by Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen
How to bring more joy to others, and make yourself feel a little better, too.
Sukkot is traditionally referred to as Zman Simcha'teinu -- "the time of our joy."
Most of us would like to be cheerful people who can bring joy to others, but how do we begin to achieve such a high level of behavior? The first step is to begin appreciating each person, including oneself. In this spirit, the Talmud states:
"Each human being is obligated to say: For my sake, the world was created." (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5)
Upon saying these words, however, a person is confronted with the following question: If the whole world was created for my sake, then how can my neighbor say that the whole world was created for his sake? We find an answer to this question in the words of a Chassidic Rebbe, known as Reb Zushe of Annipoli, who taught:
Our Sages have said, "Just as their faces are different, so too are their thoughts different." There exist on earth millions of people, and they all have the same basic features on their faces: two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Nonetheless, no two people ...   more »

By Lazer Gurkow 
The Ritual
If you have ever been to the synagogue during the Priestly Blessing, you know it is a celestial experience. The Kohen removes his shoes1 and approaches the podium, his face hidden behind his prayer shawl. He extends his hands towards the congregation; fingers parted and palms stretched outwards, he awaits, in anticipation of the holy moment. Those in the congregation turn their faces or hide behind their own prayer shawls to avoid gazing directly upon the Kohen, for it is believed that the divine presence rests upon the Kohen during this time.2
Prompted by the cantor, the Kohen soberly intones the sacred words of the blessing (Numbers; 6:24-26): "May G-d bless you and keep you. May G-d shine his countenance upon you and may he be gracious to you. May G-d lift his countenance upon you and may he give you peace."
As the blessing Priestly Blessing concludes, a sense of rapture envelops the congregation, and many communities break out in joyful song. Somehow we sense that they have just been especially blessed by G-d, the bestower of all blessing. Somehow we feel elated, lifted to a higher plane, almost as if G-d had just ...   more »

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS' VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY:
JEWISH AND NEW CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS
by Joseph Adler
The most dramatic and best known of the voyages of exploration was, of course, the one made by Columbus in 1492. The journey was spectacular not only for its length and daring, but because it led to one of the biggest surprises in history - the discovery of America. All of the biographers of Columbus recognize this great feat, but many are rather reticent concerning the discoverer's early years and ancestry. Indeed, many scholars shrink from the possibility that yje great explorer may have had Jewish ancestors. There is however, little controversy that the epoch-making expedition was largely made possible by Jews, New Christians (i.e., Conversos ) and Marranos ( nominally Conversos who secretly retained their allegiance to Judaism). There were many of them.   
In Lisbon, Columbus knew and consulted with Joseph Diego Mendes Vezinho ( 1450 - 1520 ), a Jewish scientist and cosmographer at the Portuguese court. Vezinho, who was later to convert to Christianity, headed a committee of savants and experts on nautical matters chosen to consider Columbus's proposed expedition of discovery. In his work for the Portuguese monarch, Vezinho had helped develop ...   more »

When nuclear war breaks out in December between the United States, Russia and North Korea, American taxpayers should be furious.
The war is just another U.S. military exercise.
But this one is particularly childish, a massive waste of money and an insult to the country.
With North Korea and Iran teetering on the edge, amidst a war in Iraq that seems to have no end and no solution, with Afghanistan slipping away and with an ongoing global "war" against terrorism, the American military is preparing for its largest combined drill of the year in December and all it can come up with is -- all it can get excited about -- is nuclear war.
It would be bad enough if some U.S. nuclear command were running such an exercise as part of an American threat to Pyongyang at a time when nuclear testing is threatened.
But instead what we have is the routine annual "homeland defense" exercise of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), which sponsors "Vigilant Shield 07." 
One might think that NORTHCOM would be focused like a laser on preparing for another Sept. 11 or another Katrina, working through the details of just dealing with the obvious.  Alas, some bomb ...   more »

WASHINGTON – There are mixed signals coming from Mexico about the fate of a proposed mega-port in Baja California for mainly Chinese goods that would be shipped on rail lines and "NAFTA superhighways" running through the U.S. to Canada
The port at Punta Colonet, planned as a major container facility to transfer Asian goods into America's heartland, got at least a temporary setback when a Mexican businessman announced a competing project in which he was seeking to secure mineral rights in the area.
Gabriel Chavez, originally one of the principal movers behind the port plan, now says there are significant amounts of titanium and iron to be mined offshore – a project he considers more important than the port.
Mexican ports czar Cesar Patricio Reyes placed a moratorium on further work toward port planning for three or four months while the government explores ways to make everyone happy.
It is no secret the Mexican government is still committed to the port plan. A map from the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies shows the proposed goods route into a North American community.
According to transportation officials in Arizona, one of the sites considered for a rail line from Punta Colonet, the ...   more »

By Chris Zambelis
Since the arrest of members of the Seas of David, due to allegations that they sought al-Qaeda support in facilitating a plot to attack targets in Chicago and Miami, law enforcement and intelligence officials have been paying closer attention to radical trends in the African-American Muslim community. Despite its rhetoric and embrace of Islamic discourse, Seas of David is not a Muslim organization. Instead, its ideology appears to reflect an array of influences that includes a heavy dose of Judaism, Christianity and an affinity for pan-African nationalist ideals. Nevertheless, the group's predominantly African-American and Afro-Caribbean immigrant membership and its reported intent to seek out al-Qaeda raised alarm bells about the potential radicalization of Black Muslims in the United States, especially Muslim converts (Terrorism Focus, July 11).
Inner City Islam and Identity
Fears of the threat of al-Qaeda's influence spreading among African-American Muslim converts and underprivileged minorities in impoverished inner cities is in part based on alarming trends in Europe. Evidence of the presence of Black and Latino American-born Muslims in terrorism training camps in the Middle East and South Asia is one point of concern [1]. Richard C. Reid, the infamous "shoe bomber," also known as Abdul ...   more »

10-06) 04:00 PDT Washington -- A Pentagon project to modify its deadliest nuclear missile for use as a conventional weapon against targets such as North Korea and Iran could unwittingly spark an atomic war, two weapons experts warned Thursday.
Russian military officers might misconstrue a submarine-launched conventional D5 intercontinental ballistic missile and conclude that Russia is under nuclear attack, said Ted Postol, a physicist and professor of science, technology and national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Pavel Podvig, a physicist and weapons specialist at Stanford.
"Any launch of a long-range nonnuclear armed sea or land ballistic missile will cause an automated alert of the Russian early warning system," Postol told reporters.
The triggering of an alert wouldn't necessarily precipitate a retaliatory hail of Russian nuclear missiles, Postol said. Nevertheless, he said, "there can be no doubt that such an alert will greatly increase the chances of a nuclear accident involving strategic nuclear forces."
Podvig said launching conventional versions of a missile from a submarine that normally carries nuclear ICBMs "expands the possibility for a misunderstanding so widely that it is hard to contemplate."
Mixing conventional and nuclear D5s on a U.S. Trident submarine "would be very ...   more »

By James Kilner
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead on Saturday at her apartment block in central Moscow, police said.
"According to initial information she was killed by two shots when leaving the lift. Neighbors found her body," a police source told Reuters. Police found a pistol and four rounds in the lift.
Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old mother of two, won international fame and numerous prizes for her dogged pursuit of rights abuses by Putin's government, particularly in the violent southern province of Chechnya.
"The first thing that comes to mind is that Anna was killed for her professional activities. We don't see any other motive for this terrible crime," said Vitaly Yaroshevsky, a deputy editor of the newspaper where Politkovskaya worked.
Moscow chief prosecutor Yuri Syomin told reporters at the crime scene, a nine-story Soviet-era apartment building in central Moscow, that he was treating the death as murder.
Paramedics took Politkovskaya's body, wrapped in a white sheet, out of the building and put it into an ambulance. A middle-aged woman laid flowers at the doors of the building and stood with her head against the wall, crying.
Politkovskaya's silver ...   more »