Emunah Magazine

The advent of Passover and Easter, which always fall around the same time, beckons a
deeper discussion about one of the principle differences between Judaism and

Christianity. In essence it is the difference between a values system based on
struggle and a values system based on perfection.The reason
there are no perfect people in the Torah is that we don’t believe in perfect
people and we do not respect perfection. Do you know what the perfect person
lacks that the imperfect person has? An imperfect person fights to do what is
right. He struggles with his conscience. When you fight for something, you
demonstrate its worth.Look at the
contrast with every other belief system. Christianity is predicated on perfection,
on the idea that Jesus was tempted but never fell. The same is true for Muslims
and Mohammed. In Buddhism, the Buddha is perfect. In Hindu, Krishna is perfect.
Even in the pantheon of great American heroes, our founding fathers were once
portrayed as saints. I remember being taught as a young boy that George
Washington never told a lie and that Abraham Lincoln walked miles to return a
single penny. Both these stories were pure invention, but the idea was: How
could you respect the founder of your nation if he was flawed?Here in
America we live under the tyranny of perfection. We are constantly being sold
glossy images of people with perfect bodies, perfect résumés, and perfect
lifestyles. Convincing people of their inadequacy in relation to these paragons
of physical, intellectual, moral, and aesthetic perfection has always been a
good racket, but never more so than today.It even
seeps into our religious debates. The insinuation that Jesus was lonely and
required the love of a woman, as Dan Brown suggested in The Da Vinci
Code, deeply offended many of our Christian brothers and
sisters. When I debated Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington,
D.C., about the subsequent movie, he said that the film’s protestors should
remain calm but he could understand why people were upset. I said I understood
how the departure from New Testament orthodoxy was provocative, but why was it
deemed so hurtful? Dan Brown and the moviemakers didn’t say
anything bad about Jesus—they said only that he got married! So what? If he
were a young Jewish man growing up in the Galilee region in ancient Israel, not
only would he have been expected to marry but it would have been sinful
for him not to.Why were
Christians offended at the thought that Jesus married? Because the idea
suggests he felt something was missing in his life. In short, he wasn’t
perfect. As a perfect being, he required the love and validation of no one. You
and I? We get cold and need comfort and want to be held. We feel dispirited,
and we need someone to inspire us.I am always
impressed at the deep spirituality of my Christian brothers. I am a rabbi with
a deep love and awe for the incredible commitment to goodness and faith that is
so characteristic of my Christian colleagues. But ultimately Christianity loses
me when it dismisses the humanity of Jesus in favor of his divinity. Jesus is
so much more interesting when we read of his struggles in the New Testament to
fulfill the will of G-d, like when he says, while dying on the cross, “My G-d,
my G-d, why have you forsaken me?” And I am always puzzled why my Christian
brothers and sisters seem disheartened to discover Jesus’s vulnerabilities.Personally,
I have no patience for perfect people. I find them boring, predictable, and
judgmental. It is human beings whose goodness is real, yet purchased amid
Herculean effort and struggle, whom I find so endlessly fascinating.Judaism
doesn’t value perfection. I believe that perfect people are sweet and nice but
I have no relationship with them, nor would I seek one. If they’re perfect,
they don’t need me. It has been estimated that in many marriages, the
criticism-to-compliment ratio is three to one. The argument troubled couples
make is always essentially, “but my spouse is so imperfect!” I counsel them to
remember that if their spouse were perfect, he or she would never have married
in the first place. So why not be thankful for our loved ones’ imperfections
(as long as they take responsibility for their actions and apologize sincerely
when they’ve done wrong)?I am not a
Christian not because I was born Jewish, because if Christianity were true I
would be obligated to convert. Rather, perfection has no appeal for me. Perfect
people do the right thing every single time. How could they understand someone
like me, for whom every day is a struggle?Being with
perfect people is like watching a movie when you already know the ending. You
can’t thrill to perfect people’s victories because they don’t involve real
courage. Real courage means to be victorious over fear. If you were never
afraid, were your actions courageous? No.People used
to think Martin Luther King Jr. was a saint. He started the civil rights
movement when he was only twenty-four years old. He was killed before his
fortieth birthday. Of course, one thought, saint that King was, he was able to
lead those marches in Birmingham and in Selma and inspire a whole generation.
No wonder he was so incredibly eloquent and courageous. He was perfect. But
then we discovered that in fact he was deeply human and did things that
betrayed big character flaws. Suddenly we saw him differently. In fact, his
true greatness was thereby manifest: He was flawed and frail and still he
accomplished so much. You mean he was scared in front of those
attack dogs and Bull Connor? He had to struggle to do those things? My G-d,
that truly is a great man.To me, that
is so much more inspiring. King wrestled with his conscience. Now he
speaks to me, because I’m just like him. He was not an angel, not a saint, just
a person who struggled to live righteously and courageously. And in so doing he
changed America, dealt a fatal blow to racial injustice, and restored the
country to its founding creed of all men being created equally by G-d. And he
did all this not intuitively or instinctively, but amid great effort and
struggle. It was never easy. But if he could do it and he was human like me,
then I have no excuse not to try to rise to similar acts of courage.The truly
righteous man is not he who never sins but rather he who, amid a predilection
to narcissism and selfishness, battles his nature to live a virtuous life. The
truly great man is not he who slays dragons, but he who battles his inner
demons, who struggles with himself to improve and ennoble his character.The truth is
that perfection fosters dependency. It is an engine that actually retards human
progress, because it continually tosses humans back on a sense of their own
inadequacy. Rather than lift them up, it keeps them down. That’s why kings used
to claim they were perfect beings, kissed by G-d and standing high above their
lowly subjects—because if you can convince people that they’ll never be as good
as you, they won’t even try. They will worship you and hate themselves. Those for
whom life has been so sweet and smooth, those who refuse to struggle, will
never know the true taste of courage. They will never develop the ability to
overcome obstacles to do what is right. They will never firmly establish that
their convictions are not just feelings. Struggle is where the infinite value of
goodness is established.The Zohar
says that every single time you choose to subdue and subjugate evil, G-d’s
glory rises higher and higher. Every time you exert the effort to choose
righteousness over selfishness, you are showing that righteousness is precious
to you, that G-d is a living presence, and that you are prepared to fight. Even
when it’s inconvenient. Even when it entails sacrifice. Struggle is what
establishes the infinite preciousness of righteousness.Israel literally
means “he who wrestles with G-d.” It was the name given to Jacob, who wrestled
with a brother who sought to kill him and a father-in-law who sought to enslave
him. Most of all, he wrestled with an angel. Israel is he who wrestles with the
G-dly portion of his existence.Most of what
we cherish in life involves a struggle. I was a child of divorce, so I was
extremely excited to be married. I anticipated perfection. Shortly after our
wedding in Australia, I went out, a newly married man, to buy a camera. And in
the camera store I couldn’t help but notice that the woman behind the counter
was pretty. I was mortified. This is ridiculous! I
thought. What kind of husband am I? I came home and confessed
to my wife that I had noticed that another woman was attractive. She laughed at
my naïveté. But it still bothered me, so I thought deeply into this. Why did
G-d make love so imperfect? How do we even notice the opposite sex when we are
in love with our spouse? Why is it that even in the best marriages we still
recognize that other people are special?Now I
understand why G-d made love imperfect. Relationships are special when you
choose each other anew every single day. Some think marriage is when you choose
your spouse under the chuppah—the canopy used in Jewish weddings—and you’re
done. Married! You never make that choice again, and your choice becomes a
thing of the past. The marriage becomes stale and ossified, and the commitment
is never renewed. But because we all struggle to keep the passion and intimacy
in our marriages alive, because we struggle to compliment and love each other,
because we wrestle with our nature to always focus on each other, love each
other, and put each other first, we choose each other over and over again, and
that’s why love is imperfect. The man who chooses his bride and never has to
choose her again is one who takes her for granted, who doesn’t seek to bring
novelty to his relationship, who allows it to stagnate. But if you forever
renew your commitment and investment, your goodness and your relationship never
go stale.
—————–
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a renowned TV and Radio host, is the international
best-selling author of 23 books. He is about to publish Renewal: Living the
Values-Filled Life (Basic Books). He is the founder of This World: The Values
Network. www.shmuley.com

Heres a video I came across while researching for a piece on global anti semitism.

Here is David’s speech

Call him the Jewish Scott Brown.

David Greenfield swept a special election for the 44th District seat on the New York City Council in a landslide victory Tuesday. He soundly defeated fellow Democrat Joe Lazar, taking the seat by a margin of 58 to 40 percent. Kenneth Rice, a Republican, took just three percent of the vote.

In both elections, a charismatic relative newcomer beat an established politician. In Brown’s race in Massachusetts it was Democrat Martha Coakley; in Greenfield’s case, his real opponent wasn’t Lazar, but Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who invested virtually all of his political capital in electing Lazar.

The election exposed the waning power of the assemblyman who has held Borough Park politics in a vise-like grip for the past 20 years. Despite heavy campaigning by Hikind and seemingly everyone in Borough Park who fancied himself an activist or power broker, and endorsements from chassidishe rebbes and politicians like Comptroller John Liu, Lazar didn’t even win Borough Park itself. The district also comprises portions of the Midwood, Kensington and Bensonhurst neighborhoods.
Greenfield managed an aggressive grassroots campaign that involved door-to-door campaigning, public appearances and support from an array of local and national politicians including Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“We did it the old fashioned way,” Greenfield said at his victory party Tuesday night. “We brought the community together.” Tomorrow, Greenfield said, he was “looking forward to put all this behind us, to work together.”

Read More Courtesy: The Jewish Star

Is George Bush wiping his hands on Bill Clinton’s shirt? After President Bush shook some hands in Haiti while touring the earthquake damage he seems to have wiped his hands on President Clinton. Below is some video captured, . You be the judge.

Here’s video of the winner

This video was submitted to us by our OnTheBeat contributor Shmiel Geffen

Awesome medley of Jewish pop parodies by Six13, the Jewish music world’s premeire a cappella group! The last medley, on their best-selling album YESH CHADASH, was a big hit. This one’s not available on any album, but you can download it totally free! And yes, all those sounds were produced with no musical instruments at all. Check out www.six13.com to learn more, listen to their three award-winning albums and find out where they’ll be performing next!

Having Bernie madoff in your family used to mean great things, but like all great crimes or tragedies their name becomes so synonymous with the crime that no matter what the other family members do they can’t shake the bad taint. Bernie’s daughter in law filed a petition in a Manhattan court to have her last name changed to Morgan. When asked by the court for the reason she said that she and her family which consists of 2 young sons have been targeted with death threats and wants to avoid future embarrassment for her kids.
According to the New York Daily News, the petition noted that Stephanie Madoff’s children, 3-year-old Audrey and 1-year-old Nicholas, “have never been convicted of a crime” but are suffering because of their unfortunate name. Mark Madoff said in court papers he does not object to the change for his family, but he is apparently keeping his last name.

Congrats to David Greenfield

Mr Greenfield won in every neighborhood that was in his district destroying the political powerhouse run by Dov Hikind. His voctory party was at 895 Ocean Parkway in the Midwood section of Flatbush. Packed with supporters and fan I arrived on the scene greeted by David’s brothers and mother. A few minutes later David walked , coming from campaign headquarters on east 3rd street, crossing Ocean Parkway with the crowd chanting David David David.

Election results:
David Greenfield 7070 57.83%
Joseph Lazar 4842 39.61%
Kenneth Rice 313 2.56%
Reporting: 119 of 119 precincts – 100.00 percent

(This Photo Courtesty of Emunah Magazine’s On The Street Photographer, Shmiel Geffen, please send your photos to photo@emunahmagazine.com )

Residents of New York’s 44th district have seen a lot of political flyers and literature the past few months. Now its in the last few hours of the election and and according to this photo it seems as if the people are sick of this ‘political garbage’

Agudath Israel has been working together with the TSA ( Transportation Security Administration ) to teach and help security screening personnel about what tefillin are. After this past January’s fiasco when a US AIR flight was diverted off course because an orthodox teenager was davening on the plane. A brochure was printed as training material and has been studied by the TSA employees in anticipation of the Pesach Holiday travel rush.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) just addressed the AIPAC crowd. Schumer’s known for his speaking skills, and he did not disappoint, urging backing for legislation that would immediately impose sanctions on Iran.

He noted that his name is a derivative of the Hebrew “shomer,” or guardian, and said he was pledged to guarding the security of the Jews and Israel.

He also guards a grudge. He remembered one of his earliest encounters with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when Bibi was a U.N. ambassador in the 1980s, and Schumer was a congressman from New York.

The Schumers invited Bibi over for Shabbat dinner and put on quite a spread. Someone made the mistake of asking Bibi to explain price controls, which then beset Israel’s economy.

“Bibi being Bibi,” Schumer said, the ambassador took a 2-liter Pepsi bottle, unscrwed the cap, stuck his thumb in it and proceeded to shake.

“This is Israel’s economy,” Netanyahu said. “It looks stable…” and then he pulled out his thumb.

“It took me $1,800 to clean up the mess,” Schumer said — and he wanted to know if Bibi was ready to pay up.

Hey, at least he wasn’t asking interest.

Courtesy JTA

Contributed by Amil Imani

Almost everyone uses scapegoats. It is in our fabric. The word “scapegoat” has come to mean a person, often innocent, who is blamed and punished for the sins, crimes, or sufferings of others, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes. It is a potent human disposition to blame others for our failings.

The derivation of the term scapegoat also comes from the Old Testament-see Leviticus 16. During the Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur in the Temple era high priests would sacrifice a goat that would be consigned “for Azazel” and would carry with it the sins of the nation.
Without scapegoats to blame, we are forced to look at ourselves for our problems. Examining ourselves can be very disturbing, particularly when we either lack the resources or the willingness to tackle them. So, we take the good old easy way out of the mess by shifting our focus to the outside world for targets to blame.

Look at young kids. They are expert blamers. They always have an answer, someone or something to blame in self-defense. We, the chronological adults, don’t completely abandon our childish strategy of ascribing blame to external sources. We simply do so with a greater degree of sophistication by finding, if at all possible, a grain or two of truth to legitimize our attributions.

The most notorious person who used the Jews as scapegoat was the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. In his infamous book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) he blamed the plight of Germany at the end of World War I on an international Jewish conspiracy and used terms such as extirpation and extermination in relation to the Jews. Unfortunately, we have seen in recent years the emergence of a number of such assaults, indeed, conspiracy theories, targeting the Israel lobby and the American Jewish community. Over and over throughout history, this small group of human beings have been used as scapegoats for the problems of the world.

Even our former President Jimmy Carter in his book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid and John J. Mearsheimer, an American professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt, professor of international affairs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government coauthored The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy use the scapegoating of Israel, the Israel Lobby, and American Jews.

Sadly, the Jewish people have been used as scapegoat for many centuries by a variety of non-Jews. Regrettably, Muslims for their part and have adopted scapegoating as an article of faith. The Muslims blame the Jews for all kinds of heinous things, dating back to the time of Muhammad himself. They say that the Jews of Medina betrayed the holy prophet by their treachery. They charged the poor exorbitant sums for their goods; did no productive work, yet made fortunes through money lending. To make matters worse, the Jews refused to embrace Muhammad’s religion, they say. The story of Banu Qurayza’s Massacre from Quranic verses, is very clear how Allah actually rejoices this in slaughter and enslavement of the tribe of Banu Qurayza’s Jews.

Quran-33:25- “Allah turned back the unbelievers [Meccans and their allies] in a state of rage, having not won any good, and Allah spared the believers battle. Allah is, indeed, Strong and Mighty.”

Quran-33:26- “And He brought those of the People of the Book [Jewish people of Banu Qurayza’s] who supported them from their fortresses and cast terror into their hearts, some of them you slew (beheaded) and some you took prisoners (captive)”

Quran-33:27- “And He made you heirs of their lands, their houses, and their goods, and of a land which ye had not frequented (before). And Allah has power over all things.” [Merciful Allah asked Prophet Muhammad to confiscate entire properties of surrendered Jews.]

Hence, following the example of Muhammad, many Muslim societies have been blaming the Jews for everything and find them deserving of victimization. The litany of atrocities committed against the Jews by the followers of Muhammad is long indeed.

Regrettably, ascribing blame to others and legitimizing their victimization has become a way of life with the rabid Islamists. As sick as scapegoating is, it confers advantages to its practitioners. For one, it rallies the faithful against an enemy portrayed as depraved and dangerous. That’s how Hitler and his gang of thugs aroused the German nation against the Jews. They falsely, yet successfully, blamed the Jews for Germany’s economic problems.

The Islamists, for their part, are still playing the Jewish blame card as best as they can. The State of Israel, by its very existence, has provided the inept and habitually devious Islamists a palpable target to blame and attack. Yet, Israel still not only exists, but thrives in their midst. None of the dastardly actions of the Islamists has been effective at realizing their dream of pushing the children of Israel into the sea.

Islamic turbaned villains in Iran and their hired thugs have done a great job of basically eliminating a lot of internal opposition by their brutality and have murdered thousands of innocent people in the name of Islam. They have also chased the majority of the Iranian Jews out of the country by making their life as miserable as possible. The few remaining Jews are still used as whipping boys from time to time. Contrary to the Islamic dogma, the Iranian people are proud of their historical friendship with the Jewish people. The bond of friendship goes back to the landmark action of King Cyrus the Great of Persia. In 537 B.C., having, conquered Babylon, the benevolent King Cyrus freed the Jews from captivity and empowered them to return to the Promised Land and build their temple and have a peaceful life and worship their God.

The return of the Jews to the Promised Land did not mark the end of their ordeal. Successive waves of ill-wishers, notably the Romans and then the belligerent Muslims, unleashed their unjustified wrath on the Jews. The Jewish people, in spite of suffering huge losses at the hands of their enemies, remained resilient and, with one exception, outlived their tormentors. The Pogroms in Russia, the ghettoization in much of Europe, and even the genocidal Hitlerism failed to wipe out the Jews. One diehard enemy, Islamic scriptures, has been hard at work for some 1400 years to complete the work of finishing off the Jews that Prophet Muhammad himself had started.

Iranians are saddened and ashamed both by the appearance of Ahmadinejad on the international scene and his declared intent to wipe out the Jewish homeland from the face of the earth. Ahmadinejad repeatedly says that the Holocaust is a myth. In this respect, he is in good company with a number of other fanatics. It goes without saying that Ahmadinejad does not represent Iranian people and he is not an Iranian himself.

Ahmadinejad is an Islamofascist whose aim is to have a practice run, first on the Iranian Baha’is before embarking on destroying the Jews and other “undesirables,” following in the footsteps of the German Fuehrer. Being Iranian is defined by a state of mind, not by a place of residence. In fact, Ahmadinejad despises anything Persian. Numerous photos show him proudly donning the Arab headscarf around his neck—a Palestinian headscarf that presently stands as a symbol of the Arabo-Islamic genocidal hate campaign against the Jews as well as non-believers of all stripes.

The 2006 circus in Tehran, billed as a “Holocaust Conference,” was nothing more than a disgusting attempt by the barbaric inheritors of Muhammad’s hate to continue in this tradition of wanton attacks on all unbelievers, particularly the Jews. Regrettably, their journey from their early beginning to the present has been fraught with great suffering. It is a tribute to the indomitable spirit of the Jewish people that they persisted in their valiant struggle to re-gather again in the land of their birth. They should also be applauded for affording millions of Israeli Arabs opportunities denied to them in many other lands.

Many of us Iranians co-suffer with this tragic state of affairs that harms you. We, free Iranians, express our deepest sympathy to the Jewish people for what they have suffered and have been used as scapegoat throughout history. We also condemn, in the strongest terms, the new coalition of fascists that is brewing under the disgusting and dangerous banner of Islamofascisim.

————————————————————————————————
Amil Imani has been published in numerous newspapers and magazines around the world as well as thousands of Internet magazines, websites and blogs. He has appeared on many Radio shows and international TV shows. He is a regular contributor to The New Media Journal, American Thinker, Israel National News, Faith Freedom International .

Brief Biography

Imani is a pro-democracy activist who advocates Regime Change in Iran. Imani is also a columnist, a poet, a literary translator, a novelist, an essayist, and a political analyst who has been writing and speaking out about the danger of Islamofascism in America and the world and has become a strong voice for the struggling people of his native land, Iran.

Mr. Imani has both promoted American patriotism, and has encouraged democracy for Iran. His writings speak for themselves. He has been published in numerous newspapers and magazines around the world as well as hundreds of Internet magazines, websites and blogs.

He is a regular contributor to The New Media Journal, American Thinker, Faith Freedom International and the popular Iranian online magazine, Iranian.com

Imani has received three Bachelor degrees in Communications, English Literature and Political Science. He also has two Master degrees in Political Science with emphasis in International Relations and Public Policy and master of Psychology and human development. He has studied his Doctorate in International Law.

Imani has received many e-mail death threats from radical Muslims around the world for his openness and candor opinion about Islam on his popular website Amil Imani.

Enjoy This Music Video Promoting Candidate Joe Lazar

Courtesy of TheCoolJew.com

Please consider signing this petition, and forwarding to your friends

Here is the link to THE PETITION

The Petition:
“We the undersigned call for Mr. Sholom M. Rubashkin to be released to spend the upcoming Passover Holiday with his dependent children, and until his sentencing. We urge you to consider that Mr. Rubashkin is not a flight risk as he would never abandon his children, nor his elderly parents. Guaranties such as ankle brace, house detention, guards, and collateral have been offered. This excessive incarceration before his sentencing has horrified and shocked us.
We furthermore urge leniency in his case. The embellished and distorted charges against Mr. Rubashkin have been proliferated through a smear campaign orchestrated by PETA, the UFCW, anti-Semitic groups and sensationalist media. The net effect of the smear campaign has been predictable, culminating in the almost universal vilification of an innocent man and a conviction in the courtroom of public opinion long before he had his day in court. If anyone is deserving of sympathy, support and maximum leniency, it is Sholom Rubashkin, because is truth he is an exemplar of ethical behavior and upstanding character traits.”

G*d bless,

Here is the link to THE PETITION

By now everyone has heard of Schindler’s List, but now the actual List can be yours for a mere $2.2 million. Perhaps one of the most sought after artifacts of World War II this is the only remaining original in private hands.

The list included 801 names of survivors along with their jobs and birth dates.
The sale is taking place on a website run by Gary Zimet called MomentsInTime.com. Mr Zimet said he is selling the document on a “first come, first served” basis – rather than at auction – on behalf of an anonymous seller.

There were seven different versions of the list and only four others are known to have survived, according to Zimet. One is in the US Holocaust Museum, one at the German federal archives in Koblenz, and two others are kept at the Yad Vashem museum in Israel, he said.

West Bloomfield MI — A Jewish scooter? Or rather a Kosher scooter is what Michael Balkin uses on Shabbos to ‘drive’ to shul. Because of a neurological disorder he has had trouble walking for the past 20 years. 6 days a week it has not been a problem when it comes to going to shul , but on Shabbos he had no choice. For the past 5 years there has been a scooter that has the kosher seal of approval and can be used on Shabbos.
.

Amigo Mobility International Inc. began making the Shabbat-approved scooters five years ago. It uses a module manufactured in Israel and certified by the Zomet Institute, an Israeli nonprofit that specializes in electronics that meet Halakha, or Jewish religious law.

Balkin now says that he can go to shul easily on Shabbos and doesn’t have to worry about the scooter being ‘muktza’. ( forbidden on Shabbos)

The scooters, which cost $2,500 to $3,500, are sometimes covered by insurance. Amigo sells the scooters at a a store in Wixom the company opened two years ago to meet the needs of the estimated 7,000 Orthodox Jews in Metro Detroit.

Scott Chappell, the manager of the Amigo Mobility Center on Wixom Road, said the company was approached by the local Orthodox Jewish community for a scooter model that could help homebound individuals to be able to get to the synagogue during Shabbat.

“It’s designed in such as way that on Fridays and Saturdays, it’s a special mode and during the week it is a standard mode,” Chappell said.

The Shabbat-approved scooter carries a special black-and-white sticker that has to be displayed at all times so others know it meets Halakha law, said Chappell. “(Others) will see that it has been certified by Zomet.”

Balkin said he has used the Shabbat-authorized scooters during his trips to Israel. He was happy that he was able to get one in the United States. Deborah Balkin says she’s glad that the scooter has given her husband more mobility so that “he doesn’t have to stay home on Shabbat.”

“He can go to services,” said a smiling Deborah Balkin. “We can walk to a friend’s house on Shabbat. It keeps him from being isolated. One of the worst things for a person who is ill is to be isolated.”

Iris Rosen, who is not Orthodox, but uses a scooter to get around, said she is happy to see the technology come to the United States.

“It’s amazing. It’s proven. It’s approved by the Orthodox community. It’s definitely, definitely a good thing,” said Rosen, a Farmington Hills resident.

Rabbi Jason Miller, who has been studying the use of technology and Judaism, said the technology has allowed Balkin and others to be more physically comfortable and practice their faith “without violating the tradition.”

“We should all see this as a benefit to our community no matter where you are on the observance spectrum,” said Miller, also the rabbi of Oakland County-based Tamarack Camps and the spiritual leader of Congregation T’chiyah in Oak Park.

“There are many rabbis out there who would give him permission to drive to synagogue on the Sabbath but on a psycho-spiritual level for someone with his observance patterns they would still be uncomfortable with this leniency,” said Miller.

“His (scooter) allows him to be part of the community on the Sabbath and to feel comfortable in knowing that he hasn’t compromised his observance.

Source: Detroit News

Emunah Magazine is happy to have renowned author and blogger Eliyokum Hakohen join our editorial staff. Mr Hakohen is a popular blogger and has strong opinions with a huge following and we are happy to have Mr. Hakohen join our staff.

ABOUT ELIYOKUM HAKOHEN In His Own Words
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I’M A JEW. I’m a Jew who was lost but found his way, a Jew who spent 27 years of my life trying to be “cool” and “popular”. I spent years trying to be the one who was the life of the party, the one that girls would find attractive, the one that had it all. I wanted nothing but physical pleasure and instant gratification, and I got it all. I thought I had a perfect life until I realized I was a LOSER. I was drowning in the secular world, just like you are if you bother to take a look at yourself. Sitting alone in a cell in an orange jump-suit, no money, no possessions, no friends, no family… not the best way to spend a long weekend. Or was it. I finally realized what was important in life. Peace of mind, spirituality, purpose. None of those can be realized in the filth that the secular world has been ramming down the throats of the Holy Jews since we received the Torah 3322 years ago. I started learning with a Rabbi because I wanted to find truth. The only truth in the world is Torah, and that Torah was only given to the Jews. If nothing else at least have some pride that youre G-d’s Chosen People. You can spend the rest of your life ignoring His Holy Book or you can take some time to start embracing it. I never planned to become an Observant Jew; I just wanted to find some meaning in a world devoid of purpose. TRUTH comes to those that seek it. And Baruch Hashem it came to me. Once you have the truth there is no escaping it. It’s everywhere at all times. The beauty of life becomes as evident as a simple math problem. If you’re not Torah Observant then, YOU’RE LIVING LIFE WRONG, YOURE GOING TO GEHINNOM (Jewish Hell). Im going to prove it to you, if you let me. Jews are bound by the Laws of the Torah whether you agree with them or not. You can’t just live however you want and think youre a good Jew. That makes no sense and it shows a complete disregard for Judaism and for Hashem. I am here to save your soul and show you the beauty of a life that G-d laid out for the Jews 3322 years ago. There is only one way to live life correctly, and that is a life of purpose and direction through Torah. You have nothing to lose by exploring the wisdom of your own religion. In fact, if you get nothing out of these video lectures and are 100% convinced that there is no G-d, no Torah, no afterworld, then I’ll buy your misguided soul with all the good deeds that you have done in your life. If you are 100% certain that life ends when you die, then you don’t deserve the reward that G-d has promised the Jews, and only the Jews. I’m putting my money where my mouth is. I am so sure that there is a G-d that I will gladly buy your soul. Its no good to you if you don’t want it to be. To me its priceless and by priceless I mean whatever price we agree upon. Watch the video, its amazing. Why. Because its G-d’s words from the Book He gave His beloved Jews 3322 years ago. You as a Jew are the highest form of creation. G-d tells you that in a Book that youve probably spent your whole life ignoring. One click on my video could change your life. All you have to do is click. If you don’t its because youre scared what you might hear, not because you think its a waste of time.

Eliyokum Has a Popular Blog
SellMeYourJewishSoul.com
And Can Be Reached at
Sidetick.com

or by Email at eliyokum@emunahmagazine.com

New York, NY – What does 300 seconds mean to you? To most New Yorkers it means the difference between getting an expensive parking ticket and 5 minutes to get back to your car. Starting this morning at 12:01 am a new law went into effect allowing a grace period of 5 minutes after a parking meter expires before an NYPD traffic agent can write a ticket.

“It’s not going to end the recession, but it gives people a little bit of a break in a tough time,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who faced off with Mayor Bloomberg over the grace period.
Bloomberg warned that the law would lead to “nothing but chaos” as fights spring up between drivers and ticket agents over whose watch to use. The City Council unanimously over-rode the mayor’s veto, wanting to put an end to “gotcha” tickets.
“Other cities have this [grace period] and it has not proven to be chaotic,” Quinn said. “It’s a nice and appropriate amount of latitude to give New Yorkers in a place where we all know it’s not easy to park.”
Of 10 million tickets issued in fiscal year 2008, 276,000 were written within five minutes of alternate-side parking restrictions going into effect.
Council analysts say the new bill won’t cost the cash-strapped city any money: Plenty of people will still get tickets after the six-minute mark.
The city recently hired scores of new traffic enforcement agents.

Source: NY DAILY NEWS

By: Eliyokum Hakohen

A few weeks ago in dubai, one of the world’s most despicable terrorists was killed by a group that more than likely began with an M and ended with a D. The exact details of this case are irrelevant, what’s important is that yet another murderer of Jews, who wears a diaper on his head was eliminated. Unfortunately, for the rest of the world this assertion is not good enough. Outrage and shock spread through this pathetic world like a fire in a village of straw huts. There is only one answer for this, and that answer is anti-semetism.

Fake passports were used to carry out this mission, and the countries who’s passports were used vilified the Israeli government for it’s subterfuge and deceitfulness. I’d like to ask a question to Ireland, Australia, and Britain…how in the heck to you guys carry out your covert operations? Do you not have any operatives with foreign passports? Do you not use the exact same methods that Israel does? The hypocrisy in the world in regards to the Jewish Homeland is disgusting, and what’s worse is the a vast majority of the Jewish world doesn’t care or doesn’t see it.
A small pathetic town in Ireland, one of the countries who’s passport was used by a member of the hit squad, used this as a excuse to unleash a wave of dormant anti-semetism that is the hallmark of virtually every single place in europe. They even had the nerve to rip the signature of a distinguished visiting ambassador as a protest to passport usage. Carrickmacross, a town that no one has ever heard of, and no one really cares about has now stamped it’s place in the long line of european countries that makes their feelings on Jews known very well. Dr Zion Evrony, the ambassador who was nice enough to visit this dump of a town is now a source of derision and ridicule by people just itching for an excuse to unleash their animosity towards the Jews. Herein lies the problem.
Jews try so hard to try and separate feelings about Israel and feelings about Jews. What people don’t understand is that they are one and the same. Hating Israel, for the non-Jewish world is the same as hating Jews. Period end of discussion. There is no other country on earth as moral, as accommodating, or as righteous as Israel. No other country on earth actually calls the people of the town they are about to bomb to warn them of impending danger, no other country takes as much care to avoid the death of innocent civilians, even though it usually ends up killing their own Jews, and no other country on earth bends over backwards to accommodate a world that wants it gone. The world pointing a finger at Israel for the killing of a terrorist is like patients pointing a finger at a Dr. for curing their disease even though they had to have a painful procedure.
The world hates Jews, and the world hates Israel. G-d makes it very clear to us, but for some reason the majority of Jews always disregard this and blame themselves. Dubai is a perfect example of this. The Mossad knocks out a piece of trash that should’ve been killed years ago, and the world unites for an instant assault on the Jewish nation. Does anyone out there see what’s going on here. The usa is pressuring Israel to give up vast amounts of territory and safety, europe is becoming a breeding ground for massive anti-semetism in worthless countries like norway and sweden, and what’s worst of all, liberal Jews are fueling the flames. Idiotic comments from people like Rahm Emanuel, j street, and leftist leaders in Israel allow the world to keep burying us under a mountain of diplomatic grief. How low can we possibly fall as Jews?
The enemy of our people has always come from within. We don’t need a hamas, or an obama to contend with because we have much stronger enemies within our own ranks. Dubai has kicked off a fury over the existence of Israel, and sadly a lot of Jews out there ask themselves the same question…would the world be a safer and better place without Israel? Ask the Jews who lived in Hebron in 1929 if the world was safer for us, or maybe the Jews in berlin in the late 1930’s. Dubai is the reason the world needs the Jews, we’re the only ones smart enough to stand up to the enemy of all humans, islam.
Instead of calling for sanctions and apologies and concessions, the world should be bending over backwards to support Israel. We are the front lines of the war on terror and the war on islamic extremism, and if Israel deems it necessary to knock off you countries’ passport to keep winning this war, THEN SHUT UP ABOUT IT. Without the Jews this world would be the same pathetic joke it is in all of the nations where Jews can’t be found. I am proud to be a Jew, I am proud to live in Israel, and I’m even prouder that there are thousands of diaper heads all over the world that don’t sleep a wink at night because they know that a Jew with a fake passport might be in their closet, waiting to put them out of their misery.

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Eliyokum Hakohen is a featured columnist with Emunah Magazine. His video blog is SellMeYourJewishSoul.com