I’m Tired…

Just got back from an amazing day. If I were independently wealthy, I would spend my life touring this land and showing it to others. We have two business guests visiting us, future partners in an amazing offering that we hope will take Israel by storm. We were to have two days of business meetings; I desperately wanted today to go north to the Carmel Forests. I needed to see the destruction, the damage to a place I had traveled through so many times.

I decided I would leave the second day of the meetings to my colleagues. One announced he needed to leave early. It looked like perhaps it would be more productive if we could pack two days of meetings into one long one and so I invited our international guests to come with me.

They had come to visit Israel for only this meeting – two days of meetings, one day of touring in Jerusalem and then back to Europe. Come with me, I invited them. I asked Elie if he wanted to join us. He’s great as a driver, entertaining as well.

We drove north – as I often do, I went into narrator mode. I love to tell anyone, everyone of the beauty of my land, its history, its truths. We arrived in the north; how was it possible the devastation was even worse than I’d expected? I’ll post some pictures soon – too tired now.

And then I thought of where I could take them and what I wanted them to see. We drove through Haifa and I showed them the beauty there; we drove north to Rosh Hanikra and again, I showed them the beauty. This time it was the grottoes – the place where water meets the land and the sun.

We drove across the northern part of Israel, down past the Sea of Galilee and back into Jerusalem. One guest kept apologizing for asking so many questions and I kept trying to explain that I loved answering. Elie shared stories of the army and at one point, at Rosh Hanikra, he saw two soldiers talking. He recognized them as artillery – brothers.

Why don’t you go say hello? I asked him. It was like a mother pushing a young child to make friends, I thought. How silly! A while later, as I was walking and talking to our guests, I saw that Elie had in fact stopped to talk to the two artillery soldiers. His connection to the army remains a vital part of who he is.

I’m tired after almost 12 hours of touring; I’m also enriched once again, with love of this land and the opportunity to share it. More, I am so happy to hear when someone tells me that they did not know, no one ever told them of the real essence of this land.

I joked that perhaps I should write a book about day tours in Israel. How you can see vast areas in just one day. I’ve had this challenge before – it’s so hard to choose and yet the reality is that no matter where you go – the land awaits.

3 Comments

  1. My dream for an upcoming trip to Israel is to have a guide who has the Torah in his or her hand to explain where all the biblical sites are…where battles were fought, where our ancestors walked, etc. Of course the modern history of Israel is equally fascinating to me…in short, every square mile in Israel is so rich in history. Hope you really do day tours one day…I will be one of your first clients! I’ve been to Israel 6 times, and leave each time hungry to return and explore more!

  2. We share a passion — I got my guiding license because I find everything about E”Y fascinating. It’s like a good marriage — the more you learn about the other, the more you come to accept the other — the deeper your love for the other grows. Now I have to wait for my young brood to be a little more independent before I can put that license to serious use! I encourage you to take the course — it was such a rich learning experience.

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