Overlooked Oasis

When you look out onto the sprawling Judean Desert from the mountains atop Jericho, you can see either windswept sand dunes and jutting cliffs, or imagine Bnei Yisrael camping on the other side of the Jordan River, waiting for the signal and the shofars to enter Eretz Yisrael. Standing atop the Mitzpeh Yericho lookout deck, the past and future merge into one great hope

IT started with an invitation from my son and daughter-in-law, some 15 years ago: “We found the place we’d like to settle in. Want to see it?”

Mitzpeh Yericho, they called it — “the Jericho Overlook” — a small dot in the heart of the Judean Desert.

My kids were buying a house… in the desert? We were veteran olim from New York, not Bedouin wanderers. We’d never even owned a dog — were we now supposed to invest in a camel?

Still, I swallowed my doubts and made the trip — and I was surprised. Surprised and impressed.