Vineyards Again Be Planted on the Mountains
Over again shalt thou institute vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria
I spent this past Shabbat in Elon Moreh.
The Torah portion we simply read, Lech Lecha, is the first time in the Bible that the Land of State of israel, the Land of Canaan as it was then known, is mentioned, and the first fourth dimension that information technology is promised to Abraham'due south descendants. Every yr, Elon Moreh invites scores of people from all over the country to come and experience Shabbat on the occasion of this particular Torah reading. The very showtime place Abram, not yet named Abraham, visited upon arriving in the Land of State of israel, was Shechem. Equally part of his entrada to eradicate the memory of Jewish presence from the Land of State of israel, the Roman emperor Vespasian renamed it as Flavia Neapolis, whence Nablus. Elon More, today a settlement adjacent to Shechem, is also mentioned in last week'south reading immediately after Shechem.
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the terebinth of Moreh (Genesis 12:half dozen)
Shechem, the largest urban center in Samaria, the Shomron in Hebrew, was in fact the entrance gate to the Land of Israel not just for Abraham. Jacob, upon his return from a xx-2 year long exile with Laban, fifty-fifty before he went south to exist reunited with his father in Beer Sheba, stopped in Shechem and bought a parcel of land. That is where his son Joseph was eventually buried and a funerary monument is at that place to mark the spot to this very day. The Children of Israel, arriving into the Land of Israel after the exodus from Egypt, also entered through here, and it is here, in a anniversary held upon the ii mountains surrounding Shechem, Mountain Gerizim and Mount Ebal, besides every bit in the valley in betwixt, that the nation of State of israel was constituted.
The climax of that Shabbat was for me an afternoon climb up Har Kabir (The Large Mountain, 792 meters in a higher place sea level), guided by veteran settler Benny Katzover. His storytelling is spellbinding and his passion palpably contagious. At that place were far also many details for me to retell faithfully and being Shabbat, notes could non be taken. Nevertheless, I will try to summarize three highlights.
One of his first bespeak was the renewal of vineyards in the Shomron. In the early fourscore's, when the settler movement started to reestablish Jewish settlements in Samaria, they looked for references to the region in the Bible. One of these, is the poetry in Jeremiah (31:5) from which the championship of this blog mail service is taken. Just, as Katzover tells information technology, with all due respect to the prophet, at that place was non one vineyard in Samaria, only olive groves. So they set up out to establish vineyards. Today, at that place are virtually 30 vineyards speckled throughout the hills of Shomron. The grapes harvested here produce many laurels wining wines bottled in numerous boutique wineries. Of course, nigh of the varieties planted are imported from Europe. However i Ariel Academy oenophile, Elyashiv Drori, is rather incredibly, looking to recreate the local variety from which vino was made in biblical times.
A vineyard in Elon Moreh with Har Kabir in the distance
1 of the ascertainment points subsequently the considerable climb looks onto Mount Ebal (940 meters higher up body of water level). From hither ane tin can look onto, albeit from distant, an archaeological site, where Prof Adam Zertal discovered a strange rectangular structure dating back at least to 1000 BCE. Eventually, he reluctantly had to identify information technology as nigh probably Joshua's altar. The evidence is simply overwhelming: a sloped ramp, only kosher fauna basic, uncut stones, all strict biblical requirements as detailed in the Mishnaic tractate of Midot, to mention only a few.
Then from one last observation signal, we were able to see westward the Mediterranean sea, eastward the Gilad mountains with Jordanian farmland only across, and northward the Golan heights and the Hermon mountain, three borders of the Country of Israel, giving y'all an unparalleled visual impression of just how small this sliver of land really is.
Witnessing this miraculous modernistic renewal, anchored with a concrete connection to an ancient past, is a truly unique feeling. I know many readers will disagree with the goals of the settlement motility, whose flagship was and still arguably is Elon Moreh and the few settlements surrounding Shechem. Nonetheless, regardless of your political inclination, I cannot just highly recommend that you lot allow yourself a visit to this extraordinary place.
Source: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/again-shalt-thou-plant-vineyards-upon-the-mountains-of-samaria/
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