והשיב לב אבות אל בנים

It says in Malachi 4:6

והשיב לב אבות אל בנים ולב בנים אל אבותם

"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers"

This week we saw a part of that beautiful prophesy. 

Mom (that's Elkies Mom) and Grandpa Mottie are visiting their/our homeland. They arrived last night on ElAL so far so good. They brought tons of goodies from Disney Land, I mean America. We got cereals, soaps and of corse lots of Marbles. That's a hot commodity here. Kids are playing and trading Marbles all day long. If you don't bring marbles to Israel when you visit you are definitely missing some marbles. We hope they love it so much that they come more often and for longer periods of time (or permanently). Next week it will be my Mothers turn we are all looking forward to seeing her and the rest of you as well. Rabbi Wein says we are living in a time where we see Bible prophesies being fulfilled every day. That's for sure.

We just got back from Shopping in town Fri. 

I saw the Monit (cab) driver had a tehillim open on the front seat. When I got in to sit down he closed and picked it up. So I asked him "what tehillim we are up to today?" he then started singing that entire chapter by heart with a Sefadic Nigun. We had a free concert on the way back home, along with a good shmooze. I asked him if he can sing the whole tehillim by heart, he said  "should I start now?" so I said we'll have to take a rain check. Many Cabbies learn Tenach while waiting for their next pickup. Bette then smoking cursing and drinking  booze.

This week we got a TV Tax bill. 

In Israel the Government controls all the media. So basically they can indoctrinated you towards whatever their agenda is, then they charge you a tax for being indoctrinated. Only Jews can come up with such a genius idea. Since we don't have a TV we don't have to pay the tax. How they know who has a TV and who doesn't is beyond me. Perhaps if you have cable, they get the subscriber list from them. Big brother is watching, but at least it's our Jewish Big brother.

Basic internet speed here is slower then in Woodmere NY. In NY Optonline started at 15MG download and 1.5MG upload. Bezek and Netvision here start at 1.5MG  download and 150K upload. That's 10 time slower. We tried the basic and the Vonage phone routers cut out to often. We just upped it to 4MG download. It's a bit better but we may up it to 5MG for a bit more NIS (New Israeli Shekel). Someone told me if you live in certain locations you can get up to 8MGs down. Israel is working on increasing internet speeds.

Israel needs Ebay. Perhaps one day someone will set it up here. I like to shop around and get the best deals.  Before internet I used to do it by phone and car, now it much easier to do it online. I needed an HP printer cartridge at a local store they wanted 175NIS for it, thats $43.75 at today good rate of $4 per 1NIS. I got it Band new on Ebay for half the price. The tricky part is to get it here. Hopefully Mom will bring it.

Finally! we had a CLATH TWIP THITH WEEK. 

That's right! Our Ulpan class had a Tiyul (trip) to Yerushaliam. Elkie could not come since she was getting ready for her Shabbos and getting Mom from the airport. We went to the High Court the Knesset, then the Menachem Begin Heritage Center Musium. http://www.begincenter.org.il/english/home.asp

It's very well done. You can lear a lot about Menachem Begin. Unquestionably Menachem ben Zev Begin born on Shabbos Nachamu was a great man and leader. No doubt he was brought into this world to bring some Nechama (Menachem) to the Jewish people. He was humble lived simple and and in his own words after he won he said he wanted to rule as "A GOOD JEW" He was a fighter and into Freedom from persecution and ideas. After hearing Zev Jabitinsky he was inspired and considered him his Rebbi and leader, although he disagreed with him later on on certain topics. 

On Menachem Begins Actual Lounge Chair

He headed the Irgun which was responsible for kicking the British out of Israel. He clearly stated that there will never be a Palestinian State since it would be a grave danger to Israel. He courageously bombed Iraqs nuclear program even though the entire world including America condemned him for doing so. 

However he did sign a piece agreement with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. I thought that there was an underlying agenda in the museum to promote the piece agreement as if it were one of Israel's greatest achievements. I would have liked to see pictures of the Irgun Hanging the British soldiers in response the British hanging of Urgun soldiers. That was one of Beigins finer moments which led to the exit of the British and the creation of Israel. From the moment you walk in you see tons of pictures of Begin, Sadat and Carter all shaking hands and smiling. Although Sadat may have been a good man, he was assassinated, and today Egypt is letting Hamas smuggle tons and tons of ammunition and explosives into Gaza to be used against Israel. Egyptian sponsored Media and schools teach Passover Blod libels and Hatred of Jews and Israel. I don't think this is the kind of piece Menachem Begin envisioned. 

In last weeks Parsha Avraham Avinu made a piece agreement with Avimelech. The RAMBAN states that Avraham had no right to be making these kind of deals and was wrong for doing so. We need to learn from our forefathers good deeds as well as from their mistakes in order to prevent us from repeating them again. The only way this can happen is if we have leadership that looks to the Torah for guidance and uses Jewish values exclusively to lead Israel. With Hashems help, we sill see leadership like this soon.

That's all for now folks, if you have real estate or stocks SELL SELL SELL.

Shabbat Shalom