Israel Is Both Sick and Healthy
In the midst of a tragic war, this winter's rains are remarkably balanced.
These are strange times in Israel.
Israel the People are perhaps in more trouble than anytime since the Holocaust. Our nation is in pain, alone and afraid.
Yet Israel the Land is healthier than ever, because this year’s winter rains are falling hard and steady, balanced and healthy.
Healthy Israel
Throughout the Torah, the Land of Israel’s state of health is expressed by the winter rain season. When the rains come on time, nurturing the year’s new life, Israel is healthy and thriving, and supports its children with bountiful harvests. When they don’t arrive, or if they come at the wrong time, Israel falls ill, and its children, in turn, suffer from drought.
Here is the Torah’s first blessing for those who follow its ways faithfully:
“I’ll give the rains in their time, and the land will give its harvest, and the trees of the orchard will give their fruits.”1
To which the Ramban (Nachmanides) commented:
He began with the rains, because when they come on time, as is proper, the air will be pure and good, and the springs and rivers good. This will bring health to physical bodies, and all the fruits will be plentiful and blessed by them [the rains].
Then people won’t get sick, and they and their animals won’t miscarry or be barren. Their days will be full, because when bodies are large and healthy, they survive their whole lifespan. This is the greatest of blessings.
Healthy rain, like we’re experiencing this year, is spread out evenly along the winter months. Every week or two, there are a few days of rain, then a break to allow Natural Israel to absorb the blessing and grow its plants. The ground isn’t parched nor a muddy morass. (On the other hand, read here about last year’s unbalanced rainfall.)
When we’re out on foraging walks these days, Natural Israel displays its vigorous health in the countless leaves, flowers, and shrubs in every corner of the countryside. New, fresh life greets us at every turn.
Khirbet Urva
Last week we foraged on Khirbet Urva, a lovely hilltop village right outside or Bet Shemesh that dates back at least to the Second Temple Period.
This isn’t the town I told you about last week - that was Tel Goded at the other end of the Elah Valley, the long break in the Shfelah’s foothills in which David squared off against Goliath some 2800 years ago.
Neither Khirbet Urva nor Tel Goded are particularly well known; they don’t receive more than a few dozen visitors a year. When every second hill in the area sports a millennia-old settlement, only a few get famous, often simply because they are the most accessible by car.
In places like Khirbet Urva, the verdant foliage between the rows of ancient stones bonds places and people of the past, present, and future. Foraging here makes Israel come alive; our heritage isn’t just half-buried buildings and walls, because local wild plants silently bear witness to the march of time. We eat the plants whose ancestors were eaten by our ancestors right here.
One of my favorite annual plants, milk thistle, guzzles huge quantities of water in its upward rush, so this years balanced rains have made it particularly happy. (I recently described this plant’s intensive life cycle.) The milk thistle now is in the “celery stage,” where we forage the juicy stalks.
Take a look at one of Khirbet Urva’s scores of milk thistle patches:
Both Sick and Healthy
I don’t know how to resolve God’s conflicting signals to Israel: terrible war but thriving healthy rain.
But I don’t really think it’s a problem, because both are true. Inside the tragedy, God sends comfort and hope with the pitter-patter of raindrops on our windows.
For that we can be grateful.
Rain-life Today
Maybe you’re wondering why you should care about Israel’s rainfall in the 21th century when most of the country’s water comes from desalination? During last year’s drought, I explained how rain is the model of livelihood that descends as a gift from heaven, as opposed to river-based life which we wrest away from nature.
Rain-life also features in my new book, Land of Health: Israel’s War for Wellness, which is available now on Amazon, in bookstores in Israel, and directly from me in Bet Shemesh, Israel. Order your copy today!
Upcoming Foraging Walk in RBS
Would you like to join me on a foraging walk in Natural Israel?
I’m guiding a discounted open walk in Ramat Bet Shemesh on Election Day (Tuesday, February 27), from 2:00-4:00pm. The exact route will depend on the weather, but will probably be an easy hike on a hill right outside the neighborhood that sports a Second Temple Period clay lamp factory and town
The cost is 40 NIS for adults (18+), 20 NIS for kids (5+).
Register by responding to this email, or write me at scnaiman@healthyjew.org.
One Last Announcement
Our Second Monthly Healthy Jew Workshop will be held online on Tuesday, March 5, at 8:30pm Israel time / 1:30pm EST. The topic is “What’s Real Food and Where to Find It.” More details coming soon. This workshop is for paid subscribers, so if you’re still on the free plan, now is a great time to upgrade.
[1] Leviticus 26:3
Leviticus 26:3