The Aptly Named George Soros

"Soros' latest Israeli project is a subversive attempt to gain influence and undermine the country"

Read the article at: Soros' Latest Israel Project

Also see:  The Secret Force Behind Obama

Israel Needs a Reality Check

Violent clashes between Israel Police forces and ultra-Orthodox activists amid a public outcry over the exclusion of women from the public sphere is damaging the image of the Haredi community in the United States, Brooklyn community leaders told Haaretz on Tuesday.

New York Democratic New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind added that "if a young Hasidic man would have spat on or hurt a girl in Borough Park he would have been immediately arrested and handled in the most stern of way."   [Source: Haredi violence is damaging Israel's image, U.S. rabbis say]

Exactly !

And in Australia..... they'd be arrested and charged with assault.....

So my question is:  Israel.... why are these men allowed to get away with abusing women and young girls?  What a chillul Hashem and total embarrassment for all of us.

Elvis and the Lawnmower

It's summer holidays in Australia.... I'm not doing too much typing, so please forgive the lack of Torah posts lately... things will return to normal soon.

but in the meantime, here's a tale of a crocodile named Elvis and a lawnmower:

A huge saltwater crocodile has charged at two workers at a reptile park north of Sydney and stolen their lawnmower.

The five-metre croc, named Elvis, attacked the staff at the Australian Reptile Park at Gosford after they went into its enclosure about 9am (AEST) today.

The men used their lawnmowers as a barrier when the hulking beast lunged. They escaped unharmed.

The 50-year-old croc lost two teeth in the encounter and is now guarding one of the lawnmowers.

"Elvis is sitting at the bottom of the lagoon with the lawnmower next to him. He's guarding it," said park spokeswoman Libby Bain.

"Obviously we have to go in and retrieve the mower.

"It's not something we think he would eat but it's encroaching on his territory and he believes it is his."

Source: News.com

Jewish Extremism : Out of Control

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (AP) – A shy 8-year-old schoolgirl has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel's latest religious war.

Naama Margolese is a ponytailed, bespectacled second-grader who is afraid of walking to her religious Jewish girls school for fear of ultra-Orthodox extremists who have spat on her and called her a whore for dressing "immodestly."

Her plight has drawn new attention to the simmering issue of religious coercion in Israel, and the increasing brazenness of extremists in the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community

Source: Israeli Girl's Plight Highlights Jewish Extremism
More at : Beit Shemesh Gone Wild

Beaches Closed

HUGE surf smashed the NSW coast yesterday, closing beaches up and down the state.

At Snapper Rocks, on the Queensland and NSW border, were dwarfed by 3m waves, generated by a storm in the Coral Sea. This picture was taken from the Queensland border looking back into NSW waters.

Source: Dwarfed by power of an angry sea

Iran: "Israeli strike would be suicide"

Brigadier General Vahidi says 'Zionist regime is completely isolated,' threatens deadly strikes from Iran, should Israel attack.

Iran's defense minister said Sunday that any Israeli strike on Iran would constitute suicide, the official news agency IRNA reported.

“The Zionist regime is completely isolated and under no circumstances it can attack Iran unless she wants to commit a suicide," IRNA quoted Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi as saying. "It is due to the fact that it will receive deadly strikes from Iran which will make it unstable."

Source and more: Israeli Strike would be a Suicide Mission


[Just ignore the JC headline on the video below, it's not part of the feature]

Take care

Personal Encounter

by Rav DovBer Pinson

Parshas Vayigash

The Torah reading of this week begins with the dramatic encounter between Yehudah/Judah and Yosef/Joseph.

There is a famine in the land of Israel and Yosef’s brothers journey to the land of Egypt to purchase food, where unbeknownst to them, Yosef has risen to power after they had sold him into slavery years before. Upon encountering each other Yosef’s brothers do not recognize him as their brother but Yosef knows who they are. Yosef accuses his brothers of being spies and threatens to take the youngest brother as his slave.

The Torah reading opens with the words “Vayigash- Then Yehudah approached him [Yosef] and said, "Bi Adoni/ Please, my master, let now your servant speak something into my lord's ears…for you are like Pharaoh.” [44:18]

The word Vayigash means to encounter.

There were years of misunderstanding and anguish between the brothers until this moment. At this juncture Yehuda, leader of the brothers, approaches Yosef and says – ‘Bi Adoni’ - “please, my master”

Somehow, following this statement, they are finally able to encounter each other in a true and meaningful way, thereby enabling Yosef to reveal himself to his brothers and beginning the eventual reconciliation and reunion with the entire family.

‘Bi Adoni’ can also be translated more literally as – “You are within me, my master.”

To encounter another, we need to first identify with them completely.

When Yehudah says “Bi Adoni,” Yosef is moved, because at this juncture Yosef feels that Yehudah is finally identifying himself with Yosef, and his struggles. Yehudah is finally seeing the “other” as someone close to him, finding the other within himself, and himself within the other.

Yehudah says “for you are like Pharaoh”, which is to say, “we are all part of each other”

When Yehudah is moved to truly encounter another and move toward Yosef, Yosef is also moved forward, and reveals himself as their brother.

In the words of Kabbalah, Yehudah experiences Hiskalelus/intermingling with Yosef, and then Yosef can experience Hiskalelus with them.

I see you and experience you, this is a true encounter.

The Energy of the Week

The Torah reading this week infuses us with the power to have true and meaningful encounters.

We are gifted with the ability to experience a true encounter with another.

In resolving all matters, whether personal and business – one must be fully present in person. In this age of ‘virtual communication’, we need to remember to make real ‘face time.’

We need to take the time to truly encounter the other person and see ourselves within them.

When we focus on that which is similar between us and another whom we are encountering, we begin to see the possibility of resolution.

Look into the other person and see that we are all deeply interconnected. As deeply as we know ourselves, we can know another. From our own reserves of experience and emotion we can relate to the experience and feelings of the other person.

Let us all take some time out to put down our external communication ‘devices’ and use our own G-d given devices, of sight, sound and empathy to relate to another person and truly encounter them in ‘real time.’