"If you will it, it is no dream." Im Tirzu, ayn zu Agada. אם תרצו, אין זו אגדה

The famous words of Theodore Herzl that turned to be the driving force behind the creation of the State of Israel.

That is now also the driving force behind the renaming of a street in Beverly Hills after Theodore Herzl.

The 300 block of North Clark Drive in Beverly Hills was renamed Herzl Way on Sunday on the 150th anniversary of the birth of Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism.

The Beverly Hills City Council voted 4-1 at its Feb. 2 meeting to name the block where Temple Emanuel is located for Herzl, a Hungarian writer, playwright and journalist who coined the phrase, "If you will it, it is no dream.''

The remainder of the street will continue to be called Clark Drive, named for Percy Clark, the first agent who sold land in the Beverly Hills tract, according to the 1934 book "History of Beverly Hills,'' by Pierce E. Benedict and Don Kennedy.

"This is by far one the best days of my life,'' Beverly Hills Mayor Jimmy Delshad said at the ceremony. "As a young man, I never dreamed that one day I would be here, as the mayor of Beverly Hills, recognizing the visionary of the state of Israel, Theodor Herzl.''

Delshad recalled working in the fields and as a janitor in Israel as a youth and how Herzl "was behind me, talking to me, saying `Nothing is impossible,''' inspiring him to his future business success in the United States.

In an interview, Delshad said he was inspired to have a street named for Herzl during a 2007 visit to Herzliya, the Israeli coastal city he made a sister city of Beverly Hills during his first term as mayor.

[...]

"Today, Israel and Beverly Hills are making a statement of mutual respect, friendship and partnership.

"And today, the citizens of Beverly Hills are saying, `Herzl Way is our way. We believe in the strong, vibrant, innovative country of Israel. We believe in the movement that paved the way for millions of Jews to return to their homeland after 2,000 years in the diaspora. We believe in this vision.'''

Temple Emanuel Senior Rabbi Laura Geller said the renaming will prompt children to ask "Who was Herzl? Why was he important enough to have a street named for him?'' and learn about him.

Perhaps it will be the driving force one day to urge and encourage the Jews of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and other areas, to participate in fulfilling the dream of creating and living in the Jewish Homeland.

To quote another famous line that has a very similar meaning, "If you build it they will come". We are building it, we have been building it, come help us build it. If you will it, it is no dream. Israel is today's Jewish reality.

I was at a bris this morning and the baal simcha (the father, not the baby) said something very poignant. Afterwords, as I was saying mazel tov before leaving, someone else pointed out how that same line had struck him as very powerful, so I have decided to share it with you.

The father was explaining how they had chosen the name. He said, and I am not quoting precisely because I do not remember the exact words he used, that they looked back on all the branches of their family trees, and as far as they could figure out, this is the first baby born in their families in Israel in at least 1800 years.

That one line expresses everything about Jews, our desire to return to Zion, and our ability to return to Zion today. People have good reasons for not coming, there are delays, life gets in the way, and all that. But at the end of the day it is so much easier today to fulfill this dream, the dream that Jews for centuries have held and largely were unable to achieve, today it is possible.

After 1800 years, the children are finally able to return. The dream was kept alive, and the dream stays alive. It is upon us to seize the day, seize the opportunity, and finally fulfill the Jewish dream that stayed with us through the centuries of exile. We are able to, and we are doing it.

This is a picture from the levaya of Moshe Hirsch, the good buddy of Yassir Arafat. This makes "picture of the day" because you can see in the picture that no more than two dozen or so people could be bothered to come to his levaya...meaning the amount of crazies like him are actually very small in number...

Bimheira Veyameinu Medley Part 1:


Part 2:

The anti-haredi sentiments have really escalated the past few days around the country, and I don't know of a specific event or reason that is the cause of it.

A few days ago a broadcaster spoke about Haredim being parasites. Yesterday the mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, spoke about the need for a "civil revolution" against the Haredi community. Yair Lapid, a prominent journalist, wrote about how the Haredim have been removing themselves from society and how the general public will not be able to continue supporting them, and now a new fight is escalating in Jerusalem.

The secular representatives in City Hall had been promoting the construction of a new theater. It seemed that there would be no problem with this, with the Haredim only insisting that it not be open on Shabbos. If it would be, they would have to oppose it. The seculars had no problem with that, as the land allotted for the theater was government owned land anyway, which would not allow them to be open on shabbos. (source: Bechadrei)

Now, some "extreme seculars" are making it into a fight and insisting that it be open on shabbos. They have yet to get around the problem of it being slated for construction on government land, but if they really want it to be open on shabbos they might just decide to build it on private land instead.

I don't know what happened over the past week, but suddenly people's anti sentiments are increasing. Is there a full moon out?

In recent years the students in the Toldos Aharon yeshivas did not participate in the big event at Meron. This year they found solutions to the problems so that the boys could go along as well.

Each boy to commit to staying within the Toldos Aharon sectioned off area. As a guarantee, each boy gave 200NIS which would become a fine if they were to have "shmiras eynayim" problems (i.e. if they would leave the specific area). As well, they blocked out all the windows on the bus with curtains and set up supervisors to make sure nobody would look out the window on the way. (source: Bechadrei)

I don't know why this makes me chuckle at the same time as being happy for them. On the one hand this seems so ridiculous, on the other hand I respect them for finding a solution so they can actively participate in the event they wanted so much to be part of but had a problem preventing them from doing so.

The plane had blown an engine over the northern Arabian Sea, and the lead pilot, Lt. Miroslav "Steven" Zilberman, had to make lightning-quick decisions.

The E-2C Hawkeye, returning from a mission in Afghanistan, was a few miles out from the Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier. Zilberman, 31, was a veteran U.S. Navy pilot who had flown many times in the Middle East with the Hawkeye, a turbo-prop aircraft loaded with radar equipment.

The starboard propeller shut down, causing the plane to become unstable and plunge. Zilberman ordered his three crew mates, including the co-pilot, to bail. He manually held the plane as steady as possible so they could jump.

"He held the plane level for them to do so, despite nearly uncontrollable forces. His three crewmen are alive today because of his actions," Navy Rear Adm. Philip S. Davidson wrote to Zilberman's parents.

Zilberman went down with the aircraft on March 31. The 1997 graduate of Bexley High School was declared dead three days later, his body lost at sea.

Yehi Zichro Baruch. The story of a real hero who was Jewish.

---- Israel National News, after interview with Eden Ba Tal

Amazing that people still think that if we just tell the anti-semites that we innovate and create things like computer chips they will suddenly stop hating us and start loving us....

Yuri Foreman on Jimmy Kimmel Part1:


Part 2:

1.Dr. Savta went to Mt. Grizim to see the Shomronim celebrate Pesach, on our Pesach Sheni.


2. The Wolf asks why leggings under a skirt are not considered tzniyus..

3. Tzedek-Tzedek on painting the floor yellow..

4. Garnel discusses a strong "letter" by Yair Lapid..

A number of years ago I wondered why we are allowed to listen to music on the night of Lag B'Omer. Growing up we always had to wait until mid-day or so on Lag B'Omer day to listen to music, yet come sundown in Israel and the music is blasting!

So a number of years ago I asked around and was told that it is the minhag of Eretz Yisrael that music can be listened to already from the night.

The following is not applicable if what I heard is correct.
However, someone I know just asked a rav what's up with the music, and the answer he received is that the night of Lag B'Omer by the bonfire is an exception to the rule. Really we cannot listen to music, but by the bonfire of Lag B'Omer it is ok. Besides for the bonfire, no music until mid-day the next day.

If this is correct, as this rav said, a very haredi rav I might add, then I have a question.

Regarding Yom Ha'Atzmaut, one of the major points of opposition to celebrating YH, even if you are not so ideologically opposed to the State, is that during sefiras ha'omer you cannot listen to music, no exceptions, even for a very happy day. The rule is no music because of mourning during a certain time period, and just because something else good happened during that period does not give cause for an exception to the "minhag" or "gezeira".

By now you can surely already figure out my question - if an exception can be made for Lag B'Omer, how does that jibe with "no exception" come time for Yom Ha'Atzmaut? Either you can make exceptions or you cannot....If you can make exceptions for what you want, then when you don't want to, at least be honest enough to give the real reason - you don't hold of the importance of the day, and don't make up stories about no exceptions.

Kibbutz Galuyot, Bet Shemesh style

We walk around, talking amongst ourselves in English. Our kids speak to each other in Hebrew.

I took a bus today into "old Bet Shemesh", and saw a number of Russian immigrants. The adults were speaking Russian to each other. The kids were speaking in Hebrew.

I got off the bus and behind me was walking an Ethiopian family. The parents were talking Amaharit to each other. The kids were talking Hebrew to each other.

Waiting outside of a government office, waiting for it to open, I was talking to a friend. he was telling me about some upcoming simchas he has of his children who live in different places around the world, Knayna ha'ra, with a little krechts hoping they will come back to Israel one day.

I pointed to the Ethipian lady across the street and said, look, she is from Ethiopia and is now here.
I pointed at a group of 3 Russians and said they are from Russia but now live here.
There were a couple of Sfardi women on the other side, and I said she is from Iraq and that one is from Morocco (I have no idea if I was right, but I thought so based on appearance), and they live in Israel.
There were some other people as well, and I didn't know where they had originated.
I was from the USA, and "you" are from Australia.
And we are all living here.

Eventually your kids will move back here as well. It is inevitable. This is the place to be. Jews from all over the world end up in Israel. It might take some time, but they will come back.

Eventually the Jews from all over, wherever you are, will realize this is the right place for you to be living. it might be Bet Shemesh, it might be Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Modiin, Gush Etzion, Ranana, Beer Sheva, or wherever. Eventually you will all realize that this is the place you are meant to be.

What's the highlight of your Lag B'Omer?

Call me a heretic or a heathen, but the highlight for me is not saying tachanun.

The rest of it I find to be silly and pointless. The kids have fun with the fire, but that does not make much of a holiday... Anyway, how holy can the fire be when the main focus of it is to get the potatoes in just right (after dancing for 5 minutes, of course), along with jockeying for position so you can roast your marshmallows quicker?

With all this ruckus about the school in Emannuel and discrimination against Sefardim, I have begun to wonder...

Perhaps there is discrimination involved, perhaps not. I don't know.

But why does the Supreme Court see fit to force them to have only one school? Every frum neighborhood I am familiar with, along with most non-religious neighborhoods as well, have well more than one school. In RBS there are tens of schools. Does that means every school is guilty of discrimination because there is not just one large school including everybody within it?

Let the residents of Emannuel open another school, even 10 more schools. Each schoool can differentiate itself slightly - this one for this group of hassidim, this one for that group, this one with more secular education, that one with less, the other one for these types of people, and yet another for those types of people, etc.

Why do they in Emannuel have to have only one school when every other neighborhood has multiple schools?

I just lost whatever respect I had for Haaretz... Even though they were involved in stealing military documents...even though they have always been extreme left-wing...even though..even though..even though...

But now they have hit a new low...

They actually published a story using the National Enquirer as their source.

That's right. They picked up a story from the National Enquirer. And now they probably still expect to be taken seriously...

Lenny Solomon's smash hit "Ani Yehudi" has been remade and rewritten into Hebrew by Kobi Oz. The result is great! And I can't get over the name "Fishy HaGadol", "The Big Fish" (one of the singers who participated in the making of this "We Are the World-esque" video)