A ramble on water and the Jewish people

The almond trees are starting to bloom at Sataf in the Jerusalem Mountains.
Sataf is a preserved plantation from over two thousand years ago. The trees
are still raised using ancient techniques.

There is something distinctly and divinely Mediterranean about this experience. As I sit on the porch overlooking North-Western Jerusalem with my laptop and, what would be a glass of wine, if we had a bottle opener, I am enthralled by the green-ness of the plant life in the dead of winter, the pink-yellow stone buildings all around me, and the contrast of old and new. I hear the sounds of cars and scooters and motorcycles, construction and bird songs are everywhere, and the voices of the people on the street speak of life and awareness. The air smells fresh and everything tastes just a little like lemon. All of the life around me, the steady hum and thrum of people, plants, and animals, flows from those same waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

The fig trees growing on terraces at Sataf. 

In Jewish culture and religion, water is a symbol of purity. Purity on Judaism is not the white and untouched beauty of modern American Christianity, but a spiritual state in which a Jew is separated from the divine. In modern Jewry, the only way to cleanse the impurity and be able to connect again to the divine is through submersion in Living Water. Living water is water that includes rainwater or naturally flowing water. It is a part of the Jewish teachings that connect us to the Earth and to Nature.

In Israel, water is an immensely important substance. More than half of this small country is desert. While I am currently here over the rainy season, over half of the year sees no rainfall at all. The Sea (medium sized lake) of Galilee and the Jordan River are the only sources of fresh water for an area about the size of New Jersey. It is not difficult to understand how such a precious resource can be seen as holy to the people of this place.

In the Sataf olive grove, there is the ruin of an olive press. On
the lower left hand side of this picture, you can see the place
where the grind-stone was connected to the floor. The white tiles
are still visible under the collected mud. The olives were pressed
at the grindstone and the oil would flow down into the pool
(currently full of muddy water). 

Water is the potential for life. In the Jewish creation story, Dry land is first created on the Third Day (interestingly, this is before the concept of time is created), the day after the creation of Water. In the creation of dry land, is also the creation for the potential of plant life. This plant life is then brought into being when Adam prays for rain. This concept is so interesting to me, since it says that plants, unlike animals in this story, not only need water for survival, but for creation itself. It is believed, for easily extrapolated reasons, that rain is the holiest of waters, followed by the flowing waters of the Earth.

According to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, a historical spiritual figure revered by a sect of Orthodox Jews, water, and liquids in general, also hold the key to cohesion. This is a very interesting concept in a place as torn apart as Israel. From the outside, Israel seems like a land constantly at war, from inside there is a sense of unity, the people, whether they are Jews or not, are one people. They work together, they enjoy each other's company, they eat in the same places. From the inside, this is not a country at war, this is a country united by war. The history of

Also at Sataf, this is the outside section of the water system created by the
original inhabitants by crafting a series of tunnels to collect the rain water that
fell onto the hillside.

animosity surrounding Israel is so very interesting when looked at in terms of Israel's physical location. Good trade relations between Israel and it's surrounding countries would allow consistent and easy land trade to all parts of the middle east, where currently, Israel is a physical block between Syria, Jordon, and Egypt. But I digress.

In recent years, the initiative and ingenuity of the Israeli people has taken great strides in the process of desalinating and recycling water. It is estimated that 80% of drinking water in Israel is processed, cleaned and re-used. This is a huge amount of water which is processed every day. In contrast to my earlier statement about Jewish culture and Religion seeing and experiencing it's connection to nature through water, in the desalination process, we see a huge amount of brine water, the salty liquid that remains after fresh water is removed from sea water, being pumped back in the the ocean. To the best of my knowledge, there is no research about how this effects the delicate balance that exists for sea life, both in the Mediterranean and in the rest of the world.

In the Northern part of Israel, my cousin has an outdoor Koi
pond.

I will complete this ramble by reminding my readers of one very interesting fact. The root of the word "Rival" and "River" are the same. Water is one of the most precious and fought over substances in the world, probably more than gold or jewels. Water is a source of life, and a spiritual and holy liquid. Without it, there would be nothing but sand.

And possibly Adhumla...

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