As you can from the screenshot I attached below, I just noticed that Gmail is now open for everybody and anybody to sign up for. No longer do you need to look for people to send you invitations.

http://www.gmail.com - go knock yourself out!

I have not done a Foto Friday in a while, but today's events called for it.

Mazel tov!! Goose has laid her first egg of the new season!!

and for some perspective so you can see how large the goose egg is....

Tonight we made our siyum for masechet taanis in daf yomi. We like to put out a full spread of food, even for completing a "small" masechet like Taanis.

I avoided all the pictures with people in them, to protect their privacy... but enjoy these pictures of our siyum...

Ynet has posted an article by Yehuda Litani in which he says the excavations nearby and the renovations on the ramp of the Mugrabim Gate will lead to bloodshed and are not worth it. He wants Israel to abandon the renovations and excavations.

And this is after Israel has already given tacit permission to the Arabs to add a new minaret on the Mount while rejecting the Jews requests to build a synogague. They won't even let us do badly needed renovations and historical excavations.

Litani says, "We don't have to demonstrate our sovereignty over every inch of united Jerusalem in every case. At this time, which isn't easy for Israel and features immediate dangers, ranging from Hizbullah in Lebanon to the Iranian nuclear threat, we don't need this confrontation, which will give the Palestinians a reason to end their own bloody clashes and unite against Israel."

He might be right. There are possible scenarios in which it might just not be worth our "provoking" the peace loving Arabs to violence. After all, while sad that innocents are getting killed, it is better that they are killing each other in Gaza City rather than killing Jews or forcing us to kill them. A provocation by Israel could change all that. It could unite the various factions among the PA Arabs and get them to stop fighting with each other and start fighting with us again. Nobody wants that.

He might be right. But not when it comes to the Temple Mount. It is bad enough that the Arabs have acting control over the Mount and we Jews have to be debased and humiliated any time we want to go to visit the Mount with body searches for religious material and not being allowed to pray on the Mount.

They use our democratic society against us. We democratically have to give them control over anything they claim they are sensitive to. We democratically have to give them rights and freedoms in the name of peace and justice. Yet when they are in control of something they show us no liberties and offer us no rights and freedoms.

We have given them practical control over the Temple Mount. Do they let us have our religious freedoms and pray there, in the sight that is holiest to Judaism? No. Despite the fact that it is sovereign Israeli territory, we allow the Arabs enough control that they disallow jews to pray there. Freedom and liberty seems to only run one way when it comes to the Arabs.

Now Litani says we should not even demonstrate the slight amount of control we do have? If we let them hold the Mount hostage in this ridiculous baseless fashion and give in to their threats of violence, what would he say we should demonstrate our sovereignity over? only when they come looking for Lod and Ramle? Tel Aviv? Haifa? When will it be ok to demonstrate our sovereignity?

This is similar to the schoolyard bully who beats up the nerdy kid for his lunch money. He keeps on doing it for more and more power and money, until the kid realizes he has to stand up for himself. When he finally gets the courage to fight back, that is when the bully leaves him alone.

My three year old daught got a new book recently. It is a book about a kid who has low self esteem and is picked on by the other kids. A new kid moves into the neighborhood and the kid oozes with self esteem and immediately has all the other kids respect. The low self esteem kid asks him how he can be "strong" like him. His response is not to let them pick on you. When they tell you to do something, if you do not want to do it say no. Stand up for yourself. He says they will leave you alone if you just say no. It is not muscles that make you strong, rather the confidence and will to stand up for yourself.

It is time we stopped giving in to every threat the Arabs throw at us. It is time we stood up to them and told them we will not take it from them anymore. Let them show us how civilized they can be.

Even Judge Cheshin said yesterday (referring to the new Justice Minister who advocates changing the judicial system), "This is my house and I will cut off the hand of anybody who threatens it."

I think this curse of the Chicago Cubs is getting out of hand.... This is a theory I have never heard before and they are going to try to oust the curse/jinx.

I hope it works.

Today, in the building where I work, there is a campaign to test people for bone marrow compatibility. The drive is specifically for two young women - a 23 year old student and a 30 year old mother of three.

The drive is being sponsored by Zichron Menachem , Gift of Life , Hadassa Hospital, and Amutat Am Yisrael Hai in an attempt to find a donor for these women. They have introduced a new testing method, imported from the US, which takes just a few minutes with a couple of swabs of saliva from the cheeks, rather than the previous method of testing the blood.

I went down and got myself tested.

We often hear about the great amount of hessed the Haredi community does. And they do a lot of hessed. But let me tell you, other people do hessed too.

There were all types of people in that room being tested; Haredim, secular, dati leumi, etc.. Everybody cares and everybody wants to help. Kol hakavod.

The current controversy regarding excavations at the Mugrabim Gate entrance to Har Habayit has prompted this post.

We learned in the gemara the other day in daf yomi in Taanis 28a an interesting idea. The gemara, discussing the idea of donating wood for the Beis Hamikdash, mentioned that the pestle-smugglers, the fig harvesters and the ladder-people acted righteously.

The Greek authorities had decreed disallowing the Jews to bring wood for the Beis Hamikdash, nor the Korban of the Bikkurim. The pestle-smugglers and the fig harvesters got around the decree against the Bikkurim by covering the Bikkurim with figs and smuggling it through the guards.
The ladder-people would bring ladders through the guards claiming they were using the ladders for maintenance. Once inside, they would dismantle the ladders and use them as wood for the korbanos.

The gemara declares that "Regarding such people the passuk says זכר צדיק לברכה - The Tzadik is remembered for blessing".

I am reprinting (with the author's permission) the contents of an email someone sent out about this gemara:
Acc. to Marsha, this is how to understand the gemara.
During Beis Shenie, When the Greeks started to take power, They had no control over the Beis Hamekdash, and were unable to prevent Korbanot.
So they set up guards on the roads, and area where they did have control.
They only prevented two Korbanot, the Wood ( only to each family that had a holiday from their ancestors of bringing on that day - in the beginning -- Holiday for them ),
and Bikkurim. These two Korbanot were related to Simcha. They wanted to prevent Jews from Bringing Korbanot that would bring the Simcha.
They only prevented these Korbanot, all others were okay, and that is why, when they looked at the Korbanot, there was always fire, but they could not tell which Korbanot were being offered.
The Gemara tells us Stories of families that would LIE, and sneak past the Guards to bring Korbanot Besimcha.
These are the people , and the Gemara points out, people WITH SIMILAR ACTIONS, are Zecher Tzadik LeVracha.
I don't know if this phrase, zt"l, is used anywhere else, for people learning torah ( except that you can say, they are Moser Nefesh to learn Besimcha ).
But what impacts me the most is the LIE, to achieve this grate goal.

I can only reflect and compare this to people who go up to Har Habayit, to daven Besimcha.
I personally do not go, nor can I say it is permitted.
But only time will tell, regarding these people, who do it BESIMCHA, where they will be remembered the same way, as the families in our Gemara,
Zecher Tzadik LeVracha.

I do not know when else the term "Zecher Tzadik LeVracha" is officially used. Nowadays we commonly use the term to refer to talmidei hachamim and people who have done great hessed (and sometimes not so great people) who died.

Going up to Har Habayit today is fairly controversial. Some rabbonim are in favor, some are against for a variety of reasons.

One of the major reasons against going up to Har Habayit is "Lo L'hitgarot B'goyim" - not to "tchepper" with the goyim. Not to provoke them.

To this claim I say that Har Habayit is only their latest claim of our provocation against them. They do not want us here in Israel at all. If we would accept that claim, we would all have to leave Israel, and most other countries, so as not to upset the goyim.

I imagine that back then, along with at any point in history in which a significant portion of the populace disagreed with the ruling evil parties (for this post I will only be referring to those governments Jewish history considered wicked and evil, leading the Jews astray from following Torah and mitzvos), we would hear similar complaints.

There would be groups of people who would insist on going to the Beis Hamikdash to bring korbanos, despite the decrees against and despite the social pressures against. I imagine them in shul talking to their friends about their plans to go to the beis Hamikdash next week.

The friend would show concern and say something like, "You do that? Isn't it dangerous? What will be if the Greeks find out? What will be if Yerovom finds out? You know they have guards to keep people away? You know they have snitches and others who keep their eyes out for anybody involved in these things and they can make your life hell? They will get your kids thrown out of school, you will not find shidduchim for your kids, your kids will be thrown out of yeshiva, etc.". And these people were good people, they were religious, even possibly Haredi, if the type existed back then. They were against people going up to the Beis Hamikdash because they were afraid of the repercussions.

Yet the people who continued to go to the Beis Hamikdash, probably small in number, would press on and say this is what needs to be done. They would insist "We cannot follow them in their evil ways and give in to their dictates". They would risk everything to do what was right.

And the Gemara says these are the people who it is written about Zecher Tzadik LeVracha.

It is comforting to think about this, as someone who does go up against the general consensus, that according to Jewish history we (those of us who go up) are in good company of people who our Torah considers Tzaddikim just because they were willing to risk everything in order to continue the relationship with Hashem and the Beis Hamikdash.

Jameel wrote a great post in response to a commenter who questioned why he lives in such a "dangerous" place... worth checking out..

For the past week or so the roads through Ramat Bet Shemesh B have been shut down sporadically.

No, there have been no roadworks going on.

The cause of the road closures are a series of violent protests going on through the neighborhood of RBS B.

The exact source of the problem is a bit unclear. You will get different details from each person you ask. But the general story is that about 10 days ago a woman from RBS B was found dead. She was in the middle of divorce proceedings and her husband had had a restraining order keeping him away from her house. The restraining order had just expired and he had come by "to see the kids". The next thing anybody knows is that she turns up dead in the street near her place of employment (she worked in a mikva).

Some of the local zealots assumed the police would attempt to take the body for an autopsy. They repeated an act that they did a few months ago in Ashdod and stole the body away under the watchful eye of the police. This time, though, they had to use violence to run off with the body. They got a group of people to help them and they beat up the few police who had been keeping watch over the body.

Eventually the situation was cleared up. They agreed there would be no autopsy, just an external examination. the body was returned, the funeral was held and all was ok.

Then the police came and arrested a number of people. This is where it gets unclear. It is unclear whether they arrested the people involved in stealing the body, involved in beating the police, involved in planning and running the incident, or just innocent bystanders who were "watching" at one of the original protests.

Since the police arrested those people, many people from that neighborhood have been holding protests in the streets on a daily and nightly basis. They throw rocks at buses. They shove garbage bins into the street. They hurl debris at people, buses, cars and police. I understand that the police have removed all the garbage bins from the area, so now the people are going out themselves and blocking the roads.

Last night I went to a wedding. I got a ride with a friend. For some reason on the way back he decided to drive through RBS B to get to our neighborhood. This is at about 11:00 PM. We get to a certain intersection to find the rest of the road blocked off by the police due to protests taking place further up the road. We turned around and went another way.

I, personally, no longer drive through RBS B. If I need to get somewhere that requires my crossing through B, I take alternate routes using either the back road or the main highway #38. Even though those routes are longer than crossing through RBS B, one never knows if he will make it through B or encounter a road block, or worse possibly encounter a rock to the windshield. The only time I go through RBS is if I need to go to the Post Office, which is located in RBS B. I stopped using the stores in B. I no longer travel that route.

The situation there has gotten way out of hand and it seems like the police can hardly control it. I am tired of hearing the excuse that it is just a few people and they act on nobody's authority and do not listen to the local Rabbonim who tell them to stop. I no longer believe it.

Aside from the damage they cause to our cars and buses, aside from tying up police resources, aside from causing many people an inconvenience, aside from anything else, they are holding their own neighbors hostage to their stupidity. If the neighbors and Rabbonim of the area did not agree, they would have found ways of stopping it by now, even if that meant throwing them out of the neighborhood. They find ways of chasing out other people who they do not want living among them, they can find ways of getting rid of these people as well.

Even if you justify their having stolen the dead body on religious grounds that autopsies are prohibited and they were right in their zealotry, that in no way justifies what is happening. Part of being a zealot is the idea that you are doing something you fiercely believe in despite the threat of consequences.

If they fiercely believed in the necessity of stealing the body and can thereby justify the theft and subsequent violence on those religious grounds, then they should have done so with accepting any possible consequences, including their arrests. To increase violence because they were arrested for their actions is hypocritical. They should be proud of being arrested for the honor of defending the Torah and should leave the rest of us alone.

And the police need to do their job. If it means beating a few of them over the head with nightsticks, so be it. Open those roads, protect the people driving through from flying objects, and let us live our lives like normal people.

This morning on the train to work I was thinking about the Superbowl from last night.

I figured if the Bears lost and played so poorly, I at least have to come up with something profound to take away from the game. Some sort of lesson to make staying up all night worthwhile.

The game started off with an absolutely amazing play by Chicago Bear Devin Hester. He ran the first kickoff back 92 yards for a touchdown. The first play of the game. If you blinked you would have missed it. After that they played pretty poorly and ended up losing the game.

Sometimes we think that we need some big event, something extremely inspiring, to get us moving. The big play is the important one.

It is not true. It is not the case. The big play is great. It can inspire and motivate. But it is not the most important. The most important is the daily grind. Making the normal plays with consistency (which the Bears did not so last night). Being diligent in the normal routines. That is what brings a person to success.

The Bears made a great play right away. Very inspiring. But they did not cash in. They did not make the regular routine plays. You cannot win without succeeding in the routine plays.

We have to be more diligent in completing our normal, daily routines and activities and not be so worried about the big splashy public things we do. Those are what will bring us our success.

easy reading for Superbowl halftime..

If you still have any illusions about who is really in control over Har Habayit, check this out

I do not understand the tension between the Defense Minister Amir Peretz and the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

There have been a number of recent incidents in which the relationship between the two has been strained due to conflict.

The latest is the decision regarding the purchase of a new missile defense system. Amir Peretz made his evaluation and decided to go with one of the options. His decision is irrelevant to me. I am not going to praise it or criticize it, as I have no way of knowing which of the four options were better or worse. I will assume (rightly or wrongly) that Peretz did his due diligence and made his recommendation based on professional factors.

Peretz announced his conclusions, selecting a system developed by the RAFAEL corporation. Immediately after his announcement, Olmert announced that Peretz has no right to make a decision on this matter and he would have the final say.

Of course, after all the back and forth between the spokespeople of each respective office, they each say their is no conflict or tension between the two.

This came after a scuffle over who has the right to recommend the new IDF Chief of Staff.

I do not understand Olmert's position. He says the Defense Minister has no right to make any of these decisions.

If the Defense Minister cannot select the Chief of Staff, or even make a recommendation on the matter, and cannot decide or even recommend a missile defense system, what exactly is his job description? What can he do as Defense Minister? Where do his responsibilities end and Olmert's begin?

If Olmert is not allowing the Defense Minister to make defense related decisions because he feels the DM is not qualified to do so, then he should fire him and appoint a DM who is qualified. If he thinks the DM is not qualified then what makes him think he is any more qualified to make such decisions? His military background is no more qualifying than Peretz's record.

Is it really not the Defense Minister's responsibility to make such decisions or recommendations? If not, what is his job description? What are his responsibilities?

Today is the day! Go Bears!!

I will predict a Bears victory by a score of 27-21. I made up that score. I have no idea how to predict a score and just assume everybody else also make up the scores they predict.

My stats: I always predict the Bears to win. That means, the Bears went 13-3 in the regular season and are now 2-0 in the playoffs, making them 17-3 so far for the season. That means I have been wrong three times and right 17 times.
That is a much higher percentage than the experts who have predicted the Bears to lose nearly every game this season. So, if you are betting on the game tonight, your chances are better betting in line with me than with the experts. But I take no responibility for your bet (just like they don't).

Check out this article from Rav Dovid Bar Hayyim on why Tekhelet is not more widespread....

wanna see something really cool?

go to http://www.google.com (The Google homepage). erase everything from the address bar. copy and paste the following text into the address bar and hit enter: javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);

Enjoy!