Page 27 - Holyland Magazine - 2022 Edition

A view towards the south from the town
of Beit Shemesh in the foothills of the
Judean mountains, with the convent of
Beit Jamal on the crest of the hills

Mor e r eflections of tr ekking the length and br eadth of the Land of Milk & Honey

For an observant/spiritual Jew, it’s not merely a this generation, in this era, of the miraculous around you. As I walked through the shady
wonderful and awe-inspiring challenge to walk return of the people of Israel to our ancestral forests and scrambled up the side of these low,
the 800-mile Israel National Trail (“Shvil Yisrael” homeland, and acutely grateful for the rock-strewn mountains, I felt acutely that I was
in Hebrew); it is truly mystical, joining us with blessings of my supportive family and friends striding along paths trode by my forebears. This
our tradition, our land, our people, and history, throughout my journey. was true especially as I climbed up the “Roman
with our heritage. Of course, Jesus was a Jew road,” including the steps they carved into
who walked these hills, and so Christians, or the mountain side to enable their machines of
anyone with an awareness of the connection About halfway into my hike, the fourth week destruction and pack animals to scale the hills
of the people of Israel to the Land of Israel, or found me winding through the hills near my in preparation for their siege on our holy capital.
with an appreciation for the significance and hometown of Beit Shemesh (the ‘house of the I stopped at one point, and took a photo with
meaning of the Bible, can relate to the sublime [rising] sun’ in loose translation), along paths a sort of ironic smile, as if to say: “We’re here,
nature of this transcendental experience. very familiar to me as a local bike rider and still… and you Romans are long gone,” in my
nature-lover. Though I didn’t step foot into my
My book describes the trek itself, the people I home (that would have ruined the experience, mind echoing Mark Twain’s famous formulation
met, and the challenges I faced. But more than my non-stop solo eight-week journey across “What is the secret of the Jews?”
the physical hike, in it I present the lessons I the length and breadth of the country), the
learned along the way, and how those lessons “Ascending to Jerusalem” is a mitzvah, a
enabled me to heal from my shattering divorce. proximity intensified for me the appreciation I positive biblical commandment, and doing
I (re-)discovered humility, forgiveness, and felt for my children, my parents, and my close so on foot is even more of a literal pilgrimage.
gratitude for my many blessings as I walked friends-who-are-family here in Israel who And as so many other experiences in Israel
the Holy Land, and these lessons have been comforted and sustained me throughout the prove, the combination of the modern and the
instrumental for me, and for many others, in ordeal of my divorce. ancient, the sacred and the secular, provoke
successfully facing personal challenges. an almost visceral, emotional reaction. As
Moreover, when you begin to ascend to you climb, you’re clambering over pathways
Ascending to Jerusalem, I was particularly Jerusalem itself, you cannot but marvel at the almost certainly walked by the children of
aware of the privilege we have to be living in geographic, historical, spiritual elements all Israel/Jacob as described in the Hebrew Bible,

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