Israel's oldest kibbutz, Degania on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, is awash with excitement. A spring storm last month toppled its famous cypress tree – known as the "Tree of the State" – that was planted 70 years ago at the behest of the Jewish National Fund, revealing a buried scroll containing the words of a moving speech given when the cypress was planted.
The Jewish National Fund issued orders to plant the tree on Tu B'Shevat in 1948, to honor the country's first kibbutz, which was founded in 1909.
The scroll was written by kibbutz member Yaakov Palmoni, a well-known educator and researcher, who planted a sealed jar containing it next to the sapling. A copy went to the kibbutz archives and the text also appears on a sign next to the tree.
Once the cypress was felled by the unusual late-season wind and rain, members of the kibbutz began probing the upturned earth for the original scroll. Avner Abadi and Hagi Ilan finally found the jar entangled in the roots.
"The jubilee [50-year anniversary] of the Zionist Histadrut, the 38th year since the founding of Kibbutz Degania, 57 days after the proclamation by the General Assembly of the United Nations of the re-establishment of the state of the Jews and the repatriation of Israel to part of its homeland," Palmoni wrote in the scroll.
"In the days of wrath and evil, when our enemies darkened the dawn of our freedom, with our sons standing with courage and honor, facing the enemies rising against us from all sides to extinguish the last hope of our redemption – this day we are planting on our land, the land of the nation on the banks of the Jordan and the Kinneret [Sea of Galilee], this cypress, which shall be called the Tree of the State.
"This tree shall be as a sign of the strengthening of the covenant between us and our homeland, planting the faith, for the Hebrew state shall arise now in which righteousness and mercy shall reign always, and she shall gather within her the remainder of our people, and she shall return to them all their power and glory and be as a fortress of strength and splendor forever and ever."
Palmoni's grandson, Yotam Palmoni, told Israel Hayom that he could "feel granddad's fingerprints."
"The scroll looks good. There is a sense that we've received a letter in a bottle from the past," he said.
