by Rabbi Shraga Simmons
It's the holiest day of the Jewish year. Might as well know what we're doing and get it right!
ANGEL FOR A DAY
What are "angels?" Angels are completely spiritual beings, whose sole focus is to serve their Creator.
On Yom Kippur, every Jew becomes like an angel. As the Maharal of Prague explains:
"All of the mitzvot that God commanded us on [Yom Kippur] are designed to remove, as much as possible, a person's relationship to physicality, until he is completely like an angel."
Just as angels (so to speak) stand upright, so too we spend most of Yom Kippur standing in the synagogue. And just as angels (so to speak) wear white, so too we are accustomed to wear white on Yom Kippur. Just as angels do not eat or drink, so too, we do not eat or drink.
FIVE ASPECTS
There are five areas of physical involvement which we remove ourselves from on Yom Kippur. They are:
Eating and Drinking
Washing
Applying oils or lotions to the skin
Marital Relations
Wearing Leather Shoes
Throughout the year, many people spend their days focusing on food, work, superficial material possessions (symbolized by shoes) and superficial ...   more »

By Jonathan Rosenblum    
Why "fear" is actually rooted in optimism
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Each of us has some mission in life that is ours and ours alone. No two human beings are born with the same talents or the same challenges; no two are born into the same familial situation or the identical time and place in human history. These unique aspects of each of us constitute the raw material within which our mission in life will unfold.
Targum Onekolos translates the words "a living being" in the verse (Genesis 2:7) ". . . And G-d blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being, as "l'ruach m'mal'la" — a speaking being. The ability to speak is thus intimately connected with the Divine soul that the Divine breathed into Adam. Each of us was brought into the world to "speak," to proclaim some aspect of G-d that no one else could. That proclamation is our mission in life.  
In the section of the Rosh Hashanah prayers known as zichronos (remembrances), a similar idea appears. The prayer describes how "the remembrance of everything fashioned comes before You: everyone's deed and mission ( ma'aseh ish u'pikudaso)." ...   more »

By Israel Insider staff   
Right wing MKs are threatening to leave Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition if concludes a deal with the Palestinians would include dividing Jerusalem and relinquishing exclusive Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount, according to Haaretz.
"There is not even a shadow of a doubt over whether Shas would agree to dividing Jerusalem and a withdrawal to the 1967 borders, or would sit in a government that signed such an accord," Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai, who is also chairman of Shas.
Yishai added that other right wing parties would withdraw from Olmert's coalition if the prime minister seeks an agreement that is modeled on former United States president Bill Clinton's proposed peace deal for an almost complete pullout from the West Bank.
"Not only Shas will leave the government, but also Yisrael Beiteinu will not sit one day in government that opposes all of its principles" he added.
Yishai's remarks follow recent reports that Hamas is just as strong as Fatah in the Judea and Samaria, and that its members are more motivated than Fatah's supporters.
National Religious Party and Likud party activists met and considered the possibility of forming an alternative government, without ...   more »

Kuwaiti newspaper says Turkish intelligence provided Israel with information on targets Air Force allegedly attacked last week without Turkish government's authorization
Turkish intelligence provided Israel with information on the Syrian targets allegedly attacked by the Air Force last week without the Turkish government's authorization, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jareeda reported Thursday.   
Al-Jareeda quoted several sources as saying that Israel and senior Turkish military personnel coordinated Israel's invasion of Turkish airspace during the operation to send a message to the ruling Justice and Development party, or AKP. Senior military officials in Turkey, most of whom are secular, oppose the Islamist party's platform.  
According to the sources, AKP member and newly-elected President Abdullah Gul is not doing enough to prevent the transfer of arms from Iran to terror groups in Syria and Lebanon via Turkey.
However, the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported that IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi refused to take a call from his Turkish counterpart, who asked for clarifications on the attack.
Original Source

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Washington Post reports recent US gathered intelligence points to possible cooperation between Syria, N. Korea on nuclear facility. Israeli satellite images strengthen claims, but many US officials uncertain of significance
Yitzhak Benhorin
WASHINGTON – Intelligence gathered by the United States over the past six months points to a possible cooperation between North Korea and Syria on building a nuclear facility on Syrian land, according to a report published by the Washington Post Thursday.  
Evidence Revealed 
The report said the evidence for the claim came primarily from Israel, including satellite images that led US officials to believe the facility could be used to produce material for nuclear weapons.  
The new information, in particular images received by the US over the past month, has only been shared with a few senior officials, as was instructed by national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley.  
Despite reports, the Washington Post said many in the intelligence community were unaware of the images, or uncertain of their significance. Intelligence sources emphasized that preliminary reports on suspicious activity are often reassessed over time and found to be inaccurate.  
According to the Washington Post, some security sources expressed doubt over the possibility that Syrian was ...   more »

North America about to be hit by tsunami of Far East goods
By Jerome R. Corsi
Yangshan
The Chinese deep-water port at Yangshan, near Shanghai, provides ample evidence North America is about to be hit by a tsunami of containers from China.
Yangshan is a reclaimed island the size of 470 soccer fields that lies in the East China Sea Port, offshore from Shanghai.
According to Bloomberg News, the Chinese have invested $15 billion to develop Yangshan, currently the largest port in China.
Currently handling 20 million containers a year, Yangshan is expected by 2010 to operate up to 30 berths, capable of exporting 30 million containers a year, with the vast majority destined for North America.
The Chinese developed Yangshan to accommodate the largest post-Panamax megaships now being constructed, with a capacity to carry up to 12,500 containers, three or four times the size of container ships now operating.
Yangshan Port is connected to the mainland by the 20-mile long Donghai Bridge.
As a clear indication of globalism's impact on the U.S. economy, international trade has grown from 13 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 1990, to 24 percent in 2000, with projections of 30 percent by ...   more »

By Kelly J. Stigliano
CBN.com – I remembered the feeling of days long ago, before my Christian conversion, when I got high; a feeling of lethargy, as if my arms weighed 50 pounds each. I could actually feel the blood course through my veins. I could feel my heart beating without touching my chest. Suddenly things would get very quiet, and my vision centered in more and more as my peripheral vision narrowed.
Yes, I remembered the feeling. I was feeling it again, but now I was on sugar, not illegal drugs.
Every time I had my blood sugar checked, the results said I had a perfect balance. Then why did my post-sugar experiences rival my previously private pill-popping parties?
Amid a myriad of Web sites, books, and medical reports, I learned that refined carbohydrates (like white flour), as well as refined sugar, convert into blood sugar. In me, they created an emergency situation that I often ignored.
The basics of what sugar does to the body go like this: We eat and the food is changed into sugar, which then enters the bloodstream. As the blood sugar level begins to rise, the pancreas sends insulin into the bloodstream. The ...   more »

Ethiopia entered the third millennium seven years after the rest of the world Wednesday, amid lavish celebrations, religious fervor and messages of hope from the troubled country's leaders.
As the giant countdown board in central Addis Ababa flashed the year 2000 at midnight (2100 GMT), thousands of faithful from all over Ethiopia -- which follows a unique slightly modified Julian calendar -- gathered in churches.
"I hope that I get cured permanently from my illness and continue doing the job that I have," said 32-year-old Leul Tesfasellasie, as hundreds lined up to be healed by holy waters at the capital's Entoto Mariam church.
"Everyone here hopes for a cure on the new year," he said.
So does Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who voiced his hope the new millennium would herald a new era of prosperity for the Horn of Africa nation, which has been mired in conflict and poverty.
"The last few centuries of the millennium have not been as glorious," Meles said at an official ceremony attended by several other heads of state. "Every generation of Ethiopians during those centuries has paid in blood to maintain our independence."
"We have came from being one of the most advanced nations ...   more »

Meanwhile, NORAD, USNORTHCOM on alert for U.N. meetings
By Jerome R. Corsi
Pre-flight for F-16 prior to multi-aircraft exercise at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina (USAF)
Contrary to rumors surrounding the Air Combat Command's stand-down of all 100,000 active-duty airmen ordered for tomorrow, the U.S. will not be devoid of fighter aircraft to protect the nation.
Michael Kucharek, spokesman for NORAD and USNORTHCOM, told WND the stand-down does not include the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves assigned to NORAD.
About 70 percent of the aircraft involved in NORAD alerts are Air National Guard or Air Force Reserves aircraft, according to Kucharek.
Meanwhile, NORAD and USNORTHCOM will be on alert status Sept. 24 when the U.N. convenes a high-level meeting on climate change and the following day when the General Assembly begins its 62nd Session in New York City.
The stand-down Friday was ordered by Gen. Ronald Keys to conduct a command-wide review of operations, safety procedures and checklists after the Aug. 30 incident at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, according to the Air Force Times.
At Minot, six cruise missiles with nuclear warheads were loaded onto a B-52H and flown to Barksdale Air Force ...   more »

By Akilah Johnson
FORT LAUDERDALE
Broward County's Hebrew-language charter school can again teach Hebrew -- finally.
The curriculum of the Ben Gamla Charter School in Hollywood was unanimously approved by the Broward School Board on Tuesday, ending debate over whether Hebrew can be taught without also promoting a religion. At the center of the debate: The taxpayer-funded school's curriculum.
The dispute came to a head last month when the School Board ordered the kindergarten through eighth grade school to temporarily stop teaching Hebrew out of concern the charter school would be in violation of the federally established separation between religion and government.
At first, Ben Gamla operators refused to stop teaching Hebrew, but relented a day later.
So for the past month, students studied reading, writing, arithmetic and Israeli geography but not Hebrew while an expert hired by the School Distict scrutinized the school's curriculum.
Tuesday's approval comes with stipulations. Ben Gamla must submit its lesson plans to the district each month for approval. District and Ben Gamla staff must also undergo religious studies. The courses are intended to help educators understand the difference between teaching students about religion and teaching in a way that promotes religion
Original Source
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WASHINGTON -- Weapons of mass destruction, small boats packed with explosives and Islamic radicalization are the greatest terrorist threats facing the country, top U.S. security officials said Monday on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The officials told Congress the country is much better prepared to face terror threats than it was then, but that terrorists' desire to attack the United States remains strong — an assertion that has yet to be fully accepted by the American public, according to a new poll.
"The enemy is not standing still. They are constantly revising their tactics and adapting their strategy and their capabilities," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "And if we stand still — or worse yet, if we retreat — we are going to be handing them an advantage that we dare not see them hold."
He said the threat of a USS Cole-type attack on U.S. ports — where a small boat packed with explosives detonates in a harbor — is one of his top concerns.
And while the department's goal is to keep nuclear weapons from entering the country, he said it also is focusing on how it would respond should ...   more »