Yitro, Amalek and Anti-Semitism

Thank you to Lorne Lieberman for sponsorship, and Jacob Aspler for camera work

So, There's Been a Financial Meltdown….

You may have noticed a funny thing about your brokerage accounts recently: they're a lot smaller. Financial monkey business has left the world economy with the worst financial meltdown in 70 years and your brokerage accounts are feeling the pain.

Meltdowns can crush your spirit. After losing everything we own, it's easy to lose our confidence as well. Even billionaires can surrender to despair.Under financial pressure, a leading German businessman, Adolph Merckle,threw himself under a train. The financial crisis had taken away his money; a crisis of faith had taken away his soul.

But we can cope with this financial meltdown. I say this with some authority, because I'm Jewish. Jews are the world experts on crisis. Jews have endured expulsions, inquisitions, crusades, pogroms, and a genocide,and yet have lived to see another day. Jews have found hope in the most hopeless of situations.

Jewish optimism is reflected by our holiday schedule. Some like to joke and say that the theme of all the Jewish holidays is "they tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat". Actually, the joke is true. We celebrate Passover because we survived Pharaoh, Sukkot because we survived in the desert, Purim because we survived Haman, and Chanukah because we survived the Seleucid Empire. The Jewish holidays are all variations on a recurring theme. What is the purpose of this repetition?

Repetition has a powerful effect on character. The Sefer HaChinnuch says that the multiple commandments commemorating the Exodus are necessary because "man is transformed by his actions". Constant commemoration leaves a permanent imprint on one's personality. All these holidays with a repetitive theme remind us repeatedly that redemption is not a pipe dream. By consistently reliving the memories of past triumphs, Jews remind themselves,(to use the words of Ben Gurion,) that "in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles".

Even at the worst times, you can find hope by remembering the past. Yaffa Eliach recounts an improvised Seder in Bergen Belsen. Rabbi Israel Spira,the Bluzhover Rebbe, spoke to the children and quoted Isaiah's messianic vision: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned". He told the children they too could hope for redemption, to walk out of darkness into light. The message of this unusual Seder is one every Jew has heard repeatedly: redemption is possible, and you must believe in miracles.

The financial crisis has crushed too many people; every day there are layoffs and bankruptcies. But no matter how difficult the situation, we must never let go of our hopes. After all, in a few weeks they'll be another holiday, reminding us that if you want to be a realist, you have to believe in miracles.

Stop Thinking Like a Slave

Thank you to Lorne Lieberman for sponsoring his video, and Jacob Aspler for camera work

Parsha Inspiration - Vaera - Hope is Not a Warm and Fuzzy Feeling

Thank you to Lorne Liebeman for sponsoring the video, and Jacob Aspler for the camera work.

Israel Rally - 1-8-09 - Rabbi Poupko's Speech

Thank You to Abigail Hirsch for videotaping the speech. (the other parts of the program have had difficulty loading on youtube - I will post as soon as available)

Rally Speech - 1-8-09 - Ad Matai

Thank You to Abigail Hirsch for videotaping the speech. (the other parts of the program have had difficulty loading on youtube - I will post as soon as available)

Hamas And The Road Map to Mass Murder - New Video

Thank you to Lorne Liebeman for sponsoring the video, and Jacob Aspler for the camera work.

Remarks From The Solidarity Rally

Below are Esti Mayer's profoundly moving remarks from Thursday night's Solidarity Rally. I thank her for letting me reproduce them on my blog.


צבע אדום

By: Esti Mayer

צבע אדום

This COLOR RED alert has sounded some 6000 times over the past two years in southern Israel, sending men, women and children to scurry in 15 seconds for a shelter. That makes 6000 times that the world stood by in muted indifference, the same indifference and silence that greeted the murder of some 130 Israeli children since the year 2000, in coffee shops, restaurants, in the middle of the street, on buses, at school, or even in their beds. Where were those “counter demonstrators” then?

I am an Israeli woman. My uncle יעקב מאיר ז"ל died in 1967. I have lost two cousins and many friends. I know, in my flesh, the horror of war, how wide the concentric circles of sorrow, and how long the pain war causes persists. I want our neighbours, with whom we were fated to live, to be safe, for their children and our children to go to school unmolested, and I want peace and prosperity to grace their streets. Let them have a state of their own, but NOT at the cost of our annihilation, and NOT at the cost of our life and liberty.

This war is just. By any legal and moral standard, this is a defensive act against a terror organization that has placed one million Israelis in mortal danger for years. Let me share with you an anecdote that illustrates my indignation. My friends Eyal and Rachel Kadmon left their home in Gadid, which is in Gush Katif, after 30 years of green-house farming there. Now, in their small “cara-villa” of the displaced, they are being shelled daily by Qassam rockets fashioned out of the very water pipes Eyal left behind in his fields for putative Palestinian farmers, when Israel withdrew unilaterally from the Gaza Strip. The verse "וכיתתו חרבותם לאיתים" has been cynically, ironically and cruelly twisted as ploughshares are formed into weapons aimed directly at our children.

That, ladies and gentlemen, must stop. Our children have been traumatized and scarred by the 6000 צבע אדום alerts and 6000 bombs that have rained upon their days and their nights. Let us hope that henceforth, thanks to the heroic dedication of our IDF soldiers, our children’s dreams will once again be sweet and their days sunny.