CEASEFIRE?

BS"D


Within hours of this ceasefire going into effect, Hezbollah was making moves to ambush more IDF boys. Why do you think the Israeli army is called the "Israel Defence Force"? Israel wouldn't have to have the 4th largest war machine on the planet if others weren't constantly planning its destruction. Don't you think Israelis would rather be spending their tax money on enriching their arts scene or restoring more historical antiquities to share with the world?

I wag my finger at Fox, CNN & EuroNews. Your re-framing of the facts is shameful.

Look at poor Haifa. Why?

Despite "the situation", I've been enjoying some of the awesome beauty this Holy Land has to offer.
I clambered around the ancient aqueduct we built to feed the Har Ha-Bayit/Temple Mount from the springs of Hevron with Steg & Simon:

This was so cool. My Mum would love this.

I spent a few ecstatic hours drooling over The Aleppo Codex, a millenium-old scribe's toolbox & various holy scrolls in The Shrine of the Book at The Israel Museum. It's one of my personal sacred spaces. This is it on the right, juxtaposed with the Knesset:

Israel's present & past. What does the future hold?

I survey'd the hand-built scale model of Jerusalem as it was 2,000 years ago, before the Romans destroyed everything & scattered us around the world. This is it from the south side:

Isn't it amazing what we can learn from archaeology?
The Har Ha-Bayit/Temple Mount is the large campus of buildings on the far right, where the Dome of the Rock now satands.

This is how it looked 2 millenia ago:

& this is how it looks now.

& I've met with both my sofer-mentors, an example of each of their Ashkenazi ketav stam (European-tradition sacred scritpt) here:

Top: my certifying sofer stam who wants to stay off this blog.
Bottom: R' Dov Laimon, who considers women's certification basically meaningless because it doesn't change any of the prevailing Halakhic standards (& actually, he's right).

I've also wandered the chi-chi neighbourhood of Emeq Refa'im, where I used to live & where the Cafe Hillel bombing took place. The reason why this community was targeted (aside from it being full of Jews) is because many residents are sympathetic to Israeli Arabs, Palestinians & are interested in a just peace. Here's an illustration of how this neighbourhood feels about Arabic:

These stencils appear all over Emeq Refa'im - Arabic with a transliteration in Hebrew underneath, so Hebrew-speakers can learn random nouns in Arabic. This means "bank machine" & is prayed on the corner of Emeq & Wedgewood, where the Discount bank sits.

& this, which is stencilled on a garbage can one block away is how the people in the neighbourhood feel about English:

So there you have it.
More consideration towards Arab neighbours than to American tourists.
:D

That's all I've got in me for today. I'm off to make pilgrimage. Thank G@d I'm able.






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