IDF launches campaign against soldiers hitchhi... JPost - Defense

IDF launches campaign against soldiers hitchhi... JPost - Defense

Glossary of Shabbat Buzz-words

Ready for Shabbes? Here is another useful writing from Aish.com, about Glossary of Shabbat Buzz-words
Shabbat Shalom!

Book Review: Table Talk, by Moshe Pinchas Weisblum

(I am very very late with many reviews of books I've read lately so it is about time to start the counting and do my writing job).

One of the most well prepared moment of Shabbes, besides setting up the menu, is reading and preparing the weekly Parasha.

I listen or read many variants: at the beginning of the week, I start searching for some related discussions on YU Torah or Chabad.org or while reading different interpretations in the Orthodox media.

On Shabbes, I usually read once the Chumash and shortly after the comments. I discuss one more the short version with the children. At shul, I am reading the Hebrew version by myself. Eventually, thereafter, I continue with another sum up the discussion with the children to be sure that we have a common understanding of the main benchmarks.

In addition, I listen to the shiurim of the rabbi delivered during the day. At the first sight, it might be more than enough,

but I always look for more interpretations and versions. The next level is to focus more on the home discussion and to spend more time around the Shabbes table discussing the weekly Parasha. For the moment, I am looking for suggestions of formats and ideas for brainstorming - mostly by connecting the ideas of the parasha to our daily life.

Thus I was more than happy to stumble upon a Moshe Pinchas Weisblum book dedicated to the Table Talk. For each parasha, there are a couple of simple questions with the suggested answer that could organize at a certain extent the discussion. The level of difficulty is easy to medium and it is not difficult to follow and participate at the discussion. For each Parasha I found new interesting angles of view and I think it is useful for many – like me – looking to establish a minimal level of the discussions held on Shabbes.

Who's afraid by the Internet?

May 20, Sunday in the evening, it will be a mass rally against the Internet on Citi Fields in Queens, New York City. When I first saw the news I had a deja-vu feeling: I am familiar with the strong opposition against Internet in many haredi circles. Recently, while I was trying to explain how many opportunities you have nowadays to learn about Judaism through the various online shiurim I was cut short that you cannot have a virtual Rebbe. I was explained that you should follow your Rebbe and be close to him and his way of being and behaving. Perfectly right, I thought, but what you can do when you live somewhere without direct access to a Rebbe and with no possibilities to attend a shul.  

I owe at a great extent my baal teshuva process to the resources that I found online and to the possibilities to connect with Orthodox people that were nowhere to find where I was living at the time. I know there are many people, including in the world of yeshiva bochurs misusing the Internet, but in my opinion you do not need to forbid Internet in order to eradicate the evil in the world. You better think about how to teach people how to fish their yetzer hara tendencies and win over their animal soul. This discussion has many common points with the debate about how a man survive in a world where there are women otherwise than by isolating themselves by huge walls. If one cannot control himself do not accuse the women. Very often, one of the reasons I prefer to daven in an Orthodox shul is that I have the mechitzas preventing men to start at women while davening. It is human nature and whether it is manifested online or in the cave, we humans are no much different from an epoch to another. 

It would have been better to invest the money used for organizing the rally in more educational programs, eventually an online program. 

The Scapegoat | Britain's Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks | Orthodox Union

The Scapegoat | Britain's Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks | Orthodox Union

Yizkor prayer for Yom HaZikaron

http://www.izkor.gov.il/Tfilat_Izkor.aspx

"יִזְכֹּר אֱלֹהִים אֶת נִשְמוֹת בָּנָיו-גִּבּוֹרָיו, חַיָּלֵי צְבָא הֲגַנָּה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, שֶׁנָּפְלוּ בְּמִלְחֲמוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל, בִּפְעֻלּוֹת הֲגַנָּה, תַּגְמוּל וּבִטָּחוֹן וּבְעֵת מִלּוּי תַּפְקִידָם, וְנִשְׁמוֹת כָּל לוֹחֲמֵי הַמַּחְתֶּרֶת וַחֲטִיבוֹת הַלּוֹחֲמִים בְּמַעַרְכוֹת הָעָם, שֶׁחֵרְפוּ נַפְשָׁם לָמוּת עַל קְדֻשַּׁת הַשֵּׁם, וּבְעֶזְרַת אֱלֹהֵי מַעַרְכוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל הֵבִיאוּ לִתְקוּמַת הָאֻמָּה וְהַמְּדִינָה וְלִגְאֻלַּת הָאָרֶץ וְעִיר הָאֱלֹהִים. מִנְּשָׁרִים קַלּוּ וּמֵאֲרָיוֹת גָּבֵרוּ, בְּהֵחָלְצָם לְעֶזְרַת הָעָם וְהִרְווּ בְּדָמָם הַטָּהוֹר אֶת רִגְבֵי אַדְמַת קָדְשֵׁנוּ. זֵכֶר עֲקֵדָתָם וּמַעֲשֵׂה גְבוּרָתָם לֹא יָסוּפוּ מֵאִתָּנוּ לְעוֹלָמִים. תִּהְיֶינָה נִשְׁמוֹתֵיהֶם צְרוּרוֹת בִּצְרוֹר הַחַיִּים עִם נִשְׁמוֹת אַבְרָהָם, יִצְחָק וְיַעֲקֹב וְעִם שְׁאָר גִּבּוֹרֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וּקְדוֹשָׁיו שֶׁבְּגַן עֵדֶן עַד
 

עוֹלָם. אָמֵן".
 

" May G-d remember the souls of His heroic children: The fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who fell in the wars of Israel, in defensive, retaliative, and security actions and during the fulfillment of their duty, including the souls of the underground fighters and brigades who fought in the national struggle - all those who sacrificed their lives for the sanctification of G-d's Name.

And with the help of G-d, the Lord of Israel's campaigns, they brought about the revival of the nation and the state and the redemption of the land and the city of G-d.
They were quicker than eagles and stronger than lions as they volunteered to assist the nation, and they saturated our holy land with their pure blood.
The memory of their self-sacrifice and heroic deeds will never disappear from us. May their souls be bound in the Bond of Life with the souls of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and with the souls of the other heroes and martyrs of Israel who are in the Garden of Eden. Amen."

Ready for Pesach? For Freedom?

What you can do in the days before being freed? Doing your best to deserve your freedom. From this point of view, cleaning means more than vacuuming and washing; it means as well reorganizing your priorities, thinking bolder to the future and finding time for thinking about the story of the Haggada - including the newest version, by JSFoer.

I found interesting this minhag of the Syrian Jews, according to this feature report:

Syrians — like Egyptians and other Jews who hail from Arab lands — will wrap the matzo in a cloth, sometimes resembling a knapsack. The Syrian tradition — at least in her family — is for each male, from oldest to youngest, to take the covered ceremonial matzo, hold it over his left shoulder and respond to three questions: What are you carrying? Matzo. Where are you coming from? Egypt. Where are you going? Israel.

At the practical level, I am trying to do my best for covering all those aspects. I am not always very successful, but at least I am learning more and more each day. Out of my working program, I put aside some time for reading about the traditions, cleaning some strange corners of the house and learning something insightful. Blogging is not necessarily part of the plan, but will try to update my online thinking diary as often as possible in the next days.