AISH's new holiday video - hot off the press - just released!

Aish's latest video for Hannukah..

looks like the holiday video trend is back...

Passover Rhapsody - A Jewish Rock Opera

Aish's new holiday video in time for Pesach...



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John Hagee exposes all on Aish HaTorah's Old City rooftop overlooking Temple Mount

Hard to believe Aish HaTorah allowed Pastor John Hagee to say all this hosted from their rooftop in the Old City..


Find more videos like this on Jewish Israel


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Hear O Israel

I always find Aish videos to be a bit preachy, but the message is good...

Chanukah Jewish Rock of Ages

Friend Request Pending

From the Aish Hasbara Fellowships...



The "Friend Request Pending..." campaign aims to engage students and campus communities, highlighting the Israeli commitment to peace and demonstrating that a lasting solution requires cooperation between the parties, not unilateral moves.

The campaign has a Facebook motif, demonstrating that Israel has tried to make 'friends' with its neighbors, but the friendship has rarely been reciprocated. The campaign includes a series of entertaining, informative cards and posters for display and distribution on campus; a sensational viral video; and an emergency mobilization guide that includes talking points, ways to take action, and additional resources.

"Friend Request Pending..." communicates that Israelis want peace, and have proven it. The obstacle to Middle East peace is the lack of a responsible peace partner in the Palestinian leadership. Bypassing direct talks with Israel and defying the United States, the Palestinian leadership is turning its back on previous commitments to cooperation, in an effort to isolate and delegitimize the Jewish State.

Rosh Hashanah Rock Anthem

The Kotel: The Heart Of The Jewish People



The latest video from Aish

This week's big topic is going to be Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha'Atzmaut. Let's start it off with a patriotic video put out by Aish.com about Israel's accomplishments...



If you cant see the video here, go to the Aish website..

Some AISH comedy...

I am not a historian or much of a scholar on pretty much anything, but this is something I have wondered about for a very long time.

When I was in Yeshiva, many moons ago, there was this thing guys had about going to Discovery. Discovery was fairly new back then, just a few years old, and there was a buzz about it. It was exciting. Discovery is/was a program by Aish that was intense for a few days talking about how religion and Torah are correct. They were out to make people frum very quickly by giving them massive amounts of information that would effect them changing their lives.

Discovery was exciting for yeshiva guys, I think, for two reasons:

1. Discovery seminars discussed many things that the average yeshiva guy never learns or hears about. It is very interesting material (when I was in Yeshiva I knew one of the main Discovery lecturers, and when I would go to his house for Shabbos he would sometimes be talking about it, so I had a taste of what it was).
2. Discovery was off limits to Yeshiva guys. It was for not-frum people only. That meant it was a challenge for a yeshiva guy to get in. He had to try to dress and act not-frum and hope nobody noticed. The challenge made it enticing for guys to try and, more often than not, the guys who tried, got in. I think the Discovery people must have known and not really minded, as long as they did not look so obviously frum in the classroom.

Eventually, if I remember correctly, Discovery made a separate track for frum people who wanted to take the course. That accomplished two things:

1. Discovery was able to make money off a whole new audience (they charged these guys entrance fees)
   
2. it kept the frum guys out of the non-frum groups, which prevented the frum guys from disturbing the non-frum sessions with questions the non-frum would not understand.

So, there were all these yeshiva guys going to hear lectures at Discovery.

I personally never went. But I remember hearing, many times, that one of the major topics lectured on was the 10 plagues.
Discovery would talk about the 10 Plagues and describe how archaeologists found ancient Egyptian records that described the 10 plagues from the perspective of the Egyptians. It was eerily similar to what the Torah describes, with the twist of it being described from the other end.

I always thought that would be a really cool perspective to read, yet whenever I looked for more information on the subject, I never really found anything.

My wife once knew someone who had studied ancient Egyptian history in college and did her Masters degree in the field. I do not remember the name of the specific field she studied, but it was one that would have included the topic of the Ten plagues, it is existed in Ancient Egyptian history. This woman told my wife that the topic never came up, she had never seen anything in the books about such an archaeological find.

So, I don't know if Discovery made it up (I always wondered why the people at Discovery were the only ones to have found and be aware of this evidence), or if there really was such a discovery in the archaeological world, but I always wondered what the plagues were like from the Egyptians perspective and how they would have described them.

And I know, the lack of any such discovery does not mean it does not exist. Maybe they just "have not yet dug deep enough to find it".

A couple of months ago Rabbi Yitzchak Solomon posted an interesting 1 minute video (really they are all interesting, but I am commenting on this one) in his series of "Something to Think About" on the aish.com website.

The clip was one referring to the plane crash in which a baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees named Cory Lidle died. Rabbi Solomon was discussing the fact that people lament the loss of a celebrity but neglect to realize that along with, for example, Cory Lidle in that plane crash also died the pilot who was a husband and a father and is a great tragedy to his family. He asked why we get all excited about news of a celebrity and not of the other people connected. Why do we not mourn the loss of the pilot?

Rabbi Solomon's point was good. It is a loss. Every person is a world and every person has people who care about him or her. Anybody who dies, especially if it is in an unusual manner, is a tragedy.

That being said, I think it is understandable that we, the general public who usually knew neither the celebrity nor the pilot (in this example) personally but were familiar with and maybe adored the celebrity, think about the celeb and forget the non-celeb. The celebrity somehow touched our lives.

For example, in the case of this plane crash, I was not affected by the death of Cory Lidle. I was not a fan of his. In fact I had never heard of him. I hardly even paid attention to the story when it happened. To me, his death was no more and no less tragic then the death of the pilot. But if it had been somebody else who had died, maybe I would have been affected (depending on who it was).

Why am I writing about this now?

In yesterday's daf in daf yomi, in Rosh Hashana 22b, the gamara was discussing the details of witnesses coming to beis din to testify regarding the status of the moon in order to declare the new month. One of the points under discussion was the fact that the witnesses must also bring charachter witnesses (references of sorts) to tell beis din that these guys are kosher Jews and trustworthy. After all, beis din has no idea who they are, so a reference clears things up.

The gemara discusses how many references the witness needs. One or two. The gemara mentions a story in which the witness went to Jerusalem to testify and along with him went Rav Nehorai as a charachter witness. The gemara wants to prove from this that he only needs one reference, not two. The gemara rejects the claim by explaining that really that witness had two references. It only mentioned Rav Nehorai and left out the other guy because Rav Nehorai was so great it says, "משום כבודו של רב נהוראי" - because of the greatness (honor) of Rav Nehorai.

In other words, because Rav Nehorai was a celebrity (of sorts), it is normal to not mention the other guy accompanying him.

When President Bush shows up, nobody mentions the aides that are with him. When Rav Elyashiv shows up somewhere, nobody mentions the shamash who tags along. When Ehud Olmert shows up somewhere, nobody discusses the name of the guy who drove him. When Cory Lidle dies, nobody mentions the pilot.

Sure, each person is important, and his death is tragic to those close to him. But the celebrity has a different status.