If you’ve been a reader of my blog for long, you know I have an affinity for trees. I find them very calming. I live in an area with very few trees, unlike my childhood, and most of the trees around me are palm trees.

I thought this was quite interesting and the first time I’d heard of it. Have you visited there?

Karin

In this issue we will travel to Xurshat Tal (???????? ???) – an enchanting nature reserve with brooks, little waterfalls, the largest swimming lake in Israel, a fishing pond, and a forest of ancient oak trees. In the spring and winter time, you may even find rare kinds of orchids and other more common flowers blooming in all the colors that were given by nature.

The winter snow and rain water that fall on the Chermon Mountain, penetrate through the mountain and break out in the form of springs underneath the mountain which form the Dan River (????? ????, naxal Dan). One of its brooks is the Tal River (????? ???, naxal Tal), that flows through the reservoir.

The Oak Forest (???????? ????????????, xurshat ha’alonim)
There are 240 Oak trees in the forest – some are 15 meters (~50 feet) tall with a 6-meter (~40 inch) circumference. Some of the trees are estimated to be 400 years old. They survived all these years due to the fact that they are considered holy to the Muslims, because Sheikh Ali was buried there.

An Arab story tells about the ten companions of Muhammad who wanted to rest by the river. They couldn’t find trees to bind their horses to, so they inserted their sticks into the ground and bound their horses to the sticks. They sat there, enjoying the cool water, drinking some good coffee and talking about their issues. When they rose to continue their trip, they found out that their sticks had become huge trees. Therefore, the Arabs called the place “the forest of the ten” (???????? ??????????, xorshat ha’asara). It is believed that all the oak trees in the area grew out of these ten holy trees.

Rescuing an Oak Tree
One of the ancient oak trees in the forest became rotten and was about to collapse. In 1984, the Botanical Department of Tel-Aviv University came to rescue the tree. They carefully removed the rotten part of the tree and filled the tree trunk with 6 tons (!) of concrete. The tree has been healing since and its bark is slowly covering the concrete. Its leaves are green and healthy and it gives much shade, beauty and comfort to the visitors. This tree may give healing inspiration to all of us.

The origin of the name:
Mount Chermon gave the inspiration for the name of the place according to the following verse from Tehilim:

??????-???????? ?????????, ???-??????? ???????
‘?????? ??”?, ?

Psalms 133:3

Transliteration: ketal xermon sheyored, al harerey tsiyon
Translation: Like the dew of Hermon, that cometh down upon the mountains of Zion.

Xurshat Tal Song

Bless us G-d in everything
In everything we do
Bless us G-d
And bless, and bless our year
And grant grant grant
grant rain and dew
on the face of the land
on the face of the land Xurshat Tal Hebrew Online Newsletter

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Israel, Nature, Prayer, Spirituality and God