I Created A Zombie Blog

This is where it all started... a few months after this picture was taken at the Aliyah Expo in Manhattan I started my first personal blog to record our Aliyah experience.

I have been writing my entire adult life but I haven’t always blogged. I started blogging for my former employer back in the fall of 2009 and would post something every month or so as we rotated content development responsibilities throughout the company. However, I still refrained from keeping a personal blog until I felt I had something to write about.

In November 2010 my wife and I decided to make Aliyah to Israel… I had something to write about and created the blog From Goy To Oleh (very loose translation: “From Non Jew to Jewish Man Who Moved To Israel”). After a few start and stop moments, I finally got some ideas together on the topic and began posting on a weekly basis slowly building up my readership and disseminating across the same social media streams through which this blog is distributed. Of course, it was a much more focused effort as the subject matter was tailored to a specific audience so there were other groups such as Nefesh B’Nefesh and the Jewish Agency where the blogs were listed.

The blog came to an end in late June 2011 just before our charter flight to Israel early the following month. While I had planned on continuing to write about our new life that soon evaporated as we found ourselves on a plane back to the states (more about this experience soon, I promise). So, since that time, the blog has remained dormant with the only exception being in May of this year when I posted the official closing blog and directed anyone who was interested to follow me here.

However, the blog lives on in a zombie like state. While no new content is being posted it is still viewed between 200 and 300 times per month. Occasionally people leave comments (and I still reply to them when I have a chance) but, for the most part, people read and move on.

It is amazing to think about the longevity that the blog has had but it isn’t surprising given the interconnected society in which we live when things “live forever” in cyber space. I guess I am just a little shocked that over two years later, since my last real post on that blog, people are still finding it interesting enough to read and it is still relevant enough to show up in searches. It just goes to show that you never know what people are really going to think about something you write until you get it out there.

This is not a new concept for me but it is something that, no matter how many times it happens, I am still a little taken back by it. Every time this occurs I am humbled by the life that creation has independent of the creator. You create and send it out into the world surrendering control of its destiny. It is a very spiritual experience because every time I see the life that my creation has made for itself in this world it brings me closer to G-d than anything else I have ever done.

A bold statement I admit but it is as an authentic feeling as anything you can experience within your faith. It is a bond that you develop over time with your creator that can never be broken. It is a gift that should never be taken for granted and the only means we have to live in this world beyond our years.

Don’t just live life, create life. Don’t hide from experience and participate in the world around you. You don’t have to put words on a page in order to create. Create action, make a decision, and take a stand. Share with those around you the knowledge and/or abilities that you have and affect change in the lives of people. Our creator has given each of us the divine ability to create and it is our choice as to whether we are going to accept this gift. I for one choose to accept this privilege and challenge.