Holy Exposures

Bet Shemesh Train Minyan

Orthodox Jews will do just about anything to pray on time and with a quorum of at least ten other Jews (minyan).

Here’s a great photo gallery and review (in Hebrew) of the now ‘famous’ train minyan that runs weekday mornings from Bet Shemesh to Tel Aviv. They even have their own Torah and Ark (Aron Kodesh). How many of the faces do you recognize? Great photos.

The purpose of this minyan is to enable Ramat Bet Shemesh and Bet Shemesh residents who work in Tel Aviv to have Shacharit with a minyan and get to work on time in Tel Aviv. The train ride is about 45 minutes, so they have to get started immediately on days that the Torah is read!

An Israeli doctor from Ashkelon confronts Judge Goldstone at a UN Council meeting with riveting testimony on how his report completely ignored the Israeli casualties and Arab terror that led up to the Gaza Incursion.

Goldstone’s one-sided anti-semitic report dedicates two pages out of a 500 HUNDRED page report to deal with the 8 year barrage of rocket attacks on Israeli towns by Gazan missiles.

Hopefully, with more testimonies like from this courageous woman will help bring out Dr. Goldstone for what he is, a traitor to the Jewish people, and a colossal anti-semite from the likes of the authors of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

News Flash: Ramat Bet Shemesh Aleph Vacant Lot Sold for 8 Million NIS.

Sources tell me that the empty lot on Nahal Dolev, Ramat Bet Shemesh, just opposite Ramat Shalom and the Merkazi Park was sold to a Haredi developer for 8 Million NIS. It is not clear yet what that developer intends to do with this land.

That land (several dunams by my estimate) has been vacant for over 10 years, however it is zoned for community development, and was slated to have an old-age home built there.

If anyone has more details, please let us know…

Near Misses & Tragedies

I’ve been noticing many near misses with young children, unattended or under-attended, who cross the street without having enough time to make

Illustration

it to the other side.  Many children also cross the street diagonally, which adds to the danger, since they are in the street longer.

Tonight, I saw two mothers pushing their strollers with small children by their side.  Two of the younger children in the group ran ahead and one of them was actually in the dark street, at an intersection, with cars flying by.  The mother didn’t even shout out – since she didn’t notice.   I yelled for the child to go back on the sidewalk (from a distance of 100 meters away).  The mother was still oblivious, engrossed in conversation with her friend.

The other night, I saw a child, possibly 10 yrs old, playing ‘chicken’ with a bus.  He crossed the street slowly, and saw the bus was coming.  Instead of hurrying up to the other side, he slowly walked to require the bus to either slow down or swerve.  I know the kid was doing this on purpose, since I saw the smirk on his face as he crossed.  The bus drivers, for their part, are always in a rush to make their schedules.  Yes, they should be more careful.  But we cannot rely on them.  We must train our children to be defensive.

We also cannot rely on miracles.  Yes, Hashem (G-d) watches over us, even the foolish amongst us, but we cannot rely on His mercies to extricate our children from these constant dangers!  I don’t have to list here the statistics of children (and adult) pedestrians who have been killed in Israel in the past decade for us to know that this is a real issue.

Advice For Every Family
1. Review with your children the safety rules for  crossing the road.  Look both ways, look again, cross only at a crosswalk, cross with adults, etc…

2. Experts recommend for children 8 years old and younger to be crossed only by an adult.

3. Never, ever, cross diagonally.

4. If you see a bus or car coming, do not assume they will stop for you.  If you are already in the crosswalk and a bus is coming, run or walk very quickly to the other side of the street.

5. Tell your kids you love them and want them to come home safely.  Explain to them they’ve been given a big responsibility and should always be very careful.

Let’s hope for a safe future for us all.

I am no security expert, but I am a relatively experienced international flyer.  I can tell you this, the new travel restrictions on flights to and from the USA make me very uninterested in flying.  I suppose that’s what the Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations are hoping for as much as their more dastardly plans.

New travel restrictions placed on flights to the USA include:

1. First and last hour of flight, you must remain in your seat, legs open, no blanket, no PDA/ipod, no going to washroom, no opening the overhead compartment.

2. No GPS in flight map system so you can’t see on a map where the plane is on your journey.  Especially miserable for a 12+ hour flight.

3. No internet

4. For systems (like JetBlue) where the GPS is intertwined with the entertainment system, there will be no TV the entire flight.  How about that?

On a flight from Tel Aviv to New York, you can expect to sit for 12 hours with your hands on your lap, (legs open), no blanket, no tv, no in flight maps, and holding it in, lest you dare make a dash for the toilets.  I’m wondering if this is any better than the sea voyages our grandparents endured in a bygone era?

Silly question…what if the flight is from Hong Kong to New Jersey, and the last four hours of the filght are over the United States, will passengers be required to remain in their seats the entire time?  Why is TSA security so reactionary?  There has to be a better way!

Here’s the Tefila Times for Tishrei to Nissan 5770 for the Bet Knesset Hamerkazi (Ashkenazi) in Ramat Bet Shemesh.

להלן זמני תפילה תשרי-ניסן  תש”ע

Zemanay Tefila 5770 זמני תפילה תש”ע

Did you ever notice that in most places in Israel there are young Israeli soldiers.  On the busses, in the malls, in the banks, at the restaraunts, and at the makolet.  Every place you go there are soldiers.  That’s expected since most men are conscripted to mandatory service in the army at 18 for three years.

But that’s not the case in Ramat Bet Shemesh.  Here, you can look from end to end, go to every store, every street, every bus, and you won’t find any soldiers.  No soldiers in Ramat Bet Shemesh…

HolyExposures Note: Shalom Lerner is on the Bet Shemesh City Council, and was the ‘other’ (e.g. non haredi) candidate in last year’s mayoral elections .  This open letter sent by Shalom to both the Bet Shemesh and Ramat Bet Shemesh lists, in English, is presented in its entirety for your viewing pleasure.  I find it quite ironic that this vote was made on a day when Haredim were rioting in the streets in Ramat Bet Shemesh Bet.

Will Gimmel prove to further encircle the remaining non haredi elements in the Ramah?  It reminds me of the old Sesame Street gag where the guy paints himself into a corner.  We’re told here to petition our city council for action. What is the action we are asking for?  What is the best scenario?  It seems that in any case Ramat Bet Shemesh is going to have a very diminished national religious camp before long, and a non-existent secular population.

What do you think?

—–

From: Shalom Lerner
To: list at shemesh.co.il; rbs at cs.huji.ac.il
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:55:31 +0200
Subject: [RBS] City Council & Ramat Bet Shemesh Gimmel

I would like to clarify my view as to the importance of the decision of the
City Council regarding Ramat Bet Shemesh Gimmel.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Shiva House Guide – Making a Condolence Call to a Mourner’s House

Unfortunately, my father passed away this month.  For the first time, I was a mourner.

Little did I know there’s a whole sub-culture to the mourning process.  Here’s some advice from a recent mourner on what to do and what not to do at a Shiva house.

1. Don’t ask how old the deceased was or how did he die.  Get that info from someone else if you must know.
2. Don’t say “well at least he lived a long life”.
3. Do offer to tell nice stories about the deceased.
4. Do offer to help serve, take out garbage, etc…

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Simply a fantastic song, and a nice photos compilation video.  Really gets you in the spirit of Shabbat and living in Israel.  Listen to his soaring tenor voice pierce into the high notes and you’ll be ready for buying a full album.

Note: I am assuming since it’s been on Youtube for quite some time that Shwecky knows about this and is ok with the video being online.  If you know otherwise, please let the folks at Youtube know…