New Avraham Fried song

I don't know who wrote this, but I have a few issues with this song (well, the part we can hear on this clip anyway).

First of all, I don't like the way he dictates to God. Some may think I'm nitpicking, but it just smells wrong to me. Sometimes it's almost as if he's God forbid talking down to Hashem, as if Hashem needs his comforting and his hand holding. It just struck me the wrong way.

At 1:49 he says "Father in heaven, there's no reason at all, your precious children still are so far from home". No reason? God forbid. Sure, we do not understand His ways, but Hashem doesn't do things for "no reason at all".

Then he says "We've done all we can". Oh really? Who decided that? It's as if, we did our part, but Hashem is delaying things for other reasons. What could those reason be? You don't know? Wow, you seemed to know everything else!

Next words: "now it's in your hands". As if it wasn't until now. What is going on here?

"The whole world is waiting for you". Incorrect. It's Hashem who is waiting for us. If we already did all we can, this would not be an issue, for obvious reasons.

But I gotta say, he sings it well, not his usual rusty hinge-type kvetching. And I like the niggun.

Shabbos Elevator!

I have stuff to post

I just have to find the time. :(

Who is this guy?

Nothing gets my blood boiling like Neturei Karta.

I ran across a clip on Memri of someone talking on Al Jazeera, purporting to be a spokesman for NK. What's interesting is that he speaks flawless Arabic (which is certainly not taught in Monsey, Williamsburg or Monroe - I hope), and his name is Daud Salah. Hmmm... Google shows me two people with that name. One is a Moslem Sheik, the other is this same guy again (quoted on this blog in relation to this story:

At the Muqata the day was proceeding as expected, until a van carrying nine Orthodox men turned up amid a security convoy. Quickly surrounded by the international media that was milling around, the men, carrying posters "Zionists are not Jews" in three languages, made their way to Arafat's memorial and prayed in fluent Arabic over the body of the man they consider the father of their nation. The men, members of the fringe ultra-orthodox, anti-Zionist movement Natori Karta which does not recognize the State of Israel, then attempted to vote. After being refused by a bemused female official, the men held an impromptu press conference for the English language journalists present. Spokesman Daud Salah said "We do not propose moving back to the pre-67 borders, we call for the State of Israel to be dismantled."

Who is this guy?
Anyone?

Here are some of his comments to Al Jazeera:

In accordance with Jewish religion, we do not consider these Jews to be Jews. The Zionist in an infidel, because he doesn't recognize the divine instructions written in the Torah.

And:

Global Zionism has invented something new - that a Jew cannot live under Arab rule. But I must remind you that in Morocco, 25,000 Jews live in peace and coexistence with the Moroccans, under Islamic Arab rule. I haven't finished. In Yemen there are about 1,000 Jews living under President Ali Abdullah Saleh, may Allah grant him long life. And in Iran, in the Republic of Iran, under the rule of King Ahmadinejad... 25,000 Jews live in peace and coexistence.

Also:

Unfortunately, the attacks by the Zionist entity, by the army of the Zionist entity, against the Lebanese people, against the independent Lebanese state, and against the population, especially in South Lebanon, are war crimes.

This one kind of blew me away:

My sister... My dear, first of all, you should know that Jews living under Arab patronage, under Islamic rule, is nothing new. We lived together in peace and coexistence under the rule of the great king, the Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, and under the Caliph Al-Ma'mun, and Omar Ali Ibn Abu Talib. In the days of the Prophet Muhammad too, when we lived in Saudi Arabia, we coexisted with the Muslims. This is nothing new.

Wow. "Prophet" Muhammad? That's crossing a big line.

I heard the following story from someone who was in the room at the time.
The Satmar Rebbe, R' Yoel Teitlebaum ZT"L was receiving a distinguished guest, either a Senator or a Congressman. The guest came in, greeted the rebbe and started telling him how strong his support for the State of Israel is. He went on for a few minutes while the chassidim standing around exchanged winks and smirks. When he left the room the chassidim burst out in laughter. The Rebbe turned to them and said "Why are you laughing? Our arguments are our arguments! They are internal, among us frum Jews and they should remain so. This man assumes he is supporting Jewry by supporting Israel, so be it! We should respect him for that.

I wonder what he'd think about Daud Salah.

LA Times on LGF and Reutersgate

LA Times.

Great article, read it.

I liked this:

There are, however, two problems here, and they're the reason this controversy shouldn't be allowed to sputter to its inglorious conclusion just yet: One of these has to do with the scope of what strongly appears to be wider fabrication in the photojournalism Reuters and other news agencies are obtaining from their freelancers in Lebanon. The other is the U.S. news media's grudging response to the revelation of Hajj's misconduct and its utter lack of interest in exploring whether his is a unique or representative case .

And this:

It's worth noting in this context that there is no similar flow of propagandistic images coming from the Israeli side of the border. That's because one side — the democratically elected government of Israel — views death as a tragedy and the other — the Iranian financed terrorist organization Hezbollah — sees it as an opportunity. In this case, turning their own dead children into material creates an opportunity to cloud the fact that every Lebanese casualty, tragic as he or she is, was killed or injured as an unavoidable consequence of Israel's pursuit of terrorists who use their own people as human shields. Every Israeli civilian killed or injured was the victim of a terrorist attack intended to harm civilians. That alone ought to wash away any blood-stained suggestion of moral equivalency.

That brings us to the most troubling of the possible explanations for these fraudulent photos, which is that some of the photojournalists involved are either intimidated by or sympathetic to the Hezbollah terrorists. It's a possibility fraught with harsh implications, but it needs to be examined thoroughly and openly.

Yep.

Some more photos...

I was on vacation for the last week, so I wasn't blogging.

Although not nearly as good as the first, here's the 2nd installment of my (amateur) photos.

(In case you missed it, here's the first.)

The Wall

The Western Wall.
The Wailing Wall.
Wall of stone.
Holy stones.
Sacred stones.

What sorrows they have seen.
What secrets they contain.

The Wall watched over our forefathers as they passed this way into the holy temple.
The Wall watched over our ancestors as they passed this way, driven into exile.
The Wall watched as the Romans passed this way to tear down its mighty stones.
The Wall watched as the Byzantines passed this way to plow up the sacred mountain.
The Wall watched as the Persians, the Omayyads, the Abbassids, the Crusaders, the Mamelukes, the Ottomans, the French, the British, and the Jordanians passed this way to destroy and conquer.

But today you still stand watching as we once again pass this way.

Your feet are buried beneath the rubbish and debris.
Rubbish thrown in hate.
Debris thrown with abandonment.
Remnants of civilizations long gone.

But it is the debris of the Jewish people that lies at the very bottom, and it is the Jewish people who stand on top, embracing your stones, kissing the tears you have held all these long years of exile.

Into your crevices you receive our bits of paper with our longings and hopes written upon them. Hold them dearly and watch over us, and soon we shall pass by again, into the Holy Temple.

May it speedily be rebuilt in our days.

From "The Holy Temple Revisited" by Rabbi Leibel Reznick.
Highly recommended reading.

Darkei Shalom

There are many things that we do for Darchai Shalom, most notably in some of our dealings with non-Jews. But what exactly is Darchai Shalom?

Often the term is used synonymously with mishum aivah. i.e. We visit their sick and bury their dead because if we didn't do that they would hate us. Darkai shalom = to prevent them from hating us.

I don't think this is the correct meaning. The Rambam in hilchos milachim says the following:

אפילו הגויים--ציוו חכמים לבקר חוליהם, ולקבור מתיהם עם מתי ישראל, ולפרנס ענייהם בכלל עניי ישראל, מפני דרכי שלום: הרי נאמר "טוב ה' לכול; ורחמיו על כל מעשיו" (תהילים קמה,ט), ונאמר "דרכיה דרכי נועם; וכל נתיבותיה שלום" (משלי ג,יז).

The Rambam brings the pasuk of טוב ה' לכול ורחמיו על כל מעשיו as a reason for DS. It seems clear to me that the Rambam held that we give charity and bury non-Jews because it is the way that a rachaman acts, and not for any ulterior motive.

Hattip: A wise and learned man

Hezbollah's Nazi tactics

Article in the NY Sun.

Nothing new, but worth reading.