by Sara Yoheved Rigler
How to bring God's palpable presence back into our world.
I remember with perfect clarity the sensation of waking up on the morning of March 9, 1990. In those first few fuzzy moments of consciousness, I oriented myself to where I was -- in the spare bedroom of my parents' New Jersey apartment, and what day it was -- two days after my father's death. As soon as I realized that I had woken up into a world without my father, my heart plunged into a fathomless grief, like waking up into a nightmare that will never end.
The world without my father was not simply the same world minus one; it was a totally different world. This altered, diminished world lacked the stability and goodness that was my father. This world wobbled on its axis; its gravitational pull was heavier.
It took me a year to adapt to this new world, to learn to navigate its emotional byways. Now, more than fifteen years later, I've become proficient at maneuvering in this World-Without-My-Father, but it is not and will never be the same world in which he was so benevolently and lovingly present.
The ninth day ...   more »

Aaron Magid
"The ground is shaking" is not just a political metaphor anymore; it may also be a reality soon in Israel.
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev are predicting a major earthquake following the 80-year anniversary of the last destructive earthquake that hit Israel. Dr. Ron Avni, who specializes in the study of earthquakes, warned on Sunday that approximately 17 percent of older Jerusalem buildings constructed around the time of the state's founding are likely to be harmed by the quake. In Tel Aviv, 9% of the buildings dating back to Israel's independence are expected to be damaged.
Israel's last earthquake struck the northern Dead Sea on July 11, 1927, and hit a 6.25 on the Richter scale. The blast killed almost 300 people both inside the country and across the Jordan River. While the statistical data predicts another quake in 2011, 84 years from the previous upheaval, Dr. Avni urged caution.
"The 80-year birthday of the last earthquake brings us into a new period called 'the range of statistical error,'" he said. "[From] what we know regarding the previous destructive earthquake, the time that another destructive earthquake will return, like what occurred in 1927, is about 100 ...   more »

About 5,000 Israelis participated in a march around Jerusalem's Temple Mount on Sunday, according to police estimates cited by Israel National News.
The march is a monthly event conducted by religious Israelis dedicated to the rebuilding of Israel's temple to the Almighty, but usually draws far smaller numbers.
Sunday's march took place just one week before the Ninth of Av, the Hebrew calendar date when the First and Second Temples were destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans, respectively. The Ninth of Av is a day of national mourning and fasting in Israel.
Original Source
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The present-day Sanhedrin Court along with a group of extremist rabbis announced their plans on Wednesday to resume ancient Temple practices of animal sacrifices on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, despite religious bans by Moslems and Jews.
The court purchased herds of sheep for ritual sacrifice, which they have planned for the eve of Passover, depending on the situation at the controversial religious site.
“Regrettably, there are many extremist Israeli groups who want to carry out their plans,” said Jerusalem's senior Islamic cleric, Mohammed Hussein. “Let them say what they want, Al Aksa is a Moslem mosque.”
The 71 members of the Sanhedrin have all the required elements necessary for Temple sacrifice, including the ritual altar, and said they want to begin sacrificing animals again, despite the absence of the Temple. Professor Hillel Weiss, a member of the Sanhedrin, said it is an important step to show that it’s not only talk.
Rabbi Dov Stein, secretary of the new Sanhedrin Court, believes Temple sacrifices won’t happen any time soon.
“We want to do the sacrifice, but we have political problems,” Stein said. “We hope there will come a time when the government will agree. We will push for that to ...   more »

by Hillel Fendel
Arutz-7's daily Hebrew newsmagazine was broadcast on Monday from the Gush Katif farmers' protest tent outside the Prime Minister's Office.  The farmers are demanding that the government merely give back the thriving farming businesses it took from them.
First to be interviewed was Eliezer Yaakov, formerly of the now-destroyed Gush Katif community Gan-Or.  "I was a farmer in Gush Katif for 22 years," he said, "with 17 dunams (4.2 acres) of greenhouses, growing tomatoes for both domestic use and export, as well as organic Chilean peppers - the only one of its type in Israel."
Yaakov explained the purpose of the demonstration, which began on Sunday: "We were promised that there was a 'solution for every settler' and that by the end of 2005, we would have plots and farms...  Today, two years later, 80% of the farmers aren't working; they have received no land and are sitting at home eating up their compensation money."
Yaakov said that an outside consultant, "someone who has been employed in the past by the government, proved to the highest government officials that the farmers of Gush Katif actually received only a small percentage of what they should have received."
Interviewer ...   more »

Contingency plan to rebuild evacuated West Bank settlement into 20,000-resident city, complete with mall, luxury buildings, college, awaits Olmert's replacement or 'decision to correct his mistake'
Efrat Weiss
A city housing 20,000 residents, shopping malls, sport centers, a college and luxury buildings with a view of the sea will be built in place of the 80-family evacuated settlement of Homesh, according to the Homesh First organization's contingency plan that has been in the works for the past few months.
Homesh First members and Homesh evacuees have been meeting with a team of architects and engineers and have produced a prototype of the new city they plan to build in the former West Bank settlement.  
Muzi Finkel, one of the team's engineers explained, "The delineated area where Homesh is found is an area where no Arabs reside. It is about 420 acres, and this is enough room to bring in 20,000 residents, despite the difficult topography."  
Finkel volunteered to take on the job free of charge, and said he viewed this project as a mission, saying, "This is the spearhead of the urgent treatment the people need to get them out of the psychological sickness they have been in ...   more »

The organizers of the “Return to Homesh” movement have announced that after several months of secret negotiations, they have signed on an unnamed American Jew to lead the march to Homesh. A New York Jewish businessman is reported to have put up the million dollar fee that X is rumored to be getting for his services. “He’s worth every penny of it,” the businessman said. “With a no-nonsense American Jew like X leading the charge, things are going to start to change in Israel.” An investigation which I conducted into the identity of this mysterious soldier of fortune was met with insurmountable roadblocks along the way, though my journalist intuition has me hoping that he is Mike from Vienna, VA.  To remind Arutz 7 readers, Mike is the prolific blog commenter who advocates armed revolution as the only method of making Israel a true Jewish State. Since he is presently serving as a reserve commander in the U.S. Army Special Overseas Forces, chances are that if he is indeed the awaited savior, he will be wearing a mask while in Israel to guard his identity.
It is believed that a “stinker” from the settlements has alerted Israel security forces of ...   more »

Peres' remarks infuriate rightists
Political right enraged over president's comments on 'getting rid of territories'. 'It's regrettable that on his very first day he voices opinions that drive a wedge though the people,' says MK Levy
Amnon Meranda
"This is what we were afraid of – that Peres would continue to push his political agenda as president," said MK Yitzhak Levy (National Union) Sunday, in response to the new president's inauguration speech.  
"It is regrettable that on his very first day he chose to voice opinions that drive a wedge though the people instead of uniting them," he added.
Inauguration  
President Shimon Peres spoke with the Associated Press earlier Sunday, and was quoted as saying "we have to get rid of the territories… I shall respect the minority, I shall not insult them…I changed my position. I didn't change my beliefs."
National Union-NRP Knesset Member Zvi Hendel slammed President Peres over his statement, saying
“even prior to entering the role of president he (Peres) attempted to tear the nation apart and is playing into the hands of his murdering friends in the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
“Peres better not think that the presidency grants him immunity,” added Hendel.
MK Yisrael ...   more »

By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service  
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has concluded that the home front in Israel is not at all prepared for the event of an nonconventional attack, saying that the defense establishment's inaction on emergency kits is ineffective and harmful.
The document criticized the decision to collect gas masks from the homes of Israelis, leaving them unprotected in the case of a biological or chemical attack. In the event of a war, the report maintained, the authorities would not have enough time to distribute masks to the entire population.
The committee called for the kits to be fixed and updated, saying that their current state will bring the "de facto destruction by our own hands of the home front defense system." 
The committee said that the "level of readiness and preparation of the home front in Israel in the last few years is in constant decline, due to the problematic decision - which, in retrospect, is costing millions of shekels - to open the gas mask kits in 2003."
When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Israel feared that an Iraqi retaliation would target Israel. Residents were instructed to open ...   more »

US expert gives alternative tour of Dead Sea Scrolls, says Judeans fleeing Romans wrote text
Yaakov Lappin
An American academic leading visitors around an exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Natural History Museum in San Diego will challenge the consensus on the identity of the scrolls' authors, the Chicago Jewish News said on Friday.  
Professor Norman Golb, of the Jewish History and Civilization department at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, does not   
believe that the scrolls were authored by the ancient Jewish Essene sect, a pacifist group, as most experts believe, arguing instead that the scrolls were authored by a variety of Jewish residents of Judea who fled the Roman Army in 70 C.E.  
"In the last few years, the Chicago scholar's theory has been bolstered by the work of two leading Israeli archaeologists on the basis of 10 years of archaeological excavations at Qumran, where most of the scrolls were found and where the Essenes were said to have lived," the Chicago Jewish News said.  
"Still, Golb's theories remain controversial, and the current exhibit in San Diego and others that visited several U.S. cities (Chicago not among them) in 2006 and early ...   more »

By Yoav Stern, Barak Ravid and Yossi Melman Haaretz Correspondents and The Associated Press  
The Qatari newspaper Al Watan on Sunday quoted diplomatic sources in Damascus as saying that Iran has marked 600 targets in Israel for missile strikes in case it is attacked.
The report said the targets are within reach of Iranian missiles and would be completely destroyed if Israel should attack Iran or participate in an American attack on the country.
Iran's warning refers to talk in Israel and the United States of a possible military strike to prevent the Islamic republic from attaining nuclear capability. 
Various channels delivered the Iranian message, which also warns against an attack on Syria.
The sources, which were described as both "international" and Arab, told Al Watan they do not expect a war to break out between Israel and Syria this summer.
Also Sunday, Iran's foreign ministry said Tehran will remain steady in pursuing its disputed nuclear program, and hopes the United Nations Security Council won't sanction it for this.
"Nuclear activities of Iran continue in a defined and clear framework," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said at his weekly news conference.
He dismissed earlier reports that Iran had ...   more »

The US State Department on Saturday issued a warning that intelligence information indicates Americans and American-linked buildings are now prime targets for Palestinian terrorism in Israel and the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories.
“The Israeli authorities are concerned by the continued threat of suicide attacks,“ read the statement. “The US government has received information that American interests might be targeted for terrorist attacks.”
The warning made special mention of American institutes, restaurants and businesses in Jerusalem, reported Ynet.
In line with the warning, American tourists visiting Israel have been told to “remain alert and watchful, and exercise discretion in restaurants, coffee shops, malls, work places and theaters.” Tourists were also cautioned against congregating in large groups in public places.
US embassy and consular staff were ordered to avoid Jerusalem's Old City at night and on Fridays (the Muslim day of prayer). They were also forbidden to travel through Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), except for critical diplomatic missions.
Original Source
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IsraelNN.com) A four-day International Conference of Descendants of the biblical figure Aaron, the Priestly Tribe (Kohanim) and the whole Tribe of Levi to which the Kohanim are a part, begins on Sunday, July 15.
“And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
—Isa 11:12
“Bring forth Aharon’s sons….Then anoint them, just as you anointed their father, so that they will be Kohanim (”priests”) to Me. It will be done so that their anointing will make them an eternal [hereditary] priesthood for all generations. Moses proceeded to do exactly as G-d had commanded him.” (Exodus 40:14, 15)
Throughout Jewish history and to this day, Jews are careful to note which families belong to the tribe of Levi and the priestly family of Aaron. At the special gathering this week in Jerusalem, they will learn more about their roots and discuss the latest research proving their genetic ties.
The International Conference of Kohanim and the Tribe of Levi falls on the first day of the Hebrew month of Av and the beginning of the nine-day period leading up to ...   more »

By Aluf Benn, Barak Ravid and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents
 
President George W. Bush will give a special address Monday on the Middle East, which is expected to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process.

The speech of the U.S. president will express a plan for "activism" on the part of the Bush administration, according to a senior Israeli political source who was briefed in advance about it. Bush's tone is meant to express his approval of the formation of a new Palestinian Authority government under Salam Fayad, as well as the appointment of former British prime minister Tony Blair as the Quartet's coordinator.

The speech is also intended to reiterate President Bush's commitment to a two-state solution, and will offer American support to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. 
In addition to offering new ideas for progress, it is also expected to include demands from Israel.
"In the past, it had been clear who the good guys and the bad guys were, and so long as Yasser Arafat and [later] Hamas were in power in the Palestinian Authority," that was the case, the senior political source said late Sunday night. "Now, Bush needs to relate to the two sides as ...   more »

IsraelNN.com) President-elect Shimon Peres, whose inauguration ceremony has just begun, is wasting no time in giving inflammatory interviews. Speaking with the Associated Press before the ceremony, Peres said "we must get rid of the Territories," using the left-wing terminology for parts of the Land of Israel liberated in 1967.
Peres, who had promised to be a President who would unite Israelis, claimed that the need for "getting rid" of Judea and Samaria reflected the will of the majority of Israelis. "I won't hide my views," he said. "However, I will respect the minority and I will not insult them. I have changed my job but not my beliefs."
Original Source


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