Hold On, Cause I'm Comin'!

 Allen got an aliyah laTorah today.  He remarked how appropriate it was that, as we leave for five and a half months in Israel, the coming parsha is Lech Lecha - leave your comfort zone, where you have family, you know the language and the culture - and go to the place that I will show you.  There are isolated plumes of smoke rising from that place, but it is our ancestral home, and our Israeli kids, our national future, is there.  
Statistically, this uprising in minuscule compared to mass suicide bombings in crowded venues, but random, individual attacks from out of nowhere are at least as unnerving as the mass attacks. The overwhelming likelihood is that we will be fine, but the tension is still palpable. And by what right do we separate ourselves from our people, thinking that we are safer at a distance from them? Au contraire.  It feels only correct to throw our lot (and our spending money) in with theirs.
People are citing the pasuk,"bchol dor omdim aleinu lechaloteinu," but that is just a fragment.  The second half of the verse is: "VeHaKadosh Barukh Hu matzileinu miyadam." G-d comes to the rescue. We leave with a mix of anxiety and anticipation.  Can't wait to see the kids, rejoin our friends, resume our activities.  And we hope that we all merit and experience only besorot tovot, good news, going forward.
Later in Lech Lecha Gd promises, I will give this land that you see to you and your children forever.  The perfect sidra by which to send us off on our journey!