My Beautiful Israel

Have you ever spent the late afternoon watching the sun set over the Mediterranean Sea blend with the majesty of Zichron wine country
or seen a pack of horses run along the Galilee?

Did you ever see snow fall on Jerusalem
as the worshippers prayed at the Western Wall?

Have you ever seen Flamingos fly over the Arava
or the Pesach Moon hang over the mountain of Meron?

Have you ever tasted the hummus of Tel Aviv
or the Falafel of Beni Barak?

Have you ever danced with Hassidim at evening prayers,
Moroccans for morning services and Yemenites for Afternoon devotion?

Have you ever drank water from the Ein Gedi
or stood on top of Masada and remembered the honor displayed?

Have you ever looked out from the Hilltop of Rabbi Akiva’s burial site and saw the twinkling night lights of Tiberius?

Did you ever ride camels on the sands of Beer Sheva?

Did you ever go fishing in the Kinneret as you heard a mother owl call her children to eat?

Have you seen the mountains and valleys where the Youth of 1948 gave life and limb to win our independence and secure our future?

Have you ever walked through Yad VaShem and connected with the eyes of the children on the walls?

Have you ever boated along the Yarkon River and remembered a dream-A dream that called you back home,
A dream that gave you hope when the nightmare was too much,
A dream that trekked 4000 years?

And whispered in your ear
until you stood on top of Har Zion
and proclaimed to all the stars of Heaven:

THIS IS MY LAND!
THIS IS MY LAND,
Where my soul and the land are one,
Where my heart and the grass are the same,
Where my mind and the Temple Mount are my right to call unto
my G-d.

This then is Israel!

The Land G-d, Himself, on one fine morn nearly 4000 years ago entrusted to my Father Avraham and his children to plant, plow and grow, to set up a society and to be a Light unto the Nations.

Israel is the home to the oppressed, the persecuted, the lonely and the nomads of the world.

Small in size and number, Israel seeks to empower all its population, no matter the religious diversity.

It is miracle of human majesty.

It is My Israel.

Israel the Light!
Israel the Wonder!
Israel the Beautiful!