Growing Up

More from Chabad.org's 'Daily Dose' mailing list:

B"H

Growing Up
----------

There is a time that He relates to us as a father relates to his infant child. We can cry and spit and make those little messes babies make -- but He loves us, just because we are His child.

And then there comes a time when we have to grow up and do something.

Which brings to mind a couple passages from Pirkei Avot:

"Simeon, [Rabban Gamaliel's] son, said... 'not learning but doing is the chief thing...'"

and

"[Hillel] used to say 'If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?'"



Surely the time for us to collectively grow up and do something is now. As the man said, if not now, when?

Arabic Zionist Apparel

Thanks, as always, to JewSchool's mobius for pointing this one out:

Arabic Zionist Apparel

The genesis of these designs started on the campus of Wayne State University. Talking with Jewish students who attend WSU, I discovered that identifiably Jewish students on that campus, for example those who wear a Kippah, a Chai or Star of David, all know the Arabic word for Jew, al Yahud. Wayne State, located in Detroit, Michigan, not far from Dearborn, has one of the largest Arab and Muslim student populations of any American college campus and it seems that Arab students like to mutter "al Yahud" at Jewish students as they pass by. Of course, the Jewish students are proud to be Jewish and resent being targets of the word "Jew" being used as a slur. The aggressive attitude of Arabs, Muslims and others who support the 'Palestinian' cause, have made American campuses a hostile environment for Jewish students and other supporters of Israel.

Abrahamic Apparel is intended to provide some chizuk, support for those students and other Jews and supporters of Israel and allow them to show their Jewish pride and support for Israel in a language that literally the mutterers will understand.

Arabic slogans include:

The Arabic version of "Am Yisroel Chai" or "The Jewish Nation Lives"
"Ma Fish Falastin" - There Is No Palestine
"Jew"
"Dhimmi? Not Any More!"
Israel Defense Force
"Moshe Emmet V'Torahto Emmet" Moses Is True & His Torah Is True
"There Is No God But Adonai And Moses Is His Messenger"

And my personal favorite:

"Don't Mess with Texas"

A Question of Faith

Another thought for the day from Chabad.org :

B"H

Faithful Questions
------------------

You don't learn by having faith. You learn by questioning, by challenging, by re-examining everything you've ever believed.

And yet, all this is a matter of faith -- the faith that there is a truth to be found.

It is another paradox: To truly question, you must truly have faith.

I'm Tangled up in Blue!

Which Bob Dylan song are you? Tangled Up In Blue

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Bush-World

from The Orwellian Olsens By MAUREEN DOWD:


It's their reality. We just live and die in it.

In Bushworld, our troops go to war and get killed, but you never see the bodies coming home.

In Bushworld, flag-draped remains of the fallen are important to revere and show the nation, but only in political ads hawking the president's leadership against terror.

In Bushworld, we can create an exciting Iraqi democracy as long as it doesn't control its own military, pass any laws or have any power.

In Bushworld, it was worth going to war so Iraqis can express their feelings ("Down With America!") without having their tongues cut out, although we cannot yet allow them to express intemperate feelings in newspapers ("Down With America!") without shutting them down.

In Bushworld, it's fine to take $700 million that Congress provided for the war in Afghanistan and 9/11 recovery and divert it to the war in Iraq that you're insisting you're not planning.

In Bushworld, you don't consult your father, the expert in being president during a war with Iraq, but you do talk to your Higher Father, who can't talk back to warn you to get an exit strategy or chide you for using Him for political purposes.

In Bushworld, it's O.K. to run for re-election as the avenger of 9/11, even as you make secret deals with the Arab kingdom where most of the 9/11 hijackers came from.

In Bushworld, you get to strut around like a tough military guy and paint your rival as a chicken hawk, even though he's the one who won medals in combat and was praised by his superior officers for fulfilling all his obligations.

In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq, even as they increasingly merge the two in America.

In Bushworld, you brag about how well Afghanistan is going, even though soldiers like Pat Tillman are still dying and the Taliban are running freely around the border areas, hiding Osama and delaying elections.

In Bushworld, imperfect intelligence is good enough to knock over Iraq. But even better evidence that North Korea is building the weapons that Saddam could only dream about is hidden away.

In Bushworld, the C.I.A. says it can't find out whether there are W.M.D. in Iraq unless we invade on the grounds that there are W.M.D.

In Bushworld, there's no irony that so many who did so much to avoid the Vietnam draft have now strained the military so much that lawmakers are talking about bringing back the draft.

In Bushworld, we're making progress in the war on terror by fighting a war that creates terrorists.

In Bushworld, you expound on remaking the Middle East and spreading pro-American sentiments even as you expand anti-American sentiments by ineptly occupying Iraq and unstintingly backing Ariel Sharon on West Bank settlements.

In Bushworld, we went to war to give Iraq a democratic process, yet we disdain the democratic process that causes allies to pull out troops.

In Bushworld, you list Bob Woodward's "Plan of Attack" as recommended reading on your campaign Web site, even though it makes you seem divorced from reality. That is, unless you live in Bushworld.

Reviews of the Messiah [Updated]

I find it incredibly amusing that most of the bad reviews for Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's Real Messiah: A Jewish Response to Missionaries on Amazon.com are themselves missionary rants.

My favorite is the review by "annjacob20 from Tempe, Arizona, USA" who says "There is no doubt that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and the human incarnate of the God himself. If anyone has any doubt about it, then please read the 4 gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and then make your judgement. Read these neither with a pro-christian attitude or an anti-christian one, but with an open mind. I am sure that you will be convinced that Jesus is not only the Messiah, but also God himself in human form."

I have indeed read the Xian NT with an open mind. In fact I've read many parts of it in the original Greek. I was raised in a functionally secular home and when I began seeking God in my late teens I found myself settling on Xianity. As I do with everything I obsessed about Jesus. I studied the Xian NT very intently. And the more I studied it the more I became convinced that it was incompatable with the Hebrew Scripture it supposedly fulfilled and that the Moshiach had yet to arrive.

My other favorite, which was preceded by the usual nonsense about Jesus being the "pesach lamb" and blood sacrifices being necissary for atonement (which they, of course, aren't), is:

You do NOT stop being Jewish upon believing in Jesus. You become a FULFILLED and COMPLETED Jewish person. Wouldn't you like to know of a certainty that your sins ARE forgiven?

No, I wouldn't stop being a Jew if I started believing in Jesus--nothing can make a Jew "not Jewish"--I would however be a blasphemous apostate. And I do know with certainty that my sins are forgiven. That is, after all, what we have Yom Kippur for, isn't it? But hey, I'm just an incomplete Jew, what the heck do I know?

Book Me!

From Amish Tech Support:

Yeah yeah, I own books. And no they do not require "coloring" to be completed.

Do this:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

Mine is: "Eight years later Ralph was brought up late in the season and became a Yankee teammate of mine."

From The Mick by Mickey Mantle and Herb Gluck

Draft UnConstitutional?

Peter David makes an interesting argument that a military draft is against the 5th and 13th ammendments to the US Constitution. Hmm An issue that needs more research I think.

The Truth About the Messiah

As far as Jewish Anti-Missionary websites go its hard to beat Jews for Judaism, but "Messiah Truth: A Jewish Response to Missionary Groups" comes pretty close. Yasher Koach!

I pray for the days when sites and organizations like this aren't needed, but thank God we have them now.

Its Simple to Remember. Why do we keep forgetting?

"Every person in the world should ask: why do I exist? Unfortunately, we live in a world with so many distractions that it is hard to find time to think. Life goes by whether we choose to contemplate or not. Either way there will be an accounting in the end. When we have reached old age, we will inevitably gaze back, having the time to sit and analyze our lives.

Did I do everything I wanted to do?
Did I marry the person I should have?
Did I produce the type of kids I had imagined?
Did I find happiness along the way?

Judaism contains a world of depth unknown to most of its people. Jews in our past chose brutal torture and death rather than pretending to convert to another religion, whereas today Jews are assimilating at numbers rivaling the holocaust. What is this fire that burned in the hearts of our ancestors? What is it about the Jew that has captured the world"

Explore the answer to that question at http://www.simpletoremember.com

New Draft?

From Yahoo! News:

A senior Republican lawmaker said that deteriorating security in Iraq may force the United States to reintroduce the military draft.

"There's not an American ... that doesn't understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future," Senator Chuck Hagel told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on post-occupation Iraq.

"If that's the case, why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?"

And why should the general citizenry bear any responsibility for the mess "President" Bush has gotten us into?

We're all going down together

Israel assassinated top Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, drawing a threat of 100 revenge attacks from the militant Palestinian group rocked by another major blow before a planned U.S.-backed pullout from Gaza...

Funny how when they attack the US they're "terrorists," but when people using the same tactics attack Israel they're "militants."

"The Palestinian cabinet considers this terrorist Israeli campaign is a direct result of American encouragement and the complete bias of the American administration toward the Israeli government," Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said.

The United States denied it gave Israel the green light to go after Rantissi and said it was "gravely concerned" for Middle East peace and stability.

Israel said it struck down a "mastermind of terrorism," hours after a suicide bomber blew up at the Erez border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, killing an Israeli soldier.

Hours after two missiles slammed into Rantissi's car, killing the bearded Egyptian-trained pediatrician and two of his bodyguards, Hamas's armed wing issued a statement vowing "100 retaliations" that will shake "the criminal entity."

"As long as the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) does not lift a finger and fight terrorism, Israel will continue to have to do so itself," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled.

"Israel has a right to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks, but actions of this type are not only unlawful, they are not conducive to lowering tension," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said: "The British government has made it repeatedly clear that so-called 'targeted assassinations' of this kind are unlawful, unjustified and counter-productive."

A State Department official, repeating a formula the United States routinely uses when a Palestinian militant leader is attacked, urged Israel to consider the consequences of its actions, while adding: "Israel has a right to defend itself."

I wonder if they'd feel the same had it been Osama bin Laden who'd been the "victem" of a "targeted assasination"?

Poem for Yom haShoah

In commemoration of Yom haShoah (Holocaust Remembrence Day) I am sharing this poem I wrote a number of years ago.

Never Again.

___________

Persistance of Memory
by John W Leys

I haven’t forgotten you
How could I even try?
Haunting my waking dreams,
Your eyes plead to me
From emaciated faces,
Crying out for justice.

I hear laughter
As you’re herded
Like cattle
From the boxcars
To the gas chambers
They so cleverly disguised
As showers.

I can hear babies crying
As they’re torn from their mothers’ arms
And thrown against walls
Or dissected like animals
By trained doctors.

I smell the smoke.
It stings my eyes
As it pours from the chimneys
Of the crematoriums
Where they’re burning your bodies.
I pray for your souls
As they reduce your bodies to ashes
To use as fertilizer in their garden.

I hear laughter.
I hear them laughing.
Laughing because they think
That they’ve won.

Support the Fence

"B'nai B'rith International (BBI) calls upon its members throughout the U.S. to write or call their representatives and ask that they join the 145 House members who have joined as co-sponsors of bill H.R. RES.371 that declares support for Israel�s right to protect itself from terrorist attacks through the use of a security fence.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) and Rep. Shelly Berkley (D-NV) also condemns the decision by the United Nations General Assembly to request an opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legality of the fence.

B'nai B'rith International's leadership notes that every democratic government, including the European Union as a bloc, opposed this decision. These governments disagree with the UN because the security fence is an issue of sovereignty and should be discussed bilaterally among member states.

The terrorist attacks in Ashdod on March 14 demonstrate the unfortunate and undeniable need for Israel to construct a separation barrier. This need will continue until the Palestinian Authority does what is required of them by President Bush�s Roadmap to Peace Plan. This includes acting decisively against terror by rooting out terrorist cells, destroying terrorist infrastructure, and ending all acts of violence against Israelis everywhere.

Reps. Pence and Berkley and the bill�s co-sponsors are right on point and have the full support of B'nai B'rith International staff and membership.

B'nai B'rith members and supporters are urged to contact their Members of Congress if they are not on this list and urge that they add their support. If your Representative is on the list, thank him or her for their support.

Click here to find your representatives' contact information.

The following Members of Congress have signed on as co-sponsors:

Aderholt, R. (R-Ala.) Berman (D-Calif.) Burns, M. (R-Ga)
Akin (R-Mo.) Blackburn (R-Tenn.) Burr (R-N.C.)
Alexander, R. (D-La.) Blunt (R-Mo.) Burton, D. (R-Ind.)
Andrews, R. (D-N.J.) Boehner (R-Ohio) Calvert (R-Calif.)
Baker, R. (R-La.) Bradley (R-N.H.) Cantor (R-Va.)
Barrett (R-S.C.) Brady, R. (D-Pa.) Cardin (D-Md.)
Bartlett, R. (R-Md.) Brown, H. (R-S.C.) Cardoza (D-Calif.)
Beauprez (R-Colo.) Brown-Waite (R-Fla.) Carson, B. (D-Okla.)
Berkley (D-Nev.) Burgess (R-Texas) Chabot (R-Ohio)
Chandler (D-Ky.) Isakson (R-Ga.) Rehberg (R-Mont.)
Chocola (R-Ind.) Israel (D-N.Y.) Renzi (R-Ariz.)
Cole (R-Okla.) Istook (R-Okla.) Rogers, H. (R-Ky.)
Cooper (D-Tenn.) Johnson, Sam (R-Texas) Rogers, Mike (R-Mich.)
Cox, C. (R-Calif.) Johnson, Timothy (R-Ill.) Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.)
Crane, P. (R-Ill.) Jones, W. (R-N.C.) Rothman (D-N.J.)
Crenshaw (R-Fla.) Keller (R-Fla.) Ryun, J. (R-Kan.)
Crowley (D-N.Y.) Kelly (R-N.Y.) Sandlin (D-Texas)
Culberson (R-Texas) Kennedy, M. (R-Minn.) Saxton (R-N.J.)
Davis, Jo Ann (R-Va.) King, S. (R-Iowa) Schiff (D-Calif.)
Davis, A. (D-Ala.) Kingston, J. (R-Ga.) Schrock (R-Va.)
Davis, L. (D-Tenn.) Kline (R-Minn.) Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.)
DeMint (R-S.C.) Lampson (D-Texas) Sessions, P. (R-Texas)
Deutsch (D-Fla.) Lantos (D-Calif.) Shadegg (R-Ariz.)
Diaz-Balart, M. (R-Fla.) LaTourette (R-Ohio) Shaw (R-Fla.)
Doolittle (R-Calif.) Linder (R-Ga.) Shays (R-Conn.)
Emanuel (D-Ill.) LoBiondo (R-N.J.) Sherman (D-Calif.)
Engel (D-N.Y.) Maloney, C. (D-N.Y.) Shimkus (R-Ill.)
Feeney (R-Fla.) McCarthy, C. (D-N.Y.) Simmons (R-Conn.)
Ferguson (R-N.J.) McNulty, M. (D-N.Y.) Simpson (R-Idaho)
Flake (R-Ariz.) Meek, K. (D-Fla.) Smith, C. (R-N.J.)
Foley, M. (R-Fla.) Michaud (D-Maine) Smith, N. (R-Mich.)
Forbes (R-Va.) Miller, C. (R-Mich.) Souder (R-Ind.)
Fossella (R-N.Y.) Miller, J. (R-Fla.) Stearns (R-Fla.)
Franks, T. (R-Ariz.) Murphy (R-Pa.) Sullivan (R-Okla.)
Frost (D-Texas) Musgrave (R-Colo.) Sweeney (R-N.Y.)
Garrett (R-N.J.) Myrick (R-N.C.) Tancredo (R-Colo.)
Gerlach (R-Pa.) Nadler (D-N.Y.) Terry (R-Neb.)
Gingrey (R-Ga.) Neugebauer (R-Texas) Tiahrt (R-Kan.)
Goode (R-Va.) Northup (R-Ky.) Vitter (R-La.)
Goodlatte, R. (R-Va.) Norwood (R-Ga.) Waxman (D-Calif.)
Gordon, B. (D-Tenn.) Nunes (R-Calif.) Weiner (D-N.Y.)
Graves (R-Mo.) Otter (R-Idaho) Weldon, D. (R-Fla.)
Green, G. (D-Texas) Owens, M. (D-N.Y.) Weldon, C. (R-Pa.)
Harris (R-Fla.) Pallone (D-N.J.) Weller (R-Ill.)
Hastings, A. (D-Fla.) Pickering (R-Miss.) Wexler (D-Fla.)
Hayworth (R-Ariz.) Porter (R-Nev.) Wilson, J. (R-S.C.)
Hensarling (R-Texas) Ramstad (R-Minn.) Wynn (D-Md.)
Herger (R-Calif.) Young, D. (R-Alaska)
Hoeffel (D-Pa.) "

Curse of the Bambino

Curse? What Curse? You be the judge:

World Series Championships New York Yankees Boston Red Sox 1901-1918 (prior to the sale of Babe Ruth) 1903 1912 1915 1916 1918 1919-present (after the sale of Babe Ruth) 1923 1927 1928 1932 1936 1937 1938 1939 1941 1943 1947 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1956 1958 1961 1962 1977 1978 1996 1998 1999 2000

For more info see: The History of Boston Red Sox: losses, collapses and defeats.

Why the Jews?

Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky offers his explaination for Jew-Hatred in his excellent on-line seminar entitled Why the Jews? on Aish.com.

Questions about Jews?

The recent uproar about search results for "Jew" on Google has prompted at least one Jew to reach out to the general public and try and heal the rift that seems to exist between the Jews and the Gentiles:

I've been asking myself - what can I do to help people tolerate and appreciate the wonderful and amazing diversity of religious traditions in this great country? This is what I came up with - a place where curious people of all faiths can ask questions about the Jewish people, Jewish religion, and Jewish history. After all, we Jews have had quite a ride, and to be honest, most Jews don't really know their own history either.

I'll do my best to answer your questions with complete openness. My goal here is to create a model of a dialogue that we all need - not just Jews and non-Jews, but Americans of all ethnicities, religions, political beliefs, and sexual orientations. I believe that each of us has a unique spark of Godliness within us, but the labels we use to describe people - Jew, Republican, Gay, Hoosier, NRA member, etc. - make it hard for us to connect, soul to soul. The way we yell at each other on talk radio and on Yahoo chat groups isn't going to get us there.

See more at http://howieconnect.com/infojew.htm

The Sacred Cluster

The Jewish Theological Seminary, which is the educational institute of Conservative Judaism, has a page detailing the core values of Conservative Judaism:

The Core Values of Conservative Judaism

by Rabbi Ismar Schorsch

If dogmas or doctrines are the propositional language of a theological system, core values are the felt commitments of lived religion, the refraction of what people practice and profess. To identify them calls for keen observation as well as theoretical analysis.

Conservative Judaism is best understood as a sacred cluster of core values. No single propositional statement comes close to identifying its center of gravity. Nor does Conservative Judaism occupy the center of the contemporary religious spectrum because it is an arbitrary and facile composite of what may be found on the left or the right. On the contrary, its location flows from an organic and coherent world view best captured in terms of core values of relatively equal worth.

There are seven such core values, to my mind, that imprint Conservative Judaism with a principled receptivity to modernity balanced by a deep reverence for tradition. Whereas other movements in modern Judaism rest on a single tenet, such as the autonomy of the individual or the inclusiveness of God's revelation at Sinai (Torah mi-Sinai), Conservative Judaism manifests a kaleidoscopic cluster of discrete and unprioritized core values. Conceptually they fall into two sets - three national and three religious - which are grounded and joined to each other by the overarching presence of God,who represents the seventh and ultimate core value. The dual nature
of Judaism as polity and piety, a world religion that never transcended its national origins, is unified by God. In sum, a total of seven core values corresponding to the most basic number in Judaism's construction of reality.

The Centrality of Modern Israel
Hebrew: The Irreplaceable Language of Jewish Expression
Devotion to the Ideal of Klal Yisrael
The Defining Role of Torah in the Reshaping of Judaism
The Study of Torah
The Governance of Jewish Life by Halakha
Belief in God

Google Adds Explaination to "Jew" Search

This just in from :: jewschool :::

When searching for the word "Jew" on Google, you might now notice a note up top which reads, "Offensive Search Results [...] We're disturbed about these results as well. Please read our note here."
In the note, the company explains, "Our search results are generated
completely objectively and are independent of the beliefs and
preferences of those who work at Google."


Apparently, The ADL has also issued a statement on the subject.


Wow...
Talk about making a dent. I'm curious as to why the Wikipedia article
has dropped down to the third link, however. Are we being punished
for—ahem—"abusing the algorithm" and drawing Google such bad heat? If
so, oh the hypocrisy!

For those that don't remember JewSchooler mobius organised a "Google-Bomb" to combat the disturbing Google results.

Baseball Almanac.com

The new Baseball Season officially began a few days ago. A while ago I discovered what has to be one of the best Baseball sites on the net.

Baseball Almanac : The Official Baseball History Site

They have everything you could possibly want. My favorite feature so far is thier Stat MasterTM, which alows you to look up stats for any team that hs ever existed in Baseball. Do yourself a favour and check em out.

Seeing Miracles

From Chabad.org's 'Daily Dose' e-mail list:

B"H

Seeing Miracles
---------------

Why did miracles happen in Egypt? Because we believed they would. Those who didn't believe in miracles saw only plagues.

Rabbit Season?

ok, there may have been some Jews involved in the death of Jesus, but it twas the Christians who whipped and beat the Easter Bunny. oi.

JewSchool posts South Park:Passion of the Jews

From :: jewschool :::

For those of you who missed last night's uproarious South Park, here it is, in all its glory. (Requires Real Player)