Jerusalem Walks Leon's Walks

Shalom everyone, I'm forever telling people news of the past; memorable, big time, sensational events associated with the sites of Israel. But people are much more interested in the "no news" of the past; the unknown, unpublished bits of information. So for an interesting tour I always have to be on the lookout for these interesting bits of "no news". I'm like an entomologist looking for tiny, weird and sometimes scary insects which are almost invisible because they hide in c

Shalom everyone, Its ages since I wrote no news. So much no news has accumulated that I don't know where to start. September was a great month for no news and October is going to beat it. At long last I received my three stooges' movies that I ordered on the internet. Now all I need for a good laugh is to put a movie on the DVD. Ettie went off to Australia with Ittamar to join in the wedding festivities of my niece Lisa and they returned with lots of presents for me; a pair o

D ear friends and family, shalom, Every time I visit Massada I need to remind myself and others that although Massada fell, with the terrible suicide there, the Jewish People survived. In the face of such horrors where did the Jewish People find the strength of will to survive? The search for an answer to this question is definitely a worthwhile activity, in my opinion. Every time I go there I think how many times this nation has turned back from the brink of destruction. Whe

Dear friends and family, Yesterday I had to take a lady and her three children to meet their father in Tel Aviv. We had about 4 hours to kill before the set meeting time. So I had to think of some place to show them that would interest both mother and children. The mother set the tone by reading me a list of possible historic places. We decided that the caves of Bet Guvrin would be both fun for the kids and of historic interest. Everybody liked the idea of crawling through ca

Dear friends and family, shalom, You know when I get a tour group for 2 weeks I get almost totally out of my usual home loving situation. I don't have many tours like that but I just finished one, which I enjoyed very much and the people were wonderful and very cooperative and appreciative and we all had a lot of fun. But I must confess, I love being at home also, writing to you and all that. I just love it and I must admit I missed it. I am happy to say that I enjoy both wor

You might know that my family is somewhat scattered over the face of this great earth of ours. My one brother, Raymond and his family, lives in Toronto Canada and my other brother Bernard and his family is in Sydney Australia. To my great joy Bernard came to visit me the other day and to spend time with his nephews, my sons. Needless to say we all had a good time with lots of partying, chatting about old times and above all touring together through Israel, mostly Jerusale

The days after Passover and the day of Shavuot celebrate two events when the Jewish People received two important gifts, namely the grains of wheat and barley, harvested on the days between the two festivals and the Torah which we received on Mt. Sinai on Shavuot, the 50th day after Passover. At this time of the year the Jewish farmer could really feel the truth of the saying "without flour there is no Torah and without Torah there is no wheat." In Judaism the gift of Torah a

Our new government got on its way on Sunday, with a brand new prime minister and 25 new cabinet ministers. Very few people in Israel know any of these people personally but since they represent the 4 political parties who received the majority of the votes (Kadimah, Labor, Shas and the pensioners), one could say that most of the nation voted for them. The closest any of us will ever get to know these ministers is through dealings with their ministries and the publicity they r

Dear friends and family, One of the postcard sellers at the Mosque of Omar whispered in my ear that from the 1st of March we'll be able to enter the sacred shrine again. It's been closed for about 6 years now, since Ariel Sharon entered it in October 2000. This was good news. It might be a sign of improved relations between Jews and Arabs. Once again we'll be able to admire the architectural beauty of this ancient holy place, one of the best examples of the cultural heritage

Dear friends and family, The weather in Israel is going from warm to hot. Yesterday we basked in the sun on a boat on the Sea of Galillee in about 25 centigrade. The boat was taking a group of tourists and myself from Ein Gev, where we had just eaten a delicious St. Peter's fish lunch, to Nof Ginossar where we joined our bus to drive to Nazareth. It was already dark when we made our way back to Jerusalem. But not too late. This night, for a change I'd be early in bed. The nig

Dear friends and family, This week some really sad things happened here in Israel. On Tuesday one of our most beloved and famous singers, Shoshana Damari, passed away. I was very sad about this as I always am when someone dies. Dying is just the worst thing that can happen to a person. I'm sure that no matter how much suffering there is during life it's nothing compared with the suffering of dying. She had a very unusual style of singing. It was a combination of Yemenite yode

Dear friends and family, What a great day it was yesterday in Jerusalem. It's the best turn out I've had in ages for my "Jerusalem Walks", 6 people. I can't explain the sudden rush of tourism, but according to my calculations that's a 600 % increase over the two weeks previous to that. I haven't done anything different. It just goes to show how much our success or failure in life isn't the result of something we've done but the result of events and situations completely out o

Dear friends and family, My son, Emanuel, sent me an important bit of no news. The singing group Depeche Mode will be giving a one time performance on the 3rd Aug 2006. You might know that this date is the festival of Tisha B'Av, in memory of the destruction of the 1st and the 2nd Temples. Those destructions are considered the beginning of the exile (galut). They'll be performing at the end of the festival. The end of the festival is considered the beginning of redemption (ge

Dear friends and family, Here I am, in French Hill, a new suburb of New Jerusalem, thinking what news from Israel to tell you. Unfortunately I don't have any news. I only have "No News". What's going on in Jerusalem isn't news because, generally, it's the same as what goes on in any city in the world. News is something different. It's something unique. For example if it's nice and peacefull in your nich of the world and war is going on here. That's news. A bomb blast isn't ne

Going up to Calvary Isn't just an exercise in climbing up a tree. It is something that takes a lifetime to do. And even so nobody except Lord Jesus Has done it. He did it with suffering. Our lifetime is also suffering. It's the suffering of our lives. That makes us think. That this world isn't perfect. Yet the Calvary idea is that Jesus' suffering. Is what makes the world perfect. The perfect world then. Isn't one without suffering. That's our mistake. The perfect world is on

Do the loyal followers of Allah think that they have once again proved to the world that Allah is great?. They blew up a bus full of women and children and old men. I, for one am not impressed by Allah. These loyal people love Allah, the murderer of children, so dearly that they do whatever He asks of them. I wouldn't do a thing for such a god. Am I supposed to respect their holy Koran or their prophet Mohammad? I can reject Allah because I am not a Moslem but the poor Moslem