Living in Eretz Yisrael means not just living in a land filled with kedushah, but in a land saturated with our people’s past.
Here in Ramat Beit Shemesh, we Anglo olim are just the newest population strata in an area known for its incredibly rich history, going back to the times of the Tanach — back when Beit Shemesh was a Jewish border town neighboring the Pelishtim on the coastal cities out west, the first Jewish town that you hit if you were, say, a pair of cows pulling a wagon with an Aron Hakodesh inside.
Its proximity to the Pelishtim of Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gaza (yes, there are some thorns in our side that just never go away) meant that Beit Shemesh and the surrounding Judean Hills were often in the crosshairs when battles broke out. And the scene of one of the most famous battles of Jewish history took place just a 15-minute drive from my home: the showdown between Dovid and Golias.
Sometimes it takes the foolhardy confidence of youth to jump up and volunteer for a challenge that’s patently over your head. Dovid Hamelech stepped up to the plate, backed by his rock-solid faith that he was fighting Hashem’s battle. As for me, I can only attribute my confidence to utter irrationality, back when I was in my mid-twenties and volunteered to be part of the core group to launch Project Inspire.
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