Is It OK to Wait For A Bus?
28 Feb 2007 4 Comments
A few days ago a 42 year old man was killed while praying in a forrested area near his settlement. He was stabbed by two Palestinians, aged 18, who admitted that they had planned the attack for a while. While many expressed shock at this murder, many others immediately asked the question “what was he doing in the forest alone in an area that has many Arabs?” – implying that he was at fault himself. (He was praying in this area because that is the custom of many Breslov Ultra-Orthodox. They believe the best way to come close to G-d is to find a quiet area, alone, to pray).
I personally think that he had every right to be where he was, and that the full blame should be placed on the murderers. Is it ok to kill a black person who is found in an area that is all white? Of course not. Anyone claiming otherwise would be called a racist.
I do think, though, that those of us who are not restrained by “PC thinking” can look at the dangers realistically, and organize accordingly. Carrying a pistol in this situation would have been a smart thing to do. Would it have prevented the terrorists from murdering him? Don’t know. Does it take the blame off of them? Absolutely not.
This morning I read in the Jerusalem Post about a gang of Bedouins who have been raping Jewish women as “revenge” for supposed crimes against Arabs in Gaza. They grabbed women (and in one case a 13 year old girl) who were waiting at bus stops, forced them into a car and took them to isolated areas to rape them. DNA evidence was gathered and has been used to identify at least some of the gang.
Now I wonder if the same second guessing will go on. Were these women justified in waiting for a bus? Or will it be only in some areas that this is acceptable, and small, isolated areas with large Arab or Beduin populations will be considered too dangerous, and the blame will then fall on the victim?
Wear A Seat Belt!
27 Feb 2007 11 Comments
in Family Stuff
Yesterday westbankpapa was in a car accident – a truck smashed into him from behind. Thank G-d he is fine – he even felt well enough to point out a spelling mistake in a recent post (which calmed me down more than his insistence that he was ok, and that the doctor had already checked him out).
Of course he was wearing a seat belt. We are “hysterical Americans” about this, and about using safety seats for babies and kids. (I once got into a fight with someone when I refused to take an additional passenger, because it meant one of my kids riding on someone’s lap for a 15 minute ride. She called me a hysterical American, which was rich since she also made aliyah about 25 years previously. Apparently bad Israeli habits become ingrained in Americans too!)
My oldest son is painfully aware of car safety too. Some boys from his high school were killed in a car accident about two years ago. Slippery roads, inexperienced driver, and, unfortunately, the kids weren’t wearing seat belts. It really is amazing how much a simple thing can make such a huge difference.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
26 Feb 2007 4 Comments
There is a new project started by Amana, the organization that builds homes in yishuvim in Yehuda and the Shomron (Judea and Samaria). They are now appealing to Americans to make an investment in Israel, by building homes in specific communities, and then renting them out to young couples.
Our yishuv, Peduel, is one of the communities on their list. For the past two or three years, we have had a waiting list of between 25-50 families who want to move to our community, but there is no room. In the past the yishuvim received caravans (trailor homes) to be used as temporary housing for couples exploring the possibility of living in a community such as ours. After a reasonable amount of time, the couple would then decide to build permanently. Building projects take a number of years to be completed, the families would move into the homes, and the cycle would start again with new families.
The problem is that the yishuvim are not receiving caravans anymore. (In past years they were subsidized by the government. At one point, when the political winds changed, it was decreed that it is illegal to move caravans from one yishuv to another. I am not sure what the status is now, but they are too expensive for the yishuvim to buy on their own.) The caravans were considered “temporary” housing, although many have been used for more than twenty years already. Now the only way a yishuv can grow naturally is by accepting families who are willing to build homes. Young couples just starting out do not have the financial means to build right away, so they are having a hard time finding a place in many yishuvim.
Amana is trying to circumvent this problem, by turning to those who may want to make a good investment, and may want a home to retire to later in life. Our yishuv is relatively close to the coastal area of Tel-Aviv, where many people work in hi-tech (a commute of between 30 minutes to an hour, depending on where exactly on the coast you need to reach). A new road has been recently opened, which connects our area to Modiin (20 minutes away), which means a commute to Jerusalem is roughly an hour.
Our yishuv has approximately 10% Anglos, so there are enough English speakers to have immediate friends, but the place feels like Israel, and not America. (For those who don’t want that). Since we bought our home the prices have appreciated by 25% (despite the current events of the past few years).
If there are readers out there who are serious, and want more information, you can email me (westbankmama at fastmail dot com).
I’d love it if my new neighbors came here because of my blog……
Havel-Havalim and Other Good Stuff
25 Feb 2007 2 Comments
in Havel-Havalim, J-Pix
Life-of-Rubin hosts this week’s Havel-Havalim. A lot of great posts as usual, and one or two surprises. First, I didn’t know that the Jib Awards have their own blog! Check out JIBAwards.com. (It does my heart good to see the B’Siyata Dishmaya – “With the Help of G-d” in the upper right hand corner of the blog.)
I also missed out on the new carnival started by BagelBlogger - JPix. What a great idea. I am all thumbs when it comes to cameras, so I really enjoy seeing others’ more successful attempts at photography.
Jewish Roots in the Most Unlikely Places
25 Feb 2007 3 Comments
Today is the seventh day of the Hebrew month of Adar. This is the day that Moshe Rabbenu (Moses) was born, and died, 120 years later.
We do not know where Moshe is buried. It is for this reason that when the State of Israel was formed, this date was picked as the time to commemorate the deaths of Israeli soldiers whose burial place is unknown (in America we call this the “unknown soldier.”)
I just listened to the ceremony on IDF radio. The regular comedy program was cancelled and it was carried live.
A modern-day ceremony, with roots in ancient Jewish tradition. Another stitch in the backdrop of Jewish life in Israel.
There Are None So Blind….
23 Feb 2007 10 Comments
There are none so blind, as those who don’t take off the cap to the binoculors…. This is what you get when you appoint a union leader to be your Defense Minister. (Note to other bloggers: I could never figure out how to put up pictures on Blogger. With wordpress it is so easy that even I can do it!)
Trading Places, Purim Style
23 Feb 2007 Leave a Comment
in Family Stuff
The weeks before Purim in Jewish schools worldwide are known to be a bit crazy. Not a lot of serious learning takes place, and the smarter schools plan field trips during this time, since the kid’s minds are not on the books anyway.
Those of us with a number of kids already are used to it by now. I already know that my kid needs to dress up on the day before Purim vacation, and that they have to bring mishloach manot (the gifts of food traditionally given on Purim) to school. Well known charity organizations have made this easier for mothers, at least here in Israel. The kids can bring in either 5 or 10 shekels, and they receive a prepared mishloach mana. Mom doesn’t need to worry about it, the kids get great snacks, and money goes to a wonderful charity. In our area Tal Chaim does this (soup kitchens in the Petach Tikva area).
Cap guns (pikot) are all the rage, although thankfully our school has banned them and the security guard checks the kids’ bags at the entrance to the school! We always let our kids use them only on the day of Purim itself, because although I agree that they are dangerous and I hate my kids using them, I didn’t feel that I could ban them completely. One day a year seemed a reasonable compromise.
This year one of my kids will participate in another Purim tradition for the first time. Today is euphemistically called “student day” at school. He is in sixth grade, and he, along with the rest of the kids in his grade, will be the teachers today. I think he got off easy, though, because he was assigned first grade. I don’t think they are quite sophisticated enough to know that they are supposed to give their new “teacher” a run for his money!
Time alone will tell.
I’d like to wish my readers a wonderful and peaceful Shabbat.
The Missing Piece is the Ruler of the World
21 Feb 2007 9 Comments
in Terror
A miracle happened last night in Tel-Aviv. A suicide bomber travelled from his village near Jenin with enough explosives to murder and seriously injure large numbers of people. He then wandered around south Tel-Aviv, and decided in the end to throw the explosives into a trash can in Rishon L’Zion. The police were tipped off, meanwhile, and after an extensive search, they found the terrorist and his driver in an apartment in Bat Yam. He led them to the trash can, where police sappers destroyed the bomb. Noone was hurt, thank G-d.
The article that I linked to has an interesting line. It says that the police are mystified why the terrorist just wandered around and didn’t blow himself up. I guess if one uses only his “regular brains” it is, indeed, mystifying. But if one uses his “yiddishe kop” (Jewish brains) it isn’t mystifying at all.
The missing piece of the puzzle is, of course, what we religious Jews call Ribbono Shel Olam, which is translated into English as the “Ruler of the World”. G-d is ultimately in charge of everything that happens in the world. We are in the first week of the month of Adar, which reminds us of the holiday of Purim, where we celebrate the miracle that happened in Persia thousands of years ago. There too, the Jews were saved from destruction by what looked like “natural means”. Esther the Queen revealed at the last minute to King Achashverosh that she was Jewish, and that Haman wanted to kill all of the Jews in Persia at that time, including her. The King, understandably angry, rescinded the decree to kill the Jews, and Haman and his sons were hung.
The lesson of Purim is to see G-d’s hand in arranging these “natural means”. The fact that Achashverosh picked Esther to be his queen, out of all of the women vying for the spot, was not a coincidence – it was arranged up above.
Here too in Israel, we are witness to miracles all of the time. Sometimes they are “covered up” by what we think of as natural means. Our brave soldiers and intelligence officers, who work tirelessly to protect us, are successful because they are good at what they do – but that is not the whole story. They are successful (and unfortunately, sometimes not successful) because G-d decides it should be that way.
In this specific case the “natural means” are not even present. The terrorist just wandered around, and didn’t try to blow himself up on a bus, because G-d was watching and didn’t want it to happen.
Mouth Watering
20 Feb 2007 6 Comments
I always enjoy reading the Kosher Cooking Carnival, but this week’s edition was better than usual. I am always looking for different ways to make fish for Shabbat, so I really liked Elisheva’s salmon recipes. I also didn’t know that you could read “Keeping kosher in a non-kosher world” online.
Batya is looking for volunteers to host the carnivals – any volunteers? (I pledge “new job” syndrome).
Cmon, You Know You Want To….
19 Feb 2007 3 Comments
in Good Deeds
Do a mitzvah, that is! Treppenwitz has two worthwhile projects to take part in – find out all of the details here.
