Another step on the long road towards the restoration of Temple Worship in Jerusalem was reportedly taken Monday with the opening of a new workshop in which robes will be manufactured for practicing priests.
According to a report in The Jerusalem Post Wednesday, a number of Kohanim, (Jews in the Cohen family line who trace their ancestry back to Aaron, the first High Priest) have already had measurements taken for the biblically-described vestments.
One of them is the well-known chief rabbi of Efrat Shlomo Riskin.
For the new garments, special flaxen thread is being imported from India, and worms from which just the right color crimson dye is obtained are being brought in from Istanbul, according to the report.
The new workshop was inaugurated by the Temple Institute which is situated in Jerusalem's old City, just a stone's throw from the Temple Mount - the site of the first and second temples and the place where, according to the Bible, the Third Temple will be built to welcome the Messiah.
Over the years the institute has worked to create - in strict accordance with the biblical pattern - many of the implements required for Temple worship, including the golden seven-branched ...   more »

DANIELLE KUBES
Wearing a turban and a light blue tunic threaded with silver, a man stands in a workshop in Jerusalem's Old City beside spools of white thread affixed to sewing machines. A painting of high priests performing an animal sacrifice beside the First Temple illustrates the function of the room.
On Monday, the Temple Institute started preparing to build a Third Temple on Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, the site of the Dome of the Rock and the Aksa mosque, by inaugurating a workshop that manufactures priestly garments.
After Efrat Chief Rabbi Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, a Kohen himself, gets measured for his own set of Kohanim garments, Aviad Jeruffi, the clothing's designer, strums "To Ascend to the Temple Mount" on his guitar in celebration.
Priestly garments have not been worn since the destruction of the Second Temple by Rome in 70 CE and cannot be functional until a Third Temple is constructed.
Kohanim, priests directly descended from Moses's brother Aaron, are recognized by the Institute as such if their paternal grandfather observed the tradition. Today, they have special religious responsibilities; in days of yore they performed the most significant duties within the Temple.
Approximately one-third of the commandments in the Torah ...   more »

Palestinian driver shot dead; 3 killed and more than 20 people injured
JERUSALEM - A Palestinian man killed at least three people and wounded 45 more when he rammed a bulldozer into buses and cars in central Jerusalem on Wednesday before being shot dead by police.
National police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld described the rampage as a "terrorist" attack by a 30-year-old man from occupied East Jerusalem who was working at a construction site near the busy road where it took place.
Chaos erupted as the heavy vehicle barrelled through the heart of West Jerusalem, plowing into two crowded public buses, overturning one of them, and ramming other vehicles, reducing one car to a mangled wreck.
Israeli rescue workers observe the scene of an attack in Jerusalem.
Baz Ratner/Reuters
Font:****Several people opened fire at the man driving the earthmover and at least two policemen jumped on to vehicle, emptying several rounds into the driver and leaving him slumped over the wheel, according to AFP reporters.
The attack was the first in Jerusalem since a Palestinian gunmen shot eight Jewish students at a seminary in March and it was not immediately clear if it would have any impact on the faltering Middle ...   more »

Why isn't Jalal Talabani on the cover of Time?
By Joel C. Rosenberg
 (Washington, D.C., July 2, 2008) -- Please forgive me for not writing Flash Traffic or updating my blog as often as usual this summer. The main reason is that I'm immersed in writing a new non-fiction book, Inside The Revolution, about the battle between Radicals and Reformers in the Middle East for the soul of the Islamic world.
One of the Reformers that has most intrigued me is a man by the name of Jalal Talabani. As the first truly democratically elected President of Iraq in human history and one who has consistently put his life on the line to fight the jihadists in his country, Talabani is a man who should be on the cover of Time and Newsweek. He should be the subject of lengthly profiles by network TV news magazines. One should be able to buy a New York Times best-selling biography of him. In short, Jalal Talabani should be a household name in the U.S. for the convictions he holds, the risks he takes, and the success he is achieving, bit by bit, day by day, week by week. And yet he receives ...   more »

By Meir Zamir 
On December 15, 1947, at approximately 1:45 P.M., about 20 fighters of the Haganah - the pre-state underground Jewish militia - seized a British truck south of Acre. The men, armed but wearing civilian clothing, confiscated about half a ton of documents, packed into eight sealed steel containers and 12 sacks of diplomatic mail. The documents had been sent from the British legation in Beirut to Haifa Port, from which they were to be transported to Britain.
The truck was taken to an unknown location. The driver and armed guards were later found in an abandoned building near Kiryat Ata. The British tried to minimize the importance of the captured documents, claiming that most of them concerned economic matters of the British Mission in Beirut, headed during World War II by General Edward Spears. But the reaction of the British, the French and the Haganah itself to the event clearly suggests that the papers removed from the truck were, in fact, of far greater consequence. Immediately after the incident, the French consul in Jerusalem came to Tel Aviv. The French were given classified documents from the truck that were of great operational importance to them. The British ...   more »

Independence Day is only a few days away. The typical American might celebrate the Fourth of July by watching a parade, lighting fireworks, or simply grilling burgers in the backyard with family and friends. However we would like to challenge our readers to take a moment this Friday to consider, not only our nation's rich history, but also its prophetic future. What is our ultimate destiny? What does the Bible have to say about America?
The United States appears to be conspicuously absent from Biblical prophecy. Biblical scholars tend to disagree on this subject, and we could make a multitude of conjectures concerning America's fate, but the fact of the matter is that the Bible does not specifically explain God's plan for the US.
However we can learn many things about America's possible destiny by looking at the parallels between the US and the Northern Kingdom of Israel as described in the book of Hosea. The Northern Kingdom enjoyed material prosperity unequaled since days of Solomon, but they had sunk to the depths of immorality and idol worship. As a result of their sin God judged Israel and they were destroyed by their enemies.
The United States also enjoys unprecedented ...   more »

JENNIFER RUBIN
Defenders of Barack Obama, and sometimes Obama himself, seem frustrated that some American Jews refuse to assume their traditional role of support for the Democratic presidential nominee. The Obama defenders are irked that not all Jews accept at face value Obama's expressions of devotion to Israel and commitment to her security.
Why can't these contrarians just take Obama at his word (he is a Zionist, he really is, they insist)? The answer is "1973."
But the explanation starts in 2008. Many Jewish Obama doubters are convinced that Israel faces a true existential threat unlike any in 35 years. From nation states like Iran, which threaten to destroy Israel, to Hizbullah and Hamas terrorists, Israel may in the next decade be pushed to the brink of its existence. Israel's failure to defeat Hizbullah in 2006 demonstrated the limits of Israel's historic military advantage.
With the spread of nuclear weapons and other deadly technologies a second Holocaust - that is, the annihilation of a substantial portion of world Jewry - is not out of the realm of imagination.
THESE OBAMA skeptics recall a similar time, 1973, when Israel also faced extermination. Prime minister Golda Meir had miscalculated Anwar Sadat's willingness ...   more »

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama opposes a California measure that would define marriage as between a man and woman after the state's top court backed same-sex weddings, according to a letter released on Tuesday.
Californians will vote on the effort to alter the state's constitution and override the state Supreme Court's decision on November 4, when they cast votes in the presidential election. Obama's Republican rival, John McCain, endorsed the measure last week.
The California court's decision made the state the second after Massachusetts to allow same-sex marriages and the first to offer to marry gay couples from outside the state. The marriages began on June 16.
Obama said he favors extending "fully equal rights and benefits to same sex couples under both state and federal law" in the letter, posted on the Web site of the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club of San Francisco.
"And that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states," the Illinois senator said.
The contentious question of whether same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry was ...   more »

Allie Martin
A Christian activist says Barack Obama has done nothing to reconcile his actions and words with his professed Christianity.
Senator Obama (D-Illinois), the presumptive Democratic candidate for president, recently held meetings with prominent Christians, including Franklin Graham and Bishop T.D. Jakes. But Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America Action, says evangelical leaders send a confusing message when they meet with Obama.
"This is a man that has never seen an unborn fetus that he wouldn't abort," chides Scarborough. "While serving in the state legislature in the state of Illinois, [he] served on a committee that literally prevented a bipartisan piece of legislation which would have offered medical services to botched abortions," he points out.
Scarborough goes on to criticize Obama's stance on homosexuality. "He's radically pro-gay...even to legislating against sections of the Bible and preventing those of us who embrace those sections of the Bible from preaching biblical truth," he argues. "So I'm troubled by it."
He notes that in a speech earlier this year, Obama referred to verses in the Book of Romans as an "obscure text." According to Scarborough, it seems that Obama prefers political correctness on certain social issues -- rather than Holy Scripture -- ...   more »

Marcia Segelstein
The Girl Scouts of the USA have been on a steady, well-documented leftward slide for many years.  (More on that later.)  But this summer, the organization is about to take a giant leap even further in that direction.
The GSUSA is introducing a new "Girl Scout Leadership Experience," essentially a new curriculum, titled "Journeys."  The first series of books, one for every level of scouting, will be released this summer called "It's Your World - Change It."  As you may have guessed from the title, it's all about girls "taking action."
In the words of the Girl Scouts' literature, the mission is for girls to "lead with courage, confidence, and character to make the world a better place."  Sounds innocuous enough.  But the GSUSA leadership has some specific ideas about what exactly "making the world a better place" means. 
For example, seventh- and eighth-grade cadettes will participate in an eight-session "Journey" called "aMaze," in which "girls create 'peace kits' and learn how to create more peace in the world, one relationship at a time.  It sounds sweet, but is there a lesson in there about peace often coming with a price?
The "Journey" for the oldest Girl Scouts ...   more »

Abraham Katsman
It's pretty amazing when you think about it. War hero John McCain has been in the public eye almost his entire adult life. He's run numerous campaigns, served in Congress for 25 years, and is in his second run for the presidency.
Yet, there is so much of his life that reveals an absolutely sterling character, but remains largely unknown to the public. And in spite of the tremendous political advantages that publicity could confer, McCain instinctively keeps that information private. Although as a presidential candidate he may be forced to overcome this reticence, he honorably shies away from using his personal heroics for political gain.
How aware is the public that McCain has raised seven children? Or that he adopted his two oldest sons as small boys (children from his wife's prior marriage)? Or that he has raised a Bangladeshi girl with severe health problems adopted from Mother Theresa's orphanage? Or that his own sons have served in the military, including in Iraq?
It's widely known that McCain, a Navy pilot, was shot down, captured and tortured by the North Vietnamese for 5 and a half years - an episode worth a forthcoming column all its own. ...   more »