Rosh HaShanah 5769

Ah, a new year. It will indeed be good. I wish all a great New Year! At the festive meal for Rosh HaShanah (seder), many people hold the custom of eating a pomegranate in order to say a special blessing thanking Gd for "bringing us to this season," which essentially means thank you for the chance to be where we are. I hope we all can truly say thank you for being here, alive, with the chance to do so much good. A new year should not be for personal commitments. Rather, it should be dedicated to improving the lives of others. That's the message of Judaism. That's the lesson I am going to take from Rosh HaShanah.

The pomegranate, the seeds of which you see above, is a special fruit to Judaism. The Bible lauds the Land of Israel for its pomegranates. The seeds of this delicious and spiritual fruit symbolize to Jews the abundance of good deeds with which we aspire to. In fact, the Talmud says that "even the wicked among Israel are filled with good deeds like pomegranates are filled with seeds." Hassidism teaches many mystically beautiful lessons from that concept.

I wonder, however, how they would explain why grenade in modern Hebrew is the same word for pomegranate...

Click here for my post on Rosh HaShanah last year, the first month I was a citizen in Israel! It has two good stories in it, one of which is an awesome story from an Israeli soldier who became interested in religion from the Lebanon War - you can probably guess why. There are no atheists in foxholes, right?

!!!!שנה טובה

Classic BBC Bias

Not to belabor a point, but I wanted to give yet another example to refute various commenters to this site who claim that instead of Western media generally being anti-Israeli, that it is anti-Arab/Muslim. Here is a beauty of a BBC article. Besides the obvious underlying problem that BBC gives credence to anti-Israel viewpoints by choosing to publish such slanted articles, the title itself reveals their opinion.

"Jerusalem crash 'not deliberate'; Relatives of a Palestinian who was shot dead after his car ploughed into a group of Israelis at a bus stop have denied it was a deliberate attack."

In case you don't feel like reading the article, let me just say that they validated as indisputable fact one side of a highly volatile disagreement, whether or not East Jerusalem is "occupied" or not - and did so twice. Guess which side they sided with. And that's just the most obvious bias.

I promise this is the last time I'll talk about media bias against Israel for a long time. Oh, before you leave, look at that picture again and just internalize the unbalanced implication of making that the lead picture for the piece: young boy holding a picture of the attacker, presumably a younger brother, with women crying in the background. I'm shaking my head.

Funny Israeli Name

Many people comment on the Hebrew names that sound silly in English, most notably Dudu, which is pronounced exactly the way you are hoping it is (if you're 23 and dumb like me). Well, I'd like to officially add one to the list, though I think it may be Amharic (Ethiopian) and not Israeli or from Hebrew.

I have a friend who was in Sherut Leumi, the volunteer program that religious girls do as an alternative to army service at 18 years old. Her job was up north near Tiberias where she lived at a school for delinquent youths. Many of these young men (and girls too, I think) had horrible stories: orphaned, abusive parents, young criminals, expelled from other schools. So, as you can imagine, she had a tough crew.

Thank goodness one of them was called Nacho... his legal name. Proof? Here you go (the name in the middle):

Attack Update

The 19-year-old East Jerusalem Arab who rammed his BMW into a crowded cross-walk of soldiers and civilians last night has been identified as Kasem Mugrabi.  An update on the Jerusalem Post website says that the BMW was a present from his parents and "was to be his when he got his driver's license."  So, the guy didn't even have a license but already was living the high life.

But what takes the cake is that he settled on the terrorist attack because he "wanted to marry his cousin, and when she refused his offer, he decided to carry out a terror attack."

Arrested Development, anyone? (They are cousins...)

Another Attack - More Stupidity

In honor of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, an East Jerusalem Arab rammed his BMW (they turn to terror because they're poor, right?) into a group of soldiers today on a tour outside of the Old City.  The soldiers were standing at Kikar Zahal (IDF Square) when the East Jerusalemite veered off the heavy traffic road into the crowd.  I can tell you from my knowledge of that area, which is rather in depth, that the road was probably very busy and that square was populated with many tourists.

Ramadan, the month in which Muslims fast during daylight hours and engage in intense study of the Koran,  is the month that the Koran was revealed to Mohammed.  According to the Muslim Student Association at Colorado State, "a measure of ascendancy is given to one's spiritual nature, which becomes a means of coming closer to God. Ramadan is also a time of intensive worship, reading of the Qur'an, giving charity, purifying one's behavior, and doing good deeds."

What does the Koran say?  "Peace!  Until the appearance of dawn."

Really?  So, a proper Muslim is to practice peace, "purify one's behavior," and do good deeds for his fellow man - until the appearance of dawn?  As in, and correct me if I'm wrong, do not commit violence during the night?  Peace during the day not necessary, peace at night Koranically prescribed.  So, a proper Muslim would not commit attempted murder during the night, but...

"An Arab resident of east Jerusalem rammed his vehicle into a group of soldiers at a central Jerusalem thoroughfare late Monday night..."*

Final word: let's take a look at the various headlines on this attack today here in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Post (pro-Israel): 15 Wounded In Terror Attack At Busy Jerusalem Intersection
BBC (historically anti-Israel): Jerusalem Terror 'Attack' Hurts 10
CNN (eh..): Jerusalem Driver Plows Into Crowd, Injures At Least 15
MSNBC (uber-liberal): Car Plows Into Soldiers In Jerusalem; 13 Hurt
Reuters (hilariously anti-Israel): Jerusalem Driver Wounds 19 In "Attack": Police

And the always trustworthy Fox "News"...

13 Israeli Soldiers Hurt In Palestinian Vehicle Attack


It's just funny how most of the headlines fail to mention who committed such a terrible crime, and how all of them besides JPost and Fox even go so far as to put qualifying quotations around the word attack! I mean, yes, if you want to put a quotation around "terror," fine, I understand your hesitation. But "attack"? Was this not an attack? Did a man not purposefully drive his vehicle into his enemy? Yes, it was an attack!  And moreover, CNN and MSNBC fail to mention that it was even an attack of any sort at all.

Fox "News" is good for one thing: keeping us pro-Israel people happy.  And oh yeah, I'm OK.  I was at home.  But I planned on going out to that area tomorrow for some food...




*Jerusalem Post