The newspapers are full of reports on how Prince Charles, best known to Americans as a slack jawed yokel, coming to America to defend Islam against America's intolerance. It's not clear what intolerance Charles is set to defend Islam against as every US official from President Bush down has repeated over and over again ad nauseam that Islam is a religion of peace, that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam and that only a tiny minority of extremists who are probably Buddhists anyway, engage in terrorism.

Prince Charles will be here to rebuke us for our 'confrontational approach to Muslim countries' and 'our failure to appreciate the strengths of Islam', presumably those not involving suicide bombing, truck bombing, subway bombing or any bombing whatsoever.

It wasn't long ago that a report came to light about another potential King of England who harbored Nazi sympathies, the Duke of Windsor, whom Hitler planned to appoint to the throne when he had defeated England and who was the only man, Hitler wished to discuss an armistice with England with. In 1937 the Duke and Duchess visited Hitler as his personal guests. The Duchess the FBI stated in its own report met repeatedly with the German foreign minister and leaked secrets to him.

"Hitler well knows that Edward at present cannot work in a matter that would appear to be against his country, and he does not urge it. But when the proper moment arrives he will be the only person capable of directing the destiny of England," the report stated.

Charles has his own sympathies with the modern day Islamofascists. (though calling homicidal hordes whose goal is to drag the world back to the 9th century 'modern day' would be dubious.) Charles is vastly more popular abroad in the Muslim world than he is at home and travels frequently to Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia and a number of major Islamic figures had stated that Charles has converted to Islam.

Charles regularly and repeatedly whitewashes Islam praising its 'feminism', 'justice' and 'mercy;' in addition to his fanatical environmentalist views, Charles has attacked the War on Terror, criticized America and held up Islam as a paragon of all that is good and pure.

"Islam can teach us today a way of understanding and living in the world which Christianity itself is poorer for having lost. At the heart of Islam is its preservation of an integral view of the Universe...the West gradually lost this integrated vision of the world with Copernicus and Descartes and the coming of the scientific revolution...there are things for us to learn in this system of belief (Islam) which I suggest we ignore at our peril."

Like many on the left Charles is prepared to embrace Islam as the antidote to the Western society, to progress and to technology; a view that is identical to Al Queda's. The only difference is that the so-called extremist Muslims want to bring about that world in which Islam triumphs over the technocracy of the West by force while so-called moderate Muslims prefer a triumph by immigration and cultural colonization.

Charles has set up a secret council of 12 to advise him on Islam and now Charles is coming to America, in the way of Saddam's man in Scotland, George Galloway. And what is Charles' message for America?

"In the West, in turn, we need to be taught by Islamic teachers how to learn with our hearts, as well as our heads."

It seems that Charles has learned that particular lesson from his Islamic teachers all too well.

(APREUTERSUPI)

Harriet Miers, Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, withdrew her nomination due to becoming infected with Avian bird flu. Avian bird flu is expected to claim 600 Billion lives worldwide this year alone as it spreads from dogs to pigeons to cats to Google which some watchfull users claim will shortly be coming out with Floogle, a search engine dedicated to tracking and spreading the Avian Bird Flu virus. It is not clear what possible commercial application spreading the Avian Bird Flu virus could have, however Google is well known as an innovative company.

Hurricane Beta continues to menace the Gulf Coast flooding areas as part of a plan by top Bush administration official Karl Rove to strand the crew of Lost on a distant desert island. Rove's indictment seems likely on charges that he brought down the Lost jet, exposed the name of the castmember set to die in an upcoming episode and was responsible for a fit of sneezing by Howard Dean.

Iran and North Korea have once again threatened to blow up the world while Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq jealously look on frustrated that they are only able to blow up each other. Google is reputedly set to come out with a new service tentatively named Boomgle that will allow terrorists to locate and blow up local targets in their area to be integrated with Google's Local service. The latest wave of violence in Iraq was reportedly brought on by the scratched I-Pod Nano's of several key Mullahs and Sheiks finally discovering the reason why they hate us; I-Pod.

Harriet Miers, who had withdrawn from consideration for the Supreme Court after allegations that she had been programmed by Google, denied claims that she was the secret child of Janet Jackson while relatives of 2000 American soldiers killed by Hurricane Katrina continue to mourn the I-Pod's damaged by Avian bird flu virus.

This is your brain. This is your brain on mainstream media.

The previous Parsha Zot Habracha ended with the mystery of the location of Moshe's tomb which no man knows. This parsha Bereishis begins with the mystery of creation which no man understands. This tells us how the mystery of death is linked to the mystery of creation and that the same G-d is responsible for both. Also as the death of Moshe moves to the creation of the world, we see that life follows death and rebirth follows a passing.

G-d looks upon what he created nearly every one of the six days and calls it good or Tov. To understand what is good or Tov, we need to think what it is in contrast to, namely Ra or bad. The tree of good and evil or the Etz Ha'daat Tov ve'Ra shows us that contrast. What precedes every declaration of Tov is a division. The division of the heavens of the waters, the division of species Min to Min, type to type and the creation of man finally, male and female. Such divisions emphasize that goodness comes from maintaining an order, rather than from the chaos and anarchy that ultimately brought the flood. Without that order the world ultimately reverts to the state of chaos that preceded its creation.

G-d states, Naaseh Adam Betzalmeinu Ve'dmuteinu; Let us make man in our form or image. Who is us? Once G-d makes man though he makes him in the Tzelem Elohim, the form of G-d. With 'us' G-d is speaking to the physical world which is a partner in the making of man since man is made of spirit which comes from G-d and flesh which comes from the physical nature of the world. Tzelem is often used to refer to spiritual or a parody of spiritual things, Dmut to their simpler physical form. Man was made in the spiritual image of G-d who was the active partner and in the form of the physical world which was the passive partner for the making of man.

Each of the animals is brought to Adam to be named and to see if he finds a partner there. Was it remotely conceivable that Adam would marry any particular breed of animal or for it to be a partner with him? This was to demonstrate to Adam that he had to aspire above the animal as no animal was sufficient.

Once Adam and Chava have eaten of the fruit, G-d addresses each of them asking them why they did so. This offers each a chance for repentance and self-examination. G-d does not ask the snake why since the snake has no moral choice and was not offered the opportunity for repentance. The snake is only punished with no hope of redemption, by contrast men and women can improve their lot by coming closer to G-d as Noach and Avraham did thus lessening the curse on the earth.

The curse of Adam is often referred to but in fact neither Adam or Chava were cursed. Only the snake was cursed. The earth was cursed for Adam but at no point does G-d say that Adam himself is cursed. In punishing Adam and the snake, G-d uses the formulation 'because of this' 'Ki' and naming a particular act but no such formulation is used for the woman. She is not held accountable for a particular act since it was Adam who was commanded by G-d directly and the snake who tricked. Chava functioned as an intermediary between them.

What is Chava's punishment? Extended childbirth and child-rearing. In the animal kingdom infants are born quickly and raised rapidly, if at all, before being sent off into the world. Man is unique in the length and duration of childbearing and child-rearing. This also creates the bond of the child with the parents and the existence of the family, rather than a male who wanders off as quickly as possible. Both Adam and Chava had demonstrated a lack of regard for each other and for the consequences of the future. The family was meant to remedy that and create a new form of irresponsibility for man. By adding danger via the snake, extended childbirth and child-rearing and food that had to be derived through extended labor, man became more than individuals pursuing their own ends but a family.

discover once and for all who the real enemy manipulating world events is! Click here!

and remember; keep watching the inlets!

"We are sure of our victory against the Americans and the Jews as promised by the Prophet: Judgment day shall not come until the Muslim fights the Jew, where the Jew will hide behind trees and stones, and the tree and the stone will speak and say, 'Muslim, behind me is a Jew. Come and kill him...The continuation of tyranny will bring the fight to America, as Ramzi Yousef (the first World Trade Center bomber) and others did.'" - Osama Bin Laden, 1998

"The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," he said. "As the Imam [the late Ayatollah Khomeini] said, 'Israel must be wiped off the map'… The Islamic world will not let its historic enemy live in its heartland."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 2005

we weren't paying attention then and we're not paying attention now

In his sympathetic 1854 poem, 'The Jewish Cemetery at Newport' the poet Longfellow wrote thus;

For in the background figures vague and vast
Of patriarchs and of prophets rose sublime,
And all the great traditions of the Past
They saw reflected in the coming time.

And thus forever with reverted look
The mystic volume of the world they read,
Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book,
Till life became a Legend of the Dead.

But ah! what once has been shall be no more!
The groaning earth in travail and in pain
Brings forth its races, but does not restore,
And the dead nations never rise again.

Of course as we know the final paragraph has been proven wrong and the nation that was thought long dead rose again with armies and cities and a flag to become one of the most talked about and renowed nations on the earth. This view of the Jews as a tattered odd remnant of history was and is to some extent the conventional one. The historian Tonybee called the Jews, "a fossil people," Longfellow sympathetic as he was could see no future for the Jews except as refugees. And yet the Jews defied time, defied every understanding of history to endure.

In Longfellow's poem, it is the Jews who read backwards and thus look backwards. By contrast Western civilization we assume looks forwards and is marching towards a goal. In Western conception a book must have a beginning and an ending and the goal of reading a book is to come to the ending of it. We who have just celebrated Simchat Torah see that the Torah is without true beginning or ending but is a circle and in our celebration we join the circle and come around it again.

The assimilationist view that has driven so many Jews into secularism is that history is linear and progressive. What has been will no longer be. Once men were primitive and today they are advanced, this conception of history says. Therefore the logical thing is to rush to catch up with western civilization before it's gone.

Yet the Jewish view is that history is in the hands of G-d and proceeds not as a line but as a circle. Shlomo Hamelech, King Solomon said, Ein Hadash Tachat Hashemesh, There Is Nothing New Under the Sun. Such a view is certainly contrary to the idea today of an exploding cascade of knowledge and yet is any of it really. We have accumulated large collections of gadgets that do all sorts of neat things but have they really changed us? Are we different people than men and women once were? Are we something new under the sun? Are we a new age in history or merely a continuation of the old and carrying with us the same arrogance.

At its zenith it seems as if the sun will never set and yet it does. And when it has set and absolute darkness has come over the earth, it seems as if there will never be light again. Each view is credible with information at hand, yet the wise man understands the present by understanding the past to understand that there are times of darkness and light. The progressive view of history discards the past as uninmportant and so when the sun shines it seems as if it will shine forever and when night comes, it seems as if the darkness will be eternally unrelieved.

In such a worldview, it is strange for such people to consider that the Jews should still exist. Has their sun not yet set, they must ask, how can light come after darkness?

But we know there is nothing new under the sun. The sun that has set must rise again and as we read 'backwards' compared to what Western civilization considers forwards, we know that it is the past that is important, rather than the visions of a utopian future that fever the minds of western civilization's ideologies. We believe in a G-d beyond time and space and when we look back at the past we see his mighty works and also the future to come.

With Simchat Torah a cycle of the Torah ends and begins again and so does the year. From Zot HaBracha 'This is the Blessing', the final Parsha of the Torah, we go to the beginning again of Bereishis. From Moshe Rabbeinu the greatest leader of Israel dying in the desert to the creation of the world out of chaos and emptiness. The contrasts seem staggering but there are connections and linkages that show that the transition is indeed no transition at all.

The Midrash tells us that instead of beginning with Alef, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, we begin the Torah and the creation of the world with the Beit in Bereishis (In the Beginning), the second letter; in order to represent Bracha 'blessed.' The final Parsha is of course Zot HaBracha so that the Torah begins and ends with a blessing making the entire Torah itself one long blessing that never ceases as we come to end and return to the beginning we are participating in one long Bracha, blessing.

We begin with G-d's blessing of creating the world and sustaining all life and then creating people who themselves had the power to bless or curse, to make the world a better or worse place. Sefer Bereishis, the book of Bereishis, ends with Yaakov Avinu, our forefather Yaakov, blessing his sons. Zot HaBracha ends with Moshe Rabbeinu, G-d's greatest prophet blessing the nation of 12 tribes that has sprung from them. Bereishis begins with G-d creating a world to be settled by men and Zot HaBracha ends with the Jewish people prepeared to enter the land that G-d has given us and to settle it.

According to the Baal HaTurim, the letters of the first word Bereishis, (In the Beginning) can be rearranged to read Brit Aish. Covenant of Fire, reffering to the Torah. Zot HaBracha also refers to the Torah as Aishdash, 'a fiery law.' We learn that the Torah was written before the creation of the world, 'black fire on white fire' and Zot HaBracha represents the conclusion of the Torah as it was completed.

The Torah itself represents a paradox in that its writing predated the world it describes and its writing postdated its own creation. That we finish reading the Torah only to begin reading it again is another paradox that renders the conclusion, no conclusion at all. And through this we see the power of the Torah to transcend the ordinary physical realities of time and to allow us in limited ways to do so as well. As we dance in a circle, as the Jews in the Bait Hamikdash (the Holy Temple) walked in a circle around the altar of G-d, we form a shape that is without beginning or end and is a paradox as well.

Also according to the Baal HaTurim, the word Bereishis, has a Gematria (numerical value) equivalent to 913. So do the words Yisrael Bachar Ba'Amim (Israel was chosen out of all the nations.) The world in Bereishis begins with a seeming blank slate. We see an empty world and one whose purpose is unknown and unfulfilled. The final word of the Torah is also 'Yisrael,' though in the beginning the world seemed aimless and purposeless, its purpose was always clear and that was the choice of the Jews to bear the Torah. As we close a circle, we begin it and in doing so we see the eternal wisdom and greatness of G-d.

The famed London theatre , 'Spits-at-Jews,' home of such productions as 'The Jew of Malta', 'Shylock', 'Oliver Twist' and 'The Jew Who Stole My Parking Spot: a Tragedy in Sixteen Parts' has announced plans to put on an opera. The zombie corpse of Wagner will write and direct an opera based on the life of martyr and heroine Rachel Corrie, known by her Indian name as 'Wrestles with Bulldozers.' Here is a brief excerpt from it.

Rachel Corrie, was a Washington lass
Who traveled to Israel to help Hamas
She did her best to help them kill
The Jews of whom she had her fill
She risked herself just to protect
The secret tunnels which must bisect
To bring the bombs and guns inside
The houses above in which they hide

Rachel! Rachel! Auxillary of Hamas
Rachel! Rachel! Beloved of Abbas
Virgins in Paradise feel no shame
Becoming lesbians in your name

Rachel for a pancake flattening was bound
And yet fearlessly she stood her ground
The Zionist bulldozer advanced on her
And yet she was utterly without fear
She had burnt American flags as offerings
To Allah together with her terrorist gangs
She knew her murderous cause was just
Surely the Zionist bulldozer would bust

Rachel! Rachel! Auxillary of Hamas
Rachel! Rachel! Beloved of Abbas
Virgins in Paradise feel no shame
Becoming lesbians for your fame

Her ISM organizer warned her to back away
No cameras are filming, she heard him say
But she sneered and called him a hoser
And dived for Allah under the bulldozer
They called for an ambulance but it was late
Being loaded with bombs of 100 kilogram weight
They called for a Palestinian doctor to save her
And he stitched her nose to her toes to her hair

Rachel! Rachel! Auxillary of Hamas
Rachel! Rachel! Beloved of Abbas
Virgins in Paradise feel no shame
Burn for you with a lesbian flame

Who killed Rachel, you may ask
Discovering that is no great task
It was the Jews!!!!
It was the Jews!!!!
Who was it who slew that maiden fair?
With her pale white skin and blond hair
It was the Zionist Jews!!!
It was the Zionist Jews!!!

They did it in Germany and Russia
They did in Guatemala and Prussia
Now they're doing it in Palestine
Just like they made Frankenstein
Their crimes don't make the evening news
Because the media is controlled by the Jews
The Jews!!!
The Jews!!!

But we're not Anti-Semites, no we're not
Though the Jews keep calling us that
We'd like to form a mob
And beat them about
But we have weak puny fists
So we became journalists
And we write novels and narrative plays
Against the Zionist Jews and their evil ways

Isn't it romantic when Bush holds hands with middle-eastern dictators among fields of flowers?

This week George W. Bush met with Mahmoud Abbas (Holocaust Denial, Moscow KGB Employee, Mastermind Behind an Attack on an Israeli School) and the flowers were in bloom as Bush gave Abbas a gift of 30 million dollars and proclaimed his undying love for him.

"President Abbas is a man devoted to peace and to his people's aspirations," Bush rhapsodized. "Mr. President, you ran on a platform of peace. That's why the people voted for you."

Bush had no criticism of Abbas whatsoever despite the fact that terrorists groups answering to Abbas' Fatah killed Israeli teenagers just this week. Instead Abbas demanded an end to 'settlements' and Bush was happy enough to agree also calling on Israel to reopen the Rafiah crossing, improving travel in the West Bank to facilitate terrorist activists and even building a Gaza seaport so they can bring in weapons by sea, as Arafat's PA has done in the past with the Karine-A; under Bush's own administration.

"At the same time, Israel should not undertake any activity that contravenes its road map obligations, or prejudices the final status negotiations with regard to Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem," Bush said which means that according to him, Israel is not even allowed to build in Yerushalaim itself. He warned Israel to stop "settlement expansion", that is building new homes in existing towns (so if you get married and want to live in the same town as your parents, tough luck, the President says you can't.)

Then he demanded that "that Israel must remove unauthorized posts." Unauthorized fence posts? Mail posts? Web posts? Blog posts? Presumably the Chief meant 'outposts' but why should he bother to actually learn what it is he's demanding that Israel do. Maybe next time Rice can write out her orders\suggestions for him in large print.

"You look back -- I think prior to the disengagement, there was a lot of consternation, a lot of concern. I suspect some of you might have even reported that, you know, better watch out, this disengagement could end up being a very difficult period. And yet thanks to the President's leadership and Prime Minister Sharon's leadership, the disengagement worked, which established trust. "

Well gosh, glad it wasn't difficult at all. And what did Abbas' leadership involve besides marching into the settlements that Israel had beaten and dragged its citizens out of and watching the synagogues there be burned to the ground. Yes it certainly 'worked' and where is this trust exactly as the Palestinian terrorists shell Israeli towns while Abbas comes to America with yet more demands.

But lest anyone seriously believe that Bush is any different than his father. They can recognize that he is as much 'Israel's Best Friend in the White House' as Clinton was.

"We expect all parties to adhere to the road map. And we are holding people to account on the pledges that most of the Palestinians and the Israelis have made on the road map. And we do so publicly and we do so privately."

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. Minus a few hundred IQ points.

...gathering a handful of people instead of the millions promised, though the media are of course spinning it as a successful march, not mentioning Farrakhan's violent racist and anti-semitic views or his ties to terrorist regimes such as Libya which gave him 5 million dollars. Or reporting on his claims that 9/11 and the flooding of New Orleans was a government conspiracy. Or advocating against donating money to the Red Cross because it was "too white."

"A crowd of thousands cheered as dozens of prominent speakers academics, activists, artists and media pundits spoke, recited poetry and sang songs in the 12-hour program on the National Mall."

This puts the ratio of crowd to speakers at something like 1 to 60. When you can't do better than 60 people attending for every speaker, that's a rather disastrous march. Of course at a 12 hour program you can assume for some very long and rambling speeches too.

What the media pr spin doesn't mean are such 'prominent speakers' as New Black Party Leader Malik Shabazz who is so extreme that even original Black Panthers have disassociated any connection between their movement and his. "CUNY professor Dr. Leonard Jeffries, who has claimed that Jews financed the Atlantic slave trade. Warrior Woman of the Red Indian Dakota Nation, who spoke at Farrakhan's Million Family March in 2000. At that event, Warrior Woman said that the "imperialists, capitalists and Zionists" control America's resources. Representatives of Dr. Malachi Z. York, the founder of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, a group which has a history of promoting racists and anti-government beliefs. York was sentenced to 135 years in federal prison on child molestation and racketeering charges."

Pointing to the broad spectrum of participants, Farrakhan said the march included an "unprecedented" array of black leaders of organizations "coming together to speak to America and the world with one voice."

Yes that 'unprecedented array' which managed to gather a few thousand people together, a fraction of Farrakhan's previous 'million man march.'

Still, participants said they were inspired by the gathering. Farrakhan "is the only one who can pull this magnitude of people together," said Michael Warren, 41, a Washington resident who attended for about five hours with three youths that he mentors. "No other leader since Martin and Malcolm have done this."

Yes it takes quite a special leader to pull together whole 'thousands' of people. Surely an accomplishment on par with Martin Luther King's march on Washington. And it is particularly ironic to mention a march led by Farrakhan together with Malcolm X, whom he had assassinated.


Kelly Callahan, 65, of Newark said he had attended the 1995 march and Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington. The movement, he said, is "more universal now."

How is it more 'universal' one wonders? How is a rally that barely gathers a few thousand participants, led by a man with ties to terrorist groups whose racist theology claims that white people were created by a black mad scientist more universal?

Danny Bakewell, publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel, a black newspaper, said the gathering was "a glaring symbol of the possibilities that are in front of black people. This is not the end, it's a beginning."

Yes how can one look at a failed march by a hate group that calls for reparations, peddles conspiracy theories and see anything but a new future for black people.

Ich Blog - I Blog

Ehr Blogt Narishkeit - He Blogs Nonesense

Mein I-Pod Nano is Zurbrochen, a Zolchen Mazel Oif Steve Jobs - My I-Pod Nano is Broken, May Steve Jobs Have the Same Luck

Noch a Bluescreen! A Chalaerye Zol Bill Gates Chapen! - Another Blue Screen! May a Chalereye Get Bill Gates!

Mein Camera Hot Nisht Kein Memory. Lent mir an SD Memory Carte. - My Camera is Out of Memory. Lend Me an SD Memory Card.

HD\DVD, Blu-Ray, Chakt Mir Nicht Kein Chaynik Un Zog Mir Ve'fill Gigabytes Es Vert Halten on die Disk, Nisht in die Lab - HD\DVD or Blue-Ray, Don't Waste My Time, Tell me How Many Gigabytes it Holds on the Disk and not in the Lab.

Az Mir Vellen Geyen OpenSource, Vie Fur a Support Vellen Mir Kriggen? - If We Go OpenSource, What Kind of Support Will We Recieve?

Vos Fur a Meshugene Hot Gemacht Diese Podcast? - What Kind of Nut Made this Podcast?

Obtaining a Lulav has never been easy for Jews in galut. Lulavs had to make long trips on boats to Eastern Europe from the middle east, traveling for whole months sometimes before they reached Jewish communities.

For Jews in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, obtaining a Lulav could often be next to impossible. Jewish communities in America were still sparse and the holiday might be celebrated in such impossible circumstances as the middle of the civil war in which two armies sparred against each other in the midst of shortages and carnage. Jewish soldiers on both the Union and Confederate side did their best to observe what they could but tents generally had to suffice for Succahs and in the midst of the shelling and combat, exotic species were impossible to come by.

As we move to celebrate Sukkot now in 2006, there is a war on too and a lulav shortage. Egypt, which has been one of the primary suppliers of lulavs, had announced it would no longer be supplying Lulavs to Israel and America banning their cutting. The announcement sent prices, which already can often be quite high, rising even further on expectations of shortages. A Senator and a congressman, only one of them Jewish, have sent letters to the Egyptian government requesting more lulavs.

And as a lulav shortage threatens, an esrog shortage seems likely in Israel as well due to a hot summer. It almost seems as if Sukkos will be quite impoverished this year. Yet Sukkos is the time of year in which we leave our homes and go out into the street and into our yards to build rickety temporary dwelling places. It is a simple enough matter to spend a few days in a sukkah, but families expelled from their homes in Gush Katif have been living in temporary dwelling places for quite a while now.

For them Sukkos is not an interruption in the natural order of things but the continuation of their misery. And people who have lost their homes, have difficulty even gaining access to their possessions, rising prices for lulavim and etrogim will only make their succos far grimmer than it already is. Yet the Torah commands Usemachtem, and you shall rejoice. Throughout that entire perek which lists yom tov after yom tov. Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashana; it does not say rejoice by any of them. We might imagine that it would normally say that we should rejoice at Pesach. After all we have liberated and set free from a land of slaves, from being enslaved. That seems like a cause for celebration. Yet it does not say to rejoice at Pesach but at Sukkos, in which we lived in sukkahs after we were taken out of Egypt, it commands us to rejoyce.

At pesach the Jews were taken out of Egypt with a mighty hand and set free. It was natural for them to rejoice over it and no special commandment needed to be given. By contrast at Sukkos time the Jews found themselves living in a desert, not in Eretz Yisrael and instead of homes had to construct temporary dwellings. Put that way indeed what did they have to rejoice over?

Rabbi Akiva said that the sukkah represents the ananei hakovod, the clouds of glory that Hashem protected the Jews with. Where the splitting of the sea had been a mighty and majestic event and the Jews saw their enemies drown, the clouds protected by being impermeable. Arrows hurled into the clouds did not penetrate. Scorpions and snakes along the desert floor were killed by the cloud. The Jews in the desert were protected by the clouds but it was not obvious and it was a passive protection rather than an active protection.

Lemaan Yedu Doroteichem, the Torah goes on to say, that your generations may know. Ki Besukkos Hoshavti Et Bnei Yisrael Behotzei Oitam Me'eretz Mitzrayim, For in Sukkos I caused the Jews to dwell when I took them out of the land of Egypt. Why is it particularly important for future generations to know this? Because it is important for us to remember that even when we are deprived, G-d provides for us.

Though may live in temporary dwellings, whether it is the temporary dwellings of the expelled or the temporary dwellings of Galut, and we are beset by enemies, we may wish to see an immediate salvation as decisive as that at the Yam Suf, we must recognize and be joyful for how G-d protects us though it may not be obvious to us at the time.

And though we dwell in galut, though we have no permanent home, we collect the four species, lulav, etrog, hadasim and aravot; though they may be difficult to come by and rejoice before G-d as did our ancestors and all the generations of our people because G-d is caring for us.

After the prayers are done and even before during Seudas Slishi, the third and final meal of the Shabbat, we have already begun searching for it. Scouting parties go out hunting for the moon, passing from block to block and calling to each other.

"No luck here"

"I don't see it."

"No moon."

Past neon lit bodegas where faded malt liquor posters leer from crumbling walls we search like hunters pursuing a quarry in the heavens.

"Not here."

"Maybe the trees are blocking it out."

"I think I saw it behind a cloud."

The city is a crowded place, both in the heavens and the earth, and the buildings from tenements to skyscrapers crowd the heavens too. Trees send out their bare autumn branches, television and cell phone antennas cast their radials up and light beaming from windows and signs, from car headlights and cell phones, from the heels of sneakers to the streetlights cast a net of light pollution up at the sky obscuring the stars themselves. But still the hunt goes on.

At Maariv we pray, 'Umesader Et HaKochavim' 'He Who Designates the Stars' 'U'Bechacham Poteach Shearim' 'And in His Wisdom Opens the Gates' as we think of the stars we do not see and the gates of night opening in the sky we hope will reveal the moon. This is the first moon after the Day of Judgment. The first true moon of a new year.

During Rosh Hashana we studied Mesechta Rosh Hashana and the questioning of the witnesses, who received the same status as those who came to put out a fire, to aid in war and midwives. Feasts were thrown for those men who came from far bearing the news that the new month was here. Those who had seen the moon for themselves were carried on litters even on the Shabbat. And like them here we were hunting for the moon.

Car horns honked as we raced across the street and then back again ahead of beat up Hondas and bright new Lexus'. Crowds passed us laughing and joking on what was for them just another Saturday night and was for us a new beginning. Lone figures moved through the shadows talking on their cell phones to the invisible persons and still through the trees and the rusted iron grates of fire escapes we sought that pale blue and white sphere of moonlight.

When at last we found it at the corner around the block we marched there in a line of men in black lit up by the neon lights of bodegas and restaurants. From a club a harsh pounding rhythm pulses like the beat of a jangling heart. A latino man weighed down in gold jewelery looks at us bemusedly and cars flow by like great colorful tropical metal fish flowing along a black river of road into the night.

Through the buildings the moon looks down on us, white and blue, pale and glowing like a beacon of the extraordinary shining between the ordinary moldy brick of the houses around us. I know I will go home to new news of bombings and terrorism, to outbursts of hate and decay in a world busy destroying itself. 'Keshem Shenai Roked Kenegdecha VeLo Yachol Lingoa Bach; Kach Lo Yochlu Ovai Lingoa Bi Le'Ra' we pray. As I Stretch out to the Moon and Cannot Reach It, So Too May Our Enemies Not Be Able to Reach and Harm Us.'

I reach for the moon but only manage to get an inch nearer to it. We have found the moon but it is far from us still.

Parshat Haazinu begins with the words, Haazinu Hashamayim Ve'Adabeira Ve'Tishma Haaretz Imrei Pi. Listen O Heavens and I Will Speak and the Earth Will Hear the Sayings of My Mouth.

This sentence can be divided into two halves. The first of the heavens which is active. Moshe Rabbeinu is calling on the heavens to actively listen, 'Haazinu' as he speaks and to the earth however he speaks in a passive manner. The earth will hear, rather than actively listen, and rather than actively speaking, will hear the words of his mouth. Then the sayings fall like rains and dew to the earth.

What are the heavens and the earth then? One might say that the heavens which actively listen are those who study the word of G-d and participate actively in studying the Torah. Their teaching and transmitting it to the earth, to those of the ordinary people, the 'amei haaretz', 'the people of the earth' who do not actively seek it out and participate in its study but passively receive and accept it.

Then when it says 'Ve'atzar et Hashamayim' and the heavens will be shut, "veLo Yihye Matar', there will be no dew and as a consequence, 'Ve'Haaretz Lo Titen et Yevula', the earth will not longer be productive. Once those who actively learn Torah stop teaching it to the ordinary people, they cease to be spiritually productive and catastrophe comes to the Jewish people.

Alternatively, the 'heavens' are those lofty people who are too arrogant to listen when he speaks and accordingly must be commanded by Moshe Rabbeinu to listen and must be spoken to directly. While the 'earth' are the humble people who will naturally listen without having to commanded because the words do not have to penetrate their arrogance.

The world was created in Tishrei, all of it from pole to pole and continent to continent, land and sea, mountain and sky formed in this month of Tishrei. On Rosh Hashana Adam and Chava were created and their descendants spread across the whole earth.

This Rosh Hashana finds the men and women of the US army and navy and air force stationed across the world and those of whom are Jewish will be celebrating Rosh Hashana in all the scattered places across the world that they are, from the land to the sea and the wide oceans and even the air. From America to Europe and the Middle East and even the Pacific and asia where Jews traditionally have not gone.

In the Pacific at the US bases in Japan and South Korea, from the US Navy's Yokosuka Naval Base to Okinawa, to Guam in the Philipines and Kobe in Japan, Rosh Hashana services will be taking places. Guam and Kobe have Jewish communities with their own services which personnel will be able to join.

At the Yokosuka Naval Base and Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan, chaplains will be specifically flown in to hold Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services. In South Korea, where American troops help democratic Korea hold the line against the forces of Kim Jong Il's Communist dictatorship, Jewish soldiers from all across the Korean pennisula will be gathering in Seoul for prayers under Chaplain Avrohom Horovitz.

The matter is not as simple as it sounds. Jewish chaplains have been wounded in the Korean war, though none fatally. Al Jolson, born Asa Joelson in Lithuanaia, son of a cantor who became a famous Jewish entertainer in America, starring in numerous shows, musicals and even movies including most famously the Jazz Singer. During the Korean War, he traveled against the advice of his doctors to entertain American Troops there. He spent months there entertaining the troops and continued on even though he developed a bronchial infection of which he finally died. And the lights of broadway were dimmed for ten minutes to mark his passing.

There is a famous story told about a Jewish soldier on Yom Kippur during the Korean war. A Jewish Marine corporal named Abraham Geller was engaged in combat at the Seoul-Kaesong road and under fire by snipers. It was Yom Kippur and difficult as it was to pray under those circumstances, Abraham Geller did his best. After encountering a company of North Korean soldiers near Seoul, Corporal Abraham Geller saved his Captain's life and took a bullet meant for him. The bullet penetrated his abdomen and several loops of his intestines. It would under ordinary circumstances have caused peronitis as the contents of the intestines would have spilled out into the body which would have been fatal, but according to the military surgeons, what saved Geller's life; was that there was no food at all in his stomach.

The name of Tishrei in the Hebrew alphabet runs backwards from the latter letters to the earlier letters, Tof Shin Reish Yud. So too the Jewish presence in the pacific seems backwards and the Jewish presence in the US military seems backwards defying many anti-semitic stereotypes. Yet this Rosh Hashana the Jews of the US Army, Navy and Air Force will be praying to G-d to bring peace on the anniversary of the world in the farthest corner of the world where many Jews died in the second World War to bring peace.

The IDF transferred over twenty trucks of milk, beef, fruits to Gaza Arabs who burned the Houses of Prayer of G-d and shoot rockets into Israel even as settlers have been kicked out of their hotels yet again for Rosh Hashana and as families have been deprived of their belongings being held hostage for payments.

Is it any wonder the earth trembles?

Barry Chamish, Holocaust Revisionist, UFO Researcher, Conspiracy Theorist who bafflingly continues to be printed and circulated among Religious and Zionist Jews has done it again.

"Don't give them a nickel! It is money down the drain," Chamish cries regarding the Gush Katif refugees in his latest screed, available at Rense.com, a website affiliated with Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, which contains articles claiming the Holocaust never happened and that Jews are trying to take over the world.

After sneering at them and calling them "pathetic Jews", Chamish boasts how much he did for the struggle. "I worked for eighteen months to publicize the righteousness of your struggle and expose the crooks planning your demise. I received little reward."

Chamish's great work for the settlers thus far of claiming that Sharon killed his wife and little boy, that JFK Jr, Congressman Wayne Owens and a cast of characters possibly including the Dallas Cowboys starting lineup was assassinated by Shimon Peres. Then he took photos of concrete walls and claimed they were photos of a top secret US base. Finally he advocated against signing a petition against the Disengagement, on the grounds that anyone who signed it would be barred from Israel; a claim that proved groundless. What reward does he expect exactly?

To make sure he receives a reward though Chamish takes the time at the end of the article to promote his own book.

"I will be at your rally in Jerusalem. I will set up my table and hope my books fall into the right hands. And don't anyone ask me to dance."

How noble of Barry. He'll make a huge sacrifice by going to the rally with the objective of selling his books. This doesn't count for that much since Chamish also tried to attend a Holocaust Revisionism conference to sell his books. No word if he planned to dance there or not.

If I was an optimist I would hope that this would be a wake up call to those few sites which still print and promote Barry Chamish's ravings, e.g. that the Rothschilds were behind the Holocaust, that YU is now run by the Illuminati because it uses a torch symbol or that terrorist attacks in Israel are actually carried out by Shabak.

Sadly I'm not an optimist and if Chamish's promotion and publication on a Neo-Nazi site, his Holocaust denial, his UFO research, his assorted grabag of lunatic ravings failed to move those few places that publish him, this newest outrage won't either. Still serious questions need to be asked of Reuven Koret, at Israel Insider, who vigorously defended Chamish and in violation of basic ethical norms even published private emails from Steven Plaut on his website. I note that Chamish's article is not up at his site. One might hope that no more of his rants will find a home there either.

Some of Arutz 7's affiliates continue to publish Chamish as well and these and other sites need to engage in a serious Chesbon Hanefesh as to whether they wish to continue to be associated with a Holocaust denier and conspiracy theorist who has openly obstructed the struggle for Gush Katif at the expense of promoting himself, who is a friend of Neo-Nazis and has nothing but contempt for Jews.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Mohammed Al Baradei of the IAEA. The previous winner was UN chief Kofi Annan who had overseen the UN's Oil for Food scandal. Like Annan's award, Baradei's award is a reward from the far left that dominates Sweden for hindering the removal of Saddam Hussein and now doing his best to protect Iran's nuclear program. The citation praising the IAEA's work is particularly absurd since the IAEA is at best a useless bunch of idiots who like most international agencies have no usefull function whatsoever. But now that a war with Iran seems to be approaching, the left is desperate to reward any of the accomplices of terrorism since after all this year, unlike Arafat's Peace Prize, they can't reward a terrorist directly.

Liberal Jews who seek to rewrite Jewish history and Anti-Zionists of the Haredi, flavor have one key myth, that Jews were well treated in the Arab world and that it was only the creation of Israel that spoiled this harmonious time.

In fact Jews living in Arab lands, like Jews living in Christian lands; were at times found usefull and other times mercilessly and brutally persecuted. So much so that Ibn Ezra saw Mohammed as the 'little horn' of Daniel. One of the piyutim in today's selichos (tomorrow for nusach sefard) Samach Daled is a flash of reality to particularly those Frum Jews who insist on the mythology of an Arab utopia in which Jews dwelled. And it is in some ways shockingly current though it dates back to the 13th century. A few selections follow...

"How can I come to you when those who serve other things will not permit me to serve you
They seek to divide me from you
But I have not forsaken your trust
How have I been exiled and go and wander through every road and district
And those who have made Moloch their king, rule over me

(note here that contrary to those who continually insist that Muslims also worship G-d, Rabbeinu Yitzchak ben Saadia is quite clear on what diety Muslims worship and it's one that involves human sacrifice)

For I have been delivered over to doers of evil and perversion
And they and their children shoot arrows at me
And I am like a sheep to the slaughter

(today it's rocks and bullets)

How broken is the kingship of the kingdom of your treasured people
and the rulership is extended for the rulers of evil people...
I have wept and shed tears from the yoke of Ishmael's children
And they mock me, Come and Hear
And I like a deaf man do not hear

How the Arabs have surrounded us and the sons of Ham cut us off
Who call a prophet a man who never prophesied
They build and assemble their armies and troops
And me, where shall I go?

How have my stars darkened and the planets turned back
And those who serve abominations (idol worshipers) have befouled my lands...
With all their strength and power they pain and grieve me
But I trust in your kindness and my heart will rejoice

How can the enemies of all that is pure reside in Zion...
And they are rich and princes raised up high...
How came they to dwell in my temples
and made themselves a dwelling there
From the top to the bottom
and from the bottom to the middle

Remember us and recall us with your salvation
from those who worship things that are not you
Hurl them out and swallow them up from your holy dwelling place
And I through your great kindness will at last enter your house"

Part of the mythology of American Liberal Judaism is the contrast between the conservative and reactionary Puritans of Massachusetts against the liberal Roger Williams founded Rhode Island in their treatment of Jews. Prominent are mentions of the Newport Synagogue and cemetery as representations of the supposed equality for all that liberals were generously willing to bestow.

The reality is rather different. While Rhode Island did permit Jews to practice their religion, Jews had no civic equality and could not become citizens of Rhode Island. In 1762 when Aaron Lopez who played a great role in building Newport's shipping industry to prosperity sought citizenship, he had to go to Puritan Massachusetts to get it. Jews in 'liberal' Rhode Island were not welcome as citizens and did not receive political equality until 1842.

Much is made of the Newport Synagogue as representing a Jewish presence in liberal Rhode Island. In point of fact there never was a strong Jewish presence in Rhode Island. A number of Jews first arrived in Rhode Island hoping that it would grant them equality only to discover that they had no rights as citizens and they left. When Rhode Island received a Royal charter which again promised equality for all, 15 families came to be disappointed as well.

The famous Newport synagogue was built on donations from New York and soon fell into disuse. It was maintained by donations from the Touro family and the city council seeing that it attracted donations from wealthy Jews (which were placed into trust funds administered by that same council) turned it into a tourist attraction devoid of worshipers in the early 19th century. Only late in the 19th century, did Rhode Island finally gain an actual Jewish community.

Liberals and particularly liberal Jews like to cultivate the myth that it was liberals who embraced and protected Jews in the US. As a result they've filled Jewish-American history with lies, myths and outright propaganda. Like the benevolence of FDR, who had no trouble sending Jews back to the gas chambers on the St. Louis. The affinity of Harry Truman for Jews (he considered Jews pushy people and refused to allow one in his house, including even his biographer). The friendship of Thomas Jefferson (who despised Jews but was committed to equality) Bill Clinton as Israel's best friend in the White House (in actuality brought Israel to the brink of annihilation) and so on and so forth.

And so goes another lie that liberals like to tell about American-Jewish history.