Dateline Jerusalem — Springtime in Israel is a glorious time of year. I wake up in the morning to birds chirping, a perfect blue sky and a variety of palm trees, exotic ferns. Kumquats and colorful blooming trees and flowers are outside my apartment windows. They reflect the beauty of Israel as a people and as a nation. Israelis have turned this desert country into a green and blooming nation with the scent of fruit trees and a unique, colorful palette of flowers. The perfume of the blossoms is divine.
Springtime also means carpets of wildflowers throughout the country in every color imaginable, like having a box of crayons at one’s fingertips. They remind me that G-d’s creation of flowers and trees is for the pleasure of mankind. Saffron, considered the most expensive spice in the world, is produced by drying the stigmas of colorful crocus flowers that bloom throughout Israel. Flowers are one of Israel’s biggest exports, especially to Europe. Sixty thousand flowers are exported to Europe every year. There are 2500 species of plants in Israel. Supposedly the climate and weather are the main reasons for the diversity in flora.
Israel is one of two countries in the world that went into the 21st century with more trees than it had over 100 years ago. According to Biblical prophesy, after the destruction of the Holy Temple and exile of Jews from the Land, the Land of Milk and Honey would become a barren, scorched desert wasteland and only once again would become a flourishing and fruitful agricultural oasis when the Jews returned to the Land. Now Israel is green and bountiful with fruits, vegetables, trees, flowers, and farms.
As I walked in my town this morning, I felt like I was in Hawaii or the Caribbean. Tropical flowers are in bloom, the blossoms are sweetly scented, and the palm trees lining some of the streets remind me of Beverly Hills where palm line boulevards and avenues. Israel is like living in Paradise. The main boulevard that vertically bisects the center of town has giant trees planted 100 years ago with 5- to 6-foot diameter trunks with branches towering over roofs and limbs touching second story windows while their leaves shade the sidewalks. The street is lined with orange trees, the aroma emanating from them like that of freshly squeezed juice.
But my favorite view is that of the sky, a vivid sea of endless blue, gradually becoming deeper in color as I look toward the east, in the direction of Jerusalem and the Kotel, also known as the Western Wall or Wailing Wall. It is a bizarre phenomenon, but the closer one is to the Wall, where it is said that G-d sits atop, the more perfect the blue sky, a sky that no artist can capture with oil paints and no camera can ever do it justice. Perhaps only the human eye can appreciate such beauty because it is truly heavenly.
L’hitraot. Shachar