Two-thirds of Tel Aviv’s water wells are too polluted to use. A recent study discovered that many Tel Aviv wells are polluted beyond suitability as drinking water sources. Data collected by the Health Ministry and Water Authority showed that 96 of a total 166 wells in the Tel Aviv area were closed due to contamination. Read More »
From Traditional Values Coalition: Prevent Shariah Law in Virginia- [“Will Virginia’s House of Delegates vote to destroy the U.S. Constitution? You have the opportunity to tell Virginia House Speaker Bill Howell of the Virginia House of Delegates to protect Virginia courts from the contamination of foreign laws. Read More »
Israel’s newspaper Haaretz reported this week that Iran is mulling a partial ban of products manufactured by South Korean electronics giant Samsung over an Israeli commercial promoting one of the firm’s products which depicts the imagined destruction of Iran’s nuclear facility in Isfahan by Mossad operatives. Read More »
Taylor Armstrong I watched the reunion this week like a fan. I sat on the couch with my cat, had a glass of wine, and enjoyed the show. I thought it was interesting and entertaining. That said, I also found it to be a great big serving of steaming hot crap. If I didn’t pick sides before I watched, I certainly have now. Read More »
By Tzirel Chana at Kosher Home Cooking . TuBishvat isn’t some kind of trivial pursuit question (remember that 80s game in which players showed off their command of arcane and irrelevant information) TuBishvat is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud’s Read More »
Beyond BT - The Baal Teshuva site for Baalei Teshuva and Other Growth Oriented Jews »
The laws of the Jubilee year apply only when all the Tribes of Israel live in the Land of Israel, each in its Biblical portion of the land. If one consecrated his field during this time and wished to redeem it, he paid fifty silver shekels for an area on which a measure of barley can be sown . Read More »
Kosher Chocolate Royalty Empress Chocolates are the royalty of kosher simchas. The line is classic, supplying parve boxed chocolates, bulk chocolates, and chocolate novelties to organizations, corporations and simchas since 1984. It is a family–owned business. Read More »
In honor of the children Poetree A forest home in green ravine and in the sunset a mountain seen – The trees in root would upward grow towards mountain top and sunset glow. And youngest leaves on fresh branch top, who taste the sky and first rain drop, did notice that the sun was blocked as it set behind the mountain rock. Read More »
Five years of struggle ended with the consent of the Prison Service record: help a prisoner and a prisoner serving life sentences to become parents through fertility treatments, “by the circumstances and for humanitarian reasons.” Prison Service sources “do not remember a similar case in the world. Read More »
Automatically translated from Spanish »
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog Download: MP3 Audio Read More »
B’not Ruth & Musings; : Guys, Guys, GUYS. Gah. I can’t even. So, after talking to about LTU&E (life, the universe & everything!) this evening, I looked at B’not Ruth again. And it reminded me of how much I would love, love, LOVE to do that. BUT. Okay. Read More »
Give tzedakah before studying our ‘letter of Torah “! 14 Shevat 5772 Tu B’Shevat – the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat – is known as the “New Year for trees.” It is therefore natural that the trees for a time for introspection, as is the case for humans on Rosh Hashanah. Read More »
Automatically translated from French »
Unfortunately, the State of Israel and many Jews all over the world and political spectrum are afraid of appearing “too” extreme, partisan, JEWISH or whatever and waste their public relations and marketing talents on less important issues than the viability, legitimacy and right of the State of Israel. Read More »
…Unless they tell you about it by Tu b’Shvat first! Since I had kids, it has always been the OFFICIAL rule of this household that Tu b’Shvat is the date by which you MUST choose your Purim costume. More importantly, it is the date after which, you may not CHANGE your Purim costume. Read More »
A Canadian makes his own flotilla to Syria.Let’s go to the videotape.Heh. Read More »
*/ window.RAFLIN = window.RAFLIN || {}; window.RAFLIN || document. Read More »
The main festival which takes place during this Hebrew month is dated on the 15th of Shevat, which is know as Tu B’shevat, this is known as the festival of the new year for trees ( Mishna Rosh Hashana 1a). Read More »
In Fiddler on the Roof, in Tevye’s song “If I Were a Rich Man ,” there is a line “all day long I’d bidi-bidi-bum.” According to Wikipedia this is a reference to prayer. A repeated phrase throughout the song, “all day long I’d bidi-bidi-bum,” is often misunderstood to refer to Tevye’s desire not to have to work. Read More »
Evelyn Gordon ..Commentary/Contentions..06 February ’12..As Jonathan noted, the New York Times seems determined to downplay Iran’s verbal threats against Israel, first eliminating them from its report on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s speech last week and then dismissing them as mere “posturing and saber-rattling. Read More »
Between Syria and the Super Bowl After two weeks of waiting, it was finally here. Like millions of football fans, I couldn’t wait for the 6: 29 P.M. on Sunday night, when the New England Patriots and New York Giants finally took the field. And the game did not disappoint. It was a true classic, and my heart raced until the last play of the game. Read More »
The City of Hartford has effectively ended a Connecticut Jewish student center’s legal battle for the full religious use of a former church. By not contesting within 30 days a Connecticut judge’s determination that the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals acted improperly by refusing Jewish use of a building at 100 Bloomfield Ave. Read More »
In לשון הקודש there is an interesting word for grave – “SHEOL” as in השם העלית מן שאול נפשי Hashem you raised me from falling into the grave. Doesn’t that word remind you of the word “request” as in שאלה? What is the connection between “requesting” and the grave that gives them the same word. Read More »
The multiple use of the word “holiness” is not only secularization. Simply, when I take the concept “holiness” and ascribe to it things that are not holy, that is actually a process of secularization. But another aspect of the process, which is possibly even worse, is that it is degradation, a cheapening of the concept. Read More »
FROM THE TASTY KITCHEN BLOG The main ingredient is Nutella but there’s only 3 more ingredients in this recipe for a simple chocolate cookie. Preparation Instructions Preheat oven to 350 F. Blend all ingedients together well. Form into 1″ balls. Place on a cookie sheet. Press down firmly with the bottom of a glass. Bake [… Read More »
And it’s only minutes old. Smash. The new NBC series about putting on a Broadway play. Yeah, it’s well-titled. Smash is a smash. I am STILL humming the tunes. Now THAT’s Broadway. (I’m sure it will be, after the TV series. Read More »
The following passage in Shadal’s Vikuah al Hokhmat Hakaballah caught my eye. In it, Shadal explains why he got married at the late age of 28 and how he suppressed his bodily desires because his desire for knowledge was more important to him. I like this piece because I think it just sums up what Shadal was all about. Read More »
Was it a catch 22? I guess it really depends on who wore that uniform number. All I know is that the Patriots and Giants played an incredible game which kept me riveted until the last play. And somewhere Max must be smiling…As most of the civilized world knows, yesterday was the Super Bowl. Read More »
Our friend Sharon Asher (z”l) was nifter this past Shabbat of complications from breast cancer. We will hold a funeral for her at Cong. Beth Jacob of Beverly Hills, Tuesday February 7 at 9am, prior to her aliya for burial at Eretz Hachaim cemetery, outside of Beit Shemesh on Wednesday at about 4pm. Read More »
JooTube »
From “Big Think ” – Neutrinos that can go faster than Light? Look out Einstein! What’s the Latest Development?America’s most powerful physics experiment, the Fermilab particle accelerator in Batavia, Illinois, is set to test the controversial conclusion of a European lab which claimed to observe neutrinos breaking the speed of light. Read More »
It’s that time again for the annual “HAJ”, that rite of February… http: //blogs.yu.edu/news/2012/01/23/yeshiva-universitys-annual-seforim-sale/ http: //www.theseforimsale.com/ Shalom,RRW Presented by Nishma. Read More »
Rashi (to Ex. 18: 13) cites Mechilta that “the next day,” when Yisro saw Moshe judging the people and offered his advice about appointing inferior judges, was the day after Yom Kippur. Read More »
“I like being outspoken. I think that’s the way you should do it. I can be excessive. I know that. But more, in my mind, is always better than less as long as it is honest and from the heart, not some TMZ gotcha.” –Buzz Bissinger This quotation resonated for me. Strongly–and for reasons that [… Read More »
If anyone is to blame for Russia and China’s vetoing of the Syria resolution in the UN Security Council, it’s Barack Obama. Last year the United States and the Arab League brought forward a No Fly Zone to the UN Security Council. Read More »
Parents Keep Children Home From School in Sex-Abuse Case Published: February 6, 2012 LOS ANGELES — Parents of students at an elementary school here where two teachers were arrested on accusations of child sexual abuse marched outside the school on Read More »
02/13/2012 17: 30 to 20: 30 Avec Halima Hamdan, Fatema Hal et Discutante Vanessa Paloma: Véronique Rieffel – Halima Hamdan, et conteuse écrivaine Franco-Marocaine, est née au Maroc suivi où elle a de lettres et des études exerts quelques années Professeur de français comme. Read More »
Automatically translated from Spanish »
eSefarad »
It beckons to me from across the street. Calls my name softly. “Altie…..”No. Stop. Please.But it keeps going. “You know you want me. Just come here. Just once. That’s all.”No. No I can’t. Keep walking, don’t look back. Don’t… Look…. Back….But I turn my head. There it is, smiling at me for all it’s worth.And the smell… It smells so good . Read More »
In a “Dear Reader” note on his website, author Ayad Akhar writes: Growing up in the “heartland,” I became acutely aware that my peers didn’t know what to make of Islam. It wasn’t ignorance; they were good, smart people. They’d just never been exposed to it. Since then, exposure to Islam has grown, for all [… Read More »
The Little Russian , by Susan Sherman. Published 2012 by Counterpoint.I haven’t been reading a lot of Jewish books lately; a few still cross my desk every now and then, and among them was The Little Russian , the story of Berta Alshonsky, the daughter of a grocer from a small village called Mosny in Ukraine. Read More »
Tanin 1 gas field, in large yellow area north of the Tamar field, is too close for comfort to Lebanese shores. Lebanon is going to the UN to complain. Israel’s got natural gas. A lot of it. Cleaner burning than coal or bitumen, natural gas has a reputation for being more environmentally friendly. Countries lile Qatar are very natural gas rich. Read More »
A woman I know mentioned that she is redeeming her firstborn son. This got me thinking. A Pidyon HaBen is mandated for the first male child to “open” the mother’s womb. But whose Mitzvah is it? The Pasuk is in the masculine. Read More »
President Obama has declared war on the Catholic Church and the Church is fighting back. Leaders of American Catholics are furious and determined to harness the voting power of the nation’s 70 million Catholic voters. Read More »
R eader A.L. sent me the following email to get my take on it. It’s on thousands of websites and repeated with little additional comment. First let us read the piece and then I’ll give my opinion of it: High Fashion in the Mosque We’re constantly clubbed on the head with the claim that the Muslim world condemns 9/11, abhors 9/11, etc. Read More »
Finally, a break.Any video about Orthodox Jewish girls (yes, they wrote “girls” not “women”) that gets 54,000 hits in less than a month has to be pretty funny, right?But why did they call it “shdus” rather than “shtus”? Was it to conjure up images of shidduchim (matchmaking)? (“Shtus” means silliness, “shdus” has no meaning). Read More »
ANTONIO J. SQUIRE RIVERS AND JOAQUIN LLEDÓ / SEFARAD.ORG There really is not in Fernando Pessoa a specific problem related to the Jews. What’s in Pessoa is simply a problem of identity, whether Jewish or not, but high for the quintessence of the poet. Read More »
Automatically translated from Spanish »
The Judaism of light and darkness of Judaism Rabbi Jehoiada Amir not many weeks ago the U.S. President delivered a speech to the Conference of the Reform movement in North America. Read More »
Automatically translated from Hebrew »
“Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” Favorite quote from personal heroine. Read More »
There is an argument how many walls does a Rshus Harabim need to have to make it a Rshus Hayachid (Deoraisa). R’ Yehuda says that one needs two walls, while the Chachamim said one needs three. The Gemara (there) says that a Sratya (a through street going through the city) and a Playta (a city square) are Rshus Harabim. Read More »
This is definitely worth reading, just make sure you are sitting down when you read that we spent an easy half million to find out why monkeys throw feces: CBN — A recent report released by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., gives a hundred examples from just last year. … More federal funding in the amount . Read More »
Can mega well bring peace to Sudan? At least 300,000 people died and almost three million were displaced by the Darfur conflict in Sudan. Egyptian-American geologist Farouk El-Baz believes that limited access to water is one of the root causes of this conflict. Doctor El-Baz is director of Boston University’s center for remote sensing. Read More »
Today would have been Ronald Reagan’s 101st birthday. Sadly, I was a leftie when he was president, so I missed out on much of the pleasure of his achievements. And now that I know better have become much more conservative, we have Obama in the White House. Go figure. Read More »
“Additionally, Askonim in the medicine field have been rushed to the hospital. Reb Miliech Firer of Ezra LeMarpeh is enroute from Bnei Brak via police escort.” (from jewish website yeshiva world)Klal Yisroel is furiously and anxiously saying Tehilim for our Gadol Hador, Rav Eliyashiv, Shlita. He is in the hospital under expert medical care. Read More »
Spring has sprung in Israel, marked by almond blossoms and Tu Bishvat The Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat begins as the sun sets on the 7th of February 2012. This holiday has its origins in some ecologically-focused passages in the Talmud. Read More »
when i see old yiddish movies from the 1920s it always cracks me up . everyone is always dressed in the “hip” “cool” clothes of the times. unfortunately what was “hip” and “cool” then was quite different from what is “hip” and “cool” then. Read More »
It has been more than a week since my grandson Josh’s bar mitzvah and the requisite family celebration a week ago Saturday. Here is Josh reading from the torah. And here I am on Saturday night at the party, getting rare kisses from Josh and Ben. Read More »
England Yossi Benayoun came on in the 72nd minute against Blackburn Tal Ben-Haim’s game was postponed Wales Dekel Keinan didn’t play Scotland Biram Kiyal is out for the season Spain Tomer Hemed played for 63 minutes against Real Betis Dudu Aouate was Read More »
I am guiltily celebrating my return from my two-month hiatus by posting some (wonderful) links, rather than a lengthy blog post). But I don’t feel too guilty. That’s because there’s a cornucopia of information online about Tu B’shvat, the New Year of the Trees, which starts tomorrow night (Tuesday, February 7th) and goes through Wednesday. Read More »
Google Maps Help Predict Meth Labs Before They Open | Fast Company : Just wrote for Fast Company today. MY JOB IS FUN. Read More »
Below are key excerpts of important news articles which include revealing information on the 249 millionaires in US Congress, 550 new claims of sexual abuse by priests filed against the Milwaukee Diocese, bankers going wild with trillions of dollar in derivates, and more. Read More »
Examiner »
Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv’s condition is extremely grave. He is in a medically-induced coma in critical but stable condition. Yeshiva World reports: …The following information is from combined sources, including media statements from Shaare Zedek Medical Center, from MK Moshe… Read More »
Leave a reply:
