Today is Yom Haatzmaut, Israel 78th Independence Day... Happy birthday Israel...

Sorry, no pictures. We got to Kiryat Arba/Hebron too close to shabbos to be able to get around and take pictures... maybe next time.

A friend living in Kiryat Arba went to the US for a few weeks, and said we could use his apartment while he is away. We took him up on the offer and went this shabbos (THANK YOU!!).. The opportunity to spend a shabbos in Kiryat Arba/Hebron does not come too frequently, so we had to jump when it did..

After we got ourselves set up in the apartment for shabbos, we headed out to Hebron to daven in the Me'aras Ha'Machpelah. We walked down the road, through the gate, across the road linking the two, and down through Hebron to the Me'arah. Davening in the Me'arah was great and invigorating. The kids all had a good time, and my little one even took a white kipa from the Me'arah that he became very attached to (we returned it Shabbos morning). My 5 year old daughter kept threatening him that if he would not behave, she would tell the aravim on him. I asked her what they would do if she told them about him, and she said they would take him and kill him.

At Maariv, I met Aharon Granovitz-Granot. Granot is a journalist for the Mishpacha magazine. He lives in Kiryat Arba.

Being in no rush, we took our time walking back, up through Simtat Erez, and back across the road to Kiryat Arba. We were making plans for Shabbos day. Plans that included a visit to Beit Ha'Shalom, a possible visit to the destroyed Federman Farm, possible visit with relatives we just found out about, a possible visit with some other friends spending shabbos in Kiryat Arba, and a visit to the Kasbah.

The Kasbah is the arab shuk in Hebron. It used to be open, but eventually became too dangerous, so the army closed it off to jews. They allow Jews in on a shabbos afternoon "tour". They used to not limit it, but now they limit it to something like 30 people. And then only sometimes - sometimes they say "no access". In our previous visits, we were not successful in getting in. This time we calle din advance to find out if it was going to be open to Jews, and the lady in charge gave us tips to get in, and we were all set to go.

Dinner and bed.

In the morning, I woke up a little too late to make it to the vasikin minyan I usually try to daven in when in Hebron, so we davened with the 8am minyan. My wife and the rest of the kids met us at the end of davening, and after hanging around a bit (I met Itamar Ben-Gvir during this time), we headed up to see Beit Hashalom, before we would head home for lunch.

This actually would have been the highlight of the day, if not for events that transpired later...

We head up to Beit Ha'Shalom. The building is a large apartment complex, 4 floors high. I don't know how many apartments it could hold, but it is a much larger building than my apartment building that has 15 apartments. This is much bigger (it is wide and long, even though it si only 4 floors).

Beit Hashalom overlooks a valley with a few Arab houses, and directly across on the other side of the valley is Kiryat Arba. As we get to Beit Hashalom, crowds are starting to form at the edges of the road. Soldiers are running down into the valley. Some Arab kids had thrown rocks at people walking on the path home to Kiryat Arba. That means excitement, so the crowds, many of them teenagers and younger kids, congregate, hoping to see some action and perhaps the soldiers will bash a few heads...
Nothing happened other than the soldiers chasing the Arab kids into the houses, so we went into Beit Hashalom.

As soon as we walked in, a nice lady greeted us on her way out and pointed us inwards. She then offered to give us a tour of the building, so we took her up on it. She did not live there, but was also visiting. She lives in Kiryat Arba, but visits Beit Hashalom often and was just a very nice person - she gave us, total strangers, a lot of her time, showing us around, explaining, etc.

Right then, Morris Abraham walked by. Abraham is the buyer of Beit Hashalom. She introduced us, and he is a very nice guy. 40 years old from NY. He told me his connection - how his greatgrandfather had lived in Hebron, how his mother and sister had nearly been killed in a terrorist attack in Hebron a few years ago, how often he comes to Hebron, how he came to buying the building, etc. He is a very nice guy, and very open and forthcoming.

We went into the Beis Midrash. Bnei Akiva was having a shabbat irgun, so they were setting up for a kiddush and a speech. As we were walking in, she introduced us to another person who had just come in - the newly elected mayor of Kiryat Arba (not really mayor, but Rosh Moatza - head of city council - it is the title for councils in smaller cities), Malachi Levinger (son of the famous Rabbi Moshe Levinger).

We went upstairs, and she took us into one of the apartments. This one was occupied by a family with 7 kids, and her parents were over for shabbos. She told us that her apartment is luxurious compared to the other apartments, because they have been there for a long time already. She told us they try when they can to put up more walls and add apartments so more people can move in, but they work with very strict restrictions by the government and army. She told us new people moving in, when places become available, is generally one room with no electricity (use a shared bathroom and kitchen), which eventually might expand to another room, etc.). her luxurious apartment was all of 3 room with electricity, so she had a fridge and running water in her apartment.

While we were talking with the lady of the house, a couple of women came in looking for a child that had wandered off. When they went on their way, one said to the other that that was Tzipi Livni's daughter. I was a bit shocked to hear that Tzipi Livni had a hard-core settler daughter that I had not heard of. I said "Tzipi Livni's daughter???". They laughed and said it is not that Tzipi Livni, but somebody from Kiryat Arba with the same name...

We continued touring the building, including seeing the view from the roof. From there we could see the activity outside with the Arab kids was still going on.

We went back down. On the way out we stopped in the Beit midrash again. I schmoozed some more with Morris Abraham. Then Rav Moshe Levinger came in and spoke to the kids from the Shabbat Irgun. I could not hear everything he said, as he is old, weak and frail, and spoke very quietly, but he was praising the return to Hebron and the buying of property.

then Morris asked to say a few words. He spoke briefly saying that while he bought the house, and it is his name on all the paperwork, the house really belongs to the people living in it, and to all of Israel. Whenhe finished, Malachi Levinger told the kids to sing a song, and they started singing "Ashreinu, Ashreinu, Ashreinu, she'yesh lanu Morris ka'zeh". It was clearly spontaneous, because Morris was surprised by it and laughed when he realized that they had replaced Rebbe Nachman's name with his name.

Eventually we got on our way, after spending about 1.5 hours in beit Ha'Shalom. The lady who gave us the tour walked with us to Kiryat Arba. On the way Itamar Ben-Gvir passed us by walking home to a different neighborhood in Hebron a bit further up, and he passed a few words with us.

After lunch we rested for a bit. When we got going to head out back to Hebron for our expected tour of the kasbah and visit with relatives, we found some excitement. We walked down to the road to go to Hebron, and found crowds of people congregating by the fence. The fighting with the Arabs had increased during the afternoon, with more rocks thrown and a few people injured.

Some kids were throwing rocks back, but mostly just into the bushes, as we were too far away for anyone near us to throw anything to the place of the conflict in the valley below. The soldiers also let out a couple of warning shots to scare the Arabs back into their houses. (Haaretz says 4 injured - 2 settler kids and 2 Palestinian kids, while Ynet says 11 injured). Rocks thrown and guns shot clearly make the highlight of the day. Especially for the kids (who now want to move there).

After a while spent watching, we decided to try to go down. They had locked the gate, and blocked of the road to Hebron, because they considered it too dangerous..

So we missed the kasbah tour (if it even happened - with the high tensions, it might have been canceled at the last minute), and missed the visit to the relatives.

I went to a local shul for minchah, and my family went to a park. the shul I went to is a chabad shul. What is unique about it is that it is a shul in the house of Rabbi Baruch Nachshon - the artist/painter.

Nachshon has a lot of his original paintings hanging in his living room, along with much other funky artistic stuff hanging all over the place, making it a very unusual living room.

After shaleshudos, I went back to Nachshon's house for maariv, and Aharon Granot was there as well. He had brought somebody along whom he wanted to introduce to Nachshon and show the artwork to. Unfortunately, Nachson himself was away for shabbos, so he, nor I, got to meet him.

Then we had to pack up and leave, ending our exciting Shabbos in Kiryat Arba/Hebron...

I was going to write up a detailed review of my trip to Kever Yosef, but I think the video speaks for itself, and there is little more I can add.

I will just make a couple of minor points.

1. It was a lot of work to get on the approved list to get on the bus for Kever Yosef. I had not been there in a few years, some trips were canceled at the last minute, some I could not get on, some I only found out about too late, and it was worth it.
2. They have gotten much more organized, and hopefully will have trips arranged and approved more frequently.
3. It is amazing how people are so dedicated to going, that they go out in the middle of the night to a far flung corner of Israel, with no definite forms of transportation, just on the off chance that there will be an extra space on a bus for them. There were hundreds of people who could not get on the buses but were there at various intersections on the way to Shchem, even at the entrance to Shchem itself, just on the off chance that they might be able to get on a bus.
4. I don't know what some people were thinking. These Yeshiva guys were trying to hitch from the middle of the Shomron at 4 in the morning back to Jerusalem. It was not one or two guys, who might successfully stop a passing car and get a ride. It was tens of guys at various intersections. When they left Jerusalem, they obviously had no plan how they were going to get back. How many cars dd they think would be on these roads at 4 in the morning? or did they think they would be the only ones trying to hitch a ride?
5. Kever Yosef has been cleaned up a lot since my last visit. Then the building was destroyed and painted with graffiti. The walls were covered with soot from the multiple fires started by the Arabs. Now the walls were clean, the graffiti was gone for the most part, the site was fairly clean, and it was orderly. Sure, the grave is still a pile of rubble and the roof is still destroyed, but overall it is much better taken care of now.
6. The two main groups of people there were "Settlers" and Breslavers. But there were also a lot of regular Yeshiva guys, some women, a few people who looked like they might be not religious, some other random people.
   
7. As you can see in the video, at some point in the davening, the Breslavers just start screaming with no words. Once a couple had started, everyone joined in. I had no idea what it meant or why they do it. Someone explained to me that he thinks they do it because Rebbe Nachman writes about a type of crying out to Hashem that is without words and it is more powerful and can achieve what regular prayer sometimes cannot. I will not suggest I understand that, so if anybody wants to explain, or give a different explanation of the screaming, please do so.

and here is the video again:

The beleaguered city of Sderot. A living hell for the residents. They can't move away, they don't want to move away, and the government has practically ignored their situation with empty promises.

The government has not performed any military activity to defend and protect Sderot (and the surrounding villages). They have refused to fortify the buildings, until they have been forced into agreeing, and then they only agree to a partial fortification.

The government talks about helping them, but today the coalition government voted against a series of tax benefits for business in the Sderot area that have suffered from the security situation (the bill of tax benefits passed, against the wishes of the coalition heads, because the opposition parties pushed it and garnered up enough support from within the coalition to overcome the coalition position).

Last week 10,000 people from all over Israel flocked to Sderot in a show of solidarity. They went to make their weekly Shabbos purchases at the shops in Sderot, as a way of boosting the local business, rather than just giving charity, help their businesses during tough times.

A group of people where I work wanted to arrange such a group, from our office. We put it together and scheduled the trip for Wednesday. We would do (some of) our shopping in Sderot, specifically looking for the "Mom and Pop" stores, rather than the big supermarket chains.. Those who could not, or would not, come along, were askd if they wished to donate towards the people of Sderot. We arranged with a local organization called Afikim Ba'Negev that we would be coming to spend the evening shopping in Sderot and making a donation for the people of Sderot.

Plans went full steam ahead. Wednesday arrived and we had about 20 people ready to go to Sderot. The guy in charge of raising the money, arranged the company to give "matching funds". He raised about 11,000 NIS, meaning the donation would be about 22,000 NIS (I do not know the exact final amount).

So off we go. I had to go pick up my car, so I left seperately from the group. We made up at which junction I would meet them. I got there way ahead of them. As I was driving, the radio reports that in the past hour 15 Kassam rockets had been shot at Sderot. Some hit a factory injuring a few, some hit a University injuring a few and killing one. The situation looked bleak.

We meet up at the junction and pull into the adajacent shopping mall to figure out what to do considering the situation. Some of wanted to continue on to Sderot, others thought it was being foolhardy and there was no way to continue. The guy from the organization called us and said we should go home. "All the stores," he said, "are closed anyway, everyone is in the bomb shelters, streets are empty. There is no point in coming today. It has never been this bad. I have never told peopel to not come, but today I have to."

We wait a little bit to see if things calm down, as the IAF was striking targets in Gaza, so maybe they would stop shooting rockets. Things just heat up more. We keep getting reports of more Kassams falling in Sderot.

Some people decide to go home, but some of us wanted to continue to Sderot. We were so close, and we did not believe things were as hairy as the guy described. Some of those who wanted to go could not because of rides and arrangements, so only three of us continued onwards to Sderot.

We make it to Sderot and find a city that moves on. Cars were driving the streets, people were waiting at (reinforced) bus stops, the shopping center and other stores were open.

We are driving around and suddenly we hear the siren "Tzeva Adom (color red)". That means an incoming Kassam has been detected and we have 15 seconds to find shelter. We pulled over to the side of the road, nearly getting into an accident as other cars were also pulling over, and got out of the car. We crouched close to the ground next to a wall for protection. About 10 seconds later we hear a "BOOM" and feel a faint thud from somewhere not too far away. We wait a little bit longer in case there would be another, as often they shoot off two or three rockets one after the other. A few moments later we get back in the car and continue on our way.

We find a little shop open and decide to stop in. It was a nice little store that sold snacks and varieties of "tchachkes". We bought some candy and potato chips. I told the proprieter (Nissim) our story and he said, "Of course we are all open - we need to make a living!!" He thanked us for coming and after chatting for a few more minutes we moved on.

We saw some flashing lights in the distance and decided to see if that is where the Kassam had fallen. We drive up there and find some police cars. Right there is a small supermarket, so we park and go in.

We are looking around, collecting a few items to purchase when suddenly we hear the siren. The storekeeper also had the radio on and a walkie talkie, so we heard all sorts of noises from different places. He had a bomb shelter in the store (it doubled as his storage area) and he, his partner, and his 16 year old girl cashier ran quickly into the shelter screaming at us to get in.

I was the closest to the shelter and went right in with them. The other 2 guys were further back in the store and the owner was screaming at them to come to the shelter. One guy came right away and the other did not come. He must not have heard (I think he was ont he telephone). They started screamign at him and eventually he came in.

They were very frightened, especially the girl who was very shaken. They were talking about how they cannot take it anymore. All day they have been in and out of the shelter (40 Kassam rockets fell today in Sderot). He told us that a short while before, one of the last Kassams had fallen right behind the store.

We waited a bit and they decided they were closing the store for the night and going home. We paid for our stuff and went on our way.

We are driving around, looking for some place to get a Shwarma or Falafel or something, and we pick somebody up. He says he will tell us where to go, and he needs to go right nearby where we want to go. So we give him a ride and thanks us for coming and tell sus how crazy the day had been..

He directs us to Shwarma place that would be open in the main shopping area, and we drop him off. We go in and look around a bit, buying some small things. We find the shwarma place and sit down to eat. This is the happening place, as people come and go, some sit, some are chatting, some are eating..

We eat our shwarma and decide it is time to go home. we drive through the city and as we are leaving the city, the intersection just out of the city is blocked by about 20 young men (upper teens probably) burning tires in the middle of the street, blocking traffic, in protest of the indifference of the government. The police basically let them get out their frustrations, as there are not too many cars anyway in that corner of the world, and cars could really go around it after waiting a few minutes. One of the guys saw someone he knows, who was a volunteer in Sderot with an social welfare organization. They chatted a few minutes and then we were off. Back up to Ashkelon and then home.

While we did not, could not, make a big difference, we made our little moral contribution to the people of Sderot. We did what we could, and hopefully we will reschedule the trip with the original group for sometime next week or in two weeks.

My pictures were no good, so if the pics I get tomorrow from the other guys are good, I will post a few...

I remember growing up in Chicago what the cold was like. On the really cold days, and especially when it was really windy, the ice cold chill would rip right through your bones. It did not matter how many layers of clothing you were wearing. If you were caught outside on one of those really cold days, such as the 10 below zero days with it being 20 below with the windchill factor, or the coldest day I remember when it hit -40 and was something like -80 with the windchill factor (I just did a google search and found the coldest day in Chicago history to be January 20 1985 when it hit -27 and was -93 with the windchill factor), you would feel it like ice running through your veins. People would die of hypothermia and lose fingers and toes to frostbite.

For the first time I can remember in the 17+ years I have lived in Israel I felt that Chicago cold in Israel. This weekend, from Thursday night through Shabbos, and it will continue through about Tuesday (though not quite as bad), Israel experienced sub-zero temperatures. It was really cold.

And if you think it was really cold in Bet Shemesh or Jerusalem, you should have been out trekking through the hills of the Shomron with me on Thursday night!! That was really cold! The Shomron is always cold at night. It is a high area and gets windy and cold. But in these sub-zero temperatures, it was like the old days in Chicago with the wind ripping through your bones, no matter how bundled up you were!

So what was I doing in the hills of the Shomron in sub-zero weather?

That leads us to the review of my latest Adventure in Eretz Yisrael..

At about 8:30 PM on Thursday night, Jameel calls me up on the phone. Whenever Jameel calls, you know something is up. He tells me that he just got word they are opening the village of [I could not catch the name of the village], and this is a place they only open to Jews once a year. In this village are the grave sites of Elazar and Isamar, 2 of the sons of Aharon Ha'Kohen, and the gravesite of the 70 elders. The buses would be leaving from "Bat Shalosh" at about 12 am and there was no need to pre-register.

We went over the directions quickly, and hung up. I called Jameel about 10:15 to go over the directions again, as I am not as familiar with the roads of the Shomron as he is. He tells me that he probably would not be going, but we went over the directions again.

So I head out to the Shomron. The trip was pretty smooth. Driving through the Shomron at night is a bit spooky, if you are not familiar with the roads. You drive through some Arab villages that straddle the "highway". You know that if you make a wrong turn you will end up on the morning news as the victim of a lynching. The signs "could be better", the lighting of the roads "could be better".

So I pass the Tapuach Junction, and Bat Shalosh is supposed to be a minute or two after that. I see two hassidic men hitchhiking on the side of the road. I figured they are probably going to the same place I am going, so I pulled over and offered them a ride.

They look at me and ask, in pure ivris, "Ata Misnachel?" - are you a settler? I said I am not but do they need a ride. They ask where I am going and I said to Shchem, to the kevarim (I said shchem just because it is the general area, but these graves are not in shchem, rather in a neighboring village). Their eyes get real wide and they say, Really? You are going to Shchem??"

So I explained that I am going near Shchem to the graves of Elazar, etc. They said forget it. They are tryign to get into Shchem and go to Kever Yosef. I said that is not open tonight, but these other ones are. they said they know but are trying to get in anyways. I said goodbye as I am not going there. I only go when it is open and secured.

So I get to Bat Shalosh and board the bus.

I still had no idea where I was going, so I asked someone on the bus. He told me the name of the village, and said that tradition, as brought in the midrash and the shulchan aruch, is that this shabbos would be the yahrtzeit of the zkeinim (elders) that are buried there. I do not know if it is the yahrtzeit of all 70, or just some of them. I also do not know if all 70 are buried there or just some of them.

So after some minor delays, we are finally off in the armored bus to the village of Avarta. Avarta is a village on the outskirts of Shchem (or Nablus in English). When I later told my brother (the mercenary soldier) where I was, he knew of the village and said "that is part of Balata". According to the map below, it is not really part of Balata, but the borders of these villages sometimes are unclear and Avarta is next to Balata, so at least in spirit it is part of Balata, even if in terms of municipal services it might not be.

Balata is known to be a hornet's nest for terrorists, and Avarta is no different. I think even most terrorists are afraid to go there!


The bus brings us in to the village and we arrive at the grave marker of Isamar ben Aharon Ha'Kohen.

They handed out sheets that had special prayers that were written to be said by these graves. Eveyone davened, from the sheets, general tehillim, personal prayers... After I davened, I was snapping some photos. It was dark and I was just snapping without really looking for something specific. One funny resulting photograph is the one below where it looks like this one guy smashed his face into a cream pie which splattered all over the grave marker. In reality he had simply just positioned himself there, over some grafitti, to daven...

From there we were told that the site of the elders is a just a few minutes walk away. So we start to head out in that direction. The soldiers stop us asking us where we are going. When we tell them we are walking to the zkeinim, they say we have to wait and we cannot go anywhere on our own. So, despite the fact that they had already secured the whole area, they sent a patrol of soldiers further down the street to make sure it was still clear, and then they escorted us. BTW, the soldiers were heavily, and I mean heavily, armed.
The site of the zkeinim was next to a small Arab cemetery. Their site was a structure, not a marker. I guess they were buried underneath it somewhere. We went in to the structure, which contained 2 small rooms and everyone davened. It was nice and warm in there, compared to the freezing cold outside, so people were reluctant to leave this one.. The walls were covered in soot, probably from having been burned by the locals. The soot though must have been old because it was hard on the walls, and was not coming off.

As I made my way towards the front of the rooms, towards where people were davening, I noticed some people were taking turns to bend down near the floor to lean on the entrance to what seemed like a cave. I took my turn and davened there for a moment, assuming that cave must be where the zkeinim were buried. I also snapped a couple of shots... (it looks like some remnants of a beer bottle are in there if you enlarge the photo)When they cleared us out of that area, they sent us on our way to the last site - the site of Elazar ben Aharon Ha'Kohen. This site was on the other side of the village and they made us go by bus. It took some time for the bus to weave through the small roads of the village. The bus could only go so far and we had to continue by foot. It was an unusual situation - we had to walk up the side of a mountain in the pitch black (and still freezing cold). We literally had to climb up gripping to rocks in the field, as this was near the top of the hill.


After davening for a bit, I noticed some people with steaming hot plates of food. I went to see what was happening and saw that someone had brought a big pot of cholent to warm up the visitors! I have no idea how he got this big pot of cholent there, but he did. He put it on some stones and lit a fire to keep it hot. he dished out hundreds of plates of cholent and gave people the energy to continue on for a bit longer.

Kfar Maimon.

A little village south of Sderot very close to the Gaza border.

The location of the three day protest 2 years ago. The big one. The one with 50,000 people camping out in every available spot in Kfar Maimon waiting to make the move into Gaza to thwart the disengagement.

I went back to Kfar Maimon this past Friday. Not for anythign so dramatic as the protest that took place 2 years ago. A friend of mine was sitting shiva in Kfar Maimon. He grew up there and his parents still lived there. His father died and he was sitting shiva. I went Friday morning to pay a shiva call.

I was joking around with people, and I told my friend, that I would have to leave extra early to get there (it is about an hour and a quarter drive from where I live) because I only know the way cutting through the fields.

2 years ago, the Yesha Council called for a protest against the disengagement. They decided to make a big one and they made a three day protest that was meant to culminate in a mass move on the Gaza border.

The government tried to limit the numbers of people who could go and participate in the protest. So they declared the whole area a closed military zone. They only partially enforced it though. They did not let anybody openly go to Kfar Maimon or anywhere near the border with Gaza. However, they mostly turned a blind eye to people going when they went via alternative routes. By alternative routes I mean driving or hiking through the surrounding fields.

I went with a group of guys down for the third of the three day protest. We had a fearless driver with a "company car". After being turned away on a number of routes, we drove through a number of fields until we finally made it to Kfar Maimon.

What happened happened and what did not happen did not happen. That is history.

So my joke was that the only way I know to get to Kfar Maimon is via the fields and not via the roads, so I would need some extra time to get there...

Going there on Friday was a totally different experience.

2 years ago the place was a wreck. People were covering every inch of the little settlement. Local residents gave up everything of themselves and their lives for three days to spearhead the protest against the disengagement. The aesthetics of the yishuv had been destroyed by the masses of people sleeping everywhere and hanging out and eating, etc. The authorities had limited the entry of basic necessities, so there had been no garbage collection for a number of days. You can imagine the havoc an additional 50,000 people would cause to a sleepy town of 200 or so people.

Now it is just a sleepy, quiet village with working people. They work in the fields and as educators. It is a simple place with simple, salt of the earth people. The place is quiet and clean.

It must have taken them a long time to clean the place up when it was all over and get back to living their lives again normally.

Kfar Maimon placed a marker stone at the entrance to the settlement to commemorate the historic event. The marker tells, briefly, of the events of 2 years ago.

It was not really much of an adventure, but I guess it qualifies for my "adventures in Eretz Yisrael" series...

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On the way out of the Meara, on the side of the building there is a set of blackened stones. History has it that the Jews were not allowed past the 7th step (stone set) for many hundreds of years during the Crusaders, the Mamluk rule, and beyond. Just beyond the 7th step there is a hole in the wall. The tradition says that that hole is directly opposite the set of graves of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in the internal cave. The tradition is to pray beside that stone, as it is the closest and most direct point connecting us to the Patriarchs. So we stopped there for a bit and prayed some more.

And then we headed back to Bet Shemesh.

The day began with Avraham Burg, a former Speaker of the Knesset and a former head of the Jewish Agency, along with a former leader of the Labor Party and son of Yosef Burg, one of the founders of the National Zionist Party, granting an interview to the Ha'Aretz newspaper.

The interview was on the occasion of the publication of his newly published book, "Defeating Hitler". Burg was pretty much tossed out of Israeli politics when he lost his position near the top of the Labor Party. He chose not to fight to get back on top and instead left Israel and went into international business, basing himself in Europe, specifically France.

He spoke about how anybody who can possibly get himself a foreign passport should do so and leave Israel. He criticized the hanging of Eichmann, he compared Israel to Nazi Germany and more...

All this seemed inappropriate especially on the eve of the reading of the Torah portion Shlach, in which the story of the spies is related. The spies spoke ill of the Land of Israel in an attempt to dissuade the Jewish people from wanting to continue to travel towards the land. As a punishment, the trip was lengthened and all the people of the generation had to die in the desert before the Jewish Nation could enter Israel.

I found out that day that that night (Thursday night) the IDF would be opening the gravesite of Yehoshua Bin Nun to Jewish visitors. The grave of Yehoshua (and Calev and Nun - Yehoshua's father) is located in the middle of an Arab village called Kifl Harsa, in the Central Shomron, right across from the Israeli town of Ariel. The IDf only opens the location to Jews twice a year. Once on Yehoshua's yahrtzeit and the second time right before the reading of Parshat Shlach, due to Yehoshua and Calev having been two of the spies and the only two that tried to convinve the people to trust Hashem and enter Israel.

I went about two months ago, the first time they opened it up this year, and I decided I wanted to go the second time as well. If you do not remember, the previous time was a very spontaneous trip, and I barely made it. I ran to Jerusalem at 2:30 in the morning and managed to get on the last bus to Kever Yehoshua. This time I decided I did not want to do it like that. I did not want to waste all that time going to Jerusalem and waiting for a bus and fighting to get on, etc. I decided this time, for the first time, I would drive right up to the Arab village and go right in.

Kifl Harsa is different than Shchem (the site of Kever Yosef). When going to Shchem, one has to go to the Jewish areas nearby, park and get a bus in. There is no other choice. Shchem is a city and a very dangerous one to boot. One cannot just go right in. With Kifl Harsa, it is an Arab village and supposedly fairly dangerous if one were to wander in on his own, but when they open it to Jews, one can generally park on the outskirts of the village and walk in, as the army secures the area. It was still a bit tense, as I had never done so before and was not sure how easy or hard it would be to find.

So, at about 11:45 pm, after finishing my shiurim and chavrusas for the night, I went to pick up my partners in crime, Eliyahu (who has gone with me together a number of time to Kever Yosef) and tnspr569.

We first ran into the big accident you might have heard of in which a hatzala member was killed in a car accident in Bet Shemesh. They had shut down the road to clear the accident, so I had to drive around the other way. They had needed ambulances, firetrucks (to peel open the cars) and helicopters (not sure why). It was a high speed head on collision and two people were killed and one seriously injured.

Anyways, we get on the way and drive about 45 minutes to Kifl Harsa. This time I had a full tank of gas, so we would not have that aspect of the excitement that we had last time when we tried to go to Kever Yosef.

It was pretty easy to find. It was right off the side of the main highway. We pull into a dirt lot and park the car. It was already showing signs of being a busy night, with about 50 cars there and a couple of buses. They only opened the site at about 12am to Jews, and now it was about 12:45 or so.

We park and walk in the 3 kilometers or so through the village. It was pitch black, but there were a lot of people walking through and there were IDF soldiers stationed at every point the road curved. When walking in from the external parking lot, one first encounters the grave site of Calev Ben Yefuneh. We went in. The floodlights were off, so it was dark inside. People were using cellphones for illumination, so they could read from prayer books or special pamphlets passed around with special prayers for the site.

It got pretty crowded. The crowd was pretty mixed. Often the majority of people on these trips are Breslaver chassidim, with a lot of "settlers" and then a few yeshiva guys and random people (like me). This time there was just a big mix of people. A lot of "settlers", a lot of chassidim, some breslav but many other types as well, and a lot of yeshiva guys, and regular people (like me) as well. Isn't it amazing how I remain the "regular guy" no matter what the crowd is??

We daven by Calev for a bit, then it is time to move on. We move on and go up through the village to the site of Yehoshua's grave. The big crowd is there. The grave of Yehoshua is not demarcated, rather it is under the wall of the building marking the grave, so some people daven outside at the wall and some go inside.

The site of Yehoshua's grave is generally defaced with Arab graffiti. The IDF, before they let the Jews in, whitewashes over the graffiti with a fresh coat of paint. The paint was only about 90% dry, so people were coming out with whitewash smeared all over the jackets and hats. Inside the building is two small rooms, One is open-air (no roof) and the second is enclosed with a domed ceiling. They were both full of people praying and reading from the Torah portion about the spies and from the book of Joshua. Another prayer, aside from general tehillim, being said was the prayer of Aleinu, which was written by Yehoshua.

After davening for a bit there it was time to move on. We walked further through the village on to the site of Nun's grave. Nun was the father of Yehoshua. I know nothing else about him, but he is buried nearby, so went there as well.

Nun, in contrast to Calev and Yehoshua, has his grave right on the side of the road, with a big headstone (rather than in a building). We davened there and then went back to the grave site of Yehoshua. People were putting out refreshments, so we had something to drink, and then it was time to go home.

Just as we were leaving, the commander of the IDF unit securing the site drove up. I said thank you to him for making out entry possible. I also asked him why they do this at night. There is so much noise and disturbance, that I can't imagine why the Arabs only agree to let us in in the middle of the night. It must disturb their sleep. So why do they not get smart and let us in by day and not make trouble and then they can sleep at night. But instead of that, they don't want to see us, so they only let us in at night and then their whole night is disturbed!

People were making so much noise. Cars honking, people singing and dancing in the streets, general talking and prayers. A lot of noise for 2 in the morning in the middle of a village!

The commander told me they considered it but the one time they did so the Arabs stoned people, so the army decided even with agreement it is still safer at night.

We hike back to the car and head off back to home to catch some sleep. I had intended to run over to Hebron for sunrise morning services, but just could not get up with only 45 minutes of sleep (especially after having had only 2 hours of sleep the night before because of a late work night).

According to the news the next morning, I was one of (or we were three of) 1300 people who visited the site over the course of the night. As well, the news reported that a few people had desecrated a nearby Muslim cemetery. I did not see details of what they did in the cemetery, but it is wrong to desecrate any cemetery, even that of Muslims. The organizers of the event were quoted as to decrying the defacement, and declared it was just a few people who did so, while most people were respectful and did not make trouble.

At the same time that I say this, while our media make a big deal about how a few people desecrated the Muslim cemetery, no word is mentioned how the Arabs desecrated Jewish cemeteries. There was no mention of the graffiti sprayed all over the grave site of Yehoshua, that had to be painted over by the IDF before we got there. There is generally no word of the other Jewish grave sites in Muslim areas that get desecrated. There is generally no word and for sure no public outcry regarding the horrible desecration of Kever Yosef, which was burned down multiple times and demolished to rubble by the local Arabs.

Despite all this, it is wrong to desecrate a cemetery, but I wish the Jewish/Israeli media would be just as concerned about Jewish cemeteries and grave sites as non-Jewish ones...

Sderot has been beleaguered with Kassam rockets. They have devastated the morale of the residents of Sderot, and the local businesses have supposedly been worse for the wear. According to the news media, people are emptying out of Sderot in droves. It sounds like it is practically a ghost town. For those staying, aside from the difficult financial situation they are in, the depression is great and the morale is low.



So, off we go to Sderot. We were a small group. A couple of guys who planned on joining had gotten stuck at work and could not make it. Another couple had conflicts of scheduling. Another couple were concerned about the safety of making such a trip. So we were a group of 6 people who went.

It was a pleasant 45 minute drive through the countryside. As we approach Sderot I get directions from my contact how to get to the yeshiva. As we drive through Sderot we notice that it is not the ghost town it is made out to be in the media. There are people walking around, cars on the road, we do not see a line of cars exiting the city, some restaurants and businesses are open, etc. Let's not forget, Sderot is a small city. It has a population of about 24,000 or so. Bet Shemesh is about 4 times as large and businesses also close fairly early in Bet Shemesh, so we were not surprised to see stores closed at 8:30 in the evening.

We find the yeshiva and walk around a bit. The campus is beautiful and promises to be even more so when it will be completed. We meet up with my contact and he takes us to a classroom in which we can study the daf for the next hour or so, after which he had arranged a person to meet with us to describe daily life in Sderot and answer any questions.

He shows us the remnants of a Kassam rocket that had fallen in the area. This specific rocket had fallen in August 2006 next to a kindergarten.

BTW, it is heavier than it looks. It is made of heavy steel and even just that remnant of a Kassam must have weighed about 15 kilo or so...

He leaves us to our gemaras and we learn the daf. I then find out where a nearby shul is in which we would be able to catch a minyan for maariv. It seems the directions given to us were not very good, because we never found that specific shul and the one we found was already closed with no more minyanim for the night. We walked around a bit and found the Magen David Adom station of Sderot. It is right near the yeshiva we were visiting. We saw a number of religious medics inside cleaning up. They offered t complete the minyan for us and we davened inside their station. Afterwards, we continued walking a bit. Right across from the MDA station is the Kadima Party headquarters of Sderot.
You can see the sign has been the victim of a rock attack. Or maybe a Kassam rocket hit it, right in the middle of the word "Kadima"... The building was all closed and locked up with metal gates. It looked kind of unused. I asked somebody if the building is ever n use and he told me it is not, it is always locked up. Kadima opened that branch a few months ago to great fanfare, but it seems it was all just PR because nobody ever actually uses it.

We make our way back to the yeshiva, we learn a little more and then our guest speaker arrives. He sits with us and tells us about life in Sderot. He tells us some stories about how Kassam rockets fell within 20 feet of him and his children. he tells us of a neighbor who was seriously injured by a direct hit from a Kassam. He describes how their daily lives have become complicated by the situation. Schools have not met in 3 weeks. People are afraid to congregate at the bus stops, so they leave earlier than the rush hour times, or they get rides.

He did say that this week it started getting better. We noticed that it did not look like the ghost town it is described as being, and he said until recently it pretty much was, but people have no started coming back and have to get on with their lives. Businesses are trying to open again, people are out and about. He described how many hundreds and thousands of people have been coming from all over the country. Some volunteer to help out with things, some just come to make people happy. They are very appreciative of all the visitors who come.

On our way out of Sderot we stopped at a local grill joint to buy some drinks and snacks for the road (it is already 11:00 pm and everything is pretty much closed..). We chatted with the proprietors. They are older Morrocan Jews. The owner told me that he came to Israel and Sderot 55 years ago, and 56 years ago is when Sderot was established. He has seen ti grow from a small tent village into a sprawling city of nearly 25,000 residents.

He described some of the city and what it is like with so many people having left. He also confirmed that many are starting to come back now. I asked him what he thought about leaving and why he did not. He said we have staying power and we cannot give in to them and let the, chase us out. he was completely against leaving. he pointed to what was I guess his partner, or maybe just a friend hanging out there with him and said his kids had left for a couple of weeks, but he would not go. He insisted on staying.

After that, off we were back to Bet Shemesh.

My brother is a volunteer soldier, some might say "mercenary" in the Israeli army. He began his training not too long ago and he has now completed the first level of basic training. This evening was scheduled to be his "swearing in" ceremony.

We got the invitation from the army last week. My brother has the status of a "lone soldier" because his family (read: parents) is in the United States. So, we are his reps to the army, and we get the invites that normally go to parents.

The invitation said what time to come and where it would be. What was really cool was that it said for people who cannot make it, the ceremony would be broadcast live and in full video/audio at the Kotel Kam (if you go there now, you can go to Today at the kotel and select events and see a fe pictures from the ceremony).

The ceremony would take place at the Kotel. The Kotel, being the last remnant from the Temples, is host to many of these ceremonies. It, I think, is meant to give these young men and women a taste and a feel of there being part of history and part of a Jewish state and that is what they will be spending there next few years defending.

We get to the Old City of Jerusalem. We are running late because traffic is so bad. So many people are flooding the Old City to get to the event, that what is normally a 5 minute drive through the Old City and then a few minutes to look for parking, took about 45 minutes. I dropped my family off at the entrance to the kotel and then went to park. I had to drive all the way back to the other side of the Old City and park outside of Jaffa Gate. Everything else was full.

I ran in to the Old city and decided to take the shortcut through the Arab shuk to save a few minutes of detouring through the Jewish Quarter. I made it down to the Kotel pretty quickly and found the place jam-packed.

The ceremony is just getting ready to start. I found my family and then found my brother among all the soldiers. We said hi, he told me where he thought I should stand for the best view, relative to where his unit would be standing in formation. It was pretty packed everywhere and only the first row of people really had a decent view.

We found a spot and settled in. Our spot was right behind the Army Glee Club! This army choir was pretty good! All the songs they song were Jewish/religious themed songs (see below for a couple of examples). The best part was when the electricity blew just as they were starting a song. All of the sudden - no lights, no microphones, no music (at least no electric keyboard), and whatever else they had going. It took a moment as everyone was caught off gaurd, but the Glee Club composed themselves pretty quickly and got going with a song and a saxophone to save the day until a they got the electricity up a few minutes later...

They went through a few formations, some generals and other army commanders spoke. I could not really hear much because the speakers were in front of us facing away and the sound was dulled and a lot of people were making noise, but I picked up snippets from the speeches. One commander was blessing them that they should be strongafter quoting from the Book of Joshua the section where power was transferred to Joshua after Moshe's death and the people confirmed their support for him and blessed him with strength. Another commander spoke of the significance of being at the spot with the remnants of the Temple...

Then the swearung in took place. The unit commanders would call out (in Hebrew), "Do you swear?" and the unit would scream out in unison "We swear, We swear, We Swear!!!". They went through all the units. Then each individual stepped forward to his commander and picked up a gun (M16) and a Tanakh, held them together to his chest, saluted and stepped back.

After some more songs and Hatikvah, the ceremony was over. Some soldiers tossed their kumtahs (berets) in the air and people mingled.

Adura is a small settlement in the Southern Hebron Hills... you can see it circled on the map below:

According to its Hebrew Wiki entry, it was established in 1982 by the Nahal Brigade of the army. The Nahal Brigade was originally set up as a unit to combine army service with establishing communities around Israel. In 2002 Adura was stricken with a terrorist attack in which 4 of its members were killed and seven more injured.

Adura began as a secular/traditional community and over the years has become a mixed community with a number of religious families moving in. There are about 60 families currently living in Adura.

Moshe Burt, the blogger behind The Sin of the Expulsion blog, also has an important organization called The Sefer Torah Recycling Network.

This organization acquires old and unused Torah Scrolls. He raises funds and has the Torahs fixed up by qualified and expert scribes. He then finds an appropriate community in need of a Torah and places it there. On his website he says he has placed 11 Torah Scrolls in the past 12 years in needy communities. Since I know Moshe he has placed four scrolls. He has placed the last four in communities such as Shvut Rachel, Shirat Ha'Yam, Kever Rachel, and now Adura.

In April 2002, Adura was attacked by terrorists.

The "brave Arab 'freedom fighters(sic)' " infiltrated Yishuv Adura on Shabbos disguised as IDF soldiers. They first began sniping on the neighborhood from a vacant home on a high point of the Yishuv. Then they stormed into Jewish homes killing the occupants. A group of men attempted to come in back of the terrorists to surprise them. When they reached a clearing, they got the shock of their lives; they spotted men who they assumed, by their attire, to be chayalim. They called out to the men that they thought were IDF soldiers telling them not to shoot, that they were not terrorists. But the terrorists were disguised as IDF soldiers and opened fire on the group killing a young man and wounding another.

(the above is a quote from the website of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network)

Two months prior to that, another resident of Adura was killed in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.

Moshe decided Adura would be the next location for the placement of a Torah, in memory of these five men. Today was the day.

We left Bet Shemesh at about 5:45 pm. We had about 2 busloads of people going from Bet Shemesh to join the residents of Adura and Moshe Burt in the celebrations. The buses used were reinforced (a.k.a. bullet proof) buses.

The reason for the need to be reinforced is because the Southern Hebron Hills is an area with many PA Arab settlements as well in very close proximity to the road. It is a common event to have stones thrown at passing cars, and even bullets shot. The road we travelled on is a road that was being prepared in one of the peace deals to be used for safe passage (i,e, so they could travel without having to go through checkpoints) for the Arab communities. Adura is right on the side of the road, putting it in a very precarious position.

Because the bus was a bulletproof one, the windows were very difficult to see out of. That means I was not able to see what we were passing...So the ride was about a half hour long. We get there about 6:15 and were taken to the community center which had refreshments waiting for us.

Adura is a beautiful little community. The view is phenomenal as it is completely surrounded by green hills. The climate is cooler than Bet Shemesh, as it is situated on a mountain at a higher level than bet Shemesh. As night fell, it was chilly in Adura, but when we got back to Bet Shemesh it was warm.

After davening mincha, the party began. There were three Torahs. One that was the new one being donated and another two that they already had. People came from some of the various settlements round, including some yeshiva students from the yeshiva in Telem, another settlement a few minutes away.

We danced with the Torahs through the community to an open area outside the shul. There we we entertained by a number of speeches from various people, including the Rabbi of Adura, the Rabbi of the shul in RBS, Moshe Burt, various council officials (from bet Shemesh and from the Hebron Regional Council, Secretary of Adura, relatives of the terror victims and Moshe Burt. These speeches (most of them were short) were interspersed with performances by the great choir Kol B'Rama of RBS who came along just to perform. There were also refreshments available. There were about 250 or so people there (my estimate). After all the speeches, we danced with the Torahs to the shul and placed the new Torah with the old Torahs in the Aron Kodesh.

Then it was back to RBS, just slightly late for my daf yomi shiur!

I am calling last nights events an adventure, rather than a tour/tiyul. The reason is because it was hardly a tour but very much an adventure.

During the day I found out that the trip to Kever Yosef, located in Shchem, a.k.a. Nablus, was going to be happening (thanks R'CZM).

According to the info, it was going to be happening with or without army permission. The army has not given permission to enter Joseph's Tomb in Nablus in a few years.

This day is considered special and uniquely associated with Yosef. The 41st day of the Omer is called Y'Sod She'b'ysod and somehow that relates to Yosef. Also, the date of his death is unknown but historically has been associated with the 41st day of the Omer. There has always been pilgrimages to pray at his gravesite on this day and until about 3 years ago the army would give permission to go in during the night and pray on this special day. I have been to Joseph's Tomb about 6 or 7 times in the past. I do not know what changed, but about 3 years ago the army stopped giving permission for this trip.

The people, and some politicians, were putting a lot of pressure on the army to give the ishurim for the trip. There were well over a thousand people who registered for the trip which was only announced a number of hours prior to the trip and spread by word of mouth. A thousand registered. Even more came at the last minute, when they heard about it but it was too late to register. As of 8 pm, there was still no final announcement of any ishur and people were making plans how to sneak in.
I have one friend who was planning to go with me who told me he will only go if there was no ishur. If there is an ishur it will be a waste of time, as they will limit it and we will not be able to do anything, but if there is no ishur it would be historic and he would not miss it.

Anyway, so after hearing about it and trying to get as much information as I could, Jameel and I spoke a number of times sharing info and trying to coordinate our plans.

After some miscalculations and delays in my schedule, I finally got to leave home towards Shchem at about 12:30 am. At that point I almost did not go because I had been delayed so much I figured there was no chance I would get in. Jameel told me (from on location outside of Shchem) that they were announcing more buses for 1:30 am or so. So I decided to take the chance and head out.

I went and picked up tnspr569 who had never been there and wanted to try going. We head out and go in the direction of the Shomron. I have never travelled much through the Shomron and not much recently. So there we are, on the dark road, with only less than a quarter tank of gas (I was in a rush when I left so I figured I would fill up later, after kever Yosef), in an area I am not too familiar with, in an area that is considered relatively dangerous.

So we are heading towards Tzomet Tapuach. That was the devlared meeting spot where the buses would pick people up and go into Shchem. Sometimes the trips have been from Itamar which is one of the closest Jewish yishuvim to Nablus, sometimes from Yitzhar, and sometimes from Tzomet Tapuach. This time it started out near Yitzhar at Tzomet Bat Shalosh (that is where Jameel got stuck after his run in with the police at Ariel), but then the staging point was moved back to Tzomet Tapuach.

So we finally make it at about 1:35 am. There were about 500 or so people in the parking lot at Tzomet Tapuach. Nobody knew what was going on and there was nobody in charge. Everyone is waiting to find a way in to Shchem. the sodiers and police were not being nice but were physically pushing people around. Even just to take two steps back for no particular reason. Nobody had anywhere to go, as it was all blocked off, but they would decide everyone had to stand only in a certain area and they would start shoving people around. Then they would let people wander around and then they would do it again.

Finally, after about twenty minutes of our standing there waiting, two buses show up. Right away they get mobbed as everyone swarms around them hoping to be among the select few to get a spot on the buses. Don't forget there are about 500 people and enough seats for 100 (if the buses would even be going into Shchem, at that point noboy knew).

The buses are being mobbed by people, and they have not even opened their doors! They drive around a bit making the people crazy (I wonder if the drivers were just trying to have a good time) as they followed the buses around, not wanting to miss the moment the doors would open to let them on.

Eventually one of the buses opened its doors. The people went crazy. There was fighting and pushing and shoving to get onto the bus. The police and soldiers had 3 or 4 reps on the bus at the door letting the next survivor of the mob on. They were also participating in the mob and they were shoving people off and pushing and hitting people. At one point we even saw a policeman grab somebody by the neck, choke him holding him like that for a minute or so while the guy's face tururned red, and then he threw the guy off the bus. tnspr569 was in terrible shock when he saw that! I have been by protests and rallies before where I witnessed police brutality, but I think that was the first time for tnspr569.

We decided not to fight the mob, and after the bus filled up, it drove about 10 feet and stopped. People were still mobbing it, trying to get on. The second bus was still dark and not moving.

After about 15 minutes of watching that bus just sit there and not move, we were pretty confident that our chances of getting into Shchem were dipping well into the negative numbers, so we decided to go home.

I got home about 3:30 am, pretty sure I was driving on fumes most of the way. There are very few gas stations open at that time of night. I found an open gas station near Bet Shemesh, and consider it a miracle that I made it that far. I was sure I would be spending the night on the side of the highway. I filled up the tank with 62 liters of gasoline, for a 65 liter tank! Man that was close!

At least we tried! According to the news, over the course of the night 10 buses were let in. That would be about 700 or so people. A friend of mine told me his brother got in. 700 got in, but probably double that tried to get n but could not.