A love story between a people and their land - by Forest Rain

...Hate so ferocious that it is willing to burn us out of our homes, killing the fruits of the land and make it barren where it was once green, is not enough to disconnect the People of Israel from Zion. Exile could not make the People of Israel forget Zion. Terrorism, even terrifying fires, cannot make us give up this land. Like countless times before, we will rebuild, plant new plants and grow better and stronger than ever before. People can be killed. Trees can be burned. True love lasts forever.

Forest Rain..
Inspiration from Rains..
13 February '17..

Can you imagine living in exile? Knowing that, although you have lived all your life in one place, as have your parents and maybe even grandparents, you belong to a different land?

The Jewish people lived in exile for centuries. Their religion and traditions did not allow them to forget… Maybe, most of all, it was their neighbors who did not allow them to forget that they belonged to a different land.

Jews in exile yearned for Zion, “the sun-drenched land.” Its fruits became something almost mythological. If someone managed to bring them fruits of the Land, it was like receiving a small miracle, something rare and very precious.

Of course, fruits couldn’t stay fresh on such a long trip. Dates, for example, could be brought from the far away land to the people in exile. This is where the tradition of eating dried fruit on Tu B’shvat began.

(Continue to Full Post)

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Taking a Look at 36 Years of Renewed Jewish Life in Ancient Shiloh

...The official mission was to dig up the past, but the true mission was to renew Jewish Life in the First Capital of the Biblical Jewish Nation, Shiloh.

Batya Medad..
Shiloh Musings..
16 January '14..

In the heart of the winter, in the beginning of the Jewish Month of Shevat thirty-six years ago seven young families and a handful of yeshiva students came to the site of the Biblical Shiloh to renew Jewish Life in one of the most important Biblical sites.

They, with the help of Gush Emunim and the more veteran Ofra residents, cleared a spot near some old roofless buildings, just south of Tel Shiloh and brought in caravans/mobile homes/trailers and a few tents. Infants, diapers and all, they were in the guise of archaeologists on a mission. The official mission was to dig up the past, but the true mission was to renew Jewish Life in the First Capital of the Biblical Jewish Nation, Shiloh.

There wasn't a proper road, no electricity, piped water, public transportation, telephones etc. And you must remember that in 1978 not only weren't there cellphones or internet, many Israelis in the major cities still had to wait years for a phone line. In nearby Tourmus Aiya, in the Valley of Shiloh, they still had the old operator system for phoning. When Jordan illegally occupied the area from 1948 until 1967, they didn't modernize anything at all. The State of Israel began modernization after the 1967 Six Days War building better and safer roads, bringing in electricity to replace the generators, water lines to replace local wells and a modern telephone system. But this all took time and money, and they hadn't yet gotten to the area of Shiloh.

Three and a half years later, when we moved to Shiloh, electricity was from a generator, water was trucked in daily and a few of proper modern phone numbers/lines had been assigned to the community that numbered over sixty families.

Jonathan Pollard and the Redemption of Eretz Israel at Tu Bishvat ceremony in Netzer, Gush Etzion

nashim.beyarok@ womeningreen.org.il
23 January '11

Hundreds of people flowed to the Friday Tu Bishvat planting ceremony in Netzer, Gush Etzion. They came from close and from far. All felt that here in Netzer it was a different kind of ceremony: here were intertwined the plantings in honor of Jonathan Pollard, prisoner of Zion in a "friendly" country and the land of Israel waiting to be redeemed. Together they brought about a moving ceremony.

For the past years, a fierce struggle has been taking place in Netzer. But especially in the past two years, when international organizations started to help the Arabs steal from the Jews, State lands, in order to prevent the expansion of the Jewish communities. The Arabs have not heard of the "settlement blocs" .

Early Friday morning, when the organizers came to arrange the ceremony and placed flags on the path and on the benches, Arabs were spotted trying to take over a new piece of land. Later, really close to where the ceremony took place, another Arab came and claimed that the land on which the people were going to plant really belongs to him, when all maps clearly show that these are State lands.

The IDF and the civil administration arrived and made the Arab leave in order to allow the ceremony to take place.

Among the speakers were Rabbi Gideon Perl, regional Rabbi of Gush Etzion who is a full partner in the plantings in Netzer. Rabbi Perl strengthened the hands of those planting and redeeming the land and said that this is how it always was from the beginning of Zionism: planting and settling and that is how we perform the mitzva of "Yishuv Haaretz".

Member of Knesset Prof. Arieh Eldad said: "We are here on the "Path of the Forefathers" and we remember Avraham Avinu. We remember the struggle for this land, a struggle that did not start today. Jews who came to the Land of Israel always encountered those who do not want Jews here. We will not give up and we will not be discouraged nor scared. Not by their demography. Not by their wealth. If Jews will build and plant everywhere in the land, we shall overcome."

A special prayer calling for the release of Jonathan Pollard was read out loud and a vineyard of vines was planted in his honor. On the plaque it says in Hebrew; In honor of our brother Jonathan Pollard. The People in Israel pray and long for your return home, to Eretz Israel.

From the speeches all the participants then went on to the action. Hundreds of saplings- vines, olive trees, eucalyptuses... were planted, accompanied by the accordeon music of old and beloved Eretz Israel songs.

Families came with their children and even babies. Youth came from all over, even on their bikes. Especially moving was the group of youth who came from abroad to volunteer and join the army. These youth had been working the past few days in Netzer preparing the land for the plantings. These youth went to plant a field a bit further than the other groups. They encountered for the first time the difficult sitaution we are in here in israel, when some Arabs arrived and threatened to uproot the saplings. Tens of participants ran over to the field and the Arabs understood they have no chance in executing their evil plan.

In addition to the trees, ten wooden benches were "planted" and dedicated to the dear ones of those who had purchased the benches. Especially moving was when a mother came to the ceremony and found out that her son had purchased a bench for her and her husband and had written on the plaque: to my dear parents, your children, grandchildren and great granchildren will continue to walk on the path of our forefathers.

The ceremoy was organized by Women for Israel's Tomorrow, (Women in Green) and was made possible thanks to the donations of many in Israel and abroad who support the struggle for the hills in Judea and Samaria, and against the creation of a Palestinian State.

The participants thanked the organizers who made it possible to plant and redeem the land of Eretz Israel. Everybody asked: when can we plant more!?

For a link to Gemma Blech's pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gemmablech/TuBShvatOnNETZER2011#

With love for Israel,

Yehudit Katsover    Nadia Matar

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Planting and Complimenting

Paula R. Stern
A Soldier's Mother
20 January '11

My two youngest children are not going to school today and yet what they will learn today is a lesson that will last them all their lives. Like tens of thousands of others, they are going out into a forest to plant trees. That simple. That true.

Today is Tu B'Shevat - it is, though you may laugh, the new year of the trees. We have one - we even have more than one if you count the solar year that begins on January 1st and the lunar year that begins each Rosh Hashana holiday. Why shouldn't the trees have one?

The first year I was in Israel, I finally understood what it means - this new year of the tree. On the exact day (and yes, it was a lucky coincidence that it happened that day and not the day before or after) of that first year in Israel, the almond tree blossoms opened for the first time. It doesn't always happen, but that first year it did. Later, I would learn that it depends on where you are - the warmer it is (near the coast, for example), the trees blossom sooner.

But it didn't matter then. The blossoms were opening - ON Tu B'Shevat. That was Israel - the place where the holidays make sense because they are as much about land as they are about seasons. In America, Jewish holidays come and go with the months of the year; in Israel, they come and go with the land. Passover marks the end of winter, the beginning of Spring. Tu B'Shevat is all about the trees.

So my children go into the forests with their friends - and plant more trees. With this they learn that there are never enough trees in Israel - more than 5 million less this year because of the devastating Carmel fires. So we will do what we have done for the last 100 years. Quietly, without politics, with love - we will plant our land.

They also learn that this land is theirs and build a connection that transcends time. Only our people have cared enough to make the land blossom for its sake, for its beauty. It isn't crops we plant, but trees. Each child has heard the story of Honi (you can read it here).

(Read full "Planting and Complimenting")

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Planting the Land and the Child

Paula R. Stern
A Soldier's Mother
01 February '10

Seasons in Israel are so different than they were in the United States. In the US, they seemed to gently glide, one into the other. Summer gave way to cooler nights and then the leaves began to turn all manner of wonderful colors. Fall had arrived. The frost came and the nights became colder. Winter. And so it went, season after season, each marked by a gradual changing of the weather. Each season came with a bit of warning, a taste before the fury of the cold or the heat. Fall and spring were welcome breaks from the extreme and provided the glide into the next.

In Israel, like life itself, the seasons are less defined, more drastic. One day the cold comes; winter...but what happened to the fall? And then it suddenly gets hot and summer has arrived; somehow spring never really comes to Israel. Of course, the temperatures are less extreme than they were where I lived in the States. Snow here is rare; summer's typically hotter and drier.

One thing that marks the transition between winter and summer is Tu B'Shevat - it's the new year of the trees. Yes, that's right - even the trees can celebrate their own fresh start. Tu B'Shevat is when the almond trees start to blossom and you know that though winter hasn't finished, the land is reawakening already. In America, Tu B'Shevat was the time we donated a few dollars to have someone plant a tree in Israel.

(Read full story)
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