SOS Garden Brigade

Summer is here like an inferno with intensely scorching heat, thirsty, parched lands, and fields the hue of straw. The country is literally a stack of dry kindling, so when rockets landed in the north on June 3^rd, care of Hezbollah, the place lit up like a colossal bonfire. 

As a result of rockets and shrapnel, there were so many brush fires, the fire department and foresters could not control them all. To add more challenge, it is dangerous for sea planes to douse the fires as there is fear of them being shot down. 

We happened to be at a wedding in Netanya that night, so we had no idea what had happened. We drove our son and daughter-in-law back to Haifa when the phone rang. It was my son in New York, my personal news broadcaster, always updated to the second despite the distance.

“Where are you? Do you know there are uncontrolled fires right near where you live?” 

Hearing his voice, I had a flashback to the evening when Iran attacked. We decided to go to sleep that night and he called us at midnight to ask where we were. He told us the missiles had just crossed into Israeli airspace. I had a mini panic attack before deciding that if this was it, I was going back to sleep.

As for finding a way home, Waze and Google maps were jammed as usual, programmed to tell us we were at Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport. We were not. We were in Haifa and totally lost, going in circles on and off highway interchanges. 

Amir researched using an online map, the news, and community WhatsApp groups to see which roads were closed due to the raging fires. My daughter who was home did not pick up the phone. Guess it was time to have a mini panic attack, but as I was behind the wheel, this one would have to wait.

As we had to make a huge bypass around the Kinneret, it took us three hours to get home. Approaching our village, I noticed the streetlights were eerily lit as if shrouded in fog. Smoke. I stepped out of the car and smelled fire. 

The fire did not jump the highway and, thankfully, our place was intact. The casualty here was a dead chicken who either suffered from smoke inhalation or heat exhaustion or both. Fires continued the next day, consuming beautiful pine and oak forests across the north. According to Israel 21C, during those days, 80 percent of the forest burnt in the Naftali Mountains and the Al-Nabi Yusha forest. Birya, the largest forest in the Galilee, lost 12 percent of its trees.

It took days and days to put out fires in very dangerous conditions. Once an area was under control, another rocket could start it all again – and the firefighting crew had no protection against the rockets. All in all, three times more acres have burned than during the Lebanon war in 2006.  

These fires are a total devastation to people, animals, and plant life. The Golan is also suffering. It is 85 percent grasslands and cattle graze freely. A brush fire there decimates a herd and destroys a farmer’s income. 

I love these forests.  Over the years, I have hiked many trails on these treed mountains and huffed and puffed while biking the uphill paths, grateful for the shade the trees offer. I treasure the fresh smell of the forest, replete with pure oxygen, gifting a dose of happiness. 

The trees are home to many birds, while foxes, coyotes, and porcupines dwell in the grass below. I have come across turtles noisily clambering across dried leaves and occasionally, I have seen deer, ibex, and wild boar peeking out from trees on the slopes. A fire can decimate all of this in a matter of minutes and it can take well over a decade for life to return. 

One of the recent fires came within 50 meters of a horseback riding ranch. A call for help went out and many answered, including Amir and I. We were told to bring rakes, hoes, gloves, and weed whackers. 

This horse ranch, a popular tourist attraction, is on the edge of one of my favorite hiking paths so I know the forest well - at least I did, since not much remains intact. As we drove there in the early morning, I could see the devastation and smell the smoke.

Many people answered the SOS call from all parts of the country. Over this past nine months of war and trauma, doctors, social workers, psychologists, physiotherapists, chefs, and yoga teachers have all answered the call for help. Now it was time for an SOS garden brigade.

We arrived to the chorus of multiple weed whackers humming in the area above the horse farm. Our task was to make a fire clearing between the forest (or what was left of it) and the farm. This meant cutting down all the brush, dead branches, and weeds and raking it into a huge pile.

During our orientation talk, a volunteer asked, “What if there is a siren?” There is no bomb shelter here in the forest. We were advised to lie down on the ground and cover our heads with our hands. 

With that sobering thought, we went to work. As we raked the brush, we were coughing from lingering smoke particles. 

When a TV crew came to interview the owner, he said he had lost 80 percent of his revenue since the start of the war. No one wants to horseback ride on these mountain paths and the horses here are having an extended vacation in their paddock.

The team was efficient and within a few hours, the area was clean, with a wide protective belt outside the ranch. I took the opportunity to pick up garbage; if there had to be a silver lining to this catastrophe, I felt I was tending the land.

Israelis have been planting trees for over seventy years, patting millions of saplings by hand into the earth all across the land. Tree planting is a symbol of putting down roots after a long exile, preserving the land, and enriching a harsh environment. 

Over the years, these saplings matured, creating hushed, humbling forests that became a quiet sanctuary, welcome shade, and a home for wildlife. The mountain sides now bear ugly black scars. 

While I was writing this, rockets from Lebanon landed in Dishon, creating brush fires that are out of control right now. I am devasted as this too is a playground of hiking, biking, a home to wildlife, and for us, wine tasting. 

This war is not over and may not have begun in the north, despite rockets falling here since October 7. I pray for peace, calm, protection of the forests, and a safe time to replant. This special prayer for planting trees, created by Rav Ben-Tsiyon Meir Hai Uziel before 1942, shows how much we value Israel and wish to tend this special Land.

אָבִינוּ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם בּוֹנֵה צִיּוֹן וִירוּשָׁלַיִם וּמְכוֹנֵן מַלְכוּת יִשְׂרָאֵל, הַשְׁקִיפָה מִמְּעוֹן קָדְשֶׁךָ מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם וּבָרֵךְ אֶת עַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאֶת הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר נָתַתָּ לָנוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתָּ לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ.	Our father in Heaven, builder of Tsiyon and Yerushalayim, and founder of the kingdom of Yisra’el, look down from your holy domain in Heaven, and bless your people Yisra’el, and the land that you presented to us that you promised to our ancestors.
רְצֵה ה׳ אַרְצֶךָ וְהַשְׁפַּע עָלֶיהָ מִטּוּב חַסְדֶּךָ תֵּן טַל לִבְרָכָה וְגִשְׁמֵי רָצוֹן הוֹרֵד בְּעִתָּם לְרַוּוֹת הָרֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַעֲמָקֶיהָ וּלְהַשְׁקוֹת בָּהֶם כָּל צֶמַח, עֵץ, וּנְטִיעוֹתֵינוּ הַעֲמֵק שָׁרְשֵׁיהֶם וְגָדֵל פְּאֵרָם, לְמַעַן יִפְרְחוּ לְרָצוֹן בְּתוֹך שְׁאַר עֲצֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לִבְרָכָה וּלְתִפְאָרָה.	Take pleasure in your land and bestow abundance upon it from the goodness of your lovingkindness — Give dew for a blessing and cause beneficial rains to precipitate in their season to satiate the mountains of Yisra’el and her valleys and to water upon them, every shrub, (and) tree, and our plantings. Make deep their roots and grow their crown so that they blossom according to your will among all the trees in Yisra’el for blessing and for splendor.
וַחֲזֵק יְדֵי כָּל אַחֵינוּ הָעֲמֵלִים בַּעֲבוֹדַת אַדְמַת הַקֹּדֶשׁ וּבְהַפְרָחַת שִׁמְמָתָהּ. בָּרֵךְ ה׳ חֵילָם וּפֹעַל יָדָם תִּרְצֶה.	And strengthen the hands of all our comrades who toil in the labor of the holy Earth, and make her desolate areas fruitful. Bless, YHVH, their might and may the work of their hands be favored by you.
אָמֵן.	Amen.