Some Damage Pictures of Safed

The first two are building 10 of Tsahal street on the left, and building 9 on the right. I know the gal who lives in the first of three apartments that the building 10 katyusha hit. The damage on building 9 looks more like the "Grad" missiles, which are a lot bigger and carry a larger payload than the Katyusha.







Here's a closer shot of the building 10 entry hole.














Then in that "path" of destruction is the Ulpanit, a high school whose windows were blown out when a katyusha landed on the kindergarten right next to it. All of this is a direct line to the local hospital, a cachement hospital serving the whole Northern Galilee region.

A lot of pictures were taken of the damage that first day when rockets fell right in the middle of the commerce area of town. This sign over the "Beit Maimon" furniture store which was right next to a direct hit and lost windows, says "In spite of the rocket, we're continuing as regular".

A shop owner of one of my favorite household goods was hit at home directly by the third rocket of this same volley. Thankfully, she and her family, including a grandson in the home, were not harmed. However her house was left open to the four winds by the hit. She and her husband remained in town during the summer rain of katyushas for another two weeks before she was so sick from stress that they left for a week to family. Worried about their home, they returned, then left again, and are now finally getting the house repaired enough that it's not just open to the world.

This impact killed a man. There was a bizarre tropical storm hours before I passed by the spot, cleaning up the dust, dirt, and debri. Looks like nasty little gouge now. Deadly thangs.

Tsfat, home again.

Ooof, can't upload pictures from work. I'll post from home. My computer in my home! Do you realize how wonderful that is?

It was even good clocking in yesterday for the first time in over a month. I generally hate clocking in. Makes me feel like an untrustworthy individual usually. Now it was a happy gesture of returning to routine... for now.

Nobody, but nobody thinks this quiet will last.

We had a very unusual tropical storm blow through yesterday, cleaning up a lot of the dust and dirt. There went my photo shoot. Anyway I had a lot of work to get caught up on.

Geula - hopefully going home soon

Geula is a neighborhood in Jerusalem. It also means "redemption". However, Geula Jerusalem is a place that raises my short hairs.

The pic doesn't really capture how dirty, smelly, noisy, and croweded this area is.

Makes me want to go home to Tsfat.

So we're giving the cease-fire a couple of days to measure how well it sticks. Basically a typical cease-fire with our Arab cousins has amounted to "We cease, they fire."

We aren't pleased that katyushas were still raining on the whole Galilee region yesterday, and that WITH our troops up to and over the Litani river. Can you say "Kiryat Shmona will become a life style"? Hope not.

So we will wait until the end of the week. The kids have camp until then, and I have been invited to a good friend's celebration of her first grandchildren (twins) and a wedding this week. I can really look forward to going home.

Jerusalem Still - Teddy Stadium on Tu B'av

So we went to Teddy Stadium last night to hear Rav Amnon Yitzhak. I learned several important things about going to "hear" something at a stadium.

First, if you got there early enough to find seating anyway, so sit as directly across from an ampliphier as possible. The first pic is from where we were originally sitting and it was a study in wave disturbance. Namely sound waves from one amp disturbing the other so we couldn't understand a thing, even though the sound was loud.

Second, when you leave your home for a couple of weeks in case of war, bring a sweater. It might get cold.

Third, do not in any case allow your fourteen year old daughter to insist on staying til the end when the end is later than the last bus home. It took us two hours to get home, since there were very few buses, none to our area of town, and for some bizarre reason hardly any taxis and the ones who were around were not picking up fares unless you called. I refuse to own a cellphone. So we finally took a bus to the central bus station area, got out early to walk to Angels to get a very needed late late night snack, and finally got a cab from there to finish off the last bit back to "home".

Notice I still have not tripod. I am working on truly forgiving the girl, since really I never should have loaned it to her in the first place. One of my golden rules over the last few years has been to never loan out anything I can't afford to lose or have come back in bad condition. Sadly, many people around me do not seem to be careful with others' property.


Last night was the beginning of Tu B'av, the 15th of the Hebrew month of Av. Notice the full moon rising over the stadium... cooool. Eventually the whole stadium filled up (22,000 people singing "We love you Hakodesh Baruch Hu!").

And I bought a 1 Gig thumbstick yesterday to clear my camera cards and get some more web work done. A few Photoshop graphics eat up a lot of space on wittle owd XP memory cards. Not that my graphics is much good:

Wandering Jews

Have you ever had one of those plants, the Wandering Jew? They put down roots wherever they hit soil, always seem to spring back from boughts of drought, and will root overnight in water? Yeah, well, it all sounds nice, but I can't say it's a delight to be a wandering Jew.

We have it pretty easy. We're staying with relatives, their apartment is large, a minor miracle happened and the guy in charge of the salary department actually got me into the computer system so my salary was direct deposited at the end of last week, and I only have three kids to shlep around.

But it's the nature of the wandering Jew to just want to go home. Okay, Master of the Universe, you gave me a paid vacation, my kids have gotten to go to an expensive American style day camp that they never would have in times of peace, my home is still intact, everyone from my job is still alive and unharmed, and I just can't shake the strong feeling that if I had the ruby slippers, clicking my heels would have worked to get home.

My brain on war is very scrambled. Last Shabbat we were in Kochav Hashachar. I didn't take picture. The Shabbat before that we were in Ramat Beit Shemesh A. I didn't take pictures. Hey, what's a photo blog with no photos????

So I will try, bli neder (no promises), to start taking pics again so that I can make my blog posts the way I like to: a picture with only a little blurb of text.

Oh, and did I say that I want to go home?

Jerusalem Pictures

Hrmmph. All my friends are blogging on time! Laurie over at http://safed.blogspot.com is also in exile, but she's blogging. Aunt Laya over at http://auntlaya.blogspot.com is still blogging from exile. And my pal who lives here in Jerusalem at http://sector-9.blogspot.com is blogging. Waaaaaaa! I'm the only one who doesn't have regular computer access for blogging. Or the time and/or energy.

Mostly just keeping the kids amused or busy this week. I did manage to get out to a meeting about the http://torahscience.org starting a university with the Gal Einei Institute ( http://www.inner.org). Other than that, I went to Geula to try to get some funds to help pay for the food that my SIL's family is so graciously providing us for now going on 2 1/2 weeks. The give-away was already finished, and the sign said, "Na lo lhafriah", or "Please don't disturb", so I didn't bother asking if that meant that no more applications at all were being accepted, or if only that day was finished. I don't like rude signs.

Over a week ago my friend Elana Rozenman invited me and other Tsfat ladies to a dinner at the Clayman's that was originally dedicated to the Sderot women who have been putting up with Kassam rockets for 5.5 years already! The setting was stunning:

This was the view from the balcony where we were treated to a gala barbeque dinner.

That's Mrs. Clayman in the sky blue turban and dress. What an amazing gift for charity they have!

These pics haven't been edited at all, since I'm not home. I don't have my programs, my computer, among other things. I can't get much done on my business, since I insist on all my programs being legal (it is for business, after all), and they all have a limited number of activations. I tried getting a laptop.. but the Ctrl button stuck. The rentals are all rented. Most people don't have the IIS installed on their systems even with XP Pro, and since most people aren't actually legal with their Windows, they can't just install it. Without IIS, I could install Apache server, but I really fobbed getting Cold Fusion set up properly with it. In other words, this lady really, really needs her vewy own waptop!

That was a long way of saying these photos are larger than usual and probably not balanced regarding light, etc.

Also, still have no tripod, thanks to one of the girls in Tsfat who borrowed it to video the 8th grade graduation show. I do hope she'll take it to heart as soon as we're all back home and replace my tripod which she broke.

That's about it right now. I'm not the greatest blogger. I really like posting the photos and short blurb. I do have my card reader, which makes it easier to post photos, but when it's not your own puter.... ah exile. Doesn't make great press, though. No real hardships.

No pics, I'm a war refugee

Of course, I took my camera with me. Heck, I took all my backups, our passports, the deed to our apartment, even our kids vaccination records!

We left because otherwise I would have committed familicide after more than three days of all of us locked in the house with the trisim down. This way the kids can have a life, and I can try to figure out whether I can work on the road. Remind me that for a computer addict, it's really, really stooopid not to be mobile capable.

Not sure what will be. Looks like the Almighty has quite a ride in store for us. Fasten your spiritual seatbelts.

Alleys in Tsfat

Nope, not gonna show you pictures of Katyusha's falling. It was very noisy last night as war rumbled in the air. Ah, nothing like the sound of Apache's all night long. Oh, was that our artillery bombing them, or their Katyusha's dropping on us? It was noisy all night long.

These pictures are of quieter times in the Old City of Tsfat. We just finished Klezmer festival. I would have taken more pics, but I loaned out my tripod (STOOOOPID), and the girl returned it missing the piece which actually attaches to the camera. No tripod, no night shots. I actually need it for some video ideas, too.

Anyway, this alley is one of the "famous" alleys, with me being fascinated by the lamp rewired sideways.

Grapes of Joy -- Safed grapevines

Friends of mine have this wonderful grapevine in their front courtyard. The house is multiple rooms looking onto the gated courtyard.

Right now the grape vine is in full greenery, with grape clusters ripening in the early summer air. Truly lovely.







This one makes you want to say , "Is it live or is it Photoshop?". The grapes look almost like plastic grapes right now.












Looking up at the clusters from below, with the sun on the leaves.
You have to admit, I live in a very picturesque little town.

Windows of Opportunity

I was purchasing some stock photography today, and realized that maybe I could sell some of my images as stock photos.

Many of the photos that look good on screen don't print as beautifully. I like to send my pics to print to make sure they'll look good printed.

The local digital photo store has a website to upload images. Then I just drop by to pick up my prints and pay for them. It's a little store in Tsfat, but I really like sending in my prints via the net. http://picdigital.co.il/

So I'm thinking that pics that don't print quite as stunningly as I like (who me, picky?), I could sell as stock photos. Have to check into the specs. My camera is only 4.5 Mb memory, so there's a limit to the size that prints well at all.

For instance, this picture is very pretty, but the really nice shot of this window can be seen at http://www.jewishbyte.com/store.php?i=105799517/roshhashanah.29667456

Plants around Tsfat

You can tell that this picture was taken earlier in the season. By now the grasses are brown among the herbs and shrubs, the thistles also brown and full of fluffy white seeds.





The calendula in my garden is a wonderful self seeder. It withstands the hot dry summers, and with a little water always offers up some blossoms.


In my herb garden I grow a number of medicinal and ornamental herbs. This one is sage. It was in bloom recently, among my mint, jasmine, and other plants.

The Dead Tour Tsfat II

Just south of the old Tsfat Hadassah hospital, which is now the Wing B housing the psychiatric department, lies the resting place of Nahum Ish Gamzu. Nahum Ish Gamzu was the teacher of Rabbi Akiva. His motto in life was alway, "It's all for the best". Whatever happens is ultimately for the good.

The gravesite has been recently improved with a lovely wooden roof, bookshelves, and seating. The neighborhood is quiet and peaceful, a perfect place to read Psalms in the shade.

Lag BaOmer, Meron, and Bonfires

This is a low res image of Mount Meron from our perch in Tsfat by day. The right hand second "camel hump" is Mount Meron. At the base of the mountain is where you find the ritual resting place of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

By now Meron is on it's way to becoming the fourth largest city in Israel, a status it enjoys once a year on Lag BaOmer. Tents are pitched for kilometers, and the roads are already blockaded. Security is tight. Not enough for me to let my kids go alone..


This shot is from the Old City of Tsfat at sunset last summer at around Klezmer festival time. You have to admit, we've got a highly photographic little corner of the planet.



Last year we stayed in Tsfat for Lag BaOmer, not being fond of big crowds. This a cool night shot without a tripod of the kids gathering wood for the bonfire.










The bonfire a bit closer.

Remember, always follow safe fire practices, and stay upwind!

The Dead Tour I - Shem V'Ever cave

Welcome to The Dead Tour, Tsfat.

No, not the Grateful Dead of rock 'n roll fame.

The Holy Dead of Jewish fame.

This is a picture of the cave which is attributed to be the place of the yeshiva of Shem and his grandson Eber. Midrash says that Yaacov come here to learn for 7 years on his wasy to Lavan's back in Ur. Shem was one of the three sons of Noah.

The Kuzari explains that before the birth of the 12 tribes, divine influence was handed down father to son, sometimes skipping a generation father to grandson. Shem was the recipient from Noah of the tradition of divine inspiration.

Today the yeshiva of Shem and Eber is open only at certain times, and somehow I'm never there when it is. This is a picture of the door. There is a synagogue next door to it, which has prayer services three times a day.

Kol Rina looks out over the Ari towards Meron

Recently a new structure appeared on the stairs leading down from the Old City to Meor Chaim. It's a new Beit Midrash (house of study). The sign says that on the premises there is Torah learning, an institute for (learning for) bar mitzvah and chazanut (cantorial duties), "shirat habakashot", which I would loosely translate at poetry of supplication, and various study groups of Jewish heritage.






Looking up a bit, you see this open door structure that is labeled "Across from Rashbi Beit Midrash Kol Rina V'yishua". The voice of joy and redemption. It sits a top a hill overlooking the cemetary towards Meron, thus the allusion to Rashbi.
Ah, such a view from the Beit Midrash!

But what's that in the right hand corner of the picture? Garbage?











Alas, as with many construction projects in Tsfat, this one has yet to clean up the resulting pile of rubble, refuse, and general dirt that resulted from the building.

Hopefully they will, so that it looks as lovely from the outside as I'm sure it does to look out from the inside.

Tel Hatzor nearby

On Monday of Chol Hamoed, we went to Tel Hatzor. I've been wanting to go for over a year. There was an article last summer in the Shmurat HaTeva publication "BaShvil HaAretz" about the dig which sounded very interesting. We went on a day when there were guided tours. Definitely made the day. The kids again really enjoyed hearing all about how the Israelites entered the Land, and see signs of our history from then until the times of King Ahab. Quite impressive water works, a palace, and other interesting remains. There was also a mud brick making activity for the kids. Weather was great, with a fierce wind picking up on the late afternoon. I used my Photoshop Elements to try out some panoramic pastes. Since I didn't use a tripod, the fits aren't exact. But you get the "picture" of how lovely the views are.

This is a view from the western prominent citadel north towards part of the "lower city" which has not been much excavated. To the right of the hill is a major "dent" in the slope, part of a temple.





I just had to share this picture of the most amazing looking beetle we saw while there. I took pictures of three bugs while we were there. One is this green and gold cousin of the cockroach. Another was a water beetle we saw on the descent to the water works (9 stories deep in the earth). The other was a nasty spider that the Nature Reserve volunteer said sucked blood and was only mildly poisonous.



This is the view from "area G" when you first go up on the Tel. The view at the left most is looking north and a little west to the Naftali mountains. My the right most, you are looking toward the Golan Heights.

Meiri Musem Safed

On the first day of Chol Hamoed we went to the Meiri Musem for a tour. There was a nice guide who had done a Master's thesis on Tsfat. The museum is full of interesting old Tsfat collectibles, facts, documents, pictures, and more. Highly recommended.

It also fit in the budget really well. 18 NIS per adult and 8 NIS per child. It was a touch rainy, so no major outings seemed appropriate.

Our kids 9 and 11 were the perfect age for the museum. They've had enough history background to enjoy it, and listened carefully to the guide.
















This is a view of a "house for 8" that is made of typical Tsfat houswares of old.







This is a sweet display of wooden walking sticks of "Ziknei Tsfat", the Elders of Tsfat. The hall is dedicated to that mythical creature, the elderly sages of Safed. Only all the biographical material is real.

Cloudy Spring Days over the Galilee

When you look south of Safed, you look out over rolling hills that look like waves in the distance. The clouds add even more of a wave appearance some days. The word "Galilee" is "galil" in Hebrew, and is related to the word "gal", or wave.

Right now the hills are a lovely green, and the cloudy grey skies bring out all the different variations of green.

I took this picture as two pictures and played with the panoramic scene setting in my Photoshop Elements. That was fun! I own Elements because it costs 1/10 of the price of the full Photoshop, and suits my needs for almost everything. It's a lot of fun.

More spring in the holy Safed Cemetary

This view is looking out from the corner of the "tiyelet" towards the holy Ari's gravesite. The large blue monument with lots of people around it towards the enber of the image is the Ari's grave. There are many famous Jewish scholars, mystics, poets, and even a prophet (the prophet Hosea ben Beiri) buried in the Safed cemetary.

Some of us have children there, too.

On the horizon of the picture, you can see the flat hills, beyond which is Lebanon. We are actually, as the crow flies, only 15 km from the "Good Fence" passage from Lebanon.

As the season gets hotter, the green will gave way to brown. But for now, the new life of spring is abundant even in our holy cemetary.

Springtime in the .... cemetary

It's already the "yellow wave" of color here. Thick green growth covers the ancient cemetary of Safed right now, and the yellow of the mustard is the dominant color. The "red wave" of kalanit (anenome) has finished, with the red wave of poppy not quite in yet. Later, as the green dies down, there is a "purple wave" of various thistle blooms.

This view will be brown, maybe even blackened from small brush fires, by the time the Ari's hilulah comes around on 5 Av. Right now, it's grand spring colors.