G-d has filibustered America, especially the east coast and the new York Jewish community.
A famous Brooklyn community.
And as one Boro Parker noted: "To summarize it took 78 hours, 12 trained and licensed city employees, 10 pieces of heavy duty equipment, 3 different city departments DSNY, NYPD and DOT to start cleaning 20 plus inches of snow on 45th Street between 14th & 15th avenue but wait they did not finish they just started." (Photo by Eli, vosizneias)
One city mayor, Cory Booker, has taken the snow by storm. Singlehandedly he tackled the mess and even delivered diapers to a distressed mother. No wonder his NJ voters elected this personable, religious, sensitive Black man.
While the NY Mayor was in denial. Life was under 20 inches and Bloomberg was stuck in a drift.
EMS services came 9 hours late to a crown heights apartment vestibule to find a newly arrived tiny fragile life snuffed out. The mother just couldn't push against the winds and slashing snow to get to the hospital to bring her child into the world.
The ominous signs are not the unplowed streets or hazardous walking/driving conditions. It's the insubordination of the sanitation dept workers, who thought to ‘teach the Mayor a lesson’.
Anarchy in NY seems only a few disasters away.
Airport rage, train rage, stores closed, people unable to go to work because transportation was frozen still, top that with fare hikes, loss of wages, sick leave, and medical issues. This spells disaster!
At whom do "the people" vent their rage when they’ve had enough, in every galus the Jews have lived?
The walls of security seem to be closing around the ghettos of America. Once the richest nation on the planet it is witnessing its own slow metamorphosis into a "third world power", some say.
Mitzrayim was 'the' richest and most powerful country at one time in history. They kept it's foreign peoples subservient behind the Nile trenches, but in a matter of months, lost everything to worker burnout and seemingly natural catastrophes.
They didn't call it "global warming"
When asked "what is it that Hashem wants from us"................…
He wants His children to observe the Shabbos, to be kind to one another, to share the Kedusha of Shabbos with one another, and to realize that some of us are in Eretz Yisrael to build up the Land and preserve its dignity and Kedusha.
PLEASE USE A NAME WHEN COMMENTING
31 December 2010
30 December 2010
Remembering the Rambam a"h
Monday, 20 Teves, was the Yahrzeit of the Rambam a"h
The early pioneers were socialists in search of a new ideal, rejecting the discrimination and persecution in their birth lands. They abandoned the lifestyle of their parents, the religion of their ancestors, and the very link to these sages.
Today we have in Eretz Yisrael a dichotomy of native born Israelis that do not know about their ancestors or their Jewish inheritance, and Jews from foreign lands returning home to connect with the spiritual legacy of these very sages.
It's ironic and sad.
Now that Israel has reached the age of 40, the age at which the Torah says wisdom begins:
"This past weekend, the Second Annual Conference on the subject of the preservation of the heritage of the Rambam (Maimonides) was held in Tiberias. The conference centered around one of the greatest figures in Jewish history, the Rambam, who was one of the greatest halakhic authorities, philosopher, scientist, physician, and researcher.
The conference, which was held in the Hof Guy hotel in Tiberias, also dealt with the importance of the preservation of heritage sites in Tiberias. Participants took part in lectures, discussions, and tours of the Maimonides Heritage Center and other heritage sites in the city.
“The goal here is not just to help rehabilitate the city of Tiberias but really to educate the world, Jew and non-Jew, about Rambam’s outlook and philosophy,” explained Rabbi Yemin Levy, President of the Maimonides Heritage Center.
“Israel understands that the Rambam is one of the pillars of Judaism and that through him the future of Israel can be built,” said Rabbi Haim Fogel, Director of the Maimonides Heritage Center. “The Rambam cared both for the rabbis as well as for the simple people. He wrote both an explanation to the Mishnah as well as the Mishneh Torah which is a guidebook for rabbis.”
“Rambam in the culture of Judaism really stands out and is really the voice that needs to be heard today, the voice of reason, the voice of science, and the voice of spirituality and Torah,” said Rabbi Levy.
It's ironic and sad.
Now that Israel has reached the age of 40, the age at which the Torah says wisdom begins:
“Israel understands that the Rambam
is one of the pillars of Judaism
and that through him the future of Israel can be built...”
"This past weekend, the Second Annual Conference on the subject of the preservation of the heritage of the Rambam (Maimonides) was held in Tiberias. The conference centered around one of the greatest figures in Jewish history, the Rambam, who was one of the greatest halakhic authorities, philosopher, scientist, physician, and researcher.
The conference, which was held in the Hof Guy hotel in Tiberias, also dealt with the importance of the preservation of heritage sites in Tiberias. Participants took part in lectures, discussions, and tours of the Maimonides Heritage Center and other heritage sites in the city.
“The goal here is not just to help rehabilitate the city of Tiberias but really to educate the world, Jew and non-Jew, about Rambam’s outlook and philosophy,” explained Rabbi Yemin Levy, President of the Maimonides Heritage Center.
“Israel understands that the Rambam is one of the pillars of Judaism and that through him the future of Israel can be built,” said Rabbi Haim Fogel, Director of the Maimonides Heritage Center. “The Rambam cared both for the rabbis as well as for the simple people. He wrote both an explanation to the Mishnah as well as the Mishneh Torah which is a guidebook for rabbis.”
“Rambam in the culture of Judaism really stands out and is really the voice that needs to be heard today, the voice of reason, the voice of science, and the voice of spirituality and Torah,” said Rabbi Levy.
Maimonides Heritage Center in Tiberias Israel (video in Hebrew) :
The Egyptian Government has restored the Rambam Synagogue and 12h century Yeshiva in Old Cairo.
28 December 2010
What does Hashem want from His children?
In the next few Torah Parshios we witness the Hand of G-d as "nature". Awesome is the only word for Yetzias Mitzrayim, our liberation from bondage in Egypt and the beginning of Am Yisrael as a people and a nation.
Well, what do you call a tsunami that devasted everything in it's path? Taking down buildings, homes, trees, everything for miles.
What do you call a volcano that spewed volcanic "dust" that brought Europe to a standstill and halted all air
These are happenings that affected other places and countries.
What if the Jordan river turned blood red? Or an invasion of locusts eats up our lettuce, parsley, spinach, and everything else green?
Well, what do you call a tsunami that devasted everything in it's path? Taking down buildings, homes, trees, everything for miles.
What do you call a volcano that spewed volcanic "dust" that brought Europe to a standstill and halted all air
traffic because the dust would paralyze engines, like the dust-like
lice in Mitzrayim?
What do you call huge waves of weird weather sweeping across the globe, turning the warm southern US into ice, freezing Florida temperatures, devastating wheat crops in Russia, bringing mounds of snow paralyzing countries.
The New York EMS called it: Worst Disaster Since 9/11
That beautiful fluffy stuff turned the northeast coastline of America into a giant snowball, dropping 31" in Boston, 21" in Brooklyn, that grounded everyone for two days in howling winds and giant snow drifts locking people in cars, trains, and their homes.
Maybe like the "darkness" of Mitzrayim that held people frozen?
These are happenings that affected other places and countries.
Now we are experiencing amazing events in tiny Eretz Yisrael. The messages are getting louder and closer to us.
Carmel Forest on Fire: A monster wild fire that consumed everything in its path, if not protected by the Shabbos observance of the area's Jews.
Haifa is the only Israeli city that allows full traffic flowing on the Shabbat. Much of the land scorched by the wrathful fire had not tasted Shabbos observance. In one place the fire consumed a library, except for a Sefer Tanach, and in another place the crackling flames headed straight for a community, but was repelled by their Eruv! Just like Hashem's decree on the oceans to STOP at the shoreline sands. A stirring video made about the Carmel Fire.
What do you call 'nature' that displays it's mighty strength to all peoples of the world?
What do you call 'nature' that displays it's mighty strength to all peoples of the world?
I call it the Hand of Hashem!
Rabbi Y.Y. Jacobson and G-d's Arrows:
26 December 2010
Who's Discriminating Now?
Are Esveld and Abbas reading from the same script?
Mr Esveld, a professional watcher of human rights abuses, who criticizes Israel as being discriminatory in it's dissemination of water to the palestinians, is discriminatory himself because he and his HRW (Human Rights Watch) voiced no objection to Abbas's comment that Israelis and Jews are verboten in any future palestinian state, should that ever come to be, Heaven forbid.
Is that not discriminating, Mr Esveld?
Au contraire, Israel gives them food, water, electricity, farms, medical care, and years of patience for them to show the world that they are self-sustaining and productive, but instead they spend the millions of dollars of aid on sending missiles, rockets, human bombs, and other incendiary devices into Israel against it's citizens.
This is their continuation of Nazi-like tactics against Israel. The Farhud and no one objects to their warped association with death.
Well, I object to Mr. Esveld's myopic viewpoints
Mr Esveld, a professional watcher of human rights abuses, who criticizes Israel as being discriminatory in it's dissemination of water to the palestinians, is discriminatory himself because he and his HRW (Human Rights Watch) voiced no objection to Abbas's comment that Israelis and Jews are verboten in any future palestinian state, should that ever come to be, Heaven forbid.
Is that not discriminating, Mr Esveld?
Au contraire, Israel gives them food, water, electricity, farms, medical care, and years of patience for them to show the world that they are self-sustaining and productive, but instead they spend the millions of dollars of aid on sending missiles, rockets, human bombs, and other incendiary devices into Israel against it's citizens.
This is their continuation of Nazi-like tactics against Israel. The Farhud and no one objects to their warped association with death.
Well, I object to Mr. Esveld's myopic viewpoints
07 December 2010
Dispelling Darkness
HOW DO I DISPEL MY INNER DARKNESS? The analytical and behavioral approaches. Exploring the opinions of the Schools of Shammai and Hillel on the Number of Chanukah Candles from a Legal and Spiritual Dimension.
06 December 2010
In the Outskirts of Haifa
THE CARMEL FIRE: some observations
On the very first Candle of Chanukah 5711, the festival of light, celebrating the Hashmonaim triumph over the Syrian Greeks in 139 BCE, the triumph of light over darkness, purity over adulteration, of spirituality over materiality, we read about Greece sending tiny Eretz Yisrael aid to fight the Carmel Fire.
More than 21 centuries later, after the first Chanukah, the Greek Government sends a plane, the first of five which are expected from the country, to bring much needed fire retardant supplies and additional firefighting forces, to join Israeli fire crews battling the uncontrolled Carmel forest fire.
THE FIRST OF 23 INTERNATIONAL AIRCRAFT
According to Army Radio, in addition to the four Greek aircraft, four more aircraft are expected to arrive from France, three from Britain, two from Spain, two from Russia, two from Turkey, two from Cypress, two from Bulgaria, one from Croatia and one from Azerbaijan.
UPDATE on America in Downspiral
**In response to a job-killing tax hike on small businesses - and this is the backbone of the American family and economy:
“The last thing our economy needs right now is a massive tax hike on families and small businesses -- and that’s what the House Democratic leaders’ plan would mean. We will oppose their job-killing tax hike and do everything we can to stop it. Republicans made a pledge to America to permanently stop all of the tax hikes scheduled for January 1st, and that’s what we’re going to fight for. Extending all of the current tax rates, and making them permanent, will reduce the uncertainty in our economy and help small businesses create jobs again." John Boehner, GOP Leader
**No end in sight to U.S. economic crisis as 'scariest jobs chart ever' shows post-recession unemployment is at its worst since World War Two Drudge
REMEMBER THE SNOWSTORM THAT SWEPT ACROSS THE US AND PARALYZED WASHINGTON DC last winter?
**Here comes another one, so says Accuweather.
___________
On the very first Candle of Chanukah 5711, the festival of light, celebrating the Hashmonaim triumph over the Syrian Greeks in 139 BCE, the triumph of light over darkness, purity over adulteration, of spirituality over materiality, we read about Greece sending tiny Eretz Yisrael aid to fight the Carmel Fire.
More than 21 centuries later, after the first Chanukah, the Greek Government sends a plane, the first of five which are expected from the country, to bring much needed fire retardant supplies and additional firefighting forces, to join Israeli fire crews battling the uncontrolled Carmel forest fire.
THE FIRST OF 23 INTERNATIONAL AIRCRAFT
According to Army Radio, in addition to the four Greek aircraft, four more aircraft are expected to arrive from France, three from Britain, two from Spain, two from Russia, two from Turkey, two from Cypress, two from Bulgaria, one from Croatia and one from Azerbaijan.
AND THE RAIN CAME ON THE FIFTH CANDLE
The world needs a strong Israel. They don't want to admit it. So what happens, a single person releases miles and miles of secret documents onto the Internet for the entire world to witness about each other. Wikileaks is uncovering those nations and countries that are quivering from the terrorist threats running wild over the globe. In another city on the globe, a strong brave man takes on the defense of his country, singlehandedly, and wins in court against the libel of those who would destroy, and goes on to defend his people.
A FIRE IN THE CARMEL
Rabbi Lazer Brody brings an amazing perspective: The following Midrash (Shir Hashirim 2:5, elaborates on the passage, K'shoshana bane ha chuchim): Right before Moshiach comes, Hashem will burn the outskirts of Haifa -
We are witnessing footsteps of the Geula, and we Jews are awaiting the one single man, Moshiach, who will usher in the full Geula that we have been waiting, for these thousands of years.
A FIRE IN THE CARMEL
Rabbi Lazer Brody brings an amazing perspective: The following Midrash (Shir Hashirim 2:5, elaborates on the passage, K'shoshana bane ha chuchim): Right before Moshiach comes, Hashem will burn the outskirts of Haifa -
UPDATE on America in Downspiral
**In response to a job-killing tax hike on small businesses - and this is the backbone of the American family and economy:
“The last thing our economy needs right now is a massive tax hike on families and small businesses -- and that’s what the House Democratic leaders’ plan would mean. We will oppose their job-killing tax hike and do everything we can to stop it. Republicans made a pledge to America to permanently stop all of the tax hikes scheduled for January 1st, and that’s what we’re going to fight for. Extending all of the current tax rates, and making them permanent, will reduce the uncertainty in our economy and help small businesses create jobs again." John Boehner, GOP Leader
REMEMBER THE SNOWSTORM THAT SWEPT ACROSS THE US AND PARALYZED WASHINGTON DC last winter?
**Here comes another one, so says Accuweather.
___________
and a little help from Chabad
03 December 2010
Regime America in downspiral ... End of an empire?
Aluf Benn (editor-at-large for Haaretz Newspaper) castigates the United States as an empire in decline. Israelmatzav comments ... Benn further says" ... WikiLeaks did not succeed in penetrating the most sensitive channels of U.S.-Israel relations."
It seems most of the damage was done to America; the world's condemnation from it's embarrassment is to find a way to 'blame it on the Jews.' Hopefully it will not happen this time, and the blame will land instead in the lap of those who deserve it.
Despite the freezing temperatures, hundreds fought for a place in line in Marietta to apply for federal aid to help pay their heat and power bills this ... "It was freezing," applicant Linda Benefield told WSB-TV. "I was in line for three hours and 15 minutes, but I needed the help."
It seems most of the damage was done to America; the world's condemnation from it's embarrassment is to find a way to 'blame it on the Jews.' Hopefully it will not happen this time, and the blame will land instead in the lap of those who deserve it.
The Headlines in America are incresingly foreboding:
DELAYING TAX VOTE COULD 'CRASH STOCK MARKET' STARTING 12/15
Failure by Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts, especially locking in the 15 percent capital gains tax rate, will spark a stock market sell off starting December 15 as investors move to lock in gains at a lower rate than the 20 percent it would jump to next year, warn analysts. Market Crash.
GEORGIA:
HUNDREDS LINE UP IN THE COLD FOR HELP HEATING HOMES
Assistance Funds Quickly Depleted... 'Almost like being in soup line during great depression'...
01 December 2010
So Much For Palestinian Revisionism ...
FATAH declares:
NO to Israel as Jewish State,
NO to interim borders,
NO to land swaps.
JPost
JPost
To the children of Yishmael, born from Ibrahim and Hagar, and to your brothers born from Ibrahim and Ketura ... that we find a way to live side by side ... this is for the betterment of the children of the world.
The QUR'AN says: the Torah belongs to the Jews.
Qur'an says: "He [Allah] has raised up prophets among you, made you kings, and given you that [the Torah and the Land of Israel] which He has given to no other nation. Enter, my people, the holy land [of Israel] which God has assigned for you. Do not turn back, and thus lose all'". [Qur'an, sura 5:20, "The Table"]
What the Qur'an Really Says by Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi:
THE QUR'AN SAYS THAT ALLAH GAVE THE LAND OF ISRAEL TO THE JEWS AND WILL RESTORE THEM TO IT AT THE END OF DAYS
Prof. Palazzi continues to say:
" Viewing the Jewish return to Israel as a Western invasion and Zionists as recent colonizers is new. It has no basis in authentic Islamic faith. According to the Qur'an, no person, people or religious community can claim a permanent right of possession over any territory. The Earth belongs exclusively to God, and He is free to entrust sovereignty over land to whomever He likes for whatever time period that He chooses."
The TORAH (the Five Books of Moses, given at Mt. Sinai) gives witness to the creation of the world and the peoples of the world.
The TORAH says: The Land of Israel was taken from the Caananites and given to Avraham's descendants: Yitzchak Avinu (born to Avraham and Sarah, and brother to Yishmael) ben Avraham Avinu, and to Yaakov Avinu ben Yitzchak Avinu, as an inheritance to their ancestors, the Yehudim, the Jewish People. The Jewish People today are the children/descendants of Yaakov's twelve children, that were scattered among the nations after (each time) they lost both of their Holy Temples. The Torah explains how one day these children that were scattered will once again return to the Land.
The Sources can be found in:
The first Rashi, "In the beginning Hashem created the heavens and the earth" ...Rashi: Rabbi Yitzchak said "surely the Torah should have begun from the words, 'this month shall be for you (shemos 12:2) the first commandment the Jewish people were given. Why does it begin with, 'in the beginning' ? The reason is he declared to his people the power of his works in order to give them the inheritance of the nations (Psalms 111:6). If the nations of the world will say to the Jewish people, you are robbers, for you seized the land of the seven nations who inhabited caanan, they will reply: the whole earth belongs to g-d. He created it and granted it to whomever was deemed fit in his eyes: it was his will that they should have it; and by his will, he
took it from them and gave it to us ( the Jewish people)."
Parshas Toldos, 26:2-5: "Hashem appeared to him and said, 'do not descend to Egypt, dwell in the land that I shall indicate to you ... Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and your offspring will I give all these lands, and establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father... I will increase your offspring like the stars of the heavens; and will give to your offspring all these lands; And all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your offspring. Because Abraham obeyed my voice and observed my safeguards, my commandments, my decrees, and my Torahs.' "
Parshas Vayeitzei 28:13. "...and behold: Hashem was standing over him, and He said, I am Hashem, G-d of Abraham your father, and G-d of Yitshak; the ground upon which you are lying, to you will I give it and to your descendants."
Vayeitzei 28:15. " ... And I will return you to this soil."
This political chess game is no more than an unrelenting hatred because Yishmael sold his birthright, and it will never be forgiven by the Muslims. Today's young Muslim children are learning all they will need to know in the future, when they will become enlisted soldiers in the war against the Jews:
A Very Interesting Interview
The Tamar Yonah interview with Prof. of Arab Studies at Bar-Ilan University, Dr. Mordechai Kedar on Islamic Aims and Claims on Jerusalem This show focuses on Islam's interest on Jerusalem. Muslims claim Jerusalem as their 3rd holiest city, yet 'Jerusalem' is not mentioned in the Koran even once. For the three part series, visit here. Dr. Mordechai Kedar served for 25 years in IDF Military Intelligence specializing in Arab political discourse, Arab mass media, Islamic groups and the Syrian domestic arena. He is a lecturer in Arabic studies at Bar-Ilan University. He is also an expert on Israeli Arabs.
An interview with Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a lecturer from Bar Ilan University’s Department of Arabic Studies who states unequivocally that Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish people.
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Shalom Pollack: DECEMBER TOURS
Wednesday, December 18 A special "hilltop" visit, plus .. We will begin our day in the Shomron (Benjamin Region) where we will hav...