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Guardians of the Land |
| Section: LIFE / COMMUNITY |
| Author: Michael Brown |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/2004 |
| Size: 2,244 Words, 13,209 Characters |
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It is midmorning in the town of Safed, about twenty minutes from Israel's northern border, and I am struggling with the oppressive temperature of an unusually fierce heat wave. As I walk down the large hill that serves as the town's cemetery, I pass Orthodox Jews deep in animated prayer, their black suits contrasting with the abundant white headstones.
I am here to find two fig trees, known locally as the wishing trees. They stand at the bottom of the cemetery, around the grave of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair, an ancient sage. Each of the trees is festooned with bits of cloth and plastic that have been tied around every branch within reach. According to custom, this act helps facilitate requests from the visitors.
I photograph and measure the trees, stopping a few moments to appreciate the...
. . .
...ry trees of Rosh Pina, all that remain of an ambitious nineteenth-century silk enterprise; or the Founders' Grove, a group of eucalyptus trees planted by the founders of an early village in northern Israel on the shore of a now-forgotten lake. Next time I'm in Haifa, I'll try to locate a huge sycamore that grows on Carmel Mountain. Last time I couldn't find it, but I know it's there someplace.
(812 of 13,209 characters)
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