Rabbi Yehudah Landy retraces ancient footsteps from the Jordan Valley to Beit She'an
If Yerushalayim is the beating heart of Eretz Yisrael, then the Jordan Valley, whose red mountains fill the windscreen as we leave the capital behind, is the country’s spine.
While the cardiac analogy is actually a midrash that refers to the spiritual centrality of the Holy City, the latter comparison was a staple of early Israeli military thinking, not Chazal.
But drive north up Route 90 — at 480 kilometers, or 300 miles, Israel’s longest road — and the similarity is hard to miss.
For while the mountain ridge rising on the left, leads to Yehudah and Shomron in the country’s center, the east bank of the Jordan River on the right — today, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan — holds the second half of ancient Eretz Yisrael.
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