Tikkun Olam

I was struck dumb when I saw this video. But that's okay, because It speaks for itself.

Remember a couple or three posts ago I showed you how easy it is to put on the Baby K'tan compared to a wrap-type baby carrier?  Well, here's one of the newest positions, called "the Kangaroo" position, which can be used with cute little newborns (whom I still swoon over!).  This position is so easy, even guys can do it (forgive me, dudes)! So all you men--fathers and fathers-to-be, go out right now and GET one, 'cause it is the BEST! (I just wish I had one when my eldest daughter--who invented it--was a newborn.  But time can't go backwards, can it?)

Is it possible? Is it a miracle? At long last, tiny, seemingly resource-poor Israel has found abundant natural gas and oil resources offshore in the Mediterranean! In 2009, American company Noble Energy based in Houston, Texas, found (in their drilling for the Israeli Delek fuel company) vast reserves of natural gas and then oil, in the sea offshore from Haifa. Original estimates of around 87 billion cubic meters were apparently conservative, and were revised to 850 billion cubic meters, enough to supply Israel's domestic gas requirements for up to thirty-five years.  There is the strong possibility that Israel will become--and this is truly miraculous--an exporter of natural gas and maybe even oil. Of course, Lebanon and Hezbollah have already laid claims to some of these discoveries, saying that it is in their territory, and that they will "not allow" Israel to take possession of these oil and gas fields.  Well, let's take a look now, shall we? Funny, ...

. . . has been here at Ki Yachol Nuchal and live since August 22nd!! Read it fast: the next one's coming out tomorrow, er--today (yikes!)

My sister-in-law's sister-in-law ( you know the one) in sunny________sent me this.  In case you were thinking of doing the same thing as "Bernie," I suggest. . .just join the JCC!

Yes, folks--I've been away from the PC because I was teaching little tykes (one-and-a-half to three-year olds) in a preschool for a week.  Each day I came home totally exhausted and too pooped to peep--I mean blog.  So just to ease back into it (I might be teaching some days next week too), I found something to post which is sort of related to my job this past week with babies and toddlers: the best baby carrier on the market, BABY K'TAN ! Just see how easy-squeezy it is to put on, pop your baby in, and start your day!  The best way to get one is to go to the Baby K'tan web site and look up the stores which carry it in your state.  Call those stores and ask for it by name! Show there's a demand for the most innovative, mother-invented, dual-shoulder baby sling carrier around!  It carries kids from birth to 42 lbs., by the way, and has over 9 positions to accommodate infants and toddlers. Get a load of this: (By the way, that's my middle daughter Toodles...

Unity Coalition for Israel reprinted a scathing article by George F. Wills published on WashingtonPost.com, denouncing president Obama's patronizing statement that "Israel should take risks for peace."  That's all Israel has been doing for decades, since its inception--taking risks for peace. In the intifada that began in 2000, Palestinian terrorism killed more than 1,000 Israelis. As a portion of U.S. population, that would be 42,000, approaching the toll of America's eight years in Vietnam. During the onslaught, which began 10 Septembers ago, Israeli parents sending two children to a school would put them on separate buses to decrease the chance that neither would return for dinner. Surely most Americans can imagine, even if their tone-deaf leaders cannot, how grating it is when those leaders lecture Israel on the need to take “risks for peace.” Somehow or other world leaders and spokesmen keep spouting ridiculous statements about Israel vis a vi...

Thanks to Israel Matzav for posting this.  It's exactly how I feel about this proposed mosque: it's rubbing salt in the wound.

What we have known all along about Israel's actions being self-defense in the incident of the Gaza "Peace" Flotilla has now been confirmed, by a surprisingly very balanced report by the BBC's  documentary show, Panorama, as written on Honest Reporting UK .  This BBC report indicates, from videos, radio transmissions and interviews of members of the Turkish IHH (-who openly stated that they wished to be martyrs and that the Israelis should "go back to Auschwitz"), of other passengers on board, and of soldiers in the elite Israeli Naval Commando 13 who boarded the ship--what really happened on the Mavi Marmara on 31 May, 2010.

I found this wonderful picture of a tall, cool glass of Limonana , several posts ago.  And it got me thirsty for that wonderful Israeli drink: lemonade with nana, or mint leaves.  There ain't nothin' like it for thirst-quenching during hot, dry (or humid) summer days, whether in Israel or elsewhere. So here's a recipe for you.  It makes approximately a 2-quart pitcher.  Enjoy! Limonana: 1 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best, but bottled works) 1 cup sugar About ¼ cup fresh mint leaves (to taste) + some extra sprigs (optional) 1 or 2 fresh lemons, skins well scrubbed (optional) and then sliced. Grape juice, cherry juice or Grenadine (optional) Chop up the ¼ cup of mint leaves and put in small pan with the sugar and 1 cup of the water. Bring to boil. (Alternately, pour one cup of boiling water over the mint leaves, let steep a minute or two, then add the cup of sugar). Put the mint/sugar mix and the cup of lemon juice in a 2 quart pitcher and add water t...

Our president has attempted, in his pro-Ground Zero mosque statement, to maintain that his stance is such because it's a civil rights issue. Civil rights for Muslims, that is. I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now.  He is absolutely biased towards Muslims, whom he says should be afforded all rights to build wherever they want--but what about the Jews, whom he prohibits from building in East Jerusalem, in "the heartland of Jewish history?" That, according to the president, is verboten .  And the fact that Abbas does not want Jews living in a Palestinian state, if it is created? That's ok by Mr. Obama, the great proponent of civil rights for all , right?  Just not for Jews. Caroline Glick elucidates it best.  Here is her entire article, reprinted here from the Jewish World Review .  And I wonder, after reading it, whether supporting Muslims who call the United States an "accessory" to 9/11 (see previous post ), thus being America...

President Barack Hussein Obama issued a strongly worded statement this past Friday night supporting the proposed new mosque near Ground Zero. So now, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar has backed the building of the Muslim Center and mosque.  Because, he says, Muslims have the right to worship wherever they want and build their houses of worship wherever they want, just like "Christians build their churches and Israelis build their holy places." Yes, Hamas, that Islamic organization controlling Gaza, still firing Kassam rockets into southern Israel and which was classified by the United States as a terrorist group, remember them?  Al-Zahar went on to say this (emphasis mine).  Pay attention.   "[Hamas] is representing the vast majority of the Arabic and Islamic world, especially the Islamic side” and that American Muslims, like all others, are united in a common cause. " Let us review: Hamas, according to its senior leader al-Zahar, is endorsing the building of th...

It's nice to see Soccer Dad (who is the culprit who started it all) back as host of his brainchild, Haveil Havalim, the Jewish Blog Carnival. We are up to #280, and it is up and running at Soccer Dad's own blog, so go have a good read, while drinking your limonana .  Yum. *Limonana: Israeli lemonade with mint (nana) leaves

Allowing a mosque led by a seemingly anti-American Imam who does not condemn terrorism and blames the United States as contributing to 9/11, without knowing from where and how this proposed 13-story building is being funded, is a ridiculously bad idea. And now our great president is approving of its building, citing our need for religious tolerance. As David Pryce-Jones so aptly states in his excellent article Apologist in Chief (emphasis mine): This [allowing Muslims religious freedom] is obviously true, but a mosque in this site of mass murder committed by Muslims is not about freedom of worship, it is a statement of supremacy and conquest. Bet the Islamists are laughing at our naivete all the way to the bank...and the next suicide bomb in New York City (or coming to a town near you). Let's DO something about it: Sign the Petition , to disallow its building!

Am I seeing things? Is it a miracle? Are Mashiach times upon us??  Did the Israeli courts really recognize that a Jew has to profess loyalty to Judaism and live like a Jew, in order to be considered for the Law of Return? As read on Jewish Israel , the Israeli High Court has ruled, according to traditional Judaism, that a Jewish convert to Christianity has to prove that she is committed to the Jewish people before she is allowed to come into Israel. The secular court of Israel apparently outshined the London and Tel Aviv rabbinical courts, which maintained that the woman in question had the status of a Jew (although she had abandoned Judaism). According to the JPost editorial report , the justices noted that “… communities throughout the ages regularly ostracized these people, … suggesting that in modern Israel the refusal to reinstate citizenship was a legitimate response…” to those who have abandoned their Jewish identity. The justices also cited a decision by former ...

(Just a quick notice that HH #279 has been up all week, here .) In my previous post I presented a short synopsis of some events in the news, and I wanted to end the week with a bit more spiritual depth upon which to reflect, today, on the approach of Shabbat. Here is a video, the fifth in a series on the Israeli settlers (who are considered by some to be right-wing extremists and Arab-haters) called The Other Side (hat tip Daled Amos ), which tells their story, of why they settled in Judea and Samaria (the so-called "West Bank") and about what they go through in order to live there.  It also shows the resilience of these citizens of Israel, their unshaken faith, and their desire to create good from evil--in this case, helping the traumatized Jewish children of terrorist attacks. Shabbat Shalom (h/t Rafi for the video).

I haven't blogged since August 6th.  Good thing I didn't sign up for "Nablopomo" (National Blog Posting Month) for August.  I would have been run out of town for noncompliance.  My time has been taken up with resume (curriculum vitae to some) editing and interviews.  I am actively seeking work, and between that, and guests who stayed over last Shabbat involving much preparation, I was a victim of "so many____(fill in the blank with everything I did last week and this), so little time." It's interesting to note that even though daily blogging became slightly stressful at times (when will I write? What will I write?!), it kept me in practice, and honed my skills, if you can call this a 'skill.'  Now that I have not blogged in exactly one week, I feel somewhat rusty. It's not as if there is no news to blog about. I think there is plenty--there almost always is.  Some examples?  How about Russia loading fuel into Iran's nuclear reactor ...

Did you know that the Hoopoe was chosen to be the Israeli National Bird, in 2008?  The Hoopoe, or Duchifat in Hebrew, is mentioned in VaYikra (Leviticus) as a bird which Jews are not permitted to eat, along with eagles and vultures. Notwithstanding that utterly stupid Colbert video (gee, thanks, Dov Bear ) which disses Israel's choice of bird, what he doesn't know (Colbert, that is) is that the special thing about the Duchifat is that it is the bird which can catch that special worm, the shamir , which it is written, cuts the stones to build the Beit HaMikdash--the Holy Temple.  As the legend goes, The duchifat is called nagar tura, carpenter of the mountain, by Targum Onkelos because of its characteristics, as our Rabbis explained in Tractate Gittin (68b): The Gemara there discusses King Solomon's dilemma. He wished to build the Holy Temple but was restricted from using cutting tools to cut the large stones from the quarries into smaller building blocks. The G...

Want to buy a new 2010 model Chevy in Gaza? You'll have to pay $45,000 , twice what they cost in Egypt.  Cars were on the banned list because of the Egyptian/Israeli blockade of goods, until now: Israel is now allowing cars in.  But wouldn't you know it? Hamas and Fatah can't agree on who's in charge of the car import business.  So meanwhile, while they're squabbling, the cars are being smuggled in through those secret tunnels. What I find significant, is something you might miss, if you're not paying attention: listen carefully, especially at around .30-45.  That Sky News reporter could have had himself a free Chevy, if he had gotten the dealer out of Gaza . Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. . . in Hamastan (bet he'd like to move to Israel, though).

There is a new internet community in town, of Jewish and Israel bloggers! The Kehila* was founded by Eric, of The Israel Situation blog . In Eric's own words,  The idea is that we each agree to help each other out and promote each other’s blogs . . . the challenge is open to anyone with an active Jewish/Israel themed blog.  It can be personal or professional.  There are no big rules.  I don’t plan to kick anyone out.  It is not my community, after all, it belongs to each person who joins. Let's all help each other, and grow stronger by doing so.  We all can, by working together, not only increase traffic to each of our blogs and generate greater reader interest and comments in the process, but also create a synergy that would not be possible separately.  Remember, " The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts !" I personally think that this is a great idea, and I am proud to be a member. If you fit the parameters, you should be, too! *Ke...

This week's Jewish Blog Carnival #278 (yay! it's got a number again--I'll take their word for it) is up and running at The Israel Situation , so go get your cup o' jo, kick back in that easy chair, and have a good read.  Ya gotta have a laptop, though; it's a little bulky maneuvering that PC monitor and keyboard onto your lap.  Or alternatively, you could. . . *Copyright alert: No infringement of any text or graphic copyright is ever intended on this blog. If you own the copyright to any original image or document used for the creation of the graphics or information on this site, please contact the blog administrator with all pertinent info so that proper credit can be given. If you wish to have it removed from the site, just say the word; it shall be, ASAP.

A Flash Opera at the food court of the Dizengoff Center in Tel-Aviv (hat tip Rafi ).  I just love the comment that someone made about this : "FRIGGEN KICKASS AWESOME! I LOVE MY COUNTRY!" . . . couldn't have said it better myself.