Order from Chaos

Cherry Picking in Rosh Tsurim

There is an annual happening in Gush Etzion. People from all around are invited to go to the kibbutz Rosh Tsurim to partake from their cherry orchard. For 20 shekels, one can eat all you want from the trees. Another 15 shekels per box, you can carry some away. Some say they eat so much that they get sick. I ate a lot, and it was only satisfying.

The kibbutz itself is just around the corner from Alon Shevut. You can see the Matnas (regional government buildings) of the Gush on the opposite hill, and a beautiful view of the valley going down to the coastal plain.

Inside, it is the usual intimate pleasant atmosphere which comes from places where people know and trust each other. Those who do not live there feel we are coming on a family visit. It is a fair, with inflatable play pads for the kids, people selling arts and crafts, foods, and other fair-type stuff. The park has a lot of canopies for people to sit relaxed on the grass, eating the food around, or their own. Some kids and parents are surrounding a snake which is about to partake of his own lunch-a dead unskinned mouse.

The orchard is just across the street, covered with netting to keep out the birds, and some insects. It keeps us cool. They spray only before the fruit comes out, so there is no poison to wash off. With my untrained eye, I found at least three different species of cherries. Two are the traditional red and white cherries found in the grocery stores. The third was smaller. In exchange for its size, twice the cherry-sweetness.

I came with my daughter, granddaughter and some of our friends, but that is really moot. There were so many of our friends there. It is just the thing to do on a pleasant Friday morning, just before preparing for Shabbat. Even displaced Gushites from Ranana took the time off to partake in the festivities. In all, it was a great time.

But further, it is a reminder. These trees are rich and abundant. And this on land that is special. The land is not like Maryland and Virginia, where Old George chopped down one of the same species. The land here is dry, rocky and sparse. Goats have grazed and vines have grown wild here for centuries. But the ability to cultivate has been limited over the past 2000 years. Whether it was because of the people living here, the systems under which they had to live, or the desire of the land to give of it’s abundance, nothing grew past subsistence.

When the Jews returned, the land flowered again. They turned the swamps around. Though warned that the land around Jaffa and in the Jezreel Valley had mosquitoes that eat humans for breakfast, they beat back the swamps and turned them into some of the most fertile land in the world. Anyone seeing the Negev would rightly wonder how anything, even scrub, could grow. But kibbutzim and moshavim spot the desert with green from grass and export crops.

Gush Katif was sand. The Arabs living in the Gaza would complain that it could produce nothing, so demanded Israel proper as their rightful place. But the Jews moved in and made greenhouses for crops that are the envy of the world. When forced out, those greenhouses were either destroyed or went into disuse, because the indigenous people sometimes would not, sometimes could not work them. And the land returned to fallow within months.

Isaiah says of this:

“And now come and I will tell you What I will do to my vineyard;
I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up;
I will break down the fence thereof, and it shall be trodden down;
And I will lay it waste:
It shall not be pruned or hoed, but there shall come up briars and thorns;
I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” (6:4, v.5-6)

He says about us:

Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people, Saith your God.
Bid Jerusalem take heart, and proclaim unto her, That her time of service is accomplished, That her guilt is paid off;
That she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (40, v.1)

Then:

“For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace:
The mountains and the hills shall clap their hands.
Instead of thorn shall come up the cypress, and instead of briar shall come up the myrtle:
And it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. (55.3 v.12-13)

It has started in places like Rosh Tzurin, Ketura and Rosh Pinna. And hundreds of others throughout the land. The trees and plants grow and flourish, nourished by the God who has returned us to the land. It is no mistake or accident that the land grows with the Jews and not with others. The plan was laid out long ago. We are here as agents of a power greater than any who would deign to displace us.

Our proof – the cherry trees of Rosh Tsurim.

posted by Tiresias in Israel @ 8:35 PM