http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Mals_musings/Excerpts from my newspaper column and other musings by a MOT (Member of the Tribe).hourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Mals_musings/582261As many of you know by now, counted among the 150 plus dead in India were two kind, beautiful, young and generous people - a Rabbi and his wife who ran the Jewish Center in Mumbai. Here is an email I received from a Chabad Rabbi in Vail, CO; Dear Friends, We are all greatly saddened by the grave...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Mals_musings/579581What is the most important Jewish holiday? Most people would answer, Yom Kippur or Passover. While both are up there in the Jewish celebration hit parade, the most sacred day for Jews actually occurs 52 times per year. It is the Sabbath, the period from sundown on Friday night until after dark on...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Mals_musings/578536One of the reasons I was initially hesitant to vote for Obama came from the "feeling" that he "would be bad for Israel." This intimation was stoked by the McCain camp, of course, and the fact that he has been "untested." By the end of the campaign, it was tough to make my way through all the crap...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Mals_musings/577832The 2,000 year old writings that include the earliest known version of the Hebrew Bible and illuminate the Jewish roots of Christianity will soon be available to be viewed on line. The Israeli Antiquities Authority, http://www.antiquities.org.il/, responsible for conserving the fragile parchment...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Mals_musings/577110The verse describing the "Jubilee Year" - the 50th year after a compete cycle of seven sabbatical years when each slave was set free - from Leviticus 25:10; "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" was originally inscribed on the Liberty Bell to celebrate the colony...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Mals_musings/576886I wrote the following for our regional Jewish newspaper, but it applies to everyone; In the poem Eishet Hayil – A Woman of Valor, which concludes the book of Proverbs - a woman whose worth is “far beyond that of rubies” is esteemed for her business acumen, her good judgment, her strength,...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Mals_musings/576566“The seventh day is a palace in time which we build. It is made of soul, of joy and reticence.” " It is one thing to race or be driven by the vicissitudes that menace life, and another thing to stand still and to embrace the presence of an eternal moment." Abraham Heschel Just before Shabbat,...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Mals_musings/576270I just received this email from a reporter cousin of mine - a very interesting theory! Was there a Jewish President? On the twelfth of February, 1809, nearly 200 years ago, a young, poor illiterate woman from Virginia, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, gave birth to a son, in a log cabin, built along the...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Mals_musings/576146Jewish life cycle events, including death and its preparations, have specific rituals and rules and forty years ago, I learned about the prohibition against autopsy and cremation from my Day School Rabbi-teachers. In order to be resurrected when Moshiach (the Messiah) finally came, our bodies had...