A short vacation in Eilat

The cliffs of Makhtesh Ramon at Mitzpe Ramon

David and I have long wanted to take a short winter vacation in Eilat. This year, we just decided to go ahead and do it. I booked a room for us at Kibbutz Eilot (located 3 km north of the city of Eilat) for 2 nights (the 25th and the 26th of December, 2011).

Here are some pictures I took on this trip. Rather than driving down the Jordan River valley and past the Dead Sea (the shortest route), we decided to go on highway 6, west of Judea and Samaria (the area also erroneously known as "the West Bank", the name given to it by the Kingdom of Jordan during the 19 years of illegal occupation of it, from 1948 to 1967).

We ate lunch at a pizza place in a mall in Be'er Sheva. Then we continued south to Mitzpe Ramon, a town that sits right at the edge of Makhtesh Ramon, a deep, dry valley with steep walls. The picture above was taken from the spot where the highway leaves Mitzpe Ramon and starts down into the makhtesh.

Here's a friendly Nubian ibix (we thought it was a goat, but the picture in the Wikipedia article shows one just like it and states that it's a Nubian ibix) at that same turnout.

An ibix at the overlook of Makhtesh Ramon from Mitzpe Ramon

This next view is from the floor of the makhtesh, looking back up towards Mitzpe Ramon.

Looking up towards Mitzpe Ramon from the floor of Makhtesh Ramon

This picture (and the one above, also) was taken on our way back north. This view looks north at two mesas which are on the south side of Makhtesh Ramon.

Taking pictures, looking north at 2 mesas on the south side of Makhtesh Ramon

I woke up early on our first morning at Kibbutz Eilot, so I grabbed my camera and went for a walk. I took the following picture from a spot only 100-200 meters from the border crossing to Jordan. The sun was just about to rise over the Jordanian mountains behind Aqaba, Jordan.

Sunrise over the Jordanian mountains behind Aqaba, Jordan

As I walked back up to the kibbutz, I saw this flock of little birds. Although you can only see 5 of them in this picture, there were at least a hundred in the flock.

Little birds near the entrance of Kibbutz Eilot (3 km north of Eilat)

Along the shore of the Red Sea south of Eilat, there is a coral reef. The structure in the picture is the above-water part of an underwater observatory there. Inside the small round center part, there are 2 interleaving spiral staircases by which one can go up to the balcony at the top of the tower or down to the underwater observatory. The city of Aqaba, Jordan, is in the background of this photo.

Tower above the underwater observatory at the Eilat coral reef (Aqaba, Jordan in the background)

This is the view south-southwest from the balcony at the top of the tower. The mountains in the background are in Sinai, the vast territory given by Israel to Egypt in exchange for a promise that they would not attack us. They've kept the promise so far (at least at the governmental level), but, with the current turmoils there and the rapid ascent of the Islamicist parties, it's anybody's guess how long that will last.

Looking south-southwest from the tower, towards the Sinai (Egypt) shore

Before going down to the underwater observatory, we took a short cruise on a ship that has windows below the water level. The young woman who was the guide on this little trip narrated everything in fluent Hebrew, Russian, and English!

Next, we went down to the underwater observatory. The views from both the boat and the observatory were absolutely stunning! Unfortunately, they generally didn't photograph very well. In real life, there are vivid colors, but in the photos, nearly everything seems blue-green. Nevertheless, you can get a little idea of the beauty from this photo, taken from the observatory.

A view of the coral reef and fish from the underwater observatory

In the afternoon, we were quite tired of being on our feet, so we took a drive up highway 12 into the Eilat Mountains, located immediately west of the city. Here's a view of the Red Sea taken from up there. Judging from Google Earth, the mountains in the distance, and possible even the smoke near the middle of the picture, are in Saudi Arabia!

Looking south-southeast from the Eilat Mountains, towards Saudi Arabia

Here's another nice picture from the Eilat Mountains. This small tree seemed quite lonely there in the nakhal (wadi), but it made a nice frame for my picture.

A lone tree in a nakhal (wadi) in the Eilat Mountains

We really enjoyed our short vacation in Eilat and the Negev. At this time of year, the weather up here in the North is really quite cold, and it's a constant (and expensive!) battle just to keep the house reasonably warm. In Eilat, on the other hand, it was warm enough to be comfortable in a short-sleeve shirt, at least by late morning. It WAS cold at night, of course, but not nearly as much as here!

Is the proposed "State of Palestine" part of a 2-state solution?

With the Palestinian Authority now going ahead with its attempt to seek recognition of a "Palestinian State" from the UN, most of the world is assuming that this is merely another attempt to come to the 2-state solution. However, the following recent statements clearly show that this is NOT the case. Instead, this move is yet another step in the Arabs' attempt to eliminate the Jewish State of Israel:

a)   Nabil Shaath, interviewed on Lebanese TV 11 July. Two states means a Jewish people over there and a Palestinian people here. We will never accept this...‏

-      [The new French UN peace initiative has] reshaped the issue of the “Jewish state” into a formula that is also unacceptable to us – two states for two peoples.

-      They can describe Israel itself as a state for two peoples, but we will be a state for one people.

-      The story of “two states for two peoples” means that there will be a Jewish people over there and a Palestinian people here. We will never accept this – not as part of the French initiative and not as part of the American initiative.

-      We will not sacrifice the 1.5 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship who live within the 1948 borders, and we will never agree to a clause preventing the Palestinian refugees from returning to their country. We will not accept this, whether the initiative is French, American, or Czechoslovakian.

-      The recognition of a [Palestinian] state is basically a bilateral action, which receives the blessing of the UN. This act, however, will make many things possible in the future. Eventually, we will be able to sign bilateral agreements with states and this will enable us to exert pressure on Israel. At the end of the day, we want to exert pressure on Israel in order to force it to recognize us and to leave our country. This is our long-term goal. (translation - MEMRI)

b)   Hamas in Gaza: 'Palestine means Palestine in its entirety, and Israel cannot exist in our midst'  - Fri. 29 Jul. 2011 @ 13.06 -

-      Hamas foreign minister Al-Zahar reiterates Hamas' rejection of two-state solution and commitment to gaining 'Palestine in its entirety' by force. He also declared that Hamas would view any Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, or a compromise agreement with the Palestinian Authority, as only a 'first stage' towards the destruction of Israel in its entirety. He asserted that this was the key difference between Hamas and their secular rivals, Fatah.

-      In a recently conducted a television interview he once more set out Hamas' rejection of Israel's right to exist. According to Memri, Al-Zahar used the interview, from 21 July, to argue that 'Palestine in its entirety is Islamic waqf land, which cannot be relinquished':

'At this moment in time, we say to you, first of all: We want Palestine in its entirety - so there will not be any misunderstandings. If our generation is unable to achieve this, the next one will, and we are raising our children on this. Palestine means Palestine in its entirety, and Israel cannot exist in our midst.'

The 10th Anniversary of 9/11

On September 11, 2001, we were still living in California. The Fall quarter had not yet started at Cal State San Bernardino, so I had no classes that day. I got up in the morning and switched on the radio to the local NPR station, KVCR, as was my habit. Immediately, I realized that it was NOT the usual Morning Edition. I turned on the TV to see the shocking pictures of the twin towers burning and then, a little later, collapsing. I felt numb the whole day, even though I've never even been in New York and didn't have any friends living there. This was clearly a terrorist attack on the entire country, and, in reality, on modern civilization.

It wasn't long before it became very clear who had carried out the attack. More perplexing, to Americans at least, was "Why?" Americans are good-hearted people, and so they naturally have been trying to figure out what horrible thing they must have done to deserve such a terrible attack. This tendency to blame themselves has only grown as we prepare to mark the 10th anniversary of these attacks.

But what if the premise is wrong? Perhaps it wasn't a reaction to ANYTHING America had done at all. Or, perhaps it was a reaction to something GOOD that America stood for.

The first stop in searching for the reasons should be the writings of Al-Qaida and other radical Islamicist organizations. If you do this, the reasons become clear almost immediately.

Their entire philosophy and mode of operation is based on their interpretation of Islam (which, unfortunately, is quite orthodox and mainstream). Here are some of the key points:

According to them, Islam is the only true religion (something several other religions, though not all, also claim to be), and it is to be carried to all the world. Non-believers must first be told of the religion and given the opportunity to accept it. But, if they do not, believers are instructed to impose Islam by force (this is quite UNLIKE other religions). Islamic law, known as sharia, is to be imposed on everyone. At least two other religions (Judaism and Christianity) are tolerated, to some extent, under sharia law, but their adherents are to be strictly limited in many ways, including special clothing, lower places of worship, special taxes, and other clear symbols of their second-class status.

Most of America's most cherished ideals are basically anathema to sharia law, including nearly all freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech (especially freedom to criticize religions and their prophets, including Mohammed), equality of men and women, etc. etc. In other words, by their own views, the radical Islamicists attack America precisely because of its ideals.

This means that there are really only two possible responses. The first is to capitulate to Islam and give up on American ideals and freedoms. Freedom of speech must be limited, especially speech critical of Islam or not sufficiently respectful of its Prophet. Other religions can, and perhaps even MUST, be criticized, but Islam must NEVER be criticized (no "Islamophobia" allowed!).

The second possible response is to defend America's values. This would require courage, long-term commitment, clarity about the enemy, and a willingness to fight, even when it means war.

So far, I'm sorry to say, America seems to be gradually but steadily choosing the first option more than the second. If this continues, the terrorists of 9/11 will have won.

The International Klezmer Festival

We are now right in the middle of a 3-day event (or, more accurately, 3-NIGHT event) that happens every summer right here in Tsfat. In fact, פסטיבל הכלייזמרים הבנלאומי festival ha-klezmerim ha-benleumi ("The International Klezmer Festival") is by far the biggest event of the year in Tsfat.

We have now lived here for more than 5 years, but last night was the first time we ever ventured into town to check out this major event! Partly this is due to geography. Although we do live within the city of Tsfat, the festival happens in the old area (the downtown) of Tsfat, which is probably a good mile from here, even as the crow flies, and, of course, since Tsfat is on a high hill, with several peaks and ridges, one does NOT get there in anything even approaching a straight line, not even when walking. Furthermore, we live at a somewhat higher elevation. So, whereas the walk into town is doable but much too tiring and time-consuming, the walk back home is simply unthinkable for us at our age and in our condition!

Even on normal days, parking in town can be tricky. During Klezmer, it could only be worse, despite the fact that only residents are allowed to even drive up from the base of our big hill after 5:00 p.m. So, driving into town is out of the question. That leaves the local buses, which means a wait at both ends and some worry about how late the buses will actually run.

Finally, this year, however, we decided to get in there. I had even planned ahead and taken Monday through Thursday this week off from Berlitz (as vacation time, so I'll still get paid). From the official festival website I downloaded and printed the schedule of events and the map of town showing where the various stages were located. The first concerts (ALL of which are outdoors and free!) begin at 8:00 p.m. each evening, and the last ones don't end until 1:00 a.m. (which is WAY after our bedtime!).

We left the house before 7:00 p.m. and arrived at the bus stop at about 7:05 - 7:10. We figured the bus should arrive soon, but it was quite some time before we even saw it going the other way. It didn't get back to us on its way into town until about 7:40, and it was already quite full of people with many standing in the aisle. A couple of young women actually got up and offered us their seats (which I was very thankful for but which made me feel rather old, I must admit!).

During the day, the number 4 bus is the only one that comes to our neighborhood, but, in the evening, both the number 4 and the number 3 are replaced by the number 10, which basically covers BOTH routes. So, rather than heading more or less directly into town, we had a tour of Kiryat Sara and Ibikor, with even MORE people getting on along the way. The central bus station was the end of the route, though normally the buses all go from there up Palmach Street and then back around down on Aliyah Bet Street.

So, we finally got off the bus and headed up into town from the Central Bus Station. Normally, at that hour (around 8:30 p.m.) downtown Tsfat would be pretty much dead, but, of course, it was just coming to life last night. A lot of the regular stores were closed, but the eating places were all open and even serving food along the sidewalks. People were walking in the street since almost no vehicles were being allowed to use it. After the intersection with Aliyah Bet Street, Y'rushalayim Street was completely closed to vehicular traffic. We continued under the bridge and down to the stage we had selected, in the Artists' Quarter.

Our friend, Norman, at our synagogue had mentioned to us that his cousin was the accordion player for a group from Vienna called "Shalom Aleichem" that would be playing in the Festival. Sure enough, I had found the group on the program, and naturally we had selected the stage where they would be performing.

We got there around 8:40, just shortly before the group playing the 8 o'clock hour had finished. Shalom Aleichem was scheduled for the 9:00 to 11:00 time slot. While listening to the last number of two of the previous group, David noticed that he was probably having an insulin reaction (i.e. dangerously low blood sugar levels). He tested, and, sure enough, he was. He immediately took glucose tablets that he always carries with him for this purpose, and I headed up to a nearby market to buy candy, completing my purchase there just before their 9:00 p.m. closing time! Between the glucose tablets and some of the candy I brought, he was soon just fine.

The Shalom Aleichem group was fabulous! Besides the accordion player (whose last name was indeed the same as Norman's!), they had a violinist, a string bass player, a trumpet player, and a clarinetist. The latter two were brothers, and the clarinetist also played the keyboard brilliantly for a couple of their pieces. There was also a singer for the most of the selections (the others were instrumental), and he also introduced each piece and said a few other things, as well. The words for the songs were invariably in Yiddish. All of the musicians were excellent, but perhaps the trumpet player was the most amazing. In part of one song, he played TWO trumpets at the same time, something I've NEVER seen before! One of the two trumpets was also somewhat bigger and a different shape, another thing I'd not seen before. I took a couple of pictures of them, but, not surprisingly they didn't turn out well because of the night and the bright illumination of the band.

On the walk back to the bus station, we heard booms. When I looked up, I saw that they were doing a fireworks show, launching them from the m'tzudah at the top of the hill of the old city. We stood there and watched until they were finished, and I'd say they were as good as some of the 4th of July fireworks I'd seen in the States.

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay for the whole 2 hours that Shalom Aleichem played (so we only heard their 1st hour) because it was already past our bedtime, and we still had to walk back to the station, wait for the bus, ride it to our neighborhood, and then walk home. Actually, in fact, David waited at our neighborhood bus stop while I walked home quickly and came back for him with the car. In the end, we got to bed around quarter to midnight. At least I slept very well and didn't get up until about quarter to 8:00 in the morning.

The whole thing was a bit much for us, so we won't try it again this year, at least, even though the Festival continues tonight (Tuesday) and tomorrow night. But it was a great adventure, and we enjoyed it very much, especially the wonderful Klezmer music!

Asuta Hospital - Tel Aviv

Recently, David has been having some extensive dental work done. Because of his unique combination of illnesses, we have to travel (many times!) to a dental clinic in Tel Aviv. The clinic is part of the MaccabiDent network, which is the dental service of our kupat kholim (health fund -- like an HMO in the U.S.). This particular clinic is in the Asuta Hospital of Tel Aviv.

The hospital is located in a new, very modern building in an area of the city that is still rapidly developing. The architecture of this building is very interesting, with different textures, many non-right angles, and even some walls that lean outward! The back side of the building faces a large natural park along a river, and there is a large, multi-story glass window. One of the most interesting features in this part of the building (which we walk right by on the way to the dental clinic) is the synagogue. As you can see in the picture below, it is a black box that looks likes it's suspended between heaven and earth. I rather like that symbolism for a place of prayer!

Dangers avoided

Today, I'm writing about 3 complete unrelated things. Unrelated, that is, except by the fact that, in each case, something dangerous ended up causing no one any harm at all.

First story

The first is about an anniversary. Five years ago this past week (on August 2, 2006, to be precise), two Katyusha rockets fell in our immediate neighborhood. This was, of course, during the Second Lebanon War. For those of you who haven't heard or don't remember the story, this is a very brief synopsis. It was about mid-morning, and David and I had just finished taking a shower. He was on the side of the bed right next to the north-facing window, and I was still in the bathroom (on the south side of the bedroom), drying myself. There were no sirens, but, suddenly, there were two very load BOOMS and we knew that we had been hit. Something (we later discovered it was a ball bearing) had come through 4 panes of glass (the window was open because of the lovely summer breezes), also damaging the frames as it came. It had to have flown less than a meter from David's head. It then bounced off the ceiling of the bedroom nearly on the opposite side and then hit the A/C unit located right above the door to the bathroom. I heard the coolant hissing as it leaked out.

As it turned out, one Katyusha had hit just across the street (which was where the ball bearing had come from) and another had hit very close to our neighbor's house. The first Katyusha did some minor damage to the north side of our house (including the above-mentioned broken windows), and the second broke the outer pane (but NOT the inner one!) of the upper half of our large stairwell window (which faces south). All the south facing windows on our neighbor's house were broken, and there were pock marks on the walls and ceilings of nearly every room of his house. The other 3 houses in our complex also suffered varying degrees of damage. But no one was injured at all.

The emergency services people showed up within only a few minutes and quickly determined, of course, that no one was hurt. Later that same day, someone from the government insurance agency came out and assessed the situation. Within a week, all the damage to our house was repaired, and by the end of August, the money from the government was in my account.

Second story

Last night, we were at Kabbalat Shabbat prayers at our synagogue, Emet V'Shalom (EVS), in Nahariya as usual. This week, there was a bar mitzvah. The boy is a descendant (great grandson, at least, if not more generations) of a founder of the synagogue (it was founded by German Jews before WW II, as was the city itself) who was also its rabbi at one time.

The service was nearly finished, and Rabbi Horovitz had just begun to talk about the bar mitzvah boy, as he usually does, when a policeman burst in the door and told us we must all get out immediately. Although I don't think he said why, we all pretty much knew, and we proceeded very calmly to exit. Of course, the reason was a suspicious package. David actually saw it as we went out. At first, they just sent us to the other side of the street, but then they pushed us back even further, around the corner. There was no panic at all, and, in fact, we all just hung around talking and socializing. I don't know exactly what the bomb squad (at least I assume they were called) did, but after some time, we were allowed to go back in. As soon as we all got back in, Rabbi just picked right up where he had left off.

As you can imagine, unattended packages are always considered suspicious here, especially if they are located near any significant group of people.

Third story

After we got home last night, David got to bed a little before I did. When I was about to get into bed, I noticed that Pascal (our BIG black white with a white bib and some white paws) was playing with something over on David's side of the bed. I went over to check it out. When I got there, I saw that there was a good-sized black scorpion, right on one of David's thongs by the bed! Very quickly, I could see that it was dead. I'm sure the cats had killed it, since, as you may remember, they are experienced scorpion hunters. Anyway, I just picked up the thong, took it into the bathroom, dumped it into the toilet, and flushed. If I hadn't have found it, though, David would have had a possibly nasty surprise when he got up in the night and put his thongs on.

Blackie finally caught!

A quick update to my last post. Last Monday, we finally caught the black cat that had been stealing our cats' food and molesting the kittens. We put the cage with him in it in the trunk (well, actually the small hatch) of our car. Then, with our neighbors, Shimon and Hava, in the back seat, we took off for the Golan, releasing "Blackie" in the same area where we had released Spot several years earlier.

We've decided to coin new verbs in both Hebrew and English to describe this action. Both mean "to catch a misbehaving cat and relocate him/her to the Golan". In English, the verb is, of course, "to golan". In Hebrew, it's לגוולן l'gavlen, a verb in the פיעל Pi'el binyan (conjugation) where nearly all new modern verbs are created. It's based on the root ג-ו-ל-נ gimel-vav-lamed-nun, the letters of the word גולן Golan in Hebrew.

Kitten scratches

There's a male cat in our neighborhood who comes around nearly every day and tries to steal some of the food we put out for our outdoor cats. In fact, there actually are SEVERAL cats that try to do this, but one, a medium-haired black male, whom we have nicknamed Blackie, is the most frequent visitor, and he often does manage to get some food when we're not watching closely. Of course, this only serves to reinforce his behavior.

Stealing food is bad enough, but lately we've caught him trying to molest the kittens, too, and this is just beyond the pale for us. So, we went down to our favorite builder's supply store in Khatzor and bought a cat trap.

Here, I'll insert a little story that the lady there who sold us the trap told us. She said she's caught a dozen cats using a similar trap. One of them was actually very clever. He would open an unlocked window, come into her house, steal a schnitzel she had laid out, go back out through the window, and then, most remarkably of all, CLOSE the window behind himself! They couldn't figure out what was happening to the schnitzels until someone actually saw him doing this! By the way, she spoke almost no English, but I was able to understand her story in Hebrew.

So back to the trap we bought. Of course, one of the problems is trying to catch the bad black cat but NOT catch any of our own outdoor cats. Our first plan was to try to put the 3 kittens into the cat carrier so they wouldn't be able to go into the trap. Of course, they were NOT enthusiastic about this idea! :-)

Let's just say that this plan didn't work. Here's a picture, taken today (2 days later) of what one 3-month-old kitten can to when he or she REALLY wants to get away. This is my right arm:

Despite the pain, I was NOT angry at any of the kittens, but we did give up trying to put them into the cat carrier.

And what happened later, you may ask? Well, one kitten DID get trapped and was quite frantic about it. Later, Mr B, one of our adult outdoor cats also got stuck in there. So far, Blackie, the one we're TRYING to catch, has NOT gone in. He will eventually, though, I'm sure, and then we'll "golan" him. We invented this new verb, "to golan", which means "to take a cat to the Golan and release him there". Blackie should be the 2nd intended object of this unpleasant verb. Some of you may recall the first object, Spot.

I can't resist adding one more comment here. As many of you know, we had snakes for about 10 years and bred them during most of that time. Some years, we produced more than 100 babies in a single year. But the sum of all the snake bites I received during that entire time (not really that many, actually) was less than the damage done by one kitten in only a few seconds. And yet, people somehow think that snakes are dangerous!

Argentine Independence Day 2011

July 9 is Argentine Independence Day, a fact we were not aware of until some of our South American friends from our congregation invited us to a celebration of the event this year.

The celebration was held in the same room at the מתנ"ס Matnas (a common Hebrew word that is actually an acronym of מרכז תרבות נוער וספורט Mercaz Tarbut No'ar v'Sport, which means "Center of Culture, Youth, and Sports") where our congregation holds Friday night prayers.

Since July 9 fell on Saturday this year, the celebration was on Saturday night. The room was PACKED. Almost everyone there was from South America, of course, but at least one couple we know was from Uruguay rather than Argentina. Probably others were, as well. Anyway, I think we may well have been the only ones there who were NOT South Americans. But, for the evening, we were honorary Argentinians, which we loved!

The theme for the evening was clearly the tango. Of course, everything was in Spanish except the Nahariya mayor's short welcome speech (which was in Hebrew), meaning that I caught very little of it. David caught quite a bit more since he knows more Spanish than I. But we both really enjoyed the evening. There was singing, music, poetry readings, and, of course, some tango dancers!

Here are a couple of pictures I took from my spot in the middle of the audience using my iPhone 3G. The quality is not the best, but it will give you a little idea of the atmosphere. The first picture shows our good friend and fellow member of Congregation Emet v'Shalom, Julio, reading a poem about the tango:

This second picture shows a couple doing the tango. It was particularly hard to get a picture of dancers that was not blurred due to their motion. Even this one is a little blurry, but it will give you a bit of an idea of the dance:

My drasha last night at EVS

Last night, at the request of our rabbi, I delivered the drasha (sermon) of the week during the Kabbalat Shabbat prayers at our synagogue, Emet V'Shalom. It's on this week's Torah portion, בהעלותך B'ha'alotkha. If you'd like to read the original Hebrew (which is what I actually delivered), click here to read about it on my Hebrew blog. Here's the English translation (which was handed out in printed form to the English speakers in the audience):

Shabbat Shalom!

The Torah portion for this week is B'Ha'alotkha. As with many portions, there are several stories in it, but I would like to focus on one of them, which tells us about one of the complaints of the Children of Israel in the desert. Here is my version, a somewhat updated one.

The Children of Israel and all the other people with them developed a craving and they all began to cry together, "Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish and the squash and the watermelons and the onions and the garlic that we ate in Egypt." Apparently, they did NOT remember the hard slavery!

They continued: "And now, all we see is the manna." It should be pointed out here that the manna was a perfect food and was itself a big miracle that G-d gave them every day they were in the desert.

At this point, both Moses AND G-d got angry. Moses began to complain to G-d about the difficult people and this heavy burden. He really wanted to just die!

G-d told Moses to gather 70 of the elders of Israel and promised that they would help Moses with this matter. G-d also instructed Moses to say, in rather dramatic fashion, to the people, "G-d will certainly give you meat, and you will eat it, not one day, not 2 days, not 5 days, not 10 days, not 20 days, but a WHOLE month, until it comes out of your noses!"

Moses simply could not believe this, and he began to argue with G-d. But G-d told him, "You'll see if this happens or not."

And so Moses told the people about all this and gathered the elders, and they began to prophesy. It's not clear to me how this helped Moses, but he seemed satisfied.

And then a strong wind came that brought thousands of quail from the sea. For a whole day and night and the day after, the people gathered the quail and ate them. But while the meat was still in their teeth, a terrible plague occurred which killed many of them. It's written that they called the name of that place Kivrot Ta'avah ("Graves of Craving").

So, what can we learn from this story?

First, let's talk about cravings. Do we not have many cravings that we know are not good for us and not healthy? It's also hard for us to control them, isn't it? My mother of blessed memory used to say that we are creatures of habit. In general, this is good, in that we don't have to think about everything we do. But when we have a bad habit, it is hard for us to change it.

There's another lesson from this story, I think. Only a short time before this story takes place, the Children of Israel had come out of hard slavery in the Land of Egypt. According to our tradition, this was the greatest miracle in history! Besides that, every day they had the manna, which was a perfect food for their needs. It was also a big miracle. Nevertheless, they continue to complain many times against Moses and against G-d.

I'm afraid we are not all that different from them. We live in the Land! Is not this the greatest miracle of the modern world? Every day, we see the flowers, the butterflies, and all the good things that are in this country. We have comfortable homes, beautiful clothes, and all manner of healthy (and even not so healthy!) foods. But how many times do we complain, even about small matters that are not all that important.

I would like to encourage all of us to think about the good things in our lives and not to complain!

Shabbat Shalom!

Kittens, a cow, and horses

Today, I'm sharing several animal pics.

There's a sad story behind the first two pictures. A few weeks ago, one of our neighbors found 4 tiny baby kittens trying to nurse on their dead mother! Shimon, our next-door neighbor brought them to his house, put them behind his gas tanks (where they were fairly well protected), and began giving them diluted milk. He informed us, and we began feeding them cat food, as well. He also bought some dried milk especially for baby cats, and we tried giving that to them, as well. One of the kittens was very weak, and so we brought him/her into the house to try to save him/her. Unfortunately, we did not succeed.

The remaining 3 kittens are doing well, though, and are eating regular cat food with no problems. A little later, the kittens moved from behind Shimon's gas tanks to our yard, where they hide in the pipe that drains water from our roof (when it rains). This is a perfect place for them -- they're well protected, they're further from the road, and the pipe opens out right under our etrog tree, which provides some shade for them, as well.

One of the kittens has really taken a liking to me and is not shy at all. He (or maybe it's "she", since we really can't quite tell the gender yet) comes running to me and LOVES to be held and petted. I decided to name him "Moti", which is a Hebrew word that used somewhat like "sweetie" in English. Here's a picture of Moti sitting on my lap on the steps right above their pipe:

Here's a picture of the other 2 kittens. The one on the left is slightly lighter in color than the other 2, so I call him/her "Bahiri" (from the Hebrew word בהיר Bahir, which means "clear", but it also used to describe lighter colors). The one of the right, who is basically indistinguishable from Moti except by his/her behavior, is "Shai", a popular Hebrew name but, of course, also a play on words, in this case, on the English word "shy", which is pronounced the same.

Yesterday morning, we heard a cow bellowing. When we looked out, we saw this cow near our yard. Although you can't see it in this picture, she looked a bit pregnant. Maybe she was getting near delivery, but she later wandered away, so we really don't know.

In recent weeks, David and I have been trying to walk more. Just on the outskirts of town, there is a great paved path (called a טיילת tayelet in Hebrew). It's about a mile long. We usually park at the far end, and then walked both directions, since this puts the more uphill direction first. Along the tayelet, there is a large fenced area and a group of horses is somewhere in it. Sometimes, we can't see them at all because there are many trees, but very often we do see them, in different areas along our walk. Here's a picture of them that I took yesterday. You can see the horses in the foreground, including a brown baby next to his brown mother in the lower right. In the background, on the right, is the edge of the Ibikor neighborhood of Tsfat. And the picture also gives you a little idea of this beautiful area we have to walk in!

The "refugee" problem

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a refugee is a person who has been forced to leave his or her home and seek refuge elsewhere. The UN definition is longer, more detailed, and more restrictive than this one. This definition can reasonably be applied to many of the perhaps 700,000 Arabs who left Palestine before, during, and after Israel's War of Independence, and it definitely applies to the over 865,000 Jews who left Arab countries from 1948 until the early 1970s, of whom about 600,000 settled in Israel. In effect, there was a significant population between the Arab countries and the new Jewish State.

What happened next, though, was COMPLETELY different. The Jewish refugees who can to Israel were resettled by the young country, at great expense, with some social problems, but with brotherly love. The descendants of the Jews who came to Israel from Arab lands, Turkey, and Iran now account for more than half of the Jews in Israel. They have had full citizenship from the day they arrived and are an important part of the country today. The Arab refugees, on the other hand, were almost all forced to live indefinitely in refugee camps. With the exception of Jordan, their host countries refused to allow them to become citizens and limited the kinds of occupations in which they could work. For Palestinian refugees ONLY, the official UN definition was expanded to also include DESCENDANTS of refugees. These "refugees" now number about 3 million, few of whom, of course, were even BORN yet in 1948!

Why were these Palestinian refugees and their descendants treated so poorly by their Arab brothers? There are at least two reasons. First, the brotherly love was obviously not very strong, and the people in the host countries were not keen on these new-comers potentially taking their jobs. This, of course, is a common prejudice against immigrants that exists in nearly any country that has an immigrants in significant numbers. Even Israel isn't totally immune to this.

But the much more important reason for this bad treatment is that these unfortunate people are essentially pawns in the Arab world's determination to destroy the Jewish state. The Arabs' one demand that has never changed to this very day is that ALL of these "refugees" be allowed to return, not merely to somewhere in Palestine, but to their exact homes, many of which are in villages that no longer even exist. Such a return is absurd and would certainly mean the end of Israel. Also, note that no one would even CONSIDER demanding such as "right of return" for the Jews who left Muslim lands, even though their families had lived there continuously for centuries, pre-dating Islam!

So, when you hear that Palestinian "refugees" want to return to their homes in Israel, THIS is what it's really about.

The Nakba

Now let's get to the Nakba itself. "Nakba" is an Arabic word meaning "catastrophe". It's used to refer to what happened to the Palestinians in 1948. Let's review some history from that time.

In November of 1947, the UN adopted a plan to partition the part of the British Palestine Mandate that had not already be given to the Kingdom of Transjordan (later called Jordan). The plan called for 2 states, one Jewish and one Arab, and included detailed recommendations for the boundaries of the two.

So, we already HAVE a UN resolution for a Palestinian state! Why doesn't one exist? The first answer is that, while the Jews accepted the partition plan, the Arabs did NOT. Instead, when the British withdrew in 1948 and the Jews announced the establishment of the State of Israel, ALL the surrounding Arab countries immediately attacked the new State the very next day. There was no mystery about what they planned to do -- they loudly and very publicly proclaimed that their goal was to kill the Jews or to push them into the sea and to completely eliminate the State of Israel. So this was very clearly a war of survival for the Jews. Not surprisingly, it was a bloody war, with many casualties on both sides. The new Jewish state lost about 1% of its entire population, more than a third of them civilians. Entire villages were destroyed or depopulated on both sides, and many people became refugees (more, MUCH more, on that issue later).

To nearly everyone's surprise, the Arabs did NOT succeed in their goal. When an armistice was finally signed in 1949, Palestine was, in fact, divided betweens Jews and Arabs, although not very close to the UN-recommended borders. This armistice line, commonly called "the Green line", is the one we have been hearing so much about recently, misleadingly referred to as "the 1967 lines".

The Jewish part of Palestine continued to be the State of Israel, of course. What happened to the proposed Arab state? Here's the 2nd reason there is no Palestinian state: all the Arab parts of Palestine were occupied by neighboring Arab states. The so-called "West Bank" was occupied by the Kingdom of Transjordan (which explains the later name-change to "Jordan" -- they were no longer only "trans-", i.e. on the other side, of the Jordan River!), and the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt. These occupations continued for nearly 2 decades, but NONE of the Palestinians objected to either of them during that entire time! In other words, what the Arabs wanted was NOT a Palestinian state, but the end of the JEWISH state. The "Palestine Liberation Organization", established during this period (in 1964), was NOT opposed to Jordan or Egypt. It was opposed to ISRAEL, which did not occupy one square inch of the currently proposed Palestinian state.

So, what was the Nakba, the catastrophe?

As I mentioned before, many people were displaced from their homes and became refugees. The exact numbers are HIGHLY disputed, and there are no really reliable records. The best guess is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 400,000 to 750,000 Arabs. There are at least three main explanations for these displacements. The most easily documented reason is quite simple. Arab radio from surrounding countries that were invading told Arabs to leave temporarily so that the Arab armies would not be impeded in killing the Jews. Of course, it's hard to tell how many of the refugees actually were motivated by these broadcast, but at least SOME must have been.

The second reason, though, is probably the most important. As the Jewish forces began to have successes, the Arabs panicked. Remember that the Arab threat was not only to destroy the Jewish state but also to massacre the Jews. Remember, too, that in 1929 and on many other occasions as well, Arabs HAD, in fact, massacred Jews. There is almost NO doubt that the Arabs feared that the Jews would do to them exactly what they had promised to do to the Jews, had the war gone the other way!

The third reason for the Arab refugees is that some were definitely deliberately driven from their homes by the Jews. Although some of these evictions may have been unjustified and unnecessary, at least in retrospect, many of them were also strategically required by the conditions of the war. Remember, this war was NOT started by the Jews, and they were fighting for their very survival! This was most definitely NOT ethnic cleansing, as most of the Arabs in territory that was to become part of the State of Israel were encouraged to stay and did stay and become citizens of Israel with full civil rights, including the right to vote and to hold elected office (the Knesset has ALWAYS had some Arab members!).

In the third post of this series, I'll talk much more about the "refugee" issue.

The Hebron massacre of 1929

This is the first of 3 posts I intend to write regarding the Nakba and the current push of the Palestinians for UN recognition of a Palestinian state. So, you may ask, "Why is this one about 1929?"

We actually have a 92-year-old Palestinian woman to thank for making this connection. Click here to watch a short video (about 1.5 minutes) of an interview with her (in Arabic, with English subtitles).

Notice how the interviewer keeps trying to talk to her about the Nakba (the "catastrophe") of 1948, whereas SHE keeps wanting to talk about murdering the Jews like her father did in 1929!

In 1929 there was NO Jewish state, the Jews were still a minority in this area, and the British were the colonial power in charge. Based on fabricated rumors, Arabs rioted in Hebron (and several other places, as well, including Tsfat!) and brutally murdered Jews -- men, women, and children -- in cold blood. It's also worth noting here that the Jewish communities attacked were ones that had been here for hundreds of years, long BEFORE the Arabs were. In other words, there is NO way that this could be construed as attacks on "foreigners" or "new immigrants" or "colonizers".

Did the British punish the Arabs? Well, while some WERE arrested, tried, and convicted, the major reaction was that the British caved in to the Arab demands and, in particular, severely limited the number of Jews that were allowed to immigrate here (and thereby escape the coming Holocaust in Europe).

For more information about the Hebron massacre, I suggest checking out the Wikipedia article about it and also some of the external links at the end of the article.

My new CD is out!

I'm very excited to announce that my latest CD, הללו בעוגב Halelu B'Ugav ("Praise with Organ"), is now available for sale at CD Baby!

For more information about this album (and my previous ones, as well) and to hear (and even download!) one whole track for FREE, click here.

On CD Baby, you can read all about my music, you can buy my CDs, you can buy and download digital versions of all my albums, and you can even buy and download individual tracks. Click here to go directly to the page for this album, from which you can also easily go to my artist's page and to the pages for my other albums.

Yom HaZikaron in the Jordan River gorge

Today is יום הזיכרון Yom HaZikaron ("Day of Memory") here in Israel. Although the name of the day is similar to Memorial Day in the U.S. in May, the day itself is VERY different here.

First, it's not actually a holiday here at all. Because it's always the day before יום העצמאות Yom HaAtzma'ut ("Independence Day"), it is an ערב חג Erev Khag ("Eve of a Holiday"), that is, the day before a holiday. Therefore, it's treated much like any Friday -- businesses are open in the morning but close by early to mid afternoon.

Second, despite businesses being open, the day is very solemn here in Israel. It starts at sunset the evening before and includes 2 long, nationwide siren blasts. The first comes in the evening at 8:00 p.m., and the second is the following morning (today) at 11:00 a.m. These are quite remarkable events. Everyone in the entire country, including all traffic on the highways, comes to a complete halt for about 2 minutes. People actually pull over to the side and get out of their cars. The reason for this great solemnity is quite simple: nearly any family that has been in Israel for some time has lost at least one person in a war or a terrorist attack. This is the one day a year when all these people are officially and publicly remembered as a whole.

David had a dental appointment today in Tel Aviv, one of the long series of procedures that he is undergoing. We have tried to schedule them all for Sundays, but sometimes it's not possible because a particular dentist that needs to work on him isn't there on Sundays (which we only found out AFTER signing up for the work and being assured it could all be done on Sundays!). So, today I had arranged weeks in advance with Berlitz to take a vacation day in order to take David to this appointment.

We started out from home this morning at about 9:00 a.m. and had gotten as far as the gas station at Kadarim (near the start of highway 65) when I got a call from the dental office saying that the dentist would NOT be in today, and, therefore, the appointment was canceled! At least I was glad that we had only been on the road for about half an hour. We're NOT pleased, though, that this probably means that I'll have to use up yet ANOTHER Berlitz vacation day to get this work done. I didn't quite pick up enough of the Hebrew to understand WHY the dentist wasn't in today, but he had better have a GOOD reason!

Anyway, suddenly we had a free, unplanned vacation day. We decided to take a dirt road that we had only been on once before. In fact, we had only been part of the way on it. It starts near כפר הנשיא Kfar HaNasi ("President's Village"), which is next to Tuba-Zangariyye, the bedouin city I wrote about recently, and heads down towards the Jordan River. It connects to another road that we had been on before.

This road (also a dirt road) goes along the Jordan River, from the highway 91 bridge over the river, to the access road to Carcom, a kibbutz in the hills above the northern end of the Kinneret ("The Sea of Galilee"). This is the stretch of the Jordan River where it flows from the Hula Valley through an increasing deep and narrow gorge to the Kinneret. This road starts in the north near the river but doesn't descend nearly as much so that, at its southern end, it's not near the river at all and it's much higher up.

The road we drove down on meets the river road when it's still not too far from the river, and, in the same area, there is another dirt road that goes right down to the river. In fact, there was once a bridge over the river there called the Kfar HaNasi Bridge. The remains of most of it are still there, but the west end is no longer connected to the bank. When the river is low, it's possible to walk across it, but no vehicle could make it. Right now, however, some of the water is flowing OVER the bridge, so it's completely impassible, and anyone trying to walk across would be swept down the river!

Here's a picture I took from the road before it got all the way down to the river:

Here's a picture from the open flat area near the west end where the bridge was once connected:

Finally, here's a picture of the cascade going over and under the bridge, as seen from a rock slightly out in the river below the bridge:

Our vehicle couldn't make it quite all the way down to the river, so I had to walk the last bit while David waited patiently in the car.

After I got back to the car, we continued south on the river road towards Carcom. The 11:00 siren sounded as we were driving along this road, so we stopped, got out of the car, and stood and waited in silence until the sirens had stopped. It seemed an appropriate place to mark this solemn moment. I should note in closing that we saw not a single other person or vehicle during our whole drive today on these dirt roads! We DID see quite a few cows (including some that had to be coaxed to move out of our way!) and a lot of beehives.

A drive in Tuba-Zangariye

Yesterday, we had some time between classes, so we decided to take a short drive. Believe it or not, there's a city that we can see from our house but which we had never been to. Its a Bedouin town named Tuba-Zangariyye (actually, I think it was once 2 separate villages that have since grown together). It's located a short distance east of highway 90, the other side of the highway from Rosh Pinna. These Bedouins, although they are, of course, Muslims, have been allies of the Jews since the early days.

It's quite a lovely city with a very suburban "feel" about it. We saw a variety of people, including many children. It seems to be nicely laid out, and there are many beautiful Arab-style houses, some painted in vivid colors. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. Perhaps on our next visit!

New album soon to be available!

I'm excited that everything is now finished with my latest album הללו בעוגב Halelu B'Ugav ("Praise with the Organ"). I sent it off to CD Baby on Sunday. They should get it in about 1-2 weeks, and it will take them another 2-3 weeks to process it. Then it will be available for sale. You'll then be able to order a CD or buy and download either the whole album or individual tracks from them.

Here's a picture of the cover:

Finally, here's a link to my home page where you can read a little more about this album, as well as my previous albums.

Victor Halvani Park HaPsalim

After returning from our trip to the Hills of Gilboa, David took a nap and I went for a walk. One of the places I visited on my walk was the Victor Halvani Sculpture Park (named for the sculptor), which is located right by the main entrance to our neighborhood, נווה אורנים Neve Oranim ("Pine Oasis"). Here are a couple of pictures I took there. In the first one, you can see the large antenna tower in our neighborhood on the right side of the picture:

In this picture, you can see the name of the park in large letters made of concrete. The name can be translated as "Victor Halvani Sculpture Park" or, more irreverently, as "Victor Halvani Park of the Idols". :-)

The Hills of Gilboa and Har Barkan

Since today is the last day of פסח Pesakh ("Passover") here in Israel, it is a holiday. We decided to drive to the Hills of Gilboa. We went to הר ברקן Har Barkan ("Mt. Barkan") where some beautiful deep purple irises bloom every year. But, this year, we were too late, and they were already gone. However, there were still many other lovely flowers, and the view was great since it was quite a clear day. Here are some pictures I took there.

Here's a nice shot of some interesting purple flowers:

These flowers are quite small, but the light makes them sparkle like gold in the photo. Notice the tiny bug on one of them:

These pink flowers are quite small, and there are also a lot of them in the pasture near our house:

Here's an interesting insect just sitting on the rock in the trail:

I saw a few thistles like this one. Can you spot the 2 bugs in this picture?

These pink hollyhocks are in bloom all over the place right now!

This is the look-out tower at the top of Har Barkan:

I shot the next four photos from the top of the tower pictured above.

This is the view looking east toward the Jordan River Valley. The city on the left is Beit She'an, one of the 10 towns of the Decapolis in Roman times. The hills in the background are on the other side of the Jordan River in the Kingdom of Jordan.

This is the view looking south. Har Barkan is just north of שומרון Shomron ("Samaria"), the more accurate name for the northern part of the so-called "West Bank", the part of the Palestine Mandate that was illegally occupied by the Kingdom of Jordan from 1948 until 1967. In the foreground of this shot and on the left, you can see part of the separation barrier. If you look carefully, on the right side you can see an Arab village in Shomron, complete with 2 minarets.

This is the view looking west. In the distance in this photo, you can barely see הר כרמל Har Karmel ("Mt. Carmel"). At its right end is the upper part of the city of חיפה Haifa, right by the Mediterranean Sea.

Here's the view looking north. In the foreground is the parking lot. You can barely see the roof of our little red car at the near end. Further up in the shot, you can see the fertile Jezreel Valley. Still further back, on the left, is Har Tavor ("Mt. Tabor"). On a REALLY clear day, you might be able to see Tsfat. I think it would be a little to the right of the center. It WAS clear enough to see Har Tavor from Tsfat today.

And, finally, I just couldn't resist. Here's a nice shot of our wonderful new car, sitting right there in the parking lot!

I want to end by commenting on what these views show about Israel. The first thing that should strike you is how small it is. From this one point, you can see Jordan, much of Shomron, nearly to the Mediterranean, and nearly up to Lebanon and Syria. Or, to put it another way, you can see almost all of northern Israel and parts of several neighboring countries.

Why the sea parted?

Here's an interesting sign we saw when shopping at BIG in Karmiel this week. The Hebrew words at the bottom translate to "shopping and gifts for Passover are done only at Big". And here you thought that the reason the sea parted was so that we could escape from Pharaoh and his army!

What is Freedom?

Pesach is the holiday of freedom, and it lasts a whole week. So during this week, my mind has kept returning to this topic. I think now, perhaps, it's time to try to organize some of these thoughts and try to write a coherent essay on the matter.

Let's start by considering the word "freedom"; its Latin-derived synonym, "liberty"; and their related words: "free", "liberate", "liberated", "liberation", "liberal", and "libertarian". Notice the variety of connotations, feelings, and ideologies that these represent. This brings us to the first point that I'd like us to note: "freedom" and "liberty" have many complex layers of meaning and many different contexts of application.

The first, most intimate level of freedom is the personal one. Roughly, this means that an individual person is free to do what he or she likes and is not controlled by anyone or anything else.

If we think for a moment about this and its implications, it immediately bring us to what I believe is the most important thing we must consider. Freedom is NEVER absolute. Even if you were the only person in the universe, you would not be completely free. You can't travel to the moon just because you fancy doing so. If you jump off the cliff, gravity will take its course, and the collision at the bottom is likely to end all of your freedoms forever! Furthermore, you are NOT the only person, and the very existence of others means that your freedom is limited by their presence and by your need and, perhaps, desire to interact with them. Every person's freedom is limited by the freedoms of others in the environment.

Now let's start at the other end: slavery. At first thought, we think we know what this means -- one person "owns" another. This kind of slavery is quite easy to define, and it can be outlawed, as it has been essentially throughout the world (of course, outlawed things do not completely disappear just because they are illegal!). But there are other, more subtle kinds of slavery, as well. A desperately poor man may not be owned by his rich neighbor, but he may still have to do many things that he would not choose for himself, just to survive. A woman from a disadvantaged background may spend her whole life serving others in a way that is hard to distinguish from actual slavery.

Economic wealth and other kinds of social and political power certainly bring MUCH more freedom to some people than others have. A rich woman can quit a job she doesn't like a lot more readily than a poorer one. A wealthy man has many more options regarding where he lives, what he does, where and when he travels, and, in general, what his life can be like. The Hebrew word for slavery is עבדות avdut, which comes from the root that means "work". The emphasis, then, was NOT on ownership but on who had to do the work. In this sense, perhaps we could say that MOST of us are slaves in the modern world! Very few of us can actually live without having to work at all. And it's absolutely certain that the world simple could not function if NO ONE had to work!

Let's consider another type of freedom that is very important, especially in the modern Western world: political freedom. For Americans especially this usually means the freedoms and rights that are delineated in the U.S. constitution: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of peaceable assembly, and so on. We tend to think of these as absolutes, but, in reality, NONE of them actually are.

Let's start with freedom of speech and its close relative, freedom of the press. The first limitation here is the proverbial one: you are NOT free to yell "FIRE!" in a crowded theater! More seriously, though, you are not free to bully and intimidate others, and you are not free to incite others to murderous actions. You are also not free to say or publish deliberate falsehoods for the purpose of ruining others' reputations. If you do, you may be sued for libel, and rightly so.

Freedom of religion can be particularly difficult in actual implementation. Let's start with an extreme example -- you are NOT free to kill your neighbor no matter how much your religion may say that you must! But there are also many more realistic and subtle limits. To what extent are you allowed to proselytize (i.e. to try to convince others to join your religion)? What are the limits on the public practice of your religion? Can you blast calls to prayer out on loudspeakers at whatever hour your religion requires? What about ringing church bells? Most of these questions have been dealt with in different ways by different countries at various times. Almost all of the answers reflect more the political and social situations than any kind of absolute notion of freedom of religion.

Even freedom of assembly can be problematic. If large numbers of people plan to gather in a given area, the issues of crowd control can become a matter of life and death. For this reason, prior coordination with some kind of authority is surely important and, of necessity, puts some limits on this basic freedom.

Finally, I'd like to talk about another kind of freedom, one that's not as familiar to Americans perhaps: group or ethnic or national freedom. The Israeli national anthem, התקווה HaTikvah ("The Hope"), speaks of our desire להיות עם חופשי בארצנו lihyot am khofshi b'artzenu ("to be a free people in our Land"). What does this mean? It's surely about more than individual and political freedoms, things which we can have, at least subject to the general limitations discussed above, in many countries in the modern world. It's something more communal, more cultural. It includes our desire to determine our own collective destiny, to avoid having to depend on others for the continuation, development, and free expression of our national identity.

Of course, this type of freedom also has its limits. Even the United States, certainly the most militarily powerful country in the world today, feels the need to cultivate allies and get some kind of international consensus, however limited, for most of its operations. How much more so is this true of tiny Israel, even though we have of necessity managed to develop a formidable military.

And so my conclusions are that freedom is never absolute but is always a continuum. It has many aspects and operates and many different levels. Perhaps this is why we have a holiday every year that focuses on this topic. May we ALL be freer next year than we are now!