Tikkun Olam

Just ended an uplifting get-together with new friends at a pizza restaurant in Shiloh.  The incredibility of this is that is was totally and completely--virtual.  I had never met these women before in person, only on Facebook in a special group, where I introduced myself and chatted almost on a daily basis for several weeks now.  We are like-minded ladies (with some differences of opinion, making it a bit more interesting) who mainly live in Israel, with a couple or so living in the U.S. and Canada. Many of you know my ingrained love for Eretz Yisrael, even though I am not living there now nor have been for over thirty years.  Just speaking with these women, nine hours ahead of me, reading their comments over morning coffee--theirs at my midnight, and mine, at their afternoons--made me feel as if I was there, visiting and shmoozing with them, discussing philosophical questions or points in Judaism, venting about family problems, sharing s'machot (happy occasions) w...

Another phony attempt at so-called "peace-talks" is coming up at Annapolis this week. I say 'phony' because it is Israel who is offering concessions while the Arabs have not stopped the kassam attacks coming from Gaza and are basically not offering anything, just demanding more and more. Arlene Peck says it so well. It just angers me so much, that I am beside myself. I find myself repeating myself to friends, in letters to the editor in newspapers, on my blog, and it falls on deaf ears. I could be sending this to the State Department; and it would still fall on deaf ears. What kind of stupidity is this, Israel 'getting together 'with Arab nations who hate her, some of whom won't even change their charters to acknowledge that she exists or has a right to exist-to conduct talks for 'peace?' When the basic premise hasn't even been met yet? And have you noticed that the world doesn't acknowledge Israel's contributions, to anything? The few...

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...