My first Israel Ride was in the fall of 2008. I had read about the ride, but was never brave enough to sign up for it. And then one evening I met someone who was riding, and impulsively decided to join him. I was scared out of my mind, certain I would never be able to complete the ride, but too proud to back out.
Author Archive | Hazon
The Israel Ride – A Transformative Experience
My advice for newbies? Train a lot, but don’t worry about whether you have done enough. You’ll be fine.
New Old Friends on the Israel Ride
By Rabbi Art Gould In my family everyone’s favorite relative was Uncle Sid Goldman (alav ha’shalom), aka Goldie, aka Solid Gold. We would say – because it was true – that you could put Goldie down anywhere in the world and in ten minutes he would have not new friends but old friends. That’s how I feel about the Israel Ride. I first rode in 2008 and by the time we got to Ashkelon I had a number of newly minted old friends. Like Edna Granot from Australia, with whom I always ride the downhill out of Mitzpe Ramon on Sunday morning because we like to take it easy going down that spectacular piece of the route. Or my old friend Paula Reckess who sent us encouraging emails and a promise to procure a bottle of champaign when we were struggling to escape Hurricane Sandy and make it on time for the 2012 ride. We made it and I’ve never tasted a more rewarding glass of champaigne. Especially important to me is my old friend Mousa Diabat, alum of the Arava Institute. Mousa was driving the bike truck out of Mitzpe Ramon the same Sunday morning in 2008. Another of […]
Tips from a veteran Israel Rider
I would like to continue with some of the things I started with and add to the training/preparation ideas I started with. Since the ride is FULLY supported.
The 2013 Israel Ride – A First Timer’s Perspective
Besides this being our first Israel Ride, it will be the first time we have rode in an organized event together – not to mention the fact that we will be traveling to Israel to do so. It will be Beth’s first trip to Israel and it will be my first trip since 1976.
Discovering the Israel Ride
I first heard about the Israel Ride a few years ago from a friend in West Hartford, CT who is a member of our Shul. He mentioned that he was in training for a bike ride from Jerusalem to Eilat. I thought he was meshuga, and didn’t give it a second thought
Shmita & Hydroponics/Aquaponics
by Yigal Deutscher This past week, the Urban Adamah farm in Berkeley installed an aquaponics gardening system in their greenhouse. Aquaponics is a soil-free farming system that combines hydroponics (growing in a medium of water and dissolved nutrients) and aquaculture (fish farming). In the combined system, the fish add nutrients to the water that is used to grow the food (their waste is high in nitrogen, a much needed plant growth stimulant), and the overall holistic system provides a harvest of both mature veggies and fish. Read more about Urban Adamah’s system here: http://blogs.forward.com/the-jew-and-the-carrot/179511/when-fish-are-farmers-not-food/ This method has become a highly productive farming system in areas where soil quality is low and where land access is limited. It has also become a permaculture technique utilized on farms trying to reduce waste, and create more closed-loop systems. The interesting aspect in regards to Shmita is that aquaponics, at least on the surface level, seems like it can be practiced without alteration during the Shmita year. The agricultural implications during the Shmita year is that no soil can be tilled and no seeds can be sown. Obviously this raises a question of where the food will come from during this year. One stance we are taking at […]
The Land Shall Rest: Exploring Shmita in the Diaspora
New from the SOVA blog by Rabbi Ebn Leader and Rabbi Margie Klein. Original post can be found at http://sovaproject.org/2013/07/08/the-land-shall-rest-exploring-shmita-in-the-diaspora/ In the Jewish calendar, the next Shmita year will commence in 2014, and Jews around the world are beginning to think about it. In North America for example through the Shmita Project and other efforts, Hazon, the Jewish Farm School, and other groups are embracing Shmita as an opportunity to explore Jewish values around land, food, and sustainability. The Shmita Project encourages people not only to hold study groups, but to plant “Shmita gardens” that follow the Shmita laws in our own backyards and practice alternate economic models that promote collaboration and sharing. The Torah’s mandate to let the land lie fallow for a year raises many serious questions. What would it mean to forgo agricultural activity and the economic structures that follow from it? What would it mean to spend a year treating the fruit that then grows of its own accord as ownerless, so that everyone has the same right to resources of the land? (more…)
![Week 4: Miles City – Aberdeen, SD Lemmon](https://hazon.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Lemmon-100x100.jpg)
Week 4: Miles City – Aberdeen, SD
The Hazon Cross-USA Ride travels from Miles City to Aberdeen this week. See where it’s stopping!
Back in Israel — for Israel Ride #4!
So here I was, back in Israel after 32 years, trying to get re-oriented to the geography and the culture. The roads were a bit different, but what came back very quickly was the feeling of acceptance by the people around me.
The View from Team Boulder
Having never participated in a group ride before, nor have I ridden on a bike for more than one full day, the Israel Ride required me to do both!
![Week 3: Helena – Miles City, MT Canyon Ferry Dam](https://hazon.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Canyon-Ferry-Dam-100x100.jpg)
Week 3: Helena – Miles City, MT
The Hazon Cross-USA Ride travels to Miles City this week. See where it’s stopping!
“Leaning in” to Work and Rest
New from the SOVA blog by Judith Rosenbaum Original post can be found at http://sovaproject.org/2013/06/21/leaning-in-to-work-and-rest/ Like most people following the news over the past few months, I’ve been thinking about what it means to “lean in” (and its counterpoint, “opt out”) and the assumptions and judgments inherent in the term. Sheryl Sandberg, an executive at Facebook, coined “lean in” to encourage women to make a more passionate commitment to career ambition and leadership; it’s meant to carry a positive connotation (though in my experience is referenced dryly and with some cynicism/resentment by many women). And opting out, of course, refers to women choosing to leave the workplace to become stay-at-home mothers. Both place work at the center, with action defined by one’s orientation toward career (and notably placing all the agency in the individual with little to no regard for the social context for these actions). But as someone in the midst of career transition, I find myself wondering why this debate is necessarily framed around work. I’ve recently left my job of more than a decade in order to invest time and energy in figuring out what I want to do next, and to catch up on the self-care I’ve […]
![Week 1: Seattle – Spokane, WA Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest](https://hazon.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Okanogan-Wenatchee-National-Forest-100x100.jpg)
Week 1: Seattle – Spokane, WA
The Hazon Cross-USA Ride travels from Seattle to Spokane this week. See where it’s stopping!
![Week 2: Spokane – Helena, MT Couer d'Alene National Forest](https://hazon.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Couer-dAlene-National-Forest-100x100.jpg)
Week 2: Spokane – Helena, MT
The Hazon Cross-USA Ride travels from Spokane to Helena this week. See where it’s stopping!