Tzvi Yehezkeli: "When Hidabroot Offered Me a Journey to America – I Immediately Said No." Here’s Why

Sometimes a person is unaware of their own story, the power of their personal story.

In general, the whole concept of sanctifying Hashem's name is a vast world, one that I never truly understood if what is said is indeed what exists. Whether words of Torah and encouragement, as happens in this column for over four years and in various weekly portions – whether it does the job? Is this Hashem's desire for me?

This point arises every so often in seclusion.

Blessed be Hashem, is this the role you assign me in the world? I try to find evidence in reality for the claim. Sometimes I find it, and sometimes I'm left in the fog of life. Not everything is always clear, but now more than ever, the necessity of this work is clear to me. The tumultuous streets and the battle over reform can mislead. For me, it's not a battle over one clause or another about the power of the Supreme Court. The battle is an ancient one that sharpens the distinction between Israelis and Jews.

Both Israelis are Jews and Jews are Israelis, yet there's still a chasm here. Why? Because the question is like anything in life: What are your priorities? Who are you? Like the assailant from Jenin asked me, planning to seek revenge and eliminate another Jew. I said, I'm not a Jew; I'm an Israeli. His laughter only clarified the problem. In our enemies' eyes, we are Jews, and each one adjusts his religious identity on his value ladder. In our neighbors' eyes, this is a top priority. To them, we're Jews. Whether we like it or not, the world's division is religious. The conflict is religious, and everything that happens here is because of each one's roots of faith.

Indeed, it's hard to accept this, especially against all the Western theories marketing nation as identity as if religion was forgotten in the Middle Ages. On the streets, there's a battle over identity, as a maturing child has ceased fighting for his place and asks who he is. There's such a moment in life when you ask yourself, who am I? And if you don't ask, someone will tell you who you are. The wisdom is to preempt identity before the blow. There's no Israeli without Jewish roots; otherwise, what are we doing here? There is a Jew with an Israeli and also with an American because the root is Jewish. The street fight today is over whether an Israeli can stand alone with the Supreme Court without roots, or if Judaism is necessary.

I no longer have a question; I passed my maturity phase, and my identity question was set in stone. This will happen to everyone as long as the wars against Jews continue. Once everyone understands this, there will be no need to take to the streets but rather to sit together and be happy to not be made a gentile, rejoicing that Hashem's providence over us will not disappear until the good end of this world.

***

When contacted by the 'Hidabroot' organization to travel among Jewish communities in the United States, mainly those of Israelis who left the country, I immediately said no. Why? Because who said I could strengthen anything or anyone at all? There's no research proving how many people repented from watching a journalist who became religious with a beard and a yarmulke. There's no proof for the entire theory of sanctifying Hashem's name. It's also not the time to leave the country; there are important things here. It's certainly no more important than tending to my seven children, especially before Ramadan, which is expected to turn into jihad.

That's roughly how I answered the phone, thinking that was the end of it, but Nir Germa, the organization's deputy director, didn't give up. "This is exactly why you need to go to these communities. You don't know the impact you can make, because the situation in the country is already crying out to the heavens." Exactly the reasons I listed, just flipped on the positive side. "Consider that if someone hears your story from the time you wore a keffiyeh and roamed among Arabs to the yarmulke on your head broadcasting live, that's the story of all of us." I tried to dismiss this argument, but he insisted, and in the forest with Hashem, I had no better answers. Maybe things are so tough that I can help somehow? What? To such an extent? Apparently, yes.

I always relied on my wife at such moments to say she couldn't be left alone for so long, then we'd definitively drop the matter. But she said the opposite. If from one lecture, a Jew will be saved from assimilation, or if someone meeting you thinks differently about life, leave aside tefillin and Shabbat – even for a thought of repentance, it's worth going. More clearly than that, there isn't, and so it was.

One round before Rosh Hashanah and a second round last week with a schedule that reminded me of basic training. A few hours of sleep, flying from one destination to another within the United States, a lecture, and a chat with anyone who wants, including patient selfies, prayers with a quorum, and eating during rushed trips. In short, only the time of seclusion and the mikvah reminded me of my previous schedule, the rest was a crazy journey to save Jews. Yes, that's how they view it, truly.

After meeting with hundreds of Jews, including those who call themselves Israelis or Americans, I realized how much a simple story of someone who returned to religion through news events he was involved in can be beneficial. Last week, I received proof of how the reality around us, not only is not understood there in the United States but how Western thinking daily crushes the soul's yearning for more regard, for a different reality. In my case, the keffiyeh was the factor that prominently brought about the yarmulke, and in America, it turns out this story has many significant implications.

In each community, there's a different composition but one common denominator: reality doesn't sit well with the heart. Something doesn't fit in the worldview. The absence of blessed be Hashem and faith creates voids even in the most comfortable places to live. People travel towards their goals, dreams, careers, and businesses, but in my eyes, all these are almost unconscious quests to fill a missing part that cannot be defined and has one name for those who know their journey: it's a journey searching for blessed be Hashem, even if you don't know it and especially if you even disdain it. Why? Because that’s how it is for a Jew.

***

Search can manifest in various explanations, but at the root, every Jew desires blessed be Hashem. He can take to the streets to shout against it, but his soul waits patiently until… perhaps someone won't talk to him about Judaism but about the news, the Middle East, Palestinian terror, and the clash of cultures. And then that someone will tell him about the ancient choice he made: simplicity, faith, and Judaism. That's it. He won't convince, won't surround the truth, and neither the brother of the truth. Just like that.

With my own eyes, I've seen what it does. Hashem sent me from the forest in Bat Ayin to Dallas and Las Vegas, to Miami and Silicon Valley, to understand that sanctifying Hashem's name is the smallest sign or the smallest word with the greatest effect. That's how it is in spiritual worlds when good desires cross the ocean faster than an El Al plane. In every place I landed, I met a community rabbi who himself started to bring Jews closer. As always, it happened by chance, growing into dimensions where Jews began attending synagogues, Selichot, Shabbat, conversion. Just to see and truly not believe how much sacrifice Jews have for Jews.

Everywhere I heard unnatural stories about Israelis who went to make money in the United States and somehow encountered the Jewish identity knocking on their hearts. Jews of all kinds; businessmen, high-tech professionals in San Francisco, and grandmothers who traveled six hours by bus to Dallas to hear about the news and didn’t notice that every piece of news also has spiritual conclusions. Or in the lecture's language – any Jew starting with a keffiyeh will finish with a kippah and not by force.

***

On the way back home, I realized not only how necessary it was but how many Jews awaken from this reality, how many thoughts of repentance exist at any given moment worldwide. How blessed be Hashem provides our nation with a remedy at the time of diagnosing the illness, how faith holds, and all this behind the news.

Jews in the United States observe our country in the news and there, as a resident kibbutznik from Los Angeles explained to me, "The sanctification and synagogue are natural for me here; in the country, there is no chance I would behave this way." Their children in American universities receive daily reminders of their Judaism thanks to Palestinians and the BDS community, and slowly the empty spaces in the heart fill. Blessed be His name, none of His are forsaken. Here again, the conflict brings us closer even overseas.

At the end of the round, Nir, who has worked in the field of bringing people closer for twenty years, told me the lecture attracts entirely different audiences from the regular audiences of Hidabroot and Chabad Houses. The news attracts the most distant circles to come and listen. Both news and a personal conclusion from a news person. After all, what's newer than a soul? Apparently, I no longer have questions about the need for such lectures. Everyone has their audience waiting for them.

That's how it is; the doubt in the forest turns into an unequivocal answer, primarily starting with a starting point: blessed be Hashem, I know nothing, but if you think I can help some Jew out there, I'm going! Especially since you already convinced my wife who agreed to the idea, even on our wedding anniversary. Well, is there anything clearer than this?

It's unclear who was more strengthened, me or them. It doesn't matter; the main thing is the desire to understand that being a Jew is a world full of surprising adventures every time anew, only if he understands it.

A small taste of the journey: