Tragedy Strikes in France

כ״ה באדר תשע"ב
Keowulf 28
Alder 2

Four Killed in Shooting at French Jewish School

"A teacher was gunned down along with his two children at a Jewish school in southern France Monday, while the director of the school saw his daughter shot and killed in front of him, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a somber appearance at the school. It is the third time in the past 10 days that a gunman on a motorcycle has fired on minorities in the southwest of France. French soldiers of north African origin were shot and killed on March 11 and March 15."

The Great Mother of us all weeps.

3/24/12 Update - Toulouse

Odd Behavior For Humanitarian Aid Workers

י״ט בסיון תש"ע
Mab 20

For the record in follow up to an earlier post - "Passengers" aboard "humanitarian aid" ship (intentionally trying to run a blockage to avoid inspection allowed by international law and trying to enter a war zone without inspection) attack soldiers attempting to board the vessel to inspect it - throwing one soldier overboard, attacking others with weapons, and beating another with a crowbar (second BBC World News video below). Wow, I've never seen this kind of behavior from "humanitarian aid" charity workers before.





Hat-tip for videos - Mystical Paths.

Goddess Rising

י״ח בסיון תש"ע
Mab 19

In response to today's events in the Middle East, one of my male pagan Facebook (former) friends banned me as a friend because I refused to let his rabid anti-Israel emotional tirade go unchallenged by cool reasoned consideration of the whole picture. Well okay, may his out of control Israel-hatred spiral down into his very gut and eat him up from the inside out, for clearly he's forgotten that when it comes to warrior goddesses, there are no warrior gods who can equal them in valor, cunning strategy, ferocity or any other skill of warfare. She is the Dark Mother, and no male god equals Her and no male god is given authority to stand in Her stead.

Foxnews reports - "Carmon, the Israeli deputy ambassador, said the flotilla turned down repeated requests from Israeli troops to stand down for inspection in accordance with international laws."

What exactly was the problem with allowing inspection according to international laws if indeed all the ship was carrying was humanitarian aid?

And why was this flotilla stopped when five flotillas before it were not stopped?

Devarim Hakodesh - Words Of A Leader

כ"ב בשבט תש"ע
Imbolgen 23

A snowstorm happened here Thursday night and all day Friday.

It snowed several inches here in the midwest USA over both times (both times together constituting 'Friday' locally according to Jewish and Celtic timekeeping), where on Thursday night, I dreamt of being on the uppermost floor of a high tower (where I was looking for an apartment home) chanting an ancient archaic form of ritual Hebrew (Specialized Archaic Hebrew Dialect), and the snowstorm, as it increased moving east from the midwest, was blamed for the deaths of father-son Samaritans in Virginia. The Samaritans' car had stopped to help at the scene of a snowstorm-related traffic accident because a passenger in their car was a nurse who could help with any injuries to the people in the automobile resting in the left northbound lane. I am a nurse. Mount Hermon, a mountain tower of snow, is the source of water for the Land of Israel. The dream vision of chanted words (Devarim on Mount Hermon) Thursday night is like melted snow and dew.

The Samaritan Cohen Gadol was mourned Thursday, having passed away Wednesday at his home at the age of 83. The Jerusalem Post reports:

Samaritans mourn their high priest
BY BEN HARTMAN
05/02/2010 05:00 (Jerusalem Post)

Elazar ben Tsedaka, 83, ‘wise’ and ‘selfless,’ traced his office back to Aaron.

Snow flurries drifted to the ground on Mount Gerizim overlooking Nablus on Thursday, as mourners gathered to bury the spiritual leader of the Samaritans, who passed away the previous day.

High Priest Elazar ben Tsedaka ben Yitzhaq was born during a snowstorm 83 years ago, one mourner said. On Thursday, as he was being laid to rest at the holiest site in the Samaritan religion, the snow began to fall again.

According to Samaritan tradition he was the 131st holder of the post since Aaron. This is not be accepted by all historians, but the office may well go back to the Hellenistic period, which would still make it the oldest office in the world. One account in Josephus suggest that it is an offshoot of the Zadokite high priests in Jerusalem from around the time of Alexander the Great.

Mourner Menashe Tsadaka described Elazar as “a wise man in the community who people always came to for answers.”

The Samaritans are a tiny, largely misunderstood sect that practices a religion that is a close parallel to Judaism. Samaritans believe theirs is the true religion of the Israelites and follow their own Samarian Torah, written in an ancient form of Hebrew largely alien to modern Israeli eyes. Today’s Samarians trace their lineage to Israelites who have lived in northern Samaria before the Babylonian exile, and they still view Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, as the center of their religion.

Mourners took shelter from the storm inside the community center in the hilltop neighborhood of Kiryat Luza, where much of the ethnoreligious group of 730 lives. Nearly all the rest live in Holon’s Neveh Pinchas neighborhood.

As the procession hurriedly left the cemetery, people headed to the shiva ceremony at the high priest’s home, where over heaping plates of rice and lamb, mourners wept for the loss of the leader of one of Israel’s tiniest communities atop the mountain that has been the center of their religion for millennia.

Read the entire article at link above.

Samaritan Script

כ"ב בשבט תש"ע
Imbolgen 23

Information excerpt from Omniglot, script samples from Omniglot and Ancient Scripts.

The Samaritans claim descent from the northern tribes of Israel. Evidence from recent DNA tests supports this claim and shows they are related to the Israelites through the paternal line.

The Samaritan alphabet is still used by Samaritans in the city of Nablus and in the Samaritan quarter of Holon. There are currently just over 700 Samaritans.

Notable Features

* Type of writing system: abjad / consonant alphabet. Vowels indicated with diacritics.
* Direction of writing: right to left in horizontal lines.

Used To Write

Samaritan Hebrew, a descendant of Biblical Hebrew used by Samaritans as a liturgical language.

Samaritan Aramaic, a dialect of Aramaic used by the Samaritans in their sacred and scholarly literature.

Samaritan Script





Download free Samaritan font here.

More information on Samaritan script and its optional vowels here.

Related post/comments.

Town Claims Tolerance

כ"ה אלול התשס"ח
Belz 27

While Republicans work to get a supporter of witch-hunting elected into the Office of Vice President (see here and here), a Jewish member of the Temple of Dotham, Alabama is paying up to $50,000 per family for Jewish families to relocate to their "religiously tolerant" community (see Jewish Families Offered $50,000 To Move To Alabama).

"There's ignorance everywhere. There's ignorance in Dothan," (Dotham) Mayor Pat Thomas said. "But ... you have a great community here, and you have a community that's open to all faiths. And I think that's a great strength."

Riggggggggggggght.

What about witches?

Says the Prosecuting Attorney to the Divine, "there's a community down there in Dotham, Alabama that greatly claims to be religiously tolerant."

The Great Gulf

י' תמוז התשס"ח
Faunus 12

In follow-up to an earlier entry (When All Else Falls, A Claddagh Remains), here is a funny 1999 video lifted from DovBear which illustrates how great a gulf can be.

Thousands Celebrate The Massacre Of Schoolchildren

Unbelievable!?

Israel's Channel 10 News reports on the celebrations that took place in Gaza when news came of the murder of Israeli Yeshiva students.

Yeshiva Massacre

I fail to understand how any civilized person can be "happy" about the violent deaths of children.

Terrorist Attack At Mercaz Harav Yeshiva

כ'ט באדר א' תשס"ח
Keolwulf 30

Reports of the number of dead in today's terrorist attack vary. Foxnews reports:

JERUSALEM — Two gunmen went on a deadly shooting rampage, entering a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary through the dining room and opening fire after nightfall Thursday, killing at least 10 people, health services sources told FOX News.

Israeli media said about 35 people were wounded. Channel 2 TV said police special forces killed the two infiltrators.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip praised the operation, and thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza to celebrate.

David Simchon, head of the seminary, said the students had been preparing a celebration for the new month on the Jewish calendar, which includes the holiday of Purim. "We were planning to have a Purim party here tonight and instead and instead we had a massacre," he told Channel 2 TV.

Yehuda Meshi Zahav, head of the Zaka rescue service, entered the library after the attack. "The whole building looked like a slaughterhouse. The floor was covered in blood. The students were in class at the time of the attack," he said. "The floors are littered with holy books covered in blood."

"It's very sad tonight in Jerusalem," Mayor Uri Lupolianski told Channel 2 TV. "Many people were killed in the heart of Jerusalem."

The yeshiva is in the Kiryat Moshe quarter at the entrance to Jerusalem. Read full article at link above.

Updates - Names Of The Victims, Rachel Weeps For Her Children

On Actualizing Mitzvot

כ"ט בתמוז תשס"ז

Shai comments on Existential Angst about what Judaism is and will become:

The weight of individual decisions, if we are taught to make decisions with responsibility, will decide what Judaism is. In effect, the attitude here is that the mitzvah, not the halacha, has primacy, and there is the assertion here that mitzvah and halacha are not the same thing, and that we shouldn't turn the latter into the equivalent of an idol when in effect it's a tool to ensure the actualization of the former. The latter is the technical spec for the former, and the measure of success is not whether we've succeeded in meeting the technical spec, but whether we've found a way even outside it to ensure that the mitzvah has been performed.

I think he makes an excellent point here, although I'll add one comment of my own to it - one doesn't necessarily need to be taught (from an external source) to make decisions with responsibility, one however, does need to learn (from an internal source) to do this. As there are many ways to actualize a mitzvah, there are many ways to learn responsible decision-making.

Technorati tags: Torah Talmud Torah Judaism Kabbalah jewish mysticism mysticism jewish meditation meditation shamanism kabbalah iyunit kabbalah maasit witchcraft jewitchery jewitch witch sacred feminine divine feminine shechinah lilith spiritual development spirituality kosher spirituality

Bat Ayin, Chozeret B'Teshuvah

כ"ח בתמוז תשס"ז

Today, the shabbat containing the lifeforce of Tammuz moving with messianic consciousness, is my father's 70th birthday. Seventy is the gematria of the Hebrew letter ayin (ע).

R' Yitzchak Ginsburgh teaches regarding ayin:

The Ba'al Shem Tov teaches us that whenever the Hebrew word ein (spelled: alef, yud, nun), whose literal meaning is "no," appears in the Torah text, by changing its vowels to read ayin, the implied negation becomes transformed into a positive assertion. Ayin means "nothing," referring in Kabbalah to the Divine nothing from which all reality -- something -- is continuously recreated. The consciousness of ayin is identified by the Ba'al Shem Tov to be the source of the Jewish soul (based upon the rabbinic phrase, ein mazal l'yisrael, "Israel is under no astrological sign," which he reads ayin mazal l'yisrael, "the Divine nothing is the soul-source of Israel").

Sderot Woman Killed By Kassam

ד' בסיון תשס"ז

JPost reports today:

As the IDF pushed ahead with its campaign against Kassam squads on Monday, a 35-year-old woman was killed in Sderot when a salvo of rockets pounded the western Negev and one hit her car.

Shortly after 8 p.m., five rockets were fired from Gaza and one struck the woman's car near Sderot's commercial center. She died en route to hospital, becoming the first Israeli to die in a rocket attack since November. Two other people were wounded in the attack, one moderately and the other lightly, and were evacuated to Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital.

Read full article at link above.

Technorati tags: terrorism middle east Israel Sderot news

Terrorism & Crime Wars

ג' בסיון תשס"ז

An interesting article about terrorism, crime lords and war by Robert Avrech over at Seraphic Secret: The In-Between War.

Related reading: Carl in Jerusalem of Israel Matzav on Being Bearded In Gaza Is Dangerous.

Hat-tip to Mystical Paths for link to Robert's article.

Technorati tags: terrorism crime wars Hamas Fatah middle east Gaza Israel

Sderot Remains Under Missile Bombardment

ג' בסיון תשס"ז

Aussie Dave at Israellycool is blogging today's news updates of the situation in Sderot.

Technorati tags: terrorism middle east Israel Sderot news

Sobering

כ"ט באייר תשס"ז

A sobering video over at Jack's Shack, Why We Fight. Warning! Video contains explicit images from scenes of terrorist violence.

Technorati tags: terrorism middle east Israel

Orthodox Jew Accuses VA Hospital Of Pushing Christianity

כ"ח באייר תשס"ז

Orthodox Jew Accuses VA Hospital Of Pushing Christianity
By The Associated Press
05.15.07

U.S. Navy veteran David Miller, an Orthodox Jew, has accused chaplains and staff at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City of attempting to convert him to Christianity.

Miller, 46, of Iowa City, was treated for kidney stones during three hospitalizations over the past two years. He said he went hungry each time because the hospital wouldn't serve him kosher food, and the staff refused to contact his rabbi, who could have brought him something to eat.

Miller said the Iowa City veterans hospital was permeated by government sponsorship of fundamentalist Christianity and unconstitutional discrimination against Jews.

Hat-tip to Witchvox (Wren's Nest News) for link to article.

Technorati tags: VA first amendment VA pushes Christianity orthodox Jew

Sderot Evacuated, 30 Kassams In 24 Hours

כ"ח באייר תשס"ז

Anne Lieberman of Boker Tov Boulder reports 30 kassams have been launched against Sderot over the past 24 hours, moderately wounding a 44 year old woman and lightly injuring her 4 year old son. Seventeen others have been treated for shock and minor injuries. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks. Sderot has been evacuated.

Read Anne's report at link above. Read original news report at IsraelInsider here.

Technorati tags: terrorism hamas Israel Sderot middle east news kassam attack

Perspectives On Jewish Witchcraft

י"ח באייר תשס"ז

Dov comments on Real Witchcraft:

I think that Jewish perspectives on witchcraft are more complex than any one commentary's opinion, since Rambam and Ramban give very different explanations that reflect very different understandings of the spiritual universe.

That said, it's not necessarily prohibited to read books about people doing things that Jews are prohibited from doing. We can enjoy the books and learn lessons from them even if it would be prohibited for us to engage in the same magic ourselves.

As Dov writes, Jewish perspectives on witchcraft are complex and not unitarily understood. Witchcraft itself is complex and not a homogenous method of practice. There are many ways to be a witch and to practice witchcraft. While some of those ways may be prohibited to Jews, I don't accept that all of them are necessarily prohibited to Jews.

From what Dov writes, I gather that he accepts as prohibited whatever his rabbi tells him is prohibited. I don't. While advice I may consider, the final decision on what I do and how I practice is mine and mine alone.

I am a Jewish witch and I intend to remain one. Importantly, my witchcraft practice is neither prohibited by Torah nor idolatrous. I reject the designations of closed minds against me.

Technorati tags: Torah Talmud Torah Judaism Kabbalah jewish mysticism mysticism jewish meditation meditation shamanism kabbalah iyunit kabbalah maasit witchcraft jewitchery jewitch witch sacred feminine divine feminine shechinah lilith spiritual development spirituality kosher spirituality

Islamic Jihad Uses "Jerusalem" To Make War

י"ח באייר תשס"ז

Clearly, this not a sacred use of Jerusalem. Is making war how Islamic Jihad envisions a future use of Jerusalem? To make war and to cause death and destruction? This is indeed the message the marked missile sends to me. JPost reports today:

A 24-year-old Israeli was moderately wounded by shrapnel and a number of other people were reportedly in shock after a Kassam rocket landed near Sapir College outside Sderot on Sunday afternoon.

The rocket, marked in Hebrew "Quds" ("Jerusalem" in Arabic), struck a gas station in Sha'ar Hanegev, and caused damage. The wounded youth was evacuated to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

A total of five Kassams have been fired at Israel since Sunday morning.

Read full article at link above.

Shlomo Wollins of IsraelReporter (via Mystical Paths) reports 9 kassams fired into Sderot since Friday.

Technorati tags: terrorism Islamic Jihad Jerusalem Israel social justice Sderot news