[Judean Desert]

[The Desert Says:]

The desert and the wasteland will rejoice over them;

the desert will be glad and blossom like a lily.

(Yeshayahu 35:1)

Yerushalayim and Tziyon, which were "desert and wasteland" throughout Jewish exile, shall rejoice upon Jewish Redemption - they shall blossom, prosper and flourish.

Yisrael would become exiled and its land would become a spiritual desert - like a wasteland where no one plants because nothing grows - bereft of its children, its Temple, its Divine Presence, as forseen by Yeshayahu. But, just as Torah was given in a wasteland and it gave life to a people, so too, the people would give life to the wasteland of Tziyon and Eretz Yisrael would blossom like a lily.

[-Rabbi Scherman, MeAm Lo'ez, Perek Shira]