Sound the Great Shofar

From the Jewish Prayer service we say three times a day:

Sound the great shofar for our freedom; raise a banner to gather our exiles, and bring us together from the four corners of the earth into our land. Blessed are You Hashem, who gathers the dispersed of His people Israel.

On Saying Goodbye

So we're leaving tomorrow to New Jersey on our way to Eretz Yisrael - the holy land of Israel. After much pushing off and denial, the time arrivesto say goodbye to various family members. We say we'll see each other soon. Not sure that it will be soon, but we say it anyways. I don't cry, but it is probably because I don't see the future as well as my wife does.

We're going to a good place for us and our children, but the pain of loss, absence and uncertainty causes me to second guess our decision. Friends of ours in Israel look back on their move and on being in Israel and can't imagine living in any other place in the world.

It is my ferverent prayer and hope that we will be feeling the same way, and soon.