There are many better reasons to move to Eretz Yisroel but here is one that everybody can appreciate. I just was at the website of a summer camp in the States and was informed that the tuition for a full summer is 8,100 dollars. For the first session alone it costs 5,100 and for the second session 4,100. The math doesn't add up but who is counting. PLUS, another 3,50 or 600 dollars to add for overnight trips. Not to mention all of the other expenses incurred. It emerges that to send one child to camp it would cost me well over half an entire year's salary [when I was making one in less lean times]. Then of course one has to pay yeshiva day school tuition which is alone more than a year's salary.
For day camp in Israel [there aren't sleep away camps] for the three week break betwen Tisha B'av and Rosh Chodesh it is costs under 400 dollars. And of course tuition is a fraction of what it is in the States.
Recently I overheard a boy say that he is going back to the States "for good". I wanted to ask him "What is so good about that?" In the Torah, leaving Israel is viewed as a punishment.
There are many, many far better reasons to live in Israel than mere financial ones. PLEASE see the sefer Oros and many other sefarim for more information.
Let us hear the penetrating words of Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook:
יש אנשים שמבינים באופן שטחי שאין לארץ ישראל ערך עצמי ורק ‘נותנת רווחים’ של קיום מצוות התלויות בארץ, כגון שמיטה, תרומות ומעשרות וכדומה, כך שהארץ אינה אלא מכשיר ואמצעי, והמצוות מהוות את התכלית. כל זה מסולף מעיקרו. האמת היא הפוכה מזה. כל הרווחים האלו הם תוצאות של נצחיות קדושת ארץ ישראל. הפרטים נמשכים מן הכלל ולא להיפך: כל פרטיה ודקדוקיה של תורה נמשכים מקדושת כלל ישראל, ‘אשר בחר בנו מכל העמים’… (שיחות הרב צבי יהודה, במדבר)
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
