by Rabbi Joshua Shmidman
Sukkot conveys the Jewish understanding of Beauty, and it's not what you think.
Every civilization and every philosophical system searches for the meaning of beauty. In classical Western thought, "pursuit of the Beautiful" is deemed to be as basic as the quest for the Good and the True. Contemporary culture has been profoundly influenced by this perspective. To this day, the striving for beauty is a dominant and desirable component of an accomplished individual -- an ideal to be devoutly pursued.
At first glance, it would seem that the enshrinement of beauty as a value in and of itself is not a major Jewish priority. The oft-quoted phrase, taken in isolation, "beauty is vanity" (Proverbs 31:30), seems, on a cursory level, to cast beauty in a negative light.
It seems to me, however, that a compelling argument ought to be made for the vital and central role that beauty occupies in the Jewish worldview. In order to do so, we must show that, for Judaism, beauty is something unique, and means something entirely different than in all other thought systems.
What, then, is distinct and singular about the Jewish concept of beauty? To answer this, one ...   more »

by Jason Elbaum
The mystery of the water of Sukkot and the aridness of Passover. Sometimes, a theme in the Torah is not identified explicitly by classical sources, but becomes apparent only gradually, by connecting the dots between separate sources in the Chumash, the Talmud and the natural world itself. The results can be surprising.
Sukkot is the festival of water. Every mitzvah of the Sukkot observance is drenched with water. Sukkot marks the start of the rainy season in Israel, when we surround ourselves with all sorts of objects that remind us of water. At the climax, on Shmini Atzeret, we begin the year's prayers for rain.
The water references are many:
On Sukkot, says the Mishnah, "We are judged regarding water" (Rosh Hashana 1:2), i.e. regarding the rainfall for the coming season.
Temple services featured the ceremony of the water libation, which replaced the year-round pouring of wine upon the altar (Sukkah 4:9).
During Sukkot, public celebrations are held known as the simchat beit hasho'eva -- the festival of the drawing of well water (Sukkah 5:1).
For the mitzvah of the Four Species, we take only moist branches and fruits. The Mishnah notes that if any individual species ...   more »

Christian radio broadcaster, Earl Cox, lands in Israel: 'If you are too afraid to come to Israel, then you may need to examine the depth of your Christian faith'
International Christian radio broadcaster, Earl Cox, landed in Israel Wednesday wondering why more Christian tourists aren’t in the Holy Land.  
Cox, who in the last several months has called for Christians to come to Israel even in time of war, de-planed at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv noticing fewer tour groups.
Since the outbreak of the war, tourism has taken a nose dive in Israel. The economy, which heavily relies on tourist dollars benefiting Palestinians and Israelis alike, is taking a hit.  
“I have a friend who owns a fine hotel in Jerusalem. Twenty-five American Christian tour groups have cancelled their reservations. I just don’t understand why Christians are staying away," said Cox. "This is the time we need to be coming to Israel to express our friendship.”  
“Of all people, Christians don’t need to live in fear,” Cox asserts. “We can’t allow terrorists to take us hostage and delay our travel plans to Israel. If we are Israel’s true friends, we must come in time of ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
October 03, 2006
Hundreds of Christian lovers of Israel gathered with Jewish friends inside the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem Sunday morning to obey the biblical commandment and pray for peace to come to the war-weary capital of Israel.
Led by well-known American Evangelicals Robert Stearns and Jack Hayford, and attended by a number of Israeli parliamentarians and a small crowd of Israel-based Christian leaders, the occasion in the ancient Tower of David was the central event in the fourth annual global Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem.
It plugged into meetings which, according to the organizers, were scheduled to be held in 150,000 churches around the world on the first Sunday in October.
This massive participation guaranteed that, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, a multitude of believers in more than 169 nations would be petitioning heaven on behalf of what the Bible calls the city of the great King.
Newly-Jerusalem-based Christian satellite television network God-TV also broadcast the gathering live around the world.
Among the Israeli dignitaries who welcomed the Christians and thanked them for their stand with Israel were former USSR Prisoner of ...   more »

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called the recent Lebanon war between Israel and Hizbullah a "warning sign" that another regional war could soon break out.
"The Middle East is on the verge of exploding," Mubarak said in an interview marking 33 years since the Yom Kippur War (known to Arab nations as the "October War.)
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In another interview, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Friday that Syria has begun preparations to counter an Israeli attack, and that his country was prepared for an Israeli attack "at any moment." The president told the Kuwaiti daily Al-Anba that Israel had given up on the peace process, even though most of the issues of contention between the two countries were resolved.
Assad also said that if Iran attacked any Arab country, Syria would send armed forces in response as required by the Joint Defense Treaty.
Turning to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Assad said that the three Arab countries should "consult less now" and should work together toward helping the hundreds of millions of Arabs in region, and called on Egypt and Saudi Arabia to return to holding summits with Damascus.
"We hope that we go back soon to the idea of ...   more »

In what's being called a stunning example of "the imitation of Christ," the Amish community devastated by the cold-blooded murder of five of its schoolgirls is raising money for the killer's family.
Amish residents of rural Lancaster County, Pa., have started a charity fund to help not only the victims' families – but also the mass-murderer's widow and children, reports the New York Times today. The killer, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, committed suicide at the end of Monday's attack, in which he shot 10 girls. Five of them, aged 7 to 13, died.
Dwight Lefever, a spokesman for the Roberts family, said an Amish neighbor comforted the killer's family and extended forgiveness to them after the shooting, the Associated Press reports.
Explaining the Amish way, Gertrude Huntington, an expert on children in Amish society, told the AP that Roberts' Amish neighbors would probably be very supportive of the killer and his wife, "because judgment is in God's hands: 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.'"
Monday morning, Roberts, heavily armed, stormed into the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School, sent the boys and adults outside and barricaded the entrance with wood before tying up the 10 girls and shooting ...   more »

The crisis between Russia and the Republic of Georgia -- a democratic country that wants to join NATO, remove Russian troops and military bases from its soil, and become a full-fledged ally of the West -- continues to worsen. This, despite the fact that Georgia has released the Russian military officers it arrested last week on charges of espionage. Hopefully, Putin will not resort to the use of force, though he has in recent days blockaded Georgia from air, rail and ground transportation and sent the Russian navy to maneuver off Georgia's Black Sea coast. Moreover, a Russian political expert is openly predicting a military coup in Georgia within the next few months, raising questions of just how involved Russian intelligence may be in undermining its democratic neighbor. Bottom line: the standoff tells us a great deal about how determined Putin is to keep former Soviet Republics from joining NATO and reducing Russian influence in the Caucuses.
The latest: "Russia has deported a planeload of Georgians it accused of being illegal migrants, and continued a crackdown on Georgian-owned businesses," reports Voice of America. "The actions mark a further deterioration in relations following Georgia's arrest last week of four Russian army ...   more »

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Democrats accused Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of waving a white flag of surrender for saying the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and favoring bringing "people who call themselves Taliban" into the government.
Frist, who was traveling in Afghanistan, said Monday that Taliban fighters were too numerous and too popular to be defeated. "You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government," he said. "And if that's accomplished, we'll be successful."
The comments from the Tennessee Republican, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, come as President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have accused Democrats of being weak on national security and adhering to a policy of retreat.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the United States went to war in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban for its role with al-Qaida.
"Senator Frist now suggests that the best way forward in Afghanistan is to coddle the Taliban by welcoming Taliban members into a coalition government, as if 9/11 had never happened," Pelosi said Tuesday in a statement.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in responding to Bush's criticism ...   more »

BY AMNON RUBINSTEIN
The pope's dictum about Islam and the inevitable follow up — demonstrations, church burnings, assassinations, and the expected apology — are part of a wider scene: the precarious position of Christian communities in the Middle East as a result of a radicalized Islam.
Arab Christian communities identify with Arab nationalism — indeed, Christian Arabs were the founding fathers of this movement. They share with their Muslim brethren a common language, ethnic origin, and a total rejection of Israel. But the new mood of politicized Islam has made life harder for the members of these ancient communities. The result has been a massive emigration of Christians from the Middle East to the West and a dwindling of their numbers in the region.
Ivan Rioufol, in a column in the French daily Le Figaro of May 26, 2006, breaks with the traditional French approach of blaming every ill on the Israeli-Arab conflict, highlighting the plight of Christian communities in the Muslim world. Mr. Rioufol estimates that the Christian population of Iran has been decimated and that similar "cleansing" has been "observed in Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Egypt."He notes other instances of anti-Christian persecution: 156 churches and convents destroyed in ...   more »