"The Forces of Nature Will Intensify"

8 Sivan 5773
Erev Shabbat

US Spent More on 2012's Extreme Weather Cleanup than on Schools or Roads - U.S. taxpayers paid nearly $100 billion responding to damages caused by last year's extreme weather events associated with climate change, about $1,100 per taxpayer, according to an analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council. That means that federal spending to deal with extreme weather far exceeded total spending aimed at solving the problem. In fact, it was eight times the EPA's total budget and eight times the total spending on energy.

Extreme Weather Drove More Than 30 Million People from Their Homes in 2012 - Millions of people were displaced from their homes due to flooding. 

Ohio had at least 75 RECORD-BREAKING EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS in 2012.Nationally, 3,527 monthly weather records for heat, rain and snow were broken by extreme weather events, according to an updated review. 

160 RECORD-BREAKING EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS in 2012 in Michigan. 

Extreme Weather Whiplash - 106° in Iowa on the Heels of Record May Snows. Sioux City, Iowa had their first-ever snowfall on record in the month of May on May 1 (1.4"), but hit an astonishing 106° yesterday. 

Three weeks of extreme weather compels emergency relief from Maldives' government - Maldivian government authorities are providing emergency services and relief funds to island communities battered by three weeks of “extreme weather”. The National Disaster Management Centre issued a statement May 15 urging island and atoll councils to report any damage caused by the “harsh weather” as soon as possible.

Flooding due to three weeks of severe weather and heavy rain has damaged households, sewerage systems, as well as caused extensive agricultural destruction. Food shortages on some islands have resulted from agricultural damage and the disruption of transportation and supply networks due to bad weather.

Big storms in China have killed at least 33 people and destroyed thousands of houses. 12 people are missing. At least nine provinces have had storms and some flooding and landslides since Tuesday. Guangdong province has been hit the hardest with 19 deaths and 11 missing people. Guangdong's weather service said some areas received more than 8 inches (21 centimeters) of rain in nine hours on Thursday. It forecasts more rain in the coming days and warns of mudslides. 

United Kingdom - Snow fell across parts of Britain Tuesday night while another area had a MONTH'S WORTH OF RAIN IN JUST 24 HOURS as winds of up to 65mph battered the country’s coastlines in UNUSUAL WEATHER for the month. 

(H/T Global Disaster Watch)

50% Chance of X-Class Flares Today

7 Sivan 5773

ANOTHER X-FLARE ON MAY 15: When the week began, the sun hadn't unleashed an X-flare all year long. In only two days, sunspot AR1748 has produced four. The latest X-flare from this active sunspot occured on May 15th at 0152 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the extreme ultraviolet flash:

Huge Solar Flares Keep Erupting from Busy Sunspot

An overachieving sunspot on the surface of the sun unleashed its fourth major solar flare in two days late Tuesday (May 14), a solar storm that may deal Earth a glancing blow, space weather experts say.

The active sunspot AR1748 roared to life Tuesday night releasing an X-class solar flare — the strongest type the sun can experience — that peaked at 9:48 p.m. EDT (0148 May 15 GMT), according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo. The flare came after a relative lull in activity from sunspot AR1748, which fired off three monster X-class solar flares within a 24-hour period between Sunday and Monday.

In a morning update, NOAA space weather officials said they are studying this latest solar flare from AR1748 to see if it coincided with an eruption of super-hot solar plasma known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME. Such explosions can unleash huge waves of charged solar material streaking out into space at millions of miles per hour.

Chag Shavuot Sameach!!

5 Sivan 5773
Erev Shavuot
Day 49 of the Omer

What is the Story of Shavuot?

The "stories" of many things, their background and purpose, can be told by explaining what they are called. To a great extent, this is true in general of the Jewish holidays and, in particular, it is true of the holiday of Shavuot. The names of this holiday are:

"Chag Shavuot" - The Feast (or Holiday) of Weeks
"Z'man Matan Torateinu" - The Time of the Giving of Our Torah
"Chag HaBikkurim" - The Holiday of the First Fruits
"Atzeret" - The Holiday of "Being Held Back, or Restrained, Close to Hashem, in the Temple"
"Chag HaKatzir" - The Holiday of the Cutting of the Crop
"Chag Shavuot" - The Feast of Weeks

The holiday is given this name because it is the climax of the Counting of Days and Weeks which make up the Sefirat HaOmer. Sefirat HaOmer connects Passover and Shavuot. Passover is the holiday on which we commemorate our Redemption from Slavery in Egypt. That was our "Physical Redemption."

But physical redemption is not enough. It would have left us "free" people, but with no purpose to our lives. The purpose of the Jewish People is to serve G-d. The way we serve G-d is by studying and practicing his Torah. On Shavuot, G-d Himself appeared to us on Mt. Sinai to give us the Torah. By accepting it, we earned the title of "A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation."

Thus, Shavuot is the purpose of the Exodus from Egypt. Seven weeks had to pass before we were able to shake off the feeling of being subject to our Egyptian taskmasters. The Jewish Religion believes that there is no legitimate master for a human being other than G-d. This is probably the most important lesson of Shavuot.

"Z'man Matan Torateinu" - The Time of the Giving of Our Torah

The Jewish People arrived in the vicinity of Har Sinai (Mt. Sinai) on Rosh Chodesh Sivan. The purpose of their assembling there was to receive the Torah from Hashem. Three days passed before the Jewish People recovered from their six week sojourn in the desert. Moshe was instructed by Hashem that the Jewish People would have to prepare themselves for another three days before they would be ready to receive the Torah.

Before giving the Torah to the Jewish People, Hashem had, so to speak, "shopped it around" to the various nations of the world, but there were no takers.

Moshe "Rabbeinu," Moses our Teacher, according to another Midrash, had to overcome the objection of the Angels, who claimed that the Jewish People weren't sufficiently deserving to receive the Torah. But, fortunately for the Jewish People, and for the world, Moshe won that debate.

"Chag HaBikkurim" - The Holiday of the First Fruits

This name commemorates the New Grain Offering, which was brought at this time; its offering made it permissible to bring Grain Offerings from the "Chadash," the New Grain.

This was also the time that the first fruits of all the Seven Types of Produce with which the Land of Israel is Blessed (wheat, barley, wine, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates) were brought to the Temple. This procedure is described in the Talmud in Masechet Bikkurim.

"Atzeret" - The Holiday of "Being Held Back, Close to Hashem"

This is the name used exclusively for this Holiday in the Talmud. It suggests a similarity to Shemini Atzeret. The latter comes at the end of Sukkot, while this "Atzeret" comes at the conclusion of a process which began on "Pesach," or Passover.

One way of understanding the idea of "Atzeret" is that Hashem wants the Jewish People to feel close to Him at all times. But to have them come back to the Temple in Jerusalem several weeks after Sukkot would have required difficult travel in the winter. So Hashem just held them back for one day after Sukkot, to show his special love for them.

Whereas, Shavuot and Pesach have a special relationship which makes them really, in a sense, almost like one holiday, namely, the Holiday of Redemption, Physical and Spiritual, of the Jewish People.

"Chag HaKatzir" - The Holiday of the Cutting of the Crop

This refers to the wheat crop, which is the latest of the crops to be harvested, which took place at this time. There is also a reference here to Megillat Ruth, which places the time of the events described in the Megillah as "at the beginning of the cutting of the barley crop."

A Voice of Reason in the Wilderness

4 Sivan 5773
Day 48 of the Omer

Wikipedia: Mordechai Kedar (born 1952 in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli scholar of Arabic literature and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University. He holds the Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University.

Kedar is an academic expert on the Israeli Arab population. He served for twenty-five years in IDF Military Intelligence, where he specialized in Islamic groups, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic press and mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena. The Los Angeles Times' Edmund Sanders described him as "one of the few Arabic-speaking Israeli pundits seen on Arabic satellite channels defending Israel".

I love listening to Mordechai Kedar and you will, too. He just makes so much sense!

Read his "Open Letter to the Arab League"...

To the Honorable Leaders of the Arab States,

We in Israel received with great pleasure your agreement to normalize relations with Israel on condition that we agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state and exchanges of territories between that state and Israel. The Palestinian state that you propose to establish in Judea and Samaria would be the second Palestinian state, since the first Palestinian state was established six years ago in the Gaza Strip, and you clearly recognize it as such in practice. How else can the state visits of the Emir of Qatar and the secretary of the Arab League in Gaza be understood? Now you propose the establishment of a second Palestinian state? Perhaps a third!! Because Jordan is also a state with a Palestinian majority. And all of these states were established – as you know – on land that the League of Nations had designated for a Jewish state at the San Remo Conference, in April of 1920. So why should we agree to exchange territories with any state or states that have been established or will be established on our land?

See the rest here. And just so you get the full effect, listen to his delivery...



Dr. Mordechai Kedar, you are a Gibor Yisrael in my eyes! Thank you!!

Amalek - Within and Without

4 Sivan 5773
Day 48 of the Omer

People are stuck on these irrelevant labels - leftists and right wingers; as if politics has anything to do with what is really going on here. Let's call it what it really is - Eisav, Amalek and the Erev Rav against the righteous gentiles and the Children of Israel.

And Amalek is the worst of all. There's the Amalek within...

Leftist Glee over Terror Murder Earns Police Complaint

Gad Di'ee of the grassroots Samaria Residents Council has filed a police complaint against leftists who expressed glee after the stabbing murder of a Jew, Evyatar Borovsky of Yitzhar.

...One leftist activist, Hila Shifman Galant, put up a link on her Facebook page to a photograph of Borovsky's son hugging his father's body at the funeral and wrote: "Daddy went to a place where he can't burn fields or poison sheep anymore. Don't take it so hard, sweetie."

...Yossi Visoker, another leftist activist, wrote in his Facebook page: "So what… one piece of scum from Yitzhar (30 years old and already a father of five) was killed? What a waste. Stand in silence to honor his memory (hahaha, a victim of terror) next year. The people of Yitzhar are the real Amalek that must be erased from the face of the earth."

And the Amalek without...

Carter Calls on EU to Label Products from 'Illegal Settlements'

...Carter was in Dublin together with former Irish president Mary Robinson and former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso for talks with Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore and diplomats from some 20 European countries on revitalizing the peace process in the Middle East.

“With the Middle East peace process making no significant progress, we call on Europe to play a stronger and more independent role in revitalizing peace efforts, with a fresh approach,” Carter said, according to the European Jewish Press (EJP).

“The EU has repeatedly condemned settlement expansion in the West Bank. It could therefore introduce a clear labeling of products made in Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law,” he added.

...Carter said he was “very encouraged” by the response of the European diplomats at the meeting.

“They all said they were very eager to demonstrate to the world that the 1967 borders were intact, and were almost sacred, and that any intrusion by Israel into Palestine to build settlements was illegal,” he said, according to EJP.

One day soon, Amalek will cease to exist - within and without!