Why I Am Making Aliyah

"The end result of good deeds... is wisdom."

-The Talmud

This question is one I've been asked over and again since coming to Israel. One person has asked me five times, and I believe it won't stop there. If anything, while the paperwork is complete, I still have the interview. I hope by this to have provide the answer to that question.

There are a lot of reasons. But I won't focus on the negative; lord knows I have a lot of that, and while I keep it neutral, given the good with the bad, the bad will always outweigh the good, and that's just how people work.

So let me get the bad out of the way; It happened. I've been hit in the head thousands of times, and in the heart hundreds. That's martial arts, and life, for you. I've loved, and I have absolutely lost. I have seen friends come and go, and the worst were those who killed themselves and who were lost by accident. I have one person I call friend still recovering from a motorcycle accident which left them comatose. They woke up. They may spend the rest of their life recovering, but it's still a miracle that's awe-some.

I've seen the good and bad; I've been cherished and loved, I've been scorned by own family and forgiven. I've seen my own family torn apart by divorce and death, but despite that there is always a silver lining, when we can move on we can find happiness.

You can't stop the bad from happening, I know that, and I live with it.

I am leaving the United States not because the country left me with a bitter taste in the mouth, we've all had that in a sense. I am leaving it for something I see can be better.

I am leaving the country because I have hope. I consider myself a living embodiment of that, and I do not believe in the least it is undeserved.

Honestly, I can be happy anywhere, why not be happy somewhere I can do good?

I came to Israel with $200 in my pocket, which seemed so incredulous I was detained when entering the country because it was so ridiculous. I will spend two weeks drifting as someone who will work for room and board.

I originally came to Israel under a fellowship so I can teach English to Ethiopian immigrants who have made aliyah, to provide them, hopefully, with opportunities I myself did not appreciate.

Sometimes that's the only way to get and understand what you've got; by giving it to another.

I am not coming here to start over. I am coming to Israel to continue.

I have a compassion in my heart to give what I have, be it just what I can say. I guess that's why I write; it's the passing of one word to hopefully help or save another's life. That's just who I am.

When I was young, just three years old, I approached my parents about what I wanted to do; I wanted to learn martial arts. I wanted to be a power ranger then. Twenty years later I only understand now what I really wanted to do; help others.

I don't care if I'm rich or poor. This isn't something economic of the pocket, its pure and simple economy of the heart. I have seen a young man die at seventeen and over a thousand gather to mourn. It isn't what we earn that will define our life, it is what we do, or could have done and didn't that will.

I am moving to Israel because I believe I can make a difference. I believe I can contribute in such a way to make the country a better place, even if it's tiny. Remember, even the number 1 is something infinitely greater than 0; nothing. Something is always greater than nothing.

Here there is poverty and racism, fear and anger. Even war. I intend to serve in the military; I see a need to be with those like me; standing shoulder to shoulder until the time to act on an ancient, great civilization I call heritage toward. I see a need for those akin to me. As someone who comes here with only reservation over whether or not I am doing a right or wrong action in the moment, I can contribute to making the country better in the future.

Yes I am Jewish, but that is such a small part in why I came to Israel. I see a place and time I can make a difference, even with one child and person, that is all that really matters.

We rejoice when a child is borne because of our hope in what they might do; every child born may be a messiah, even if its just a teacher to another for that person who comes thereafter to do better.

I have seen how a single word can save an addicts life, cannot the same be said for anyone else?

That's why I am here, and that is why I will stay.