I wanted to write you a letter and explain the format of my blog. I debated how to date some of the original posts, and how to write them. Should I write them in real time - past tense - and post them for the date they were written? Should I write in the present tense - even though it may be a past event - and postdate the publish date to reflect the actual time the event occurred? Should I just write one long post to begin with that would include past events? I decided to go with the middle option: Write the posts as if I wrote them around the time they occurred and postdate the publish date to reflect our true timeline.
Okay, next question. When/Where in our timeline of events do I start my posts? Once Jeremy and I began making concrete steps to move closer to our synagogue, we started tossing out the idea of the possibility of a move to Israel sometime in the future. We begin looking more into what this may look like and how the decision would effect our immediate family - and our extended family. With the pending sale of our home, and our inability to find a home to purchase within the eruv(1), we decided to rent instead of buy. At this point, we begin to inquire more and more about the process of Aliyah(2). There were some initial steps to take in order to determine eligibility and we decided to begin the process so as to find more specific answers to our questions concerning requirements, timeline, available financial help, housing, and employment options. The more we learned, the more excited we became about the possibility of moving to Israel.
Next set of questions:
1. Who do we tell?
2. When do we tell them?
3. How do we tell them?
The truth is the harder we thought a move like this would be on you, the longer we waited to tell you. Looking back I'm not sure this was the best method to go by, but at this point it no longer matters. For some of you, the questions came directly from you (Will you guys ever move to Israel? Where do you see yourself headed?). This conversation may have occurred a few years ago - once Jeremy and I started becoming more and more religious (Orthodox) - as a direct correlation between how we were choosing to practice our faith and the assumption that Jews sometimes move to Israel. If and when we were asked this question, our response was typically the same: We are not ruling that out as a possibility. We will keep you posted. The earlier you (mostly siblings) asked, the earlier we told you we were looking more and more into the possibility. For those of you (mostly our parents) who didn't ask the questions, we wanted to be sure that Israel really was a viable option for our family. We wanted to have concrete answers for you before we brought up the idea of a move. Also, we knew a move like this would be very painful - taking ourselves and our children thousands of miles away - and we wanted to spare you that pain until we knew it truly was within the realm of possibility.
Please know that we love all of you and the idea of leaving you behind hurts. . . really hurts. This is part of the reason we debated so long about this decision - the pain it would cause our family to leave. However, we truly believe it is what is best for us and our children. Because of this, we want you to be a part of this journey as much as possible. We want you to experience it with us as we navigate through the process, and eventual the end goal, of arriving and living in Israel. We want you to be a part of this a much or as little as you wish. If you want to know more, PLEASE ASK! If you are satisfied with just reading my posts, great. If you choose not to come along with us via my blog, I understand - but I really hope you will at least choose to journey with us somehow through this experience. Ultimately that is why I chose to begin writing. I wanted a way to show my family how much we love them and how much we value them being a part of our lives. The best thing I could come up with as a solution on how to include you was to start writing. As I write, I hope you read so as to better understand our journey to Israel.
With love,
Brooke (and Jeremy)
(1)Eruv - A technical boundary that allows Jews to carry in public areas on Shabbat. The eruv is usually large enough to include entire neighborhoods with homes, apartments and synagogues, making it possible to carry on Shabbat, since one is never leaving one's domain.
(2)Aliyah - "making aliyah" means moving to Israel
(1)Eruv - A technical boundary that allows Jews to carry in public areas on Shabbat. The eruv is usually large enough to include entire neighborhoods with homes, apartments and synagogues, making it possible to carry on Shabbat, since one is never leaving one's domain.
(2)Aliyah - "making aliyah" means moving to Israel
No comments:
Post a Comment