Having recently celebrated Israel Independence Day, it is an appropriate time to review some basic understandings and laws that are often neglected in the Diaspora. This neglect is due to the fact that for nearly 2000 years, we were scattered over the world, without a...

Aliyah and Making a Living When I am not writing, or translating books, or teaching, I make movies. Recently, I received a letter from a reader who is contemplating Aliyah: “I am a professional film producer based in NY who is exploring the option of aliyah.  My only...

Exile or Aliyah? – That is the Question The first Chief Rabbi of Israel, HaRav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, received a letter asking if it was a mitzvah to settle in the Land of Israel. Rabbi Kook answered, "I am amazed at the question. How can one possibly have a...

“The Land that I Will Show You” In the article on the mitzvah of Aliyah, we will explore some halachic questions about the journey itself. Before making Aliyah, Rabbi Mordechai Tzion was Rabbi of Kehilat Ohr Tzion, in Buffalo, NY. In Israel, he has translated several...

Not Even on the Radar In Part 2 of our series on Aliyah, we will hear from a few more former American Rabbis now living in Israel. But first, it is interesting always edifying to hear what Gedolim have said about the mitzvah of living in Israel. It is told that Rabbi...

Where is the Aliyah from America? If you ask a Chabadnik in Crown Heights why he doesn’t move to Israel, he is likely to answer that he loves Eretz Yisrael, and that the Rebbe spoke out strongly against proposals to surrender parts of the Land for peace, and that many...