MyAliya.com

Aliya (or Aliyah), is the Hebrew word for ‘spiritual journey’ or ‘going up’. It most often refers to the act of taking advantage of the Law of Return, an Israeli legislation enacted in 1950 that gives Jewish people, those of Jewish ancestry, as well as their family, the legal right to immigrate to their adopted/ancestral homeland and gain full citizenship. The law is very similar to article 13.2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created by the United Nations in 1948. This portion of the Declaration states that “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including their own, and return to their country”. So to make Aliya, is the journey of returning to one’s origin, and increasingly more and more people are ‘going up’ to their homeland. According to JTA, a global news service of Jewish happenings, the total 2009 Aliya from the United States was at its highest rate in over 36 years.

But while the term Aliya often refers to a physical journey, an alternate Hebrew translation for the word literally means “Ascension”—a Divine Law of Return, if you will. From The One, we may choose to return to The One.

The word Aliya can also be found in the Swahili language (meaning ‘exalted’), and in Arabic (meaning ‘the highest ’), respectively. Aliya also happens to be my birth name, along with millions of women of all backgrounds across the globe.

So who am I? Well, that’s what I’m finding out. I’m a 20-something-year-old mother, I’m a writer, and I’m also a self-proclaimed ‘seeker of Higher Truths’ and ‘a daughter of Hip Hop’s golden era’. But, still, none of this accurately defines me. If you ask 99 people to tell their views on one specific person, you will undoubtedly end up with 99 different descriptions, 99 different stories, 99 different assumptions, and 99 different truths that are ultimately 99 different falsities. So this website serves as My Aliya – the stories of my own life journey — a reflection of who I am through my own filter, a window of my world as I go through the process of rediscovering myself, and revealing my power.

And while that all may sound quite ego-gratifying, I can only promise that my intent isn’t so self-serving. I’m creating this website with the idea that by displaying my authentic self, and my shifting awareness, it will cause you, my reader, to nurture your authentic self, and perhaps begin to shift your own awareness as well. Why is that important? Because as we each experience our personal Aliya; we evolve; and the world around us is a reflection of our personal evolution. To care about the world you live in, is to care about each individual that comprises it and vice versa.

Make sense? I sure hope it does…

I used to think that a ‘spiritual journey’ had to be this large scale, obvious declaration of one’s path to positivity. At some point within the past year, however, it hit me that our lives, and our respective Aliyot (which I recently learned is the plural of Aliya), need not be so grandiose. Maybe beginning one’s Aliya can start with recognizing, and appreciating, the beauty of simplicity–exploring those curious spaces in between the memorable moments of our lives. As the French impressionist painter Camille Pissarro once said, “Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing”. So my spiritual journey is comprised of the little, perhaps not-so-obvious things that are making me whole –my endless search for good music spanning all genres, conversations with total strangers, teaching (but more often, learning from) my son, food, gardening, and my mini-adventures traveling.

For now, this website will be updated once a week –every Monday– with either a personal reflection essay, or an interview. These interviews may be with a musician I like, a celebrity that I find inspiring, or an interesting ‘every day’ person doing some not so everyday things. Essentially, I’ll be interviewing people I think are creating better way of life through more meaningful art/actions. The personal reflections will span any and every topic I come across that I feel is worthy of sharing with others.

I would love to write daily reflections and interviews so as my readership grows; I plan to grow the site content with it. But for now, this is how we’ll start.

Welcome to MyAliya.com—a myriad of my musings, memorable moments, motherhood, mishaps, the metaphysical, music, multimedia, and much (oh yes, much!) more.

I hope you enjoy.

Always,

Aliya