Page 8 - Holyland Magazine - 2023 Edition

The Old/New
Holy Land*

Further reflections on trekking the length and breadth of the Promised Land

Aryeh Green

s noted earlier in our series on the for another time), I found myself in tears as Hebrew), and I walked along the beach beside
800-mile Israel Trail, whether you hike I approached the Mediterranean Sea. As I three Arab women wearing the abaya (the
it continuously over a few months (as write in my book, My Israel Trail, something traditional Muslim gown covering the whole
I did, all alone, with a 50-pound pack) about the vastness of the sea inspires us to body except the head, feet, and hands).
Aor for a few days or even just an hour appreciate the infinite possibilities available in
or two, it is a unique experience combining life, the choices we can make in determining Continuing onto Caesarea, a modern (Jewish)
history, spirituality, archeology, and religion our destiny, in large things and small…not Israeli town at the ancient Roman port of the
(and Israel’s geography and interactions with unlike Herzl’s famous phrase “If you will it, it is same name, I couldn’t help but recognize the
the people of Israel as well). But it’s not only no dream”. glorious incongruity of my situation. Recently
history; the Trail winds through some of Israel’s divorced –“alone” in every sense of the word
most vibrant centers of modern life. In this It was a transformative moment in the trek. After – I was an observant Jew who grew up non-
issue, I invite you to join me as we trek through spending over six weeks mostly out of touch observant in America, a direct descendent of
Caesarea, Netanya, Herzliya, and Tel Aviv, and with civilization as I wandered through the Eilat one of the leaders of the very first American
discover some amazing and uplifting aspects mountains and Negev desert (described in the Jews (my family came to those shores in 1690),
of the old/new Land of Israel. magazine’s ’21 edition), up to and down from and an Israeli for 30 years, walking among
Jerusalem (’22), and then in the North, I found Muslim Arabs and secular Jewish and Muslim
Having come south from the border with myself wandering down the main street of one Israelis through a 100-year old Arab village,
Lebanon, after hiking up and down the hills of Israel’s least known Arab Muslim towns, into a 130-year old Jewish town, alongside
and forests of the Galilee in the footsteps of Jisr az-Zarqa, and up the dunes to the sea. an aqueduct engineered by the Romans over
the prophets of Israel and Jesus (a subject Arab teenagers in the town cheered me on (in 2000 years ago.

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