We were born here!

January 1, 2011
By Nurit Greenger
As the story goes…, a small town in Europe nestled at the feet of a very high and steep mountain.
From year to year, from generation to generation, a challenging custom was passed along. The residents of the town made it their challenge to accomplish, to climb to the top of the mountain.
Each year, as far as the town residents could remembered, another group of climbers attempted, unsuccessfully, to reach the top of the mountain. While doing the climbing, lives were lost too.
After each failed climbing attempt, the people studied their mistakes, perfected their climbing techniques and then applied all their newly gained climbing wisdom to their next climbing attempt to conquer the peak of their mountain.
Then one year, finally, a group of enthusiast, young climbers safely reached the peak of the mountain.
As they were catching their breath, while basking in the glory of nature and enjoying the wonders of the view below, a young boy approached them.
The boy observed them as they stared at him taken back with astonishment.
How did you get here, one of the men asked the boy?
The boy, looking puzzled, said, I live here and pointed to the wooden house at the end of the shining sunray.
So can Jews reply when asked, 'how did you get to the land of Israel?' Their reply: 'it is our homeland, we were born here!'
May G-d be there to grant us all the vision and the strength to conquer the next peak, the more difficult challenge that comes our way.