or the Civil Rights Movement. Oh wait - back then people also had to submit to police violence in order to stand up for justice!

You know who those people were? Those parents who took off from work to risk a broken bone? Those kids who are no longer dazzled by the uniform the order-follower who comes to tell them a Jew has no right to the Land of Israel is wearing? Olim. A majority of the protestors were olim or the children of immigrants - and I was not surprised.

Every Diasporah community brought with it some key ingredient from the Exile to modern day Israel - a spark, if you will - that enriches and drives the Jewish Project being played out in the Land of Israel.

We American olim - immigrants-by-choice from the pinnacle of western civilization, bring with us the willingness to stand up for justice, no matter how impractical 'The Man' tells us that justice is - until justice prevails, and injustice crumbles. We bring with us the knowledge that the statement my friend wrote - that "good and evil cannot mix" - is merely an excuse to sit on the sidelines and allow evil to be perpetrated until good just drops from the sky - which would defeat the entire purpose of our creation.

We bring with us from the fleshpots not only liberal arts educations, imbuing us with the wisdom of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Jewish brother Abbie Hoffman, but the cultural Torah of twin-souls and mass Aliyah-enthusiast Rabbis Shlomo Carlebach and Meir Kahane, who taught American Jewry, each in his own way, what Love of Israel was all about.

We came to Israel to build and are not fased by destruction. Those in Amona did not leave there with a sense of defeat, but with the sense that they stood up for justice and were forced to pay a heavy price. Despite that price, these people told every interviewer that spoke to them in the hospital, without blinking, that they are ready to continue to pay on behalf of their dream and the Jewish destiny.

We need more people, though. I am not talking about more people to stand up to face the police horses and clubs, but more people to be here, to play their role in improving and enriching all aspects of Jewish statehood and the rehabilitation of our nation after an extremely long and difficult journey through Exile.

The wounds incurred in Amona will heal. The wounded in the hospital all say they don't regret a thing, vowing to return the next time. Israelis-by-choice are a growing force on every level, fixing our people's great sin of rejecting the Land the first time around by embracing the good and fixing the not-yet-awesome.

I am told Ehud Olmert has two sons who refused to serve in the IDF and a daughter who lives in Paris. Meanwhile, I have a brother moving here in less than two years and recognize at least one person every time Nefesh b'Nefesh brings a planeload of American revolutionaries (they call 'em olim) over.

Meanwhile, Israel is now the largest Jewish population center in the world, and will soon be home to the majority of the Jewish people. It is where the game is being played and the only place where the Jewish Project can be implemented. Moreover, if you believe the Master of the World indeed gave us a blueprint for perfecting the world at Mount Sinai, then you must concede that the holy document makes it quite clear where this society must be built. If you don't buy that, but somehow have the secular Jewish urge to implement some sort of massive world-fixing project - forget Honduras, the cameras of the world are focused on Jerusalem, just waiting for someone to do something right here.

And seriously, between the color-war and the schoolyard skirmishes (ok, even following the occasional 'pogrom' called for by an unelected interim Prime Minister), life in the Promised Land remains rich and beautiful. You meet human gems on the streets each day and in the line at the supermarket. Spring has arrived early and everything is in bloom and all the while more and more Americans are packing their bags to make the move and American accents are heard in places like Afula, Jaffa and Beit She'an. At my home in Sde Boaz, where a house was demolished less than a month ago , trees are taking root in soil that was evidently not meant for a house, and a community has grown stronger. I planted a carob tree yesterday before I went to work in Beit El (Home of the original Stairway to Heaven).

So please, as someone who was hit with a baton by an Israeli policeman in Amona, as someone who saw a house built laboriously by Jewish hands crushed under the bulldozers of the Jewish army, let me assure you that not only are the other 45 homes in Amona still standing , the community of Sde Boaz is still planting and growing and building.

The only way we can lose this struggle, or fail to deliver the goods to our children's generation, is by throwing up our hands and choosing the irrelevance of Jewish exile, replete with its struggles against Holocaust-forgetting and gentile-marrying, over the awesome task of moving the Jewish destiny forward using the puzzle pieces each and every one of us hold, which together constitute Jerusalem rebuilt.

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3. "I Just Don't Understand" by Go´el Jasper
From Israel National News

What? Are you kidding me? How can it be?

How can it be that after all this time, after all this fighting, scratching, clawing - 2,000 years of battling our way back to Eretz Yisrael - how can it be that so many people are doubting the prospects of Aliyah now, "just" because of the horrors we witnessed in Amona last week?

I simply don't understand it.

I mean, check out Arutz Sheva's comments section. It's crazy. Comment after comment talking about wanting to make Aliyah, but now, after Amona and Gush Katif, this place, this state, this land of ours is not what they thought it was.

Give me a break. What do you think this is? This is not your favorite team trading away its best player. It's not a character leaving your favorite sitcom. This is your homeland.

But rather than take you through the rationale for moving here, and explaining that you will then be able to change the system, and that by making Aliyah, you will have a vote and can make of this country whatever you want, etc. etc., I've decided to not waste your valuable time (although all that is true!). I have a different line of thinking regarding this. Wanna' hear it? Yeah? Okay. Here goes:

You're all full of baloney. Because you don't really want to live in the land promised to our forefathers. You want to live here if it's easy. And you don't really believe that we are knee-deep in a very serious process of redemption here, that we are feeling the birth pangs of the arrival of the Mashiach. You'd rather leave that kind of "weird" spiritual thinking to the lunatics who already moved here.

I know what you're thinking because I was one of you. I worked for an Internet start-up in 1999-2000, and I said to family and friends, "If we go public and I make $10 million, then I'm moving to Israel." And you know what? I meant it. And this dot-com had a chance. But I knew it was unlikely to happen. So, I convinced myself to feel good about my Zionism. After all, as long as Wall Street cooperated, I had committed myself to making Aliyah. But I also had an out. And when that dot-com tanked, and I was out of a job (never mind out the $10 million), Aliyah was gone as well.

So, I've been there. I've put forth the "effort" to investigate Aliyah, only to walk away from it as soon as something didn't go the right way. And guess what, far greater men than I have been there, too. Far greater. And they had their reasons, too. You may have heard about it.

You know what they said? They said the existing inhabitants of the land were powerful giants. They said the cities were surrounded by high walls, and that the land devours its inhabitants.

So, here we are, 3,000-plus years later, and we're doing it all over again. But there's a major difference this time around. This time, some of us live here. And we can tell you the truth. So listen up.

The spies were right. People like Ehud Olmert are giants, as are the miserable human beings he sent into Amona last week. And the cities are once again surrounded by high walls, this time for supposed "security". And this place, well, what can I tell you. When you live here, you are gobbled up by the land. Gobbled up by the politics, by the religious polarization, by the culture, by the food. It's an unbelievably intense place.

And when you live in a place that is this intense, that has this kind of meaning, things happen. Big things happen. Some very good, like watching my kids growing up fluent in Hebrew, which will enable them to learn as much Torah as they want with no language barriers; and like how beautiful it is to watch your child's birthday being celebrated in school. And some very bad, like the events of this summer and last week.

Because when you live in a meaningful place, a land with real depth, you don't have to manufacture intensity. There is no Super Bowl Sunday here, where us vs. them is manufactured. No Valentine's Day, where love is manufactured. No Thanksgiving Day, where family relationships are manufactured.

There's just reality. And it's intense. And it's sometimes horrible. And it takes its toll.

But I have to tell you, after 2,000 years, after generation upon generation wishing, dreaming, shouting to HaShem , after so many Jewish deaths because we didn't have a land of our own, we olim will take the land as it is - because it's ours, because we see our kids growing up happy, because we can read the prayers without feeling like hypocrites; but especially because we've heard how this story ends.