Succot Musical Slide Show, Shiloh

I finally figured out how to add music to the pictures I took of our succah and at Tel Shiloh.


Enjoy, I hope!





The music is from Eliezer Rosenfeld's cd.

"Hester Pannim," G-d's Hidden Face, In The Iranian "Nuclear Virus"

If this is Israel's secret weapon of destruction against the Iranian nuclear development, I can live with it.  The New York Times has a surprising article delving into the origins of the computer worm which has infected the Iranian computers.

"Deep inside the computer worm that some specialists suspect is aimed at slowing Iran’s race for a nuclear weapon lies what could be a fleeting reference to the Book of Esther, the Old Testament tale in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them.


That use of the word “Myrtus” — which can be read as an allusion to Esther* — to name a file inside the code is one of several murky clues that have emerged as computer experts try to trace the origin and purpose of the rogue Stuxnet program, which seeks out a specific kind of command module for industrial equipment."

*Esther= Haddas (Hadassa) myrtle


The Book of Esther tells of a miracle. It's obvious that G-d must be responsible for the happy ending, but G-d is never mentioned in the book, not even once. "Hester Pannim," G-d's Hidden Face, is an important lesson.  Our lives are filled with miracles. G-d is everywhere.


No, I don't have any "inside information" about this computer worm.  I don't know who made it or where or how to hack into other people's computers.  I can barely use mine properly.  I haven't even figured out how to add music to a video/movie/slide show.  I haven't been able to save any music onto this newly formatted and memory enhanced computer.

Very Lala, Leftists Support Terrorist Gaza

Israel's Lala Leftists are enamoured with the Gazan Arab terrorists who actually want them dead.

Arab terrorists don't distinguish between Jews of different ideological stripes.  These clowns are just too lala to comprehend reality. 

I'm proudly pragmatically Right, not wrong.

Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan at Tel Shiloh

It's hard to believe that in just over a week, it will again be Rosh Chodesh.  Yes, Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan:

Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan Women's Prayers at Tel Shiloh
Friday, October 8, 2010 at 9:30am
ראש חודש חשון
תפילת נשים בתל שילה
יום ו', 8/10 9:30

כולן מזמנות

Please let people know about it.  There's lots of room for one and all.

AFSI Pro-Jewish Building Demonstration

It's good to have friends!
Helen Freedman, AFSI, thanks so much!!

This Afternoon's Walk Through Tel Shiloh

Watch the movie, it's like walking along with me in the most beautiful place in the world.




I'll have to figure out how to add music.

Sarkozy Is Copying Obama

Just like U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama has been trying to improve his pathetic approval ratings by bamboozling Israel into selling her birthright for a photo-op and handshake, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy is trying the same trick.

Why should Israel cooperate with these farces?

There's no need for us to try to win the approval of foreign leaders.

The Jewish People has been in existence long before the French and long before some seasick Europeans made it to the shores of what was believed to have been western India.

If Obama and Sarkozy are losing popularity in their countries, they're probably not governing the way they should be.  It's that simple and it has nothing to do with the State of Israel!

There will only be peace when Israel stops begging for it!

Passive Solar Heating

I have no exact memory of when/how/where I first heard about passive solar heating, but that's how I wanted our home to be designed and built. I may have heard of it when we lived in England for two years and I read articles about using wind for electricity. 

Soon after we moved to Shiloh we chose a building plot and hired an architect.  I told him what I wanted him to design.  He hadn't heard of it, and this predated the internet making it very difficult to research the revolutionary concept of Passive Solar Heating. 

One thing I did know was that we had to live on the eastern slope of the mountain.  That's where we were, by chance, in Bayit V'Gan, Jerusalem.  Friends who lived on the western slope in a very similar apartment and exposures suffered from terrible winds, and we didn't.  I found the perfect spot.  It was one of the lots prepared for a prefab which had been detoured to another community, so it was on the water, sewer and electricity lines.

My mother found us a couple of books about passive solar heating which I avidly read.  She also contacted her brother's close friend from the PalYam, Israel's pre-state navy, which brought in Jewish survivors of the Nazi holocaust against the British blockade.  Gidon Rozen was one of Israel's earliest building engineers and he visited us and gave the architect advice.

In the end, the house wasn't built with any special materials.  Our contractor had even less experience than the architect, but he meticulously researched to provide the best insulation and construction possible.  And, thank G-d, we've needed fewer repairs than any other homeowner.

Our house was designed to absorb the sunlight through well-placed double windows.  And the guy who did the second set of windows, top-quality aluminum had even less experience than the builder.  You could say that the house was built with very good intentions by highly intelligent inexperienced people.  Only the architect had any professional, in his field, training and qualifications.

One surprise, which wasn't mentioned at all in the books and articles I had read, was that in the winter strong winds come from the south here in Shiloh, Israel.  And winds heralding seasonal changes come from the east.  And our large windows are on the south and on the east.

All in all, the house is relatively comfortable in the winter with minimal heating, and it's much too hot in the summer.  If the fruit trees I planted by the eastern windows had thrived instead of dying then we'd be shaded in the summer.  I guess the guys who planted them didn't dig deep enough holes.

Most people don't have the opportunity to plan, design and build their own home.  There are things about the house I wouldn't change and there are mistakes, too.  But I'm not moving!

Really Surreal, Facts and Fiction in The Holyland

I just came back from a lovely few hours at Tel Shiloh.  There were totally peaceful and enjoyable activities for the entire family.  You wouldn't have believed that international politicians, diplomats and the media are raising a storm about our living in our historic and holy Land. It sure seemed quiet and relaxing here.

All this talk about "the talks" is just causing the Arabs to feel that it's in their best interest to attack Jewish Israelis.  That's because they're afraid that if Israel hands their home to Arab rule, G-d forbid, they'll be in trouble if they don't have proof  that they didn't cooperate with Israel.  And the best method for guaranteeing their "life insurance" is to attack innocent Israeli Jews.

Life was a lot more peaceful prior to all these peace talks.  "Peace" is very dangerous to our health and survival.  That's because the stuff that's being marketed to us isn't real peace.  It's a dangerous placebo.

The Jewish Calendar, Not All So Black And White

After so many generations, centuries etc following a set/predicted/calculated Jewish Calendar, we forget that the "new moon" announcement was by humans, a matter of opinion and sometimes blurred by storm and rain clouds.  Our local Rabbi, HaRav Elchanan Bin-Nun once shocked a group of us at an English language Shavuot Shiur (Torah Class) by saying that the crews waiting to announce the New Moon had instructions not to see it at certain times.  That's because if seen at those times we'd have Holidays, like Yom HaKippurim on the wrong days, such as a Friday or Sunday.

On the Sabba Hillel blog, there's more about the calendar and how if we had a functioning/recognized Sanhedrin today, they would possibly "tweak" it.

Hiking The Land of Israel

Today was the annual Avihu Keinan (HaYa"D) Chai Memorial March through the Land of Israel.

I'll start off admitting that for family reasons I could only be on the very beginning of the hike, and the pictures I took were from that, just the first kilometer or so.  For a number of local Shiloh families, the annual hike through the Land is the highlight of their year.  They come year after year with children of all ages.

Living here in a time when people travel in bulletproof vehicles, or at least plastic windows to reduce shattering, it's inspiring and invigorating to walk, doing our traveling the natural way.  The more we walk the stronger we feel, both physically and spiritually.  The Land keeps us going.

Remember that the Jewish People had been exiled many years and returned.  During that time, the Land was desolate, like a depressed person without energy.  That was the Land of Israel before Zionism encouraged Jews to return.

Today not only have Jews returned Home from all over the world, but descendants of Jews who had been lost to our heritage and religion have also found their way to Judaism, the Land of Israel and  Shiloh.

Avihu's bereaved family isn't broken.  They've found new strength in themselves, the community and the Land.

Join us.  This Monday and Tuesday will be lots of activities for the entire family at Tel Shiloh, September 27-28, 10am-5pm.  For transportation from Jerusalem and more information telshilo@gmail.com 02-994-4019. Entrance fee NS25 per child and NS35 per adult.

Religious Rights for Jews!

Why do we have to fight for our civil rights in Israel?


Why do Jews get arrested for praying in our most sacred spot?

Jew Arrested for Praying on Temple Mount
Reported: 10:44 AM - Sep/26/10


Police on Sunday morning arrested a Jew who had prayed on the Temple Mount. The circumstances of the arrest were not clear, and family members and friends were seeking to have the detainee released.

This isn't the first time.  It's not really news considering how often it happens, but it's awful just the same.  Each time we hear of such a case we must scream and complain as if it's a surprise, as if it's the first time.  We mustn't let the frequency of these anti-Jewish acts jade us to their seriousness.No doubt that if we build the Holy Temple, the Moshiach will come and reveal himself.  He has been lurking around since June, 1967 when Israel defeated three armies and liberated Judea, Samaria, Golan, Jordan Valley, Gaza and Sinai.  Our procrastination is holding things up.


Just a couple of months ago was Tisha B'Av, the 9th of Av when Torah Jews fasted to commemorate the destruction of our Holy Temple and  the loss of Jerusalem thousands of years ago.  Since June, 1967, the Temple Mount, Har HaBayit has been in the custody of the Israeli Government.  Why haven't we built the Third Temple?  Why aren't Jewish Prayers routine and legal on Har HaBayit?

"If you build it, he will come..."

No doubt that the Moshiach ben David has been lucking here since June, 1967, when the IDF miraculously defeated the three Arab countries/armies, Jordan, Egypt and Syria, and in the process liberated Judea, Samaria, Golan, Jordan Valley, Gaza and Sinai.  It's up to us, not up to G-d.  We must show that we're ready.


Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

Latma's Latest, The Succah Special and The Real Churchill

If Only Mickey Eitan Would Listen Carefully To His Own Words

There's such disproportionate press coverage when someone from Israel's Right turns Left.  The latest misguided star is MK Michael Eitan whose opinions got lots of inches in Friday's Jerusalem Post.


One of the articles begins with a story.  Actually it's a very wise story, but I don't see how it proves Eitan's point.  Actually, I think that it does the opposite.  It makes Eitan look dangerously foolish:

When Michael Eitan was a boy in the early years of the state, growing up in north Tel Aviv not far from the beach, the older kids in the neighborhood taught him how to swim. “They always reminded me, when I swam out to sea, to keep looking back to the shore,” he remembers now. “They told me to keep my eye on my point of departure, and to check back every few minutes, to make sure that I knew where I was headed and that the sea wasn’t taking me places I didn’t want to go.”

Eitan's new Left wing ideology is taking him to a place I'm sure he doesn't want to go.  I fear that his newly outed Leftist opinions will head us to the deligitimazation of the State of Israel and its destruction by the Pseudostinians aka Palestinians sic G-d forbid.


Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should also hear that story and be reminded that his support of a Pseudostinian aka Palestinian sic state and his willingness to join the American choreographed "negotiations."  United States President Barack Hussein Obama has made it very clear that his main goal is the establishment of a Pseudostinian aka Palestinian sic state and not peace and security for Israel.

Right On! King Solomon Was Correct!

On Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot we read קוהלת Kohelet  Ecclesiastes.  These are the words of King Solomon after he realized that he wasted his life on הבל hevel vanities as it's generally translated or more accurately norishkeit,  wastefulness, useless activities and possessions.  I've read through it many times and even studied it.  Each time I read it I find something new.


Today a certain line jumped out at me:

Ecclesiastes Chapter 10 קֹהֶלֶת
ב לֵב חָכָם לִימִינוֹ, וְלֵב כְּסִיל לִשְׂמֹאלוֹ.
2. The heart of the wise man is at his right, whereas the heart of the fool is at his left.

So, for those who like those Right/Left ideological labels, I'm very happy to be considered on the Right!

Spying Succot in Jerusalem

I've always loved that quirky Jewish Israeli, especially in cities like Jerusalem, architecture where מרפסות mirpessot, balconies, terraces are specially designed and placed according to Halacha, Jewish Law to enable the building of kosher succot for each apartment.

In more frugal (and less egalitarian) times there was barely enough space for one person, the male head of the household, to have a strictly kosher succah seat.  A friend of mine who grew up in Jerusalem's Bayit V'Gan neighborhood in an apartment like that once told me that every year her father would call on the local rabbi, HaRav Min HaHar, to pay a "house call" and inspect the succah to make sure it had enough space for him to sit, eat and say the appropriate prayers.

Today's Torah observant Jewish families have larger succot, and frequently there are two, one for sleeping and one for eating, even in the cities.  And it's the norm for Jerusalem's commercial streets to have succot on the sidewalks next to restaurants.

I've always enjoyed listening to neighbors singing holiday songs in their succot.

Chag Succot Sameach

Have a Truly Joyous Holiday!

Rest in Peace or RIP Off - A Cautionary Tale

Rest in Peace or RIP Off -
A Cautionary Tale
By Sara L. Shomron

It should have never happened this way. My beloved father of blessed memory was buried several months when my mother and sisters recently asked me to take care of his headstone marker. It is a very sensitive and delicate issue deciding what to inscribe. Does the gravestone tell a story so that others walking by have an inkling of the life lived? What would the deceased have wanted? My mother and sisters wanted it kept simple, and so I did as asked.

Lesson #1: Google search and learn as much information NOW rather than waiting until the information is needed by you or a loved one. Once the need arises people are in grief, unable to function, and may become reliant on funeral services to assist in this delicate time of need.

My initial contact with the funeral counselor employed by my mother got off to an ominous start. The paperwork for my father, of blessed memory, couldn’t be found. Several times I was asked to email the exact spelling of his name. I felt I was getting the run-around and ran a Google search on the cemetery where he's interred. I was aghast to learn of cemetery grave disturbances which reads in part:

“… The evidence indicates there has been a pervasive practice of grave disturbances and desecrations at Eden Memorial Park Cemetery spanning an approximate 30 year time period. A number of groundskeepers and supervisors have admitted under oath they routinely damaged and broke burial vaults containing human remains, sometimes as much as two to three times per week. These groundskeepers and supervisors have further admitted that many times this would cause human remains, including bones, to spill out of the broken burial vaults. According to the sworn testimony, the groundskeepers were often instructed by the cemetery to discard any remaining bones, pieces of burial shrouds or broken casket remnants in the cemetery dump located at the northern most section of the cemetery... ”

I was distraught. Why had my family selected this cemetery? What had happened to my father’s paperwork? How would we know it was indeed him in the grave? The headstone started tugging on my heartstrings.

Lesson #2: When someone offers to help trouble shoot, find out their credentials, job title, and responsibilities. As well meaning as they may be, do not assume they hold the capacity to assist.

Not to cause my mother further duress, I emailed my sister an update. My sister immediately contacted “S” and instructed me that it was with “S” I should be in direct contact regarding the headstone marker. Meanwhile the funeral counselor found the paperwork and instructed me to consult with my family as to what the marker should read. I found the funeral counselor unprofessional and switched to the services provided by “S.” I was pleased to work with “S” who had made a nice marker suggestion saying there would be no extra charge. “S” further told me I should sign my mother’s name and date since my mother’s health is deteriorating. I did as instructed. “S” then informed me that she had phoned the funeral counselor who would put in the order that Tuesday. I thought it all squared away.

Lesson #3: Always ask for confirmation. Don’t assume anything.

Hopeful the timing of a surprise birthday visit to my mother and the headstone unveiling ceremony would coincide, I recently contacted “S” and the funeral counselor asking if it would be possible to expedite the process as I’m traveling a great distance and at a great expense. You can imagine my surprise, aggravation, and disgust when the funeral counselor emailed me he had neither received the paperwork nor the order which I had submitted to “S” three weeks earlier.

Both funeral counselor and “S” remained silent when I shared the email correspondence between “S” and me with the funeral counselor. I also attached the headstone marker order to the funeral counselor which had been earlier submitted to “S”. Mind you, the funeral counselor had my email address and immediately following his phone conversation with “S” could have contacted me saying it was with him, and him alone, I needed to place the order and not “S”. I found him negligent in his job; this negligence directly responsible for my missing the headstone marker unveiling ceremony.

Lesson #4: Contact the employee’s superior when the employee doesn’t give you, the client, satisfaction.

I emailed the funeral counselor and “S” asking for the status and update on the marker. Their silence was deafening. Finally I emailed the funeral home director and marketing office,cc’d “S” and the funeral counselor, providing them with a brief synopsis. I received an immediate response from “S” claiming it wasn’t her job to order the marker. Why didn't “S” state this in our initial correspondence? Likewise the funeral counselor said he put the order in when he received it from me adding that it takes 7 to 10 days for the proof and once the proof is signed off it is another 6 to 8 weeks. And that the headstone marker proof had just come in.

Lesson #5: Hold fast to what’s agreed.

The funeral counselor emailed me the headstone marker proof but it did not reflect “S’s” suggestion to put a ‘pey nun' inside the Mogen David on top, at no additional cost. I asked the funeral counselor to please make the change and email the updated marker inscription for my signature. I then decided - dash it! Let’s just get this done. So I signed the initial proof and emailed it to the funeral counselor. The following day the funeral counselor emailed that he was making the requested correction and I should receive new proof later that day. Two days have since passed and no new proof. I am still waiting.

Lesson #6: Professionalism demands responsibility and accountability.

This all could have been avoided: 1) had the funeral counselor’s paperwork been organized such that it didn’t take about a week to find the paperwork for my father, of blessed memory. 2) had “S” stated from the onset that it was not her job to order the headstone. Inasmuch as she made suggestions and told me there would be no additional cost led me to reasonably assume she was so empowered.


In conclusion, people in mourning are very vulnerable. The dead cannot repay the living for the honor accorded and this makes it a very special kindness, act of devotion, and mitzvah. A word of counsel especially to those that are of the mindset to purchase a cemetery plot in advance: fill out the forms as to stone preference, and inscription wanted at the time the cemetery plot is bought. It will save loved ones heartstrings from being tugged at by headstones.

Obama's Using Pressure on Israel to Score Points With Americans

U.S. President Obama's popularity has been dropping.

"The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14 (see trends)."

The pundits predict that the Democrats will lose lots of seats in November's elections, though they may still keep their majorities/control. 

Obama's solution to his problems, put pressure on Israel.  Our Israeli leaders must wisen up and see what's really behind the "push for a solution."  It's not for our good, it's to make Obama and his Democrat Party look good.

Israel must do what's good for us, our future, our security.  No other country nor international organization cares about us.  We must recognize that fact.

AFSI Demonstration in New York: Israel’s very existence is at stake!

1751 Second Ave, New York, NY 10128
Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717; afsi@rcn.com   www.afsi.org
Contact: Helen Freedman, Executive Director


September 22, 2010


SAVE THE DATE – TUESDAY, SEPT.28, 2-5 P.M., Across from the Israeli Consulate, Second Avenue between 42nd-43rd Streets, New York City


Hundreds of Israelis will be joining AFSI and all groups concerned with the preservation of a whole Israel to speak against extending the construction freeze, and for the end of appeasement and give-aways of land and security in the Jewish homeland. While Israel’s holiest places are threatened- Jerusalem, Hebron, Judea and Samaria, and while Arabs build without constraint throughout the Galilee, the Negev, in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, Israel’s very existence is at stake.


The hosting of Iran’s Ahmadinejad at the United Arab Nations underscores the west’s inability to take the Iranian nuclear threat seriously. Israel, the country most immediately threatened with extermination by Iran, has critical decisions to make. Its leaders must know that Americans are with them.


During the Sukkot holiday, when we live and eat in fragile booths to commemorate the exodus from Egypt and the embrace of freedom in the promised land, let us speak with one voice in support of our beloved inheritance. It’s time for us to say – “here I am” – when asked, “where are you?”

Using Their Words, Why I'm Against the New Israel Fund NIF

This is the plain text of an promotional fundraising ad I got as an email from the New Israel Fund.  Read it carefully.  I inserted the emphasis/bold:

Dear Friends:


We are NIF. And we believe in an Israel that values social justice, human rights and democracy.


Over the last year, many people have tried to define the New Israel Fund for their own purposes. Now it's our turn. Over the past three decades, NIF has dedicated itself to building a better Israel. We are for equality for women... We are for narrowing the growing gaps in income and opportunity...We are for an Israel that allows every stream of Judaism to flourish... We are for preserving dwindling green space and environmental justice... We are for equalizing civil rights for the Palestinian, Ethiopian and other minorities...


We are the New Israel Fund.


We want you to get involved, and the best place to start is by learning more about us and what we do. visit WeAreNIF.org. If you like what you find then...


•Send your friends, family, and colleagues - or anyone who should to know that there is a way to support Israel that makes sense for people with progressive values - to WeAreNIF.org
•'Like' us on Facebook - we've added thousands of fans this year, but others need to know that loving Israel can come in a social justice flavor
•Tell the world with your own short video why you support the New Israel Fund.
•And, of course, donate. Because it's important to you that Israel continues to vigorously defend civil and human rights for everyone; because you see yourself as a partner with Israelis working for meaningful social change; because you think Israel should respect and recognize many Jewish religious expressions; and because you, like us, want to see Israel embody its own best ideals.
We wish you a happy, healthy New Year. Yes, We Are NIF - and you are, too.


Sincerely,

Daniel Sokatch
CEO

Here are some of my points countering what the NIF wrote:

• Nothing is mentioned about Jewish values and religion, just vague Leftist terminology like "social change" and "best ideals."
• Their "human rights for everyone" does not include Jews who value living in all parts of the Land of Israel or try to pray in Jewish Holy Sites like the Temple Mount.
• They equate Pseudostinians aka Palestinians sic with Ethiopians.  Does this mean that they don't consider our Ethiopian citizens to be legitimate Jews?
• According to their very own words, their ideal Israel isn't Jewish.  It's not based on Torah values.

Therefore I strongly oppose donating to the New Israel Fund.

Latma's Yom Kippur Videos, Including the Special "Apology"

Yes, they're preparing for the day when IBA will let them tell the Israeli citizens what must be told.





Elton John couldn't have sung it better!





Read Caroline Glick's
Who Lost Turkey

That Queens, NY, Storm Hit My Old Neighborhood

That big storm, ok hurricane that violently wrecked havoc in Northeastern Queens, NY, ripped through my old neighborhood in Bayside.  My Shiloh neighbor, Hillel Levin sent me a link to pictures. Judah S. Harris the photographer photographed the neighborhood, Main Street, where my cousin and I ate before my most recent flight back to Israel.  It's also where my husband and I sublet an apartment the summer we got married until we made aliyah.

PHOTO ESSAY - More Than a Breeze: Storm Photos from Queens, NY

View more presentations from Judah S. Harris.

The map included here is the map of my childhood haunts.  For thirteen years I lived in Bayside, which as you can see is right in the middle of the mayhem.  I'd walk to Fresh Meadows for the library, Bloomingdales and movies.  When I was thirteen we moved to Great Neck, but the eastern part, closer to Manhasset, just east of what's indicated as the end of the affected area.

That was the second strong hurricane that hit that area in the past few months.  No, if you're asking if it's an area that generally has a hurricane season.  Nobody ever heard of hurricanes on Long Island before.  My family has lived there a very long time.  The earlier hurricane was in late June, when my sister flew in to get my mother.  Middleneck Road, Great Neck's main commercial street was badly affected, and it took my sister hours to find my mother who had been in the beauty parlour.

It's really strange how weather has changed there.  In recent winters there have been ice storms, also a totally new weather phenomena for the area.

New Horrid Youtube Message From Hamas Re: Gilad Shalit

Obviously the Shalit family is very upset.  Hamas is using psychological warfare to torture the family.  Shalit has been held captive a long time, unless you compare his imprisonment with Jonathan Pollard's.  The United States Government has punished Pollard more severely and longer than any goyish enemy spy who did anything similar.  Pollard admitted to giving information to Israel, but Israel's an ally.  How many other similar cases have there ever been?

Now there's this fokokt idea being publicized that Israel will continue the freeze another three months in exchange for Pollard.  Israel should declare the United States and enemy and forget it and forget the dangerous so-called negotiations.  There aren't any negotiations.  The United States keeps pushing its "plan."  None of the plans, not Bibi's nor either Tzippi's nor Lieberman's nor Obama's ad nauseum will give us peace.  The only question would be how long the modern State of Israel can survive with an internationally supported Arab terror state in its midst.

Back to the Gilad Shalit problem.  No chance of meetings of these so-called "negotiations" until Gilad Shalit is back home!  That's our condition and that's it.  And once he's home, we'll think about meeting with Obama and his crew. 

If it was my decision, we wouldn't meet at all.  Let's wait a couple of decades until there are no violent attacks. For each attack by the Arabs we should postpone meetings by five years.  Keep adding the numbers.  If it goes up to a hundred, so that's what it should be.  We can wait.

This Year's Avihu Keinan Chai Memorial Hike

The annual march in memory of our neighbor Avihu Keinan HaYa"D has evolved from a march to Jerusalem to hiking the hills and valleys near Shiloh.

That first year was totally amazing.  Moshe Keinan, Avihu's father, pledged at the shortened because of Rosh Hashanna shiva to march to the President of the State of Israel in Jerusalem and demand a meeting to protest that his son was endangered and killed because of a perverse "morality" that the safety of Arab civilians was more important than the safety of our Israeli soldiers.

Moshe, no youngster, grabbed an Israeli Flag and marched the entire route from Shiloh to the President's Official Residence.  A succah was set up and he held court for the entire week of Succot.  A wide variety of public officials and ordinary citizens visited to talk to him and show their support.  And yes, he was invited to meet then President Moshe Katzav.

This year the march will be on the Sunday during Chol Hamoed Succot.  It will be a full-day hike.  For details contact Orit.

First Succot Glances

I took these photos yesterday in my neighborhood.  When I walked around a few minutes ago, many more succot were up, and many already had the s'chach (ritual succah roofing) on top.  Succot is one of those great holidays for photographers, much more so than Passover.  Of course, there have been years when I've found what to photograph when cleaning for Passover.  Davka on Rosh Hashannah we had neighbors over to eat one of the festive holiday meals.  They're pretty new to Shiloh and hadn't been our guests before.  They surprised us by saying that they first heard of Shiloh when google recommended my blogs.  And then the wife entered my kitchen:

"I've seen your kitchen before."
My head was spinning.  How could she have seen my kitchen?  She had never been in the house.
"You posted pictures on your blog showing it all covered for Pesach."

Wow! 

None of the succot here are mine.

It's amazing how quickly some people seem to be ready to live in their new rooms.  Will the Appease Now activists come and volunteer to help us take apart our succot after the holiday and put the peaces pieces away?

Lala Land, Yes It Is

I frequently use the term "Lala Land" to describe the unrealistic house of cards Israeli politicians and media inhabit.  I didn't invent the term La-la land.  Just recently it arrived as my A.Word.A.Day.


Their definition:

la-la land


MEANING:
noun:
1. A place or a state of being out of touch with reality.
2. A place known for frivolous activities.


ETYMOLOGY:
Finally, a fictional land that is named after a real place. The term la-la land is coined from the initials of the city of Los Angeles, home of Hollywood, alluding to the fictitious nature of the movies, sets, etc.

USAGE:
"Stockwell Day is in the la-la land of Republicans, who for decades whipped up (white) fear of (black) crime and kept building prisons across America until there was no more money to build."
Haroon Siddiqui; Harper's Ottawa Becomes Republican La-la Land; The Toronto Star (Canada); Aug 8, 2010.

The entire "peace process" is an example of la-la land mentality.  The idea that sworn enemies of the Jewish State of Israel can suddenly, by signing a piece of paper, become peaceful "friends" is totally "...out of touch with reality."  And all of the fancy, professionally choreographed ceremonies and meetings are just "...frivolous activities."

It Can Never Make Up For Their Losses

There are many things that tie people together.  Two families here in Shiloh live on the same street.  They have children around the same ages.  Two of their children were best of friends.  Then one was murdered by Arab terrorists.  During the first few weeks after the murder, his very closest friend was amazingly active trying to create projects to memorialize his murdered friend.  Then he was stopped, permanently stopped by another Arab terrorist.

Avi Siton, HaYa"D, and Shmuel Yerushalmi, HaYa"D, are still neighbors.  Now their remains lie side by side in the Shiloh Cemetery.  Their families and friends established our בית מדרש לנוער Beit Medrash l'Noar, Youth Study Center in their memories.  Just over a year ago, Avi's mother Penina, Z"L, died of cancer.  Even before Penina became ill she worked to have a Sefer Torah, Torah Scroll donated to the Beit Medrash l'Noar in memory of all three of them.

Today was the big day of the הכנסת ספר תורה Hachnasat Sefer Torah the bringing of the Sefer Torah to its home.  The ceremony began with afternoon and evening prayers in our Noam Yonatan Ramat Shmuel Synagogue, then there was dancing the long way around the neighborhood until it reached the Beit Medrash l'Noar.  After that there was a Seudat Mitzvah, required feast in the yeshiva. 

May their memories be a blessing for all.  L'ilui nishmatam, may their souls be elevated.