Gammad Anaq / Dwarf Giant

A game they play at the yeshiva during Adar is called Gammad Anaq / Dwarf Giant. It involves the Dwarf giving something small and creative to the Giant. Think "Secret Santa" or something like that.

Someone made a blog for instance for his Anaq.

And Here is something that I got, if you can understand the Hebrew its quite funny and besides for #10 its all joking.

Tour of Jerusalem with Darfur Refugees

Darfur Refugees on the mount of Olives 2
Originally uploaded by seraphya.

On Sunday I went around Jerusalem with a group of Sudanese refugees, mainly from Darfur. They have been in Israel a while, but are mostly stuck in the moshavim and kibbutizim that they work in.
They are mostly cool people with interesting stories to tell and intresting perspectives.

There is a bit of a language barrier though. They speak their tribal languages, Sudanese Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, and some speak some level of English, and some even can put very simple sentences together in Hebrew.

The tour was with an experienced tour guide. It was very interesting to get a tour of Jerusalem from a Non-Jewish perspective. The refugees are mostly Muslim, but there area few Christians. So, we did go to the Cardo, but the main focus was the Temple Mount (as the Haram Al-Sharif) and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

I was upset by how many of them smoked, but considering that most of the other volunteers with us smoked, it was hard to view it so negatively. Most of them say they got addicted in Egypt, some still in Sudan, they say that they know its bad and most want to stop, but they say that under the stressful conditions which they are in, it will have to wait. Its a pity, because it is a waste of their hard earned salaries.

The fact that they are supporting themselves is a matter of pride. Nir tried to offer to buy some of them lunch and when they refused, he later offered to buy some of the Christians who weren't allowed on the Temple Mount some tea, they insisted on buying some for him.

A lot of the Sudanese bought the cheapest item they could find for lunch in the rova, but were unwilling to receive any money from anyone or an offer for a better lunch....hopefully some day we will be able to say the same of the gangs of beggars in Jerusalem.

Who isn't Antisemitic?

Korean-American community leaders plan to launch protest against publisher of popular South Korean comic book containing anti-Semitic images

One comic strip in the book shows a man climbing a hill and then facing a brick wall with a Star of David and stop sign in front. "The final obstacle to success is always a fortress called Jews," a translation says.

Another strip shows a newspaper, magazine, TV and radio with the description: "In a word, American public debate belongs to the Jews, and it's no exaggeration to say that US media are the voice of the Jews."

Yohngsohk Choe, co-chairman of the Korean American Patriotic Action Movement in the USA, said, "I don't have words to describe the outrage I feel."

Sure he is upset, but outraged? I guess I would be also be outraged if I saw an Israeli comic book say something like that against Koreans, but I think he is overdoing it a bit

I am very glad that Koreans in America have the imbibed the values of America, and a bit impressed.


But this is whats shocking

The book, written by South Korean university professor Lee Won-bok, is part of a series called "Distant Countries and Neighboring Countries," which is intended to teach youngsters about other countries. The series has sold more than 10 million copies.

A professor, wrote this in a book meant to educate about the world, oh and its going out to 10,000,000 people

Why don't you go Iraq?!

It seems that in America, politicians like asking would you want your kid in Iraq.
People also can't seem to get over where and if politicians served in the military.

Well it looks like in the UK, even the royalty(useless institution) serve in Iraq.

Who is really supporting this?

http://www.noterror.info

Is this really done by people in Iraq who were tired of terrorism, or was it something that was done from abroad?
Who is really paying for it? Is it the U.S. government or some rich guy in America?
Or
Maybe its really all done and financed by Iraqis?


The real question is: Will this have an effect?

Blogger rights in Egypt

I talked about Orthomom, and now a much more serius case of blogger rights is taking place in Egypt.
Its a pity because Egypt is one of the more moderate Arab nations.

An Alexandria court convicted an Egyptian blogger on Thursday for insulting both Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced him to four years in jail over his writings on the Internet.

Abdel Karim Suleiman, 22-year-old former law student is getting four years in Jail for this

He described some of the companions of the Muslim prophet Mohammad as "terrorists," and has likened Mubarak to dictatorial pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt.

The last part is especially interesting, because it makes us think if we should relate to Egypt in at all the same way as we relate to the Biblical Egypt. Also the modern day Persia/Iran which is once again threatening to wipe out the Jews "Men, Women, and Children in one day", can we compare Iran's nuclear ambitions with Haman?

"I was hoping that he would get a harsher sentence because he presented to the world a bad image of Egypt. There are things that one should not talk about, like religion and politics. He should have got a 10-year sentence," said lawyer Nizar Habib, who attended the trial as a member of the public.

Nizar Habib, my friend, you just gave me a worse impression of Egpyt than anything this blogger my have written would give me

I thought I was still dreaming...oh wait I am

I woke up in the middle of the night, and realized I hadn't checked the news in a while, at least not properly.

The first thing I saw was this

Arab ministers call for peace
Foreign ministers of seven Arab countries - including Syria and Iraq - issue joint statement following Madrid conference, expressing desire to 'advance together towards recognition and normalization of relations with Israel'

At first I was so surprised. Why are they getting rid of the Three NOs of Khartoum(Yes the same Khartoum that is run by the NIF that is committing genocide in Darfur). Then realizing that I was dreaming, not in the sense of sleeping, but of wishful thinking, I laughed.
Who knows what exactly the ulterior motive is, but there definitely is one.
Some of it probably has to do with trying to get the Quartet to recognize the Terrorist PA government as legitimate, even though it doesn't meet the basic demands of the Quartet. Also, it doesn't hurt to try to look good and make Israel look like the bad guys. Now if only they meant their rhetoric, instead of using it as an excuse to call Israel's actions unfair and illegal, but look good in the process because they just did something that they should have done years ago

Anonymous Blogging - Orthomom

This doesn't really affect me, because I am not doing this anonymously. Still, I think blogger rights are important. So I want to tell everyone about this case.

Its a bit ridiculous, considering the comments did not come from orthomom.
People don't understand that that bloggers are not responsible for the people's bad commenting on their blogs, any more than people are responsible for graffiti that is drawn on their wall.

A full deconstruction of the case can be found on Orthomom's blog

Rav Avi and Zionism

People sometimes ask how I became so Zionist/into Bnei Akiva, or how I got so into Darfur, or why I love tiyulim so much. I don't really have an answer to questions like that. But for the Zionism, well here is a partial answer to the first one:

A Dry Adar

This seems like really good news

Alcohol-free pub for youngsters opens in J'lem


Just in time for Purim too, on Rosh Hodesh Adar.

For those who don't know, on Purim the teens in Israel get drunk, this includes even the RZ "good kids"[i.e. the ones who aren't off the derech or disillusioned] who would never ever think of drinking at any other time of year.

They just can't resist Israel and the fence

This story would not have made international news if it had happened anywhere besides Israel. It reminds me a bit of the time a boiler exploded in Jerusalem and one person was injured and it was all over the international news.

But wait...there is more.

Apparently instead of using a stock picture of a crowded road, they felt a need to show an Israeli road.

They apparently couldn't find a normal road in Israel in their files.

They couldn't go outside and snap a picture of a lane or a street in the city.

So they just had to take a picture of a military vehicle go along a dirt road next to the security fence

The actual article, listed under odd news in Yahoo

Racist or Misinterpreted?

There is a whole scandal going on right now with a visiting professor in Australia who made talked about Islamic immigration to Australia.

“You have to infiltrate all those circles where the Muslim radicals operate, to arrest them, and to limit immigration into western countries where these Muslims, who are bent on destroying western civilisation ... to limit immigration, even students who apply to come from Islamic countries to the West,” he said.

“It serves no purpose when you have this home-grown terrorist, who has been preparing for years to blow up undergrounds in London, and all you do is lead a war of words. The war of words doesn’t help. There is a whole gamut of actions that are possible in order to check this threat of Islam.”

I might want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but due to another "Australian" using the misunderstood defense, I am disinclined to do so. Sheik Hilaly himself:

Children and mothers are crying. Sons of Islam, there is a war of infidels taking place everywhere. The true man is the boy who opposes Israeli tanks with strength and faith. The boy who, despite his mother’s objections, goes out to war to become a martyr like his elder brother...
...Don’t be surprised if one day you hear the Muezzin calling for prayer and saying “Allah Akbar (Allah is Great)” from the top of the white house. September 11 is God’s work against oppressors.
-ABC

If you haven't heard about him I suggest you read these.

On the other hand, we really do have some misinterpreted Israeli academics lately. A Bar Ilan Professor writing about blood libels


Another important factor in deciding how comments should be considered is if there are other people saying the same thing who are clearly not racist.
And there are.

After a suicide truck bomb killed more than 132 people and wounded hundreds in a Baghdad market a few weeks ago, the head of the Shiite-controlled Interior Ministry's explosives department, Maj. Gen. Jihad al-Jabiri, told state-run Iraqi television: "I call on the government to deport (foreign) Arabs immediately."
...
A day after the Interior Ministry general asked for Arabs' deportation, some Shiite members of parliament echoed the call. That led to a dispute after the parliament speaker, a Sunni Arab, retorted that both Arabs "and others" should be deported — a reference to Iranians. Many Sunnis here fear Iranians are infiltrating Iraq.
- Yahoo News

I guess the context is very different in this case. After all we have no problems with Jews making Jewish jokes, or blacks making black jokes etc. Then again Sunnis and Shiites aren't one big happy family. Maybe they deserve equal condemnation as our visiting professor, or maybe we can forgive them because of the pressures of a war.

So there you have it...make up your own mind, but I hope I gave you some directions to think in

Darfur Purim Dvar Torah

One of the things I do besides learn in Yeshiva is run HAeD www.haedarfur.org

Arielle Perlow wrote this Dvar Torah for our Purim campaign. I'll post details of how you can get involved, if you want to know more, e-mail haedarfur@gmail.com
but for now here is the dvar torah:

Everyone knows the story of Purim: Haman, outraged at the
insubordinate Mordechai, decrees that on Adar 14 all the Jews are to
be annihilated and their property plundered. In response, the Jews,
lead by Esther and Mordechai fast for three days before Esther visits
King Achashverosh and the decree is overturned.

As simple as the storyline is, the lesson of Purim is far more
significant than the fairytale narrative suggests. Through Haman's
wicked decree, we learn as Jews the despair of impending genocide. We
understand what it feels like to be targeted as a nation, the threat
of annihilation.

Currently, a similar genocide to the one proposed by Haman is taking
place. This time, the decree is against the people of Darfur, and the
evil perpetrator is the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed. Sadly,
unlike the proposed genocide of the Jews in ancient Persia, the
genocide in Darfur has been allowed to occur. So far, an estimated
600,000 have been murdered, countless women have been raped, houses
burnt, property pillaged.

What have you done to overturn this evil decree?

When Esther, afraid of the King's reaction to her uninvited entrance,
decides not to petition the King on behalf of her people, Mordechai
reproaches her saying "Do not imagine that you, of all the Jews, will
escape with your life being in the king's palace. On the contrary, if
you keep silent in this crisis, relief and deliverance will come to
the Jews from another quarter, while you and your father's house will
perish. And who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for
such a crisis?"

In the Megila, Mordechai is confident that the Jews will be saved; it
is Esther's morality that concerns him. With the Darfur situation, it
is not apparent that "relief and deliverance" will come from anyone
else. We must try our hardest to end to the genocide!

OnlySimchas

Well here is my Aliyah page, still some time till I officially take the plunge though.

http://onlysimchas.com/galleries/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewsimcha&simchaID=60385

Religious Zionism vs Modern Orthodoxy

What is the difference between the way the way the Religious-Zionists(RZ) look at the secular and the way the Modern Orthodox(MO) look at the secular?

Torah U’Madda, Torah V’Avodah, what’s the difference?

Let’s make it very clear that neither is Torah U’parnasa, the ideology that masquerades as part of the MO world. It’s so clear that people need to make a living, and in the past people made a living. Haredim also work. Not being in denial about the fact that you need to provide for yourself and your family is not some new idea, and it’s not much of an ideology either.

The followers of Ha’Rav (Kook) talk about bringing the secular and the holy together to reach a combination that is elevated above either one.

The followers of The Rav (Soloveitchik) talk about the secular that has a real truth which can bring one closer to knowledge of G-d, in a similar way as Torah does.

Don’t read too much into that, its just what I hear from people who claim to be the students of The Rav or Ha’Rav.

I was writing this up after hearing a shiur about Purim in which Rav Kook was used as a source many ties in discussing how Purim was a special holiday that represents the eventual eschatological era when the greatest connection to G-d will be attained through physical and spiritual means with no conflict between the two. After the shiur I was reading some Kol Dodi Dofek. This question of MO vs RZ has been on my mind for ages. It was emphasized at a Tish by Rabbi Yosef Blau of Yeshiva University (The model of Torah U’Madda) on divisions in the Jewish world; he mentioned that RZ in America and in Israel made dialogue between the two theoretically equivalent groups difficult, even without a language barrier.

As I was writing this in the front of the beit midrash, Rav Cherlow was giving a shiur on Orot Ha’Rav Kook. I wasn’t in the shiur because the shiur I was just in ended long after Rav Cherlow’s began. However suddenly I hear him talking about Rav Soloveitchik, and the difference between him and Rav Kook. Apperntly someone asked a question about it. I only caught the end of Rav Cherlow’s response, which would be interesting because people say he represents Israel’s version of the closest thing to Modern Orthodoxy. If I heard him correctly, he mentioned something about how The Rav viewed literature as inherently holy, while Rav Kook viewed it as something intresting and part of this world. I am not really sure what that really means, but make what you want of it.

Well that was a short little look into the matter, with no sources or anything passing for a real analysis. Just a sort of an intro to the subject to the hang of blogging.

Another subject I am thinking about a lot is State of Israel vs Land of Israel. Small issue? Nope, just about the biggest thing dividing the religious community, both Zionist and non-Zionist.

Starting Petach Tikva

Here I am starting my second week at Yeshivat Hesder Petach Tikva and I am still without permanent hevrutot (learning partners) for the morning and night. Its just about the most important thing, but I know I need to give it time, because I am coming in the middle of a zman (the chunks of time the year is divided to with breaks in between). The most amazing thing is how nice and helpful everyone is. I am constantly having people make sure I a settling in and asking what they can do to help. It’s not just a few students or my ram, it’s all of the rabbis, rashei yeshiva, staff and all the students. Now if only all their caring actually got me a chevruta, but its ok, I need time to understand the place before jumping in all the way, which is why I am not being a nudnik to them, even though they tell me I should bother them.

On the bright side, it’s much warmer than the hilly Judean Hills where Yirushalim is. The food is really good, the rooms are nice, and there is wireless access. Add to that, that I am the only Hutznik (non-israeli) and I am happy.

Not Real Aliyah yet

Hello and welcome to:

Seraphya’s Aliyah.

I still have not yet opened a tik aliyah, but I am on the airplane that will bring me to Israel permanently. I am in Hong Kong, a hub of international ship and air traffic. All paths lead to Israel eventually, but some paths are more direct and faster than others. Although I might later make Aliyah wit Nefesh B’nefesh from America, or make Aliyah from Israel, I consider this flight my return home.

I left Sydney for the last time as a ben hutz laaretz, maybe one day I shall return on Shlichut. Bnei Akiva gave me a farewell at Seudah Shlishit that I will never forget. I know some people think they have said goodbye to galut for the last time, but eventually find themselves back I the fray and mundane life of the Diaspora. I am not worried about this happening to me, I have no place to return to(never end your sentences with prepositions by the way). I think the best time to make aliyah is for university, for many reasons. First and foremost, you see many people who plan to make aliyah for many years, some in the end do, and some don’t, but putting aliyah off off and setting down roots, is a sure way to get stuck. Secondly, most people need to improve their Hebrew after having lived with Laaz for so long, you brain learns languages better when it is younger and the university years are the final cut-off for most people being bale to learn a language with ease. Thirdly, you are planning to work in Israel; So you want to get the training in Israel; Israel has good universities. Oh, and you get free university when you make aliyah.

I arrived safely in Eretz Yisrael at Ben Gurion Airport. While waiting for my luggage I charged my phone and went online with the free wireless at the airport terminal. I had Shekel in my pocket, an Israeli phone with a sim car, I felt like I was arriving without a worry. I told my family which I had just left 24 hours ago that I was fine and headed for a sherut to Jerusalem. I ended up in one where the 9 other people spoke French and barely spoke Hebrew, but I was on the phone and it was nice to know that people are coming to Israel in general. It’s time for me to check out Nefesh B’Nefesh. There are so many different little technicalities and options, so I am hoping they can help me through them

The directions they give to their office is a good example of how something seemingly so simple suddenly gets complicated.