Right vs. Easy

I miss my sister. As I sit here thinking about my sister more nearly 6000 miles away, my heart breaking for her difficult life circumstances, I am reminded of a conversation I had nearly 2 years ago with a bus driver in Jerusalem.

I had an appointment in Har Hahotzfim, the Hi-tech “industrial” area of Jerusalem. I had never been there before and I had to ask the bus driver to tell me when to get off the bus. Fortunately, I had already been forewarned that it was one of the last stops. About 5 minutes from where I had to get off, I noticed that I was the only one left on the bus, so I moved up to the seat behind the driver.

Looking at me through the rear-view mirror, the driver says something in that rapid Hebrew that sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie. I respond to him in my VERY poor Hebrew that I am sorry, but I don’t understand much Hebrew.

Picking up on the obviously American accent, the driver changes over to English. He asks me where I am from, how long I’ve been here, where I live now, etc. – standard fare for conversations with taxi and bus drivers. I answer all his questions and then he says, “so you made aliyah?”

“Yes,” I respond with a huge grin.

“Why?” He asks with confusion written all over his face.

“Because this is Israel, Eretz HaKodesh, the Jewish homeland,” I reply.

“But it’s terrible here, America is so much better, so much easier. Why would you give that up to come here?”

Totally caught off-guard, I simply reply, “It’s the right thing to do, it’s where all Jews belong.” And then after a short pause, I add, “sometimes it’s more important to do what’s right than to do what’s easy.”

Sometimes its more important to do what’s right than to do what’s easy…

Its not easy to sit here knowing that my sister, nearly 6000 miles away needs me. That she needs my hug, my big sister advice, a shoulder to lean on, my ear, my heart.

And I need her, too.

But sometimes its more important to do what's right than to do what's easy.