As we drive up the main road of Mitzpe Yericho, with olive trees surrounding us on both sides, I am full of hope. Searching for a community can be daunting, and at last my husband Eliyahu and I agree that this yishuv we are visiting feels like home. Perhaps we are coming full circle as we got married in Mitzpe Yericho’s wedding hall, Nof HaYarden. Funny, though – at the time, we did not even consider living in Mitzpe, as it is fondly called.
Eliyahu
points out the significance of Mitzpe Yericho. A mitzpe is a lookout; this yishuv
lies on top of a mountain overlooking the ancient city of Yericho a few
kilometers away. Nowadays, Yericho is an Arab city known for its casino, and
Jews are not allowed to live there. But its history goes back to the times of
Yehoshua, when Bnei Yisrael entered Eretz Yisrael and miraculously conquered
the city.
We
were fortunate to find an apartment to rent on the upper floor of the home of a
wonderful family that runs the Beit Chabad of Mitzpe Yericho. I was quite
impressed by the chesed that our
landlady did for me when she offered to have her team send me the lavish
homemade breakfasts that a woman receives for five days after birth, although
my daughter Hodaya Ora was then already two months old! In addition to sending
such breakfasts, the Beit Chabad hands out packages to Israeli soldiers before chagim, and there is a Chabad minyan along with shiurim.
Yishuv life is far different
from city life; it is quiet and the pace of life is slower. There are lots of
dogs, some chickens, and various other animals. Some people get around in golf
carts to pick up their kids from school or to do grocery shopping.The beauty of
the majestic desert mountains is breathtaking. When I gaze at the mountains
from my merpeset (porch), I can
almost feel the whispers of our ancestors treading on the rocky terrain,
especially when a Bedouin shepherd appears on the mountain across from us
leading his huge herd as if he is just skipping from mountain to mountain.
During
the summertime, the heat in Mitzpe is pretty intense, but the tradeoff is that
the weather is very mild the rest of the year. One way to cool off in the
summer is to go for a swim in the yishuv’s
newly opened Olympic-sized pool, which feels like a vacation resort with the
mountains surrounding on all sides.
I
quickly learned that even though Mitzpe has only one makolet (grocery store), many residents have small businesses in
their homes, such as a baby and children’s clothing store, a clothing gemach, and a Judaica and gift shop. In
addition, sales often come to the yishuv,
such as winter shoes that were advertised recently. Many people do their major
grocery shopping and errands in Ma’ale Adumim, a city only 10 minutes away, or
in other yishuvim in the area. When I
need to do errands, I like to hop on the bus that leaves about once every hour
and go to Yerushalayim, which is about 20 minutes away. It is also convenient
that there is a library and two health clinics here on the yishuv and that pizza is sold a few times a week.
One
attraction for me to move to Mitzpe Yericho is the ever-growing
English-speaking community. In recent years, many English-speaking families
have been moving into Mitzpe, and although spread out in all of the areas of
the yishuv, a solid, supportive, and
welcoming community has been formed. We have an English WhatsApp group, a
Shabbat shiur for women, and a sense
of family dynamics among ourselves, as many of us lack family in Israel.
A
range of religiosity levels is found in Mitzpe and some interesting artists. A
couple of artists have offered workshops, and many homeowners created beautiful
mosaic door plaques. Another artist who lives across the street from us has
studied concrete sculpture and taught a workshop in the yishuv. Thus many residents have large life-size sculptures of
animals and other things in their front yards.
Taking
walks in Mitzpe Yericho.is never boring. My neighborhood comprises beautiful
large houses, each one different from the next. Since we are in the desert, and
it is quite difficult to grow grass here, many people put down artificial turf
on their property. Nearby, an apartment-building project is currently taking
place. And closer to the entrance of the yishuv,
adjacent to another neighborhood with small buildings, are semi-detached homes.
In the center of the yishuv, the
original cube-style houses and some caravans (trailers) allow families to live
more cheaply.
Several
years ago, the yishuv wanted to
expand, and so they put several caravans for families to live in on another
hill. A little further up that hill, a bunch of tzimmerim (vacation houses) are almost finished, built by someone
as a private enterprise. Indeed, Mitzpe attracts a lot of frum tourists. They come for Shabbatonim or simply to vacation in
this pleasant yishuv, which is on the
way to the Yam Hamelach (the Dead Sea). A few locals take tourists jeeping
around Midbar Yehuda, where Dovid Hamelech ran away from Shaul Hamelech,
bringing Tanach alive,
Recently,
the yeshiva in Mitzpe, begun by Rav Shabbtai Sabbato, celebrated a rather large
siyum Hashas with beautiful music and speeches heard
across the yishuv. The Rav of Mitzpe,
Rav Yehuda Kroizer leads the main beit
knesset. There are various other shuls in the yishuv, including two Sefardi shuls, a Teimani (Yemenite) shul, a
Carlebach minyan, and the Chabad minyan.
A
security fence surrounds a large portion of the yishuv and a guard is always on duty at the entrance. Residents
have told me that, baruch Hashem, this
area in the Binyamin region is considered fairly safe; the most harm they have
encountered from Arabs has been some incidents of theft. Indeed, Mitzpe feels
like a secure, friendly community that is continuing to expand. However, I am
curious to learn about this yishuv’s
beginning. A sweet woman, Karen Alexander, graciously shares about what yishuv
life was like in its infancy.
Karen
relates that hers was the 50th family to enter the yishuv nine years after its inception in
1977. Back in those days, there was no simple va’ad kabbalah (entrance committee) as there is nowadays, which
does basic screening before a family moves in. In those times, families had to
get screened by the Jewish Agency and go through psychological testing to
determine if they would be a proper fit for the yishuv. The next step was to live for 12 months in one of the eshkubiot (cubed-style houses) for a
trial period. A vote was then held by the community members to decide if the
family could stay on the yishuv. If
the answer was positive, the family was given a plot of land on which to build
their house.
The
original plan was for a small intimate yishuv
of 250 families with one main shul for everyone to daven in whatever nusach they wanted. Karen describes how
the young families would sit on the grass after school and share picnics
together, family style. She reminisces, “It was a real community; we made
decisions together.” Relationships with neighbors were close-knit and borrowing
from each other was common, as the fruit and veggies in the makolet were only delivered once a week.
Over
the years, economic problems wiggled their way into the yishuv, and gradually, it had to expand and allow more families in
so that the increase in the taxes they were receiving would pay back the yishuv’s debts. The larger the community
became, the more variety of schools, ganim
(preschools), and shuls were established. Currently, there is a girls school
that goes until sixth grade, and a boys school until eighth grade.
What a
miracle it is that, upon this desert hilltop, a blooming Jewish life is now in
existence after centuries of desolation. The barren desert’s rocky terrain has,
through much effort and hard work, been cultivated to grow lush green grass,
trees, and gardens. In this topsy-turvy world of uncertainty and instability,
whether as a result of Corona, politics, or terror, Mitzpe Yericho is like a
tower of light, shining her testimony of the miracles of her emergence, as my
husband calls it, “an oasis in the desert.”
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