Holy Exposures Commentary and Photos of Israel

An old joke waiting to be told:
How many Jews does it take to open the Ark and take out the Torah? Normally, the answer is one. Ok, I’ve seen in some synagouges two. How about three?

Background:
The synagouge service on days were the Torah includes an honor called “peticha” which litterally means “opening”. The honor is bestowed on a member or guest to go an open the Ark where the Torah scrolls are kept. He then takes out one of the Torahs and hands it to the Chazan (cantor) who brings the Torah to the bimah where it is unwound and read.

Three beats one:
I was visiting a synagogue in Chicago. This is a typical modern-orthodox American model. Here, the ceremony is as important as the actual prayers. Spotted as a guest, I was asked by the gabbai to go and take out the Torah and hand it to the chazan.

I walked up to the Ark and I saw two other men standing there as well. I turned back to the gabbai and asked what gives. He said each of the men would open one of the doors of the Ark and I would then take out the Torah.

Punchline:
I said, “if you need three guys to open the Ark, how many men does it take to do Hagbah (lifting the Torah after the reading)?”

In case it wasn’t already clear, in Israel we are used to brass-tacks prayers. No time for ceremony. Just like the Israeli people. We are an open and warm people, and we don’t stand on ceremony.

Share your experiences
What have you noticed different in your experiences in the Diaspora than what you are used to in Israel? Likewise, if you are from the Diaspora, what do you notice different when you visit the Holy Land?

Bezeq or Hot?

I’ve been a long and loyal customer of Bezeq’s ADSL broadband service pretty much since its inception. Lately, things haven’t gone as well. Constant line interruptions, dropped connections, broken page loads, etc…

Speaking with Bezeq on their 166 support line is not all that bad. They are courteous and do try to help. Especially if you establish early in the call that you understand technology and that you want to work with them to find the problem.

After several calls, and then two subsequent visits by a technician to our house, our line problems have intensified. The noise on the line has gotten significantly worse. Yesterday Bezeq informed me that there’s too much noise on my line and that they can’t support the 5mb speed that i’ve had for over 2 years. They want me to drop down to 2.5 and wait for the next generation fast internet that Bezeq is building the infrastructure (that may even support up to 300 MB lines).

I told Bezeq I wasn’t interested in lowering my bandwidth and that I wanted them to have an engineer look into fixing the problem. It must be something that happened recently on their end. Three months ago, they did move me to another WAN and things were better until this past month. There are remedies other than telling the customer “too bad”. I argued that they are selling more lines then they have capacity, but they haven’t increased their infrastructure to meet these new users.

My problem with Bezeq’s answer is that they are taking the monopolistic easy way out. Essentially, they are saying to me (and to other customers I presume), “We’re too busy to deal with your current problems. Lower your expectations for a while and then we’ll surprise you with a really great new service, but we have no committment as to when that will be. It’s as if the Bezeq engineer has the last word…

We’re all in this together!

Do you use Bezeq or Hot (Cable) for your broadband ADSL internet access? Are you satisfied with your current provider? Have you noticed any changes in your line’s stability over the recent months? If you do or did have problems, did Bezeq make you lower your bandwidth to resolve it?

Please add your comments here.

Here’s the Bet Knesset Hamerkazi Ashkenazi in Ramat Bet Shemesh’s Winter times schedule attached in PDF format.

Download Here: Mercazi Luz RBS Winter 5769

If you have schedules for your bet knesset in electronic format, please send to us at “contact at holyexposures dot com” and we will include it here.

Those who attended the Shemeshfest Sukkot festival last week at the Bet Shemesh ampitheater were treated to a talented local rock group named “Rockiah” - the English name of the band is a play on their Hebrew name רקיע (The Earth’s Firmament), and their American rock music roots.

Rockiah are Yehudah David (vocals, guitars), Zvi Newman (bass), and David Epstein (drums). Eli Krantman joined them on backing vocals.

Yehudah, Zvi, and David all live in Ramat Bet Shemesh and are olim from the USA.

I spoke with Zvi about the origins of Rockiah and what they hope to accomplish. Zvi told me they are all married with kids and come from different backgrounds, but their music speaks one language.

“Rockiah is about fusing the raw power of rock music with the spiritual inspiration of the Jewish mekorot (written sources). Yehudah is influenced by Van Halen and other power-pop artists, so his guitar playing is among the wildest on the scene. Dave’s drumming is influenced by punk, so we have a harder-driving sound in our shows - and his aggressive fills make you take notice. I’m influenced by John Entwistle of The Who, so the bass surprises the crowd with “stolen” solos that bubble up from underneath. And Yehudah’s singing overflows with pure heart and soul.”

“Rockiah’s music is written entirely by Yehudah, while the lyrics are straight out of the Psalms and various prayers. It’s meant to be lively and catchy for the audience, and it’s challenging for the musicians - the chords change every few seconds, so we have to be on our toes. Also, we love to improvise solos off the top of our heads - but all of this is meant to augment the uplifting, danceable essence of the songs. You can drive, work, jog, or clean the house to Rockiah, and come out of it very inspired.”

“At the end of the day, we try to give a fresh and energetic musical foundation to the experience of the holy as espoused by the lyrics. The Jewish content takes rock to a higher plane.”

Rockiah - Bonei Yerushalayim

Rockiah is now promoting its new CD and plan to join the performance circuit.   Their debut album, Bonei Yerushalayim, was released just a couple weeks ago and is available online at shemeshmusic.com and at GalPaz stores. You can hear sample tracks at shemeshmusic.com before purchase. You can also learn more about Rockiah on their Facebook and Myspace homepages.

We wish them much success!

As a citizen of Bet Shemesh for the past 14 years, I can tell you that nothing swells our civic pride more than the awesome Jewish Rock Festival that Jonty Zwebner has brought, along with the Bet Shemesh municipality, to our fine city.

Moshav Band Performing at Bet Shemesh Festival in 2003

It began about a decade ago as a one night event with five or so groups playing in front of a couple thousand locals. It has blossomed more recently into a big two night festival with many thousands (perhaps 15,000, maybe more?) jamming into the outdoor amphitheater with most of the top names in Jewish Rock, such as Moshav Band, Soulfarm, Adi Ran, Reva L’sheva, Lenny Solomon, and many, many more. As a result, the national media have taken notice.

Here’s two video links (in Hebrew) from YNet on the 2008 Festival.
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3456086,00.html
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3610815,00.html

Here is the Festival’s homepage for links to all the performers and more information.
ShemeshFest Website

Dangerous road 38 claims another innocent victim

A 50 yr old woman was killed last night while crossing highway 38 near Mesilat Ziyon .  A man driving from Bet Shemesh hit her as she crossed the right near the busstop.  He pulled to the side of the road and called the Police.

As he waited for the police to arrive, on this dark and dangerous road, several cars passing after him hit the woman laying without noticing.

The residents of this small moshav have been petitioning the transportation ministry for years to change this dangerous road.  There are two busstops on either side of this major artery linking Bet Shemesh to the main Highway 1.  Often, passengers are let off on one side of the road and need to cross to other side to catch a different bus.

This Youtube video was added in March 2008, with the title “IT’S A QUESTION OF WHO AND WHEN WILL GET HURT WHILE CROSSING THE ROAD (# 38) TO ENTER MOSHAV MESILAT ZION, AND THE AUTHORITY IS DOING NOTHING!!”

You can see just how dangerous it is to cross that road during the day. Imagine how much more so when attempting to cross at night. The result last night was tragic.

We hope the authorities will take notice.

We’ve all been watching the recent developments of Wall Street with a keen eye.  How, if at all, will it affect us individually?  Will Israel be dragged into a recession as well as the rest of Europe?

An inevitable part of the US’s historic $750 billion bailout package is the huge amount of paper that the government has to print.  The money has to come from somewhere, and usually that means selling more treasury notes and bills, or bartering paper with foreign governments.

With all that new money hitting the markets, you’d expect the dollar to drop in value.  However, the world economy follows the USA like a herd to a shepherd.  All the talk about Euros, shmooros…  When you want a safe currency in times of crisis, you don’t look to Europe with one of its EU members (Iceland) on the brink of bankruptcy, nor do you look to China or Japan, as they are having their own crises.  You buy dollars.  And that’s exactly what’s been going on since the US bailout plan was passed.

As a result, major and 2nd tier currencies alike have lost approx 5% in value against the US Dollar in the past week.  In Israel, the drop was sudden and major.  Two week ago, the Shekel (NIS) was trading against the USD in a range from 3.48 to 3.50.  Almost overnight, the Shekel devalued against the dollar to 3.70.  That’s a 5 percent change.

That’s very good for Israeli exporters, tourism, and for Israelis who’s salary is linked to the dollar, and for technology companies who raised funds in dollars.

That’s very bad, however, for importers, most Israelis who do not have linkage on their salary, and just about every consumer.  Prices will start to rise at the supermarket, which will in turn reduce consumption, and bring on inflation, and then recession.

Much of the strength of the Israeli economy over the past few years has been related to the strength and new found autonomy of the Israeli currency.  Breaking with the norm of the past 60 years, for example, Real estate was being quoted in Shekels.  Israelis had a new sense of pride in our national currency.

Now with this recent crisis, and the fall of the Euro as the other viable currency alternative to the almighty dollar, it appears Israel’s economy will be waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Tonight was Danny Vaknin’s big support rally for the upcoming Bet Shemesh mayoral election next month.  Much of the Likud (and Mafdal) elite were there.

Who was there from the national political scene?  Silvan Shalom, Ruby Rivlin, Limor Livnat, Gilad Arnon, Chaim Katz, Zvi Hendel, and Yitzchak Levi.  Where was Bibi Netanyahu,  Miki Eytan, Gideon Ezra?  In the good old days, Danny used to bring out the tops in his party.

Moshe Avutbul, the Sha”s candidate, had his big rally last week with the attendance of all the Sha”s leadership, including its chairman Eli Yishai.  Harav Hagaon Ovadia Yosef Shli”ta even came out to speak and support Avutbul.  Sha”s supporters in Bet Shemesh could truly feel, as Tal Brody once said “Anachnu ba mapa” (we’re on the map).

Speaking of which, when is Shalom Lerner’s big day?  There still seems to be a strong support basis for Lerner in Ramat Bet Shemesh.

I remember as a kid in Chicago how I used to walk around the house (and neighborhood) and try to find the best spot for reception on my shortwave radio. In those days, tuning in to Israel Radio was like catching an ephemeral glimpse of far away land.  At 4pm in the afternoon, I would tune in Reshet Bet and listen to the 6am Boker Tov announcement which included the incredible recital of the Shema and then the top of the morning news.

Nowadays, perhaps the mystery and anticipation are gone, but the fun is still there. Now you can listen to many thousands of radio stations around the world with a simple click of a link on your internet browser. In fact, now that I live in Israel, I listen to Chicago radio stations with the same nostalgia as I did as a kid tuning in from the other side of the world to hear the sounds of Israel.

Here are the most popular Israel Radio selections available for you to tune in live now. Simply click on a link, and your Windows Media Player will open and begin to play the selected channel.

1. Arutz Sheva Hebrew - Voice of the right of center in Israel
2. Galei Zahal - Army Radio, news, interviews, music
3. Galgalatz - Army Radio, mostly music
4. Kol Hamusica - Classical Music
5. Reshet Bet - Israel’s main news and talk channel
6. Reshet Dalet (Arabic) - news and talk in Arabic
7. Reshet Gimel - Israeli Music
8. 106FM Tel Aviv - Local Tel Aviv
9. 107.5FM Radio Haifa 107.5 - Local Haifa, Webcam of Studio
10. 88FM - Jazz Music, News

The internet makes it easy for you to watch live tv from anywhere in the world.

There are several Israeli TV Channels who stream their stations live, or offer daily rebroadcasts of news and other shows. When you click on the link, your Windows Media Player will open and begin playing the selected channel.

1. Channel 10 This is a very popular Israeli channel that is available on cable. The internet broadcast is usually live during the mornings and evenings Israel time.
2. Channel 1 IBA News (English) Daily rebroadcast of the half hour long evening English news program.
3. Channel 1 Mabat News Daily rebroadcast of Israel’s most popular evening news (in Hebrew).
4. Knesset Live See what’s going on at Israel’s parliament. They also offer news programs and interviews on political issues.
5. Machon Meir - Religious Classes Online. Catch a live shiur!
6. Shopping Channel TV Shop till you drop (in Hebrew).