Sefira Creative

My purpose for this post is to educate and to remind my fellow Jews where our values must remain and stay true. 🪬

Shabbat shalom.

Remember when Instagram had throwback Thursdays?
I’ve been thinking a lot lately how time sometimes feels like an accordion, each moment or passing year is folded into the next. They aren’t separated but continuations, distant in space but still connected.

I may be a bit ahead of myself but this coming August will mark 6 years in Israel. This number is significant to me because before Israel was Seattle, my previous home where I lived also for 6 years. My time in Seattle was transformative in a way that was on a cellular level. Crashing into life, deep diving into identity, soul crushing and rebirth. Being a native from LA, the rainy weather changed me. The misty skies, the luscious flowers, the small town pace, brought out the best of me - and maybe the worst. But one of those gifts discovered there was my art. Pencil and soul reunited, endless expressions of depths and desires. I’d never drawn so much in my entire life.

A lot of me grew in Seattle, and then the rest of me felt stifled. They were precious cocoon years, churning growing slowly and with a blink of an eye they were over. Opening my eyes to the burning desert sun, honking horns and dusty feet… I’ve weathered into a new person 6 years later. So much has changed, and yet I’m still drawing. Still picking up the pencil to create, through October 7, through this new era of what it means to be a Jew. Still trying to get as much of my soul as I can expressed into art. I wonder what the next 6 years will look like 🪬

Frequently asked questions:
“Is it hard to make it financially in Israel?”
“Do you think everyone should make aliyah, otherwise Moshiach can’t come?”
“Are you still doing that art thing?”

I’ll answer the most obvious first: yes, I’m still doing the art thing. I illustrate for Chabad.org every week, which keeps me busy and when I find the time, I pull out the paints and make something just for the joy of it.

No, I’m a firm believer that not everyone is meant to live in Israel, and that we don’t need every Jew here for Moshiach to come. Halacha itself backs this up: our sages teach that a Jew may leave Eretz Yisrael to learn Torah, get married, or sustain a livelihood. The Rebbe took a thoughtful, case by case approach encouraging aliyah for some, while telling others, especially educators and community builders, that their place was where they were needed most. Any blanket pressure otherwise is, in my opinion, just bullying.

And the money question: Israel gets painted as this impossible place to make it financially, lower salaries, high taxes. But I’ve found that with a little flexibility, people make it work. Sometimes that means being open to changing careers. Sometimes it means living outside Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Yes, life here is expensive but when you factor in private school tuition, camps, and the cost of living in a lot of Jewish communities in America, it often evens out, or comes out cheaper.

My promise here: I share art, and I share pieces of myself alongside it. That’s how this community started, and that’s how I plan to keep it going.

Photography Tzipora.IL
Dress Simply Love בא מאהבה🦋