marks the date of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai',s death. So why is it such a celebration?
13 YEARS IN THE CAVE
Rabbi Shimon was a great sage who lived during the Roman conquest of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. He was one of Rabbi Akiva's five students who -- despite terrible persecutions -- ensured that the Torah would not be forgotten.
The Talmud (Shabbat 33b) describes a seminal event in the life of Rabbi Shimon:
When the Romans outlawed the study of Torah, Rabbi Shimon spoke out against them. The Romans thus pronounced a death sentence against Rabbi Shimon, who was forced to go into hiding.
Rabbi Shimon and his son Elazar fled to a cave in the northern region of Israel. They had no means of subsistence, but a miracle occurred and a carob tree sprouted in the cave, along with a stream of water.
Rabbi Shimon and his son had no change of clothes. In order to preserve their clothes from wearing out, they each dug a deep hole, removed their clothes and buried themselves neck-deep in the sand. (Out of modesty, they wanted to be covered.) They would spend the entire day immersed in Torah study. When the ...   more »

Associated Press
Palestinian officials have reacted coolly to the latest pronouncements from Osama bin Laden.
In his latest recorded message to the world, the fugitive leader of al-Qaida portrays himself as a bitter enemy of Israel and the only true defender of the Palestinians. However the actual Palestinians, including Hamas, don't seem too enthusiastic about the support.
The Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank fears Palestinian cause could be sullied by links to terrorism. In the tape, bin Laden condemned the West Bank government for talking to Israel. And Hamas, which the US and Israel consider a terrorist group, sees al-Qaida as too extreme.
Palestinian Authority government adviser Nimr Hammad says bin Laden has "caused huge damage to the image of Muslims and Arabs all over the world." He says bin Laden's statements have damaged the Palestinian image as well.
Original Source
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Yaakov Lappin and dan izenberg
During his tenure as minister of industry, trade and labor, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received, in person, cash envelopes from US financier Morris Talansky, State Attorney Moshe Lador said Monday in the Supreme Court, adding that new details of Olmert's investigation would come to light in the coming hours, or, at the very latest, on Tuesday.
"According to suspicions, while serving as a minister in the Israeli government Ehud Olmert received cash envelopes from Moshe Talansky, both in Israel through his office manager at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, Shula Zaken, and in the United States," Lador said during a deliberation of an appeal by the prime ministers' lawyers against the decision to allow the state to take a "preliminary testimony" from Talanksy.
Lador revealed the nature of the allegations against Olmert. "The size of these sums will be assessed according to the testimony that will be heard (Talansky's)," he said, "including the naming of sums, [delivered] both during Talansky's visits in Israel and also when Talansky met with Olmert from time to time for short meetings."
According to Lador, during these meetings, Talansky "transferred the sums in dollars, in cash, inside envelopes, ...   more »

Herb Keinon
A nuclear Iran is as much "a nightmare" for Russia as it is for the US and Israel, and Moscow doesn't differ with Washington and Jerusalem on the need to stop Teheran, only on the way to do it, Russian Ambassador to Israel Petr Stegniy said Monday.
According to Stegniy, who has served extensively in the Arab world, including as the then-Soviet Union's charge d'affaires in Libya from 1986-1990, during the height of US-Libyan tension, it is counterproductive to push Iran, or similar regimes - such as that of Muammar Gaddafi in the 1980s - into a corner.
Stegniy's comments came during a lecture he gave on Russian foreign policy at Hebrew University's Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace.
Stegniy remembers talks he had with the Americans while he was posted in Tripoli - a period that witnessed the bombing of a disco in West Berlin that prompted US air raids on Libya, and the Lockerbie bombing - and shared advice with the US at the time about how to get Libya to change its behavior.
The best advice, he said, was to "get Gaddafi's name off the front pages, leave him alone with ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
The leader of the Israeli opposition Likud Party, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Monday that the coalition led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "must return the mandate to the people to choose another government."
"The Olmert-Kadima government has no mandate to negotiate on Israel’s borders," the former prime minister said, according to Ynetnews.
"This government was elected under different circumstances and times. Most of the public knows that any land we give away will become a terror base for Islam extremists under Iran’s patronage," Netanyahu told a Likud faction meeting, which along with the other parties' Knesset factions was holding its first meeting in six weeks.
"Bibi" - as the Likud leader is widely known - steered clear of exploiting the ongoing criminal investigation into Olmert, who is being probed for having allegedly taken bribes.
Instead he homed in on the inability of Olmert's government to adhere to its basic guidelines as laid out when it came to power on May 4, 2006.
Olmert and his Kadima Party were elected to continue efforts to pave the way for a two-state solution begun when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon executed the "disengagement" [in reality, retreat – Ed] from the Gaza Strip....   more »

by Rabbi Pinchas Stolper
Many puzzling questions surround the little understood holiday of Lag B',Omer -- the thirty third day of the counting of the Omer.
Thirty-three days following the first day of Passover, Jews celebrate a "minor" holiday called Lag B'Omer, the thirty-third day of the Omer. It is an oasis of joy in the midst of the sad Sefirah period which is almost unnoticed by most contemporary Jews. Yet it contains historic lessons of such great severity -- that this generation must not only unravel the mystery of Lag B'Omer but will discover that its own fate is wrapped in the crevices of its secrets.
The seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot are the days of the "Counting of the Omer," the harvest festivities which were observed in the Land of Israel when the Temple stood on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem.
This fifty-day period should have been a time of joyful anticipation. Having experienced the Exodus from Egypt on Pesach, every Jew literally "counts the days" from the first night of Passover until Mattan Torah -- the revelation of Torah at Mt. Sinai which took place on Shavuot, exactly fifty days after the Exodus. While the Exodus marks ...   more »

JPost.com Staff ,
Although the discouraging pace of peace talks has led many to doubt the feasibility of US President George W. Bush's goal that a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians could be realized by 2009, Palestinian Authority officials seemed optimistic on Sunday, telling the London-based newspaper, Al-Hayat that an agreement of principles between the two sides would likely be signed by August 2008.
The report, however, went on to quote Jordanian officials expressing concern over the president's visit to the Knesset on Thursday, saying that the tone of his "Zionist speech" demonstrated that the chance for peace might be missed.
Further, Jordanian officials told the newspaper that three weeks ago, an argument erupted between the Jordanian foreign minister and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. According to the report, Livni sparked the confrontation when she attacked the Jordanian position on West Bank settlements, and demanded that her counterpart "stop damaging negotiations with the Palestinians."
The officials were also quoted as saying that an unnamed Jordanian official and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat drafted an unofficial agreement of principles together, but were prevented from presenting it publicly after the Bush administration voiced its opposition.
Meanwhile, Jordan's King Abdullah II told Livni ...   more »