Holster Mountain Tours

08/09/2024

Looking for a recommendation for an attorney who deals in small claims lawsuits. Thanks in advance.

05/08/2024

25/07/2024

Perfect caption.

10/06/2024

Isru Chag Shavuot, 7 Sivan (Thursday, June 13), marks the 23rd Yahrzeit of our mother, Sara Blaustein, h”yd

The family will go to her Kever in the Kfar Etzion cemetery on Thursday afternoon at 5. Anyone who can make it is welcome to join us.

For those who can’t, but still want to honor her memory, buy some purple flowers for your home for Shavuot. 💜

Atara Blaustein Erez Tema Furmansky Ariella Unterberg Gabbay Debra Furmansky Drellich Kalman Berkowitz Michael Naftali Unterberg Ira Gidon Shmuel Stephen Unterberg Sam Furmansky Meir Unterberg Aliza Berkovich Dara Unterberg Adena Mark Kapon Avi Kapon Elisheva Marcus Daniella Marcus Jordana Mark Ostrov Simona Mark Arianna Mark Yossi Baumol

If I forgot to tag anyone (and I’m sure that I did) please feel free to share tag and/or share this.

26/04/2024

I guess this is what they meant when they were chanting “There is only one solution…”

12/03/2024

Ok, I don’t want to give Jonathan Glazer any more attention than he’s already gotten for his asinine remarks, but so many people are misquoting him.

He didn’t say he’s refuting his Judaism; he said he refuted his Judaism had the Holocaust being “hijacked” by the “occupation.”

This doesn’t make any grammatical sense. “Refute” means “disprove.” His speech didn’t refute anything.

He could have been a lot clearer thus avoiding all the confusion over his syntax and word choice. But based on what he said, I don’t think he’s bright enough to have better elucidated his point.

Also, and I know this is a technicality but I feel it’s important to point out whenever the topic is raised, there is no occupation. In order for an occupation to have taken place, there had to have been a sovereign nation ruling over the allegedly occupied land. Until the 1980s it could have been argued that Israel was occupying Jordanian, Egyptian, and/or Syrian territory. But since Egypt and Jordan renounced all claims to their respective territories lost to Israel, and Israel annexed (for lack of a better term) the territory we gained from Syria, there is no possibility for an occupation to be happening. Not to mention that it’s impossible for one to occupy one’s own homeland.

Anyway, Mr. Glazer didn’t renounce his Judaism, even if he could. He’s just a moron.

11/03/2024

I just watched “Israelism.” Someone uploaded the whole thing onto YouTube, so I didn’t have to waste any money on it, only my time.

The documentary tells the story of a few twenty-something Jews who started out as full-throated cheerleaders for Israel but later changed their tune to sing a decidedly more pro-Palestinian song.

My main takeaway from this film is that these people are incredibly unintelligent and highly susceptible to propaganda.

They eagerly ate up the simplistic pro-Israel propaganda they’d been spoon-fed in their youth and never thought to examine it any further than the superficial layer adults give to children so as to make it palatable. I mean, of course there is more to the story than what they were taught as children- there is more to every story we’re taught as kids. Kids eventually learn the truth about Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the Cup of Elijah. Sometimes it hurts when these icons are smashed, but it’s a part of growing up. The subjects of this film, however, took all of their overly-simplified Israel narratives into adulthood and were shocked to learn that they ought to have learned more about it in the years between kindergarten and college.

So what did they do? Since reality didn’t fit perfectly with their undeveloped world view, they rejected it entirely. They could have maintained their position and simply enriched it with more information and nuance on the topic, but they did not. In completely unsurprising entitled fashion, they acted like petulant children and threw out everything they’d been taught.

What I found truly hilarious was that the new gospel to which they pledged their allegiance was not one of intellectual impartiality and a rigorous pursuit of objective truths. Instead, they just got duped by a different flavor of propaganda that they fell for on the first place.

I have more more to say, but instagram seems to be limiting how much I type. I posted the full review on facebook. Bottom line: the movie is bad.

11/03/2024

I just watched “Israelism.” Someone uploaded the whole thing onto YouTube, so I didn’t have to waste any money on it, only my time.

The documentary tells the story of a few twenty-something Jews who started out as full-throated cheerleaders for Israel but later changed their tune to sing a decidedly more pro-Palestinian song.

My main takeaway from this film is that these people are incredibly unintelligent and highly susceptible to propaganda.

They eagerly ate up the simplistic pro-Israel propaganda they’d been spoon-fed in their youth and never thought to examine it any further than the superficial layer adults give to children so as to make it palatable. I mean, of course there is more to the story than what they were taught as children- there is more to every story we’re taught as kids. Kids eventually learn the truth about Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the Cup of Elijah. Sometimes it hurts when these icons are smashed, but it’s a part of growing up. The subjects of this film, however, took all of their overly-simplified Israel narratives into adulthood and were shocked to learn that they ought to have learned more about it in the years between kindergarten and college.

So what did they do? Since reality didn’t fit perfectly with their undeveloped world view, they rejected it entirely. They could have maintained their position and simply enriched it with more information and nuance on the topic, but they did not. In completely unsurprising entitled fashion, they acted like petulant children and threw out everything they’d been taught.

What I found truly hilarious was that the new gospel to which they pledged their allegiance was not one of intellectual impartiality and a rigorous pursuit of objective truths. Instead, they just got duped by a different flavor of propaganda that they fell for on the first place.

I wanted to watch this movie because, while I know my understanding of history and current events is pretty solid and therefore my political opinions are firmly on the right side of history, I’m humble enough to suspect that maybe I don’t understand everything fully and I might have a few things to learn. Heck, I may even be wrong about some things. The trailer showed pro-Israel people like myself who seemed to have been swayed by some life-altering information that made them second-guess everything they’d been told about Israel. If the information they’d learned was that critical, I figured I’d better see what it was. Could it challenge my world view just like it challenged theirs? Would I also do an about-face on my political beliefs?

Well, it turns out I had nothing to learn from this film or its subjects. The people in the film were simply under-educated dupes who were attracted to fashionable political slogans the way a dim witted child is attracted to a shiny object.

The only constructive thing I got from watching this sad glimpse into the Israeli education of American Jews is that we must do a better job. It seems that Israel education is fine amongst the very young, but then there is no follow-up or delving into the issues as American Jews get older. By the time they enter college, they are equipped with an infantile understanding of the topic and get easily confused by charismatic anti-Israel speakers spewing half-truths and rhetoric dressed up as social justice.

To summarize: Israelism is not good.

Hope you enjoyed my review! Now go learn more nuance.

23/01/2024

“I know that I’m a hero. No need to remind me.”

On the one hand, a funny shirt that displays false pride as a way of expressing reluctant heroism.

On the other hand, a legitimate plea to stop being reminded of the trauma.

There’s a fine line between the two, and I’m sure he crisscrosses over it constantly.

23/01/2024

I’m in Tel HaShomer hospital with a Chessed mission. We’re visiting the amputee recovery ward, when I see a Chabad guy walking the halls with a set of Tefillin.

Long story short, today I learned that there are special Halachic dispensations in regard to Tefillin for people who have fewer than two arms.

23/01/2024

Just outside of Jerusalem on the side of highway 1 there is a museum that commemorates the struggle and sacrifice of Israeli soldiers in the war of independence who tried to supply humanitarian aid from major Jewish population centers on the coast to beleaguered and besieged Jews in Jerusalem.

In all the times I’ve been to that museum, as well as all the times I’ve studied the subject independently, I have never heard or seen any individual, group, or international organization that called for the local Arab militias to allow humanitarian aid to those Jews. In fact, as the museum points out, the local Arab militias actively and mercilessly targeted the humanitarian convoys.

There was no censure by European countries.

There was no condemnation by the United Nations.

South Africa did not charge the Arab militias with genocide in The Hague.

There were no excoriations of collective punishment on American college campuses.

I guess Jews are held to one standard while our enemies are held to another. There’s a word for that.

10/01/2024

Mama said knock you out.

27/12/2023

As I ride along the Egyptian border I can’t help but notice the large, imposing fence we’ve put up between the two countries and think about the similarity this fence has with the one between us and Gaza.

Which raises the question: does this mean Egypt is an open air prison? I mean, everyone says that Gaza is an open air prison because of the fence we put up between us (after we pulled every last Jew out of there in 2005), so is the entire country of Egypt also an open air prison because we put a fence on our border with them?

If so, then Jordan is also an open air prison. And so is Syria. And so is Lebanon.

Which means that Israel, by trying to secure and monitor its borders, has basically put the entire world (besides Israel itself) in an open air prison.

Yes, it seems we have effectively limited the freedom of movement of over eight billion people; none of them have the freedom to enter or exit Israel without our say-so.

Who knew we were so powerful?

29/11/2023

Gratitude is an essential component of the character of the Jewish people. It is a positive consequence of an old nation with a long memory.

On this date, 76 years ago, 33 nations voted in favor of the UN partition plan. They are deserving of our appreciation, even the ones which no longer exist.

(I have more to say after this list, so keep scrolling.)

So, thank you, Bolivia.
Thank you, Brazil.
Thank you, Costa Rica.
Thank you, Dominican Republic.
Thank you, Ecuador.
Thank you, Guatemala.
Thank you, Haiti.
Thank you, Nicaragua.
Thank you, Panama.
Thank you, Paraguay.
Thank you, Peru.
Thank you, Uruguay.
Thank you, Venezuela.
Thank you, Belgium.
Thank you, Denmark.
Thank you, France.
Thank you, Iceland.
Thank you, Luxembourg.
Thank you, Netherlands.
Thank you, Norway.
Thank you, Sweden.
Thank you, Belarus.
Thank you, Czechoslovakia.
Thank you, Poland.
Thank you, Ukraine.
Thank you, Soviet Union.
Thank you, Liberia.
Thank you, South Africa.
Thank you, Australia.
Thank you, New Zealand.
Thank you, Philippines.
Thank you, Canada.
And thank you, United States of America.

Another benefit of a long memory is that we know who kept quiet when we needed help. Ten countries abstained from the vote that day. 76 years later and their silence is still noticeable.

All you had to do was vote, Argentina.
All you had to do was vote, Chile.
All you had to do was vote, Colombia.
All you had to do was vote, El Salvador.
All you had to do was vote, Honduras.
All you had to do was vote, Mexico.
All you had to do was vote, China.
All you had to do was vote, Ethiopia.
All you had to do was vote, United Kingdom.
All you had to do was vote, Yugoslavia.

And of course our long memories will never let us forget those who tried to kill us before we were even born. Congratulations, you lost.

We’re still here, Afghanistan.
We’re still here, India,
We’re still here, Iran.
We’re still here, Iraq.
We’re still here, Lebanon.
We’re still here, Pakistan.
We’re still here, Saudi Arabia.
We’re still here, Syria.
We’re still here, Yemen.
We’re still here, Greece.
We’re still here, Turkey.
We’re still here, Egypt.
We’re still here, Cuba.

29/11/2023

Gentle reminder for anyone who still claims to want a two-state solution: we accepted that idea 76 years ago today. We accepted it so wholeheartedly that we named a street in our capital city after the date in which the option was given to us, pictured below.

If the Arabs weren’t so full of hatred towards us, today could have been the 76th Independence Day for both Israel and Palestine.

05/10/2023

I’m guiding a family during Chol HaMoed, and I just wanted to sing the praises of Olam HaMayim, a boat rental/water sports company on the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee). Not only were they friendly and warm, but they were also happily amenable to my group’s slight alterations in their reservation (both in terms of time as well as the number of participants). On top of all that, they agreed to call ahead to the nearby restaurant we’d booked for dinner alter our reservations accordingly. Outstanding customer service like this needs to be praised and rewarded. Highly recommend.

06/12/2022

Good morning, Yerushalayim. Getting ready to ascend the Temple Mount to learn more about it. If this is any indication of how my day is going to play out, it’s going to be glorious.

13/11/2022

Now THAT’S how you preserve a landmark building while creating new infrastructure under/around it. This is the main building of the old Etz Chaim Yeshiva, which basically started the Machane Yehuda market as we know it today. Land development is going wild in the area, but it seems they’re making sure to preserve the old even as they bring in the new. Well done.

11/11/2022

Sometimes the view of Haifa bay is stunning on its own. But sometimes it gets even more spectacular, like when you get to see a submarine pulling in.

23/10/2022

A couple of days late, but better late than never! Enjoy it this week and every week of Sefer Beresheet (I’ll get to Shmot soon, iy”H)!

What does W***y Wonka and the Chocolate Factory have to do with Parshat Beresheet? I'm glad you asked. Keep watching and see how I compare the two.Connecting...

19/09/2022

These are actual views from my accommodations on my trip last week with YTVA. I swear, as nice as these pictures are, they do the real thing no justice.

12/09/2022

Hiking the Yehudiya (not Arabiya, as the Syrians had tried to rename it) with Yeshivat Torat Shraga. I always have such fun with those guys!!

31/08/2022

Last day of summer vacation, we enjoyed of our neighbor’s bounty. (Translation of the sign: Sabbatical year’s fruits. They are considered ownerless [i.e. help yourselves]. Everyone may freely enter my garden during daylight hours)