Good Friday to you all. It is a beautiful day here in Israel with the temp in the 70s in the shade and the 80s in the wonderful sun. I am sure you are all enjoying the winter and I truly do wish there was snow here, so know that I am jeoulous of the weather you are receiving

Yesterday I was very down because of the terrorist attack on the citizens of Israel. I am not sure why this one affected me more than others, but it did. I needed to go to jerusalem again and for some strange reason I was once again on the #22 bus. And then I saw it all. The bus was in the same point that only 5 hours earlier the #19 BUS WAS BLOWN UP. It was a very uneasy feeling I had. I looked around and I could see the blast radius, which was huge, that was caused from the attack. Broken windows, metal strewn, etc. Lots of security. I am enclosing two pics and a link either http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?swiU04ul0 or http://www.mfa.gov.il/ for you to all see some live coverage of it afterwards. I should warn you though, that there are pretty extreme scenes in the 5 min clip. But it is something I think you should all watch.

After being at the epicenter of the attack, I realized if this is going to bring me down, then I am letting the Aravim (Arabs) win. That is unacceptable. I came to israel to live a free life the way I want to and to be happpy all the days of my life. So to all you terrorists out there and to people who still do not acknowledge Israel as a state, shove it up yours!!!! And although living in Israel means you are living in a warzone, I thank G-d for the opportunity to live in the holiest and most spiritual place in the world. I am happy and I am still here!

Now some words of life: As you all know I believe in G-d very much, regardless how religious I am/was I also knew and had strong conviction that there is a G-d and that the Bible/Torah is true and all the traditions that I have are passed down from Sinai. This week in the Synagouge we are reading from the book of Exodus and specifically, the area of the 10 plagues on the Egyptians. This week, our school had the honor, which is actually on a weekly basis, to have Rabbi Riskin speak to us. I wanted to share something with you on it. First of all, everything in the Torah has a reason and sometimes we do not understand. Many times an action is performed and then later another is perfomed. For excample, Jacob lied to his father to get the first born blessing, and later his 10 sons lied to him about what had happened to Joseph, midah v midah, and act against and act.

Why were the descendants of Israel put into slavery and what was the point of all the plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea, etc.? You see during the seven years of the famine, all the Egyptians ended up selling themselves to Pharoah and in exchange agree crops for him (end of chapter 40 in the book of Genesis). The Egyptians sold themselves into slavery through Joseph, and so the Jews became slaves. What is this coming to teach us? G-d is the Master of us all and no one should be slaves. This lesson isn't just for Jewish people but for the people of the world. All the miracles that occured were to show the world around at that time that slavery is unacceptable. We all, every human being, have the right to live a life of freedom. If G-d gives us free will, how can a man, a creation of G-d, tell one what to do and control them? Every day and all throughout the week in the prayers we, the Tribe of Israel, speak and mention the exodus of Egypt. Why? Because of all the important lessons that we can learn from it.

Everyone has the right to be free and live in a free world! Osama Bin Laden and his associates are telling the U.S. that there will be another attack on the U.S. unless they stop supprting Israel AND all convert to Islam. The extreme Islamist do not believe in freedom... The U.S., with President Bush, and other democracies believe that everyone has the right to be free. FREEDOM, the right to be FREE. If any of you have any questions on this, please feel free to ask...

Well I hope you all have a good weekend. I hope that Carolina wins only because they are the underdog, but the truth is, the Packers aren't in it, so I don't really care the outcome, and I am halfway around the wolrd so the game will begin sometime around 2am. Peace, Love and Repsect to you all!

Strength & Blessing

Yaakov S. Y. Cohen

Yesterday I had to go into Jerusalem to do some errands. I was dropped off in Katimon and walked into town listening to some live Moe. I ended up picking up a #22 bus to the Puopkos, family friends. I walked right by the Prime Minister's home. Today, this morning 10 people were murdered in a brutal attack on the Israel society. That could have been me, or any of my friends. The fact is that at the end of the day, I will be able to connect myself to a victim of the attack within two degrees of separation. I had been on such a natural high the last two weeks from getting into learning and now I feel like a sledgehammer has pounded me in the head and brought me down to reality. Have a good day you all and think about how lucky we are to be alive. Do not take for granted what one has!

Strength & Blessing

Yaakov S. Y. Cohen

Good evening (morning) ladies and gentleman. I hope you are all doing well. Myself, no complaints. Sababa! as they say out here. Well I have now been at Yeshiva Mivtar for a little over a week, and I must say I am quite happy with my choice on coming out here. The rabbis/teachers of the school are very chilled, and the guys here are too. My roommate is another nice midwesterner like myself and we often have fun making fun of the New Yorkers, those crazy people! I am slowly filling up my schedule with classes, that I will enjoy to learn, and occupying the other time with little adventures, to get to know the region. They even have cable modems for the computers. I mean this place is chilled.

People envision this: I am looking out my window, I see one road, a main highway thoroughfare and between that and me are vineyards. Cannot wait till its grape season, yalla! Our caravans are located on the edge of a hill, one of thousands in the area, just rolling hill after rolling hill. Majestic. The sun comes over on the left side of the hill and then sets on the bottom of the right falling down behind, yes, another hill. Cats roam the area and keep all the rats and mice out of our caravans. The caravan below me (in the next row of the hill) is the caravan for the soliders which are on duty by the gate to the school and the gate to Migdal Oz. There is a rotation of 5 soldies, one always off. These guys are a cool crew and I have found a new group of people to whoop butt in at backgammon (sheishbeish). I am slowly picking up the hebrew slang from them, and when they aren't looking, stealing bullets! Just kidding, no need for that anymore!

The area that I am in is called the Gush, which is because there is a small Yishuv called Gush Eztion, in which there is a yeshiva called Har Etzion home of Rabbi Lichenstein, and Rabbi Amitel, two of the brightest the Jewish people have to offer. A friend of mine, Yehuda Rock learns there and I intend to start tremping (hitchiking) over there and learning with him. Don't worry you all; tremping is not as bad as you think. Its quite safe, as long as an Arab doesn't get you, yala inshalla! So the group of guys here are from all over the States and then there is a rabbinic program with a mixture of Israeilis and Americans, now living here. This crew is smart and on the top of the class. I actually think I am on the lower end. Don't get me wrong, not talking myself down, just talking them up. For example, one guy here is just finishing up and starts Harvard Medical school this fall. Another guy is going to Yale Law School. Sharp dudes. But it's good for me, lots of books to read of theirs, and for once I can actually listen to some good stuff instead of talking, as I am so used to.

How long will I be here? What am I going to do after this? Good questions. Not sure, but I hope I just get into the learning more. I am going to be applying to grad school in Business. Though, whether I go or not, not sure. You see, the gov't will pay for my masters, so I am leaving this option open. In two weeks is the 16th of Shvat, which in Israel marks spring, so I am hoping that the winds slow down and the weather gets warmer. Though I am sure you are all freezing out there in your teens and low twenties. Yep, things here are good! Sababa and Shalom from Israel. Peace and Love and Respect to you alls!!!!

Strength & Blessing

Yaakov S. Y. Cohen

Shalom you alls from Migdal Oz, that's right no more Jerusalem for me at this time. I am now living in the northern area of the Judean Desert just south of Jerusalem near Efrat in the Gush area. What? Do any of you have any clue to what I am talking about? Maybe half, but that's alright. I had decided before coming to Israel that I will spend a couple of months learning in the world of Torah, all aspects of it. And so here I am now, doing just that. I am at a "Yeshiva Hamiftar" which is compiled of 50-70 guys of ages varying from 19-up. There is a rabbinical program here. Can you say Rabbi Yak? Just kidding, at least for now. I do not know how long I will be here, as I am going to take this one day at a time. But I really seem to like the guys here. Last night we were all sitting around talking about the Disco Biscuits, Keller Williams and other favorite musical acts of ours. It was a blast.

Hey I forgot to mention that Sat night before Eli and I did anything we went to a hookah bar had some wine and smoked a nargilah till maybe 2 am..... and .. then toured the city.....

So its Sunday afternoon the 28th of December and since I have a little time to myself I shower (no shaving for this furry beard) and catch up on some rest. Then I meet up with Eli and we do the Kosher Burger King. So its Sunday night I am now on 4 hours of sleep and Avi Gris meets us in town and here we are standing in the middle of town just talking. Not doing anything particular. Lets grab some drinks! We find this crazy Russian bar, and gets some shots of whiskey and beer and slowly getting there. Well this guy come in thinking he knows me (I guess a guy looking like me owed him money), he sits eats some pretzels and leaves, bizarre.

Well that's our cue to leave also and head on another night tour of Jerusalem, brought to you by wherever the night takes you! Mea Shearim again. it was surreal to explain it to you but it had a sense of being in a different time seeing this place. These people live way below poverty and seem to be alright with it. Why because they know materialism is nothing compared to reward for them in the world to come. At one turn we see in the clothes line a family's Sabbath clothes all hanging. The two girls dresses, the mothers dress and then the husbands Hassidic garb, his uniform of the team he is a part of. Man I wished I had had my camera then because it is a pic to remember. Perhaps I will be roaming around one day and see it again!

Somehow we end up in Independence Park and the sky is clear as can be, the moon shining and the stars shimmering. Just the three of us and the sky. Nothing else. We didn't make it that night, passing out around 4 am in the morning. Well we cannot expect to stay up every night. That's alright you knows!!

My buddy, Zev G., has suggested me to use another means of communicating with you all and I am looking into it. I have started writing a daily journal, thanks Holly for the idea, and I will quickly fall behind in these emails to let you know what a trip this has been. So until next time!

It began in an elevator in Jerusalem........... But truly it began at Har Habayit, Mount Moriah, or as some know the Kotel, the epicenter of what's a lot of history and tradition. Four some months into a wonderful experience and life change, I was infused with an energy that has allowed me to enjoy Jerusalem and Israel as I truly should. A friend of mine, who a lot of you know, ELi Clevs, who is engaged to Miriam Weiss, Mazel Tov you both, came on a three week vacation to Israel. Meeting up with him at the Kotel we caught up prayed and headed into town to breathe it all in. We then met a friend of his, who I have become friends with, Avi Gris. So here we are, sitting at Sima's on Agripas Road, shooting the @#$% about life and what a trip it is to be in Israel. These guys are going on about it, and here I am thinking, "wait I live here now!" Had I already lost that spark or was it just pushed to the back burner. Whatever it was, these two guys and two plus weeks of Chofesh, vacation, have brought that spark up again and stronger that ever. The adventures we had are endless and each one are one of a kinds. And it was GREAT, man. I am telling you. This has been good fun for me. Not just fun, but learning, and conversation and all sorts of other good stuff!! And we even got to see parts of Israel none of us had seen in the past. Did you all know that there are amazing forests and parks all over Israel. Mountains that you stand on and you are standing between the clouds and the green ground full of vineyards, orchards and people doing there thing. At the same time F-16s just dropping out of the cloud, six of them, arching in towards the world below them. That's the Carmel region for you, my friends! But hey that was the 6th of January and we are still a while from there.

So here we are munching down on some tasty Israeli salads and having a great Seudah, on a Friday afternoon in Jerusalem, less than 24 hours from the most recent terror attack on the citizens of Israel. Think about that my friends, how string you have to be to get on with your life when someone two degrees away from you was murdered, and butchered by an animal with no remorse or emotion for Human Care!

Good thing we have Shabbos because I needed it. Eli and I stayed at my family friends The Poupkos, who I would like to thank G-D and my parents for knowing them as they have been as much of a family I have out here on the other side of the world. Well Friday night we explored the Hasiddic life with their Fri Night Parties, but that doesn't even do it right. Imagine an entire following of Bob Marley standing on rafters on both sides and table down the middle and everyone humming a tune to their Rebbe! AN amazing seen, and we saw a couple of those. Lots of sleep on shabbos and then a new innovation NIGHT TOURING. Yes that's right, I am now offering night tours in Jerusalem, starting between 9 and 11 pm on Sat night. Destination is unknown but it will be a blast. Couple of bowls a drink and lots of walking through the eerie streets of Jerusalem. Think about the history that had gone on at this square? Eli and I stayed up all night wandering around Mea Shearim and hit the first prayer in the morning on the 2nd floor of a sephardi synagogue near Beit Canada. Then we slept....................................................................................... yeah and I slept some more when Eli went to visit friends............................ So here I am now Sun afternoon and we have another partner in crime, Avi who will joining us. And to hear more, then subscribe to my reflector Only 3.99 a month. Just kidding actually you will all to wait until the next email, but here is a pic to keep you waiting!



Strength & Blessing

Yaakov S. Y. Cohen