A lamed vav - one of the 36 Hidden Tzaddikim

B'H
I have just listened to this pure holy neshama speak and there is so much truth here, it is as though the light has been switched on. Much of what he is saying is so true and he is a 'simple' shepherd. The thing is that someone who lives so connected  to Hashem, Hashem's creations and the creative process has much wisdom and strength it shines a holiness that people may not see with their physical eyes, but they feel it. Darkness avoids the light or draws back from it.
I once sat across a room from a man (Arab) who had spent time in an Israeli prison for terrorist activity and this man was having a relationship with the daughter of an Israeli IDF general. I saw the way this man spoke to her and I grew angry inside. Here is a Jewish woman - an Israeli girl allowing herself to be treated so disrespectfully, I thought. I wanted to find out what made this man tick. What drives these people to kill themselves and in speaking to him, I touched on the darkness of his soul - so dark it was terrifying in its negative forces. I wanted to go from the flat but something made me stay and continue to question him about himself and his life. All of a sudden, I felt why should I be afraid. I am a Jew. Hashem will protect me and help me understand this mystery but I must not be afraid. When I left the flat I still did not understand, but there was a moment when I asked a question he looked at me and answered me and I did not like his question and I stared across at him and his hand that lifted his cigarette up to his mouth shook for a moment, then I knew he was afraid of me because Hashem put that fear into his mind. Those whose hearts are false fall away, their minds are like chaff and straw and are winnowed in the wind. We Jews we are the grains of wheat, the seeds of life and light - we create and build and change and transform for the better when we are in touch with ourselves and hold Torah dear to our lives.
This is why the Arabs will never beat us. Because they are the consumers, the devourers the forces of destruction and they do not know how to plant and to nurture and to grow and replant. They do not understand what they are going to do is going to lay waste to the world. It is an age old battle between the forces of darkness and holiness. With everything there is the opposite and over 13 centuries ago when Mohammed who was a primative warlord took sections of the holy document of Torah - the document of life and love and humanity - then he twisted and perverted it into the Koran those with darkness in their souls were united and forged alliances that tried to extinguish light from the world. The funny thing about light involves its essence. You can have the blackest night and introduce a pin prick of light and it is clearly visible . Have a room of light and it is hard to introduce a spot of night.
It is important to listen to what this man has to say. His wisdom is tempered by challenges put to him through life and when his holy daughter and son in law were gathered up, he and his wife raised their grandchildren along with the rest of his other children. Truly a man of light.
His days should be long and blessed with peace.

An unusual encounter in a Park

B'H


Today I had an unusual encounter that riled my blood pressure no end. A friend and her daughter came over to visit and we took some gluten free bread that had moth infestation and some nice (sob) expensive liver cleanse cereal that is so yummy and had not been opened but was crawling with moth larvae to the geese, ducks and pigeons in the park. It is a waste to throw it in the bin and the larvae make a good bit of fresh protein that the geese, pigeons, ducks and seagulls and other water birds love.
Now there is a sign in the middle of the pond that says Don't feed the birds. People used to come down and throw their left over bread into the pond which has the effect of making the pond rather gungey with bread that is not eaten by the birds. I throw the bread onto the grass and the pigeons and other wild life including possums enjoy it and there is no waste.

When we finished throwing down some old Matza also with larvae and the bread and cereal, I sat on the bench with Evelyn and we talked about the meaning of life, exchanged woes, challenges and joys of child rearing as single parents and having to make a living and how to best balance life's necessities and deal with everything.
Presently a woman marches purposefully up to me. She is middle aged, got some sort of scarf dangling from around her neck and jewellery. In short she looks the typical aging matured hippy type.
   'I have a few things to say to you.' She points at me. I look up and think to myself, this is going to be good. I bet she is going to ask me whether I can read the sign. I was immediately beginning to reflect whether I should pretend I have a reading challenge and ask her politely and pleasant if she could read it for me as I am illiterate, for the moment.
   'My daughter is an environmental scientist.' She pauses and looks down her nose at me. 'She has studied it at university.' At this I look at her serenely and calmly smile showing teeth I wish I had filed for this occasion. 'OH, REAAALLeeee.' I say with the right amount of exaggerated surprise to show the level of my 'admiration'  for such. 'She is really concerned that you are feeding these birds and wanted to say something to you. I know it is fun for the kids and all, .. but it encourages bad behaviour among the birds and it is not good for them to be fed. Don't you see the sign in the middle of the pond?' At that I wanted to get out my white cane, and tap the ground in front of me and say, 'Oh, sign, what sign?' and peer near sightedly at the trees and benches, and then ask her to read it for me. Instead I said, 'I happen to think that sign is a load of bollocks seeing as the council animal welfare officers could not be bothered about the foxes taking these birds a few years back in the drought and leaving wounded and dying birds in the pond. Quite hypocritical if you ask me.' She held up her hand and interrupted me,'That is another issue. I think you need to know that birds like these.....' Behind her there was dumpy young woman with a short skirt and legs like overstuffed sausages barreling up her rear. She had cropped black hair that reminded me of a basin cut that was popular in the fifties among people who wanted to save money on barbers and hairdressers. She had a face that reminded me of the boiled raisin puddings that people used to tie up in cheese cloth and boil. When you unwrapped it, it was an unappetising shade of gray with creases and swollen black raisins in it. Her face looked like one of those with two big raisins strategically placed and a folded over crease for her face and a bump for a nose. I was willing to lay short odds that this was the young environmental scientist.
  'I am concerned that you are feeding these birds. Don't you see the sign. Don't you know how bad it is for these birds to be fed?'
   I decided not to mince words. 'Why don't the pair of you mind your own businesses. What is it that you have to come up and bully people about a sign in a park? I can read and anyway what I am feeding these birds does not harm them. I raised chickens, ducks and turkeys etc in the country as a child. Don't talk crap. Go and bully someone else.' Both people got rather huffy and especially the environmental scientist. They had another would be environmentalist also pulling up the rear.
  'The worst that will happen is these birds will be happier and fatter than they would normally be. Go and bully someone else somewhere else.'
   'I also grew up in the country.' stated Ms Lady of the Scarves Draped around her neck. I gave her a look. 'Yeah right in the Dandenongs or Ferntree Gully most likely or Cranbourne. That is country for some people here. Like way out in the sticks where you are at least twenty minutes from the nearest 7/11 or a good half hour from a Westfield Shopping mall.
   'Go away and bother someone else who will cow tow to your bullying. I don't want to be bothered.' I waved her away.
   The two of them huffed up. 'We shall have to report her.' stated the daughter. Mother agreed and the three of them walked off with backward scowls.
I smiled and thought about pleading illiteracy. The geese honked happily and went on eating. The seven young goslings have grown quite fat and friendly. A couple of the big white geese had waddled over to inspect the newcomers. I has hoping they would take a peck or two as they do to me sometimes to tell me to hurry up and distribute the bread or cereal goodies. Unfortunately they saw these three as unpalatable human beings
Some people need to feel the POWER. That is why they will go and stand over and attempt to abuse perfect strangers.

Conducting a war on pantry moths...

B'H
For those of you who suffer these winged beasties, has anyone out there got a sure fire method against their infestation? I have the strips in my pantry but I know my home is not the only one infected with these winged varmints and I hate them with a passion. I have just thrown out in the rubbish several packets of really yummie gluten free cereal. They have not attacked the puffed millet YET so I am putting that in the fridge.
They get into everything possible and sealed cellophane is not a deterrent. Plastic is and I am going to try gladwrapping some things but if there is the slightest crack they get in and wriggling lavae appear in all your cereal packets and any grains or pastas or flours. They are simply awful.
For those of you who do not know what these are here are some pictures.

and what they do to your foodstuffs.

And here are some defensive weapons to use against these vile little creatures. Apart from getting rid of all infested food stuffs and wiping down shelves with pepperment oil or tea tree oil you can put bay leaves in your cupboards

Or there is another remedy which is the traps that you can buy in the supermarket but the bay leaves might be cheaper.

Shabbes Ve'yechi

B'h
The twelfth parsha and the last parsha of Berishit. And he lived .. is about Ya'acov's passing and his blessings to his children and grandchildren before he passed from this existence and his burial. He made Yosef swear to bury him in Israel.
One major theme I get from this parsha is the importance of Jewish education and a Jewish lifestyle.Through our children we will live and continue our service to Hashem. If we ourselves do not live as jews and honour or respect Jewish learning and a Jewish lifestyle, then we can hardly expect it of the next generation. We must saturate our children with a love of Yiddishkeit and Torah. By the same token, we must not drown them but teach them to be fish.
We should all merit to be worthy descendants of Ya'acov and be blessed in the ways of the righteous.
Blessings and a good shabbes.
Here is a very good link to a lecture on  the blessing of 'Like Ephraim and Menashe' by Rabbi Aaron Raskin
http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/1725542/jewish/Letters-and-Numbers-of-Torah.htm

Fasting and Finishing the Beit Hamikdash

B'H
When we start something we should finish it. There is no point in giving up half way. I am fasting for the Tenth of Tevet which is today. Here is some information about the tenth of Tevet although it is a minor fast it is observed with some stringency by many religious Jews.
An extract from wikipedia:
   "As with all minor Jewish fast days, the Tenth of Tevet begins at dawn (alos ha-shahar) and concludes at nightfall (tzeis hakochavim). In accordance with the general rules of minor fasts as set forth in the Code of Jewish Law,^[6] and in contrast to Tisha B'Av, there are no additional physical constraints beyond fasting (such as the prohibitions against bathing or of wearing leather shoes). Because it is a minor fast day, Halacha exempts from fasting those who are ill, even if their illnesses are not life threatening, and pregnant and nursing women who find fasting difficult.^[7]
A Torah reading, a special prayer in the Amidah (Aneinu), and (in many communities) the Avinu Malkeinu prayer are added at both Shacharis and Mincha services (unless the fast falls on Friday, when Tachanun and Avinu Malkeinu are not said at Mincha). At Shacharis services, the Selichos are also said, and at Mincha, in Ashkenazic congregations, the Haftarah is read.^[8]
The fast can occur on a Friday resulting in the unusual event of a Torah and Haftarah reading at the Mincha service right before Shabbat. This is a fairly rare occurrence. The last three times this happened were on 20 December 1996, 5 January 2001 and 17 December 2010; the next time will be on 13 December 2013.
Although this fast is considered a minor fast, it has an additional theoretical stringency not shared by any other fast except Yom Kippur, namely that if the Tenth of Tevet were to fall out on a Shabbat, then according to some, this fast would actually be observed on Shabbat. This is because of the phrase עצם היום הזה ("the very day") that appears in Ezekiel 24:2, similar to the phrase בעצם היום הזה describing Yom Kippur in Leviticus 23:28. However under the current calendrical scheme, the Tenth of Tevet cannot fall on Shabbat.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel chose to observe the Tenth of Tevet as a "general kaddish day" for the victims of the Holocaust, many of whom lack identifiable yahrtzeits (anniversaries of their deaths).^[9] To some religious Jews, this day is preferable as a remembrance day to Yom HaShoah, since the latter occurs in the month of Nisan, in which mourning was traditionally prohibited."

When we start something we need to finish it and finish it properly. We started the rebuilding of the temple. We need to finish it and we need to do this right through to the end when the temple will be rebuilt and stand a gleaming house of G-D on the site of the previous two temples. At present there are cohenim in Israel who are studying the laws of the temple service and they have even reconstructed some of the temple tools and instruments of service.
We are all the servants of Moishiach each and everyone of us, whether we are religious Jews or not religious Jews. In fact those of us who fast, are fasting not only for the destruction of the Temple and the siege of Jerusalem, we are fasting for each Jew who pretends he or she does not believe in G-D and commits averiot not worthy of a Jewish person, for the destruction of these people's soul is imminent if we did not fast and beg for their forgiveness and another chance from the Master of All Worlds.
On a personal level, I remember many years ago in 1989 not long after the fast of Tisha Be'av these two women, one of them was a convert and the other had applied to convert but had not finished for some reason known only to her. They tried to stop my conversion and it started with the one who did not finish her conversion saying the most hurtful things about me that she could dredge up from her repertoire of nastiness. I had heard from the Beth Din I was to to go the mikveh the next week. Then her sister who had finished her conversion came in on the let's rip this woman to shreds party with gusto. They went on about my unfitness to be a Jew and etc etc and how dare the Beth Din accept me when her sister was a far more worthy a candidate for conversion than I was. To top it off at one stage the sister who had finished her conversion tried to scratch my face because as she told me, she hated my 'goyishe face and I don't even look like a Jew'. I was afraid and held up my hands and grabbed her arms to stop her. They both left after I had done that stating I had no right to touch her and that she had bruises and they were going to have me charged with assault. They actually went to the Av Beth Din of the time and showed her 'bruised' arms and said that I had attacked them, I heard later.
What is my reason for bringing this up. It is all about sinat am and getting over this. Hopefully those two women have grown and understood the magnitude of what they did and for me,  Hashem was showing me something about malice. I was understandably very shaken and believed that maybe I was unworthy and nearly did not go to the Mikveh because I believed myself to be the scum of the earth and unworthy. I know today that Hashem called on me to forgive and grow and move on with my life. We are all worthy of G-D's love and we just have to believe so and grow so into it.
Those two women are Jews as I am and they deserve understanding and sympathy, even empathy. We need to allow ourselves to build and not to destroy or tear down. There will be a third beit hamikdash and we all have a part in its rebuilding. May that be with the coming of Moishiach this evening at the end of the fast or even before.

AMALYA CAFE sets a new standard in Kosher Organic food.

B'H

I remember being one of the first customers when Amalya Cafe first opened their doors under Yifat and Yohushua the original owners. It has come a long way and while under the new owners, Miri and Shaul Gurewicz the vision has expanded to include Fresh Organic Goats Milk and Goat Milk products as yoghurt and cheese, the basic philosophy of healthy good for you Kosher eating has not changed.
Yifat had made a health retreat upstairs for chinese medicine but that space is now being used for an expanded restaurant function room and I can see this little cafe going from success to success.

This is their website. If you want great coffee and tasty food, don't pass them by and I am sure they will improve and expand the restaurant menu as Amalya continues to grow and develop as an organic Kosher eatery.

http://www.amalya.com.au/

With all the fresh goats' milk product in the display cabinet and one of the great staff at Amalya serving. They make the best coffee.

NEW YEAR I have created a monster for myself.... my blog it needs feeding

B'H
It has been a few days and I have not posted anything of note with regard to New Years as promised. What does New Year mean for me as  Jew? It means renewed hope as I call on G-D's mercy as a Jew and try to make the new year a better one, a more worthwhile one. I look at the previous years goals and how did I achieve them? Were they worthwhile goals or superficial ones. Was I unrealistic and tried to take on too much? That is also important, as well as not underestimating oneself. For us as Jews the New Year or Rosh Hashana (literally Head of the Year) is a very important time. It is one of spiritual repentance and remembrance of G-D and how G-D's mercy sustains us all in this world. It is not a time for getting drunk and wild revelry doing things that we would not normally do and making the excuse that we are too drunk or inebriated to know what we were doing. Not at all. It is a time when we really do pay attention to the minutest detail of our behaviour and endeavour to admit to it, face up to it and correct it, not to conceal it or cover it up.

Here are some differences that I have noted.
Jewish New Year is about family getting together at shule and later for a meal together. It is about making a tikkun or correction in our self and our behaviour. We check Mezuzot, we clean windows and it is a different sort of cleaning pesach cleaning. We clean our neshamot or souls of anger and hatred and focus on our relationships both with G-D and with others. It is a whole experience. Before Yom Kippur we go to the Mikveh (ritual bath) and on Yom Kippur we fast. In the month of the New Year Tishrei we also remember who we are and G-D mercy, we dwell in booths or succot and on Simchat Torah and Shmini Atzeret we come together as a nation to celebrate and be joyous over the Torah. Even then we should not get so intoxicated that we forget who we are. It is about remembering who we are.

So totally different really from the secular new year where getting as intoxicated as possible, locking lips with any person male or female at midnight, dancing around in mindless joy, watching fireworks, drinking again and vomiting in the gutter and staggering home on public transport or any taxi foolish enough to pick up such a person. There are people who do celebrate in a far more sober and serious fashion but they are not the main trend of celebrating. Most people are proud not to have a recollection of their new year which kind of defeats the purpose of a new year and a new start to another stage in one's life. It seems to be forgetting who we are.

Islam does not celebrate New Year or Hijri which is on 1 Muharram in the Islamic calendar and belongs to one of their three forbidden months where they are apparently not allowed to fight or have battles. It is also the date of one of Mohammed's sons being killed. It is a pity that the 'religion of peace' did not have more forbidden to fight months and do they observe this edict?

Chinese New Year is usually around the end of January or beginning of February. They see off the ghosts of the old year with lots of firecrackers and give out red envelopes with money to children and the poor some do. There are dragon dances which are highly significant and symbolic. Celebrations start on the first of the month and continue until the fifteen and the festival of lanterns. It is very much a family time and a time of getting together to work on the new. They wear red clothes to symbolise fire which burns out the old year and all the old bad spirits.

Hindu New Year is held this year in most Hindu countries around the middle of April and I will cut and paste some information on it here.
Hindu New Year time is the time of celebration. It is the time to meet and greet people. It is believed that this time of the year brings lot of hope and prosperity to the community. People celebrate the beginning of the year in different special ways. Few ways of celebration are:

• Oil lamps are lit in front of the house
• Rangolis are made with pink, red, purple and yellow flowers
• New clothes are worn
• Goddess Laxmi and Lord Ganesha are worshipped
• Gifts and sweets are exchanged
• They also believe it is a time to plough and turn over the soil which makes sense for an agricultural society.

It is quite interesting to see how many people celebrate a NEW YEAR. Isn't it?