Introducing the Hardline According To
     ...Ofer Maimon

So the idea was to go to the Kabbalist city of Tsfat this morning. I was just going to drop in to the health clinic to see the doctor. After finding my way there, though, the clerk informed me that I had no appointment. Weird indeed seeing as I had booked one on the Internet, a very impressive novelty to me that you could do that, and I would have been even more impressed if it had actually resulted in an IRL appointment. Maybe they'll get around to that part in the near future. Last time I was here I was informed that there was only on doctor in place, and so they could only take emergencies. Now she gave me a handwritten note, with an appointment at 12.50. When I logged in to my Clalit account, this information was also available there. It's a strange and beautiful world. To make visits to my health clinic a bit more stressful, the clerks, as is the Israeli custom, are always understaffed, and are not only there to help the physically present patients but also answer the c...

As far as I understand, once you own a plot of land and have secured a building permit in Israel, you can pretty much build what the hell you want on it. This gives architects and builders a very big freedom, which results in interesting, fascinating, innovative and horribly ugly buildings. Below, please find what I believe may be the ugliest building on the planet. Now, what on earth were they thinking? First of all, you can't see anything out of the windows as they are facing the street. And second what is it supposed to look like? It has a vague similarity the the Escanian speciality "Spättekaka", with soot stains added..... Escanian speciality Completely Ad Hoc, if you like snacks from the plant kingdom, Israel is your place, as can be seen from the above picture from my tobacco dealer. The below vista is the first that will greet the newcomer to Tel Aviv, capital of the state of the Jews,  if he gazes right just after exiting from the maze that is Tel Avi...

We seem to no longer care about freedom in the Western World. To get on an airplane we happily undergo searches, nude photographing in full body cameras and general humiliation. Smoking is forbidden in bars (where people drink ethanol!!) and kindergarten kids are made to wear helmets in the park. Soon we all have to wear helmets go take a stroll in the city. Our e-mails are read by anonymous grey people and our wires are tapped, the books we borrow in the library registred, the sites we visit on the Internet. All in the interest of safety. Our safety. We want to be safe, safe, safe. But you can be safe in prison. Prison. Or 6 feet under. And do anyone truly believe that all these cowering safety measures will save us from the reaper? We ALL owe God one death. All of us. And I rather live free than in prison. Anyone remember FREEDOM? Like that? In BOLD LETTERS? It wasn't that long ago, people. I remember.  

So. Too many things are happening, or in any case flowing through my brain, for each and all of them to be given it's own lengthy post, although they deserve it. So I thought I'd just post a bunch of pics and let you know what they mean.... Below is the front of the Shul where I say my afternoon prayers. It's mostly comprised of Jews from Tunis and Morocco. It has a beautiful exterior in Jerusalem limestone and a Gabbai named Emil who scolds me whenever I've missed a day or two. One thing with Shuls in Europe is that they are old. Old interior, old style Aron Hakodesh, old people, old, uncomfortable benches from before WWII. I sometimes thing they are unconsciously made into memorials and witnesses of the world that was murdered by Europe. Synagogues in Israel on the other hand are new. Well lit, modernly designed, people of all ages, chairs so comfortable you risk falling asleep in them on Shabbes. The cats. Every city in the world has a choice. Either they are full...

In the wake of Sweden's first suicide bomber, the blogoshere will no doubt fill up with stupid racists and stupid apologists. While pondering their useless points of view, it may be worthwhile to keep the following facts in mind: Most practicing and believing Muslims are not jihadists. And basically the largest part of immigrants from the Muslim world are not practicing or believing Muslims. However. Islam has serious problems in facing the modern world. It is a conquerors religion which has no room for honorable compromise – the world is in the eyes of Islam divided in Dar-al-Islam (House of Islam) and Dar-al-Harb (House of War). Period. No grayish, boring middle ground. The exceptions to this outlook (they do exist) remain an extreme minority, aggressively disregarded by mainstream Islamic practice and theory as formulated in Mecca or Cairo. The only ones who can change this picture are peaceful religious Muslims in the West.  And so far they aren't doing it. A s...

Just looked out my window to take some photos of the sand storm, and noticed an unusually bright moon hanging over the town. Took me a while to realize it was actually the sun who's rays were so dimmed out by the blessed sun that you could actually look straight into it without hurting you eyes....below a before an after study for your contemplation. Clear weather view from my window.... ...and sand storm view from my window.

Some people in this building still manage to amaze me. When I went out for Shul , before sunrise, I saw one of the neighbors wet mopping the tile floor of the loft outside his door, apparently in an effort to get the sand away. I was about to ask him what the hell he was mopping away sand for, seeing as the darn sand storm had not yet subsided one iota, but then what could possible be the point of that, except to make him aware that I considered him an unbelievable Putz ? So sure enough, when I now 6 hours later came back from a diagnostic Hebrew test for another round of Ulpan, the plentiful water outside his door still hadn't dried up, seeing as Beer Sheva is not only windy, stormy and sandy, but also cold. What had happened though, obviously, was that more sand had blown in from the desert of our dreams and longings, turnings the 20 or so wet mopped meters outside his door into a bleeding, slippery mud swamp, part of which has by now entered all our apartments via our shoes. ...

Beginning on Schmini Atzeret, Jews start inserting the extra request Mashiv HaRuach uMorid HaGeshem in the main prayer Amida that is repeated at all three daily services. Literally translated it means "Make the wind blow and the rain fall", and the obvious reason is that now is the time when we need rain for seeds and plants to get a good harvest (and nowadays, to resupply lake Kineret with drinking water). Those who've been following this blog know that it's been the driest and warmest November since 1941 in Israel, and so far, except for the heat, December aint looking much better. But on the Mashiv HaRuach part, this Shabbes, our prayers have been answered.... There are basically three weather phenomenons that can magically make whole pieces of a city disappear. The first and most common to westerners is fog. Slightly less common is smog. The first time I witnessed the magic power of air pollution was when I had already spent a week in Santiago De Chile, cap...

So it's Motze Shabbat (end of Shabbat), and I've just rummaged through our papers only to find that the horrible forrest fires in the North still aren't under control. 6 years ago I attended Haifa Universities Summer Ulpan for the first time, and I have a least one friend from that time that ended up staying in Haifa. I hope she is OK. Except for the fires, I've lived through the below action points as of late. * Spent Shabbes with my Rabbi , eating his wife's good food and drinking his booze and playin with his kids and discussing Torah. As it's Chanukah leave most of the family was gathered as his older sons had vacation from their yeshivot. We had a good time and it's striking how easy it is in this country to combine a frum life with a modern one. I'm amazed that so few people here choose not to. * Wednesday last week I was invited to my FB friend Shaul Boaz who I've never met IRL before, as he and his girlfriend was taking the opportunity t...

Since the horrible terrorist attack of 9/11, flying has gone from being a slight hassle to a rather big one. The latest chapter in the saga over ever stranger security measures is the installation in all larger US airports of "Full Body Cameras", basically a camera that strips you of your clothes and shows your naked body to the security official on duty. A lot has been said about these cameras. I personally believe they are thoroughly intrusive. If you don't agree with me, it's probably because mainstream media for some odd reason never bothered to publish the true images these machines make, and opted to publish tacitly redacted versions, where the naked bodies shown look like barbie dolls, and where any detailed body features have beed dimmed out. However, five minutes with Google will show you that these cameras take detailed images of your genitalia, including intimate piercings and,well..the form and size of your equipment, female or male, for lack of a more tzn...

she comes to me in dreams i hear the echoing whispers of her sneakers in the old abandoned storage building dusty cardboard boxes, coffers and long since forgotten luggage destinations never reached in times since long ago committed to memories in black and white i find her by a desk going through an old ladies white leather handbag the black bakelite desk phone looks like it hasn't rung for eons she lifts here gaze and says: welcome to the lost and found department of Long Lost Railroads, how may I help you? when I don't answer, she turns back to the handbag, pulls out a handkerchief i am about to ask her if she works here when she says: you shouldn't be here this late if you stay too long, you stay forever, it's time for you to leave I say: what about you? she says: I lost me a long time ago, i already left I want to ask her if she recognizes me, but as she dials a number on the phone i hear the lower east side harbor din and distant christmas...