A NEW YEAR'S MESSAGE

It's not late to wish AM ISRAEL and humanity a sweet 5770! I hope everyone that is reading this post has enjoyed so far the High Holidays known as the days of awe.

Now, before speaking about the beauty of our feasts; I have to say that the large Jewish community in Brazil and I as a Brazilian citizen are extremely upset about the encounter of the brazilian president Lula with Ahmadnejah at UN conference; every Rosh Hashanah he participates in the holiday celebration and so did he this time again, but Baruch Hashem BRAZIL and the Jewish people there do not agree with politics of just trying to get along with this tyrants in order to avoid conflicts and keep the exportation to Iran. The hatred that dictators preach have to be dealt with rigor and not in a passive way; so the message of BRAZIL AND ITS JEWISH PEOPLE to Lula is WE DON'T WELCOME DICTATORS, AM ISRAEL HATERS and HOLOCAUST DENIERS to our land of freedom;we will advocate and fight agaisnt the influence of this evil.

Now, about my Rosh Hashanah experience: it was very interesting this year in a very positive way, Baruch Hashem. I was able to enjoy the prayers sang by the Chazzan/ cantor Stark and my husband and I met a sweet couple from Canada that came to visit the husband's mother in the hospital, so we went to visit some patients at the hospital as well and I felt like it was one of the best prayers that I could offer...

Now this Yom Kippur I had the privilege of having a live dream with my sweet late daddy, it felt so real and I feel grateful to G-d for His kindness.

If we read the newspapers, we can see that most of its news are not enthusiastic and positive, nevertheless, if keep our souls in the spirit of the High holidays where we reflect and try to improve ourselves and ask forgiveness to G-d, thus in the holiday of Succot (Feast of the booths) we embrace the sense that our prayers have been answered, being sheltered by the Almighty’s heavenly clouds symbolized by the booths that once the ancient Israelites lived in the desert.

I hope everyone may harvest good blessings from their sincere prayers and enjoy the Yom Tov of Succot that is right on the corner and just like history tells, may we really experience its joyous occasion with news of Divine interventions individually and as a G-d fearing nation.

May Hashem Himself bring His SHALOM to ERETZ ISRAEL and not the treaties of politicians that think they could solve the problem and may we all gather together soon in Yerushalayim.

An interesting article upon the Jewish and Arabs living in Brazil, check at http://www.brazilpoliticalcomment.com.br/content/view/104/29/lang,en/ or click on the text of this post.

Tidbit on the role of the Shofar

First of all I'd like to detail a tidbit history of the Shofar which is a ram's horn that has been used as a sounded instrument from ancient Yisrael.

The Torah was given to Yisrael with the blasting sound of the shofar ( Shemot/Exodus 19:19); and Yisrael conquered the Battle of Yericho ( Jerico) with the blast of the shofar (Joshua 6:20); the shofar was blown as a sign to all Yisrael as an assembly during wars ( softim/judges 3:27; Shmuel 20:1); the shofar was also used during the coronation of kings (1 Kings 1:34, 39) and it was blown to announce the beginning of the Chaggim, the Jewish festivals (Numbers 10:10); and to celebrate the new moon on Rosh Chodesh (Psalm 81:1-3) and for a Teshuvah (Repentance - Isaiah 58:1;Ezekiel 33:1-20) and other appointed times such as distress, judgements, deliverance and so on.

Klal Yisrael will be advised on he coming of Mashiach through the blast of the Shofar (Zechariah 9:14,16) and the Shofar's blasts are a reminder that Hashem is on control of everything, as it causes awareness of his sovereignty.

The sound of the Shofar awake us to our spiritual reality and help us to be aware of our soul's need to reconnect to our Sovereign Creator who is the only one that can bring us deliverance from our distress.

Rosh HaShanah is also referred to as “Yom Teruah”, the Day of the Sounding of the Shofar, or the Day of the Awakening Blast.

Each sound is different. The various notes of the shofar that are blown are known as:

teki'ah--one long blast,

shevarim--three broken sounds, and

teru'ah‑nine--staccato notes.

The shofar blasts have the following sound patterns below:

teki'ah‑shevarim teru'ah‑tekiah;

teki'ah‑shevarim‑teki'ah;

teki'ah‑teru'ah‑teki'ah.

The final sound, the tekiah is longer ( teki'ah gedolah, which means a "great blast") and it reminds us about the verse from Isaiah which says: "And on that day a great ram's horn shall be sounded" (27:13)

Therefore, I'd like to wish each one of my friends, family, Am Yisrael and all good natured human being a true meaningful and happy 5770 with lots of joyful occasions, shalom and health !

Are boys - the fragile ones ?

- boys the weaker ones -

A research of the University of Tel Aviv (Israel) has demystified the idea that women are the fragile ones; the study proved that male babies have a weaker immunological system after monitoring about 66 thousand births. The study concluded that boys have much higher risks of diseases and they are far more vulnerable to several ailments after birth than girls are.

According to their analysis the boys can still suffer an overgrowth inside their mother’s womb which could result into a premature birth.

This fragility is said to be due to the lack of estrogen which is the female hormone that protects the baby girls from the harm of the surrounding environment.

Even though the boys birth rates are higher in accordance to CDC( National Center for Health Statistics) statistic’s than the girls birth rate, all the environmental dangers encountered before and after their birth – and even in an older age the effects of the testosterone levels can unfortunately cause many aggravations, according to researches. So, even if the boys rate are higher worldwide and specifically in the United States, the worry still remains on the boys’ death rate which is higher than girls.

We all knew that females usually lived more than men, and now studies show the reasons of this life factor.

It’s pretty interesting the findings of these statistics – yet in my own humble opinion, there are many women in modern times suffering from heart diseases and from many ailments that they didn’t suffer as much before.

It’s understood that as infants they might be better protected and even in adult life as matter of their immunological system. But, the choices that one makes in life as an individual later in life may make a huge difference.

Men used to be the ones that primarily smoked and abused from overdrinking and got themselves into accidents and fights – they still do so and supposedly because of their search for adventure resulted from testosterone levels…

Though, inherently men seem more vulnerable preys to the harms of the environment as shown in these researches; Women have become a lot more vulnerable in recent times as they are active participants in dangerous professions and are taking all the bad habits such as smoking and drinking which by the way has been proven to be much more harmful to women than men! So, I don’t see this whole thing as black or white, but I see the gray line between, in other words, I always see the middle ground, and I won’t say that men are the fragile sex – maybe in the maternity cribs the baby boys are the weaker ones…

Ps: clicking the title will redirect you to the Statistic's site. And there are other information about the issue below and it’s pretty interesting findings…




http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/06/22/why-are-more-boys-than-girls-being-born.htm

http://www.jornalalef.com.br


http://www.fact.on.ca/news/news0303/nt030316.htm

http://www.enotalone.com/article/19491.html

CYBER WORLD

Thoughts about a high tech world


About three weeks ago, I heard someone saying that they would never be able to live without the internet or all the intricacies that technology has to offer. I just paused and thought about my own life and what would be my reaction if I got lost without any internet whatsoever, and wondered whether I would survive and came to think that I certainly would.

The internet can be pretty addictive I admit, and it’s better used for education and family connection – nothing that is too much is healthy. But nowadays almost everything gets done in the cyber world…from banking online, shopping, international calls and conferences, chatting, studies outlines and all sorts of business and entertainment with the convenience of doing it all at the same place.

The downside is that you look around on a train ride and it seems that all the people around you are not really there, since they all got their “entertaining devices” at hand; nobody wants to feel bored…You can notice that some teenagers don’t even know how to interact with others in a real world!

Once I was on a train ride, and there was a look like “rebellious teen” who was listening to a blasting music coming from her i-pod and right in front of her was standing an elderly lady – It kind of hurt me to see that some young people don’t have any clue of what goes on right in front of their eyes. I pitied the elderly lady and thought that she probably had given out her seat so many times to the elderly on her young age which is something people don’t care any longer, since they are immersed in their own world.

The point of the overdose of entertainment is that people basically lost their sense of social skills and besides that, many times we happen to be so immersed in our own world and so distracted to pay attention to daily blessings, thus forgetting about our earthly mission to our Creator.

I’m sure that we can even use high tech devices to connect to G-dliness, as some people are really using i-pods to learn Torah, recite Tehilim (spalms), etc…Yet, I wonder if we aren’t exaggerating.

We are G-d’s children and should optimize our times to be in connection to those who need a helping hand or hear a good word and give a little of our times to Hashem…In modern times with all the expedition to a cyber world the SHABBAT has turned to be even more essential to our souls.

But, here comes my dilemma – right after my “Socratic” research about our cybernetic society it happened that my instrument for my homework study, researches, news info and family connection suddenly collapsed! This instrument, Baruch Hashem was only my laptop!

Ouch it hurt though…Well, it was last week and it’s still being taken care of – but I got frantic to know that I wouldn’t be able to do my online studies required for my real concrete LIU classes and finals. I still got to use the LIU library computer, but it wasn’t my own little device, if you know what I mean…

So, a friend helped me to get at least my desktop computer up running, which is the one I’m using right now…There’s more into life than just connecting online – yet it’s the modern times challenge.

I got say that there’s room to do good deeds even in a cybernetic way of live – G-d’s creation is not limited and we play a special role in it – so, even through the cyber connection – one can and should positively touch one’s life with a word and even smile and make someone’s life meaningful – yes, even good words coming through a computer screen can spread some light out somewhere…

Brooke Greenberg - An eternal baby?? - 2005

Brooke Greenberg is a 16 years old girl who looks like a toddler ! In other words she has a body of a six month old baby and speaks with infant sounds. She hasn't aged at all, even though her bone structure has been pointed out to be 10 years old.
Brooke amazingly survived a brain tumor by sleeping for straight 14 days, thus awaking up without any tumor whatsoever; besides that she has also miraculously overcome a brain seizure without any damages - so, her parents have credited her with healing powers.

Therefore, this 16 years old "baby " has puzzled doctors who are trying to find out what is it that keeps her from aging at all;

As Brooke Greenberg hasn't developed either physically or mentally she happens to attend a special education for special children at a Baltimore Public School.

There will be a documentary about her life being aired this year 2009 in the USA.

Berry Weber - Bei'olkim Official Music Video

Here goes a nice video clip of a new rising Jewish star on the making - his rythem, words and style sound beautiful and fresh !

It really has an unique style and I thought to post here at my blog as soon as I watched it !

It's a video with a positive and cheerful side of life and as the music of this video cheered me up - I hope people can cheer up as well and enjoy the posted video !

YiddishFest 2009 tomorrow !

For those who enjoy free concerts at parks and Jewish music at the same time, you can take the opportunity that there will be happening a YiddishFest concert on Wednesday June 10th 2009 at the LINCOLN CENTER'S DAMROSCH PARK for free at 7 pm - for those interested it's located at 62 Street (bet. Broadway and Amsterdam)Take 1 Train to 66 Street Stop.

The Performers will be David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness with hip hop beat architect Socallei Mike Burstyn Pharaoh's Daughter.

It's a continuing tradition of 40 years to have large scale Jewish concerts in the Parks of the city of New York and for those who are interested you can either
Contact the circle.org through phone or e-mail - (212) 889-6800, ext 319, email NYRegion@circle.org or visit their Website at www.circle.org