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Contributing Editor
Vigor Of The Land
Embrace the countryside to really get to know Israel.
I
Upper Galilee /Israel Journal
is rugged and forbidding, yet picturesque and invit-
ing. It's also immensely haunting.
It's Eretz Yisrael, the biblical Land of Israel.
Imposing as the modern state in much of Eretz Yisrael
is, the land of our forbears pulls at your heart, empowers
you spiritually and provides a portal into the soul of who
we are as Jews.
Connecting to this land of challenge and opportunity is
the first step toward appreciating Israel's heritage, culture,
buildings, politics and people. To traverse it is both trans-
fixing and transformative, heightening your sensitivity to
the very earth that binds us as a people.
For Shel Pearlman of Bloomfield Township, walking the
ancestral Jewish homeland for the first time proved exhil-
arating. He did so while part of the Temple
Israel of West Bloomfield Adult Mission 2012
from April 19-May 2.
"I felt I was closer to God:' he said on April
23, in awe of the spiritual bedrock of the
Yehudia Nature Reserve, where a hardy group
of the 114 mission-goers hiked to the upper
falls along difficult, but magnificent terrain
hardened by the heat and winds of the Golan
in northern Israel.
"I chose to make this hike in memory of my
parents and also my brother, who I lost last
October," Pearlman said as we looped back
to the buses after a chilly swim in the
falls. "He was just short of 64. I also
decided to do it for all my fellow mis-
sion-goers who have lost loved ones,
but couldn't make the climb.
"It's so very meaningful to touch the
land so closely"
Our biblical ancestors were a physical
Shel Pearlman bunch — climbers certainly. Later, liv-
`Arise, walk through the land
in the length of it and in the
breadth of it; for unto thee will
I give it."
-Genesis, 13:17
ing in the diaspora, many Jews turned more spiritual and
intellectual; they knew nothing from farming or fighting.
But as the Jewish halutzim, the Palestine pioneers, arrived
in earnest beginning in the 19th century, the first thing
they did was roam the land.
"Experiencing Israel through your feet is a
spiritual Zionist ideal;' Rabbi Paul Yedwab told
the Yehudia hikers during a well-deserved rest
break.
Hiker Ken Lipson of West Bloomfield also
was wide-eyed during his first sojourn to this
lone Middle East democracy.
"What's it like experiencing the land and
being a part of it? It's definitely like being
home he said, tearing up. "It's incredible.
You get to see the land the Jewish people are
trying to protect. I'm just glad I'm healthy
enough to be able to experience the land like my ances-
tors did — by walking it."
Positive Reflections
The land in this desert oasis we call Israel echoes with
promise and hope. Open yourself to its bounty and
receive plenty of nachas in return.
The land — it puts a mirror to your face. You see where
we've been and a hint of what's to come. Invest in it and
Stacey Emmer at Yehudia Nature Reserve: "You get a
unique perspective of just how important land in tiny
Israel Is."
the dividends flow.
Through the land, the Tanach (Hebrew Bible) becomes
relevant and engaging — a living text. When God says
in Amos 5:24,"But let justice well up as waters, and righ-
teousness as a mighty stream:' you no longer think only
in prophetic terms, but also how we must let justice wash
over us and let tzedakah flow like a rushing stream.
"Basically," said hiker Stacey Emmer of West
Bloomfield, "we need to make sure we keep our eyes for-
ward to that which is right and just."
Waterfalls aren't singular to Israel, but they're special in
the pantheon of nature's treasures. For Emmer, Yehudia
Falls provided a reality check of what it's like to be at one
with the Israeli countryside.
05-
Rabbi Yedwab and Ken Lipson at Yehudia
Nature Reserve in Israel's Golan region
30
May 10 • 2012
Jen Green by herbs growing at Kibbutz Lotan in
the Ahava Desert en route to Eilat
A waterfall at Ein Gedl, a biblical spring and nature
reserve in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea