Please Go Away! (It’s a Mitzvah)

Photo by Pablo Barrios

Please go away. That’s the message that I used to see on a billboard in Harvard Square when I was a graduate student. I thought it was very catchy, very effective. It’s also very true.

There are all kinds of good, positive reasons to travel. For one thing, it’s healthy. Breaking away from one’s routine to see something new, to be somewhere new and exotic is indescribably renewing.

It more than fits the bill for the prescription for good mental, physical and spiritual health formulated by none other than R. Israel Meir HaCohen, known as the Hafetz Hayyim. A person, he observed, needs to eat, learn, work and rest at set and appropriate times. Travel fills the recreational part of that prescription.

Another sign on another Boston travel agency: It’s so sad that so many people leave this world without seeing it.

I’m not trying to get anyone desperate or depressed. It is true, though, that there are incredible, breathtaking places in the world that are now only a plane ride away. Think about it!

To really see the Grand Canyon and Mount Fujiyama; Norwegian fjords and the Cherry Blossom Festival in Tokyo — when our parents or grandparents hardly traveled a hundred miles beyond their home towns. We can see these amazing sights, breathe them in and recite: ברוך עושה מעשה בראשית. That’s balm for the soul.

I’m saving the best (IMHO) for last. Those of you who know me know that I’m an historian by passion and profession. Part of that passion means connecting, REALLY connecting with the past in order to center myself in the present.

Jews live in a permanent present where our heroes live in our hearts and imaginations. It is mind-blowing to:

• Walk with the Rambam in Cordova
• Visit the neighborhood that Judah Maccabee’s ambassador lived in when he presented his credentials to the Roman Senate
• Stand in the shul where Rashi studied
• See the underground shul where Portuguese Marranos put their lives on the line to keep mitzvot
• Visit the communities that these Marranos built in Bulgaria when they escaped and created a Jewish Renaissance

It’s true that what Rashi and Rambam said is important, but being there is twice the experience.

You see what I mean? The person who wrote “please go away” was right.

Please go away (with us)!

Tagged as: Hafetz Hayyim, Judah Maccabee, Marranos, Rambam, Rashi

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