pesach cont.

Have you ever chamsaed someone while driving? It is much more gratifying then giving someone the finger, because first of all it is 5 fingers and a palm you are giving them which is 5 times as much and also because when you chamsa someone the curses that go along with it are much more severe. For example, a truck (yes an 18 wheeler TRUCK) decided that the line of traffic in front of him was going too slowly so he pulled onto the shoulder and sped past. I chamsaed him twice and among other things that I yelled at him was that he should get raped by the same camel 50 times.
To throw a chamsa at someone you put your 3 middle fingers together and strewtch out your thumb and your pinky and yell chamsa alecha (חמסא עליך in hebrew) Then while your fingers are still in the chamsa position you yell ridiculous curses containing what you would like to happen to him, his mother, his wives, his mistresses, his children, his posessions,...

In any case, I digress. Back to the pesach tiyul.

After Ein Tina, we were discussing the next plans with ourr friends and they decided not to continue with us, but we were going in the same direction so we continued onwards together and then one friend said that yesterday the bridge crossing the Jordan river was out and he found a dirt road through the fields that connected to another bridge and we could cross there. So we cut onto a dirt road and drove through fields until we found the second bridge and crossed the Jordan. We had planned to stop along the river for lunch, but there were no places with shade so we kept going onwards. We considered various options and decided that instead of BBQing we would just eat when we got to Keshet Yonaton, which was supposed to be a kosher lemahdrin place. When we got there they told me that it was too late to order and that they don't eat until 7PM anyways. So there we were without meat (except for deli slices) and no restaurant. So we decided to head on down to Ein Gev, where there was supposed an eretz yisroel festival. We drive down towards Ein Gev, or how we thought the map showed would be a good way to get there, and we didn't see any kosher restaurants on the way and there was no road to ein gev. We finally turned into what looked like a parking lot right where the road was supposed to be and it was blocked by police and soldiers. They asked what we wanted and I said we were trying to figure out how to get to Ein Gev. After discussing it they said that this was a road and it went to Ein Gev, but we should drive very carefully. So we went down a windy, steep road filled with potholes and surrounded on both sides by a barbed wire fence that had signs be careful of land mines. It was a fun drive and we finally got to Ein Gev and the children are starving. We walked through Ein Gev and there was no festival. There were signs that there was going to be a festival, but I think it was a Music Festival and it was only after dark. When we got to the end of the sidewalk there was a restaurant and a lot of ashkenazic looking religious looking people were walking in. We decided it probably wasn't our kind of kosher and offered the kids matza and meat slices. None of them were very happy. I finally decided to check out the kashrus of the restaurant and walked in and asked. They had a rabanut kosher for pesach without kitniyos. So I decided that we could eat there. Another religious person came and decided to tell me about the restaurant. He said that about 10 years ago the restaurant made a deal with the rabanut that they really wanted to be kosher, but they needed to be open on shabbos. The deal was that they use different dishes and an Arab cook on shabbos, so it is as if it is a separate restaturant. He said if I considered that toi be kosher then I could eat there. I thanked him for the information and said that I thought that was a great compromise. Who knew that religious people knew how to make that kind of compromise. So we went in to eat.
We had fish, the kids mostly ate salad and everyone was happy. President Peres walked in the door as we were walking out, so I wished him a happy holiday and he responded in kind.
We then headed back to the campground (we went the other way back) and slept well.

We counted Day 3 in the omer.

To be continued