Decision to Discontinue This Blog (For now)

I've decided to discontinue this blog for the moment, and not just because I have no time, and want to spend as little as possible of my time on the internet - though both of those things are true.

I've decided to discontinue this blog, because I made aliyah - and that means that I have committed myself, one hundred percent, to Israel. This does not mean that her flaws have gone away, or that I no longer see them, but it does mean that I am not willing to sit here, going over her flaws with a microscope, and broadcasting them to the world. To me, commitment implies intimacy, and - the Hebrew phrase is "a good eye"* - I will define it as: a conscious effort to see everything, even the flaws, in a positive light.

This does not mean ignoring the problems of Israeli society - if anything, part of the reason I made aliyah was to help solve those problems - but solving those problems does not, for me, at this current time, necessitate blogging about them. If anything, I think one of the most positive ways we can impact a society, is by moving there, and being the best people we can be, and raising our kids to have the values we would like to impart onto society. (A friend of mine wrote a great blog-post about macro vs micro changes in society, that I wanted to link to, but I can't find it!)

Anyhow, this is not to say that I've stopped being critical or cynical - for goodness sakes, I sometimes read advice columns just so I can secretly laugh at the people writing in, and I recently attended a comedy show about the Holocaust. (It was Jews doing the joking, so it was ok.) But I don't want to live a life that focuses on criticism, or on cynicism - because I believe that one of the best ways we can serve God, one of the best ways we can help society, is by being happy, for it is from joy that kindness flows. **

So I want to wish us all, more joy than any of us could ever imagine, and let us use this joy, to serve God and to help each other.

Thank you for reading, and I am always happy to be cynical in person, over a cup of coffee :)


* Ethics of the Fathers, Chapter 2, Mishnah 12. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakay asks his students which is the good way for a person to follow. The responses are: Rabbi Eliezer - a good eye. Rabbi Joshua - a good friend. Rabbi Yosse - a good neighbor. Rabbi Shimon - one who weighs the outcomes of his actions. Rabbi Elazar - a good heart. Rabbi Yochanan rules that "a good heart" is the right answer, because it includes all of the answers given by the other students. For the text in Hebrew: http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/h/h49.htm
** עבדו את ה בשמחה באו לפניו ברננה (תהילים ק: ב)
תהילים ב: יא - עבדו את ה בשמחה, גילו ברעדה
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