I took 3 of my boys along, and it was fairly easy this time. There was a bus approved to go from Bet Shemesh, so at 11:00 PM we went to the meeting spot in Bet Shemesh, and got on the bus with everyone else..
There was a very high percentage of Breslavers, and they always seem to have a lot of energy. The way they were energetic in the middle of the night on the bus makes me wonder what a flight to Uman before Rosh Hashana might look like...
The bus went out to the staging grounds at the Tapuach Junction. This is right where the young father of 5 was killed last week. We had to wait there for the various cycles of buses to be routed in groups. It took a bit longer than expected.. While waiting at the Tapuach Junction, people milled about, smoked their joints (I watched a small group roll their joints) and cigarettes, danced and sang Breslav songs...
When getting back on the bus to finish the last 15 minutes of the ride out to Shchem, many more people were there trying to get onto buses. The police and army do not allow people to be standing on the bullet-proof buses. Everyone must have a seat. That means, nobody else can jump onto the bus, as all the buses come to Tapuach already full. Yet a lot of people somehow are at Tapuach trying to get spots on the buses. Maybe they come from yishuvim in the area or maybe they hitched rides to Tapuach from other areas. They all pile onto the buses and there ends up being a lot of fighting because they cause further delays as the police/army do not allow the buses to continue with all these extra people on board. These [mostly] young men are very creative in finding ways to hide themselves, either laying under the feet of passengers with seats or, as you can see in these pictures, climbing into the back section of the bus which is closed off by a curtain (I dont know if that is a space for the engine or just storage). The police removed some extra people, but some people got away with it.
We finally arrived, somewhere around 3 am.
There was a massive crush of people going into the small room with the kever. I got in with my younger son, but the pushing was so bad I was worried he would get crushed so we quickly fought our way out and davened in the areas around the complex rather than right in. This is a view from the outside via a window to inside the room with the kever.
There was a kallah in her wedding dress davening at Kever Yosef. I assume it was after the wedding, but I did not ask her. if it was the night before the wedding I do not know why she would have been wearing her wedding dress...
They always serve free refreshments... this was the cholent and kugel being distributed. There was also a table of pastries. Drinks seemed to have been finished by the time we got there...
They only give each cycle of buses about a half an hour to be there and daven. They need to cycle through all the groups of buses and have everyone out by daybreak....
The army did a pretty good job. I remember times when things were so inefficient and unorganized and everything was a big balagan. Things are much better now, even if it takes a lot of time to get it all done with..
They said the next trip will be on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, supposedly the yahrtzeit of Yosef, and they expect to have 2 buses from Bet Shemesh. I don't know if I will be on that trip, but contact me if you want the number of the local organizer...
בזכות יוסף הצדיק....
