Tikkun Olam

OK, I could kick myself. I finally completed my answers for the entire Book Meme, lost my internet connection, saved the copy, forgot to paste it onto a Word document and rebooted. Done gone in cyberspace. Oiy. Trying to remember what I wrote (it was brilliant, mind you), so here we go again( disclaimer: this blogger is not responsible for any errors or lack of brilliance. The computer did it.) : The (*Dreaded = the: -what-if-I-hadn't-read-any-books-all-year-or-what-if-I-can't remember-anything-I've-read-which-is-more-likely -fear? ) Book Meme (thank you for the tag, AbbaGav. I think.): 1. Name one book that changed your life: gosh 'n golly - so many books have made an impact on my life, it's really difficult to choose one. So I'll choose two: Or HaRa'ayon by Rav Meir Kahane*, and Lights Along the Way by Rabbi Dr. Avraham Twerski. (*Actually, it was meeting and conversing with Rabbi Meir Kahane three months before he was murdered which changed my life.)...

My youngest daughter has been here for several weeks for her summer vacation from high school in Israel. She is leaving in two days. My middle daughter was here for three short weeks, and is now in another state staying with her older sister, brother-in-law, nieces and nephews for an even longer time (I am so mad and jealous ), and leaving for Israel from there. I am already anticipating the leave-taking and I am feeling this heavy sense of grief, all over again. I am missing my middle daughter so much, and now have to go through this again with my youngest. My younger son was here for Pesach, and my oldest I haven't seen since Dec. 2005, when I was in Israel for my first visit in twenty-four-plus years. Maybe to some people eight months isn't a long time, but it is to me (I'm not really good at this 'empty-nesting' stuff). In addition, my Uncle Y----- (he is 75 עמו"ש but you could swear he is 35 when you hear him talking) is in Moshav N-------, and my Aunt L--...

? אולי צריך היה לסלק את הנקר כל מה שאני צריך לדעת על החיים, למדתי מתיבת נח ... 1. אל תפספס את הספינה. 2. זכור שכולנו באותה הסירה. 3. תכנן קדימה. לא ירד גשם כשנח בנה את התיבה. 4. הישאר בכושר. כשתהיה בן 100 מישהו עשוי לבקש ממך לעשות משהו גדול באמת. 5. אל תקשיב למבקרים. פשוט המשך במה שצריך להעשות. 6. בנה את העתיד שלך על יסודות גבוהים. 7. למען הבטחון, הסתובב בזוגות. 8. מהירות איננה יתרון בכל מצב. החלזונות היו על הסיפון יחד עם הברדלסים. 9. כאשר אתה בלחץ – תצוף מעט. 10.זכור, התיבה נבנתה בידי חובבנים. הטיטאניק – בידי מקצוענים. 11. לא משנה מה עוצמת הסערה, כאשר אתה עם אלוהים תמיד מחכה קשת בענן . I apologize for the screwy formatting (my computer doesn't know its right from its left), and to those of you whose computers - or yourselves - do not read Hebrew. This was also circulating in English, a long time ago; joke in Ivrit sent via email, courtesy of my friend Aliza in Kiryat Moshe. For a translation, please email me.

Yes (sigh), we are dealing with pure evil here. I feel like hitting the world over the head with a baseball bat. They don't see it? They don't care? They wait until it's coming to a theatre near you? Problem is, it already came; they saw the film and didn't get the message. Am I referring to Harry Potter (Voldemorte=Hezbollah)? Not really; it's a metaphor for Israel , the * Islamo-Fascist Evil , and the world's lack of response). (*credit for this term goes to Michael Savage, conservative talk-show host.) Ok, folks - the comedy hour is over for now, although I might post some jokes here again some day. Israel is now into a so-called 'cease-fire' (- translated into Arabic it means 'time to re-arm.') after not really having 'won' anything (despite what our illustrious Mr. Malaprop-er, President said) and suffering terrible losses of outstandingly good and exceptional soldiers and civilians. These soldiers, such as Roi Klein (zichrono livrac...

I'm tired. I am still receiving war-and-cease-fire-related mail from my Arutz Sheva subscriptions et al. My inboxes (yes, unfortunately I have more than one email address) are clogged with important and not-so-important-but-interesting links to various articles, commentaries, snippets and videos on all things about Israel, world opinion, Heathrow-liquid-bomb-plot-thwart and Syria-and-Iran-supporting-Hizbollah-terrorist-related, until my head is spinning. And I actually was (sort of) intending to do another post on these very-close-to-my-heart subjects. And then suddenly, it hit me: My brain needs a break. I want, instead, something light and funny. Didn't know where to look for it - is there anything funny going on in the world today?- and then I found this . And this time, it probably isn't lost in translation (my tongue is out of my cheek; I just hope that my foot isn't in my mouth). (enough with the cliches) -enjoy!

בסייעתא דשמיא בסייעתא דשמיא בסייעתא דשמיא בסייעתא דשמיא בסייעתא דשמיא בסייעתא דשמיא I am wiped by that last post (it was lo-ooooong) , so all I'm going to do is post a wise saying by 'confucius' (-was he jewish?). This is exactly what Israel needs to do; determine who is left: Israel. B'ezrat Hashem, we will prevail.

This is a longer post than usual. It is a compilation of links and articles which a friend sent me and which I edited somewhat and am posting here for your edification. These are important. Please read and click on at least some of them. I promise you, you will not regret it. (Hat Tip to my friend Maddy in London, UK, who did all the compilation work). Firstly, I would like to thank all my readers who come from כל רחבי העולם - the far reaches of the world, including Bourg-la-Reine, Ile-de-France; Ratingen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, Haifa, Israel, Washington, D.C. , Sunnyvale, CA, Villawood New South Wales, Australia and Brooklyn, New York - to name just a few. You are the reason I continue blogging, and I thank you so much for your visits - keep 'em coming (and bring your friends, if you have any) :- ) Now for the subject of this post; below are various links to articles and videos illustrating the side of this war which you rarely see in the media: The Truth of what is happeni...

Until this morning I had never heard of Brigitte Gabriel . It happened while I was washing the dishes (left over from two days ago) which were piled up in the sink. I figured this would take me a while to do, so I decided to distract myself by turning on the Laura Ingraham Show , a conservative radio talk-show ( ok, I confess - I have a serious talk-show addiction). What I heard was an eye-opener: a phone interview with a lady named Brigitte Gabriel, the founder of The American Congress for Truth . This was an interview which the world at large should have heard (hopefully, Ms. Ingraham had a wide listenership this morning). I made a mental note to go to the Laura Ingraham website to get the full scoop. What I found was the story of a Lebanese-born woman, now living in the United States, who has a horrific tale to tell. She relates, from personal experience, the truth about the radical Islamists the world is in denial about. In addition she states in her own words what many Jews, and ...

Folks, this is not directly about Israel (and the war to eradicate the scum enemy threat to its existence), but in a way, it is. Mel Gibson, the actor, and director of the film The Passion , was recently arrested on a drunk driving charge - DUI, to be exact. We knew of his father being shall we say, not the greatest lover of the Jewish people. Well, the apple does not fall far from the tree. However, I have to give Mr. Gibson (the son) some credit, in that he did admit that he made inappropriate disparaging remarks about the Jewish people, and he apparently has asked for forgiveness. Hmm-mm, do you think he is on the road to Tshuvah ? I am almost ready to give him the benefit of the doubt. It sounds as if he is going through a very personal inner conflict now. Let's see where this leads. Meanwhile, why don't you click on the title link and enjoy the article by Michael Ventre - gezuntahait !