Touring in Eretz Yisrael: CHol Hamoed Pesach: Turtle Urine and Fresh Chalav Yisrael Milk

No pics for this post - sorry. We did not take too many, and what we did snap was just images of the kids.. nothing to do with where we were...

We started out the afternoon in Park Britania. Park Britania is just a few minutes out of Bet Shemesh and is a prime location for visitors from all over the country because of the beautiful grounds, park equipment for kids, and abundant picnic areas and benches. There are also multiple trails originating inside Park Britania, so those who wish to hike will have plenty of options.

We found a spot that was reasonable. It was all pretty similar, with crowds of people in all the sections, but we located one that the tables seemed a bit more spread out and there was a decent open area there for us and our extended family to enjoy.

After getting settled, we first inaugurated the day by shooting off a rocket. As we were preparing it, we saw a hawk in the sky above us hovering. We did not see the hawk again after that, so maybe the rocket hit the hawk and killed it. Truth is, we did not look for the hawk again, and I doubt the rocket hit him. It was a small rocket and disappeared fast. It was a one time rocket that breaks apart so we did not try to retrieve it. We were a bit worried about starting a forest fire, but I could not remember Smokey the Bear ever warning us from shooting rockets in the forest, so I figured it must be ok.

Then we got the bbq going. We built two fires. One for hot dogs and potatoes, and one for the steaks. The hot dog fire seemed to require more work, but thankfully there was plenty of wood available in the forest for burning (without even needing to cut down any trees!) so we got it going nicely.

After a long lazy lunch, all we did was relax in the park. My handy 12 year old son built an Omega (in English that would be a zip line) with the help of his brothers. They hung rope between the trees with knots and hooks. When they eventually finished, the only kids daring enough to actually try it were my 16 month old daughter and 3 year old son. And we were the only parents willing to let our kids go on it. It did not have much zip, but they seemed to enjoy it anyway.

Eventually it was time to go and we started packing up. As I am loading up the car, my son comes running that he needs a bottle of water. He found a shepherd with sheep in the mountainside beneath us and the shepherd had run out of water. I gave him one and then he comes back a short while later with a cup of milk. He tells me that because he gave the shepherd the water, the shepherd let him help milk a sheep and take the milk. Does a 12 year old boy have the ability to make milk into Chalav Yisroel by his supervision of the milking process (and assistance) or do you have to be bar mitzvah? I have no idea but nobody wanted to drink this milk anyway - we were all fleishige from lunch and the milk was starting to smell as the time went by.

So I took some of the other kids down to see the sheep. The shepard (Bedouin I think) was friendly. He even pointed to a turtle crawling in the grass for my son to take, but when he picked it up it urinated on him so he decided he did not want it... The shepard told us that he was from Beer Sheva. He comes to this area with his sheep and stays for about 2.5 months letting them graze. the grass in the Bet Shemesh area is much better than in the Beer Sheva area... This discussion reminded me about the fight between the shepherds of Avrahama and the shepherds of Lot about whether to allow the sheep to graze in the pastures of other people... In the meantime, he lives in a tent he pointed out to us in the distance. He had 250 sheep with him.

Eventually we went home. Later in the evening I had a softball game to play in Kibbutz Gezer. Most of the family came to watch and cheer me on. We won the game, I played ok with two hits and 3 RBI..We got home close to midnight and conked out...