You're it! (We leave for Israel)

I'm posting this from Newark Airport, just outside our departure gate. We have 18 travelers with us - as Perry noted, "Chai" (the Hebrew word for "life" equals the number 18 in numerology and is considered a blessing - or so says Alex). We had to arrive 3 1/2 hours before departure time to meet El Al's tight security rules. So, how else to you pass the time than with a game of airport terminal tag. The rules: play until security makes you stop. When you are tagged, you're "it." (Photo: Alex on the run, she's "it")

We started the morning at the temple with tefillat ha-derech, the Jewish travelers prayer, recited on the bima in the presence of our Torah scrolls. This was a powerful moment. Judaism teaches that the number of letters in the Torah equals the number of people who stood at Sinai. The scrolls, therefore, are not just a repository of ancient wisdom, they hold the primordial soul of all Judaism. As pilgrims to the land of Israel, we carry with us not just our own hopes and expectations, but the heritage of those souls from Sinai who never made it to their destination. Passing the Holocaust Memorial Scroll in the temple lobby (a scroll that was recovered from Breznice, Czech Republic, after all its Jews were deported to Holocaust death camps), we took with us the memory of each of those brothers and sisters who never realized their hope to survive and see the land of our ancestors.

Unlike our ancestors, anybody today can travel to Israel. The only requirements are the means to get there and the willingness to be chosen - or choose yourself. We have 18 who represent the true picture of Judaism today - three single parents with their kids, an interfaith couple whose youngest daughter just took her first trip to Israel, a Jew by choice who has been a communal leader finally taking her first trip to Israel, and two families who have lived in Israel before returning with their children for the first time. It's like the game of tag - you can only avoid it for so long, you can only run to a few places. Sooner or later you're tagged. You have to go. You are it.