An unspoken question looms over many Israel trips: How much time should you spend looking at old stones and graves? Past is indeed prologue, but how much prologue does one need?
Friday morning, we traveled to Hebron to visit the Machpela tomb of Abraham and Sara, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah. Was it all about days bygone?
Kabbalistic imagery describes us each as being entrusted by G-d with a personal garden which represents our life's work. Metaphorically speaking, you and I spend our lives planting, cultivating and nurturing a plot of earth which sits at the base of a mountain. Water, representing G-d's blessings, flow down the mountain to provide nourishment for each garden's vegetation and growth.
Why the need for a mountain in this metaphor? Because the mountain's slope represents the preceding generations of one's respective ancestry. In other words, G-d's blessings flow to us through the genealogical topography formed by prior generations' souls.
In other words, visiting the Machpela was also very much about the present. The blessings I receive from G-d today are launched through the agency of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs, standing at Hebron's Machpela Cave isn't about what was, but about what is. It meant connecting with the source of my soul's nourishment, with G-d's point of contact for my life's flow of blessing.
I was plugging into my energy source.
Leaving the tomb, the group energy was one of inspiration. And the hostile environment, as evidenced by the need for heavy IDF protection, didn't dampen our spirit. To the contrary, it seemed to energize our singing and dancing, the celebration of our history and spiritual identity.
I felt our Hebron inspiration continue as we returned to Jerusalem to enjoy Shabbos with our 450-strong group of American Jews.
And on Sunday Hebron's lesson crystallized, when we traveled south to the historic, desert-like area of Beit Guvrin. There, our guide pointed out a caper-bush, explaining that - in the plant world - this bush is a remarkable survivor. The bush has a natural mechanism to maximize nutrition uptake from poor soils, and thus survives and thrives in harsh environments. Interestingly, this plant stubbornly survives attemps at eradication, and responds to pruning by quickly and vigorously growing back, more profusely than before.
Our guide also mentioned that the caper bush is the plant we see growing out of the Western Wall. Intrigued, I asked him for the plant's Hebrew name. When he responded "Tzlaf", it all came together for me. The Talmud compares Jewish survival, our miraculous existential stubbornness to the Tzlaf, which I know understood to be the caper bush.
You and I have a caper bush base to our respective gardens.
Abraham and Sarah certainly watch us with pain and pride, as we continue to survive a world of ISIS and BDS, of hatred and ignorance.
And they continue to funnel an abundance of water to our caper bush, blessing and empowering us for a bright future.
Am Yisrael Chai.