Way back in 1965, I was a student at Yeshiva Kerem B’Yavne and was in Yerushalayim for Simchas Torah. Since they only keep one day in Israel, they had what was called “hakafot shniyot,” hakafos on the second day of Yom Tov – with a band and with people who traveled from all over. I remember that the place was very crowded, and the speaker, whoever he was, said over the microphone, “Next year we will have more room because we will celebrate in front of the Kotel Hama’aravi.” I remember thinking that this was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard – except that he was right. Two years later, in 1967, the Jews did dance in front of the Western Wall!

As a former Baltimorean, and a 30-year resident of Kiryat Arba-Hebron, I often find myself explaining Israeli history to some of our American eighteen-year-old yeshiva and seminary Shabbos guests, who don’t have a clue about these things. In 1967, I tell them, Israel conquered Judea and Samaria, known in the Western media as the “West Bank.” Judea and Samaria is the section of the Land of Israel that Jordan grabbed and held on to in 1948, which happens to contain the most famous Biblical cities: Hebron, Bethlehem, the City of David and the Temple Mount, Shilo, Bet-El, Shechem, and many

After the snowstorm in Baltimore, my brother Shmuel Yaakov asked me if we have snow, too. “Not here!” I thought. “It hardly snows in Yerushalayim.” Little did I know what was in store for us only a few days later. When we awoke on Thursday morning to a blanket of white covering everything, I assumed it would be like a regular Baltimore snowstorm: no school for the day but cleared streets by noon. But in Yerushalayim, the dramatic effects of this storm lingered for almost a week! On Thursday there was no school, and the buses no longer ran on schedule. B”H, the grocery stores were open, so we could get some Shabbos essentials, but many other stores were closed, and most of the adults were off from work.

The children were overjoyed to play in the snow, build snowmen, and throw snowballs. Some cute little boys near our building had a great time constructing an igloo, though they had never heard the term before! Teenagers also amused themselves by throwing snowballs at passing cars, most of whose drivers took it in good humor.

Five years ago, on the day after Chanuka, I got on a plane at JFK airport and landed in Tel Aviv. The courtesy taxi took me to Merkaz Klita (immigrant absorption center) Ye’elim in Ir Ha’Avos, Be’er Sheva. B’chasdei shomayim about two weeks later two teenaged brothers from India, whom I had met at Ye’elim, invited me to Shabbos dinner at a nearby community Beis Midrash called Machon Orot Israel. My feeling of connection to the place was instant, and I asked the hosting Rav if he had time to learn with me during the week. He said start coming in and we will see… Little did I know that I had found my spiritual home of at least the next several years.