Worth a watch, even though we know it all already

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=-sL54rHPwqA

SO annoying

I'm getting really annoyed with the posters going up in my shopping centre telling women to dress modestly.

Firstly, I understand that men wish to sensitise themselves and do not wish to be faced with immodestly-dressed women - but posters up, no matter how tactfully put, ostracise non-religious people that come to shop. I have seen a few people wearing jeans and low-cut tops and I am sure they will not feel welcomed to Judaism by these posters. This is another example of forcing people to do what they naturally would not and does not bring people to Torah. In fact, I believe it is a Chillul Hashem as it creates bad feeling towards religious Jews.

Secondly, I know the shopping centre is in a more ultra-orthodox area, but this neighbourhood is religiously mixed and this is the only shopping centre! If the ultra-orthodox are so sensitive they should go and live in the more ultra-orthodox neighbourhood down the road...

Thirdly, I don't believe anyway that men should be SO sensitive - this causes more ghettoisation and although in non-Jewish countries this may have been necessary, in a country filled with Jews, mixing and promoting tolerance will bring more people back to Hashem.

Fourthly - why don't the posters mention what men should be wearing? I mean, I know it's not usually an issue but just to show that the laws of tznius also apply to men - the passuk - you should walk modestly with Hashem - is not women-only! Modesty means more than just clothes as well.

Anyway, that's my rant.

Mentos and Diet Coke!

This is just so funny I had to post it myself
http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/2006/11/new-mentos-and-diet-coke-video.html

Emunah and Babies

I find it very hard to have emunah with a baby with reflux. Why? Because of course Hashem would want my husband to go to yeshiva, right? However when the baby has been up all night in discomfort and both my husband and I have had no sleep, he misses it and we spend the day taking it in turns to comfort the baby whilst the other sleeps.

My husband says that who knows what would have happened on the bus had he been on it - maybe someone would have seen him and changed what they were going to do, maybe on the chaos level his movement on the bus could have caused a typhoon in India.

We don't know what our actions may cause and right now I have to concentrate on 'osek b'mitzvah, patur m'mitzvah' - if my husband helps preserve shalom bayit by taking the day off to help me with the baby, missing a day's learning is ok. Hmmm, not so sure still.....

This blog basically says what I want to say. It's such a shame that the Hareidim stuffed up such a positive message from the summer. However, I'm not sure those elements that throw rocks care about public opinion - I'm sure they don't read any publications that would let them know what world opinion is.
http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/2006/11/shooting-yourself-in-foot.html#links

Ishmael and Arabs

The Zohar tells us what to expect from the Arabs and what we should be doing ourselves.

We learn about Avraham's covenant with Hashem that 1. Avraham would be circumcised and his descendants (from Yitzchak) would also be circumcised at 8 days old, 2. Avraham's children would believe in G-d as the only G-d and 3. in exchange they would get Eretz Yisrael.

At the end of Lech Lecha Hashem promises Avraham that a child will be born to him from Sarah, this child will be circumcised at 8 days and will inherit the land of Israel. However, Avraham's answer to the bris was 'Would that Ishmael live before you!' and Hashem answers, 'Nevertheless, Sarah will bear you a son and I will fulfill my covenant with him...but regarding Ishmael...I will make him fruitful...and will make him a great nation.'

The Zohar records that the angel of Ishmael turned to Hashem and asked for a portion in Eretz Yisrael due to the bris that Ishmael peformed. Hashem agrees, and the Zohar says 'And in the future, the Children of Ishmael are to rule in the Holy Land for a long time, when it is completely empty... and they will delay the Children of Israel from returning to their place, until that merit of the Children of Ishmael is finished'.

As Ishmael's bris is incomplete, they only merit Eretz Yisrael when it is empty. Note that until the Jews returned to the land Eretz Yisrael was deserted and empty.

Mark Twain writes in 1867 (three years before the return of the first Jews to Israel) ' [a]desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds-a silent mournful expanse....A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action....We never saw a human being on the whole route....There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country'.

Firstly, this is very different from the account of Israel pre-Jews that the Palestinian propaganda would have you believe. Secondly, this shows how the land responds to Jews - in fact one of the reasons for calling the Green Line thus was because pre-1967 the Israeli side was green whilst the Jordanian side was brown. Thirdly, this shows that during the entire time the land was owned by the Ottoman Turks the land was desolate. In fact agriculture failed in Israel since the Romans, despite the apparent fertility of the land.

We must ask ourselves some hard questions when dealing with Ishmael and the merit of his bris. 90% of Israelis perform bris milah but for what reasons? Mostly tradition, culture etc. Muslims must choose to have a bris at the age of 13. If a bris is supposed to be a sign of the covenant we have with Hashem, it must be done with the correct intention of the fulfillment of that covenant. Muslims have the correct intention and this is the merit they have over us. In order to remove this merit, we as Jews must fulfill our end of the covenant and ensure that the Jews in Israel have the correct intention of the bris. If this is not possible, we must be aware of the consequences.

By thinking there is an end to the current situation through a political or military solution, we are treating the symptoms and not the disease. The Palestinians are acting in a way that is against their best interests, bringing poverty and hunger upon themselves because of their 'cause'. This can only be explained with a spiritual explanation, and can only be affected by a spiritual change in us. Only when the Jews in Israel keep Torah mitzvot correctly can we bring an end to this conflict.

Missiles and Parades

What does a missile hitting 20 miles short of target and a gay parade have in common? Nothing, unless you believe in Hashem.
The gay parade was postphoned 3 times and then, just when it is about to go ahead with who knows how much violence etc, a missile falls and kills 20 people (the army cannot explain what happened to make it go off target) and Hamas cry 'now we're going to kill you!' and the gay parade is held in a building because of the 'terrorist threat'. Coincidence? Hashem REALLY did not want this parade to go ahead and caused it to be held in a non-public way without anyone realising that He did it.
Just so smartly done!

Chardal

What is chardal? It is a shortened form of Haredi Dati Leumi - and I fall right into that catagory. My husband and I are machmir (or trying to be) when it comes to mitzvot but have a tzioni 'bent' to us - even if the actions of the Israeli government when it comes to the religious occasionally leaves a lot to be desired.

We believe Israel is a great place and are very happy it was created. We are also saddened that it is a place where crime, prostitution and murder take place like in every country as it is supposed to be a holy land. However we are realistic and believe the true redemption will only occur with Moshiach and DON'T believe in coercing people to do/keep things they naturally would not (unless they happen to live in a religious neighbourhood!).

I get inspired by stories of the '48 war where things were black and white and think I am probably a gilgul (reincarnation) of someone who died fighting. I stand quietly and recite Tehillim during the siren on Yom Hazikaron and get very angry at those who carry on regardless.

If my son serves in the army, although I would be scared for him and hope he wouldn't get put in the front line, I would be proud of him and support him in every way as defending this land and this people is the most important thing. I plan to raise him so the less kosher elements of the army either do not affect him or affect him in a minor way.

We understand and support those people who learn Torah all day and thus hold up the world. We don't believe all people learning Torah are so great at it that it justifies poverty. However those who can't should support those who can.

I'll probably return to this theme again too.

Curses and Petitions - The Gay Parade Revisited

As of this morning the High Court is considering three petitions from varied groups of religious opponents to the parade. Surely this is an example of peaceful protest? Let us not kid ourselves that they will be sympathetic though as the Court has such a wonderful history of siding with religious groups....

And at some point this week rabbonim from the Edah Haredis will gather to curse the parade organisers in the 'Pulsa D'Nora', sourced in the Bavli and Zohar. If done by a G-d fearing rabbinic court, the objects of the curse do not live out the year. If done for the wrong reasons, the curse backfires onto those performing it. Sharon and Rabin have both been cursed by a right-wing resident (I never use the word 'settler') rabbi from Psagot. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378339537&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

And yeshiva and seminary students are gathering to pray together to prevent the march and/or the violence that seems to go with it. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1162378347788&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

There are ways of going about things (I'm not sure the curse is a good one, see below) that do not involve violence and pain.

As for cursing people, we learn that you must even break Shabbat to save a rasha (truly evil person)'s life so I'm not sure how asking Hashem to kill someone fits in with that. There is also a story of a great Rav, who, when he expressed a prayer that Hashem should kill some kids that were making fun of him, his wife told him that he shouldn't pray for their deaths but their sincere repentance. This he did and they did repent and become Torah-observant. Surely this is more appropriate?

On Pluralist British youth movements

Pluralist youth movements - their only raison d'etre is to make young Jews meet young Jews but its not a stated aim.
Religiously, politically and socially they are lacking - certain British youth movements cannot now state unequivocally that all its members are actually Jewish and yet parents send their kids on it to meet other Jewish kids.

The problem arrives when you remove the religion from the people - trying to get people involved in Israeli cultural stuff is all very well but I know some staunch zionists that don't happen to like Israeli culture at all (do we have to like Dana International, frequent Tel Aviv cafes or be secular to experience 'culture'?) and yet are religiously motivated to make aliyah.

Simply comparing aliyah rates between religious zionist movements such as B'nei Akiva (about 10 ex-members make aliyah a year) with FZY (1-2?). Its simply very difficult to want to make aliyah to a country that you simply don't have strong links with - and the links are religious - not cultural. There is no one 'culture' in Israel and thats maybe one of the reasons why people find it hard to fit in and settle there.

Anyway, how can a movement call itself 'pluralist' anyway? Example 1. Most evening meetings start with an activity that prevents anyone who is shomre negiya from taking part - holding hands in a circle, 'huggy bears' etc etc. Example 2. Camp where every meal is followed by benching, whether or not bread was involved at the meal, causing upwards on 100 kids to break the commandment of saying G-d's name needlessly - a bracha levatalah.

There are so many more examples and so much more to say, I'll probably revisit this topic again and again.....

The Gay Parade

This country is going crazy this week and I feel like I'm stuck in the middle.
Down my road Haredim are setting fire to dust bins again and throwing rocks at Egged buses - why? Because some homosexuals, bisexuals and transexuals are going to parade through Jerusalem (I'm deliberately NOT using the words 'the holy city' afterwards) to be 'davkaniks'.

They are NOT parading through the old city but in the area of the Knesset - hence lack of 'holy city' as I'm not sure how holy the Knesset area is, or in fact the New city at all. That is not the point though. The point is that Jerusalem has the highest population of Haredim in Israel, and, more relevantly, some of the most extreme Haredim too.

Why choose Jerusalem to parade through? The only reason I can see is 'just davkah' - just because. Yes, the organisers are Jerusalem-based but they could easily have chosen another city - Tel Aviv has had lots of fun with gay parades in the past, Haifa, or a secular suburb of Jerusalem. Yes, the parade organisers want to demonstrate freedom of expression, sexual orientation, opinion, rights etc etc but they could have done this without provoking all of the inevitable violence.

They want to prove a point. The problem is that point is so unintelligable to Jerusalem's ultra-orthodox community there is no point in the point, if you see what I mean. How do you expect people who consider homosexuality as a test that Hashem sends a person to overcome and all sexual practises should be conducted in the utmost privacy (even heterosexual ones), to accept a parade that embraces the opposite of so many Torah values?

Even those sections of the religious community that are 'tolerant' of homosexuality would still prefer not to see it splashed across every billboard and on every street corner, just any person would be uncomfortable to see any couple engaged in sexual promiscuity in public (we still retain an element of appreciation of tznius/modesty, albeit a small one).

So on Friday we are going to see a lot of violence. Although I can understand the source of the anger, I can never understand the persistent resortion to violence by these elements of the religious community. The problem is, it has succeeded in the past and they have every expectation that it will continue to do so.

Should we not give in to bullies, even when we understand their point of view? There are so many alternative ways to express anger and outrage at something other than lobbing rocks at it.