"Leaving on a Jet Plane," Last Month's Voices Article

Written for Voices Magazine

Voices from Shiloh

Leaving on a Jet Plane

By Batya Medad

Tammuz
July, 2011

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. It’s time for the big “kibbud av v’em” mitzvah. And now that means flying all the way to Arizona. Last year my son and I took my father to reunite with my mother in Arizona near my sister. The year before I flew to New York and brought my father here on aliyah since there was nobody who could take care of my father. My mother was in the hospital, and the plan was for her to join him here. Now, I try not to make plans.

I couldn’t sleep last night. There are all sorts of “minor details” concerning this upcoming visit I still haven’t taken care of. It’s rather insane. My bags are pretty much packed. That’s the “easy part.”

It’s always hard for me to leave Shiloh and Israel. Each time gets worse. I just can’t imagine what my life would have been like if I hadn’t made all the changes I made, very much following G-d’s commandments to Avram in Lech Lecha:

א וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-אַבְרָם, לֶךְ-לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ, אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ. 1 Now the LORD said unto Abram: 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee.

Not that many years ago, such a move would be very permanent with almost no contact with one’s old, former world. But today is both easier and more difficult. We have phones, internet and that jet plane…

Have a good and safe summer.