Temple Mount Blog Burst!

From KesherTalk, via Paelo Judaica:

Sunday was the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz, beginning the Three Weeks of somber reflection that lead to Tisha B'Av, the Jewish holy day commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples (in each case also the destruction of the Jewish nation at that time).

During these three weeks, I am asking for contributions to a blogburst to appear just before Tisha B'Av.

The theme of this blogburst is the destruction of Temple Mount archeological relics under the authorization of the Muslim authority in charge of the Mount, in the context of ongoing propaganda attempts to erase Jewish history.

A "blogburst" is a simultaneous and cross-linked posting of many blogs on the same theme, usually to commemorate a particular event or to publicize a situation. The organizer makes a master blog entry with links to all the other blogposts on the topic.

Kesher Talk has spearheaded several blogbursts in the past, most notably commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Munich Olympics Massacre. That effort earned links from James Taranto's "Best of the Web" and Instapundit, among others.

Tisha B'Av begins the evening of Saturday August 13th and continues till the evening of Sunday August 14th. Because Shabbat is just the day before, please post your contribution and email me the permalink before 3 PM, Friday August 12th.

If you don't have a blog but would like to write on this topic, email me your essay and I will post it on Kesher Talk in its own permalink, and link to it from the main blogburst entry.

You don't have to be Jewish, or know anything about Tisha B'Av, to contribute to this blogburst. You can post solely about any of these topics, or in combination:
- the ongoing Temple Mount destruction and efforts to mitigate it
- the history of Jewish Jerusalem and Jewish residence in Israel (preferably that which can be corroborated by artifacts and documents)
- the disinformation campaign to falsify Middle Eastern history to erase the Jewish presence
- controversies about future Jewish and Muslim activity at the Temple Mount
- personal experiences at the Temple Mount
- Tisha B'Av: its rituals and many meanings

I have many URLs on these topics and will be happy to email them to you upon request, to assist you in writing your contribution. Of course, your own resources are welcome and desired.

Feel free to publicize this effort on your blog - the more contributors the better; that's how a blogburst works.

Judith Weiss
Kesher Talk

Since the last of my summer classes end today I may have a fair chance of coming up with something for this.

A New Poem

After a fairly long period of writers block I wrote this yesterday. I personally don't believe in explaining poetry, so I will let the piece speak for itself.

They went and visited
The Scorpion King,
Watching as his gladiator children,
Too timid to kill, lusted to feast
On the heart of a cricket.

His legs were all broken.
The Queen watched with pleasure
As he clawed through the gravel,
Living on borrowed time.

The Maestro played electric mandolin
Tethered to a ball and chain
A freight train roared by the prison
And a Jew celebrated Christmas in July.

25 July 2005

Topic: Poetry

Quote for the Day

"There are those who worship loneliness, I'm not one of them,
In this age of fiberglass I'm searching for a gem."

- Bob Dylan, Dirge

Urgent! Liver Transplant Needed!

From Help Shari Kurzrok:

LOCAL PR AGENCIES ASK FOR HELP TO SAVE LIFE OF COLLEAGUE IN DIRE NEED OF COMPLETE LIVER TRANSPLANT

31-Year-Old Shari Kurzrok Will Die Unless She Receives Complete Liver Within Days

NEW YORK (July 20, 2005) – Shari Kurzrok is two months away from her wedding. The 31-year-old PR executive recently spearheaded the American Red Cross’ largest-ever blood donor campaign. Today, she is fighting for her life. Her doctors say she will not live if she doesn’t receive a complete liver transplant within days, and her colleagues in the PR industry are urgently mobilizing to help her...

Shari’s sudden illness has taken her family, friends and doctors by surprise. She was admitted to New York University Medical Center last weekend, and within 24 hours she was told she needed a liver transplant to save her life. Her illness is still unexplained...

Shari led the 345-city Save-a-Life-Tour, which featured two convoys that traveled across the country to raise awareness about the importance of regular blood donation and to attract new donors including a younger and more ethnically diverse demographic. The campaign collected more than 3.2 million pints of blood and registered more than 38,000 new potential donors. Kamenna Lee, Director, Sales & Marketing for the American Red Cross, said, "Shari poured her heart, soul and life into one of our largest initiatives and truly helped save lives."

Now Shari’s family and friends hope that just one person can help save Shari’s life. Shari is a native of Great Neck, Long Island, and the daughter of Gloria and Mort Kurzrok. Her father says, “This is a race against time. We want to draw attention not only to Shari’s cause, but also to the urgent, ongoing need that challenge families like us every day.”

Potential donors must be Type A or Type O blood. A directed donation is when a donor family opts to donate an organ directly to a specific individual. Donor families often make the decision to donate organs during times of grief and shock; however, organ donation is a chance for something positive to come out of a tragedy. Anyone wanting to help Shari with a complete liver transplant referral should call: 877-223-3386 or email: liverforalife@yahoo.com

New LXX Commentary Series from SBL and IOS

This just in from the SBL:

SBL and IOSCS Announce New LXX Commentary Series

The SBL’s Research and Publications Committee recently approved a proposal from the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) to publish a new series of commentaries on the Septuagint based on the Greek text as articulated in the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS). The Society of Biblical Literature Commentary on the Septuagint (SBLCS), which will be sponsored and developed by the IOSCS, will differ from other Septuagint commentary series by focusing on the translation at its point of origin. That is, the SBLCS will take the Septuagint seriously as a translation in order to attempt to determine what the translator was doing when he was translating.

To that end, commentaries in the SBLCS will adhere to five guiding principles: the original text as the basis for interpretation; the original meaning of the text as the goal of interpretation; the parent text as the primary context for interpretation; the text itself as the only source for determining a translator's intent; and the wider Greek-language corpus as the sole basis for identifying normal (and abnormal) Greek constructions. In keeping with these five principles, each SBLCS volume will, in addition to addressing standard introductory issues, offer a detailed commentary on individual pericopes, including a summary of a pericope's contents, discussion of interpretive questions pertaining to the entire passage, bibliography, a critical edition of the Greek text, a Hebrew text, the NETS translation, and a verse-by-verse commentary on the pericope. (For further details on the contents and structure of the commentaries, see http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/ioscs/commentary/prospectus.html.)

Responsibility for developing the series contents, making commentary assignments, and editing volumes will lie with the IOSCS through its editorial board (see http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/ioscs/commentary/boards.html), while the SBL publications staff will manage the actual publication tasks. The SBL and IOSCS expect the first volume of SBLCS to appear in 2007, with publication of two volumes per year until the series is complete. For further information about the SBLCS, please contact Albert Pietersma (Joint Editor-in Chief), Benjamin G. Wright III (Joint Editor-in Chief), or Bob Buller (SBL Editorial Director).

Topic: Bible, ת’’נך, Hebrew Bible; Septuagint

The Picture the Media Will Never Show

From PRIMER:

This is a picture of a minyan in Kar Maimon. Soldiers and protesters praying together . . . yet divided by a fence. What a comment on life in Israel, but you will never see this in the media!

Topic: Israel

The Birthday of Eternity

I don't want to plaster posters of God on all wide-open street corners, but instead, celebrate the birthday of eternity in the tiniest corner of every moment. - Abraham Joshua Heschel from The Ineffible Name of God:Man

כ’וויל נשט פּלאטירן גאָט אויף אַלע אויפגעפּראַלטע ראַגעס נאַר דער אייבּיקייטס געבּוּרטסטאָג פייערן אין ווינקל פון די רגעס אברהם יהושע העשל דער שם המפורש: מענטש

OMITTING ANTI-ISRAEL TERROR

From Honest Reporting:

In the wake of the attacks, The (UK) Sun published a roundup of Islamic terrorism 'across the world over the last decade' ― complete with map. Guess which Mideast country that has absorbed hundreds of Islamist attacks during this period does not appear in the Sun's account?

It seems that editors at The Sun don't consider the nearly 1000 Israeli civilian victims of Islamic terror worthy of mention as any one of the 'worst atrocities' for the past 12 years.

Comments to: talkback@the-sun.co.uk, letters@the-sun.co.uk

Topic: Israel; Terrorism

The 4th of July and Native Americans

Over at Kinky Friedman's Blog there is a facinating post by Rev. Goat Carson regarding what the 4th of July means to Native Americans. In it he relates a disturbing story about Andrew Jackson and the 'Trail of Tears' which points out some uncomfortable parallels between the US's treatment of the Native Americans and events in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.