The spring pictured here, Ein Chubela, has a pool fed by a man-made cave carved into the limestone hillside. My ancestors dug the cave more than 2,000 years ago. They dug the cave to increase the flow of water from the natural spring that King David himself may have visited during his time as a shepherd in these hills.

Submerging into the pool of cold spring water is an all-absorbing sensory experience. It’s somewhat overwhelming for those who are not accustomed to it. To stay in the cold water for any length of time, you have to negate the part of your mind that is telling you to get out ASAP.

But if you can relax, breathe out and let yourself sink into the water, you can experience a sense of being swallowed into the land and infused with its spirit. Our souls have been waiting for 150 generations for this embodied experience of connection to our land, and it’s worth the effort to savor it and open ourselves to connecting to what is, as a Jew, already part of us.

Emerging from the pool, you aren’t the same person who entered. Something of the spirit of Eretz Yisrael and our holy ancestors stays with us. And honestly, getting out of that cold water, you do kind of feel like King David or one of his warriors, full of the holy vitality of the land of Israel.