KUMMUNIQUE

Shalom! We are proud to present another issue of Kummunique.
This issue is filled with Aliyah and Eretz Yisrael inspiration - so enjoy!

In this issue you will find:

1. "Shavuot-The Giving of the Torah and Eretz Yisrael" by Rav Moshe Lichtman
2. "Immigrants From The West Integrate Best" by Hilary Leila Krieger
3. "From UsTo The US" Yocheved Miriam Russo
4. "Next Time Invite American Olim Instead of A.B. Yehoshua" By David Chinitz
5. "Jerusalem Day, Arutz-7 Style" by Yishai Fleisher

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. "Shavuot-The Giving of the Torah and Eretz Yisrael" by Rav Moshe Lichtman
From K'Cholmim

We have elaborated many times upon the strong relationship that exists between Torah and the Land of Israel. There are numerous statements of Chazal (not to mention explicit verses in the Torah) to the effect that all of our mitzvot are more complete and meaningful when performed in G-d's Chosen Land. Chazal also underscore the primacy of Torah-study in Eretz Yisrael over that of Chutz LaAretz.

Based on this premise, we can ask a formidable question: If Torah and Eretz Yisrael are so closely related and interdependent, why wasn't the Torah given in the Holy Land? Wouldn't it have made more sense for HaShem to give it in the place where He intended it to be kept? Allow me to present two answers to this question, one proposed by a great Torah authority and one, my own idea (truthfully, I probably saw it somewhere else, but I can't remember where).

The Mabit (R. Moshe Tirani, a colleague of R. Yosef Cairo) addresses this issue in his work Beit Elokim (Sha'ar HaYisodot, chap. 32): Chazal already commented on this, that had the Torah been given in Eretz Yisrael [the Jews] would have said to the nations of the world, "You have no portion in it." Therefore, it was given in the desert, an ownerless place, [to indicate] that whoever wants to receive it may come and receive it. However, based on what we said, that the main perfection and fulfillment of the Torah is in Eretz Yisrael, this is insufficient. It should have been given in the most fitting place, and then, if the nations come [to join us], we should accept them. Moreover, G-d already revealed Himself to all the nations, [asking them] if they wanted to accept the Torah, and they refused. Thus, it certainly should have been given in Eretz Yisrael, after which the Jews could say to them, "You have no portion in it, because you refused to accept it."

At this point the Mabit explains the famous Midrash which states that HaShem offered the Torah to all the nations of the world. What would have happened - he asks - had they accepted it? Would we, the Children of Israel, have lost out? How can that be? The Torah was created specifically for us. G-d even gave certain aspects of the Torah to our Patriarchs. Furthermore, the language of the Torah proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was meant for the Jewish people. For example: I am the L-rd your G-d Who took you out of the land of Egypt; The L-rd spoke to Moshe saying, speak to the Children of Israel... etc.

The Mabit explains that the nations were not offered to accept the Torah in place of the Jewish people. Rather, they were given the opportunity to elevate themselves to a level close to that of the Jews by embracing all 613 mitzvot (not just the seven). Nonetheless, they would have remained subordinate to us, for the Torah was really created for G-d's chosen people, the Children of Israel. After clarifying this Midrash the Mabit returns to our question:

Had G-d (may He be blessed) given Israel the Torah in Eretz Yisrael, two factors would have come together enabling the Jews to say to the nations of the world, "You have no part in it." [These two factors are]: the fact that the entire Torah speaks exclusively to the Jewish people and the fact that it was given in Eretz Yisrael, which was designated for them. [The Jews could have excluded the Gentiles] not only at the time of the giving of the Torah, but also after it was given. When descendants of the gentile nations who did not want to accept the Torah would have come to find shelter under the wings of the Shechinah and convert, the Jews would have been able to say to them, "You have no part in the Torah, since it refers to us and was given to us in Eretz Yisrael." However, now that it was given in the desert - an ownerless place, indicating that whoever wants to come and accept it may do so - even though the entire Torah refers to Israel and speaks to them, they cannot say to the original or subsequent generations of Gentiles, "You have no part in it." For even though it refers specifically to them, and even though Eretz Yisrael is designated for the Jewish people and not for the other nations, nonetheless, they too can take upon themselves the fulfillment of all the mitzvot, in a secondary capacity to the Jews. This is why we accept converts throughout the generations... They fulfill the mitzvot just as we do, but they are not like us in terms of leadership roles and in terms of receiving a portion in the Land...

In short, the Torah really should have been given in Eretz Yisrael, its natural habitat, if not for the fact that G-d wanted to make it accessible to the entire world.

However, I believe that there is a much simpler answer to the question, one that sheds much light on the true purpose of living in Eretz Yisrael. Simply put: Torah is a prerequisite for entering the Land. We cannot exist here for even a moment without the Torah. Furthermore, our entire claim to the Land is based on the Torah and dependent on our fulfilling its commandments. Thus, we could not have approached our territorial inheritance before receiving our spiritual inheritance. Therefore, G-d gave us the Torah in the desert, in order to provide us with the necessary "tools" with which to survive in His Land. Put differently: before entering the Palace of the King we had to be told how we were expected to act there.

Every year on the holiday of Shavuot, we have an opportunity to reaffirm and strengthen our commitment to Torah and mitzvot. Thank G-d, our generation is privileged to be able to do so in the place where the Torah really belongs. For some of us, it may be a little too late for this year, but let us hope that next year we will all re-receive the Torah together in the rebuilt Jerusalem. Amen.

Chag Samei'ach from the Torah's natural home

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. "Immigrants From The West Integrate Best" by Hilary Leila Krieger
From Jerusalem Post

Immigrants from the West integrate into Israeli society faster than any other groups of newcomers, according to a new immigration index released Monday.

The Central Bureau of Statistics released the index - examining immigrants' standard of living, social integration, and employment successes - as part of its annual conference on aliya and absorption. An additional, subjective section on identity and satisfaction is to be added next year.

Some 51 percent of Western immigrants hold professional positions, similar to 58% of the native Ashkenazi population. When it comes to education, they do better than any other group, with 51.2% holding at least one university degree. Only 40% of the next highest group, Israeli-born Ashkenazim, have degrees.

The figures were culled from Central Bureau of Statistics surveys of 7,212 Israelis (49.8% of them immigrants) and analyzed by the Immigration and Social Integration Institute at the Rupin Academic Center.

Ronit Dolev, associate director for the institute, called the findings about Western immigrants "fantastic." She suggested that their more successful absorption stemmed from "what they brought with them."

It is "an educated aliya, an aliya that prepared itself better, an aliya that came with the funds to buy a house. They came prepared to move forward," she said.

She noted that the average time Western immigrants had been in Israel was only eight years, shorter than for any other kind of immigrant, yet they were much more likely to resemble native Israelis when it came to standard of living and economic characteristics.

According to the index, Ethiopian immigrants lag behind, as do the children of those who immigrated from North African and Asian countries soon after the founding of the state.

"With the aliya of the 1950s, we see a second and third generation still in difficulty," Dolev said, stressing that their situation needed to be examined so that "the same mistakes aren't made with the Ethiopians."

Dolev was particularly troubled by the surveys of former Soviet Union immigrants, defined as those who arrived after 1989. The index found that not only were they less satisfied with life in Israel than other groups, but they also didn't expect their situation to change. "A large group of people is in despair," she said.

"The Ethiopian aliya is a much more optimistic aliya," said Dolev. "Even though there are lots of difficulties, they are optimistic, and that's a great force for integration."

Still, Jewish Agency Chairman Ze'ev Bielski declared that "the absorption of Ethiopian immigrants is especially hard. If the society does not make a tremendous effort in their absorption, their fate will be sealed."

He continued, "We must dedicate ourselves to this mission or we will pay a heavy price in the course of the next 10 years."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. "From UsTo The US" Yocheved Miriam Russo
From Jerusalem Post

Say "Shavuot," and most of us react with "cheesecake." But the holiday of Shavuot is also a harvest festival. In many communities, fresh flowers are prime, recalling that when the Torah was given on Shavuot, the entire Mount Sinai burst into bloom.

In Israel, fresh blooms for decoration are locally grown. But now the tradition is spreading. All across America, fresh Israeli-grown roses are occupying a place of honor.

It's all possible because Israel Rose, an Israeli fresh flower business, perfected the art of overnight shipping fresh flowers from Israel to any place in the US.

Israel Rose, the brainchild of husband and wife growers Miriam Klein and Myron Sofer, features roses grown in Sde Nitzan, a Negev moshav located nine kilometers from the Gaza Strip.

Growing perfect roses, packing them, dealing with import/export issues and guaranteeing hand delivery to any individual in any US community - no matter how remote - within 24 hours sounds almost impossible. But for Klein and Sofer, who have successfully delivered a quarter of a million perfect roses to people in Israel and all 50 US states - it's both a business and a daily labor of love.

"Sometimes they're very long days," says Klein, who grew up as a city kid in Melbourne, Australia, and qualified as a psychologist before becoming a rose grower.

"Before the Jewish holidays or Thanksgiving, we work from well before dawn until after midnight. Last year we shipped 25,000 roses over a two-day period for Rosh Hashana. Because we personally track every order and monitor every delivery to make sure it arrives, we put in some very long days."

Chicago-born Sofer acquired a love for agriculture when he came to Israel right after high school in 1961.

"I was a real young halutz [pioneer]," he says. "I loved Israel, but first I had to get my education so I went back, got a BA and a master's in plant pathology, then came back to Israel. I read a Jerusalem Post article about Sde Nitzan, an agricultural moshav in the Negev started by Eddie Peretz, the grandnephew of the Yiddish author. After the Six Day War, Peretz discovered his heart pumped Jewish blood, so he came to Israel and founded the whole hothouse industry. Tomatoes were Peretz's passion and when I came for good in 1974 I joined him at Sde Nitzan and grew tomatoes. But it didn't take long to learn that tomatoes weren't economically feasible. So I looked around for another crop, and roses were where the money was. We started growing roses about 25 years ago and shipped our flowers to international wholesalers in Holland - which is really the flower center of the world," says Sofer.

Farming can be an economically hazardous business. Things went fine for Sofer for a few years, but then the World Bank began to subsidize flower growing in Africa. Growers in South America expanded, and oversupply drove down prices.

"We went from selling our roses at 50 cents each down to 8 cents. There's no way anyone could stay in business at 8 cents, and a third of the Israeli growers dropped out," Sofer says.

It was a monumental crisis, and the business spiraled downward.
"Each day, we told ourselves we had to hang on just a little longer," Klein recalls. "I took an office job so we'd have a salary. Myron worked the roses, and I helped after work. We were just a hair from giving up."

Sofer struggled to come up with an innovation that would improve things. One morning he had an idea: What about growing "Jewish" roses? Maybe promote the idea that the roses came from the Holy Land.

"I asked a lot of people, but almost everyone discouraged us. 'Just grow great roses, cheap,' they said. 'No one cares where they came from.' But one neighbor encouraged us, and we decided to go ahead. What we did then was completely unique - we sold our roses to individual buyers, not the Dutch wholesalers," he recounts.

Then came the intifada.

"It's hard to say it, but the intifada helped us." Sofer says. "People were afraid to come to Israel, but there was the whole 'buy-Israeli' movement. We were still in a terrible financial bind and things didn't change overnight, but one big order came in and gave us hope: A travel agent in Houston, Texas, was getting married and ordered 30 dozen roses. But could we ship fresh roses to Texas, in 40 heat? People told us we were nuts to try, but we went ahead. The roses arrived in perfect condition."

Packing and shipping techniques have since improved, and local weather is no longer a special concern. "But there's plenty of room for other problems - anything from being given a wrong address to bad weather delaying planes. That's why we track every order until it's marked 'Delivered,'" says Sofer.

The roses are nurtured in 12 hothouses, in plastic troughs filled with volcanic rock.

"Now everything is computerized. We irrigate with water and nutrients six times a day, and hothouse windows are raised and lowered by computers. In the early days, Miriam and I did everything ourselves but now hired workers do the routine chores - spraying, trimming and weeding. But when it's time to pack, we're all in the cold room assembling the orders," says Sofer.

Technology has changed the way the business operates.

"Orders come through e-mail or phone - we have a US 800 number that rings here," Klein says. "Even so, it takes tons of paperwork - we're obsessive about getting orders right, so we make paper copies of everything. The flowers ship with complete care instructions plus food. We label here, both for international shipping to New York, then by Fed Ex direct to the recipient. Once the boxes have left the moshav, we start tracking. Every Pessah, right before our own Seder, we're glued to the laptop making sure every Pessah order was delivered."

Israel Rose is the only Israeli flower grower that markets directly to international customers.

"Our biggest orders come from organizations - shuls, schools, JCCs - that use the roses as fundraisers," Sofer says. "We give them a good price for a bulk order, and then they resell them at a profit. Our biggest order was 250 dozen for a fundraiser in St. Louis, Missouri. Sephardic shuls and Chabad centers place big orders for Shavuot. Other holidays like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Thanksgiving are also busy."

Sofer's idea for product differentiation worked.

"We ship to many Christian clients, too. Orders come in all possible permutations - we just filled an order for 75 roses for someone's 75th birthday. For US shipping, we have a minimum four dozen order due to packing requirements, but within Israel we'll ship whatever a customer wants. There are cultural considerations - Russians don't want yellow roses because they signal a split-up with a partner, and they always order in odd numbers, not even. So for them, we'll ship 11 or 13 roses, but not a dozen."

"Because we keep such close track of our orders, we get to know our customers," adds Klein. "We know what the wedding will be like, we know who's in the hospital, we know about the bar-mitzva. Every day our e-mail box is full of warm notes, such as 'My house is filled with happy smiles from each bud,' one lady wrote. That makes all the work worthwhile."

Color is a big consideration.

"Flower colors are subject to fads," Klein explains. "Look at fashion magazines - colors change as they do in home decor. The most popular color is still red, but there are hundreds of varieties of red. Right now, a yellow rose with just a tinge of orange on the petal tips is popular."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. "Next Time Invite American Olim Instead of A.B. Yehoshua" By David Chinitz
From the Forward

Earlier this month Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua created a tempest in a teapot by stating that one cannot live a fully Jewish life outside of Israel. As an American immigrant to Israel, I read with amusement and frustration about Yehoshua's blast at the American Jewish Committee's 100th anniversary conference and about the predictable indignation of his hosts — amusement because we've seen this road show before, frustration because the script is always a dialogue between straw men.

Yehoshua is a straw man because reality flies in the face of the assertion that one cannot live a fully Jewish life outside of Israel. Numerous Jewish institutions of learning, culture and social action flourish all over the world. There is nothing in Jewish law or history to support the proposition that you have to have an Israeli address in order to have a Jewish identity.

Yehoshua knows this, of course, which is presumably why he hastened to clarify his comments as furor over them mounted. But he also knows that his hosts invite him over and over to state the egregiously ridiculous because they like hearing it as much as he likes getting hosted to say it.

American Jews like Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of the New Republic and himself active in AJCommittee, are likewise straw men. They respond to Yehoshua by saying that there is no way all Jews are going to move to Israel, when they know full well that neither Yehoshua nor most Israelis think that should, or could, happen.

Indeed, the Wieseltier types feast on Yehoshua's hyperbole, fretting and kvetching that the author's type of Israeli brashness only serves to further remove Jews from any connection with Israel. And they wonder with concern whether all Israelis think that way about them.

This never-ending clash of Israeli absolutism with Jewish Diaspora relativism — both charming, but sometimes aggravating, Jewish traits — is a perfect recipe for straw-man arguments. And where there is straw, there is usually someone making hay.

Yehoshua, and dozens of other Israeli intellectuals largely ignorant of their American audiences and speaking English crippled by Israeli accents, get notoriety and perhaps some pecuniary benefit. Wieseltier and his ilk, for their part, find justification for their endless search for the holy grail of Jewish identity.

Millions of dollars and rivers of ink are invested in trying to determine whether Jewish identity is based on the Holocaust, or on Jewish texts, or on knowledge of Hebrew, or on the link to Israel, or on the fight against assimilation, or on some combination of all of them. And, as in most such quests, every budget cycle adds new increments to those American and Israeli institutions that are happily involved in the never-ending story of Jewish identity.

The sad truth behind this story is that the only Israelis who really spend any time thinking about Jews in the Diaspora are those figures distinguished enough to be invited on speaking tours. Rank-and-file Israelis don't have much time to spend pondering relations with their Diaspora brethren, and therefore have no well-formed opinion on the matter.

There is, however, at least one group that actually has something empirically grounded to say about these issues: the 60,000 Anglo-Americans who by choice have moved from the West to Israel. But we are never included in these self-perpetuating debates. The reason is that what Anglo-Americans in Israel have to say is perceived as combustible material to men of straw on both sides.

Open discussion of large immigration to Israel has been considered out of bounds since the 1950s, when Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, promised American Jewish leader Jacob Blaustein to keep the subject off the Jewish agenda. For American Jews, the risk of their children even considering moving to Israel was reduced, and for the Israeli establishment the money of American Jews was always preferred to their potential as local competitors for control over the Jewish state and economy.

Since no surveys have polled Anglo-American immigrants to Israel, permit me to suggest some hypotheses, based on my own experiences in the 25 years since I immigrated to Israel from the United States.

Only a tiny minority of us think that all Jews should live in Israel. What we would like to see, however, is more Jews at least consider the move realistically. In order for that to happen, the subject has to be tabled in the Jewish educational system — not as an ideology, but as a life option like any other. In reality this subject is ignored or systematically suppressed, including by the vaunted programs that bring American youth on visits to Israel.

In addition, Israel and the North American Jewish community should develop a strategy for supporting those young minds open to the idea of engaging in the exciting evolution of a society that combines Jewish and American values and enterprise. And American Jews living in Israel are the best source of input for developing these strategies.

The presence of, say, 1 million more American Jews in Israel would be a boon to the Israeli economy, lessening Israel's dependence on American aid. It would further develop Israel's democratic institutions, which are already impressive but still in need of improvement, with an infusion of people demanding standards of accountability associated with Western-style democracy.

Like the wave of Russian Jewish immigration in the early 1990s, an influx of American Jews to Israel would drive home to the Arab world the understanding that the Jewish state is a demographic reality that cannot be destroyed. Furthermore, issues of Jewish identity and Diaspora-Israel relations would likely fade, for the simple reason that most American Jews would have at least one relative who had moved to Israel.

And finally, Israel would cease to be perceived as little more than a haven for refugees and the residue of the Holocaust — as opposed to the vibrant expression of Jewish self-determination that is the country's real raison d'etre. In a world that is having to adjust to large waves of migration, accommodation of religious fundamentalism and adaptation of democracy to various cultural contexts, the project of Jewish immigration to Israel could be a source of important global learning.

Would that the periodic outbursts of Yehoshua and his fellow Israeli intellectuals, and the resultant American Jewish temper tantrums, serve as catalysts for such thinking in the organized Jewish world.

David Chinitz, a senior lecturer in health policy and management at Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health, immigrated to Israel from the United States in 1981.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. "Jerusalem Day, Arutz-7 Style" by Yishai Fleisher
From Israel National News

This past Friday, the 28th of Iyar, Yom Yerushalayim, two buses packed full of English speakers left Binyanei HaUmah, the national convention center, on the way to a unique Jerusalem Day experience.

In a bid to imbue Jerusalem Day with meaning and style, Arutz Sheva and the Jerusalem Capital Development Fund organized a special trip to some of the less visited holy sites in and around Jerusalem. The day began at the National Convention Center where almost 100 people met at 9 AM and boarded two yellow buses that which wisked them away to their first stop: Kever Shmuel HaNavi, the Tomb of Samuel the Prophet.

Kever Shmuel HaNavi is situated on the north-western outskirts of Jerusalem, near the neighborhood of Ramot. It is a long-standing Jewish practice to pray and study at the holy site, and especially on the 28th day of Iyar, the Prophet's Yartzeit (anniversary of his death).

Samuel is considered one of the Jewish people's greatest prophets, likened to Moses himself. It was Samuel who anointed Israel first King, Saul, and subsequently also anointed King David, the founder of Jewish Jerusalem. Samuel wrote three of the books of the Bible: Judges, the book of Samuel, and the Scroll of Ruth which is generally read aloud on the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, also known as the Feast of Weeks.

Samuel's Tomb is strategically placed at one of the northern entrances to Jerusalem and dominates the entire area, including parts of the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway. During the Six Day War, the Arabs used the site as a military fortification, shelling Israeli forces and the passing traffic below. Providentially, Jewish soldiers entered the compound and liberated the Prophet's tomb from the Arabs on the 28th of Iyar, on the very day that Jews throughout generations marked his passing almost 3,000 years earlier.

The Arutz-7 group felt privileged to pay homage to the Prophet, to hear explanations, and to take in the awesome vistas afforded from the Tomb - from central Samaria in the north to southern Judea in the south, from the mountains of Moab in the east, to the coastal plain of Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

The group then boarded the buses and headed to the Mount of Olives (Har HaZeitim). While the Mount is famed for its graves of sages and dignitaries, the visitors took the opportunity to see the very vibrant and growing Jewish community known as Maaleh HaZeitim. Piling in to the makeshift synagogue at the basement of the gigantic new apartment complex at the Mount of Olives, the group heard resident Miriam Schwab tell the complex story of the purchase and development of this extraordinary plot.

The land, it turns out, was originally bought by a group of Hassidim for the purpose of burial, but the ruling Turks did not allow them to bury there. Instead, the Hassidim leased the land to an Arab farmer, who paid rent and grew wheat. The Hassidic group, however, continued to pay the property tax on the plot throughout the years - and many years later, when the Arab tenant claimed to own the land, the tax receipts convinced both Jordanian and Israeli courts that it was really the Hassidim who owned it. The Hassidic conglomerate later sold the land to Dr. Irving Moskovitz, the ideological land purchaser from Miami Beach, for the purpose of development.

After passing many hurdles and receiving the necessary permits, construction began. Immediately, Yasser Arafat, sensing yet another victory for Jewish land reclamation in Jerusalem, intervened and asked then-U.S. President Clinton to have the project stopped. Clinton leaned on then-Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Netanyahu in turn secured Moskowitz's pledge to stop construction for a year. At the end of the year though, Moskowitz resumed construction.

After hearing the fascinating tales associated with the property, the group ascended a staircase which opened up to the roof. Suddenly, it became clear why Arafat was so intent on stopping the project, and why Moskowitz was so intent on completing it. There, directly across from the roof, was the Temple Mount and the Muslim shrines that bedeck it today. The group uttered a prayer that the Jewish attempts to reclaim Jerusalem would be successful and that G-d should reveal His glory upon the Mount.

Back on the buses, the group sat and stared as the bus navigated streets swarming with Arabs heading to their Friday prayers on the Temple Mount. Past the Lions Gate, through which the IDF Paratroopers burst into the Old City 39 years ago on this day, past the Rockerfeller Museum which became an overnight command post in the Six Day War, the buses took a left and entered an area called Wadi Joz, full of mechanic shops and the smell of grease.

Chaim Silberstein, who heads the Jerusalem Capital Development Fund, one of a few organizations dedicated to purchasing lands from the Arabs, explained that Joz in Arabic means "nut" and that some cartographers therefore mistakenly call this area the "Vally of the Nut." In truth, Chaim added, this area was originally called Emek Yehoshafat, the Valley of Jehoshaphat (as mentioned in the Book of Joel), a name which the Arabs could not verbalize and therefore shortened 'Yehoshafat' to 'Joz.'

The buses then banked right and the participants got off near a complex of caves penetrating into a rock face in the side of the mountain. This is the Tomb of Shimon HaTzaddik - Simon the Pious - who is mentioned in Pirkei Avot (Chapters of the Fathers 1:2) as "among the last of the Great Assembly." He is the author of the famous dictum, "The world stands on three things: on study of the Torah, on service of G-d, and on the performance of kind deeds."

Shimon Hatzaddik was the "Kohen Gadol," a High Priest in the Second Temple period for 40 years, and he was able to uphold a high level of observance during his tenure, including the preparation of two red heifers. The Talmud relates the famous story of the meeting between Alexander the Great, the world-conquering Macedonian Emperor, and Shimon HaTzaddik. At the behest of Jew-haters, Alexander marched on Jerusalem, with intent to destroy it. Shimon the High Priest donned the White Priestly Garments that he wore on Yom Kippur when he would enter the Holy of Holies, and went out to meet Alexander. To the surprise of his entourage, when the Emperor saw Shimon HaTzaddik, he dismounted and prostrated himself before Shimon. Alexander's generals asked him why he was bowing to this Jew, to which he replied that every night before a battle, he would see in a dream the figure of that Jewish High Priest, who would advise him on tactics to use the following day - a service that never failed him.

Shimon HaTzaddik took Alexander the Great on a tour of the Temple. Alexander was very impressed and requested that a marble image of himself be placed in the Temple courtyard. Shimon explained that it was forbidden for the Jews to have images, and certainly not in the Temple, but he suggested an alternative way giving homage to the Emperor: that all male babies born that year would receive the name "Alexander." The Emperor accepted, and that is how "Alexander" became a Jewish name.

At the Tomb of Shimon HaTzaddik, lunch was served to the group as they sat together under an awning, while Breslov Chassidim played guitar and sang joyfully. Over cups of grape juice and wine from the Beit El winery, participants heard tales of Shimon HaTzaddik, the words of the Paratoopers who captured the area in the Six Day War, and an explanation of the purchase of the property around the Tomb by an affiliate of Jerusalem Capital Development Fund. Today, seven Jewish families live in the vicinity of the Tomb and a kollel of 20 students is on premises.

The tour was winding down, and the buses came to a stop where they started that morning at the Jerusalem International Convention Center. As the participants disembarked they thanked the staff and wished them Shabbat Shalom.

Among emails later received at Arutz-7 were the following:

"We wanted to thank you for all the work you did to make today a successful tiyul. We really enjoyed ourselves and we learned a lot about the history of Jerusalem. All the best and Shabbat Shalom, Sruly & Rivkah"

"Thank you and all of your friends at Arutz Sheva for the lovely tiyul [trip]. As new olim (just under 2 yrs. since coming home), we very much enjoyed learning more about our new home. Thanks to Yishai, Malkah and Baruch, Alex, and Chaim (and anyone else who made this wonderful tiyul possible). Shabbat Shalom, Yechiel & Tova"

For more information about purchase of land and reclamation Jewish property in Jerusalem, please send email to < info@jcdf.org>.

The Arutz-7/Jerusalem Capital Development Fund trip was subsidized in the memory of Alexander Fleisher.