The Tenth of Tevet is a Jewish fast day marking Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem 2,500 years ago. What’s the message for us today?
The 10th of Tevet, a fast day which commemorates when the Babylonians first laid siege to Jerusalem, takes place this year on Wednesday, December 19th.
10th of Tevet
In Jewish consciousness, a fast day is a time of reckoning, a time to correct a previous mistake. What happened on the Tenth of Tevet that we have to correct?
On the Tenth of Tevet, 2,500 years ago, Nebuchadnezzar began his siege of Jerusalem. Actually, there was little damage on that first day and no Jews were killed. So why is this day so tragic? Because the siege was a message, to get the Jewish people to wake up and fix their problems. They failed, and the siege led to the destruction of the King Solomon's Temple.
Today we are also under siege. Much of the Jewish world is ignorant of our precious heritage. Children whose Jewish education ended at age 13 now carry that perception through adulthood. The results are catastrophic: assimilation in the diaspora, and a blurring of our national goals in Israel.
So what's the message ...   more »

Slam Hamas terror group's Temple Mount broadcast as 'fostering bloodshed, war'
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – A group of prominent rabbinic elders and the leaders of Israel's major Temple Mount activist groups issued a joint statement today calling on "all nations who believe in the word of God to" rebuke the Israeli government for reportedly failing to halt the Hamas terror group from broadcasting live today from the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site.
"We call upon all nations who cherish freedom and who believe in the word of God as manifest in the Torah of Israel and its prophets to rebuke the government of Israel for its disgraceful treatment of all that is holy to the Jewish people before the eyes of the entire world," said a statement by the New Jewish Congress, the Sanhedrin and the Holy Temple and Temple Mount movements.
The Congress is a group of religious Zionist leaders here while the Sanhedrin consists of prominent rabbinic leaders who in 2004 reformed the ancient group of Jewish judges that previously constituted the legislative body of Israel. The reformed Sanhedrin has been a subject of debate within some Jewish communities.
Continued the statement: "The contemptible and vile consent ...   more »

Israeli scientists yesterday said they had created the world's smallest Hebrew Bible, fitting the book on to a gold-coated silicon chip smaller than a pinhead.   
The scientists were able to pack the 308,428 words onto a surface smaller than a pinhead 
Scientists at Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology, were able to pack the 308,428 words of what Christians refer to as the Old Testament on to a 0.5mm square of silicon by etching its surface with particle beams.
"The Guinness Book of World Records has a Bible 50 times bigger," said Ohad Zohar, who directed the project. He said he now wanted to take pictures of the nano-Bible and blow it up to a seven-by-seven metre poster, which will make it "possible to read the entire bible with the naked eye".
The tiny Bible was developed as part of an educational drive to increase interest in nanoscience among teenagers.
 Original Source

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