(IsraelNN.com) The IDF Rabbinate is hard at work on the development of a special touch screen that would make it possible to use vital computer systems without violating Sabbath, reports IDF magazine BaMachaneh (In the Camp).

Operational considerations mandate the use of computer systems like ‘Masua’ or ‘Sheder Cham 400’ during the Sabbath. These systems inform their operators of the location of IDF units during operations and battles. Other systems, like the IDF’s medical information system, named CPR, must also be used on Sabbath.

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF Rabbinate is hard at work on the development of a special touch screen that would make it possible to use vital computer systems without violating Sabbath, reports IDF magazine BaMachaneh (In the Camp).

Operational considerations mandate the use of computer systems like ‘Masua’ or ‘Sheder Cham 400’ during the Sabbath. These systems inform their operators of the location of IDF units during operations and battles. Other systems, like the IDF’s medical information system, named CPR, must also be used on Sabbath.

Mirrored from customerservant.com.

Rabbinic Conversion Court judges are more likely to reject prospective converts who were partially trained via the Internet, a senior source in the Conversion Authority said Sunday.
According to the source, about 70% of prospective converts who are interviewed by the conversion court are accepted. However, among prospective converts who were trained in part via the Internet, only about half are accepted, said the source.
The issue of conversions comes to the forefront ahead of Shavuot, which is celebrated with the reading of the biblical story of Ruth, the archetypical convert to Judaism.

According to the above-referenced conversion court source, the court can tell the difference between people who study partially using the internet, and those who study using only books and a face-to-face teacher. I maintain, however, that this isn’t a matter of the internet producing lower-quality students, or the internet providing lower-quality material, but students either not utilizing it properly, or students finding alternative oppinions of rabbis who don’t necessarily hold like the rabbis sitting on the conversion panel, and thus these students are disqualified. During my conversion studies in 1999/2000, if it hadn’t been for the internet, I would have never gotten the information I needed. I devoured JewFaq, and to this day I use it as a partial reference, along with Project Genesis and Aish Hatorah due to the almost complete inavailability of seforim in any sort of accessible format. And until this complete inavailability is changed, I’ll continue to do so, or I’ll have to buy print seforim and then scan them, correct the mistakes that creep in through OCR, and then, finally, read it. So in my eyes, this annti-tech decree strikes me as a luddite one at best.
Hat-tip.

Rabbinic Conversion Court judges are more likely to reject prospective converts who were partially trained via the Internet, a senior source in the Conversion Authority said Sunday.
According to the source, about 70% of prospective converts who are interviewed by the conversion court are accepted. However, among prospective converts who were trained in part via the Internet, only about half are accepted, said the source.
The issue of conversions comes to the forefront ahead of Shavuot, which is celebrated with the reading of the biblical story of Ruth, the archetypical convert to Judaism.

According to the above-referenced conversion court source, the court can tell the difference between people who study partially using the internet, and those who study using only books and a face-to-face teacher. I maintain, however, that this isn’t a matter of the internet producing lower-quality students, or the internet providing lower-quality material, but students either not utilizing it properly, or students finding alternative oppinions of rabbis who don’t necessarily hold like the rabbis sitting on the conversion panel, and thus these students are disqualified. During my conversion studies in 1999/2000, if it hadn’t been for the internet, I would have never gotten the information I needed. I devoured JewFaq, and to this day I use it as a partial reference, along with Project Genesis and Aish Hatorah due to the almost complete inavailability of seforim in any sort of accessible format. And until this complete inavailability is changed, I’ll continue to do so, or I’ll have to buy print seforim and then scan them, correct the mistakes that creep in through OCR, and then, finally, read it. So in my eyes, this annti-tech decree strikes me as a luddite one at best.
Hat-tip.

Mirrored from customerservant.com.

(IsraelNN.com) Archaeologists from Israel’s Antiquities Authority (IAA) have revealed two important artifacts recently discovered in Jerusalem, both dating from the First Temple Period (8-7 BCE).

The first, a bone seal engraved with the name “Shaul” was found in an excavation being conducted under the auspices of the IAA, in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority in the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park, located in the City of David. The second artifact, an ancient jar handle bearing the Hebrew name “Menachem” was uncovered in the neighborhood of Ras el ‘Amud during an excavation prior to construction of a girls’ school by the Jerusalem municipality. The jar handle, inscribed with the name “Menachem” carved in Hebrew, was found among settlement remains dating to different phases of the Middle Canaanite period (2200 – 1900 BCE), and the last years of the First Temple period (8-7 BCE) that were recently uncovered during the excavation.

The name Menachem Ben Gadi is noted in the Bible as that of a king of Israel who reigned for 10 years in Samaria, as one of the last kings of the Kingdom of Israel. According to Kings II, Menachem Ben Gadi ascended the throne in the 39th year of Uzziah, King of Judah (Judea).

(Via)

(IsraelNN.com) Archaeologists from Israel’s Antiquities Authority (IAA) have revealed two important artifacts recently discovered in Jerusalem, both dating from the First Temple Period (8-7 BCE).

The first, a bone seal engraved with the name “Shaul” was found in an excavation being conducted under the auspices of the IAA, in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority in the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park, located in the City of David. The second artifact, an ancient jar handle bearing the Hebrew name “Menachem” was uncovered in the neighborhood of Ras el ‘Amud during an excavation prior to construction of a girls’ school by the Jerusalem municipality. The jar handle, inscribed with the name “Menachem” carved in Hebrew, was found among settlement remains dating to different phases of the Middle Canaanite period (2200 – 1900 BCE), and the last years of the First Temple period (8-7 BCE) that were recently uncovered during the excavation.

The name Menachem Ben Gadi is noted in the Bible as that of a king of Israel who reigned for 10 years in Samaria, as one of the last kings of the Kingdom of Israel. According to Kings II, Menachem Ben Gadi ascended the throne in the 39th year of Uzziah, King of Judah (Judea).

(Via)

Mirrored from customerservant.com.

While reading through one of the blogs listed in my blogroll, I came across an article entitled Israel’s Right to be Racist, by Joseph Massad.
The author uses an overabundance of sarcasm to take stabs at Israel, chastising it for laws such as the Law of Return, and its attempts to maintain its Jewish character.
I’ll start off by saying that, although I strongly disagree with the author’s sentiments, I won’t be labelling this piece anti-semitic.
That would be too simplistic, and it would be a failing on my part to address the actual criticism being delivered.
I imagine the purpose of this article was to cause supporters of the State of Israel to question its policies.
Well, this article raises some questions all right.
Just not the ones Massad hoped.
For one thing, why is it all right for Muslim states to be racist, but not the Jewish one?
I don’t see anyone calling for Saudi Arabia to start allowing Christians and Jews to live in its realm as equal citizens.
Nor is this being asked of Iran, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, or any of the other Arab states.
Or what about what happens when a Palestinian state is established, as I believe it eventually will be?
Are the Palestinians going to make sure to treat any Jews who might want to take up residence in its territories fairly and with out racism?
I think before anyone starts criticising the state of Israel for, gasp, maintaining a Jewish character, they need to determine whether the Palestinians and other Arabs apply these same principles.
(Via ProggieMuslima)

http://customerservant.com/?p=91 I’m posting this, because I think it’s somewhat humorous, but also it’s a really good idea. I read this on the TTAI list, (TTAI stands for “The Truth about Israel), and you can read other articles like it on that list, (subscribe by sending a blank message to ), as well as on Daphna’s site.

Make Arafat a ‘martyr’ already!

By

Dafna Yee

director of

The Jewish Watchdog)

I think that the Israelis are being very cruel to make Arafat wait and wait
for the ‘martyrdom’ that he has always promoted as the best way to serve his
’cause’. Having read his exhortations to the ‘palestinian’ youth concerning
the joys available to those who kill Jews, (a good place to read his actual
words in translation is PMW – Palestinian Media Watch (

pmw.org.il/)

and who die in that action, I have concluded that that is his personal
desire. In addition, he has certainly earned his ‘martyrdom’ as he has been
responsible for more Jewish deaths than anyone has since Hitler. So, I
suggest that the Israelis stop waiting for him to give yet more proof that
he deserves that type of death and grant it to him already. Granting Arafat
his wish for the type of death he wants will allow many Jews to continue
with the LIFE that they want. See, everybody can get what he or she wants.

Israelis have the power to keep him from having to hold his head down in
shame when he is among his followers who already took that route. He has
even let people know that his preferred method of killing is using bombs.
So, let him have the type of death he wants so badly and drop a bomb on his
house (although if someone wants to shoot him and put him out of his — and
our — misery, please go ahead). I mean wouldn’t it be a terrible shame if,
after all his efforts to fulfill the stated destiny of Islam — dying while
killing Jews (and other non-Muslims), he died of a heart attack or something?
Of course it would. So, make Arafat a ‘martyr’ already!