Page 4 - HaMizrachi_Tu_Bishvat_2020_USA_HP_Neat

Continued from page 3

What would Lowdermilk say – no other nation has been able to the reciprocal relationship between
today, more than 70 years after the inhabit and settle it, but it remains the Jewish people and the Land of
establishment of the State, when Israel destroyed and desolate, until her Israel. Like all love stories, there is an
has done the seemingly impossible fledglings return.” element of wonder and mystery never
4
across the whole Land – transforming easy to fully grasp but blatantly real for
a water-scarce country into an There is a remarkable reciprocal all to see.
abundant oasis through cloud seeding, relationship between the Jewish people
desalination, drip irrigation and water and the Land – an inexplicable love Tu BiShvat has become Israel’s
recycling; converting the once-barren affair between a people and a place, national tree planting day. Many
soil into a remarkable lush fruit- and counterintuitively between a place thousands of new trees are planted
yielding area despite the arid climate. and those very same people. Just as the on this day every year by preschoolers
Jewish people have never forgotten and the elderly alike. Tree planting in
And with over 250 million trees the Land, always praying to return to
planted in the Land over the last 120 her and dreaming incessantly about Israel represents both the hope and
years, what would Twain say today reuniting, so too has the Land never the belief in a better future for all and
had he had the opportunity to return ‘forgotten’ her people – her children. the celebration of the ongoing miracle
to the very same barren road that She remained loyal, somehow never of the unique, everlasting bond
‘bounds the approaches to Jerusalem’ ‘allowing’ others to cultivate her soil between a land and a people, a people
and cast his eye on the once treeless and bring out the best in her. She has and a land.
countryside now home to a forest-like constantly and consistently remained
landscape? barren and unresponsive to all foreign
What is the explanation of this conquests and attempts at settlement 1 Innocents Abroad, published in 1869 – two
years after his return – about his pilgrim-
phenomenal transformation? It seems over the last two millennia, from the age to Europe and the Holy Land. It was his
that the answer lies not only in the Romans until this very day. As loyal as best-selling book during his lifetime.
realm of the rational and scientific, but the People have been to the Land so 2 The Promised Land, Lowdermilk 1944.
also in the mystical and metaphysical too, inexplicably, has the Land been 3 Bereishit 17:8, as part of the covenant of
– in a Divine promise, an ancient loyal to the People. Brit Mila – circumcision. The verse states,
prophecy. “I will give to you, and to your seed after
The tragic story of Gaza today is a you, the Land of your sojournings, all the
The Torah refers many times to the tangible example of this, where only Land of Canaan for an everlasting posses-
sion and I will be your G-d.”
promise of the Land as an ם ָ ל ֹוע תַּז ֻ ח ֲ א – 15 years ago Jewish farmers and their 4 Rabbi Bachya Ben Asher, in his commen-
“an everlasting possession.” How can hothouses were international-award- tary on the Torah to the above verse in
3
it be everlasting and eternal if we have winning innovators of hydroponic Bereishit. Interestingly, another medieval
spent so many long centuries outside planting and world cherry tomato commentator, Ramban, Nachmanides,
it? What type of possession is that? champions. The very same hothouses makes the exact same point on a verse of
lie desolate despite numerous attempts the curses in Vayikra 26:32, where he sees
Rabbeinu Bachya offers a breathtaking to recreate the same success. the ‘loyalty of Land’ as a blessing within the
insight when he says that “this is a curse.
great sign for Israel that from the day There is a type of Divine chemistry, Rabbi Doron Perez is the Chief Executive of
they were exiled from it – the Land a spiritual alchemy at the heart of World Mizrachi

חמש טבשב ו"ט
Tu BiShvat Sameach to all
our readers around the world!

4 |