I always like to leave an inspirational story at the top of my website when I step away for the Sabbath or to perform some other mitzvah.

From the Sun of London:

BRITAIN’S oldest virgin who celebrates her 105th birthday this weekend says no sex is the secret to her long life.

Having known she would remain single from the age of twelve, Clara Meadmore abstained to concentrate on earning a living.

She has never had sex because she was "too busy" for intimate relationships which seemed like "a lot of hassle".

The retired secretary said sex equalled marriage in the 1920s and 1930s and she did not buy into the idea.

From ERSNews.com:

 

(Oct 9th, 2008 9:00AM PST)

BY ERS NEWS

This year CBS News correspondent Lara Logan has gone from media darling to tabloid pariah.  Her brand of journalism has been besmirched by critics and at the same time trumpeted by her supporters.  As for her employer CBS News, they seem to like what she’s doing.  Logan was recently promoted to Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for the network and moved to Washington, DC from her ever-changing overseas datelines.  as CBS’s roving war reporter in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Here at ERS News we have reported on Logan extensively.  You can see our stories to date below.   They have run the gamut from CBS and Logan making a false claim (later retracted by CBS) that Logan interviewed a terrorist warlord on the run from U.S. forces in Afghanistan — to bogus PR claims about Logan having been the only American reporter in Baghdad when U.S. forces took control of the city in the 2003 invasion.   Just last week ERS broke the story of her CBS office furnishings, which include items taken from Iraq The biggest story media wise though has been Logan’s part in an Iraq love triangle scandal that has graced the pages of other mainstream media outlets – not ERS.

Lest anyone believe that The Enterprise Report has it in for Ms. Logan, we assure our readers we do not.  We just report the news, when it comes to us and we do it accurately and fairly.  Yesterday we received an email in our inbox that we found very interesting.

The story detailed the travails of Jehad Ali, an Iraqi cameraman and journalist, who in the course of doing his job, got an up-close and nearly fatal demonstration of the perils of practicing journalism in Baghdad in recent years.  It also explains how CBS reporter Lara Logan helped spearhead outside assistance to help the man get the medical treatment he needs.

The story comes from the Committee to Protect Journalists, a DC based organization that supports journalist and advocates for their safety in covering the news around the world.  Rather than retell the story you can read it for yourself. “A California Dream"

Logan who is quoted in the story saying,  “I was absolutely astounded by the response,” she said. Money poured in from friends, colleagues, and journalists, including big-name news anchors. By late summer, funds stood at around $50,000. “I was very proud,” Logan said. “Someone in Iraq in Jehad’s condition didn’t normally survive. But he had. He had no big network to take him on … no one to turn to. So I said, ‘Well, he’s a journalist and they have organizations.…’ That’s when I contacted CPJ.”

ERSNews is based in the Los Angeles area of Southern California.  We look forward to seeing Mr. Ali here in Southern California getting the chance to sit in LA’s famous traffic on his way to the hospital to get the much needed medical treatment he needs.

In our opinion it just goes to show that the “news” isn’t always bad. 

Click here to join the fun.

Monica is sick. We didn’t want her vomiting on the Torah so she’s not here.

This week’s Torah portion is the last one in the book of Deuteronomy — Haazinu.

From wikipedia:

Indictment

Moses called on heaven and earth to hear his words, and asked that his speech be like rain and dew for the grass. (Deut. 32:1–2.) Moses proclaimed that God was perfect in deed, just, faithful, true, and upright. (Deut. 32:3–4.) God’s children were unworthy, a crooked generation that played God false, ill requiting the Creator. (Deut. 32:5–6.) Moses exhorted the Israelites to remember that in ages past, God assigned the nations their homes and their due, but chose the Israelites as God’s own people. (Deut. 32:7–9.) God found the Israelites in the desert, watched over them, guarded them, like an eagle who rouses his nestlings, gliding down to his young, God spread God’s wings and took Israel, bearing Israel along on God’s pinions, God alone guided Israel. (Deut. 32:10–12.) God set the Israelites atop the highlands to feast on the yield of the earth and fed them honey, oil, curds, milk, lamb, wheat, and wine. (Deut. 32:13–14.) So Israel grew fat and kicked and forsook God, incensed God with alien things, and sacrificed to demons and no-gods. (Deut. 32:15–18.)

Punishment

God saw, was vexed, and hid God’s countenance from them, to see how they would fare. (Deut. 32:19–20.) For they were a treacherous breed, children with no loyalty, who incensed God with no-gods, vexed God with their idols; thus God would incense them with a no-folk and vex them with a nation of fools. (Deut. 32:20–21.) A fire flared in God’s wrath and burned down to the base of the hills. (Deut. 32:22.) God would sweep misfortunes on them, use God’s arrows on them — famine, plague, pestilence, and fanged beasts — and with the sword would deal death and terror to young and old alike. (Deut. 32:23–25.)

Punishment restrained

God might have reduced them to nothing, made their memory cease among men, except for fear of the taunts of their enemies, who might misjudge and conclude that their own hand had prevailed and not God’s. (Deut. 32:26–27.) For Israel’s enemies were a folk void of sense, lacking in discernment. (Deut. 32:28.) Were they wise, they would think about this, and gain insight into their future, for they would recognize that one could not have routed a thousand unless God had sold them. (Deut. 32:29–31.) They were like Sodom and Gomorrah and their wine was the venom of asps. (Deut. 32:32–33.) God stored it away to be the basis for God’s vengeance and recompense when they should trip, for their day of disaster was near. (Deut. 32:34–35.) God would vindicate God’s people and take revenge for God’s servants, when their might was gone. (Deut. 32:36.) God would ask where the enemies’ gods were — they who ate the fat of their offerings and drank their libation wine — let them rise up to help! (Deut. 32:37–38.) There was no god beside God, who dealt death and gave life, wounded and healed. (Deut. 32:39.) God swore that when God would whet God’s flashing blade, and lay hand on judgment, God would wreak vengeance on God’s foes. (Deut. 32:40–41.) God would make God’s arrows drunk with blood, as God’s sword devoured flesh, blood of the slain and the captive from the long-haired enemy chiefs. (Deut. 32:42.) God would avenge the blood of God’s servants, wreak vengeance on God’s foes, and cleanse the land of God’s people. (Deut. 32:43.)

Parting words

Moses came, together with Joshua, and recited all this poem to the people. (Deut. 32:44.) And when Moses finished reciting, he told them to take his warnings to heart and enjoin them upon their children, for it was not a trifling thing but their very life at stake. (Deut. 32:45–47.) That day God told Moses to ascend Mount Nebo and view the land of Canaan, for he was to die on the mountain, as his brother Aaron had died on Mount Hor, for they both broke faith with God when they struck the rock to produce water in the wilderness of Zin, failing to uphold God’s sanctity among the Israelite people. (Deut. 32:48–52.)

In rabbinic interpretation

The Gemara instructs that when writing a Torah scroll, a scribe needs to write the song of Deuteronomy 32:1–43 in a special two-column form, with extra spaces. If a scribe writes the song as plain text, then the scroll is invalid. (Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 103b.)

Rabbi Samuel ben Nahman asked why Moses called upon both the heavens and the earth in Deuteronomy 32:1. Rabbi Samuel compared Moses to a general who held office in two provinces and was about to hold a feast. He needed to invite people from both provinces, so that neither would fell offended for having been overlooked. Moses was born on earth, but became great in heaven. (Deuteronomy Rabbah 10:4.) Rashi interpreted Moses to warn Israel that the heavens and earth would be witnesses in this matter. Rashi explained that Moses called upon heaven and earth to serve as witnesses in case Israel denied accepting the covenant, because Moses knew that he was mortal and would soon die, but heaven and earth will endure forever. Furthermore, if Israel acted meritoriously, then the witnesses would be able to reward them, as the earth would yield its produce and the heavens would give its dew. (Zech. 8:12.) And if Israel acted sinfully, then the hand of the witnesses would be the first to inflict punishment (Deut. 17:7), as God would close off heaven’s rain, and the soil would not yield its produce. (Deut. 11:17.) (Rashi to Deut. 32:1.)

Rav Judah and Rava inferred from Deuteronomy 32:2 the great value of rain. (Babylonian Talmud Taanit 7a.) Rava also inferred from the comparison in Deuteronomy 32:2 of Torah to both rain and dew that Torah can affect a worthy scholar as beneficially as dew, and an unworthy one like a crushing rainstorm. (Babylonian Talmud Taanit 7a.) Rashi interpreted Deuteronomy 32:2 to refer to Torah, which, like rain, provides life to the world. Rashi interpreted the request of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:2 for his speech to rain down “as the dew,” “as the rain,” to mean that it should come in small droplets. Rashi interpreted that Moses wanted to teach the children of Israel slowly, the knowledge "raining" down on the people in small portions, for if they were to be subject to all knowledge coming down at once, they would be overwhelmed and thus wiped out. (Rashi to Deut. 32:2.)

Rabbi Abbahu cited Deuteronomy 32:3 to support the proposition of Mishnah Berakhot 7:1 that three who have eaten together publicly should say the Grace after Meals (Birkat Hamazon) together as well. In Deuteronomy 32:3, Moses says, “When I (who am one) proclaim the name of the Lord, you (in the plural, who are thus at least two more) ascribe greatness to our God.” Thus by using the plural to for “you,” Moses implies that at least three are present, and should ascribe greatness to God. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 45a.)

Rabbi Hanina bar Papa taught that to enjoy this world without reciting a blessing is tantamount to robbing God, as Proverbs 28:24 says, “Whoever robs his father or his mother and says, ‘It is no transgression,’ is the companion of a destroyer,” and Deuteronomy 32:6 says of God, “Is not He your father Who has gotten you?” (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 35b.)

A midrash interpreted the report of Deuteronomy 32:8 that God "fixed the boundaries of peoples in relation to Israel’s number" (l’mispar b’nei Yisrael) to teach that before the days of Abraham, God dealt harshly with the world: The sins of Noah’s generation resulted in the flood; the generation that built the Tower of Babel was dispersed throughout the globe, prompting the proliferation of languages; the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were answered with fire and brimstone. According to the midrash, when Abraham came into the world, God ceased the cataclysmic punishments and set the punishments of other peoples in relationship to Israel’s presence in the world. This midrash conveys that the Israelites’ presence somehow lessened God’s anger, bringing greater stability to the world. The midrash teaches that Jews, then, have a unique ability and responsibility to bring peace and stability to the world. (myjewishlearing.com)

The Gemara read the word “Rock” in Deuteronomy 32:18 to refer to God, and the Gemara employed that interpretation with others to support Abba Benjamin’s assertion that when two people enter a synagogue to pray, and one of them finishes first and leaves without waiting for the other, God disregards the prayer of the one who left. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 5b.)

The Gemara read the word reshef (“fiery bolt”) in Deuteronomy 32:24 to refer to demons, and the Gemara employed that interpretation with others to support Rabbi Isaac’s assertion that reciting the Shema in bed keeps demons away. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 5a.)

Nahama Leibowitz noted that Deuteronomy 32:27 contains a “very daring anthropomorphism indeed, attributing to God the sentiment of fear.” (Studies in Devarim: Deuteronomy, 328.)

Rav Hisda taught that one walking in a dirty alleyway should not recite the Shema, and one reciting the Shema who comes upon a dirty alleyway should stop reciting. Of one who would not stop reciting, Rav Adda bar Ahavah quoted Numbers 15:31 to say: “he has despised the word of the Lord.” And of one who does stop reciting, Rabbi Abbahu taught that Deuteronomy 32:47 says: “through this word you shall prolong your days.” (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 24b.)

Commandments

Maimonides cites the parshah for one negative commandment:

• Not to drink wine of libation to idolatry (Deut. 32:38.)

(Maimonides. Mishneh Torah, Negative Commandment 194. Cairo, Egypt, 1170–1180. Reprinted in Maimonides. The Commandments: Sefer Ha-Mitzvoth of Maimonides. Translated by Charles B. Chavel, 2:189–91. London: Soncino Press, 1967. ISBN 0-900689-71-4.)

According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, however, there are no commandments in the parshah. (Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 5:443. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1988. ISBN 0-87306-497-6.)

And according to others, the parshah contains a commandment to listen, hear, and learn one’s ancestral history, as Deuteronomy 32:7–9 instructs one to "ask your father and he will tell you."

Haftarah

The haftarah for the parshah is the song of David, 2 Samuel 22:1–51. Both the parshah and the haftarah set out the song of a great leader. Both the parshah (in Deuteronomy 32:4 and 18) and the haftarah (in 2Samuel 22:1 and 2) refer to God as a Rock.

In the liturgy

Moses’ characterization of God as “the Rock” in Deuteronomy 32:4 is reflected in Psalm 95:1, which is in turn the first of the six Psalms recited at the beginning of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service. (Reuven Hammer. Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, 15. New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2003. ISBN 0-916219-20-8.)

Charles Krauthammer writes:

WASHINGTON — Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association.

But associations are important. They provide a significant insight into character. They are particularly relevant in relation to a potential president as new, unknown, opaque and self-contained as Obama. With the economy overshadowing everything, it may be too late politically to be raising this issue. But that does not make it, as conventional wisdom holds, in any way illegitimate.

McCain has only himself to blame for the bad timing. He should months ago have begun challenging Obama’s associations, before the economic meltdown allowed the Obama campaign (and the mainstream media, which is to say the same thing) to dismiss the charges as an act of desperation by the trailing candidate.

McCain had his chance back in April when the North Carolina Republican Party ran a gubernatorial campaign ad that included the linking of Obama with Jeremiah Wright. The ad was duly denounced by The New York Times and other deep thinkers as racist.

This was patently absurd. Racism is treating people differently and invidiously on the basis of race. Had any white presidential candidate had a close 20-year association with a white preacher overtly spreading race hatred from the pulpit, that candidate would have been not just universally denounced and deemed unfit for office but written out of polite society entirely.

From the Forward:

America’s most controversial hockey mom has inspired a new item made for religious women that probably isn’t sold up there in Alaska, gosh darn it!

The “Sarah Palin Wig,” based on the hairstyle of the Last Frontier State governor and GOP vice presidential candidate, is the latest head covering to go on sale at Sheitel.com, a Brooklyn wig shop and Web site for Orthodox Jewish women who maintain modesty by concealing their natural hair.

“One of our stylists thought it would make a good style, so we produced it,” said Boruch Shlanger, one of Sheitel.com’s owners, in an e-mail to The Shmooze. “It is very easy to maintain, and is a very classic look, yet fashion forward!”

Made of 100% human hair and available for $795 (marked down from $895), the wig is the first of its kind inspired by the otherwise “folliclely challenged” Republican ticket — but it is not the only one influenced by a potential American president.

From the Forward:

Washington — As the $700 billion bailout package wended its way through Congress and grew from a three-page proposal to a 442–page document, Jewish groups were able to fold into the final legislation two key social service bills that otherwise might have been ignored by lawmakers.

Officially, Jewish activists refrained from taking a position on the bailout package as a whole. But behind the scenes, lobbyists for Jewish philanthropies and for service providers worked with the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and with the Democratic and Republican caucuses in both chambers to make sure that some of the extra spending attached to the legislation was targeted to their causes. According to one of the activists, who was involved in the lobbying effort and requested anonymity: “This was probably the last legislative action of this Congress. This was our last lifeline.”

David Suissa writes:

There are many unique quirks in the Orthodox tradition, but few that I love more than the late-afternoon sermon on Shabbat Shuva, the Shabbat that falls between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Here in Pico-Robertson, it’s the sermon many people wait for all year— the one that rabbis often spend months preparing.

Even its time slot is unique. Unlike regular sermons that are part of the morning prayer service, the Shabbat Shuva sermon has its own time and space: late afternoon, when the big meals and rituals are behind us, the light of dusk beckons, and everyone knows there are precious few moments left of their holy day of rest.

Film directors call this end-of-day light the "golden light." It’s not the bright, naked light of the mid-day, nor the dramatic darkness of the night. It’s the light that bridges those two worlds. Spiritually, it’s the time when the past and the future caress each other — the day is still fresh in our mind, but we can feel the breath of the approaching night.

On Shabbat Shuva, the time of year is also golden: We’ve just left the bright intensity of the Day of Judgment and are about to enter the somber and moody intensity of the Day of Atonement.

It is under this golden, transitional light that hundreds of Torah-observant Jews migrate through the streets of Pico-Robertson every year to hear their respective rabbis give what is affectionately called "the Shabbat Shuva drash."

It’s a sermon that comes with an ancient pedigree. Over the centuries, the tradition was for rabbis to give only two sermons a year, on Shabbat Shuva and on the Shabbat before Pesach. Today, of course, rabbis of all denominations have become human sermon machines, giving sermons every Shabbat and on all the holidays.

In the Orthodox world, however, maybe as homage to our ancestors, the rabbis still treat their Shabbat Shuva sermons as their most important of the year. There’s a sense of anticipation you don’t feel any other time of the year, even on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

A rabbi friend of mine, in trying to explain the uniqueness of the Shabbat Shuva sermon, has this theory that the sermon itself is part of the process of teshuvah (repentance or return) that is our central spiritual task at this time of year. In this view, the sermon is not just a sermon, but a deep personal act, one that can lead to some uncomfortable moments.

I’ve seen it happen. At Young Israel of Century City, I once saw Rabbi Elazar Muskin, during his Shabbat Shuva drash, express his personal embarrassment at a letter he had received during the previous year. It was from a visitor who did not feel welcomed at his shul. In front of a rapt audience, the rabbi stood there and took the heat. Then, in the spirit of teshuvah, he implored his flock to be welcoming at all times so the shul would never receive a letter like that again.

The most uncomfortable I’ve felt at a Shabbat Shuva drash was last week, when Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky of B’nai David-Judea Congregation meditated on the touchy subject of ulterior motives in religious practice.

I sat a few feet from the rabbi. While people were still shuffling in, I could see Kanefsky, dressed in a white robe, closing his eyes in deep concentration as he stood at the lectern.

He picked one phrase from the Shabbat prayer — "And purify our hearts to serve You with truth" — and asked: "Do we have a prayer?"

He spent the first 30 minutes making the case that no, we don’t have a prayer. Through the words of King David, Rashi, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Maimonides, Isaiah and even Sigmund Freud, he dissected the simple reality that human nature is innately driven by self-interest and ulterior motives.

Yes, even when we live a religious life. We might tell ourselves that our motives are noble and Godly, but deep down, we know we are motivated by more mundane things, like a need for community, a desire to belong and feel accepted, the security of an orderly lifestyle, a craving for honor and recognition, and so on.

Kanefsky made it a point not to denigrate these motives, because they are part of human nature. But Judaism at its best, he explained, helps us transcend our natures in the service of a higher and holier ideal.

This is where it got uncomfortable.

She mainly hung out in the parking lot…

I keep hearing great things about the Jewish Learning Academy. Here is its website.

LA Superior Court case BC399616. More on 10563 Ashton. Moshe Zaga is CEO of YMI Jeanswear.

Pops emails:

Your poncey whingeing  over your  ejection from  shul  is wearing thin,  Sunny Jim.

First of all, your "Judaism" is and always has been a transparent scheme to shame your dear old dad and to garner superficial attention for yourself. Disgusting. You’re a fraud and the good Rabbi Union recognized that right off the bat.

Your current message that others in the shul write R-rated movies and such doesn’t hold much water. You need to stop dropping such outrageous clangers, boy. There’s a big difference between writing a movie script and doing what you do: spreading damaging gossip–often without any verifiable proof–and violating peoples’ privacy. That you do this under some misguided notion of ‘truth" is truly appalling. I’ve seen goannas, wallaroos and stone-age abos that had more developed senses of right and wrong.

In short, you need to seek the help of some sort of mental health professional…or add more Weet-Bix, legumes and roughage to your sugar-heavy,overly processed diet. Flush out the pipes, mate! It might do you some good.

You’d better start acting right, boy, and stop subjecting the fine Jewish people to your intrusions and chicanery. If you don’t, I swear by all that I hold dear and holy, that I will track you down and crack open your sternum with a camp hatchet and force feed you your own wizened heart. Don’t test me, Sunny Jim.