Opening our eyes to the water crisis
Climate change affects Israel most urgently in water shortages. The Arava Institute is perhaps the leading organization in the Middle East searching for technical and social solutions to climate mitigation, water conservation, sustainable agriculture, and related programs. Celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, the Arava Institute is notable for bringing together people from Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority in joint projects.
People of the ancient Middle East, just as those today, suffered regularly from a lack of water. Just using the Bible as a source, we see in Genesis chapter 16 that Isaac had to move several times after disputes over water. In II Kings chapter 2, Elisha purifies a town’s unpotable water. And Abraham himself gets into a spat with a mysterious leader named Abimelech about who owns a well, in Genesis chapter 21.
Earlier in this chapter, in a passage traditionally read on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, Ishmael’s mother Hagar faces a personal water crisis. Twice Hagar has been driven from Abraham’s home by Sarah. And both times, Hagar heads off into the desert, presumably seeking to return to her homeland in Egypt. The first time, an angel finds her by a spring and tells her to return to Sarah. The second time, water eludes Hagar and she despairs.
God then shows up to boost Hagar’s spirits by promising her that her son Ishmael will not only survive, but will be the progenitor of a great nation. Sensing her newly elevated role in history, she finds a source of water she had not noticed before.
We don’t know whether Hagar ever manages to return to her homeland, but she performs a more important t’shuvah: connecting with God directly and fulfilling her mission to raise Ishmael, who is the legendary ancestor of the Arabs in both the Jewish and Muslim traditions.
Today, following the model of organizations such as the Arava Institute, we need creative solutions to find water where we did not know it existed. Of course, water conservation on its own is not a long-term solution. The region will swelter in drought and unlivable heat if we continue to load the atmosphere with carbon.
But another aspect of the Hagar story must guide us. The reason Sarah drove her away was to deprive Ishmael of any part of Abraham’s inheritance.
Similarly, in Israel and around the Middle East today, people expend their resources in trying to drive other people from their land and hoard the resources needed by all. We have to look past these disputes and adopt the broad agenda of the Arava Institute, which treats all residents as equal participants in saving the land.
Andy Oram is a writer and editor in the computer field. His editorial projects have ranged from a legal guide covering intellectual property to a graphic novel about teenage hackers. Print publications where his writings have appeared include The Economist, the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, and Vanguardia Dossier. He has lived in the Boston, Massachusetts area for 50 years. His poems have appeared in more than 70 journals and anthologies.
105 Hudson Road, Sudbury, MA 01776
(978) 443-9622|Email Us
Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter,
Mah Chadash, in your inbox.
Engaging and informative story. Everything is superbly connected in the final paragraph!
August 20, 2026 at 5:36 pm