Sunday, May 31, 2009

Pikud HaOref Special Edition

The Home Front Command (Pikud HaOref) has been busily distributing CDs today in Ramat Beit Shemesh - a version of their emergency instructions specially made for the Charedi public. This includes haskamos of Rav Shlomo Amar, Rav Simcha haKohen Kook and Rav Yitzchak Dovid Grossman (regrettably no "Litvishe gedolim" there), instructions couched in religious terms of "mitzva" and "hishtadlus", recommendations to bring siddurim, tehillim and tallis and tefillin into the safe room, and - of course - not even a fleeting image of anything suggestive of something that might be construed as... um... female. Sssh. (I checked out the "regular edition" Hebrew videos on the web site, and they don't have any women there, either... so I guess any lonely males looking for a glimpse of the opposite sex will have to find another web site.)

In case you don't find the CDs buried in that 6-month-old pile of junk mail in your post box, as a public service, here are the two most important videos:

1) Choosing and preparing your secure room:


2) What to do in an emergency:


And here is the FAQ (in English) regarding the nationwide drill happening this Tuesday (June 2).