by Rabbi Shraga Simmons
Are you a resident of a "walled city"? If so, you'll celebrate Purim on a different day than other Jews.
The Megillah (Esther 9:20-22) says that the Jews prevailed over their enemies on the 13th of Adar, and on the 14th they feasted to celebrate the victory. But in Shushan the capital, the battle lasted another day and the holiday was not celebrated until the 15th.
When the Sages instituted Purim, they took into account that Shushan was a walled city, and made the following stipulation: While most cities celebrate Purim on the 14th of Adar, cities which were walled at the time of Joshua (Yehoshua Bin Nun) should celebrate a special Purim -- called "Shushan Purim" -- on the 15th of Adar.
(The Sages originally considered making Shushan Purim conditional on whether a city was walled from the time of Achashverosh -- because the victory occurred at that time. However, as not to honor a Persian city more than the Land of Israel, which was in ruins at the time of the Purim miracle, the Sages made "Purim on the 15th" conditional on cities walled from the time of Joshua.)
The only city that was ...   more »

by Rabbi Shraga Simmons
Are you a resident of a "walled city"? If so, you'll celebrate Purim on a different day than other Jews.
The Megillah (Esther 9:20-22) says that the Jews prevailed over their enemies on the 13th of Adar, and on the 14th they feasted to celebrate the victory. But in Shushan the capital, the battle lasted another day and the holiday was not celebrated until the 15th.
When the Sages instituted Purim, they took into account that Shushan was a walled city, and made the following stipulation: While most cities celebrate Purim on the 14th of Adar, cities which were walled at the time of Joshua (Yehoshua Bin Nun) should celebrate a special Purim -- called "Shushan Purim" -- on the 15th of Adar.
(The Sages originally considered making Shushan Purim conditional on whether a city was walled from the time of Achashverosh -- because the victory occurred at that time. However, as not to honor a Persian city more than the Land of Israel, which was in ruins at the time of the Purim miracle, the Sages made "Purim on the 15th" conditional on cities walled from the time of Joshua.)
The only city that was ...   more »

Yaakov Katz ,
In the face of a possible escalation with Syria and Iran's efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon, parts of the country will shut down next month in what security officials say will be the largest emergency exercise in Israel's history.
The drill, which is being organized by the newly-established National Emergency Authority, will take place over five days starting on Sunday, April 6.
But first, on Tuesday, a first-of-its-kind hospital emergency exercise will take place to see how Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center would cope with a Grad missile hitting a five-story hospitalization building and an outpatient clinic's laboratory filled with toxic chemicals and a fire breaking out, requiring patients to be lowered from the roof. Around 100 firemen, 10 fire service vehicles and various other equipment, as well as doctors and nurses, will participate in the drill, to be held between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Preparations for the April exercise are being overseen by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i.
On the first day of the drill, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will convene the cabinet in Jerusalem in response to an "enemy attack" and to decide on an Israeli response.
Based on a lesson learned in the ...   more »

Canada's political stance has become more pronounced in recent months, analysts say
JERUSALEM–A United Nations panel voted overwhelmingly this month to condemn Israel for a recent armed incursion in the Gaza Strip that claimed more than 120 lives, many of them civilian.
Thirty-three member countries of the 47-seat UN Human Rights Council endorsed the resolution, which accused Israel of war crimes in its ongoing battles against Palestinian militants in Gaza.
Those in favour of censuring the Jewish state included China, India and Russia. Thirteen countries abstained, among them seven European governments.
But one nation stood alone against the denunciation of Israel, and that country was not the United States – Israel's leading foreign supporter – or even Israel itself, for neither country has a seat on the human rights body.
Instead, the lone dissenter was Canada.
"We're very happy that we see things in a similar way," Carmela Shamir, deputy director of the North America division at Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview last week.
"Canada has adopted several times in recent months very brave positions."
People are beginning to take notice.
"There is a widespread impression that Canada's position is more pro-Israel than it has been ...   more »

As I heard the screams set off by the color red alarm, which sounds just 15 seconds before the rockets slam into the city; as I saw the terror-stricken faces and the frantic dashing for shelter; as I watched scenes of shrapnel-peppered teenagers being loaded into ambulances in front of their weeping friends, their siblings and parents shaking in shock, small children screaming for their mommies; as I watched the awful fear that now besets and hovers over yet another Jewish community, as it has over untold numbers of Jewish communities in the past, it was as if I could hear the exultant cries of the Arabs in the Gaza Strip, who proclaimed as they watched the results of their handiwork on the same You Tube channel I was viewing:
You’re a Jew, so we will terrorize you.
You’re a Jew, so we will maim you.
You’re a Jew, so we will kill you.
We’ll fire our Kassams,
And we’ll shoot off our mortars.
And though the ‘Color Red’ may send you scurrying for your holes
We will get you. We WILL get you.
And when your body lies bleeding and dismembered in the streets of Sderot,
When your devastated ...   more »

Israel is to hold its largest-ever emergency exercise in April - shutting down parts of the country as it tests its responses to massive, possibly non-conventional, attacks from Syria and Iran.
This is according to the top story Monday in The Jerusalem Post, and comes the day after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem was quoted as saying a war between Syria and Israel is certainly a possibility.
Starting April 6, and stretching over five days, the emergency drill will include a convening of the cabinet following "an enemy attack," the sounding of sirens country-wide, mass-evacuations from "hit" areas - simulating responses to chemical and nuclear strikes - and the inundating of hospitals with thousands of Israeli casualties.
A high-ranking defense official said the drill would be "the biggest exercise in Israel's history."
He took pains to stress, however, that Israel was not planning the event because of fears of an imminent war but rather to implement lessons learned from the Second Lebanon War.
Moallem, interviewed by the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Anba, was asked if he believed that Israel was preparing for war against Lebanon or Syria
"Everything is possible", he answered, adding that "every rational person should prepare for every ...   more »