by Rabbi Dr Raymond Apple
The name is probably from t'fillah, "prayer".
Answer
The name is probably from t'fillah, "prayer," and denotes prayer-accompaniments. Others link it with tafel, dependent, suggesting prayer-hangings. The English term "phylacteries" is from a Greek word that means a guard or protection. 
Some historians thought that t'fillin were an answer to the problem that ancient clothing had no pockets; people carried their treasures in little bags or boxes fastened to the arm or suspended from the neck or head. Since religious believers took scriptural verses seriously, these pockets containing Biblical passages, according to this view, accompanied a person wherever he went.
By contrast, there was also an ancient idea that the law of t'fillin was not meant to be taken literally, but was a poetic way of emphasising that a person had to be constantly aware of God's will. The allegorical theory was repudiated by Ibn Ezra and others, who insisted that the four references to t'fillin in the Torah (Exodus 13:1-10 and 11-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21) meant what they said and t'fillin were not a mere symbol.
By the time of the Mishnah, t'fillin were well established. Shammai treasured his grandfather's t'fillin; the sages ...   more »

by Ezra HaLevi
(IsraelNN.com) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on the world to come to terms with the demise of the “filthy” Jewish state.
Ahmadinejad made his latest statements in a speech given in the southern Iranian town of Bushehr, where Iran’s first light-water nuclear reactor is being built by Russia. The speech was broadcast live on Iran’s state-run television. He addressed world nations, advising them to "abandon the filthy Zionist entity which has reached the end of the line."
Seeming to search for various synonyms to remove doubt sown by apologists that question the translation of his call to erase Israel “off the map,” the Persian leader said: "[Israel] has lost its reason to exist and will sooner or later fall. The ones who still support the criminal Zionists should know that the occupiers' days are numbered…Accept that the life of the Zionists will sooner or later come to an end."
Ahmadinejad said that the “final chapter” has begun in which the Arabs of Israel, together with “regional nations” will confront Israel and bring about “Palestine.”
In the same speech, Ahmadinejad declared that nothing will stop his nation from pursuing nuclear capabilities. "[Iranians] will not back down one ...   more »

By Amos Harel and Mijal Grinberg
Hamas' armed wing claimed responsibility for a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed a woman in Dimona on Monday, the first such attack inside Israel claimed by Hamas since 2004, a Hamas source told Reuters.
Both the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Bridgade and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack earlier in the day.
Palestinians had reported that the militants, who they said were from Gaza, entered Israel through Egypt, but the Hamas source said the two Palestinians who died during the attack came from the West Bank city of Hebron. Israel Police were still investigating.
The last time Hamas' armed wing claimed responsibility for suicide bombings inside Israel was August 2004, when 16 people were killed and 100 wounded in explosions on two buses in the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva.
The suicide bomber blew himself up in the southern town of Dimona at around 10:30 A.M. Monday, killing a woman from the town and wounding 11 others, in the first terror attack of its kind in over a year
Negev Police Chief Yossi Porianta said that there had been two suicide bombers, but only one managed to detonate ...   more »

By Yoav Stern, Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid,
Hamas has given Israel a letter apparently written by abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, Haaretz has learned.
Some sources told Haaretz that Israel received a letter last month written in Shalit's handwriting. Other sources said that Hamas gave Israel a message of a different kind from the abducted soldier.
The authenticity of the letter has been examined and sent to the Shalit family. 
Sources involved in the negotiations say that the transfer of the letter to the family shows Israel's urgency to advance negotiations over the deal.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided Sunday to relax the criteria for releasing Palestinian prisoners as part of a swap for Shalit, but insisted that Hamas would also have to be more flexible for a deal to be finalized.
Olmert told a meeting of senior ministers and defense officials that he was "determined" to conclude the deal, but "I do not intend to agree to whatever price Hamas asks."
The meeting was called to resolve a dispute within the defense establishment over the deal. Ofer Dekel, who Olmert appointed to conduct the negotiations over Shalit, argues that Israel should ease its criteria regarding which ...   more »

The Israel Airports Authority has decided to create a new position to monitor air safety problems at Ben Gurion International Airport following a spate of recent near-crashes there.
The position - head of the supervision and control department - will be at the level of deputy director general in the IAI's operational division. The decision is in keeping with a recent report on air safety in Israel.
On Friday, a Turkish airlines jet almost collided with an Israir plane carrying four pilots on a training mission near the airport. The two aircrafts missed each other by 1,500 meters - a distance an aviation expert called "a dangerously close margin" - after an air traffic controller authorized both planes to descend on the main runway at the same time.
That incident came the same week that Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz announced a new plan to train air traffic controllers and adopted the findings of a report that found serious oversights in flight control in Israel.
Training program
In addition to recommending that the IAI appoint a chief air traffic controller, the Lapidot report also recommended reorganizing the training program for air traffic controllers and mandating that the program include flight simulator ...   more »

Yaakov Katz
An American missile ship set to dock at Haifa Port on Monday is equipped with an anti-missile defense system that could be deployed in the region in the event of an Iranian missile attack against Israel.
The USS San Jacinto is an AEGIS cruiser in the Ticonderoga Class and was commissioned in 1988. It carries the most advanced underwater surveillance system available today and is equipped with the AEGIS missile defense system, which was developed by Lockheed Martin to protect against aircraft and missiles. The ship will remain in Haifa for three days.
While the IDF developed and operates the Arrow missile defense system, defense officials said Israel has expressed interest in the AEGIS and that last year, the Defense Ministry requested information on the system from the Pentagon. During the first Gulf War in 1991, the US deployed Patriot missile batteries in Israel to defend the country against Iraqi Scud missiles.
"It is possible that one day, if we are under attack, the US will send these ships to the region to help defend us," a defense official said. "Until then, it is important that we get to know the system, its capabilities and its interoperability with ...   more »

Russia underlined its right to a “preventive” nuclear strike this week in what military analysts interpreted as a move to introduce more clarity into the nation’s defense doctrine. The statements, made by Chief of General Staff Yuri Baluyevsky on Saturday, were followed by naval exercises in the northern Atlantic that will feature over 40 aircraft of the Air Force. Though unrelated, the developments pointed to a Russia not so much on the offensive as a one that was eager to bring its defense doctrine in line with that of the Western world and make it more up to date with contemporary military demands.
“We are not planning to attack anyone. But our partners should clearly understand… that the armed forces will be used if necessary to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation and its allies, including on a preventative basis, including with the use of nuclear weapons,” RIA Novosti quoted Baluyevsky as saying Saturday at a scientific conference in Moscow. He underlined, however, that “military force can and must be used to demonstrate the decisiveness of the top leadership of the country” only as “a last resort” and when all other methods have failed.
“This is ...   more »

Iran tested a missile capable of carrying satellites into space, Iranian state television said Monday, as part of a program to launch a research satellite in the near future. The rocket was launched from a new Iranian space center, inaugurated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The report claimed that the satellite itself would be launched by 2009. It is reported to be called Omid which means "Hope", and is said to be a low-altitude satellite.
A successful satellite launch would mark a dramatic improvement in Teheran's missile capability. Ahmadinejad was present at the launch site, and gave the order for the launch himself.
"Our presence in space is a necessity", said Ahmadinejad at the ceremony. "Any country that respects itself should control the most advanced technology...we are grateful to God for witnessing the first and determined step toward an Iranian satellite."
The Iranian news agency IRNA said the satellite was intended for research, but did not detail any technical specifications, raising suspicions that it might also be capable of being used for intelligence and other strategic purposes.
The report came on the heels of a successful Israeli satellite launch in January. The Israeli TecSar satellite, launched from India, began transferring ...   more »

Results already show hydrocarbons generated in ocean floor
By Jerome R. Corsi
Scientists who have confirmed that abiotic hydrocarbons are being released from the Lost City hydrothermal field in the Mid-Atlantic range at the bottom of the ocean say they are returning to that location this summer to try to confirm the presence of more complex hydrocarbon chains, a result that would further undermine the assumption that oils are the result of decomposed and compressed organisms.
"We looked for C1-C4 hydrocarbons – alkanes, alkenes and alkynes – and detected them all," Giora Proskurowski, the marine geochemist who headed the Woods Hole team that already has done work at the Lost City site, told WND in an e-mail.
"Last year we did not look for more advanced hydrocarbon chains, but this year we will use the sampling methods required to identify more complex hydrocarbons," he said.
As WND reported, Proskurowski, of the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle, wrote in Science Magazine that Lost City vents at the bottom of the Atlantic were exuding abiotic hydrocarbons formed in the mantle of the earth.
Proskurowski attributed the formation of the observed hydrocarbons to processes identified by the Fischer-Tropsch ...   more »

Why 'superbugs,' TB, leprosy and other pestilences are invading U.S.
Americans have long taken the wonders of medical science for granted, watching as disease after disease has been conquered with antibiotics, vaccines, better nutrition and pharmaceutical "miracle drugs." But today, the magic isn't working … and something scary is happening.
Thanks to self-destructive "alternative lifestyles," out-of-control immigration, the overuse of antibiotics and other causes, long-"vanquished" illnesses are once again ravaging the U.S., puzzling scientists and terrifying millions of victims and their loved ones.
That's the explosive subject of the February edition of WND's elite monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled "THE NEW PLAGUES."  
Consider this:
The once-"conquered" scourge of tuberculosis has made a terrifying comeback, especially in America's inner cities (the American Lung Association has called TB "out of control"), and drug-resistant TB accounts for more and more new cases. The reason? Record legal and illegal immigration levels. Indeed, the highest numbers of multi-drug-resistant TB cases are in New York, California, Texas and Florida – states with the highest populations of new immigrants.
Leprosy, the contagious skin disease evoking thoughts of biblical and medieval times, is now making its mark in the United States, and many believe the influx of illegal ...   more »

Gordon Brown has begun secret talks with other world leaders on far-reaching reform of the United Nations Security Council as part of a drive to create a “new world order” and “global society”.
By Andrew Grice in Delhi
The Prime Minister is drawing up plans to expand the number of permanent members in a move that will provoke fears that the veto enjoyed by Britain could be diluted eventually. The United States, France, Russia and China also have a veto but the number of members could be doubled to include India, Germany, Japan, Brazil and one or two African nations.
Mr Brown has discussed a shake-up of a structure created in 1945 to reflect the world’s new challenges and power bases during his four-day trip to China and India. Last night, British sources revealed “intense discussions” on UN reform were under way and Mr Brown raised it whenever he met another world leader.
The Prime Minister believes the UN is punching below its weight. In 2003, it failed to agree on a fresh resolution giving explicit approval for military action in Iraq. George Bush then acted unilaterally, winning the support of Tony Blair.
UN reform is highly sensitive and Britain ...   more »

The majority of Americans want a president who mirrors biblical ideals of leadership, revealed a new poll out Thursday.
About six in 10 Americans likely to vote say they would be more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who speaks publicly about following the example of admirable leaders from the Bible and who uses the Bible for guidance in both public and personal matters, found a nationwide Zogby Poll conducted for the American Bible Society.
According to the survey, more than three-quarters (78 percent) of respondents – 86 percent of women and 68 percent of men – view candidates citing Scripture when explaining political positions as positive.
Also, most Americans voters want a candidate who has a servant-leader attitude. Respondents are more likely to support a candidate who sees the office as a privilege to serve others, with a responsibility to God.
Out of the polled respondents aged 18-29, 84 percent said a candidate’s servant-leader attitude would impact their vote. Interestingly, only 62 percent of older respondents, 50-64 years old, said it would influence their decision.
In addition to Biblical leadership qualities, many likely voters are affected by the simple question of whether the candidate believes in God.
Nearly ...   more »

Clinton says income could be garnisheed if workers refuse to buy health insurance
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., appears today on ABC's 'This Week'
Will Hillary Clinton as president tap into workers' wages to achieve her goal of health insurance for all Americans?
The possibility exists as the candidate was pressed on the matter during a television interview today.
Speaking on ABC's "This Week" program, the Democratic senator from New York said she might be willing to have wages garnisheed if people refuse to buy health insurance.
"I think universal health care is a core Democratic value and a moral principle, and I'm absolutely gonna do everything I can to achieve that," Clinton said. "I think there are a number of mechanisms" possible, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment."
Host George Stephanapolous asked Clinton specifically about garnisheeing wages at least three times before she made the admission.
"What we've got to do is have shared responsibility. Everybody has to pay something, but obviously on a sliding scale," Clinton said. "I think you can automatically enroll people, and you will then say, 'You've got to be part of this.'"
"If you don't start with universal health care, if you don't say ...   more »