Tikkun Olam

I saw this poem on the Hebrew Speaker's Group on Facebook by Adina Rosen (who said she contributed some verses) and thought it was worth a post. A person commented on Facebook that the author of the rest of it is someone named Yair Lapid, so I am also crediting him here. I translated the poem into English, for those of you who are non-Hebrew speakers, below. Nu? I especially would like to hear from Israelis: what is your take on this? Do you agree with the points this poem makes, or not? זוהי המדינה היחידה שבה... זוהי המדינה היחידה שבה התפוצצו כבר טילים מעיראק קטיושות מלבנון מתאבדים מעזה ופגזים מסוריה ועדיין דירת שלושה חדרים ...עולה יותר מאשר בפריז זוהי המדינה היחידה שבה שואלים כוכבניות פורנו מה אומרת אמא שלך שחקני כדורגל באים למגרש עם אבא כדי שהוא יצעק על המאמן וביום שישי, כשהולכים להורים כל אחד יושב בדיוק באותו כסא. .שבו ישב בגיל חמש זוהי המדינה היחידה שבה אנשים , שבאים אליך בפעם הראשונה "?שואלים אם "אפשר לקחת מהמקרר המדינה היחידה שבה כביש חוצה נגמר לפני החצי ורק פה, ...

I wasn't going to, but I finally just had to post this before Shabbat: f ound this first on Meryl's site, then searched out this Rav-musician-guy on the 'net (click on title link for one of his sites.) Seems he knows the whole truth about why we Jews are so loved by the world. With a catchy beat like this, who wouldn't want to get on the bandwagon, right? So, go on now - cook for Shabbat and shtof the floors while listening to this. Me, I'm gonna go bake challah . (thanks, LV!) Shabbat Shalom. For information on the fake* Protocols of Zion, click here.

(This post is a bit long, but please bear with me...) I had already joined Manhigut Yehudit ("Jewish Leadership") a year or two ago, when just recently I discovered they also had a site on Facebook; so I joined that, too. Why did I do it? It's because I saw no other Israeli politician, nor any other spokesperson for Israel other than Moshe Feiglin , its Founder and President, Shmuel Sackett, its International Director and Yehudit Dassberg, their Eretz Yisrael activist--who were able to cut straight to the point of why and how Israel should exist as a Jewish State , as opposed to merely a "state of the Jews." I read one of his books, Where There Are No Men , and it made a lot of sense to me and spoke to my soul. It reminded me of Rav Meir Kahane's The Jewish Idea. It seems to me that this is a good time--right after we mourn the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash on Tisha b'Av, and right after Israel is again trying to appease the PA, this time by r...

For all you science buffs out there , (thanks to my daughter and to Tom Lehrer) here is an edifying--if totally random--post. Interested in learning more about the periodic table? Click on the title link (next post will be a pop-quiz.) Want some more science? Ok, you've heard the expression, "if you're dealt lemons, make lemonade?" How about a battery instead? Really . *For those of you who noticed, I previously had some difficulty in embedding videos on my blog (see post before this, whose video has since been fixed); I just switched to the YouTube beta version, and it seems to be working fine, so far. . .

I knew my daughter chose the אב"ך combat unit (nuclear, biological & chemical) for her army service. I also knew that it was in the חיל הנדסה (Engineering Division). But until she sent me the link to this video, I didn't realize what it entailed: She must get her "gung ho" attitude from her father, who served in Vietnam. Well, maybe also her brothers, both of whom who served in the IDF (I am so proud! ). May G-d protect her and all the brave men and women who are serving in Tzahal , and bring a Just Peace onto Israel.

Ok, it's been five days now since I've returned from my whirlwind six-week trip to Israel to get my younger son married, and I'm just about over jet lag; the reason I'm tired now , is my own fault--I stayed up very late last night Google-chatting with my older son's girlfriend in Tel-Aviv (now, that's a good reason to be up late.) I promised that my next post--this one--would be responding to Elie's tag to write the Meme of Eight , and I try to keep my word, even about the little things--so here goes--the rules of the game come first: " Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog ." Here are my facts: 1) I have two names, a first and a middle which...

We just returned from Israel today; if you start the count from the time we left for the airport in Tel-Aviv to the time we landed here in the mountain time zone where we live, it was a sojourn of twenty-three hours, including flight-time, waiting on airport lines (JFK was the worst) in order to get our boarding passes, checking overstuffed pieces of luggage, etc. -not to mention squeezing our tushes into those tiny little airplane seats and sitting for 11 hours watching our feet bloat. Suffice it to say, we're back. And except for the driving, I miss Israel already. Might be the fact that I have four (count 'em--4) kids there. One was just married-the reason for our visit back so soon after our last one six months ago-and to my great surprise, two more are in (what they say are) serious relationships . I say, make a double wedding, which would save us a boodle of money (you know, kill two birds with one stone, two for the price of one, etc.) My husband just says send them tic...