A reader writes a heartrending letter to Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis about a breakdown in family relations and how it has spanned generations. Click here to read the letter.
KikarHashabat reports about a meeting of leading Sefardi Rabbis who spoke about the need to eliminate quarrels and hatred. They advised spending more time in the study of Torah, loving your neighbor as yourself, increasing donations to charity as well as increasing acts of kindness.
This evening I apologized to someone even though I felt that the other person was more to blame than me. It felt good.
2 Aug 2012
1 Aug 2012
The chicken or the egg?
Israel Matzav reported about a Tom Friedman column in the New York Times.
I should also note that the two paragraphs quoted above could have been written by Stephen Walt. Walt's delusions also include AIPAC as a 'feared arbiter' of who is and who is not pro-Israel.
I decided to compare the wrtings of the two men.
Below is an excerpt from an article published by Stephen Walt on July 30th followed by the Tom Friedman column. Great minds think alike, wouldn't you agree?
In his book Scars of War, Wounds of Peace, former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote that the two presidents who did the most to advance Arab-Israeli peace were Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush. Carter negotiated the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, and Bush 41 led the 1991 Gulf War coalition and assembled the 1992 Madrid Peace Conference. According to Ben-Ami, Carter and Bush made progress on this difficult issue because each was willing "to confront Israel head one and overlook the sensibilities of her friends in America."
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/30/this_year_in_jerusalem
The three U.S. statesmen who have done the most to make Israel more secure and accepted in the region all told blunt truths to every Israeli or Arab leader: Jimmy Carter, who helped forge a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt; Henry Kissinger, who built the post-1973 war disengagement agreements with Syria, Israel and Egypt; and James Baker, who engineered the Madrid peace conference.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/opinion/friedman-why-not-in-vegas.html?_r=1
Below are two stories in the spirit of "the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley" or "Men tracht und G-tt lacht."
Hannah Furness reports the following:
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, has got stuck dangling in mid-air while riding a zip wire as part of the London 2012 Olympic celebrations.
Continue reading: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9444065/Boris-Johnson-gets-stuck-on-zip-wire-carrying-two-Union-flags.html
The Daily Telegraph reports Badminton pairs expelled from London 2012 Olympics after 'match-fixing' scandal.
I should also note that the two paragraphs quoted above could have been written by Stephen Walt. Walt's delusions also include AIPAC as a 'feared arbiter' of who is and who is not pro-Israel.
I decided to compare the wrtings of the two men.
Below is an excerpt from an article published by Stephen Walt on July 30th followed by the Tom Friedman column. Great minds think alike, wouldn't you agree?
In his book Scars of War, Wounds of Peace, former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote that the two presidents who did the most to advance Arab-Israeli peace were Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush. Carter negotiated the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, and Bush 41 led the 1991 Gulf War coalition and assembled the 1992 Madrid Peace Conference. According to Ben-Ami, Carter and Bush made progress on this difficult issue because each was willing "to confront Israel head one and overlook the sensibilities of her friends in America."
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/30/this_year_in_jerusalem
The three U.S. statesmen who have done the most to make Israel more secure and accepted in the region all told blunt truths to every Israeli or Arab leader: Jimmy Carter, who helped forge a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt; Henry Kissinger, who built the post-1973 war disengagement agreements with Syria, Israel and Egypt; and James Baker, who engineered the Madrid peace conference.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/opinion/friedman-why-not-in-vegas.html?_r=1
Below are two stories in the spirit of "the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley" or "Men tracht und G-tt lacht."
Hannah Furness reports the following:
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, has got stuck dangling in mid-air while riding a zip wire as part of the London 2012 Olympic celebrations.
Continue reading: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9444065/Boris-Johnson-gets-stuck-on-zip-wire-carrying-two-Union-flags.html
The Daily Telegraph reports Badminton pairs expelled from London 2012 Olympics after 'match-fixing' scandal.
A gracious apology
The other day Charles Krauthammer wrote the following:
Shortly after 9/11, President George W. Bush received from Prime Minister Tony Blair a bust of Winston Churchill as an expression of British-American solidarity. Bush gave it pride of place in the Oval Office.
In my Friday column about Mitt Romney's trip abroad and U.S. foreign policy, I wrote that Barack Obama "started his presidency by returning to the British Embassy the bust of Winston Churchill that had graced the Oval Office."
Within hours, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer had created something of a bonfire. Citing my statement, he posted a furious blog on the White House website, saying, "Normally we wouldn't address a rumor that's so patently false, but just this morning The Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer repeated this ridiculous claim in his column. ... This is 100 percent false. The bust [is] still in the White House. In the Residence. Outside the Treaty Room."
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/house-366162-white-pfeiffer.html
Yesterday Mr. Pfeiffer offered an apology to Mr. Krauthammer.
Click here to listen to Mr. Krauthammer's reaction to the apology.
Shortly after 9/11, President George W. Bush received from Prime Minister Tony Blair a bust of Winston Churchill as an expression of British-American solidarity. Bush gave it pride of place in the Oval Office.
In my Friday column about Mitt Romney's trip abroad and U.S. foreign policy, I wrote that Barack Obama "started his presidency by returning to the British Embassy the bust of Winston Churchill that had graced the Oval Office."
Within hours, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer had created something of a bonfire. Citing my statement, he posted a furious blog on the White House website, saying, "Normally we wouldn't address a rumor that's so patently false, but just this morning The Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer repeated this ridiculous claim in his column. ... This is 100 percent false. The bust [is] still in the White House. In the Residence. Outside the Treaty Room."
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/house-366162-white-pfeiffer.html
Yesterday Mr. Pfeiffer offered an apology to Mr. Krauthammer.
Click here to listen to Mr. Krauthammer's reaction to the apology.
31 Jul 2012
Arsen's aliya
Many many years ago my family attended a cousin's wedding. A rabbi spoke under the chupah, explaining the importance of marriage, wishing the couple success and concluding with the words, "May you build a bayit neeman beyisrael." My young brother turned to my my mother and told her, "I didn't know they were planning to live in Israel."
They weren't but Arsen Ostrovsky details the reasons that he is leaving a comfortable life in the diaspora to make aliya this coming Thursday. I wish him much mazal and hatzlocha.
Having been involved in a multitude of Jewish and pro-Israel organizations in Sydney and New York, both on a voluntary basis and, in the past few years, professionally, it also occurred to me that I could continue trying to do my bit for Israel from “the outside,” or I could do it from here; that I could either watch history unfold, or be a part of it; that I could either sit on the sidelines, or help effect change from within.
Yes, I feel like I have something to contribute here; but honestly, I feel that Israel has so much more to offer me than I could ever hope to repay: a sense of belonging, of home, of pride, that I cannot find in any other place on earth.
Continue reading: http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/07/30/why-im-making-aliya/
Last night I spoke to a friend of mine who made aliya a number of years ago. "Are you happy with your decision to make aliya?" I asked her. She replied in the affirmative. There was a quality of life that she had gained when she chose to live in Israel.
"In the neighborhood where I used to live," she told me, "we were judged by our material possessions. In Israel it is different."
They weren't but Arsen Ostrovsky details the reasons that he is leaving a comfortable life in the diaspora to make aliya this coming Thursday. I wish him much mazal and hatzlocha.
Having been involved in a multitude of Jewish and pro-Israel organizations in Sydney and New York, both on a voluntary basis and, in the past few years, professionally, it also occurred to me that I could continue trying to do my bit for Israel from “the outside,” or I could do it from here; that I could either watch history unfold, or be a part of it; that I could either sit on the sidelines, or help effect change from within.
Yes, I feel like I have something to contribute here; but honestly, I feel that Israel has so much more to offer me than I could ever hope to repay: a sense of belonging, of home, of pride, that I cannot find in any other place on earth.
Continue reading: http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/07/30/why-im-making-aliya/
Last night I spoke to a friend of mine who made aliya a number of years ago. "Are you happy with your decision to make aliya?" I asked her. She replied in the affirmative. There was a quality of life that she had gained when she chose to live in Israel.
"In the neighborhood where I used to live," she told me, "we were judged by our material possessions. In Israel it is different."
Telling the truth
A federal court in Washington, DC, held last week that political appointees appointed by President Obama did interfere with the Department of Justice’s prosecution of the New Black Panther Party.
Read full article: http://washingtonexaminer.com/federal-court-finds-obama-appointees-interfered-with-new-black-panther-prosecution/article/2503500
Charles Krauthammer asks White House dishonest about Churchill's bust?
Read full article: http://washingtonexaminer.com/federal-court-finds-obama-appointees-interfered-with-new-black-panther-prosecution/article/2503500
Charles Krauthammer asks White House dishonest about Churchill's bust?
Geography quiz
Here's an interesting quiz to see if you can identify all 50 states.Let me know how well you did without cheating and then I'll post my score.
And here's another quiz about country capitals.
What is the capital of France?
What is the capital of Turkey?
What is the capital of Bulgaria?
What is the capital of Saudi Arabia?
Finally, the capital with the longest amount of words (35) is: (scroll down for answer.)
QUESTION: What is the capital of Israel, from the U.S. Government’s point of view?
MS. NULAND: You know the answer to that question very well, which is that with regard to the status of Jerusalem and this complex of issues altogether, all of this needs to be settled through final status.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2012/07/195768.htm
And here's another quiz about country capitals.
What is the capital of France?
What is the capital of Turkey?
What is the capital of Bulgaria?
What is the capital of Saudi Arabia?
Finally, the capital with the longest amount of words (35) is: (scroll down for answer.)
QUESTION: What is the capital of Israel, from the U.S. Government’s point of view?
MS. NULAND: You know the answer to that question very well, which is that with regard to the status of Jerusalem and this complex of issues altogether, all of this needs to be settled through final status.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2012/07/195768.htm
24 Jul 2012
His medical bills
An Aurora shooting victim could face millions in medical costs because he faces a common problem: He doesn't have health insurance.
The family of Caleb Medley has been told that his medical bills could cost up to $2 million if he fully recovers, CBS News reports (h/t ThinkProgress). Medley, who lacks health insurance, is currently in an induced coma after he was shot in the eye during Friday's Colorado tragedy. His wife, Katie, gave birth to their son in the same hospital Tuesday.
Read full story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/24/caleb-medley-health-insurance_n_1699092.html
The family of Caleb Medley has been told that his medical bills could cost up to $2 million if he fully recovers, CBS News reports (h/t ThinkProgress). Medley, who lacks health insurance, is currently in an induced coma after he was shot in the eye during Friday's Colorado tragedy. His wife, Katie, gave birth to their son in the same hospital Tuesday.
Read full story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/24/caleb-medley-health-insurance_n_1699092.html
Reflections
"Ki Hi Chochmaschem U'Binaschem L'Eini HaAmim," (Devarim 4:6). This is the
mitzva of calculating the calendar based on the moon. Rashi explains that if we
do it correctly, the nations will consider us wise. If we make mistakes they
will consider us fools. Why is it so critical how we appear in the eyes of the
world?
Rav Shimshon Pincus answers that the nations are compared to the sun which inherently gives off rays of light. Each nation has a dominant strength or ray of light that characterizes its people. Bnei Yisrael, however, is compared to the moon. The moon does not generate any of its own light and only reflects the light of the sun.
Rav Shmishon tells a mashal about a home with many different things in it. It has a table that has a specific function. Similarly, a bed, chair, spoon, and fork all have specific functions. A mirror, however, has nothing. Yet, it can look beautiful by reflecting the right things, or bare if it is dark and reflects only the darkness.
Bnei Yisrael only shine when we reflect the light of Hashem. If we keep the Torah, we will reflect a brilliant light and be respected by the nations. However, if we choose the path of darkness, we will be totally void of any light and be considered to be fools living in the dark by the nations of the world.
http://revach.net/article.php?id=5134
Rav Shimshon Pincus answers that the nations are compared to the sun which inherently gives off rays of light. Each nation has a dominant strength or ray of light that characterizes its people. Bnei Yisrael, however, is compared to the moon. The moon does not generate any of its own light and only reflects the light of the sun.
Rav Shmishon tells a mashal about a home with many different things in it. It has a table that has a specific function. Similarly, a bed, chair, spoon, and fork all have specific functions. A mirror, however, has nothing. Yet, it can look beautiful by reflecting the right things, or bare if it is dark and reflects only the darkness.
Bnei Yisrael only shine when we reflect the light of Hashem. If we keep the Torah, we will reflect a brilliant light and be respected by the nations. However, if we choose the path of darkness, we will be totally void of any light and be considered to be fools living in the dark by the nations of the world.
http://revach.net/article.php?id=5134
Olympcs, sports and health
Click here to see Efrayim Goldstien hold the Olympic torch. the caption reads, "Efrayim Goldstein takes the flame in Catford - he's set up 7 charities to help his local community."
Not bad for a guy in his early twenties. How many of us have set up even one?
Rabbi Dr Raymond Apple discusses the Olympics and the sporting industry in an article titled The Olympics - an exercise in idolatry.
Sarah Schochet writes about The Importance of exercise.
Speaking of health, here's an article about a study which claims that energy saving light bulbs can cause cancer.
Not bad for a guy in his early twenties. How many of us have set up even one?
Rabbi Dr Raymond Apple discusses the Olympics and the sporting industry in an article titled The Olympics - an exercise in idolatry.
Sarah Schochet writes about The Importance of exercise.
Speaking of health, here's an article about a study which claims that energy saving light bulbs can cause cancer.
23 Jul 2012
Life is a blessing
The Blaze has an article about Jessica Ghawi, one of the victims of the Colorado shooting.
Shockingly, she was also present at a mall shooting in Toronto roughly six weeks ago that left one dead and several wounded. In a chilling blog post linked from her Twitter account, Ghawi recounts her experience:
...I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders’ faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath. For one man, it was in the middle of a busy food court on a Saturday evening.
I say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift. After Saturday evening, I know I truly understand how blessed I am for each second I am given.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/read-the-eerie-final-blog-post-from-one-of-the-reported-shooting-victims-which-details-her-reaction-to-being-at-another-mass-shooting/
In her Twitter account, under the name of Jessica Redfield, she posted the following on July 18th.
How do people know where they want to be in 14 years?! This is absurd to me! I don't even know where I want to be in the morning!!
Shockingly, she was also present at a mall shooting in Toronto roughly six weeks ago that left one dead and several wounded. In a chilling blog post linked from her Twitter account, Ghawi recounts her experience:
...I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders’ faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath. For one man, it was in the middle of a busy food court on a Saturday evening.
I say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift. After Saturday evening, I know I truly understand how blessed I am for each second I am given.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/read-the-eerie-final-blog-post-from-one-of-the-reported-shooting-victims-which-details-her-reaction-to-being-at-another-mass-shooting/
In her Twitter account, under the name of Jessica Redfield, she posted the following on July 18th.
How do people know where they want to be in 14 years?! This is absurd to me! I don't even know where I want to be in the morning!!
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