Today’s meeting between Abbas and Sharon in Sharm-el-Sheik gives me hope that the beginnings of peace may again be on the horizon.
May G-d help all leaders focus on peace and justice rather than on personal agenda, ego and money.
May peace spread throughout the land.
(If you are looking for some information on today’s meeting, try the New York Times (free registration needed).)
Shavuah tov. Sadly, we are starting the news week with a disturbing item of political news. Last week President Bush sent Myron Kuropas to fly to Ukraine with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell as part of the American delegation to the Ukrainian Presidental Inauguration. Mr. Kuropas is a holocaust deniar, who wrote that the Jews drive the Holocaust industry. Specifically, he said, “Big money drives the Holocaust industry. To survive, the Holocaust industry is always searching for its next mark. Ukraine’s turn is just around the corner.”
According the NJDC, He has argued elsewhere that Jews played a driving role behind Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s murderous policies in Ukraine and Mr. Kuropas’ has demonstrated his hostility towards Jews for some time; Michael Kotzin, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, explained to the Chicago Tribune, “This is not new stuff. …If you go back over the decades, he’s taken these kinds of positions highly antagonistic to the Jewish people and Jewish interests and causes.”
Mr. Kuropas has not only been honored by Bush, but is a frequent contributor to House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
Want to read Mr. Kuropas’ words? Here is a link to his own words titled “Faces & Places: Holocaust Exploitation”.
You can find out more about this from the NJDC, including suggested language for contacting Hastert and Bush.
Allison Kaplan Sommer has posted about the Israeli technology which is making possible the broadcast of this year’s Super Bowl. Israel 21c details the communication technology developed by MobileAccess Networks which is the provider of communication tech for Alltel Stadium. Whoever wins, (I don’t have a particular preference), Israel is winning too! Hooray.
This week’s Torah portion is Mishpatim, a continuation of the statement of laws for the Jewish community. Can we be inspired by these laws? Even by the first letter of the first word? Read this commentary by Rabbi Ben Hollander.
Let’s look at that first letter, the “vav”—usually translated as the conjunction “and”. I remember an elementary school teacher who sternly forbade us to begin a sentence with “and”. Well, she would have liked the new-JPS translation of our verse: it leaves out the conjunction and translates simply, “These are the rules…!” (Similarly, Ex. l:l.) Besides the linguistic reasons, this fits how modern Biblical scholars regard the collection of laws in Mishpatim: a discrete “book”, the “Sefer Ha-Brit” (Book of the Covenant) of 24:7 whose ratification is described at the parashah’s end….
Click here to read the rest of this wonderful drash.
Go and Learn!