King of the Hill?

Dear friends it has been a while, but much has happened since I have last written to you. I get the opportunity to ascend to the Tempe Mount every day Sunday-Thursday. Since I have been going every day the police no longer hassle me and I am able to sneak in contraband (small tehillim) on to the Mount, although I am still afarid to take it out, just having it in my pocket is a small victory. I am soon going to start a program for a small fee that will allow people to send short messgaes, which will be taken up to Har HaBayit. I will walk with the letters in a circle around the outskirts of the Temple Courtyard, in strict accordance with Torah law, while reciting prayers on behalf of all the people who send letters. Prior to the ascent I will immerse in a kosher mikveh andc only wear non-leather shoes while on the Mount in strict accordance with Torah law. This will give you a uniqe opprotunity for Jews across the world to support Jewish activity on the Mount. 1/3 of all profites will go to support the Tenua Lichinun Hamikdash, a wounderful group dedicated to resoring Jewish sovriengty on the Mount. I will keep you updated on that project .

New Job, Looking for an apartment

Last Wednesday afternoon I started a new job working as a telemarketer for a health insurance company. I am working 12 hour days for 4 days a week. I have to work on Chol Hamoed, but as least I was able to enjoy the first day of Chol Hamoed with my brothers and cousins. We hung out and went bowling in Ranana. I am not yet sure what I am doing for simchat torah, I will decide in the next couple days. There were more Arab riots today, which meant that the Har Habayit was closed once again to Jews. In this country “might makes right”, maybe if the Jews would mass riot than the Har might open for us and close to them, but who knows. I watched the mass Birkat Cohanim from the roof of the Yeshiva and I thought how sad that tens of thousands of Jews are congregating below the mount. Its like they do not realize how they are degrading themselves before the Arabs and the world at large. I now see these mass events at the Kotel as a disgrace on the Nation, Land and G-d of Israel. There was a lot of concerts in the old city last and that will continue throughout the week, lots of happy people all around. I am still looking for an apartment, G-d willing I will be able to find something in the very near future.

Atonment

On Thursday night before Yom Kippur, over 100,000 people of all types came to the Kotel it was as usual an amazing experience. It took a long time to get out of the Kotel area, but I was very impressed at the behavior of the mass crowed, there was no pushing or shoving. Latter that night at about 2:00am I was able to get into the Breslav Mikveh, which I must say is gorgeous facility and most importantly the water was clean. You had your choice between the cold water mikvah and the hot water mikveh, the hot water was great!

At 7:00am Friday morning I arrived at the Mugrabi Gate, which leads into Har Habayit. The police decided to not allow us to go up and kept about 100 of us standing at the gate for about 45 minutes. In the meantime they were allowing non-Jews and secular Jews to go up without difficulty and all “religious” Jews to stand in the waiting area. I should note that the police had confiscated all our teudat zehut, so it was virtually a prison.

Yom Kippur was nice and I had a special moment on the night of Yom Kippur. I walked outside of the old city and walked on the roads. It was pure silence, it looked like a ghost town and you got the feeling that the entire city is unified. Not a single car moving, not a single store open I stood there and the only thing I could hear was the sound of the wind.

The morning after Yom Kippur I started the day by ascending to the Har Habayit and was left alone by the police, I was even able to quietly say tehillim at certain points (am I a criminal?). Later in the day, the moment I had been fearing for over a week now came, I was let go by Orayta. For every yerida there hopefully comes an aliyah, Bezrat Hashem.

The Sound of the Shofar

The sound of the Shofar

My first Rosh Hashana in the Old City was a special experience that will not soon be forgotten. First of all, now while I know this will sound like Kefira to some, I did go to hear the Shofar on the first day of Rosh Hashana. I know what you are thinking “BUT IT WAS SHABBAT”! Yes and the Halacha in accordance with the ruling of Rebbe Yochanan Ben Zaki that we blow the shofar in front of the beit din on Shabbat and that is why over 100 years ago Rabbi Shlezinger convened a beit din and blew shofar on Shabbat. While I davened at the Yeshivt Orayta minyan I slipped out for about 20 minutes to walk to the tochechi Yerushalayim shul located in the old city about 4-5 minute walk from the Yeshiva.

Rav Yisrael Ariel who is a member of the renewing Sanhedrin was present as were 5 other musmachim, the other 17 members of the minyan brought the total number to 23, so the musmachim of the Sanhedrin included us 17 non musmachim to make a beit din of 23. Then we all took a vote and it was decided by a vote of 23-0 to blow the shofar. I found it kind of strange that a complete am haaretz like myself, was sitting on a beit din with Rav Ariel and other big talmidei chachamim. Also had I not specifically gone to hear the shofar it may not have happened.

The rest of Yom Tov was very busy, the other 3 madrichim and I were very busy preparing for, serving and clearing up after the meals, but it was ok. I spent a couple hours on the second day of Rosh Hashana blowing shofar for random groups of “secular” Israelis visiting the old city, I was shocked at how many did not hear the shofar, so at least I was able to be of some help.

Aliyah Party

Aliyah Party!

Wow, sorry I have not written for a while, but a lot has been happening. Last Wednesday my brother joined me and made Aliyah as well and he got an awesome welcome! Hundreds of people came out to the airport to greet the new Nefesh b Nefesh olim with singing and dancing. I was shocked that they invited Tzipi Livni to speak, but apparently she did a lot to help NBN, hey everyone’s got a plus I guess. In any event I got a bank account last Thursday and a cell phone yesterday and I need to go to the Misrad Klita to set up my sal klita (financial absorption package).

Shabbat was very nice, I went up to visit my cousins in Ginot Shomron. Since I have two aunts, from my father’s side and my mother’s side who live in Ginot I never lack a place to eat or stay. I also saw a lot of my other cousins who started their post high school year of study in Israel.
On the other front the madrich job is a little more challenging than I thought . These guys simply do not want to get out of bed! Ok you always have your few tzadikim, but some of these guys are just here to chill out and they are using the spiritual nature of this particular Yeshiva as a sort of shield to hide their true intentions.

The “Rova” (Jewish quarter) of the old city is always noisy this time of year. It never gets quite, the streets are packed 24 hours a day, six day of week, with Jews coming from all over Israel to visit before Rosh Hashana. Even the restaurants stay open until like 2 or 3 to accommodate for the masses.As we get into the Aseret Yemei Teshuva, the sound of repentance will only grow louder, may Hashem hear it.

I am an Israeli

At about 3:30PM Tuesday morning, September 1st I finally rejoined the Jewish People in the Land of Israel. My experience in the airport was lets say less than pleasant, but I guess helped me to acclimate to the way Israel works. It took a couple of hours at least until the ministry of absorption signed off on the three necessary forms. When I got the forms I went back down stairs to get my luggage and it was nowhere to be found. It took ELAL like an hour and a half to find it, to my great relief. At that point I was supposed to get a free ride to Jerusalem, but that also took like an hour and a half. So my first 5 hours in Israel was spent in the airport.On Wednesday I went to the post office in the old city so that I could get my health insurance. The ministry of absorption gave me a slip at the airport, which then I have to submit to a post office and they send it to the appropriate health coverage. Well the first place told me that they could not do it. So I went to the other post office near Shar Yaffo and they also told me they could not do it, because their connection was down and that I should return to the first post office and tell them that they should do their job. In any event the guy blew up and me and told me to leave, ah I am loving it. Also I started the madrich job today, which was cool. The yeshiva took the guys to the beach for a BBQ, so that was fun.

On Thursday the guys in the Yeshiva started their learning schedules. The hardest thing about being a madrich is waking up the guys, they simply do not want to get out of bed. I ran around to different offices to try to get forms filled out, but still no luck.

Shabbat was special. The singing and ruach was incredible Friday night the guys in the Yeshiva were flying, that’s the only way I can describe it. On Shabbat morning me and another madrich woke up a few minutes late, but hey what can you do.

Sunday was uneventful, but Monday, today I finally got my kupat cholim, which is health coverage. So thank the Almighty for that. Tomorrow with the help of G-d, I will travel to Ben Gurion to met my brother who is also making Aliyah.

Last Day in Exile

I am now about to start my last day in exile. This past shabbat was very nice. My parents threw me and my brother a surprise Kiddish, my brother is also making Aliyah in a weeks time. We were able to say good by to friends and family. On friday night taking a long walk around the soon to be old neighborhood, it was a bitter sweet moment. I spent my Saturday night and much of Sunday packing, when I went out to buy a few 220 things from those Indian stores on Devon ave, I got ripped off, my brother went back with me and we were able to get a refund, thank G-d.

Anyways I am going to go fill up my new mp3 player for the plane ride.

The next time I write, it will probably be from our homeland!