Mad Max, Kassam, Calatrava, and Purim

I this post:

MAD MAX OF MITZPEH RAMON
RABBI URIEL
PURIM,
KASSAM ROCKET, and
CALATRAVA BRIDGE, not necessarily in that order.

I found a picture from the Machon Meir's Chanuka '97 or 98 trip to Mitzpeh Ramon. This guy stood out. I met Mad Max when Andrew Casden and I were exploring a small oasis in the middle of the arid desolation of the crater, or caldera, as some scientists call it, this guy on a motorcross bike barreled onto the scene and warned us not to break any vegetation or disturb rocks. I immediately counter-questioned him regarding the impact of his terrain-plowing bike. He was an open-minded type and soon we got into an amicable conversation. He is formelry from Lithuania, and now he is a park ranger. I told him is a pure Mad Max. He said, sure, he often gets mad at arrogant people tearing up vegetation, digging for rare rocks, scaring wildlife, endangering themselves with rattlesnakes, scorpions, and littering.


You remember Rabbi Uriel? I have just found out from Shalom (in the picture below) that the rabbi has died some time ago. I think his last name was Horowitz, and that is how it appears on the Halachoh Beruroh Talmud's list of editors. The rabbi learned with everyone, be it the basics of Judaism with complete beginners and converts, or high-level Gemoro studies with other rabbis. I started to learned Yoreh Deoh a month or two up to Pesach of the year 2000.


Anyway, this Purim I took my family to our friends in Sorotzkin neighborhood, and while trasnfering buses (NN. 23 to 2) surveyed the interestingly scary Calatrava bridge. The welding decks are still marking the joints of the pylon sections. Some wires still look sagging. They are still working on something as you can see in the 7 pictures below.







Purim joy:


And this is a jeep from Sderot. Towards the back of the roof note one of many Kassam rockets that have fallen on the town.

And the celebrations in Sorotzkin.

See you soon?

Adam's Waterfall, Bus Passes

This drawing was given to me by Adam Teitelbaum, from Texas, who came through Machon Meir. Soon I will post scans of group pictures from that era.

That was an interesting era. Amitai, Andrew Casden, Rabbi Kenny Cohen, Menachem Listman.
They are all in the pics to come.

Also that was the time I could not fathom the concept, or think of Jerusalem monthly bus passes. Eventually I got married and matured to start buying them. This was the period when I actually scanned them.

So many security features. So much money.

Art by Casden/Reason to Keep Chalav Israel

A lot has happened since the last post. The Calatrava bridge has had most of its strings strung. There was a terrorist attack on the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva. I have just remembered that I wanted to post some of my friends art. This one is by Leib (Andrew) Casden, given to me on the occasion of my wedding.

And these are the CAsden brothers, with the city of Shkhem in the background below.

And on a totally different subject: this is the reason to keep Chalav Israel(Cholov Isroel). The follwoing pictures are from an industrial milk farm where cows had a hatch installed leading into the last stomach, ino roder to speed up their digestion and produce more milk. The hatch also helps with cleaning the stomach to make digestion more efficient, see below.This renders a cow non-kosher with regards to both mill and meat.