Lechaimtours - Your Tour Guide in Israel

21/02/2024

I highly recommend the Temple Sifting Project!! I went yesterday with my wife and our nephew and his wife and we actually found an item of potential significance (piece of architecture - note the drilled hole).

For information about the project, check out: https://tmsifting.org/en/

23/09/2023

Hi all! Haven't posted in a while. Hope to rectify that in the future (New Year's resolution... ;-) ).

For now, if anyone is looking for a good cause (that is near and dear to my heart) to donate to before Yom Kippur may I suggest: ALYN Hospital Pediatric & Adolescent Rehabilitation Center

Alyn provides extraordinary hospital and rehabilitation services for children, providing them with the means and support to overcome their physical challenges. Alyn is now a world leader in many innovative rehabilitation programs.

I have been riding in their annual fund-raiser bike ride, Wheels of Love, for 20 years. Please help me to reach my fund-raising commitment and to support this VERY worthy cause by clicking on my page and making a (tax deductible) donation:

What is Wheels of Love all about?  Helping kids with physical disabilities achieve their dream to be just like every other kid, living a healthier, happier, and productive life. See the photo

12/04/2020

So this morning was meant to be the mass Birkat Cohanim, Priestly Blessing, that happens on the first day of chol hamoed, the intermin days, of Passover or Sukkot. Instead, there were 10 Cohanim and it was streamed.

If you, like me, thought that this minhag went back to the days of the Beit HaMikdash, the holy temple, think again!

A few years ago, I learned something new while sitting with my father in his sukkah (booth). We were discussing the mass Birkat Cohanim that had happened that day. My father is a 6th generation Jerusalemite. He mentioned that he knew the man who came up with the idea for the mass Birkat Cohanim at the Kotel, Reb Mendel Gefner.

I was flabbergasted because I was sure that this ceremony must have dated back to the Beit Hamikdash! He told me the story and then I searched and found this article from a few years ago about how this custom came to be.

Tens of thousands of people turned out this week for the Priestly Blessing (Birkat Hakohanim) at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.INN TV was there.

30/10/2019

I've taken many clients to this wonderful museum. The only downside of the museum has been its cramped quarters.
But very soon, that is going to change as they are moving into a big, spacious building just across Highway 38 from Beit Shemesh!

Can't wait for this amazing museum to get even MORE AMAZING once it opens in its new building!

To make things interesting while we wait for it to be finished, check out the flying hippopotamus!!I

29/09/2019

Shanah Tovah!! I wish a Happy and HEALTHY New Year to all my friends and clients (who are also my friends!)!

25/08/2019

I've been pretty busy lately (b"h / thank G-d) so I haven't had time to post but I must share this picture that I took last week at sunrise at the overlook by the Mitzpe Ramon visitor center. The Ibex like to hang out there at that time of day.

01/08/2019

I've been guiding the Berman/Marill family for the past 9 days. We have traveled to the North, South and everywhere in between. Not too shabby for a family with 2 members who have difficulty walking!

Yesterday, I had the honor of accompanying the matriarch of the family, Toby Berman and her daughter and son in law, as we hiked up the snake path to reach Masada for sunrise.

Toby is a **GREAT GRANDMOTHER**! She was a real TROOPER! I am in awe of her!

My motto is that even if it seems tough to do, we will MAKE it work. Toby certainly proved that yesterday!

Check out these pictures from our climb as well as a few from Ein Gedi, where Anne Berman Marill turned the tables and took MY picture. 😄

25/07/2019

Once again, my wife Shifra Osofsky Friedman acted as my advance (wo)man since I am currently busy with clients: a few days ago, she and some friends went to the המוזיאון לאמנות האסלאם - The Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem where there is currently a special exhibition called "Jewelry Making - Past and Present" going on through November 16, 2019.

The group all agreed that the exhibition was interesting and thought-provoking.

Besides the galleries of Islamic art displayed in the museum, there is a separate collection that Shifra had always wanted to see: The Secret of Watches - Sir David Salomons' rare watches collection, one of the three rarest clock collections in the world.

The collection includes simple clocks and chiming clocks which are mechanical and aesthetic masterpieces, as well as clocks with automatic winding mechanisms (which were then an innovation). There are pendulum clocks and grandfather clocks, and scientific measuring instruments, music boxes and painted enamel boxes with miniature mechanisms. Shifra particularly liked the Marie Antoinette watch that the guide referred to as "the iPhone of its time"!

Well worth a visit!

01/07/2019

Saw a little over 1/2 of the installations. Hope to see most of the rest when I go back a second time.