A bat bayit's aliyah, part II

I remember once witnessing one friend give another mussar. The first woman had complained about other Jews with differing religious habits. The second woman had responded by pointing, from the Kotel Courtyard, where all of us were standing, to the Temple Mound and to the alien structure that she hoped, very soon, will disappear from there. "Achdut, not assessment," that wiser other had whispered. That sagacious Ima had cooed in Hebrew, a second language for all of us, yet her words were as honeyed as is the land which we are settling. Simply, Hebrew is not only holy, but because it is holy, Hebrew is also powerful.
 
As stated in "A Bat Bayit's Aliyah: Part I," it was with much gratitude that my family welcomed our Bat Bayit to Israel. As not stated, however, oddly, though Jews to a one, we welcomed her in English.

At her Ben Gurion Airport welcome ceremony, English was everywhere. English was the language of most of the speeches, English was the language printed on at least half of the signs, and English was the lingua chosen by most of the guests.

A bat bayit's aliyah, part I

Sometimes I don't mind living vicariously. When a much loved bat bayit made aliyah last week, I had no compunction feeling joy and gratitude through her transformation. In fact, I feel grateful to be part of her estimable life.

Before I was able to feel my most recent rush of gratitude, however, I had had to deal with pragmatics. Specifically, Missy Youngest and I woke up at dark to catch a ride to the center of town, from where we took a Nefesh Bnefesh-sponsored hasaha to Ben Gurion Airport. We packed potato chips for Missy Youngest and goat yogurt for me, a Sefer Tehillim and a siddur, welcome signs for our new olah, and a few items that our beloved immigrant had requested.

Baruch Hashem, because my family has merited knowing many of this year's new citizens, even the cab driver who we called before 5 am was familiar with our routine; cab to city center, hasaha to airport, hasaha back to Jerusalem and then local buses to school and to home. When he picked us up, he didn't ask where we were going, but how many olim we were meeting.