The Decision

I always knew there would come a time when my wife decided she wanted to live in Israel. Her parents made Aliyah when she was in seminary and prior to my messing up her plans, she expected to marry a sefardi rabbi and live in Israel her whole life. I however, had no intention of going along with such plans and made it clear I wanted to stay in America while we were dating. I did agree to keep an open mind and not rule anything out before I ever visited Israel.

The 2nd year we were married, we spent Pesach in Israel with the in-laws. I had a great time and loved the country (especially the food and weather). I would have agreed to move to Israel then, but alas we had other responsibilities and it seemed rather impossible. I had a business to run, we had just bought a house in Detroit which we were remodeling and we planned to be there long term.

A year and a half later, the idea of moving was far removed from our minds. We were on vacation in Houston early in the summer, when I received a call from the manager of my restaurant. Apparently over the weekend, while the restaurant was closed, something happened to the water heater which caused a small fire. I was told the fire didn't do much damage, but the smoke was all over and it would take a few days to get it back up and running. When I got back in town and inspected the damage myself, I found that the smoke damage was far more intensive than anyone had noticed.

Consulting with the experts, I was told that at the very least we'd have to be closed for several weeks and it would cost tens of thousands, if not more, to repair the damage. I was distraught, as I had spent several years building up the business and had just finished a major remodel several months before. Everything had been running smoothly and the future looked bright. My wife approached me the next day with an idea that neither of us had so much as mentioned before. Why don't we take off for a year to live in Israel? The idea sounded ludicrous, but the more we talked about it the more it seemed to make sense. I didn't have the drive to rebuild the restaurant again and my wife wasn't happy living in Detroit, so why not try something different.

Of course there were many reasons not to do it and plenty of obstacles in our way, but ideas like this have a way of gaining traction and crushing the logical objections and that's exactly what happened.