Here we are in Tel Aviv. On the plane from Prague the young father in the seat next to my wife told her that he was tired of vacationing after five days in Prague and would be glad to get home to Tel Aviv. The views around Tel Aviv are not nearly as green as the landscape around Prague. What must matter is what you call home.
Coming to Israel requires that one demonstrate one’s bona-fides several times by producing documentation–passport, etc. It is as if the most important thing about a new birth is the certificate. The greatest miracle is that “there you are”, a human being in existence. The circumstances of your birth should be less important than the fact of your birth. I guess it simplifies things a lot to have a certificate that you exist, so people can ignore the fact that “there you are,” a miracle. As Sartre said, “existence precedes essence.” Essence, I suppose, is a mental construct. Existence is undeniable.