Have a good week, no a better week.  Last week was very tragic for the Jewish People.  Read more on Shiloh Musings and me-ander, including my memorial of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.

Opting Out, The Yitzchak Rabin Memorial Hate-Fest

One of the best things about my recent work schedule, night shift, has been missing the Israeli television news.  This is the season when hate, sinat chinam, baseless hatred against other Jews, is celebrated by the media, politicians and public figures.

Yitzchak Rabin memorial at Jerusalem Municipality

There are so many theories based on fact and fiction about the killing of Yitzchak Rabin, it's hard to know exactly what happened.  There are more holes in the official judicial conviction of Yigal Amir than in Swiss Cheese a fishing net.

Rabin's killing has replaced Chaim Alosoroff's, Dir Yassin, King David Hotel bombing etc to incite Jew against Jew. 

I pray for true peace and the cessation of this hatred.  I demand that the Left do the חשבון נפש Cheshbon Nefesh, Accounting of the Soul, to see the true source of hatred, how David Ben-Gurion could have had no compunctions about ordering Yitzchak Rabin to lead the attack against the Jews bringing weapons on the Altalena to free Jerusalem from the Arabs.  Yes, Rabin attacked innocent Jews.  That his memory is being used to incite against Jews is a tragedy, because nothing was learned from the earlier tragedies brought to you/us by the Israel Left.

Chodesh Tov.  Today we celebrate a new month, Cheshvan.  G-d willing the rains will start in sufficient quantities to make up for the years of drought.  I'll be going to Tel Shiloh soon for Women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers. For more information about that and other things going on in my life, here in The Eye of the Storm, read Shiloh Musings and me-ander.

Israel's Right to Self-Defense, Lop-Sided Prisoner Exchanges Endanger Us

Let's start with HonestReporting's excellent slideshow

Maybe I missed something, but I never quite caught on to the reason why the State of Israel took on responsibility for paying for this Ilan Grapel's release from Egypt with prisoners.

Why is Jonathan Pollard still in an American jail?

Don't forget that the Arab terrorists aren't stupid, cruel and violent, but not stupid:

Hamas TV: Kidnap 6 more Israeli soldiers and free remaining 6,000 prisoners

I haven't posted here for quite a while.  The last few times I tried, there were technical problems which I couldn't solve.  I hope you've been readying my posts on Shiloh Musings and me-ander.

American Celebrities Should Mind Their Own Business!

The American economy is collapsing, in much worse shape than the Israeli one, and American entertainers and entrepreneurs have come to Israel to tell us how to run our country.  If they are such experts, let them fix the United States.

I love the joke/story in the Dry Bones comments by Elias:

“Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.” ― Ronald Reagan Just replace Jimmy Carter with Barack Obama to update it!

I try to be careful in terms of my comments about American politics, and I was born, raised in the states and have American citizenship.  What right do these American celebrities have to use their fame to try to force Israeli public opinion to follow their far Left ideology?

"Frank Costanza may have famously asked for “serenity now” on Seinfeld, but George Costanza, also known as comedian Jason Alexander, plans to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority at a conference in the Knesset titled “The Knesset and the Nation: A debate in the aftermath of the Schalit deal” on Monday afternoon. ...Alexander is part of a delegation of more than 30 entrepreneurs and entertainers from the US visiting Israel with the “One Voice” campaign. The group will be hosted by MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima), the head of the Knesset Caucus to Promote the Two-State Solution and Separation Between Israel and the Palestinians..."

These American entrepreneurs and entertainers should mind their own business, not only as an idiom.  The United States is suffering serious unemployment and manufacturing is not increasing; importing and outsourcing are.  There's plenty for them to do at home.  They shouldn't interfere with our security, our future.  They haven't a clue and won't pay the price for their mistakes.  Yes, I did see that Yoel Hasson of the Kadima Party is hosting them.  Kadima is the party of opportunism, no surprise.  They're into make-believe, so foreign celebrities are just their speed to try to bamboozle the Israeli public. I'm not buying!

It's hard to believe that Rosh Hashannah is just over a week away.  How many of us prepare spiritually as much as we prepare our kitchens and wardrobes?

You can read more of my writing on me-ander and Shiloh Musings.  Please do.  I post there much more frequently.

Words, Oaths, Hatred and Truth

Not for the first time and certainly not for the last, Dry Bones pegged it 100% correct, right*.

In Judaism, words have powers.  If you say you're going to do something, you must do it, because by saying you've made a נדר  vow, neder, an oath.  To prevent the commitment, we're supposed to preface all of our words with בלי נדר "bli neder," not to be taken as an oath, promise.

In today's world, all sorts of important people and governments have special offices filled with PR public relations experts, master "spinners," who compose fancy statements in the names of their employers to "fix" the "foot in mouth" miss-statements of their bosses/employers.  Of course, it's all fiction.  Just because someone reads out one of these "little speeches" doesn't mean that anything has changed in the mind of the "guilty."  It's just a formula statement to get out of trouble.

Yesterday morning, at Pardess, Rabbi Reuven Grodner taught us about the various levels of vows in his "Rav Soloveitchik on Repentance" course. For each type of vow:

• gross error
• poor judgment
• anger

Nullification is a process, not just a superficial recitation of words.  Each level demands a different process.  It's a "cleansing" like any repentance.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made a terrible mistake when he stated that he's in favor of a Pseudostinian AKA Palestinian sic State.  It doesn't matter how he defines that "state" and what limitations he suggests for it.  A "state" is a "state."  Haggling over details won't save him or us.  Bibi must recognize his error in words and judgment.  Netanyahu must firmly state that he made a great error.  Then he must, in the most public way and place-- yes, the United Nations is the perfect forum-- the Prime Minister of Israel must make it clear that there is only one Nation native to the Holy Land, and that's the Jewish Nation.  We have a State of Israel, and it's the only country that has any historic right to be here.

Here we are in the Jewish Month of Elul, the time for תשובה Teshuva, Repentance.  One can repent any time of the year, but no doubt that G-d has timed this opportunity for a reason.

right* Why is it that right means correct and is also the side of the political spectrum that sees things most clearly and pragmatically?

Here in Shiloh, we know the Holidays are approaching, because our pool has closed.  Nights and mornings are colder.  The kids and teachers are in school.  Our school is now thirty years old.  It's hard to believe that thirty years ago we moved to Shiloh.  You can read more about ordinary life here on me-ander and Shiloh Musings.

Post-9/11 Silence

Silence, The Sound of Silence....

For ten years I've been waiting for Americans to tell Israelis how they now understand what Israel goes through all the time. Terrorism isn't rare in Israel.

Our southern cities are targeted by Arab terrorists launching dangerous missiles almost daily.

And the world is silent...

Arab terrorists massacre Jewish families in their homes.

And the world is silent...

Arab suicide terrorists blow up buses, killing innocent civilians.

And the world is silent...

Arab terrorists stab Jews.

And the world is silent...

Arab terrorists uproot and destroy Jewish vineyards and orchards.

And the world is silent...

Arab terrorists shoot and kill Jews traveling.

And the world is silent...

Arab terrorists throw boulders at cars murdering the Jewish passengers.

And the world is silent...

Fool, said I, you do not know, silence, like a cancer, grows Hear my words and I might teach you, take my arms then I might reach you But my words, like silent raindrops fell, and echoed in the wells of silence Paul Simon

The terrorists who attacked the United States ten years ago, 9/11, are connected to the Arab terrorists who attack Jews in Israel. World terrorism won't end until all terrorism, including the Arab terrorists attacking Jews in Israel are totally destroyed.