Build up your character learn these books online: http://www.torah.org/learning/spiritual-excellence/archives.html
Real Thanksgiving Prayers: http://www.thefoundationstone.org/en/prayer/songs-of-praise/184-mizmorltodahintroduction.html
Mussar from Vayishlach and Haphtarah
32:12 Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, the mother with the children.
From the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: From the hand of my brother, who does not behave toward me like a brother, but like the wicked Esau. — [apparently from Gen. Rabbah 75:7]
Esav is dangerous in any form. As a brother for assimilation into his ways similar to Mary Ann the twelve year old girl who hadn’t reached puberty. She wanted to marry twelve year old me if I would only convert to Catholicism and she truly believed in her religion and truly believed in her teeny-bopper love for me. This type of brotherly love and friendship we as Jews do not need. Now the hand of Esav is that of the Inquisition and the Nazis or Communists. Worst of all is the hand of Yishmael becoming commander-in-chief of an Esav Nation and using his power to bully Yacov in his “support” of us after violating and disbanding every treaty and written understanding of past leaders. – This is the simple meaning.
The Haphtarah of last week’s Parsha tells us of a time when Esav will be judged by the Moshiach. Let us see the roots:
33:12 And he said: 'Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee.' 13 And he said unto him: 'My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds giving suck are a care to me; and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die. 14 Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant; and I will journey on gently, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come unto my lord unto Seir.' 15 And Esau said: 'Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me.' And he said: 'What need it? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.' 16 So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir.
What is the meaning of this as Yacov never went to Har Seir?
Ovadiah 1:15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations; as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee; thy dealing shall return upon your own head.
On that day as written in Zechariah the Kingdom of the L-RD will prevail though the Moshiach ben David and the righteous survivors of those among the Nations will possess or repossess their own countries and the truth which is now absent shall be present and a word of a man shall be a word of truth and honor again.
16 For as ye have drunk upon My holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and swallow down, and shall be as though they had not been. 17 But in mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. 18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken. 19 And they of the South shall possess the mount of Esau, and they of the Lowland the Philistines; and they shall possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria; and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. 20 And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, that are among the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath, and the captivity of Jerusalem, that is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the South. 21 And saviors shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD'S.
This is the Moshiach ben Yosef and the Moshiach ben David. The Art Scroll sees the word saviors as Moshiach and his party but it is written so and therefore not a mistranslation or an attempt to make more commentary than the simple interpretation that I or the Art Scroll offer to you.
Torah Editorial: Rabbi Simcha HaCohain Kuk Shlita gave his Drasha on this Parsha the afternoon before Anwar Sadat arrived in Israel. He said that he hoped that Menachem Begin was looking into and studying our Parsha. For Yacov prepared for Esav in three ways: gifts, verbal supplications and for war; so too when one goes out to meet leaders of the non-Jewish world representing Israel we must be prepared in three ways and to learn from this Parsha.
In the week leading up to the Parsha Mr. Netanyahu made a blunder by going to Washington it only got the dogs of Esav to bark louder. One barked at us from Indonesia from his old Madrassa days and one in Washington.
Webster Dictionary on-line Bully: a blustering browbeating person; especially: one habitually cruel to others who are weaker
It is funny when it comes to criticizing and bullying Yisrael the most loyal of the USA outside of perhaps the United Kingdom which is tied with Yisrael. Hillary Clinton is strong and forceful but against Iran (heaven forbidden), the State Dept. Blunder with the false Taliban in Afghanistan and the blunder in Korea she is notably silent letting the President take the hit so that she can “I won’t run in 2012” said with a nervous laugh of a liar. She is planning to run and she knows that in all probability the stupid, idiotic, dumb, numskull and moronic Jews will vote for any anti-Semite bully as long as they are of the Democratic Party. Because Republicans like Lincoln, Nixon who saved Israel during the Yom Kippur War, Ronald Reagan who allowed Israel to get to Beirut in the Shalom HaGalil Operation are all ‘fascists’.
This is Esav at their best tricky, double-dealing that is why Yacov had to deceive his father as Esav deceived him all the time. This is what happens when Yacov and Esav meet. We Jews have to repent, pray and give charity for these are the ‘leaders’ in charge.
Parsha Vayeshev
Tzipora wrote from the works of Rabbi Meir Kahane HY”D: When a Jew is away from Israel, he must constantly acknowledge that he is a stranger in a foreign land, living among a foreign nation, like one who is with a woman whom he does not know. As Solomon expressed it: And why should you stray, my son, with an alien woman, and hug the bosom of a foreign woman (Proverbs 5:20). [...] Human nature is to forget suffering after some time has passed and one finds refuge and starts to live in peace; then the נֵכָר, nekhar (“unknown”) and the נָכְרִי, nokhri (“foreigner, stranger”) become נִכָּר, nikkar (“recognized”) and מֻכָּר, mukkar (“known”), and the alien land becomes homeland. And indeed, this happened even to Joseph himself:
Joseph thought: When I was in my father’s house…my brothers envied me; now that I am here [in Egypt], I thank You that I live in wealth. G-d said to him: It is so good for you here that you are rebelling. By your life! I will incite the bears against you (Genesis Rabbah 87:4). The Tanhuma says something similar: When Joseph saw himself such [so great, in Potiphar’s service], he began to eat and drink, he curled his hair, and said: Blessed be the Omnipresent Who has caused me to forget my father’s house. G-d said to him: Your father is mourning for you in sackcloth and ashes, and you eat and drink and curl your hair?! For this, your mistress [Potiphar’s wife] will seduce you and cause you grief (Tanhuma, Vayeshev 8).
This teaches that it is not enough for the tzaddik to recognize G-d’s kindness; he must also understand that the purpose of His kindness is solely in order to help him to fulfill his obligation and his destiny. Joseph was indeed obligated to thank G-d for having been saved, and for having found a good life – but he should not have celebrated and rejoiced as long as his father was mourning and suffering. We further see that even though his personal situation in Israel with his family was far worse than his current situation in exile, this feeling was considered a sin, for a Jew is forbidden to forget his true home – and far more so, is forbidden to erase the memory of his true home.
For Yosef was a vane teenager and he was attacked by his brother and the wife of the Eunuch Potiphar for his vanity for had he been Tznius, he had a chance to not be tested.
Rest and Relaxation
Don't we all crave those moments in life of rest and relaxation? Many of us may even use such times for spiritual meaning and growth. What's wrong with a little peace and quiet? We would say nothing at all. Yet, in this week's portion, Jacob asks for peace and quiet and God does not grant it to him. Instead, God criticizes him. Where did Jacob go wrong? What can be wrong with some Rest & Relaxation?
Let us read the Rashi commentary (37:2) where this appears: "Jacob wanted to dwell in tranquility but then the ordeal of Joseph (sale into slavery) came upon him. The righteous seek to dwell in tranquility but God says 'Is it not enough for the righteous what has been prepared for them (reward) in the World to Come that they need to seek tranquility in this world!'"
Anyone who has ever read this Rashi is always left with a question. Why do righteous people ever seek peace? Is it because they wish to spend their time on the beaches of the Bahamas? Besides, if you want to grow spiritually, don't you need peace and quiet in your life? Is it really possible to contemplate the serious issues of our existence and goals in this world while being bogged down with earthly, physical problems and struggles? We usually need very few distractions in order to grow spiritually. So shouldn't the righteous desire peace and tranquility in order to continue on their path of righteousness?
The solution to this puzzle takes us back to Parsha Vayetzei where we discover that God's criticism of Jacob involves a very subtle and specific area. In 31:3, God tells Jacob to "return to the land of your fathers and to your birthplace and I will be with you." God does not call the land "Israel," or "the Holy land," but "the land of your fathers." There is something about Jacob's connection to the Land (Israel) that is uniquely expressed through his bond with his fathers. This is what God wants Jacob to focus on when he returns. What's more, Rashi comments, on the verse in Vayetzei, saying, "Return to the land of your fathers and there I will be with you, but as long as you are connected to the impure one (Lavan), it is impossible to rest my Divine Presence, the Shechina, upon you."
Apparently, not only does God want Jacob to focus on his connections to the land of his fathers, but the Divine Presence Itself. God's special Providence will not come to Jacob without this special link to the land based upon what his fathers have accomplished in the Land of Israel. Jacob is to build his spiritual growth in the Land of Israel based upon what his fathers have already accomplished. And this is where Jacob was lacking. Sure, there's no question that Jacob was growing and striving spiritually, especially having returned to the holiest place on earth, Israel. But he was resting and not working within this specific area of building upon what his fathers had already done.
Jacob's resting is reflected in the words of the Torah. The opening verse in our Parsha states: "Jacob settled in the land of his father's dwellings, in the Land of Canaan." It is unnecessary to inform us that the Land of Israel was the place where Jacob's fathers lived. We know this from previous readings of Genesis. Rather, the Torah is hinting to us the area in which Jacob was lacking, in his growth of building upon what his fathers accomplished. Jacob may have been creating new paths of spirituality but he was resting and not maintaining the precious old ones of his fathers.
What these paths were exactly is hard for us to decipher from the Torah, but we do see that even when a righteous person seeks peace and quiet for the right reasons, it may not be part of God's plan to grant the peace. The righteous person may not be excelling in a specific area that God wants him to excel in and therefore may not deserve the tranquility.
Of course, we non-Patriarchal type of people should always ask God to grant us peace of mind to be able to grow spiritually because, for us, in most cases, this is exactly what we need. Supremely righteous people, however, may not have the peaceful lives that we would expect that God would grant to them. This may be as a result of God's expecting a very specific area of growth from them that they may not have as of yet attained.
Rest can be good if used properly. Let us hope that God gives us the peace and serenity to reach our maximum potential.
This article can also be read at: http://www.aish.com/tp/i/ky/48943166.html
As for my own rest and relaxation on the cruise last week, I went in Kiruv mode when I met some Israelis. I talked with the guys about our army days and where the government is now to let them know that I was one of the guys. Then I spoke about the difficulty with some traditional Jews eating macaroni cooked in a Trafe pot on the ship and other things that appeared to be kosher and was not. Then I spoke about Miracles happening in natural ways. As mentioned above a Rabbi cannot rest.
37:24 and they took him, and cast him into the pit--and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. 25 And they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and ladanum, going to carry it down to Egypt. 26 And Judah said unto his brethren: 'What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother, our flesh.' And his brethren hearkened unto him. 28 And there passed by Midianites, merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt.
Normally the Yishmael traders were taking oil but this group because of the merit of Yosef were carrying spices for pleasantness of the journey. And the Yishmael merchants wanted a quick profit and they did not want the bother of sales negotiation and the positive change for a quick profit and leave him in the office.
38:1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. 2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her, and went in unto her.
We learn from this that a man takes a woman, he has to bring her into his house and perform the Mitzvah of be fruitful and multiply.
… 6 And Judah took a wife for Er his first-born, and her name was Tamar. 7 And Er, Judah's first-born, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.
He did not want to have children by her to spoil her figure and he spilled his seed.
8 And Judah said unto Onan: 'Go in unto thy brother's wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her, and raise up seed to thy brother.' 9 And Onan knew that the seed would not be his; and it came to pass when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest he should give seed to his brother. 10 And the thing which he did was evil in the sight of the LORD; and He slew him also. 11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law: 'Remain a widow in thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown up'; for he said: 'Lest he also die, like his brethren.' And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.
If a woman has 3 husbands die then we consider her a ‘killer’ woman and nobody can marry her.
12 And in process of time Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheep-shearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 13 And it was told Tamar, saying: 'Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnah to shear his sheep.' 14 And she put off from her the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the entrance of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she was not given unto him to wife. 15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot; for she had covered her face.
HASHEM is making Yehuda into the progenitor of Moshiach. Maybe it should have been through Er as Tamar was the daughter of either Shem or Ever and hence a bas Cohain. However, Yehuda betrayed her by not giving Shelah so HASHEM took Shua from Yehuda and being still relatively young he still had physical urges strong within him. He saw this woman whom he thought was a Fertility Cult Kedasha for that is the Hebrew word used in the story.
16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said: 'Come, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee'; for he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said: 'What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?'
She of course is not a professional so she asks for his pledge which is his signature ring and staff (similar to that Moshe would go generations later with a staff).
17 And he said: 'I will send thee a kid of the goats from the flock.' And she said: 'Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it?' 18 And he said: 'What pledge shall I give thee?' And she said: 'Thy signet and thy cord, and thy staff that is in thy hand.' And he gave them to her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.
Only when HASHEM wants to we have immediate conception look at Sarah, Rivka and Leah for example.
19 And she arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. 20 And Judah sent the kid of the goats by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman's hand; but he found her not. 21 Then he asked the men of her place, saying: 'Where is the harlot, that was at Enaim by the wayside?' And they said: 'There hath been no harlot here.'
Yehuda at this moment felt bamboozled and could not figure out what was going on.
22 And he returned to Judah, and said: 'I have not found her; and also the men of the place said: There hath been no harlot here.' 23 And Judah said: 'Let her take it, lest we be put to shame; behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.' 24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying: 'Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot; and moreover, behold, she is with child by harlotry.' And Judah said: 'Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.' 25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying: 'By the man, whose these are, am I with child'; and she said: 'Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and the cords, and the staff.'
Some commentaries say that she lost the pledge but her words hit the Tzaddik in the heart like a knife and others say that she showed everybody the signs and he admitted his guilt on Shelah and that he is the father of the unborn.
26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said: 'She is more righteous than I; forasmuch as I gave her not to Shelah my son.'
from me: she is pregnant (Targum Onkelos). Our Sages, however, explained this midrashically to mean that a “bath-kol” came forth and declared, “From Me and from within Me these matters have emerged. Since she was modest in her father-in-law’s house, I decreed that kings should be descended from her, and from the tribe of Judah I [already] decreed to raise up kings in Israel.” [from Sotah 10b]
And he knew her again no more.
But he no longer continued: Heb. וְלֹא-יָסַף. Some say: he did not continue [to know her] (Targum Onkelos), and others say: he did not cease (Sotah 10b). (A similar instance is found in connection with Eldad and Medad (Num. 11:25), [where the verse reads:] וְלֹא יָסָפוּ, they did not continue, which the Targum renders: וְלֹא פָסְקוּ, they did not cease).
This is very confusing to me as the story for the Pasuk and the Pshat is that he basically wanted to keep his distance from this woman to whom he lost two previous sons to and yet he had already known her and Yebum is complete marriage which obligates the male in a number of ways so the second commentary is basically that they lived happily ever after. Considering that he still had desires and I being a romantic at heart, I prefer the second commentary as we know from Oral Torah that sometimes Pshat is not really Pshat but means something different.
27 And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. 28 And it came to pass, when she travailed, that one put out a hand; and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying: 'This came out first.' 29 And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold his brother came out; and she said: 'Wherefore hast thou made a breach for thyself?' Therefore his name was called Perez. 30 And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand; and his name was called Zerah.
39:1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer Eunuch of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hand of the Ishmaelites, that had brought him down thither.
By the translations not translate (סְרִיס) which means Eunuch of Pharaoh for I assume that like most non-Jewish Kings he had his kitchen staff as Eunuchs so as to serve his Harem and not pose a danger of adultery. I have no idea why Yosef was not killed by Potiphar from the accusation of the wife. Either he figured out it was her hanky-panky and not that of Yosef or he had what we call today an open marriage or a swinger marriage and he was angry at Yosef for disobeying the mistress of the house as it takes all kinds of people to make up a world. Most of the other stories in the Torah are clear cut and this Parsha produces two nebulous stories.
++++++++++++++++++
The Spirit of Shabbos meals & Meat that disappears from the eye: On the first Shabbos of my cruise, the cooks and waiters made up all excuses not to get me the kosher meal. It would have been less dramatic if it was not Shabbos as doubly wrapped Salmon fish, potatoes, and vegetables would have sufficed me but for Shabbos the mitzvah is with Poultry or Meat – there are vegetarian Jews who are the exception to this but it is not looked upon with a good eyes by Rabbis as the special Oneg (enjoyment) of Shabbos is with wine, fish and meat. My vegetarian Jews will dispute me on this but one must get Ruah HaTorah (the spirit of Torah) for if one were vegetarian six days a week and on Shabbos ate an olive’s bulk of fish and meat at night and the next main Shabbos meal the spirit of Torah would be kept Manhedrin min HaManhedrin (the strictest of strict ways of following Torah). So returning to my cruise I demanded kosher meat. So they took a dead cow (which could either be a Nevaila or Trafe one) and wrapped it in foil like the Salmon and serve it to me. I told them angrily that it was non-kosher and would wait until they found a kosher meal. The chief waiter managed to do some running up and down stairs and my wife and I got our meals according to law of Moshe and Yisrael. The meat that they gave me was what we call Basar Ne-ehlam min HaAyin (meat that disappeared from our eye).
A true story: A King, Governor or Nobleman was friendly with the local Rabbi and would call upon him to advise him. All the time, the King asked the Rabbi to have dinner with him. So after all this pressure, the Rabbi asked to bring his own utensils and his meat cooked on his plate. The King in collusion with his underlings would prepare a meal similar to that of the Rabbi and switch meat when the Rabbi’s back was turned. Before the meal, fresh fruit was served and the Rabbi took a fruit like a Banana which could be peeled. Just before the meal the King called the Rabbi to look at his garden from the window and perhaps something else. In the meantime, the meat which looked the same was switched on the Rabbi. The King then started the meal and the Rabbi excused himself as he told the King of the law of Basar Ne-ehlam min HaAyin. In my life time, I never ever expected to have a chance to participate in this Mitzvah so I was lucky to have it happen.
Not to leave a woman without a Kosher Divorce this disgusting person who refuses to divorce his wife or pay child support in the USA is held prisoner in Israel and will be jailed if he does not give his wife a bill of divorce. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140835
The following may explain why Adin Yisrael ben Sarah is ill. Maybe he has finished his work in this world "I am preparing for the next 170 years because I have a lot of work to do. Now if the boss decides that he wants me elsewhere so I will have to move, but as long as I am here I have lots of things to do," he said.: http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=196412
This is an advisory with respect to Brunswick (registered trademark) and Beach Cliff brand (registered trademark) sardines. We have received a number of consumer contacts noting the presence of "shrimp" in these sardines. We have discussed this with the manufacturer who has informed us that this is actually krill, a small shrimp-like crustacean, which is a common source of feed for sardines. Krill is normally digested prior to processing and should not be found in a finished product, even one which contains the stomach. This year, many factors (e.g., size of fish, warmer water temperatures, methods of fishing, etc.) combined to create a very unusual fishing year and an increase in sardines containing krill in their stomachs. The manufacturer emphatically confirms this issue is not one of quality, species substitution or adulteration of any sort: rather an unexpected and previously unforeseen occurrence, which now requires our attention.
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Brunswick Oil Products with Best By codes between June 2015 and November 2015.
Brunswick Water and Sauce Packs with Best By codes between June 2013 and November 2013.
Beach Cliff Products with any Best By code starting June 2013 and thereafter that bears an OU code on the label
To receive your coupons, simply send your name, address and description of product to Brunswick Refund, P.O. Box 23220, San Diego, CA 92193. We would ask that you consider donating any existing product to canned food drives serving families without dietary restrictions.
Many from the Soviet Union were brought up with religion and survived by black marketeering and now they betrayed their fellow Jews: http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishFeatures/Article.aspx?id=196595
Inyanay Diyoma
Some people in charge are smarter than the US President and the Congress Combined financially: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3986968,00.html
The South Koreans were conducting a military exercise and fired artillery to the south but the North decided to flex their muscles with nuclear threat and perhaps now is the time for Japan to threaten them with going atomic. : http://www.debka.com/article/9167/
Finally a terrorist by any other name is still a terrorist: http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=232181
The danger to Haifa and the immediate area: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3989223,00.html
This is sung to the tune the worms crawl in the worms crawl out: http://www.debka.com/article/9168/ I warned them not to use Intel as the processors were made in Israelis and Jews invented some things on the AMD processors too. They should use advance Afghan Abacus instead.
Iran is playing a dangerous game though with their allies: http://www.debka.com/article/9164/
Bye-bye American Pie or at least the Yankee Dollar: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-11/24/content_11599087.htm
An Arab Lie and an Obama trick to the American Public of a non-achievement: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3988744,00.html
Netanyahu, Obama squabble over Jewish apartments & Palestinians: Peace process should erase Israel From ISRAEL TODAY MAGAZINE – forwarded with commentary By Emanuel A. Winston, Mid East Analyst & Commentator
President Barack Hussein Obama is repeating his role as a Muslim advocate with his speech in Muslim Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world. He is reprising his speech in Cairo, Egypt.
Mr. President, GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!!! GET A MAP!!! First, the apartments being built today are in SOUTH JERUSALEM and WEST JERUSALEM.
Next, despite your personal blatant anti-Israel animus, it is time to butt out of Israel’s sovereign rights and to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem as voted by Congress every year.
Or, better yet, resign and go back to your birthplace in Kenya or your Muslim grade school in Jakarta. You have shown yourself to be some sort of leader, dedicated to Islam and, therefore, a clear-and-present danger to America, the American people and to our ally, Israel. Your goal of a New World Order with America consigned to be equal to
Third World nations is NOT compatible with the destiny of America to be a global leader. You have proven yourself incapable of leading the great nation which America is.
Netanyahu's concessions for talks go far beyond a building freeze but, lifted only a corner of the deal
forwarded with commentary By Emanuel A. Winston, Mid East Analyst & Commentator
Once again Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has shamed his family name and betrayed the Jews in secret, behind-the-closed doors – much the same as President Barack Hussein Obama’s closed door policies.
It’s time for the people of Israel (and world Jewry) to collectively demand that Netanyahu be called for a trial and consequently pull down Netanyahu’s government.
COMMENTARY BY EMANUEL A. WINSTON
###
Netanyahu's concessions for talks go far beyond a building freeze but, lifted only a corner of the deal DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 14, 2010, 10:16 PM (GMT+02:00)
The package Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has accepted for US-sponsored talks with the Palestinians contains more substantial concessions than merely a freeze on settlement construction and goes far beyond the deal put before the security cabinet Saturday night, Nov. 13, debkafile reports from Jerusalem and Washington. The deal unveiled in Jerusalem early Sunday is only stage one of a larger secret package to which only Netanyahu and his close adviser Yitzhak Molho are privy - not even Defense Minister Ehud Barak or the Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi.
This package has been in secret negotiation for several weeks in the Jordanian capital Amman - and possibly European venues - between American, Israeli, Palestinian, Saudi, Jordanian and Egyptian representatives. According to US and Saudi sources, Israel has made four major concessions that will go into force if and when peace is signed with the Palestinians.
Under the one-year deal concluded with the United States - as reported to the Security Cabinet Saturday night - Israel has accepted a second three-month moratorium on West Bank settlement construction including starts made after the expiry of the first 10-month freeze on Sept. 26. It will not apply to Jerusalem. No third moratorium will be requested.
In return, the United States agreed -
1. To request congressional approval for the sale of 20 F-35 stealth warplanes worth $3 billion in addition to the 20 already allocated. 2. To follow an Israel-Palestinian peace accord, if it is concluded, by signing a mutual defense treaty with Israel, negotiations for which to begin in the coming weeks.
3. To veto any anti-Israeli motions put forward at the UN Security Council or other international bodies on four subjects:
--- Initiatives for imposing political solutions on Israel;
--- Any unilateral Palestinian bid to establish an independent state;
--- All acts aimed at undermining Israel's legitimacy;
--- Any attempt to use the Security Council to deny Israel's right to self-defense.
While the prime minister presented this deal to the security cabinet ministers as a draft still under discussion, debkafile's sources report that it was finalized with Washington and the negotiations have raced beyond that point and gone a lot deeper into the substance of a peace accord with the Palestinians in the secret round table under the American aegis to which Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan have been co-opted.
These negotiations, still in mid-course, were first revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 469 Nov. 11, together with the issues on the table:
A. The presence of foreign, namely Jordanian, troops in the Jordan Valley in a deployment that would satisfy Israel's security requirements and provide a barrier against the smuggling of missiles, other munitions and fighters into the West Bank when it comes under independent Palestinian rule.
Since 1967, every Israeli government since the 1967 War has stipulated that any peace accord must leave this strip with Israel as its security border to the east. Netanyahu has accepted in principle that the Hashemite Kingdom, for the first time since the Jordanian Army withdrew from the West Bank 43 years ago, would regain a military presence on the both the West and East Banks of the River Jordan.
B. The Jordanian military's functions along the Jordan River and on West Bank soil would be governed by agreed rules of conduct. Those rules would extend to other parts of the West Bank where the deployment of foreign forces is under negotiation.
C. The Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley would remain in place and continue to develop - on the understanding that after several decades, 30-50 years, their disposal would be renegotiated with the possible option of passing the area to the Palestinian state. This item is still open to discussion.
D. Israeli Defense Forces positions remaining there for now would be gradually reduced in size and number.
E. The above provisions would go into effect only after an independent Palestinian state is established.
Debkafile's Washington sources add that these secret talks have hit a sticking point: The United States and Israel propose that the final borders of a Palestinian state be based on the pre-1967 War boundaries with adjustments dictated by Israel's security requirements and the demographic changes that have taken place in the territory since then - the main settlement blocs will be part of Israel. The Palestinians stipulate that their state precisely follow the 1967 borders without changes.
It is important to note that the widespread reports of a crisis in US-Israel relations during Netanyahu's five-day American trip were unfounded.
Guest Editorial from Moshe ben Yitzchak:
Settlers celebrated the Knesset’s passage late the previous night of the National Referendum Law this past Tuesday, 23 November 2010. They believe this will make it much harder to create a Palestinian state. In this, they are mistaken and the wake-up call is likely to come sooner, rather than later.
First, the settlers need to read the not-so-fine print on the referendum law. According to the National Referendum Law, eighty Members of Knesset are needed to ratify any diplomatic agreement that involved giving away sovereign Israeli territory. If the deal passed but failed to obtain eighty votes in the Knesset, under the new law the issue would go to a national referendum and would need the approval of a majority of voters to pass. Sounds good, right?
Israel’s annexation of the eastern parts of Jerusalem and the territories to the north and south of the city has never been internationally recognized. Neither has Israel’s extension of Israeli law to the Golan Heights. Thus from a strictly legal perspective, if Israel were to transfer control of parts of Jerusalem or the Golan Heights to another state, Israel would not be ceding “sovereign territory.” Hence, no need for eighty MKs or a referendum.
A Likud-Kadima-Labor coalition would have sixty-eight votes in the Knesset, more than enough to ratify a “piece” deal that delivers Israel’s national heritage and security into enemy hands. All three parties have issued statements over the last three years indicating their willingness to do so in return for a “secure peace.” So what good is the Referendum Law?
The Referendum Law is just a fig leaf. It throws a bone to the right-wing of the Likud. And it sets the stage for what is to come next: another 90-day building freeze in Judea and Samaria. In exchange for this empty gesture, Israel will receive an empty gesture from the US: delivery of 20 advanced F-35 stealth fighters in 2015. The US has also purportedly promised to veto any UN Security Council resolution regarding Palestinian statehood. However, the Palestinians could easily win a UN General Assembly vote on the same subject. There is no US veto in the General Assembly.
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Let me get this straight . . . .We're going to be "gifted" with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don't, Which purportedly covers at least ten million more people, without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that didn't read it but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a President who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, for which we'll be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke!!!!! What the heck could go wrong with it? Thanks to Chaim B. and the Maxine Cartoon
AND NOW FOR M.WOLFBERG’S “Czech Mate and Chanucha Preview”
Good Shabbos Everyone. In this week’s parsha Vayishlach, the Torah tells us how Yakov fought with a malach - an angel until the break of dawn. On the simplest level, the verses are describing how Yakov had a knock down, drag out fight with an angel. After fighting, the angel gave Yakov a new name, Yisroel. The name Yisroel can also denote "Yashar K[el]" meaning "direct to G-d."; every Jew can have an individual relationship with Hashem, a Jew needs no intermediaries.
This week we begin to read the amazing true story of Shammai Davidovics as told by his daughter Tova Lebovits.
"My father taught me to fight for life. He could not speak about what happened to him during the war, nor of his family who perished. He kept a life-long self-imposed silence, which I painfully learned to accept despite my need to know.
Over the years, survivors and people he had saved would find us, and then I would hear their tales. It is only before his death that my father broke his silence and substantiated the stories my brothers and I had collected. And it was only then that he answered, painfully, some of our most heartrending questions.
My father was born in 1912 to a chassidic family in Danilev (near Hust), a small Czechoslovakian town in the Carpathian Mountains. Like those around him, my father went to cheder (Torah school), spoke Yiddish, and led a religious life. Yet his curiosity and adventurous nature led him to seek knowledge in the big world outside the shtetl (village). He studied Hebrew and other secular subjects.
At age 16, he was accepted to a German gymnasium (high school) in Berne, while he continued his Torah studies on the side as well. From there he joined the Czechoslovakian army, and then was one of the few Jews accepted to the University of Budapest. By the end of 1943, when the German army invaded Hungary, he was fluent in 12 languages, had completed his PhD. in sociology, and had received rabbinic ordination from Beit Hamidrash Lerabanim in Budapest.
At the start, the Germans deported only those Jews who did not have Hungarian or Czech citizenship papers. Unfortunately, most Jews, especially those living in small villages, though having lived there for centuries, did not have such papers. My father and several of his friends organized an underground forgery ring, where they began producing forged citizenship papers and other necessary documents for Jews. They were financially backed by wealthy Jews, and worked with Raul Wallenberg, providing him with the needed documentation.
At this time my father also became a master of disguises, taking on various identities when necessary for his mission. Fortunately he looked Aryan, spoke a fluent German, and unlike some who could not see the writing on the wall, he believed that these times required desperate measures.
His exploits were described to us by several survivors of my father's hometown of Danilev, and were later corroborated by my father.
In those critical days of the German invasion, my father collected all the names of the Jews of Danilev without citizenship papers (half the town was related) and worked as fast as possible to forge those papers, several hundred in all. He knew that time was of the essence. It took almost five days to reach Danilev, and he knew the German army was now deporting Jews of nearby regions and would get to his hometown and family within weeks.
The entire town, including his family, had been herded onto cattle cars. With papers in hand, he set out to Danilev in great haste. As he neared his region, he heard that the Germans had worked much faster than anticipated and had most probably reached Danilev.
He arrived at his hometown too late. The entire population, including his family, had been herded onto cattle cars and the trains were about to depart. When my father saw the German soldiers guarding the trains and taunting his people, he realized there was only one thing to do...
On the scene arrives an impeccably dressed high-ranking German official. He walks with a quick sure gait and the self-confidence of a haughty personage. And he is furious. He approaches one of the guards, who immediately salutes him, and in harsh tones demands to see the highest-ranking officer in charge. He sends the guards scuffling off to obey his orders.
A perplexed and harried officer quickly appears, and thus ensues a humiliating scolding and berating of the mortified officer in charge. This inevitably draws the attention of those around. "Do you realize you have blatantly disobeyed and violated military orders?" yells the arrogant stranger as he slams a stack of papers in front of the officer.
This stranger was my father. The Jews who recognized him could not believe their eyes. On that day, through sheer chutzpah, he succeeded in reversing the decree. The Jews of Danilev were released from the cattle cars and returned to their homes (what was left after the looting, that is). They were now all legal citizens... continued next week. Good Shabbos Everyone.
Good Shabbos Everyone. Next week we celebrate Chanukah. Chanukah celebrates the victory of traditional Jewish values over the Greek assimilists about 2200 years ago. It is therefore ironic that Chanukah is perhaps the most often celebrated Jewish holiday among the most assimilated Jews. The reason for this is perhaps the following: Deep down inside every Jew, there is something that we call in Yiddish the "Pintele Yid" the little spark of Jewishness that remains alive, indestructible. When we read the courageous story of Channukah of how the Maccabees stood up and fought for their Judaism, we are all inspired to do the same.
This week we continue the amazing true story of Shammai Davidovics as told by his daughter Tova Lebovits. The story illustrates how Jews can motivate themselves to defend the faith.
continued from last week. The Jews were safe in Danilev for just one more year. During that time, on his occasional visits, my father tried desperately but in vain to convince his family and townsfolk to flee. He succeeded with but a handful of people, mostly teenagers. The others simply did not believe him. The things he said "will" happen, they argued "could not" happen. And besides, "Where can we run to?!" He offered to get them forged gentile papers, and to help them escape to the forests, providing them with peasants' clothes.
But to no avail. To them, such acts seemed too desperate. They felt they stood a better chance of surviving at home than in the forest. He felt responsible and guilty for his family's death, feeling he should have somehow saved them.
Almost a year later, the Jews of Danilev were again herded, and this time deported and murdered. This time my father arrived several days too late. There was nothing he could do by then. He was only able to reach one sister in time.
Until his dying day, my father felt responsible and guilty for his family's death. He believed he should have been able to get through to them and somehow save them.
When the Nazis occupied Budapest, they made an agreement with the Hungarian authorities, whereby the Hungarians would recruit a special police Hungarian force -- called the Kishket -- that would be in charge of taking care of buildings which the Germans gave political immunity to, such as the Austrian Embassy.
My father and several of his Jewish friends joined this force (as gentiles, of course, since Jews were not allowed). This way, they created an underground that could gather information about enemy activities. (Years ago, Yad Vashem had a life-size portrait of my father in his Hungarian Kishket uniform, as an example of Jewish underground activity.)
By then, Jewish citizenship papers were no longer good enough. My father obtained for my mother and her entire family gentile papers, and later when that became too dangerous, he hid them in an attic. He brought them food and provisions until the remainder of the war.
One day my mother came running tearfully to my father. Her mother (my grandma Cidi) and her uncle (Cidi's brother) had become careless and gone out of hiding for a bit. They were caught by German soldiers and taken to a concentration camp. My father must help. He assumed the identity of the Austrian counsel for 24 hours, and entered the concentration camp. My father found out exactly where they were detained, and with the help of his friends, organized an escape.
He found out that the Austrian counsel (the Austrian representative in Hungary at the time) was leaving the capitol for a few days. My father assumed the identity of the Austrian counsel for 24 hours. He had friends in a Kishket police car wait outside the camp for him.
The "Austrian counsel" entered the concentration camp. He approached the officer in charge and with perfect Austrian German introduced himself. He was also in charge of the Swiss in Budapest, and said it had come to his attention that through some terrible error, two Swiss citizens had been wrongfully deported and now detained in this very camp. He held their papers in his hand.
The officer in charge said that was impossible, but my father insisted on checking it out, for he had personally promised their relatives he would attend to the matter. So together they went from floor to floor searching for these citizens.
On each floor, they announced the names of these citizens. And so they found my grandmother and her brother. They took them out, into the waiting police car, sped away, back into hiding. My father sadly recalled as he walked through the camp, how many Jews begged and pleaded with him: "We too are Swiss citizens. We too are Austrian citizens. Help us." But he could do nothing for those unfortunate people, and he said he would never forget them.
One time in Israel some time after the war, my brother Shmuel got on a public bus with my father. The driver took a look at my father, became very emotional, got up, hugged him hard, and began weeping and crying my father's name, "Shammai, Shammai." He refused to take payment, sat my father in the front seat, and as he drove began telling his tale to the astonished riders. This bus driver told how my father -- disguised as a priest -- came and rescued a young chassidic boy, himself.
Apparently, my father's priestly disguise had become almost his second identity. It enabled him to travel from village to village for weeks at a time on, even entering concentration camps and thus saving lives.
How did this disguise come about? While attending university, he was required to remain in class during Christian prayers and theology classes. He learned his lessons well and was also fluent in Latin. This oddity later saved his life many times, and helped save others. Hashem works in mysterious ways.
My father used his black graduation robe from rabbinical seminary as his priestly garb. He became a traveling priest, the kind that kept a special pouch with various relics and talisman, holy to the Christians and especially the peasants, and he knew how to perform the various rituals. He always had two "altar boys" to assist him, and he would pick them up here and there where he would find lost Jewish children. He would dress them in gentile clothes and teach them their prayers and duties, and they would travel together until he found a way out for them. This particular bus driver was one of those he'd smuggled out of hell to Israel.
One day, while my father was living with me in Jerusalem, someone called and asked if Dr. Davidovics was there. When I replied, "Yes," he insisted on coming over with his wife and son. They had just flown in from Hungary and when he entered our home, he ran excitedly to my ailing father, got on his knees and kissed his hands. My father's eyes became red, as they do when he cries tearlessly -- the closest he ever got to crying.
Years earlier, my father had found this orphaned boy, neglected and frightened on the street. He took him in, washed him, fed him, dressed him, and got him new gentile identity papers. Then he took him to a Christian orphanage where he was cared for by nuns. My father told him: "Do as you are told, but never forget who you are. One day you will again live as a Jew." And so it was. They regularly keep in touch and send us cards several times a year. He was thrown onto a pile of other bodies, but through some miracle he crawled away and lived.
Ironically, it was this priestly disguise that had almost left my father for dead. On one of his many trips to the concentration camps, as he forced himself to walk quickly past the human skeletons that were his people, he was seen by a neighbor from Danilev. The man was so overcome with joy that he yelled out, "Shammai! Shammai!" My father tried desperately to signal to him to stop, but it was too late.
My father was taken, and now he too became an inmate. He was tortured and beaten and finally left for dead. His body was thrown onto a pile of other bodies, but through some miracle he crawled away from that hell and lived. He had marks all over his legs for the rest of his life, and sometimes he would get headaches where they had beaten him. But he never complained about anything.
My father had done all he could to reverse the evil. For his family, his townsfolk, and the 6 million Jews, it was not enough. We shall never forget."
Good Shabbos.
M. Wolfberg’s stories are sponsored by: Mazal Tov to Reb and Mrs. Yanky Leib Cantor on the occasion of the birth of their son Refuah Shleima to Mordechai Menachem Mendel ben Tziporah Yitta Refuah Shleima to Tsviah bas Bracha Leah Refuah Shleimah to Chana Ashayra bas Dodi.
Have a wonderful Shabbos,
Rachamim Pauli
