Officer Krupke takes on Hamas!

As soon as I read Pardoned PA terror suspects to get professional training, all I could think of was good ol' Officer Krupke of West Side Story fame.

Eek!
Officer Krupke, you've done it again.
This boy don't need a job, he needs a year in the pen.
It ain't just a question of misunderstood;
Deep down inside him, he's no good!

Is that how they treat their mothers?

It's "that time of the month" when the Shiloh and other Mateh Binyamin (Benjamin Regional Council) women travel together to Kever Rachel, Rachel's Tomb, before the beginning of each Jewish Month.

I was lucky. We went yesterday, Sunday, and I got out of work early enough to meet the bus at the Beit El "T Junction" on the main road. Actually I got there with plenty of time to spare and take pictures!

Look! I'm not the only woman who "tremps."

That green frame is no photo trick; it's a viewing hole at the bus shelter where I was waiting at Givat Asaf, the small community at the junction, established and named after Asaf Hershkowitz of Ofra who was murdered during Ehud Barak's reign of terror. It happened only a few months and a few kilometers north of where Asaf's father, Arye, had been murdered.

Luckily the sun wasn't on me, and I was able to sit and relax after a busy couple of hours at work. We had tested the 9th graders to see into which English group to place them.

Entering Kever Rachel was hassle free, Baruch Hashem, thank G-d. Everything was fine, until we realized that almost all the chairs were missing from the Ezrat Nashim, the Ladies' Section. It made it much harder for me to say as many Psalms as I usually do. I just can't stand so long on my feet. At one point, when I was in the outer room, one of the men from the Kever Rachel Yeshiva came in to check something, and I asked him what happened to the chairs. In the past, even on the most crowded visits, I've always found a chair to sit on. He replied that a large group of Chassidim had come, and they took all the chairs out. I asked him to please see that it doesn't happen again. Many elderly, pregnant and women who just can't stand on their feet were suffering. That's no way to treat women.

Just before we left, one of my neighbors said that she was gathering at least ten women to say the "Nishmat" prayer (from Shabbat morning prayers) together. It's supposed to have special strength when said like that. So we gathered together, and one woman said it out loud and the rest of us silently, each concentrating on her personal requests to G-d. Yes, I did feel a special "power."

The bus actually came on time, and the sky looked so beautiful as we rode back home to Shiloh.

Shannah Tovah

Gmar Chatimah to One and All

Ironic, Davka That Part of the Jewish Ceremony

Strange what seems important to people.

At the most recent marriage ceremony in my extended family, my cousin's son, crushed a glass under his shoe. Yes, that was what was reported by a cousin who was there.

You're probably wondering what's so strange about it. Well, the groom, descended from my saintly grandfather, a man who refused to work on Shabbat and knew the famous cantors of his time personally, got married to a non-Jewish woman in a church.

In a traditional Jewish Wedding, this is the statement said just before the glass is broken:

ה אִם-אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלִָם-- תִּשְׁכַּח יְמִינִי.
5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

The broken glass is to signify that our Holy Temple was destroyed and that even at a joyful event like a wedding, we mourn. And the sentence from Psalms, which I don't think was actually said at that wedding, means that if we forget the importance of Jerusalem to the Jewish People, may we lose all of our power and intelligence. Jerusalem is the key to our survival.

That broken glass is more like the shattered glass of "Krystallnacht" but worse.

IDF Against Jews in Chomesh

Just when it looked like Chomesh's Jewish community could begin relaxing and go on with re-developing, davka this Shabbat, a few days before Rosh Hashannah, the army spent its time removing/evacuating/exiling them from their homes.

In a similar rationale, but without any proof whatsoever, to the security forces' reasoning why Jews can't go to Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount), the army claims that Jews at Chomesh are "at risk."

The Israeli army is called Tzva Haganah L'Yisrael, Tzaha"l, Israel Defense Forces, IDF. What kind of defense are they offering peaceful Jews?

None of his genes, I guess

Olmert gets new grandchild

Life partner of prime minister's lesbian daughter gives birth to a baby girl

I'm not the only one

Two-thirds of the Israeli publc, according to this recent poll, are dissatisfied with Israeli democracy.

And for a less pleasant poll:
Poll of Arabs in Israel: 49.1% easier today to defeat the IDF after the Second Lebanon War

Shabbat Shalom U'Mevorach

For a Truely Good Year

All that glitters

is not gold

Read the fine print.



Shannah Tovah--Have a Wonderful Year

Gmar Chatimah Tova--May G-d Inscribe You in The Book of Life

Thanks for visiting,
Batya
Shiloh

Succot March to Jerusalem

Ever since our neighbor, Avihu Keinan, was killed in a badly planned army action, which protected the Arabs and not our soldiers, his father Moshe has been leading us in a March from Shiloh to Jerusalem every Succot.

This year it will be the Sunday of Succot, September 30, 2007.

I will post more details when I have them, or try calling the Shiloh office, 02-940-1111.

Jockeying for Position

Israel's present Knesset is nearing its two-year landmark. Just a half year to go. Officially, elections are every four years, and most Israelis considered their mandate up by the end of 2006's controversial and disastrous war, which took place within its first six months. That was just over a year ago.

The significance of two years is that after being a Knesset Member for two years, the politician can benefit from extremely generous and desirable pension rights. My prediction still stands that the glue holding the government together will decompose when the MK's can get pensions. Remember that for the government to fall, the MK's must vote for it. It may not mean new elections immediately, since Bibi, Lieberman or a Kadima MK, if Olmert allows, can try to form a new coalition. That gives them a little more time.

After new elections are called, the sitting government becomes a "lame duck," which can be even more dangerous, especially when we think of those presently holding ministerial portfolios. They have nothing to lose and aren't dependent on public support.

Lieberman is chafing at the restrictions of his deal with Olmert. He knows that he'd lose most of his voter support if he's part of a government which banishes Jews from Judea and Samaria, the lynch pin in the deal that Olmert is cooking with the Pseudistinians. Olmert is being cheered by Blair and Peres, even though the Israeli public opposes him.

Even though Likud's Sylvan Shalom didn't run against Bibi to head the party, he isn't out of the picture. He has proposed a new law which would mandate that any government decision with "important diplomatic ramifications" would have to be approved by a referendum.

And while all this is going on, where's Olmert? Olmert Shuns Media, Cancels New Year's Interviews

Shabbat Shalom U'Mevorach!

The Best, Most Reliable and Patriotic, too

Israel's IDF knows

• who can be relied on in a pinch,
• who's steadiest under fire,
• whose religious beliefs make them the best soldiers.

IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi is trying to convince the Yeshivot Hesder to increase the time the students serve in the army.

Need Cheering Up?

Grab a flag!

Put on a smile!

Take some Vitamin NBN--


Meet a plane of new immigrants!