The Punishment for the Bat Sheva Affair

Following his affair with Bat Sheva, and his conspiracy to have Bat Sheva’s husband killed but made to look like an accident, the punishment meted out to him was measure for measure.  As he had committed sexual impropriety, not only was his daughter Tamar raped, but all of his concubines were violated by his son.  Much like Bat Sheva was first seen on the roof of her building, so too these violations occurred on the roof of the palace.  Just as David conspired to kill Uriah, so his son Avshalom conspired to kill him.  Just as Uriah died, so three of his sons died.

Yoav (Joab) the Cryptic Character

Yoav (Joab) is, to me, the most interesting character I have read about in Tanach (Bible) yet.  You have your Avraham (Abraham), Moshe (Moses,) and David types, who, while they made mistakes, were clearly good.  Then you have your and Korach and Avimelech types, who were clearly bad.  But with Yoav (Joab,) while he has the wily intelligence and penetrating insight into human character helps him manipulate others to do his will, his own motivations are mysterious.  Did he assassinate Avner, and later Avshalom, against the orders of the king, out of personal vengeance or out of a sense of protecting the king from his own weakness?  He is fiercely loyal to David, but often directly violates his orders.  Most of his actions could be taken as either good or bad, depending on his motivations, which remain a mystery to us.  David, for his part, always curses Yoav, but states that the curse should be carried out by God, implying he himself is unsure of Yoav’s motives.

The Ark of the Covenant is not a Toy

When David flees Avshalom’s rebellion, Zadok the Cohen tries to bring the ark of the covenant.  David turns to him and tells him to bring it back to Jerusalem, saying, “If I find favor in the eyes of God, then he will bring me back [to Jerusalem.]”   This contrasts significantly with earlier in Sefer Shmuel (the Book of Samuel,) when Israel brought the ark with them into battle thinking it guaranteed victory.  David understands that the ark is not a secret weapon, but a sign of the covenant, and if you’re violating your end of the covenant, the ark isn’t going to help you.

What is a "Yonat Elem Rechokim"?

Tehilla (Psalm) 56 begins, “For the conductor, on yonath elem rehokim,” and then goes on to describe David’s suffering during an episode where he was apparently captured by the Phillistines (this does not appear in the narrative text of Sefer Shmuel, the Book of Samuel.)  But what is Yonat Elem Rechokim?  Some speculate that it is a reference to the madness David feigned, where he was twitching and pecking like a dove (Yonah.)  It may also just be an instrument on which this Tehilla was played but which has now been forgotten.

God Doesn't Need Your Temple Sacrifice, but He Wants It

In Tehilla (Psalm) 50, God states, “I will not take from your household a bull, from your pens any goats. For all the beasts of the forest are Mine.”  God doesn’t want sacrifices per se, as he control the world and can get animals any time he wants.  It’s like buying your wife an anniversary present on a joint checking account.  God doesn’t want to make a profit on the transaction, what he is asking for is an affirmation of the relationship.

Immortality is Children and Land Ownership

Yoav (Joab) sends the wise woman from Tekoa to convine David to reconcile with his estranged son Avshalom using a parable.  Her one son has allegedly killed her other son, with her surviving murdering son facing execution himself.  She states, “and so they shall quench my coal which is left, so as not to leave my husband a name or a remainder upon the face of the earth."  Again we see that the two links to immortality in Tanach are children and land ownership.

Shakespeare and the Bible

As an aside, I’m noticing a lot of themes from Shakespeare were borrowed from Tanach.  David’s feigning madness to avoid the wrath of the Phillistines is mirrored by Hamlet’s feigning madness to avoid the wrath of Claudius.  Likewise Uriah’s being sent to the front lines with sealed orders for conspiracy to commit his own death is mirrored by Hamlet’s being sent to England with sealed orders for his.  The parable of trees choosing a king is sort of mirrored by, "Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinaine Hill Shall come against him."   (4.1.92-4)  I’m trying to make a connection between Richard III being surrounded and killed with Shaul’s being surrounded by Phillistines and killed on Mount Gilboa.

Land and Immortality

In Tehillim (Psalm) 49, the author states about the wise, “In their heart, their houses are forever, their dwellings are for every generation; they call by their names on plots of land."”  The Tanach (bible) frequently associates two things with immortality; descendants, “Their houses are houses forever,” and land ownership, “They call by their names on plots of land.”  It’s probably why the Tanach repeats, over and over, the centrality of the Land of Israel to the Nation of Israel.

A Spring from Mount Zion

Tehilla (Pslam) 40 refers to the strength of God and then makes a reference to a time when rivers spring forth from Jerusalem.  The prophets Yeshaya (Isaiah) and Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) also make reference to a future messianic time when rivers flow from the city.  The neighboring Kingdoms of Egypt and Babylon had the Nile and Euphrates rivers, and so never felt the need to turn to God for sustenance.  Israel, with its dry climate, is entirely dependent upon the annual rains, forcing the people to recognize their dependence on divine intervention. The rivers bursting forth from the mountains of Israel in a future messianic time, will be a constant reminder of divine intervention.

As A Thirsty Deer

In Tehilla (Psalm) 46, David says, “You desired neither sacrifice nor meal offering; You dug ears for me; a burnt offering or a sin offering You did not request.”  This is reminiscent of Shaul’s (King Saul’s) first blunder, when he makes a sacrifice without following the Prophet Shmuel (Samuel’s) warning not to jump the gun and do it too early.  What David is saying is that it is the intent of the sacrifice, far more than the act, which God demands.  This is a constant theme throughout Tanach (Bible.)

Rebellion Brews Against David

After being denied the privilege of building the Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple,) one sees an increasing disconnect between David and his kingdom.  The text explicitly tells us that he did not go out to the war against Ammon.  Later, David seems unaware of his son Avshalom’s (Absalom), clearly plotting revenge against David’s heir apparent Amnon for the rape of Avshaloms sister Tamar, doesn’t seem to raise any alarm bells.  When Avshalom sits outside the gates of the palace gathering supporters, and then heads off to Hebron with his supporters to, “Go make a sacrifice there,” David also fails to pick up on this rebellion in progress.

Why Jews Have Beards

David delivered condolences to the people of his enemy nation Ammon (located in present day Amman, Jordan,) a Torah prohibition. Hanun, King of Ammon, takes David’s messengers and shaves off a half of each one’s beard, a humiliation.  David orders them to go to the city of Jericho and wait for their beards to grow back.  From this we infer the proper Jewish look of having a beard, as David could have just as easily just ordered them to simply shave off the other half.  I’d have one too, if mine didn’t get so very itchy and sore when I try to grow it.

Yoav the General

When Yoav (Joab) is besieging Ammon in retaliation for their treatment of David’s emmisaries, he is suddenly attacked from the rear by an army of Arameans.  He splits his army into two, and sends his elite forces to attack the Arameans while his main force goes against Ammon.  It reminds me of two sayings by Confederate General and military genius Nathan Bedford Forrest, “Get there first with the most men,” and, “When surrounded, split in two and attack both ways.”

David's First Sin as King

David committed a seemingly inconsequential sin by sending condolences to Ammon, with whom the Torah prohibits friendly relations.  Ammon’s humiliation of David’s servants leads to a war, which his officer Uriah is sent out to fight.  With Uriah away from home, David succumbs to the temptation to have an affair with his wife, then cover for the sin by having Uriah (and some bystanders) killed in battle.  So a small failure cascaded into a great one, and David is cursed to spend the rest of his life living by the sword because of it.

As a Thirsty Deer

Psalm 42 begins, ” As a hart (deer) cries longingly for rivulets of water, so does my soul cry longingly to You, O God.”  The Hebrew word used is “Taarog,” translated into, “cries.”  The infinitive verb, “Laarog,” is the word used to describe a distinctive seasonal cry of a deer searching through the dry riverbeds of the Negev (Israel’s southern dry region) for a puddle remaining from the floods of winter.  It just goes to show that to have a full understanding of the meaning of any line in Tanach (Bible,) it is necessary to have an understanding of Hebrew, as well as the flora, fauna, geography, climate, and seasons of the Land of Israel.

David's Dancing

When David’s wife Michal, daughter of the late King Shaul, sees David dancing with reckless abandon in front of the Ark as it enters Jerusalem, she chastises him for conduct unbecoming of a king, to which David replies that, before God, he is a lowly servant, and the text tells us Michal never had children, seemingly a consequence of her statement.  Michal is still stuck with her father’s inappropriate sense of when to be regal and when to be humble, and, like her father, her line is also extinguished.

Michal Bat Shaul

Sefer Shmuel (the Book of Samuel) explains Michal’s childlessness as a consequence of her inappropriate scolding of David, but if you think about it, Michal HAD to end up childless.  God, through his prophet Shmuel, had already taken the kingship from Shaul’s line for his failure to destroy Amalek.  At the same time, David was already married to Michal, Shaul’s daughter, and had sworn to preserve Shaul’s line (implying having children with her.)  If Michal were to have a child, this child would have been a descendant of Shaul but still part of royalty, violating God’s curse.  So the only way for both David and God to keep their contradictory promises was for Michal to be barren.

What Makes a Monarchy Secure?

David, sitting in his palace, sees that the Ark of the Covenant is still sitting in the Mishkan tent, and wants to fulfill the commandment to build the Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple) now that the prerequisite of a secure monarchy is fulfilled.  God, using the prophet Nathan, stops him.  David mistook the meaning of a secure House of David for physical security, sitting in his palace in fortified Jerusalem. But the true intent was a spiritually secure House of David, and a monarchy is only secure if it is passed on to the monarch’s son, which had never happened before in Israel.  Therefore, by definition, only the second generation of the House of David, Shlomo (Solomon,) could build the Temple upon inheriting the throne.

Where is Jerusalem?

The Chumash (five books of Moses,) written four centuries before the time of David, emphasizes the centrality of the then-future capital of Jerusalem, but never gives a specific location though it could easily have done so i.e., at the spring of Gihon, headwaters of the Kidron River, in the shadow of the Mount of Olives, etc.  Its location on the border between Yehuda (Judah, David’s home tribe) and Binyamin (Benjamin, the tribe of the previous King Saul) is almost an homage to the house of Shaul, although this idea is not made explicit in the text.  It seems a very earthly and contemporary consideration for locating the divine and timeless, “Eternal capital of the Jewish People.”  Perhaps the idea of “Jerusalem” was known since the time of the Chumash, but David selected its final temporal location. Or am I just a heretic? J

What does, "Palestinian," Mean?

The Hebrew word Plishti, “Philistine,” is the noun form of the Hebrew word, “Liphlosh,” to invade.  After their failure to destroy Israel in 1967, the Arabs of Israel adopted this name of the long-dead seafaring Greek Philistines and began calling themselves, “Palestinians,” ironically proclaiming themselves to be, “Invaders.”

Yoav's Ambush

After Yoav, David’s cousin and chief of staff, ambushes Avner, the late King Shaul’s defecting chief of staff, David launches into a dirge.  He curses Yoav’s family with the words, “May God repay the evildoer according to his evil.”  One interpretation could be that David thought Yoav might have been right to kill Avner, whose defection from his king and fellow Benjaminite to David, a Judean, might have been a ruse. If Yoav was wrong, he should be cursed, but if he was right, he did no evil and so there is no evil to be repaid.

David's Flight to the Philistines

The first time David flees Shaul to the Phillistine city of Gat, the townspeople begin to rumble against him despite his feigning insanity and he has to flee.  The second time, he is actually welcomed with open arms by King Achish, put in charge of a Phillistine city, and entrusted with military command.  One explanation for the Phillistine change of heart is that word of Shaul’s hunting David had not yet become public knowledge the first time he fled to Gat.  By the second time, the dispute was well known, and Achish thought he was spreading discord amongst his Israeli enemies by sheltering an upstart rebel, David.

Was the Necromancer for Real?

There are two schools of thought regarding King Shaul’s (Saul’s) use of the Necromancer to raise the spirit of Shmuel (Samuel) from the dead to inquire about his prospects against the Phillistine invasion force gathering at Beit She’an.  The rationalist school, followed by Rambam, Rashi, etc., holds that it was entirely an act of smoke and mirrors, and there is no reality to black magic or witchcraft.  The alternative school of thought, mostly Ramban and those with a more Kabbalistic bent, holds that dark forces are very much real, but Torah forbids using them.

Shaul and the Necromancer

When the Necromancer raises the spirit of Shmuel (Samuel) from the dead, who tells Shaul (Saul) that the kingdom will be taken from him and given to David, he falls on his face.  While we, the reader, knew about Shmuel’s secretly anointing David as king, and have all this time seen King Shaul as shamelessly hunting down his legitimate successor, for Shaul, this is the first time he has been told that David was chosen by God to be his successor all along.

David Loses his Tribe, but Gains the Northern Tribes

As David returns to the Land of Israel to rule again, one sees the division between Yehudah (Judah,) who are the last to send messengers to greet David, and Israel (the northern 10 tribes) who don’t hesitate to reinstate him again.  It is possible that Yehudah was nervous, seeing as how Avshalom’s rebellion began in Hebron, Yehudah’s capital city.  It’s ironic that the roles have now been reversed, with Israel embracing David while his own tribe of Judah seems to be wary.

Judging King Saul Favorably

Finished Shmuel Aleph (Samuel I.)  Personally I feel a great deal of sympathy for Shaul (Saul.)  He was a good boy looking for his dad’s lost sheep when suddenly Shmuel anoints him and proclaims him King of Israel, a position he never sought. He is seized suddenly by the divine spirit, which, after his failure at several critical moments for which he was unprepared, was ripped away from him, along with his kingdom.  He dies a gruesome death on Mount Gilboa after seeing his three sons killed in front of him. I think most of his actions can be justified.

Shaul's Tragedy

In reviewing the life of Shaul (King Saul,) I think of his story as a tragedy in the classical Greek sense, i.e. a noble hero with a tragic flaw that undoes him.  In Shaul’s case, I think of his flaw as a lack of respect.  He did not respect the monarchy enough to defend it against slanderers early in his reign, or to uphold several oaths he as king had made.  He did not respect the Shmuel’s instructions to wait for the prophet be present to make a sacrifice, or later to wipe out Amalek.  And he did not respect God’s decision, through Shmuel, to revoke his monarchy, and went down fighting.

Why We Have Prophets

Look at David’s rise from the perspective of a citizen of Israel at the time.  After 400 years of anarchy, Israel finally has a legitimate king, Shaul (Saul).  Then David becomes a better warrior than Shaul, moves in with and even serves militarily on the side of the Phillistines, gathers an army of 600 outlaws, he has an altercation with Naval, who mysteriously dies, and immediately marries Naval’s widow Avigayil.  If we didn’t have the prophets in Shmuel to tell us David’s motives were pure, we would be inclined to think the worst. This may explain why it took seven years from David’s coronation until his recognition as king by all the tribes of Israel.

Personally Responsible, National Responsibility

David offers to go to battle against his son Avshalom, but the people protest, because if he gets killed, what was the point of the war in the first place?  When Avshalom is killed, against David’s orders, he sobs and weeps over the loss of his son, even though it is his own victory and salvation.  In both cases, David evinces the tension between what he personally wants to go and do, and what the proper behavior of a king is.

Was the Mishkan Functional in Shaul's Time?

When David, fleeing the suspicious Shaul, comes to the Cohanim (Priests) of the Mishkan (tabernacle) at Kiryat Yearim, they offer him some of the Lechem Hapanim (Temple Bread,) which is forbidden to David, a non-Cohen, in Halachah (Jewish Law.)  One explanation is that David was starving and was fed only to save his life, permissible in Halachah.  However, I find this interpretation a bit difficult as he had been travelling a great deal already, seemingly without trouble, and because he took enough to last many days, which would seem to be going beyond the bare necessities of survival permitted by Halachah.  Another possible explanation is that the Mishkan at Kiryat Yearim was not fully functional so soon after the destruction of the Mishkan in Shiloh by the Phillistines, so the bread did not yet have the status of actual Lechem Papanim and exception could be made.

Avigayil the Eshet Chayil

When David is shamed by Naval he prepares to fight, but Naval’s wife Avigayil (Abigail) calms him down and reasons with him.  Ten days later Naval dies of natural causes (alcohol poisoning is implied,) and David marries Avigayil.  The text also says that he marries Achinoam, the same name as the wife of his now bitter enemy, Shaul (Saul.)  Coincidence?  It seems to imply that, by marrying the guy’s wife, he has completely defeated him (both Naval and Shaul.)

Personally, I think that David just realized that Avigayil had calmed him down, reasoned with him, and prevented him from doing something he would later come to regret.  All characteristics of a good wife, like mine!

Do What's Right in Your Own Eyes

Nachash the Ammonite threatens to shame the townspeople of Yavesh Gilead by blotting out their eyes, branding them as his slaves rather than God’s.  When Shaul gathers an army to fight back, the people of Yavesh Gilead respond, “Tomorrow we will fight you, do what’s right in your own eyes.”  A beautiful way of throwing Nachash’s words back at him.

The Seeds of Division

When Shaul (Saul) gathers an army to fight the Nachash the Ammonite, the army is numbered as 300,000 from Israel and 30,000 from Judea.  Apparently the seeds of the eventual division of the united monarchy of Shaul, David, and Shlomo (Solomon) into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judea upon the death of Shlomo 101 years later had already been sown from its inception.

Shaul's Three to David's Six

Shaul’s (Saul) army is always a number divisible by three (300,000 Israelites, 30,000 Judeans).  David’s is divisible by six (600 men.)  Shaul is listed as having one wife and three sons; David, upon his coronation, has two wives and six sons.  That David is always listed as having double what Shaul does seems to be a hint of David’s two-faceted monarchy, both military and spiritual, whereas Shaul’s was exclusively military.  The number three also appears repeatedly in Shoftim (the Book of Judges) hinting that Shaul was still connected to the anarchy of the past whereas David was able to make the break and become a divine monarch.

It's a Shame about Mephiboshet

One of Shaul’s descendants who was hanged by the Givonim was named Mephiboshet, yet earlier in the book (but later in time) David found Mephiboshet, son of Yonatan (Jonathan,) and took him into his court.  Apparently there were two Mephiboshets.  Incidentally, according to Divrei Yamim (The Book of Chronicles) the suffix “Boshet” was originally “Baal,” the Canaanite idol.  The prophetic authors of the text did a find-replace and switched, “Baal,” idol, with, “Boshet,” shame.  Shaul’s descendants seem to have fallen into shame in that they were naming their children after idols.

David's Appropriate Punishment

Following his affair with Bat Sheva, and his conspiracy to have Bat Sheva’s husband killed but made to look like an accident, the punishment meted out to him was measure for measure.  As he had committed sexual impropriety, not only was his daughter Tamar raped, but all of his concubines were violated by his son.  Much like Bat Sheva was first seen on the roof of her building, so too these violations occurred on the roof of the palace.  Just as David conspired to kill Uriah, so his son Avshalom conspired to kill him.  Just as Uriah died, so three of his sons died.

Whither Amalek?

Agag, the King of Amalek and final survivor of Shaul’s (King Saul) attack on them, is killed by Shaul.  How is it that the Amalekites reappear during David’s time?  One possibility is that Agag was king over just one tribe within the nation of Amalek.  Another possibility is that the work Amaleki comes to mean Amalek-like behavior; anyone who takes advantage of another’s weakness.

The Bat Sheva Affar: Forgiven, not Forgotten

After David’s son Amnon raped his daughter Tamar, David remained silent on the matter, apparently thinking that his own sin with Bat Sheva (Bathsheba) would open him up to the accusation that he was in no position to pass judgement.  This leads David’s son Avshalom to take matters into his own hands, which causes his eventual rebellion and death.  Even though the prophet Natan has declared that God forgave David’s sin, the consequences keep coming.  Apparently, to forgive is not the same as to forget.

Samuel Descends from Korah

Shmuel (Samuel) was the direct descendant of Korach, who led the rebellion against Moshe after the Torah was given.  Both had the middah (personality trait) of speaking back to power, Korach for personal gain, Shmuel for the benefit of the nation.  Shmuel was a tikkun (repair) for Korach’s actions.

When was David Annointed?

Shmuel (Samuel) secretly anoints David as king in chapter 16, and then the story jumps ahead to David, now an established warrior, playing the lyre to calm down Shaul.  Chapter 17 tells of the battle between David and Goliath which made David’s warrior reputation in the first place, and chronologically seems to fit in the middle of chapter 16. One explaination for the seeming discontinuity is that chapter 16 is the final chapter of Shmuel’s prophecy before he went into retirement, and the next author, the prophet Gad, picks up with David’s story a little bit earlier than Shmuel had left off.

David and Goliath; the Underlying Meaning

David comes to the battlefield finding Goliath taunting the Israeli army.  To paraphrase:

Goliath: You are all slaves of Shaul (King Saul.)  I have shamed you!

David (to the army): Are you guys going to let this uncircumcised Philistine talk to you like that?

What shame is he referring to?  Since a slave can’t have two masters, by accusing them of being slaves of Shaul, he implies they are not slaves of God, a major insult.  David brings up the fact that Goliath is uncircumcised, as circumcision is the “branding” of a slave of God, and reminding army of its true master.

The Rights of a King

When the people ask Shmuel (Samuel) to appoint a King of Israel, he threatens them that the king will conscript their sons for soldiering and labor, take women for servants, and confiscate their property.  It is noteworty that he does not threaten that the king will take their daughters as wives and concubines, given that this disregard for women’s rights was commonplace throughout the ancient world and appears repeatedly within the Tanach (bible.)  It seems that such licentiousness is completely unthinkable for a God-fearing person, even one with absolute power.

The loss of the Ark

When Eli heard that the Israeli army had been defeated by the Phillistines, he took the news like a man.  When he heard that both his sons were killed in the battle, he accepted it.  When he heard that the Phillistines had captured the ark, he fell to the floor, broke his neck, and died.  Pinchas’ wife has the same reaction and goes into labor and dies.  This seems to indicate a level of spiritual failure of the people, that the army was defeated with tremendous loss of life, yet what really caused grief and anguish was the loss of this inanimate object.

Hofni and Pinchas' Sins

The people complain that the sons of the Cohen Gadol (High Priest) Eli are accused of delaying people from making sacrifices at the Mishkan (tabernacle,) spearing the choicest meats from the sacrifices for themselves, and sleeping with the women who came to make sacrificial offerings.  Later, Eli confronts his sons about the first two accusations, but not the last.  This would seem to indicate that Eli investigated the accusations and found that the first two were true, but the accusations of sexual misconduct lacked merit.

Groups of Three

The book of Shmuel (Samuel) has as an underlying theme, the dynamic tension between groups of three.  First is the decline of the House of Eli the Cohen Gadol (High Priest) and his wayward sons Hofni and Pinchas set against the rising House of Tzuf with parents Elkana, Hannah, and their son Shmuel.  Later the ageing Shmuel and his two corrupt sons Aviyah and Yoel decline against the rising House of Shaul (Saul,) Shaul’s his son Yonatan (Johnothan,) and his chief of staff Avner (Abner.)  This is followed by the decline of the house of Shaul against the rising House of David with Evyatar, his Cohen Gadol, and Gad, his prophet.

Hannah's Song

When Channah (Hannah) goes to the Mishkan (tabernacle) in Shiloh to pray for fertility, she sings a poetic song, one of seven songs which appear in Tanach (the Jewish bible.)  Her song includes a prayer for children, but has many other references to wars, poverty and other things which don’t seem to be connected to Channah’s situation.  It is possible that this was a song which was generally used at that time in praying for children, even though it carried many other references, much like the Tehillim (Psalms) which are recited today for the same purpose.

Chanukkah Fun Fact

Hanukkah fun fact: Hanukkah literally means, “dedication,” celebrating the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem after a period of oppression.  When taking a college course on the ancient middle east, I asked Dr. Drake, my secular Gentile professor, why he thought the Jews had survived when all the other peoples the course was covering had long vanished.  To paraphrase his answer, “Simple.  When other peoples were defeated, they assumed their god was weak and their enemy’s god was strong, so they switched gods.  When the Babylonians hauled the Jews into slavery, they decided that their God hadn’t failed or abandoned them, rather they had failed and abandoned their God. It was a unique innovation that helped them rededicate and reenergize themselves in exile.”

Posting my Chiddushim

http://feeds.ou.org/TheOusNachYomi

In merit of Elisha Meir Refael Ben Devorah, my wife’s coworker’s son suffering from severe illness who should have a speedy recovery, as well as that the people of Israel should merit safety and security, about a month ago during the latest Gaza conflict I started learning through the OU’s Nach Yomi podcast.  You listen to one chapter per day of Nach (Prophets and Writings,) the final 19 books of the Jewish Bible, and over the course of two years you can complete the cycle and have a relatively in-depth understanding of the entire thing.  Each mp3 lesson is anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes long, about the length of my commute. Since they just started Ketuvim and are in Tehillim (Psalms) right now, I decided to keep up with the podcast on my drive to work, but learn Nevi’im (Prophets) when I’m on my way home to try to finish the cycle a bit faster, so I’m learning Sefer Shmuel (the  Book of Samuel) concurrently.  I will post interesting chiddushim (novel concepts) I hear here on my blog, Planet Israel.

Matzav Update: Boom Times?

When you hear the expression, “Israel is booming,” especially in the context of this month’s rocket barrage, it doesn’t usually have the same optimistic ring that it does other places.  If you keep up with the news, you know that Israel’s former ally, Turkey, decided to eschew its western orientation in exchange for fanatical Islam and has severed its Israel ties. Similarly Egypt, never an ally but for the last three decades at least a placated belligerent, experienced an American-supported coup d’etat that replaced a western-style secular dictator with a parliament of fundamentalists.  And Iran is, well, Iran.  All three formerly reliable states are now led by frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Semites, and everywhere in the neighborhood the population has decided to stampede off the cliff of Islamic fanaticism into an abyss of poverty and violence.

But on my recent visit, to Israel, I found that the main thing on people’s minds wasn’t the neighborhood going to hell, but the good times rolling. There are always problems, but when I read back to a post I wrote in December of 2001 titled, “Existential Threats,” outlining the nearly impossible problems faced by the country, the tables seem to be turning.

Terrorism: As long as the religious doctrine and cultural norms of Israel’s neighbors mandate the killing of non-believers to obtain spiritual fulfillment, there will be no end to attempted attacks.  However, since Israel reoccupied the territories, removed the leaders of the various terror gangs, built the security wall, and engaged in the occasional large-scale incursion, the bus bombings and shooting attacks as a part of daily life came to an end.  Some guards at the shopping mall gave me a bemused look when I emptied my pockets before passing through the metal detector.

Demography: The demographic bomb, the fear that a higher Arab birth rate will result in Arabs eventually outnumbering Jews, was once one of the threats used to shove the, “Peace Process,” forward.  Some fear that this future Arab majority would engage in a nonviolent movement gathering irresistible international sympathy for one-man-one vote, and they could then vote Israel into the grave.  It doesn’t seem to be in the cards, though, because over the last decade Arab birth rates have steadily declined, and Jewish birthrates have risen, to the point where they should reach parity in the next few years.  And the idea of a non-violent political movement in the Arab world is not realistic to those familiar with the culture.  The demographic bomb is a dud.

Secular-Religious Tension: The tensions between religious and secular society seem to be flaring up again, a sure sign that the country feels secure enough to begin fighting out its internal struggles.

Environmental Degradation: This is still a major problem, but it’s not existential.

Water Shortage: Israel is building a series of desalination plants to completely eliminate the need to tap into natural water resources.

Government Disorder: There are still a plethora of parties, but the country has been run by a stable Likud coalition for the last few years, and dominated by Likud for the past decade.  One no longer hears the concerns that Israel has become, “Ungovernable,” as one heard in 2000.

The real story, though, is that the economic crisis that has crippled the other developed economies of the world seems to have simply passed Israel by.  Unemployment is down to a historic record low of 5%, and one of my cousins put it, “Those 5% wouldn’t take a job if you made them.”  Meanwhile, while credit markets collapsed and GDP growth rates went negative the world over, Israel never experienced a recession, and annual GDP growth is now chugging away at 4%.  It has left everyone scratching their heads at this enormous stroke of good fortune.  People live in Israel because they are religiously inspired, want to be near their family, or want to be a part of a great national project.  Those who move here for economic reasons come from backwater economies like Ethiopia or Russia, not western countries.  It’s assumed that the economy will sputter along and hopefully cough up enough to cover the groceries.

I’m convinced that the reason for this sudden surge of growth is that Israel has avoided two silent catastrophes that are far more fatal to the western world, including America, than any “Existential Threat,” facing Israel.  The first is demographic.  Putting aside the 1960’s panic about overpopulation and just looking at the hard data shows that, in virtually every developed country, as well as many developing countries like China and Mexico, populations are rapidly shrinking.  This leads to a sharp decrease in consumption in the short term. Any parent will tell you how much it costs to raise a child.  In the longer term, for countries with social welfare systems, it seems to be leading inexorably toward societal collapse.  When these social safety nets were created, fertility rates were at four or five children per family, (i.e., two children per adult) so when these children grew to adulthood, each had to pitch in enough to cover half of an elderly person’s pension.  Today, with families in the other Mediterranean countries like Spain, Greece, and Italy having one child per family, it means that, in their old age, one child has to pitch in enough to cover two pensions.  It’s no coincidence that the countries with the lowest fertility rates are also those which are experiencing systemic financial collapse.  The United States seems to be heading in the same direction with ever-shrinking birth rates and ever-increasing medical costs and social programs.    Israel is the only OED country with a positive, and accelerating, fertility rate.

I believe that the second reason for Israel’s recent success is the, “Inverted Pyramid.”  The early Zionist visionaries noticed that, while most societies are constituted of a large pool of unskilled laborers at the bottom of the pyramid, and above them a smaller group of skilled laborers, above them a smaller still group of better educated, and on top a tiny group of elites, the demographics of the Jews in exile were the opposite.  One quarter of the Nobel prizes have gone to a population that constitutes one quarter of one percent of the world’s population.  Even amongst the heavily assimilated population in America 59% Jews have college educations, while only 27% of the general population does.  There was grave concern that forming a state from such an over-educated population would be impossible, with too many scientists and philosophers but nobody to hew the wood and haul the water.  Israel has always suffered from a brain drain as the economy could never fulfill the ambitions of its educated class.

Today, the game is changing.  The great systemic problem the other developed countries face today, beyond their insolvent social programs, is what to do with all of the unskilled or uneducated laborers who can’t compete with their low-wage counterparts abroad.  In Israel today, if you want to manufacture a high-tech product, you have a team of trained engineers design the part in Haifa, then send the plans to China to have it manufactured for sale in the West.  If you have an idea for a new software program, you start a company and flesh out the concept in Tel Aviv, then hire a team of software engineers in Bombay turn it into a completed product.  The curse of the, “Inverted Pyramid,” may gradually become a blessing.  Israel’s real challenge will be able to avoid the fate of America from 2000-2008, during which the economy grew by leaps and bounds but all of the new profits went to the upper crust while the standard of living declined for those who produced the wealth, the middle and working classes.

One topic of conversation which I never heard breached even once during my visit is the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.  Reading the papers, with the constant visits from Secretaries of State, UN big-wigs, and professional peace processors, and with the routine statements of outrage at, “Israeli intransigence,” coming from the White House, one would expect negotiations to be at the forefront of Israelis’ minds, and fears, yet it’s completely absent.

The peace process was seen by most Israelis as a bargain with the devil.  Declarations from the defeated Arabs and their western sympathizers mourning the, “Plight of the Palestinians,” did affect a few of Israel’s elite.  Everyone else remembered when the tables were turned, and the Arabs were massing armies on Israel’s borders and publicly screaming out their dreams of genocide back in 1967.  Very few middle-of-the-road Israelis felt guilt at averting the massacre, and certainly not of re-inhabiting those areas from which Jews had been expelled 19 years before.

The promise that sold the average Israeli in the 90’s was one of a golden age of peace and prosperity that would result from a negotiated settlement.  Diplomatic relations with Muslim countries and their allies, countries which had shunned Israel previously, would result in a wave of trade and prosperity, and peace would mean a smaller army which would consume far less of the national economy.  But events in Egypt, the nation to which Israel surrendered 56% of its total land mass in 1982 in exchange for a treaty, are yet another nail in the coffin of this ideology.  After all, what’s the point of signing a treaty and surrendering tangible assets to an unstable dictator when the treaty will simply be abolished once the dictator is swinging from the gallows after the next coup d’etat?  It’s not as if Israel can ask for the land back.  The current American administration’s hostility toward Israel may be  more a byproduct of a world view thoroughly discredited by the last 20 years of real-world events than a realistic path forward.  Since nobody wants to be the one who told the emperor he has no clothes, the government’s job is to run interference, to keep the White House’s delusions placated with make-believe negotiations while the rest of Israel goes about its business.

The reality was that the left-wing politicians bequeathed a legacy of violent terror and economic ruin when they left office in 2001.  Politics in a democratic society comes down to giving people what they want.  With election season coming up, the right has provided the prosperity and the relative calm, if not peace, that Israelis crave.  The left is going to have to search long and hard to find something of value to offer the mainstream, or stay in the minority for as many election cycles as it takes to find it.

Visiting the LubavitcherORebbe: The Ohel

After visiting 770, I took a trip to visit the Ohel, "The Tent," where the Lubavitcher Rebbe is buried next to the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, his father in law.

A Chabad-run bus stops in front of 770 and delivers Hassidim to the Ohel, with a screen playing videos of the Rebbe giving his sermons on the way over.

The bus from 770 to the Ohel

Visiting the Ohel

Chabad purchased a house abutting the cemetery.

Lubavitchers milling about at the entrance to the Ohel

When the Rebbe was alive, it was customary to write him for advice or guidance on personal matters. Upon his passing, the custom continued.  Letters are written in the house and then brought out his grave site.

Writing Letters to the Rebbe

One of the ways I studied Hebrew was by reading middle school-level books about the Rebbe.  From these books, I got to know the names of many of the people surrounding the Rebbe, so it's fascinating to walk through the cemetary and see many of the graves of those about whom I read.

Rabbi Chodakov, the Rebbe's Secretary

The Grave of Chayya Mushke, the Rebbe's Wife

When I entered the Ohel, many people were deep in prayer, and I decided that it would be inappropriate to start snapping photographs and possibly disrupt their concentration.  After all, a cemetery isn't a tourist site.

The Ohel is the stone structure up ahead

770: A Visit to Chabad's Headquarters

In August of 2008, I took a trip to New York on my way to the west coast, and stopped over at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, a sort of headquarters of Chabad Lubavitch. I was taken on a tour by Rabbi Dov Ber Berkowitz, a Chabadnik friend of mine from my pre-aliyah days, and now the rabbi at Chabad of the Delta (back in California.)

770 Eastern Parkway, Chabad's Nerve Center

770 started out life as just another building.  Purchased by the Lubavitch (Chabad) Hassidim, it became the residence of the Rebbe, a synagogue, and eventually, the geographical center of Lubavitch's outreach movement.  Who would have thought that this insignificant-looking building would be the center for thousands of outreach centers worldwide.



At the time of my visit, it was the three weeks (a period of mourning for the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem) when we don't shave.  By the time I landed in New York, I was sporting a full beard.

Donning tefillin in 770

The basement of 770 has been completely excavated.  Later, Chabad purchased the adjascent buildings and  merged all of their basements into one giant underground synagogue.

The Beit Midrash at 770

Later, when the Rebbe passed on, the Mishichists (those who believe that the Rebbe is still alive and is the Moshiach) took over the Beit Midrash and decorated it to taste, while the above-ground portions remained under non-Mishichist auspices.

Mishichist Decorations and Declarations in 770

Immediately after the Shoah (Holocaust,) as the survivors of Europe's brutality straggled into the United States, Lubavitcher Hassidim began to regroup.  Originally, all of them could daven in this small Beit Midrash, not to be confused with the enormous Beit Midrash in the basement.

The Original Beit Midrash

It's hard to believe that the Chabad of today, with its tens of thousands of followers, could have started from such modest beginnings.

Outside of the Beit Midrash is a small plaza where weddings are held.

A Plaza at 770 where Lubavitch weddings are held

And across the street is the newly opened Chabad Children's Museum.

The Chabad Children's Museum

Entrance to the Chabad Children's Museum

This being Chabad, you can always find hard liquor, even at 9 o'clock in the morning.

Birkat HaChama

Here are some photos of Birkat HaChama (the blessing of the sun) which I took back in April of 2009.  The next one isn't for a couple of decades.

In Judaism, there are some mitzvot you do three times a day, like tefillah (prayer.) Some come once a week, like shabbat (sabbath,) some once a month, like Birkat Levanah (the blessing of the new moon) some once a year, like the fast on Yom Kippur (the day of atonement.) Some come once in a lifetime, like a wedding (well, hopefully only once.) And some come once in history, like Hashem's directive to the Jewish slaves in Egypt that they slaughter a lamb on the eve of Pesach.

At Chabad of Baka, getting ready for Birkat HaChama

One of the rarer mitzvot is Birkat HaChama (The blessing of the sun.) Once every twenty eight years, the planets and sun are aligned exactly as they were at the instant of the creation of the sun, at least according to the biblical narrative. At the sight of this unusual and wondrous occurrence, one is to recite Birkat Chama. Birkat HaChama happened to fall on Erev Pesach (Passover Eve) this year, so in addition to all the other holiday preparations, tens of thousands flocked to the Old City of Jerusalem to perform the mitzvah.

Yours truly, dragged out of bed for Birkat Chama

Reading the bracha sheet.

The sun is in position.  It's go time!

Back at Blogging

I don't know if any of my old readers still come to this website, as it's been quite some time since I posted regularly, but I'm thinking it's time to dust off the 'ol website and add some material.  Since I've been living outside of Israel, there is really nothing spectacular to write about.  But this blog, which I built with my own ten fingers over the last decade, seems to have become something of an internet resource for those interested in Land of Israel related information.  Often, friends who are searching for information about The Battle of Givon or the Temple Mount end up on this blog after a google search and are surprised to find a picture of me right there looking back at them. In fact, it gets something like 60 hits a day right now.

Well, I still have huge backlogs of photographs from tiyulim I went on which I never had the time to publish. My memory is probalby a little rusty from a couple of years ago, but I can still throw together some additional posts with my backlog of material.

I will also be visiting Israel in a month, so I'm looking forward to perhaps even adding some new material.

I also have an ulterior motive.  Those who read my posts may remember that I had started learning to paint. Back then, I only made a few paintings but it stuck in my head as something I would like to work on more some day.  A few months ago, I decided that "some day," would never come on its own, so if I wanted to start painting, I had better get going, so I did!  And what better subject could there be for painting than the Land of Israel and its people.  I started a separate website for my Paintings of Israel.  Right now, it is still in "testing" phase.  I plan to begin uploading actual posts of my artwork in January.  But I would like to update this blog with as many posts as possible, and use these posts as references for the places I paint for those who want more information.  So off we go!  Stay tuned.

Response to Comment

One of the joys of having put together the body of work "Planet Israel" is that, even though I am not posting very frequently, I still get about 30-60 hits a day.  That's more than I got even when I was regularly posting!  People searching for information on this settlement or that biblical site, are directed by Google to the blog.  I'm glad to know I've been able to make some positive effect, however small.

And then there's people like Khalid:

KHALID AWRTA has left a new comment on your post "Shomron Trip IV: Itamar": 

On the past and for the futuer this land will be for us 
sons of AWARTA 
WE NEVER FORGET OUR HOME 
YOU CAME TO OUR LAND YOU DESTROY OR HOME YOU KILLS OURE SONS YOU MAKE US refugee
BUT WE WILL BUCK TO OUR COUNTRY PALESTINE 
FREE DOMME FO PALESTNE 

Hmmmm.  Interesting.  You speak a language (Arabic) which is native not to the Levant.  Your ancestors colonized this land after invading from the Arabian Peninsula.  Assuming that you are not one of the few remaining Christians not driven into exile by the Palestinian Authority, you face Mecca, a city hundreds of miles from here, when you pray.  Even in the very post you commented on, there are photographs of rock-solid archaeological proof of a Jewish presence on this land thousands of years before your ancestors arrived.  Do you really think you are going to convince anyone by shouting?  The past and the future of this land is Jewish.  Deal with it or go home.

Full Speed Ahead

It’s not that I have nothing to say, merely that I haven’t the time to say it. In the last two years, I’ve been laid off, tried to start a company, got hired, met my wife, proposed to my wife, planned a wedding, got laid off again, got married, moved countries, and drove 3,000 miles to a new city. I’ve held four different jobs in the last two years, and my wife and I explored fourteen cities in fifteen states and once Canadian province over a period of two months.

After rolling into Houston, a city of friendly Jews, a low cost of living, and even a few jobs, we decided to weigh anchor. We rented an apartment on a month-to-month basis, furnished down to the beds and linens, which was perfect since all we had was the clothing, laptops, and cup o’ noodles we could fit into our car. After dropping $170 at the dollar store on bowls, an ironing board, paper towels, and all the other necessities of apartment living, it was time to hit the job market.

Economists tell us we’re in the worst recession since the sixth day of creation, so it’s no longer good enough to just post a resume here and there and expect a job to magically come and find you. I started pounding the ground, shaking every hand and meeting everyone who would sit down with me for a conversation. I probably spent eight or nine hours a day visiting job fairs, making cold calls to potential contacts, meeting in networking groups, visiting professional organization gatherings, and practicing my elevator pitch. Eventually, it paid off, and I managed to get the job I was looking for. I’m now working for an environmental-oriented ESCO (energy services company.) We work on energy generation and conservation, as well as green technology projects. We show large municipalities and companies how to retrofit their existing facilities to save power, or generate power locally and sell it back to the grid, or any other number of engineering projects that come through the door. On the down side, the salary is low and I'm working 10-hour days, and a few hours on Sundays too. On the plus side, it’s a small firm with only four engineers, but it has great potential, and I’m gaining experience in all sorts of new fields of engineering that are expecting rapid growth over the coming years. The company is very growth-oriented (the CEO is an Enron survivor and has managed multimillion dollar projects in the past) and if the growth curve for energy conservation and renewable technology continues as it has over the last five years, it's a good thing to be getting in on the ground floor.

Meanwhile, my wife continued searching, and found her dream job working in Kiruv, Jewish outreach, a couple of weeks ago. She's still learning the ropes there, but we hope to be able to take everything we learned in Jerusalem and spread the knowledge here where it's most needed.

If I could sum up my feelings about life in Israel toward the last few months I was there, I'd say I felt like I had reached a personal dead end. Not that the spiritual magnetism or the feeling of living with purpose had gone away, but I had a sense I personally wasn't having an effect. The settlements and hilltops are turning people away, the army didn’t want anyone over twenty five, and all of Israel’s green technology firms, despairing of working with the Israeli government, found themselves building projects abroad. I had the feeling of having, through great effort and sacrifice, transformed myself into a cog in a machine that had already been retired. The lack of ability to get out of my one-bedroom closet-sized apartment, or even pay the rent without digging into savings, was the clincher.

I still have that flame in me though. I miss learning Tanach while standing on the spot where it happened, I miss seeing that same soul in a million faces of every color, and most of all I miss my friends and family. My aliyah engine may be on idle but the pilot light is still lit, and I’ve got enough fuel to make the long haul back one more time. I have big plans and great ambition, and I’m looking forward to what the future has to bring, and what I can bring to the future.

At the seashore in Kemah, Texas

Planet Israel Sells Out to Cash In

It's been a while since I blogged, and probably almost a year since I was writing my daily posts.  And yet I've posted such a body of work that I still get 60 or 70 hits a day, more than I used to get even when I was writing daily.  People scouring Google for information on El Jib, or the Jordan Valley, or any of the other myriad of places I've been, still find themselves wandering in to Planet Israel due to the vast amount of writing and pictures I've posted.  I've been unemployed long enough that I've started to search for new sources of income, so I've decided to sell out to google and start posting google ads on my site. Maybe my labors will get me enough cash for another tank of gas.

In my personal life, I've descended from the holy land for the time being, but I'm still having adventures and I still want to write about them.  Since I'm no longer in Israel, I think that posting to a blog called "Planet Israel" would probably be a bit of a misnomer.  So I'm starting a new blog called "Adventures in Exile."  It's still in the preliminary stages, but we plan on driving cross-country and posting from our pit-stops and layovers while we travel from place to place and seek adventure and employment.  And I still have gigabytes worth of photographs from my Israeli travels, tours which I just never had the time to post.  Maybe if someday I find a cushy government job with loads of free time, or if we can find a kosher soup kitchen with wi-fi, I'll finally have the time to post the Planet Israel archives.  Until then, tune in to Adventures in Exile, and keep an eye on Planet Israel!

Climbing El Cap'

The day after our wedding, the phonecalls stopped. No more hectic caterers, confused florists, irate wedding planners, sobbing relatives, or lost guests. Just the two of us in marital bliss. After weeks of sleeping past noon, we got on a normal schedule and began sorting through the heaps of wedding presents, plus all her stuff, plus all my stuff. Trying to cram it all into our tiny rental apartment has forced me to purge my wardrobe of all articles of clothing over seven years of age, begin selling some of my five computer systems, and haul out bag after bag of miscellaneous junk to the trash. It’s hard to believe I landed in this country three years ago with just two suitcases.

Leaving America with all my belongings.

Purging my possessions has caused me to try to organize myself mentally as well. What are my new life goals now that the big one, marriage, is squared away? Rambam (the 11^th century Jewish sage Maimonades) lists the proper order of one’s life goals as: Parnassah (income,) Bayit (home,) Ishah (wife.) In plainer talk, get yourself a job and a roof over your head before you think about getting married. In my 31 years on this planet, I have never actually owned my Bayit, always rented. In Israel, I have been homeless several times, living off the hide-a-beds and eating out of the fridges of friends and relatives for a month or more until I could find a new apartment. While vagrancy is tolerable for a rough-and-ready single, it would be a nightmare to drag my family through that. I need to own an apartment.

A compensating factor for the diminished personal wealth of life here is the feeling of total ownership. In Israel, even the sky is Jewish. I don’t need a castle with a five acre lawn because all the hills, streets, and trees around me are already mine. Still, I would like to have four walls and a roof of my own, to have my life beyond the whims of my landlord.

Personal finance in Israel, at least for most people, involves finding some way to scrape by. It is possible to pay the rent and bills, but it’s unusual to be able to get ahead. The cost of living for basic items (milk, eggs, busfare, etc.) is approximately the same as in the United States. Any luxury items, such as quality shoes, deodorant, a computer, or my car (which I have now sold,) are typically double to triple their cost in the United States. Meanwhile, my salary here is half to a third of what it was in the United States. A low-cost apartment in the settlements goes for at least $200,000, and a place in the outskirts of Jerusalem goes for a minimum of $300,000, and since down payments are typically 30%-40%, my down payment would be from $66,000 to $100,000. Based on a simple calculation of our earning potential versus expenses, it would take us anywhere from twelve to sixteen years to save up this amount, ignoring the effects of inflation. And that doesn’t include times like now, when I’m unemployed watching my savings bleed away. Also, while as a new couple it is possible to save up money, as time goes on and there are, God willing, more and more mouths to feed, saving anything in this country becomes impossible.

Our original plan was to give it a year and try to find something that paid better than my job at the solar power startup company. Then, five months ago, I was laid off. I’ve been to a couple of job interviews that looked really hopeful, to the point that one manager told me, “You are the ideal candidate. I’m flying to Austin next week to sign a contract, and when I come back, I’ll have an offer for you.” Having not heard from him in some time, I asked around. Turned out the company didn’t get the contract and was in a nose dive, shedding employees. I’ve reaped similar sour grapes from my other job interviews. It seems that, at least as far as I’m seeing, Israel is just too small a market for large, stable engineering firms. If they exist, they sure aren’t hiring. I’m sure that if I continue to apply myself, I can eventually land another six-month gig at another green-tech startup till it flops or is sold.

The question of leaving Israel temporarily to work and save is an option I’ve considered for some time and my feelings are mixed. Nobody comes to Israel to get rich, they come to satisfy a spiritual and ideological impulse, and to live with family. On religious terms, there is simply no comparison to the potential for spiritual growth in an environment with endless options for Torah study, the highest levels of kashrut, and a culture rooted in Jewish life. While I could sacrifice a few years of this growth on a personal level, there is a national aspect to living here as well. Living in Israel isn’t just another lifestyle choice, like dropping into Paris or London for a few years. I still haven’t lost the inspiration of participating in the restoration of the Jewish homeland and repatriation of its exiled natives after thousands of years of wandering. If every Jew were to base his or her decision to stay or leave on financial grounds alone, this country would be abandoned and revert to the deserted ruins it was under Muslim rule. Then again, if working abroad for a while helps me anchor myself here more permanently, then it could be a worthy sacrifice.

There is a reasonable case to be made for either sticking it out or going back into the diaspora for a while, and so I asked Hashem to affect my ratzon, my will, to push me in the right direction. In the end, my ratzon is pushing me to jump through this window of opportunity.

In Yosemite, I remember once speaking with a mountain climber who had scaled El Capitan, at over 3,500 feet, the tallest shear cliff in the world. At certain points on his ascent, he could anchor his equipment into the granite face and lower himself down by pulley, and then hoist himself back up to the same spot the next day. Walking into a bar in the evenings, his friends asking him what he was up to, he would answer, to their bemusement, "Right now, I'm climbin' El Cap'."

El Capitan

And so am I. Aliyah, literally "Ascent" is a process. When I landed here three years ago, I never thought I would have to leave again, but I'm not giving up on my Aliyah by a long shot. I have my family, friends, and connections, and I have some idea of how life works in this country. It may be a few months or a few years before I'm back permanently, but I can pick up life where I left off, I view this as part of the process.

So, on November 2^nd, wifey and I are going on a voyage. We will land on the East Coast, spend some time with my wife's family and purchase a used car. After visiting cities in the east, we will begin driving cross-country. We will stop in various communities across the United States and Canada getting to know one another’s family, seeing the sights, visiting those who could not attend our wedding, and hunting down job leads, until we reach my family in the Pacific Northwest. I’m confident we can find something, but even if we don’t, at least we’ll know we didn't let the opportunity pass by. And I won’t forget to write.

More on Student Loans and Defaults

I've been having a conversation with Zapporah over my previous post on the Student Loan Scam.

I think it deserves its own post here, since this is an important issue which affects people for their entire lives.

Zapporah said...
Please answer me this... I just graduated college and I am moving to Israel in just a few months. Can I escape these high loan amounts in Israel? What will happen to my credit rating in Israel? Is it the same as in Canada with the new social number? What will the repercussions be for me in Israel?Thank you so much for this article.
8:49 PM

Ephraim said...
Hi Zapporah,There is no such thing as a credit history in Israel. At this time, lenders do not persue delinquent debtors outside of the United States. Also, there is no debtors' prison or anything like that, so you can fly back and visit as desired. Please note, however, that as of the writing of this comment, there is still no bankruptcy or statute of limitations on student loans. Therefore, if you default, and then you return to the U.S. after 20 years, your debt collectors will be waiting for you. Also, over the next 20 years, there could be a change in finance laws which makes it easier to persue debtors abroad. Nobody really knows which direction this will go. But for now, you will be safe from the loan collectors.

Zapporah said...
Ephraim, thanks. I signed up for as many classes as possible to get out of school in 18 months so I didn't have to pay more money. I knew my end date would be in June, but it kept coming up for Sept and no one could answer me why. I ended up being charged $3,000 more for the 3 months they added on because they didn't put me in more classes to get out of school by June which I signed up for. I was fully prepared to pay the $15,000+ amount but after reading this and getting $3k+ tacked onto my bill, no way am I going to start repayment. I will try for one more month to get the school to wipe the $3k off and if they don't, I'm out. Thanks a lot.


And Ephraim Says:

So basically, your college ripped you off. This is actually somewhat unsurprizing. Many colleges are now run more like businesses than educational institutions, and with a profit motive involved, inevitably there will be crooks and thieves in the mix.

However, please bear in mind one thing. If the college goes forward with charging you $3,000, then they will probably just take the money straight from the lender, unless you can find some way to convince the lender not to send the money to the university. Basically, if you default, the odds are that the university will get the money regardless.

If you do default, keep in mind that this debt will balloon with late fees and astronomical interest rates. They will not be able to come after your income as long as you are here in Israel. However, they will be able to sieze your tax returns (you still have to file tax returns from Israel to the United States every year, even if you are abroad.) That means that things like the stimulus checks or any other sort of money you would ordinarily receive on your tax returns would be lost.

More importantly, if say in ten or twenty years, should you decide to return to the United States, even if just to work for a few years, the creditors will come after you and attempt to garnish your earnings.

My own opinion is that people who are trapped in this hellish mess of massive and unrepayable debt should flee the United States as a last resort. However, this has dire personal consequences and probably shouldn't be undertaken unless the debt is so crushing that it is impossible to repay.

It's just a good idea to think about the ramifications of a decision which will affect the rest of one's life.