EIlat Pictures!

Yes, its true, I have finally posted the Eilat pics!!! Check out the gallery! The link is once again www.holylandphotos.smugmug.com
Enjoy!
Jesse

Operation Continues

Hello,
I am still ok, back in Bet Shemesh in Yeshiva. Operation Cast Lead continues. The OP got its name from a popular Chanuka poem that talks about dreidles being cast out of lead. The Israelis are bombing Gaza on a constant basis now, and having just declined a 48 hour cease fire, will continue to do so. They have ammassed a large # of troops at the border ready to go into Gaza for an intense ground opperation if given the order. The IDF has also placed 9,2oo reserveists on call in the event that they are needed to be called up at a moments notice. I have lost count of the terrorists killed so far. When I see an updated # I will post it. I will also be posting any new updates on the OP as they come in from here on out. In case your interested Israel has a youtube channel where you can see actual footage of the IAF and the Israeli Navy Bombing Gaza to kingdom come! The link is www.youtube.com/idfnadesk
Enjoy. Also please note, for those of you who are following the news on CNN or the Times, (or Boston.com who is also owned by the Times), they are extreemly bias. They have some crazy photos that are clearly photo-shopped and staged. If you want good news coming out of Israel www.israelnationalnews.com and www.jpost.com are all over it. I will post again soon,
till then
May The Hand Of G-d Be With The Men And Women Piloting Our Planes, As Well As The Ground Troops, And All Of Israel.
Jesse

Israel Strikes Gaza

I am ok.  I am staying in Jerusalem at the Dan Panorama with my friend and his mom.  Very nice hotel.  Shabbos was pretty good, played a few games of Apples to Apples which they completly redesigned!  All new cards! lol I love that game.  

In other news Israel attacked Gaza this morning in the largest strike casualty wise, anyone can remember.  Reports are saying 100 IAF planes and helicopters flew into Gaza launching many misiles and over 100 Tons of bombs on Gaza security buildings.  The death toll on the Gaza side has now reached 225 people, with over 300 wounded.  www.jpost.com and www.israelnationalnews.com has the latest.  I am going to Massada tomorrow and it is late so I have to go to sleep.  Have a good week,

Jesse

Happy Chanuka!!

Happy Chanuka to all.
Chanuka is interesting here. We all lit together in the dining hall. Lots of Menoras all glowing together. I took some pictures of mine for you to see. Tonight's first, then last nights and others in the gallery I am uploading now. Have a great Chanuka!
Jesse

Update

Awesome! I am back in my room now. We went out into the woods and fields where the Maccabeim fought. We davened Maariv in the woods. Amazing. After that we all piled back into the van and went to meet the man who has figured out exactly which spices are formed together to make the Ketores from the Beit Hamikdash. It was awesome. We got to smell each spice individually, made only from all natural stuff. Really cool. It was really funny, the guy kept going on and on and on and on and we had to go, and every time my Rabbi would start to say something the guy kept interupting him and saying and this next oil is.... hahahaha
Next we went to a little Ma and Daughter pizza resturant, cute little place. We had really good home made pizza, and I had a salad as well. Yum. Then we had a student of Rav Shlomo Carlbach's play guitar and talk to us. Turns out we were on The Moshav, as in The Moshav Band Moshav, Reb Shlomos Moshav. The guy that played for us was the father of the lead singer of the Moshav band. I recorded the songs and will put them up in the morning, my adapter is in school. Till then I need sleep,
GN,
Jesse

Bloggin on the mobile web from my cell phone

We are currently on a Shiur trip. we were told we were going out to eat but we didnt know anything else. Turns out we are going to a concert in the Moshav. Wicked Cool! I have my camera with me but I cant promise any good pics it is night after all. typing on my phone is interesting, lol. The 3G service is really good here, especially in Jerusalem. I have exelent service in jerusalem as well as really fast internet. Thats all for now, I will update more after the concert to let you know how it went. Have a great day,
Jesse

Rain!!!

Hello,
It rained like crazy yesterday, Thank G-d. Water is one thing we need a lot of in this country so thankfully it rained. The air is actually clear here in Bet Shemesh, all the cement dust finally washed out of the air. Real Fresh Air!!!!! Haha.
In other news, Chanuka is coming! Yay! Every day of Chanuka at night we have a different program. That is one thing this Yeshiva doesn’t lack is awesome trips. They really spend good money on them, and the trips as you have seen, rock. They are also putting a ton of money into other things but trips are fun. Lol.
ttyl,
Jesse

Shabbos

Hello,
Shabbos was good. I am not a fan of In Shabboses. I dont really get into it, I would much rather be out traveling the country staying by people I am meeting, making connections. It's much more fun that way. :-)
My friend Nathan was in town at his Rebbe's house, and I bumped into him Friday night. He gave me the address, and I dropped in after lunch. So I got to hang out with him and some of his friends, as well as see the other side of the mountain.
Have a good day!
Jesse

Part 2

Davening at the top of the Mountain was amazing. We reached Shmone Esrai just as the sun was coming over the horizon.

After freezing our butts off we finished up davening and began the hike. It was pretty much a straight forward hike, with some points that were quite strenuous. Before we knew it we were at the top looking out over Eilat, and the first real body of water we had seen in 3 months.

The views were incredible. One of these days I will finish making my way through the 866 pictures I took on the trip and actually upload them! Oy.
Next we started our crazy descent down towards the bus and onward to the hotel. Long story short, it was a long way down and we were all dead to begin with. We trudged our way down, and when we got down lunch was waiting for us by the buses. Yes lunch, we finished around 130 ish. From 430- 130. That was a really intense hike, and I would so do it again.
Our hotel was in actual Eilat, and was a very nice holiday inn. But wait its still the middle of the day. So we boarded the buses again and everyone went snorkeling. If you wanted you could have gone snuba diving. I went snuba diving. It was amazing. We went down into the coral reef in the sea, it was so beautiful down there. For those who don't know, snuba diving is like scooba diving only instead of the tank being on your back, it was on a raft on the surface, and you were connected via tube to the air supply. Very interesting and a ton of fun.
Then we went back to the hotel, and everyone showered. From the hike to the water, we needed it. :-). After chilling around for a little while, we had Maariv and Dinner. After dinner, as dead as we were, we loaded the bus yet again to go bowling. I had a pretty good game, and almost won the prize for best score. I came in at # 3. Then we had the option to go out and explore the town, and with the last bit of energy that I had, I went with a few friends and found the boardwalk style souk. We walked on the beach in the dark for a little while, I love the sound of the waves, and the water splashing around in the darkness. It's amazing.
The next day was the water sports day. The yeshiva sponsored everyone to go out on the water in a glass bottom boat. They also paid for everyone to go banana boating. Now, the guy driving the speed boat that dragged the banana boats needed someone to stay on the boat with him to watch and make sure no one fell off. Well I ran forward and was on the boat before anyone could even think of beating me to it. For those of you who don't know, I love being out on the water, and even better, I love being in a speedboat in the water. Well I got to talkin to the driver of the boat, and I told him about my love for boats and the water, and his response was (in deep Israeli accent) "ok good, you stay on with me whole time then." Sweet! And I did just that! Turns out the boat was 3 months old and had just come in from North Carolina. It was so powerful I was getting thrown about when I was sitting while trying to take pictures. But when I stood up, I got my 'sea legs' back right away. My friend was watching and later told me, I looked like I was born on a boat. He said I looked so natural.
Beautiful boat on a beautiful day on beautiful water. lol. I had the time of my life. When the day was over we went back to the shore, and walked around some more. I got an amazing fruit smoothie. Bannana and Strawberry. The person making it looked at me like I was crazy, she was like you dont want anything else in it? And I was like nope. And it was sooooo good. Yum. Then we came home. That was pretty much the gist of it. Now to catch up on what we did since then.

It has been pretty normal here. I got a new phone, so that is fun. Now I can blog from wherever I am because I have internet on my phone. Nice. Yesterday we had an interesting trip to the local Tel Bet Shemesh. Tel Bet Shemesh is an archeological dig where the Jews fought against the Philishtim. That was really interesting. One thing about this country that really fascinates me is that I am finding shells everywhere. Everything was under water at one time, and yesterday I found a sponge. Incredible. Thats pretty much it! Ok now to work on the pictures.
Hope you all have a great Shabbos, and look forward to more regular updates on the blog again. As well as more pictures on the gallery. Have a good day,
Jesse

Part 1

Hey sorry this has taken me SO long to post. I have not been on the computer long enough to really type it up. I had written a bit of it but it got deleted, so here goes again.
Day 1. We left Yeshiva early in the morning (around 8) and drove for a while. The first place we stopped off at was a lookout over a massive canyon.
Pictures to come later.

This canyon was caused by a massive meteorite. Can anyone say Run! to dinosaurs much? This canyon was massive! I will be posting more pictures of it to the gallery so you can get an idea of the massiveness of the crater.
We then drove to another lookout which was incredible. From the mountaintop we could see Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and the Sinai. You could see (as the song says) for miles and miles and miles and miles. ;-)
After that we got back on the bus and drove for another little while until we reached the campsite. At the campsite, we went for a small hike there as well. When I say campsite, it was literally just a mostly flat area in between the surrounding mountains. We hiked into the mountains, well more like in between them. There was a nice trail, it was so beautiful. The mountains were called the Red Mountains because there was so much red in them. We hiked through there and that took about an hour, at which point we returned to the site and set up camp. We all had tents provided by the yeshiva, and I was able to put mine of the fastest. :-) Experience counts. lol. I had a 4 person tent, my two roommates and a good friend of ours.
We got up at 4 am and hiked as I said in the post while on the trip, to our first peak. We there davened Shacharit as the sun rose. I am going to sleep now and will continue later.
Have a good night
Jesse

Back

Sorry I have neglected to post, been really busy getting unpacked and everything after the trip. I am going through all my pictures and working on one big blog post for later. Till then,
Jesse