Mountains, language, and selfrealization

Nietzsche wrote:

I am a wanderer and mountain-climber, said he to his heart, I love not the plains, and it seemeth I cannot long sit still.And whatever may still overtake me as fate and experience—a wandering will be therein, and a mountain-climbing: in the end one experienceth only oneself.

Personally important dreams often invlove a mountain and in religious texts it is often on a mountain that the believer encounters God.

Climbing a mountain is the perfect metaphor for 'becoming your true self'. It expresses the idea that you go there where you are not (yet). That you become who you want to become, following your own path. Even if it is a hard path to work your way through.Personally important dreams often involve a mountain and in religious texts it is often on a mountain that the believer encounters God.

The spiritual aspect of being outdoors and immersing yourself in nature also shows in our language use. I have been told about several interesting etymological connections to the word Israel.

The Arabic word 'israa' means 'to travel through the skies'

In Hebrew Israel is pronounced 'Yashar-El' meaning 'straight to God' and it also means 'he who wrestles with God'.

Etymological roots of words often point to an idea that creeps into the language we use. The connections to the word Israel seem to express the idea that to become who you are and who you want to be, you should follow a path, that is often difficult, but that gets you to where you want to be later or who you want to become.

A mountain is a good image for symbolizing your value hierarchy (your God), with less important values at the bottom and with more important values towards the top. Shifting through these values is not different from figuring out what you want to do with your life. This is where you 'wrestle with God'.

Just ask yourself, who or what inspires me?

Which 'mountain' do I want to climb next?

So the 'Israelites', are those who live their life to the fullest, with the 'first things first' principle in mind. They are what’s called 'the chosen people'. One can interpret this idea as somehing pointing to a universal human law, rather than an idea that is assigned to a certain group of people, or only working for a certain group of people.

What defines an ‘Israelite’ anyway? What did it get defined by before genetics, Palestine or administrative national identity documents existed? 

I don't understand how one could take Biblical texts literally when studying the meaning of the words. Just one example is the etymological root of Adam. It would mean something like ‘earthling or ‘human’. Here too, the universality of humans and human laws seems to be present. We should be wary of justifying our actions based on a word, story or religion we identify with.