What I've been up to...

I posted about some Kosher Nostalgia over at Batya's blog.

I also attended one of the 5 days this year devoted to bible study at the Herzog College in Gush Etzion.
All day long there are 7 different lectures going on simultaneously and the event is attended by over a thousand (my estimate from the size of the lecture halls I saw) people daily. It is an amazing experience. The quality of the lectures I chose this year was excellent. The day I was there they also had two more lecture choices every hour in English.
The setting, the campus of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut situated in the green hills between Jerusalem and Hebron is one of my favorite landscapes in Israel. I first visited the area in those euphoric weeks after the Six-Day-War in 1967. We reached the spot as the sky was turning the shades of pink, lavender and orange of summer sunsets and a cool breeze brought relief after a warm day of hiking and riding. Our tour leader told us the story of the "Lone Oak" (האלון הבודד) which stood as the last living symbol of the settlements destroyed by the Jordanians (and their defenders taken as prisoners) in the War of Independence. During the years between those wars  survivors and their children of the Etzion bloc settlements would meet on the Israeli side of the green line and look over at that remnant of their community. Alon Shvut means the Oak of Return.
The yeshiva, Har Etzion was founded by Rav Yehuda Amital Z"l  who passed away last week. The shiurim all began with mention of his passing and words in his memory.