No Such Thing As A Comfort Zone (Joys of Israel Series)

Song lyric: "יום טוב לנו חג שמח" ("Our Good Day, Happy Holiday")! 

An interesting idea that I learned from an Aish class taught by Dov Bear (yes, THE Dov Bear- if you know, then you know) which I attended in Jerusalem last week. 

In Israel we are currently celebrating the holiday of Sukkot. In America, if you've seen little huts outsides of people's homes- that's for Sukkot. If you've seen strange men walking around with a giant asparagus and a lemon- that's for Sukkot. Weird, I know.

On this holiday, we are told to build a specific structure outside of our homes, and are required to eat and sleep in it.

First off, eating dinner the first night of the holiday... it was magical. We sat outside on the porch overlooking the mountains and could hear all of the other families in the area eating their dinner, talking, singing... On our way home, we could see all of the Sukkahs on the porches... lit up with lights and decorations. I felt like I was walking through a magical land written about in some storybook. I fell asleep to the sound of neighbors singing outside. Most nights I would consider this to be a nuisance, but not that night and definitely not here. 

Now to my main point... there was an interesting correlation that Dov Bear made between the commandment to build and sit in the Sukkah, and the idea of "leaving one's comfort zone."

He said that just as we leave the comfort of our homes, and carry out two important facets of our lives in the sukkah (eating and sleeping)... in life, we must remember that leaving one's comfort zone is something to be appreciated and integrated into our lives. He stated that this commandment is a reminder that we do not need to be stuck in our self definition or identify as who we used to be (when trying to grow). We are meant to change, and change only comes with movement. We must move ourselves from point A to point B- in every sense. We have to surrender to our fears and and give up our habits. We must get out of our comfort zones if we plan on growing as people. 

I was able to relate to this, especially since I am here in Israel, jumping into the unknown. If you would see how these Middle Eastern people drive or how they pack onto these buses (most of us standing while we are driving at a speed limit I am pretty sure is illegal in US neighborhoods). There is no such thing as comfort zone here. 

I've learned that leaving my comfort zone is the best thing I've ever done and now I may actually be looking forward to doing it yet again tomorrow when I ride yet another Israeli bus driving at an extremely dangerous speed😛 (I really hope my mom doesn’t read this till the end, but if you have mom- הכל בסדר)☺️