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| Week ending Shabbat, January 6, 2007 |
16 Tevet, 5767 |
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As Saddam Falls Jews Remember Nebuchadnezzar
Sunday, December 31 was the tenth day of Tevet on the Hebrew calendar. It is a day of fasting, commemorating the siege of Jerusalem led by King Nebuchadnezzar of the ancient Babylonian Empire and of whom Saddam Hussein claimed to be a reincarnation. Only one day after the hanging of Saddam Hussein, Jews around the world remember another cruel tyrant and his murderous plans for the Jewish People. Nebuchadnezzar was more successful than Saddam in this regard. He destroyed Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, and executed hundreds of thousands of Jews (including their king and leaders) with unspeakable cruelty. In addition, those that survived were carried off to Babylon, beginning a seventy-year exile of the Jewish People from their Holy Land.
Now, nearly 2,500 years later, Jews around the world (and especially those living in the modern renewed edition of the Jewish State that Nebuchadnezzar tried to rub out) refrain from eating and drinking until sunset to remember the calamities that occurred at that time. Since the Holocaust, many bereaved Jews who do not know the date or place of death of their loved ones recite Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for those who have died, on this day. For this reason, some consider this day as a Holocaust remembrance day.
Bar Ilan University "Responsa Project" Now Available Online
The Bar Ilan University Responsa Project, launched in 1991 in its CD format, was recently uploaded to the Internet on a platform provided by C.D.I. Systems. The virtual library encompasses all major Rabbinic sources. It represents more than 3,000 years of Aramaic and Hebrew literature. The website includes the Hebrew Bible with its principal commentaries, both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud with commentaries, Midrashim, the Kabbala's main book - the Zohar, Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, Rabbi Yosef Karo's compilation of Jewish Law - the Shulchan Arukh with commentaries, and the collection of over 80,000 Responsa questions and answers on matters of Jewish law. The internet version of the Responsa Project includes a variety of tools and capabilities in its various features of search, navigation of texts, and hypertext links between books in different databases.
Jews Gather to Rehabilitate Forests
Some five hundred fifty Jews from all over the world gathered in the Naftali Mountains forest of northern Israel recently for a massive tree planting event. A large portion of the lush green forest was burned during the war with Lebanon this past summer after being hit repeatedly by Katyusha rockets fired by Hizballah in Lebanon. The planting event was the culmination of the "Leading Up North" project where youths and students from all over the world arrived in Israel for the ten-day event. The young Jews were all deployed in the communities and towns of the north and were involved in the repair of cities and towns, bomb shelters, and forests which have been devastated by the second Lebanon war. The participants also enjoyed a specially tailored educational curriculum that was offered by scholars-in-residence with expertise in service learning.
The project is lead by the "Center for Leadership Initiatives," (CLI) a newly formed non-profit group in the United States designed to focus on leadership development, professional growth and promotion of managerial excellence throughout the US Jewish community and around the world. The group was founded and backed by Jewish American philanthropist Lynn Schusterman. Schusterman has recently expressed her desire to help the communities of the north and the citizens cope with the damages and trauma of the war in the north. "Too many people feel powerless in the face of the violence in the Middle East," Schusterman commented. " 'Leading Up North' will allow participants to meld community service and real actions for healing the region as they demonstrate their leadership and express their connection to Israel," she said.
Dozens Pray at Joseph's Tomb
Tuesday night the Israeli army gave permission to a large group of Jewish worshipers to pray at the destroyed holy burial site of Joseph, one of the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob, or Israel. Although the Oslo Accords stipulate freedom of worship at such sites, the yeshiva Od Yosef Chai that was built there around 1980 has been banished, and Jews are rarely permitted to visit. Arabs vandalized and burned the site during the early stages of the Oslo War in late 2000.
At the same time, other Israeli Defense Force units were discovering two huge bombs meant to be detonated against Israeli targets. One of them that was particularly huge was 60-kilograms and was found west of Jenin. Another bomb placed near an IDF position was also discovered, possibly as large as 15 kilograms. Border Guard forces were called to the sites and safely detonated both in controlled explosions.
"Palestinian" terrorists also threw a home-made grenade at an IDF force operating in Shechem; no one was hurt.
Post-War Many Seek Religion
"There are no atheists in foxholes" is the old cliché quote. In the months that have past since the war in the North last summer, a new trend has developed: More and more new immigrants have turned to religion and are asking to officially "convert" to Judaism. From teens to senior citizens, hundreds of new immigrants have asked the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption to begin studying the Jewish faith and "officially" join the Jewish people. The classes are required by Israel's religious in order to convert, and are conducted by the Center for Jewish Education in the Immigrant Absorption Ministry. There are more than 300,000 immigrants who came to Israel from former Soviet republics in accordance with the Law of Return, but are not considered Jewish by the religious laws. They make up about 30 percent of all immigrants to Israel. Every year, 3,000 additional children are born to these families, thus expanding the circle of the non-Jewish population.
According to figures released by the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, immigrant conversion to Judaism is significantly higher this year compared to the same period last year. Between September and January 2006, more than 300 immigrants were enrolled in conversion classes and 14 new classes were opened especially for them. During the same period in 2005, only 6 classes were opened, accommodating 110 immigrant students.
The immigrant population in the North is 290,000, of whom 250,000 were living in the line of fire during the war. "It is not surprising that there is an awakening among immigrants in the North to convert," said Minister of Immigrant Absorption Ze'ev Boim. "It is easy to assume that the reality that the residents of the North, and the immigrants among them, caused a feeling of a common destiny and a stronger and braver connection with the State of Israel. I praise willingness of the immigrants to go through this process. The ministry will provide all that is necessary for them to fulfill it."
Gush Etzion Residents March Against Arab Village
Some 150 Jews marched towards the hostile Arab village of Tzurif this morning. "If the police and army won't protect us, we'll have to do it ourselves," they said. In the past week alone, Arabs from Tzurif - a village famous for the many murderous terrorists who have grown up there - broke into two homes in Bat Ayin Bet, stole two cars, and made off with fifteen sheep. "If we don't stop this now," said one marcher, "it could easily reach much worse proportions, including murder."
The police arrested two people, including Nadia Matar, co-head of the Women in Green organization. Many witnesses said that they dragged her roughly over the ground and beat her. Michael Pollack of Hevron said, "The police and army claim that they don't have enough manpower to look for stolen cars in these Arab villages - but today we proved that they have plenty of manpower: just to stop us, they brought out ten police jeeps, ten army jeeps and five special Yassam-force jeeps - nearly 100 men in all." "In addition," Pollack said, "they say that it's dangerous for them to enter these areas, and that they need special permission from their higher-ups - but today, they came out to these areas with no hesitation."
Tzurif is remembered in infamy as the source of many cruel terror attacks, beginning in early 1948 ago with the famous "Lamed Heh" - the 35 Jews who were cruelly butchered while on their way to deliver food and supplies to the Etzion bloc. In addition to the drive-by murder of Yaron and Efrat Ungar in 1996, whose two babies were left for Efrat's parents to raise, Tzurif murderers murdered three women in the Apropos cafe in Tel Aviv in 1997, kidnapped and murdered Sharon Edry in September 1996 - his body was only discovered seven months later - and committed the drive-by murders of IDF Dr. Oz Tivon and Sergeant Yaniv Shimol in Jan. 1996, and of Ze'ev, Uri, and Rachel Munk in July 1996. The late Tourism Minister and IDF Major-General Rehavam Ze'evi said in 1997 that the village of Tzurif deserves to be "wiped off the face of the earth."
"Whenever Arabs carry out hostile actions against Jews," Pollack said, "it's very important that there be a quick response. If we can't depend on the police and the army, then we won't wait and we'll do it ourselves. We don't need a repeat of past patterns." Many of the marchers were able to evade the police forces who had been deployed to stop them, and made their way towards Tzurif. However, they stopped well before the actual village itself, in accordance with their previous plan, hanging up signs along the way. The signs said, "This is Jewish Land; no entry for the Arab enemy," and "Scaredy-Cat Army, Go into the Villages." "It's important that people get used to the idea that they can walk freely all over the hills of the Land of Israel," Pollack said. "If this happens, there will be fewer murders and fewer thefts. It's a simple equation: If we don't walk there, the Arabs will... Today, one of the people who came with us was a new immigrant from the U.S. who is now living with his family in Efrat. He told me that he now understands for the first time how important it is to actually get out and walk in these hills, and he plans to do it more often."
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