Little White Punto.

Hello everyone.

Last week we took a trip to visit Anton in Tzfat. We almost didn't go because although we had arranged for a rental car, we were having trouble finding affordable accommodation. Literally moments before Shabbos, Leah received a phone call that the apartment we were interested in renting was available at a lower rate that advertised. We grabbed the opportunity and brought in Shabbos with extra joy.

I had previously organised for a rental car from Budget in Jerusalem. Their prices were reasonable, although not the cheapest. But I used them because if any of you remember the last time I rented a car in Israel (about 9 years ago) from a less reputable company, I ended up with engine trouble in Teveria (Tiberius) and the rental car company's only office was in Jerusalem 4 hours away (they wanted me to drive the car back and swap it. The car would only travel at 10km/h at most!) If you remember, they ended up bringing a replacement car to Teveria after much haggling and hanging up on each other! This time, I wasn't going to hire a car from Cheap n' Nasty Car Hire (name has been changed to protect the guilty!) I decided to go for one of the big firms who have an office in Teveria as well - just in case.

After davening Neitz at 5.30am, I caught the 6.30 bus to Jerusalem and was at the door of the Budget offices by 8. They told me to come back at 8.30 so I took the opportunity to do a bit of last minute shopping at the local supermarket - bottled water (lots) and snacks for the kids. I returned to Budget at 8.30 and signed all the forms. The fact that I don't have a valid Israeli driver's license didn't bother them too much. They were willing to accept my Victorian license. Then, they led me to my car - my wheels - my mean machine...

A little white Fiat Punto hatchback - the size of a Suzuki Swift or Holden Barina. Now, you might ask, how were we going to fit 5 people and a baby (in a baby seat) in that little thing together with all our luggage? I asked myself the same question, but it didn't matter because it was a manual and I was looking forward to becoming reacquainted with the clutch and gearshift...

I drove the car out onto King David Street, onto Derech Chevron and headed for the Talpiot exit. I ended up getting lost in Talpiot - I seemed to drive around Teddy Stadium for hours! The one thing that I discovered about Jerusalem streets is that they are all divided roads and don't allow for u-turns. Not only that, if you miss one turn-off, you have to drive for hours to find your way out. I managed somehow, by a series of extraordinary miracles and mishaps to find my way to the Jerusalem exit through "The Tunnels", past Abu Gosh, past Betar Illit and in through the back entrance to Ramat Beit Shemesh. It was an invigorating trip through the countryside. I hadn't driven for so long and I really enjoyed it.

I arrived at our building at around 11.00am and started loading luggage into the hatchback of this little white Punto. When I realised that the hatch wouldn't close, I removed the cover of the hatch and stored it in my bedroom. The resulting extra space enabled me to pack our single suitcase and our single stroller in the back of the car. In-between I stuffed a pot, some odds and ends and a bottle of frozen water.

We piled into the car. Leah sat in the back with the three kids and she held Akiva Meir on her lap. We were only going a short distance to collect the car seat from the car seat G'mach (free loans of car seats). We arrived a few minutes later and after a little bit of frustration trying to find the correct building, I spoke with the car seat guy (whose last name is "Kol-Tuv" [Hebrew for the greeting "Wishing -You-All-the-best"]), paid my refundable deposit and held the car seat high above my head in triumph! Now to figure out how to attach the thing to the car...

Finally at about 12.00 we were on our way. Leah was in the front seat, Tzvi, Shimi and Racheli sat in the back and Akiva Meir sat comfortably in the car seat. The kids complained that it was a little squashy, but the truth is that they are small for their age and had plenty of room. We were off!

Our little white Punto did very well with a full car of people and luggage to capacity. We drove through Beit Shemesh to collect some cassette tapes of children's stories which a friend of ours (Mrs Nyssen) had arranged for us to collect. After getting lost in Beit Shemesh for a short time, we found our way to the highway and we were soon traveling in the direction of Tel-Aviv on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. After about ten minutes or so, we took the turnoff to the new Highway no. 6 which currently goes all the way from the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway until somewhere up north. The idea is that they will extend the highway to go all the way south so that there is one very fast uninterrupted road traversing Israel north-south. It is a fantastic road. It is also a toll-way, similar to the Tulla Freeway in Melbourne. They have sensors that scan your license plate and then they send you the bill. You don't need an e-tag device like in Melb.

Anyway, a short time after entering Highway no. 6 we decided to play one of the tapes. We couldn't figure out how to get the cassette player working as the symbols had been rubbed off all of the controls! We managed to get it working somehow, but couldn't adjust the volume, so it remained very soft. The sound emanated from the dashboard and I could hear it very well, the kids in the back had a bit of trouble listening in.

Did I mention that it was hot? It was hot. Very hot. The car had air-conditioning that was only effective in the front, so we ended up opening the windows. Traveling at 110 km/hr, you can imagine the road noise, but surprisingly, nobody complained. We were all in such a good mood that we could have had a flat tire and everyone would have been just as happy - well, maybe not...

We took an exit off highway 6 after about an hour or so and headed for Afula. It was coming on about 2pm or 2.30 and nobody had eaten lunch. So we managed to find a small park between two buildings and we stopped for a bight to eat. It was good to get out of the car. We had been traveling for about 2 hours or more and everyone needed a stretch. The kids were glad to run around and play. The water we had brought was well received and the ice was melting nicely in the two-liter bottle in the back of the car.

We stayed in Afula for about half an hour and resumed our journey. We wound our way through Afula and got back on track towards Tiveria. The kids fell asleep quite soon after. It was a shame because we traveled through some really beautiful country. When we reached the top of the mountainous region (before descending to Tiveria) we had a glorious view of the lake. It was magnificently blue - and so wide. It looks smaller on the Budget Road Map of Israel. It was truly spectacular. But we couldn't slow down to take a photo of the rolling hills or the slopes of the Golan on the other side because we were traveling on winding roads with hair-pin turns and nowhere to stop safely.

We came to Tiveria and stopped in at the Tomb of Reb Meir Baal HaNes. It was somewhat nostalgic as Leah and I had been there about 9 years ago. We both prayed there for a good marriage and children. We were blessed with both. It was thrilling to return with our kids and to pay our respects.

We then headed off for the tomb of the Rambam. His tomb is easy to spot as they built a red metallic structure reaching into the sky over his gravesite. We stopped the car close by and I tried to explain the significance of this great man to the kids. They didn't really get it so I told them that the red books on the shelf next to the big black books were written by the person who was buried here. Now they had an appreciation for where they were! We said some tefillos at the kever and walked through the adjoining graveyard where a number of Tanaim are buried. I explained to the children that many of these people were mentioned in the Gemorrah. They were very impressed.

It was very hot and sticky. The wind was picking up and Tiveria was becoming a little unpleasant. We decided to make tracks and head up the hill towards Tzfat. Another series of long and winding roads, hairpin turns and we were in Tzfat. The person who had let the apartment to us was to meet us in a particular street and we picked him up. Leah sat in the back with the four kids and our landlord, Shlomi, sat in the front. He directed me through a series of winding streets and into the old-city of Tzfas. We parked the car near the Wolfson Community Center and it was only a few minutes walk to our apartment. Leah describes the apartment as follows: It looks as if the grandparents died and their children are too sentimentally attached to it to sell it. The books on the shelf are all dusty. There is a half-consumed bottle of wine on the side-board. The furniture looks like it needs to retire and there are many broken windows. There was no gas. The electricity worked as did the hot water. But, the most fantastic thing of all - there was a roof. I mean, a flat roof that you could stand on and look at the surrounding view. The view from the roof was magnificent. The sunsets were gorgeous. We were only in the apartment for two nights, so the quality wasn't so important. At least there was an air conditioner in the main bedroom and fans in the other rooms. The kids all slept in the one room. The apartment was huge. The two front rooms were very large. The kitchen was small but functional and the master bedroom was also very large. Mr and Mrs Grandparent still had their clothes hanging in the cupboards. There were some bottles of soft-drink in the fridge that were only partially drunk, so we deduced that they were not diabetics...

The time for davening Mincha was at hand. I needed to find a minyan and Shlomi was going to show me the way. Shkia was at about 7.40 or so and it was now 7pm. Usually they daven 20 minutes prior to Shkia so I didn't have much time to find a shule. I walked with our landlord down to Jerusalem Road (a street that has all the restaurants and funky shops). From there I found out that there was a Breslover minyan only a minute away that was about to daven. OK, I didn't have a choice - it was either Breslov or nothing! It was actually a very nice minyan. The davening was slow and there wasn't any jumping or singing or clapping (maybe they save that for Shabbos?)

While I was waiting for the minyan to start, I spotted a man who was standing next to the G'niza. The G'niza was actually a washing basket. Old books and pages from holy books are usually deposited in the G'niza to be buried at some stage. This person eyed the G'niza through the corner of his glasses. He nonchalantly lifted the lid of the basket and dipped his hand inside. He took out a book, flipped through its pages and silently placed it in his inside jacket pocket. Of course, all items in the G'niza are ownerless. It seemed as though this person had discovered a new way to acquire books, free of charge. He dipped his hand in again, flipped through the pages of another book, winked at his friend and placed the book in his pocket next to the first one. This was very amusing to watch - especially when his friend sauntered over to the basket, looked in the opposite direction and removed a book from the basket without looking, as if nobody was watching! I think that between them they emptied half of the basket!

Before I left for Mincha, Leah had asked me to see if I can find a makolet and buy some supplies, like milk, that we didn't shlep with us. I was told that there is a supermarket a few floors down from the Bank HaPoalim. Bank HaPoalim is built on a hill. From where I was, I could enter at ground floor. The supermaket, though, was five floors down. I was told not to take the first lift because "it is not good". When I saw the second lift, I was a little suspicious, but I pressed the button and the elevator clanked it's way to my level. I entered the lift and pressed the button for the level the supermarket was on. It didn't register. I pressed again. Then harder. Then I tried with my other hand (as if that would help). The elevator started moving downwards and miraculously opened on the correct floor. I rushed into the supermarket to find that they were closing. Never mind, I'll just have to go early in the morning so the kids have milk for breakfast. But I wasn't going to get back in that elevator. I decided to climb the five flights of stairs instead. There were no lights in the stairwell. It was dark. And smelly. And the further I climbed, the darker and smellier it got. I had half a mind to go back an use the lift, but I pressed on. I climbed three flights and I exited the stairwell to breath some clean air. The floor that I found myself on seemed a little surreal. The doors were all different colours and it looked like nobody had been there for years. I reminded myself of a movie I once saw where this guy was trapped in a luxurious apartment where all the furniture was bolted to the floor and none of the amenities worked. He was then attacked in the middle of the night - I'll spare you the details, but I decided to take the lift. The buttons on the lift didn't work so I kept climbing the stairs. I managed to get the lift at the next level and exited onto Jerusalem Road, glad to see the fading light of day.

Leah didn't know how to contact Anton and we were really hoping to see him. He knew we were coming, but didn't know how to find us. I told Leah not to worry and that I'll find him. How do you find a single person in a city of thousands of people (considering he has no telephone or address and we didn't know the name of the Yeshiva he was studying at?) Remember, though, we are talking about Anton. I turned on my Hashgocho Protis meter (translation: Coincidence Meter) and I headed out. It was time for Maariv so I made my way back to the Breslover shule, hoping that they would have a minyan. I was wrong, so I decided to ask two guys who I heard speaking English close by the shule. They gave me directions to a shule and at the last moment I decided to ask them if they know Avraham (Anton) Morris. One of the guys said, "You mean Avraham Yaakov Morris? Sure I know him! He goes to my Yeshiva!" My Hashgocho Pratis meter was working wonders. He told me that he didn't know where Anton was, but he knows where the Rosh (Dean of the) Yeshiva lives and he would be able to help me. I decided to keep my Hashgocho Pratis Meter running and I followed his directions to the Rosh Yeshiva's house. I knocked on the door. A moment later it swung open and who should be standing there? Anton! We walked back to my apartment but Anton got caught up on the way - an old man passed by and asked for directions. Anton decided it would be better to take him, rather than explain the complicated directions so we agreed to meet shortly afterwards. Leah was very happy to see Anton and the kids jumped all over him. After a short visit, Anton took me to the Chernobyl Shule (across the cobblestone road from his Rosh Yeshiva's house) and then he took me for a short tour of the area.

The next day was a great day. It was our only full day and we decided to spend it on the Golan, on the other side of the Kinneret. We took a nice long drive along the northern side of the lake and into the Golan. I made the mistake of mentioning to the kids that the last time I was here I saw tanks doing maneuvers. From that moment on, all Shimi wanted to do was see tanks! (tanks a lot!). Our first stop, though, was at the Katzrin Community Center. Katzrin is the capital of the Golan Heights. We wanted to see an exhibition of dolls that depict Jews and Jewish ceremonies from all over the world. Unfortunately, the exhibition was closed, but we went to see the archaeological museum instead. The kids were thrilled to see old spear heads, sword blades and miniatures of towns as they once were. We saw old headstones and columns from thousands of years ago. Shimi's favorite item were some gold rings that were found at the site of the ancient city of Gamla. Racheli was fascinated by all of the pottery and terracotta type pots. Zvi marveled at the stones and was delighted that he could read some of the inscriptions on them. When I told him that those inscriptions were hundreds of years old, he was amazed that the language hadn't changed (pretty clever for a 6 year old!) Shimi was beside himself when I told him that one of the words on a stone said "Shimon".

We decided to sit in on a movie presentation of the rise and fall of the city of Gamla, situated on the Golan Heights. Gamla was a city that fell at the time of the Roman invasion of Israel shortly before the fall of the second Temple. The presentation was very graphic and Racheli was a bit scared. It showed images of Roman soldiers wielding weapons and the faces of frightened Jews in Gamla. Gamla is situated on the peak of a hill and down one of its slopes. It was a peaceful town but refused to give in to the Romans because they knew if they gave in, the citizens of Jerusalem would not be encouraged to resist the Roman invasion. The Romans attacked it and although the citizens of Gamla held out for a number of days (weeks?) the Romans won out in the end. With nowhere to run, many survivors (about 5,000) threw themselves down the mountain to their deaths (hoping perhaps to be saved by a miracle) - it was a Massada type story and very sad. There were only two or three survivors out of the whole city.

Just before the movie/documentary began, a man walked in with a couple of other tourists and I seemed to pick up an Aussie accent. After a brief conversation, I discovered that this is the late Abe Feiglin's nephew. I think his name is Jeffrey, but I'm not sure. He was proud to show me that he still carries a stick of aeroguard - it even works against Israeli mozzies!

The lady at the counter of the museum gave the boys some puzzles to do. The pictures were of some exhibits in the museum and once they had pieced the puzzle together, they had to go and find the exhibits. It was fun - except for Shimi who put the puzzle together but couldn't find the right stone with the right inscription. It wasn't his fault. Apparently they had sent that rock off to an exhibition in Germany together with a number of other exhibits, so it would have taken him a while to locate it :-)

After the museum, we went to the local shopping center and bought some food for lunch from the supermarket. We ate in a very cool and shady spot in the park just opposite the entrance to the shopping center. There was play-equipment and the kids enjoyed running around. Shimi didn't stop asking to see tanks the whole time, so we all piled back into our little white Punto and headed off for a drive around the hills and plains of the Golan.

Most people pray for health, wealth, happiness and the like. Leah and I were sitting in the car praying for tanks. We drove for about fifteen minutes and came across not one tank, not two tanks, but a whole battalion of tanks doing maneuvers. There were army jeeps and soldiers running around. For Shimi, this was a dream come true! We watched them for a few minutes and then headed off back the way we came. I think we heard one of the tanks fire a round, but we are not sure as we were quite a distance from the battalion when we heard it.

Our little white Punto found its way back to the main road and we stopped at the Ancient City of Katzrin. We entered immediately and made our way down a very rocky path to a strange-looking building. The door slid open and we entered a vast room. There were built-in stone benches around the perimeter of the room and the walls were decorated with floor-to-ceiling Persian-style paintings. Suddenly, the door slid closed and the lights dimmed. I then noticed that there were two rectangular borders on each of the four walls that did not have any paintings inside them. All of a sudden, each wall became a movie screen. The projectors projected the movie into each of these rectangles so that the borders became the edge of the screen. The movie was a "talmudic experience" and was a dramatisation of the famous Gemorrah in which R. Eliezer ben Hurkannus disagrees with the ruling of the Sanhedrin majority and performs miracles to prove that he is correct. Each time Reb Eliezer ben Hurkannus performs a miracle, Rabbi Yehoshua, head of the Sanhedrin, says that the miracle is very impressive, but the majority rule of the Sanhedrin remains the law - you can't determine the law because you can do miracles. Reb Eliezer then leaves the Sanhedrin and continues to teach the law as he sees it, rather than as was ruled by the Sanhedrin. After a fiery debate, the Sanhedrin decides to excommunicates Reb Eliezer because he undermined the authority of the Sanhedrin. There was more to the story, but I won't go into it here. It was very powerfully done. There were two screens on each wall but sometimes the screens showed different scenes with objects moving from one screen to another. It was very impressive. When the movie was done, another door dramatically slid open and we left the building.

We then walked through the Ancient City of Katzrin. Archeologists found remnants of homes, pots, pans, beds and various household items. They reconstructed what the house would have looked like. You can climb up the ladder to the second storey bedroom and walk through the house to see what it might have been like during the time when Katzrin was a vital Jewish city. There was also the reconstructed ruins of a Shule. It was a very impressive exhibition, but I commented to Leah that it is disconcerting to think that a thousand years from now, someone will be taking their children through the reconstructed ruins of our apartment building in Ramat Beit Shemesh!

A large tourist group then arrived and sort of killed the atmosphere that we were trying to create for the kids - I try to get them to feel the ancient-ness of the places we visit. I try to get them to imagine what it would have looked like in its hey-day. Anyway, we left the Ancient City of Katzrin and decided that it was time to head back to Tzfas. I had to daven Mincha and the kids were beginning to look a bit weary.

The children fell asleep in the car on the way back and missed the beautiful scenery of the Golan. I missed showing them some things that I find special about the Golan. I wanted to approach the Golan from the southern entrance and show them how the Golan looks over the Kibbutzim surrounding the Eastern side of the Kinneret (opposite Teveria). I wanted to show them the gun emplacements where the Syrians used to take pot shots at farmers. I wanted to show them the extensive vineyards and wineries that have been built and the farmland that has been cultivated since 1967, but we didn't get to the southern end of the Golan at all. Never the less, I think we used the day well.

After another winding drive up the steep mountains towards Tzfas, we arrived back at our apartment. The kids were asleep by about 9pm and Anton had agreed to take me to Maariv and then baby-sit the kids. We arrived back at the apartment later than expected, but Leah and I were eager to spend some time together walking around the city.

We by-passed Jerusalem Street and walked through the artists' colony. We strolled through the empty streets where artists sell their wares. I took Leah on a tour of many of the Shules that Anton had previously shown me: The Yosef Karo shule (he wrote the Shulchan Aruch), the Ari shule, the Kovno Shule and so on. We walked back up towards "The Square" and stopped at a "natural food" restaurant. We sat for quite a while in the cool Tzfat air, breathing in the atmosphere, enjoying a mid-nightish meal and watching weird people walk by - we were probably weird because everyone in Tzfas is weird and we are not, so we probably stood out...We returned to our apartment via a long and winding route, past the Fortress and the Police Station on Jerusalem Street where the Israeli forces managed to take control of these vital strongholds in 1948. You can still see the bullet holes in the walls. There are memorial plaques for those who died in the fighting. The old Police Station is now a school. The famous "Davidka" canon (which did nothing but make a really loud noise and scare the Arabs) is still there, welded into place. I didn't get to show this to the children, either, so that will have to wait until next time. It was strange walking in that area because if you imagine what happened there all those years ago, you can really appreciate what it is to be able to stand there in complete safety today.

We returned to the apartment at midnight and Anton went home, although we invited him to stay the night.

The next day we packed everything as if we were ready to go back to Ramat Beit Shemesh. In fact, I calculated that we could spend half a day in Tzfas before we traveled back to Ramat Beit Shemesh in time for me to drive the car back to Jerusalem by 5.15pm. So we got everything ready in the morning - actually, Leah did while I was at shule. By the way, I have never seen this before, but at the Chernobyl shule, they have a minhag to raise the Torah for all to see before reading it, not afterwards like I'm used to (things are definitely different in Tzfas!)

I returned from Shule and we set off on a similar walking route to that which Leah and I took the previous night. This time, though, the artists shops were all open. The kids were absolutely amazed at a lot of the artwork. They seem to have art in their blood (they do drawing, colouring, tracing, building, gluing, cutting and painting at every available opportunity!) We spent about half an hour walking through the shops and about 15 minutes or so inside Rabbi Yosef Karo's shule. Learning from my previous experience, I told the children that Rabbi Karo wrote the big black books on our shelf at home, next to the small red ones! The boys remembered that one shouldn't simply walk through a shule, so we sat and learned a Halocho for a few minutes (from the Shulchan Aruch - no less - followed by an elucidation of the Halocho in Mishna Berura).

The aim of the morning was to get to the candle factory at the end of the street, just past the Ari's shule. We also went inside the Ari's shule and I described to the children that the Arizal used to daven Kabbolas Shabbos outside of the shule in an area that is now a sort of pergola. He and his students used to dress in white to greet the "Shabbos Queen". The kids were enthralled by the imagery. We finally made it to our destination - the famous candle factory. (The air-conditioning was probably the most attractive part of the whole thing!) We browsed through the shop and saw some amazingly intricate candles - many intertwined colours, large and small. There were also numerous wax displays: a cartoonish Noah's Ark, a chess-board of Rabbis (I think it was Chassidim versus Misnagdim!), the scene of Avraham Avinu entertaining the three guests outside his tent with Sarai inside the tent, a wedding scene and, the one that drew the most attention of all - a wax representation of a dead Goliath lying on the floor with David standing over him, sword in hand, holding up Goliaths decapitated head (with a noticeable indentation in the forehead). It was very graphic and the kids wanted to know if the blood was real (ergh yuck). We bought a small candle as our only souvenir of the holiday (I'm surprised it didn't melt in the car on the way back!). The children enjoyed some ice-creams and icy-poles in the shade of a nearby pergola outside the candle factory.

We made it back to the apartment by about 11.30 and somehow managed to get everyone piled into the car - luggage and all - by about 12.00. I got a little lost trying to leave Tzfas - somehow I kept ending up at the same spot. In any case, we could have headed away from the Kinneret and back the way we came, but Shimi was itching to see the Kinneret up close. In fact all of the children were keen to see the water - we probably haven't seen the beach for at least a year. So we took a slightly longer route and parked the car near the shores of the Kinneret. We had filled our bottles with water before we left and the kids were eagerly drinking it as the temperature was beginning to soar. It must have been 35 degrees or so. Some people were swimming in the water (by the way, the water level looked very healthy). We stayed by the Kinneret for about 10 or 15 minutes (that's all we could afford as we were on a tight schedule to get back). We chugged off in our little white Punto along the shores of the Kinneret and then climbed the hill heading back to Afula.

Once we reached Afula, I had to remember how to get back on the highway - but in reverse, of course. I somehow, by magic or miracle managed to find the highway and the rest was easy. We sped along at the maximum legal speed. Remember, we had to get back to Ramat Beit Shemesh by 4.30 to allow me enough time to drive back to Jerusalem with time enough to spare with getting lost (no joke: the streets in Jerusalem are very tricky and getting lost is probably the easiest thing to do if you don't know where you are going!). Then we saw a sign by the side of the road that Highway 6 is coming up. I thought that this was fantastic and we had made exceptional time. Highway 6 is coming up and we have only been traveling for an hour and a half! But the signs that Highway 6 is coming up kept popping up every kilometer or so for about 50 kilometers! We finally reached Highway 6 and now the speed limit was 110kp/h for almost the rest of the way. We managed to get off at the correct turn-off and on to the Jerusalem/Tel Aviv highway - which sort of merged with Highway 6. We were back at Ramat Beit Shemesh by 4.20 (don't ask me how!) - enough time to unload the kids, unload the luggage and reattach the hatch cover that I removed prior to our trip. I took out the baby seat and was on my way back to Jerusalem by 4.35 - not bad.

The trip back to Jerusalem was very quick (unfortunately, because I was really enjoying driving and was loath to return this little white Punto of which I had become quite fond). I didn't get lost at all on the way back and arrived safely at the petrol station opposite Budget at 5.05. I filled up the car and it was all ready for inspection at 5.10pm or so. They gave the car a quick check-over to see if there was any external damage (thankfully we traveled safely) and I walked to Geula for Mincha and to catch a bus back to Ramat Beit Shemesh - like the rest of the plebeians. I think I counted about 7 little white Puntos on the way home.