Tikkun Olam

I am sitting here crying...Arik Einstein, the legendary Israeli musician , passed away tonight, Tuesday, November 26th, 23 Kislev, at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, from a ruptured aneurysm. I am still in shock. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said this about him, emphasis mine: “Arik was the greatest of them all,” Netanyahu said. “We all grew up on his songs. You said, ‘Arik Einstein,’ and you said, ‘the Land of Israel.’ He was a wonderful singer and a wonderful person.” You said, 'Arik Einstein,' and you said 'the Land of Israel.' There are no words. May his memory be for a blessing... This song was written by Aviv Gefen in memory of a friend who was killed, intended for Arik Einstein to sing. It is now his own goodbye...

I know there's a big fuss about Thanksgiving coinciding with Chanukah this year, and I can understand that. The former is an important American secular (as opposed to Christian, although it was that as well, generically) holiday, and Chanukah, although a "minor" holiday-as opposed to a Holy holiday such as Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Pesach/Passover and Shavuot-designated by our sages thousands of years ago (it ain't new, that's for sure), is quite big in the United States, giving Jews, both affiliated and not something to celebrate while their Christian brethren are making a big commercial deal about Christmas. But what is the reason we celebrate Chanukah? The popular narrative is that the one little cruse of pure, un-contaminated oil was only enough to last for one day, but miraculously, it lasted for eight!  Of course, I loved this legend growing up; it made Chanukah magical to me, and I'm sure to many others.  Here is an interview with Rabbi David...

The ABC convention for retailers of baby products is the big event of the year.  Baby K'tan , my daughter's baby-wearing carrier company was one of the companies featured. I just gave Baby K'tan carriers to two different friends who recently gave birth, and they just love them! My daughter Michal (the one who is speaking) invented the Baby K'tan carrier from necessity (-necessity is really the "mother" of invention!) and started the company from, literally, nothing.  The young lady demonstrating the Baby K'tan is her younger sister, Avital, better known to all as Tali.  Look for them at approximately 1:09 in the video. Great product, and great kids!

...CRPS, or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, formerly known as RSD-Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy.  Amazingly, there was a brief, unscientific report about this condition on the news in New York.  I say "amazingly," because it is not well-known and so far there is no cure, let alone an understanding of this mysterious disease.  Neuroscientists need to continue to research the causes to find a cure. 

 ...Otherwise, I would devolve (in the obsolete sense of the word) into internal rage or curl up and die, neither of which are good options in my book.  So instead I am focusing on the positive, the exciting, the humanitarian and useful to benefit mankind: the future.  Get ready for the good stuff: Israel has been in the global forefront of innovative technology and useful medical inventions, as I wrote about here and here , among other posts. In a recent previous post I linked to this site , which lists Israel's top 45 inventions. So I'm going to mention here a few relatively new terrific ideas, invented by Jews in Israel, which will go a long way in improving life for man on Earth.  Here we go: Have you heard about the 'next gen' method of stitching up surgery patients? It's here, invented by (drumroll, please) Jews-you've heard of 'em-in Israel.  It's called Biowelding , invented by a former Hovesh (medic) in the Israeli army. Biowelding, utiliz...

Thanks to a friend on Facebook who posted this.  Knew nothing about it (hat tip, Rebekah M.S.). This looks as if it could come from somewhere in the United States, perhaps New York City or L.A.  Instead, this innovative idea of giving a free subway ticket to those who do 30 squats--comes from Russia, of all places. Get up and exercise!  О! Это хорошо!* * Russian phrase meaning, approximately, "Oh, that's good!" Pronounced: O! Eta harashO!

 Too many terrible, terrible happenings, some new, some old. Not in any particular order, a huge prisoner release by Israel of Palestinians (read: Arabs who calls themselves Palestinians in order to gain world sympathy, when they were just plain "Arabs" before they lost the 6-day war in 1967), also here --who murdered men, women and children in cold blood , in order to further "peace talks;"  Also here .  A 19 year old youngster asleep on a bus is stabbed to death by a 16 year old Arab from Jenin illegally in Israel. The left-leaning, liberal Judiciary in Israel ruling against Palestinian Media Watch founder's testimony, effectively acting as appeasing the Arabs. Women on some buses harassed and sometimes attacked physically because they are sitting in the front of the bus instead of the back .  Jewish " modesty police " forcing people to comply with their interpretation of halachic rulings. Child molester "Rabbis" who also masquerade as...

There is a concept in Judaism called "hakarat hatov," which means recognizing the good that someone or some group has done you.  The JDC, Joint Distribution Committee which is one of the greatest humanitarian organizations globally, aiding Jews as well as non-Jews in need all over the world, is fulfilling this important Jewish ethical concept after the devastating typhoon which decimated the Philippines, by sending emergency relief supplies : food, materials for shelter, medical supplies as well as provisions to ensure clean water and sanitation supplies to where they are needed most in the Islands. So how is this disaster aid "hakarat hatov," recognizing the good someone has done? Because there is a historical connection between the Jewish people and the Philippines and Filipinos: around 70 years ago, Philippine president Manuel Quezon together with the Jewish Frieder family which owned cigar factories in Manila, saved one thousand Jewish refugees from Nazi Eur...

I just last month posted about the problems connected with the Jewish way of divorce, where the man has to grant the woman a religious divorce by giving her a divorce document called a " get ."  I argued that despite all efforts, legal and illegal, non-violent (requesting politely, cajoling, pleading) and violent (kidnapping, beating and sometimes torturing), there are still men who refuse to grant their wives, their civilly divorced ex-wives-the halachic (Jewish law) document that they need in order to get on with their lives, begin dating, and eventually (hopefully) remarry. Hat tip to Tzipi , my daughter, for sharing this. It's happened again, and thank goodness that after three years the Orthodox woman whose recalcitrant ex-husband refused to give a get , went public. I reprint this introduction from the New York Post : Four-and-a-half years ago, Gital Dodelson, now 25, of Lakewood, NJ, married Avrohom Meir Weiss, part of a respected rabbinic family on Staten I...

...Or should it be the other way around, as in 'Skyping with Real Friends, Virtually...?  My new Ladies' Group in Israel which I had met on Facebook had another F2F, or 'face to face,' where they get together-rather infrequently, unfortunately-because they have busy lives and live in various cities, towns and "settlements" (I hate the fact that that word has a negative connotation to much of the world) all around the country, and traveling in Israel is not as easy as in the States where almost everyone owns or leases a car.  As a matter of fact, their previous F2F--I'd like to say, "our previous," because I was fortunate enough to Skype with them then, as well--was as long ago as April.  I posted about it then, too, here .  This time I was able to see the beautiful jewelry they were beading, necklaces, bracelets and earrings of all shapes and colors.  I wish I could post photos, but it was just after 6:00 a.m. my time and I was barely awake, le...