This has been cross-posted on Shiloh Musings, where there are a number of comments. If you'd like, you can comment on both blogs. And just to remind you, I post much more frequently there.

This week's Parshat Shavua, Torah Portion of the Week, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim (Leviticus 16-20) is chock full of G-d given Mitzvot, Commandments. It's interesting that while many of them concern relations between human beings, the phrase "אֲנִי, יְהוָה," "I am the LORD," is repeated very frequently. IMHO, this is to illustrate that we aren't to look for logical, sociological, biological, health or botanical reasons for these Mitzvot. It's forbidden to search for rationales and excuses to ignore them. In Israel and in the Jewish world, unfortunately, there are periodic reports of Torah, Orthodox converts discovering that other Jews will not recognize or even have "cancelled" their conversions.
The word of the Beit Din, to consider a person Jewish is a contract, and once it's signed, it's forbidden to change the conditions
Sometimes Jews who converted with totally sincere intentions and under the supervision of fully Torah observant rabbis, relax their observance post-conversion, just like born Jews whose observance fluctuates throughout life. In this week's Parsha, Torah Portion, there's a sentence which could be considered defense the convert:

לג וְכִי-יָגוּר אִתְּךָ גֵּר, בְּאַרְצְכֶם--לֹא תוֹנוּ, אֹתוֹ. 33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not do him wrong.

לד כְּאֶזְרָח מִכֶּם יִהְיֶה לָכֶם הַגֵּר הַגָּר אִתְּכֶם, וְאָהַבְתָּ לוֹ כָּמוֹךָ--כִּי-גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם, בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם: אֲנִי, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם. 34 The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

לה לֹא-תַעֲשׂוּ עָוֶל, בַּמִּשְׁפָּט, בַּמִּדָּה, בַּמִּשְׁקָל וּבַמְּשׂוּרָה. 35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. לו מֹאזְנֵי צֶדֶק אַבְנֵי-צֶדֶק, אֵיפַת צֶדֶק וְהִין צֶדֶק--יִהְיֶה לָכֶם: אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם, אֲשֶׁר-הוֹצֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם. 36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

As a religious Jew, I see/recognize the Hand of G-d in everything. Most religious people have the same attitude, unless they're just going throught the motions.

To me there's a fundamental irony, or even hypocrasy in the attitude of Chareidi Jews who refuse to thank G-d and celebrate the fact that Sixty One Years ago, the Zionist leadership dared to declare a Jewish State. You may notice that I put "Jewish" in italics. Because, yes, I recognize that the state is imperfect, far from authentically Jewish. But that's the fault of the religious establishment in 1948 and to this day, both the Mizrachi (NRP) and Agudat Yisrael, because they relegated themselves, ghettoized, restricted their government involvement to their separate school systems and the religious establishment. They should have made efforts to be involved in every aspect of the country's development including, agriculture, military, entertainment and televison when it came to Israel.

Judaism demands constant striving for improvement, for Tshuva, Repentance. We must never accept status quo as permanent, engraved in stone. And we must never give up our struggles to make our country, better, stronger, more self-reliant and independent. The Declaration signed sixty-one years ago just heralded a new begining, not an end.

We must thank G-d for it and ask Him for the strength we need to continue and make Israel a more Jewish State.

The cemetery was full of people sitting and standing during the memorial ceremony. The graves in this picture are mostly of old people who died from "natural causes."

 We've adopted the custom of reading T'hillim, Psalms, of the letters of the soldiers and terror victims' names at each grave. I stood with the parents of someone buried in a different cemetery. We found ourselves standing around an empty chair. It spooked me. An empty chair, such a simple and direct symbol of their dead son.

Hashem Yinkom Damom

This is also posted on Shiloh Musings. You're invited to comment there, too. Thanks

The cliche` is correct. Truth is stranger than fiction.  If someone had "invented the story," there would be protests that the plot was anti-Semitic.

Crime Pays Someone -- The Madoff Movie

Bernie Made-Off with lots of other people's money. And now there's going to be a movie about him. No surprise. Crooks generally make interesting characters.

I once went to a lecture about book-writing. We were told that there must be some conflict. The Bernie Madoff story has lots of conflict. On one hand, he lived a very moral life. He was involved in Jewish organizations and seemed the model super-rich Jew. Unknown to almost everyone, he was really a top con artist. Now, the real billion dollar que$tion for the script-writers will be:

"Who else was in cahoots?"

So far, I haven't heard any real answers. Did his wife know? Did Madoff's sons know?

I think (of course, I can't prove anything being just a blogger, neither police nor Private Investigator) that his sons knew.

They, both generations, feared that the Ponzi Scheme would soon be discovered. So they decided on one last scam. The sons would turn him in claiming that they had just discovered the truth. Bernie would swear up and down that his precious sons were totally innocent, as if anyone with half a brain could really believe the guy who had been lying and tricking even his best friends all these years.

Well, fools, like tigers, don't change their stripes so fast. Just look at Israel, which keeps on giving the Arab terrorists Land, gestures etc to encourage them to make peace, and all Israel gets in exchange is terrorism, war and threats.

Will this movie really be made? And if so, who gets the profits?

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov

Have a Peaceful Shabbat and a Good Month