BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

Maggid Maggid - Retelling the Passover Story Raise the tray with the matzot and say: This is the bread of affliction that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat; whoever is in need, let him come and conduct the Seder of Passover. This year [we are] here; next year in the land of Israel. This year [we are] slaves; next year [we will be] free people. The tray with the matzot is moved aside, and the second cup is POURED.(Do not drink it yet). Now the child asks "Mah Nishtana?" What makes this night different from all [other] nights? On all nights we need not dip even once, on this night we do so twice! On all nights we eat chametz or matzah, and on this night only matzah. On all nights we eat any kind of vegetables, and on this night maror! On all nights we eat sitting upright or reclining, and on this night we all recline! The tray is restored to its place with the matzah partly uncovered. Now we say "We were slave...

By David Weinberg The Obama-Netanyahu confrontation is that the White House wants to move Israel rapidly towards a division of Jerusalem. However, the widely held presumption that splitting Jerusalem will lead to prosperity for the city and to peace for Jews and Arabs is an egregious error. Partitioning Jerusalem will destroy the city. It will die, in every way - culturally, religiously, economically and more. And politically, the shearing of Jerusalem into Arab and Jewish sovereignties will turn it into the bull's eye of Mideast battle - a city that will make Belfast at its worst look like paradise. The main reason for this is that any section of the city handed over to Arab rule will immediately become ground zero for the fierce war being waged within the Arab world over Islamic lifestyle, ideology and legitimacy. Just who is going to rule in Arab eastern Jerusalem? Will it be the declining secular Palestinian national movement (whose sway in the West Bank is tentative a...

I often think about waking up in a world without my parents; being no one's daughter anymore. And being no one's partner since my marriage ended 10 years ago. Yes, I do have my beloved children. But, it would be a very lonely existence without Hashem. There is so much division in the world today. I hope that world leader's, particularly Obama - think very hard about whether their actions are TRULY fostering "estrangement or oneness." My kudos to Ms. Rigler for a terrific article. Waking Up to a World without God's Presence by Sara Yoheved Rigler How different is the world we live in! When the Temple was destroyed, the dogged illusion of Divine absence settled over our world like a perpetual fog. In this world where Divine hiddenness has replaced Divine revelation, we grope for proofs of God's existence, like fish debating about the existence of water. We are relegated to "believing" when once we simply knew. We struggle, through pra...

The Meaning of Tu'Bav Our Sages explain: Yom Kippur symbolizes God's forgiving Israel for the sin of the Golden Calf in the desert, for it was on that day that He finally accepted Moses' plea for forgiveness of the nation, and on that same day Moses came down from the mountain with the new set of tablets. Just as Yom Kippur symbolizes the atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf, Tu B'Av signifies the atonement for the sin of the Spies, where ten came bearing such negative reports which reduced the entire nation to panic. As a result of that sin, it was decreed by God that the nation would remain in the desert for 40 years, and that no person 20 or older would be allowed to enter Israel. On each Tisha B'Av of those 40 years, those who had reached the age of 60 that year died -- 15,000 each Tisha B'Av. This plague finally ended on Tu B'Av. Six positive events occurred on Tu B'Av: Event #1) As noted above, the plague that had accompanied the Jews in t...

Pain IS a four letter word. I have been struggling with chronic and escalating pain for the last 14+ years. Pain that cut my career short, made me dependent on others (which I hate), caused me to make poor decisions and stopped me from interacting with life the way I'd like. Dworkin came to a conclusion about pain long before medical science proved her right. Something I know too well - chronic emotional, mental and verbal abuse leads to conditions which cause pain. Non-stop, unrelenting fatigue. A personal trauma 5 years ago gave me a near heart attack and landed me in the hospital more times than I could count. The reminder of it is with me every day, every month when I take my medications for PTSD. My abuser from that incident goes on without any remorse towards me, reassuring me that I am nothing and blaming me for telling the truth. My own late mother called me "useless" once I was sick and said things to me about my pain and disability too painful for...

BEYOND THE THREE WEEKS The month of Av brings with it forgiveness similar to the experience of Yom Kippur. By Michael Strassfeld At first glance, this part of the festival cycle seems out of step with the cycle of our personal lives. For most of us, summer is a time of ease and enjoyment of the outdoors. The natural cycle is marked by the continued growth of spring plantings. But our history, with its mythic dimensions, forcefully reminds us that there can be another kind of summer, one whose heat is a consuming furnace rather than beneficent warmth. Anyone who has spent a summer in Israel can more easily understand how the Three Weeks is in fact in consonance with the natural cycle. There the afternoon sun seems to bleach all the color from the landscape. Movement slows or comes to a halt in the afternoon--for even if the sun is no hotter than in the United States, it seems to beat down unrelentingly on the land's inhabitants. One can easily become parched and debilitated j...

The truth the media doesn’t want you to see in a concise nutshell. MAJOR HAT TIP: DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL

I'm sick of it. The 'friends' who say they aren't "anti-Israel" but keep calling for the U.S. to condemn Israel. Now they won't admit THEY GOT IT WRONG. That "humanitarian" flotilla? WAS A TROJAN HORSE FOR WEAPONS & TERRORISTS. As one journalist said "Israel is the only country in the world NOT allowed to defend itself." Enough's enough you 'Social Justice' activitists. There is no such thing as Palestine. So -- Shut up and sit down! Look what Israel didn't do wrong By John Podhoretz No matter whom you ask right now, it seems Israel did wrong. Ask someone unfavorably disposed toward Israel, and you'll hear that Israel did wrong because its assassins opened fire without provocation on a humanitarian flotilla intended to relieve the suffering people of Gaza. Ask a friend of Israel, and you'll hear that Israel did wrong because it sent its commandos in the dark into a hostile crowd that did ...