"Some of us had thought of Israel as a kind of distant, historical site, kind of boring... but that frigid climb up Mt. Sartaba to see the sunrise over the Jordan Valley, meeting with kids our own ages at a new settlement and exchanging views with them, that crazy jeep drive down the hidden Wadi where we had to do the navigating with a compass and a topo map...
...then finally we helped clear land for a new vineyard at the settlement of Horesha, and then climbed up to the top of the water tower, and there it was: all of Eretz Yisrael laid out in every direction... and it was REAL! "

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