went away

We went up north for shabbos to the hotel at Moshav Nir Etzion.

The ride up was very smooth except for one spot where there was a serious accident on the opposite side of the highway. It slowed traffic down on our side because of rubber-necking. The accident was so fresh that the police and ambulances had not yet shown up..

As we drove into the moshav we passed the barns where the cows live and are milked.. My kids said, "You should have brought your knife!". I do not think that is the first reaction most kids have to seeing a barn full of cows...

The hotel was beautiful, as was the moshav itself. The hotel consists of a section of room in the hotel itself and a section of cottages on the grounds of the hotel.

We stayed in a cottage... not in the hotel itself.

The dining room was nicely set and the food was good.

They had a group from the Biale shul in RBS there on some sort of a shabbaton. By mistake we davened with that group on Friday night (thinking that was the main minyan), so the tefillot were long. What was interesting was that the "Rebbe" of the Biale shteibel led the services and he sang a number of Carlebach tunes in kabbolas shabbos. That was surprising, but now I hear that is what this particular Biale shteibel is like...Shabbos morning we davened in the regular minyan, and davening was a more normal pace...

There was another friend we saw there from RBS on a shabbaton with a school his wife runs, and I met someone fairly new to RBS as well who was there for shabbos.

One of my kids met a veritable twin of his from Modiin. It turns out they were born a day apart from each other. They played the whole shabbos together and both us and this other kids parents kept mixing up the two of the kids. It did not help that they were both wearing the exact same sweater, so at a quick glance they looked exactly the same!

We got a tour of the moshav, including the petting zoo and the "refet" where the cows are kept. These cows are humongous. Much bigger than the ones I have been shechting. He told us that on average they weigh about half a ton each. I am converting the weight now and it seems that comes out to about 450-500 kilogram each or about 1000 pounds each. That seems too small because the 6 month old calves I shechted were much smaller and they weighed about 300 kilogram (about 660 pounds)...

They showed us how the cows are milked on shabbos, though to be honest I did not understand the process the way he explained the halachic aspects of it. I am not sure the tour guide understood the process either because some of what he said was very unclear..

Speaking of cows, I just found this great site promoting cows to be bought as house pets instead of dogs. It is pretty funny, but the best line is, "And when get tired of them, you can kill them and eat them."

If you are looking for a nice mehadrin vacation spot, look up Nir Etzion. It is about 20 minutes away from Haifa..