14 Adar 5778
1 March 2018
Chag Sameach! Happy Purim!
Photographs of the Day
from Purim Revelers in Israel
Tel Aviv is well known for its Purim Block Parties where young people take very seriously the Purim advice “Drink enough that you cannot tell the difference between ‘Cursed be Haman and praised be Mordechai!'”:
A father reading the story of Esther with his children:
An IDF Purim party:
Your humble servant’s vote for most creative costume:
The News on the Israel Street
Palestinian terror in the last 48 hours . . .
It may be Purim, but the steady drumbeat of Palestinian terrorism continues.
Yesterday, a stabbing was thwarted when a suspicious Palestinian woman was identified at the Bethlehem Crossing. Alert Israeli police and soldiers stopped her as she charged them with a knife.
Multiple events took place on the roads of Judea and Samaria.
In several locations, terrorists lit fires in the middle of the road in the hopes of forcing vehicles to slow down so that Molotovs and “rocks” could be thrown at the motorists:
On a road in Samaria last night.
Israelis were attacked throughout the night in such places as the Halhul Junction, on the Gush Etzion Road near Beit Ummar, at El Aruv, between Beit Anon and Kiryat Arba, at the Yitzhar Junction, and at the British Police Junction.
Israel is in a drought, but . . .
. . . not exactly. It turns out that through February, Israel has received 90% of its average annual rainfall.
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In fact, the rainfall has been 108% of normal in the northern Negev, 100% has fallen in the north, and 90% in the center of the country.
So even though Israel desperately needs more rainfall, the situation could be worse. The bottom line is that “normal” no longer satisfies all of Israel’s needs.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Can You Figure Out Where These Pictures Were Made?
It is a truism that wherever you step in Israel, you step in history.
Last Saturday, your humble servant went with his family on a flower viewing trip in Israel. After all, it is spring and flowers are in bloom everywhere. We had seen red poppies the previous week on the hill below Ariel Sharon’s grave near Sderot, and black irises in a famous field near Nes Ziona.
This time we were in search of purple turmus. And so we set off from Ashdod with some friends. The following are some pictures that we took.
Your task this morning is to try to figure out what was the historical importance of the site where we found the most beautiful turmus.
Clue 1: From out of a valley, we climbed a steep hill past strewn stones belonging to an ancient encampment:
Clue 2: The encampment stones are dated to older than 1000 BCE.
Clue 3: Near the top of the hill, we find the famed turmus. It is not mentioned in the book of Samuel.
Clue 4: But the hills behind my wife and our friend are mentioned in 1 Samuel 17. A very large man stood there and threatened the Israelite encampment.
Clue 5: There are no more clues because now you know what happened here. The army of Saul faced the Philistine army and David began his path to kinghood when he killed Goliath.
Today, the beautiful purple turmuses in the Valley of Elah stand in testament to the events of so long ago:
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.