Everybody wants spirituality. To be a good person means to walk in G-d's ways. How does that translate to reality? The only guidebook to spirituality that has stood the test of time is the Hebrew Bible. The Bible says that the Jews will be a light onto the nations. But if you are not a born Jew, you have to convert, which is not so easy!! If you do convert, it is a lot of work to be a Jew (three times a day prayer, keeping kosher, observing the Sabbath).
This blog will show you how to be Jewish without the work!!
Sunday, July 17, 2022
Free Public transportation for those over 75 starting August 1, 2022, and Hiding My Jewish Identity on the Temple Mount By Forest Rain and German court: 13th-century ‘Judensau’ sculpture can stay at Wittenberg parish and Rabbi Schwartz Humus Jokes and Heart health: Study finds the blood types at higher risk of coronary heart disease
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
01.08.2022 From The Ministry of Transport's "Public TransportService Revolution" will be activated. As part of the revolution, everyone over the age of 75 is entitled to travel for free on all public transport. I made inquiries in order to know how to realize this benefit The result of the inquiries: As of 01.08.2022, you must go to a Rav-Kav center with an identity card, and there you will be issued a gilded RAV-KAV certificate for free travel on public transportation. My advice Apply a few days before the date mentioned above and you will most likely have the option to do it.
The Three Musketeers at the Kotel
The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember.
The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave.
Heart health: Study finds the blood types at higher risk of coronary heart disease
Blood type refers to classification of blood, based on the presence and absence of antibodies and inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells. There are 4 main blood groups – A, B, AB and O. Your blood group is determined by the genes you inherit from your parents.
According to research by Harvard School of Public Health, your heart disease risk may be linked to your blood type. In the study, senior author, and assistant professor, Lu Qi – and his colleagues revealed the blood types which are "most dangerous". According to the study, people with blood types A, B, or AB have a higher risk of heart disease in comparison with those with blood type O. Researchers found that having the blood group AB tends to be most risky.
02/5About the research
The data was obtained from two long-running research studies, which involved 89,550 adults over a period of 20 years.
The data revealed that people who had the blood type AB were 23 percent more likely to develop heart disease in comparison to others. People who had type B blood had an increased risk of 11 percent and people with type A blood had a five percent risk.
03/5How can the findings help
Assistant Professor Qi of the study explained that while people cannot change their blood type, the findings may help physicians better understand who is at risk for developing heart disease. "It's good to know your blood type in the same way you should know your cholesterol or blood pressure numbers."
If you have a blood group that puts you at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, then you can take preventive measures and reduce the risk by adopting a healthier lifestyle early on. This includes eating healthy, exercising daily, not smoking and avoiding drinking alcohol.
04/5Blood groups and other health risks
Researchers have found that blood group O are not only at lower risk of heart disease, but stomach cancer as well. On the other hand, people with type A blood are at a higher risk of getting stomach cancer. According to researchers, this may be because H. pylori infection, a bacteria that's usually found in the stomach, is more common in people with type A blood. This bacteria can cause inflammation and ulcers.
Further, people who have AB blood group might be more at risk of memory problems, and those with type A blood may have more of the the stress hormone cortisol, according to researchers.
05/5How to improve cardiovascular health
There are several ways to improve your heart health and most of them have to do with your lifestyle habits.
Paying more attention to your diet, eating more nutrient-dense, natural produces and steering clear of oily, processed and sugary foods can alleviate risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Regular exercise or physical activities can do wonders for your heart health too. Simply, going for walks, a run or a jog can make a lot of difference.
Apart from that, cut down on unhealthy habits such as smoking and alcohol consumption as these can affect your heart severely.
It wasn't convenient or practical to go but something deep inside said, that's where I need to be. That's where Jews are supposed to be on Shavuot.
Shavuot is one of the 3 pilgrimage holidays where, in ancient Israel, Jews ascended the Temple in the heart of Jerusalem. Aliyah, the Hebrew term for this pilgrimage describes both the physical journey and its impact on the Jewish soul. Jews make Aliyah to Israel, and we make Aliyah, "ascension by foot", to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Does it make any sense to say that while I'm not religious and don't feel called to prayer, my Jewish soul knows where it belongs? Some things are so emotionally huge that they transcend the rational and as such are hard to articulate. The significance of the Temple Mount on the Jewish soul is one of those things…
One short, precious hour. From 13:30-14:30. I wouldn't make it in time for the morning aliyah but I could make it for mid-day when non-Muslims are permitted to visit the holiest place on earth for the Jewish People. Christians and other tourists are also unwelcome but, although restricted in hours, are granted a completely different experience than that of Jewish pilgrims.
I had no idea how different.
ASCENSION
As we walked up the Mughrabi bridge, the only entrance permitted for non-Muslims, the Jews in front of me started singing. Why did that make tears come to my eyes? Why does looking at the video still make tears come to my eyes?
The word "uplifting," seems so banal and inappropriate here… I lack the words to describe the feeling of my soul unfolding, as if only here, like this, in song and with pride, in this place, we become whole.
I didn't even look down at the Jews praying next to the Kotel. They were outside. I was going inside.
RELIGIOUS COERCION
The Israeli policewoman at the entrance stopped me. Her job is to provide instructions, count and divide pilgrims into groups – individual Jews are not allowed to walk alone, they need police protection and the Muslim Waqf overseers want to watch every step Jews take.
The policewoman said my clothes would be a problem. I had been to the Temple Mount before and, like any holy site, the dress code is modest. That's why I had deliberately chosen a long sleeve shirt I could button to the neck. I was wearing pants like I always do and like I had on a previous visit. Same as I would wear to the Kotel.
I untucked my shirt which, a bit long, created an additional covering as if I had put on a mini-skirt over my pants. She thought that was good enough and let me pass but the moment I stepped through the Temple Mount gate one of the Waqf guards insisted that I put on a hideous skirt they had for "immodest" visitors. He also tried to force me into a matching over-shirt. When I said "But I am covered" he let me go.
Later other Waqf guards told me that I needed to also cover my hair "to respect the Masjid" (the mosque). Their new way of presenting the Temple Mount is to call the entire compound Al Aqsa, as if everything there is a mosque. Changing the name of the place is another way to erase the original name, in Arabic "Beit el Makdes", in Hebrew "Beit Hameekdash" in English "The [Jewish] Temple."
That's when I realized that the over-shirt the Waqf guard was trying to press on me was actually a hooded poncho. This conveniently provides arm covering and hair covering in one garment. It also clearly marks non-Muslims in a way that they can be easily recognized from a distance.
See the bright yellow stripe on the skirt? The color contrast make anyone wearing these clothes highly visible from a great distance
All religious places have a dress code. That's normal. What's not normal is changing the rules, incrementally increasing in demands, becoming more and more extreme. That's not asking others to be respectful, it is a declaration of dominance. It's a demand for submission.
And clothes are just a symbol of the greater coercion happening here.
RACE BASED DISCRIMINATION
Entering the Temple Mount compound, I was speaking in English to a tourist. The Waqf guard assumed that I was also a tourist and as a result, I was allowed to walk freely on the Mount.
Without even realizing where I was going, my feet pulled me to the most beautiful place on earth, the place where the ancient Jewish Temple used to stand.
The Dome of the Rock, built on top of the ruins of the ancient Jewish Temple
Note: Jews are not allowed to stand on the Dome of the Rock plaza, not just because of Islamic coercion. Those who follow halachic rules do not step on this holy ground out of fear of not adhering to the rules of how a Jew must approach the Temple. My feeling about this is that this holy site is being constantly defiled by enemies of Israel. I am certain that God will forgive me if, out of ignorance I do something wrong. I am not a halachic authority of any kind and so it is worth noting that many of those who are, have deemed it permissible and even important for Jews to ascend the Temple Mount but instruct to stay off the plaza. There are organizations that guide Jews on ascension according to halacha, with ritual bathing (for purification) beforehand, not wearing leather shoes etc. There are lockers for shoes at the entrance of the Mount and there have been recent stories of glass shards strewn on the pathway to make the visit to Har Habyit, the Temple Mount, particularly "pleasant" for religious Jews walking barefoot.
Jews are herded in groups around the Mount by Israeli police (for their safety) and Waqf guards (to oversee them). Jews are not allowed to stray from the path, disconnect from the group, sit and relax under a tree and are urged to walk fast. Many Jews deliberately dawdle and more and more pray openly and sing as loudly as they can.
Not marked as a Jew, I could walk where I wanted. For the first time, I could do what I always wanted – sit down and just soak up the atmosphere. Like the Muslims can.
What a moment! Joy and revulsion rolled into one. To be in the place that makes my identity complete I had to hide my true self.
WHY ARE THEY SCREAMING ALLAH AKBAR?
The tourist walking next to me cringed as the wave of noise hit our ears. He asked: "Why are they screaming Allah Akbar? This is very scary."
Muslim women were screaming Allah Akbar at the Jews beginning their tour. Men and children joined in, the sound carrying palpable waves of hate. These Arabs know the limits of the laws – had they physically attacked anyone, they would be arrested but there is no law against violence by sound. Even when they scream "Khaybar, Khaybar ya Yahud" an actual threat (it means, we will do to you what Mohammad did to the Jews of Khaybar in 628 CE i.e., slaughter everyone).
I saw women and very small children get in the face of Israeli policemen, scream at them, threaten them and make painfully loud siren sounds at them. Some of these women are professional screamers, paid to harass Jews and the police who are seen as symbols of the Jewish State. Others join in, just for the fun of it.
I explained to the tourist that the Muslims are angry that Jews are on the Temple Mount. Stunned, he asked: "Why are people who behave like that allowed to enter this holy place? Why aren't they made to leave?"
FORCED TO LEAVE
Even before the hour was up, Waqf guards started sweeping the area, telling non-Muslims to leave. The Jews who had been in the group had already been pushed out. The police were finishing their shift, so they were about to leave. That's when a group of women and boys decided to follow them, screaming: "Shoo! Shoo! Get back! Zionists shoo!" as if they were driving away animals.
A word choice that shows hierarchy and domination – one doesn't tell another human being to "shoo!" Did they say "Zionists" instead of "Jews" because they know that many of the policemen serving there are Arabs?
Note the boy in the video and how he "aims" the chair he's holding at the policemen. What do you think he will do in the future, with other more "efficient" tools?
BACK TO THE KOTEL
I left the Temple Mount both more alive than ever before and at the same time, crushed.
Walking back down to the Kotel I heard a tourist ask his guide: "So why is the Wall so important? What's its significance?" The guide started explaining that Jews, for 2000 years prayed to the Wall. That's when I interrupted: "The Wall isn't significant in and of itself. It's what's on top that is significant. It's like standing outside your garage door. That's not your home."
View of the Western Wall and the Golden Dome of the Rock peeping over the wall
And therein lies the core of the problem. After 2000 years of exile, the re-establishment of the Jewish State, and the reunification of our eternal capital Jerusalem, we are not yet home.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Go. Ascend the Temple Mount. Walk where our ancestors walked. Jews and, through their Jewish Messiah, also Christians are rooted there. Non-believers and people of other faiths should also go and soak up the beauty of this ancient site. As the House of God, the Temple Mount is supposed to be a place of prayer for ALL nations. It is wrong for one People to claim dominance and push out all others. It is wrong to be violent and spew hate in a holy place. It is wrong to watch children being raised in hate and turn a blind eye. It is wrong to let injustice continue because it is inconvenient to deal with. No Jew should ever have to hide his or her identity – particularly not in the holiest place to Jews in the world.
Nature abhors a vacuum. If Jews do not ascend the Temple Mount, despite the hate, despite the harassment and humiliation, others will. Zion is our ancestral homeland; Jerusalem is our eternal capital, and the Temple Mount is her beating heart. He who is sovereign over the Temple Mount is sovereign over the Land. The Muslims know that. The question is what about the Jews?
German court: 13th-century 'Judensau' sculpture can stay at Wittenberg parish
"The defamation of Jews by the churches must belong in the past," said Central Council of Jews in Germany president Josef Schuster.A view of the anti-Semitic German engraving known as "Judensau" on the Wittenberg Parish Church in Germany.
The Federal Court of Justice in Germany has ruled against a Jewish man who is seeking to have an anti-Semitic carving removed from a church where Martin Luther preached, according to the Associated Press.
The 13th-century "Judensau" ("Jew pig") sculpture at the Town Church in Wittenberg shows Jews suckling the teats of a sow while a rabbi lifts the animal's tail. An inscription referencing an anti-Jewish tract by Martin Luther was added to the stone carving in 1570.
In 1988, a bronze plaque was set into the ground by the sculpture that refers to Jewish persecution in the Holocaust, and a sign was added explaining the sculpture's history.
Plaintiff Michael Duellmann pronounced that the carving is "a defamation of and insult to the Jewish people" that has "a terrible effect up to this day." He called for the sculpture to be moved to the nearby Luther House museum, but courts in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt ruled against him in 2019 and 2020.
The federal court ruled on Tuesday that while the carving "derides and denigrates Judaism as a whole," the church's addition of the memorial plaque explains the sculpture's historical context and that the parish has distanced itself from the "defamatory and anti-Semitic message" of the carving, the AP reported.
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However, Central Council of Jews in Germany president Josef Schuster believes that the memorial and sign do not go far enough to condemn the sculpture.
"Both the Wittenberg parish and the churches as a whole must find a clear and appropriate solution for handling anti-Semitic sculptures," said Schuster. "The defamation of Jews by the churches must belong in the past once and for all."
Duellmann said he plans to take the case to the Federal Constitutional Court, Germany's highest court.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S REALLY (and I mean really ) TERRIBLE ISRAELI HUMMUS JOKES OF THE WEEK
What do you call it when a chickpea kills someone? Hummus-cide
What's the difference between Black Eyed Peas and Chickpeas? Black Eyed Peas can sing us a song and Chickpeas can only Hummus one.
why did Allah give falafel and hummus to the Middle East? They prayed for more gas. "
Ugh.. I ate too much hummus..And now I feel-afel.
Did you hear about the chef that won an award for his chickpea recipe after he died? It was awarded post hummus.
Two sides of hummus decided to go out to eat. Two sides of hummus decided to go out to eat. Once they finished eating, they said, "chickpeas!"
How much hummus did the anorexic girl order? A tahini bit.
Where did Vegans come from? Hummus Sapiens
Itzik Epstein enrolled in the elite Israeli Paratrooper unit called "Tzanchanim" and while its soldiers are known for their bravado, Itzik was a little nervous. On his first day of class Itzik asked his instructor, "If our chute doesn't open, and the reserve doesn't open, how long do we have until we hit the ground?"
The training officer looked at Itzik without hesitating and answered, "The rest of your life."
Dave Rosenberg recently made Aliyah to Israel and was still getting used to the new bureaucracy. One day, he received a very strongly worded "second notice" from the Israeli Tax Authority saying that his taxes were overdue. Dave ran down to the tax office, paid his bill and said apologetically that he must have accidentally overlooked the first notice.
"Oh," confided the tax collector with a smile, "the Israeli Tax Authority doesn't send out first notices. We have found that the second notices are more effective."
An American tourist was riding in a taxi in Israel. As the taxi approached a red light, the tourist was shocked to see the driver drive straight through without even slowing down. Surprised as he was, he didn't say anything, feeling himself a 'guest' and not wanting to make waves. The trip continued without event until the next intersection.
This time the light was green and, to the American's dismay, the cab driver brought the vehicle to a grinding halt. Unable to contain his astonishment, he turns to the driver. "Listen", he says, "When you went through the red light, I didn't say anything. But why on earth are you stopping at a green light?"
The Israeli driver looks at the American as if he was deranged. "Are you crazy?!" he shouts. "The other guy has a red light! Do you want to get us killed?!"
An American tourist in Israel found himself needing to get rid of a large supply of garbage from his recent stay at an apartment. After a long search, he just couldn't find any place to discard of it. So, he just went down one of the side streets to dump it there.
Yet, he was stopped by an Israeli police officer, who said, "Hey you, what are you doing?"
"I have to throw this away," replied the tourist.
"You can't throw it away here. Look, follow me," the policeman offered.
The police officer led him to a beautiful garden with lots of grass, pretty flowers, and manicured hedges. "Here," said the cop, "dump all the garbage you want."
The American shrugs, opens up the large bags of garbage, and dumps them right on the flowers.
"Thanks for giving me a place to dump this stuff. This is very nice of you. Is this Israeli hospitality?" asked the tourist.
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