Images and Words: The beauty of Israel.

[joshua0]

(previous: A visit to Israel.)

From May 18th to May 29th, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Israel as part of an program called Taglit-Birthright. Over these 11-ish days (of which 2 were really eaten up by an airplane), I visited 12 cities, spent 5 days with Israeli soldiers, ate infinity shawarmas, and shot 878 photos (after removing excessive duplicates, it drops down to about 580). In the previous post, I gave the tourist's perspective of inside Israel; in this post, you'll get something of a reprieve from my writing, since the content is dominated mostly by images.

(the sandbox; 1024x768, 3648x2736) When you think about Israel, you probably don't think about it as a particularly beautiful place. In fact, if you're like me, you probably don't have a particularly glorious view of the Middle East as a whole; a friend of mine who served in the military refers to the U.S. base in Doha as "the sandbox". After my time there, I certainly wanted to write a piece on the conflict (that one's next); but at the same time, it would be vastly unfair (both to you, and to the country!) to do so without also giving you all the opportunity to experience the sheer beauty of this place. (the Upper Galilees, from Kibbutz Machanayim; 1024x768, 3648x2736) As it turns out, the climate of Israel is a lot like the people -- it's all the same in some ways, and it's very diverse in other ways. "Big deal -- the U.S. has a diverse climate, too", you might say; on the other hand, Israel is is about 263 miles from North to South, and at its widest, is 71 miles wide. To put this in perspective, you can drive across the entire country in around 5 or 6 hours; or, well, it's less than half the distance than my drive from Boston to Pittsburgh; or, it's just a hair bigger than New Jersey. How diverse is it? Well, there is of course a desert throughout the middle of the thing (two, actually; the Judean Desert, and the Negev); but this also ranges all the way up to lush, green fields and rolling mountains. The Golan Heights get incredibly hot; but a few tens of miles away, the Upper Galilee is not a bad place to have a farm. On the third hand, in Jerusalem, sometimes they get snow! (the Golan Heights and the Galilees; 1024x768, 3648x2736) I mentioned before that throughout Israel, there are ample opportunities to see beautifully lush, rich, foliage. One of the things that you expect to see when you're there, of course, is the Eucalyptus -- planted by settlers, the Eucalyptus efficiently draws lots of water from the soil, and hence can drain swamps and diminish the population of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Unsurprisingly, the Eucalyptus is a pretty common tree, then; but as you'll see, there are plenty more. Trees are symbolically important in Judaism; the Torah is sometimes alluded to as etz chayim (the Tree of Life), and once a year comes tu b'shevat, the festival (or new year) of trees. Beyond that, in general, they represent life and vitality; for that reason, a common way for Jews in the Diaspora to donate to Israel is through the Jewish National Fund through the "plant trees in Israel" program. (in... uh... Carmiel... there is... uh.... many... trees...; 1024x768, 3648x2736) One of the easy places to find beauty in Israel is on the kibbutzim -- communal (okay, well, of late they have been somewhat more privatized) farms, in which at least among the older members, there is a real sense of pride in the place. Since it's difficult to make a profit on pure agriculture, kibbutzim often have other ways to generate income; for instance, some kibbutzim have factories on them. Since not all the houses on a kibbutz are always full (kibbutz population has been dwindling ever since the statehood of Israel), a kibbutz may also have something of a hotel on site, or otherwise rent out housing to IDF soldiers or others in the area. (All of these were true for Kibbutz Machanayim, which is one of the kibbutzim that I stayed on when I was there.) The pride in these extends often to how the land is kept; on one of the many sunny days in the Upper Galilee, a quick stroll around the kibbutz is more likely than not to leave you in awe of the nature we live in. (music, us.; 1024x768, 3648x2736) (beyond; 1024x768, 3648x2736) (and away; 1024x768, 3648x2736) Now, that isn't to say that it's just the kibbutzim that will leave you with incredible views. Because so much of Israel's history is in places, not things, Israel has a vested interest in making those places look good -- like they've been keeping up the land, right? (the mountains make for a picturesque place to put the city of Tzfat; 1024x768, 3648x2736) Well, and... as it turns out, sometimes those places don't really need any help. (the Golan Heights aren't just desert and war; 1024x768, 3648x2736) (the port of Yaffa; 1024x768, 3648x2736) I want to close on a slightly different note. I've shown you a lot of pictures of things, and places, but there's something missing. I am an engineer, not a writer, so hopefully the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai (Z''L) will forgive me for taking his words: Once I sat on the steps at the gate of David's Tower. I placed my two heavy baskets at my side. A group of tourists was standing around their guide, and I became their target marker. "You see that man with the baskets? Just right of his head, there's an arch from the Roman period. Just right of his head." But he's moving, he's moving! I said to myself: redemption will come only if their guide tells them -- "you see that arch over there from the Roman period? It's not important, but next to it, left and down a bit, there sits a man who's bought fruit and vegetables for his family." Nimrod expressed a similar sentiment, too. "To get to know a place, you have to get to know a people." I'll talk more about that in my fourth post, to be sure; but to wrap this one up, I have just a few more pictures for you. (a truly joyous occasion -- a Bar Mitzvah in Tzfat!; 1024x768, 3648x2736) (a young Hasidic man walks around Jerusalem. if you look carefully, you'll notice that he is wearing headphones; 1024x768, 3648x2736) (two children watch us recite the Shehechiyanu as we enter Jerusalem; 1024x768, 3648x2736)

Up next: Conflict.