With a thud and a loud BING I am jerked awake. My eyes open and all I see is darkness. The first thing I am aware of is shooting pain in my legs. Where am I? What is going on? Then with another loud BING, a booming voice cries out “Shalom,” and it all rushes back to me.

The darkness is my sleep mask; the shooting pain in my legs is due to the fact that I have been sitting in a cramped seat for 10 hours. I am on a plane that is currently hovering several thousand feet over the land promised to my people by God.

I am sitting in John F. Kennedy International Airport surrounded by a group of strangers and ready to depart from everything that is familiar to me. Standing in line to get my baggage checked, I nervously try to make conversation with the people around me. I am asked questions. I ask questions. They are all the same generic curiosities of people who have never met each other, but anticipate spending a great deal of time together.