by Rabbi Noson Weisz
Profound lessons learned from Rebbe Akiva',s 24,000 students.
You shall count for yourselves -- from the morrow of the rest day, from the day when you bring the omer of the waving -- seven weeks, they shall be complete. Until the morrow of the seventh week you shall count fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal-offering to God. (Leviticus 23:15-16)
The custom among Jews is not to celebrate weddings between Passover and Shavuot. The reason: so as not to create an atmosphere of increased joy because the students of Rabbi Akiva died of a plague during this period. There is also the custom not to trim the head or facial hair [as a sign of mourning], but some allow this after Lag B'Omer -- the 33rd day of the Omer -- because they maintain that the plague abated at this time. (Tur, Orach chaim, 493,1)
It was said that Rabbi Akiva had 12,000 pairs of students and that they all died in a single period because they did not afford the proper respect to each other. The world was a wasteland until Rabbi Akiva taught our rabbis in the South: Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, ...   more »

Monitoring heart arrhythmia, helping to halt Alzheimer's or broadcasting live feeds of the small intestine, here is a look at some Israeli inventions that revolutionized modern medicine Groundbreaking medical developments with a local twist: Israeli inventions and innovations have helped revolutionize modern medicine as we know it in many ways. Ynetnews and Yedioth Ahronoth's Laisha take a look at some of the more famous success stories:
Given Imaging – camera capsule used to inspect the small intestine
A 26-mm. capsule which weighs four grams was designed by electro-optics engineer Dr. Gabi Idan of Rafael Medical Technologies. The capsule holds a tiny video camera, lighting, a battery, and a transmitter, all of which is swallowed with a little water. Remaining in the body for eight hours, it films the small intestine, transmitting two frames a second to a receiver on the waist, using antennae worn on the chest.
Given Imaging was established in 1998 in order to produce and market the capsule. To date over 700,000 have been sold, with the annual revenue of $13 million. Another product, which will scan the large intestine, is currently being designed.
Azilect – used to treat Parkinson's
Azilect (rasagiline) is a medication used to ...   more »

HERB KEINON and REBECCA ANNA STOIL
In a spirited and stirring speech of friendship for Israel, US President George W. Bush told the Knesset on Thursday that the US-Israeli alliance is "unbreakable."
"Earlier today, I visited Masada, an inspiring monument to courage and sacrifice," Bush said. "At this historic site, Israeli soldiers swear an oath: 'Masada shall never fall again.' Citizens of Israel: Masada shall never fall again, and America will always stand with you."
The president, in a speech punctuated by applause on numerous occasions, and capped by a standing ovation, said the US-Israeli relationship was "grounded in the shared spirit of our people, the bonds of the Book, the ties of the soul."
Sounding like the Bush of the immediate post 9/11 days, the US president said the fight against terror and extremism was "the defining challenge of our time."
"It is more than a clash of arms," he said. "It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle. On one side are those who defend the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth. On the other side are those who pursue a narrow vision of cruelty and control by committing murder, ...   more »

While America's secretary of state devotes her time to doomed Israel-Palestinian talks and America goes ga-ga over a candidate whose entire foreign policy strategy is to talk to dictators, yet another crisis is empowering radical Islamists and undercutting Western friends and interests.
The Lebanese logjam has broken at last as Hizb'allah seized Beirut and inflicted a major defeat on the government. Hizb'allah is pulling a more limited version of Hamas's Gaza strategy in Lebanon as the world stands by.
Iran and Syria back their friends with weapons and help; the West responds with words backed by nothing. Who can blame Hizb'allah and Damascus and Teheran for laughing in contempt?
Why should the Lebanese Sunni, Druze, and Christian majority risk their lives when the West doesn't help them? Every Israeli speaking nonsense about Syria making peace, every American claiming Damascus might split from Teheran, and every European preaching appeasement is engaging in confidence-breaking measures.
At present, Hizb'allah and its sponsors seek not the full conquest of Lebanon but to control the government by violence and intimidation. Unable to gain full victory themselves, they hope to win by the other side's surrender. They want veto power over the government to ensure it ...   more »

Jeff Johnson
Protecting pastors' constitutionally protected right to preach on biblical issues related to politics is the motive behind one Christian law firm's "Pulpit Initiative."
For almost the first 180 years of American history, pastors routinely addressed political issues and candidates from the pulpit. "Until about 1954, churches were free to endorse or oppose particular candidates from the pulpit -- and, in fact, churches did that," says Erik Stanley with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). "Some pastors opposed Thomas Jefferson as being a deist. Other pastors opposed William Howard Taft as a Unitarian. Some pastors opposed Al Smith in the 1928 presidential election -- and the list goes on and on."
But that changed in 1954, says Stanley, when Congress passed a law forbidding churches from endorsing or opposing candidates. The so-called "Johnson Amendment" was passed without any debate or analysis. Stanley says that provision has since been used to keep churches from speaking out when politics intrudes into moral issues addressed by scripture. "The IRS has been used as a willing accomplice with groups like Americans United [for Separation of Church and State] to silence pastors from speaking biblical values from the pulpit," alleges the attorney. "[W]e believe that ...   more »

President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday warned Colombia not to allow a U.S. military base on its border with Venezuela, saying he would consider such an act an "aggression."
Chavez said he would not permit Colombia's U.S.-backed government to establish an American military base in La Guajira, a region spanning northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.
The Venezuelan leader said if Colombia allows the base, his government will revive a decades-old territorial conflict and stake a claim to the entire region.
"We will not allow the Colombian government to give La Guajira to the empire," Chavez said, referring to the U.S. during a speech to a packed auditorium of uniformed soldiers. "Colombia is launching a threat of war at us."
He said Washington's top diplomat in Bogota, U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield, recently suggested that a U.S. military base in Ecuador could be moved to La Guajira.
Chavez urged his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, to "think it over well" before making such a decision because Venezuela will do "whatever it takes" to ensure that a U.S. military base is not built on the peninsula in the Caribbean Sea.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa — a close Chavez ally — has repeatedly said that he ...   more »

By Daniel Pipes  As Barack Obama's candidacy comes under increasing scrutiny, his account of his religious upbringing deserves careful attention for what it tells us about the candidate's integrity.
Obama asserted in December, "I've always been a Christian," and he has adamantly denied ever having been a Muslim. "The only connection I've had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father's side came from that country [Kenya]. But I've never practiced Islam." In February, he claimed: "I have never been a Muslim. … other than my name and the fact that I lived in a populous Muslim country for 4 years when I was a child [Indonesia, 1967-71] I have very little connection to the Islamic religion."
"Always" and "never" leave little room for equivocation. But many biographical facts, culled mainly from the American press, suggest that, when growing up, the Democratic candidate for president both saw himself and was seen as a Muslim.
Obama's Kenyan birth father: In Islam, religion passes from the father to the child. Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936-1982) was a Muslim who named his boy Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. Only Muslim children are named "Hussein".
Obama's Indonesian family: His stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was also ...   more »

By Jonathan Mark
Pro-Hamas advisor may be gone, but senator has more radical backers press is ignoring
Recent weeks have seen a considerable amount of coverage focusing on whether Sen. Barack Obama has too many friends with an anti-American bias, notably his longtime pastor, Jeremiah Wright, whom Obama has finally renounced, and William Ayers, a Chicago professor who was a 1960s radical with the Weathermen terrorist group, a friendship Obama dismissed as casual.
But if Wright and Ayers have been thoroughly explored in primary debates and interviews, Obama's other relationships with radicals have been relatively unexplored.
For example, the Los Angeles Times devoted a lengthy front-page story (April 10) by Peter Wallsten headlined, "Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama. They consider him receptive despite his clear support of Israel." The story was not picked up by any other American paper. It is rather unusual for a major daily to think a story worthy of front-page coverage and no other paper to share that assessment.
The story focused on Obama's time as an Illinois state legislator, just five years ago, when he was friends, if not allied, with Rashid Khalidi, the vocal anti-Zionist professor at Columbia University who ...   more »

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The ability of Google Inc's map service to put detailed street-level images on the Internet could raise concerns in Europe if it was introduced there, the EU's data protection agency said on Thursday.
Google's Street View offers ground-level, 360-degree views of streets in 30 U.S. cities. It has become popular among drivers but courted controversy over potential privacy invasion.
"Making pictures everywhere is certainly going to create some problems," European Union Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx told a news conference to present his annual report.
But Hustinx, who works with Europe's national authorities to set consistent rules on data and privacy protection through the 27-country bloc, said he was confident Google would take into account European law in any future introduction of the product.
"Apparently there is the capacity to adapt this in different modes," he said, referring to technical possibilities of limiting what images were published online.
In March Google said it would comply with a Pentagon request to remove some online images from Street View over fears they posed a security threat to U.S. military bases.
Other concerns have been more banal. In one instance, a man was pictured exiting a San Francisco strip club. ...   more »

By Joel Mowbray - In a particularly harsh New York Times column, Frank Rich recently painted a persuasive portrayal of high-profile evangelical Christian minister John Hagee as a nutty anti-Catholic bigot who does not like Jews, either. Simply put, it is a lie. Certain facts cited are, in fact, true. The most damning "facts," however, are not. Therein lies the problem.
Mr. Rich flipped the truth on its head — and it would stretch credulity to think he made an honest mistake. In the YouTube video the Times columnist parades as evidence of bigotry, Mr. Hagee is actually doing what he has done for decades: combating anti-Semitism. In other words, Mr. Rich branded Mr. Hagee a bigot when, in fact, he was actually fighting bigotry.
Describing a now-infamous YouTube video clip — which lasts all of one minute and 17 seconds — Mr. Rich wrote: "Wielding a pointer, [Mr. Hagee] pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is 'the Great Whore,' Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking 'the blood of the Jewish people.' The Great Whore represents 'the Roman Church,' which, in his view, has thirsted for ...   more »

Do you ever have trouble reading the scribbled name of the drugs your doctor writes on a prescription? Sometimes I wonder if the pharmacist ever gets it wrong. Well, the answer is yes, but not in the way you might expect. Some pharmacies intentionally substitute drugs – if it means they make more money! It happens more often than you might like to think.
CVS Caremark Corp (aka CVS), is the largest pharmacy chain in the country, with more than 6,000 stores. It fills millions of prescriptions each year. Based on that volume, when it found a way to make money by switching drugs, the temptation was too great to resist.
When it discovered a loophole in the Medicare system, CVS succumbed to greed.
Medicare paid CVS a maximum of $17.10 for 60 tablets of Ranitidine, the generic version of Zantac. However, Medicare did not establish a maximum for capsules of the same drug, because it was so rare for capsules of that drug to be prescribed by doctors. Although there is no medical difference, patients prefer tablets for Ranitidine.
CVS was only too happy to game the system. It insisted that its pharmacies stock Ranitidine capsules, not tablets. So ...   more »