Living and Loving the Land of Israel

Before the Pesach vacation, the entire student body of Orot took a field trip to the mountains of the Lower Galilee, the Atzmon Mountain and the remains of the Yishuv Yodfat. We chose to concentrate on a track with medium difficulty, which included climbing the Atzmon Mountain (547 meters). The top of the mountain overlooks the amazing view of the Beit Netufa valley, the area of the Tzippori yishuv, Hoshaya, Beit Rimon and the Nazareth range from the south. The track included walking in the Mediterranean Sea vegetation and an amazing spring blossoming.
After a rest, the students descended the Atzmon Mountain towards Yodfat. Yodfat is an important city from the end of the 2nd Temple that refused to the surrender to the Romans as other cities had, and chose to fight bravely instead. Sadly, the battle concluding with Zippori's fall at the hands of Roman conquerors on their way to the oppression of the rebellion and the destruction of Jerusalem (in the year 70).
The fieldtrip was led by the 1st year students of Orot's Department of Eretz Yisrael Studies, who were thoroughly prepared by their teachers Dr. Yitzhak Sapir and Naama Bindiger.
Why does Orot insist on conducting field trips for the entire student body? If you don't live the Land of Israel, you can't love the Land properly. And, without that love, how will a teacher communicate the value of Eretz Yisrael to her students in the future? These field trips strengthen and develop the relationship of Orot's students with the Land of Israel, its landscapes and heritage, so that when they become teachers, they will appreciate the importance of field trips in the Israeli school system, and convey the value, beauty and holiness of the Land to the next generation of children.