Shabbat Shalom

Greetings All, David here,

Well I'm back after a break. Much to review, but Shabbat dawns.I therefore wish everyone a Shabbat Shalom and a good Shabbos.

Dov

Si observo el Shabat, Dios me protegerá.
Es una señal eterna entre Él y yo.

Está prohibido cargar objetos
emprender viajes, o hablar de
asuntos corrientes, de asuntos
comerciales y de temas del reino.
Sólo meditaré en la Torá de Dios,
que me dará sabiduría.

Releeré la Torá de Dios que
me hará más sabio.
En ella encontraré paz para mi alma.
Así como para la primera generación
mi santo Dios hizo un milagro,
otorgándoles pan doble, así mismo
duplicará mi comida cada viernes.

Dios dictó una ley religiosa que
prescribe la presentación del Pan
de Proposición.
Por eso, está prohibido torturarse,
según los sabios, excepto en el
Día del Perdón (Yom Kippur).

Es un día que impone respeto,
un día para deleitarse, de pan y
buen vino, de carne y pescado.
Los que estén alegres ese día
conseguirán la alegría.
Porque es un día en el que Dios
me llena de felicidad.

If I observe the Shabat, God will protect me
It is an eternal sign between Him and me.

It is forbidden to carry objects
undertake journeys or talk of everyday events,
commercial affairs and even things of the kingdom.
I will only meditate on the Torah of God,
which will give me wisdom.

I will re-read the Torah of God which will make me wiser.
In it I will find peace for my soul.
Just as for the first generation my holy God performed
a miracle, giving them double bread,
in the same way He will duplicate my food every Friday.

God gave us a religious law which prescribes
the presentation of the Bread of Proposition.
That is why its is forbidden to torture oneself
according to the wise men, except on the Day of
Atonement (Yom Kippur).

It is a day which demands respect,
a day to take delight,
in bread and good wine, in meat and fish.
Those who are happy on that day will find happiness
because it is a day when God fills me with happiness.



Abraham ibn Ezra
(Rabbi Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra/Abenezra)
(Tudela, 1092 / Calahorra, 1167)

Shabbat thread

Is posted at my place this week (:

click this link

Hannah

Shabbat Thread

Hi All,

Hannah here !!

Share away on this weeks events, Torah reading or whatever else it is that you want to talk about.


Shabbat Shalom!

Hashem remember Zion & Babylon

David Here,

Whilst I am winding down for my holiday next week, I wanted to make a brief post about this one. 

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion".
Psalm Chapter 137

I have posted a little about Iraq and ISIS on this blog  & what they are doing to the  people there, specifically the minorities of Iraq; as regulars will know my mother was born an Iraqi Jew, just before we were sent packing out of that country . 

As I've noted before, there are no longer any Jews for ISIS to kill in Iraq, so they are instead focusing on Christians & now a religion called Yazidis. Christians are having their homes marked to signify  that they are Christians, others are being forced to convert or die : the Yazidis are being driven to mountains and left to starve to death. This is genocide. Yet the 'world' is silent, the UN is deafeningly so, the media hardly makes a whimper. They are too consumed with attacking Israel for 'war crimes', whilst the real war criminals, who have an identical agenda to Hamas- that is a global fundamentalist Caliphate- leave human beings to die like wild animals. This is appalling. I think we have reached one of the low ebbs of hypocrisy here .

But the west won't intervene or the UN won't go on about war crimes. There is simply isn't the will to spend time, money, effort and soldier's lives on the people of Iraq. People are sick to death of wars in foreign lands (there is a famous quote from Neville Chamberlain about that when he agreed to Munich, if someone could find it for me?).  Furthermore there is no identification with Christians or any other religion in the secular west, people simply don't identify with anyone who claims a religious label, let alone Christianity, but then the people of the west don't even seem to identify with Israel anymore, which is in effect a secular republic (the reason is of course because Israel specifically calls itself the Jewish state, which to secular ears is 'racist' and not multicultural enough). There is also, I believe,  a fear among elites of provoking another Islamic 'street' backlash against intervention in a Muslim land,whatever the nobility of the cause of intervention in Iraq. 

Final thought is that military planners will advise anyone who wishes to send a gun boat to Iraq, they could be faced with a UN or ICC war crimes trial. Why?Because what Hamas have done in Gaza, ISIS will do in Iraq. The 10,000 or so of them are basically plain clothes thugs with guns. They will simply encamp to the nearest city, fire at anything than comes into their way. In this scenario it would be difficult to target ISIS and not kill civilians. The media, the UN and anyone else you care to mention would shift the war from a humanitarian one, to 'western imperialism', 'war crimes against civilians', 'a grab for the oil', etc etc. That is why the US/UK/Europe will do SFA. It is terrible. I do not like it. 

I ask myself  What will it take for the west to take notice of  the spread of militant Islamic organisations like ISIS and tackle them ? When we have a couple of thousand armed gangs in our own streets, bullying their own community into their particular fanatical version of their religion and persecuting/killing everyone else? When  it is in Paris? London? New York? (and at least the US citizens can protect themselves, because they have the right to bear arms).  What will the west do then? 

I do not want to conclude on this note, though, for there are many practical things that people can do, such as supporting various charities involved here (I don't have a list, but if some one can up this up on the comments thread , I'd grateful). Above all, we can Daven (pray) and say Psalms in this situation, as we have done and continue to do for our own Jewish community, the IDF and Israel and see the time when : 

'Out of Zion shall go forth Torah,

and the word of the L-rd from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations,

and shall arbitrate for many peoples;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more.'

(Isaiah Chapter 2) 

Is it is over... it seems to be over.... for now

David here,

I am taking a quick dive back into blogging, for this article.

It looks like the current military conflict is Gaza is coming to an end or at least  a long pause, whilst some form of ceasefire is arranged between the 2 sides in Cairo. It has been a tough fight, one in which many Israelis & Palestinians died, not because of Israeli 'imperialism', but because of the sheer intransigence of Hamas. Millions of pounds of aid were misspent by terrorists building these tunnels and the resources of Gaza were all ploughed into projects, not for the welfare of the territories people, but for terrorists purposes. To be sure Israel has NOT overthrown the terrorist regime, which would have been my aim. I can appreciate why Israel did not do so, for various strategic and political reasons. My only fear is that in a couple of years, if not months, this whole thing will happen again, as the terror network is still there .But at least the tunnels are gone and Hamas have been dealt a severe blow.

In respect of the Palestinian threat to join the ICC : this is an utter joke. Not that Israel should recognise this kangaroo court, but  even if it did, I doubt the Pals will go for this, other than by way as a negotiating chip. Why? Well put simply the reason why so many in the west fall for Palestinian propaganda is because the media like 'real time' information and the Hamas give them that, or more accurately lies and utterly ridiculous lies at that. The IDF is often slow to rebut these charges, because they are a modern western PROFESSIONAL fighting force and therefore do thorough investigations when things apparently go wrong, have armies of lawyers, investigators etc  & most of the time when reports are issued, we often see half of what has been claimed by the UN/media/Hamas is a load of distorted and twisted untruths, but by that time the media circus has moved on, so the mud and propaganda victory sticks with one side . The problems for the Pals is that all of this is kept and documented by the IDF, so their lies would be exposed in the full glare of reality if it ever went to a court (not, note, that it should, as Israel has no case to answer anyway).

As for the impact on this for British politics, I won't comment as such on this, because that is my brother Sam's patch (read his blog here). All I will say is that this war has yet again exposed some ugly latent anti-semitism , which is sad because the bulk of the British population- the silent majority- are with Israel and against the terrorists. That we have idiots like the liberal democrats calling for an arms embargo and voter (Islamic) grubbing fools like the Labour party is unfortunate. And then there is Lady "principle" Warsi, to which one asks where was your principle on other occasions it was called for when it comes to 'morally indefensible' outrages ? 

Finally, as ever, we must thank the men and women of the IDF, the young flowers of Israel, who have had to do the fighting to protect the Jewish homeland. Our thoughts are with those who have not come back. May they not be forgotten. As we have said in Britain on Monday, "they gave their today, for our tomorrow". 

G-d bless you all.

Summer Hiatus

David Here,

Next week I'm taking my immediate family on a 2 week holiday or 'vacation'. I feel like I need a break. Only problem is, the first 2 nights we are staying in, ahem, Paris. Which should be a fun experience. But seriously, I'm looking forward to my holiday (which for those who don't do humour means we're not actually going to Paris). 

Therefore during the next 3 weeks, this blog will be extremely light in terms of comment and posts for the next couple of weeks. In order that you don't miss out, I'd recommend you follow us by e-mail.  I will admit that constantly posting on this and other blogs since February has knackered me, on top of my job and duties as a husband. I will be back sometime in September, so I hope to see you all then.  Also you can check out other blogs that my brothers and sisters write as well. They will post here to let you know of these.

Hashem bless you all and until September, I remain yours 

Dov

This weeks Shabbat Thread

Dudes, Sam here.

You know the drill. Share away on this weeks events, Torah reading or whatever else it is that you want to talk about.

PS- my own blog is here if anyone is interested in reading it.