Protect us But don't ask our help

 

I live in southeast Florida.

My #1 son is a cop in west central Florida.

We have, in my area of the state, a great deal of crime, including drive by shootings which seem to happen with increasing frequency. Very young children often are the innocent victims.

Much of the crime is "black on black"; both the perpetrators and the victims are black and the crimes are committed in predominately black neighborhoods.

Now before anyone accuses me of racism, let me explain why this preamble.

In both southeast Florida and west central Florida - which thankfully has fewer violent crimes - the cops are at a disadvantage.

Many of the people in the neighborhoods who know the perpetrators refuse to identify them, even when their own neighbors are the victims.

There are some in the community who call for everyone to stand up and help the local cops, but mostly the appeals fall of deaf ears.

The "Code of Silence." Never mind that at least some of the cops trying to solve a shooting are the same race as the perpetrators and the victims; but, a cop is a cop is a cop - he or she is "one of 'them'," no longer an accepted member of the community.

Meanwhile, the crimes continue and the citizens pay the price - in higher insurance costs, in less business from outside the community, in less services since people fear for their lives in the neighborhoods. And of course, in the body count - sometimes the body of a pre-schooler.

Now the much disparaged cops have lost incentive to help eliminate crime in the neighborhood.

* * * * * 

There is not much difference between the blacks' "Code of Silence" and the Muslims' "Code of Silence."

We are told, mostly by Muslims and bleeding heart liberals, that most Muslims are peace-loving, law-abiding citizens who desire "life, liberty, and the pursuit happiness." Just like most other Americans.

I have to wonder.

After 9-11 (2001), how did the Muslim world react?

Joyfully.

Were there criticisms of the Muslims who high jacked the four airplanes and slaughtered more than 3,000 men, women, and children?

I didn't hear any.

Where is the "9-11" mosque to be built?

Overlooking the memorial to the Trade Center victims.

Despite appeals by the victims' families and the general population, did the Muslims reconsider an offer to find a new location for the mosque? (An alternative site was offered.) Was there pressure from American Muslims to accept an alternate site?

The answer, in a word, is "No."

Where were the "peace-loving" Muslims who want to integrate into American society; why didn't they speak out and try and influence their co-religionists to reconsider.

Was there a rally in Muslim-dominated Detroit MI to denounce Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan after he murdered soldiers at Fort Hood?

If the Muslims in American want to be accepted, they MUST separate themselves from the alleged one percent of violent Muslims (see http://tinyurl.com/3zcuhbu); they must hit the bricks to denounce the violence committed by their fellows; they must loudly disassociate themselves from Islamist celebrations when a non-Muslim is killed by a Muslim, and they must loudly and visibly protest then Muslims call for the death of anyone who fails to show what Muslims deem proper respect for Mohammed - especially when Muslims depict others in a worse light.

* * * * * 

If blacks want police help in putting an end to - or at least reducing - the violence committed in their neighborhoods, they need to step up and help the cops. As long as they protect the criminals by their silence, they on the one hand encourage more violence and on the other discourage the police from acting in the community's best interest.

If Muslims in America want non-Muslims to accept and respect them, if they want non-Muslims to actually believe they are non-violent people who want to pursue liberty and justice for all, they need to loudly and visibly denounce the actions of Muslims such as those who carried out 9-11 and the Fort Hood attack, and the Muslims who celebrated the deaths of innocents.

There are blacks who are willing to work with the cops to clean up their neighborhoods.

There are Muslims who are appalled when a fellow Muslim murders someone or when fellow Muslims celebrate that murder.

These people need to step up and loudly condemn crime.

The blacks need to speak up and work with the cops.

The Muslims need to ostracize the promoters of hatred in their mosques, their madrasas, and on their street corners.

It may be unfortunate, but the truth is, perception is very important.

Both blacks in southeast and west central Florida and Muslims nationwide need to work on their image.

When they were young

 

When my boys were young - they are adults now - we used to walk to one or the other of two near-the-house congregations.

We lived in a mixed neighborhood. It was "mixed" by many different demographics - age, religion, ethnicity.

Usually the boys and I walked together, especially when they were very young.

We'd take our time and admire the things we'd see on the way - sometimes a flower, sometimes a rock, often peering down the train tracks hoping to see a train in the distance.

We left in plenty of time to still be some of the first to arrive for services.

Later when the boys got a little older they would sometimes walk before or after me.

If I was first, the neighbors would ask "Where are the boys?"

If they were ahead of me, as I passed, the neighbor's would report that "We saw the boys go by a couple of minutes ago."

But most of the time, we walked together, just us guys.

The wife and daughter, younger than the lads, might join us later at the synagogue and we'd all walk back together.

I was reminded of that in the latest of R. Marc Angel's weekly emailings.

The rabbi wrote:

We can most effectively transmit “the number of generations before” not by sending our children to synagogue—but by taking them to synagogue with us. We can most successfully communicate the values of Torah not by sending our children to study Torah—but by studying Torah with them ourselves. If we want them to be connected to our people and our traditions, we ourselves need to be connected to our people and traditions.

I've moved around quite a bit since the boys were young.

Sadly, some things never seem to change.

In almost every congregation there are few, if any, young people with one or both parents in attendance. Maybe on a special Shabat, but a regular Shabat? Rarely, and a daily minyan - even when school's out - forget it.

The synagogue where I currently have a fixed place - last row, southeast corner - just changed its Shabat schedule because, the rabbi said, parents complained that their children wanted to sleep late on Shabat and by the time they got to "shul," the Torah already was on its way back to the ark.

Last Shabat, with the later start time, there were no children present.

I wonder how early these same children - and their parents - get up if they want to play sports or go to an amusement park or ... or just about anything but go to synagogue.

When did going to synagogue, at least on Shabat, become optional?

The answer: When the parents let it become optional.

We DO have some youngsters at most Shabat services - usually four or five. They are in the early grades so no one expecrs them to sit quietly through the entire service..

When mine were little, I confess to being permissive. They could "disappear" to the weekday minyan room and play quietly until ברכו when Abba would invite them back into the main sanctuary. There they stayed until after the Amedah and usually until after the Torah was returned to the ark. As they "matured" they stayed with Abba longer and longer.

But there never - never - was any question about sleeping in. If we couldn't go to services - when it rains in Florida it really rains - we'd "do our thing" at home.

Even today, when they condescend to visit their abba there's no question that we'll be off to the synagogue, be it by car during the week or on foot on Shabat.

My boys are hardly material for a yeshiva, and frankly, that's fine with me.

But they ARE knowledgeable Jews and they are comfortable in synagogue - Moroccan, Chabad, Ashkenazi.

To his credit my son-in-law, about as "heloni" as they come, comes with me on Shabat when he visits here or when I visit him (in Israel). I don't tell him; in fact I don't even suggest it, but he gets his act together and comes along. I'll keep him. His Yemani grandfather was "datee," his father not at all. A Levi, he never had splashed water over a cohen's hands until he came to visit recently. He got plenty of experience. (Sefardim insist the cohenim recite the blessing not once but twice on Shabat and any other day there is a musaf; they get a break on "yomay hol" when they only go up once during the morning service.)

I suppose my relationship with my son-in-law is similar to mine with my father-in-law (z"l); when I went to Israel I was 90% "heloni". Almost everything I know, and do, I learned from my father-in-law; he was my Yethro.

The "bottom line" to all this rambling is that dumping kids off for Sunday school and letting them sleep in on Shabat is not giving the youngsters an appreciation of Judaism. Parents, sometimes grandparents and sometimes fathers-in-law, must set a positive example to "the kids" regardless if the kids are themselves fathers.

It really is a "monkey see, monkey do" world.

Our lost children

 

I used to go to a synagogue that had a Sunday school. The school morning started at the same time the Sunday minyan gathered.

I watched as parents, mothers and fathers, dumped their kids off for classes and then hurriedly left the parking lot/dump off point to accomplish Important Errands such as golf or tennis at the club.

Many a Sunday morning we were hard-pressed to "make minyan."

I may seem a bit hard, calling the school door a "dump off point," but that's basically what it was for both parents and children. The kids knew they were being "dumped off" so Mom and Dad could Do Other Things, and no, I don't mean those other things.

The "dump and drive" told the children that Judaism was very low on their parent's list of priorities. Sunday school, and for some less fortunate ones, daily afternoon school, was a punishment.

After all, did Mom and Dad make minyan? Even on Shabat? Maybe a "special" Shabat, but on a "regular" Shabat, these people - parents and children - were rarely seen.

They paid their membership and contributed to all the fund raisers, but PARTICIPATE - don't be silly. That's for someone else.

These same people lived far from the synagogue, preferring non-Jews as neighbors. Economics. Never mind that mixed neighborhoods lead to mixed marriages.

But then, did these parents care at all about their children's connection with Judaism?

Rabbi Marc D. Angel in his weekly email - this one titled Linking the Generations: Thoughts on Parashat Matot, July 23, 2011 noted that

Rabbi Akiba believed that parents transmit to their children six characteristics: physical appearance, strength, wealth, wisdom, longevity, and “mispar ha-dorot lefanav”—the number of generations before (Mishnah Eduyot 2:9). What is meant by this last phrase?

Rabbi Angel went on to explain, at http://www.jewishideas.org/angel-shabbat/linking-generations-thoughts-parashat-matot-ju that

Children are not born into a historical vacuum. They are heirs to the earlier generations of their families. In the case of Jewish children, they are not only heirs to their particular family traditions, but they “inherit” all the previous generations of the Jewish people going back to the time of Abraham.

The rabbi noted, in the next to last paragraph, that

We can most effectively transmit “the number of generations before” not by sending our children to synagogue—but by taking them to synagogue with us. ^{(Emphasis mine.)} We can most successfully communicate the values of Torah not by sending our children to study Torah—but by studying Torah with them ourselves. If we want them to be connected to our people and our traditions, we ourselves need to be connected to our people and traditions.

Attending "shul" with the children doesn't guarantee they will follow exactly in their parents' footsteps, but it greatly enhances the chances that the footsteps we followed will be followed by the next generation.

Getting US out of debt

 

I am looking at an Excel file created by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Titled The 2011 Statistical Abstract lists all the money the U.S. has given away over the last few years; it is available for downloading from http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/foreign_commerce_aid/foreign_aid.html.

The amount of money the United States gives away - not counting government waste - boggles the mind.

The biggest single beneficiary was Afghanistan, collecting $8,557 million. That $8,557,000,000,000!

Israel received $1,992 million.

But add it the total for all of Israel's neighbors, friendly and otherwise, and you come up with a total of $3,512 million.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) benefited to the tune of $70 million in 2009, down substantially from 2006 ($137 million), 2007 ($135 million), and 2008 ($160 million). Never mind that "Palestine" is a non-country or that the U.S. hides this as a separate item from the Gaza donation.

To their credit, Algeria, Burundi, Greece, and Turkey actually are paying down their debts to the American taxpayer.

I didn't add up all the money the U.S. gave away; when you're dealing with nearly $600 million for a few middle eastern countries - and the anti-Israel UN, the Grand Total is more than this scrivener can imagine.

My point is that the U.S. is borrowing money from other countries to give to still other countries.

Why?

If, say, Afghanistan needs aid, let it go directly to the Deep Pockets - now China and Japan. Let the Deep Pockets countries burden THEIR people.

Most countries are aware the U.S. is temporarily "out-of-pocket." The U.S. is not exactly "broke," the country's GNP still is healthy. We're like a family that has more debt that it can pay off at once; the adults HAVE incomes, but not sufficient to pay all the bills, including interest on the debt.

One option I see - although I doubt Washington sees it - is to pay off the U.S. debt by selling the IOUs from UNRWA, Afghanistan, et al, to those countries that hold U.S. obligations.

"Here's the deal, China," the U.S. State and Treasury ought to say, "The U.S. owes China "n" trillions. The U.S. is owed "n+" trillions. We'll give you (China) the "n+1" trillion debt owed the U.S. and you cancel the U.S.' debt to you (China)."

The U.S. could "package" the debts much like the mortgage swindlers packaged "toxic" mortgages; some sure to be repaid debt - say from Greece and Turkey - with some "greater risk" debt such as the money going to Gaza and Pakistan ($1,249 million).

The U.S. clears its debt, China makes a profit (the "+1") and the debtor nations now know they must pay up - or else. China seems less forgiving than Uncle Sam - anyone remember Tiananmen Square?

Something to consider.

Haredim above law?"

 

Are the "super datee" Jews above the law?

The good Jews of the Mea Shearim (100 Gates) section of Jerusalem went on a rampage Wednesday against fellow Jews.

According to YNetnews.com ( http://tinyurl.com/6aq9v4j) and other sources "Six police officers were hurt Wednesday during haredi riots in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood. A joint Tax Authority-Jerusalem Municipality operation saw inspectors raiding local business whose owners were suspected of tax evasion. Police provided security.

"Ultra-Orthodox elements accused the police of unnecessary provocation and claimed their deployment was disproportionate. Dozens of haredim rioted following the arrest of several people and set trash cans on fire. "

The Shearim blog posting for Sunday, July 7 (http://tinyurl.com/6hxymk7) reports that on Saturday (July 6) the haredim had a warm up by "demonstrating" against the opening the Mamilla parking lot on Shabbat; the lot is across from Jaffa Gate.

According to the blog, "The Edah HaCharedit went wild and yesterday evening, garbage cans were burnt in Shivtei Israel Street (right across the Toldot Aharon Synagogue). The haredim claimed violence coming from the police and the police claimed that the haredim were too violent. Also different figures of participants have been published: The Edah says that 15.000 haredim were demonstrating whereas the police states that only approximately 1000 people took part in the demonstration."

It's no secret that the haredim "dislike" homosexuals, and to express their feelings to the world, according to a short youtube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSONLpm68pI, the haredi hit the bricks' and rioted over the annual gay march in Israel's capital.

The haredim seem to think they are above the law - that the presence of police is an excuse to throw stones - and more - and to set fires throughout the neighborhood.

These are the same good folk who, on Shabat, walk up a hill built as a sound barrier between a highway and the haredi neighborhood (making the roadway "out of sight and out of mind" for a normal Shabat observant Jew) where they can throw stones at passing vehicles.

Never mind that the rocks and stones are "muksey" (forbidden to touch) on Shabat and haggim and never mind that a rock or stone hitting a passerby could cause injury or, G-d forbid, death.

When the two rabbis who refused a police request to talk about their approval of a controversial book that, apparently, condones murder of non-Jews, the police "arrested" the rabbis and their followers went to the streets.

These people, the haredim of Mea Shearim, reject the Israeli government, although they accept Israeli welfare for their families and institutions.

If, G-d forbid, Israel must give up parts of its capital to the so-called "palestinians," I would like to suggest they give the Arabs Mea Shearim. It really would be interesting to see how a Muslim cop would deal with rioting Jews. I'll wager not nearly as gently as the Israeli policemen who probably are losing all respect and patience for these "religious" people.

I wonder what Israel's far left have to say? Could they be climbing into bed with the haredim? The political far left with the religious extremists together against Israel - reality squeezed from two sides.

For me, הריני מקבל עלי מצוה עשה של ואהבת לרעך כמוך, והריני אוהב כל אחד מבני ישראל is becoming exceedingly difficult when it comes to religious extremists.

Delta or Europe?

 

An Arutz Sheva article by Giulio Meotti, Lynched in London suggests that Europe is no longer a safe place for Jews. http://tinyurl.com/6djmdam

Meotti cites several anti-Israel, anti-Jewish instances in the UK, but nothing elsewhere.

Still, he makes a point that Islam is making rapid and major political headway on the continent as well as in the UK.

Which brings me to Delta.

Delta, which some knee-jerk Jews castigated recently for being a code share with Saudia's national airline, and possibly flying to, Saudia (not a likely prospect when all facts are considered), has non-stop flights between New York and Lod, and between Atlanta, Delta's home base, and Lod.

The only other airline, as far as I know to offer non-stop flights between the US and Israel is El Al.

There is the Pacific option that could avoid touch-down in Europe, but for a resident of the eastern U.S. the trip would be painfully long and expensive.

You can't get there from here

.

There ARE non-stop flights from the Far East and there are one- and two-stop flights that avoid Europe, but travelers will be seeing some "interesting" places; Seoul, South Korea, for example. Korean Air has an 11-plus hour flight from the Korean capital.

Surprisingly, the least expensive flight - a non-stop from Hong Kong to Lod - is via El Al !, coming in at US$1245 - plus the usual additional fees. The flight to Lod is just a few minutes shy of 12 hours in the air. El Al also operates a code share flight out of Bangkok.

The Turks seems to fly to Lod from almost everywhere, but all Turkish Air flights are via Istanbul. While officially still aggrieved by Israelis "dropping in" on a Turkish flag "good for terrorists" ship, the Turks DO like Israeli and Jewish tourists; flying Turkish Airways should be about as safe as Royal Jordanian and probably less expensive at US$1263. Flight time going by way of Istanbul is 15-plus hours.

Royal Jordanian flies out of Hong Kong to Bangkok then on to Amman and finally to Lod. So far, the peace between Jordan and Israel seems to be holding, despite the "Arab spring."

All prices are round trip as posted on Kayak.com, effective July 13, 2011.

One of the good things about flying Delta is that those left on the ground can track the flight's progress.

Six of my relatives, including two small children, were to fly from MIA to MAD and then on to TLV. The flight to MAD, on an American Airlines 7*7, was supposed to leave at 3:20 p.m. The flight actually left at 8:36 p.m. The arrival at MAD was supposed to be at 9:something, with the connecting Iberia-operated-by-El Al flight departing at 11:40 a.m.; lots of time to go from arrival gate to departure gate via two - two - security checks.

But because the flight was 5 hours late leaving MIA, it arrived at MAD a few minutes after 11 a.m.

Did the relatives make the connecting MAD-TLV flight? No way to know. (American said the tickets were used, but . . . ) The next Iberia flight to TLV was scheduled for 10:something in the evening. Pity the poor folks waiting for the travelers at Lod. Pity the poor kids. (Granny failed to pack emergency ratios for the trip. ALWAYS pack emergency ratios - snacks, sandwiches - in the carry-on luggage; ALWAYS.)

Delta may have a code share agreement with the Saudi airline and the Saudis may be - OK, they are - intolerant bigots, but that does not mean Delta equates to Saudi Air.

The U.S. has an embassy and ambassador in Saudia. Does that make the U.S. as evil as the Saudis? The U.S. has an embassy and ambassador in Syria; does that mean the U.S. is as bad as the despot Bashar al-Assad ?

Israel's El Al has a code share agreement with South China Air, an airline in a country not known for human rights. El Al also has a code share agreement with Iberia, Spain's national airline. Spain, lest we forget, brought us the Inquisition.

If any one plans to fly between the US and Israel while avoiding Europe, there are two choices at least from the U.S. east coast: Delta and El Al.

FOR THE RECORD - The travelers from MIA to TLV via MAD made the connection at MAD and arrived at TLV just about on schedule. Their considerable luggage is vacationing in Spain as this note is appended.

...לך ל... או לך ב

 

From R. Eli Mansour's Daily Halacha for July 11, 2011 (http://www.dailyhalacha.com/Display.asp?ClipID=2163)

 

The Mishna Berura (Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan of Radin, 1839-1933) discusses the proper protocol for bidding one’s fellow farewell (110:17). If a person bids somebody farewell in English, it is customary to extend pleasant greetings such as, “Have a good trip” or “Enjoy,” and we sometimes use the Arabic expression for “G-d be with you.” However, the Mishna Berura - Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, the Chofetz Chaim (Poland, 1838–1933) - writes that if one bids his fellow farewell in Hebrew, then he must be very particular in the words he chooses. Namely, he should say, “Lech Le’shalom” (literally, “Go to peace”), and not “Lech Be’shalom” (“Go in peace”). The phrase “Lech Le’shalom” (לך לשלום) implies that the person should find peace at his destination, and this is certainly the kind of wish we would like to extend to our fellow. However, the expression “Lech Be’shalom” (לך בשלום) is used at funerals, Heaven forbid, when we bid farewell to the deceased in front of the coffin. It means that the deceased leaves the world after having completed the mission for which he was sent here. Quite obviously, we do not wish to make such a statement to a living person, and this expression should therefore not be used when bidding farewell to a living person.

This Halacha is alluded to in the Torah, in the description of the tensions that arose between Yosef and his brothers. The Torah relates that the brothers were unable “Dabero Le’shalom” (literally, “to speak with him peacefully” – Bereshit 37:4). Because of their feelings of animosity toward him, they were unable to extend to him the kind greeting of “Le’shalom” which people should use when bidding each other farewell.

Clearly, however, if a person mistakenly wished his friend “Lech Be’shalom,” the friend should not feel anxious or concerned about what this expression might portend. Our Rabbis teach us that if one disregards superstition, then it will not have any effect on him. Rather than worrying about any harmful effects of the greeting, he should politely explain to his friend that Halacha advises people to say “Lech Leshalom,” instead of “Lech Be’shalom.”

Summary: If a person bids farewell to his fellow in Hebrew, he should say “Lech Le’shalom” and not “Lech Be’shalom.”

R. Mansour's Daily Halacha is available by email subscription at http://www.dailyhalacha.com

Speak softly and Hide under desk

 

According t o a Reuters report appearing in the Israeli left-wing newspaper HaAretz (http://tinyurl.com/6lf667c),

Protesters loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad broke into the U.S. embassy compound in Damascus on Monday, according to diplomats, while other reports say French embassy guards have opened live fire on protesters trying to enter the compound

The pantywaist POTUS "reacted gingerly so far to the protests in Syria, part of a wave of unrest in the Arab world that toppled rulers in Egypt and Tunisia and led to NATO involvement in a civil war in Libya," Reuters noted.

How is it that the French - hardly known for bravery in defense of anything - opened "live fire" on the protesters while the Marines probably were ordered to hide behind local gangsters, probably with empty weapons.

Pity the poor Marines; they must be hiding their faces in shame - not for their inaction but for the leadership's tying of their hands.

Is it any wonder that the United States is becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of nations?

An aside: This "tying the hands" of the military is nothing new and not limited to either political party. US Army soldiers for years patrolled the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) with empty weapons. Stupidity and a willingness to put Americans at risk is not the monopoly of either Democrat or Republican politicians.

Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, "called on the Syrian government to meet its responsibility under the Vienna Convention to protect diplomats and diplomatic facilities," the US State Department said.

Based on recent experience, that's not likely to happen.

Spin, spin, spinWhat a Billion Muslims Really Think

 

A little professionally produced, 58 minute-plus video titled What a Billion Muslims Really Think tries to develop sympathy for the "non violent" Muslims of the world.

Financed by Arab organizations, and largely populated with Muslims or employees of Arab organizations, the film goes on, seemingly forever, about how a Gallup pollster group, headed by a Muslim woman, developed a questionnaire and gathered data from Muslims around the world.

According to the chief pollster, "only one percent of all Muslims in the world are violent" (see http://tinyurl.com/2djwkgv).

She might be right.

But the silence of the remaining 99 percent who accept their fellow Muslims atrocities suggests that this "silent majority" indeed agrees, or at least fails to disagree with any visibility, with the one percent.

Well into the film and all we learn is how the Gallup poll was developed.

The film was interrupted by a commercial - interesting since there was a long list of sponsorship credits at the beginning of the project - and never resumed where it left off; I never found out what 1 billion obviously silent Muslims really think.

One point the film made early on is that only about 15 percent of the Muslim world's population are Arabs. What was ignored is that even non-Arab Muslims, such as those in Indonesia, are practitioners of violence.

All Muslims bow to Mecca, one of two places holy to Mohammed, the other being not Jerusalem but Medina, also in Saudia.

If Muslims ARE "peace loving" folks with a different religion and customs, why don't they speak up?

OK, I understand that "speaking up" may be hazardous to a Muslim's life is a Muslim country - humm, that says something about Islam and thought control - but why don't "peace loving" Muslims speak up in countries where they have - and use - free speech, countries like the U.S., Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, etc. In Denmark they called for the murder of someone whose lack of Muslim sensitivity offended them. No trial, just "catch and kill."

They rail against the governments in "free societies" and look to those free societies for support them when they try to over-throw one despotic government for another; ask yourself: Is Egypt any better off with the Moslem Brotherhood in control?

They - peace loving Muslims - seem to have a different mentality than Westerners, a mentality that is in conflict with the Western mentality. It may be suitable to Indo-China where Islam has made great inroads, but not in Europe or North America.

Jews from Arab states - Morocco, Libya, Tunis, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and elsewhere - manage to integrate into European and North American society, where, for all their religious uniqueness, they manage to become loyal, law-abiding citizens of their host country.

Muslim Arabs from the same countries bring their supremacist, racist mentality and expect it to be accepted by people who have long challenged the theory of religious or racist supremacy, a philosophy that parallels the nazis' (with whom the Arab nations aligned themselves.

I know there are good Muslims, even Arab Muslims, but I have to wonder where they are.

Rather than make classy films about What a Billion Muslims Really Think, I would prefer to see Muslims, Arab and otherwise, hit the bricks demanding that the "violent one percent" be routed out and ostracized from civilized humanity.

Let us see the 99 percent of "peaceful" Muslims join their fellow citizens in condemning the likes of Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan who was praised by Yemen-based cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who quickly declared Hasan a hero, as "fighting against the U.S. army is an Islamic duty."

To be fair, the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the shooting; Salman al-Ouda, a dissident Saudi cleric and former inspiration to Osama bin Laden, condemned the shooting saying the incident would have bad consequences; translation: it could lead to a backlash against the 99% of "peaceful" Muslims who, save for the politically correct Council on American-Islamic Relations one-liner, stayed hidden behind closed doors - in shame or celebration, only those Muslims know.

In the end, I don't care WHAT a Gallup poll allegedly reports; I have little faith in Gallup and similar polls, anyway - have you ever been queried by a Gallup pollster or anyone else other than, perhaps, outside a voting booth?

I want to see American Muslims taking to the street in support of America and its freedoms, freedoms one hopes they came to enjoy rather than (try to) destroy.

Time is running out for the Muslims in the west to prove that they are, indeed, 99 percent in favor of peaceful coexistence with western mentality and civility.

I have a hard time believing that one billion Muslims want to live in peace, want to coexist without destroying the people who welcomed them into their countries. The online movie failed to convince me.

When "kosher" isn't

 

The following is by way of Arlene J. Mathes-Scharf's Kashrut.com (http://www.kashrut.com/), a free service recommended for every kosher-conscious Jew.

Read all the way to the end for the "oops!"

 

Contact:
Kristine Heine, Global Communicators
Tel: 202-371-9600; Email: kheine@globalcommunicators.com
-Juliet Cruz, Italian Trade Commission
Tel: 212-848-0349; Email: JCruz@italtrade.com

 

“Kosher for Everyone” Discussion and Reception at Italian Embassy July 11 Will Explore Opportunities and Challenges for Italian Food Products

Invitation-only Event to be Held in Conjunction with 57th Summer Fancy Food Show in Washington, DC

  WASHINGTON, DC (June 21, 2011)- (Virtual Press Office) -- Growth opportunities and challenges for the sale of Kosher Italian food in the United States will be discussed at a special, by-invitation-only gathering Monday, July 11, from 5:30-9:00 PM, at the Embassy of Italy hosted by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and the Italian Trade Commission.

“Kosher for Everyone” is designed to educate Italian producers about the economic benefits of obtaining kosher certification for their gourmet food and beverages and to encourage American customers to import more kosher Italian products to meet demand that is growing by as much as 15 percent annually.

Three experts on the market for kosher products and the Italian food market will discuss kosher food, whose consumption is becoming one of the hottest trends in the United States. They also will explain how Italian producers and importers of Italian gourmet specialties can take advantage of the robust demand for a product not limited to one ethnic group.

Donato Grosser, president of D. Grosser and Associates, Ltd. Marketing & Management Consultants, will speak about the market for kosher products in the United States, where Jews, Muslims, Seventh Day Adventists, consumers with dietary restrictions, vegans, vegetarians, Hindus, and healthy eating devotees are fueling purchases of kosher products. The Milan-born Grosser is recognized for his seminars on food, wine, and organic and kosher food and beverages.

Rabbi Umberto Piperno, a kosher food expert, will analyze the technical aspects of kosher production, drawing upon his educational studies and vast experience, which includes coordinating Star K hashgachot (kosher certifications) in Italy and organizing kosher Italian gourmet food events in Italy and in New York.

Thomas Gellert, a principal of the family owned Gellert Global Group, whose diversified businesses include international food importing, specialty packaging, and restaurant management, will discuss his experience with kosher and Italian products.

Following the presentations and questions from the audience, guests will enjoy a kosher-inspired reception. (My emphasis.)

“Kosher for Everyone: Growth Opportunities and Challenges for Sales of Italian Specialty Foods in the U.S. Ethnic Market” will be held in conjunction with the 57th international Summer Fancy Food Show, which is expected to draw more than 25,000 representatives of the gourmet and specialty products sector and other interested parties to the Washington Convention Center.

The Italian Pavilion, under the direction of the Italian Trade Commission (ICE), will showcase the best of Italian gastronomy and wine and have the largest number of exhibitors for the 30th year, including manufacturers of a vast array of Italian gourmet products, producers, regional representatives, export consortia, and chambers of commerce. ICE is the Italian government agency entrusted with the development, facilitation and promotion of trade between Italy and other countries. Its mission is to support the internationalization of Italian firms and their consolidation in foreign markets. Through a network of 111 offices in 84 countries, five of which are in the United States, ICE is the most authoritative ambassador of “Made in Italy” excellence in the world. For more information visit http://www.italtrade.com/.

BUT . . .

Kashrut.com notes: "Be aware that the "Kosher for Everyone" Discussion and Reception at Italian Embassy July 11 in conjuction with the Fancy Food show will not be certified as kosher."

Zimri and Balaam

 

Zimri - a good leader?

I was reading a Chabad on-line article the other day ("What was Zimri thinking?" http://tinyurl.com/6y7kane), a short story about Parashat Pinchas; kids know it as the "shis-ka-bob parasha."

ANYWAY, in the Chabad article, Zimri brings the Moabite (ruler's daughter) Cozbi before Moses who has told Zimri and all those with him that G-d prohibits relationships with anyone from any of the Canaanite tribes, of which Moab was one.

With Cozbi at hand, Zimri, a Simeonite price (the story begins at the end of Parashat Balak and ends at the beginning of Parashat Pinchas) allegedly challenged Moses, saying:

"Son of Amram, is this woman forbidden or permitted to me? And if you say that she is forbidden, who permitted to you the daughter of Jethro [who is also a Midianite woman]?”

It seems to me that Moses marriage to - and abandonment of - Tziporah, "the daughter of a Midianite priest/leader" came well before HaShem's prohibiting intercourse with any of the Canaanite tribes.

In other words, Tziporah was "grand-fathered."

I wonder what Zimri would say if he could have looked into the future and seen that one of Israel's greatest kings was descended from a Moabite!

The Chabad article spins the Zimri story in a way I had never seen before and shows him as a good, albeit misguided, leader; it deserves a few moments of your time.

I find it a bit strange that Chabad finds so much good to say about Zimri and apparently nothing good to say about Balaam.

Spinning Balaam

Balaam (Parashat Balak) is many things, including a G-d inspired prophet, the rabbis say, second only to Moses in stature and ability.

According to the story, Balak sends messengers to Balaam offering him a hefty commission to come to Midian and curse the Israelites who "covered the eye of the land."

Balaam tells the messengers to spend the night at his place while he communes with G-d. In the morning, he tells Balak's lackeys that G-d told him to stay at home, and he sends them packing. There is no - repeat no - indication that Balaam had second thoughts or ulterior motives about sending the messengers on their way.

Balak rejects this, thinking Balaam is holding out for more loot. He sends higher ranking personages to Balaam with the same request, this time grandly increasing the reward.

Once again, Balaam tells the messengers to cool their camels while he asks G-d what he should do.

At this point the rabbis get up in arms and chastise Balaam for having the nerve to ask G-d a second time; after all, they say, G-d told Balaam once not to go; wasn't that enough? "He was just after the loot," the rabbis tell us.

It seems to me that if G-d had not wanted Balaam to ask again, G-d could have prevented the messengers from reaching Balaam's abode. Certainly HaShem had shown his ability to make his point - with the Egyptians, with the man(na), with the fire pans of Aaron's sons Nedab and Abihu (Parashat Shemini), why not Balak's messengers - or even Balak himself.

Just as an aside, how many times did Moses go to Pharaoh and how many times did G-d "harden Pharaoh's heart"? (Rhetorical question.)

When Balaam has his second chat with G-d on the Balak offer, HaShem tells Balaam to say exactly what G-d tells him to say, and Balaam, being a good prophet of G-d, agrees.

How, and why, the interjection of his e'tone (which always makes me think of the other "e'tone" - one spelled with an aleph [ass] the other with an ayin [newspaper]) is included is beyond my ken. G-d has given permission for Balaam to travel. He has instructed Balaam, and Balaam has agreed, to say only what HaShem puts into his mouth. Why the talking animal, only one of two in the entire Bik'tav. Perhaps to show that animals have perception and we ought to treat them respectfully, humanely?

By my reckoning - and it most assuredly goes against the rabbis - Balaam was indeed a prophet of G-d (second only to Moses) and was a tool of HaShem in the same was that Moses was a tool for HaShem; both had job descriptions that included "and other tasks as may be assigned."

If you like spy stories, consider Balaam as a "sleeper" or "mole" ready to be activated on HaShem's command.

Call my thinking a "spin" on the story if you will; I think this "spin" is well within the realm of probability; after all, is anything impossible for G-d?

Arresting rabbis

 

There's a big flap in Israel now over the "arrest" of two prominent rabbis.

The arrests stemmed from their approval of a book called Torat HaMelech.

According to The Jewish Forward (http://www.forward.com/articles/123925/) the book states:

“The prohibition 'Thou Shalt Not Murder’” applies only “to a Jew who kills a Jew,” write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and attacks on them “curb their evil inclination,” while babies and children of Israel’s enemies may be killed since “it is clear that they will grow to harm us.”

Whether or not anyone agrees with the work, it seems the rabbinical establishment, represented by Dov Lior and Yaakov Yosef, the latter Ovadia Yosef's son, and the government, represented by the police and Shin Bet are working overtime to divide the country.

As it happens, Hakham Ovadia is opposed to the book; see http://tinyurl.com/6z5hj97.

The rabbis (Lior and Yosef) apparently were initially requested to meet with police to explain why they would lend their name to a book that suggests killing non-Jews is permitted.

(For one of the author's takes on the book read the Jerusalem Post article at http://tinyurl.com/3aq6xme.)

The rabbis, being rabbis, claim that they are above the law of the land, that they are following Torah law by refusing to meet with the police. But Israel is not, after all, Saudia or the former Soviet Union; there was no threat (as far as I know) to their freedom. If there is any where in Bik'tav or even ba'al pei where it says rabbis are exempt from civil law just because they are rabbis, this Jew never has seen it.

So the police arrested them and took them to a near-by police facility for questioning. Both men were released after a brief interrogation.

I'm not a rabbi (for which I thank the Almighty), nor do I play one on tv.

But it seems I read somewhere that the law of the land is the law ("dina d'malchuta dina") - and I don't recall a caveat that added "except in Israel."

I also don't recall any place in Bik'tav where it states "Thou shalt not murder Jews"; the sixth of the Big Ten simply states that we are not to murder (note "murder" not "kill") - not once but twice - שמות כ' י"ג ודברים ח' י"ז . Granted, ba'al pei tells us that if someone threatens our life we should preemptively eliminate the threat, an approach I find wholly reasonable and agreeable.

I would not like to follow in Pharaoh's footsteps and start killing babies of non-Jewish parents (what if one parent is Jewish and the other is not - just maim the infant or perhaps kill every other child of the couple; that concept is beneath contempt).

I know, from first hand experience, that some Israeli Arabs are not only pro-Israel, but against the terror killings. Recently a village leader saved a Jew who followed his GPS to an area he should have avoided. (Never mind the question: "Why should a Jew avoid traveling in any part of Israel?" The answer is, in a word, "politics.") I know second hand of an Arab who helped my sister-in-law, a very Jewish woman, when Jews walked past on a Haifa sidewalk, ignoring her plight (a compound fracture of her leg).

I also know, first hand, about Arab terrorists and "presents" from Israel's neighbors to the north.

While I am in favor of targeted assassinations - killings if you prefer - I am against mass murder as Torat HaMelech apparently suggests. Are we to become Pharaoh or Torquemada or Hitler and murder people because they are not like us?

It can be said with absolute confidence that the authors of Torat HaMelech are only presenting what Israel's enemies are saying against Jews - and being praised, not prosecuted for it. Even within Israel there is a double standard - or perhaps multiple standards - regarding freedom of speech.

Hairy situation

 

I recently read Rabbi Ya'aqob Menashe's Torah Minute on women and wigs.

R. Menashe, I suspect, is Iraqi and a follower of R. Yoseph Hayyim a"h, the Ben Ish Hai.

The rabbi is associated with, perhaps is the rabbi of, Midrash Ben Ish Hai of Queens and Great Neck NY.

In any event, R. Menashe brings down not a Sefardi or Mizrahi authority, but Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam, Grand Rabbi of Sanz-Klauzenberg as a source for banning wigs.

R. Ovadia Yosef has railed against wigs on several occasions, including one time when he allegedly said a man should divorce a wife who insisted on wearing a wig.

R. Ovadia also is Iraqi.

I started looking for Sefardi hakhamim who ruled on wigs.

Nothing.

Checked several books on my bookshelves.

Checked the Internet using Google and Dogpile.

Nothing.

The reasons I was looking are two:

One: North African minhagim often are at odds with Mizrachim (Iraqi, Syrian, etc.) minhagim. I have a book (דברי שלום ואמת) that has as its sole purpose to note where Yalkut Yosef (one of R. Ovadia's books) is out of synch with North African traditions.

Two, I know of two Moroccan-born women who wear a wig. One lived in France for a time; did she adopt it when she lived in France? No idea.

Why do some rabbis ban the wig?

Several reasons.

The most popular seems to be that some wigs look better than the woman's real hair underneath. Since the wig is supposed to suggest modesty, wearing something possibly provocative negates the purpose of the false hair.

Another reason advanced is the possibility that the hair - particularly that from the Indian subcontinent, was dedicated to a local god, thereby making it forbidden to a Jew.

I'm left with two questions.

One: How do North African rabbis rule on the wig.

Two: What about a woman who is losing or has thinning hair; might a "non-provocative" wig be considered permisssable for the woman's mental well-being?

For what it's worth, the wigs of the two Moroccan women who wear them really are ugly; no question that the women are not trying to catch anyone's eye but their husbands' (eye).

If anyone can cite a ruling by a North African ("from Morocco to Libya") rabbi - pro or con - regarding wigs, please do so to Yohanon.Glenn@gmail.com .