Photos from The Old City in Jerusalem

B"H

A few more pictures I took on Tisha be'Av last Monday night:

A model of the Temple Menorah: Now it can be found exhibited right across the Kotel (Western Wall) but in previous years, the Menorah was exhibited in the Cardo. According to the Rambam (see Mishna Torah, the Temple Menorah had a totally different shape !

The rebuilt CHURVA Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter.

The CARDO - a former Roman shopping street

 

In the Jewish / Armenian Quarter of the Old City.

Photos: Miriam Woelke

Parashat Va'etchana

Photo: Miriam Woelke

B"H

I feel a kind of guilty because I haven't even found the time writing about the ARI (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria) who had his Yahrzeit exactly a week ago. However, I am just a "one - man - show" with my blogs and don't have too many guest articles. Unfortunately I am not a full - time blogger but need to work besides the blogging.

Moreover, I am going to publish a famous Talmudic story on Tisha be'Av on Sunday.

This week's Torah Parasha is called "Va'etchanan". Moshe is asking G - d if he (Moshe) could not at least see and enter the Land (of Israel). G - d doesn't want to change His mind but allows Moshe to see the land.

"Look at it with YOUR EYES", G - d says.

Rashi is asking the question why G - d tells Moshe to look with HIS eyes. What other eyes could he have used but his ?

Rashi answers that this way, G - d granted Moshe at least one of his two requests: Seeing the land.

The Or HaChaim and also kabbalistic sources ask what effects it would have caused, if Moshed had entered the land. Some say that Meshiach would have come right away. The Or HaChaim states that G - d may have not destroyed the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) in case Moshe had been around. However, G - d had other plans and wants every individual Jew to fulfill his own Tikun (soul rectification). If Moshe had entered the land, he may have rectified all Jewish souls and this is exactly what G - d doesn't seem to want. He wants each of us getting involved and acting and not only one individual for all of us. Everyone has his own task in life and this is why he was created.

Going to Jerusalem in a few hours, I wish you a great Shabbat with lots of rest.

"Shabbat Shalom - Gut Schabbes" to all of you !

"Kinderjohren" - Yiddish Cracow

B"H

For those stressing modesty (Zniut):

The following song is sung by a woman !

The CAIRO GENIZAH Online

B"H

The famous CAIRO GENIZAH went online

http://www.genizah.org/theCairoGenizah.htm

Warning: False Tour Guides in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and Tel Aviv

B"H

A Tel Aviv local paper is mentioning a problem I have been noticing for a longer period of time. Although the paper is only referring to false tour guides in Tel Aviv, I want to do the same for the haredi / chassidic world.

False tour guides are walking around in Jerusalem. Seemingly tours around the haredi / chassidic world attract many people and false guides have discovered the topic as an income source. Without any deeper knowledge about religion, without ever having studied at Yeshivot or seminaries, without ever having been part of the haredi world, totally secular tour guides offer their services. For plenty of money and I am sure that none of them is paying any taxes on that but just putting the money into one's own pocket.

Googling through Wikipedia, stealing information from this and other blogs, secular tour guides present false tours in order to cheat their listeners and make money.

In case you are planning to book such a tour:

1. Check whether the tour guide is a real historian or specialist on the subject. If he / she has recommendations, certificates, university degrees.

2. Check whether the tour guide has an official permission from the Ministry of Tourism.

3. Get receipts for the money you paid. Say that you need a receipt for the tax office.

4. If you are interested in REAL information, get in touch with some chassidic communities such as BELZ and book a tour. Stress that you want a chassidic guide from the particular group. Some haredi communities offer tours mostly for free. If you are interested in Belz, I am able to get you any further information. The same with Karlin - Stolin, Dushinsky, Toldot Aharon, Toldot Avraham Yitzchak, Rudzhin - Boyan,Vishnitz (Bnei Brak) or Kretchnif (Jerusalem).

5. Be aware because today, many unqualified people start calling themselves experts, kabbalists or historians. Most of them are not but just fakes (Cash Cows).

6. Interested in a great author on the chassidic world ? Get hold of the books wirtten by YITZCHAK ALFASSI (a Gerrer / Gur Chassid). Alfassi is THE absolute authority !!!

Are Baalei Teshuva better than FFBs ?

B"H

I know a young Sephardi woman running a certain kind of business in Jerusalem. She must be in her 30ies and, a few years ago, she became religious. This kind of Breslov - Rabbi Arush type.

For her, Baalei Teshuva are the greatest people ever and I usually avoid talking to her about religious matters. At least since I had a fight about Rabbi Arush with her. About his money collecting system and that most of his students are rather weird figures. In Jerusalem, Arush is well - known for his "kind of students".

However, the woman admires Rabbi Arush and I am fine with that as long as she keeps quiet when she speaks to me. Yesterday she caught a Haredi guy in a not too modest situation but a few minutes later it turned out that the Haredi was completely innocent. The particular situation had just left a false impression but when you looked closer, nothing had ever happened.

The woman started telling me how first she thought bad about the haredi guy but then got to know the whole picture. I told her that she should come to Tel Aviv and have a look how certain Haredim from Jerusalem or Bnei Brak behave there. At the public beach, for instance.

I should have known better and kept quiet because immediately the woman accused me of "Lashon HaRah - talking slander". I would only look at the bad sides and how do I know at all. Because I surely don't know anything about religion and the haredi world.

I responded that, first of all, I have been in that world and secondly, we are all human beings and thus have our faults. Also Haredim.

"Well, she said, if someone haredi is sinning, so it is just those who were born haredi. A Baal Teshuva doesn't stare at bikini wearing women at the beach because he has seen enough in his life and is now making Teshuva. There would be such incredible stories about every Baal Teshuva and a guy at the age of 39 becoming religious doen't sin anymore but only the Frum from Birth.

I told her that this is not true at all. Everyone has negative ideas and thoughts. A FFB Haredi may be curious about an unknown world but a Baal Teshuva may suddenly miss his old life and continue his misdeeds. Why should he be better than a born Haredi ?

I don't know what Baalei Teshuva are being taught by their Rabbis today but we shouldn't forget that we are human beings. And humans have their faults. No matter to which society I belong.

What I have noticed in Jerusalem is a certain kind of Baal Teshuva opinion towards born Haredim. Is it due to jealousy because most born Haredim never totally accept a BT within their society ? Could be.

I was a Baal Teshuva in the haredi society but never tried squeezing myself in. Some BTs push themselves so much upon born Haredim that they simply go on everyone's nerves. A BT should take it easy, as he is doing Teshuva to perfect HIMSELF and not in order to show other how great he is. Once you follow this principle, you will be much happier with yourself and the haredi society.

Sikarikim at the Post Office

B"H

Once again, Jerusalem's Sikarikim made headlines in the haredi press. The secular press seem to have overlooked the incident happening a few days ago.

Some Neturei Karta Sikarikim entered a post office near the haredi Ge'ulah neighbourhood and demanded from the manager to turn off the advertising screens because the commercials (e.g. women appearing) shown there wouldn't be too modest. The manager refused and the Sikarikim made a fuss.

Before they even entered the post office, they had pushed the guard aside and he had called the police. Result: The Sikarikim were thrown out of the post office.

So far, no other Haredi have complained about the commercials on the screens.

New Virus in GMAIL accounts

B"H

GMAIL users watch out, as a new virus is going around !

A friend of mine sent me the following details:

* I opened my Gmail this morning and saw an email: Google Accounts: Alert (Note: it was 24 hours old)
* When I opened it the message stated that accounts were being selected at random to be deleted and if I wished to keep my account I should send in my Name, DOB, Password, etc.
* I figured it for a scam and started a check with Google forums.
* Meanwhile, a second message came in--attached to the original. This one said that Google Database was over loaded and if I wished to keep my account to send in the same info I mentioned above.
* While I was in the forums My Gmail signed off on its own
* I could not log in again
* I tried to have my password reset but that didn't work
* I had to report my account as compromised--Google uses a process to send a new password to a "secondary" contact email
* I had to clear my cache and cookies, close the browser and finally I could log in with my new password


Please Publish to your Readers:
If you receive a message with the subject: Google Accounts: Alert or just Google Accounts


DO NOT OPEN IT ! DELETE IT !
AS SOON AS YOU OPEN IT--YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE COMPROMISED--IT IS A PHISHING SCAM !

I am "JEWISH ?" and I love You

B"H

Israel's Supreme Court is planning a final verdict on an interesting subject (crime):

Is a Gentile who deliberately tells an Israeli Jewish woman that he is Jewish, guilty of committing a crime ?

More and more Israelis are complaining to the police that their partner, who is supposed to be Jewish, is turning out as a Gentile. Before the Jewish person began the relationship, the partner had claimed to be Jewish and thus lied.

I cannot say that it is common among religious circles to just grab someone from the street and starting a relationship. As we all know, frum Jews go through Shidduchim or, at least, certain ways of recommandation. The result is that such surprises wouldn't happen to them although I know cases where the Rabbanut (Chief Rabbinate) had someone registered as Jewish and it turned out later that there was a halachic questionmark.

Secular Jews, however, don't pay too much attention and when someone says he is Jewish, so they, more or less, believe it. Our present society is full of questionable halachic Jews and plenty of Israelis who come from a mixed marriage where the mother wasn't Jewish. The Reform movement as well as liberal laws are causing an identity problem in our society. Who is who in Israel ? I find it quite sad that you have to check with the Rabbanut and other institutions whether your friend / spouse is really Jewish. A sad reality today !

The Inner Mystery of Judaism

B"H

From the OROT (LIGHTS) of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook (first chief rabbi of Palestine, died in 1936):

The Gentiles defiled revealed Judaism by their touch; they touched the holy oils and rendered them impure. The stones of the holy altar were made unfit. However, the inner mysteries (of Judaism) that are hidden and sealed from foreign touch retained their sanctity - but only the most soulful inwardness, for the (outer) expressions of the mysteries were already desecrated by intruders. This inwardness, which is the soul of the supernal soul, is fixed in the characteristic soul of Israel, and never moves thence, as long as the connection to the totality of the nation and its character lives in its midst, as long as it desires at all the well - being and success of the Israelite nation. Though it does not know to call by the Name and enunciate its mysteries, and even if it errs in its deeds and opinions - its inside is the holy of holies.

Despite Rabbi Kook wrote this a long time ago, nothing has changed under the sun !

Picture of the Day

Seen in Tel Aviv

Photo: Miriam Woelke

Erev Tisha be'Av in Jerusalem

"Yassam" cops were, together with the army's border police "Mishmar HaGvul" securing the annual Tisha be'Av march around the Old City walls organized by the "Women in Green" and their head, the right - wing activist Nadja Matar.

"Eretz Israel belongs to the Jews" - so the slogan of last night's march. Before the march, "Megillat Eicha" was read at the Independence Park. Afterwards we started marching down to the New Gate, Damascus Gate, Lion Gate (all in East Jerusalem) and the Dung Gate in front of the Kotel (Western Wall) Plaza.

In previous years, thousands of mostly national religious Israel participated but last night there were only about 1000 people.

Here are some impressions from last night, Erev Tisha be'Av 5770:

Yoram Ettinger (Expert in US relations) gave a speech before the march.

Down to Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem

Damascus Gate

Usually not a save place to go for Jews because the area is known as Hamas territory.

Further down at Damascus Gate used to be one of the main entrances to the Beit HaMikdash (Temple).

Israeli soldiers everywhere in order to protect the march participants from potential Arab extremists.

At the Lion Gate the march stopped and Rabbi Shalom Gold as well as Knesset member Aryeh Eldad and activist Nadja Matar made speeches. The speeches were mostly political and Nadja Matar remembered the withdraw from Gush Katif five years ago.

Nadja Matar and Knesset member Aryeh Eldad

We also passed Avshalom's grave (King David's son).

Temple Mount with Al Aksa Mosque

Mourning Kinot at the Kotel (Western Wall)

Kotel Mezuza


Further photos are following: The rebuild Churvah Synagogue and the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem !


Photos: Miriam Woelke