To Israel And Beyond

MY NEW BLOG THAT I AM UPDATING

2007-02-18T13:35:00.000-08:00

I have stopped using this blog, and now I am updating my blog
http://hesderoleh.blogspot.com/

Rally for Darfur in Jerusalem

2006-09-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

Its finnally over...or really it just started.
The campeign to end the Genocide in Darfur from Israel.
Together with some friends, I started TAG, Talmidim Against Genocide, as a way of raising awareness about Darfur in Israel.
On sept 17th we had our first rally. Check it out on http://www.dayfordarfur.org/Events/Jerusalem_Israel.htm

so while I was expecting maybe 30 people, we got over 200!

And this was only planned in three days. I litteraly got the permit on thursday and only then did we start getting the word out about the rally.
I took a lot of sunday going to Ramat Gan to buy a megaphone becuase of bad directions abnout how to get there, but that gave me an oppertunity to learn my morning Seder on the bus and plan my speech on the way back.

This is a write up of the rally by Ari Perlow

On Sunday night, designated as the Global Day For Darfur, a rally was held in Jerusalem protesting against the Genocide in Darfur. The rally was organised by Talmidim Against Genocide (TAG), an organisation created by overseas students spending the year studying in seminaries and yeshivot in Israel, with over 200 participants from many seminaries and yeshivot as well as universities.

Organisers of the rally had duel aims of publicising the genocide and espousing Global Day For Darfur’s goals of increasing Security, Humanitarian Aid and total implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement.

The Rally consisted of a program of speeches, singing, chanting of psalms/prayers and ended with the recitation of Ma’ariv and the singing of Hatikva. During the evening, speakers focused on the aims of Global Day For Darfur, an update on the situation and the obligation of Jews, as victims of the Holocaust, to fulfil the pledge of “never again.”

Many participants noted that they were shocked by the number of passers-by who asked "מי זה דרפור?"(Who is Darfur?) However, the atmosphere of the event was undeniably uplifting with one participant from Sydney, Australia noting that the rally “renewed his faith in religious youth.”

Myspace.com

2006-01-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

So what is myspace?
I am not really sure

My Profile is Here

I am using it to meet Israelis, so that hopefully I will know more people when I go there soon.
Also, I am stuck a bit in the insular religous Israeli world. Some interaction with other segements of Israeli or American could be very worthwhile. Not that MySpace or the Internet is a great place for it, but you have to start somewhere

Ariel Sharon

2006-01-09T14:36:00.000-08:00

I figure most people who are reading this Already know what has happened to Sharon.

I will just ask you keep Ariel Ben Devorah in your thoughts , prayers and tehillim.

After this stroke, and he looks like he will recover somewhat, there is no way the Israeli political structure will be the same.

I do not want to think of the possible consequences of this power vaccuum.

Just keep Medinat Yisrael's welfare along with all of Klal Yisrael in mind.

Rough Times are Ahead

WZC

2005-12-27T00:52:00.000-08:00

Its not just Channukah, Hannuka Sameach to all!!

But, it is also time to Register and Vote for the World Jewish Congress

USA: www.votetorah.org

Australia: www.zfa.com.au

The Candidates you vote for will allocate more than 1 billion dollars, among other things. I think everyone who qualifies
1) Jewish
2) Zionist
3) over 18 by june 30th, 2006
4) something else
5) something else

should vote

I did, now you go out and Register!!!

The OTHER MTA

2005-12-20T10:49:00.000-08:00

So the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is on strike now.

Meaning that everything in the city is going to be wierd.
Buses and Subways are not running
Taxis are using differnt fares
Cars to get through some places must have at least 4 passangers
Schools are opening late

So besides of the MTA- MTA connection... how does this effect me?

Well first of all to get into MTA(Bnei Akiva Program) I need an interview, but I can't get ot the rabbi who is interviewing becuase of the MTA strike.

Also right now, this might effect my shabbat plans. I could get paid $50 to go to a smll shule in an isolated place in the bronx and do a little kriyat ha'torah and who knows what... with transport provided. Or if the MTA is not on strike any longer, I will want to go to Riverdale. Sure I can walk to Riverdale or bike in the sub-zero temperatures, thats not the issue. But Kyra Young of Queens would have no good way of getting to Riverdale, so if she isn't coming to Riverdale then I have to think about taking the "job."

The strike will probibly affect me in other ways, we just have to see how long it goes on

More about MTA??

2005-12-19T22:01:00.000-08:00

so what is MTA? INFO HERE

now I just have to wait for questions from people about it...

so why go now?

It's ISRAEL!! are you kidding me? why delay going to Israel?

ok, but also, everyone at YU is so much older than me, and even though I love Rabbi Wieder, thats not a good enough reason to stay.

I was tinking of staying another half a semester so that i could improve my gemara skills, but I can do that better at Yishiva so why not?

I also thought that maybe I wanted to go to maale gilboa, but I can still do that.

I also though, maybe I won't be able to transfer to an Israeli university, but between GEDs, Mechina and possibly coming back to YU I can also do that...

In short, I want to make Aliyah at some point, why not get a headstart on it?

ok, fine I do admit I want to see my family and my aussie friends...

MTA??

2005-12-19T21:54:00.000-08:00

So update in my life:

lets see, I have resolved the director/play issue and am getting credit for it.

I am hainvg trouble sleeping and eating on schedule but overall school isn't that bad.

I am going out with a very cool girl :)

I am a madrich in bnei akiva in riverdale, we had an awesome peula for za"ch this last week

I just applied to Moshava IO, ennismore and stone. The interviews went well

I can't figure out what courses to take next semester

The last two things are probibl irrelivent becuase I will likely go on the MTA shant ba'aretz prgoram of Australia at Yeshivat Har Etzion.... Just a few issues to resolve

and MAKE ALIYAH!!! if you need help here are some websites
http://www.aliyah.org
http://www.nbn.org.il

And we needed him to tell us this becuase...?

2005-10-09T12:19:00.000-07:00

The explosion during a Hamas procession in the teeming Gaza refugee camp of
Jabalya did not necessarily catalyze the group's fall.
Some finger Yousef
for precipitating the arrests in provocative harangues on Al-Jazeera blaming
Israel for the explosion. Even Abu Mustapha admits "that mistakes were made.
Hamas is not after all made up of saints."

-Hamas making all the wrong moves

lets see, I think we knew Hamas wasn't made up of saints. We didn't need some Hamas "activist" to tell us this. Shelling innocent civilians and blowing up children and buses is not something we usually see the run-of-the-mill saint doing.

Ok, so maybe hearing them say that about themselves, and admit their falibility is intresting, even if they are saying it for the wrong reasons. But, I mean come on this is the Jerusalem Post, look at the headline, I think the readers know that Hamas is making the wrong moves

A $ign of the Times

2005-09-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

You know its 2005 when your spam looks like this

Sender: Gasoline Giveaway
Subject: Free Gasoline!
Date: Mon 09/12
Size: 4k

Intresting Timing For ADL to be Raising Awareness for Synagogue Protection

2005-09-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ok Maybe that had this in mind before the "PLO Arabs" destroyed the Synagogues, but I still think the timing of the release was somewhat intentional

take a look...http://support.adl.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=4901.0

Synagogue Safety

Hate crimes are no longer carried out by a few ignorant teens with spray paint. Those who target synagogues and other Jewish facilities are now more cunning, more calculated and much more dangerous.
Not only have bomb threats become more prevalent, but today congregation members are at risk.....

A plug for Ray Hanania on ynetnews

2005-09-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

Well here is an excerpt from his latest column

Killers as 'martyrs'

Already Palestinians have forsaken that
fundamental moral code in dealing with the issue of suicide bombing. Regardless
of the pain and suffering inflicted by Israel upon Palestinians, suicide
bombings remain an immoral, unjustified heinous act of
murder.

Suicide bombings should be denounced without hesitation.
Instead, many Palestinians cheer the suicide murderers on as “martyrs,” a
distortion of the term both from a political and a religious standpoint, or they
sit back and excuse the suicide bombings, probably the most cowardly stance of
all by Palestinians.

Only a few voices denounce suicide bombings
for what they are.The destruction of the Jewish synagogues adds more Palestinian
sin to the tragedy.

No difference between Jews,
Zionism

Palestinians have argued from the beginning that they are
not against Jews, but against Zionism.
Yet, when the opportunity came to
distinguish between Jews and Zionism, Palestinians chose to treat them both the
same.

Palestinians in Gaza enraged by the 38 years of Israel’s
oppressive occupation there rampaged and burned down many if not all of the
synagogues.

It is a disgusting thought. It has put lie to the
Palestinian claim that they do not hate Jews. It is an outright act of
anti-Semitism and Palestinian leaders should have done more to protect those
synagogues which were less symbols of the settler fanatics, but rather symbols
of a religion that is a sibling to Islam and Arab Christianity.

Normally its a great read for the humor, he is a comedian by trade, but it is also intresting to get a palestinian view on things, even if his view unfortinitly isn't mainstream.

links to his columns
http://www.ynetnews.com/headlines/1,7340,L-3449,00.html

Key words and phrases when thinknig of the Disengagement

2005-09-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

Remember we are not Giving Back land, we are Giving Away land.
Now I just looked up some Golda Meir Quotes so here they are in realtion to that, although you can find thousands of quotes to the same effect
"How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to."—Golda Meir

Are we really giving back land to "Palestinians"? NO! they are a mix of arabs, considering they are in Gaza many are probibly egyptian

"There were no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either southern Syria before the First World War, and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist." - Golda Meir

This is NOT "Land for Peace"; This is also NOT "Land as a reward for terror"; This is NOT "Land for free"; and certainly NOT "Land becuase we are wimps and you chased us out" I will get back to you when I come up with somethign good to call it. Right now I am just getting tired of all the people saying that "ok, maybe I could accept land for peace halachikally and politically, but this is just giveing in to terror for no reason." That is not looking beyond what is happening at the very tip of the surface.

Reason #3 I support the disengagement

2005-09-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

You know what? The Palestinians are people, yes (what you think this is some chidush, suprising?) they really are.

That means that they have a right to self determination. Not to say that it will happen quickly, but maybe if we give them some resopnsiblity they will start taking some responsibilty. YHes right now we still provide utilities and other infostructure, but in later steps hopefully we won't. Then they will have to spend time building roads and fixing pipes without haveing the oppertunity to avail themselves of the excuse that its Israel's fualt that improvements aren't taking place. We will hopefully see the truth of Golda Meir's statement "Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us." This can only happen when they start realizing that they must care for thier children, this is a step in the right direction. Its intresting how Sharansky seems to follow in her footsteps in saying that democracy in a free society promotes self intrest which equals peace.

Reason #2 I support the Disengagement

2005-09-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

From the same artlice as the above post

"What happened to Moussa Arafat is quite a common event in the
[Palestinian's] political reality," said Sneh. "This is their problem and
they should take care of it."

Now when we say that we really mean it. Let them deal with thier problems with out us haveing to engage in thier insane intertribal blood feuds.

Reason #1 I support the disengagement

2005-09-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well Here is a quote right out of the Jerusalem Post

The army should respond to terrorism with a heavier hand following Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. - Gen. Dan Halutz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday.
"The chief of Staff [Halutz] said very clearly, and very accurately, that the IDF has a broad spectrum of military responses to terrorism," said former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh. "Which of these means will be elected in the future in response to Palestinian fire is a decision that will have to be taken at that given moment."
In response to fears that Palestinians mortars were within striking distance of several major Israeli cities, Halutz answered, "We too have mortars," and reportedly told the committee that the army would not hesitate to use the arsenal of weaponry at their disposal.
MK Ehud Yatom added that once every soldier had left Gaza, it was likely that the IDF would begin instituting harsher responses towards hostile fire.

Katrina

2005-09-05T17:42:00.000-07:00

So we now know what would happen if a Catastrophic Natrual Disaster were to strike a "modern" city, and what we see is not pretty. This wasn't New York, London or Paris, but even in this small metropolis the scenes of devastation and anarchy can be viewed as just a small hint of what could happen in a larger scale. Now do you want to pause and think what an atomic weapon might do to a city like New York. Thats right, neither do I.

Its now already very clear, that this was a disaster that mainly killed the lower class. What did the governments expect those with out easy access to transportation out of the city to do? They weren't even able to evacuate them after the fact. Hopefully that is one thing we might learn from this. Right now I don't want to dwell on the mistakes and blame game aspect, right now the focus should be on the people and the tradgedy. The Cops and civilians out on the street who were being shot at, yet went out to save lives. One can not blame the hundreds of police that handed in their badges after the situation turned to anarchy, and you really feel the pain of those who officers who committed suicide.

On the Subject of anarchy
Pirkei Avot:
ג,ב רבי חנניה סגן הכוהנים אומר, הוי מתפלל בשלומה של מלכות--שאלמלא מוראה, איש את ריעהו חיים בלעו
so in case you never fully appreciated how important a government is, we can see what America would turn into with out a government, a situation which brings imagery of the flood generation of Noah.

May we see the quick reconnection of Secular and Religous Jews in ISrael and greater peace bewteen all of Humankind

In the News (ME!)

2005-08-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well without getting into all of the details of what my position really is and on what basis it stands, I will just let Y'all know that I was in the media. Now it may seem like I was just in a few places, but thats only becuase I refused to speak and in fact ran away from reporters and cameras especailly after some people guilt tripped me and it does feel kind of wrong to subvert the media in such a way that one person get more coverage than a whole group, its especailly hard when people are angry at you and you feel like crying for collective pain, anyway here are some of the links:

http://www.wnbc.com/news/4862063/detail.html
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=11268
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124158937185
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/nyc-protest0816,0,3725541.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-gaza0817,0,7000979.story?coll=nyc-topheadlines-left
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/nyc-protest0816,0,6893138.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
http://wcbstv.com/newyorkwire/NY--GazaPullout-NY-on/resources_news_html
http://www.silive.com/newsflash/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1124220630126810.xml&storylist=simetro
http://www.disciplesworld.com/newsArticle.html?wsnID=7606

That should Just go to teach you how strong the voice of every single person is, even someone (like me in this case) who isn't that intrested in having thier voice heard

Moving in to Dorms in 6 day

2005-08-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

So Uni is about to start for me in just about 5 days.
Meanwhile I have been down in Florida doing underwater archeological research
Links:
http://www.pastfoundation.org/Slobodna2005/
http://www.pastfoundation.org/Slobodna2005/NightDive.htm
http://www.pastfoundation.org/Slobodna2005/DockPanorama.htm
http://www.pastfoundation.org/Slobodna2005/Crew.htm

I also have some snapfish pictures up, email me if you want to see, some of them are pretty cool

I think this post speaks for itself

2005-07-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

Abba is coming in

2005-07-06T01:09:00.000-07:00

So my father is coming in on Thursday. For now I have plans to try to meet up with an aussie friend from melbourne, and tommorow I am seeing a chabbad bochur i know from Sydney at 770 eastern parkway. The 12 mile bike ride from riverdale to new rochelle isn't actually that bad. July 4th is an amazing experiance that people outside of the US of A are sadly missing out on. Fireworks were absolutly amazing and it was great to have someone to enjoy it with.

and on that note(no, actually this is random) don't do nargila!
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3108430,00.html

in riverdale

2005-07-04T02:51:00.000-07:00

I am at keren's house, with some of her friends. Watching fun movies. So life is good, I still need to figure out exactly what I am doing with my summer ist 3am so have a good day all

In allentwon,PA

2005-06-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

so Allentown, a nice umm "city" if you want to call it that, I guess it has some aparment buildings and a business district but what really matter are that my grandparents live here and dorney park is 3 miles away from them. So I went there today with 8 of my little cousins, it was like a camp almost having 8 little kids wanting to do differnt rides and this and that and who is fighting with who. Hmmm, maybe i should seek employment there.

So here is the employment scene:
Lots of camps that seem to mabye want someone
JCC in allentown camp, but I am not a lifeguard, but I guess if they are willing to give me the neccasary test
Working for Zev selling things on ebay
Volunteering at AMCHA
walk up and down stores looking for a vacany

anyone else have any ideas, Rel's wasn't bad win the lottery and then take up time by voluteering as I feel like it

anyone with ideas email me, and in general email me, I wonder if its true or not but everytime I say email me becuase I won't email you i get two more emails, and there are still a few people who on MSN/AIM tell me that i have to email them(you know who you are), well they will see who wins this battle(me)

In riverdale, byebye latin

2005-06-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

So lots has happened in the past few days... I stopped doing the latin thing, and need to return the books.
I have seen lots of cousins on both sides of the family at varius parties and smachot, and this shababt i will be in monsey for my cousins bar mitzvah where i will be baal koreh at mincha so I have to learn chukat.
In terms of what now, well I have to find something to do this summer, anyone got any ideas? if you do email me , and if you don't also drop me a line at seraphya *@* gmail.com

I am trying to figure out what to do today, I mean I could go down to allentown with yedidya's family who is going to levitown so I could go to dorney park tommorow but I don't know how that would really work.

ok, time to enjoy the beutiful day hashem has given us

A turn for the worse...

2005-06-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

Well besides feeling like I know no Latin morphology even the stuff I have known since Bronx Science, The Palestinian Authority doesn't seem to be doing any better. Its amazing how the world is praising the PA for "accepting" Israel's withdrawl, thats like being praised for accepting a free million dollars, land for free!! I guess some might say that this is a positive sign that shows that maybe the PA is more willing to talk to israel, but that is just silly, they were only holding out on agreeing so they could look better when they did even while officially spreading these lies

Jpost account of the lies

Ynet news... WOW we are selling drinks with artifical sweeteners, what a horrible international crime!, maybe if we put sugar in, we would be blamed for trying to start an obesiety epidemic

What I want to know is why do such comments by a member of the PA cabinet not get reported in the MSM!!!! how can only a few israeli website, and one or two small time papers take notice. Well that is if you don't take into account the Xinhua Article which actually took the allegations sersiusly!

I want peace and I support the disegagment (shock and horror to some)

2005-06-19T03:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, I do think that a peace in eretz yisrael for midinat yisrael is not just about a better life for Am Yisrael but is also important for the the the arabs who are also people. Yes it may seem obvius to most , but for some the arabs becuase thier leaders have taken up on antisemitism no longer see the other people in eretz yisrael and around the midddle east for what they are, people. They also deserve peace and a better life and worry more about which job opptertunity thier son will take and not have to worry about if thier child will become a terrorist and have to praise them lest they be branded a traiotor.

And now that that is settled, we also have to realized that these people have to live somewhere, sorry but they aren't going back to thier respective arab homelands. So they need a state, but not only that, once they have a state they will have to actually be responsible for themselves and their actions, they will have to stop thier silly sotries like that israel tries to posion them like the wells of europe. They will have to stop thier terrorists and actually try to create order, or maybe the world will actually realize that its time for sanctions becuase they are no longer israel's responsiblity.

That brings me to the disengagement, we can't leave the IDF in a foriegn soverign nation, just becuase Syria does it doesn't mean its right. So why does it mean we have to remove the setllers, let them take assylum status with the PA government, or let the PA commit ethich cleansing, I don't think thay will anymore than israel will "transfer" arabs out of israel, but at least Jews won't have to do this, and Israel can leave them there just like the million arabs that now live in Israel. If the PLO arabs really want peaceful coexistance then tehy shouldn't need a judenrien country, although i have been saying this for years and years finnaly the MSM is picking up on it

Are settlements an obstacle to peace?
If the 1.3 million Israeli Arabs are indeed a model of peaceful coexistence, why are the 250,000 Jews living in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and the Golan Heights an obstacle to peace?

If the uprooting of Arab communities within the Green Line constitutes a blatant human rights violation, why is the uprooting of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza viewed as a contribution to peace?

The fact we do not even consider a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria under Palestinian overeignty reflects Palestinian intentions, which are the genuine obstacle to peace.
The Oslo Accords do not place limitations on settlement activity. According to Israeli law, Arabs must not be expelled and private Arab land must not be expropriated for the purpose of establishing settlements.
The settlements as a test of Palestinian aspirations for peace
The hope for peace on the one hand, and the intention to uproot Jewish or Arab communities on the other hand, are at polar opposites. If the Palestinians cannot swallow the presence of 250,000 Jews, how do they define “peaceful coexistence?” Can we really mention lasting peace and “Judenrein” (an area free of Jews) in the same breath? The malicious opposition to a Jewish presence in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan Heights is the manifestation of official, long term, deeply entrenched ideology and strategy, which constitute the root of the conflict.
The claim that settlements are on obstacle to peace flies in the face of reality, which makes
clear that only a Palestinian recognition of the settlements’ legitimacy would demonstrate a genuine desire for a viable peace settlement.
nota bene, I disagree with some of the other conclusion in this link

When its not 3am I will go into detail why giving a right of return for "refugees" might be the pancea for Israel

Friday Latin (week 2)

2005-06-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

So now I know every verb forum in every conjugation and every noun in every case and declension. But, I don't really know them, and other people do. Having a sinus headache isn't helping much either. I have about a 50/50 chance of passing mondays test if I spend every second learning for latin and then some. Its just too much, it feals like your head is going to explode from being stuffed. And still the Paraphrastics and infinitive forms I missed on shavuot are still huanting me.

On the happier side of things, I am going to see my grandmother in Monsey for shabbat which will be fun and then my cousin's Bat Mitzvah on sunday, ok maybe i will take a 2 hour break from studying, but only those two hours besides eating sleeping and davening, ok blogging and emailing but not much.

And to end off on a little political comment, don't you think its crazy when "peace protests" are used as a forum to attack people and property and to generaly be violent?

Shabbat Shalom

Why do we take this from them??

2005-06-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

Palestinian foreign minister Nasser al-Qidwa said Saturday, June 11, that disarming armed organizations is not on the table because they are legal as long as “the occupation” exists

- Debka

You know that might be a problem? Becuase the PA very clearly numerous times, infactI think it has been in every deal since Oslo, but certainly the whole point of the road map, and the hand shake with Abbas was that the terrorists groups would be dismantled. No, it doesn't mean that they would ask them to stop and get these false temporary cease fires, it means taking thier weapons away. It was one thing when the PA at least made statements that weere clearly against the violence and when they couldn't stop terrorists from firing rockets or didn't arrest terrorits with rockets , or sometimes freed them, but at least they said they were trying and came out with real nice statements.

But now this! It doesn't really matter if they are "legal"(which is a strange word in international law), they signed agreements that they would dismantle them. Killing civilians is clearly illegal as opposed to settlements which are pretty much legal. If israel agreed to dismantle every setllement and didn't do it, there would be a problem, but would the world stand and watch as Israel made official statements hat they instead decided that building settlements is legal and should continue until the palestinians decided to move to Jordan, Egypt and Syria?

Don't even get me started on how silly it is to call the settlements obstructions to peace, why do they obsruct? becuase the palestinians say so. It makes them angry and you can't sit around and sicuss borders if everything isn't perfect for them, so first israel has to stop settlements and then we can think about stopping terrorism, but maybe we won't. Setllemnts to not stop peace at all, sure in the end they might have to go(at least some of them) but they don't stop peace anymore than the antisemitic articles and cartoons in the PA official press. Lets say the palestinians decided to calm down and said ok we won't let the settlements bother us while trying to negotiate, we will calm down becuase when we talk we will find solutions. Becuase its not like the settlemnts are shooting and blowing people up and firing rockets they aren't attacking so if you calm down and take a dep breath you would be able to civily talk it over. Of corse Israel has to deal with being blown up and shot at, but I thihnk we can overcome this true obstacle to peace if we can get the palestinians to actually be truthfull first to themselves and then to us.

I really should have been studying, but what the Foriegn Minister said is completely antithetical to any chance of hope for a peace that would help both the Israeli people and the PLO arabs

Shavua tov, from Shavuot

2005-06-14T19:31:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone all over the world is haveing a nice time after tikkun leyil, whihc fro me didn't seem to be so much. I mean I did go through Pelegesh bgiva with the marcus-schwartz's, and then by myself Pirkie avot, and Maaseh ha'mirkava with yedidya and who ever happened to be wandering around. But I felt I got more out of listening to Rabbi Dov Wiess's divrei Torah about morarilty and troublesome parts of the torah which was a series that I heard mostly between mincha and maariv on all three nights. One thing I notice here is that, its not like sydney or another place where there are so few jews that a Jew on seeing another Jew will invite him/her over to thier house and give them anything including thier new suit as a dish towel, niether is it Israel where everyone is jewish and there is this general feeling of achdut, where everyone is "achi." Here in New York, one in about every six people is jewish, so for instance my latin class and the 5 people out of 30 who took the test to avoid shavuot and the other 15-20 that are Jewish. So here its like yah your jewish so what? there is no feeling of a specail connection because of how rare it is, and there is no connection based on the complete population being bound together.

More Later...

At yedidya's house in Riverdale for shavuot

2005-06-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

Wow there is so much to say, I am missing a month's worth of Latin for Shavuot, so yah thats just swell(hmm thats a word I think I have never used that word before)

So I am probibly going to go to Keren's house for some meals.

How did I end up at a carnivorous house for shavuot of all chagim?

Chag sameach

PS its my bday!

as per usual, at an internet cafe, this time on 36th and 5th Ave

2005-06-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

Well, Shavuot is upon us, and I am busy learning the 600+ vocab words we learned in the first 4 days of Latin, and the aproximatly 1200 differnt forms of verb and the 60 forms of nouns. I am taking the test today on Sunday, becuase would have been shavuot, by missing shavuot i am also missing the equivlent of a month of uni classes, so thats fun. I am now going to study with the Yehudim Datim which are 5 out of 30 of the class, we are meeting in a starbucks to study. Its intresting how also about 60% of the class is jewish even an israeli or two. So I am going off to study,
So Chag sameach to all, and to those in australia where it is already chag, I hope you had a wonderful Chag with much limud torah

BCLTVA

In New York finnaly

2005-06-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

I don't think most people know what jetlag trully is. When suddenly you find yourself on an airplane for 26 hours eating plain bread rolls and junk food, while stopped over at LA you are told by no less than 5 people(who should know, I mean like the person who checked me in in sydney, a flight attendent nad customs people etc) and that you don't have to get your bags, and then suddenly asking someone just in case and them telling me that I should have gotten them back before, and now I wouldn't be able to go back and get it, and no one really wanted to bring it to me, so I had to get delayed by two hours. oh, was I complainnig? no becuase I actually didn't mind to much except that the plane was so dry that my lips and nose bled and my eyes were cracking. No, it was actually pretty cool, thanks to everyone who wrote me plane letters and Doron, that was an awesome dvar torah I really need to talk to you about some of the intresting issues it brought up, y'all should learn some torah from Doron. oh, and I wasn't complaining, I am just warning everyone else, NEVER to complain to me unless of course you chas vechalila have a worse experiance, bli ayin hara.

But, now I am staying with relatives in New Rocjelle, which is nice finnaly seeing all my family and all, anyway I have to study for this meshuga test tommorow so...

PEOPLE!! please write to me, I really want to talk to everyone, but I have this thing where I don't send emails to people except as replies, so please take this as your personal invitation to e-mail me.

If you don't know my address its Seraphya **israelrules**@***israelrules** Gmail.com (ignore the stuff in the middle, its to stop my email address from being harvested to send spam to)

HaShem Imachem
Chag Sameach

my phone number

2005-06-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

for anyone wishing to call me my number is

610 349 8557 in america and its Verizon

and if your out of america the country code is easy its 1

back in australia (not home)

2005-02-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

I have returned to Sydney and to school, yet despite how beutiful this place is, it doesn't have that feeling of home. next year in Israel! actually maybe not, my next year seems to be destined to be for YU, if I ever finish these annoying application essays!
its really amazing how nice a broadband internet connection is. I don't know how i ever lived with out it. If you don't have broadband, now is time to switch.
ok, now to the current happenings,
BOOK RECOMENDATION: "The Case For Democracy" , by Natan Sharansky and if you didn't read his other book "Fear No Evil" this is also a great time to read them. Sharansky was a soviet refusnik, who tried to get out of Russia to make aliyah but was thrown into the russian prisson system for almost a decade, he is now an MK(chaver kenneset) in Israel. "Fear No Evil" is the story of his journey from a assimilated Jew in Russia to an Israel through all the trials he faced. "The Case For Democracy" is also a good book for anyone, it takes out the normal political stereotypes of Right vs Left, and shows a way of trully trying to make this World a better place.

Whats happening with the Israel?
first they decide not to accept degrees from YU, guess why? becuase YU lets you learn in israel, talk about self hatred
They are going to call the plan to remove jews from Gaza "shevet achim" based hinei matov umanim shevet achim gam yachad, sounds great doesn't it lets call a plan to violently remove our brothers from thier homes "brothers dwelling in peace", well that was even after the other stupid name which was taken from Kel Maale rachamim, yah sure name a mission after the prayer for the dead thats like asking for something bad to happen. Don't get me wrong I am still not sure if the hitnaklut(disengagement) is a bad or good thing, but I mean come on, your pushing the envelope way to hard with these names
and number three, They are going to disband the Hesder units, oh and they didn't consult with the yishivot and they claim the timing has nothing to do with dears of rebellion, come on if your going to do something mean at least me honest about it.

anyway its time for me to raise some money for Israel, JNF ALL THE WAY!!! green sunday

kol tuv

now for a real post from hawaii

2005-01-24T22:51:00.000-08:00

While on the plane to Hawaii, I figure what better time to catch up on my thoughts. Right now I am listening to Keren’s cool Israeli song mix, it turns out music can be a great thing, who would’ve guessed. They had this contest on who could guess the time to the second when we would be half way on the trip from chigago to Honolulu, they gave us a few details like average speed, headwinds, distance, take off time etc, so I used the calculator on the computer to try to figure it out, but then I realized I didn’t know how headwinds and tailwinds worked, and anyway most of the figure they gave us wouldn’t hold up, so I came up with a number and then added ten minutes and ten seconds, I still probably underestimated. Hopefully, I didn’t there were some pretty cool prizes, maybe I will win one(yah right!). Its weird in the air you feel like you are in a completely different universe, especially with the windows down.. it’s a cool feeling, but yet so draining, when I did get a chance to look out a window it was absolutely amazing, most of the country is covered in snow from the citys to the plains to the mountains, but now we are over the water. I just tried learning some gemara brachot, it didn’t work at all, maybe my mind is distracted and with the lack of sleep but I couldn’t read. Unfortunitly I accidently left my Tanach on the shelf in our house, but I have one of those cool artscroll mini linear tehilim books, that’s probably easier to learn on an airplane wit turbulence than a travel size gemara. I really should do my homework but now I am running out of computer battery life so maybe I will read it over again and formulate a plan, I really should have finished it already. Its amazing how crazy people are about idan reichal or however you spell his name, we ave the cd in Sydney. Suddenly at bnei camp everyone is talking about it then I get into riverdale and everyone is trying to give me his music and even yedidya owns a copy of the full cd. It feels so removed from reality up here in an airplane, I wonder what it would be like to be in an airplane for a whole week, besides everyone going psychotic of course, well who knows with the new airbus380 and the new boing 7E7 maybe this perpetual misery of economy class will get better. But does it really matter? Once I get to Israel why do I need to fly anymore? I’ll be one of those people living in Israel that people visit, maybe one time I would go back to Sydney or new york, but except for shlichut why leave? If you didn’t want to make aliyah beforehand you will after watching the videos on nefesh b’nefesh’s website. I pity my poor kids, they won’t be make aliyah, that’s the one annoying thing about aliyah you can only do it once!

Somehow this will get to the internet someday from my laptop

Until then
Peace
Nahshon Seraphya Tzvi Berrin

Well now it got to the blog by means of a usb onto a computer at an internet café. And well I didn’t win the competion, I was off by 20 minutes, I made a mistake with the headwind/tailwind part, to think I would have gotten it by 4 seconds off while the closest winner was 45 seconds off, oh well. Now its pooring outside but even at night it still feels boiling because its 85 degrees farenhight / 45 degrees celcius warmer here than in new york. I just got some fruit for tu b’shvat, its some pretty strange stuff. I am too young to get Israeli wine and they don’t have kosher grape juice so no seder for me it looks like, well maybe I’ll buy some nuts and then do it without the arba kosot. Anyway, I got to get some sleep for my dives tomorrow so
Goodbye, Good luck and have wonderful lives
Seraphya!

in HAWAII

2005-01-24T20:50:00.000-08:00

well right now I am in the hotel I am staying at, a REALLY nice place called the Ala Moana. and right now I am near the check in desk where they have a few computers set up with the internet. Which reminds me I need to look to see if there are any free or pay hotspots becuase this internet is expensive at 15 cents a min which transilates into $9 an hour(yes Hawaii is part of america) so I amm waikiki on the Island of o'ahu and I learned that its supposed to be pronounces hawvaie like you would if you had an east european accent. Tommorow I am going scuba diving at 7am and then i just booked a whale boat tour at 3pm. I am wondering what to do the next day, becuase I can't do two dives in the morning with flying but I could do one, but it wouldn't really be worth it. I am going to try to see about a nature hike, the problem is that they are little easy sissy ones, even the ones that call themselves moderate they mean you walk for about an hour, can you say BORING?? anyway I also want to visit pearl harbor. Its wierd to try to get around yourself, especailly when you are staying at a hotel which asumes you have money to throw away while you are actually working with under $100 to spend, so they tell me to take a $8 bus to pearl harbor when there is ( i think) a $2 bus that goes there. ooh so much fun stufff to work out.

anyway i am about to run out of time again so I need to still look for hotspots so
see y'all l8r

seraphs

still in riverdale

2005-01-20T22:35:00.000-08:00

so a lot has gone on since I last posted but I will countinue from where I was up to...

I of corse run up to Oz and hug him and then we all get ready for a minyan with a bimah close to the mechitza until it starts raining so go inside and push around till we finnally find some space. I just couldn't get over the fact that I come to the kotel after not having had a chance in a week of being in Israel and suddenly out of nowhere pop all my madrichim and OZ! so then goes shacharit, a very nice one too, how could it not be? its the kotel! Oz of corse commented on how my back was better becuase he only saw me stretch it twice in tefillah not twenty times. We walk back and meet up with the girls and I get a dani from the makalet the one that if u turn right at the cardo and pass the pizza stores, the last one on the right. Oz gives me a lift in his car back to beit bnei while we catch up on everything. The Bus with all the mads who just got off the airplane a few hours back gets lost in yirushalim so during that time I have tons of french toast and the beit bnei manager and oz talk about how great I am, like I paid before my stay as opposed to some other people like on MTA who ran without paying (don't take me for that, I can't guarentee I heard right, well it certainly suprised me, but not that much) so I kinda just ate there until they were done which they stopped but Oz just loves complementing people and getting them into wrestling locks and then playing with them, a bit like stev. then he also bites, kinda like ezra he claims its a bnei thing. so after eating about one and half loaves of french toast and three plates of salad and cheese I finnally feel ready to go to maale adumim. one problem, I can't get in contact with them, and then another problem I didn't really feel like leaving the nice warm beit bnei with its high speed internet(which i wish i had right now). So in the end I head off to Oz's house which is right next to his work, where I already mentioned i used my laptop and there were tons of WiFi networks. Oz then takes me to his work but I don't go in becuase he is going to a meeting anyway. I am in rechavia so I am suppose to take certain number buses to alon shvut but i forget which is which and i see a bus pass by and he says no he is going to tzomet hagush, and i figure hey how far can that be even though oz just told me that I should wait for a bus to alon shvut becuase it was easier.

and again my father wants an email check, so i will be back

at home safe and happy in Riverdale...

2005-01-09T01:45:00.000-08:00

its a bit late at night here its already morning so I will be short. first my biggest complaint: I have been so accustomed to broadband whether through DSL or Cable, Wireless or LAN that now that we are reduced to a 56K modem through AOL on a computer that doesn't really work its actaully painfull. So, now I am in riverdale on motzei shabbat after a great and 'gevadilic shabbos' and we are in our own house, well accept for the fact is that we don't own it, its sold but we are living in it for the next few weeks. Well now its something like 6pm in australia so I am having a good time speaking to a few aussies(oi oi oi), speaking of which half the people in NY are really happy I don't speak like steve Irwin and the others are disappointed.

and yet again there is so much more to post like how I spent $4.29 (A$6) for about 150 ml of coca-cola or about the brazilian econimst who I explained a collegues paper to him based on a few weeks of Mr. Davies economics class and I still have to continue the post that I was in the middle of but right now my father wants to check his email. so for now
goodbye goodluck and have wonderful lives

at ilan Osrin's house

2005-01-05T01:04:00.000-08:00

I am in mirkaz ha'ir at OZ's house, using my own laptop I don't even know if I am piggybacking off him or someone else there are so many wireless networks in the area. I had such a hard time getting through to maale adumim that I figure I will just take the bus from rechavia to Gush Etzion. I met all the OzSem people and Barry and Ian and all these other people. I got to the kotel this morning and I just missed vatikin so as I am waiting around looking for a minyan to join I suddenly see someone leaning against the kotel with a BASC(Bnei Akiva summer Camp 'o4) hat on his head, I walk up and its michael by himself leaning against the wall as soon as he finished his short tifilah he turns around and I am right behind him, I bet it gave him a shock. Suddenly behind me all the OzSem people and Oz are coming so I run up to OZ.....To be continued

back in beit bnei akiva

2005-01-04T23:07:00.001-08:00

SO I am back here at beit bnei its only 10:00. Since I last blogged I have been all over the place. From the central bus station I got on the bus to Ashkelon and told the bus driver very clearly to tell me when we were at ein tzurim and I told him again later because I was worried we were getting close becuase I was carrying around a JNF map of Israel with me. So, of course he doesn't tell me and its hard to see around so I didn't notice until we were already in Ashkelon that I stayed on too long. So I just wait until we get to the tachana mirkzit in Ashkelon and then I stay back on the bus to talk to the bus driver who is like what ae you doing here its the last stop. So I tell him I was trying to get to ein tzurim, no comment on his part he is like take this bus number. It was fine in the end I guess because in ashkelon I got some food to eat and the bus came almost right away. However when I get on the bus the diver is like where is ein tzurim (BAD SIGN) but I knew it was the right bus because I called ein tzurim and I asked infomation, so he looks at this list he has of places and can't figure out the fare so someone suggests how much he should charge me, I hand him 50 shek and he gives me back change, I am a bit flustered so I don't get a chance to check my change until I sat down when I realized that he gave me 5 shekel less than he was supposed to, I was already worried about this guy and I had no proof so I figured its about $1.25, I'll just let it pass. SO then the exicting part, I get in a seat two rows behind the driver and in front of me a few people are sitting some soldiers some guy and some old lawyer who was prosecuting bunch of Yemenite youths(this guy seemed to know more than the rest of them about the route) and as we go on all of them are screaming at the bus diver "atzor, stop" because the bus driver apparently had no idea where the stops were on the side of the road and they were arguing about which road to take. after we got about 10 kilometer out of ashkelon I start asking the group in front of me where ein tzurim is, they tell me pretty much agreeing in two stops. After the first stop I press the buzzer and get my stuff together and stand up, when they all go no sorry we made a mistake and one of them says oh yah its the next one. next time I don't get up because I have a feeling these guys have no idea what they are doing, this goes on for a bout 5 stops until the bus gets crowded and a border policeman sits next to me so I definitely can't keep on bobbing up and down without knocking into his gun. this time I press the buzzer but don't get up warning the guy sitting next to me that its likely I am not getting off, which I don't. finally right after that there is a big highway sign that says EIN TZURIM and this time I get up and jokingly thank the guys and the bus driver an run up to the kibbutz which is about 750 meters up the side road and finally meet Jason, who later turns out to be Rav Jason, who is in charge of chutznikim. I get into the yeshiva and drop my stuff down and after a quick 5 min chat mincha starts with Rav Yoel Ben Nun(rosh yeshiva) singing the first few lines of Ashrei in some weird tune I have never heard before. After mincha I go into the Chutznik shiur on “methodology and terminology of the Talmud”, for such an impressive name it didn’t live up to it. It basically used masechet Shabbat to explain how the construct “yachol….talmud lomar….” Works in middrash halacha, basic stuff just think about the haggada “yachol mirosh chodesh Talmud lomar bayom hahu, ei bayom hahu yachol mi’beod yom talkmud lomar bavur zeh…beshah she yesh matz u’maror lifanecha”(or something like that, I don’t have a haggada in front of me) so meanwhile while the other Americans there are stuggling with the gemara which I have no touble with I am already thinking of the haggada while when he asks if anyone can think of a famous case of this I am the only one who remembers it, it was a bit disconcerting that they didn’t know but that type of shiur was exactly what I expected from ein tzurim. The next shiur was also a bit basic it had to do with in a variety of sources where the sons of great leaders of bnei yisrael go off the derech, most of it was about bnei shmuel who both judged from be’er sheva; here too it was strange I was the only one who could remember that the fat king that ehud killed was called eglon and that included the rabbi giving the shiur. Late things got better when I was with the Israelis in their shiurim, there was an amazing shiur comparing melachim, divrie hayamim and Isaiah and he even gave a handout showing that where one story is mentioned seemingly out of context in one of the books he showed us a manuscript were it wasn’t in the text and then was added in, in the margin going down the page, and then said something to the effect that Shadal was able to figure out that it was a late comment and only later was it proven true. It was very interesting comparing the treatment of the siege of sancherev and other events and looking at how they are treated very differently in each case painting a very different picture with completely different morals. Later there was a shiur by the rosh yeshiva on Rav Kook’s Orot which went all over the place from mathematical models to communism to Descartes to postmodernism, it was mainly about the idea that everyone is searching for spirituality whether they realize it or not. After maariv and dinner which was pretty filling and if they were complaing about dinner I want to know what a good meal there is like. After that I just talked to Rav Jason for a few hours about Ein tzurim and yishivo in general, he almost reminded me of the Oracle in the Matrix, he seems to know about tons of yishivot and tried to guess what I thought about things often very accurately especially as I gave him more information about myself, but then also wanting to do his job as an advocate of the yeshiva he didn’t want to highly ecommend other places. Then again he went on and on about making sure that each person goes to the yeshiva that’s right for them so in the end he gave me the contact details for maale adumim. SO then I go to a “tish” that I was to exhausted to appreciate , not the usual “tish” it reminded me of a “gush tish” because it was all learning with a handout the only difference being they had food and they opened and closed with a song. I find out they daven at 7:15 at yishivat ein tzurim, so I end up getting up at 5:30 to get to minyan with the kibbutz at 6 because Egged told me when I called them that I have to catch a 7:15 bus to ashkelon to make the 7:50 to beer sheva to make the 10:00 to the shatichim(otniel). So I end up eating breakfast at Rav Jason’s house, his wife made me grilled cheese, they offered to pay for my breakfast at the kibbutz but they were already driving me for a bit so I just ate with them. So his wife, chana, takes me a bit back up north to casdina which is a major junction for catching buses and as soon as I get there in 5 min I am on a bus to beer sheva. So there I am in beer sheva at 8:30 in the morning and then I find out that the bus realy only leaves at 10:30, so much for all that rushing to get there in time. So I go around and check out the malls in the area, there are like 6 of them and try to find internet, well most of the stores are closed early in the morning bus no, not one internet café! As I walk aound suddenly there is a swarm of Jews for Jesus, alarm bells go off in my head. WHAT, THEM, HERE??? I thought that kind of thing was illegal in Israel. So as I walk by the first pair of them I take a pamphlet and spit out my gum which I had been chewing for hours, see there is a good use for their fliers! Later I am so bored that I figure I will ask what are they doing here, they don’t want to confront me directly so one of their leaders tell me they are from America, and I was going to get confrontational about how dare they do this to Israel, but first I feel like knocking down their theology, which as usual with my luck it wasn’t even interesting, she couldn’t even answer what difference it made that messiah came if it didn’t make a difference, I am sure there are a billion answers but if she couldn’t even answer that it wasn’t worth my while and anyway a crowd started to form that was trying to keep people away from them and I probably wasn’t helping anyone by distracting that one woman while 40 of them go around as if nothing is happening. So now I still have an hour left so I go and buy the Da Vinci code in hebew, and search for a place that changes Australian dollars, I finally found one so now “lior’s $10” which she refused when I was going to pay for her parking at the airport is now ready to be given as tzedakah in the form of 33 shekel.
Now I get on the bus and stay aleret this time watching because I don’t want to miss my stop and anyway its intresting to pass though the yehuda and shomron area. I get off the bus in otniel and walk to the yeshiva punch in the code they gave me(its as bad as the suitcase code in spaceballs) and find the office as intruscted. I awit in the office and people are walking aound, some people who got off my bus are not chatting with someone on a compute and I am just standing their too exhausted and confused to do anything. Finally one of the people on my bus ask me if I am shvush checking out the yeshiva and suggests I go down stairs to the biet midrash and ask for the guy in charge of shuvshim. I do that and happen to ask the sgan shvushim and he get the head because he doesn’t realize I can speak Hebrew well, so the achrai shvushim comes says hello and says he will get one of the rabbis to speak with me, half way he finds out I speak Hebrew because I say that he I can speak to any rabbi and not just the American oleh rabbi and gets annoyed at me for speaking English. So then off he goes, I see he is mainly talking to fiends but finally half an hour later one of the rabbis comes up to me and I speak to him about what I know, I came off really badly because I was feeling so sick and jetlag that I was shaking and answering incoherently but it was ok because I think he got how I was feeling. After that I felt abandoned again(I almost think its intentional they want to see if you can figure out what’s happening) so I walk up to a few people talking and ask them what’s going on and chat with them for a bit. I really felt unwelcome when I fist arrived, but they saw how I was and offered me a bed during afternoon break for me to sleep in and from then on I got along with everyone, the thee Americans and the other assorted Israelis. Unfortunately I only got attend the last 20 min of a shiu tanach and then a shiur klali right before I left at 8pm tonight, but the chevrutot were nice. It’s a good place, not many Americans but many of the Israelis speak English but are fine with talking to me in Hebrew because they are confident enough in there English that they aren’t tying to use me to lean English. I call egged and then have one of the American Israelis to show me his bus timetable and I catch and 8 o’clock bus to kiryat arbah and get there at 8:20 where I would have to wait for40 min, however I get lucky and the 8:15 is running late, o I get into yirushalim at around 9 and get off in mirkaz hair, now that I think about it I should have looked for a wireless intrenet connection. I take the 4Aleph down to emek and now I am here at beit bnei debating wether I should try to find out where the “minyan factory” shtieblach is or wether to say maariv b’yichudut. Right now I am leaning to davening here because I don’t feel up to a long walk and I want to get up tomorrow for vaatikin at the KOTEL!!!

L’hitraot

central bus station - yirushalim

2005-01-03T12:21:00.000-08:00

I am in the central bus station in yirushalim at a net cafe inside, its too bad they don't do wireless here anymore, I still have to check what kind of coverage i get in mirkaz ha'ir. I am about to catch ht bus in 5 min so I got to be quick. After taking a wrong bus to the Tachana mirkazit becuase the bus driver misinformed me and then missing my stop on the correc bus then walking a kilometer. Luckily I left my luggage at beit bnei so I only have a backback and my laptop with me. It was so cool here, I went into the shule and there were tons of sefarim, well no tikkun but ok. There were about 20-30 ppl in there all learning torah, in the middle of a bus terminal!! so I plopped my self down with a chumash did some shatim mikra chad targum and then learned my part of leining that I have to do for the Teen minyan at HIR this week(shevi I hope, "odcha mistolel"...) well I got to go catch my bus , but I am having an awesome time, I hope I catch otniel. I talked to Rafi on the phone so I know we will meet up wednsday night before I leave.....

shalom u'varacha

leaving to ein tzurim

2005-01-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

I am still at biet bnei and I decided to rent out the room till I leave so that I can keep my stuff there and crash if neccasary. I am leaving to ein tzurim on the 11 o'clock on bus 437, at least I hope thats right. I got a contact number for otniel which is right but doesn't seem to be working, I guess I will try some more. Right now I figure I will stay the night at ein tzurim and then try to find the most direct troute to otniel and then on teusday night take the 6:30 bus from otniel to yirushalim. Right now it seems that I won't really need tramps but if things go wrong which they always do I will probibly be hitchiking, which is very safe becuase you leave from a gated community where everyone knows eachother, so its not even a complete stranger. well actually last night while waiting ages for the bus to yirushalim I almost got a tramp but the guy was only going to shadmot mechola so even if it helped me get a cheeper ticket to jerusalem it just wasn't worth it and I didn't want to impose on him to much. I stilll need to see my cousin rafi, which is why I am trying to be in yirushalim for all day wednsday. Maybe I will see Gush and Hakotel or maybe not. I also need to catch up with the netivot people and OZsem people and Ian and Barry segel looks like I will have a busy wedsnday. Its too bad that I missed josh wiseman in yirushalim but yedida is still here, if it weren't for the crazy bus system here I would have had a chance to see josh, oh well. I also need to buy some books like a new tikkun and I need to learn shvi vaera, yikes so much to do so little time! well on that note I better get going so I can catch my bus

hashem imachem

at biet bnei akiva

2005-01-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

I am in yirushalim, I have absolutly no idea where I am in relation to anything, its only 8:22 pm maybe I will go around town and get my bearings. hopefully tommorow I am off to gush and hakotel, If I can get them organized. Anyway I am exuasted and in need of food and drink, maybe I will call Oz and see how he is. It was strange coming in the guy at the desk rephael had no idea about me and I was worried I would have to sleep on the street but now things seem to be working. catch y'all later

2005-01-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

missing all you guys already. SHEVET ELAD!!

jetlagged at midday

2005-01-02T03:58:00.000-08:00

its 2 o'clock and mincha is in an hour. Maale Gilboa is an intresting place and I like it, very pluralistic and accepting with a big spectrum of views. Its wierd though out of a yishiva of 120 there were only about 30 people at shacharit and even now there are only about 70 people in the beit midrash, they say its not usually like this, yet I get the feeling that at this place you have to create the experiance for yourself. I was talking with Eitan Rubenstien last night about the place and he said the closest thing that he has heard to a pro "flipping out" shiur was last week, when he first said it I was a bit suprised that it was going on here but when he said that it was the strongest "flipping out" advice it seemed almost to bland. Tonight I will be heading off to beit bnei akiva at 32 nikanor st. in katamon, I just have to make the bus to yirushalim which leaves latest at around 7:30. anyway I better be getting some rest before mincha .... az l'hitraot

in yishivat maale gilboa

2005-01-01T14:22:00.000-08:00

I am in the yishiva after a long journey. Eitan a kollelnik from DC is really nice and put Gilboa in perspective in comparisson to Gush. its 12:25 AM and I am piggybacking on the DSL wireless that the American shana Alephs set up. Its a very laid back place and everyone is nice here. getting here was hard though. I hade to miss saying goodbye to all the netivot people, well I didn't have to but I thought I would try to catch the 7:15 to afula which I missed and instead for an hour this 18-year-old Israeli with a criminal record was waiting for me at the bus stop trying to get his hands on my money, in the end I lent him my telacard, I figured it wold get him away and the absolute worst that could happen is that he will make a long call to a mobile and waste 5 shek, he wasn't all that bad though he wanted to go into Tzahal and is working with the justice system for rehabilitation to try to get into a combat unit. so from tzomet raanana with all my loguage I get to afula and from there I wait half an hour, buy some random thing for dinner, Israel is great (almost) everything is kosher and get the 412 to tzomet haetz where suddenly it feels like melbourne, its cold lukily I only have to wait 2 min for a tramp up the mountain. Its finnally cold, on friday in raanana i was wearing a tshirt and it felt warm i think it ws 30 degrees out in the winter! I still don't know about otniel, hakotel, gush and ein tzurim but I am sure the people here will help me and tommorow night is beit bnei akiva in katamon. anway its 12:34 am and shacharit is at 6:45 so i best get going. my mobile number is +972525877249 its on cellcom, but I still check my SMS on +61404738718 oh yah and I love my new Gmail account with a full gig of space its seraphya*gmail.com (replace the * with @, its to avoid the automatic spam email harvesters)

shavua tov, m'eretz YISRAEL!!!!

in bangkok on the way to Israel

2004-12-30T08:58:00.000-08:00

I am in bangkok, and we are finnally about to board. Its the coolest there is high speed wireless internet for only 250 baht an hour. I am about to use up the card and run out of battery so I will make this quick. I figure I'll get a sim card in israel for my phone, and אמא's phone is working so thats good. I am on flight LY 082/ TG4593 things seem to be going well. I met mark the mad from melbourne in bangkok he came on a different flight. It was a long annoying flight here, both meals being meat. uh oh times out