Pictures of Israeli Soldiers Treating Palestinian Weapon Smugglers

I received these pictures today along with the Hebrew text below.
For redistribution to all:
Pictures of Israeli soldiers rescuing Palestinians from a tunnel (used for smuggling weapons) in Gaza.
In the most moral army in the world, instead of blowing up the tunnel, they [the soldiers] rescue the one who is trying to kill you.
After smuggling weapons they [the Palestinians] receive:
Medical care, blankets, a cup of tea.
I remind you what the three reserve soldiers received when they went into Ramallah [in Samaria in the West Bank] . . . by mistake!!
That is the difference between us and the Palestinians.
[MiI: There were two. One of them lived several blocks from my home. When his wife got the news she went to stay with a family member living on our street. Even before the victim's name was announced we watched as the reporters gathered in front of the building. The two soldiers had been brutally tortured and murdered.]


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On Hoopoes, Black Cats, and Dodecagons

A few months ago, the city began to erect a traffic circle at this dangerous intersection. Work stopped temporarily when residents of a neighboring street sued the city out of concern for the extra traffic in front of their homes. I am more concerned about the safety of the intersection, but I realize other issues are involved. My daughter fears the traffic circle will make it harder to cross the street on her way to school, when there are a large number of cars. She won't be able to judge which cars are headed toward her as they go around the circle.

The city puts a sculpture, or garden, in each traffic circle. I found the one above next to the bus stop on my way to Tel Aviv last week. A worker noticed me with the camera, so I asked him what he thought. He replied with some unpleasant comments about the mayor. Then I realized that an element seemed to be missing from the sculpture. (I'll wait while you congratulate me on my artistic perception.) So I asked about that, too.

It turns out that a statue of a black cat had been placed on the rock at the base of the dodecagon. When a woman living in an apartment nearby called the city and yelled that she didn't want to see that cat there every day, it was removed. Apparently a columnist complained about it too.

If you look closely you can see the hoopoe, now Israel's national bird, at the top of the figure. Several traffic circles feature hoopoes in various poses. I wonder whether the cat was supposed to be contemplating the bird for its next meal? The worker suspects that since the mayor was reelected, we shouldn't expect a replacement for the cat.

In the meantime they restarted work on my traffic circle and I am anxious to see what artwork will appear.

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In which I fall head over heels. . .

into the rocks of a mountain in the Shomron, that is.

On the first day of Chol Hamoed (the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday), we went with friends on an organized hike through Nachal Shiloh. We hesitated about the security, the length (four hours!) and the possibility of rain, but decided to go ahead. Being invited to our friends' sukkah for a barbecue afterward didn't hurt.

The hike began in the settlement of Peduel with 136 people, divided into two groups. From Peduel we hiked down to a nachal (creek, dry in this case-- I'm not sure of its name), then up to the ancient city of Tzredah, and back down to Nachal Shiloh and the road, where a car awaited to take drivers back to Peduel.

The hike was rocky and slippery. Even though it had rained in the morning, the sun was hot and there was little mud. The kids enjoyed seeing this turtle:

Near the top of the hill an Arab man drew water from a well, using a rusty bucket. The guide said the water was safe to drink and at least one person refilled a bottle.

We sat under some trees and the guide told us about Tzredah. Tzredah is mentioned in the Book of Kings as the hometown of Yerov'am ben Nevat and in Pirkei Avot as the hometown of the sage Yossi ben Yoezer. Tzredah means the middle finger and the rock formation above the city juts straight up into the air. She advised that children not go over there, because of pits. My husband elected to stay with the two small ones.

The guide explained how archeologists who had come from the wrong direction had missed the distinct topography, and mistakenly placed the settlement of Tzredah in the valley below. But the shards found in the valley turned out to be non-Jewish and from a different period. Then a second archeological team, coming from another direction, identified the spot correctly.

Evidence of settlement in Tzredah

The guide introduced us to a geologist who happened to be on the tour. He explained that Hitler failed to capture Yugoslavia, out of all of the countries of Europe, because the topography was identical to that of Tzredah. The geological terms used to describe the landscape come from Serbian. Whoever rules this area cannot easily be defeated; the geologist referred to it as "topogarchy." (I could not find any mention of this term on the net.) Tanks can't ascend, nor horses -- even donkeys even have a hard time. Goats manage fine, judging by the amount of excrement.

In order to capture as much water as possible and prevent soil erosion, the ancient and not-so-ancient peoples living here built terraces on the hillsides.


We stopped in this cave before starting down.

On the wall of the cave:

Nachal Shiloh

It was a long way down. The guide warned us that it got a little tricky after the beginning. It was more than that. At one point about halfway down there were large rocks with gaps in-between. I tripped over something, banged my leg into a rock, and tumbled over on my head into a gap. I called out but no one heard. I knew my husband and four-year-old were not far behind, along with a few others. When they caught up they helped me stop the bleeding. After resting a few minutes we all continued. Our friends, who were already down in the creek bed, saw we were having trouble and directed us to an easier descent. There was no path and the rest of the group was already at the end. Eventually we made it to the road and my husband was ushered into the car back to Peduel.

Your injured correspondent couldn't resist this last picture:

With a half hour lag between the first and last arrivals, and more than one possible path, someone should have been appointed to stay in the back. Had I fallen down unconscious, I might not have been missed until everyone got to the road.

On that cheerful note, I'll save the rest for another post.

Continuation: Sukkot in the ER

Burkas--The new fashion

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A cure for insomnia?

This morning she explained, "That way is a faster way to close my eyes."

First ever caption contest

This scene on the floor of my kitchen spoke to me somehow. So let your imagination run wild; I will publish the best captions next week (bli neder).


On Sunday I tore a tendon or muscle in my calf and have to stay off my feet for a few days (by now I can limp around a bit). So while I am exempted from housework (by whom I don't know) and have plenty time to sit at my computer, I am busy with other things. The blogging muse seems to have abandoned me for the time being.

It's my mother's yahrzeit (anniversary of death) today; it's a good time to repost my (unfinished) series from last year about motherhood. Introduction and Part I.

A Trip to the Shmitta Store

Mo'ah kemo Efro'ah has been nudging me to do a post on shopping during shmitta. So on my last trip to the "shmitta store" catering to the religious public, I brought my camera. I can't possibly explain all of the political, religious, economic, and practical implications of this mitzvah; check out ADDerabbi or Rafi for more posts on the subject. Oh, and say Mazal tov to Rafi and his wife on the birth of baby #7.

Don't feel bad if you don't understand. You are not alone.

I'll take a stab at it anyway.

During the seventh year, the Torah requires the land and people of Israel to rest. Any produce that grows without cultivation (most fruit, or vegetables planted during the sixth year and harvested during the seventh) is (theoretically) shared among everyone and has a special status (kedushat sheviit, literally sabbatical holiness). This produce can be collected and distributed through a mechanism known as otzar bet din. The product of cultivation during the seventh year may not be eaten.

The rabbis have devised several ways to prevent hardship during shmitta. The only solution sanctioned by the haredi rabbinic leadership is to import produce from outside the country or from non-Jewish farms within Israel. Religious Zionist rabbis allow a fictional sale of the land, (similar to the selling of chametz, leavened bread, before Passover). But if the Israeli rabbinate were to prohibit farming altogether, not only would farms lose income for the current year, but those dependent on overseas markets would risk losing their customer base permanently. Also, buying vegetables from Gaza, for example, might end up funding terror activities.

Many religious Zionists do not want to rely on this sale, known as heter mechirah (HM), for philosophical reasons, because it involves "selling" holy land. Our rabbi emphasized that the sale is valid in any case; if heter mechirah is indeed prohibited, the farmer, not the customer, is in violation.

Last shmitta, the government gave a kashrut certificate to any store or hall that relied on the HM. If a business wished, it could get more stringent supervison. This year, the rabbinate in some cities, with the support of the Israeli rabbinate, decided they wouldn't give supervision to any business relying on HM. The result is that many stores won't bother to get kashruth supervision at all and the general public won't observe this important mitzvah.

This year the religious Zionists banded together and promoted an organization called Otzar Haaretz. Otzar Haaretz supervises and distributes HM and other permissible seventh year produce. If you join, you contribute NIS 50 per month, entitling you to a voucher for that amount to redeem at a store selling Otzar Haaretz produce. We also get a voucher for an extra "benefit." This month it was one and a half kilograms of eggplant. I hope to have a monthly cooking feature on the topic, but I am already a month behind! I wonder what we will get this month. . . In our town the rabbinate worked out some kind of bizarre compromise to allow sales of heter mechirah produce. The kashruth certificate above is from the organization that supervises HM produce and "otzar beth din" (see above). The certificate reads:

PERMIT The fruits and vegetables in this store are under the supervision of Rabbi Yaakov Ariel and Rabbi Dov Lior [from the religious Zionist community: MiI], the instruction and supervision are through the rabbis of "Machon Torah Vehaaretz." The fruits and vegetables with "kedushat sheviit" must be treated according to instructions available at the store. This permit is in effect from Tishrei 5768 until Tevet 5768. The permit may not be copied and is the property of Machon Hatorah Vehaaretz.

Under pressure, the local chief rabbi authorized another local rabbi to supervise HM produce. The letter, on plain paper, reads:

I hereby inform you that even though you (the store owners) purchase fruits and vegetables in the town's wholesale market where all the vegetables are HM and tithed according to strict Jewish law, and with no question of "Orla" (prohibited fruit from a tree less than four years old), [this is in addition to the vegetables of "Otzar Haaretz" (see certificate above) that are from the Otzar Beit Din, and as such must be treated with kedushat shviit (see above)] I am sorry that because of the local rabbinate's policy not to give a certificate to businesses which sell HM vegetables, the management [lit. anshei haminhalah] may not issue a kashrut certificate for 5768, the sabbatical year. Signed, Rabbi of the western part of the city. CC: The local chief rabbi

In other words: It's kosher, but we can't say so officially.

I enjoyed shopping in the large store, where signs marked the status and price of each item. Outside, the produce was reasonably cheap. Monster sweet potatoes cost NIS 2.49/kg. The sign notes "shishit," (sixth) meaning they were harvested before Rosh Hashana, in the sixth year of the sabbatical cycle (5767). Other signs said "sheviit" (seventh) or "heter mechirah."

The HM produce was significantly cheaper than the "otzar bet din/Otzar Haaretz/sheviit" salad vegetables inside the store. Peppers were a whopping NIS 8 per kg., compared to 2.49. Odd because we are not supposed to be paying for the actual produce, only the overhead.

Fruit picked now is sixth-year produce, because what counts is when the trees blossomed. Vegetables gain status according to when they are picked. So far we have been buying fruit and some vegetables such as potatoes, which aren't harvested this time of year anyway, at the shuk (open-air market). I bought some fruit at the shmitta store, because my husband the shuk-shopper was out of the country. I found a bargain table where I picked up some delicious peaches and misshapen cucumbers.

My biggest disappointment was taking home the measly, bug-free celery that cost about a shekel a stalk and discovering a label reading "yevul nochrim" (non-Jewish produce; a code word for imported). I thought the whole point of Otzar Haaretz was to avoid importing. And who needs bug-free celery that is so old that they had to cut off the leaves? Yuck.

The grocer wanted me to show a picture of his delicious melons, which came from Kibbutz Ein Yahav in the Arava. They are grown by Israelis, but because the Arava is not part of biblical Israel, shmitta laws don't apply. If you have been following, you might be asking why melons are a problem since they are fruit. But melons are annuals; according to Jewish law fruits are perennials which grow on trees.

I seem to have gotten to the end of this incredibly long post, appropriate for shmitah because a) this Jewish leap year contains an extra month and b) fruit will be more of an issue in 5759. It will be a long time before we can go back to worrying about simple things like tithes, orlah, bugs, and what to cook for dinner.