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עמוד:7
At once very old and very new , very low and very high , very cold and very warm , Israel is full of surprises and full of fun . It is like no other place on earth—and it is just like home no matter where you are from . Shalom aleichem ! Welcome to Medinat Yisrael ! Welcome to our homeland ! The Bible : A Family Album The Bible is like a family album . It tells us the stories of our ancestors who lived almost 4 , 000 years ago in the Land of Israel—Eretz Yisrael . In fact , Israel is often called the Land of the Bible . In Genesis , the first book of the Torah , we read that Abraham and Sarah were the first Jews . Our tradition teaches that Abraham left the city of Ur ( in modern Iraq ) to settle in Canaan—which is what Eretz Yisrael was called in ancient times—because God told him to do so . The Bible also teaches that God promised the Land of Israel to Abraham as a homeland for his descendants . Most of Mount Hermon is in Syria . Only about 7 percent is in Israel . The part of Mount Hermon that is in Israel was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War , in 1967 . Did you know that when you say “ Medinat Yisrael ” and “ Eretz Yisrael , ” you are speaking Ivrit—Hebrew ! Every week in synagogue , we read a portion , or parashah , from the Torah . Many of these portions teach us about the importance of Eretz Yisrael to the Jewish people .
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