Working and talking

Tonight we celebrate Pesach.  The dining room here in Nitzana was closed for about one week to make it kosher for Pesach.  That means: free of any yeast holding materials.  All the utensils are stored away, the dining room and the kitchen are rinsed thoroughly to make sure there is no crumb left.  Apart from the religious demands, this is required by law in Israel for public places such as educational institutions.  That is what Nitzana really is: a place where groups of young people come to follow an agricultural or nature reservation program.  Bedouin youngsters come to learn to treat their livestock in a more humane way.  Some come from abroad for a year to prepare for the military.  A smaller group of Russian young people is here in the process of making aliyah, to settle in Israel.

And then there is our group of volunteers helping out where we can.  Yesterday we worked for the farmer Adi.  I had heard many stories about him, and yesterday the stories were confirmed.  We usually work from about 7:00 to 12:30, and as usual we took a break at about 10:00 for coffee and some rest.  But with Adi, that was the end of the work day.  He told us that the work we do is not relevant in his eyes.  The fact that we travel to a war zone to help out, ‘rationally you must be out of your mind’.  He told us that on October 7, his daughter and her husband and children, who live in a village just outside Gaza, spent 36 hours in the safe room.  He said: We are in a black tunnel with no light.  It feels good, it is a comfort for you to come and place your hand on our shoulder to let us know we are not alone.  Adi was an officer in the air force during his military service, but he feels like he does not know how to move on now for Israel.  The complexity of politics, multi-front war, and threats like Iran, and the turmoil worldwide make it difficult for a rational approach.

Meanwhile we plant, weed, harvest, and maintain products on the farms here.  Very varying plants, from cucumbers and egg plant to vines for grapes or to make wine, to tomatoes and to many herbs.  The farmer Golan came to tell us about the many herbs he grows and their effects on the human body (and mind sometimes) when applied to the skin or extracting tea from them.  And we have very good, consistent nice weather here.