Volume 67, Issue 7

On Our Way Home
by Shmuel Honig

The following piece was written the day of the Washington rally this past April (it was actually written on the bus returning to YU, despite some indications to the contrary):

3 Iyar 5762/April 15, 2002

Today I traveled with Yeshiva University from New York City to Washington, D.C. for a mass rally in support of our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael.  What a tremendous sight!  So many thousands of Jews from so many different backgrounds, from so many different parts of America and even the rest of the world, all gathered in one place and at one time to express one common feeling and sentiment: our eternal connection to the People of Israel and the Land of Israel.

It truly was a tremendous occasion.  Perhaps this kind of display of unity should arouse an emotional response of a profound nature in light of its meaningful implications.  Yet the bustling and busy atmosphere of the event prevented those emotions to emerge with their full force and power.  It was only on the way back to YU that I reflected sufficiently, albeit briefly, to trigger the tears that had always been inevitable.

On the returning bus ride, traffic began to slow and the ride seemed destined to last longer than expected.  The consequences of such a situation are well known to any ben yeshiva who has ever gone on a road trip with his peers: song had been waiting impatiently to flow from our hearts and our souls; it had been searching endlessly for that moment, that opportunity, to burst forth into the world.  And, of course, it did.  We sang slow songs, songs expressing hope for the rebuilding of Yerushalayim, songs reminding Hashem that we have not forgotten Him despite all we’ve suffered through.

And when we were through singing, when we had quenched that nagging thirst to let escape our innermost feelings, I took a look in front of me and I started to cry.  There we were, like so many other members of Klal Yisrael around the world, yearning desperately to return to our homeland.

The epic tale of the Jewish People endeared me once again.  The tragedies and the happiness, the devastation and the joy, the pain and the pleasure.  Such a simple thought, yet such a powerful one: We, the Jewish People, destined to wander the world in all its entirety and vastness for 2000 years, in search of our home.  Not a search in the sense of where; we have always known where home is.  Rather, a search of how, how to return to our home.  Well, we now know how.  Now it’s no longer a question of how, but when.  When?  Are we not almost there?  No, we’re not almost there, we are there!  We are there!  Soon, be’ezrat Hashem, we’ll all be there!  Soon, soon, not much longer…

Today, as we prepare to leave YU for our much-deserved break after a long, hard week of exams, I ask myself the following: are we really yearning so desperately to return to our homeland?

What do you think? Click here to send a letter to the editors.
All content is copyright © Yeshiva University Commentator.