Japanese Garden

Today I visited the ancient synagogue at Beth Alpha in Kibbutz Hefzibah and surprisingly inside the kibbutz found an unbelievable landscaped garden. In the back of the kibbutz located in the Jezereel Valley at the foothills of the biblical Gilboa

Mountain Range is an outstanding example of a Japanese garden. This magnificent garden was built and gifted to the Kibbutz by a Japanese Christian group known as the Makuya. The Makuya's leader Abraham Ikura Teshima wanted to be close to the Land of Israel and the Children of Israel. After Teshima's death in 1974 this carefully designed and landscaped garden was built and serves as a bridge between Japan and Israel. Japanese gardens attempt to reflect nature. The Japanese look in their gardens for a spiritual connection with the land and the spirits that are one in nature. They are designed as a miniature world to symbolize the larger world we are an integral part of. The garden overall attempts to create a landscape picture that attempts to build harmony with its surroundings. There are three primary rings that comprise the garden. The inner ring that is a designed landscaped asymmetrical garden full of symbolism. A middle perimeter ring of trees that hug the garden and a natural outer all enveloping ring that is the native topography and its landscape. Here the mountains of Gilboa serve admirably to dominate this high outer natural ground and the Jezereel Valley the low outer natural ground. The planned asymmetrical inner garden landscape accompanies the visitor and helps to transfer the individual to a serene inner peace. I found myself becoming an integral part of this miniature garden that succeeded to transfer me into a microcosm of the world. It brought home to my eyes the majestical beauty present in our world outside the garden.