Eretz HaKodesh

Shabbat Shalom - Parshas Beshalach

The Israelites being led by the Pillar of Smoke

Shabbat Shalom

Parshas Beshalach ... Shabat Shirah

remember to feed the birdies

Tu'BShevat New Year for the Trees

Paraoh at the Sea

The Route of Yetzias Mitzrayim

Pharaoh: Ruler or President

Pharaoh as a Role Model

by LeviAvtzon

He saw sticks turn into snakes. He didn't budge.
He saw water turn into blood. His heart remained closed.
He felt and smelled the invasion of the frogs. Nothing.
He itched from lice and ran fright from the wild animals. He barely blinked.

Hello, Pharaoh! Why don't you just give up?

"I should let them free?

Are you out of your mind?"

He saw the corpses of Egyptian livestock strewn all over the city and rolled on the floor to ease the burning pain of his boils. Who cares?

He watched in awe and fright as balls of fire and ice pounded the landscape. "Who is this G‑d?"
He woke up in the morning to find empty drawers, all the food consumed by grasshoppers. He sat in total darkness for three days, then for the next three days was unable to move. "I should let them free? Are you out of your mind?"

He cried as his firstborn dropped dead, and became fearful for his own life: after all he was also a firstborn…
Okay, finally he gave in; he let the Jewish people go. It had taken a while, but now his heart had softened.
Or so we thought.

The story continued.
A few days after the Jews left, when they were already far away near the Red Sea, Pharaoh regretted his decision. He begged for volunteers to join his mission, and, all invigorated, he chased after his former slaves, in an attempt to bring them back.
As he approached the Jewish camp, G‑d blocked off the Egyptian camp with a cloud, causing all the arrows and spears aimed at the Jews to bounce back.
Think he cared?

He saw the waters split. He decided to chase after them.
No "miracles shmiracles" were going to change his mind.
A stubborn mule. Nothing, absolutely nothing could push him off his crooked path.

The Kotzker Rebbe taught that we should learn a lesson from our first tormentor:
A lesson in defiance.

Source: Chabad

I Never Promised You A Rose Garden … gave you thorns

Obama’s State Of The “Un”union:

‘I Never Suggested That Change Would Be Easy’

“I campaigned on the promise of change – change we can believe in, the slogan went. And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren’t sure that they still believe we can change – or at least, that I can deliver it,” ... “But remember this – I never suggested that change would be easy, or that I could do it alone. “

One commenter from Yeshiva World News

responds about the thorns:

As I type this, I see no comments up before mine so if this is posted under other comments, my response in this post is strictly to the speech and not to any other comments. I would not have the time or space to respond to each point that Obama made that was either a half truth or a lie or a deliberate misdirection from what the focus should be. But just about every line, falls into one of those 3 categories.

Some of the main flaws in his speech are (not necessarily in order):

Obama claims to have stepped into a bad economy and inherited it from before he took office. Before he was president he was a senator and as senator he voted for all the liberal scams that helped destroy the economy.

It was not the “evil CEO’s” or the “greedy bankers” that ruined the economy.
For one thing it was Obama as soon as he took office who forced the banks and car companies to take the money that they did not need or want from him just so he could later take them over and claim he was “doing it for the people”.

He told successful auto dealerships he was forcing them out of business and he cared nothing for the 50 people each (on average)was being forced to permanently lay off.
When the economy was still at better then full employment (full is 5% or lower unemployment and) of 4.5%.

The liberal media started attacking it (even before Bush got in office) and after Bush had been in office awhile and it was at 4.5% the media was saying what a terrible recession we were in (when we weren’t) and used as an excuse the fact that it had gone from 4.5% to 4.6% (still well below 5%, which again, is considered “full employment”) and started scaring people into not buying things.

So someone now does not buy that new furniture they were going to get and many others get the same scare. So now the furniture store lays people off (and appliance stores etc…) and those people cannot now pay their mortgages and the collapse starts caused in part by the media’s lies in order to attack Bush.

He said several times that he wanted “clean energy jobs” and emphasized the idea that other jobs would not be funded or supported. He specifically said that he was going to make sure that the ‘clean energy’ jobs would be the most profitable.
He also specifically said he wanted all tax benefits to oil and coal companies to end. So obviously he intends to make the ‘clean energy’ jobs the most profitable not by lowering costs either to the business or to the consumer but by creating and artificially unlevel playing field where only the politically correct jobs will benefit.

This in turn will raise the cost of living for all of us and Obama’s claims of lowering taxes are bogus because the other areas of cost will go up for more then any savings from any lowering of taxes he claims to be giving us.

He further wants to destroy the family by his support of those who believe in certain forbidden practices between two men.
It is not about as he falsely claimed “peoples right to be who they are” but about their untznius unkosher activities, that he is supporting along with changing the definition of what the word marriage, means.

If the government would get out of regulation our lives and get out of the banking and insurance and health care business, prices in all these areas would drop like a rock.
I have heard from a few people who said they were paying cash for their own health care and because it was cash with no insurance or forms etc…the price was at least 35% less then it would have been.

In one case I heard about a woman who had to pay $250 for a procedure and paying cash; after shopping around found a qualified fully licensed doctor who did an excellent job for $50.

Now imaging how much less it could have been if there were no excessive government regulations about excessive taxes the doctor must pay to cover “public insurance” or for any of the myriad regulations and frivolous (not reasonable lawsuits for real negligence or malpractice, but all the foolishness like how the patient hurt themselves at home after the procedure and then found an excuse to lie that it was the doctor’s fault for example) lawsuits the doctor must worry about.

I am chalishing to go on and on and point out oh so many more lies and flaws in this speech, but this post is already quite long and this should give people at least some idea how bogus this president and his plans, are.

Full text of speech, and commenters replies

Bnei Menashe

Bnei Menashe: the lost tribe of Manashe

The Israeli government is reported to have quietly approved the fast-track immigration of 7,000 members of a supposedly “lost Jewish” tribe, known as the Bnei Menashe, currently living in a remote area of India.

“There is a mutual interest being exploited here,” he said. “The Bnei Menashe get help to make aliyah [immigration] while the settlements get lots of new arrivals to bolster their numbers, including in settlements close to Palestinian areas where most Israelis would not want to venture.”

The Government's decision was made possible by a ruling in 2005 by Shlomo Amar, one of Israel’s two chief rabbis, that the Bnei Menashe are one of 10 lost Jewish tribes, supposedly exiled from the Middle East 2,700 years ago....He ordered a team of rabbis to go to north-east India to begin preparing Bnei Menashe who identified themselves as Jews for conversion to the strictest stream of Judaism, Orthodoxy, so they would qualify to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return [....]

The Bnei Menashe belong to an ethnic group called the Shinlung, who number more than one million and live mainly in the states of Manipur and Mizoram, close to the border with Myanmar. They were converted from animism to Christianity by British missionaries a century ago, but a small number claim to have kept an ancient connection to Judaism [....]

“I believe we are very close to the time when the Messiah will arrive and we must prepare by making sure that all the Jews are in the Land of Israel. There are more than six million among the lost tribes and they must be brought to Israel as a matter of urgency.”

Read on VosIzNeias

Original article on The National

BACK TO OUR WORLD

65th Anniversary of the Liberation

Wednesday, 27th January, 2010 — Former Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp

• 2.30 pm — Main ceremonies will be held in a heated tent (located in the so-called BIIf sector) put up specially for that purpose. On account of limited space passes will be required. Those without passes are requested to enter through the former women’s camp (the so-called BI sector). The participants staying outside the tent will be able to watch the ceremony on a big screen mounted specially on this occasion.

Over 150 former prisoners (including 115 from Poland) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek will attend the 65th anniversary ceremony at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in southern Poland today.

The main ceremony, at 14.30 CET will be led by former prisoner August Kowalczyk. Władysław Bartoszewski, Marian Turski and Edward Paczkowski will also contribute. Other speakers will include President Lech Kaczyński, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Russia’s minister of education, Andrei Fursenko.

* * * *

Auschwitz victims mourned on 65th anniversary

KRAKOW — Auschwitz survivors, Soviet veterans and leaders including Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu gather on Wednesday for emotionally-charged ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of the notorious Nazi death camp's liberation.

Ahead of a commemoration at the site of the World War II camp in German-occupied Poland, 700 participants started assembling in the southern city of Krakow for a morning memorial event organised by the European Jewish Congress (EJC). Krakow

Lithuanian-born Holocaust survivor and Tel Aviv resident Baruch Shub, 85, said he still bore the emotional scars of his suffering.

"There's a lot of sorrow, because when I came home, I found nobody in my family alive. But also a bit of happiness because the war was over and I'd somehow stayed alive," Shub told AFP.

"We encounter the worst evil in the history of mankind together with the greatest courage in the history of humanity," Netanyahu said at a former railhead where the Nazis sent more than 300,000 Jews to die.

"This is not an easy encounter but it gives us hope and direction for our future. May God avenge the victims," said the Israeli leader alongside his wife Sara, whose father was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust in which some six million Jews were murdered.

Tel Aviv's Polish-born Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau -- a Holocaust orphan who survived as a child in Nazi camps -- will recite a Jewish prayer of mourning. Related article: Survivors span the history of Auschwitz

"We started meeting huddles of people. They came towards us, in prison stripes. Some had covers over their heads. We could only see their eyes. And in those eyes, we could see what they were feeling," he said.

"But we didn't know what it was. We only understood after the war," he added.

Kantor, 56, who is from Russia, said he feels extra emotion when he thinks of 1945.

"The majority of my family was murdered," he said.

"My father was in the Red Army. I always remember his feelings, his attitude being a soldier of the Red Army whose family disappeared in the Shoah. Those feelings created mine," he said.

Children of Auschwitz recall liberation 65 years ago

WARSAW — Kazimiera Wasiak is a 76-year-old Polish pensioner who will forever remain a child of Auschwitz.

When she was only 11, Wasiak spent six months in Nazi Germany?s largest and most infamous World War II death camp, barely surviving on "a slop of water and rye flour". Severely malnourished, she became gravely ill but believes this may have saved her life.

Today, as treasurer of an Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors' association in Warsaw, she meets regularly with a dwindling number of members, many of whom shared her fate like 78-year-old Stanislaw Przeradski.

"After living five years in Warsaw under the Nazis we were no longer children when we came to Auschwitz," said Przeradksi, who was only 13 at the time.

"We'd seen it all -- firing squads shooting innocents in the street, brutality, air raids," he told AFP. Warsaw.

A Diversion in Pictures

Rover at High Speed!

Haitians live in a makeshift camp at a golf course in Port-au-Prince, Haiti January 24, 2010. A magnitude-7 earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, killing up to 200,000 and leaving as many as 3 million hurt or homeless and pleading for medical aid, food and water in nightmarish conditions in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. (REUTERS)

A baby Kirk's Dik Dik antelope stands on a desk in the office of Chester Zoo's curator of mammals Tim Rowlands, northern England, January 22, 2010. The antelope is being hand reared at the zoo after being rejected by its mother during the recent cold weather. REUTERS

Gorilla baby Kajolu sits in its enclosure at Munich's zoo Hellabrunn January 22, 2010. Kajolu was born on December 7, 2009 at the zoo. REUTERS

John Hannon of Foxboro, Mass., a member of the MA1 Disaster Medical Assist team, holds the hand of a small child who was injured in last week's massive earthquake at the team's field hospital in Port-au-Prince, Friday, Jan. 22, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on Jan. 12, killing and injuring thousands and leaving many homeless. (AP Photo)

A resident walks down a flooded street in Long Beach, Calif. on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010. The second in a series of powerful storms roared into Southern California, bringing heavy rains and winds that smashed windows, submerged cars and flipped an SUV along a stretch of coastline. (AP Photo)

Parshah Ha'Mohn

Reb Mendel M'Riminov said that saying Parshas Ha'monn

(Shneyim Mikroh V'Echod Targum)

on Tuesday Parshas B'Shalach,

is a Segulah for Parnasah.

(Parshas B'Shalach is this Tuesday - January 26)

Visit here for complete blessing in Hebrew

and for complete blessing in English.

All about Tu B'Shvat at Oh! Nuts

Tu B'Shvat is this Shabbos, Shabbos Shira, Parashas Beshallach

also the one Shabbos of the year to REMEMBER to

leave seeds for the Birds

in appreciation for what they did for us.

Telling it Like it Is!

Hillel Neuer of UN Watch exposes the hypocrisy of the UN Human Rights Council, the body that created the Goldstone Report.




For the first time ever, the Council president, Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, rejects a speech as "inadmissible" and bans it from ever being delivered again.

"Council President Luis Alfonso de Alba ruled the remarks inadmissible. . . in the depths of the U.N., this was of course logical: Mr. Neuer's commentary had been accurate..."
— Wall Street Journal

Bravo Hillel!

Who is Responsible for the Redemption?

This added immensely to my Oneg Shabbos and I want to share it with you:

A Torah perspective on Who is Responsible for the Redemption

Parshas Bo

From the Teachings of

Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

(excerpts, [...] = portions omitted)

Redeeming the firstborn and redemption

The mitzvah to redeem our firstborn sons (pidyon haben) appears at the end of parashat Bo, and requires us to redeem our firstborn sons who belong to G-d, because G-d spared the lives of the firstborn children of Israel during the plague of the birstborn (the tenth and last plague). He commands, "Consecrate to Me, from among the Israelites, every firstborn of man or beast which is the first issue of every womb; it is Mine.

From the time the Jewish people entered the Land of Israel, redeeming the firstborn has been performed by giving five silver coins to a Cohen when the baby is a month old, as 'payment', as it were, for the priest functioning in his stead. Indeed, the name of the parasha, Bo, alludes to this commandment as its letters (בא) are the initials of 'the firstborn of man' (בכור אדם), an idiom found only once in the Torah, in our parasha, in the description of this mitzvah.

Since the mitzvah of redeeming the firstborn son appears in context of the termination of the Ten Plagues and the ensuing exodus from Egypt, it serves as a spiritual model for redemption.

Indeed, following the Torah's lead, Chassidic commentaries and Kabbalistic works discuss the mitzvah of redeeming the firstborn in connection with our own final redemption, who future description is likened by the prophets to the exodus from Egypt, 'Like the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show you wonders.' (Michah 7:15)

The Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds differ on the question of upon whom the Torah places the responsibility of redeeming the firstborn son: the father or the firstborn himself. According to the Babylonian Talmud the responsibility is the father's; however, the Jerusalem Talmud places the responsibility on the firstborn himself. [...] just as a baby cannot circumcise himself, the son is unable to redeem himself, thus the Torah temporarily gives the obligation to the father. But once the firstborn son is old enough the responsibility reverts back to him to redeem himself if his father has not yet done so.

Who holds the key to redemption?

Because of the parallel between the mitzvah of pidyon baben and the redemption from our present exile, we may interpret the difference between the T almuds as representing two opinions regarding this question of 'Who holds the key to reemption?' In other words, who is responsible for acting in order to redeem us from our current exile, G-d or we, the Jewish people? [...]

Revelation or consciousness?

[...] Is the redemption about 'revelation' or about 'consciousness'? In more technical terms, is it about 'wisdom' or 'knowledge'?[...]

Read further to delight in the comparisons between the Talmuds, wisdom or knowledge, G-d or the son, Pidyon HaBen

About a Pidyon HaBen at Chabad


Redeeming your firstborn donkey.

Rare ceremony, Jews redeem donkey in Australia

Nu!

This was sent in to Yeshiva World News by a reader,

with an accompanying Video (link at the end).

After hearing the outrageous news on Thursday, about a 17-year-old wearing Tefillin – who was deemed suspicious enough to prompt an emergency landing, and security alert, I have decided to send you the following story with the attached video link (which I personally recorded).

This past Wednesday, I was on a flight from San Fransisco heading to New York. Just before take-off, a man walked onto the plane carrying a metal box with wires coming out of it.

“Do you mind if I put this here?” he asked me, as he stowed a big knapsack in the overhead compartment. “That depends,” I answered. “Is it going to blow up?” He said, “It’s a charger,” and slid into the window seat.

The man appeared to be Muslim and the flight ended in Istanbul (after stopping in NY) - and it appeared that was his destination.

He had what looked like a padded CD case around his neck with wires hanging out of it and a metal flask of some kind also strapped to him. He put the metal box into the seat pocket in front of him. I didn’t know what to do (so I just davened…HARD!).

The flight attendants seemed oblivious. I tried to tell a TSA guy when I got off the plane – just in case this was a dry run for something unthinkable, but he ignored me.

And the funny thing was, when I went through security in San Fransisco, I noticed the TSA folks patting down a little old lady…

That’s right.

Little old ladies and 17-year olds wearing Tefillin are a threat to our national security, but Muslim men with gear strapped onto them, holding a metal box with wires…they’re just fine…G-d bless America.

YWN Video

Shabbat Shalom - Parshas Bo

Parashas Bo

Parashat Bo contains the narrative of the final three plagues, culminating in the dramatic release of the Jewish people from the oppressive exile and the first leg of their momentous journey into the desert. In this Parashah, we witness the mighty Egyptian empire brought to its knees, its idols crushed and its arrogant Pharaoh reduced to begging for his life. It also includes the origin and details of the observances meant to commemorate the Exodus - the Passover sacrifice and holiday and the consecration of the firstborn.

[…]

Since the Egyptian exile is the prototype of all exiles and the Exodus is the precursor of the final Redemption, the dynamic contained in the name of this parashah will be repeated at the end of the present exile.

We must take our cue here from how G-d told Moses to crush Pharaoh - to aim for the jugular vien and attack evil at its root.

[…]

If G-d seeks to free us from our personal constrictions and distractions, He assuredly seeks to free us collectively from the constrictions and distractions of our collective exile. It is therefore our duty to entreat G-d to put an end to our existential exile and usher in the final, Messianic Redemption.

The Rebbe’s Torah

It's been a trying week ...

Wishing

everyone

a blessed

and peaceful

erev

Shabbos

Another Kiddush HaShem

When noted community activist and educator Rabbi Ronald Greenwald visited Haiti 6 weeks ago, he had no idea that the Haiti he saw was about to be changed forever. Staying three hours outside Port Au Prince, the poverty and desolation he witnessed were so extreme that he felt inspired to do something about it. Upon his return home to Monsey, he scheduled a meeting with members of the Haitian community, to let them know that if they ever wanted to take a delegation to Washington to discuss the extreme poverty in their homeland, he would be happy to accompany them.

The meeting was scheduled for January 19th. In view of the tragedy that shook Haiti last week, the meeting was surely divinely ordained.

[...] Rabbi Greenwald quoted Pirkei Avos saying, “Choviv odam shenivra b’tzelem – every person is special because they were created in the image of G-d. You see such destruction, how can you not be moved by it?”

source: VosizNeias.

And this:

2 Local Jews Are The Men Behind The Scenes Helping Israel's Relief Effort:

"People need help," ... "We need to be there."

source: VosizNeias.

A Little Politics

Stratfor on Turkey and Israeli National Security

"Over the past year, Turkey has become increasingly critical of Israel’s relations with the Arab world. Turkey has tried to mediate, for example, between Syria and Israel. Now, Turkey has made it known that it holds Israel responsible for these failures. Even so, Turkey remains Israel’s major ally, albeit informally, in the Muslim world. Turkey is also a growing power. Uniquely in the region, it provides Israel with a dynamic economy to collaborate with. Turkey also has the most substantial and capable military force in the region. Should Turkey shift its stance to a pro-Arab, anti-Israel position, the consequences for Israel’s long-term national security would not be trivial."

"Turkey has been shifting its position on its role in the Islamic world in recent years under the Islamist-rooted government of President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. While increasingly critical of Israel, the Turkish government also has tried to bridge the gap between the Arabs and Israelis, albeit to promote Turkey’s position in the Muslim world. Thus, Turkey is far from being confrontational with Israel. Moreover, tensions in Turkey between secularists in the military and the civilian Islamist-rooted government are substantial. Turkish internal politics are complicated, and therefore politics between Turkey and Israel are complicated."

And now we hear from the Mufti of Syria:

Syria's foremost Muslim leader declared on Tuesday that Islam commands its followers to protect Judaism, according to Army Radio:

Classical Muslim view of Jews as subjugated 'dhimmis'. Under sharia law, Jews surrender their rights to self-defence to Muslims, buying their safety through payment of the poll tax or jizya. "If the Prophet Mohammed had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Mohammed himself a heretic," Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun, the Mufti of Syria, was quoted as telling a delegation of American academics visiting Damascus...." source

And now something I posted about earlier this month:

Gog MaGog Alliance

*Turkey's about face on Israel is part of the gog magog alliance, and 'danger from the north'.

*Syria and Turkey alliance foretells danger: The Syrian-Turkish military exercises were apparently being held at the same time that Turkey was informing Jerusalem that it would ban the IAF from participating in the joint 'Anatolian' Eagle exercise. Not to be trusted.

A Second Massive Earthquake 6.0

A Haitian boat crammed with refugees sails past

amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall

'It felt really strong. Each aftershock is frightening. We feel it right here (pointing at his stomach) because after last Tuesday you never know how strong it is going to be,' said Lenis Batiste, camped out on some grass with two children.

'It kind of felt like standing on a board on top of a ball,' said US Army Staff Sgt Steven Payne who was preparing to hand out food to refugees in a tent camp of 25,000 when the aftershock hit. The new quake struck about 35 miles north-west of the capital of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 13.7 miles.

STRONG EARTHQUAKE IN GUATEMALA
A strong earthquake has rocked Guatemala and parts of El Salvador.

Seems to be a mountain ridge going across this area that is bringing all the quakes.

Source: DailyMail

The Consciousness of Freedom

Parshas Bo

Why Do Children Rebel?

After a series of plagues that crush the country and subdue its king, Pharaoh finally surrenders.

After mercilessly torturing, abusing and murdering the Hebrews for decades, they are set free. On the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Nissan, the Jewish people, at last, experience a mass exodus from a genocidal regime and a tyrannical monarchy.

They have embarked on the path to freedom.

More than three millennia have passed since that day. That is quite a long time. Yet the children and grandchildren of the slaves who departed Egypt still commemorate this event annually. To this day, Passover remains the most widely observed and celebrated Jewish holiday. Many Jews who deem themselves as remote as can be from tradition and religion are still compelled to participate in some sort of Passover seder.

The significance of this cannot be overstated. It is easy to celebrate the miracle of freedom when you are free. Yet for most of their history the Jewish nation found itself exiled, oppressed, dominated—physically, emotionally and religiously—by tyrants and dictators of all stripes. If Passover represents the journey from slavery to freedom, what became of it after the Babylonian destruction of the First Temple and Israel’s subsequent exile? Or after the Greek and then Roman conquest of the Jewish land and the exile of its inhabitants? What happened to the celebration of liberty following the destruction of the Second Temple, the failure of the Bar Kochba rebellion, the horrific Hadrianic persecutions and the long, tragic series of events that led to the greatest exile in Jewish history? Could Jews celebrate emancipation under oppressive circumstances? Could Jews still sit down annually and sincerely declare, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and G-d has liberated us?”

To finish reading this very interesting portrayal, visit Rabbi YY Jacobson

ADDENDA to the Kiddush Hashem ...M*A*S*H Israeli Style

Does Anyone Remember the TV hit series ... M*A*S*H ?

MASH units continued to serve in various conflicts including the Vietnam War. In October 1990 the 5th MASH, 44th Medical Brigade, XVIIIth AirBorne Corps, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, deployed to Saudi Arabia and was the first fully functional Army Hospital in country. This unit moved forward six times, always as the first up hospital for the region. In March 1991 the 5th MASH was operationally attached to the 24th Infantry Division to provide Forward Surgical Care (often right on the front battle lines) to the Combat Units that attacked the western flank of Iraqi Army. In March 1991, the 159th MASH of the Louisiana Army National Guard operated in Iraq in support of the 3rd Armored Division during Operation Desert Storm.


Worldwide, the last MASH unit was deactivated on October 16, 2006. The 212th MASH — based in Miesau Ammo Depot, Germany — was the first U.S. Army hospital established in Iraq in 2003, supporting coalition forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was the most decorated combat hospital in the U.S. Army, with 28 Battle Streamers on the organizational colors. The 212th MASH's last deployment was to Pakistan to support the 2005 Kashmir earthquake relief operations. The U.S. State Department bought the MASH's tents and medical equipment, owned by the DoD, and donated the entire hospital to the Pakistani military, a donation worth $4.5 million.

In the M*A*S*H series, about four surgeons are depicted as being assigned to the unit, the administrative staff consists of the C.O. and his assistant, and few soldiers were shown to be present. By comparison, the 8076th Army Unit Mobile Army Surgical Hospital had personnel including twelve nurses, eighty-nine enlisted soldiers of assorted medical and non-medical specialties, one MSC [clarification needed], one Warrant Officer and ten Commissioned Officers of assorted specialties. On one occasion, the unit handled over 600 casualties in a 24 hour period.

M*A*S*H Israeli Style

ABC, CNN, NYTimes are actually praising the Israeli Field Hospital. Haitians are flocking to the Israeli M*A*S*H unit. YNet news

PORT-AU-PRINCE - The Israeli field hospital in the earthquake-stricken Haitian capital reflects the streets of the city, fluctuating between despair and hope amid the looting, violence and stories of miracles. Each account takes on great importance against the background of the earthquake that devastated the Western hemisphere's poorest country. [...] "We were shocked by the sights, and the nurses here have to cope with providing nursing care - it's a third-world country," she says. "I have four children myself and I was an emergency-room nurse, but the sights here are very difficult and you need a lot of mental fortitude. We've already taken in 87 children, most in moderate to serious condition; there have been a few operations and amputations, and they keep coming."Haaretz

“Thank G-d, we’re able to help, but these people need so much more,” [...] Rabbi Shimon Pelman, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of the Dominican Republic, said that things were chaotic outside the hospital as droves of hungry and thirsty Haitians surrounded a truck driven by a visiting rabbinical student from New York. Pelman and another rabbinical student emptied the truck of its 20,000 pounds of supplies, handing out such carbohydrate-rich foods as bread and pasta, and bottles of water. Chabad

"IDF field hospital in Haiti the “only ones operating”
Wow a pig must have just flown by because CNN has done a story praising Israel and the IDF for the medical aid they are providing in Haiti following the devastating earthquake. [...] ABC praised the Israeli mission which had assisted a birth using a complicated procedure. The network’s reporter, himself a trained doctor, came across a woman on the point of giving birth. First he tried to assist, but when he discovered the baby was turned sideways, he knew there was trouble. This baby had to be born via C-section and even then there were risks. He consulted experts in the U.S. but they wrote back things like “this baby will be IMPOSSIBLE to deliver alive in Haiti.” Then he remembered the Israeli field hospital, called the Israeli consulate in New York and was directed to the IDF camp. The mother’s life, it turns out, was also in extreme danger as she was suffering from pre-eclampsia, the biggest killer of pregnant women in Haiti. Source OlehGirl

"Israeli Teams to stay on in Haiti another Month"
[...] "The foreign rescue teams operating in Haiti are streaming the injured and sick to the Israeli IDF field hospital at the Antoine Izmery soccer field, still the only medical facility with a fully-equipped operating theater, intensive care units, child and maternity wards, laboratories and an X-ray facility operated by 250 staff." Debka

Nothing but Pride for our Blessed Israeli Soldiers and Medical Staff

Blessed by Hashem

Meanwhile America is mired by their Bureaucracy

that seems to be Outdoing the so-called Israeli Bureaucracy!

Unfortunately we know the best way to respond to tragedy

I am just so proud

Embrace, Engage Your Children

The Jewish Torah view of Educating Children

Notes from a Shiur on Parshas Bo

"The Torah is unquestionably history's greatest manual for education. For three thousand years, a nation has scrupulously observed its heritage and traditions. For three millennia, they studied, debated, and authored countless libraries of books on its every word. For three thousand years, through the hardest of circumstances, the chain of Jewish education has never been broken.

This is not a coincidence. Immediately following the Exodus, Moses emphasizes the critical importance of communicating the message to the children. "And it will come to pass that tomorrow ("machar") your child will ask 'What is this?' And you shall tell him ..."

Instead of being scared of questions, Judaism always encouraged and embraced questions. When you have the answers, you are not afraid of questions.

Rashi comments that the word 'tomorrow' refers to "the tomorrow of now," but also to "the tomorrow of a later time."

What does this mean? What is the tomorrow of 'today' and what is the 'tomorrow' of a later time?

There are two types of Jewish children, asking very different types of questions. One lives in a 'tomorrow,' yet it is a part of and a continuation of the 'today.' This is a child who cherishes the values and ideals of his ancestors.

But the other is a child who lives in a 'tomorrow' completely alienated from the 'today'. A powerful gulf separates the weltanschauung of the parents and the children.

Their paradigms vary drastically.

We sometimes feel compelled to reject and give up on this child, but the Torah instructs us to embrace and engage him."

To explore these two types of children throughout Jewish history,

and the sacred calling to each of them,

listen to A Tale of Two Children Living in Two Tomorrows.

The Innocent Suffer

Children don't ask to be born

babies are born innocent

There is nothing as sweet as a smile

Children can be raised with morality, taught decency, and given an opportunity to succeed in life; not a guarantee, but a chance to make something of their lives.

But when a country's leaders do no good; the UN looks out their windows and tolerates what they see; and the resident Archbishop doesn't do enough --- after years of neglect and ignoring what their eyes see,

children grow up to be teens, and teens grow to adulthood, and adults produce more babies --- and the cycle continues.

Then when tragedy strikes, the children suffer from hunger, the children become orphans, and the young men

do the only thing they have learned

and that is

to fight

to fight over food

to fight each other

instead of fighting poverty and ignorance

And now the destitute are being airlifted

to Florida

UPDATE

For those interested A Pictoral History of Haiti.

Also: Cayman Islands experienced a 5.8 Earthquake. Cayman Islands is near Haiti, and along a landmass just below the water, extending from Florida = All the vacation Islands (if you map search "islands off of FLorida" and choose the satellite view).