Israel Jewish News

More Non-Military Actions Against Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:43:00 +0000

B"H

OK, what does the international community not get about Iran's threats against Israel?

This is NOT about oil, money, or anything else. This is about Iran's supreme ruler, Khomeini, who believes he can bring the 12th Imam if he makes a nuclear holocaust in the world.

These are religious fanatics, not politicians or economists!

My "prophecy" about this move from SWIFT, is that it will have no bearing, whatsoever, on the nuclear ambitions of Iran.

They are willing to suffer for their religious beliefs. If anything, the suffering will make the whole thing sweeter in their eyes.

This is one time when the secularist view of history and politics just won't serve to change things. You have to be in tune with what it is to be religious, no matter which religion, to understand others who are religious.

Their motives are not always "logical." They come from a deep-seated belief, and they are unlikely to be changed by economic conditions.

M
-----

Steinitz: SWIFT sanctions could topple Iranian economy
By JPOST.COM STAFF
18/03/2012

Finance minister says sanctions barring Iran from making int'l electronic fund transfers make receiving money for billion dollar oil transactions impossible; Shalom: Sanctions may convince Iran to abandon nukes.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Sunday that SWIFT's decision to halt Iran's ability to use its electronic fund transfer system to make international transfers constitutes a tremendous blow that could potentially lead to the collapse of the Iranian economy.

SWIFT is the world's largest electronic payment system and on Saturday implemented its decision to cut off 30 Iranian banks blacklisted by EU supported economic sanctions.

By SWIFT's own admission, the move is "extraordinary" and "unprecedented." Speaking prior to the weekly cabinet meeting, Steinitz said that cutting Iran off from making international transfers will "make importing and exporting very difficult" for Tehran. Steinitz stated that the move makes receiving money for billion dollar oil transactions impossible.

The finance minister called SWIFT's decision "dramatic," but said he did not know if it would halt Iran's drive for nuclear weapons. Earlier on Sunday, Vice Premier Silvan Shalom said that the cumulative impact of the oil and SWIFT sanctions may soon reach the point of convincing the Iranian regime that it can only survive by abandoning its push for nuclear weapons.

Shalom stated that Israel is satisfied with SWIFT's decision and estimated that within a few weeks, the impact on the Iranian economy would become apparent. Shalom told Army Radio that the decision is likely to prove decisive in the struggle against Iran's [nuclear] arms race.

“Iran is progressing with its nuclear weapons program in order to safeguard the regime's rule. But the moment that the sanctions become this severe, first with oil and now with [money] transfers, perhaps we will get to a point where they will understand that only abandoning the [nuclear weapons] program will allow the regime to survive,” said Shalom.

He added that in today's world, “We already don't do transfers using documents. Everything is done by international [electronic] transfers. What will they do now? Carry around suitcases with gold?”

Meanwhile, Iran responded to the SWIFT sanctions, characterizing them as unnecessary since Iran maintains that it has no desire to build a nuclear bomb.

"I think they know pretty well, I think the United States intelligence services and the West know that we are not after building nuclear weapons," said Mohammad Javad Larijani, Secretary General of Iran's High Council on Human Rights.

On the other hand, the US is cheering the EU's move. Under Secretary of Treasury David Cohen said, "The decision reflects the growing international consensus that substantially increased pressure is needed to convince the Iranian regime to address the international community's concerns about its illicit nuclear activities."

Reuters contributed to this report.

Purim Poem 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:26:00 +0000

A crazy Persian madman,

An ineffective king,

A leader of Jews who understands

We must survive this thing.

Sounds like Esther’s story

Has leaked into our time.

No longer just a scroll we read,

Its meaning quite sublime.

But who plays the part of Esther,

The lady of the hour?

Who can sway the people now?

Who has that kind of power?

We look about our stage,

And cannot find an actor.

We need to find our princess fast,

Before they build a nuclear reactor.

Suddenly our answer comes,

It couldn’t be much clearer.

We will find our Esther inside

Each and every mirror!

Happy Purim!

May the Miracles of the Past be the Miracles of our Present!

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:37:00 +0000

On Purim we read about how the Jews were under threat of annihilation. They understood that this was serious, so they came together, fasted and prayed with all their hearts, and in a matter of only A FEW DAYS, they were SAVED!

But CAN THIS REALLY HAPPEN TODAY?

We all understand that as Jews we are constantly under threat of attack from our enemies...

The story of Purim is just as applicable today as it was then. G-d's hand was hidden but it was there, waiting for us to call for it.

This Wednesday, we will all be fasting on Taanit Esther.

We are ALL coming together just like in the days of Purim and WE DO have the power to uproot the decrees against us.

We must really believe that.

As a nation, we need to fast and pray with a real feeling of urgency, and we need to do so TOGETHER.

This year, do not just fast and pray by yourself. Feel that you are part of an entire nation as you do so. Believe that we have the same power they did then.

Please share this message. ITS IMPORTANT!

With the speed of modern technology, maybe we can reach the whole Jewish nation before the fast, and WE CAN MERIT TO SEE MIRACLES.

It IS possible, and it's up to YOU.

Thank You.

Rabbi Angel on Purim

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:50:00 +0000

A Purim Miracle: Thoughts for Purim

By Rabbi Marc D. Angel

Esther the Jewess marries King Ahashverosh. Her Uncle Mordecai tells her not to reveal that she is Jewish. The Jews throughout the 127 provinces of the Empire know Esther is Jewish. But not one of them gives away the secret. Ahashverosh, Haman and the entire royal court are kept in the dark about the Queen’s true identity.

This, commented Rabbi Haim David Halevy (late Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv), was an amazing phenomenon, a veritable miracle. Not one Jew in the entire empire betrayed the secret. The Jewish people were united, discreet, and disciplined to an extraordinary degree.

Let us imagine how this story would play out if it occurred today.

Jewish reporters would fiercely try to outscoop each other to report about a Jewish Queen.

Wikileaks would put an image of Esther’s birth certificate on the internet, with the indication that she was born Jewish.

The Hareidim would demonstrate worldwide at the travesty of a Jewish woman marrying a non-Jewish king, a wicked one at that.

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel would issue a statement that Esther’s Jewishness was in question, and that she would need a “giyyur le-humra” (a conversion to be on the safe side) if she wanted to be considered Jewish for purposes of aliyah.

The Zionists would point to Esther and say: you see, the Jews of the diaspora are assimilating; they all should make aliyah before they totally disappear.

The zealous Litvaks would say: Esther is merely a Persian Jewess and doesn’t have our fine Ashkenazic pedigree. We wouldn’t want our sons to marry such a woman.

Chabad would send another shaliah to Shushan, to re-enforce the staff already there at the Chabad House. Cholent (Persian style) would be dished out each Shabbat morning along with prayers for the Queen’s prompt release from bondage in the palace.

The Sephardi Federations around the globe would glow with quiet satisfaction that one of their own made the big time.

The peaceniks would say: this whole crisis could have been avoided if Mordecai simply bowed to Haman and would not have been so stubborn. If Jews simply gave everything away, we wouldn’t have to worry about anti-Semitism.

The kabbalists would manufacture a new batch of red strings for bracelets, and sell them at a suitable price to those who wanted to provide mystical salvation to Esther and the Jewish people.

The secularists would blame the fanaticism of the religious community; the religious would blame the secularists for their innumerable sins which surely brought on God’s wrath.

Jewish newspapers would be filled with spicy attacks and accusations, op ed pieces and letters to the editor. Everyone would have an opinion, invariably wrong. All the commotion within the Jewish community would catch the attention of the non-Jewish media.

It would not take too long for Queen Esther’s hidden identity to be revealed. Esther would have then been ejected from the throne; Haman would have had full sway; the Jews would have had no powerful person to intercede on their behalf.

The Purim story would have ended in disaster. The joyous holiday of Purim would never have come to be.

The Jews of the ancient Persian Empire demonstrated remarkable intelligence and restraint. They understood what was at stake and they rose to the occasion with admirable self-control. They surely had differing opinions and ideologies among themselves; but when faced with national crisis, they knew enough to set their differences aside, to refrain from destructive gossip and back biting.

While we modern Jews cannot hope to achieve the unity and self-control of the ancient Persian Jewish community, we can strive to act and speak with discretion, courtesy, and respect for the views of others. We can avoid vitriolic attacks on those with whom we disagree. We can focus on the really big issues which confront the Jewish people, and think how each of us can be constructive members of our community. We can know when to speak and when to remain silent. We can know when action is necessary and helpful, and when action is counter-productive and misguided.

Rabbi Halevy thought it was miraculous that the Jews of ancient Persia acted so wisely and so discreetly. Perhaps it is too much to expect such miraculous behavior from us. But perhaps—with intelligence, compassion, discretion and respectfulness—we can be part of a new Purim miracle for our generation.

The Angel for Shabbat column is presented as a service of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. Please visit our website jewishideas.org for a wide array of articles of special interest to those who wish to foster an intellectually vibrant, compassionate and inclusive Orthodox Judaism.

The Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals
8 West 70th Street
New York, NY 10023 United States

Our Joy Increases! Beinisch "Retires" from Supreme Court

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:23:00 +0000

B"H

I'm not sure there is a happier way to welcome Adar than to see Beinisch step down from the bench! I just hope this isn't a Purim Prank . . .

Beinisch has been the hatchet against every religious expression, Jewish right, and Jewish Settlement in Israel.

There is no place she didn't try to destroy Israel from the inside out. She was like a festering cancer at the heart of our homeland.

I have written about Beinisch and her disgusting excuse for "justice" over the years, and I am ELATED that she has left the bench. (On the way out, may the door soundly hit her where the Good Lord split her!)

Unfortunately, I don't think we are done with this witch. I have a feeling that her imperious belief that she knows far more than we mere mortals will lead her to run for office. G-d Forbid!

If she does run for office, I pray that the voters will remember her past in high detail. Here is a partial list, in case anyone would like to know.
(I am not privy to the full list of her transgressions . . . only Hashm has that!)

She ruled that "The Right to Access the Temple Mount is not Absolute."
She ruled against Katzav's Plea Bargin.
She was a full agent in "The Raviv Protocol" which infiltrated Right-Wing groups in order to frame them for Rabin's murder.

Ben-Ami says, “Dorit Beinish gave approval for his activities next to Bar-Ilan University, to incriminate someone else who would then be caught.”

She ruled against the Hevron Peace House.
She ruled in favor of the destruction of Jewish homes.
She ruled that two women could be the parents of a child.
She ruled against any form of corporal punishment for children.
She ruled in favor of the sale of Pork in Israel.
She ruled in favor of holding, indefinitely, in a maximum security prison, innocent young girls (ages 14-16) from Hevron for throwing rocks.
She ruled in cases involving the conversion of Jews in Israel.
As a parting shot, she privatized all land that was not state owned in order to destroy Jewish communities.

Over and over and over again, Beinisch ruled against Jews and in favor of secularists or arabs. She ruled against religious expression, she ruled against family values, she ruled against Judaism.

I hope our country can right it self after Beinisch's attempt, for so many years, to sink us.

-M
-----

Beinisch Bids Teary Farewell to Bench

After 15 years as Supreme Court judge and 5.5 years as Supreme Court President, Dorit Beinisch vacates the bench.

By Gil Ronen

First Publish: 2/28/2012, 12:52 PM

Judges Beinisch and Grunis

Press pool photo: Dudi Vaaknin

Dorit Beinisch formally ended her term as Supreme Court judge and as the court's president Tuesday, in an emotional farewell ceremony attended by the judiciary's top figures. Her replacement, Judge Asher Grunis, is to be sworn in later in the day.
Beinisch read out one of her final verdicts, in which she ruled that ownership of a car does not disqualify a person from eligibility for NationalInsurance Institute welfare stipends.
She wiped away a tear and said, "As one expects from farewells, the ceremony is not easy for me. I am saying farewell to the Supreme Court that was my home for 15 years." Tuesday is also Beinisch's 70^th birthday – the age at which judges must check in their robes and retire.
Among those attending the ceremony were former Supreme Court Presidents Aharon Barak and Meir Shamgar, as well as retired judges Mishael Heshin and Yaakov Turkel.
Attorney General and Government Legal Adviser Yehuda Weinstein addressed those present and lauded Beinisch as "an example and a shining light of judgeship." He praised her "great courage" and said that "human dignity was her Northern Star."
A study published in 2010 by Prof. Aryeh Ratner of Haifa University showed a huge downward shift in the public's respect and trust for the Supreme Court in the preceding decade, which included four years under Beinisch as President. The study found that among hareidi religious Jews, trust for the top court dropped from 15 percent in 2000 to 9 percent in 2010, while among residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, it fell from 46 percent in 2000 to 20 percent ten years later.
Among the rest of the Jewish population, trust dropped precipitously from 61 percent to just 36 percent.
In 2011, Minister Uzi Landau said in the Knesset, "The Supreme Court's makeup has no pluralism, only Ashkenazi elitism. It is leftist, political, detached from Judaism and occasionally from reality, and allows itself to invade territory that it does not belong in."
Two weeks later, Judge Beinisch hit back at Landau in an extremely unusual speech, saying, "For several years, a campaign is being waged, which gains momentum from year to year, with the aim of weakening the judicial system and the Supreme Court at its head. This is a delegitimization campaign that is spearheaded by several politicians, MKs and even government ministers, who take advantage of their immunity to give the public false and misleading information that has devolved into incitement against the court, its judges and its judicial work."
She later reportedly made clear that she was referring to Landau.

Please Don't Give Me a Valentine!

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:23:00 +0000

B"H

When I was a child, I spent a lot of summers at my grandmother's house in Santa Rosa, California. She lived on a leafy street across from a large ranch home with a working orchard. Down the street was a park lined with California Laurel and Eucalyptus trees that perfumed the air, especially when it was hot.

As I write this post, I can still smell those trees and recall the palpable heat of July in Santa Rosa. My grandmother loved to walk, and we would spend at least a hour every Saturday walking in that park.

Then I would go home, develop a horrible headache and a churning stomach, and lay motionless for the rest of the evening, unaware of what was wrong with me.

After I grew up and moved to Humboldt County for college, I discovered that I was extremely sensitive to California Laurels. They give me a horrible headache.

True, I have beautiful and sentimental memories of walking with my grandmother in that park, of sharing those times with her, but I would never want to return to
that time, or to that park. In fact, whenever I visit northern California, I make it a point to avoid large expanses of California Laurel trees--for obvious reasons.

Strangely enough, if you read about the California Bay Laurel Tree, you will quickly find that it is used to treat headaches, it repels insects, and it has a lot of great medicinal qualities . . . for other people.

I have learned, as I grow older, that what may bring comfort and solace to others may be painful to me.

I am baal teshuva--a Jew who became religious later in life. The biggest reason I became religious was that it was painful for me to live a secular life. I couldn't do it one more day. There are a lot of other reasons too--of course--but that is for another column on another day.

Today, I want to talk about Valentine's Day.

Many who grew up religious seem to think that those who converted or became religious later in life "miss" the things we gave up when we became religious. They assume we live every day with the "painful" knowledge of what we gave up to become religious. They shake their heads in awe of our strength in giving up all that "great" secular stuff to live a religious life.

In truth, the opposite holds for me.

I never even realized this fully until the moment I decided to reclaim Judiasm in my life. Broaching the subject carefully with my sons, I said, "This means we won't celebrate Christmas."

I was expecting them to be upset, but instead, they were relieved: "Thank goodness!" one son said, "You were so upset every Christmas! You always cried. We hated it." The others nodded in agreement.

Just like the walks I had with my grandmother, I had been celebrating holidays with my family, then experiencing the pain later. It wasn't until later in my life that I realized the cause of my pain.

Although secular versions of Christmas, Easter, Halloween and Valentines were celebrated in my youth, and I hold beautiful memories of my family at those celebrations, they hold the same place in my mind as those walks with my grandmother. Yes, I enjoyed them. I love my family. I love the memories I have with my family. I still go to those celebrations even just to be there with them.

However, I also understand the pain of celebrating holidays that I knew, deeply, are not for me. I make a point to avoid them--for obvious reasons.

So, this is my ironic Valentine's wish: "Please! My dear husband, my loving family, my dear friends--don't give me a Valentine!" A Valentine may be beautiful and beneficial and even healing to many people--but it would cause me great pain.

I am Jewish. I am happily, contentedly, and completely Jewish. Send me Jewish wishes on Jewish holidays, but please don't give me a Valentine.

It gives me a headache.

Community Stands Up Against Missionaries

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:22:00 +0000

B"H

God bless the community of Kfar HaRo'eh, the "local mail distributor" who alerted the community rabbis of this illegal attempt by Christian missionaries to distribute their pamphlets to Jewish communities, and Rabbi Eliezer Weiss and Eitan Kupferberg who found a solution to this problem.

I have no problem with Christians in general. I respect my Christian brothers and sisters who stand with us in support of Israel and the Jewish people, but they must not attempt to convert us--especially with the lies and deceit employed by those who call themselves "messianic Jews."

We must always draw a firm line between respecting fellow religious people and allowing those people to plot to steal the souls of the weak in Jewish communities.

In Israel it is against the law to offer any enticement to someone to convert to another religion or to attempt to convert any person under the age of 18.

It seems to me that there is no guarantee that those pamphlets would not end up in the hands of those under 18 years of age unless they were specifically addressed to those over 18 and enclosed in properly addressed envelopes.

Apparently, according to the description by the postal distributor, those pamphlets were to be delivered somewhat like junk mail--distributed to all homes on the route without specifying the recipient and without enclosure in an envelope.

Those who sent that junk mail should be thankful to the community for sparing them the large fine per household and possible criminal penalties if those pamphlets had gotten into the hands of those under 18!

Meanwhile, those who signed the document to refuse the distribution have performed a great Mitzvah!

May we always stand together, as a community, to protect Jewish souls, especially the souls of those Jews damaged by poverty, drugs, sickness, ignorance, and the persecution of communism. May every Jews remain strong in Mitzvot and Torah!

-----

Community Stands Up to Missionary Mailings

Kfar HaRo'eh refuses to accept the little blue pamphlets despite threats of criminal prosecution.

By Gil Ronen

First Publish: 1/3/2012, 8:51 AM

Missionary James Joseph, aka 'the Jesus guy'

Israel news photo: Flash 90

As part of a Christian missionary campaign, hundreds of thousands of Jewish homes have recently received blue pamphlets that contain missionary material. Kfar HaRo'eh – a religious community in north-central Israel that is named for Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook – was also targeted, but its leadership decided that the pamphlets must not be allowed to reach residents' homes.

Eitan Kupferberg, secretary of Kfar HaRo'eh, told Arutz Sheva that the local mail distributor contacted him last week and said that she had received a shipment of pamphlets and that she was obligated to distribute them, as distribution fees had been paid. "She came to me, fearful and trembling, and it turned out that along with the pamphlets she received a document that said that according to section 90a of the law we are obligated, as the ones responsible for distribution, to distribute the said product."

The "said product" turned out to be small blue pamphlets with missionary content.

The community's rabbi, Rav Eliezer Weiss, was consulted. Kupferberg also spoke with the legal advisor of the Israel Postal Company branch in Hadera, who confirmed that the law compels him to distribute the pamphlets or face a fine, or even imprisonment.

In response, Kupferberg had the residents sign a document in which they collectively announce that they refuse to receive the mailing. He then sent the shipment back with this document, and a letter that states that the missionary material itself is illegal and ignores the character of the community at Kfar HaRo'eh, which is a symbol of the religious Zionist movement.

The pamphlet's distributors sent another letter, a few days later, with a warning regarding possible legal action. Kupferberg says he prefers to "give them time to think again."

"In our community, we have decided to stand like a fortified wall," he explained. "The pamphlets were not distributed. We told them that they are welcome to take them from here. Period, end of story."

Incredibly Disgusting Action: Saudi "Hackers" Explose Credit Card Information of 400,000 Israelis

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:46:00 +0000

B"H

I understand that people have political differences. I understand that some Saudis think that Israelis are wrong, and that some Israelis think that Saudis are wrong.

I have no problem with people expressing ideas, having disagreements, and staging peaceful protests. However, stealing credit card information from innocent Israeli families and exposing that information on the internet is going way too far.

This is a crime that is so filled with hatred, that is so filled with anti-Semitism, that its almost painful to write about it. Why would any group do this?

This is not legitimate protest. This is not political speech. This is pure, unadulterated criminal thuggery against hard-working regular people on the street.

And they think, what? That this is somehow justified? They think this is a proud act?

It is a disgusting act. It is an act beneath human contempt.

I have been very close to the edge of financial ruin too many times to count. Sometimes a credit card is what stands between me and the loss of food, shelter, health care, heat, and/or electricity.

And here are these rich Saudis, satiated in the pork-fat of luxury, with nothing to do but hack the accounts of working families in Israel? Really?

They should be ashamed. I hope that we find them and make every single one of them pay each and every family back all that is owed, and I hope they have to work the rest of their lives to earn it.

M
----

Saudi Hackers Expose Israelis' Credit Cards

A group of Saudi hackers publishes the credit card information of some 400,000 Israelis.

By Elad Benari

First Publish: 1/3/2012, 2:15 AM

Credit cards (illustration)

Israel news photo: Arutz Sheva

A group of Saudi hackers published on Monday the credit card information of 400,000 Israelis and said they are making use of the information they stole.

The same group hacked the Israeli sports information website One on Monday evening and posted a file containing the details of some of the cardholders. Channel 10 News, which first reported on the hacking, said thatthe details published include names, email addresses and, worst of all - credit card numbers, including three-digit security codes.

According to the group, which defines itself as a Saudi branch of the Anonymous hackers group, the file contains 400,000 accounts. The group said it intends to continue to publish details of more accounts at a later time.

People who tried to enter One on Monday evening were forwarded to the Saudi group’s website and to the file containing the information.

“We decided to give a new year’s gift to the world: the information of about 400,000 Israelis,” the hackers wrote.

The added, “What fun it is for us to see 400,000 people gathered in front of credit card companies and banks and complaining that their credit card information has been stolen. To see Israeli banks destroying 400,000 credit cards and producing new ones (so expensive, huh?). To see people buying things for themselves using the credit cards and damaging the credibility of Israeli credit cards around the world.”

Channel 10 reported that the Bank of Israel has launched an investigation into the hacking, in cooperation with Israel’s three major credit companies, which had been unaware of the hacking until it was reported on Channel 10.

A spokesperson for One confirmed one of the website’s servers had been hacked into, adding the breach was quickly repaired.

A FREE Technological Answer to On-Line Tsniut Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:42:00 +0000

By Michelle Nevada, Israel Jewish News

B"H

Just a short post to tell you about something I have discovered that has been very beneficial to my on-line browsing experience and may be even more beneficial to those wishing to avoid the almost unavoidable as they are attempting to read articles on the internet: advertisements featuring half-naked women.

The issue became very pertinent for me today as I tried to read a rabbi's column in an Israeli newspaper online, but the article was surrounded by and even embedded with advertisements for weight loss pills and diet plans featuring women in jogging bras and underwear showing off how much weight they have lost.

It may just be the algorithm for my specific computer that showed those advertisements (How do they know I need to lose a few pounds?). However, if you don't want to deal with the issue at all, there is a free technological solution to the problem.

First you need to do a free sign up with a program called "Evernote." This is a well-known program that helps make lists, keep information, and take notes on smartphones, tablets, and computers. (It's an amazing program, by the way. I highly recommend its use!!)

Once you have Evernote, go to the Evernote site and download the browser add-on known as "Evernote Clearly."

Once it is added to your browser (usually as a small button to the right that looks like a Pixar Lamp), you can go to any site on the internet, click on an article you want to read, hit the Evernote Clearly button, and POOF! All the annoying and potentially non-Tsniut advertising is gone!

You are left with an article by itself on the page--just you and the article without all the clutter.

If you are like me, you will be using it almost exclusively to read articles of interest.

M

49 Hours of Shabbat?

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:44:00 +0000

B"H

When Samoa decided to switch its relationship to the rest of the world by deciding to skip the last Friday in December and move to the other side of the International Date Line, they unwittingly began a fascinating halachic debate.

When, exactly, does one celebrate Shabbat under that circumstance?

And, of course, there are issues of travelers, not only to Samoa, but for anyone crossing the date line. For example, the International Date Line is slightly different in Halacha than it is observed on international maps. When does Shabbat start and end when you cross the date line? Is it a different day if you live there, as opposed to simply traveling there?

What happens when Shabbat starts on Thursday evening and goes until Saturday night, 49 hours? (Can you imagine how overcooked the Hamin must be?)

I don't know about you, but the whole discussion makes my head spin!

M
-----

The Day Shabbat Started on Thursday Night

How can the Jewish Sabbath start Thursday night and last 49 hours? Visit Samoa, where it jump-started the International Date Line.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 1/1/2012, 9:30 AM

Prayers in Samoa

David and Achikam Tours

How can the Jewish Sabbath start Thursday night? Visit Samoa, where it jump-started the International Date Line. On second thought, rabbis advise not to travel there in order to avoid the complications of its recent move that makes it an island with a 49-hour Sabbath.

The International Dateline always has raised questions for Sabbath observers concerning when the Day of Rest should be observed.

“If it is 1:00 p.m. Monday on the eastern side of the Dateline, it is 1:00 p.m. Tuesday on the western side,” explains Star-K Kashrus Administrator Rabbi David Heber.

“Therefore, if one travels from the United States to China a day is ‘lost,” he continues. Some rabbinic opinions determine, “When the Japanese and New Zealand residents say it is Saturday, halacha [Jewish law] says it is Friday. When they say it is Sunday, it is halachically Shabbos.”

The Pacific island nation of Samoa has made the issue m
ore complicated by unilaterally skipping over last week’s Friday, the last one in the calendar year 2011, and declaring it is Saturday in order to maintain the same trading days as Australia and New Zealand.

A Jew in Samoa – and there is at least one– would have to observe the Sabbath from Thursday night until Sunday night, according to Rabbi Heber.

That is why Star K, whose kosher supervisors often fly to the Far East to inspect food factories, advises tourists, businessmen flying to Thailand, Fiji, Vietnam and other countries in the Pacific Rim to avoid traveling on those days that would raise a questionwhen to observe the Sabbath or having to observe it for 49 hours.

"In Samoa it is 'safek Shabbos' (uncertain when the Sabbath begins) every week," he stated. "Shabbos would begin every Thursday night at sunset and end when it gets dark on Saturday night -- or 49 hours of Shabbos.”

One of Samoa’s only Jewish residents, if not the only one is Max Lapushin, who quipped, "No wonder nobody comes here.”

US Looks the Other Way While Iran Engineers Destruction

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:22:00 +0000

B"H

Israel has now supplied the US government with soil samples from Iran to prove that Iran is building secret reactors.

No go. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta continues to claim that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities could "consume the Middle East in a confrontation and a conflict that we would regret."

This begs the question: Would Panetta "regret" a nuclear attack on Israel?

Refusing to make a choice IS a choice. The longer the US waits and quakes in it's boots, the more sure we can all be that Khomeini will near his goal nuclear holocaust in the name of "the 12th Imam."

We all know that the US government doesn't have the B'Z to attack Iran, and that they will wait in the wings and watch as Israel does it. "After all," they are probably thinking, "All the arabs hate Israel anyways, so nothing will change if they attack!"

What they don't realize is that things will change. America will become an even better target for the terrorist forces of the world because arabs don't respect weakness, they respect strength.

Israel already understands that it is more important to be respected than loved. The US may learn that lesson the hard way--led by weak-kneed patsies like Leon Panetta.

-----

Israel Brings Iranian Soil Samples to Washington

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/151212#.TvxqZiNWpq4

'The Daily Beast' reveals Israel brought Iranian soil samples to Washington to show time is running out for solving the nuclear threat.

By Chana Ya'ar

First Publish: 12/29/2011, 2:11 PM

Qoms Nuclear Site

Israeli officials are again warning Washington that time is almost up, and that the Iranian nuclear threat is growing stronger -- this time based on soil samples collected near suspected sites.

Investigative reporter Eli Lake writes this week in an exclusive report published in The Daily Beast that a delegation of Israeli diplomats, IDF officers and intelligence officials raised the issue at a meeting in the U.S. capital during the annual "strategic dialogue" conference earlier this month.

Israel's presentation on the Iranian nuclear program included intelligence based on soil samples that indicated the Islamic Republic is building secret reactors to produce nuclear fuel.

Moshe "Boogie" Ya'alon confirmed in a December 24 speech in Jerusalem that although Iran probably did indeed suspend their nuclear technology activity in 2003, they resumed the drive to produce an atomic weapon by 2005.

U.S. national intelligence estimates still claim that Iran has not resumed its weaponization work -- with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta claiming an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities could "consume the Middle East in a confrontation and a conflict that we would regret."

In response, Israel cites the document recently uncovered by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showing detailed plans for construction of a "neutron initiator" as evidence that time is rapidly running out.

As Lake explains, the neutron initiator is a pellet that sits at the middle of the nuclear core and is crushed by high explosives in a nuclear explosion. The existence of such a document is concrete proof that Iran is continuing its weaponization activity.

The November 2011 IAEA report stated plainly that intelligence shared by member states appears to show that Iran has conducted explosive tests linked to nuclear weapons research.

The stakes are high, and not all Israeli politicians believe it is clear that Israel can trust the United States when the chips are down.

As Ya'alon put it, "There is no credible military action when we hear leaders from the West, saying, 'this is not a real option,' saying, 'the price of military action is too high.'"

Rabbi Elyashiv Condemns Hareidim to Poverty, Ignorance . . . Again

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:54:00 +0000

B"H

It is so sad that Rabbi Elyashiv has so little trust in the strength of Torah that he thinks that those who study secular subjects will become "tainted" by those subjects and turn away from Torah.

Did Maimonides turn away from Torah when he studied medicine? Did he stop being a man of learning?

How can a rabbi who has no formal education in History, Art, Technology, or Science render a p'sak about those areas? A rabbi NEEDS to know a lot more than Gemmorah and the collected works of Rabbi Elyashiv!

Even more pertinent, is Torah something divorced from everyday life, or a guide to it?

I, personally, believe that Torah is absolutely pertinent to everything I do in the modern world. The challenges I face as a religious Jew renew my faith BECAUSE they challenge it. Hashm never required that we stopped engaging in the world. We are not supposed to become some sort of weird cult.

We are Jews! How can we be a light to nations while hiding in the dark alleyways and dower yeshivas of poverty stricken ghettos?

Why do I need to learn if I can't use that learning? What is the point of living a life divorced from the very issues that the Torah and the Sages discuss?

You cannot wear the yoke of Torah if you aren't plowing the field of life!

M
-----

Rabbi Elyashiv Tells Hareidim: No to College, Army Programs

Renowned hareidi sage, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv reiterates traditional dictum against college and army programs for hareidi Jews.

By David Lev

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/151133#.TvnzUiNWpq4

First Publish: 12/27/2011, 4:01 PM

Rabbi Elyashiv

Flash90

Venerable sage,Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, considered the world leader of the Ashkenazic hareidi-religious non-hassidic Yeshiva world (the “Lithuanian” yeshivas) said in a letter Tuesday that he was opposed to the recent phenomenon of hareidim integrating secular college level studies with Torah education, and to institutions that encourage youths to enlist in the IDF or National Service (Sherut Leumi).
He did not reject earning a livelihood in the business world or other occupations, but reiterated the longstanding opposition of the Israeli hareidi world to the combination of Torah study and academics.. In the USA, it is common to see hareidi Jews studying in special colleges, but these religious insitutions generally offer practical majors such as accounting and computers with minimal liberal arts..
In his letter, Rabbi Elyashiv wrote that “the secret and foundation to the survival of Torah and of those who fear G-d and live a life of Torah is absolute separation from the world of the secular, who have thrown off the yoke of Torah. As such we must protest and warn against all sorts of trends from the outside that seek to harm the pure oil of the hareidi institutions. These institutions must be under the control of the rabbis and must be guided by them, and must exclude all paths that lead to national service, secular studies, or the army, even if they assure a special framework for hareidi Jews. Such a framework will subject hareidi Jews to the control and culture of secular Jews who have thrown off the yoke of Torah,” he wrote.

The purpose of all these programs, Rabbi Elyashiv wrote, was to change the nature of hareidi Jewish life. “Thus they (the secular government) encourage all sorts of programs, academies, colleges, and the like which promise degrees, licenses, academiccredentials, etc., intended to introduce goals and aspirations foreign to our way of life. This is in direct contradiction to the instructions of the the great rabbis of previous generations, who battled against all institutions that had these purposes, and removed them from the 'camp of Torah.' This is especially the case now, where the institutions make clear that their purpose is to change our ways of life, and to instill foreign aspirations – nationalistic and academic – that our forefathers never accepted, bringing us to make inappropriate connections with secular people, those of the 'culture of sinners.'”

The only true path for Jews, said Rabbi Elyashiv, was to “do the will of our Father in Heaven” and reject these efforts.

Recently, all of Israel's media were in an uproar over several national-religious soldiers who asked not to be forced to hear women singing as it is against halakha and were punished. It is possible that the rabbi saw this as tangible proof that hareidi soldiers, even in the specially formed Nahal Hareidi unit, might face religious dangers in the army.

Back to my blogging . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:10:00 +0000

B"H

I have been so quiet lately!

Mostly it is the result of a tremendous amount of work that was completely unexpected and overwhelming. Most of my work is done on the computer, so taking a moment to blog after a full day of computer stuff was almost more than I could face.

However, I need to write, and I will continue now. The three-month hiatus was a nice break. Thank you for standing by.

Michelle

Some customs for the holiday of Hanoukah by Joseph Mosseri

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:34:00 +0000

1) The custom in Egypt was not to say Sidouq HaDin all 8 days of Hanoukah.

2) The custom amongst all Middle Eastern and North African Jewish communities is to only use pure olive oil for the Hanoukah lights. The reason being that this is considered to be the best way to fulfill the commandment and because the holiday miracle occurred through olive oil.

3) When lighting, the custom as brought down by Maran, Hakham Yosef Karo, in his Shoulhan 'Aroukh, is to start with the light on the right. Meaning that on the first night when you are going to light, you begin with the wick closest to your right hand.

On the second night, you begin with the wick adjacent to the one you lit on the first night, them you light the one of the first night.

On the 3rd night, you begin with the newest wick, and work your way back to the right. And such is the manner on each night.

By the last night you'll be lighting that closest to your left hand first and moving to your right. In the same manner that we write English or any Western language. Since the custom is to use oil wicks and not candles, we light with a candle and after the obligatory lights are kindled, the Shamash, or extra wick is kindled with the candle. The candle is then extinguished.

4) If you can safely light near your entranceway in order to publicize the Hanoukah miracle to those who pass by in the street that is great. If not you can feel comfortable knowing that you can follow the custom to light inside the house where it will be publicized to the family members. This is based upon MaHaRYQaSh ,in his gloss to the Shoulhan 'Aroukh, chapter 671.

5) The custom is to follow the qabalah of the AR"I (as brought down in the Shoulhan 'Aroukh) for the berakhah and to say "Lehadliq Ner Hanoukah" and not "....... shel hanoukah" even though that's the way it's mentioned in the Gemara and among the Rishonim. There are many reasons for this based upon both grammatical and mystical interpretations.

6) On Mossae Shabbat (Saturday night), the Shoulhan 'Aroukh decreed that in the synagogue the Hanoukah lights should be kindled first then habdalah should be recited. And this is the way the law and custom was practiced in Aleppo, Syria. On the other hand many posqim, rishonim and aharonim, disagree with Maran regarding this, therefore there are variant customs. The custom in both Cairo and Alexandria was to say Habdalah first, both in the synagogue and at home.The custom in Jerusalem, according to Hakham Mosheh Pardo who was Ab Bet Din there, in his Shemo Mosheh, was also to say habdalah first even in the synagogue.

7) The custom on Friday afternoon/evening of Hanoukah as brought down in the HID"A's Birke Yosef in the name of Hakham Shemouel Abohab is to pray Minhah in the synagogue the go home to kindle the Hanoukah lights, then to light the Shabbat wicks, the to return to synagogue for Qabalat Shabbat and 'Arbit.

The question of course arises that since we do not consider the lighting of shabbat lights as the acceptance of Shabbat, why must we light Hanoukah prior to shabat lights? Isn't there a well lnown rule that Tadir ve She-eno Tadir, Tadir Qodem, meaning that something that is done regularly done must take precedance over something that is not usually done. Any interesting comments?

8) On the Shabbat Eve occurring during Hanoukah, Bameh Madliqin is not recited.

9) In the synagogue the Hanoukah lights need to be placed against the Southern most wall. On the 1st night the Western most light will be lit first, etc... This is based upon an old responsa of HaRaDBa"Z, Hakham David Ibn Abi Zimra.

10) The custom in both Egypt and Jerusalem is to also light the Hanoukah lights in the synagogue during the daytime. This of course is done without a berakhah. The reason for this lighting is strictly for the sake of proclaiming the miracle since the light of these wicks is not needed during the day. It is also to help remind those who may not have lit at night for whatever reason what day of the holiday it is so they could light the proper number at night. In Egypt this was done before the commencement of prayers, in Jerusalem before Aromimkha.

11) The custom in Egypt during daily morning services of Hanoukah, is to recite the Hanoukah holiday mizmor (Psalms 30), immediately after the Sefer Torah is returned to the Heikhal and Qadish Titqabal is said. The Mizmor is said, followed by Qadish Yehe Shelema, the Qaveh and the qetoret are said. No other mizmorim are recited after qadish titqabal!

12) If prayers are being held in the house of a mourner during Hanoukah. Both the mourner and all those in attendance say Halel in the house of the mourner. The reason for this is that the Hanoukah Halel was established by the Hakhamim and we are commanded to recite it. On Rosh Hodesh the law would be different as Rosh Hodesh Halel is only a custom.

13) The custom in Tunisia is that all the while that the lights are burning the ladies do not do any work.

14) In Tunisia and Libya, Rosh Hodesh Tebet, is called Rosh Hodesh of the girls in remembrance of the heroics of Yehoudit. On this day parents send gifts to the girls and grooms to their brides to be.

15) The custom in Aleppo an in many other Sephardic cities was that prior to Hanoukah the shamash of the synagogue would give out a tall wax candle to each man which he would use for lighting the Hanoukah wicks. They in return would give him a small donation.

16) Rabbi Shem Tob Gaguine in his Keter Shem Tob mentions that the custom in Israel, Syria, Turkey, and Egypt would be to say the 1st berakhah of Lehadliq Ner Hanoukah then to light while saying the other berakhot. This is still the custom among most traditional families but there are already many who say all the berakhot prior to lighting.

17) The custom on Hanoukah is to eat a type of sweetened fried dough.

* In Egypt it was called Zalabya or Loqmat El Qadi.

* In Iraq and Syria it was called Zingol.

* In Turkey it was called Bilmuelos.

* In Greece it was called Lokomades.

* This was the only traditional Sephardic item shared by almost all communities for Hanoukah.

18) The custom was never to give out presents or spin a top (dreydel/sevivon) on Hanoukah. these are traditions that came from Germanic lands and from living among Christians who exchanged presents for the Xmas holiday which usually coincided with hanoukah.

19) The berakhot are Lehadliq ner hanoukah and She'asah nisim. On the first night we also add the berakhah of shehehiyanou. After that we recite Hanerot Halalou (the version that has 51 words not 36 words) then we recite Mizmor shir hanoukat habayit ledavid (psalm 30). Ma'oz Sour is not sung!

20) The law and custom for Sepharadim is that only 1 Hanoukah [Menorah] is used for the entire family. Not like the Ashkenazi custom of each member of the family lighting their own personal Hanoukah. In most traditional families in order to share in the love of the missvah, the head of the household will give each member of the family a chance to light. On the 1st night he will light the 1st wick and he'll let his wife light the shamash. On the 2nd night he'll light the newest wick, his wife the next, then the oldest child the shamash, etc.. for all 8 nights.

21) Sepharadim until recently never called the Hanoukah lights by the name of Menorah or Hanoukiyah it was simply refered to as Hanoukah.

The Laws of the Sukkah, According to Dr. Seuss

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:42:00 +0000

B"H

To me this is a favorite
I post it for every Sukkot.

These laws are very real, you'll see
They all have a helpful footnote!

M
-----
Rabbi Arthur E. Gould, Sukkot 1999 - 2001
Rules of the Succah (with numbered footnotes)
(For more about the Laws of the Succah seehttp://www.yeshiva.org.il/midrash/shiur.asp?id=958.)

You can build it very small (1)
You can build it very tall (2)
You can build it very large (3)
You can build it on a barge

You can build it on a ship (4)
Or on a roof but please don't slip (5)
You can build it in an alley (6)
You shouldn't build it in a valley (7)

You can build it on a wagon (8)
You can build it on a dragon (9)
You can make the s'chach of wood (10)
Would you, could you, yes you should

Make the s'chach from leaves of tree
You shouldn't bend it at the knee (11)
Build your Succah tall or short
No Succah is built in the Temple Court

You can build it somewhat soon
You cannot build it in the month of June (12)
If your Succah is well made
You'll have the right amount of shade (13)

You can build it very wide
You can not build it on its side
Build if your name is Jim
Or Bob or Sam or even Tim

Build it if your name is Sue (14)
Do you build it, yes you do!
From the Succah you can roam
But you should treat it as your home (15)

You can invite some special guests
Don't stay in it if there are pests
You can sleep upon some rugs
Don't you build it where there's bugs

In the Succah you should sit
And eat and drink but never ...
If in the Succah it should rain
To stay there would be such a pain (16)

And if it should be very cold
Stay there only if you're bold
So build a Succah one and all
Make it large or make it small

Succah rules are short and snappy
Enjoy Succot, rejoice be happy.

Footnotes:
1. Maimonides (RMBM) Mishne Torah, Hilchot Succah, Chapter 4, Section 1. The minimum height of a Succah is 10 tefachim. A tefach is a measure of the width of the four fingers of one's hand. My hand is 3 1/4 inches wide for a minimum Succah height of 32 1/2 inches. The minimum allowable width is 7 tefachim by 7 tefachim. This would result in a Succah of 22 3/4 inches by 22 3/4 inches.

2. The maximum height is 20 Amot. An Amah is the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. My Amah is 15 1/2 inches for a maximum height of 25 feet. Others say that 30 feet is the maximum.

3. According to RMBM the Succah can be built to a width of several miles. Shulchan Aruch also says there is no limit on the size of the width.

4. RMBM Hilchot Succah Chapter 4, Section 6.

5. RMBM Hilchot Succah Chapter 4, Section 11. RMBM states that one may construct a Succah by wedging poles in the four corners of the roof and suspending s'chach from the poles. The walls of the building underneath are considered to reach upward to the edge of the s'chach.

6. RMBM Hilchot Succah Chapter 4, Section 8-10 discusses the ins and outs of building your Succah in an alley or passageway.

7. There is a location referred to in the Talmud called Ashtarot Karnayim. According to the discussion there are two hills, with a valley in between where the Sun does not reach. Therefore it is impossible to sit in the shade of the roof of the Succah. I can't find the reference...hopefully next year.

8. RMBM Hilchot Succah Chapter 4, Section 6. You can go into a Succah built on a wagon or a ship even on Yom Tov.

9. RMBM Hilchot Succah Chapter 4, Section 6. OK, RMBM says a camel but dragon rhymes with wagon a lot better, don't you agree. Anyway, RMBM says you can build your Succah on a wagon or in the crown of a tree, but you can't go into it on Yom Tov. There is a general rule against riding a beast or ascending into the crown of a tree on Yom Tov.

10. Chapter 5 deals with the rules for the s'chach. Basically, you can use that which has grown from the ground, and is completely detached from the ground. So, for example, you cannot bend the branches of a tree over the Succah to form the s'chach. But you can cut the branches from a tree and use them as s'chach.

11. This would be a violation of the rule cited in the prior footnote.

12. Shulchan Aruch, Hilchot Succah, Perek 636, Section 1. The Succah should not be built sooner than 30 days before the Chag. However, if the structure is built prior to 30 days, as long as something new is added within the 30 days, the Succah is kosher.

13. Of course it's a well known rule that you must sit in the shade from the roof of the Succah and not in the shade that may be cast by the walls. It seems that this might affect the height of the walls, depending on the longitude of the location where you are building your Succah.

14. Technically, women, servants and minors are exempt from the Mitzvah of Succah. In our day we hope we know better than to read out half the Jewish people from the observance of Mitzvot. Of course, that's just a personal opinion of the author.

15. RMBM ibid Chapter 6, Section 6 explains that you should eat, drink and live in the Succah for the 7 days as you live in your own home. One should not even take a nap outside of the Succah.

16. RMBM ibid, Section 10. If it rains one should go into the house. How does one know if it is raining hard enough? If sufficient raindrops fall through the s'chach (roof covering) and into the food so that the food is spoiled - go inside!
The Laws of the Succah
Pninei Halacha
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed

Written by the rabbi
Dedicated to the speedy recovery of
Asher Ishaayahu Ben Rivka
1 - Guidelines to Kosher "S'chach"
2 - More Sun than Shade
3 - Some Laws concerning S'chach
4 - The Structure of a Kosher Succah
5 - A Succah under a House or a Tree
6 - Sitting under the Shade of the Succah

1 - Guidelines to Kosher "S'chach"
In order for the S'chach (roofing) of a Succah to be Halachically acceptable it must fulfill three basic conditions. The first condition is that the material from which the S'chach is made be earth-grown, from the plant-kingdom, like branches or bushes. Metal, lead, and plastic, although they originate from the earth, are unacceptable for S'chach because they are nonliving.

The second condition is that this earth-grown substance be detached from its source; so long as the branches are still attached to the ground, they are not acceptable for S'chach. Therefore, it is forbidden to build a Succah under a tree, using the tree's branches as S'chach.
The third condition is that the S'chach not be made from anything that can receive impurity; generally speaking, containers, clothing, chairs, and beds are the objects capable of receiving impurity. As a rule, any natural product that in its unaffected form cannot receive impurity, becomes capable of receiving impurity after it has been manipulated and made acceptable for the use of man; with its elevation to the status of a significant utensil it becomes suited for receiving impurity. From this point onward, should it come into contact with a corpse or any other object that causes impurity, the utensil becomes impure. From the moment that the wood becomes capable of receiving impurity, it becomes unacceptable for S'chach.

Therefore, it is permissible to roof a Succah with branches, bushes, or even simple boards like those used for construction, because they are not capable of receiving impurity. However, if the wood was at one time used as part of a chair, bed, or container, it is forbidden to roof a Succah with it. The Sages even forbade using the pieces of a broken container or bed for S'chach, despite the fact that they are no longer capable of receiving impurity, lest someone make the mistake of using them for S'chach while they are still whole. (Shulchan Arukh, Orekh Chaim 629:1,2).
The Sages also forbade building a Succah from foul-smelling materials, or roofing with S'chach from which leaves or worms fall, lest because of the foul smell or the falling leaves one leave the Succah and go into his house. Yet, if one already roofed with these sorts of branches one is not obligated to replace them. Still, if the stench in the Succah is so strong that people are unable to bear it, the Succah becomes invalidated in the eyes of the Torah, for it is not fitting for human habitation. (Ibid. 629,14; Mishna Berurah 38).

2 - More Sun than Shade
The S'chach must act as a shield against the sun. Therefore, so long as it keeps out most of the sunlight it is Kosher, for we follow the majority. Yet, if even half of the sun's rays manage to penetrate the S'chach, the Succah is rendered invalid. This is gauged by looking at the S'chach itself as opposed to the floor of the Succah. This is because the sun's rays widen as they pass through the holes in the S'chach and descend to the earth, and it sometimes appears that there is more sunlight in the Succah than there is shade. All the same, if an examination of the S'chach itself shows that the shade is greater than the sunlight, the Succah is Kosher.

If under a small portion of the S'chach there is more sunlight than shade, the entire Succah as a whole remains Kosher. In such a situation, even those who sit under the weak S'chach where there is more sunlight than shade, fulfil the Mitzvah of dwelling in a Succah. One must make sure, though, that nowhere in the S'chach is there an area that occupies seven square handbreadths (56 cm x 56 cm) .in which the sunlight is greater than the shade. If this is the case then this area of the Succah is invalid.
Occasionally the S'chach is not arranged evenly, such that for part of the day there is more shade than sunlight, while during the rest of the day the amount of sunlight in the Succah exceeds that of the shade. In such a situation, Jewish law says that the Succah is judged according to the situation at noontime, when the sun is in the middle of the sky. If at that time the amount of shade in the Succah is greater than the amount of sun, it is Kosher; if not, it is not Kosher (Rema, 631:5).

3 - Some Laws concerning S'chach
If in the Kosher S'chach there is an opening that possesses a width is three handbreadths (24 cm.), it is seen as causing a break in the S'chach and may quite possibly invalidate the Succah. This is because such an opening causes the Succah to be seen as not having three walls. If the opening's width is less than three handbreadths, yet contains enough room for the head or most of a person's body it does not disqualify the Succah, yet the one who sits under it has not fulfilled the obligation to dwell in the Succah. If the space is even smaller than this, it is as if nonexistent; therefore, one who sits under it fulfills the Mitzvah of dwelling in the Succah (Shulchan Arukh 632:2).

It is best to roof a Succah such that there be abundant shade inside. All the same, there should not be too much S'chach; there should not be so much S'chach that it becomes impossible to see the larger stars through it at nighttime. Yet even if one placed so much S'chach on the Succah that one cannot see the rays of the sun, the Succah remains Kosher (Ibid. 631:3). If, though, the amount of S'chach is so great that even the rain cannot penetrate it, Rabbenu Tam (Rabbi Yaakov ben Meir Tam) holds that such a Succah is not acceptable. This is because the Succah is meant to be a temporary dwelling, and if the rain cannot penetrate its roof, it is more like an actual house. One must abide by this ruling where possible (Mishna Berurah 631:6).

4 - The Structure of a Kosher Succah
A Succah that is taller than twenty cubits (about 9.6 meters) is not acceptable. This is because the Succah is meant to serve as a temporary dwelling, and a S'chach roof at such a height cannot be considered the roof of a temporary dwelling. If a Succah is shorter than ten handbreadths (80 cm.), it is not Kosher. This is because it is not possible to sit in it, and a Succah must be suitable for sitting. Its width must be at least seven handbreadths (56 cm.), for if it is any less than this even one person cannot sit inside of it with his meal.
The height of the Succah's walls must be at least ten handbreadths (80 cm.). They must be built on the ground, and if there is a space of three handbreadths between the ground and the base of the wall, the wall is unacceptable, for it is so wide open that even goats can make their way under it. It is permissible, though, that there be space between the tops of the walls and the S'chach; if the walls themselves reach a height of ten handbreadths it is possible for the S'chach to be placed up to twenty cubits high, i.e., the maximum permissible height of a Succah. And even if a large space is left between the top of the wall and the S'chach it remains acceptable, for we view the wall as if it continues to rise up to the height of the S'chach (Shulchan Arukh 630:9).

The Succah must have two complete walls and a third whose length is at least one handbreadth. This law, though, gets somewhat more complex. From the words of the Torah, we learn that a Succah must have three walls, yet the Oral Tradition teaches that for the third wall one handbreadth is enough. This handbreadth has to be what the sages refer to as "a wide handbreadth," i.e., slightly more than a handbreadth. This third wall must stand at a distance of no more than three handbreadths from the Succah's second full wall. Any space that is less than three handbreadths is termed "Lavud," or attached. In this manner, the third wall becomes a wall of four complete handbreadths - the minimum necessary requirement for an acceptable Succah wall. The Sages also said that the remaining space of the wall must be made fit through what is known as "Tzurat HaPetach," or the form of an opening (Ibid. 639:2). The laws of such concepts as "Lavud," and "Tzurat HaPetuch" are many and detailed, so much so that Rabbi Moshe Isserles (Rema) writes that the accepted custom is to build three complete walls, for not everyone is versed in the laws of Succah walls (Ibid. 630:5). Ideally, one should build a quality Succah possessing four complete walls. The Succah should also have an doorway that can be closed in order that it be comfortable for living purposes, protecting the one who dwells in it from the wind, the sun, and animals.

5 - A Succah under a House or a Tree
The Succah must be situated under the open sky, so that the S'chach, and not something else, be that which covers the one dwelling in the Succah. Therefore, a Succah made indoors, under a roof, is invalid. Similarly, it is forbidden to make a Succah under the branches of a tree.

It is permissible, though, to make a Succah next to the walls of a high building. Even if the walls of the building are very high and prevent the sunlight from reaching the Succah, it is Kosher. This is because only a roof or branches which are directly above the S'chach can render a Succah invalid; anything that is outside of the straight line running from the S'chach to the sky cannot invalidate the Succah.
If the branches that are above the S'chach are very sparse and the Succah's S'chach is so dense that even if the S'chach under the branches was removed, the remaining S'chach would be so thick that it provide more shade than sunlight, the Succah remains Kosher (Ibid. Orech Chaim 621:1).
It is also permissible to build one's Succah under clotheslines, for because their shade is very little, and their purpose is not to provide shade, they do not invalidate the S'chach below.

6 - Sitting under the Shade of the Succah
Fulfilling the Mitzvah of the Succah means sitting in the shade of a Kosher Succah. Therefore, if one spreads sheets under the S'chach for additional shade he has in fact invalidated the Succah. It is permissible, though, for a person to sit in a Succah wearing a big hat on his head, because the hat is an appendage to his body and is not seen as causing a separation between he and the S'chach.
Similarly, it is permissible to hang different types of fruits and paper ornaments from the S'chach, for the ornaments are an appendage to the S'chach and are not viewed as a separation between the S'chach and those dwelling in the Succah. One must make sure, though, that the ornaments hang within a four handbreadths (32 cm.) of the S'chach. Furthermore, even if the ornaments cover the entire S'chach, so long as they hang within four handbreadths of the S'chach, they are considered an appendage to the S'chach and do not render the Succah invalid. If one accidentally hung an ornament that dangles down below the four-handbreadth mark, so long as the width of the ornament is less than four handbreadths, it does not invalidate the Succah. One must be careful, though, not to sit under it. If the width of the ornament is less than three handbreadths (24 cm.), though it is permissible to sit under it, it is preferable not to. Rather, one should take care to raise all such ornaments to within four handbreadths of the S'chach.

One who sleeps in a bed to which a canopy has been permanently attached does not fulfill the Mitzvah of Succah. If the canopy, though, is of a temporary nature, its status depends upon its height: If the canopy is lower than ten handbreadths, it lacks significance and is considered an appendage to the Succah. One who sleeps in such a bed therefore fulfills the Mitzvah of Succah. If, though, its height is greater than ten handbreadths, the canopy possesses significance and one who sleeps under it does not fulfill the Mitzvah of Succah.
The space under a bed or a table inside the Succah, because it is created unintentionally, is considered temporary. Its status therefore depends on its height. If the space underneath the table or bed is of a height less than ten handbreadths (80 cm.) one that sleeps under it fulfills the Mitzvah of Succah. If, though, the space is greater than ten handbreadths in height, one who sleeps there does not fulfill the Mitzvah of Succah.
The same rule holds true when it comes to a bunk bed. If the space between the two beds is more than ten handbreadths, the one who sleeps in the bottom bed does not fulfill the Mitzvah of Succah. If the space, though, is less than ten handbreadths, one who sleeps in the bottom bed fulfills the Mitzvah (see Piskei Teshuva, 627:3).

If a protective covering is placed on the Succah it is clearly rendered invalid, for the covering acts as a partition between the S'chach and the sky. Yet, after the covering has been removed, the Succah again becomes acceptable. One must be careful, though, that when building the Succah this covering be rolled up to the side in such a manner that it not constitute a partition between the S'chach and the sky. This is because there are Torah authorities who hold that if at the time of the construction of the Succah the S'chach is overlaid with a covering, even after removing the covering the Succah remains invalid. The reason for this is that the act of making a Succah acceptable must be through placing the S'chach upon it and not through removing a covering from it (Bach, Mishna Berurah 626:18; but Rema is lenient, 626:3).

Did you notice any errors?
Any other problems?
Contact us: Beitel@yeshiva.org.il

Personal Memories of 9/11

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 14:27:00 +0000

B"H

Everyone has a story of where they were at 9/11, just like everyone in the generation before us had a story about Pearl Harbor. They are moments where time stands still for everyone.

That day, I was standing in my kitchen in Minden, Nevada, looking out the window as I rinsed dishes. I was listening to NPR.

The announcer said, "A small private plane has slammed into the World Trade Center." It didn't seem much at first. I didn't really react. The announcer went to to chat with the reporter about how small planes have hit tall buildings in the past, for example, the Empire State Building.

Then the report turned more ominous. There was a fire burning out of control.

I yelled to the living-room where my children--who were five, seven, and eleven--were watching morning cartoons before school and said, "turn on CNN."

I walked around the sofa and sat down with them. We were watching the live feed, when the second plane came seemingly out of nowhere and hit the second building.

I wasn't willing to believe what I had just seen. It was preposterous to think that a second plane could have hit the building. Then it dawned on me: we were under attack.

"Oh no! What just happened?" my oldest boy asked.

"We have been attacked." I said with surety. "We are at war. I don't know with whom we are at war, but we are at war. That was an act of war."

At the time I had no idea that the planes had been full of people. I had just assumed that the planes were empty. After all, what kind of monsters would hijack a plane and crash it into a building?

I had never heard of Al Queda. I had never heard the name "Osama bin Laden." I couldn't fathom who had done such a thing. We were done with the Russians. It couldn't be them, I thought.

I got the kids dressed and out the door, and I went to teach my classes at the local community college.

I teach English, and my students were rattled. I told them to process their feelings, to write about their fears and worries. This would be a freewriting, I said, something just for you, not to turn in.

My classroom was the first door in the hallway that connected to the student lounge. As they wrote, I stood, not knowing what to do with myself. Then I heard it: screaming and crying coming from the student lounge.

I walked quickly out the door and into the hallway, and saw the lounge filled with students, all of them with their mouths hanging open pointing at the television. Some had tears running down their faces. Others looked pale and shocked.

I looked up at the television at a huge billow of smoke. "What happened? What happened?" I asked. "Did it burn down?"

"No," one of the students answered. "It just came down."

"What? What do you mean, came down?"

I looked up at the television in hopes that the reporters and news anchors could answer my questions, and then, I watched as the second tower pancaked into itself. People were running and screaming.

I sat down on one of the chairs, completely forgetting about my class for a moment. I couldn't believe what I had witnessed.

I ran back into my classroom and tried to keep the panic out of my voice, "Please, I don't want to interrupt you, but the towers, they are gone. I don't think we should stay in class. I think you need to see what is happening."

My students were as confused as I had been. "Just go to the student lounge and watch," I said. "If you have children, maybe you should go home to them. If you have family, go and comfort them now. We shouldn't be here."

After I dismissed them, I sat down in the lounge to watch the television when the department chair came up to me. She and I never liked each other. She had, in fact, been my enemy from the start. I thought to myself, "Oh my goodness, she is going to come and tell me I shouldn't have let my class go. What a b***h."

As she got closer, I saw the tears in her eyes. "Did you let your class go?" she asked.

"I thought it was the only thing I could do," I said. "They are a mess, and so am I."

"Did you see the towers come down?"

I nodded. "That's when I let my class go."

"Me too," she said. "Go home. Go home and hug your children." She was crying openly now.

I was touched by this, more touched than I would have been if she had been a friend. It was a moment of humanity exchanged between two people who had been locked in conflict for years. I hugged her, and cried.

I went home. I picked up my children. I hugged them and hugged them and hugged them.

I was haunted by the idea that the planes were full of families, and I thought about what it must have been like those last few moments.

Parents must have been trying hard to stay calm, reassure their children. Maybe they cradled their small children in their arms, feeling the tiny warm body against theirs, knowing it was their last moments of life.

That idea still haunts me, makes me suddenly hug my 15-year-old, or call my mother. Life is so precious, so fragile.

Finally! Bibi has found his BZ! EVERY terrorist who took part in the raid against innocent Israeli citizens in Eilat have been ELIMINATED. That includes the lookouts and the scouts--EVERYON*E.

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:23:00 +0000

B"H

For once, Bibi didn't act like someone's vassal, asking for "permission" to strike. He acted like he should act: like the Prime Minister of the INDEPENDENT State of Israel.

Bully for you, Bibi! That's 20 down . . . and about 20,000 to go.

According to this article, EVERY terrorist who took part in the raid against innocent Israeli citizens in Eilat have been ELIMINATED. That includes the lookouts and the scouts E*V*E*R*Y*O*N*E.

I hope he is right. I hope that every single one of them is dead.

I hope we bury every single one of them upside down, in an unmarked grave, under a pig farm . . . but I doubt Bibi will do that.

He will have to show "diplomacy," lest our enemies actually believe that we are as tough as Bibi says we are.

Still, it is a very nice feeling knowing that, not only did we kill the active members, we also killed the mastermind.

Now, where do we go to kill the "imam" that gave this his blessing? I think that guy should be unable to sleep well in his bed for however long it takes to send him to hell.

Keep it up, Bibi! Don't take prisoners to be exchanged! Don't give in!

-----

Netanyahu: We Hit Back Immediately and With Force

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Israelis "The people who gave the order... are no longer living."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146954

Gavriel Queenann & Gil Ronen

Prime Minister Netanyahu gave a very short statement before press cameras at 8:30 P.M. Thursday evening following the lethal three-stage terror attack that claimed 7 Israeli lives and saw 33 wounded.

"We all witnessed an attempt to ratchet up the level of terror emanating from Sinai," he said. "If someone thinks that Israel will put up with this, he is wrong."

"I have established a principle: when Israeli citizens are hurt, we hit back immediately, and with force. This principle was implemented today. The people who gave the order to murder our civilians, who were hiding in Gaza, are no longer among the living," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu's reference was appaerently to the death of Abu Awad Kamel a-Neirab, commander of the Salah a-Din Brigades, the "military" wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike around 5:00 PM on Thursday.

An estimated 20 terorrirsts were killed in the firefight that raged during and after the attack - some direct participants; some lookouts. It appears the entire terrorist force that staged the attack was wiped out.

Netanyahu praised the Shin Bet, Yamam special forces and IDF for their courage, which prevented a greater tragedy.

Six of those killed in Thursday's attack were civillians while two of the wounded were small children, aged 4 and 7.

Earlier in the day Netanyahu promised Eilat mayor Meir Yitzhak-Halevy that Israel's reponse would be swift.

Hamas - the terror organization that rules Gaza - evacuated its security headquarters after Thursday mornings attacks in fear of a muscular Israeli response.

The United Nations also evacuated its foreign personnel from Gaza following the attacks.

Please, Israel! Block Your Ears! Gird Your Loins! ATTACK!! ATTACK!! Don't Listen to the EU and US Weenies! DESTROY AMALEK!

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:28:00 +0000

B"H

Again, the scum of the earth, the most despicable vermin to walk the earth, have attacked my beloved Israel.

May Israel learn that Hashm was not kidding when HE said to "clear the land before you." This is our land, a heritage given by Hashm, which cannot be traded away for fictional promises of "peace."

We must retake every inch of Israel from these heathen scum and make no excuses for doing so. Then there will be Peace!

I am SO angry right now.

Please, Israel!

Please!

Block your ears! Gird your loins!

ATTACK!! ATTACK!!

Don't listen to the EU or US weenies! They have no idea what our role in the world is, they don't understand what it is to be attacked because you are a Jew.

They are Amalek. Destroy them.

-----
Israel tenses for Gaza strike after deadly Palestinian multiple terror attack
DEBKAfile Special Report August 18, 2011, 7:03 PM (GMT+02:00)

http://www.debka.com/article/21217/

Thursday, August 18, Israel had its first taste of a sophisticated al Qaeda-style coordinated terrorist operation modeled on the atrocities common in Afghanistan and Iraq. Israeli intelligence services, army (IDF) and Police were taken by surprise by the scale and slick organization of the multiple assaults that were staged near Eilat on the highway running south parallel to the Egyptian border by gunmen of the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees and Palestinian organizations linked to al Qaeda.

Seven Israelis were killed, including two women, and about 40 injured in shooting attacks on two buses and other vehicles and by the roadside bombing of a military vehicle. UN personnel were quickly evacuated from the Gaza Strip and Egypt locked the Gaza-Sinai crossing as Israel prepared to mete out punishment.

debkafile's military sources estimate that Lebanese Shiite Hizballah experts may have aided the terrorists in setting up the complex operation.

Towards evening, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated that Israel's response would be "commensurate with the breach of its sovereignty." Defense Minister Ehud Barak said "The source of the terror is Gaza." He did not specify whether he knew the gunmen had in fact reached the scene of the attack from Gaza or elsewhere.

A Hamas spokesman threatened Israel with a sharp reprisal if Gaza were attacked. Terrorist facilities of Hamas and other organizations have reportedly been evacuated and Qassam, Grad and mortar batteries deployed ready for launching.

The IDF estimates that the attackers numbering at least 20 came from the Gaza Strip and took up positions near the Sinai border with Israel to wait for the signal to go ahead.

The Defense Minister, Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Ganz, and Military Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi are widely blamed for falling down on precautions for protecting the South although they knew in advance that the Egyptian army was about to embark on a large-scale counter-terror operations in Sinai. Defense ministry sources admitted that they had received a heads-up on a terror attack. It was up to all three to have taken into account that Egypt's Sinai Operation Eagle would be exploited by Palestinian or Al Qaeda terrorists to let loose against Israel. Egypt may suspend its campaign if Israel strikes back against Gaza.

US and Israeli intelligence officials reported Wednesday night, August 17, they were helping the Egyptian Sinai operation by keeping its commander abreast of Palestinian and Al Qaida movements in Sinai.

However, 12 hours later, America which maintains a network of surveillance teams and observation posts across Sinai and Israel intelligence were both shown to be at a loss for real time information on terrorist activities in the peninsula.

A multiple assault by 20 gunmen using automatic guns, RPGs, mortars and roadside bombers could not have been an off-the-cuff operation. It entailed long planning. Its participants had to receive detailed instructions and be brought to the scenes of attack to familiarize themselves with the arena.

Rockets from Gaza, Hezbullah Gearing Up, and Egyptian Troops Taking on al Qaeda in the Sinai . . . Maybe G-d wasn't Bluffing When HE Said We Should "Drive Out the Inhabitants of the Land Before You."

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:27:00 +0000

B"H

"The L-rd spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying:

'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their temples, destroy their molten idols, and demolish their high places. You shall clear out the Land and settle in it, for I have given you the Land to occupy it.

'You shall give the Land as an inheritance to your families by lot; to the large, you shall give a larger inheritance and to the small you shall give a smaller inheritance; wherever the lot falls shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers, you shall inherit.

'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the Land from before you, then those whom you leave over will be as spikes in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the land in which you settle.

'And it will be that what I had intended to do to them, I will do to you.'"

Bamidbar/Numbers 33:50-56

I don't suppose that G-d could have been much clearer here. We are COMMANDED to rid the land of Israel of our enemies.

The command is especially harsh and clear because G-d knows that this will be very hard for us to do.

Not hard as in "we are not a strong military force," but hard as in "all the other nations will despise us."

Peer pressure, it seems, is just as difficult for nations as it is for adolescents.

However, G-d is not going to compromise here. We do it, or we are cursed with the same pain and suffering that G-d would have given our enemies.

Now, fast-forward a few millennia, and we clearly see the fruit of the seed we have planted.

We gave up "land for peace," to Egypt, thinking it was a really great idea (as if something that involved Jimmy Carter could be a "great" idea for Jews), and we not only have intense pressure to keep giving up land, but we also have the "fruit" of terrorism in the Sinai.

We gave up "land for peace" in Gaza, and got rockets, terrorism, and international condemnation for our "occupation" of land we don't claim.

We gave up "land for peace" in Lebanon, and got Hezbullah.

I think it is safe to assume that G-d wasn't bluffing. Now that we have tried to have peace everyone else's way, and failed, perhaps it is time we tried having peace G-d's way.

Frankly, I would rather have the UN, the EU, Barak Obama, and everyone else angry with me, than having G-d angry with me.

It's time we "drive out the inhabitants of the land before us," and get busy making peace.

-----

Egypt's 5,000 troops take on 2,000 al Qaeda in Sinai. Three officers kidnapped
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 15, 2011, 7:12 PM (GMT+02:00)
http://www.debka.com/article/21209/

Egyptian troops enter Sinai in force

Egyptian forces descended on the Sinai Peninsula Sunday, Aug. 14, for their first post-Mubarak operation to retake control of the territory from lawless and terrorist elements rampant there since the Egyptian revolution and responsible for sabotaging the Egyptian gas pipeline to Israel, Jordan and Syria.

Monday, three Egyptian army brigades of 1,700 men backed by tanks, an equal number of special policemen and 3,400 security personnel drove into the northern towns of El Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, which is divided between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. In their first clashes with Islamic Liberation Army gunmen, they killed one and detained 11, four of them Palestinians, he Egyptian military communiqué reported.

debkafile's military sources add that three Egyptian officers were kidnapped in the clash – whether they were killed or held as hostages is unknown.

For two years, debkafile's counter-terror sources have been reporting on the burgeoning concentration of al Qaeda cells and affiliates in Sinai and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The 2,200 Egyptian troops maintained there after Feb. 14 to maintain order and guard the Egyptian natural gas pipeline to Israel, Jordan and Syria were easily overpowered The facility was sabotaged five times and supplies remain cut off.

Restoring a semblance of law and order to northern Sinai will be the easy part of the Egyptian military mission – for which Cairo obtained prior Israeli permission as mandated under their peace accord

The hard part is ahead when in the coming weeks the units head south to flush out the Islamist invaders holed up in the central Sinai mountains to which they withdrew last week after being tipped off that large-scale Egyptian forces were coming.

On the narrow mountain trails, the soldiers will have their work cut out to contend with 2,000 well-organized and heavily armed Islamist gunmen.
The forbidding central Sinai range of precipitous peaks, from 1,000 to 2,642 meters tall, covers 21,000 square kilometers. The terrain has deep wadis, dense shrubbery, abundant natural water and plenty of animals for food.

Judged in terms of the war in Afghanistan, a Taliban force this size in control of a region twice the area of the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan would pose a prohibitive challenge even to a full-scale NATO army.

Egyptian forces have fought for control of these mountains several times but failed, ending up with accommodations of sorts with the 350,000 Bedouin tribes sheltering the Islamists and sharing in their smuggling trade. The tribes always came out of these deals in control of the region.

Our military sources therefore expect this first wave of Egyptian armored forces into Sinai to be followed by more - if Cairo's rulers seriously intend to recapture the strategic peninsula and expunge the al Qaeda presence.

There is no way this can be accomplished, according to our military experts, without air might. The terrorists' hideouts will have to be bombed from the air and combat helicopters provide cover for armored units moving along the isolated Sinai trails; drones will be needed to gather intelligence on enemy movements.

Cairo will have to apply to Jerusalem for permission to deploy air might in Sinai for the first time since the territory was demilitarized under their peace accord.
debkafile's military sources report that the Islamic Liberation Army - which has declared its objective as the seizure of all of Sinai and its transformation into a Muslim Caliphate - is a conglomerate of five terrorist groups:

1. Indigenous Bedouin tribes who have a score to settle with the Egyptian army;

2. Palestinians from the Gaza Strip drawn into extremist Salafi sects which are integral parts of al Qaeda.
3. Hundreds of adherents of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the murderous Jamaa al-Islamiya who escaped Egyptian prisons on January 29 at the peak of the popular revolution which overthrew Hosni Mubarak. The former jailbirds made a beeline for Sinai and today constitute the hard operational core of the movement.
4. Al Qaeda adherents, who made their way to Sinai after violent careers in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

5. Followers of various Egyptian Sufi and dervish orders.

Nancy Wake, "The White Mouse," and Hero of World War II, Passes Away at 98 (May G-d Bless Her Soul)

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:29:00 +0000

B"H

According to an article by Carolyn McDowel, when Nancy Wake was 16 she ran away from home. She had no prospects, she had to choose between becoming a journalist or a prostitute.

"Nancy said that in her mind both professions were basically the same and that she had found it hard to choose. However in the end she decided to become a journalist because it offered her opportunities for travel, which she was always very keen on doing."

Nancy Wake worked for Hearst Newspapers as a European correspondent based in Paris. In Vienna, she saw Nazi brutality at its worst as she witnessed the torture of Jews in the streets.

This was back in the days when journalists had ethics and supported their countries in war for the cause of freedom, and Nancy Wake decided to do something to stop the Nazis.

As a journalist of uncommon character and startling beauty, she became a courier for the French Resistance, and established communication and supply routes.

McDowel writes, "When parachuting into France from England she put on her best dress, made sure her make up was intact and took her stilettos. Once she reached the outskirts of the village nearby where they landed she could put them on. That way if the Germans encountered her tottering down a country lane they would think she was a prostitute offering her services nearby. She operated on the notion that you cannot see sometimes what is right in front of your nose. And, she added naughtily with a twinkle in her eye, in that way I did get to embrace both professions after all."

The Gestapo offered a 5 million-franc reward for her capture.

She was known as the "White Mouse" because she escaped the Germans so many times.

During World War II, she constantly put her life in danger in order to fight the Nazis, and she did it, according to everyone who knew her, with a smile on her face and an unbending spirit. One story about her is that she rode a bicycle 500 miles through German checkpoints in order to replace codes her wireless operator had been forced to destroy in a German raid.

Her husband, Industrialist Henri Fiocca, was tortured to death by the Gestapo, but refused to give up her location. She blamed herself for his death, but rewarded his loyalty by increasing her efforts against the Nazis.

She stood for something, she fought for what was right, and she never gave up.

She was remarried to John Forward, and Englishman, but never had children.

McDowel writes of Nancy Wake's final days, "Nancy’s last years were very difficult following the death of her second husband in 1997 and a few years later she returned to England hoping to find a way forward there. Prince Charles took on the responsibility of looking to her personal welfare when he discovered she was down on her luck. His compassionate caring for Nancy was an act of great kindness that saw her comfortable during the last years of her life."

May the "White Mouse" share a special place in the hereafter, may she rest in peace, and may her spirit live in the lives she touched.

-----
Great Australian WWII heroine dies at 98
http://www.ejpress.org/article/52494
by: Madeleine Coorey

SYDNEY (AFP)---Nancy Wake, Australia's greatest World War II heroine and a prominent figure in the French Resistance known as the "The White Mouse" for her ability to evade the Germans, has died in London.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the woman who was once the Gestapo's most wanted person, was "a devastatingly effective saboteur and spy".

"Nancy Wake was a woman of exceptional courage and resourcefulness whose daring exploits saved the lives of hundreds of Allied personnel and helped bring the Nazi occupation of France to an end," Gillard said.
Wake, who died in a London hospital on Sunday just days short of her 99th birthday, was the nation's most decorated servicewoman from WWII, holding France's Legion d'Honneur, Britain's George Medal and the US Medal of Freedom.

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, she grew up in Australia and politicians in both countries led tributes to the woman who survived several firefights with the enemy, being shot at in a pursuit and a brief imprisonment during the war.

New Zealand's Veterans' Affairs Minister Judith Collins described Wake as "a woman of exceptional courage and tenacity, who cast aside all regard for her own safety and put the cause of freedom first".

Australian National Party leader Warren Truss said Wake's heroic achievements "are the stuff of legend".

"And all Australians feel very proud of this wonderful woman," he said.

Wake ran away from home aged 16 and by the early 1930s was living in Paris, where she worked as a journalist.
Witnesses to the rise of fascism in Europe, Wake and her wealthy industrialist husband Henri Fiocca joined the fledgling Resistance after France's surrender in 1940.

She once described a visit to Austria in 1933 as a first-hand look at Nazi cruelty.

"In Vienna they had a big wheel and they had the Jews tied to it, and the stormtroopers were there, whipping them. When we were going out of Vienna they took our photos. That was my experience of Hitler," Wake said.

Wake and her husband helped Allied servicemen and Jewish refugees escape into Spain before she took her partner's advice and fled to England in 1943, where she began work in special operations.

She parachuted back into France in April 1944 before D-Day, tasked withhelping distribute weapons to Resistance fighters.

"In those days it was safer, or a woman had more chance than a man, to get around, because the Germans were taking men out just like that," she later recounted.

Wake was never to see Fiocca again, learning only after the liberation of France that he had been killed by the Gestapo in August 1943.

After the war, Wake returned to Australia in 1949, where she made several failed attempts to win a seat in parliament.

She went back to England, where in 1957 she married RAF officer John Forward, but the couple settled in Australia within two years, living there for the next four decades until Forward's death in 1997.

Restless again, Wake left Australia for England in 2001 with the intention of remaining there for the rest of her life.
The fearless heroine was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2004, praised for her outstanding actions in wartime.

She is expected to be cremated privately and her ashes scattered at Montlucon in central France, scene of her 1944 heroism.

Sheba Medical Center Finds Key to Slowing Pancreatic Cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:16:00 +0000

B"H

It's not a cure . . . yet, but it is a very good start at finding the cure for this horrible illness.

I had a dear friend, Chuck, who found out he had this cancer. He had only three weeks before he died--but Thank G-d he had those weeks. He set his affairs in order, said goodbye to his beautiful wife and his amazing son, and passed.

Many who come down with this cancer don't have even that long. It is a horrible fate for too many people and their families.

These researchers may not have cured this cancer, but they may have bought some very valuable time for those who are diagnosed.

Every second of life counts.

M

-----

Slowing pancreatic cancer
By ISRAEL21c Staff
August 09, 2011
http://israel21c.org/health/slowing-pancreatic-cancer

Israeli researchers identify a protein that may put the brakes on a particularly aggressive form of cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is a particularly aggressive, rapidly spreading disease for which there is no effective treatment.

Israeli researchers have discovered that a protein known to retard the aging process also seems to prevent the growth of pancreatic cancer. If it could be produced commercially without significant side effects, this substance could provide a needed weapon against this and other fast-growing cancers.

Researchers from the Cancer Research Center at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer studied the behavior of the protein klotho, a natural hormone emitted by the brain and kidneys. It is named after one of the Three Fates in Greek mythology, who spun thread to keep people alive.

A laboratory study done at Sheba in 2008 found that klotho prevented breast cancer cells from multiplying. Later, researchers discovered that mutations of this protein, called BRCA1 and BRCA2, greatly increase the risk of women developing breast cancer:

The Israeli study follows recent findings in other countries indicating that klotho may prevent the spread of liver and cervical cancer.

In the current experiments using mice with pancreatic cancer, scientists wanted to determine how klotho could work against this particularly aggressive, rapidly spreading disease for which there is no effective treatment.

About 610 Israelis are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer every year, and it causes eight out of every 100,000 deaths among Israeli men and six out of every 100,000 deaths among Israeli women. In the United States, an estimated 37,660 people will die of pancreatic cancer this year.

Klotho stops the spread
The scientists noticed that healthy pancreatic cells contain klotho, but cancerous cells do not. When they injected the cancerous mice with klotho, they discovered that it not only prevented the cancer from spreading, but actually caused tumors to shrink.

"Within a week or two after the protein was injected, the [cancerous] growths stopped spreading and began to shrink," said lead researcher Dr. Ido Wolf, who heads Sheba's oncology department and one of the labs at the Cancer Research Center. Dr. Lilach Abramovitz and Dr. Tami Rubinek were also involved in the study, funded by the Israel Cancer Association.

Results are to be published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

Before looking for partners to cooperate in advancing the use of klotho on the commercial level, the scientists' next step is to figure out how to reduce an unwanted and potentially dangerous side effect of klotho.

"This protein is vital for controlling the level of calcium and phosphorus in the body, and administering the protein is like administering any other hormone: It has the side effect of increasing hormonal activity," Wolf explained.

"There is a known connection between cancer and diabetes, [a disease] that involves unusual hormonal activity, and the current research provides an additional source for examining the connection between hormones and cancer," Wolf said.

US Holocaust Museum Lanches "Do You Remember Me?" Exhibit to Locate Lost Children of Holocaust.

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 12:28:00 +0000

B"H

I visited the website and was surprised to see so few children represented there. I wondered where the 1, 100 pictures taken by social services went. I wondered why the US Holocaust Memorial Museum hasn't featured all of them.

Also, the saddest thing is that most of the kids who have been identified were older kids.

The babies remain unidentified. (They probably also remain clueless to the fact that they are Jewish.)

Sadly, the lost ones are the second Holocaust--the one of assimilation.

Many Jews who did survive became "reform" or "secular" or members of socialist/communist parties, believing G-d had forgotten them. They married non-Jews, and their children married non-Jews.

They eliminated themselves from the Jewish people--and they allowed Hitler to win in the end.

Then, of course, there are the thousands upon thousands of Jews raised by Catholics.

The guy who currently sits in the pope's chair, the former Nazi Youth, could release the names of the Catholic families who took in Jewish children during the Holocaust.

He could, but he won't.

His loyalties to Her Hitler haven't changed, and he continues to help Hitler win.

Then, there are thousands upon thousands of anusim -- the "hidden Jews" who lived in Catholic countries after the Inquisition -- who are desperately trying to learn anything they can about their past, about their hidden Jewish heritage, and who are being taken advantage of by fake "Jews for Jesus" soul snatchers who call themselves "rabbis" and lead those anusim away from Torah and their people.

If you keep Shabbat, keep Kosher, and educate your children in Torah, you are a fighter, every day, against the second Holocaust.

Religious Jews face job discrimination, high education costs, high food costs, and antisemitism on a daily basis. When we walk down the street, we fear being accosted or worse--especially in Europe and the Middle East. We go to synagogues guarded by security, and we pay the extra cost to live near that synagogue so we can keep G-D's LAW.

If you don't do at least the basics--like keeping Shabbat and keeping Kosher . . . well, don't expect your grandchildren to be Jewish. You can do your great-great grandchildren a favor, though. I know you don't care about being Jewish, but in a few generations, the nishamah of one of your great-great-grandchildren may call out to them, and they might want to become observant.

When they do, it would be nice for them to know where they can find your mother's ketubah. Keep it safe. Pass it down. Make sure everyone knows where it is. It's the one thing that might help them come back from the abyss.

-----

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC has launched a project to identify long-lost children who survived the genocide of Jews.
by Hana Levi Julian
Published: 07/08/11, 12:55 PM
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146454#.Tj54pDvOT9Y

They were a generation of young fugitives, hiding from the Nazi hunters intent on murdering their families.

Their nameless faces stare out at the numerous photographers who captured the awful moments in time – and now an effort is being made to find them.

“Remember Me ?” is a project launched by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. to find the children in the photos, collect their stories and videotape an interview with the now-grown survivors. On the website, next to each photograph, a brief paragraph appeals to the reader: “This child was one of millions whose lives were disrupted as a result of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution. If you have any information about this person, please click the “I remember this child!” button and share with us what you know.”

Tens of thousands of the long-lost children exist, although more than one million of their peers died in the Holocaust. But at least 1,100 children who survived were photographed by social service agencies across Europe after the war.

Now Twitter and Facebook campaigns along with newspaper ads targeting Jewish and Polish readers in major American cities are reaching out, asking the public for information about the children in the photos. They can be seen by clicking here.

Many of those photographed do not necessarily remember the details of their past – which is why the photos themselves are so important.

Children were uprooted from their homes, wrenched from their parents and forced to flee on a journey they could not understand. Some learned to survive in the forests, others in the sewers and on the streets. Some were placed with Christian families and took on new identities, and a few hid in the convents of the Roman Catholic Church. A precious few even made it on to the lifesaving Kinder Transport that brought them all the way to the Land of Israel.

The older ones, who didn't flee, or who were caught and deemed strong enough to survive, were transported to the concentration camps. There they were put to work as Nazi slaves.

It was a nightmare that most chose to lock away from the light of day-to-day memory.

Many of the photos were taken from 1945 to 1947 and drawn from the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives. Others are from Kloster Indersdorf (a displaced Jewish children's home in Bavaria), and are part of the collection at the Holocaust Memorial Museum itself. The latter pictures children holding placards with their names, ostensibly in the hope they might be able to reconnect with loved ones.

So far, at least 180 children have been identified through the project. Some of them live today all over the world, in the U.S., Canada, Israel, and in various countries in Europe and Australia. Ten are dead, according to the Associated Press, including author Jerzy Kosinski (“The Painted Bird”) who committed suicide in 1991.

More than 61,500 people from 150 countries have visited the website, including many who offer to help track others down.

Interviews are conducted by five specially-trained museum workers in English, Hebrew and French. Michlean Amir, a reference coordinator, is the staffer who conducts the interviews in Hebrew.

She, too, lost relatives to the Nazi genocide. Amir told the AP, “The amazing thing for me is most of them established normal lives. They managed to marry, have healthy relations, have children and grandchildren. People go through much lesser trauma and are unable to function in society. I don't know – maybe it's to prove they were not defeated.”

Jude Richter, historian for the museum's Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center, underscored the importance of the project, and pointed out that its title has a many-layered meaning. “Instead of being a question, it's more of an imperative: 'You WILL remember me. You WILL remember what happened to me, and tell it to other people when I'm gone,” he said.

Der Spiegel Reports Mossad Killed Iranian Nuclear Scientist

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:15:00 +0000

B”H

Yes . . . because if I were an Israeli super-spy, the first place I would go to tell my story would be a German newspaper that has a rabid hatred of Israel.

Riiiiight.

Well, I hope Der Spiegel sells a lot of papers because that is the only thing that will come from this story.

Sure, I want to believe, wholeheartedly, that the Mossad took out the Iranian scientists . . . but that is just wish fulfillment, isn’t it? I want to believe it because it gives me the “I want to read the next Tom Clancy novel about it” tingle.

However, I am greatly doubting both the veracity of the reporter and the veracity of his source (for those of you who believe this story, “veracity” means “truth,” OK? Now, go take your pill.).

M

-----
'Der Spiegel': Mossad behind Iran scientist assassination
By JPOST.COM STAFF
08/02/2011 11:00
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=232044

Der Spiegel reported on Monday that the Mossad was behind the assassination of Darioush Rezaie, an Iranian nuclear scientist who was murdered on July 23.

The German news magazine quoted an unnamed Israeli intelligence source as saying that the move was the first act of the new head of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo.

Rezaie, who was fatally shot by a motorcyclist, is the fourth known Iranian nuclear scientist to be killed since 2010. Der Spiegel noted that each of the other three, Masood Ali Mohammadi (January 2010), Majid Schahriari and Feridun Abbasi (November 2010), was killed by either motorcycle riding gunmen or motorcycle bombs.

An International Atomic Energy Agency investigation showed that Rezaie held a Ph.D. in physics and was working on developing a nuclear switch used for detonating nuclear weapons, according to the Der Spiegel report.

The German magazine wrote that while Iran accuses the United States and Israel of hiring hitmen to carry out various attacks inside Iran, Washington denies any involvement and Israel is silently ambiguous. However, a purported smile on the face of Defense Minister Ehud Barak when refusing to speculate on the killing gave the Der Spiegel reporter who wrote the story reason to believe he was hiding something.

Although Israel maintains a strict policy of ambiguity when it comes to Mossad operations, the Israeli spy agency was widely believed to have been involved in creating and planting the Stuxnet computer virus, which crippled Iranian nuclear research facilities during the summer of 2010.

According to the Der Spiegel article, the Mossad and Israel Air Force (IAF) are competing for both the privilege and the funding to attack the Iranian nuclear program. Each claims that the other is incapable of effectively delaying, let alone destroying Iran's ability to attain nuclear weapons.

Yeshivah of Flatbush Adapts to Needs of Syrian Community

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:01:00 +0000

B"H

It is gratifying to know that some Syrian Jewish kids are getting the advantage of being educated in their own traditions, and that Ashkenazi kids are getting exposure to broader Jewish traditions.

As a Sephardi myself, I know that the Ashkenazi brothers and sisters don't mean to offend or discourage, but they are often quite ignorant of the fact that Judaism has a huge range of religious approaches and that one is not "less religious" just because he or she doesn't follow Ashkenazi minhag or adopt a particular set of chumrot.

The tolerance and understanding of Ashkenazim is welcome and it is as badly needed for Sephardim in America as educational options. Sephardim are often educated in Ashkenazi schools with administrators, rabbis, and teachers who are well-meaning, but ignorant of our traditions and customs.

A good example of this is when a well-meaning rabbi in primary school insisted to my sons that a "Sepharad" Siddur was Sephardic! My children clearly knew the difference, but they didn't want to embarrass the rabbi; so they used the Siddur until my husband could gently explain the difference to the good-hearted rabbi who was trying so hard to accommodate them.

I am hoping that some other schools might think about what they are doing for their Sephardic (and Ashkenazi) students as well. We are all one people, and we need to show respect and kindness to one another so that all may grow.

-----

A Rising Tide of Sephardic Jews Brings Change to the Yeshivah of Flatbush
The venerable day-school, once overwhelmingly Ashkenazi, adapts to match the neighborhood’s transformation

Tue, Jul 26, 2011
By Alexandra Hootnick

As Passover approached 25 years ago, Diane Chabbot’s daughter was finally ready to participate in the songs and prayers of the seder with her family. The first grader had been practicing them constantly in her Hebrew day school class at the Yeshivah of Flatbush in Brooklyn. But when the little girl realized the Ashkenazi prayer melodies she had come to know didn’t match the melodies sung by her large Syrian family, she began to cry.

The incident was subsequently brought before the school’s board of education by Chabbot’s family rabbi and current head of the yeshivah’s high school, Raymond Harari. It reflected not just one family’s experience but rather a major demographic change in the neighborhood and the yeshivah.

The growing Syrian population in Flatbush was tilting the yeshivah’s student body from a historically Ashkenazi majority, descending from German or Eastern European Jews, to a Sephardic majority, descending from Spanish or Middle Eastern Jews. By 1989, three years later, the school had instituted an Integrated Sephardic Ashkenazic Seder and a school-wide Sephardic tefillah, or morning prayer, as an alternative to the Ashkenazi one. And those were only the beginning of the educational adaptations.

“We’re not completely different, the basic conceptions are the same,” said Chabbot, who adopted her Syrian husband’s Sephardic customs after being raised in an Ashkenazi household. “But customs are different, melodies are different, shul is different, and so some of the things that have changed are just this awareness of the richness of the different cultures.”

Rabbi Lawrence Schwed became a principal at the Yeshivah of Flatbush’s elementary school in the late 1980s, and said the first thing that he did was create Sephardic tefillah groups so that both Ashkenazi and Sephardic children could pray according to their respective traditions. “What good does it do for me to teach you how I pray,” Schwed said, if “ your parents aren’t familiar with it and that’s not what you’re going to hear in your synagogue.”

Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish population is currently estimated to be 75,000 and growing, and Schwed said that “the vast majority” of the school’s K-8 students are now Sephardic, compared to about half in 1989.

Ashkenazic Jews and Sephardic Jews vary in cultural practices and dietary considerations as well as religious prayers and customs. For example, Ashkenazi Jews, unlike the Sephardim, refrain from eating rice during Passover. In Sephardic culture, naming children after grandparents is common, even if they are alive, while Ashkenazim typically pass the names of deceased relatives to the next generation.

Founded in 1927, the Yeshivah of Flatbush is a coeducational, Modern Orthodox private school with roughly 2,100 students. According to the school’s executive vice president, Dennis Eisenberg, the school has always drawn from the Sephardic community, but in increasing numbers over the years. Eisenberg said this trend is even more pronounced in the elementary and middle schools because community demographics drive the student population, but that the school does not collect data on how many students enroll in either the Sephardic or Ashkenazic minyanim, or morning prayer meetings.

Still, Harari said the school doesn’t define itself as Ashkenazic or Syrian. “There was always a desire to have an integration of both traditions,” said the head of the Joel Braverman High School.

The first Syrian Jews came to America in the early 20th century and initially settled in Manhattan, but moved to the Bensonhurst area of Brooklyn after the Eastern European Jews dominating Manhattan denigrated them as “Arab Jews.” In the 1980s, the Syrians who had accumulated a degree of wealth and success began to flow into Flatbush, where home values were rising.

Schwed said the school ran routine staff-development programs in order to train what was then a mostly Ashkenazi staff in becoming familiar with Sephardic culture. “The teachers had to retool, just like you have to technologically retool these days,” Schwed said, although the Yeshivah of Flatbush does not hire nor keep count of teachers based on their Sephardic or Ashkenazic backgrounds.

Other than the morning tefillah, Sephardic and Ashkenazic students attend the same classes. During the after-lunch prayer and holidays, the school either alternates between or observes both Sephardic and Ashkenazic traditions.

In the yeshivah’s preschool, however, Schwed said students are only taught the Sephardic tefillah, a change that was made several years ago when the student population tilted towards a Sephardic majority. Having separate tefillot “was too confusing for the children,” Schwed said. “So now everybody in the preschool learns Sephardic tefillah, and beginning in first grade we separate them based on what their parents choose.”

In 2008, the elementary school launched an updated Sephardic tefillah program that Schwed said has exceeded beyond the school’s wildest expectations. “Our students were always top academically, but we got killed on Shabbat because our kids couldn’t compete with the kids from the other schools in terms of prayers,” Schwed said. “Now our kids are flying on Shabbat.”

Alex Schindler, a 2007 graduate, wrote in an email that the elementary school’s efforts have allowed the Yeshivah of Flatbush to compete for Syrian students with nearby, exclusively Sephardic day schools like Magen David.

In the last few years, Harari said, the yeshivah’s Joel Braverman High School has offered a Sephardic history elective in addition to Sephardic-based independent study. The mandatory Jewish history class has also given increased emphasis to Sephardic history.

Schindler wrote that while he expected the amount of Sephardic programming to eventually increase in the high school, there currently wasn’t much.

“The mandatory Jewish history class, for example, is almost entirely synonymous, when dealing with the modern period, with Modern Ashkenazi Jewish history, though my teacher taught a little bit of Sephardic history,” Schindler wrote, adding that the exams students could take for Yeshiva University credit wouldn’t test for the Sephardic material.

Eisenberg said that in the high school a greater balance exists between Sephardic and Ashkenazi students, with students commuting from areas like New Jersey, Manhattan and Westchester. Schindler wrote that he estimates the proportion is now about 70 percent Sephardic, 30 percent Ashkenazic. When he was in high school, the Sephardic students’ minyan was moved into the auditorium previously occupied by the Ashkenazic students, who were relocated into classrooms as their numbers continued to fall.

Ashkenazi Jews have slowly trickled out of Flatbush and Midwood to enclaves in the tri-state area partly due to a growing affluence. Schwed said another reason was that during 1980s housing boom in Flatbush, some Ashkenazim decided to sell their homes and move to where their children had relocated. “Their kids were not coming back to Flatbush,” Schwed said.

Schwed also said more Modern Orthodox schools have sprung up in areas where Ashkenazim have relocated, and have improved in addition to being closer to students. While the school used to have two full buses of Ashkenazim coming in from Staten Island, Schwed said now they’re down to one van. “The Yeshivah of Flatbush used to be the only show in town in terms of what we offered,” Schwed said. “Now many, many schools have copied our model, and that’s very flattering.”

The remaining Ashkenazic population in Flatbush is predominately “black-hat,” or stringently Orthodox Jews, who are less inclined to engage in secular society or send their children to a modern, coeducational Orthodox school like the Yeshivah of Flatbush.

Ami Sasson, the president-elect of the Yeshivah of Flatbush’s Ladies Auxiliary and 1992 graduate, said she had many Ashkenazic friends while she was a student, and the groups’ outward trend was a loss to the diversity of Flatbush. “A lot of people in school, including my kids,” she said, “say they wish there were more Ashkenaz.”

Schwed said the yeshivah currently gives $9 million of its $36 million budget in tuition assistance. There has been some discussion about possible merit scholarships to the school in the future, but despite the high costs of a private religious education, Schwed said the school has been “bursting at the seams” with a rapidly growing student population. Schwed said more pupils want to come to the Yeshivah of Flatbush because they “want the mix of Ashkenazim and Sephardim, even though the shift has gone the other way.”

Social Scientists Discover Only 10% "Committed Minority" Required to Change Majority

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Nevada) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:22:00 +0000

B"H

These social scientists have discovered that when at least ten percent of the population of a social group are "a committed minority" (i.e. they are stubbornly in favor of something that the majority doesn't agree with), that the minority will serve as "agents of change" and will turn the majority to their way of thinking.

This makes a lot of sense, but it hasn't been tested in the "real world." It has only been done through computer models.

I would think that ten percent would have to be pretty convincing to start turning over the majority opinion on some issue, but I am also thinking that in certain areas--such as political philosophy, religious devotion, nationalism, and loyalty to close friends, family, and business relationships--this concept would fall flat.

I think that the more personally important those beliefs are, the less likely that you will change those beliefs when challenged.

I think the model will end up being tweaked a bit, as it is my firm belief that there are some areas where people will not budge because we are culturally reinforced not to budge through stories of righteous people, martyrs, and refuseniks.

We are not entirely cattle, thank G-d, waiting to be lead in a particular direction. There will always be those who do not change, will not change.

For example, Jews have been flourishing since the time of Abraham and no matter what happened--expulsion, slavery, inquisitions, pogroms, laws against religion, Holocaust, socialism, assimilation--we are still here and we refuse to be anything but Jews.

However, in the case of less important matters--style, political choice, consumer choice, educational philosophy, etc.--I think this theory will hold up.

My hypothesis? I believe the theory will come to read: Ten percent committed minority will change majority views on issues the majority does not perceive as "personal core beliefs." However, when the minority challenges the majority's perceived personal core beliefs, the majority with either hold fast to those beliefs or influence the minority, however committed, to adopt majority beliefs or remain silently neutral.

If you want to test your own hypothesis relating to this study, they are looking for social scientists willing to research historical models to test the theory.

-----

Scientists discover tipping point for the spread of ideas
Researchers have found that minority rules; when only ten percent of the public holds a firm opinion, the majority will always follow.
http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=231190
By RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
07/27/2011 13:22

Troy, N.Y. – Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society.

The scientists, who are members of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center (SCNARC) at Rensselaer, used computational and analytical methods to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion.

The finding has implications for the study and influence of societal interactions ranging from the spread of innovations to the movement of political ideals.

“When the number of committed opinion holders is below 10 percent, there is no visible progress in the spread of ideas. It would literally take the amount of time comparable to the age of the universe for this size group to reach the majority,” said SCNARC Director Boleslaw Szymanski, the Claire and Roland Schmitt Distinguished Professor at Rensselaer. “Once that number grows above 10 percent, the idea spreads like flame.”

As an example, the ongoing events in Tunisia and Egypt appear to exhibit a similar process, according to Szymanski. “In those countries, dictators who were in power for decades were suddenly overthrown in just a few weeks.”

The findings were published in the early online edition of the journal Physical Review E in an article titled “Social consensus through the influence of committed minorities.”

An important aspect of the finding is that the percent of committed opinion holders required to shift majority opinion does not change significantly regardless of the type of network in which the opinion holders are working. In other words, the percentage of committed opinion holders required to influence a society remains at approximately 10 percent, regardless of how or where that opinion starts and spreads in the society.

To reach their conclusion, the scientists developed computer models of various types of social networks. One of the networks had each person connect to every other person in the network. The second model included certain individuals who were connected to a large number of people, making them opinion hubs or leaders.

The final model gave every person in the model roughly the same number of connections. The initial state of each of the models was a sea of traditional-view holders. Each of these individuals held a view, but were also, importantly, open minded to other views.

Once the networks were built, the scientists then “sprinkled” in some true believers throughout each of the networks. These people were completely set in their views and unflappable in modifying those beliefs. As those true believers began to converse with those who held the traditional belief system, the tides gradually and then very abruptly began to shift.

“In general, people do not like to have an unpopular opinion and are always seeking to try locally to come to consensus. We set up this dynamic in each of our models,” said SCNARC Research Associate and corresponding paper author Sameet Sreenivasan.

To accomplish this, each of the individuals in the models “talked” to each other about their opinion. If the listener held the same opinions as the speaker, it reinforced the listener’s belief. If the opinion was different, the listener considered it and moved on to talk to another person. If that person also held this new belief, the listener then adopted that belief.

“As agents of change start to convince more and more people, the situation begins to change,” Sreenivasan said. “People begin to question their own views at first and then completely adopt the new view to spread it even further. If the true believers just influenced their neighbors, that wouldn’t change anything within the larger system, as we saw with percentages less than 10.”

The research has broad implications for understanding how opinion spreads. “There are clearly situations in which it helps to know how to efficiently spread some opinion or how to suppress a developing opinion,” said Associate Professor of Physics and co-author of the paper Gyorgy Korniss. “Some examples might be the need to quickly convince a town to move before a hurricane or spread new information on the prevention of disease in a rural village.”

The researchers are now looking for partners within the social sciences and other fields to compare their computational models to historical examples. They are also looking to study how the percentage might change when input into a model where the society is polarized. Instead of simply holding one traditional view, the society would instead hold two opposing viewpoints. An example of this polarization would be Democrat versus Republican.

The research was funded by the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) through SCNARC, part of the Network Science Collaborative Technology Alliance (NS-CTA), the Army Research Office (ARO), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

The research is part of a much larger body of work taking place under SCNARC at Rensselaer. The center joins researchers from a broad spectrum of fields – including sociology, physics, computer science, and engineering – in exploring social cognitive networks. The center studies the fundamentals of network structures and how those structures are altered by technology. The goal of the center is to develop a deeper understanding of networks and a firm scientific basis for the newly arising field of network science.

More information on the launch of SCNARC can be found at http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2721&setappvar=page(1) <http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2721&setappvar=page%281%29> .

This article was originally published at www.newswise.com <http://www.newswise.com/>

Israel Jewish News

More Non-Military Actions Against Iran

Purim Poem 2012

May the Miracles of the Past be the Miracles of our Present!

Rabbi Angel on Purim

Our Joy Increases! Beinisch "Retires" from Supreme Court

B"H

Beinisch Bids Teary Farewell to Bench

Please Don't Give Me a Valentine!

Community Stands Up Against Missionaries

Community Stands Up to Missionary Mailings

Incredibly Disgusting Action: Saudi "Hackers" Explose Credit Card Information of 400,000 Israelis

Saudi Hackers Expose Israelis' Credit Cards

A FREE Technological Answer to On-Line Tsniut Issues

49 Hours of Shabbat?

The Day Shabbat Started on Thursday Night

US Looks the Other Way While Iran Engineers Destruction

Rabbi Elyashiv Condemns Hareidim to Poverty, Ignorance . . . Again

Rabbi Elyashiv Tells Hareidim: No to College, Army Programs

Back to my blogging . . .

Some customs for the holiday of Hanoukah by Joseph Mosseri

The Laws of the Sukkah, According to Dr. Seuss

Personal Memories of 9/11

Finally! Bibi has found his BZ! EVERY terrorist who took part in the raid against innocent Israeli citizens in Eilat have been ELIMINATED. That includes the lookouts and the scouts--E*V*E*R*Y*O*N*E.

Please, Israel! Block Your Ears! Gird Your Loins! ATTACK!! ATTACK!! Don't Listen to the EU and US Weenies! DESTROY AMALEK!

Rockets from Gaza, Hezbullah Gearing Up, and Egyptian Troops Taking on al Qaeda in the Sinai . . . Maybe G-d wasn't Bluffing When HE Said We Should "Drive Out the Inhabitants of the Land Before You."

Nancy Wake, "The White Mouse," and Hero of World War II, Passes Away at 98 (May G-d Bless Her Soul)

SYDNEY (AFP)---Nancy Wake, Australia's greatest World War II heroine and a prominent figure in the French Resistance known as the "The White Mouse" for her ability to evade the Germans, has died in London.

Sheba Medical Center Finds Key to Slowing Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a particularly aggressive, rapidly spreading disease for which there is no effective treatment.

US Holocaust Museum Lanches "Do You Remember Me?" Exhibit to Locate Lost Children of Holocaust.

Der Spiegel Reports Mossad Killed Iranian Nuclear Scientist

Yeshivah of Flatbush Adapts to Needs of Syrian Community

Social Scientists Discover Only 10% "Committed Minority" Required to Change Majority

Finally! Bibi has found his BZ! EVERY terrorist who took part in the raid against innocent Israeli citizens in Eilat have been ELIMINATED. That includes the lookouts and the scouts--EVERYON*E.