"This decision harms freedom of worship, and it is actually the entrance of the rightist pyromaniacs that should be banned – not the entrance of Muslims,"

---- MK Ahmed Tibi on the decision to bar Muslims under the age of 50 from entering Temple Mount today for prayers out of fear of riots in response to calls for allowing Jews to pray on Temple Mount.

Note, it is people like Tibi and his friends who threaten to riot whenever the issue of allowing Jews to pray on Temple Mount is brought up. And he is worried about "freedom of worship"....

A Guest Post by Moshe Burt

I started using Superbus service for my local Beit Shemesh travel in mid-January when their tender over a number of formerly Egged routes began.

It was with much trepidation that I went into their Beit Shemesh office, the day before their deadline for issuance of free "smart-cards", and was processed for a card.
Why trepidation? Consider what Nadia Matar and others have said and written about institution of technical identification databases here <http://www.sefer-torah.com/blog/2006/12/19/hi-tech-id-of-yesha-jews-at-checkpoints-preparing-yehudashomron-for-yudenrein/> and here. <http://www.sefer-torah.com/blog/2008/08/03/israeli-leftist-regime-animal-farm/> In short, "smart-cards" are another sign of Animal Farm, of Big Brother, of Israeli thought police and the state's surveillance of its citizens. But *Superbus' secrecy and deception and/or failure regarding providing customers of a full accounting, upon demand, of all blocks of rides bought, paid for and posted to their "smart-cards" shows that Big Brother, i.e. Police and Shabak surveillance of citizens is but a part of the problem.

*There were/are monetary incentives to using the "smart-card", i.e. that one possessing a Teudah Zacha'ut, for example, saves 11.50 NIS per 15 ride block by purchasing Superbus rides on their "smart-card." My understanding is that for pensioners, the saving is greater yet.

On the first full day of the Superbus takeover, I bought a block of local Beit Shemesh trips. After a period of time, I had run down the trips to where there were 3 or 4 left and went to buy another block.

American Anglo common-sense tells me that upon buying the second block of trips, the next bus receipt would show the total number of trips remaining that had bought and paid for, i.e. 19 (New block of 15 and balance of 4 trips remaining in the first block). Not!

Instead, on the next ride on Superbus, their computer terminal showed that there were but 3 rides remaining after deducting the current ride. What happened to the new block of rides which I had just purchased? I didn't know at the time that one could request a full accounting of everything on one's "smart-card."
Fortunately, when the old rides were used up, the new rides kicked in.

So then I ran down the rides on this block to 4 and then bought the next block, seemingly secure in the notion that the Superbus terminal would be consistent and again run down to old block of rides to zero before charging the new block of rides. Again, Not!

Instead, the Superbus computer terminal began running down the new block of rides instead of the old one. At that time, I raised a fuss and the driver printed me out a full accounting of the rides remaining in both the old and new blocks.

It concerned me that Superbus was not being consistent in the accounting for passenger rides. On Egged, it was very simple -- you paid your money, bought the denomination of trips and then the driver simply punched your card each time you rode. You knew, at all times, exactly how many rides you had remaining,
On Superbus, you place your "smart-card" on the spot on the terminal and the driver hands you back a receipt slip with your card. The problem is, that the terminal receipt only shows the how many trips are left on the block of rides being deducted from. Nowhere does it show how many total rides you have bought, paid for and have remaining. Nowhere on that receipt slip does it give a full accounting of what is still on your "smart-card."

Further the *drivers have begun deceiving their passengers by prentending that they don't know what the passenger is talking about when the passenger asks for a balance statement.* They continue their deception even when the rider shows them the previous balance statement document and they claim that they don't know what the statement is called in Iv'rit.

You try to ask for a cheshbon -- Not! You ask a friend who is in Israel longer than you and converses freely in Iv'rit and he tells you; Peirut (Pey, Yud, Reish, Vov, Tet) -- Not! One of the other passengers on one of the buses suggested the loshen "Duch" which I understood a long time ago to mean report. Once again -- Not! Meanwhile, one of the drivers who feigned not to know what I was talking about when I was asking for a balance statement double-charged me for the same trip.

Further, Superbus drivers deceivingly keep pointing to a Superbus office in Ramat Beit Shemesh, an office which has not existed for weeks.

Meanwhile, another individual who detected the same problems that I did spoke with *a Superbus supervisor* who checks to be sure everyone on a bus has paid. The supevisor *told him that we passengers have a right, on demand, to a balance statement of everything on our "smart-card."

*Finally, this morning (Sunday) I visited the Superbus in Beit Shemesh. A supervisor, Avi, who greeted me with a little bit too cheery Mo'edim B'Simcha, as if patronizing and condescending toward me, commenced to tell me that the drivers don't have to help passengers in any way, i.e. with a full balance statement of the contents of a passenger's "smart-card." He tells me that when there are other customers getting on the bus,* the driver has no obligation at all to provide such a statement upon a passenger's request. What that means is apparently that the driver can refuse to give you that which you have a right to.* Further, he told me that *the driver does not have to know what a card balance statement is.

*I told him that *Superbus' secretiveness and deception concerning balance statements leaves wide open the possibility of them lopping off blocks of rides from their computer* on passengers, poor passengers, mothers who travel on the bus with babies, strollers, often entering the bus piled down with groceries and just want to pay their fare and who probably lose their receipt slips most the time. If such lopping off blocks of rides on passengers, which these passengers had previously paid for but not used, were to occur, it would directly impact Superbus' bottom-line with excess, illegal, ill-gotten profits.

After heated words, I told Avi that I was unsatisfied with his answers. I told him that I believe that Superbus is hiding something by their deception of customers and that I have already informed the major RBS chessed organizations of a potential serious problem impacting poor people.
I did manage to get one piece of information out of Avi. I asked what the loshen is for the balance statement and he told me *"Meida (Mem Yud, Daled, Ayin) B'Cartis"* (pronounced Mayda). I strongly advise that passengers who have multiple blocks of rides on their "smart-card" begin requesting "Meida B'Cartis" as often as possible. And if something is not right, question it immediately. And if the driver doesn't or won't give you a satisfactory resolution to your question, do not hesitate to take it to the Superbus office in Mercaz Beit Shemesh.

For todays tiyul we decided to go back to hurvat Midras. The other day, by the time we got there we were tired and had no energy or time to crawl through the tunnel. My kids were disappointed, so we decided to make a small tiyul today to go into the tunnel and to see the pyramid.

The tunnel is a small crawl space in which the jews lived during the Bar Kochba revolts against the Romans. It is amazing that a) they dug this out b) they crawled through it regularly and hid in it c) they lived in it. There were parts of the tunnel I could not even crawl through but had to scoot on my belly.

We went through and then my kids wanted to do it again. Once was enough for me, so they went the second time and I waited outside cooling off in the 95 degree (f) weather (sharav today).



After we were done with that, we hiked a few minutes over to the Pyramid. the pyramid is supposedly the only such structure in Israel. It was made for burial purposes obviously in a cave beneath it (we could not find a way in to the cave).




Not quite as impressive as the pyramids in Egypt (which I have only seen pictures of), but pyramids nonetheless...

Hag Sameach!

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...

Today's Chol Hamoed trip started off with sunrise services at the Me'arat HaMachpela in Hebron. Sunrise was about 6:15am today, so we had to get going at about 4:50am to get there on time.


There was a nice crowd today, bright and early, of visitors coming to daven. I davened in the regular sefardic vasikin minyan rather than one of the ashkenazy minyanim. I always prefer to daven with them because they are not visitors but daven there every single day of the year. I believe they must have a special merit both for being able to do so and just for doing so, so I always prefer to daven with them.

The large and cavernous Yitzchak's Hall is open to Jews on chol hamoed, so that is where we davened.



After we got back and rested a bit with a bit of a lazy morning, my 12 year old son put together the plan for the rest of the day. We planned to go to Mitzpe Massua, or Massua Lookout. Massua is a "Fire Observation Post" at the top of a mountain near Bet Shemesh. The view from the top is phenomenal...



When we finally got moving after that, we decided to do one of the local hikes. From the top of Massua, one can either drive down and go home, or hike to the hurvat Midras or hurvat Luzit. These are both series of caves and ruins from the times of the Roman conquest and Bar Kochba. The hikes are between 3.5km to 5km, depending on which trail you choose to follow. We chose the trail to hurvat Midras which was meant t be a 3.5km hike.

The hike was fairly easy and the kids had a good time. My wife was meeting us at the end with the car and the little kids. We were following the trail marked with red markers. About 1.5 km from the end, we saw no more red markers. Suddenly the trail turned blue and then green. The whole area is beautiful with a lot to see, so it was not a big deal. We were just worried we were going to end up somewhere else and my wife would not know where to meet us.

No, we did not follow the sign to the pyramid, though I was curious what it was. We kept following the trail straight. Shortly after, we ran into the Columbarian Cave, which seems to be where they raised doves in the times of the Greeks.



After getting back on our way, we eventually found out we were not lost after all and we ran right into the Midras ruins!
We met up with my wife and the rest of the kids and they enjoyed running around the caves and exploring a bit before we went home.. Exhausted.

I really like this composition..

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Birkat Hachama - Stephen Frees His Jews
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Spending Yom Tov and Shabbos Chol Hamoed in Jerusalem always is a good opportunity for catching up on the latest batch of wall signs. There is nothing like the Jerusalem wall sign.
Shabbos morning I walked to the Kotel to daven at sunrise, so I got to see a nice variety of signage.

Here is a sampling of the signs I saw:

1. The expected signs announcing deaths, new books and shiurim.
2. The expected signs announcing various Birkat HaChama events, mostly by the kotel with Rav Elyashiv, and with the Eida HaCharedis at Kikar Mandelbaum
3. announcement of a Chol Hamoed Neturei Karta Conference on the topic of "Joining with the wicked".
4. Signs announcing events at Hebron and Kever Rachel.
5. Signs about some grave desecration in Spain. There was too much text in too small of a font for me to actually read more than a few words of this...
6. Signs from the Eida HaCharedis protesting the sale of Hametz, allowed by an "Israel" judge (their quotes), in Jerusalem.
   
7. Signs announcing the opening of Kever Yehoshua to the public the night of April 19 (Sunday night) between 10:30pm and 4am in Kafr Harsa. You have to go to Ariel Junction and hop on a fortified bus from there. No need to sign up or register. In addition, they have buses all night from various cities, but I could not write down the various phone numbers. Sorry.
   

If there is one Birkat HaChama event I regret not participating in... it is this.



A group of runners from the Bet Shemesh Running Club went running Wednesday morning, with a reporter from the LA Times doing a story on an unusual Birkat HaChama. They went running into the fields and hills behind Yishi and made the bracha celebrating the return of the sun to its point of creation.

"You're supposed to look at the sun and notice it but then look to the side," he instructed, gesturing into a cloudless sky. "We're not worshiping the sun. We're worshiping its creator."

With that, the Beit Shemesh Running Club began its Birkat Hachamah, or blessing of the sun, a joyous ritual of early morning praying, singing, clapping and dancing replicated Wednesday by observant Jews at outdoor venues across Israel and the world.

The club's six-minute observance was coupled with an eight-mile run along dirt trails in the Judean hills around Beit Shemesh, one of Israel's premier hiking and biking spots. The city's name, Hebrew for "house of sun," is assumed to have been inspired by sun god worship during the early Canaanite period, about 3000 BC.

I had asked about the event, and Chaim Wizman, the club's founder and coach, had invited me to take part. As a competitive long-distance runner, I couldn't resist. And as an American Gentile, I welcomed the chance to share this passion, and my attraction to milestones, with Israeli Jews.

Besides, a trail-running religious event seemed a newsworthy example of how times have changed since the last blessing of the sun, on April 8, 1981.

Thanks to the Internet and alarm over global warming, what was once a relatively simple and arcane celebration associated with black-clad ultra-Orthodox Jews has become more widespread, and infused with environmental and New Age messages.

"What is it we're celebrating, essentially?" Wizman asked during the run. "We're celebrating the pristine state of nature at the moment of Creation, right? The world was created that way, you know, and we blew it. Now, the objective of mankind, in the Torah's view, is to re-achieve that pristine state."

Wizman speaks with the authority of an ordained rabbi. Like most of his teammates, he belongs to the modern Orthodox stream of Judaism, religiously observant but more accommodating to secular influences. The team admits women, and a few joined Wednesday's run.

For this band of mostly middle-aged runners, hitting the trail affirms a spiritual connection to nature and the land of Israel, to which many of them have immigrated. They deemed it an ideal way to mark Wednesday's celebration, which happened to coincide with the eve of Passover. Similar themes cropped up at other sun-blessing venues in Israel, including an arts, music and "healing" festival in the northern town of Safed.

...

By contrast the scene in Beit Shemesh was idyllic.

The running course meandered past fields of wildflowers, vineyards, fruit orchards, an olive grove planted eight centuries ago, a honey farm stocked with beehives, Crusader-era ruins, and biblical battlefields where the Israelites fought the Philistines. We also passed a heavily guarded military installation and what my hosts suspect is a nuclear missile silo.

There was no danger of getting lost. Among the group was Lt. Col. Ophir Dor, who designs global positioning systems for the Israeli military.

Along the way, we shared reflections on our own lives: what had changed over the last 28 years and what we envisioned for the year 2037.

"Guys, just think how old you're going to be next time this happens," Wizman told us early in the run.

"In 28 years, hopefully I'm speaking Hebrew," said Rich Levitas, a 49-year-old American-born Web designer who is struggling with the language a decade after moving here.

"Let's not get carried away," a fellow runner quipped.

"And also in 28 years, maybe I can finally break three hours in the marathon," added Levitas, whose best time for the 26.2-mile race is 3 hours, 4 minutes.

Rael Strous and Johnny Burg were 10th-graders from South Africa in 1981 when their tour group insisted on joining the sun blessing at the Western Wall on its final morning in Israel. The group raced to the airport afterward, barely making the flight home.

Years later, Strous and Burg found themselves living in the same neighborhood of Beit Shemesh, working as a psychiatrist and a lawyer, respectively.

Yitz Corn, a 43-year-old information technology consultant, reflected on the intergenerational passage of life and his father's death a few years ago at age 76. He said he had taken up running shortly afterward, with the hope of living longer, and had since lost 60 pounds.

"My son is 14," he said. "Hopefully I'll be there for him at the next Birkat Hachamah, when he'll be almost 43."

Like most everyone blessing the sun this time, Strous is aware that the ancient calculation of its 28-year cycle has been proved inexact. But to him, it's close enough to justify the tradition.

"You long for something that comes every so often, a phenomenon of belonging together at a cosmic level," he said during our charge up the hill. "That kind of event challenges us to grow, to feel part of something bigger. That's the essence of it: being part of something greater than yourself."

At the time, when it was being planned, I thought perhaps it would display a lack of reverence for the seriousness, and the rarity, of the moment. That along with the logistics of having my wife and kids present to mark the moment with me for our memories in 28 years by the next one (when everyone tries to remember where they were the last time it happened), just made it seem too unrealistic.

Different people made it meaningful in different ways. There is no one way to serve God in a meaningful way.

RBS Torah would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire RBS A community for the tremendous turnout at the Birchas HaChama event this morning! Estimates put the crowd at 2500-3000 people, including men, women and children.

I would like to publically thank a few people that put in many, many hours of hard work to make this event such a success - Meir Arnold, Rav Eli Cohen, Efrayim Neiman, Yehoshua Levinson, Dovid Feinberg, and Avrohom Wellins who all volunteered their time to ensure the logistics and participation, the Iriyah for their support of the event and helping with the sound systems and handout sheets, Peretz Dissen for playing the keyboard, Dil V'Zol for sponsoring the siyum, and of course, all the community Rabbonim who supported the event and came to participate and enhance the experience.

IMPORTANT NOTE - if you took photos or video of the event, we would be very appreciative for you to share them. We would like to create a photo gallery on the website and post them for everyone to view. Please email rbstorah@gmail.com if you have pictures or video to share.

Through the strength and achdus in our community, may we be zoche to see the Geulah Shleimah come once again in this month of Nissan.

Chag Kosher V'Sameach.

Ari Rosenstein
RBS Torah

The tzedaka organizations are also trying to cash in on the way Birkat HaChama has gotten out of proportion. Their latest fund raising campaign was for people to donate and their names would be said by Gadol X immediately after the Birkat HaChama bracha with whatever they requested he daven for for them.

The part of the tzedaka ads that I scanned are about something else. they are announcing that this will be the last time in history the Birkat HaChama will be said!



Do they know something we don't? Is the world coming to an end tomorrow after Birkat HaChama? If Mashiach should come this Nissan (after all, isn't Birkat HaChama on erev pesach supposed to be a harbinger of the geula?), will Birkat HaChama no longer be said in the future?

They are obviously trying to get you to give money because this will be your "last chance ever" for such an opportunity....
I wonder how many people fall for that...

The following post is a post that has been sponsored by Sde Tzofim. The post will stay on top for a period of time. New posts will continue to be posted, so be sure to scroll down. Also, be sure to patronize Sde Tzofim with a visit and consider donating to their important cause.

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With Pesach approaching, it is time for us to give our kimcha d'pischa.

There is a unique kehilla in Beitar called Sde Tzofim. Sde Tzofim started out as a yeshiva for baaeli teshuva, but turned into a kehilla. The Rosh Yeshiva realized these students had no family to turn to, no supporting base to build upon. Instead of just bringing them to frumkeit and letting them deal with their personal issues on their own, he built a kehilla so they would have such a personal and emotional foundation and support base.

The yeshiva helps the students find jobs, and works out learning schedules around the job schedules. Yet these students, without family to rely on, without family to help them, find it especially difficult during the expensive holiday season to be able to afford the basic items necessary for the holiday. We all know how expensive it is to make Pesach - the matza alone could make some people take out a second mortgage! And then there is the food, the cleaning, perhaps a new outfit for a child or for a wife, etc. It is beyond the means of these baalei teshuva to make Pesach.

Giving your kimcha d'pischa (or at least some of it) to Sde Tzofim to help these baalei teshuva is definitely going to be helping some poor baalei teshuva have some simchas yom tov.

See the Sde Tzofim website for more details about this wonderful and necessary kehilla, and consider sending them a donation. They can accept credit card donations, online or offline, as well.

(HatTip: TheRBSNews.com)

The big day is finally just about upon us. Tomorrow morning we will be saying the bracha of Birkas hachama, commemorating the return of the sun to the point it was in at the time of creation. This return happens every 28 years.

I am not going to profess to understand the debate whether our count is right or wrong - I get lost in the math and the astronomical explanations, so I am just taking it for granted that tomorrow is the day and it does not really matter to me whether it is accurate or not. Those of you who have a problem with it can take your math and science papers to the rabbonim and work out a more accurate date.

What does interest me is how this has become such a big event. I get how because it is such a rare occurrence we make a big deal out of it. But it has gotten really big and people are making a really big deal out of it. It seems way out of proportion.

Here are some examples (in no particular order) of how big it has gotten:

For the first time in at least two thousand years, there will be a group going up to the top of Masada to recite the Birkas HaChama.

In the "central" event in Netanya, in the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood of the city, they will be changing the name of the street where Birkat HaChama will be recited. The new name of the street will be "Birkat HaChama Street".

Rav Elyashiv has the bris of a great grandchild tomorrow (Mazel tov!). He paskened that despite the normal ruling of "תדיר ושאינו תדיר תדיר קודם" which would mean the bris has priority over Birkas HaChama, in this case the blessing over the sun has priority and should be done first and only then the bris. I saw no explanation for this, but I presume it is because the blessing of the sun is meant to be done in the first three hours of the day and after that the bracha can no longer be said (at least not with Hashem's name), whereas the bris can be done all day (even if the preference is for early in the day). (source: Mishpacha newspaper)

Rav Elyashiv also is going out of his way for this event in another way. Rav Elyashiv makes sure to go to the Kotel every month. he therefore never needs to "tear kriya" at the kotel. Recently he has not been feeling so well, and it seems he has not gone to the Kotel in over 2 months. That means he is required to tear kriya when he will go to the Kotel tomorrow for Birkat Hachama. Out of concern that tearing kriya, being a sign of mourning of the destruction of the Temple, would dampen the joyous occassion of Birkas HaChama, Rav Elyashiv was scheduled to go to the Kotel today to tear kriya in advance of tomorrow's visit for Birkat HaChama. What I find particularly amazing about this is that Rav Elyashiv really feels the mourning when he tears kriya. I know when I tear kriya it is kind of perfunctory and done because I have to. I don't think I know anyone who really considers it a sad, mournful moment when he tears kriya at the Kotel. Rav Elyashiv does, and he assumes everyone else would feel that way as well just from seeing him tear....

The Wall Street Journal even picked up on how big it has gotten and has written about Birkat HaChama and the twist environmentalists are putting on it.

The Old City of Jerusalem is going to be completely shut down and closed off to traffic, including buses, because of the throngs of people expected to come for the Birkat HaChama at the Kotel.



Unfortunately it looks like the weather forecast is looking bad for Birkas Hachama. They are forecasting rain for all around the country. It looks like the best bet to get a sunny day for the bracha would be for those people who have gone down to Eilat for Pesach (though according to some rabbonim, Rav Elyashiv included, they might have to keep two days Yom Tov because Eilat might have the status of Chutz La'Aretz).

Hopefully the weather will clear up enough, at least for a few minutes, and let the sun peek out so we can say our bracha and get on with our erev pesach preparations. Heck, today was supposed to be cloudy and overcast but it has so far been sunny all morning...

Neighborhoods all over are arranging central meeting points where the bracha will be said by the whole community together. In RBS the main gathering will be at Park Ayalon with most of RBS participating together at 7:05 AM. There will be musical accompaniment, with a siyum made afterwords for those who need to be fasting for the fast of the first-born.

I asked the organizer of the even what the big deal is - why can't we just go out after davening, even as a whole shul together, look up to the sky and make the bracha. Why make it so big? Why not do the same for Birkat Ha'Ilanot?

This was his response:

There are very few mitzvos that the halacha states should be done "brov Am". Hakhel comes to mind, which we do not have without the Beis HaMikdash. The Mishna Brerua specifically states that this mitzva - due to its unique structure and timing - is best done Brov Am. There is nothing more significant in the world than giving testimony to G-d's ultimate authority over the cosmos, and the Birchas HaChama bracha gives testimony to this reality. Additionally, it has been the practice for generations for the communities to come together in a public fashion to make the bracha.

We felt that such a special event, coinciding with Erev Pesach, was such a significant milestone that it would be highlighted by the cooperation and participation of all the different kehillos in Ramat Bet Shemesh. In many cities, each shul or community holds their own event. However, in our unique city with a multitude of backgrounds, minhagim and nusachot, it would be the highest level of testimony to our subservience to Hashem by all coming together to make this significant bracha.

(there will be another location in RBS for the Birkat HaChama at the plaza of the Merkaz Mischari at the bottom of the neighborhood for those who can't or don't want to go up to the top of Park Ayalon)

According to the Holyland Pilgrimage website, the Pope will be visiting the Western Wall and Temple Mount on May 12 during his visit to the Holy Land.

Remember that they recently announced that due to security concerns they are planning on shutting the Kotel from the public during the Pope's visit? and Rabbi Rabinovitz was protesting to keep it open.

If you look at a calendar you will notice that May 12 is Lag B'Omer.

Whether Lag B'Omer represents the day that Rav Shimon Bar Yochai died, or whether it represents the [temporary] victory of Bar Kochba over the Romans, it seems that on this Lag B'Omer there is a good chance the Romans will dampen the fires of our celebration... Let's hope that Rabbi Rabinovitz's protests do not fall on deaf ears....

I have a couple of questions maybe someone could help me with:

1. Why do we call it "Bedikas Chametz" rather than something like "Chipus Chametz"? Bedika is more like an inspection of an item to see if it is chametz or not. Chipus is to search for chametz. When we overturn the house and do a bedikas chametz, it is really a chipus chametz. I have an idea or two, but am looking for something better before I share my thoughts.

2. Why do we make such a big deal about Birkat Hachama and make communal get-togethers everywhere to say the bracha? Why do we not do the same, even at a smaller level, for birkat Ha'ilanot? That is fairly rare as well - it is a brach a we say only once a year. Yet we do not see big gatherings being arranged on Rosh Chodesh Nissan to say Birkat Ha'Ilanot as a community. Why do we do this by Birkat Hachama?