BS”D  You know what my problem with Chicago is? It does not have a Yiddishe tam, a Jewish flavor. New York has a Jewish flavor. Miami has a Jewish flavor. Los Angeles has a Jewish flavor. But take a stroll down Michigan Avenue, the heart of Chicago…no Yiddishe tam. I love the goyim. They are my brothers, blood brothers. But I cannot understand how a Yid could live in a place without a Yiddishe tam. I do not understand why a Jewish person living in Chicago gets out of bed in the morning. To face Chicago? I face the mountains of the Galilee and the holy alleyways of Tzfat, where the Mashiach will first set up shop. You face Devon Avenue. Get a life. Come to Israel where your mitzvoth really count. Be a creative Zionist. Don’t worry about your commitments. Be irresponsible for G-d. Come home. We promise you a rose garden by any other name. And when you approach Israel, remember the words of the Baal Shem Tov, “You must approach the Land as the lowest of the lowest because it is the greatest of the greatest.” 

It is called Eretz Tzvi, the land of the deer. But don’t think Bambi. Think a noble stag, an elk with majestic antlers standing on a promontory. Glory. Turning the desert into fertile farmland, turning the ocean into drinking water, as it is written in Ezekiel 47:8, “…and the waters will be healed.” In the time of Geulah, Redemption, the prophet talks about the Mediterranean and subsequently all the oceans as having have healed waters, meaning water from the ocean that is fit to drink. Israel is leading the world in desalinization technology and and can provide for most of its own needs (that does not lessen our reliance on G-d), and can provide drinking water from sea water for other lands in need. What is of greater value than gold? Water. Water flows and water crashes. Be water, my friend. ונרפו המים, “and the waters will be healed.”