Denied but Determined: Building Health and Wholeness in the Desert

The Journey to Self-Realization and Real Living

We have celebrated over 50 years in our journey toward creating health and wholeness here in the Village of Peace Dimona.  Building the Village of Peace here in Israel and subsequently in our various international jurisdictions required focus. And it all began with ourexodus out of Americain 1967. Nearly three years in Liberia before our movement to Israel had started the forging process of stripping away the poor health and dependent cultural practices that had been forced on us in America.

Unite or Die: Building a Healthy Collective

Necessity can and often does breed innovation, but necessity alone doesn’t do it. From the early years of our return, first in Liberia and then to Israel, we sought our answers, strength, and motivation from our spiritual source.

We knew we had to unify to not only survive but thrive, to intentionally craft lives that represented dignity, health, peace, truth, and prosperity. We learned that the change in our physical location had to mirror the change in our minds and understanding in every way possible. Ultimately, we had to reclaim “The Power to Define” in every aspect of our lives. That meant addressing and jettisoning the negative cultural debris from our former lives.

It also meant looking inward AND outward for wholistic health practices that were spiritually and culturally relevant to us.

Creating a Preventive Health System for Us

First, we had to start living again. In America, the difference in lifespan between White males and Black males was marked – in 1966, White males had a life expectancy of 67 years while Black males, only 60.

The living conditions in our former environment meant that we rarely, if ever, had access to decent medical care. Hospitals in the major northern and Midwest U.S. cities we had migrated to either didn’t admit us, or if they did, gave us a substandard level of care. Add to that a well-earned mistrust of the medical system itself, and we were more likely to die.

So, we reached back to the ancient wisdom that we had brought with us, looking back before most modern, western medicine, and pursued again the knowledge of healing with plants. Some of the early Pioneers of the Village of Peace brought with them some remembrances of “old-time healing.” We reawakened the knowledge of herbs and wholistic, plant-based preventive treatment methods that we had kept somewhat intact during our time in America, determined to create our Divine Preventive Wholistic Healthcare System.

Exercise as Medicine

We understood that life was about being “in motion,” so we started exercising again – and we made exercise or “Holy Concern” mandatory at least 3 times a week. Strenuous, sweat-producing exercise, culturally relevant meditation and breathing work as well as a mandatory massage, later incorporating sound therapy and other modalities, have become the bedrock of our health system.

Everything centered around treating mind, body, and soul/spirit as one unit, looking to prevent disease and disability. We learned to understand and honor our bodies again, resisting the toxicity and accelerated pace of western living. Instead, we began adhering to the natural cycles of the Creation, incorporating meditation, stillness, prayer and fasting on a regular basis.

Those who had some knowledge of medicine, whether “formally” trained or possessing a deep knowledge that had been passed down by family members, eventually formed a cadre of Divine Rofeem/Rofote (healers). Preventive Healing became our focus, resulting in the formation of our Ministry of Divine Health. Currently, doctors are continually trained at our institute of higher learning, the School of the Prophets.

Giving Birth in the Desert – Return of the Hebrew Midwives

Once we arrived in the southern Negev desert, we were determined to address the higher infant mortality rate experienced in the United States. In the 1960s, the infant mortality rate of Black infants to White was nearly 2-1.  A host of factors played into this.

To counter this, we reinstated the role of the ancient,Hebrew Midwivesand doulas/assistants who would research, design, and implement prenatal and post-natal practices designed to support both the baby and the mother, as well as involve the entire family in the birthing process for improved outcomes.

Our Priesthood, the husband, and any older children of the family, became an essential part of the birthing process. Since we lived communally, other housemates as well as the Community’s Sisters took an active part in each birthing journey, making sure not only the expectant mother was cared for, but the entire family.

We reinstituted our ancient cultural practices designed to feed the mind and spirit of mother and baby. We incorporated biblical readings, prayer and meditation, and various practices to cleanse and keep the mind and spirit in a place of intentional peacefulness, joy, and health.

Understanding the importance of language and its impact on the expectant mother as well as the baby, we even redefined the terminology used to describe the various stages of pregnancy “conception” process.  We replaced words like “contractions” with “energy surges” promoting a more positive and approachable mindset to the delivery process itself.

Our Midwives also developed a distinctive pre/postnatal plant-based live-it – incorporating fresh fruits and vegetables, herbs, grains, juices, tinctures and teas designed to give both mother and baby the optimal physical health. And, rather than formula, breastfeeding whenever possible became the default. We ultimately created one of our earliest and most enduring institutions, theBeit Chaim or House of Life.

From Scarcity to Abundance: Organic Food, Farming and Relationships

We had to create a remedy for the unhygienic, overcrowded, and unhealthy living conditions some of us had faced before our Exodus: we re-embraced communal living and the necessary dignity, discipline, care, and respect that came with it. We still were overcrowded in the early days of the Village of Peace, but we understood it as a birth canal to a way of living that truly had respect for the “Whole.”

That communal living taught us the immeasurable value of each other, far above any physical possessions.  Shared culture can be a glue that binds for strength or imprisons in toxicity. The concept of the Whole, developing and fiercely protecting a communal identity and vitality, made us realize that EVERYONE brought something valuable to the table.

We all had gone through terrifying and generally dehumanizing experiences in our former lives. Truly seeing ourselves in one another taught us a heightened sense of accountability, responsibility, and integrity that could smooth over most, if not all personal conflicts, given enough time.

Our method of Divine Conflict Resolution is rooted in the tenets that the Village of Peace is founded on. And we are becoming recognized as peaceful mediators through the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr./SCLC Ben Ammi Institute for a New Humanity.

From Food Desert to Food IN the Desert

Ironically, those who had fled the metropolitan areas often had lived in food deserts, void of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, and grains. The convenience of city life made it so that “food” was convenient. But it was more “foodish” than food. Canned, frozen, processed… heavily salted and heavily sugared.  Whatever fresh fruits and vegetables that were available were generally of the poorest quality. Although the industrial areas had promised a better economic life, the trade-off was access to and the opportunity to honor our agrarian heritage by farming for/feeding ourselves.

That became painfully obvious in the first stages of our sojourn, in Liberia, when we almost starved in the middle of a green food oasis simply because we had labored under an incorrect definition of what food was. That began the process of relearning and rearming ourselves with the correct knowledge of what food and food security was.

Next, as we embraced life in the desert, we reawakened our agency in claiming true food security through a correct diet. We fully embraced the vegan lifestyle, using Genesis 1:29 as our foundation. We developed what we call the High Holy and Sacred Diet, going on to develop and open the first vegan restaurant in Israel, create the first vegan ice cream, and even open the first tofu factory. Our food has become legendary both here in Israel and in many of our Jurisdictions globally through our vegan restaurants and food products.

We had to re-attach ourselves to our ancient heritage of being “husbands of the earth.” We began to farm again, utilizing practices such as organic inputs and the concept of the “Sabbatical Year,” allowing portions of the land to rest and be restored. Fast forward to the present day, and we are recognized in Israel, the United States, and several African countries, including Kenya and Ghana, as leaders in “Divine Organic Farming,” providing consultation to both private citizens as well as corporate and government clients.

Schooling Our Own – Representation in Education

We also formed our own schools. One of the keys to good mental health is positive representation. We realized early on that the future of the Village of Peace depended upon us imprinting on our children a deep knowledge and respect for the Creator and the laws that govern His Creation. We removed the term “education” and instead strive to “Dedicate” our children to a way of life that values knowledge, truth, humility, justice, peace, and empathy.

When children constantly see themselves as the “center of their story,” the lessons impact so much deeper. The journey to an adult with real principles becomes much more certain.

Our journey towards building Health and Wellness here in the Village of Peace confirms for us every day the importance of resilience, determination, discipline, and collectively working toward spiritual goals. Hardships, for the determined, can instead be a trigger to build something greater and richer on one’s journey toward Mastering the Art of Living!