Yehoshua /Joshua Memorial

(Guest post by Mr. Blackfirewhitefire & Miriam)


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Tonight, Thursday night and Friday day is the night commemorating the passing of Joshua -second in command to Moses. Yehoshua ben Nun (Joshua son of Nun).

As second in command to Moses, Joshua had the difficult task of putting things into action. Whenever they had to confront opposition, Joshua led the men to battle. He is compared to the moon where Moses is like the sun. It takes some humility to accept being "second in command"; but he did his job well and faithfully, and merited to lead the Jewish people into the Holy Land so long ago. According to the Oral Tradition, Joshua had lots of daughters and no sons. He also married Rahav the prostitute from the town of Jericho.

In the book of Joshua, he was frequently told to "be strong and courageous". That is telling as to how difficult his job was.

Just imagine, in the beginning of the book of Joshua he was described as the servant of Moses. He was such a faithful disciple, and also led the people with such devotion to them and to his task, that in the end of the book he was called the servant of G-d! How many people have been called, by words of prophecy, the servant of G-d! We're talking about someone whom G-d communicated with "personally", who saw angels, who witnessed miracles and revealed Divine guidance the likes of which were never seen since...

Amazing...
Personally, when I read about those days, I long for a time when G-d's communication is so clear moment-to moment, so revealed, so open, G-d's presence so real and "close"(almost as self-evident as the table in front of me). May we merit to live in such times.

Now Where do I get My Gas Mask...?

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Israel is passing out gas masks for um...

The last time we had gas masks, I didn't have kids. Now hmmmmm how to explain this one to them....

Jon Stewart: Passover

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In thw first few seconds of this clip, Jon Stewart and Ben Stiller discuss Passover, the convert, Elijah (Eliyahoo, etc.
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The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Ben Stiller
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Kids Favorite Movies

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A list of my kids' favorite movies:

Dr. Seuss's The Lorax (from YouTube)

Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who (from TV Shack dot com)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Tikki Tikki Tembo (from YouTube)

Prince of Egypt (broken in parts on YouTube)

I haven't seen the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as much as they did. But the few times I did see it, it was very interesting. (please note, I don't watch movies so so much so you all may notice certain things better than I do on this topic). What I found interesting is how the producers and directors were able to make a scene scary or mild --with music.

They tone down the fight scenes with skippy music. They make the villain (Shredder) have added scariness with daunting forboding sounding music. Its all fascinating! Its such an interesting balance.

Day of the Splitting Sea

Its the last day of the holiday of Passover coming up. I'm so sad for it to go.

In a way it was loads of fun. The cleaning was not as hard -mostly because we had just moved, so there wasn't accumulated pockets to search through in the house. Each year we buy just a little more (permanent) things for Passover; I don't really like using those one-time use, plastic plates, cups, etc. We went to a bar-b-que, it was so American, the kids all tossed a football around --I haven't seen that in YEARS lol!

In a way it was hard. My heart was still hurting for the Christian Nigerians which no one seemed to care about who got slaughtered a few weeks ago. I couldn't even talk about it to anyone and the ones who were willing to hear me, didn't even know what happened.

I don't like getting the news.

Anyway, with Passover practically done (we have one more day of celebration. This is the celebration of the day the sea split. Woohoo! big miracle.) Now is the time of divestment. Of rectifications. I wrote alot about that last year and may repost it for this year.

I have what to write about but its all jumbled in my head at the moment. All the letters are begging to be the first ones out and I have to get them to calm down and come out one by one.

Picture of the Day

A scene from Gaza's gold bazaar.



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Passover Message

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The Message of Passover: Avoiding Slavery


Ramses Image, left: Ramses beating a slave, stone engraving found in Abu Simbel temple in southern Egypt




The minute one loses one's personal sense of worth and a positive self image, he or she becomes a slave.

Lack of self-respect, self-deprecation, and ignorance of one's own marvelous qualities and heritage are tickets to the slave train. Shame or embarrassment about one's ethnic or religious background is tantamount to carrying around an iron shackle with a 50-lb. ball and chain.

These feelings of inferiority are an invitation to let society dictate how you should live your life. People who feel inferior are weak; it's easy to exploit a person with no backbone. Controlled and exploited people are the most miserable creatures on the face of the earth.

For a Jew, one of the most important Passover messages is learning who we are and why we're celebrating. Modern society often discourages us from learning about our wonderful background, our G-d, and what emuna - the full and simple faith in Him - can do for us in every level of life, be it emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and even physical.

Emuna helps you feel good about yourself. As soon as you begin feeling good about yourself, you become free. Every human has an inherent right to freedom; that's the universal message of the Passover holiday. Happy Passover!

(reprint from Rabbi Lazer Brody's Lazer beams blog)

(I want to add: Emuna means solid faith in God)