Reclaiming The Amdursky: The Battle Over Jaffa Gate and Liberal Jewish Groups Fight to Keep Ilhan Omar on House Panel and The House ousted Ilhan Omar from its foreign affairs panel over past comments on Israel, settling a score from when Democrats held the majority. and Israel sees driest winter season in about 60 years and California school district adopts anti-Semitic ethnic-studies curriculum and Which Country Produces The Most Papayas? and 14 Cool and Astonishing X-Ray Images Explained and The Portion of Beshalach

View in browser 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. Love Yehuda Lave Join my blog by sending me an email to YehudaLave@gmail.com Israel sees driest winter season in about 60 years Authorities say Sea of Galilee water levels up just 2 cm over the December-January months, with 40%-50% less rainfall in this period than in recent years https://www.timesofisrael.com/... Liberal Jewish Groups Fight to Keep Ilhan Omar on House Panel Kevin McCarthy has pledged to remove the Minnesota Congresswoman from her post on the House Foreign Affairs Committee The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the New Israel Fund, J Street, and several other leading organizations within the Jewish Reform movement have signed a joint letter condemning House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) pledge to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from her post on the House Foreign Affairs Committee because of what McCarthy described as "repeated antisemitic and anti-American remarks." McCarthy is referring here to Omar's previous comments that American Jews have used "their Benjamins" to control Congress, which was just one statement that several members of both Democratic and Republican parties have called out for being a blatant antisemitic trope. Partisan conflicts over committee assignments have only intensified in recent years, and this one is no different in that, already, three GOP House members have said they won't support McCarthy, which means that if two other members of the party beg off the effort, McCarthy won't have the majority required for Omar's removal.  The House ousted Ilhan Omar from its foreign affairs panel over past comments on Israel, settling a score from when Democrats held the majority. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/0... The Portion of Beshalach The Children of Israel leave Egypt in broad daylight, only to be pursued by Pharoh and his army. The Red Sea splits in half and the Israelites cross the sea on dry land. Despite the many miracles which the people witnessed and experienced, they begin to complain. First about the undrinkable bitter water and then about the shortage of food. "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat." (Exodus 15;3) The Lord rains down upon them coarse food which is unrecognizable and they refer to it as "manna". The manner in which the word "manna" is written emphasizes the coarseness of the manna itself which fell from heaven. Later on in the portion, we read of Amalek, having identified the inherent weakness of the recently freed slaves, launch an attack against the Children of Israel. The strategy of Amalek is not only military; it includes sorcery and the order of heavenly signs. (Jerusalem Talmud, Pnei Moshe, Tractate Rosh Hashanah). To combat the sorcery of Amalek, Moses lifts up his hands and confounds the heavenly signs. This is alluded to in the addition beneath the letter "vav" in the word "vayachalosh" (and he-Joshua-weakened). (Sefer Rokeiach) 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. Reclaiming The Amdursky: The Battle Over Jaffa Gate Daniel Luria takes us on a tour of the Mini Petra or Amdursky Hotel where a working uncovered a mezuza hole - proving the hotel used to belong to Jews. California school district adopts anti-Semitic ethnic-studies curriculum Curriculum includes the history and experiences of blacks, "Chicanx-Latinx," Asians and Pacific Islanders, as well as Palestinians and other Arab Americans, Native Americans and other communities — but not Jews. By JNS This academic year, Hayward Unified School District (HUSD), a public school district serving the city of Hayward in Alameda County near San Francisco, will implement an ethnic-studies curriculum created by a group that has faced accusations of antisemitism and anti-Zionism from Jewish leaders and state officials. The district in the city of some 163,000 residents unanimously approved the curriculum from the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Coalition (LESMCC) in an effort to comply with a new California law that mandates students attend a semester of ethnic studies in order to graduate from charter and public high schools, starting with the class of 2030. In doing so, the district joins the Castro Valley Unified School District, also in Northern California, in adopting the LESMCC's program. In 2019, California's Board of Education released the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, which provoked widespread criticism from many in the Jewish community and beyond, who described it as "anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist and BDS-promoting" for lauding the BDS movement and accusing Israel of subjecting Palestinians to "apartheid conditions" comparable those under the former regime in South Africa. Among those who opposed the curriculum was the state's Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called it "offensive in so many ways, particularly to the Jewish community." The Los Angeles Times editorial board accused the LESMCC of groupthink "designed to proselytize and inculcate more than to inform and open minds." One example of this blatant bias, it wrote, is its "suggested list of social movements" for students to explore, including the BDS movement. After intense pushback, the California Board of Education rejected the draft curriculum and approved one that removed the antisemitic and anti-Israel canards. That prompted the curriculum's creators to launch an online petition in an effort to save it. They went on to establish the LESMCC and offer resources to help school districts implement it. Under the LESMCC model, ethnic studies refers only to the history and experiences of blacks, "Chicanx-Latinx," Asians and Pacific Islanders—the chapter includes Palestinians and other Arab Americans, Native Americans and other communities of color. It does not include the Jewish experience in Israel, America or elsewhere. 'Ethnic-studies courses should help build understanding' LESMCC's site offers to help school districts implement its ethnic-studies curriculum. "Giving taxpayer funds to LESMCC sends a message that the district does not care about the well-being of Jews, Israelis or anyone who values critical thinking," said Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, an Israel-education organization. "Ethnic-studies courses should help build understanding of marginalized communities, fight racism and empower students to make our society better for everyone. Unfortunately, LESMCC has repeatedly taken the opposite approach, fueling hatred and division across California and beyond," she stressed. Rothstein charged that the curriculum makes false allegations against Israel, such as accusing it of colonialism, thus "erasing 3,000 years of the Jewish people's history in their ancestral home." The Anti-Defamation League also stands strongly against the Hayward School District decision. Seth Brysk, regional director of the ADL, told JNS that the curriculum Hayward approved dangerously "includes the excised antisemitic and anti-Israel content" from the original rejected draft that is composed of "anti-Semitic and gratuitous anti-Israel content and likely violates district policy, the state Education Code and the new law." On Aug. 22, the district defended the curriculum in a statement to JNS. "HUSD strongly and unequivocally condemns all forms of hate, including racism and anti-Semitism," said Michael Bazeley, HUSD's public-information director. "The board policy on ethnic studies, adopted in June of last year, advocates for teaching ethnic studies with fidelity to the discipline." The district will not be devoting a set time to addressing antisemitism because "Jewish studies and Israeli studies are not part of the ethnic-studies discipline," Bazeley told JNS. 'Ignores Jewish history in just about every particularity' The LESMCC has long been embroiled in antisemitic controversy. One leader of the organization, Theresa Montaño, characterized the ADL as "white supremacist, right-wing [and] conservative." In January, the LESMCC formed the National Liberated Ethnic Studies Coalition with groups such as Teach Palestine Project/Middle East Children's Alliance and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, groups that accuse the "Israeli Apartheid Regime" of "systematic settler-colonial violence" and "strongly support the BDS movement." In its "Preparing to Teach Palestine: A Toolkit," the coalition accuses the Museum of Tolerance, a Los Angeles museum devoted to Holocaust history, of "prevent[ing] teachers and students from making connections between the U.S. and Israel as white settler states." The toolkit also pushes back on the "Zionist" argument that "any discussion of Palestine or critique of Israel creates an 'unsafe climate' for Jewish students." On May 12, Concerned Jewish Parents and Teachers of Los Angeles (CJPTLA), a group of Jewish and Zionist Los Angeles School District educators and parents, filed a federal lawsuit against the LESMCC. The Deborah Project, the organization providing legal assistance to CPTLA, told JNS it hopes to "prevent the infiltration of a discriminatory, antisemitic set of teaching materials and orientation into the LAUSD schools." According to Lori Lowenthal Marcus, legal director of the Deborah Project, the LESMCC "ignores Jewish history in just about every particularity," painting Israel as "the outsider who brutally 'stole' the land from the alleged original inhabitants." Beyond denying Jewish history in the land of Israel, says Marcus, the LESMCC "teaches a fictionalized version of a history and civilization of those known as Palestinians." Another issue highlighted in the lawsuit is the LESMCC's designation of Israelis as white. According to Marcus, doing so ignores "the reality that more than half of all Israelis are 'people of color,' according to their own ludicrous insistence on labeling people based on skin color, real or imagined." According to the suit, in an effort to cover its tracks, the LESMCC has deleted many posts on its website about Israel. The LESMCC also urged teachers to "be strategic" and determine if they are supported by their schools or "better off trying to fly under the radar." According to material cited in the Deborah Project's lawsuit, LESMC rejects the "conflation of the State of Israel with Jewish Identity" as a Zionist "strategy." The CJPTLA repudiates that assertion, among many others because it "claims the right to control the definition of Judaism," an action that the CJPTLA say is "explicitly racist and anti-Semitic." Marcus sees this as an unmistakable attempt to "assert what is and is not Judaism and what is and is not anti-Semitism." Marcus sees CJPTLA's lawsuit as "a clarion call for Americans to reject the unending efforts to cast Jews as the evil-doer and usurper in their homeland, and as malevolent actors with targets drawn on their backs in California." 14 Cool and Astonishing X-Ray Images Explained https://www.ba-bamail.com/health/general-health-tips/14-cool-and-astonishing-x-ray-images-explained/ Which Country Produces The Most Papayas? Among the many new sights and sounds discovered by Spanish explorers coming to America for the first time, there were some new tastes as well (via American Indian Health and Diet Project AIHDP). Without a doubt, one of the best discoveries they made when disembarking in Central and South America was papaya. Papaya is a tropical fruit that typically has a green-yellow exterior with rich coral flesh inside. Martha Stewart notes that it has a cluster of pepper-like seeds inside. It's regarded for its sweet, tropical flavor when it is ripe, as well as its versatility. It is often paired with dark chocolate for a luxurious dining experience. According to AIHDP, the tropical fruit is rich in the enzyme papain, which is used as a meat tenderizer and aids digestion. Different parts of the plant and fruit can also be used for a variety of medicinal purposes. For example, in Brazil, papaya flowers are believed to aid with low blood pressure. While papaya may originate from Central and South America, its popularity with European explorers gave the crop legs as it traveled with them around the world and fueled a global appetite for the delicious fruit, per Food Print. India is the world's top producer of papaya Papaya cut into quarters itaci/Shutterstock According to Food Print, papaya was first introduced to Asia in the 17th century by Dutch and Portuguese explorers. The tropical fruit quickly became a key component of the South Asian diet. In India, for example, the green unripe fruit is used to make a variety of dishes, including tutti-frutti candies (via Instructables). Fast forward to today, and Atlas Big reports that India has become the world's top papaya-growing country because the fruit thrives in the country's climate (via Economic Times). India produces more than 6 million tons of papaya every year and outpaces the next closest producer, the Dominican Republic, by nearly 5 million tons. According to the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS), one of the reasons for India's great success as a papaya producer in recent decades is the popularity of the "Red Lady" papaya, which grows high-quality fruit. Another important factor is India's appetite for papaya. The ISHS noted that as of 2016, very few of India's papaya crops were being exported. Instead, they were sold within the country. Papaya is loaded with nutrition Papaya hanging from a tree Ginaniso/Shutterstock One reason for papaya's popularity is its many health benefits. In addition to being a sweet and delicious treat, Healthline reports that papaya provides many essential nutrients and can have significant health benefits such as reducing inflammation, reducing cancer risk, and improving heart health. According to Real Simple, a single small papaya boasts a single day's recommended supply of vitamin C. It also possesses vitamins A and E, which serve as antioxidants. And that's not all; papayas contain the enzymes papain and chymopapain, which help break down proteins to aid digestion and cut down inflammation (via WebMD). Healthline notes that while the flesh of the papaya is most often consumed, its seeds are also safe to eat and boast an impressive amount of their own nutritional benefits. Papaya seeds contain flavonoids and polyphenols, which add to papaya's already impressive roster of antioxidants. They also contain healthy monounsaturated fatty acids and pack plenty of fiber as well. It's important that the seeds of the papaya be eaten in moderation though, as consuming too many may have adverse effects. Not only do the various edible parts of the fruit have different health benefits, but they can be used to make a variety of dishes. Lots of ways to enjoy papaya green papaya salad in a bowl Natalia Hanin/Shutterstock According to Times of India, papaya became such a staple dish in Indian cuisine because it can be eaten in a variety of preparations, sweet or savory. Plant Prosperous explains that papaya has a flavor similar to most melons or mango. It features a subtly sweet tropical flavor that also has a notably smooth mouthfeel. Besides simply slicing up papaya and eating it by itself, the fruit can be used in a multitude of dishes like salads, salsas, and kebabs. According to Have a Plant, one of the best ways to prepare papaya is in salsa. It can easily add a bright sweetness to a spicy mix of peppers and beans. Its tropical nature also makes it pair well with habaneros for those that aren't afraid of some spice (via Serious Eats). NDTV Food recommends using raw papaya to make singzu, which is a raw papaya salad, as well as pairing the fruit with potatoes to make vegan-friendly kebabs. Martha Stewart notes that papaya is also great when roasted with brown sugar to add a caramelized complexity. Because of papaya's flavor profile, it can easily sub in for most melons or tropical fruits like mango and pineapple in recipes. Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/9... See you tomorrow bli neder We need Mashiach now! Love Yehuda Lave Yehuda Lave, Spirtual Advisor and Counselor Jerusalem, Jerusalem  Israel 972-585043210 YehudaLave@gmail.com You received this email because you signed up on our website or made a purchase from us. Unsubscribe