Tragedy: Young Man Trampled to Death During Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner's Funeral

So sad:

The 27 year-old man who was trampled during the funeral Saturday night for Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner has been identified Sunday as yeshiva (Torah academy) student Mordehai Gerber.

Gerber was one of 12 people injured early Sunday morning during the funeral, as some 100,000 people flocked to the ceremony to pay their respects in Bnei Brak.

Magen David Adom (MDA) medics rushed to the scene of the trampling on R' Dessler St. at about 1:30 am, where they described a grisly scene. Four people were seriously injured, including a 14 year-old boy.

Gerber died of his wounds at Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital after suffering chest and abdominal injuries.

A resident of Elad, Gerber leaves behind a wife and child.

He himself was orphaned at a young age, and R' Wosner assisted him and supported him.

These funerals can be dangerous. Read about my "near death" experiences at the funerals of Rabbi Kaduri and Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef.

Don't Forget Biur Maasrot

A Practice Passover Sacrifice

Getting ready for the real thing:

The Lubavitcher Rebbe and Bibi Netanyahu

A Yellow-vented Bulbul in a Loquat Tree

Did you ever see a yellow-vented bulbul in a loquat tree? This bird is enjoying the holy fruit of the land of Israel. How about you?

Naftali Bennett's Victory

What seemed to be a lackluster election turned into an event that people are going to remember here for a long time. Netanyahu's victory, in spite of an incredibly hostile Israeli press and foreign intervention, was indeed remarkable.

As has widely been noted, this victory was at the expense of other right wing parties, particularly the Jewish Home party, which plummeted from 12 seats in the 19th Knesset to just 8 in the 20th. What has not been noted, is something much more important than the number of seats that a certain party holds. Bibi Netanyahu has adopted an important part of the Jewish Home platform, a very non-pc item which was unique only to the Jewish Home: an absolute "no" to an independent Arab State between the Jordan River and the Mediteranean Sea, what us known today as " a Palestinian State."

Indeed, much has changed since Netanyahu's speech at Bar Ilan University where he accepted the "two state solution." Netanyahu the pragmatist realizes that with militant Islam on the march and general instability here in the Middle East, combined with our sad experiences with the PA over the last 20 years, setting up a PA state would be an absolute folly.

There is no doubt in my mind that Naftali Bennett, by bravely stating his opposition to a Palestinian State for the past couple of years, in Israel and in television interviews abroad, paved the way for Netanyahu's change of heart. So in spite of the loss of Knessett seats, Bennett has chalked up a victory.

Thank God Soon the Elections Will Be Behind Us

There are only a few days left. We've been flooded with polls, text messages, surveys and opinion pieces. Soon it will all be over. Then the agonizing process of building a coaltion and government. Let's hope that it will be a good one.

And now for some exclusive Cosmic X pics! (Click to enlarge)

Yachad headquarters in Giv'at Shaul with piles of the first issue of their newspaper, "HaNe'eman".

A defaced Shas poster. The sign read, "Father is looking from above". Someone changed it to, "The army is looking from above."

The defacers couldn't touch this one!

A few older pics:

The Zionist Camp: Herzog is a responsible, deliberate leader.

Kahlon for the Minister of Finance.

Bibi: It's us or them.

Flaunting Same Sex Attraction

ICYMI: There was a very interesting article on Arutz 7 by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed entitled, Homosexuality: The Malady of Our Generation. I recommend reading the entire article. The article's closing paragraphs caught my attention in particular:

We must accept the commandments of the Torah, which determined that homosexual intercourse is strictly forbidden, and when we can, we must try to dissuade those who transgress this sin. Nonetheless, we must love even someone who fails to overcome his yetzer, and realize there is great value in every mitzvah he fulfills. And as long as he does not flaunt his homosexual inclination and is not defiant, we must bring him closer to the religious community, so he can become stronger in Torah and mitzvoth in whatever way he can.

And, as is well-known, the value of Evil is limited, whereas the value of Good is endless. Correspondingly, the severity of sins is limited, whereas the value of mitzvoth is endless. Therefore, even one who falters in transgressions, merits life in the World to Come thanks to his mitzvoth and good deeds.

Unfortunately, those suffering from this terrible malady have become ever increasingly flaunting and defiant. For some reason, they like to stalk the Facebook pages of Jewish Home candidates for the Knesset. If this continues, we'll soon see scenes like this:

The cartoon reads, "Did we hear you reading here anti-liberal content?"

Israeli PM Netanyahu Addresses U.S. Congress | FULL SPEECH - March 3, 2015

וּמָרְדֳּכַי לֹא יִכְרַע וְלֹא יִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

Minister Naftali Bennett at the AIPAC Conference

Well done!

Leonard Nimoy Speaking Yiddish (With English Subtitles)

Election Fatigue

With less than a month to go before the elections, the national religious public is divided. An example of this can be seen in two different lists of national religious rabbis: those that support the Jewish Home Party, and those that support the "Together - The Nation is With Us" party.

Traditional Shas supporters are also divided between Shas and Rabbi Mazuz's "Together - The Nation is With Us" party.

Among the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox, the "Jerusalem faction" is threatening to boycott the elections, which could cost Agudat Yisrael a seat.

There is very few signs of excitement about the upcoming elections on the street. Although there is a lot of activity on the internet, there are very few signs hanging from the balconies. It could be that people are not interested in being associated with the current divides in the community. Alternatively, it could be that people just don't have the time or strength to invest in this election, which is coming just two years after the previous one.

Quote of the Day, "I'm a Proud Homophobe"

The quote of the day was uttered by Bezalel Smotrich, number 8 on the Jewish Home list IDF Radio reports:

It is permissable for anybody to decide that he does not want to live a normal life, it is his full right. It is not his right, just because he does not feel comfortable to be abnormal, to demand from us all to undermine the concept of norm and to say there is no such thing as normal already...Every person in his home is allowed to be abnormal and to establish any kind of family unit that he wants. He cannot demand (recognition) from me as a state, and this is where it starts. He feels uncomfortable to be an exception, it is not fun."

Upon hearing these things someone in the crowd shouted, "You dark homophobe, my brother is not an animal, my friends are not animals." Smotrich replied, "I'm a proud homophobe!"

Uri Orbach z"l

The rich and the poor

All go to heaven

After 120 years.

There they do not ask

If you bought houses or streets.

There the main thing is if you gathered mitzvot.

- Uri Orbach

Some Snow Pics

I don't associate the month of Adar with snow. But here we are in Jerusalem, Rosh Chodesh Adar, covered with the white stuff.

Terror Victim Adelle Biton Passes Away

Baruch Dayan HaEmet:

Adelle Biton, the four-year-old terror victim who two years ago miraculously survived a rock attack which left her with severe neurological damage, passed away on Tuesday after her condition deteriorated rapidly from a bout of pneumonia.

She was admitted earlier this week to Schneider Children's Hospital in Petah Tikva for treatment, and on Tuesday it was revealed that she had been put in intensive care.

"With great sorrow we report the death of Adelle Biton who despite the efforts of the doctors passed away roughly an hour ago," stated the hospital on Tuesday. "Our condolences to the family."

Condolences to the Biton family, who sanctified God's name with their unwavering faith:

Ben Shapiro: Why Jews Vote Leftist?

This is pretty good:

What Does Debbie Wasserman Schultz Really Think About Intermarriage?

I, for one, am confused. First there was this:

We have the problem of assimilation. We have the problem of intermarriage. We have the problem that too many generations of Jews don’t realize the importance of our institutions strengthening our community—particularly with the rise of anti-Semitism and global intolerance.

Intermarriage is a problem. Then we have this:

At an annual Jewish community event in my congressional district, I spoke about my personal connection to Judaism and in a larger context about the loss of Jewish identity and the importance of connecting younger generations to the institutions and values that make up our community. I do not oppose intermarriage; in fact, members of my family, including my husband, are a product of it.

So Wasserman-Schultz does not oppose intermarriage, even though it is a problem. Do you see the logic here? I don't.

The real problem here is not whether Debbie Wasserman Schultz opposes intermarriage or does not. The real problem is that most American Jews have no idea what being Jewish is all about. They are unaware of our role in the world, that of being a "kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." They replace our dedication to God and His laws with loyalty to the Democratic Party, its platform and "social issues". And when our real goal is missing, when being Jewish has been stripped of its original and genuine meaning, there really is no reason to be Jewish, to separate yourself from the rest of the world.

The good news is that any Jew who really wants to know what his heritage is all about can find out. The web is full of genuine Jewish web sites. It is all a matter of if one really wants to know.

Yitzhak Herzog's #EpicFail or "Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast himself as he that putteth it off."

Who remembers the quote from the title of this post? Here is the context:

1 And Ben-hadad the king of Aram gathered all his host together; and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses and chariots; and he went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it. 2 And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, into the city, 3 and said unto him: 'Thus saith Ben-hadad: Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine.' 4 And the king of Israel answered and said: 'It is according to thy saying, my lord, O king: I am thine, and all that I have.' 5 And the messengers came again, and said: 'Thus speaketh Ben-hadad, saying: I sent indeed unto thee, saying: Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children; 6 but I will send my servants unto thee tomorrow about this time, and they shall search thy house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away.' 7 Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said: 'Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief; for he sent unto me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I denied him not.' 8 And all the elders and all the people said unto him: 'Hearken thou not, neither consent.' 9 Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Ben-hadad: 'Tell my lord the king: All that thou didst send for to thy servant at the first I will do; but this thing I may not do.' And the messengers departed, and brought him back word. 10 And Ben-hadad sent unto him, and said: 'The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me.' 11 And the king of Israel answered and said: 'Tell him: Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast himself as he that putteth it off.'

Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, threatens Ahab the king of Israel, bragging about the multitude of soldiers that he has. Ahab answers him, "Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast himself as he that putteth it off," that is to say, a soldier putting on his battle gear should not boast as one who has already returned victorious from battle. Stop bragging until you do something that you can brag about.

Yitzhak Herzog, who fancies himself as the next Prime Minister of Israel, in an act of utter cluelessness, quotes the verse and then proceeds to brag about how he is going to win the election.

"I plan to defeat Netanyahu, I'll form the next government, and it will be the beast government for Israel," boasted Herzog."

As the rabbis said, "Silence is good for the wise, and all the more so for the foolish!"

Update: INN also picked this up: Oxymoron: Herzog's Embarrassing Book of Kings Misquote

Letter From Rav Ovadiah Yosef zt"l to Baruch Marzel

I saw this here:

If I am correct, the letter is in support of the Kolel which was set up in the house of Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan zt"l after he was murdered by an Arab in Hebron.

Together - The Nation is With Us

That is a pretty long name for a political party. I must say that I am pleased that this party is up and running together with "Otzmat Yisrael". What does the list look like?

The combined Yachad-Otzma Yehudit list is headed by Eli Yishai, followed by Chetboun, and Michael Ayish, a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) political activist from Safed. In fourth spot is Marzel, while Sasson Trebalsi, a close associate of Mazuz, is at number five. The sixth spot will be taken by national-religious Rabbi Amital Bareli, and seventh by haredi candidate Dudi Shomenfeld.

They just may get my vote.

Eli Ohana Resigns From the Jewish Home Party List!

According to the Srugim web site, soccer legend Eli Ohana has resigned from the Jewish Home list. Ohana wrote to Bennett that he did not expect the controversy that his candidacy would cause.

This is good news for the Jewish Home Party, in that it shows that the rabbis and the regular rank and file still have the ability to influence what happens in the party.

I hope that Bennett learned that although he is the leader, the Jewish Home is not a one man show, and that he still has to take counsel with others before making decisions.

The Latest Jewish Home List (and Why I Do Not Plan to Vote for It)

This is the Jewish Home List after Naftali Bennett's latest acquisistions(the people I choosed in the primaries are in bold):

1. Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home chairman)
2. Uri Ariel (Tekuma chairman)
3. Ayelet Shaked
4. Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan
5. Nissan Slomiansky
6. Yinon Magal
7. Uri Orbach
8. Motti Yogev
9. Bezalel Smotrich
10. Shuli Muallem-Refaeli
11. Eli Ohana
12. Nir Orbach
13. Avi Wortzman
14. Dr. Anat Roth
15. Orit Struk
16. Rabbi Avichai Rontzky
17. Ronen Shoval
18. Zevulun Kalfa
19. Avichai Boaron
20. Moshe Salomon

Sorry, but after reading up a little bit about Eli Ohana, it is clear to me that he is not fit to be an MK. I will not elaborate on this. Suffice it to say that this "pick" by Bennett is an insult to all party members. And if Bennett's idea was to add more "mizrahi" Jews to the list, he could have moved Avichai Boaron up to a realistic spot. Perhaps Bennett wants to strengthen Eli Yishai's party.

Worst Pallywood Ever!

This lady is a pretty rotten actor. But my real complaint is with the journalists who are partners to this fraud:

In the latest incident of “Pallywood”, an elderly Arab woman who was evacuated by IDF troops from a business in Hevron for security reasons, put on a show for extreme leftists who filmed the eviction.

The business was evacuated after a firebomb was thrown from it at the homes of Jews in Hevron. The local Arabs, who knew when the troops would arrive to evacuate the business, invited leftist activists and journalists to document the evacuation.

In the video, the elderly woman is seen weeping as her daughter instructs her how to “cry” in front of the cameras. However, as the woman begins to cry, the daughter is seen moving aside and smiling towards the journalists and photographers.

Jewish Home Party Primaries Results

Updated: Here are the results according to IsraelNationalNews.com (my choices are in bold):

1. Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home chairman)
2. Uri Ariel (Tekuma chairman)
3. Ayelet Shaked
4. Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan
5. Nissan Slomiansky
6. Yinon Magal
7. Uri Orbach
8. Motti Yogev
9. Bezalel Smotrich
10. Shuli Muallem-Refaeli
11. Avi Wortzman
12. Nir Orbach
13. Rabbi Avichai Rontzky
14. Orit Struk
15. Yehudit Shilat
16. Ronen Shoval
17. Avichai Boaron
18. Zevulun Kalfa
19. Moshe Salomon
20. Danny Dayan

I am happy to say that all my choices made it into the top twenty, with the top six having a realistic chance of being elected according to the polls.

It is interesting to note that in the primaries themselves, barring the elections for the party chairman, the top vote getter was Ayelet Shaked, a secular woman from Tel Aviv. Rabbi Ben-Dahan, who came in second place, could have made it into the list in one of Tekuma's reserved spots. Both candidates were rewarded by the voters for their outstanding work: Shaked in the Knessett and Ben-Dahan in the Religious Affairs Ministry.

How to Vote in the Primaries

The Jewish Home party produced a film explaining how to vote in the primaries:

Now that Tekuma has chosen it's candidates the list looks like this:

1) The Party Chariman (99.99% chance that this will be Naftali Bennett)
2) Reserved for Tekuma (Uri Ariel)
3) Reserved (party chairman's pick)
4) Reserved for a female representative
5) OPEN
6) Reserved (party chairman's pick)
7) OPEN
8) Reserved for a female representative
9) Reserved for Tekuma (Bezalel Smotrich)
10) To be chosen by members of the party's Central Committee
11) Reserved (party chairman's pick)
12) Reserved for a female representative
13) OPEN
14) I am not sure about this: either reserved for Tekuma (Orit Struk) or OPEN
15) I am not sure about this: either reserved for Tekuma (Orit Struk) or OPEN
16) Reserved (party chairman's pick)
17) Reserved for a female representative
18) Reserved for Tekuma (Zevulun Kalfa)
19) OPEN
20) OPEN

I've also revised my choices for the primaries (The top three get two points, the remainder one point):

1) Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan
2) Moti Yogev
3) Avichai Boaron

4) Avi Wortzman
5) Nissan Slomiansky
6) Rabbi Avichai Ronski
7) Moshe Salomon

Should France's Jews Make Aliyah?

Many are asking in the wake of the murder of four Jews by a Muslim terrorist in the Hyper Cacher store in Paris, "Should France's Jews make Aliyah? Should they leave their homes, livelihoods and all that is familiar to them to start anew in their true homeland, the land of Israel?

Of course they should! Just as I wrote a long time ago:

I believe that living in Israel is one of the positive precepts of the Torah, and as such I believe that every Jew should make his home here.

I also wrote,

Even one who makes aliyah while single has to do it with the knowledge that Eretz Yisrael, along with Torah and Olam Habah is one of the things that is acquired al yedei yisurim. While I strongly encourage aliyah, it has to be done wisely. A person should know what he is getting into and be prepared for the challenges that face him.

Now that the ground is burning under their feet, they should get on the first El Al flight before they get burned, God forbid! Israël est la patrie de tous les Juifs!

Moshe Feiglin in a Truly Fascinating Interview

The Likud lost a visionary:

My Picks For the Jewish Home Primaries

I cannot say that I know enough about all of the candidates to claim that I can really make an informed choice. With my limited knowledge, these are my choices, in the meantime.

You only get to pics seven candidates. The top three get two points, and the remaining four get one point each. Here is my list:

1) Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan
2) Moti Yogev
3) Nissan Slomiansky

4) Avi Wortzman
5) Avichai Boaron
6) Rabbi Avichai Ronski
7) Moshe Salomon

My choice for chairman is Naftali Bennett.

I have favored current Knesset members, who have already gone through the Knesset "boot camp" and know how to do the job. I have also left out some worthy candidates who are popular and are going to get elected anyway, as well as people who will receive "reserved" spots.

It will be interesting to see how many of my picks receive a realistic spot on the list.

The Jewish Home Primaries: You Get What You Pay For

The primaries will take place on the 23rd of Tevet (the 14th of January) from 3:00 PM until 10:00 PM. Some of the polling stations will be open at 10:00 AM.

How much will my vote count. Not as much as I would like, as much of the list has already been determined. This is the way the list will be formed.

1) The Party Chariman (99.99% chance that this will be Naftali Bennett)
2) Reserved for Tekuma (Uri Ariel)
3) Reserved (party chairman's pick)
4) Reserved for a female representative
5) OPEN
6) Reserved (party chairman's pick)
7) OPEN
8) Reserved for a female representative
9) Reserved for Tekuma
10) To be chosen by members of the party's Central Committee
11) Reserved (party chairman's pick)
12) Reserved for a female representative
13) OPEN
14) Reserved for Tekuma
15) Reserved for Tekuma
16) Reserved (party chairman's pick)
17) Reserved for a female representative
18) Reserved for Tekuma
19) OPEN
20) OPEN

Note: In the top 15 spots there are only three open slots. I guess you can't expect too much for 39 NIS!

Watch: Yehudah Glick Accuses Stephen Sackur of the BBC of Justifying Violence

According to Stephen Sackur's warped logic, the Charlie Hebdo magazine staff are responsible for the murderous attack at their offices. Yehudah Glick puts him in his place. See it at 20:30

Moshe Feiglin's 180 Degree Turn

David Rubin takes note:

Interviewed today on the “Galei Yisrael” radio station, Feiglin was asked if he might be interested in running as a candidate in one of the existing faith-based parties that are loyal to the land and heritage of Israel. He replied that he wasn’t interested, that what is important is not the party, rather its vision, and therefore he plans to form his own party.

One has to wonder what he is talking about and why. For nearly twenty years, Feiglin has been endlessly promoting the concept of influencing the political process from within the ruling party, the Likud. Often denouncing the smaller sectarian/nationalistic parties, he boldly proclaimed that he would achieve his national-religious objectives and achieve leadership within the Likud. Not satisfied with simply becoming a member of Knesset and increasing the national-religious membership in a party that was not religious at its ideological core, Feiglin inexplicably declared that he would eventually become the leader of the Likud, and he ran several expensive, but failed campaigns to achieve that objective.

To now establish a new political party and to say that “this is a continuation of the mission” sounds disingenuous and even hypocritical. In the above interview, Feiglin even disparaged those who told him that starting a new political party would split the national-religious vote, even though this is in fact what it would do.

The tragic irony is that the great champion of the “big party system” has taken a 180-degree turn, as a result of his personal failure to get reelected. To his credit, Feiglin’s policy goals have always been serious and consistent, and he has proven himself effective at explaining and getting publicity for those views, but his grand political strategy to change and take over the Likud from within has been a disaster. Despite a slight rightward shift in the composition of the party over the past few years, the Likud has remained basically the same Likud that talks about the land of Israel, yet freezes Jewish building in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem; that threatens the Palestinian Authority, yet doesn’t follow through on those threats; that starts wars, but doesn’t follow through or allow the IDF to win decisive victories.

I would like to mention that I know of an important rabbi, who also joined the Likud way back when, perhaps even before Moshe Feiglin, who also thought that the only way to really influence Israeli policy was to be a part of the ruling party.

It seems that politics has little room for ideological purists. If you are not ready to compromise on certain matters you will find yourself in the opposition or outside of the Knesset entirely.

Rav Eli Ben-Dahan Came to the Neighborhood

Last night I had the great pleasure of hearing the Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs, Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, speak. A whole lot of people crowded into the livingroom of one of my neighbors to hear the rabbi speak. He had plenty to say, explaining his accomplishments as the Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs and the accomplishments of the Jewish Home Party in general. He is definitely going to be one of the people that I will vote for in the primaries.

In an unrelated development, the other day I was in Aminadav, a moshav located west of Jerusalem. The place has a wonderful view of the Judean hills. Click on the pics for an enlargement:

We All Get Another Chance

This proves that you are never too old to rock and roll:

I Joined "The Jewish Home Party"

For the first time in a long, long time, I'm a member of a political party. Along with 20,000 others, I coughed up the membership fee (something like 39 NIS) and signed up. The reason for doing so is to try strengthen the religious character of the party. As much as I admire the work of the Jewish Home's secular MK, Ayelet Shaked, and in my opinion she has done a spectacular job, I don't want the successor of the National Religious Party to turn into an immitation of the Likud.

Zot Channuka

Some pics from the last day of Channuka in Jerusalem. Click on them to zoom in:

Should We Get Excited About the Upcoming Elections in Israel?

If you ask me, the answer is yes. We should be thrilled that we have an independent Jewish government here in the land of Israel. I know, not everything here is conducted according to Jewish Law. But even in such a situation, we have a reason to be happy. To prove this point, let's take a look at the start of Maimonides' Laws of Chanukah

:In [the era of] the Second Temple, the Greek kingdom issued decrees against the Jewish people, [attempting to] nullify their faith and refusing to allow them to observe the Torah and its commandments. They extended their hands against their property and their daughters; they entered the Sanctuary, wrought havoc within, and made the sacraments impure.

The Jews suffered great difficulties from them, for they oppressed them greatly until the God of our ancestors had mercy upon them, delivered them from their hand, and saved them. The sons of the Hasmoneans, the High Priests, overcame [them], slew them, and saved the Jews from their hand.

They appointed a king from the priests, and sovereignty returned to Israel for more than 200 years, until the destruction of the Second Temple.

Now, this 200 year sovereignty included some not so wonderful regimes, such as that of King Herod. Still, the Maimonides sees this period as important, and mentions it among the reasons that we are praising and thanking God during these days of Chanukah.

So, let's get back to the upcoming elections. It is a privilige to be here, to live in this generation, to be able to take part in deciding who will govern us. However, and that is a big however, "Happy is the man that hath made the LORD his trust, and hath not turned unto the arrogant, nor unto such as fall away treacherously." Politicians are not always trustworthy, and that's an understatement. Anyone familiar with what politicians say before elections and what they do after they are elected knows this. So get excited, but don't get too excited. In the end you may be sorely disappointed!

Avraham Fried Tanye

An oldie but goodie:

Former Jordanian Minister in Friday Sermon Quotes Hitler: The Jews Corrupt the Youth

God bless Memri for making this stuff available:

Tawil Fadiha's Bi'lin War Story

Convicted Murderer Ziad Abu Ein Dies After Clashing With IDF Troops

"When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth; and when the wicked perish, there is joy" (Proverbs 11:10)

I am certainly happy that Ziad Abu Ein dropped dead, apparently from a heart attack. He was convicted of murdering two Israeli boys, Boaz Lahav and David Lankri.

These are the boys that Ziad Abu Ein murdered:

May Ziad Abu Ein rot in hell together with Arafat and all the other rogues.

How a Bunch of Lawyers Hijacked Israel's Democracy

A must read! This article explains how the ability to govern was taken out of the hands of the people of Israel and their elected representatives by a handful of lawyers.

Dvar Torah For Parashat VaYishlach

This week's Torah portion tells us of a tragic event: the rape of Jacob's daughter Dinah:

And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her; and he took her, and lay with her, and humbled her. And his soul did cleave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spoke comfortingly unto the damsel. And Shechem spoke unto his father Hamor, saying: 'Get me this damsel to wife.' Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; and his sons were with his cattle in the field; and Jacob held his peace until they came. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to speak with him. And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought a vile deed in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done. And Hamor spoke with them, saying 'The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter. I pray you give her unto him to wife. And make ye marriages with us; give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you. And ye shall dwell with us; and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein.' And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren: 'Let me find favour in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give. Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me; but give me the damsel to wife.' And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with guile, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, and said unto them: 'We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for that were a reproach unto us. Only on this condition will we consent unto you: if ye will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised; then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised; then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone.' And their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem Hamor's son. And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter. And he was honoured above all the house of his father. And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying: 'These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for, behold, the land is large enough for them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men consent unto us to dwell with us, to become one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised. Shall not their cattle and their substance and all their beasts be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us.' And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city. And it came to pass on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city unawares, and slew all the males. And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went forth. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds and their asses, and that which was in the city and that which was in the field; and all their wealth, and all their little ones and their wives, took they captive and spoiled, even all that was in the house.

Jacob, to put it bluntly, was not happy with the way that Shimon and Levi dealt with what happened:

And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: 'Ye have troubled me, to make me odious unto the inhabitants of the land, even unto the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and, I being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and smite me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.' And they said: 'Should one deal with our sister as with a harlot?'

Jacob scolds his sons, telling them that now the entire family is in danger because of what they did. His sons' answer, 'Should one deal with our sister as with a harlot?', is strange, because it does not seem to deal with the very real concern that Jacob raised!

The Or Hachaim HaKadosh, gives two excellent explanations to what Jacob's sons meant. The first answer is that what Jacob's sons answered their father in the following manner: The Canaanites will not make a big deal about this, for we had a good reason to kill the men of Shechem. After all, they treated our sister like a harlot, and the punishment that we meted out to them was justified.

The second answer is that they answered their father, "On the contrary! We will be in danger if our neighbors see that this guy can do whatever he wants with our sister with impunity!" Since we fought back, they will fear us.

Pretty good answers, aren't they?

For extra credit, read this.

Shabbat Shalom!

It's About the Jewish Nation Bill

Why are we going to have new elections? The New York Times says:

Israel’s march toward early elections set out last week with a political row over a nationality bill. This week it morphed into a clash over proposed housing changes and the state budget.

But Israeli political analysts said the call for elections, 20 months after the current coalition was sworn in, was not about nationality or reduced-cost housing or any other issue of ideology or principle.

Instead, they said, Mr. Netanyahu had simply had enough of his fractious coalition partners and wanted a more manageable government made up of rightist allies and the ultra-Orthodox parties he has long considered his natural partners.

“It is not about this law or that,” said Yehuda Ben Meir, a former politician and a public opinion and national security expert at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. Noting that there was room for compromise on the nationality bill and that Mr. Netanyahu originally voted in favor of the housing bill, he said the prime minister appeared to have used these issues to force a coalition crisis.

There is no question that the current coalition is not exactly what a Prime Minister dreams of. But it is my opinion that yes, the Jewish Nation Bill was the straw that broke the camels back.

On one hand we should be sad that so much money will be wasted on new elections. On the other hand, the true face of Livni and Lapid, and not to mention politicians further to the left, has been revealed. The law, which more or less gives legal status to a few sentences from Israel's Declaration of Independence, was just too Jewish for these people! They don't want a Jewish State. They want a "State of all of its citizens."

They had agreed to this law in the coalition agreement. They proved to be people who do not keep their word. Let's hope that the Israeli electorate pays these politicians back in kind, and that the next coalition will be proud of being Jewish.

I Found the Missing Link

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin teaches us how to be happy:

Yonah Matz'ah Bo Mano'ach: The Heart and the Wellspring With Evyatar Banai

It's getting closer to Shabbat:

Yehudah Glick Released From the Hospital

Listen to a walking miracle speak (in English):

Moshe Feiglin and Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer on the Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People

Sorry, but this is in Hebrew. From this debate you can see how important this law really is:

Arye Kupinsky's Heroism

According to witnesses, Arye went down fighting in order to save others:

May his memory be a blessing!

Bennett Puts the Leftists in Their Place

Finally with English subtitles! Naftali Bennett's monumental address at the Ha'aretz's "Israel Conference for Peace"! Watch how Bennett puts the Israeli Left in their place:

Reaction to the Har Nof Massacre

Those words of wisdom were uttered by the late Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzchak Shamir. Just like the Mediterranean has not changed, neither has the desire of those barbaric Ishmaelites to through the Jews into it.

They are the same Arabs that massacred in Hebron in 1929. They are the same Arabs that rammed passenger jets into the twin towers in 2001. They are the same Arabs that are presently decapitating innocent civilians in Syria and Iraq. They are the same Arabs that entered a synagogue yesterday morning in order to murder peaceful worshippers.

Even if Yishmael did teshuvah, apparently a large number of his descendants did not. Look at them celebrating the massacre:

Are You Ready For a Medley of Karlin Melodies?

"The HEART and The WELLSPRING" are awesome. Just my opinion:

Worth Seeing in Eilat

I've written in the past that slowly but surely a Teshuvah Revolution is taking place here in Israel. And it seems like the revolution has not passed over Eilat, Israel's southernmost city.

I was there recently for a short vacation. The hotel that I was staying in did not have a minyan, so early in the morning I set out equipped with my talit, tefilin and siddur to search for one. I saw another Jew similarly equipped walking down the street and I asked him if he knew where I could find a minyan. He told me that he was on the way to the Queen of Sheba Hotel, and that I should come with him.

Now, usually the synagogues in hotels are a located underground in a dimly lit and poorly furnished room. So I was pleasantly surprised to see this spectacular synagogue on the second floor of the hotel:

Rumor has it that wealthy French Jews who frequent the hotel donated the money to make such a beautiful place for worship. Blessed be they that know how to use the wealth that God gave them.

So if you are in Eilat, along with the other wonderful things to do and see, don't miss the Queen of Sheba Hotel synagogue.

It's a Great Mitzvah to be Happy

UNRWA Goes to War

I've blogged about UNRWA several times in the past. Look at what they are up to now:

Mahmoud Mansour Arrested for Drug Trafficking and Assaulting a Police Officer

Do you remember the "intermarriage of the year", when Moral Malka "wed" Mahmud Mansour a couple of months ago? Well, it looks like Moral picked a real "winner":

Media outlets two months ago touted "coexistence" as Muslim Arab Mahmoud Mansour (26) married Moral Malka (23), a Jewish woman he met in their native Yafo - now Mansour has been arrested for drug trafficking and assaulting a police officer.

Mansour was arrested last weekend after more than 10 grams of cocaine were found on him, Channel 2 reported on Sunday.

Police say that he was riding on a motorcycle in Yafo when he saw officers in the area, at which he threw aside a bag containing 20 additional grams of cocaine. As he was being arrested, police say Mansour struck one of the officers.

Not only that, according to the Walla web site:

למנסור עבר פלילי עשיר בעבירות של סחר בסמים. הוא ריצה בעבר עונש מאסר ואף נושא עונש של מאסר על תנאי של 40 חודשים בגין עבירות סמים, אשר הפרקליטות תבקש לממש. זאת, בנוסף על העונש שהיא רוצה שייגזר עליו בגין העבירה שהוא נחשד בה כעת

For those of you who (still) do not understand Hebrew, here's a translaton:

Mansour has a rich criminal background in dealing narcotics. He has spent time in jail in the past and currently has a 40 month suspended sentence for drug related crimes, which the prosecution will request to implement, in addition to the punishment which it (the prosecution) wants him (Mansour) to be sentenced for his current crime.

Now the question is what will Moral do? It seems that in Islam it is not easy for a woman to initiate divorce:

Khula is the right of a woman in Islam to seek a divorce or separation from her husband. A Muslim woman may petition a qadi, or in non-Islamic areas an Islamic community panel, to grant her divorce if the husband refuses. The waiting period (iddah) of a woman who seeks a divorce is one menstrual cycle or one month if she is post-menopauseal, i.e. ceased menstruating. This is to ensure she is not pregnant.[27] If the woman is pregnant, then the waiting period is until she gives birth.

Women's right to initiate divorce is very limited compared with that of men. According to shari'a law, there are two reasons for a wife to be divorced: when she can prove that the husband did not have intercourse with her for more than two months or if the husband does not provide her with what she needs for living such as food and shelter. While men can divorce their spouses easily, women face legal and financial obstacles.[28][29] For example, in many cases the woman must repay her dowry and marriage expenses. In general she also has to forfeit child custody, if the child is older than seven years. Even if she gets child custody, she has to give it to the father, when the child reaches the age of seven.[28][29]

I, in any case, hope that Moral does the moral thing and returns to her people.

Congratulations to Jerusalem's New Chief Rabbis

Finally:

After more than a decade without, Jerusalem finally has two new Chief Rabbis.

The capital city's 48-member council began voting at the Jerusalem Municipal Hall at 4 p.m., with an initial list of 19 candidates for the Chief Ashkenazic and Sephardic positions whittled down to just nine, after several candidates withdrew over the past few days.

Polling closed at 7 p.m., and results were announced just before the 8 p.m. deadline.

Former Israeli Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar was elected as the new Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, with 28 votes, while Rabbi Aryeh Stern of the Halacha Brura Institute was voted in as Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi with 27.

Following the results' announcement, Rabbi Stern - who was a close student of the late Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook - vowed to represent all the people of Jerusalem.

"It is in my intention to serve as the rabbi of all Jerusalemites: secular, modern-orthodox and charedi alike," he said in a statement. "The Jerusalem rabbinate is a great merit, but it also comprises a hefty responsibility. I will make sure that the religious services will become accessible and friendly and will serve as an outstanding model for all of the other rabbinates in Israel"

Count the Sukkahs

Today is the last day of Sukkot, Hoshana Rabba. Soon we will be parting from the precious Mitzvah of dwelling in the Sukkah.

"Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are home-born in Israel shall dwell in booths; that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God."

I was in Ramat Beit Shemesh B the other day and took this picture after Minchah. Click on the pic and count the Sukkahs that you see:

The Lost Ark?

On my way to the Western Wall today I saw this just outside of Jaffa Gate:

No, it is not the Holy Ark, just a reproduction. In any case it caused a lot of excitement. Many people gathered around it, snapping pictures. I was one of them.

May it be Your will, O my God and God of my fathers, that the Temple be rebuilt speedily in our days.

Bad News From Scotch Plains, New Jersey

For those of you that don't know, I grew up in New Jersey. However, it's been a long time since I've been there. For the majority of my sojourn in This World I have been privileged to live in the land of Israel. I am everlastingly grateful to God for giving me the wisdom and fortitude to leave the comfortable and familiar, and to pack my bags and return to the land of my fathers. I am grateful to live in a generation in which one can do so for the price of an airplane ticket.

That being said I still have a place in my heart for New Jersey, especially its Jewish community. One of the advantages of the age of internet is the ability to read news from the old country, to see "What's going on?" and "Whatever happened to?". One of the sites I visit regularly is the New Jersey Jewish News.

Recently I came across a disturbing report there from Scotch Plains, N.J.:

Bernard “BJ” Solomon and his husband Zev, better known as “Duncan” (ne William Hines, now Solomon also) called their huppa ceremony at Congregation Beth Israel on Saturday evening, Sept. 13, an “upgrade.” While it wasn’t exactly a first for them, it was the first same-sex wedding held at the Conservative synagogue in Scotch Plains.

The couple, who have been together for 12 years, had a Jewish marriage ceremony marking their civil union five years ago. But the celebration at CBI added the religious and secular recognition they wanted. “We feel more complete,” BJ said.

Held after the Havdala ceremony concluding Shabbat, it followed a bar mitzva celebration for Duncan, 35, during the Ma’ariv service that afternoon, and his conversion to Judaism last May. Their new license reflected New Jersey’s 2013 law granting gays full marriage rights.

How do you say, "Conservative Judaism is imploding!"?

I took a peek at Congregation Beth Israel's web site. If the Conservative Temple that I attended as a youth had a web site, it would probably have been similar. (Of course the Rabbi of my Temple, ob"m, would never have taken part in a "gay wedding" any more than he would have sold pork chops to his congregants.) Browsing the site, I saw that they have youth groups, "kadimah" and "USY".

The mention of USY took me down memory lane: the USY meetings, dances and conventions. I thought of those youth there in Scotch Plains, seeing their "rabbi" perfoming a gay marriage, and then going to Temple on Yom Kippur and hearing the Torah reading during Minchah:

1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: I am the LORD your God. 3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their statutes. 4 Mine ordinances shall ye do, and My statutes shall ye keep, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.
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22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination. 23 And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto; it is perversion. 24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out from before you. 25 And the land was defiled, therefore I did visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomited out her inhabitants. 26 Ye therefore shall keep My statutes and Mine ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the home-born, nor the stranger that sojourneth among you-- 27 for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land is defiled-- 28 that the land vomit not you out also, when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29 For whosoever shall do any of these abominations, even the souls that do them shall be cut off from among their people. 30 Therefore shall ye keep My charge, that ye do not any of these abominable customs, which were done before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God. {P}

I imagine that they were quite perplexed. The Torah says one thing, yet the rabbi seems to be doing something else entirely!

The good news is that we are in the internet age. Authentic Torah is readily available on line. These confused youth, if they are interested, have the truth available at the click of a mouse.

After recovering from the shock I received from reading the article, I left the following comment at the NJJN web site:

The job of a rabbi is to uplift them to the Divine ideals of Torah and not lower tham down into the depravity of ancient Egypt:

“Lesbian relations are forbidden and it is among the “doings of Egypt” that we have been warned about as it is said, “After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do”. The sages said, “What did they do? A MAN MARRIES A MAN, and a woman marries a woman, and a woman marries two men.”

From Maimonides, Laws of Forbidden Relations 21:8

Moral Clarity: a Prerequisite to Teshuvah

The great mishnaic sage Hillel said, "...an ignoramous cannot be pious" (Avot 2:5). Unfortunately, in our age of widespread higher education and advanced degrees, ignorance abounds, that is to say ignorance of what the Torah requires of us. WIth this gaping lack of knowledge, the direct and unavoidable product of not learning, comes a lack of moral clarity. True and everlasting morality comes from the Torah. Anything that contradicts God's Will is intrinsically immoral.

It is astonishing how dull one's moral clarity can become. Take the Metropolitan Opera and its production "The Death of Klinghoffer" . The people who decided to produce this show are deeply lacking in moral clarity. All the attempts to disuade them from doing so failed. All those involved in this production, Jews, gentiles and apostate Jews, will bear everlasting shame, if not in This World then certainly in the World to Come.

Without moral clarity, Teshuvah is impossible. One of the purposes of this blog is to present moral clarity, especially in areas where it has been lost by the uninformed majority and is not thought of being as "politically correct".

One of the issues that I have spoken up about is intermarriage. It is wrong, just plain wrong. I will say it again and again. On this matter I am happy to be the compass that keeps pointing North while others have unfortunately lost all sense of direction.

Almost four years ago I wrote a post about MK Einat Wilf. The gist of the post was that a Jew who "married" a gentile is a "bad example" and as such cannot lead or educate the Jewish People. I stand by that post and am pleased to note that Ms. Wilf is no longer a member of the Knesset.

Not too long ago someone stumbled upon the post and wrote me the following email:

I came upon your blog because I was intrigued by Einat Wilf – after what I read what you said about her I have decided to become an atheist as well. No more wondering why we have an Eruv to make you feel better in walking your kids on Shabbat and more important why my building loses a lift because you cannot push a button on Shabbat. Opening a water tap is OK even though it triggers a pump. Cannot tear toilet paper but can say that we can get rid of all non-Jews in Israel. When I learnt bible it said that everyone had to fight in the army – that we forget because I would suspect you make up the rules as you go along. There is now a growing number of amazing youngsters leaving the Haradi fold to follow their dreams. I was in the army with a few and was told how incense and rape go unreported because that is what the rabbi says. You vote what the rabbi tells you and it is very sad. You sponge of the government of Israel and donations from everywhere. You do not create anything except live a life of cheating and lies. I am ashamed at what my home city Manchester looks like. You are fortunate you live in a country where most people get an education enabling them to create things and help humanity thereby being able to fund your life style. Einat Wilf is a very smart cookie and the truth is you are not. Have a good New Year and may you be inscribed in the book of life – you are lucky I don’t give advice on who gets in the book.

Much can be written about this email. The author ignores the issue of intermarriage entirely and instead blames the post for his own lack of faith. This reminds of what a rabbi once told a wayward student usng a play on words, "teirutzim (answers) for questions I am willing to give . I am not willing to give terutzim (answers) for teirutzim(excuses). He continues to rant about different issues in Jewish Law that he does not understand, and apparently does not want to understand. His questions, real and imagined, are simple and can answered by any Orthodox rabbi.

The reader continues, making assumptions about me that are simply not true ("You vote what the rabbi tells you and it is very sad. You sponge of the government of Israel and donations from everywhere. You do not create anything except live a life of cheating and lies. "). This is indeed unfortunate. Perhaps such prejudice is a result of repeated exposure to stereotypes often pushed by the mass media.

All in all I have hope for this guy. The fact that the post brought about a reaction, even a negative one, is a sign that the "pintele yid" is still there. May he merit to make Teshuvah and be written and sealed for a good life.

Dvar Torah for Netzavim-Vayelech: Choose Life

This in my humble opinion is the climax and summary of the Five Books of Moses:

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances; then thou shalt live and multiply, and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest in to possess it. But if thy heart turn away, and thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I declare unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish; ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over the Jordan to go in to possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed; to love the LORD thy God, to hearken to His voice, and to cleave unto Him; for that is thy life, and the length of thy days; that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

The Torah is making things very clear for anyone who is willing to listen, as Rashi explains:

[God says: “Even though you have free choice, nevertheless,] I instruct you to choose the portion of life.” It is like a man who says to his son, “Choose for yourself a fine portion of my estate,” and then directs him to the best portion, saying to him, “This [is the portion which] you should choose for yourself!” And regarding this, the verse says,“The Lord is my allotted portion and my cup; You guide my destiny” (Ps. 16:5). [The last clause, אַתָּה תּוֹמִי‏ךְ גּוֹרָלִי, literally means “You laid upon my lot.” That is to say:] “You laid my hand upon the good lot, saying, ‘Take this for yourself!’”

These passages are worth meditating upon, especially with the New Year and the Ten Days of Teshuvah before us.

Dvar Torah for Ki Teitzei

"A woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment; for whosoever doeth these things is an abomination unto the LORD thy God" (Deuteronomy 22:5)

The prohibition seems somewhat unusual, not related to what is written before it or what follows. The Lubavitcher Rebbe gives us a novel insight into this verse, as he explains the folly of the Women's Liberation Movement, and how a Torah true house should function:

Jonathan Miller: Journalist?

Well, it sure seems that Jonathan Miller cannot be trusted to report the news objectively:

The Good Old Jews Use Blood in Their Matzahs Libel

This time from a former minister in the Jordanian government, Sheik Bassam Ammoush:

I would like to point out that the Arabic word for blood is the same as the Hebrew one, dam. Also, the word in Arabic for Matzah is FaTir, which is linguistically related to the Aramaic word, PaTira. You can see this in Targum Onkelos on the Torah portion Bo.

The Mitzvah of Settling in the Land of Israel

The Holy One. blessed be He, tested our father Abraham:

Now the LORD said unto Abram: 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee.

It is not easy to venture out of one's comfort zone. Certainly leaving one's country is not a simple matter. However, God promissed him that this move was for his benefit, as Rashi explains:

Get thee out, lit. go to you, for your benefit and for your good, and there I will make you into a great nation, but here, you will not merit to have children. Moreover, I will make your character known in the world.

Our father Abraham, who believed in God and feared God, did as he was told.

If one wishes to make Aliyah, to fulfill the mitzvah of settling in the land of Israel, he should not do so for the hope of gaining any material benefit. He should do it simply for the love of the mitzvah, the love of fulfilling God's Will. By doing thusly he is really actualizing his own purpose for being in This World. If one's fulfillment the mitzvah of living in the land of were to be dependent on something external, for instance if one comes to live here because he was offered an exciting job, he is standing on shaky ground. For if the job were not to materialize, or if he were to be fired from it, he would probably catch the next plane back to the Diaspora. This is similar to what is written in the Mishnah:

Any love that is dependent on something--when the thing ceases, the love also ceases. But a love that is not dependent on anything never ceases. What is [an example of] a love that is dependent on something? The love of Amnon for Tamar. And one that is not dependent on anything? The love of David and Jonathan.

Our love for the land of Israel and all of the other commandments in the Torah must be like the love of David and Jonathan. The fact that the economy is healthy, and that the land is giving forth its fruit in abundance is heartening but it is in no way our reason for being here.

King David wrote:

Thou wilt arise, and have compassion upon Zion; for it is time to be gracious unto her, for the appointed time is come. For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and love her dust.

That means that "Jerusalem will not be built unless the Children of Israel desire her in the utmost way until they take pleasure in her stones, and love her dust." (The Kuzari).

The Plague of Intermarriage Strikes Again, God Forbid!

This invitation was posted on Facebook by the Lehava organization, whose purpose is to prevent assimilation in the land of Israel:

For those of you who do not understand Hebrew, the invitation is to the "wedding" of a Jewish Israeli girl named Moral to an Arab named Mahmud. If I am not mistaken the girl converted to Islam.

The girl's father strongly opposes the wedding, as can be seen here. Lehava has promissed to protest the wedding, which God forbid will take place at Shemesh Adumah (Red Sun) Hall in Rishon LeTzion on Sunday at 7:30 PM. Youth from the radical left Meretz party also promissed to be there to "protect" the couple from the protesters. Leftist activists also succeeded in having Lehava's Facebook page removed.

Here's a report from Tzinor Laila:

Why I Support Israel

Indian Television Crew Exposes Hamas Firing From Crowded Civilian Area

You got to give these guys from India a lot of credit. They are actually doing their jobs as journalists, unlike CNN and many others:

A Clip for the 9th of Av

Pre 9th of Av Thoughts

I just got over reviewing the laws of the 9th of Av with my family, and in the little bit of time until we start the se'udah hamafseket I thought that I would jot down a few thoughts here.

Unless a miracle happens, we will once again be mourning the destruction of the Temple. I saw on a calendar this morning that it is 1946 years since the Temple was destroyed. The more one learns Torah, the more one realizes the depth of this tragedy. This is a wound that the passage of time does not heal.

The truth is, we mourn its destruction on a daily basis, explicitly mentioning it many times every day. We end all of our prayers with the request that God will rebuild the Temple speedily in our days. We also remember the Temple in other ways, for instance leaving a square cubit of our homes unpainted. It is always in our head and heart.

Even so, we do not live our lives in a state of depression. A healthy Jew is an optimist, always looking at the half of the glass that is full of water. I once read how Rabbi Chana Porat, who was seriously wounded in the Yom Kippur War, thought that he had lost one of his arms. At that time, he was busy thinking how grateful he was to God for the one arm that remained.

But the 9th of Av is different. The entire day is devoted to remembering the destruction of the Temple and other tragedies that have befallen our nation. We take a serious look at the half cup of water that is empty.

There is hope. With the current war and all of its horrors, we were witness to a tremendous display of Jewish unity here in Israel. To paraphrase Rabbi Kook, if the Temple was destroyed because of senseless hatred, it will be built through unbounded love. Please God, have mercy on Zion for the time has come.

That's all in the meantime. It's time to go and dine on bread and a hard boiled egg dipped in ashes. Our sages said that those who mourn for Jerusalem will merit to rejoice in its rebuilding. May it be in our days.

UNRWA Exposed!

Hamas' Objectives

Don't say that you were not told:

The truth is that the Arabs are "alien usurpers of the land" here in the land of Israel. Jews are the indigenous people here.

CNN and Hamas's Human Shields

You just got to love the headline of this article on the CNN web site: Is Hamas using human shields in Gaza? The answer is complicated. The truth is, the answer is a simple, well documented, yes! So why is CNN having a hard time saying it? The answer, I suspect, is also quite simple.

It is the same reason that CNN hushed up the atrocities committed by Sadam Hussein, as admitted by none other than former CNN executive Eason Jordan way back in 2003:

Over the last dozen years I made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN's Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard -- awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.

For example, in the mid-1990's one of our Iraqi cameramen was abducted. For weeks he was beaten and subjected to electroshock torture in the basement of a secret police headquarters because he refused to confirm the government's ludicrous suspicion that I was the Central Intelligence Agency's Iraq station chief. CNN had been in Baghdad long enough to know that telling the world about the torture of one of its employees would almost certainly have gotten him killed and put his family and co-workers at grave risk.

Working for a foreign news organization provided Iraqi citizens no protection. The secret police terrorized Iraqis working for international press services who were courageous enough to try to provide accurate reporting. Some vanished, never to be heard from again. Others disappeared and then surfaced later with whispered tales of being hauled off and tortured in unimaginable ways. Obviously, other news organizations were in the same bind we were when it came to reporting on their own workers.

Hamas is a terrorist organization, a group of violent thugs who do not value human life. Using "human shields" is only one item on the long list of atrocities that this evil organization is responsible for.

Eason Jordan closes his "mea culpa" with the following:

I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me. Now that Saddam Hussein's regime is gone, I suspect we will hear many, many more gut-wrenching tales from Iraqis about the decades of torment. At last, these stories can be told freely.

The same will be said when we finally get rid of the Arab terrorists in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. All of those journalists who feared for their lives and therefore covered up the crimes of Fatah, Hamas and all the other terror organizations, whitewashing their activities and calling them "militants", will be free to tell the truth.

Paris, France: Europe's "Gaza City"

They used to say that Beirut was the "Paris of the Middle East". It looks like today, Paris is the Gaza of Europe:

Contributing to the War Effort

How can you contribute to Israel's war against the Hamas, if you are not a soldier?

1) Pray - every prayer counts.

2) Take upon yourself to learn more Torah and perform more mitzvot.

3) Donate blood. The soldiers and the nation need it. I gave blood today.

4) Be an internet warrior. Counter the anti-Israel propganda spread by Arabs and other Jew-haters on the internet. Here are some sites that can help you:

Israel Defense Forces

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Naftali Bennett

Honest Reporting

And of course there are many good blogs. Two which I find especially useful are The Elder of Zion and Israellycool.

"Come Rescue Me Now!...My Arab Husband is Coming - HELP!!!"

Click on the pic:

Naftali Bennett's Amazing Speech at Ha'aretz's "Peace Conference"

Talk about walking into the lion's den! This is a truly amazing presentation, historic in my opinion. The leftists in the crowd that tried to shout him down shot themselves in the foot by showing their anti-democratic nature. Enjoy.

Autz 7 reports the following in regard to the aftermath of the speech:

At the end of the speech, as Bennett got down off the stage, a group of roughly 20 to 30 youths tried to physically attack him. One of them succeeded in reaching him and punching him in the back.

Detection and Elimination of Arab Terrorists Today Near Zikim

Click here.

So perish all Thine enemies, O LORD;

Update: Here it is:

Here is the navy doing its part:

Ari Shavit Exposed

There was a lot of noise when Ari Shavit's book, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, came out. It spent a total of six weeks on the New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list.

Is the book really "non-fiction"? To receive an answer, you must read Martin Kramer's article, What Happened at Lydda.

To make a long story short, it looks like Shavit was quick on the trigger to accuse Israel of a massacre that in all likelihood did not occur. Read the article!

It is hard not to see the similarities between Shavit's academic sloppiness/negligence/ineptitude and that of Teddy Katz. Katz claimed that a massacre occured in Tantura, and was sued for libel by the veterans of that battle. Katz lost the case. Unfortunately, the veteran's of the Lydda battle, heroes who fought so bravely for Israel's independence, are probably no longer living or just too old and fragile to sue Shavit. Too bad.

BTW, did I mention that Shavit is a Ha’aretz columnist and member of its editorial-board? Are you surprised?

For extra credit, read what Caroline Glick has to say about this.

It seems that I've written about Ari Shavit in the past. See Do Murderers Sit Shiva? Almost eight years have passed since I published that post and it is interesting to see it in a historical perspective.