Neot Kedumim

The ecology of Israel’s festivals in Neot Kedumim

Israel Tours in Neot Kedumim — the Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel, halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is a unique endeavor to re-create the physical setting of the Bible in all its depth and detail. Far more than a “garden” showing various biblical plants, Neot Kedumim embodies the panorama and power of the landscapes that helped shape the values of the Bible and provided a rich vocabulary for expressing them.

The unbreakable bonds that tie Jews to the Land of Israel despite millennia of physical separation still confound scholars. Yet the explanation lies not only in the collective historical memory preserved by the holidays of Israel but also in the agricultural cycles of the land of Israel that are imbedded in the three pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. When the Jewish nation was forced to leave its homeland and scatter in the Diaspora, it took with it its historical holidays that were firmly intertwined with the ecology of Israel: its agricultural problems, landscapes, and nature.