Commentary
Pain of Jerusalem murders is white hot
By Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort
 CARLSBAD, California—Eight young Yeshiva boys were gunned down in Jerusalem yesterday because they were Jewish. Why? Read CNN, they will tell you. This was a retaliatory strike because Israel invaded Gaza and in so doing killed Palestinians. Why did Israel invade Gaza? To stop the never-ending rocket barrages that have turned the town of Sderot into a ghost town. But why were the Palestinians shooting rockets into Israel? Because Israel has no right to exist, as Israel is located on Muslim land. Why is it considered Muslim land? Because Muslims once ruled it, and once it is under Muslim control it can never be ruled by anyone else. But didn't the Jewish people rule that land first. Yes! But G-d turned His back on the Jews and took away their land and gave it to the Muslims, just as He has chosen Islam over Judaism. So by the same token can't you say, "So now G-d has taken away the land from the Muslims and given it to the Jews?" No! It doesn't work that way, and if you ask me why I will murder you because you are nothing but an infidel anyway.
But even though eight innocent students were gunned down in cold blood and bloodthirsty mobs celebrated in the streets of their miserable territory the "brave" and "true" Israeli government will push on with the "peace" process. Even though rockets are falling daily on the southern part of Israel the government of Israel, which is clearly of the people, by the people, and for the people, will continue to pursue the elusive "peace" deal that will cement their names in history. After all, why should we allow something as inconsequential as constant rocket attacks and murderous gunfire on our religious (as opposed to political) institutions to stop us? We want peace and will have it even if we have to put up with war to get it. Fortunately, Mr. Abbas has been kind enough to return to the bargaining table to make demands for concessions from Israel, even though Israel had the nerve to try and stop the rockets from being fired from Gaza. Mr. Abbas is truly a great man; after all he did have the courage to say that the cold-blooded murder of religious students is wrong. What a titan of strength and courage!
Let's try to understand this for a moment; Abbas won't make demands from Israel until Israel stops trying to make the rockets stop firing into their territory from the land they gave to the Palestinians two years ago. Oh, by the way, the land was given away "free and clear."
The United States asks all of the parties to "show restraint," which I suppose means that Israel should allow its citizens to be murdered in cold blood and allow its cities to be destroyed by terrorists so that our brave and true friend Abbas will come back to the bargaining table to extract more blood from the Jews. Meanwhile the world - led by the twisted media - cries for the innocent Palestinian civilians. Some of these are the very same civilians who voted Hamas into power (the entity that has sworn to use violence to destroy Israel), dances in the streets whenever a Muslim is successful in murdering a non Muslim anywhere, and will gladly sell their own children to the bomb-makers.
Well friends, I have had it! I for one don't care what the world says or thinks any more because let's face it, no matter what Israel does (short of complete self destruction) the world will find fault and blame the Jews. I don't give a hoot about the Arab "street" and I for one don't think any more
that most are peace-loving folks. I think most are miserable wretches who are jealous of Israel's and the West's success. What can I tell you? I simply cannot respect a people who tolerates this type of evil in their midst and glorifies homicide bombers. I have had it with the breathtaking double-standard exhibited by the media, the European Union, the Russians, the Chinese, and yes, even the U.S. But worst of all is the government of Israel, which is corrupt beyond measure, incompetent beyond belief, self-hating beyond understanding, and irresponsible beyond contempt.
The first purpose of any government is to protect its citizens. The current government of Israel (and in fact all governments since the signing of the imbecilic Oslo Accords) has failed miserably to protect its citizens. It is shameful that religious parties are part of the current government. They have chosen to sell Jewish lives for money and/or prestige. They have sold our collective future for their own present! And this is the most painful fact of all.
We can only turn to G-d and beseech Him to spare us of this evil! We must ask His blessing that our leaders grow the intestinal fortitude to combat this evil. We must be ready, willing, and able to be soldiers in this holy war. This is literally a war for the soul of humanity! Are you ready to
fight?
THE VIEW FROM JINSA
Question to Olmert: Is Bush agenda yours?
By Shoshana Bryen
 WASHINGTON, D.C.—Mr. Olmert, there's a bit of an argument in the United States - particularly among supporters of Israel - as to whether the United States is pushing the "peace process" and making unreasonable demands of Israel, or whether your government is pulling the administration toward an elusive "peace" with unstable partners.
President Bush laid out clear and responsible requirements for American support of Palestinian statehood. (Houses for Jews in the unallocated part of the British Mandate territory, on the other hand, really irk him.) But the United States pushed for early Palestinian legislative elections, giving voters a choice between corrupt, secular terrorists and somewhat-less-overtly-corrupt religious terrorists. They chose the latter. After calling the vote "free and fair," the United States boycotted the winner, making Hamas the "victim" of American perfidy. The Administration now has all its eggs in the Abu Mazen basket. President Bush waived the Congressional prohibition on direct money transfers to the Palestinian Authority, saying Abu Mazen is "confronting extremists and pursuing peace talks with Israel." This would be the Abu Mazen who has been ginning up violent protests in Jerusalem against Israel and in support of Hamas.
One can fairly say that the United States has pursued policies that have had the effect of undermining Israel's security. Mr. Prime Minister, did we do those things over your objection, with your acquiescence or with your encouragement? It is important to us, as Americans, to know which it is.
President Bush is not the Prime Minister of Israel. He is not responsible for protecting your people and, at some point, you have to tell him and his emissary Secretary Rice that Israelis voted for you, not for them. Your obligation is first to Israeli citizens and only then to the Palestinian children Hamas has put on the rooftops of Gaza as human shields. Shirel Friedman, Oshri Oz, Roni Yehiye and the toddlers Yuval Abebeh and Dorit Benisian had first claim on Israeli protection. Yossi Haimov, Osher Twito and Gilad Shalit still do.
Unless...
Unless you believe limited incursions into Gaza are sufficient and you have no plan beyond them; unless you believe the "peace process" and the establishment of a Palestinian state is paramount, even if it is born in anarchy; unless your goal is to be out of places you don't want to be in regardless of consequences beyond your tenure; unless you think Abu Mazen just needs more money and you believe more weapons for Dahlan's thugs will produce security for Israel. If this is what you believe and what you are telling the President and Secretary Rice, OK. It's your country.
America - and Israel's American friends - can't be a stronger force for Israeli security than Israel is. If you and the President are on the same page - Palestinian independence by the end of the year come hell or high water - you can be quite sure the Administration will push you hard in the direction you want to go. If you have a different view of your responsibility and the future of your country, this would be a really good time to let the United States know.
Editor's note: This article originally appeared in the quarterly newsletter of Kulanu (www.kulanu.org), a grassroots organization serving dispersed Jewish populations.
Rabbi Tarlow is director of Hillel at Texas A&M
By Lloyd Levy
 LONDON, England —Most people in Western Europe no longer believe in the Bible, and especially regard the "Old Testament" as fairy tale. However to us Jews it is an account of our history going back 4,000 years, and I do believe that for the most part it is an accurate account.
Nevertheless, proving the truth of the Bible accounts is far from easy after all this time has passed. That is why one little clay writing tablet, recently discovered in the British Museum in London, is so very significant.
One day last year, a researcher was reading an inscription on one of these tablets, which was written in Babylon (now Iraq) in 594 BCE, in ancient cuneiform writing.
On this tablet, he read the name “Nabu-sarrusuukin," being a chief servant to Nebuchadnezzar, and it was a receipt for gold that he had sent to the Babylonian’s temple.
Fortunately, the researcher in London was a clever person, and knew his Hebrew Scriptures. That name rang a bell in his mind, and he knew that it was a person mentioned in regard to the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 576BCE.
The Book of Jeremiah 39:1-4 reports that Nebuchadnezzer king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army, and besieged it . On 9th day of the fourth month, the city wall was broken through. Then all the officials of the King of Babylon came and took seats in the middle gate; they were Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, and "Nebo-Sarsekim a chief officer" ...
This is exactly the same person a mentioned on the clay tablet, the difference in spelling merely because one is written in Hebrew, and the other in Babylonian.
Therefore what we have here is absolute corroboration that a person specifically mentioned in the Tanakh from 2,600 years ago, did absolutely exist at the same period of time, being Nebuchadnezzer’s chief officer. Although it seems a piece of insignificant trivia, it is indeed extraordinarily important in proving the Tanakhv to be more than folk tales.
The inscription is not, as far as I am aware, actually on display in the British Museum, so do not go and expect to see it. However it does exist, and one wonders what other revelations lay still to be discovered in the basements of museums around the world.
The Sabbath’s Omnipotent Painter
By Sheila Orysiek
 SAN DIEGO—When you were a child did you ever try to imagine what G-D might look like? Who would be so daring? Being rather foolish I have given it some thought. Would He be a rather gaseous Intelligence somewhere in the cosmos? Well, perhaps. But I also think of G-D as a Painter. He must have a grand studio, full of “Let there be Light,” a sturdy easel, considering the size of some of the things He paints, and an infinite palette of colors.
Our world is a riot of color and form and as much as it teems with life, there are also some basic templates; for instance, a basic shape for birds with feathers, beaks and wings. From this template He made both the gliding beauty of a swan and the gawkish striding of an ostrich. After forming the creatures with these templates the painting begins.
A goulash of garish colors for a parrot but a precise mix of red and white for the flaming pink of a flamingo. Broad strokes for an eagle but infinite patience and finesse for a peacock. Oh the intricacy of workmanship on that design! Bluebirds and tanagers! Canaries and condors! Gooney birds and peregrines! Some absurd shapes and colors, too, like toucans and emus.
It must have been a special day when the Painter worked on a tiger. I think that He liked the pattern so much He used it on a lily, a butterfly, and a fish. All were a success. But then He could do no wrong. Tropical fish came in for special attention with every shape and color of which even G-D could conceive. Can a rock fish and an orca really come from the same Hand? A jelly fish and a blue whale? They do, indeed. He devised gloriously colored schools of tropical fish that swim in turquoise water against a coral reef. Was such an abundance of beauty necessary? The Creator apparently thought so.
Some colors linger, while others are gone in a moment. The pastels of dawn slowly change to the blaze of noon but the ruby flash at the throat of a hummingbird is over in an instant. The promise of a rainbow arches protectively across His heavens while the northern lights in a night sky shimmer in a ghostly dance of transient fantasy. And a color exchanging chameleon watches it all from his rock.
He smiled the day He gave the dolphin a permanent smile and probably laughed as He made the arrogant face of a lumpy camel. He caused the grinning chimp to remind us of our relationship to it all lest we forget Who made us. Can the same Hand which carefully dabbed spots on a fawn or a leopard also have sprayed them willy-nilly on a hyena? It is hard to compass the fact that the proud stag and the upside down bat share the same Maker.
He painted litters of ordinary house kittens and made geometry of a giraffe. We have been painted too, sometimes red hair and green eyes and white or black or brown all over. We are the only ones who make a fuss about this. The Creator painted tree trunks red, bird’s legs blue and as you watch changes white clouds to gold and purple and black. He turned graphic artist with the snakes and impressionist with butterflies. He put fake eyes on wings, made sticks that walk and leaves that crawl, worms that glow and flies on fire.
I wish I could have been there the day He painted the faces of pansies. From pools of color on His palette He mixed and spattered to His and our delight. It was not enough for a rose to be beautiful, He also added scent. A simple wild purple violet shares patrimony with a brilliant ruffled hibiscus or a silly daffodil. The spiny cactus breaks forth into color and a Venus traps flies. He takes the time to stamp out a different pattern for every snowflake that falls and each creepy crawly is different from another. Would our food be as tasty without the color? Can you imagine fire in black and white?
He tinted icebergs spectral blue and seas black and red. Mountains were washed with crimson and rocks sprinkled with rubies and gold. I do believe G-D paints mostly in the spring and summer. In the fall He cleans the studio and some of the golds, reds and yellows spatter down and cover the hills and trees of earth. It is not sufficient that a leaf lives and then withers away - it must first give us a burst of final glory before it dies.
He has amazed us with His handiwork and inspired us for ours. And then He made it all finite so we have to hurry to see it. But I am sure it was such fun for Him that even as we watch in wonder, He is still busy mixing and matching all the colors and shapes.
And though we are busy, He has decreed that we take one day per week, His Sabbath, to be amazed by it all. And so we are.
An Awestruck Part
A mountain climbs on earthen feet
To reach the sky beyond
And leaves behind the rolling rocks
Leaving ripples on a pond
At night its awesome peak is lit
By an eternal star graced crown
By day the mountain’s side is clothed
In a glorious tree laced gown
The wind blows strongly round its top
When the nostrils of heaven flare
The clouds knot and twist about
Into ribbons of streaming hair
Meadows and groves beguile the eye
Fields of snow, like flowing milk
Down the crags the water streams
In a skein of sodden silk
A mountain tells an eternal tale
Without the use of a word
Only the flutter of a fallen leaf
The grunt of a bear, the song of a bird
But I come to hear the silence
And hear only the sound of my heart
To find again the grand creation
Of the Creator…..of which I am an awestruck part.
SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Thursday, March 6, 2008 (Vol. 2, No. 57)
Sherry Berlin in San Diego: Sarah laughs...and Sammy enjoys Shavuot
Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: Mafia 'wise guy' converts to Judaism
Sheila Orysiek in San Diego: Choreographer seeks to
decentralize dance
from New York City, make it more eclectic
Carol Davis in San Diego: The Clean House plays to a pleased house
Peter Garas in Canberra, Australia: Double standard: journalists shed no tears for Ukrainians denied Russian heating oil
Yvonne Greenberg in San Diego: Lecturer says Sydney Taylor’s children’s books intrigue audiences of all ages
Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: The Zoo as textbook for religious studies
heila Orysiek in San Diego: Kaballah book helps open ears to the Voice
Marissa Palin in San Diego: Beth Israel event focuses on auto emissions
Gary Rotto in San Diego: Surrogates for Clinton and Obama debate for the affection of Ohio Jewish voters
Lynne Thrope in La Jolla, California: Whisknladle: restaurant gets it right
Shoshana Bryen in Washington DC: The Angelina Jolie report on Iraq progress
Peter Garas in Canberra, Australia: No protests over gas cutoff to Ukraine?
Sheila Orysiek in San Diego: Mitzvah equation: difficult equals better?
Ira Sharkansky in Jerusalem: Israel's response in Gaza: long in coming
Judy Lash Balint in Jerusalem: Filmmaker Laura Bialis describes "Only thirty-six hours in Sderot."
Shoshana Bryen in Washington, D.C.: Obama and McCain debate Al Qaeda
Carol Davis in San Diego: Tick, Tick...BOOM at Stone Soup in S.D.
Rabbi Baruch Lederman in San Diego: There is no tempest in this coffee pot
Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal in San Diego: Even Mishkan's building awaits Shabbat
Ira Sharkansky in Jerusalem: Kicking up a fuss over Jonathan's sexuality
Plus Letters to the editor
Link to previous editions
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