Tikkun Olam

Latma TV is producing more sophisticated and satirical videos these days.  Ridiculing everything from Europe's' not facing the truth about their increasing terrorism by radical Muslims to the president of Israel, Shimon Peres, Latma has outdone itself. Hat tip to Batya at Shiloh Musings for posting it.

There is a serious problem unfolding within religious Judaism, which seem very apparent to non-observant Jews, but which many observant Jews are afraid to address. It boils down to the rapid movement towards a Sharia-like fundamentalism prevalent in the Ultra-Orthodox and even in some more modern Orthodox Jewish communities. Non - observant Jews cry out against what is happening, because they see these fringe and not-so-fringe groups of Ultra-Orthodox as representing all Jews, or maybe it's more correct to say all observant Jews.  And they use these terrible behaviors--and I do believe they are terrible--to reinforce their secular way of life, and to reinforce their rejection of the Jewish religion as "fanatic." Here are two articles addressing these issues, both published in the Forward, the authors of which express views 180 degrees opposed to each other.  There are elements of truth in both, but I personally believe that the problematic issues are not being addre...

Got off the phone with my daughter in Israel just three hours ago.  Problem with that is, that it was 2:45 a.m. for her when she called me.  She had just arrived home from a rock concert in Petach Tikva in honor of Yom haStudent (Student Day).  She was on a 'high' from having gone out with friends, and getting a ride all the way home--so that she didn't have to call a cab or worse, wheel herself home the rest of the way in the dark. Here are some of the bands which played there.  Infected Mushroom , a psychedelic band, was the featured one.  I had never heard of them before speaking with my daughter a day or two ago.  What do I know? Here are two songs of one of the opening bands, Mashina .  Below, Infected Mushroom (...why am I not hungry anymore?).  Personally, Mashina is more my style...

So tonight my D.H. and I went to a movie--first time in a long time--and had Menchies' frozen yogurt at a little outdoor table near the theatre, watching a central fountain spew forth graceful arcs of water, on a beautiful, mild spring day.                                                          I actually 'asked him out.' A little unusual? Not really.  We're married 43+ years and I can do whatever I want, heheh.  As a matter of fact, he had asked me several times over the past few weeks if I wanted to go to a movie, and each time I answered in the negative: feet hurt, knees hurt, too tired, etc.  I'm kind of a homebody; when I get home from work, I just want to vegge out . But today, my D...

 We returned home after 9 pm tonight from our day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, specifically to drive Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous road in the U.S.  It's one of our favorite places, partially because it spans several biomes , including the Alpine Tundra , and because it feels so expansive and majestic, and puts us humans in perspective.  It attests to the wonders of creation... We drove up above 12,000 ft. where the temperature dropped to the 40s; there were huge 8-foot snow "canyons" on either side of the road, which had just been cleared on Friday for the season opening (the road above a certain altitude is closed from Labor Day to Memorial Day, generally, but some years the weather did not allow the road to be cleared until June). On the western, Pacific side of the Continental Divide, we found a picnic area near a trail head, walked a little bit, and then sat down to a fleishig picnic of roast chicken wings, legs and thighs, quinoa salad, veg...

Taking a day trip on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend to our favorite place: Estes Park, and Rocky Mountain National Park, planning on driving up Trail Ridge Road which just opened for the season on Friday (yesterday).  It is the highest continuous paved road in the United States, and it climbs to over 12,000 ft. We sort of have a tradition in the 29 years we've lived here, although we don't do it every year: going up Trail Ridge right after it opens, to get the thrill of driving up a road with 5 ft. high snowbanks on either side.  You sense the power of winter in this area, which, at above altitude of 11,000 ft.  is actually Tundra .  I can't imagine what it takes to clear the road.  Those long poles you see are markers to indicate where the road actually is .                                  ...

No matter what we encounter in our lives, events and happenings not of our choosing, we still have a choice: how to react to them.  Victor Frankel, in his book Man's Search for Meaning, expresses this very concept: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” What do happy people do that ordinary, grumpy people don't?  Take a look at this and see... 22 Things Happy People Do Differently This article is from Chiara Fucarino. Enjoy! Disclaimer: This article is not intended to address those with clinical depression or other mental illnesses. Photo by Rosie Hardy There are two types of people in the world: those who choose to be happy, and those who choose to be unhappy. Contrary to popular belief, happiness doesn’t come from fame, fortune, other people, or material possessions. Rather, it comes from within. The richest...

 I never hear anyone questioning the legality of Italy.  Or Great Britain. Or Syria or Jordan.  Why no question about, say, "a Legal Case for the United States?" It's only Israel, to which double standards are applied. Here is a video (hat tip Daled Amos ) of a lecture by Professor Eugene Kontorovich given at the National Jewish Retreat in 2012, as shown on Torah Cafe .

I saw this on my Facebook News Feed and had to post it here.  It's an extremely creative animated short film, so innovative it was nominated for an Oscar--the shortest film ever to be so nominated.  If you haven't seen this before, you probably won't expect what you see, and you're in for a treat.  By PES.  Um, not so hungry anymore...

We have just come down from the spiritual "up" of the holiday of Shavuot, which celebrates, in addition to the offering of the first fruits (originally it was also an agricultural holiday) to the Holy Temple, the receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.  That is definitely a spiritual high , if there ever was one.  This is the culmination of the Jewish peoples' exodus from slavery in Egypt, a physical-freeing, building up over a period of seven weeks during which time we count the Omer (a measure of barley which in ancient times was brought to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem) to the spiritual-freeing of the Jewish people becoming G-d's chosen nation and receiving our "blueprint for life," the Holy Torah.  This year was just a little different, because I was sick during the holiday and we had no guests--nada--none, for the first time in a long time (we've always had, at least, guests for one of the four meals during the 2-day chag).  I was approaching non-f...

Do you remember the lone high school student "Daniel," who went into a pro-Palestinian demonstration carrying a huge Israeli flag after the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010?  I wrote about him and posted the video in 2010, here , and here . He is bravely continuing  his activism again: by videotaping a message, in Farsi, to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in support of Israel and the Jewish people.  Daniel is from Persian (Iranian) descent, and his message in the language of the Iranian people is very powerful.  (Thank you to A Soldier's Mother for alerting us to this). First, in case you haven't seen it, here is the video of the interview of Daniel's infiltration into that anti-Israel demonstration, and the pro-Israel rally which was held six days later. Below is his message to the Iranian people.  From what I know, the Iranian people do not have a hatred of Israel: just their government and religious leaders do, and have threatened to anni...

Black has been the color of choice for ultra religious Jews for years, one might say centuries-from the founding of chassidism in Eastern Europe, from where those kapotas originated. That might be changing, however: some Chabad rabbis are testing out new threads , and daring to wear, like their Rebbe before them when he was a young man, something different. In this case, a different color!                                            NEW YORK (JTA) — Yosel Tiefenbrun looked in the mirror and he liked what he saw. The 23-year-old Chabad rabbi and apprentice at Maurice Sedwell, a bespoke tailor’s shop on London’s Savile Row, was wearing a vintage double-breasted jacket with gold buttons, tasseled Barker shoes, a claret bow tie and matching handmade hat and square handker...

How many times have I written on this blog posts related to the so-called Two-State Solution subject,  "peace" talks, and about the lies the Arabs--so-called "Palestinians"--are telling the world, and what they really want?  'Let me count the ways.'  Try here , here and especially here , for starters. Well (yes, I am beginning a sentence with "well." What are you going to do about it?), a young Israeli journalist named Lital Shemesh has recently discovered what I--and everyone else who knew the truth--have been saying all along: The "Palestinians" don't want peace.  They want Israel-- all of Israel--to disappear.  Ms. Shemesh (which means "sun" in Hebrew) was an advocate for peace, and to achieve this, for coming to the table with the Arabs and discovering who they are, their aspirations and desires, and through talks arriving at a compromise which would benefit everyone. A noble cause, for certain.  In her video blo...

I researched the history and origins of the popular Hallmark holiday Mother's Day , and found some interesting information about it.  It was started by a West Virginia women's community organizer named Ann Reeves Jarvis in order to improve sanitary conditions and lower infant mortality rates.  After her death, her daughter Anna began celebrating a special day to honor mothers--her mother, specifically--and thank them for all they had done for their children.  It mushroomed out of proportion to her original intentions and was officially declared a national holiday by president Woodrow Wilson in 1914, to be celebrated the 2nd Sunday in May. Although it's commercialized, I'm for any excuse to get together with family.  The best I could do way over here in Colorado, so far away from my kids and the rest of the family (my sister, my sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, etc. who are all out of state), is speak to all my kids, and 3 of my grandkids.  My kids sent me last ...

What a great idea.  Leave it to Imrov Everywhere to dream this up. Now, can they help me text and drive...? (p.s., this post counts for Saturday's NaBloPoMo, because on Shabbat I don't use the PC.)

It should be the other way around, right? The mother is active, involved and encourages her daughter to DO stuff--to be outgoing, committed to a cause or a passion, to help others.  With me and my daughter--the one with RSD/CRPS who's in a wheelchair for a year and a half, it's the other way around. My daughter influences me .  You see, I'm lazy by nature.  My favorite activity is doing nothing .  What I mean by that is, my favorite activities are more sedentary; like reading, or singing, or playing Words with Friends and Scrabble, or watching a movie.  For example, I love a well-kept and cultivated garden.  I love the colors of the flowers, the order they are in, the straight edges of the flower beds (or curved-they just have to be clean-cut, and neat), the rich grass around them, deep green, evenly mowed and beautiful.  I love plants: the various varieties in their little pots, or in the ground, well taken care of, watered regularly, and fed, like...

As if Carnival Cruise Lines needed another problem after the fire on the Truimph resulting in no power, raw sewage in overflowing toilets and leaking drain pipes, and the disaster with the Costa Concordia , now it's losing passengers. A New South Wales couple was discovered missing when the Carnival Spirit docked at Sydney at the end of a 10-day trip.  Why would anyone book a trip on this jinxed cruise line?

  As my blog description states, my blog is sometimes "stream-of-consciousness," and topically is all over the place. Tonight, I want to share with you another of Pat Condell's inimitable vidoes.  He has the courage to state what many of us are thinking, but are afraid to say.   And if this labels me as an " Islamophobe ," so be it.

As we approach the second Pilgrimage Holiday of Shavu'ot ( Pentecost , in English), which comes seven weeks after Pesach (Passover), the first Pilgrimage Holiday, we look to commemorating the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, approximately 3,344 years ago, around 1313 B.C.E. In the weeks between Pesach and Shavuot, we Count the Omer , lifting ourselves spiritually higher and higher until we reach the peak: receiving the Torah. Here is a beautiful d'var Torah (a "word of Torah") by Rabbi Avraham Arieh and Rebbetzin Rachel Trugman of Ohr Chadash , explaining the spiritual aspect of the counting of the Omer approaching Shavuot, the portion of the Torah read on the Shabbat before Shavuot (Bamidbar), and how they have a deep connection to Jerusalem , Judaism's holiest ancient city, and the day which commemorates it: Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim, in Hebrew), which was today, celebrated all over Israel. ...

Too tired to write tonight so I thought I'd post a couple of hysterical videos of Jim Gaffigan opining about whales, and bottled water.  I like whales. With Jim Gaffigan however, we see them in a new light.  I like water, too. This is one of my more intelligent posts. Whatever. Anyone for a dinner of...plankton and water?