Each picture speaks a thousand words

http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/culture.php?Itemid=11598

Soup, anyone?

The yishuvim in Yehuda and the Shomron take a lot of flak.  Literally.  The people there are targets for terrorists, with no walls to keep out the murderers from Shechem, Jenin etc.   There have been carjackings, as well as shooting as cars and lethal "stone-throwing", with "stones" large enough to crack bullet-proof bus windows.  In the name of "human rights," neighbours and relatives of the butchers who massacred the Fogel family are still allowed into Itamar to pick olives (and thereby allowed to check out the yishuv, as their cousins had done in preparation).   And world pressure, even within-Israel pressure, always blames the "settlers" for the fact that the Arab world is determined to destroy the Jewish State.  As if the PLO was created after the yishuv movement.  As if the Jewish presence hurt the Arabs in the area.  Perhaps they resent having better health , jobs and a 20-year increase in life expectancy?)

Being high in the mountains is what makes the Jewish presence there so important from a security standpoint. But it also makes it harder to live there.  Walking to shul is harder.   200 metres to a friend's house is always uphill, as is the way home.   The winter winds are strong.  And when it snows...

In my 27 winters here, there was never this much snow south of the Hermon.   Over two feet in Gush Etzion, 3 feet, almost a metre, in Har Beracha.  The roads were closed , leaving hundreds of  families under a "natural" siege.  Army half-tracks (and even helicopters) took out those who lives were at risk.   Power was for days.   Water mains burst,  so that, by the fourth day, those who were stuck at home had to melt snow to drink.

But as soon as the roads to the worst-hit yishuvim were partially cleared and passable, people came from other yishuvim with portable gas cookers, and served hot soup to those who could finally get out of their homes to wait out the electric and water repairs.  

A nation of care-, er, hair-givers.....

May we, as a nation, always be on the giving end.  May the recipients have complete, speedy recoveries...

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=13253&r=1

The Daily Crossword

It started with my son taking the Egged bus to and from Yerushalaim everyday in grade 7.   

A neighbour told me that she sees him solving a crossword puzzle with the bus driver on the way home.  

Then he started to bring the crossword puzzle home with im , to show me what they had solved, and maybe even see if I can fill in any gaps.

Sinec then, I am addicted.  I must have my fix of Yisrael haYom - Hebrew version - crossword puzzles every day.  When someone comes home with the paper,w e all grab pens and write on top of each other - a real family sport.  

I am learnign a bit of Hebrew vocabulary, but I also know a lot of the answers  because every puzzle, in this regular, ordinary, not-religious newspaper, has questions that are part of the lifeblood of Torah Jews.

And i don't mean the simple ones like  "gadol baTorah" is "rav."  Today there were two clues that were "one of the Trei Assar neviim"; "Yishamel's mother"; "one of the ten plagues"; "month in the Hebrew calendar". Yesterday there was "the Rmabam " (answer : "haNesher haGadol"), "parshan" of the Tanach (Rashi), son fof Avinoam ("Barak")  There are often clues such as "Talmudic scholar" or "Mishnaic scholar", "date in the Omer", "father of David Hamelech"

While Jews in golus have to specifically look for Jewish content games to show that Torah isn't just in the shul or school, BH here Torah is just a part of EVERYTHING, even the silly things like a free newspaper's crossword puzzle; and in way this shows that every citizen is  "expected" to know some basic Torah facts and personalities.

Hillel's partner, anyone?

In The Jewish Country...

...Tefilla is a legitimate reason to start your workday half an hour late.

And so, the new minister of economics, head of the National Religious Party - renamed the Jewish Home - has made this legally binding.  Workplaces will be compensated for allowing employees to shift their workday in order to daven after daybreak during the winter months (the recent extension of daylight savings time to some time in Heshvan makes sunrise later than ever before experienced in Israel).

How cool is that???

http://www.themarker.com/career/1.2116518

Photos From Our Army's Magazine

Coincidentally, both of these photos were printed in BaMahane Magazine on Sept 2, the English date on which I was born and on which , seventeen years later, I first arrived in Eretz Yisrael.  

Cuz there is no such thing as a coincidence.

The first picture is of the Rav of the Human Resources department of the army - every unit has a Rav (or two or ten).

The second picture is of the most recent graduates of the IDF Volunteers' Basic Training.  Our army is there not only to protect our Holy Land and protect Jews around the world.  Our Army is also our melting pot, integration into Israeli society and in many cases, an introduction to Jewish identity (eg. Nativ Course for Olim, more on that BEH another time).  It is also a very important part of an Israeli young adult's sense of self.   Many a high school drop out has discovered his good qualities in his army placement.  The "kids" in this volunteer training course include a girl in a wheelchair, several young adults with cochlear implants, and others with varying levels of hearing impairment, a bunch of kids with Celiac disease who became each other's support group, and some young folk with other physical differences, chronic illnesses or limitations.   

When a child is born in Israel, the parents always have this hope that by the time he or she turns 18, there will be peace, and the child won't have to pledge allegiance to the nation with a rifle under her Tanach.  But when a child cannot walk or talk, the parents can only dream what when he turns 18, he will get his chance to put on that olive-green outfit, hold his Tanach and rifle in one hand and salute his Commanding Officer with the other hand.   That he will learn to sign-sing haTikva.   That the army kitchens will be able to provide the food that he can eat (yum, gluten-free corn schnitzel!)   And when those 150 soldiers with interesting medical and developmental histories screamed and signed "אני נשבע אני נשבע אני נשבע" you know that they had the choice, that they have enough challenges, and yet they want to give to the nation as much or more than the rest of us do.  

So, here they are, posing for their group picture, with every right on earth to be proud of themselves for getting to where they are.

 

26 Years, Another Milestone

26 years ago today, I arrived in Eretz Yisrael for the first time, with the plan to stay for good.

HaShem has been kind to me, and although i have made many visits to my family in golus, Israel has been my home since that day.

26 is the gematria of HaShem's Shem Havaya - the recognition that HaShem is was and always will be.   Without complete acceptance of that aspect of HaShem, everything is meaningless.   Only when we know that the Torah and Eretz Yisrael are based on Eternal Omniscience do we know what is truly moral, good and right.

Today, 26 years later , my husband and I took our son to Giv'at HaTahmoshet in Yerushalaim, where he was officially signed in to our army.     

As he was going to the bus, he received his Sefer v'Saifa - a Sefer Tehillim and a lollipop.  They will receive a Tanach and a weapon at the end of their basic training.

May his, and all the other soldiers', service in the army be a Kiddush HaShem, with much Siyayta DiShemaya.  And may it be sweet for all of them.