Haveil Havalim #139: Chayei Sarah edition

Welcome to the November 4, 2007, 139th edition of Haveil Havalim, the Jewish and Israel Blog Carnival.

Thanks to everyone who sent in posts. Special thanks to Soccer Dad for suggesting posts and for providing loads of technical support. I set a limit of three posts for any one blogger.

Mazal tov to the Jewish and Israeli finalists in the 2007 Weblog Awards:
Middle East/Africa blogs: Dry Bones, Treppenwitz, and A Mother in Israel.
Best of the Top 251-500: Israel Matzav
Best of the Top 2501-3500: Random Thoughts

Best of the Rest of the Blogs 8751+: Photos by Seawitch
Vote early and often. You can vote once every 24 hours until November 8.

Without further ado, I present this week’s Haveil Havalim.

Yesterday Jews in synagogues throughout the world read the weekly Torah portion Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23-25:18). Chayei Sarah, literally “life of Sarah,” is about the death of the matriarch Sarah and her husband Abraham’s acquisition of a burial plot in the ancient city of Hebron. Afterward, Abraham’s servant Eliezer goes to extraordinary lengths to find a wife for Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac. The future bride Rebekah’s hospitality is meant as a model for all Jewish women.

Gender and Marriage

I added this category in honor of the Torah portion, but maybe we should make it permanent.
westbankmama presents Please Don’t Call Me That? posted at West Bank Mama. Check out her post for more links on women’s roles in Judaism.

DAG presents Dear Rebbetzin…should I marry him? posted at There are no feminists on a sinking ship. I am not sure I agree with DAG on this one.

Maya Levy presents Go It Alone? posted at Maya, saying, “An article in Newsweek inspired this piece; even if you are not a single person I’m sure you know of at least a few single people in your community. They have some tough decisions to face as they get older, and they deserve respect and compassion.” Amen to that. Not everyone has an Eliezer.

I enjoyed this one: Shira Salamone presents Moderation in modesty posted at ON THE FRINGE—AL TZITZIT, saying, “Either extreme (“anything goes” or “nothing shows”) results in shooting the knees-covered legs out from under those wishing to stake out a moderate position on the issue of modesty (tzniut) in dress.”

Yisrael Medad shows that other countries also have issues with mixed-gender transportation, when he presents Solution to Hareidi Antipathy to Mixed Public Transportation posted at My Right Word, saying, “MyRightWord thinks he’s found a solution to the Hareidi antipathy to women on public transportation…in Seoul.”

Politics

Israel Matzav presents Another reason to vote for Giuliani posted at Israel Matzav.

Robert J. Avrech presents The Report Nobody’s Talking About posted at Seraphic Secret. about the consequences of dividing Jerusalem.

Yisrael Medad presents No Sermon on the Mount This posted at From the Hills of Efraim – Blogs, saying, At Yisrael Medad’s new Arutz Sheva blog, From the Hills of Efraim, he takes LA Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky to task on the same issue.

Shrink Wrapped presents The Canaries in the Coal Mine posted at ShrinkWrapped.

Omri Ceren presents Hamas: When We Said That We’re Going To Overrun The West Bank As Soon As Abbas Gets Land And Weapons, We Were Just Joking posted at Mere Rhetoric.

Elder of Ziyon presents October 29, 1947: Egypt refuses Jewish help on cholera epidemic posted at Elder of Ziyon.

Schvach Yid presents Brass Bris posted at Schvach – ??? ??.

SnoopyTheGoon presents And we shall… investigate posted at SimplyJews about Syria’s potential for nuclear capability.

Michael Medved presents Why Not Ask About Pakistan’s right to exist? posted at TownHall Main Blog. Timely in light of yesterday’s news.

Yisrael Medad presents Not Menachem Begin posted at My Right Word, saying, “Yisrael Medad corrects a misquotation of Menachem Begin by neo-conservative Ann Coulter.”

Battle for Beersheva

This week we commemorated the 90th anniversay of the Battle for Beersheva.
Treppenwitz
presents The Light Horse return to Beer Sheva posted at treppenwitz.

Chayyei Sarah (named after the parsha!) describes writing an article about the battle. My story published “All over the place” posted at Chayyei Sarah.

SnoopyTheGoon presents ANZAC attacks Beer-Sheva again! posted at SimplyJews.

Anti-Semitism

Here’s a post about Moslem journalist Chadhoury, who is going back to his native Bangladesh even though he risks execution. “BANGLADESH IS MY COUNTRY. LET THE RADICALS LEAVE” posted at AHMADINEJAD AND THE JEWS

Yid with Lid presents Fighting Jihad is McCarthyism According to “Nation Magazine” posted at YID With LID.

Yid with Lid presents Americans: 1 out of 7 Hate Jews posted at YID With LID.

Culture

Here’s a story about a Jewish-American artist who died this week: Remembering Kitaj posted at Commentary.

And now two about Halloween. A Simple Jew presents One Halloween Night In Monsey posted at A Simple Jew.

muse presents Halloween? posted at Shiloh Musings.

Soccer Dad presents Celebrity blogging posted at Soccer Dad.

Israel Matzav presents Israelis of baseball posted at Israel Matzav.

Attila presents Superman is Jewish posted at Pillage Idiot. Who knew?

History

Carl in Jerusalem presents The 90th anniversary of the Balfour declaration posted at Israel Matzav.

Karen presents Bridges posted at Shira bat Sarah. Shira studies her family’s roots and discovers some Breslov connections.

Betsy presents The man who leaked Khrushchev’s anti-Stalin speech posted at Betsy’s Page.

Humor

Keeping in mind that political humor is not everyone’s cup of tea:

satiricohen presents Troubled Horse Source of Violence at Amona , Police Say posted at Israeli Satire Laboratory, saying, “Thanks for hosting, dear Weblog Finalist!” I think he’s trying to get on my good side.

Bagelblogger presents An Insight into our Potential Peace Partners: Kill, Kill, Kill posted at Mr Bagel, saying, “Serious article with satire article following.”

I recently discovered TherapyDoc, who presents NaBloPoMo posted at Everyone Needs Therapy, saying, “Well, Moshe WAS a reluctant leader, no? And isn’t blogging twice on Friday a remez to the mahn?”

Israel

Yid with Lid presents Peace Partner Fatah threatens More Rockets Toward Israel posted at YID With LID.

Theodore Pappas presents Scared to Visit Israel? (D.C. is Scarier!) posted at Britannica Blog, saying, “An interesting post on Israel’s beauty, and why tourists should not be deterred from visiting. Washington, D.C., is more violent than Israel, writes the blogger, Mitchell Bard, executive director of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.”

muse presents Zionist-Kibbutz Dream in YESHA posted at Shiloh Musings. about observant Jews who grew up on secular kibbutzim and now live in Judea and Samaria.

Let’s not forget the interminable teachers’ strike. ifyouwillit… presents STRIKE!!! Power to the People! posted at If You Will It…, saying, “Daily ‘life in israel’ rant.”

Olah Chadasha presents Israel Not Playing By The Rules posted at Greetings from the French Hill. She thinks it’s time they did.

South African blogger Steve presents The UN: Does Israel Dwell Alone? posted at It’s Almost Supernatural. about how the UN treats Israel.

Judaism

A Simple Jew presents Question & Answer With Dixie Yid – Expressing Grief posted at A Simple Jew.

Shira Salamone presents Innovations that simplify observance posted at ON THE FRINGE—AL TZITZIT, saying, “Anatomy of a “Kosher Lamp,” “an inordinately clever contraption based on a low-tech principle: Don’t turn the light on or off on Shabbat, just hide it!”

Sephardi Lady presents Unable or Unwilling? posted at Orthonomics. Check out her entire series of letters to Yated on frum expenses.

Rafi G presents interesting psak of the week posted at Life in Israel, about a boy whose family found a controversial way to get him some of Ima’s home cooking.

Joshua gives us this inspiring post about the California fires, One Of G-d’s Small Miracles, 10/30/07 posted at J O S H U A P U N D I T.

LIFE-of-RUBIN presents Digital Halachas: What’s Stealing? posted at LIFE-of-RUBIN.

muse presents One Man’s Ceiling is Another Man’s Floor! posted at Shiloh Musings. Batya objects to her synagogue’s new furniture. Let’s hope the clapping trend doesn’t spread over this way.

Rafi G presents Shmitta: Otzar Beis Din posted at Life in Israel, saying, “continuing the shmitta series”

Personal

RivkA with a capital A presents Good News posted at Coffee and Chemo. This is an inspiring blog about coping with breast cancer.

Ari Kinsberg presents Passing the Time in Synagogue on the High Holidays: Then and Now posted at Ari’s Blog. Ari’s son is a chip off the old block.

Mottel presents Brown Shoes posted at Letters of Thought.

frummy twelvestep presents A Good Deal posted at Frumstepper, saying, “this blog post talks about self-confidence and self-respect and how this can be gained by anyone (not only addicts) through working the 12 steps program.”

Hebron

Carolyn presents Cave of Hope and Blessings posted at Juggling Frogs.

PsychoToddler presents The Hebron Trip posted at Psycho Toddler. A special bonus: Scroll down his post to see some Jbloggers.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Haveil Havalim. Have a good week and don’t forget to vote in the Weblog awards.

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Comments

  1. And you even get to sleep tonight…. Quite impressive….

  2. Lion of Zion says

    nice job. thanks for the link. shavuah tov

  3. Great job, but just a clarification. I don’t object to “new” furniture, which isn’t new. My point is totally different. I object to the fact that people are oblivious to the fact that they’re disturbing others. We’re all “connected.” You may think you’re just tapping on your private table, but that table is the back of your neighbor’s chair, and the tap is banging in her/his ears, making it impossible to concentrate on the prayers.
    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2007/11/theres-lots-more-to-read.html

  4. Great job; sorry that I sent mine in too late; hatzlacha on the voting!

  5. Great collection this time, and thanks for the links, especially from such a tardy personality like I…

  6. westbankmama says

    Thanks for including me – you did a wonderful job here.

  7. Great Job.

  8. thanks for the mention and good luck!