Tikkun Olam

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...

Thanksgiving Day is an interesting phenomenon. I just love the traditional Thanksgiving dinner: Roast turkey with stuffing, a sweet potato or winter squash souffle-type side dish (sometimes with yams, sometimes with marshamallow fluff mixed in), cranberry sauce (sometimes cranberry-orange), and then those fantastic desserts which we rarely have during the rest of the year, such as pumpkin pie, and a special tradition in our house thanks to my-husband-the-chef, french chocolate silk pie, and pecan pie as well. Years ago we also used to make apple pie, in addition to the three aforementioned ones. It's no wonder we gained a little spare tire over the years. . . In their great wisdom, the powers that be of the time, the early Pilgrims, set aside a holiday after their first harvest in 1621, which was " ...an autumn celebration of food, feasting, and praising G-d." In 1789, President George Washington issued a " National Thanksgiving Proclamation " assigning the ...

Even though we recycle here in the States, I am not aware that we do it on such a large scale - we still could surely learn something from this one: Israel is officially turning a stinky place-a BIG stinky place - into a public park. It is the Hiriya garbage dump outside of Tel-Aviv, and it is being developed into a huge public park, with different parts of the waste being recycled separately to make some elements of the park, such as plastic and wood - while the methane gases are being harnessed to produce electricity. “At first I thought it should go,” said Martin Weyl, a former director of the Israel Museum, who first came up with the idea of turning the dump into an attraction. “But then I thought garbage is a big part of our lives. We shouldn’t hide it.” One of the advisors on this tremendous project is Laura Starr who was the former design chief for Central Park in New York City (the Hiriya park will be approximately twice its size.). To get to the official Hiriya website, click...

I received an interesting comment from someone who read my short post (unusual for me, eh?) " Israel is Israel " (see post of October 28th). As my reply became longer and longer, I decided her comment bothered me enough to post my answer here-be forewarned: I have lotsa links in this one, so get your clicking-finger ready (Miri, I hope you are reading this.): My post was about Tamar Yonah 's blog on Arutz Sheva (Israel National News-see the whole article again, here ) in which she wrote about what she termed "The Isaiah Plan," Isaiah being our Navi (prophet)from the eighth century, B.C.E. (Before the Common Era), whose time seems to eerily mirror our own , with its corrupt and power-hungry ruling "class" (e.g., certain Prime Ministers, Knesset members and the like) victimizing or at best ignoring the common people, while trying to make pacts with the enemy. I don't believe that Tamar said that we are 'righteous.' What she said was, we sho...

I honestly don't know how people who work for a living can keep up a blog on a regular basis, let alone read others' blogs. I am finding it quite the challenge. I also am not finding the time to research my ideas* (and meanwhile, as a result, my readership has plunged all the way down into the toilet.). After two previous perverse perturbing posts (note the alliteration) it's time for some canned humor-since there isn't much in my life, heheh- I get my humor vicariously from good friends such as Betzalel , who in his inimitable weekly 'parsha papers' and bi (and tri) weekly forwards almost always comes up with something worth printing. Ok, reprinting (I'd give attribution here but I don't know where these are from; so much research, so little time! ) If you weren't sure who you were, you will be, now: THE BATH TUB TEST : It doesn't hurt to take a hard look at yourself from time to time, and This should help get you started. During a visit to the ...