The Couple
I just visited the most fascinating place: the Naaleh therapy farm in Efrat, Israel.
First, the story behind it. There is a family who made aliyah from Arizona within the last seven or eight years, and settled down in Efrat. She was from the USA and he was from South Africa. They were going about their regular lives, both working full time. So, Sean and Mikey settled in and built their life.
Then the war happened.
The Neighbor
Their neighbor Aharon went off to war, served his reserve duty, and came back with terrible PTSD. He was deeply affected. Some of his close friends were killed in front of him, and he returned carrying tremendous suffering and a heavy burden on his soul. He went to a therapist who told him he should get a dog. A dog would help share the burden of what you are going through.
But he did not get a dog. He went out and found a donkey. A donkey in distress. He mut have been in the ‘D’ section at the pet store. He took in this donkey, whom he called Gideon, and this donkey did great wonders for him. He gained so much simply by looking after this animal.
The Farm
His neighbors, Sean and Mikey, noticed the impact this had on him. Knowing how many other people in their immediate vicinity were experiencing severe PTSD from this ongoing war and its sheer amount of loss, they decided to create a farm. Working with Ben Goldstein from Unity Warriors, they turned it into a reality.
The Animals
And that is what they did. They began rescuing animals in distress, animals that had been beaten, neglected, and tortured by the local Arabs, some of them at the point of death. These included a donkey that had grown old and was no longer useful for work. A horse that had broken a foot. These animals that had been burned with cigarette butts, locked in cages and beaten to the point of death. Goats, sheep, horses. They found a piece of no-man’s land and they started clearing rocks, and they started planting and building. Sean and Mikey saved these animals and brought them together to create this beautiful farm.
Every day, different people come to help. Soldiers, school children, neighbors and tourists. Some come to build enclosures. Some come to work the landscape. Some come simply to pet and feed the animals, the rabbits and the chickens. Every day there are people there, building it.
The Thesis
What was most interesting to me was talking to Aharon himself and hearing why this farm works so well. Why government ministers of the State of Israel have come to visit, and have now actually granted them special land to build on.
It is this. Aharon explained: all the animals on this farm are broken. All these animals were abused. All of them were in distress, some at the point of death. And they end up healing the broken people who come to care for them. Because ultimately, when a person is in a state of pain, one of the greatest pathways to healing is helping others who are also in distress.
Although our intuition is that when we suffer, we withdraw, to step back from the world around us, ultimately our redemption from our troubles comes not from calculating them or analyzing them. It comes from helping others who are also in trouble. It is within that space that redemption and resolution are found. A tremendously profound lesson, learned from animals, about helping those around us.
Sadness
Recently, I read a book called Theo of Golden. It is beautiful tribute to the goodness and complexity of the human condition. In it the main character, Theo, turns to an artist who draws portraits. He comments that all of his portraits display people with sadness in their eyes. The artists is taken aback. He thinks that means he is only an expert at drawing sadness. Theo explains that actually, his expertise is seeing the human condition. We all have sadness and pain buried in us. We all have experiences challenge, tragedy and pain. That sadness is part of who we are. We also seek to escape the pain. Often our redemption is helping those around us who also have sadness in their lives.
The Donkey and Israel
And this beautiful farm is a symbol of what Israel is: people searching for life, people searching for ways to fix, to rehabilitate, to start anew. A place that takes what has been broken and tortured and cultivates life and growth again.
Just three weeks ago, the donkey they saved which had been severely abused by the Arabs gave birth. She gave birth to a beautiful donkey they called Yocheved. This perfect and beautiful baby donkey reminded me of the story of Israel – even amidst loss and pain, bringing new life to this world.