Story #2:
It was 1997, we were driving back from my nephew’s Bar Mitzvah, which was held in a Kibbutz up north. Motzash”k was Lag Baomer, just like this year. We drove back from the north down the coastal highway (Highway 6 “Kvish Shesh” wasn’t invented yet).
As we approached Hadera, we saw a massive fire in the city. It looked like it was several stories tall. I commented to my wife how “frum” the folks in Hadera are to be having such a big bonfire. About 5 minutes later, as we came nearer to the fire, we could see that it was indeed not a bonfire, but an apartment building up in flames. Adjacent to the building was a much smaller fire, presumably the bonfire that got things started.

BTW: Last year, I saw the fire department out in force and checking bonfires everywhere in the Ramah, including one that a neighbor had called in to the moked (106). So, there has been progress over the years. But, we must be diligent about safety.

The moral of the story is, (as the Sargent from Hill Street Blues would say) “Hey, let’s be careful out there…”

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.

Is this one of those things that everyone else but me already new?

Prince Michael I is 12, that means next year he can be called up to the Torah.
Now that’s a Bar-mitzvah you won’t want to miss.

JTA News

The show is a mix of street dance, music, song, and multi-media. There is audience participation and the atmosphere is electric. It’s sort of like Stomp with many percussion-led skits, but with music, dance, and song too.

Mayumana was founded in 1996 as an unique Israeli dance troupe that performs around the world. Their World and Israeli casts include players from many countries. We thoroughly enjoyed the performance, and highly recommend that everyone who likes percussion, music and dance should try to get tickets. Here’s a chance to see world-class entertainment and support Israeli Arts at the same time.

Here’s a short video from the end of the show, the players escort the audience out of the theater and into the parking lot.

If animals could speak.  I wonder what was on his mind.

Baboon at the Ramat Gan Safari, 2009.

These photographs are copyright 2009 Moshe T. and are made available under a Creative Commons License.

This weekend’s Haaretz reports (in Hebrew) that the Haredi population in Israel, the fastest growing segment, now has an average of 7.2 births per family. Obviously, since this is an ‘average’, there are B”H many families who are having as much as 13 or 14 children each.

Ken Yirbu!

Consider this: You are sitting near someone who is coughing up a lung. You know that he often travels overseas for work. He just got an aliyah and benched gomel, returns to his seat cough and all. Do you worry that maybe he has the swine flu?

Stay Home
With the WHO (World Health Organization) now classifying the Swine Flu as a world pandemic, we really have to think twice about where we go and who can enter our ‘private’ space. Sneezing and coughing, aside from disturbing other prayer goers from hearing the chazan, also raise the possibility of you catching whatever they have. There’s got to be heter (permission) somewhere that says you should stay home and not get others sick in order to make a minyan.