Shaister Miester Do Da

The article below is from a series of mysticism related articles, tips, videos and information about Kabbalah symbols …

It is probably little wonder why some followers object to the idea of just anyone wearing the Kabbalah symbols of their faith as a mere fashion accessory. The tree of life symbol, even when encrusted with diamonds and gold means something more to them than just pretty decoration to be worn out to a new club or fashion show. It is a mark of their faith and their beliefs. It is a representation of their belief system and is something that reminds them of their faith on a daily basis.

With regard to Kabbalah symbols, the tree of life symbol was originally called the Etz haChavim and is looked upon as a blueprint of creation. It is a representation of a tree and how we are all bound together as one. We all come from the same common root and are all interconnected in the same tree even when we are on different branches of life.

The Kabbalah tree, known as the tree of life symbol, is called the diagram of the Sephiroth and is a drawing of how creation came to exist. It comes from the texts of Sefer Yetzirah, Bahir, and the most widely known, the Zohar. It would be extremely impossible to explain without drawings how the tree of life symbols actually look since so many of the texts differ on the numbers, path and even plants that the Sephot actually represent. It is a matter of which representation of the books and beliefs that the tree of life actually takes on that make up the life pathways for the drawings themselves. You would need to look it up to know.

Christianity worships the cross. The followers of different religions each have symbols that they believe to be sacred. Kabbalah symbols, such as the tree of life symbol are no different. It takes on a life of its own to those who follow Kabbalah and truly believe in the representations of each of the branches that originate from the words and inscriptions. The red string Kabbalah bracelet is more than just a piece of jewelry. It is a representation of history and a way to understanding the path to creation for the Kabbalah follower to reflect upon.

For more tips on Kabbalah faith, visit: The Zohar

Rembrandt’s painting, Return of the Prodigal Son, illustrates one of Jesus’ most shocking parables - a story about two brothers who rebel against their father. The younger son takes his inheritance and runs away, wasting it all. The older brother stays home and dutifully serves his father. The shocking thing is that the son who ran away ends up forgiven and restored, while the one who stayed home ends up alienated and miserable. Jesus’ point is that people who are broken (and know it) are welcomed by the Father, while those who appear to have it all together may in fact be very far away.

Want to learn more about this shocking and unexpected welcome to broken people? Come and visit Abingdon Presbyterian Church as we worship and learn about the God whose heart is full of compassion for sinful rebels like us.

Rabbi David Hertzberg writes:

Torah Judaism

“And G-d said to Moshe, ‘Say to the Kohanim, the sons of Aharon, say to them, that none of them may become tamei from a soul (corpse) of their nation’” (Vayikra 21:1). The Gemara (Yevamot 114a) questions the apparent redundancy of the verb say in the passuk. What does the second word sayadd to our understanding of this particular law? The Gemara answers that the first say refers to Moshe’s obligation to teach the Kohanim the mitzvah of refraining from coming into contact with a corpse.

Israeli Judaism

The second say refers to the obligation incumbent upon the Kohanim themselves to teach their children the importance of remaining tahor (spiritually pure) and distancing themselves from tumah (spiritual impurity).

Israeli Judaism

The commentators universalized this Gemara and, over the years, have used it as a model for education in general, as well as for the responsibilities of leaders toward their followers. Rav Zalman Sorotzkin, in his commentary Oznayim L’Torah, explains that the double use of the word say is meant to teach us the approach necessary to employ in order to educate our children in a society, which is often at odds with our values.

The only way to ensure that our children incorporate our values into their lives when they are constantly being exposed to counter-Torah values is by continuously repeating and reinforcing our messages and lessons to them. The Torah’s repeated use of the word say teaches us the necessity “to keep at it.”

Rav Menachem Zaks (Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank’s son-in-law) in his work Menachem Tzion also supports the idea that the Torah’s repeated use of the word say is prescriptive in nature, but suggests a different approach. When it comes to trying to influence a person, whether to buy something or to buy into something, we never know what words will actually penetrate the person and get him on board. This is true whether you’re a leader of an organization trying to convince people to join and work for a cause, or a parent trying to teach your children values.

You must be prepared to approach from different angles with the hope that at some point the message will enter your children’s hearts. The double use of the word say instructs us to always keep searching for ways to inspire our children. Eventually, if we persevere, our children will get the message.

Another explanation of the repeated use of the word say is that the Torah, through its careful use of language, is indicating to us the urgency involved in the mitzvah of chinuch. If early and zealous performance of mitzvot, is in general a requirement, it is even more so when it comes to teaching our children. On the broadest level, educating our children in the Torah’s values must begin at the earliest possible moment.

On a more specific level, there will be different times in our children’s lives – perhaps mere minutes at a time – when they will be open and primed to really hear what we have to say. Our antennae must be up for such moments and we must be prepared to exploit them immediately. Even pushing our children off for a few minutes might be too long.

A child’s interest, especially a teenager’s, is very transitory and fleeting. The window of opportunity does not remain open for long. By its repeated use of the word say the Torah commands us to be alert to such educational opportunities and to expeditiously take advantage of them.

Several years ago when speaking somewhere, I emphasized the importance of this idea. I explained that when educational opportunities present themselves we must be prepared to drop everything in an instant. When I finished my talk, a gentleman came over to me and told me the following story, which he encouraged me to relate to help other people. He informed me that 10 years ago his 18-year-old son was “off the derech.” Although he shared the details with me, suffice it to say that the young man was very confused and had some serious issues.

“One day out of the blue,” the man said “my son told me he wanted to go to Israel to learn in a yeshiva.” The man related that his initial impression was that his son was joking around and being spiteful. “But I decided to take him seriously and put him in touch with people who could find him the right school.” With a smile on his face the man said “To make a long story short, today (10 years later) my son is himself a rebbi in a Yeshiva” Grabbing my hand, the man, with tears of joy in his eyes, concluded his story by saying, “It’s like you said, Rabbi – when the moment arrives you have to grab it. Had I not taken my son seriously at the moment he came to me or had I pushed him off I would have lost him to Yiddishkeit.”

Whether we’re talking to our children, teaching our students or leading our followers, we would be wise to incorporate the many lessons the rabbis have gleaned from the Torah’s double use of the word say. To succeed we must constantly reinforce our message, while always trying new approaches and never forgetting the urgency and importance of our endeavor. As the adage states: “Opportunity doesn’t knock twice.”

Rabbi David Hertzberg is the principal of the Yeshivah of Flatbush Middle Division. Questions and comments can be emailed to him at Mdrabbi@aol.com.

Arthur Kohn writes:

Torah Judaism

The first chief rabbi of the Jewish community of the Swiss city of Basel was my grandfather, Arthur Cohn, after whom I was named and whom I know only through hearsay and stories told by my father.

For 40 years, my grandfather held the office of chief rabbi of Basel, a city to which he had come at the age of 23.

Orthodox Judaism

The First Zionist Congress took place in Basel in 1897. At this time, there was only a small Jewish community in Basel, the majority of whose members originated from Alsace. The congress literally burst into the lives to this quiet Jewish community.

American Judaism

The first session of the congress took place on Sunday morning, Aug. 29. This attitude led organizers to abandon their first choice of Munich as the congress’s center. Political Zionism — something the vast majority of Jews proclaim today — was a deeply divisive issue then, with many religious Jews fiercely opposed. My grandfather’s attitude, deeply traditional yet open- minded, tipped the balance in favor of Basel.

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Herzl wrote to my grandfather: “We shall never forget your truly sincere and honest behaviour and your willingness to hold the Zionist Congress in Basel. During one such conversation, my grandfather said: “If you knew the Zionists in Switzerland and their particular religious views, you would find it hard to endorse the Zionist cause.” With a smile, his Eastern European Jewish colleague replied: “You should first see my Zionists.”

Because of his support of the Zionist cause my grandfather encountered misunderstanding and anger from most of his rabbinical colleagues. Rabbi Breuer told my grandfather: “You will see, dear Rabbi Cohn, in a few more months, no more mention will be made of Zionism.” My father Marcus Cohn was a renowned lawyer in Basel. For my father, the Zionist congresses represented his first encounters with Jewish scholars, and they left a deep, lasting impression on him. My father was just 7 years old and was allowed to accompany home at night one of the Easter European Jewish rabbis who was staying in the most modest hotel in Basel. Bashfully, my father strode side-by-side with the rabbi who turned to him and asked what he was presently learning pertaining to Judaism. Then to my father’s surprise the rabbi began to quote Beitza by heart, until he came to the actual point my father had reached in his learning. Deeply astounded and awestruck at such intense Jewish knowledge, my father then proceeded home, overwhelmed by the experience.

Brad A. Greenberg writes for the Jewish Journal about academic Kevin MacDonald:

Conservative Judaism

Awaiting feedback from his publisher 15 years ago, MacDonald sent his manuscript to a colleague in the psychology department at California State University Long Beach (CSULB). MacDonald, 64, has been deemed America’s “foremost anti-Semitic thinker” by civil rights experts. A tenured psychology professor who lent his expertise to Holocaust denier David Irving, MacDonald has suggested restricting college enrollment and increasing taxes for Jews to mediate what he perceives as inequities with non-Jewish whites.

Reform Judaism

The books have become sacred scripture for white supremacists, and a growing number of MacDonald’s colleagues have urged the university to denounce his writings.

Messianic Judaism

“He is repackaging traditional anti-Jewish beliefs in contemporary pseudo-scientific language,” said Jeffrey Blutinger, a history professor leading the push against MacDonald. “Oshkosh was a great town to grow up in,” MacDonald said in a recent conversation. “There weren’t any Jewish families at all. Nobody talked about Jews. Almost three decades later, when MacDonald began connecting Jewish power and success to evolutionary strategies, he would identify his leftist years as the first time Jews used his gentile face to promote what he considered their group agenda. It wasn’t until the ’90s that MacDonald began to see Jewish communities as inimical entities slowly destroying their hosts.

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“Jews are inevitably going to be an elite,” he said. MacDonald’s core complaint is Jewish influence on immigration laws. “European people in this country will be a minority in a few years,” MacDonald said. Tall and lanky, with white hair and a disarming smile, MacDonald hardly looks like America’s scariest academic. Until 2000, MacDonald was largely unknown on campus. During the past six weeks, the anthropology and history departments, as well as the Jewish studies program, all have issued statements denouncing MacDonald’s work as “professionally irresponsible and morally untenable”; the psychology department voted to disassociate from his writings because of their popularity with “extremist groups.”

MacDonald’s intellectual pursuits began innocently. The article made MacDonald think of animals.

My earliest research on the behavior of Jews focused on that, and you see wolf packs do that.”

MacDonald began to think of Judaism as the vehicle through which an evolutionary strategy was mechanized. “A People that Shall Dwell Alone” lays the foundation for MacDonald’s theory of Judaism as a group evolutionary strategy and briefly discusses other groups that he believes employ similar strategies: Gypsies, the Amish, Chinese living abroad.

Jews, he pointed out, are taught they are different — God’s chosen — and they are encouraged to live lives that benefit other Jews. “The incredible elaboration of Jewish religious law in these writings suggests that this mass of material is the result of intense intellectual competition within the Jewish community and that the resulting Torah then provided an arena for intellectual competition within the Jewish community.”

American Jewish Journalism
Jews invented Hollywood.
While Thomas Edison invented the motion picture camera, immigrant Jewish entrepreneurs (like Sam Goldwyn, Jack and Harry Warner, Louis B. Mayer) created Hollywood. Jews created the three major American television networks, William Paley’s CBS, David Sarnoff’s NBC and Leonard Goldenson’s ABC.
Today about two-thirds of leading TV and movie producers are Jewish.
The Jewish Press
Jewish domination of entertainment is little discussed in the mainstream media, which is also dominated by Jews, out of fears of arousing hatred of Jews.
Journalism On Jewish Life
In December 2002, the National Lampoon came out with the spoof The Hollywood Retorter, with Jews in Hollywood as the main joke. Even the L.A. Times, in a news brief, shied away from mentioning the “Jewish” articles. There’re a lot of Jews in Hollywood. Jews in Hollywood, like most Jews in the media, academia and pornography, tend to be secular Jews, rooted neither in Judaism nor in the majority Christian culture.
British journalist William Cash wrote about Hollywood’s Jewish cabal in an October 1994 issue of the British journal Spectator. The article drew hysterical reactions denouncing Cash and the Spectator for anti-Semitism.
William Cash writes:
Los Angeles. The Old Establishment was a club. As small-time professional incest it is probably no worse than, say, public schoolboys in the City (an analogy used by one senior Jewish executive to rebut the charge of Jewish favoritism in Hollywood). Hollywood Jews are not notably religious. ‘ The Wasp replied, ‘I’m trying to look Jewish.’
Jews, always compulsive story-tellers and talented negotiators, are extremely compatible with the executive side of the movie business.
_________________ LETTERS
THE SPECTATOR 5 November 1994
SIR:The total dominance of the American film industry by the Jewish Establishment, past and present, is admirably related by William Cash (Kings of the Deal, 29 October)…Cash illustrates the attempts by the pre-war studio bosses to copy the mores of the old East Coast Establishment, and he notes that this is no longer so.
SIR: William Cash worries about inevitable shrieks of anti-Semitism as a consequence of his anti-Semitism. SIR: William Cash’s article about Jewish influence in Hollywood has caused a great deal of offense and outrage. This language perpetrates the discredited old myth about a Jewish conspiracy and a Jewish monopoly of power which is allegedly used to disadvantage and exclude non-Jews.
Neville Nagler Chief Executive, The Board of Deputies of British Jews London
SIR: The reaction to my article pointing out that Hollywood’s feudal power structure is predominantly Jewish (’Kings of the deal’, 29 October) has been wholly misconstrued. Gabler asserts that the Hollywood Jews practiced ‘reverse discrimination” Those goyim!” That Hollywood is a Jewish-run town, despite only 4% per cent of the country being Jewish, is, indeed, always joked about.
William Cash Woodrow Wilson Drive, Hollywood, California 90046
A recent article in The Spectator has caused consternation in America. Mr. Weinraub appended to these exact extracts from Cash’s article his own comment: ‘Few in Hollywood could recall such an anti-Semitic article in a mainstream publication.’
I suspect he was most offended by William Cash’s remark that the New York Times was the ‘official mouthpiece’ of the new Jewish establishment. Mr. Weinraub’s own article was very well written. Self (after being told, at length, how offended le tout Hollywood was by Mr. Cash’s article): I am quite sensitive to the attitudes of Jews to this sort of thing. Self: Because I am Jewish.
Weinraub: Jews put Jews in gas ovens! The question is whether Jews should be as robustly unparanoic in their response to Cash’s article as Catholics have been to Mount’s deliberately provocative polemic. So: Jews are over-opinionated and money-obsessed. I accept that William Cash’s use of the word ‘cabal’when asking if any such thing existed in Hollywood was unfortunate. LETTERS _______________ THE SPECTATOR 26 November 1994
Arthur J. Magida writes in the Baltimore Jewish Times 11/11/94:
Hollywood movie executives are “outraged” and “disgusted” about an article in the British magazine, The Spectator, that revives a stereotype from the early days of failmmaking that a “Jewish cabal” controls the entertainment industry.
The article by William Cash, a Hollywood correspondent for the British conservative newspaper The Daily Telegraph, describes Jews as “fiercely competitive,” “clannish” “and compulsive storytellers and talented negotiators.” The “invidious and protective culture” they have created in Hollywood denies employment to non-Jews, according to Mr. Cash, who answered in the positive this question that he posed:
Neal Sandberg, former head of the western region of the American Jewish Committee and currently head of AJC’s Pacific Rim Institute, said Mr. Cash’s article was “overstated, even in terms of genteel anti- Semitism. The U.S. film business is almost completely controlled by Jews. Neal Gabler wrote in the 11/13/94 Los Angeles Times:
You call this a power structure!
Ignoring the facts to suit his myth of Jewish control, Cash is in a long tradition of anti-Semites who began smiting Jewish movie executives almost from the moment the Jews entered the film industry in the 1910s.
Jews didn’t subscribe to the same values. Anti-Semitism is as old as the hills. The latest addition comes from William Cash, Hollywood correspondent for Britain’s The Daily Telegraph. He has written an article for another British publication, The Spectator, titled “Kings of the Deal,” asserting that Jews control Hollywood.
Most Hollywood studios are owned either by foreign interests or New York banks. Mr. Cash convicts himself with his own words. The Hollywood hebes, he notes, prefer to wear white socks. Cash even has people in Hollywood trying to pass for Jews. Mr Cash, son of the right-wing Tory MP Bill Cash, claims that Hollywood is controlled by a “Jewish cabal” and suggests that it may operate reverse discrimination against outsiders, including blacks, Wasps and Britons. He characterises Hollywood’s Jewish leaders as vulgar (a “white-sock mediocracy”), “compulsive story-tellers and talented negotiators”.
“Few in Hollywood (can) recall such an anti-Semitic article in a mainstream publication,” wrote Bernard Weinraub, the New York Times’ Hollywood correspondent. Now, if you or I read an article about the Jewish domination of Hollywood, I think we would react sensibly by saying: ”Well, if the Jews are so clever and are so much in charge, how come Hollywood isn’t making any good films these days? Lawson admits that Jews do dominate the entertainment industry but this does not lead to our movie and TV screens filling with Jewish culture.
“Jewish movies - Crossing Delancey, Yentl, Brighton Beach Memoirs - have been relatively few. “In general, Hollywood movies reflect Middle American Christian values.

Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager’s parents were born and raised in Brooklyn. Max Prager married Hilda Friedfeld on September 14, 1940.
“My parents are a fascinating amalgamation of modern American and traditional Judaism,” says Dennis. “Both grew up with European Jewish parents. “…Within Jewish life I’m in the no-man’s land, denominationally. Prager discussed his abandonment of Orthodoxy on his radio show July 13, 2001:
Dennis: “I was raised Orthodox but after my Bar Mitzvah on I was never Orthodox. Dennis: “Yes. Dennis: “I don’t have an Orthodox temperament. Never. Dennis is the only member of his immediate family who is not Orthodox. That Dennis’s parents met at a mixed-sex Orthodox dance shows how far Jewish Orthodoxy has shifted to the right. This showed the compassion Dennis always had.”

Dennis Prager

Dennis began school at age six at the kindergarten of Yeshiva Rambam.
(The Prager Perspective, June 15, 1997)
When fights broke out on the ice, Prager would stay seated, to show his disaproval.
Around the same time, Dennis developed a decade-long hobby of listening to shortwave radio broadcasts.
During summer vacations, Kenny and Dennis attended Camp Winsoki, a modern Orthodox summer camp located in Rensellaervile N.Y..
Ethnic pride has never been a big value for Dennis. The proverbial “why?” child, Prager was sent to the principal’s office so often that they named a chair “The Dennis Prager seat.”
Dennis said he wanted his parents to never ask him about school. (Relayed by Dennis on his radio show, 12/12/03)
Dennis Prager
Dennis Prager’s best friend, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, wrote three paragraphs in the Summer 2001 issue of Olam magazine that seem to be about Dennis:
Prager came early to the belief that his life mission was to promote goodness. Dennis was raised to never take the easy way out. Kenny attended an all-boys yeshiva high school. Flatbush put an end to mixed-sex dances in Prager’s 10th grade.
Prager and Telushkin were assigned to the C-student track. Dennis was known as a loudmouth in highschool. Prager fell in love with classical music. “This camp provided the most positive Jewish experiences in my life. Dennis had his “first serious romance. (Prager’s CD)
Dennis particularly liked WNBC radio and WOR host Jean Shepherd.
In Prager’s final year of high school, he served as Senior Class President.
(Ultimate Issues, Summer, 1985, pg. 10)
Prager attended Brooklyn College. Prager studied international history, comparative religion and Arabic at the University of Leeds. Prager intervened, kicking the leader of the thugs. On Friday night, August 1, 1969, Prager’s life forever changed.
Approaching one of the groups he’d addressed, Prager asked to lecture on why so many young people were alienated from Judaism.
Bnai Brith nominated Prager as its delegate, and its later report described Dennis as “the star of the West.”
Prager graduated Brooklyn College with a double major in Anthropology and History. “Graduate school was a tough time for me,” Prager said on his radio show March 2, 2006. Dennis taught at Brooklyn College from 1970-72.
Around 1970, Prager’s car was broken into and the stereo stolen. Dennis opened his door. (Prager’s radio show, 12/28/06)
* Why are so many young Jews alienated from Judaism and the Jewish people?
As is typical of Prager’s personality, the book is not titled Nine Questions People Ask about Judaism but The Nine Questions People Ask about Judaism.
Then I found out that it’s ideas are largely absent from Jewish life, even Orthodox Jewish life. In April, 1976, Shlomo Bardin, the 76-year old founder and director of the Brandeis Institute, invited the 26-year old Prager to take charge. In 1976, Prager appeared on television for the first time. “We’re trying to turn out leaders,” Prager said.
“Why?”
Prager’s friends teased him about this remark for years afterwards. (Related by Prager on his radio show on Jan. 24, 2006 during his first hour.)
One night as Prager was about to tell his latest theory, the rabbi stopped him.
Dennis answered in the negative. “The [1980] election of Ronald Reagan affected my happiness,” said Prager on his radio show March 2, 2006. “I had a feeling that if I did well [on his radio debut],” remembers Prager on his radio show January 3, 2006, “that it would change my life.”
In 1983, Prager and Telushkin published their second book: Why the Jews? Prager ejected musician Sam Glaser for playing non-Jewish music. In his speeches since working at BBI, Prager mocks his BBI board. Prager says the board was shocked. In September of 1983, Prager left the Brandeis Bardin Institute. (Prager CD)
Joseph Telushkin writes on page 104 of his book Jewish Humor about Prager and Brandeis-Bardin:
Prager and Telushkin portray Prager’s experience at Brandeis-Bardin as that of the martyr. While Prager claims he quit, a Jewish Journal cover story in early 1986 indicated he was pushed out. Many on the board said Prager was a lousy administrator.
At the time of Bardin’s death, [Prager] was 27 years old. As Prager himself observed, “Some of the people on the board had children who were older than me.”
But it was not simply Prager’s youth inspired controversy. Chotiner’s case against Prager was based upon his conviction that the type of Judaism Prager advocated was too rigid. Dennis Prager served as institute director for seven years, despite the existence of a virtual split within the executive board as to his efficacy. During this time, claim both Prager and his adherents, he quadrupled the BBI membership. “Under Dennis’s directorship,” says Chotiner, “Brandeis was a swinging door. Chotiner is not alone in his contention that Prager lacked intellectual depth. Says Dr. Goodhill, “Dennis was a brilliant man. At Brandeis, Prager says now, not without bitterness, “I learned that many Jews are uncomfortable with paying another Jew to do something Jewish.”
Even his critics acknowledge that Prager succeeded in exciting many young people about Jewish observance and bringing them into the Jewish community. Some students back up that view of Prager as a bully.

Rachel Weiss writes: While Tishrei marks the beginning of the world’s creation, it was during Nissan that God revealed the purpose of His creation. [Imrei Chaim]
* * *
Rabbi Chaim Tirer of Chernovitz, renowned as the Be’er Mayim Chaim, an eminent Torah scholar and Kabbalist, was the son of Reb Shlomo, a pious Jew who laid no claim to being a talmid chacham by any standard. Reb Shlomo had for many years eked out a living by the brewing of distilled spirits. It was on one of the days before Pesach that Red Shlomo encountered a fellow Jew from another hamlet who was on the way to the big city to sell his chametz. Reb Shlomo, hoping to save himself a trip, asked the man to do him the favor of selling his as well. Reb Shlomo and his wife methodically went about gathering firewood and dry branches to lay beneath the walls of the brewery and set fire to their livelihood. The local reservoir gradually became tainted, affecting every living entity that consumed drinking water. Reb Shlomo, however, was bothered by a thought wholly divorced from what he had unwittingly wrought. “Twice a day in Krias Shema,” Reb Shlomo said, “we recite the commandment to ‘love Hashem your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all that you possess.’ As the two pondered how they could inject some happiness into their predicament, Reb Shlomo hit on a solution. The gypsy sat on a chair playing his fiddle while Reb Shlomo danced.
The dumbfounded poritz mounted his horse and rode into town to check things out for himself. “Shlomke,” began the poritz when Reb Shlomo appeared. I consider you a smart Jew. Reb Shlomo’s attempt at explaining the intricacies of chametz and mechiras (the selling of) chametz fell on deaf ears – the poritz could not grasp the concept. And so Reb Shlomo and his wife wandered off to seek lodging elsewhere.
This widowed sister-in-law resided in a distant town and Reb Shlomo was strongly advised by friends and family members to delay his travel plans due to inclement weather. Reb Shlomo refused to listen, citing the injunction that one is not to delay fulfilling a mitzvah that presents itself.
The journey was a treacherous one; the snow and sleet did not let up, and Reb Shlomo took a wrong turn. Despite the danger of lying motionless in the frosty cold, Reb Shlomo survived his ordeal. This son, Chaim, true to his grandfather’s prediction, authored the holy work known as Be’er Mayim Chaim (Well of Living Waters).
There was once a Jewish fellow who worked for a poritz. “What are you talking about?” answered the God-fearing Jew. Hardly thrilled with such reasoning, the poritz decided he would teach the Jew a lesson. The thrust and force of the dead monkey landing in the Jewish man’s home ripped its innards open, revealing the ingested small fortune. In the meantime, a servant of the poritz dispatched to the Jew’s dwelling to check on his state of affairs reported back that the Jew seemed to be doing exceedingly well. The Jew matter-of-factly enlightened the poritz as to the incident of the monkey’s carcass and its stash of gold – which made the poritz finally concur that it was God Who sustains all living things.
The act of bodek chametz refers to searching for chametz in places within our reach. Chametz, leavened bread, represents the yetzer hara (evil inclination).

jewish funeral
JTA: The Obama campaign knows the Wright question continues to rile. Obama has been gaining support in the Jewish community, with recent polls suggesting a near split among Jews between the Illinois senator and Clinton, who once enjoyed a strong lead in the community.
jewish girls
Clinton still got the support of the bulk of the Jewish establishment in Pennsylvania and leaders of the local federation were visibly absent from the special Obama event.
jewish new year
But Obama is also enormously popular among segments of the Jewish community. Obama dismissed the notion that he said is often put forward – that Wright is his “spiritual adviser.”
For Nancy Gordon, an ardent Clinton supporter, Obama was not convincing. Obama did more to move Max Schapiro, a University of Pennsylvania student who chairs Hillel’s Israel committee there.
Noting that Israel was his number one issue, he was impressed as well by Obama’s record on Israel, but needed to hear more.

jews
Adam Wills writes: Trader Joe’s and some Costco stores did not carry matzah this year, and representatives from Gelson’s and Whole Foods say their supplies are dwindling.
anti semitism
Construction issues and problems with a new state-of-the-art oven at Manischewitz’s only plant in Newark led the company to announce it wouldn’t produce Tam Tams and other kosher-for-Passover products this year, including its flavored matzah lines. Instead, the company focused on unsalted, whole wheat and egg matzah. While rising food prices and mounting global food shortages are not to blame for the shortage this year, David Rossi, Manischewitz’s vice president of marketing, told the New Jersey Jewish News that the company does expect prices to rise in 2009 once its wheat contracts are renegotiated after Passover.
jewish wedding
Streit’s West Coast distributor and other matzah manufacturers could not be reached for comment about the shortage.
Manischewitz spokeswoman Amy Stern said that production of kosher-for-Passover matzah ended in late March, and that retailers had up until the week before Passover to place their orders.
Los Angeles kosher markets contacted said matzah boxes still line their shelves.
“It’s purely a chain store problem,” he said. “We’ve got matzah!”
Haaretz reports: The U.S. is facing a nation-wide shortage of Matza this Passover, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

The reasons for the shortage are not clear, but the possibilities range from manufacturing problems, individual stores’ decision not to carry matza and rumors of a possible labor dispute among matza plant workers, according to the report.

“It seemed like the whole region had a problem getting it in,” the New York Times quoted Miami Whole Foods supermarket supervisor Jason Hodges as saying.
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ShopRite in Philadelphia was sold out, as was the Food Emporium in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., in Westchester County.

“We heard there was a strike or something,” said the Food Emporium manager, Frantz Baptiste. “The first shipment we had was a month ago, and we never got another one.”

According to the report, officials with the popular matza manufacturer Manischewitz have said that problems with a new state-of-the-art oven in its only New Jersey plant caused it to scrap this Passover?s supply some less popular matza varieties, as well as a popular Passover cracker.

Supermarket chain Trader Joe’s chose not to offer matza at their stores nationwide, as did some Costco stores, saying the product was not a big seller.

NYT says:

“Being out of matzo is like being out of milk,” Ms. Mnookin said. So it was on to Safeway. Nothing. Fearing that the box of stale matzo remaining in her pantry from last year would not cut it, she drove nearly 15 miles to Menlo Park.

Hypothesis: If the shortage had been on gefilte fish, complaints would have been far fewer.

The reasons behind the matzo shortage range from manufacturing problems, decisions by some stores not to carry the product this Passover and vague talk of a possible work stoppage.

“It seemed like the whole region had a problem getting it in,” said Jason Hodges, a supervisor in the grocery department at a Whole Foods in Miami. A person who answered the phone at a ShopRite in Philadelphia said stores there were sold out, as was the Food Emporium in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., in Westchester County.

“We heard there was a strike or something,” said the Food Emporium manager, Frantz Baptiste. “The first shipment we had was a month ago, and we never got another one.”

Phone calls and e-mail messages to the largest suppliers of unleavened bread products, Streit’s, Manischewitz and Yehuda, brought no response on Monday, possibly because executives were off for Passover, which began Saturday night.

But Manischewitz officials have said that problems with a new state-of-the-art oven in its only New Jersey plant caused it to scrap this Passover’s supply of Tam Tam crackers, its little six-sided matzo morsels, as well as some less popular matzo varieties.

Trader Joe’s stores opted not to sell Passover matzo this year, as did some Costco stores. “It’s not a huge item for us,” said a Costco spokesman, Bob Nelson.

The problem seemed especially acute in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Palo Alto, Amy Kawadler said she had been told there was no matzo at the Mollie Stone’s Market, which carries a wide selection of kosher food, but she noticed a lone box making its way down a checkout conveyor.

When she inquired about it, the customer “grabbed it and pressed it against his chest and said, ‘This is my matzo,’ ” Ms. Kawadler said. He directed her to the section where one last box, of onion poppy matzo, remained, resting on the back of a bottom shelf. “I ran with my hands in the air, pumping the box in my hand saying, ‘I got the last box of matzo!’ ” Ms. Kawadler said. “It was the talk of our seder.”

jewish baseball players
On Sunday morning, actor Ron Rifkin, 69, talks about his Jewish journeys. Raised Orthodox, sent to yeshivot, he’s never been to Israel. Ron Rifkin: “I come from an Orthodox, sort of Hasidic, background. I went to Yeshiva Torah V’Das. I was shomer shabbos. It was Hanukkah time. “The rabbi wouldn’t marry us unless she wore long sleeves. My wife came to shul every Shabbos. Very strict yeshivas. I thought, if my zayde could see me now… Luke: “Do you miss Orthodox community?”

judaism history

“I called this rabbi in Queens to officiate. Ron: “Not really. We, the people in show business, are very open. “I have run into anti-Semitism from Jews. I’ve been told I’m too Jewish… Ron: “I get embarrassed by vulgarity, by people who are rude, by people who aren’t kind and respectful. Ron: “Not to judge anyone. If you never judge anyone, how then do you relate to evil? Jews react passionately to evil. Ron: “I’m talking about judging people’s spiritual beliefs. Luke: “We judge other people’s political beliefs, their competency with their work…”
beginning of judaism
People are dying. Luke: “Are there prominent people in America who you fear?”
Ron: “I fear intolerance.”
Sunday. The room is jammed with about 150 Jews.
Doreen’s practice is filled with Orthodox Jews. Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller is in his twenty-seventh year at UCLA Hillel as director. You could talk openly with Rabbi Riskin.”
“Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried (author of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch) was Hungarian… I was surrounded by Hungarian Jews.”
Rabbi Chaim: “How can we as religious people deal with lust? The Rambam is the loser in the battle for the Jewish world. Sunday afternoon, Jewish Journal Editor Rob Eshman moderates a panel on Jews in Hollywood. Josh wondered why so few Jews in Hollywood support Israel.
Our lead character is not Jewish. I hear great reviews on Rabbi Elazar Muskin’s presentation at this time on the history of the yarmulke.
I attend her “Guerilla Girls of the Talmud” class Friday night. It’d be annoying if his points weren’t so smart.
I catch several sessions with the world’s sexiest grandmother, Professor Arna Poupko Fisher. If you do, you’ll take it seriously.
Here’s audio of his Saturday night talk on “What are Jews for?”
I learn:
I catch Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller’s lecture on “A Jewish perspective on the relationship between Judaism and Islam.”
There were some good people there…”
“You have to speak a language people can absorb. We need Jews to be Zionists.”
If you can, reinterpret those texts.”
History is important. It lived in the world. I chose the story where the [Talmudic] rabbis rejected God’s miracles. When I debate with Muslims, I talk about this. The rabbi reads an excerpt from the Koran calling Jews apes and swine.
History is not history in Islam. Rabbi: “Be careful with that. “[According to the Koran:] Jews have Torah and mitzvot because God is punishing them.”
“Why do they hate the rabbis? Jews are arrogant. “What’s so attractive about Islam? There’s a humility in Islam. One people is called Yisrael, meaning struggle with God. One people is called Ishmael, which means obediance, submission.”
Jews are individually arrogant and collectively humble.”
On the last session Monday, I catch the play “Modern Orthodox.” Todd does not elaborate.
Around LAX, Todd confesses he’s nauseous. Video Video
A smaller number of people approach me because they like my blogging.
Hey, read me!