Some Snow Pics

I don't associate the month of Adar with snow. But here we are in Jerusalem, Rosh Chodesh Adar, covered with the white stuff.

Dealing With the Snow

Today, the fast day of Asara BeTevet (the 10th of Tevet), a perhaps unprecedented amount of snow has fallen in Jerusalem. The web is full of beautiful pictures of the holy city covered with snow. Here is a different kind of Jerusalem snow picture:

So what is the story behind the picture?

My neighborhood was blacked out from about 12:30 AM last night. These snow storms have a way of causing blackouts! Many times the snow weighs down tree branches which eventually break and fall to the ground. On the way down, if there is a power line on the way, the branch takes it down with it.

It was great going to daven this morning and seeing all the tzadikim that in spite of the inclement weather made it to the synagogue. There too there was no power but with the help of the breaking dawn and a few candles we were able to daven.

After davening I saw this devoted worker from the Israeli Electric Company (the guy in yellow) on Najara Street. He came to fix whatever was wrong. God bless him! I asked him when the electricity would be back and he replied, "Soon".

And so it was.

Snow in Jerusalem!

Amazing! We've had such an abundance of rain lately and now snow! (Click on the pics to enlarge.)

Snow in Jerusalem

Rabbi Chaim Vital Street:

A broken umbrella...I've seen so many of those lately.

Snow and Jerusalem stone:

I wonder what those palm trees are thinking. As for the man with the umbrella, I am sure that he is having fun.:

Dvar Torah: Parashat Tetzave

Here's something interesting: Rav Kook on Tetzaveh: The High Priest's Clothes and the Convert

BTW, the weatherman says that we are going to have snow in Jerusalem this Monday. Here's a pic from the last snowstorm. I like this guy's car:

The Snow Is Gone

Almost all of the snow has melted, but the memories remain. Here's a pic of a real hip Israeli snowman:

It's Still Snowing in Jerusalem

I tried going to work today. The usually traffic laden streets of Givat Shaul in Jerusalem were almost empty. The palm trees on Kanfei Nesharim Street received a white coating:



A mortally wounded umbrella on Beit HaDefus Street:



This reminded me of an old post:

But the last rainstorm has not been without its victims. If one walks around Jerusalem, the victims can be seen every so often abandoned and lying on the ground near the sidewalks. I’m not talking about the homeless. I'm talking about the umbrellas that could not stand up to the Israeli mountain winds. I do a lot of walking and I usually have to replace my umbrella every one to two years. You walk down the street with the top of the umbrella pointed head on into the wind. Then of a sudden the wind changes direction and comes under the umbrella. It would be nice if at that moment you would lifted up into the air and spirited across the puddles like Mary Poppins, but that just does not happen. The untimely gust of wind turns your umbrella inside out. The average umbrella will survive this trauma several times, but sooner or later the fabric will tear and the arms will bend. It is not suave to walk around Jerusalem carrying an umbrella that looks like a television antenna. Of course this is not an excuse to litter. I guess the people who threw down their umbrellas were too worried about getting wet to find a dumpster to throw their umbrella into.

It has been said, “If you build a better mousetrap, the whole world will beat a path to your door.” Who will build the better umbrella that can handle Jerusalem’s winds?

Snow clouds cover a section of the Jerusalem Forest:



Did I mention that that the office building where I work was closed?

More Snow Pics From The Holy City

The tip of a tall cypress tree sways during the snow storm in Jerusalem this morning. The winds will die down, the snow will melt, and the cypress tree will remain.



Bad news for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. A new candidate for Prime Minster emerged today:



He'll probably do a better job than the current one.

It's Snowing, It's Sticking

The weather forecasters got it right! School is out and the kids are happy. I probably won't be going to work today. I'm not to happy about that because it will probably cost me a vacation day.

Here's a pic of a lemon tree covered with snow. It is probably asking itself,"What in the world is going on?"

Will It Snow and Will It Stick?

What's going to be? Everybody is talking about snow:

Although snow is not that unusual in Israel, Tuesday’s storm is expected to dump more of the white stuff than normal, with some forecasts predicting snowfalls of up to 25 inches in the northern part of the country.

Jerusalem is likely to see up to 10 inches by the end of the storm and even the southern regions could see two inches or so.

The tension is killing me!