From Goliath to Hamas
Images of pain and hope on a foraging walk last week.
Our full-day foraging experience began with a fantastic foraging walk in an ancient Jewish city overlooking Emek Haelah, the valley where David fought Goliath almost 3,000 years ago. We walked through the town, talked Torah in the “gates of the city” where our ancestors may have studied and prayed, and pondered how David’s message in the valley below is as relevant today as ever.
After tasting the plants whose ancestors grew here during that high point in our centuries-long conflict with the Philistines, we drove south to the Gaza Envelope, the epicenter of our current struggle with a different ethnic group of the same name, the Palestinians. From Goliath to Hamas.
We visited the car cemetery at Tekuma and the Nova memorial, investing a few moments in each place to walking around in silence, awakening to the horrors that happened here - and are still directly affecting many thousands of Jews in Israel. Most terribly, scores of hostages are still being held in Gaza under the cruelest conditions.
Finally, we finished the day at the Sderot lookout which has a telescope from which we saw directly the destruction of Gaza.
On the way down from the lookout, I noticed some wild radish leaves, the first of the season. Life marches on, new life always born from the death of old life’s seeds.
The Philistines and Palestinians have caused us so much pain - but Israel, the living body of the Jewish people, marches on. If we've survived and thrived from Goliath to today, we can get past Hamas too, with God's help.
Learn more here about what the life lesson I experienced at that lookout:
What I Saw in the Destruction of Gaza
For me, one of the most impactful moments of our Foraging Journey From Goliath to Hamas was at the lookout outside of Sderot, peering straight into the destruction of Gaza through a telescope.
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I love your historical insight and the fact that your eye always falls on signs of life and renewal!
Thought provoking, as always.
I can't even imagine the circumstances you have to reflect on each day!