Blessed Rain Water at Jewish Legion Memorial, Shiloh Junction

Yesterday one of my walking partners called and suggested that we take a walk to see streams of water at the Shiloh Junction. Her timing was great, and I was able to take a break from my Shabbat cooking to join her.

Since our time and walking prowess are rather limited, we took her car to the Shiloh Junction and walked across the road to the Shiloh Valley park and hiking trail. It has also been dedicated as the Jewish Legion in Binyamin Memorial.

During World War One, the first Jewish fighting force was established, the Jewish Legion, and one of the areas it got to was Shiloh. So, last summer a memorial was set up at the Shiloh Junction.

Today, the area just west of Shiloh is a Jewish agricultural area with olive groves and vineyards. Since it's part of the Emek Shiloh, Shiloh Valley, it's extremely fertile. When we came to live in Shiloh in 1981, the entire area was barren. But in the past twenty years, this area has been one of the most profitable agricultural sites around. Prize-winning Meshek Achiya Olive Oil grows olives here, and a number of prize-winning wine companies get their grapes from here, too.

Experts can taste the difference between rain-watered produce and artificial irrigation, so the accumulation of rainwater here is very important, Baruch Hashem, thank Gd.

From the "Vineyards of the Mountains of Samaria," "כְרָמִ֔ים בְּהָרֵ֖י שֹֽׁמְר֑וֹן"

Jeremiah 31:

4Yet again shall you plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria, indeed planters shall plant [them] and redeem [them].

דעוֹד תִּטְּעִ֣י כְרָמִ֔ים בְּהָרֵ֖י שֹֽׁמְר֑וֹן נָטְע֥וּ נֹטְעִ֖ים וְחִלֵּֽלוּ:

It means a lot to me to have served grapes from our own Shiloh vineyard, a few grape vines growing near our house, on Rosh Hashana when we had just heard the above verse in the Haftara. It is clear to me that we are living in Messianic times. Things may not be perfect, but we are getting there, Gd willing speedily in our days...

Gush Shiloh, Grape-Growing Center of World

Yesterday my friends and I took a short "road trip" around the communities, hills and valleys surrounding Shiloh. We're all living here well over thirty years and remember when Shiloh was considered rather isolated. Two of us are from the days when Shiloh was the only Jewish community between Ariel, Tapuach and Beit El, Ofra. Today, not only are there lots of small and medium communities in the area, but Eli is even larger than the more veteran Shiloh.

For us the big surprise was the amount of agriculture, more specifically the massive vineyards and groves of olive trees. It's easy to see that these are commercially cultivated. Everything is neat and carefully pruned, unlike those growing in my garden.

We ended our little trip by picnicking near the Givat Harel Vineyards, a "pot luck" lunch, which we shared.

Here are some photos:

It bothered us that the cluster of grapes wasn't shaped accurately.  

Most of the photos are from east of Shiloh. We didn't go all the way to the Allon Road. Givat Harel is northwest of Shiloh. It's clear that Gd created this Land to grow grapes and olives.

FIRE!! West of Shiloh by The Vineyards

Everything was going fine for me on my way home from work this afternoon. That is until I got out the tremp/ride at the Shiloh Junction. It stank, and it was full of smoke. Just across the way, to the west of Shiloh I could see smoke and some flames over the vineyard. No, this wasn't a small localized fire. It spread all around. The only thing that kept the flames low was the simple fact that there wasn't all that much to burn, not many trees, mostly low brush. The soldier waiting at the stop, at which I found myself, said that it had been going on for two hours. I could see a few fire trucks.

Deja vu, all I could think of was the fire about twenty years ago. Arabs has set the first small vineyards alight, and my son was one of the volunteers who put it out. Once the fire was out, it was decided to plant many more grapevines there, and now the area is full of grapes which are well-known for the excellent wines they make. And, yes, the same son began working that summer planting the grape vines.

Here are some pictures of the fire. I apologize for the lack of focus and composition. I, literally, couldn't see the camera's screen and just blindly aimed and shot:

PS In a news report on the internet, it claims that there are olive trees on fire. A neighbor who had been with the crew trying to put out the fire confirmed that olive trees were burnt to a crisp.