This week Parashat Chayei Sarah opens with the death of our matriarch, Sarah. Abraham purchases the Cave of Machpelah to bury his beloved and this becomes the first moment, beyond the Divine promise itself, that roots us physically in the Land of Israel.
Abraham insists on purchasing the land transforming it into an eternal holding. In this act of love and loss, he marks the beginning of our people’s connection to the land and the sacred soil. From that moment onward, we carry his legacy: placing earth from Eretz Yisrael on the caskets of our loved ones. We remain bound to the same soil Abraham held in his hands, connected to the land that holds the stories of our ancestors and continues to hold the vibrancy of Am Yisrael.
Tonight, at services, we will celebrate Israel Shabbat. We will bless 20 women from our congregation who will travel to Israel this weekend on a Momentum trip. They have waited 3 years to take this journey together and we pray it will be filled with discovery, meaning, renewal, and wonder.
Every time we enter into prayer, we too take a journey eastward to our spiritual home. Our tradition orients us toward Jerusalem, inviting us to set our kavanah, intention, toward her radiance, her complexity, and her sacred pull on the Jewish soul. We are reminded that we are always in conversation with that holy place.
As we prepare for this special Shabbat we pause to journey inward. To connect with the legacy we inherited, and the legacy we will pass on. Let’s journey to the land of our ancestors together through a visual meditation that places us in Eretz Yisrael. We will feel her holiness, and her beauty. Whether you have been many times to Israel or not yet, I invite you into a moment of quiet visualization. Allow the images I share, the memories you have, and your imagination to guide you.
Imagine yourself standing in the Land of Israel.
The air holds something ancient, a mixture of earth, prayer, and tikvah, hope.
Even if you have never walked this land, your heart senses its familiarity. Israel contains our joys and our wounds, our songs and our silences, our triumphs and our tears. It is a land of kedusha, holiness, and a wellspring of memory and soul. Picture yourself among olive trees. Their trunks are solid and enduring. Their roots reach down into the stubborn, rocky soil. Sunlight catches the silvery leaves and you can smell fresh rosemary in the breeze.
You are standing in the hills and valleys of the Galilee. It is a land of psalmists and mystics. It is a place where time seems to slow. Now envision the Golan dotted with purple buds swaying in wind. Black basalt stones warm under the sunlight. Hear, if you can, the rushing leaves of the eucalyptus, which tell the tales of a time gone by. This landscape holds boldness and fragility, courage and complexity.
It reminds us that Israel is never one thing or the other. It is a tapestry of contrasts woven together. Let the desert come into view. A horizon without end. At your feet, red kalanit flowers bloom where logic says they shouldn’t but life insists on blossoming.
This is where Abraham and Sarah walked. Where prophets listened. Where our people sought refuge and cling to the hope of a brighter future of peace and tranquility. Let the stark beauty of the desert remind you that hope and harshness coexist teaching us we can hold the same within. Now imagine you are standing at the Mediterranean Sea. Salt air warms your cheeks. Waves rise and fall with an ancient rhythm. The Jaffa port stirs with early morning life as fishermen are calling out and children are running along the shore. This shoreline sings the song of renewal. It reminds us of our people’s capacity to begin again. Walk across the street into Tel Aviv. See the colors splashed across Neve Tzedek’s alleyways. Hear the hustle and bustle of Dizengoff Street. Picture the curved balconies of Bauhaus buildings. Dance to the music drifting through open windows. Walk through the Shuk HaCarmel, the market place, and take in the pomegranates piled high. Smell the spices and take a taste from all the vendors booths. This city pulses with creativity, innovation, resilience and the promise of a bold future.
Finally, ascend toward Jerusalem. Watch the light shift into gold as it dances atop the stones. Walk the ancient pathways of the Old City. Feel the stones worn smooth by generations. Then picture yourself before the Kotel, the Western Wall. It is a place of longing and tenderness, of prayer and wishes, of grief and gratitude. It is a place where holiness gathers. Here, the soul remembers its beginnings. Here, the heart knows itself fully.
Gather these images inside you now—the olive groves, the hills of the Golan, the blooming Negev, the Mediterranean sea, the vibrance of Tel Aviv and the golden light of Jerusalem. Hold them as part of your living connection to the legacy of our people. Hold them as part of what you will one day pass on to those who will come after you.
Let the images linger. Let them accompany you into Shabbat.
As you emerge from this inner journey may you be inspired by the landscape that has connected our people for centuries. May her golden light illuminate the spark within you. May Israel know peace and tranquility and continue to be a source of spiritual radiance, joy and blessing in the ever unfolding story of our people.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Laila Haas
