by Rabbi Ken Spiro
Only a tiny portion of Jews participated in worshipping the golden calf. So why does God seem to blame the whole nation?
The day for this infamous event is forever marked in the Hebrew calendar -- 17th of Tammuz. This would be the day later in history on which the walls of Jerusalem would be breached by the Babylonians and the Romans prior to the destruction of both the first and the second Temple.
It is very important to analyze what happened with the golden calf and why the Torah criticizes the Jewish people so harshly for this sin. And indeed what is revealed here about how God views the Jewish people.
After the greatest national revelation experience in human history when the whole nation hears God, Moses goes up the mountain and comes down 40 days later to find people dancing around an idol.
Now if I'd had an encounter with the Infinite Creator of the Universe speaking to me and I heard Him say "I am God, don't worship anything else," I don't think I would be stupid enough to be jumping around a golden cow. So what's going on in this story?
This ...   more »

Three religions—Christianity, Islam and Judaism—look for a coming Messiah. Yet they differ in their view of who this will be and what he will do upon his return.
BY JAMES F. TURCK
The closing words of a recent speech by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left various impressions on those who heard it.
Many simply had no understanding of what was said or its implications. Some who heard and understood his words felt a growing uneasiness, mixed with trepidation and fear. But others welcomed them with eagerness and excitement, looking forward to the fulfillment of centuries-old prophecies.
What was said that could incite such a range of conflicting emotions?
It was an appeal to Allah to hasten the appearance of the  Hidden Imam or Imam Mahdi, a prophesied leader who will help usher in the rule of Islam over the world.
It may come as a surprise to many that Christianity and Judaism are not alone in the belief of a soon-coming Messiah who will intervene in world affairs and establish a true religion. Though they may share this belief, there are vast differences concerning who this is, and what he will do upon returning.
Are there three separate Messiahs, or ...   more »

Conservative Movement withdraws Supreme Court petition claiming religious discrimination at Western Wall, after reaching agreement with several Jerusalem groups
A decade-long struggle for the right to pray at the Western Wall came to an on Wednesday when the Conservative Movement in Israel withdrew its petition regarding freedom of worship at Robinson's Arch, on the southern side of the Western Wall.  
The petition was filed with the Supreme Court in 2006, following difficulties for Conservative Jews to access Robinson's Arch.  Conservative worshippers wishing to pray in mixed gender groups have been congregating at the arch, which is located in the Archeological Gardens, since 1998. This is because attempts at mixed group prayer elsewhere along the Wall were met with violence by ultra-Orthodox Jews.  
Still, technically along the Western Wall, the Robinson's Arch is separated from the Temple's main square by a large dirt mound, blocking the Conservative worshippers from view and thus preventing altercations with other worshippers.  
Recently, however, the Archeological Gardens restricted their visiting hours and began charging a NIS 30 fee to enter the area, seriously hindering the ability of the Conservative worshippers to get to Robinson's Arch.  
'Victory for pluralistic Judaism'
As such, in ...   more »

Yesha Council exports activity overseas with fair marketing homes in settlements to American investors
Guy Meit-Tal
"You too can own a home and strengthen the Zionist dream," proclaims an advertisement issued by the Yesha Council and the Amana organization in an appeal to the United States Jewry, as the settler movement acts to thaw the deep freeze which has taken over construction in the West Bank.
Evacuation Imminent   
No agreement on voluntary outpost evacuation, Peretz says / Amnon Maranda   
Defense minister says timetable for plan to remove illegal West Bank outposts to be determined imminently; ‘negotiations on voluntary evacuation of outposts have not hit deadlock,’ settler representatives say, adding that Peretz’s comments meant for political gain      
The Amana organization defines itself as "the settlement movement of Gush Emunim, with the primary goal of developing communities in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, the Galilee and the Negev."
The two groups have launched a campaign which will allow American Jews to purchase a second home in a settlement, pitching the deal as a zero risk venture: "Your investment is insured, protected and 100 percent legal," proclaims the ad.  
The government virtually no longer authorizes new construction projects in ...   more »

Israel has frozen contested building work near Jerusalem's most volatile holy site but pressed with archaeological excavations, triggering further Muslim outcry.
Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski decided to suspend the work to allow public discussion of Israel's plans to replace a damaged wooden bridge leading to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound with a stone ramp.
Protests by Palestinian worshippers descended into several days of violence in Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank and there were also demonstrations across the Islamic world.
Events at the site, venerated as the third holiest in Islam and as the location of the ancient Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, has long triggered unrest across the Holy Land.
Lupolianski made his decision Monday following consultations with representatives from occupied east Jerusalem, Israel's Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and the planning authorities, municipality spokesman Gideon Schmerling said.
"This is due to the sensitivity of the plan, and following meetings and discussions with representatives from eastern Jerusalem who requested to look over the plans and voice their opinions."
Construction work will not resume until all reservations have been looked into, which Schmerling admitted "could take several years".
Nevertheless he said on-site archaeological excavations will continue -- ...   more »

A member of the Egyptian Parliament from President Hosni Mubarak's party said that nothing short of a nuclear bomb would 'work' with Israel.
The harsh statement was uttered during a heated discussion of Israel's renovation of the Mughrabi walkway near the Temple Mount. Egyptian parliamentarians claimed that Israel was destroying the Al Aqsa mosque.
During the session some parliament members called to cancel all agreements with Israel as the war between Egypt and Israel was continuing even though treaties were signed.
Original Source

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A science student in Kentucky says when the Bible records God spoke, and things were created, that's just what happened, and he can support that with scientific experiments.
"If God spoke everything into existence as the Genesis record proposes, then we should be able to scientifically prove that the construction of everything in the universe begins with a) the Holy Spirit (magnetic field); b) Light (an electric field); and c) that Light can be created by a sonic influence or sound," Samuel J. Hunt writes on his website.
"There are several documented and currently taught laboratory experiments that accurately portray the events in Genesis in sequential order, the most important being that of sonoluminescence," he wrote.
That, he described to WND, is the circumstance in which sending a sonic signal into bubbles in a fluid causes the bubbles to collapse and they release photons, or create light.
That aligns with one of the earlier descriptions of the creation by God, when, in Genesis 1:1-3, the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the deep, which generally is considered water, and said "Let there be light," he explained.  
God was sending a sonic influence into the waters, and basically creating ...   more »

A PIECE OF HISTORY FORGOTTEN
Are your children missing an important link in our nation’s history?  Retired history professor Dr. David Harrell thinks so, but he has a way to correct the problem.  He co-authored an American history text book that adds 125 pages about religion to the conventional content found in other texts.  He says that most historians are liberals with little interest in religion, many assuming that religion would vanish by the end of the 20th century.
 But religion isn’t gone, and Harrell wants to ensure that it doesn’t vanish from history either.  He believes the absence of religion in most texts has distorted the nation’s history in two important ways: 1) The intellectual framework of American political rhetoric and self-understanding is deeply rooted in the religious ideas associated with the nation’s founding.  Christianity and democracy bonded in the constitututional era and remained issues.  2) Local churches are by far the most extensive and important network of voluntary associations throughout American history.  “It is absurd to give extensive treatment to countless minor organizations (labor unions, advocacy groups, etc.) and never give mention to the presence of the Southern Baptist Church,” Harrell says.  He adds that  such omissions in ...   more »

Former National Security Advisor and founding member of the Trilateral Commission Zbigniew Brzezinski tacitly warned a Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that an attack on Iran could be launched following a staged provocation in Iraq or a false flag terror attack within the U.S.
Brzezinski alluded to the potential for the Bush administration to manufacture a false flag Gulf of Tonkin type incident in describing a "plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran," which would revolve around "some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in a ‘defensive’ US military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
Brzezinski was careful to highlight the word "defensive" as if to discount its credibility, suggesting that the Bush White House itself would be behind the attack or provocation and subsequently use it as a pretext for war.
"That a man such as Brzezinski, with decades of experience in the top echelons of the US foreign policy establishment, a man who has the closest links to the military and to intelligence agencies, should issue such a warning at an open ...   more »

Laura Bobendrier
St. Valentine's Day has evolved from a religious ceremony to a secular holiday -- complete with candy, flowers, gifts and a whopping 1 billion greeting cards each year, according to the Greeting Card Association.
But isn't the holiday named after a saint? Who was that guy, anyway?
There's no easy answer to that question. It seems Roman tradition and Christianity combined to create this day devoted to love.
Legends abound about a mysteriously romantic St. Valentine who wed lovelorn couples during the reign of Claudius II in the third century A.D. The emperor had outlawed marriages to increase numbers in his army, and the sympathetic priest married couples in secrecy.
The story goes on to say that when the priest was caught and jailed, he met a jailer's blind daughter, who he cured with his strong faith. He also supposedly fell in love with her and send her a note before he was killed, signed "Your Valentine" -- which is where the famous phrase originated.
In reality, there are three Saint Valentines on record. The first was priest in Rome who assisted martyrs who were persecuted under Claudius II. He was beheaded in 270 because he wouldn't renounce ...   more »

The Russian military embarks on an ambitious procurement plan to beef up conventional forces on the continent and maintain a nuclear force capable of overwhelming the US National Missile Defense.
The Russian military will spend a total of some 5 trillion rubles (US$189 billion) between 2007-2015 to replace 45 percent of its current arsenal with new weaponry systems ranging from submarine-launched ballistic missiles to new aircraft carriers for deep-water missions, in what reflects the country's resurgence as a global player.
According to an official statement, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told the federal parliament on 8 February that the new arms and rigorous training should prepare Russia's war machine for the future.
There are cardinal changes in what is going on in the world and the armed forces need to be prepared for […] wars of the future," according to the minister, who also holds the rank of deputy prime minister and is one of the possible contesters in the 2008 presidential race.
In line with the Defense Ministry's 2007-2015 armament program, the Russian military will spend a total of 300 billion rubles on procurement this year alone, according to Ivanov. Russia's defense budget has been growing steadily thanks to economic ...   more »