By Vestnik Kavkaza
The participants in this unique project, "The Pilgrimage of Russian businessmen in the Israeli desert", shared their experiences. A pilgrimage through the desert, dedicated to Passover, was held for the second year in a row. The basic composition of the group was the representatives of the Russian-Jewish Congress. For Jews, Passover is one of the most important religious holidays, in fact it is the commemoration of the freedom of the Jewish people which is celebrated for seven days.
“Our first trip to the desert was last year, in April, also before the holiday,” Yuri Kanner, president of the Russian Jewish Congress, says. We were, thank God, alone. And now we faced cameras and were somehow discouraged.
The first external aspect is just the exercise. This is not a very easy thing. For the people who were for the second time it's easy. We walked 10 km, easier maybe for younger people who are better physically prepared, but what about those who were in the desert for the first time?
The second aspect is the Jewish one. Many people are confused, they say that we walked after Moses. This is not entirely true, because Moses did not enter the Land of Israel, Moses walked in the other deserts. So, maybe there was something similar, but it was not so much a way of Moses, but the path of Jewish pilgrims, who went in the Passover to the Temple in Temple times. There was a tradition to sacrifice it in the temple, and people from all corners of the earth, already even in those days there were Jews living in different places, not only in the land of Israel, not only near to Jerusalem, walked these roads to Jerusalem. The most famous man, a Jew, who was like that during Passover in Jerusalem, is best known in the Christian world - his name was Yeshua.
The third component is the Russian one. Still, even those who have joined us are the Russians, the Russian Jewish Congress is a Russian organization, and we live here, in Russia, we are trying to observe the Jewish tradition, no one interferes with this, and, of course, many people said that only crazy Russian can go to the desert in such a way.
The fourth side is internal, when together with the people we spent some time, and there is a special environment. We slept in a tent, with 15 mattresses with sleeping bags and everyone remembered his youth, when we were all young and communicated perfectly on other topics. This is also very nice, very interesting exercise, the emotional rest. Many issues were discussed - what concerns us as a Jewish community, as the Russians, as fathers, as grandparents.
“The participation was due to charitable contributions,” Benny Briskin, Executive Director of the Russian Jewish Congress, says. “Therefore, we are interested in attracting new people. On the other hand, we cannot increase indefinitely the number of participants – then we’ll lose that intimate atmosphere and what we can create for ourselves in the campaign and discuss serious issues. Every year we will have a core of permanent members or people who are instigators of the case and, on the other hand, there are new people who join us, and I hope , will join not only for a campaign, but for participating in our charity in Russia. This is one of the most important tasks.”
