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Rabbi Berel Wein

The Desert Will Bloom

think that if all of us stopped and rewarded with the miraculous success packages in American warehouses
contemplated the growth and of their efforts. located in Israel.
I success of the State of Israel in
our time, we would truly realize that Even so, there were grave doubts as to But Israel struggled on in war and in
we are living in a miraculous age. whether the Land of Israel could ever peace. It developed a National Water
Though the miracles are consistent feed the people of Israel. The main Carrier that began to make the desert
and regular, oftentimes, perhaps agricultural products were grapes, bloom. Its scientists and researchers
even most times, we take them so for oranges and dates. The infamous developed new techniques, created
granted that the miraculous becomes Peel Commission issued its learned drip irrigation and pioneered new
mundane. conclusions in 1936, stating that the methods of agriculture that began to
entire Land of Israel could not support make the country self-sufficient and
One of the great miracles of the a population greater than 2.5 million plentiful in food and its varieties.
State of Israel is its agricultural souls. In 1959, Moshe Dayan, then Minister
industry. Israel has an arid, rock-filled of Agriculture, introduced the
landscape with very large patches of As a result, it recommended the planting of tomato vines into Israeli
curtailment of immigration into
desert. It is not the lush landscape the country at a time when Hitler agriculture. The first year’s crop was
that exists in other parts of the was forcing the Jews of Germany to hard, tasteless, and green in color, and
world where agricultural industries find refuge outside German borders. understandably was not popular. The
bloom and prosper. Nevertheless, the The recommendations of the Peel appreciative Israeli public nicknamed
prophets of Israel guaranteed that as Commission led inevitably to the them moishelach in honor of Dayan
part of the process of redemption and British Foreign Office’s White Paper, and his experiment. But soon the
the Jewish return to its homeland, the which closed off Jewish emigration to Israeli farmer developed the finest and
desert would somehow bloom and the the country for the next nine years, tastiest tomatoes, as well as so many
Land would produce delicious fruits in especially during the Holocaust and its other types of vegetables and fruits.
abundance and variety. aftermath.
Bananas, mangoes, kiwis and other
As late as a half-century agoת this It seemed that its conclusions were not fruits previously unknown to the
seemed to be an unlikely dream that so far-fetched, since food was scarce Eastern European Jewish palate made
would never come to fulfillment. The throughout this period in the Land of their appearance and rapidly gained
original Jewish pioneers in the late Israel and of infinitely meager variety. popularity. Israeli fruits and vegetables
19th and early 20th centuries faced When Israel gained its independence were produced in such abundance
harsh and unforgiving challenges as in 1948, for almost the next decade that a large export market developed
they strove for the development of any there were great shortages of food, and agriculture remained one of
sort of agricultural success. especially in the light of the doubling the mainstays of the Israeli export
of its population in five years with economy for a long period of time.
Climate, the earth itself, mosquitoes the influx of the Jewish refugees from
and malaria, Arab marauders, and Europe and the Muslim Middle East. All of this should be remembered as
the lack of proper agricultural tools we commemorate Tu BiShvat, a new
and training all conspired to make it Packages were sent from the United year and holiday for the trees in the
almost a hopeless venture. But they States to families throughout Israel Land of Israel. The prophecies long
persisted in tilling the soil, removing to help supplement their meager ago uttered by our holy Sages have
the rocks and eventually began to diet. I remember how my father and come true before our very eyes. What
see the results of their labor and mother scrimped and saved, often to a blessed country the Land of Israel
sacrifice. Their rate of mortality was my childish and foolish feelings of truly is!
high and many gave up on the project deprivation, in order to send these Rabbi Berel Wein is Senior Rabbi of Beit
and returned to Europe. The hardy food certificates to our Israeli relatives Knesset HaNassi in Jerusalem and Director
few stuck it out and eventually were who could then redeem them for food of the Destiny Foundation

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