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I read this interesting piece, a special prayer for Yom Kippur, and was struck at how absolutely out-of-touch the author was at the reality of Barack Obama. Part of the prayer reads, "May G*d grant US President Barack Obama the determination to sweep away Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his menacing regime, without the military operation incurring severe costs to us, or undue losses to US forces". If this writer believes Obama will do anything to weaken Iran or protect the nation of Israel, he is delusional. "Easy fast" to those of you who acknowledge our holy day and best wishes to...

As you know, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, begins today at sundown and ends tomorrow at sundown. The evening service begins with the Kol Nidre. It has a haunting melody and I thought you might like to hear it (guess the singer). This is the translation from Aramaic: "All vows, obligations, oaths, and anathemas, whether called 'konam,' 'konas,' or by any other name, which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement until the next (whose happy coming we await), we do repent. May they be...

The IDF is taking no chances on the eve of Yom Kippur. In an unusual and rare step, The IDF's General Staff alerted two reserve divisions as part of an emergency drill in army bases in central and northern Israel. The purpose of the exercise was to test the soldiers' level of response and readiness for war. On Wednesday evening, at 6 pm, reserve soldiers received a phone call ordering them to report to their units immediately. The drill ended on Thursday at 4 pm.

Jews around the world gathered on Sunday for first-ever global Shofar FlashMob hosted by Art Kibbutz NYC, the newly-launched international artist community. The event was meant to give the Jewish tradition of sounding the Shofar daily during the Hebrew month of Elul a 21st century post-modern twist. The Shofar, traditionally made from a ram’s horn, was used in Biblical times for many purposes, including announcing the new month, to herald the commencement of the festivals and in battle. Besides being sounded during Elul, the Shofar is also sounded on Rosh Hashanah and at the conclusion of Yom Kippur. There are...

Although Israeli roads are usually empty on Yom Kippur, there are always some emergencies that demand getting on the road, which inevitably means the risk of having your car pelted with stones. The Al-Huzayil family from the Bedouin city of Rahat, who had to get a 16-year old member of the family to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba Saturday morning, experienced a barrage of stones on their way back from the hospital. The family followed the Magen David Adom paramedics, who arrived at the house to take the teenage girl to the hospital. "The main highway was actually quiet...

On the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War and the yartzeit this month of more than 2,500 Israel soldiers who gave their lives in a war for the very survival of the State and the protection of their homes and families, the United States has nearly completed the turn of its policy. The objective of American diplomacy used to be to ensure that Israel received the recognition of the Arab States that it was due as a member of the United Nations. That recognition was to have resulted in the "secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of...

As you know, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, begins today at sundown and ends tomorrow at sundown. The evening service begins with the Kol Nidre. It has a haunting melody and I thought you might like to hear it (guess the singer). This is the translation from Aramaic: "All vows, obligations, oaths, and anathemas, whether called 'konam,' 'konas,' or by any other name, which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement until the next (whose happy coming we await), we do repent. May they be...

"Tis that wonderfully busy time of year again, and I haven't had time to create a new article for Yom Kippur just yet. Hopefully I'll have time in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here are links to some of the articles I've written on the subject in the past: Yom Kippur, Part 1: Traditions and BloodYom Kippur, Part 2: The Exodus and the FutureDid God Reject the Sacrifice Because of Yeshua? A Response to Rabbi Singer And an overview of the Feasts for those who might not have seen it before: The Feasts and the Exodus Shalom.

... What is it, after all, that makes so many people feel like failures? On a superficial level the simple assumption is that we are depressed because we are deprived. The truth is that it is not so. Our obsession for acquiring wealth has far less to do with our personal wants than with our refusal to have less than others. We have to face up to the fact that, as Frank Ross put it, “It is not so much what we haven’t, but what others have that makes for unhappiness.” A fascinating psychological study recently done by researchers at...

Britain's new government has been caught in an unexpected political crisis as the pope's visit approaches. The Guardian reported Sunday that the speech of Benedict XVI in Parliament will take place on Yom Kippur, which has attracted criticism from the Jewish community and its supporters. The leader of the Catholic Church will arrive in London in September and is expected to remain in the UK for four days. The jewel in the crown is to be an historic speech before the British Parliament on September 17. The visit already drew criticism in the mainly Anglican kingdom, but the date of...

Christians know that Jesus has provided our atonement: “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-24). God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. Jesus’ death surpasses and replaces the atonement ritual of the Jewish Temple. The book of Hebrews explains the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement as a pattern of the atoning work of Christ. Jesus is our high priest, and His blood shed on Calvary is seen as symbolized in the blood...

Today is the start of our most holiest holiday and an opportunity for us to repent our sins. This will not be a self flagellation, but rather advice to 78% of you. Same 78% of you who voted for Obama despite the most obvious and egregious radicalism displayed by any presidential candidate in our history. Today is the time you think about your position in America and where your loyalties lie. Nine months have passed and what was obvious to the 22% of us one year ago should be as clear as day by now. Liberals no longer represent us...

As you know, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, begins today at sundown and ends tomorrow at sundown. The evening service begins with the Kol Nidre. It has a haunting melody and I thought you might like to hear it (guess the singer). This is the translation from Aramaic: "All vows, obligations, oaths, and anathemas, whether called 'konam,' 'konas,' or by any other name, which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement until the next (whose happy coming we await), we do repent. May they be...

When Religion Is Involved, a Game Is Just That This is a most wonderful gesture, having the Yankees and the Red Sox play at 1 p.m. on Sunday. It could even be the start of something better. Instead of putting the game at 8 p.m. — prime time, as the networks call it — ESPN and Major League Baseball are accommodating thousands of fans who at sundown will be observing Yom Kippur, the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. Not only that, but the N.F.L. has allowed both New York teams to play at 1 on Sunday — Jets...

Israeli police fired stun grenades on Sunday to disperse 150 Palestinians who hurled stones at Jewish worshipers visiting a sensitive religious site in the Old City before the start of the holiest day for Jews. Two policemen were lightly wounded, a spokesman said, and Palestinian medics said they evacuated a Palestinian man suffering from a head injury. Police restored calm and closed the complex after the incident. The incident occurred before Yom Kippur in the complex known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Harm al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary). It houses al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the...

(IsraelNN.com) Iran will hold missile defense exercises on Sunday, Iranian media reported Saturday. The exercises will coincide with the Yom Kippur holiday, the holiest day of the year according to Judaism and the anniversary of the beginning of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards will hold missile defense exercises on the upcoming Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Iranian media reported on Saturday. The announcement of the war games coincided with increased tension in Iran's nuclear dispute with the West, after the Islamic Republic disclosed that it is building a second uranium enrichment plant. The reports did not say what kind of missiles would be used in the war games, which will start on Sunday, the eve of Yom Kippur. In May, Iran said it had tested a missile that defense analysts said could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the...

Todd and I would like to offer our best wishes to the Jewish community as they celebrate the High Holy Days. With the celebration of the Jewish New Year this week and the observance of the Day of Atonement next week, we are reminded of the hopeful commitment to renewal and peace exemplified by the Jewish tradition and the Jewish people throughout history. Yom Kippur, the most solemn and important of the Jewish holy days, is a time of reflection and supplication for forgiveness. The timeless human struggle to promote justice, harmony, and peace is seen here in this process...

Jews intone theses words: …mi yichie umi yamut (who will live and who will die)… mi bamayim umi ba’esh (who by water and who by fire)…As we look around the world, between the current economic meltdown and the forces that wish to destroy the West… the horizon looks rather bleak. Evil seems to be ascendant, the western nations are plagued by the cancer within, wittingly or unwittingly, working for their destruction. Western politicians of every political stripe, are guilty of the current situation whether for personal gain, for personal glory or merely because of absolutely naive misguidance. The world, as...

You’d think that a man who made such a big deal about a Muslim Congressman getting sworn into Congress using a Koran would be the last person to spend Judaism’s most important holiday with an extremist Muslim–the last person to use the day as an exercise in moral equivalency and interfaith multi-culti crap.

Why We Are Going to Hell – Part 2,036 Radical Jew-Hating Muslims Welcomed by Rabbi bythelastcrusade.org On Friday afternoons and other times during the week, a synagogue in Reston, Virginia is used as a mosque, where hundreds of Muslims remove their shoes, unfurl their prayer rugs, and bow to the east in adoration of Allah.The members of the Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation, who worship at the synagogue on Friday nights, see no problem with this arrangement which grants an additional $300 a day in revenue.And the Jewish congregants appear to be blissfully unaware that many of the Muslims who...

LONDON — An Iranian ship captured by Somali pirates carried sealed containers of a powdery substance believed to be nuclear or chemical weapons agents. Western intelligence agencies have been monitoring the capture of the Iran Deyanat, seized by Somali pirates on Aug. 21. The cargo ship, owned and operated by the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, or IRISL, contains sealed cargo thought to be linked to the death of 16 pirates.

Arab racism against Jews inside Israel: Arabs' rampage in Acre Oct 2008 [Oct 2008]... the violence continued as Arabs heading back to their neighborhoods ran riot through Jewish areas of the city. Calling "Death to the Jews" and Allah hu akbar ("Allah is great"), the rioters vandalized hundreds of Jewish-owned shops and vehicles, and threw rocks at people on their way to or from Yom Kippur prayers.http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127921 Police arrest Acre Yom Kippur driver... Police on Monday arrested 48 year-old Jamal Taufik, the driver who entered Jewish east Acre on the evening of Yom Kippur and who is blamed by police...

For the Sin of Silence by Dr. Rafael Medoff American Jews should add an "Al Chet". On Yom Kippur, in synagogues throughout the country, American Jews will lightly strike their chests while reciting the Al Chet, the litany of confessions for sins committed during the previous year. "For the sin of lying.... For the Many American Jews were not sufficiently concerned "with our brethren." - Rabbi Soloveitchik sin of gossiping.... For the sin of being disrespectful...." and so on. Some years ago, one of the most prominent rabbis in America made a startling suggestion - that American Jews should add...

Jews and Arabs rioted in the mixed Jewish-Arab Israeli city of Akko over Yom Kippur. The riots started Wednesday night when an Arab man drove through the Jewish sector of the city and was confronted by Jewish youths who said he was deliberately desecrating the holiday by driving, smoking and playing loud music. The ensuing riots between Jewish and Arab youths resulted in extensive damage to property throughout the town in northern Israel. Some fresh clashes continued on Friday, but the deployment of hundreds of police officers in Akko helpes restore calm. Other mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel, including Jaffa,...

Its observers abstain from food, sex, baths and wearing leather for 26 hours, casting away distractions that may cloud their mission: Getting closer to God. Jews will celebrate Yom Kippur on Wednesday and Thursday this year. Taking place 10 days after the start of Rosh Hashanah, the start of the new Jewish year, "Yom Kippur is the holiest of days on the Jewish calendar," said Kim Gonzalez, teen director and Jewish educator at the Levite Jewish Community Center in Birmingham. The holiday is both somber and joyful, a bittersweet reflection on one's good and bad deeds in the past year....

Jewish students at Columbia who went to their computers after breaking the fast for Yom Kippur were met Saturday evening with a link on the Drudge Report to an interview with the dean of the School of International and Public Affairs saying that he'd have been happy to welcome Hitler to the campus. The interview, aired on Fox News, was with John Coatsworth. He is seen in the Day of Atonement broadcast chuckling like a veritable Mearsheimer or Walt. Could he be oblivious to the impact his words were going to have in a Jewish community already on notice that...

On Yom Kippur, which ended just last evening, Jews quite literally beat their breasts while asking forgiveness for all the sins committed during the previous year. The confessional prayer enumerates literally dozens of different transgressions. But while the syllabus of sin is seemingly comprehensive, there would appear to be one lacuna. Nowhere in the menu of misdeeds does "schadenfreude" appear. We might just have to petition to have it added in time for next year. Because Jonah Goldberg's I’m Rather Grateful is such a delightful dose of schadenfreude-on-steroids as to be as irresistible. Go ahead, read it and enjoy. There'll...

KABUL (AFP) - Zebulon Simentov, the last Jew in Afghanistan, is once again marking the Jewish holy day of fasting in solitude, in a deserted synagogue in the capital of a devoutly Islamic nation. ADVERTISEMENT "I have everything I need for the 24 hours of praying and fasting," Simentov tells AFP before the start of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, at sunset on Friday. Around two decades ago, there were still about 20 Afghan Jewish families living in Kabul, although all were from Herat -- the largest city in northwestern Afghanistan near the border with Iran. Through the Soviet...

On Yom Kippur Iran Attempts To Intimate Israel With Long Range Missile By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----September 21...... Iran publicly released a view of a new long-range missile for the first time. The Islamic terror state showed off the offensive missile on the holiest day of the Jewish new year - Yom Kippur. "We and our allies have known about this missile since Iran started to secure parts for it years ago," a respected Israeli defense analyst told the Israel News Agency. "Iran knows that Israel is presently on a high state of alert for the Yom...

Yom Kippur In Israel (photo)Jews in Ra'anana, Israel symbolically transfer their human sins to fowl. By Judy Lash Balint Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----September 21...... The Days of Awe are drawing to their climactic conclusion, and signs of the impending Day of Judgment may be seen all over Israel. In the days before Yom Kippur, thousands of Torah observant citizens in Israel rush to finish the ritual of kapparot, where human sins are symbolically transferred to a fowl, generally a chicken. It's a custom that does not appear anywhere in the Talmud, but whose origin seems to come courtesy of...

Israel Watching Iran, Syria, Islamic Terrorists On Yom Kippur By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----September 21...... Israel Defense and General Security Forces remain on high alert against threats from Syria, Iran and Islamic terror groups both inside and outside Israel borders. Israel closed entry to and from the Palestinian territories for Yom Kippur, the holy Jewish day of atonement remembering the bloody surprise attack which took place 34 years ago by Syria and Egypt. "Unlike 1973, we have developed both technological and other resources to monitor our enemies movement day and night," said a senior Israel security source....

Then he shall slaughter the people's sin-offering goat, and bringing its blood inside the veil, he shall do with it as he did with the bullock's blood, sprinkling it on the propitiatory and before it.  ~Leviticus 16:15Yom Kippur begins, this year, at sundown on September 21st.  This Day of Atonement, as prescribed in Leviticus and Numbers, has a very special, exceedingly significant meaning for Christians as we look back to the roots of our faith to understand how Christ fulfilled, and continues to fulfill, our need for propitiation.  Essentially, "propitiation" means to appease the wrath of God or to turn...

Five nights ago was Yom Kippur, the highest of Jewish High Holidays. As I contemplate the now extinguished candles memorializing my beloved mother and father and asking for God's forgiveness of my endless sins, I want to say something. I realize that my ability to pray to the Lord God, Jehovah, Lord of the High Places, giver of the most precious gift of all, peace, is entirely dependent on the courage and sacrifice of the men and women of the armed forces of the United States of America. I would have no life at all, would not even be alive,...

In my first article on the Fall High Holy Days, we saw that the Feast of Trumpets is intimately linked by both Yeshua and Sha’ul with Yeshua’s Second Coming on the clouds of heaven, and saw that this corresponded with the expectations of the rabbis. Now we come to the second of the Fall Feastdays, and the holiest day of the Jewish—which is to say, Biblical—calendar: Yom Kippur takes place on the tenth of Tishri, nine days after Rosh Hashanah. On that day, the high priest would put on a special coat of white linen and carry out a very...

If judged only by what is heard on his White House tapes, Richard Nixon, who resigned the presidency 31 years ago this week, appears to have been a man obsessed with Jews, stewing in negative feelings, never hesitating to use the crudest of slurs. But if talk alone is the true measure of a man, Harry Truman – who habitually made derogatory remarks about Jews and whose home in Independence, Missouri, was off-limits to them – would have to be considered an anti-Semite of the first order. It`s a safe bet that those who complain the loudest about Nixon`s anti-Semitic...

She told her audience that Western civilization owes much to the Jewish faith for the tradition of beginning the new year in this way. "How fortunate we are to have an opportunity to take time out as you are doing here on Yom Kippur to think of the large issues that really matter in life," she said. "Each year, going back to Leviticus, the Jewish people have recognized both the psychological and theological power of atonement and forgiveness."

MK Avraham Poraz (Shinui) called on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Sunday to halt state funding for a Yom Kippur campaign, which in his words "encourages religiosity among secular Israelis". But legal experts rebuffed Poraz's claims. Poraz was referring to an advertising campaign funded in part by the Prime Minister's Office, which calls on citizens to take part in prayer and discussions on Yom Kippur eve at 250 community centers across the nation. In one radio commercial a young man recounts his positive experience last Yom Kippur with the liturgy and prayer. "As a result of the prayers I experienced a...

FL: Schools May Drop Religious Holidays Melanie Ave, St Petersburg Times, 10/7/05 TAMPA - There may be no day off next school year for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Also on the chopping block are vacation days for the Christian faith's Good Friday and the Monday after Easter. After considering a request to recognize a Muslim school holiday, the Hillsborough County School Board next week will discuss ending student days off on all religious holidays, whether they be Christian, Jewish or Muslim. The only religious holiday not affected will be Christmas, which occurs during the school district's winter break....

[Color, bold emphases are Quix's--as are a few minor grammar corrections] We are witnessing a Divine Intersection at the Hand of God. Posted: Saturday, April 02, 2005 - written by jerry golden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With major events happening in Israel destined to change the face of what is now Israel, and Jews preparing for a mass Aliyah from Europe and elsewhere, and the death of the Pope. With major earthquakes, and tidal waves killing hundreds of thousands, and wars and rumors of wars like no other time in the history of the human race. It is past time for us to...

The author, a retired U.S. Army colonel, draws upon many years of firsthand observation of Arabs in training to reach conclusions about the ways in which they go into combat. His findings derive from personal experience with Arab military establishments in the capacity of U.S. military attache and security assistance officer, observer officer with the British-officered Trucial Oman Scouts (the security force in the emirates prior to the establishment of the UAE), as well as some thirty years of study of the Middle East.~ Ed. ARABIC-SPEAKING ARMIES have been generally ineffective in the modern era. Egyptian regular forces did poorly...

During the afternoon on Yom Kippur, about 100 neo-Nazis held a virulently anti-Semitic rally in Valley Forge National Park in Pennsylvania, USA. Hundreds of anti-Nazi demonstrators protested nearby. Police were on hand and reports number more officers than demonstrators on both sides put together. Members of the Ku Klux Klan teamed up with the Minnesota-based National Socialist Movement, to sponsor the rally. They chose Valley Forge because of its connection to George Washington, who, according to the groups, held separatist and anti-Semitic views. 11,000 Revolutionary War soldiers under Washington’s command camped in Valley Forge from December 1777 to June 1778....

Graffiti with Sharon as target drawn on major Jerusalem intersection Large inscription with target in its center shows arrows pointing in direction of houses of PM, Katzav and Netanyahu, who live nearby. Tal Yamin-Wolfowitz A large inscription with a target in its center indicating possible incitement against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Moshe Katzav and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was drawn during Yom Kippur on a major intersection in Jerusalem. The graffiti, which shows arrows pointing in the direction of the houses of the three, who live nearby, with an image of a suicide bomber in the center of...

Friday, September 24, 2004 Shabbat Shalom and Gmar Hatima Tov by Caitlyn M. Martin Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar and the most solemn day in the Jewish year, starts at sundown this evening. (As of this writing it has already started in Israel.) For Jews around the world it is a time of fasting, prayer, and repentance. In Israel everything shuts down for Yom Kippur, from television and radio stations, to public transportation, to all non-emergency government services. Most Israeli Jews, even those who normally consider themselves secular, will be in a synagogue for Kol Nidre...

In Israel, Remembering Yom Kippur War By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem----September 24.....As I wrote the below account last year, the first time retracing steps taken thirty-one years ago in Israel in October 1973, memories began to pour back along with the anxiety and tears that we all experienced at the time. For many of us, the scars of war will never heal. Nor should they. Sitting in the relative safety of a suburban Long Island home, I first heard news reports of Arab armies attacking Israel on October 6, 1973. It was not exactly clear what was transpiring...

SAN DIEGO - Los Angeles Dodgers (news) first baseman Shawn Green will definitely sit out at least one game of a weekend series against the San Francisco Giants (news) in observance of Yom Kippur, but will wait until Thursday to make his final decision. Green said Wednesday there's a possibility he'll sit out both Friday night and Saturday afternoon. He planned to talk to his wife and parents before making a final decision. "No matter what, two games is a big commitment," Green said before the Dodgers played the San Diego Padres (news). "The standings a'nd what happens now, I...

An internal and reportedly problematic army history into the Yom Kippur War is expected to finally be published in a limited version after decades of indecision and delay, military sources said. The IDF confirmed a report in Ma'ariv that the historical research paper was in its final stages of approval and that it would be released shortly. Military sources said that it was indeed on the desk of Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, but could not say when it was likely to be signed for released. The problematic report was said to have been shelved by the past...

Larry was spending a lazy summer afternoon with his three young children when he had a sudden, massive seizure. His son called 911, then watched as his bigger-than-life dad was loaded into an ambulance. After several weeks and innumerable tests later, doctors simply don't know exactly why this happened to an otherwise ordinarily healthy 46-year-old man. And worse, as a result, they don't know how to treat it, or whether it will ever happen again. In the meantime, what are the medical establishment's best recommendations to this very shaken man, who now needs somehow to stand up, return home, and...

It's not that I mind giving charity to all and sundry, but I do mind being rooked. That's why my "don't think you can fool me" persona went on high alert when the girl approached our table at an outdoor cafe one evening this summer. My husband and I were having supper with another couple, distant relatives from America. The girl wore blue jeans, a halter-top, dangling pink earrings that must have been six inches long, and gobs of makeup. Her hair was streaked with purple. I guessed that she was probably 16 years old. She mumbled that she belonged...

Russia rejects Powell's criticism, joins forces with Israel SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM Wednesday, September 15, 2004 HERZLIYA, Israel – While rejecting U.S. and EU criticism of its anti-terrorism reforms, Russia plans to adopt Israel's counter-insurgency methods in Moscow's war against Chechen rebels. Russian officials said the government in Moscow has agreed to increase security cooperation with Israel and focus on counter-insurgency. The officials said the cooperation would include Israeli training and instruction on a range of issues, including aviation security and civil defense. "We are being helped by your expertise in the field of aviation security," Vladimir Vasilyev, chairman of...