By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
The end of Sukkos is one of the loneliest times of the year. As the decorations are peeled off and the sukkah is taken apart and put away, we feel exposed and removed from the comforting shelter in which we had been enveloped for more than a month.
From the first time we said “L’Dovid Hashem ori” during Elul, we were drawn into a sublime world. B’motzoei Menucha, we felt the tremors increasing, as we ushered in the days of Selichos. The week reached a crescendo as we stood in awe upon hearing the piercing cry of the shofar that filled our hearts.

Various Perspectives and Experiences of English speakers Living in Eretz Yisroel
I want people to know that life in many places here in Eretz Yisroel—the lifestyle, values, and education system—is very different than that in America. I love this life, but it is different, and it does have its challenges. People shouldn’t come here thinking they can continue living just like they did in America, only with the perks of living in Eretz Yisroel. Sometimes the challenges actually “are” the positives. That’s because life here is just “different.”

Various Perspectives and Experiences of English speakers Living in Eretz Yisroel
Present and Future
I came from Los Angeles as a bochur to the Mir Yeshiva, and then got married here in Eretz Yisroel.
I continued learning in the Mir, while my wife worked for Otzar HaChochma, the world’s largest digital seforim library, in its beginning stages of amassing and scanning thousands of seforim.

Ratzon HaShem
I came to learn in Eretz Yisroel after three years in Beis Medrash (post high school). I grew up in Lakewood, New Jersey, and, like most of my friends, when I came to learn in Eretz Yisroel I had no long-term intentions. I came to do the two-year Eretz Yisroel experience. Like most bochurim, this obviously included Shabbos seudos at the homes of many different types of people.
At one of those Shabbos meals, the question was posed: “How can people live in chutz la’Aretz if there is a mitzvah to live in Eretz Yisroel?”

Various Perspectives and Experiences of English speakers Living in Eretz Yisroel
This Is Our Own
As a Jew, this is my real home. It’s my own culture, my own alphabet all around me. Prophecies come alive. A large portion of our Torah is relevant only here.
It’s only my first day in Eretz Yisroel and I already receive Bircas Kohanim. When I buy any produce, I have to make sure terumos and ma’aseros were separated or do it myself. This is HaShem’s special Land and His Presence is manifested also by His special rules for what grows here. It makes His Presence feel even more real.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
It became a joke, but many years ago, when Hillary Clinton was still thought to be a somebody, she met Russian President Vladimir Putin and gave him a present. It was a cheap plastic reset button, meant to symbolize that she and her then boss Barack Obama were going to reset America’s relationship with its old nemesis. Of course, as with much else that she and Obama attempted, nothing happened.
Rosh Hashanah is our reset button, and a whole lot more. On this day, Hakadosh Boruch Hu examines everyone and every creature and decides what type of year they will have. We have the ability to do teshuvah and reset ourselves and our actions and the way we have conducted ourselves throughout the year.

Various Perspectives and Experiences of English speakers Living in Eretz Yisroel
Finding Our Place in Eretz Yisroel
In 1996, while we were in our late thirties, we moved from Baltimore to Eretz Yisroel with our six children aged sixteen down to one and a half.
Although many rabbonim do not recommend moving to Eretz Yisroel with children from ages eight through high school, we came with the blessing of our rav in Baltimore, Rav Mendel Feldman, ZT”L.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
This week’s parsha is replete with many blessings for those who follow the Torah. However, it also contains many klalos. Those who stray from the path will end up regretting their actions, as the enormity of the Tochacha will befall them. Regrettably, as we review the pesukim, we recognize much of the history of the Jews in golus.

Living in Eretz Yisroel
If you had told me fifteen years ago that in 2019 I’d be living with my husband and six children, bli ayin hara, in an old three-bedroom Yerushalami apartment with no car, I would have laughed in your face. Coming from suburban America with two to three-story houses, one car per driver in the family, and a normal American lifestyle, I could never have pictured spending the rest of my life living on a kollel budget in Yerushalayim. I lived a whole ten days as a married adult in America, so I really can’t compare based on my own personal experiences. What I can share with you is how I fell in love with Eretz Yisroel and Yerushalayim in particular, and why after almost eleven years I can’t imagine moving back to the US.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
The Tur (Hilchos Rosh Hashanah 581) states that Chazal instituted the custom of blowing the shofar during the month of Elul so that people will be alerted to perform teshuvah, as the posuk (Amos 3:6) states, “Im yitoka shofar be’ir ve’am lo yecherodu? Can a shofar sound in a city and the nation will not tremble?” This question demonstrates that the sound of the shofar causes people to be fearful.