by Yaakov Astor
The shofar arouses the divine voice within our own innermost selves, calling us back to our Source.
The shofar -- it has an aura of awe and holiness about it. Its blast can shatter hearts of stone and wash away layers of complacency. Its call is capable of bringing us back to places inside ourselves impenetrable by any other means.
The Baal Shem Tov said, "In the palace of the king there are many chambers and each one needs a different key. There is one key, one instrument, however, which can open all the doors -- the ax. The shofar is an ax. When a person passionately breaks his heart before the Almighty, he can smash any gate in the palace of the King of Kings."
The Baal Shem Tov is teaching that the shofar is an emotional, intuitive way of gaining access to the deepest recesses of our heart, of divine experiential knowledge. Its blast, this wordless sound, speaks to the heart in a way all the greatest words and insights cannot approach.
King David, on the other hand, seems to contradict this. In reference to the shofar he says, "Happy is the people who know ...   more »

Sources reveal status of secret talks to create Palestinian state this year
By Aaron Klein
Condoleezza Rice
JERUSALEM – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, completing a visit to the region today, has been pressing Israel to sign a document by the end of the year that would divide Jerusalem by offering the Palestinians a state in Israel's capital city as well as in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to top diplomatic sources involved in the talks.
The Israeli team, led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has been negotiating the division of Jerusalem – despite claims to the contrary – but would rather conclude an agreement on paper by the end of the year that would give the Palestinians a state in the West Bank, Gaza and some Israeli territory, leaving conclusions on Jerusalem for a later date, the informed diplomatic sources told WND.
Original Source
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In releasing 200 Palestinian terrorists, including murderers, Olmert is not just abasing himself before Abbas.  He's testing the waters for his big legacy to Israel.
It’s a mistake to think that the Olmert government’s mass release of terrorists, including some involved in murder, is simply an exercise in supine toadying to Abu Whatsisname.  For Olmert, Barak and Tzipi Livni, this was a test case.  Could they get the Israeli public and professional opinion in the security establishment to overlook the release of murderers?
Olmert's prisoner release passed with barely a public murmer.
The security establishment was divided in its opinion.  That was sufficient for Olmert to ram the decision through.  With the security establishment diffident on the issue, the public protest was limited to those who assume—correctly—that releasing terrorists encourages terror rather than peace.  The release passed with barely a public murmur.
This means that Olmert has been entirely successful and is now well placed to grant his most enduring legacy to the Israeli people:  Marwan Barghouti.
Original Source
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by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
“There’s a big problem. The Arabs are desecrating [the Mount]. So for the Arabs it’s allowed and Jews not? If they rule that Jews are not allowed on the mount, then Arabs should certainly not be allowed on it either.”
Several of Israel’s leading rabbis have fired the latest shot in one of modern Israel’s longest-running halachic disputes—whether a Jew may enter the Temple Mount nowadays. Rabbis Ovadia Yosef, Shalom Elyashiv and Chaim Kanievsky recently sent a letter to Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, the rabbi in charge of the Western Wall area, asking him to repeat a 40-year-old decree prohibiting Jews from entering the Temple Mount.
The decree was originally signed by most leading rabbis upon the Mount’s capture by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
The Temple Mount is the area upon which both Holy Temples stood, in which the priests offered sacrifices, and where thrice-yearly convocations of the whole nation of Israel took place during the festivals of Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Weeks) and Sukkot (Tabernacles).
Original Source
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