Lech L’Cha: making the move

JULIE JASLOW AUERBACH

In parasha Lech L’Cha, Abraham is told “Go forth,” or as it sometimes translated, “Go for yourself”– from his native land, from his family, to go to a land that he will be shown. To leave all that was familiar and comfortable. As Irv and I turn our attention to our return to Israel at the beginning of December, I think about the choices people make to move to Israel – or not –and what considerations affect that decision to leave a comfortable home.

For us, it was simple. None of our adult children live in Cleveland. We were retired from our jobs. We had met each other on a 1971 trip to Israel and had in our youth dreamed of making a home in Israel. What was keeping us in Cleveland? What would we do with ourselves during the harsh Cleveland winters when travel and visits to our children and grandchildren, on opposite coasts, can be difficult?

Most of the friends we made in Jerusalem immigrated to Israel in the 1970s, around the time we were first contemplating it, when all of us were young, energetic and passionate about building and living in a Jewish homeland and when leaving the comfort zone of our native America and parents was challenging in exciting ways. Today, some of these friends have at least one child in Israel, married and with a growing family. Other friends moved later in life, following a child to Israel and perhaps leaving additional children back in the United States.

A few Cleveland-Israelis we know go back and forth between locations. As in ancient times when Jews came to Jerusalem for the three pilgrimage festivals – Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot –they come to Israel for the holidays, enhancing their celebrations in magnificent ways, recognizing Jewish holidays in Israel are truly special. Others seek avenues to enhance their Jewish knowledge at one of Israel’s many esteemed educational institutions.

One Cleveland-Israeli friend recently reminded me that while she can do five errands in one day in Cleveland, in Jerusalem, it takes five days to do one errand. Cleveland, to her, is such an easy place to live, traveling by car from place to place, without concerns about traffic or parking. But in Jerusalem, and even more so in Tel Aviv, parking is hard to find and city traffic adds travel time. Filled with the ease of familiarity and many good friends, why would one want to leave Cleveland for more than a short period of time?

And this is the dilemma that faces a Cleveland friend who is looking at retirement and a move to Jerusalem. Her children and grandchildren are all living in Israel, but her roots are here. Her friends are here, family graves are here, she grew up here. Will she be able to leave her home, her past, her native land comfort zone and take on a different lifestyle?

Irv and I understand her dilemma, especially as we begin the mental exercises to prepare us for our months in Israel. What do we need to pack? What are the must-have items that we can’t get in Jerusalem? We are reminding ourselves that there will most likely be problems to address during the first week of our return to our Jerusalem apartment, and they will take time to resolve. I will need to again get used to drying laundry on the courtyard clotheslines and adjust how I shop for groceries.

But we also are reminding ourselves of the sense of adventure we have with each preparatory thought. Leaving comfort zones behind is not such a bad thing. Abraham and Sarah did it.

Julie Jaslow Auerbach, a Jewish educator who lives part of the year in Jerusalem and part of the year in Shaker Heights, writes regularly about life in Israel for the Cleveland Jewish News.