Getting over it and giving back

The following is an excerpt from an article by Barry Rubin titled A Lesson from Egypt for American Politics.
I’ve been told directly by an Arab friend who had been to China the following story that he claims is true:
Arab visitor: “How do you Chinese deal with the fact that you suffered so much from foreign invasion and imperialism?”
Chinese official: “We got over it.”
http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/08/27/a-lesson-from-egypt-for-american-politics/

Some people give back to their community. Then there's Fresno County School Superintendent Larry Powell, who's really giving back. As in $800,000 — what would have been his compensation for the next three years.
Until his term expires in 2015, Powell will run 325 schools and 35 school districts with 195,000 students, all for less than a starting California teacher earns.
"How much do we need to keep accumulating?" asks Powell, 63. "There's no reason for me to keep stockpiling money."
..."Our goal has never been to have things," Powell said of himself and his wife, Dot. "We want to give back."
Read full article: http://news.yahoo.com/school-superintendent-gives-800k-pay-150206667.html

A building forever

In this week's haftorah ( Yeshaya 51:12-52:13) Hashem tells the Bnei Yisroel that He will console them. The Yalkut Shimoni says that Avraham couldn't console them because he called the Bais HaMikdash "Har" a mountain, neither could Yitzchok because he called it a "Sadeh", and neither could Yaakov who called it a "Bayis", house.
Reb Yehonoson Eibushitz unravels this enigmatic Medrash and says that Bnei Yisroel couldn't be consoled with a promise of the rebuilding of the Bais HaMikdash because they were afraid that eventually their aveiros would cause it to be destroyed just like the previous ones. Avraham's consolation fortelling of the future rebuilding didn't satisfy them. Avraham referred to the Bais HaMikdash as a mountain and the pasuk says in tehilim "Mi Yaaleh BeHar Hashem...Neki Kapayim..." who can go onto the mountain of Hashem only people with innocent hands and hearts etc. In that case they knew the Bais HaMikdash would rise and fall on their purity, not a good thing for them to hear. Yitzhchok called it a Sadeh, a field which is open to all, including the Goyim with whose help it was built allowing them to stake a claim to it as well. It was this influence of theirs that allowed the Bais HaMikdash to ultimately fall into their murderous and destructive hands. Yaakov called it a house. To enter Hashem's house requires the utmost modesty and humbleness, a level that they were afraid they could not maintain.
Only when Hashem said Anochi, Anochi, Hu Minachemchem, Hashem whose building and handiwork survives forever with no preconditions were the Bnei Yisroel finally consoled.
http://www.thejewisheye.com/rev_pshoftim.html

Yeshaya 51:15
15. I am the Lord your God, Who wrinkles the sea and its waves stir; the Lord of Hosts is His name.

Part of a comment posted on an article about the hurricane:
"if klal yisroel had only started doing teshuva when 7 tzaddikim left this world in a matter of 5 WEEKS & gotten the message from Hashem.
we would not need an earthquake & a hurricane to bring us to teshuva"

A friend opined that Hashem is showing us that what we consider important and where we invest our money - in luxurious houses and the like - can come tumbling down in the blink of an eye. As we approach Chodesh Elul, let's get our priorities straight and put our trust in G-d and not in our temporary dwellings.

The video below is a united effort of six Israeli singers.

The report

A Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up an airliner near Detroit with an explosive hidden in his underwear has asked to be judged by the Koran rather than U.S. law, documents filed with a federal court in Michigan show.
Read full article: http://news.yahoo.com/accused-underwear-bomber-wants-judged-koran-171736547.html

Ed Lasky has written an article about a report released by the Center for American Progress.
Clearly, this is a well-funded effort to chill legitimate criticism of Islamic extremism in America. There are also political motivations behind this report since it also tries to refute allegations of ties between Muslims and Barack Obama. But what is most shameful about this "report" is that it employs classic anti-Semitic tropes, blaming conspiratorial Jews for stoking fear and hatred of Muslims.
Read full article: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/08/the_soros-supported_center_for_american_progress_blames_rich_jews_for_stoking_islamophobia.html

The report seems to be quite one-sided. For instance, it mentions the video taken at a rally held at Yorba Linda, California, in February this year when crowds shouted at Muslim families on the way to attend a fundraiser event. The report fails to mention that the keynote speakers at the event were Abdel Malik Ali, a supporter of Hamas, and Siraj Wahaj, an unindicted co conspirator in the first World Trade Center bombing.

Ein mayim ela Torah

Ein mayim ela Torah
The prophet then invites the thirsty to acquire "water," namely those who are thirsty for spirituality should study the quenching words of Torah.
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/544558/jewish/Haftorah-in-a-Nutshell.htm

"All who are thirsty go and drink water, acquire without pay wine and milk." (55:1) Chazal(Yalkut ad loc.) explain that water refers to Torah knowledge and wine and milk refer to spiritual sustenance.
http://www.torah.org/learning/haftorah/reeh.html#

The above sentences are taken from two articles regarding this week's haftorah which is to be read in the synagogue this Shabbat.
As the hurricane approaches, Hashem, please rain down upon us Torah knowledge, rather than torrential waters.
Have a Shabbat Shalom.

A female's right

David J. Seidemann has written an interesting article about a court case in which he was involved titled A Fight For Yiddishkeit where a rabbi was questioned about the rights of females in Orthodox Judaism.
And speaking of females, WND has an article about the First Lady.

In the sky with diamonds

A newly discovered alien planet that formed from a dead star is a real diamond in the rough.
The super-high pressure of the planet, which orbits a rapidly pulsing neutron star, has likely caused the carbon within it to crystallize into an actual diamond, a new study suggests.
Read full article: http://news.yahoo.com/surprise-alien-planet-made-diamond-discovered-181402842.html

Reading the above article brought to mind the Gemara in Sanhedrin 100a.

R. Johanan was sitting and teaching: The Holy One, blessed be He, will bring jewels and precious stones, each thirty cubits long, and thirty cubits high, and make an engraving in them, ten by twenty cubits, and set them up as the gates of Jerusalem, for it is written, And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles.12 A certain disciple derided him saying, 'We do not find a jewel even as large as a dove's egg, yet such huge ones are to exist!' Some time later he took a sea journey and saw the ministering angels cutting precious stones and pearls. He said unto them: 'For what are these?' They replied: 'The Holy One, blessed be He, will set them up as the gates of Jerusalem.' On his return, he found R. Johanan sitting and teaching. He said to him: 'Expound, O Master, and it is indeed fitting for you to expound, for even as you did say, so did I myself see.' 'Wretch!' he exclaimed, 'had you not seen, you would not have believed! You deride the words of the Sages!' He set his eyes upon him, and he turned in to a heap of bones.
http://www.come-and-hear.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_100.html

Lulavim

With the financial markets unsteady, people are wondering whether to invest in gold which has risen steadily, only to drop yesterday. My advice? Invest in lulavim.

On Tuesday, ElderofZiyon.blogspot posted an article titled Egypt bans selling "lulavim" to Israel.

In 2010 INN reported the following.
Giving Jews plenty of time to prepare for the Sukkot holiday, three and a half months away, Egypt has announced that it will not export lulavs this year.
Egyptian Agriculture Minister says he will ban the export of lulavs – palm tree fronds – this year, leaving Jewish communities around the world and particularly in Israel without its major source of lulavim for the Sukkot holiday.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138105

After reading the above articles, I discovered through Google that this year was not the only one where a threat of a shortage of lulavim was imminent. The following is an excerpt from Lessons of the Lulav: Zaide Reuven and the Lulav Shortage of 5766.

...and we hear that the Egyptians have decided to ban the export of lulavim. After thousands of years of growing date palms, (and probably thousands of years of cutting lulavim) someone has just realised that cutting the lulav damages the tree.
So what now? My partner reminds me to trust in the Almighty who will see to it that His people will not be without the materials to perform the mitzvah of the Four Species. I opine that perhaps this is a wakeup call to Am Yisroel on the subject of unity. After all, the mitzvah of the Four Species is about unity – recall the Midrash that relates each of the Four Species to a particular segment of the Jewish People. Those with taste and smell (they know and perform mitvot – esrog), taste but no smell (they know but don’t perform – lulav), smell but no taste (they perform but do not know – hadas), and neither taste nor smell (no knowledge or performance – aravos). In taking all Four Species together we unite the Jewish People in the service of God.
In jeopardy this year are the lulav Jews. Those who know their responsibilities, but fail to keep them. But they stood to jeopardize all of us. Our unity. Was this a wake up call that had something to do with the some focus of infighting? Perhaps the Disengagement/Expulsion from Gush Katif? Am Yisrael was certainly disunited over that one. Were we being given a message that went something like this: “So you want to perform a mitzvah that has to do with unity?, You must show Me some unity first.”?
Read full article: http://www.esrogfarm.com/2008/09/lessons-of-the-lulav-zaide-reuven-and-the-lulav-shortage-of-5766/

A forty day program

My parents once attended a lecture given by the author, Roy Neuberger, where he stated that when he writes, the question that he asks himself is whether what he writes will be a kiddush Hashem.
His Jewish Press article titled Forty Days - Forty Suggestions discusses ways to come closer to G-d and closer to one another.
Click here to read his suggestions.
May we merit seeing the words written at the end of the article come to fruition.

Re'eh

Re'eh Anochi Nosein Lifneichem", see that I have given before you (Re'eh 11:26). All the meforshim ask, why does the pasuk start in the singular and end in the plural? The Kotzker Rebbe answers as follows. The pasuk refers to two experiences of the Torah. "Nosein", the giving of the Torah and "Re'eh", the seeing and understanding.
When it comes to the giving of the Torah, it was given to everyone in Am Yisroel together. It belongs to all of us and we are all responsible to learn it. However when it comes to the actual learning, each person is an individual. Each person must plumb the depths with all the talents bestowed on him. He cannot satisfy himself with a level of knowledge of the average man. "V'Sein CHelkeinu B'Sorasecha", each person has his own cheilek that he is responsible for.
In this vain quipped the legendary Rav Shalom Schwadron, the beauty of our Torah is that both a five year old child and an eighty year old man study the same holy words. The sad part is that they learn it with the same initial understanding. Similarly Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky would say, we must advance past our shallow vision of the stories of Parshios as our Rebbe taught us in Cheider.
http://www.revach.net/avodah/olam-hatorah/Parshas-Re039eh-Kotzker-Rebbe-Rav-Sholom-Schwadron-amp-Rav-Yaakov-Kaminetzky-A-Torah-for-All-But-a-Torah-for-One/5139

Fins and scales

Sept. 11, 1941:
In Arlington, Virginia, the U.S. Department of Defense starts construction on its new headquarters, the Pentagon.
On the same day, a new immigrant to the U.S., Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, later known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, writes in his private journal concerning two traits that make a moral and productive human being: “fins” and “scales.”
A few days later, the German army captures Kiev, capital of the Ukraine, and massacres 100,000 people in a ravine named Babi Yar.
Read full article: http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/137607/jewish/Fins-and-Scales.htm