And What's This Jewish Tisha B'Av "Holiday"?

For those who don't know much about the Jewish religion, the entire calendar, Tisha (the 9th of) Av is a total unknown.  For Jews in the northern hemisphere it happens during school vacation, so even those going to some sort of Jewish school, full-time or part, there may not be any opportunity to learn about it.

I didn't learn about the 9th of Av until well into my "new life" as a Torah Jew.  I didn't have a coach to get me through a full year, or even a full day.  I picked up knowledge piece by piece.  Eventually I succeeded in putting the puzzle together, but even then (or now) some pieces are still missing.  At least that's how I feel, like walking on thin ice, expecting to make a mistake or show some horrendous ignorance.  Converts are taught in a rather systematic way, but BT's, chozrei b'teshuva sometimes find ourselves just jumping into the deep water and learn swimming by immitation, study and gut instinct.

I'm pretty sure that my first actual fasting on Tisha b'Av was in 1967.  I had been reminded by someone else who was Orthodox and had also received a flyer inviting me to a "Fast-in for Soviet Jewry," sponsored by SSSJ Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry.  Sitting on the sidewalk near the USSR Mission to the UN, I met the man who was to be my husband.  At that point I really didn't know anything about the 9th of Av except that it was a fast day.

The following summer I worked in a Modern Orthodox Jewish sleepaway camp, HILI-I.  There, I learned a bit more about Tisha b'Av, the Nine Days and maybe something about the Three Weeks.







No doubt I failed as a mother, since I couldn't teach what I didn't know. I had to trust the camps, neighbors, etc to supplement what we couldn't give. My husband joined groups that attempted to enter Har Habayit, The Temple Mount on Tisha b'Av, and now he's with the elder grandchildren in the Old City of Jerusalem. I spent this morning in Jerusalem listening to lectures in She'arim with friends and will attend at least one more here in Shiloh.

A twenty-five hour fast isn't easy, especially summertime.  I've found that keeping busy helps, and studying is a great way to make the hours go quickly.

Nu, what is this fast day all about?  It makes us remember the foreign invasion of Jerusalem and our HolyLand and the subsequent destruction of the Holy Temple.  Our sages tell us that the Temple must be rebuilt immediately, but it's rare to find rabbis pushing the issue.



In recent years it has become more acceptable, more common to hear people talk about building the Holy Temple with some urgency, some seriousness.

The Temple Institute (in Hebrew, Machon HaMikdash), founded in 1987, is a non-profit educational and religious organization located in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. The Institute is dedicated to every aspect of the Biblical commandment to build the Holy Temple of G-d on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. Our short-term goal is to rekindle the flame of the Holy Temple in the hearts of mankind through education. Our long-term goal is to do all in our limited power to bring about the building of the Holy Temple in our time. Thus, the Institute's efforts include raising public awareness about the Holy Temple, and the central role that it occupies in the spiritual life of mankind. The many areas of activities conducted by the Institute combine research, seminars, publications, and conferences, as well as the production of educational materials.
The major focus of the Institute is its efforts towards the beginning of the actual rebuilding of the Holy Temple. Towards this end, the Institute has begun to restore and construct the sacred vessels for the service of the Holy Temple. These vessels, which G-d commanded Israel to create, can be seen today at our headquarters in Jerusalem. They are made according to the exact specifications of the Bible, and have been constructed from the original source materials, such as gold, copper, silver and wood. These are authentic, accurate vessels, not merely replicas or models. All of these items are fit and ready for use in the service of the Holy Temple. Among the many items featured in the exhibition are musical instruments played by the Levitical choir, the golden crown of the High Priest, and gold and silver vessels used in the incense and sacrificial services. After many years of effort and toil, the Institute has completed the three most important and central vessels of the Divine service: the seven-branched candelabra, or Menorah, made of pure gold; the golden Incense Altar, and the golden Table of the Showbread. (more)

Our return to the Land is incomplete until the Temple is rebuilt. Our continued failure is why we still fast on Tisha b'Av.

Is the World Exploding?

There's violence on the streets of London, frenzy in the streets of Israel.

Further violence has broken out between police and groups of young people in Hackney, Fires and violence have also broken out in Lewisham, Peckham, Croydon and Clapham Junction (more)

Yes, it's the 9th of Av, a day of disasters.

Tzom Kal, an easy fast to those fasting.

Re: The Korach Protests on the Streets of Israel

Yes, I've been referring to the ongoing Israeli street demonstrations as "Korach."  Korach was a Biblical protest leader who came up with all sorts of excuses, that sounded lamer and lamer the more you'd think about them, to rally against Moses.  End result was that he and his followers were punished very permanently by G-d, literally swallowed by the earth.

I just read a first person account of the Tel Aviv demonstration:

And what did we all get for all this? The usual admonitions from the stage, all empty, vague, and lacking in anything like a coherent vision, let alone a political strategy. The depressing absence of competent leadership among the protesters seemed, more than ever, to be coming home to roost.

Indeed, the only person on stage who managed to grasp and move the enormous sea of humanity was veteran Israeli rock star Shlomo Artzi. A brilliant performer, he managed to make one feel, for a brief moment, happy to be with all those people at a moment in history. But even this, as they all sang the lyrics they knew by heart, felt more like an end than a beginning. It was a moment of nostalgia. A longing for a sense of fraternity that the real moment had failed to provide. (complete article)

Yes, I think that Benjamin Kerstein got it right in that these demonstrations have been no more than a fiction, a fake, and that's why only a veteran performer, like Shlomo Artzi could keep the excitement going.  And about Artzi, if anyone thinks that the majority of people who showed up at the Tel Aviv location Saturday night did it for political reasons, then they're like those xtians who think that Santa Claus buys the gifts.  A free concert is a free concert.  The only thing keeping good Jews away was that it took place just a few days before the 9th of Av when a Jew is forbidden to attend concerts.  Obviously the organizers don't care about Jewish Law.  That was proof for sure.

About the numbers of participants Kerstein and other have been throwing around, like rice at a wedding, they're not realistic at all.  Listen to JewsNews for details about that.




Time will show the truth.  G-d willing the citizens of Israel won't be fooled by Leftist circus promoted by the media.

Now, we will soon begin the Fast of the Ninth of Av, which is to mourn the destruction  of our Holy Temples and the delays in  building the Third Holy Temple.  This period of mourning gets more and more severe, because the ramifications get worse and worse.  That we see on the streets, citizens in a frenzy, worshipping Korach instead of building the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple.

May next year be the festive dedication of the Third Temple, speedily in our days...

David Wilder retracts on CUFI article

Posted by Jewish Israel

As soon as David Wilder's CUFI report hit the net Jewish Israel received requests from the Hebron community and from others for information on the missionary personalities appearing in the photos as well as on the general content in David's report. The information was taken to Rav Dov Lior, who took the matter very seriously. We refrained from publishing a public report in order to give David an opportunity to reflect and retract. He has!

Kol HaKavod to David Wilder for a courageous and very difficult move. Jewish Israel is pleased that Akiva Powers of Magen was able to facilitate in this matter.

We hope that David and other activists and leaders, who work so hard for Am Yisrael, will take an even deeper look at the inroads evangelizing Christians have been making in Israel. We also hope David will take the time to investigate some of the other personalities who appeared with Jewish activists in videos and photos from recent CUFI related events.

Publications and blogs which are carrying David Wilder's original CUFI article should take note and replace the post with his thoughtful retraction....more

Wishing Klal Yisrael a meaningful Fast.

Eternally UNRWA

One of our Betar friends sent us Rafi Dobrin's  What if Jews had followed the Palestinian Path? based on Warren Kozak's article.

It is doubtful that there has ever been a more miserable human refuse than Jewish survivors after World War II. Starving, emaciated, stateless—they were not welcomed back by countries where they had lived for generations as assimilated and educated citizens. Germany was no place to return to and in Kielce, Poland, 40 Jews who survived the Holocaust were killed in a pogrom one year after the war ended. The European Jew, circa 1945, quickly went from victim to international refugee disaster.

Yet within a very brief time, this epic calamity disappeared, so much so that few people today even remember the period. How did this happen in an era when Palestinian refugees have continued to be stateless for generations?

In 1945, there were hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors living in DP Camps (displaced persons) across Europe. They were fed and clothed by Jewish and international relief organizations. Had the world's Jewish population played this situation as the Arabs and Palestinians have, everything would look very different today.

To begin with, the Jews would all still be living in these DP camps, only now the camps would have become squalid ghettos throughout Europe. The refugees would continue to be fed and clothed by a committee similar to UNRWA—the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (paid for mostly by the United States since 1948). Blessed with one of the world's highest birth rates, they would now number in the many millions. And 66 years later, new generations, fed on a mixture of hate and lies against the Europeans, would now seethe with anger.

I commented:

The template for the British plan for the "mandate" was the India-Pakistan population change. But the Arabs weren't interested in establishing a country. They just liked the free handouts.

World history is full of reports of population exchanges.  Before Great Britain actually dealt with the solution to the Mandate in Palestine it was busy dividing up the Indian Subcontinent.

That resulted in two countries, India and Pakistan.  They were separated by religion, Hindu and Islam.

The partition was promulgated in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Indian Empire. The struggle between the new dominions of India and Pakistan which resulted from the partition displaced up to 12.5 million people in the former British Indian Empire, with estimates of loss of life varying from several hundred thousand to a million...
Massive population exchanges occurred between the two newly-formed states in the months immediately following Partition. Once the lines were established, about 14.5 million people crossed the borders to what they hoped was the relative safety of religious majority. Based on 1951 Census of displaced persons, 7,226,000 Muslims went to Pakistan from India while 7,249,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from Pakistan immediately after partition.
About 11.2 million or 78% of the population transfer took place in the west, with Punjab accounting for most of it; 5.3 million Muslims moved from India to West Punjab in Pakistan, 3.4 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from Pakistan to East Punjab in India; elsewhere in the west 1.2 million moved in each direction to and from Sind. (complete article)

This was going on just after World War II, a war which threatened the very existence of Great Britain, and during the height of Etzel and Lechi underground activities in British Mandated Palestine.  To some think tank of the time, it probably looked like a clever idea to offer the Arabs an equal chance for statehood, even though there was no national movement to run it. (And they obviously ignored the fact that they had already invented a country, Hashemite Jordan, in the land that had been allocated to be a Jewish one.)  The modern Zionists had been incubating a national government for decades, and they were ready to administer their own country.

Another important fact to remember is that many more Jewish refugees from Arab countries made their way to the new Jewish State, Israel:

Although much is heard about the plight of the Palestinian refugees, little is said about the Jews who fled from Arab states. In 1945, there were more than 870,000 Jews living in the various Arab states. Many of their communities dated back 2,500 years. Throughout 1947 and 1948 these Jews were persecuted. Their property and belongings were confiscated. There were anti-Jewish riots in Egypt, Lybia, Syria, and Iraq. In Iraq, Zionism was made a capital crime. Approximately 600,000 Jews sought refuge in the State of Israel. They arrived destitute, but they were absorbed into the society and became an integral part of the state. In effect, then, a vertible exchange of populations took place between Arab and Jewish refugees. Thus, the Jewish refugees from Arab countries became full Israeli citizens whereas the Arab refugees who fled their homes in Palestine, remained “refugees“ unaided by the neighboring Arab countries.

Little is heard about the Jewish refugees because they did not remain refugees for long. Of the 820,000 Jewish refugees, 586,000 were resettled in Israel at great expense, and without any offer of compensation from the Arab governments who confiscated their possessions. During the 1947 UN debates, Arab leaders threatened the Jews living in their countries with expulsion and violence if partition were to occur. Egypt's delegate told the General Assembly: “The lives of one million Jews in Muslim countries would be jeopardized by partition.“ Following the 1947 United Nations vote to partition Palestine, Arab violence against Jews erupted throughout the Middle East and North Africa. (complete article)

Here we are over sixty years later.  Billions of dollars and innumerable man-hours have been spent trying to coach the Arabs into some semblance of government. The UNRWA refugee camps are thriving, because, unlike similar places in other societies, the residents prefer living there in perpetuity than making productive independent lives.  They have created a culture of terrorism unlike any other place in the world and any other time in history.

This is a classic case of throwing good money after bad.  When will the world, including too many Jews and Israelis, wise up and just stop supporting this dangerous wasteful policy/ideology.  Treat, punish the terrorists as is done in the rest of the world.  For the sake of true World Peace, there must be a total policy change.  Otherwise, things will only get worse.

Havel Havelim Homeshuled

This week's Havel Havelim, the jbloggers blog carnival, has been homeshuled! Click and visit it; share it, too.  Read the posts.  You're bound to find some you really enjoy.  Amy did a wonderful job!

Our sages say that the Holy Temple was destroyed and we were subsequently exiled because of how we behaved towards each other, sinat chinam, baseless hatred.  Being a comunity, even via the internet, is an antidote to that.

Visit and promote other blogs.  Participate in the various jblog carnivals (floating internet magazines,) JPIX and Kosher Cooking Carnival, too.

The True Reason for the Leftist Media-Supported Anti-Government Demonstrations

Thanks to IMRA for the links

Israel's Left is determined to convince, brainwash the Israeli public that they should be in power, not Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu.  Ironically, I complain all the time that Bibi's policies are Leftist, but the Leftist leaders here don't care about it.  It's not the policies that concern them; it's the fact that his political party is Likud, not Labor, not Kadima.

Even after a few weeks of the faux social justice demonstrations, the public doesn't agree to vote Left:

Maagar Mohot poll: Likud 29 Kadima 25 (National camp 70)
Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA 5 August 2011

Telephone poll of a representative sample of 506 adult Israelis (including
Israeli Arabs) carried out by Maagar Mohot Survey Institute (headed by
Professor Yitzchak Katz) the week of August 1 for Makor Rishon and published
on 5 August.

If elections held today (expressed in Knesset seats)
Current Knesset seats in [brackets].

29 [27] Likud
25 [28] Kadima
16 [15] Yisrael Beiteinu
11 [13] Labor (Headed by Shelly Yacimovich)
13 [11] Shas
05 [05] Yahadut Hatorah
04 [04] Nat'l Union
04 [03] Meretz
03 [03] Jewish Home/NRP
09 [11] Arab parties
01 [00] Independence (Ehud Barak)

With university trained economist, Netanyahu in the helm, Israel's economy is doing much better than the American one.  That means that the shekel is stronger than the U.S. Dollar and that is why Israeli products have gone up in price when converted into dollars.  It's a sign of fiscal strength and success, not failure!  Of course the Left-controlled media and politicians don't want the public to understand this simple truth.  I must agree with Avigdor Lieberman and Ehud Barak in their opposition to importing foreign cheese to compete with Israeli cheese.  It may help lower the price, because it would weaken the economy to import products we produce here.  Also, a point being ignored by Bibi and company, the cost of certifying the cheeses as kosher would add to the price, so there wouldn't be a great bargain.

Pundits are taking bets on whether the faux social justice demonstrators will bite the bullet and establish a new political party to compete in the next elections.  It's very common for new Center-Left parties to spring up and fade/fizzle out every couple of elections here in Israel.  Kadima is already an old, veteran party.  Labor and Meretz are burnt out.  So, most people wouldn't be surprised at all if a new political party appears out of the trash left at the campsites tent demonstrations.  And yes, there's a poll predicting how well it would do and which parties would be losing the most seats to it.  One surprise is that this poll shows that the National Union could increase its Knesset seats if a new Leftist-anti-settlement party runs.

Smith Poll: New socioeconomic party would get 20 seats but National camp
remains in power with 63 seats and Meretz destroyed
Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA 5 August 2011

Oops.


Another dream flushed down the toilet.

Creating a new party led by the current leaders of the housing protests to
exploit all the media hyped social protest would result in Netanyahu
remaining in power and Meretz out of the Knesset.

And this at the peak of the social protest movement.

Telephone poll of 500 adult Israelis (including Israeli Arabs) carried out
by Rafi Smith Institute for Globes and The Jerusalem Post on 1 August, 2011
and published 3 August 2011.

If elections held today (expressed in Knesset seats)
Current Knesset seats in [brackets].

26 22 [27] Likud
25 19 [28] Kadima15 15 [15] Yisrael Beiteinu
11 07 [13] Labor12 12 [11] Shas
06 06 [05] Yahadut Hatorah
05 05 [04] Nat'l Union04 00 [03] Meretz
03 03 [03] Jewish Home/NRP
11 11 [11] Arab parties
02 00 [00] Green party
--- 20 [---] Non-existent "New socioeconomic party" led by the current leaders of the housing protests

Will the next election will be advanced from its current date of October 22, 2013 due to the protests and the expected United Nations General Assembly vote on a Palestinian state next month:
No 50% Yes 29% No opinion 21%

What is your economic view?
47% want more governmental intervention in the economy and personal welfare
37% prefer to let market forces take their course with minimal governmental
intervention
16% no opinion.

How should the protesters go about achieving their goals.
45% negotiate with the government to try to obtain their demands29% go on in their current format
9% protesters should become more political, try to bring down the government and run for the next Knesset
17% other replies

The biggest loser would be Kadima. Considering that Kadima is a relatively new political party on the Israeli scene, full of opportunists who ran from other parties, how many would again jump ship and join this new one--if it does announce itself?

"Social Justice" or "Baseless Hatred*" With addition

Latma brings up some very good points about the true agenda and unbridled hypocrisy of the Israeli campers demonstrators.



I've been reading Baseless Hatred- What It Is and What You Can Do about It by Rene H Levy, Publisher: Gefen Publishing House in order to review it. The media-supported anti-government demonstrations don't appear to be related to "social justice." Actually, they seem to demonstrate more "baseless hatred." In an In Jerusalem-Jerusalem Post article, Pushing the boundaries By SETH J. FRANTZMAN, which I can't access online because it's in their pay-for Premium category, there's a quotation by a protester:

Seri thinks that one solution might be withdrawal from the west Bank. "If we leave the territories, the country will have more money to take care of the people. A different government, I think, might be willing to leave the Palestinian areas."

Duh!? How would that save money and make housing cheaper? Just before that, Seri complained about housing costs:

Seri, who is an engineer, thinks the solution is "to open the lands and lower the taxes."

How could shrinking the available land and adding more people in need of homes fit his solution? That's a recipe for higher prices.  And considering what it is costing Israel to defend itself in the south after banishing Jews from Gush Katif and giving it to the Arabs, how can anyone think that expelling hundreds of thousand of Jews from their homes in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley would improve Israel's financial situation?  And I'm not even going to get started on the security situation...

Even worse, more proof that there's baseless hatred behind all of these faux social justice demonstrations. My Israel, a right wing group tried to join on the condition that the National Anthem, Hativka would be sung, but the organizers refused.

I heard the reaction of their protest leaders when some Israeli Right tried to join, and I was horrified.  They were rabidly opposed.  It was pure hatred.  Even the journalist interviewing them seemed surprised and tried to get a logical reason why they were restricting their demonstrations. 

This news report gives an idea of how the Left-wing protest leaders aren't interested in anyone who doesn't follow their party line.  Of course the clip gives the impression that the government is spending money on housing in the yishuvim.  That's false, but the picutes are powerful.



I'm pretty sure I heard it on the radio and can't find anything to link as proof.  If you can help, please add it in the comments.  by chance I found something, but I'm still looking for more. Thanks

Isn't There A War Going On? Why The Quiet?

The State of Israel is acting like a battered wife, hiding bruises and injuries.  A city, Kiryat Gat, far from any border (by Israeli's geography) has been rocketed by the Arabs.  The coastal city of Ashkelon has also been targetted.

Nu, any normal country would have declared war on the attackers and bombed them without mercy!

Read David Bedein's expose` about UNRWA affiliated summer camps in the Palestinian Authority.  We should be fighting it!

Let's wisen up to survive and thrive!!

Jews News, Better than Israel's "Educational TV"

Watch JewsNews! Nothing's better on TV, so you have it right here.



Today, I was looking for something suitable for the 9 Days on TV. Yes there's always BBC and CNN, but I wanted something different. Oh, boy, did I find it. Mid-day, just after 1pm, there was an interview show. OK, that could be ok, but it was about "sex changes," "incorrect bodies," etc. And this was on Israel's Educational TV station, paid for by taxes. Can you imagine little kids looking for a kiddie show and getting an earful of something very different? If you're going to have a show like this on the schedule, then after prime time, please.

Did He? Didn't He? What Has Bibi Agreed to?

Arlene Kushner is having trouble accepting that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has caved in again.  Bibi has been falling off his tightrope over and over again.

In his quest to be perceived as "Center," rather than Right.  Netanyahu is endangering the entire country.



The world doesn't care if Israel ceases to exist, is G-d forbid defeated, conquered by its Arab enemies.  United States President Obama isn't an expert in World History. He is under the impression that Israel was carved out of a country called "Palestine," which then in 1948 ceased to exist. That's why he is so obsessed about the pre-June 1967 borders.

When Israel was threatened with extinction  in May-June, 1967 by Egypt, Syria and Jordan, the United Nations cooperated with our enemies and the rest of the world was silent.  Israel had no allies, just the prayers of World Jewry and the help of G-d Almighty.

Contrary to all expectations, not only did Israel survive the war, but within six days it had defeated three armies and found itself in possession of the Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley,  the Sinai and Judea and Samaria including what had been Jordanian Jerusalem for just nineteen years.

There is no reason for Israel to be under any pressure to give that land to Arabs.  According to all historic precedent and International Law, land held after a defensive war becomes the property of the victorious state.  The fact that the Jewish People have a long history connected to the Land only strengthens our rights to it.

No doubt that the State of Israel will thrive the minute we stop all this defeatist negotiation stance.  Let's just build our country!

Bibi, get off the tightrope and start being a Jewish leader, not a circus performer!