The Shala was a prominent rabbi and author in Prague who could easily have remained there enjoying a life of comfort and honor, but his soul yearned for the Holy Land. Undertaking the journey in middle age, he encountered hardship, yet his letters leave no doubt that he considered it all worthwhile. His enthusiastic exhortations to his Prague community to join him inspired an aliyah of Eastern European Jewry and will likewise stir the hearts of modern listeners.