Tikkun Olam

I know there's a big fuss about Thanksgiving coinciding with Chanukah this year, and I can understand that. The former is an important American secular (as opposed to Christian, although it was that as well, generically) holiday, and Chanukah, although a "minor" holiday-as opposed to a Holy holiday such as Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Pesach/Passover and Shavuot-designated by our sages thousands of years ago (it ain't new, that's for sure), is quite big in the United States, giving Jews, both affiliated and not something to celebrate while their Christian brethren are making a big commercial deal about Christmas. But what is the reason we celebrate Chanukah? The popular narrative is that the one little cruse of pure, un-contaminated oil was only enough to last for one day, but miraculously, it lasted for eight!  Of course, I loved this legend growing up; it made Chanukah magical to me, and I'm sure to many others.  Here is an interview with Rabbi David...

The Jewish people have sovereignty over the State of Israel which comprises at least part of the original Land of Israel.  We have sovereignty over Jerusalem, although our great president Obama doesn't recognize it--even though he stated in his presidential campaign in 2008 that it is the "undivided capital of Israel."  Israel is the only sovereign state without a capital city . Unheard of.  Disgusting.  The World should be ashamed.  We should be ashamed, for blowing our opportunity in 1967 to annex all the "territories" and also Har HaBayit--the Temple Mount. Instead, Moshe Dayan gave the ' key' of the Temple Mount to the Waqf . Instead, we still mourn on Tisha b'Av, wail, and fast.  It's ridiculous.  We had the opportunity.  G-d gave us the opening, but in our stupidity we didn't recognize the SIGNS.  The Temple, our Beit haMikdash, should have  been in the rebuilding stages already.  Moshe Feiglin stated that he was going u...

Did you know that the Hoopoe was chosen to be the Israeli National Bird, in 2008?  The Hoopoe, or Duchifat in Hebrew, is mentioned in VaYikra (Leviticus) as a bird which Jews are not permitted to eat, along with eagles and vultures. Notwithstanding that utterly stupid Colbert video (gee, thanks, Dov Bear ) which disses Israel's choice of bird, what he doesn't know (Colbert, that is) is that the special thing about the Duchifat is that it is the bird which can catch that special worm, the shamir , which it is written, cuts the stones to build the Beit HaMikdash--the Holy Temple.  As the legend goes, The duchifat is called nagar tura, carpenter of the mountain, by Targum Onkelos because of its characteristics, as our Rabbis explained in Tractate Gittin (68b): The Gemara there discusses King Solomon's dilemma. He wished to build the Holy Temple but was restricted from using cutting tools to cut the large stones from the quarries into smaller building blocks. The G...

 (nablopomo day 25) Tu b'Av , or the fifteenth of Av, is a minor Jewish holiday which this year falls tomorrow, on the 26th of July.  It has ancient and modern origins.  In the era of the 2nd Temple ( Beit HaMikdash ha-Sheni ) it was a day of matchmaking, for single women to be married.  This was before the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. After the fall of the Temple, the holiday drifted into obscurity and went unobserved for centuries.  Now, with the resurrection of the State of Israel, it has popped back into popularity and is now sort of the Jewish Valentine's Day .  It is seen as chag ha-ahavah , or the "holiday of love." During the days of the Beit HaMikdash, there were religious customs associated with it.  For one thing, the Talmud and Mishna state that it was a joyous holiday, where the young unmarried women would go out into the fields dressed in white (so as not to distinguish between rich and poor), and dance and sing in the vine...

What a wonderful Sukkot is has been. We worked so hard in preparations before the chag, which paid off and culminated in davening with great kavanah and meaningful, happy festive meals in our Sukkah with good friends and acquaintences. Our sukkah was especially "HOLEY" this year: as my husband and friend (thank you, Y.) took the plywood boards apart they discovered yet another 'squirrel hole' (see photo)filled with fluff as padding, which my husband discarded. That made hole number three, second largest in size to the two we found last year. As we did last year, we covered the biggest, longest jagged hole with a picture of the Gedolim. We covered the small one with a creatively-done yellow paper chicken with a moveable head representing kapparot that was made years ago by my youngest (which of course explains why she is in Officer Training Course today. Such talent.). To cover the newest and largest hole, we were racking our brains when I came up with the p...

I awoke this morning to cold air. The temperature (it was forecast) had dropped to the fifties. It was gray and raining. As I looked out the window (while freezing in my PJs), I saw rain mixed with snow. Our first snow, on Tzom Gedaliah* . September 21st. This is considered early, although the changing-t0-snow was very brief, although it is still raining. It was barely snow; just a hint . . . But it is interesting, because the geese had disappeared. Our complex is a haven for ducks and geese, because there are greenbelts and several 'lakes' (man-made, of course; part of the design). They live here in the summer, and practically all year round, at least the ducks do. But the geese a week or two ago, suddenly were gone. A friend of mine opined that geese have a sense of the seasons, and if they suddenly fly--it means that it will be an early winter. It certainly feels like that now. I read sometime back in the summer, around Tisha b'Av* , about a gathering w...