May G-d hear our prayers this Yom Kippur!
"My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart: Behold, He stands behind our wall, He looks in at the windows, He peers through the lattice."- Shir ha Shirim (Song of Songs 2:9)
The picture is of Lisa and Jeremy Goldman's windows, in their new home in the town of Eshchar, facing Carmiel, in the Galil.
The Media Propaganda Machine At Work
I know. I know. Why are these Kumah people all obsessed with Madonna?
Well this really isn't about Madonna at all. (Or should we call her Esther?) It's about how the worldwide media manipulates the public's perception of living in Israel. So on Sunday Madonna remarked basically - and I'm reading between the lines here - how she too was fooled into believing Israel is a dangerous war zone. But she now knows after seeing Israel without looking though the adulterated lenses of Reuters
"that it is no more dangerous to be here than it is to be in New York." So what's the now exposed Reuters to do? Report on how Madonna has figured it out? Report on how they have been lying to the world for who knows how long? Wouldn't it be easier to just quote Madonna out of context? Twist her words around so it sounds like she is actually saying, "Reuters is right on the money when they tell you you're nuts to come here!" Well, you be the judge.
This is
how Reuters reports it:
Pop star Madonna (news - web sites) speaks at the Kabbalah International Conference in Tel Aviv September 19, 2004. Madonna was hesitant to visit Israel because of news reports about violence but found the biggest danger was 'a few very naughty Paparazzi.' 'To be perfectly honest I was a bit hesitant to come here after seeing so many news reports about terrorist attacks and reading countless travel safety warnings,' she said. (Pool/Reuters) Is it just me or didn't they leave out the most important part of her statement?
Calling All Aliyah Blogs!
Years ago, when we started this site, we had the idea to chronicle people's Aliyah experiences, in a section called
On Our Way Home. The section was successful, but it always remained small. Fortunately, the internet has developed blogs, allowing many recent olim to chronicle their Aliyah experiences online. Aliyah blogs help spread the word that Aliyah is possible, and a great experience, and that real people are doing it.
If you are an oleh or olah, or in the process of becoming one, and you have a blog, please send us an email to arise at kumah dot org, and we will link to your blog on the box on the side called
Aliyah Blogs. If you don't have a blog, and would like to start one, check out
Blogger, which is the service we use to maintain the Kumah blog.
By The Book
The following article was written by Sara Levy for "The Kosher Spirit."
It can be found here. Simple put, this is a excellent piece and a must read. One would be wise to take some advice from David Ben-Gurion on how we should view the Jewish State.By The Book
By Sara LevyIn 1936, the British government created a commission, headed by Viscount Peel, to study the conflict between Jews and Arabs in the protectorate of Palestine. The commission was to submit its proposals to King George. On the witness stand was a Tanach (Bible), a Koran, and a Christian Bible. Each witness taking the stand was required to take an oath, swearing on his or her holy book.
One of the last witnesses to testify before the commission was the chairman of the Jewish Agency, David Ben-Gurion. At the conclusion of his testimony, the following exchange took place between Ben-Gurion and Lord Peel.
Lord Peel: Where were you born?
Ben-Gurion: In Plonsk.
Lord Peel: Where is Plonsk?
Ben-Gurion: In Poland.
Lord Peel: That is very strange. All the Arab witnesses who appeared before this commission-Nusseibah, Nasabiba, al-Tal, and al-Husseini-were born here in Palestine. And almost all of the Jewish witnesses who appeared before us were not born here. You say that this is your home, but someone else lives here now-the Arabs. There is an international law which states that if somebody contests the right of someone who is holding on to property, he must submit documentary proof of ownership (or, as it was called in the Ottoman Empire, a kushan) that the property belongs to him even though he was not born there.
Ben-Gurion lifted the Bible and said, "Lord Peel, surely we have a kushan, this is our kushan-the Bible. The British are a nation that respects the Bible. Is our historical right, as stated in the Bible, less authentic than a document penned by some clerk in some land registry office? This is an everlasting document in which it is written: 'To your children I have given this land.' G-d promised this land to our Father Abraham and to his descendants. There is no doubt that we are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
The Jewish people have been scattered to the four corners of the earth, like chaff in the wind. We have faced centuries of persecution and seen the rise and fall of great empires. As the world has shifted around us, one constant has remained: We are a nation with our eyes turned toward the Land of Israel. Our thrice-daily prayers are directed east, toward Jerusalem. We have never forgotten our birthright, the Promised Land.
For over two millennia, conquerors have risen and fallen, but none has managed to make the Holy Land flourish and bloom. Instead, Israel has been a land awaiting her people, like a mother yearning for her children's return.
How do we know that Israel is still ours? In Genesis (12:5-7) we read:
[Abraham and his family] came to the land of Canaan. And Abraham traveled in the land until the place of Shechem, and the Canaanites were yet in the land. And G-d appeared to Abraham and said: 'To your seed I will give this land,' and he built there an altar to G-d who appeared to him.Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Genesis (17:19-21) specifically mentions which son should inherit the land:
G-d said, 'But Sarah your wife will give birth to you a son, and you will call him Isaac, and I will sustain My covenant with him-an everlasting covenant-to his seed after him. And to Ishmael...I will give him to be a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, who Sarah will bear at this time next year.'So why do we struggle today over the ownership of Israel? Why do we feel compelled to split up our eternal inheritance? Because we treat Israel as a secular state, created by mere mortals, rather than our birthright, granted us by G-d's promise. But arguing that Israel is a Jewish state because it was made so in 1948 by the nations of the world is not sufficient to silence the claims of the Arabs, the Vatican, the European Union, and the U.N. Instead, let us use the Bible as our proof. According to the Bible, the Land of Israel has always been ours, including Gaza, Judea, and Samaria.
Today, elected officials in the Knesset would barter away pieces of the land that G-d has given us in order to stop the bloodshed. But the bloodshed will only turn into a river as the terrorists move closer. To save lives, we must retain every inch of the Holy Land. Concessions by the Israeli government to terrorists send a message that we are wavering in our claim to the Land of Israel. This is our land, our heritage, given to us by G-d's own grace. We must stand strong before G-d as His Chosen People. Only then, will the resolve of our enemies weaken.
