Right before the onset of the Nine Days, my family and I visited Mini Israel. Located midway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Mini Israel is one of 45 miniature cities in the world, which encapsulate the main sites of an entire country in a small area. This is probably the only miniature city in the world divided into sections that form a Magen David (Shield of David).
In addition to some 350 models of sites of historical or cultural importance and buildings of architectural stature, the city was designed with 50,000 plants including 20,000 bonsai plants. The exquisite flora, together with vehicles, sound effects, and tiny dolls depicting realistic scenes, produce a virtual experience of being at the actual place.
?What a beautiful country Israel is!?; ?What a great place to live in!?; ?Let's go visit some of the places we saw!?; ?Such variety in a small country!?
These were some of the reactions of my family and other visitors that I overheard. You would think we were tourists from abroad on vacation. No. No foreign tourists were discernible to this eye. Of the dozen tour buses in the parking lot, not one had a sign indicating a group from abroad. Like the many visitors there that late afternoon, we were Israelis going out after a day's work to this new attraction suitable for children of all ages.
We who live in this Land are caught up in our daily routines and anxieties, some universal and many due to life in these troubling times. Surrounded by an information glut that focuses on the negative, Israelis can forget what a beautiful country God gave the Jewish people, and the miracle of Jews from throughout the world coming and rebuilding it.
The timing of our visit - right before Rosh Chodesh Av (the new month of Av), which commences the Nine Days, when mourning practices for the destruction of both Temples go up a notch - brought on these thoughts. With Tisha B'Av on the horizon, Israelis from different sectors debate the relevance of mourning the destruction of the Temple. After all, this event happened two thousand years ago, and modern Jerusalem is expanding at a dizzying pace, with local maps becoming outdated every year.
But often, the discussions about Tisha B'Av lead to focusing on the reasons that led up to the destruction of the Temple and how to fix them in today's society. The major cause of the destruction of the Second Temple was the senseless hatred among Jews. Although the Jews during this period abided by the Torah laws, rivalries abounded, they held each other in contempt and showed disrespect for each other.
The midrash is told of the two brothers who lived before the Temple was built. One was married with a family, and the other was single and alone. They inherited a field on Mount Moriah in the center of the Land of Israel. After working the field for years, they both independently decided to give over their harvest to the other brother during the night. Each brother reasoned that the other brother had a greater need for extra sheaves. The single brother felt his brother would need them to support his family. The married brother thought that his single brother would have no one to care for him in years to come. Thus, they would transfer the sheaves to each other's lot, not understanding in the morning why the sheaves were still there. Until one night, they bumped into each other and understood what happened to the sheaves. They embraced each other and were joyful for each other.
God chose the spot where they met for the site of the Temple, to be filled with kindness and unity.
Spread out over five continents and many languages, our people's unity is fragile. Concentrated in the Land of Israel are Jews from many Diaspora communities, of different mentalities and opinions. At Mini Israel, we felt the potential for unity of Jews. Busloads of visitors came from all over Israel. At different spots, people from those locales would regale with pride and spew off facts about those places. Jews from all communities were united in experiencing the beauty and variety of the country. People were reminded of places where they had once lived, visited, learned, served in the army or prayed.
We latched on to a group in the area depicting Jerusalem (which had the most models of any region or city). The guide was winding up the tour at Yad VaShem, the memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Replicated in a very realistic way, the guide spoke to the crowd, most of whom were not directly affected by the Holocaust, since they were from Mid-Eastern countries of origin. He told them how the Holocaust could have reached all Jews in the world, including his own parents, who had lived in India. He told the crowd that all Jews together must remember the biggest tragedy of the Jewish people, and how together they had come out of the ashes to make the Promised Land a reality.
This reality of entering the Land was denied by the Biblical spies, an episode directly linked to Tisha B'Av. The spies, leaders of their tribes, were sent to scout the land and report to the people before entering the Land. They returned on the eighth of Av. Their negative report and interpretation about the inhabitants of the Land planted seeds of doubt, leading to discouragement and panic about entering the Land. During the night of the ninth of Av, the entire nation cried out to their leaders, Moses and Aaron, wishing that they had already died in Egypt, or in the desert.
On the ninth of Av, God sent out a decree to punish the spies and the nation. Two spies, Caleb and Joshua, were not punished since they had a positive attitude about ascending to the Land. The other ten spies were punished, as was the entire generation of men. The sojourn in the desert extended to forty years, and the generation that had witnessed the Exodus from Egypt died before entering the Land.
The Talmud says that God told the people that because they cried on the ninth of Av, future generations would cry on this evening, a reference to the destruction of both Temples. A direct link exists between negative attitudes about the country, with a lack of faith in the ability to live there, and its existence as a nation. It is no coincidence that the weekly portion read on the Shabbat before Tisha B'Av is the portion of Devarim, wherein Moshe recounts the events of the 40 years in the desert. He singles out from other sins the sin of the spies. The spies who experienced the Exodus and received the Torah on Mount Sinai showed a lack in their faith when they rejected the Land of Israel.
As I left Mini Israel, with its concentration of sites, public buildings, landscapes, flora and sounds of the Land, I realized that the reactions of visitors to this Lilliputian city are a partial remedy to the sin of the spies. With all its problems, we as Israelis should praise the Land of Israel whenever possible, visit its real sites and accentuate the positive. Jews living in the Diaspora can show their positive attitude about Israel by buying Israeli products when possible, visiting Israel as individuals or with groups, and encouraging others about positive experiences as tourists. We should defend it with pen in hand (or mouse on pad) from those who tear it down without even having visited it, or never having come into contact with its inhabitants.
Is it a coincidence that the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, who, together with other bodies, do their utmost to make tourists feel comfortable and secure, uses as its symbol two spies holding a large cluster of grapes, stressing the positive of the Land of Israel?
In addition to some 350 models of sites of historical or cultural importance and buildings of architectural stature, the city was designed with 50,000 plants including 20,000 bonsai plants. The exquisite flora, together with vehicles, sound effects, and tiny dolls depicting realistic scenes, produce a virtual experience of being at the actual place.
?What a beautiful country Israel is!?; ?What a great place to live in!?; ?Let's go visit some of the places we saw!?; ?Such variety in a small country!?
These were some of the reactions of my family and other visitors that I overheard. You would think we were tourists from abroad on vacation. No. No foreign tourists were discernible to this eye. Of the dozen tour buses in the parking lot, not one had a sign indicating a group from abroad. Like the many visitors there that late afternoon, we were Israelis going out after a day's work to this new attraction suitable for children of all ages.
We who live in this Land are caught up in our daily routines and anxieties, some universal and many due to life in these troubling times. Surrounded by an information glut that focuses on the negative, Israelis can forget what a beautiful country God gave the Jewish people, and the miracle of Jews from throughout the world coming and rebuilding it.
The timing of our visit - right before Rosh Chodesh Av (the new month of Av), which commences the Nine Days, when mourning practices for the destruction of both Temples go up a notch - brought on these thoughts. With Tisha B'Av on the horizon, Israelis from different sectors debate the relevance of mourning the destruction of the Temple. After all, this event happened two thousand years ago, and modern Jerusalem is expanding at a dizzying pace, with local maps becoming outdated every year.
But often, the discussions about Tisha B'Av lead to focusing on the reasons that led up to the destruction of the Temple and how to fix them in today's society. The major cause of the destruction of the Second Temple was the senseless hatred among Jews. Although the Jews during this period abided by the Torah laws, rivalries abounded, they held each other in contempt and showed disrespect for each other.
The midrash is told of the two brothers who lived before the Temple was built. One was married with a family, and the other was single and alone. They inherited a field on Mount Moriah in the center of the Land of Israel. After working the field for years, they both independently decided to give over their harvest to the other brother during the night. Each brother reasoned that the other brother had a greater need for extra sheaves. The single brother felt his brother would need them to support his family. The married brother thought that his single brother would have no one to care for him in years to come. Thus, they would transfer the sheaves to each other's lot, not understanding in the morning why the sheaves were still there. Until one night, they bumped into each other and understood what happened to the sheaves. They embraced each other and were joyful for each other.
God chose the spot where they met for the site of the Temple, to be filled with kindness and unity.
Spread out over five continents and many languages, our people's unity is fragile. Concentrated in the Land of Israel are Jews from many Diaspora communities, of different mentalities and opinions. At Mini Israel, we felt the potential for unity of Jews. Busloads of visitors came from all over Israel. At different spots, people from those locales would regale with pride and spew off facts about those places. Jews from all communities were united in experiencing the beauty and variety of the country. People were reminded of places where they had once lived, visited, learned, served in the army or prayed.
We latched on to a group in the area depicting Jerusalem (which had the most models of any region or city). The guide was winding up the tour at Yad VaShem, the memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Replicated in a very realistic way, the guide spoke to the crowd, most of whom were not directly affected by the Holocaust, since they were from Mid-Eastern countries of origin. He told them how the Holocaust could have reached all Jews in the world, including his own parents, who had lived in India. He told the crowd that all Jews together must remember the biggest tragedy of the Jewish people, and how together they had come out of the ashes to make the Promised Land a reality.
This reality of entering the Land was denied by the Biblical spies, an episode directly linked to Tisha B'Av. The spies, leaders of their tribes, were sent to scout the land and report to the people before entering the Land. They returned on the eighth of Av. Their negative report and interpretation about the inhabitants of the Land planted seeds of doubt, leading to discouragement and panic about entering the Land. During the night of the ninth of Av, the entire nation cried out to their leaders, Moses and Aaron, wishing that they had already died in Egypt, or in the desert.
On the ninth of Av, God sent out a decree to punish the spies and the nation. Two spies, Caleb and Joshua, were not punished since they had a positive attitude about ascending to the Land. The other ten spies were punished, as was the entire generation of men. The sojourn in the desert extended to forty years, and the generation that had witnessed the Exodus from Egypt died before entering the Land.
The Talmud says that God told the people that because they cried on the ninth of Av, future generations would cry on this evening, a reference to the destruction of both Temples. A direct link exists between negative attitudes about the country, with a lack of faith in the ability to live there, and its existence as a nation. It is no coincidence that the weekly portion read on the Shabbat before Tisha B'Av is the portion of Devarim, wherein Moshe recounts the events of the 40 years in the desert. He singles out from other sins the sin of the spies. The spies who experienced the Exodus and received the Torah on Mount Sinai showed a lack in their faith when they rejected the Land of Israel.
As I left Mini Israel, with its concentration of sites, public buildings, landscapes, flora and sounds of the Land, I realized that the reactions of visitors to this Lilliputian city are a partial remedy to the sin of the spies. With all its problems, we as Israelis should praise the Land of Israel whenever possible, visit its real sites and accentuate the positive. Jews living in the Diaspora can show their positive attitude about Israel by buying Israeli products when possible, visiting Israel as individuals or with groups, and encouraging others about positive experiences as tourists. We should defend it with pen in hand (or mouse on pad) from those who tear it down without even having visited it, or never having come into contact with its inhabitants.
Is it a coincidence that the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, who, together with other bodies, do their utmost to make tourists feel comfortable and secure, uses as its symbol two spies holding a large cluster of grapes, stressing the positive of the Land of Israel?