Ukrainians Visit Yehuda and Shomron To Express Solidarity with Israel

Ukranian officials visit Israel's Shomron region

One of the most horrific events of the Holocaust was the mass killings at Babi Yar in the Ukraine. In the era of the Redemption, the nations will regret the suffering they caused the Jewish people. Recently, senior officials of the Ukrainian government visited the West Bank of Israel to show solidarity with the settlers. "I wish you only good for your community. Ukraine will be a firm partner for Israel, " vowed one official. "We love your country and respect your people," he added.

With thanks to Y.H.

Israel National News

Is Europe's Yesha 'Taboo' Coming to an End?

A delegation of Ukrainian bureaucrats led by the Ukranian deputy minister of culture toured Yesha; expressed solidarity.

By Gavriel Queenann 

First Publish: 11/26/2011, 8:16 PM

Ukraine's deputy minister of culture toured Samaria (Shomron) with senior bureaucrats from numerous Ukrainian ministers on Friday.

"This is my fifth visit to Israel, but I didn't have any idea that there are such idealists in this country," Kokhan Tymofii said. "I wish you only good for your community. Ukraine will be a firm partner for Israel"

"We love your country and respect your people," Tymofii added. "Our countries have a lot in common. We laugh and cry in the same way in Ukrainian and Hebrew."

"We were all born of Adam and Eve, we must preserve our friendship, appreciate peace, honour our parents and educate our children so that their skies will always be peaceful, and they will be able to grow up respecting their leaders and the religion of their neighbors, friends and brothers," he said.

The visit by a senior government minister from an important European country was hailed as breaking an international taboo by David Ha'Ivri of the Shamron Liaison Office.

“Israel's control of Judea and Samaria and the development of Jewish communities in this region is almost always at the very top of the international discourse and geopolitical debate,” Ha’Ivir said. “Even coming here is taboo.”

“Decisions makers who wish to make a stand on this issue would be doing themselves a big favor by taking the time to actually come out and see the facts on the ground for themselves. Seeing is believing, the facts of the ground speak for themselves.” 

Led by the head of the Shomron Council, Gershon Mesika, and of the Minister of Information and Diaspora Affairs, Yuli Edelstein, the delegation was given a comprehensive tour of the settlements, industry and agriculture, as well as the wineriesin the Shomron.

"These unique tours, that we are making a top priority to carry out, have an amazing effect on those taking part," Edelstein said. "In most cases people radically change their opinions about the reality in Judea and Samaria and about the people living there, and understand much better the challenges that our country is facing."

"There is nothing like a tour of the Shomron in order to understand that the stigmas and prejudices were wrong," he added.

During the visit, the guests toured the Trans-Samaria Highway where they were exposed to the physical narrowness of the State of Israel, and the industrial area of Barkan.

They also observed the Tomb of Joseph and Nablus itself in "Mitzpeh Yosef" – an observation point overlooking Nablus on Mount Gerizim.

Gershon Mesika emphasized the importance of settlements in Judea and Samaria in maintaining the security and existence of the Jewish state.

"From here we can see what the meaning of the Land of Israel is for the Jewish People," Mesika said. "Those who are pushing for the establishment of a Palestinian State must know that the inevitable result will be excising the heart of the Land and the expulsion of more than 300,000 Jews from their homes."

"If we leave here, terror groups will take our place," he added.

After Expelling Syria, Arab League Slaps Sanctions Against a Fellow Arab State.

The 22 countries of the Arab League

The Rebbe says that through the service of the Jewish people during the long exile, the nations of the world are now refined and ready for the Redemption. Recently the Arab League threw out Syria for brutality against its own people. It is highly unusual that the Arabs would criticize another Arab nation publicly for cruel behavior. Now the countries in the Arab League are applying economic sanctions against Syria to "add teeth" to their resolution. As the following Associated Press story notes, this is unprecedented.

From Rav Yekutiel Fish, cited on yeranenyaakov.blogspot.com: When Damascus Falls, the Holy Temple Will be Rebuilt.

• With what's going on in Syria, it's interesting what the Otzar Midrashim says that when Niron Mizrahi of Damascus falls, the Eastern kingdom will fall, and then, the salvation for Israel will sprout.
• David Hamelech (King David) captured Suria, but it didn't have the full status of Eretz Yisrael because it was captured before Eretz Yisrael proper was captured, says the Rambam on Demai 6:11.  So why did David Hamelech do so?  He knew that capturing Damascus was integral to getting the Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple). (דמשק is the same letters as מקדש ...)     Therefore, he tried to capture Suria to bring about the Beit Hamikdash being rebuilt, but it was premature.    Now that he captured Suria, he merited to see the light of the Beit Hamikdash prematurely in Bat Sheva - as he knew that the builder of the Beit Hamikdash would come via her.

In unprecedented step, Arab League sanctions Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — In an unprecedented move against a fellow Arab nation, the Arab League on Sunday approved economic sanctions onSyria to pressure Damascus to end its deadly suppression of an 8-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad.

But even as world leaders abandon Assad, the regime has refused to ease a military assault on dissent that already has killed more than 3,500 people. On Sunday, Damascus slammed the sanctions as a betrayal of Arab solidarity and insisted a foreign conspiracy was behind the revolt, all but assuring more bloodshed will follow.

The sanctions are among the clearest signs yet of the isolation Syria is suffering because of the crackdown. Damascus has long boasted of being a powerhouse of Arab nationalism, but Assad has been abandoned by some of his closest allies and now his Arab neighbors. The growing movement against his regime could transform some of the most enduring alliances in the Middle East and beyond.

At a news conference in Cairo, Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim said 19 of the League's 22 member nations approved a series of tough punishments that include cutting off transactions with the Syrian central bank, halting Arab government funding for projects in Syria and freezing government assets. Those sanctions are to take effect immediately.

Other steps, including halting flights and imposing travel bans on some, as-yet unnamed Syrian officials, will come later after a committee reviews them.

"The Syrian people are being killed but we don't want this. Every Syrian official should not accept killing even one person," bin Jassim said. "Power is worth nothing while you stand as an enemy to your people."

He added that the League aims to "to avoid any suffering for the Syrian people."

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Ancient Messiah Prophecy Heats Up Again.

The Rebbe MhM

In 1991 at the time of the Gulf War, the Rebbe called attention to an ancient prophecy in the Yalkut Shemoni. The Yalkut, an anthology that includes mystical writings, described the Gulf War in detail and said that at this time the Messiah would be revealed. Now Israelis are taking note of this passage as it pertains to the current conflicts between Iran and Saudi Arabia. What is good about this is that they are reviewing this prophecy which the Rebbe confirmed happened already and is continuing to happen.

News   

Cheshvan 22, 5772, 19/11/11 08:49

Iran and Saudis Acting Out Ancient Messiah Prophecy?

Jews familiar with the ancient Yalkut Shimoni notice recent tensions between Iran, Saudi Arabia match prophecy regarding the Messiah.

Gil Ronen

Jews familiar with an ancient compilation of Aggadic exegesis called Yalkut Shimoni noticed in recent weeks that current tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia matches a prophecy it contains regarding the year in which the Messiah – the King who redeems Israel and the world – is to appear.

In particular, the recently revealed Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S. and subsequent reports that the Arab nations are pressuring the West to attack Iran, appear to fit the sequence of events predicted in the Yalkut Shimoni.

In to the part of the book dealing with the Book of Isaiah, the following passage appears:

"Rabbi Yitzchak said: 'In the year in which the Messiah-King appears, all the nations of the world are provoking each other. The King of Persia provokes an Arab king and the Arab king turns to Aram for advice. And the King of Persia goes back and destroys the entire world. And all the nations of the world are in panic and distress and they fall upon their faces and are seized with pains like those of a woman giving birth, and Israel are in panic and distress and asking 'where shall we go? Where shall we go?,' and He says to them 'my sons, do not fear; all that I have done, I have done only for you. Why are you afraid? Do not fear, your time of redemption has come, and the final redemption is not like the first redemption, because the first redemption was followed by sorrow and servitude under other kingdoms, but the final redemption is not followed by sorrow and servitude under other kingdoms."

Persia is currently known as Iran, and an Arab king – or the Arab king – can be reasonably understood, in modern eyes, as referring to the king of [Saudi] Arabia, the Arab homeland.

This passage is relatively well-known and oft-quoted, and some modern versions of it substitute "Edom" for "Aram." Ancient Jewish references to "Edom" are nowadays generally seen as referring to Europe or the West. "Aram" refers to a part of ancient Mesopotamia, roughly congruent to the northern part of modern Iraq and eastern Syria. The instability in precisely this area is reportedly what most concerns the Saudis, as a U.S. pullout from Iraq looms and Syria's pro-Iranian regime teeters.

The prophecy bodes ill for much of the world, which, if Rabbi Yitzchak's quote is to be taken literally, is to be destroyed by Iran before the Messiah steps in.

The identity of the compiler of Yalkut Shimoni is not known with certainty but a copy of it is known to have existed 700 years ago, in 1310 CE. The works it quotes are even older, and go back to early Talmudic times.

Muslims Interview Rabbi Lau About Moshiach on Turkish TV

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and Adnan Oktar

It is said that in the era of the Redemption the world will be filled with talk of the Moshiach (Messiah). Recently on Turkish TV, a Muslim philosopher, Adnan Oktar, grilled former Chief Rabbi of Israel Yisrael Meir Lau on the coming of Moshiach.  He and his interpreters say that they know from the Jewish people that Moshiach is coming. They repeat the words of the Jewish prophets as they understand them, that there will be good days, beautiful days, days of peace and goodness.  "Beautiful days are very close,"they say. They acknowledge that the temple of Solomon will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. However, they have their own twist on these events and insist that the Koran also has this information.

Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Launches Trendy Book on Philanthropy

1. 

   Laura Arrillaga-Andressen

   "Transform your Giving And our World. How do you define "giving"? Philanthropy means giving anything—time, money, experience, skills, or networks—in any amount to create a better world." This is a sales pitch for  a new book by Laura 

   Arrillaga-Andreessen, Giving 2.0. What started with a campaign from Warren Buffet and  Bill Gates to other billionaires is now becoming a hot new trend... giving your money away, (and in this latest book, also your time and skills). Here is the blurb from the author's publisher, and below is her own passionate sales video for her book.

   
   

   From the Publisher

   Giving 2.0 is the ultimate resource for anyone navigating the seemingly infinite ways one can give. The future of philanthropy is far more than just writing a check, and Giving 2.0 shows how individuals of every age and income level can harness the power of technology, collaboration, innovation, advocacy, and social entrepreneurship to take their giving to the next level and beyond.

   Major gifts may dominate headlines, but the majority of giving still comes from individual households—ordinary people with extraordinary generosity. Even in 2009, at a time of deep recession, individual giving averaged almost $2,000 per household and drove 82% of the $300 billion donated that same year. Based on her vast experience as a philanthropist, academic, volunteer, and social innovator, Arrillaga-Andreessen shares the most effective techniques she herself pilots and studies and a vast portfolio of lessons learned during her lifetime of giving. Featuring dozens of stories on innovative and powerful methods of how individuals give time, money, and expertise—whether volunteering and fundraising, leveraging technology and social media, starting a giving circle, fund, foundation, or advocacy group, or aspiring to create greater social impact—Giving 2.0 shows readers how they can renew, improve, and expand their giving and reach their fullest potential.

   
   

   How many hundreds of thousands (millions?) did the Rebbe give away?

   In 1987, the Rebbe MhM began giving dollars away on Sunday to those who came for a blessing. Soon thousands lined up to receive these dollars, which the Rebbe asked be donated to charity. The "Sunday dollars line" became a phenomenon and many miracles happened through these dollars. It was at "Sunday dollars" that CNN taped the Rebbe saying, "Moshiach is ready to come now. It is only on our part to add something additional in the realm of goodness and kindness."

   
   

Practical Ideas of Goodness & Kindness from a Noahide

The Rebbe M"HM

In 1991, in an interview with CNN on the "Sunday dollars" line, the Rebbe offered this message to the world: "Moshiach is ready to come now. It is only on our part to do something additional in the realm of goodness and kindness." Here from AskNoah.org are ideas for goodness and kindness from a gentile woman who has accepted the 7 universal laws, the laws of the children of Noah. Keeping these laws is the way the nations help prepare the world for the final Redemption.

Acts of Goodness and Kindness 

Some Practical Suggestions for Doing Acts of Goodness and Kindness for Others

Sending a Nice Surprise

Mail a newsy card or letter, or send an e-card.
Give an unexpected present or send flowers.

Putting the Phone to Good Use

Call an old friend, or call your children just to say hi.
Call to compliment someone on a job well done.

Kind and Thoughtful Speech

Suppress an urge to gossip.
Thank someone for their efforts.
Look for and speak about the good qualities of others.

Devoting Time for Others

VOLUNTEER.
Make a new friend.
Visit someone in a hospital or nursing home and cheer them up.

The Joy of Giving

Donate your magazines to a nursing home.
Give some charity every day (money and/or kind acts).*
Put money in an expired parking meter (besides your own!).
Include an AskNoah Brochure when you send a letter or a package.

Especially for Parents to Do

Be patient, encouraging and forgiving with your children.
Hug your children and ask them how they’re feeling.
Give allowances & teach children to set aside part for charity.
Read to children and help them with their homework.
Send your parents pictures of their grandchildren.
Tell your children about Noah and teach them the 7 Laws.
Teach your children to be kind to animals.

Especially for Children to Do

Call your parents and grandparents and get them feeling happy.
Don’t quarrel or fight with your brothers and sisters.
Do chores and be helpful without waiting to be reminded.
Draw a picture from the story of Noah and send it to our Kids’ Art Gallery.

Especially for Spouses to Do

Celebrate special dates (birthdays, anniversary, etc.)
Give warm smiles – they’ll be reflected back to you!
Turn off the TV and spend some quality time together.
Do those home projects that have been neglected for too long.

Acts of Kindness to do for Seniors or Disabled Persons

Rake leaves or mow their lawn.
Give them a ride to shopping, appointments, etc.
Give assistance in opening a door or crossing the street.
Give them your attention, respect and patience.

*Thanks to the Noahide woman who sent (AskNoah.org) this message:

I have come to the conclusion/realization that time is more valuable to me than money, and here is how I’ve incorporated this into my life. In my daily routine, even when I forget to study or I forget to pray, I almost always remember to give to charity. I have a jar on my dresser. Each week I have $100 to spend on food, gas, and whatever. I decided to give $1 in the morning and $1 in the afternoon. I got a bunch on $1 bills. I see the jar, reach down and pick up a dollar, and put it in the jar. This takes very little time. I took my copy of the Artscroll Torah out of my nightstand (where I couldn’t see it) and put it next to the jar to remind me to give the charity. That way, hopefully, when I see the Torah I will give G-d that which is more important to me – the few moments of time that it takes to do a good deed.

Billionaire Ron Perelman Tells His Father Why He Became Religious (Forbes Magazine)

In a recent interview with billionaire Ronald Perelman and his father Raymond, he reveals why he became religious. His parents were not religious, although they were proud of being Jewish and took their children on a trip to Israel. Says Perelman, "As I grew, it became very clear to me that what I do, I am not doing alone. I am placed in situations with opportunities in those situations that others are not. I don’t believe that that is happenstance. I believe that there is a God that has a plan for me. " This describes the Divine Providence that is at work in everyone's life. This concept, that G-d is intimately involved with every person, is a central belief in the inner dimension (or mystical level) of Torah that is permeating the world in the era of Redemption.

Billionaire Ronald
Perelman

Embracing Religion   

RAYMOND: I want you to hear this, Ron, it’s very important. The one thing I don’t understand about Ronald. Everybody asks me the question, “Why he is so religious?” And so I said to him one day, I said, “Ronald, why are you so religious?” Now, I did take him to Israel, and he didn’t want to leave, but he did leave. And so I said to him, “Why are you so religious?” He says, “If I’m gonna be a Jew, I’m gonna be a Jew.” And he is almost so Orthodox, and his religious beliefs, it’s incongruous with me and my wife and the siblings. [Looks at Ronald.] Do you know that? You know that.

RONALD: Mmm-hmmm.

RAYMOND: But you will tell me now. Why are you so religious? And, just a second, let me add one thing. I love it. There’s nothin’ wrong with it. And it’s great, and I’m proud of it. You don’t know this, I’m very proud of the fact that he’s so—and he stands out, he stands out! I mean, here’s a guy who’s got so much money he can’t spend it, why is he religious? He has these Orthodox kids he brings from all over the world when he wants a minyan [a required quorum of ten adults for prayer] on Saturday, he flies them in.

RONALD: I’ll give you the answer.

RAYMOND: What?

RONALD: I’LL GIVE YOU THE ANSWER!

RAYMOND: Go ahead, that’s what I want to hear, son.

RONALD: [Speaking slowly:] As I grew, it became very clear to me that what I do, I am not doing alone. I am placed in situations with opportunities in those situations that others are not. I don’t believe that that is happenstance. I believe that there is a God that has a plan for me. And, you know, why did I get some of the things I got and other people didn’t? Some of it, it was just—I walked in on the guy at the right moment, and the day before he wouldn’t have done anything, and that day, you know, he got something from his wife, and he was feeling good or something.

And so I believe that God plays this enormous role in my life. And I believe that it’s my obligation to give back and to follow the rules that were set. And it also gives me an enormous sense of my own place and an enormous sense of stability. And I don’t work on Shabbos. I don’t ­answer the phone on Shabbos.

RAYMOND: He won’t talk to me on Saturday!

RONALD: I won’t drive on Shabbos. I won’t do it, you know? And [my wife] says that “That is an amazing thing for you. Because it cuts off the 300 phone calls you get a day and people come to you with—nobody comes to you with good stuff; it’s always a problem.” It allows me to just spend the day with my family and sleep and relax and get reinvigorated. And she said, “That is clearly the purpose of it—I can see it in you.”

But I truly believe that I am placed where I’m intended to be placed, not my doing. Now, I have to take the opportunity and make good of it, but I am given the opportunity, [it’s] not created.

RAYMOND: Now this is a very touching moment. I’m tellin’ ya. As close as I am to Ronald, I didn’t realize that was his motivation. Okay. And so it’s, it’s something that I believe but in a different way. Why do I give to charity? I want to do good for other people. I want people to have the benefit of what my money will buy for them.

RONALD: Right.

RAYMOND: Better health, better Judaism—and he—in a sense, we’re the same. I just didn’t have the patience to be as religious as he is. I mean, it’s remarkable. This is a very touching moment, I wanna tell you something. In the whole of my 94 years I’ve never heard what I just heard. I never heard it. And I love it. I love it. I mean, what’s bad about it? Can you complain about someone loving God? In his own way and what he wants. That’s remarkable.

Hamas Leader Admires Israel For Saving One Soldier in Prisoner Swap

It is foretold that in the Redemption, the Arabs will willingly  give the land of Israel to the Jewish people because they will see clearly that it belongs to them. Perhaps this story of Arab leaders openly admiring the Jewish people is a marker along the way to true peace, based on the truth.

"This is a pillar of Israel's strength — to wage a war to free one man, to free a thousand prisoners for him," Salah al-Arouri, Hamas politburo

Released Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit walks down the stairs
 into his home in Mitzpe Hila, northern Israel, 
after over five years in captivity, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011. (AP Photo/ IDF)

Story featured on Chabad.info

Hamas leader praises Israel’s ‘strength’ in prisoner swap

High price paid for single soldier

By Abraham Rabinovich — The Washington Times

Thursday, October 27, 2011

JERUSALEM — A senior Hamas official praised the “strength” Israelshowed in a prisoner exchange that swapped more than 1,000 Palestinian convicts for one captured Israeli soldier.

“To do what Israel did shows the value Israeli society places on human life,” Salah al-Arouri, a member of the Islamist militant group’s politburo, said this week on Israel Radio from Damascus, Syria.

“This is a pillar of Israel’s strength — to wage a war to free one man, to free a thousand prisoners for him,” he said, referring to the Jewish state’s efforts to free Staff Sgt. Gilad Schalit from his Hamas captors. “This is the strength of a society and an army.”

The Hamas leader’s praise for the cohesiveness of Israeli society echoes sentiments heard elsewhere in the Arab world since Sgt. Schalit’s release:

• Israel Channel Two television quoted columnist K. al-Ahmed, writing in the al-Qabas newspaper in Kuwait, as saying: “I wish I were Gilad Schalit; I wish my country cared so much about me.”
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Student Triumphs Over Anti-Semitic Attack at Scottish University

Two inebriated students entered a classmate's dormitory room and exhibited gross and insulting behavior regarding the Israeli flag hanging on the wall. Seeking justice, the student brought the two miscreants to trial. To their chagrin and everlasting embarrassment, the court ruled that they had indulged in aggressive, racist behavior, and fined one of them $500, to be paid to the plaintiff. Without any further prompting, the administration of St.Andrews University expelled one student and suspended the other, which sent a loud and clear message that anti-semitic acts will not be tolerated.

Chanan Reitblat: Donates compensation from bias incident
 in Scotland to family of terrorist victims.

"To me, this attack struck a deep chord because in our history,  attacks on the Jewish people always began with attacks on Jewish symbols but never stopped there. By way of example, before they killed six million Jews, Nazis started by burning Jewish books — which are symbols of our identity and culture. The Israeli flag and the Star of David is a symbol representing the Jewish state and the Jewish people, and any pretence that attacking it is “political debate” or “free speech” or “defense of Palestinian rights” is a facade.
         -Chanan Reitblat, Exchange Student, St. Andrews University

Enduring Anti-Israel Sentiment At St. Andrews

Steve Lipman, Staff Writer, THE JEWISH WEEK
Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Chanan Reitblat, a Lithuanian-born and American-bred post-graduate student at Yeshiva University, went to Scotland’s historic St. Andrews University earlier this year to study chemistry and learned a lesson in contemporary politics. An undergraduate exchange student at the school, he hung in his dormitory room a large Israeli flag — a gift from his brother, who served in the Israeli army's Marva basic training program; in March, a pair of fellow students attacked the flag, one of them rubbing          his genitals before wiping his hands on the flag.

That student, 19-year-old Paul Donnachie (a member of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign) was expelled from the university and sentenced to perform 150 hours of community service; afterwards he posted a Facebook notice that “I got into s*** for disrespecting [an Israeli flag]. F*** them.” His partner was suspended for a year — they were, it was ruled, guilty of a racially motivated, rather than a political, crime. The moves by the school preceded by several months the conviction of 10 students at the University of California at Irvine for disorderly conduct for repeatedly interrupting a speech by Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren.

Reitblat, 21, has subsequently left St. Andrews and returned to his studies at Yeshiva University. He said he will donate the nearly $500 he received from Donnachie in compensation on court orders to the Fogel Family Fund, which was established to assist the surviving children in an Israeli family, whose parents and three children were killed in a terrorist attack the same day as Reitblat’s flag was desecrated.
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