How great are Your works, O Lord! You have made them all with wisdom; the earth is full of Your riches! . . . All look to You with hope, to give them their food in its time. You give them that they may gather; You open Your hand that they may be sated with goodness. You hide Your countenance and they are troubled; You gather in their spirit and they die and return to their dust. You will send forth Your spirit and they will be created, and You will renew the face of the earth.
— Psalms 104, 24–31
Behind me, the city of Tsfat nestles into the neighboring mountain. The kabbalists say that the Holy One graces the alleyways of Tsfat. I could never believe it. That is, until three months ago, on the last Sunday in July. On that day, three visitors came to the mitzpe, the mountain lookout. These visitors did not know one another; one was an unborn baby, one a young gardener and one an old Hasid. But each one, on his own and all together, brought me back to life.
On that Sunday morning, I was sitting in my usual place on the wooden bench. A family of tourists had approached the mitzpe and turned on the speaker phone. “This mountaintop lookout is called Mitzpe Yoav, in honor of Sergeant Yoav Giladi who was killed by a sniper on the Syrian border on June 9, 2008, while he was on guard duty.”
I turned as far as I could to the right so...
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