KUMMUNIQUE

We are proud to present another issue of Kummunique - Kumah's Shabbat and Holiday Bulletin. This issue is filled with Aliyah and Eretz Yisrael inspiration - so enjoy!

In this issue you will find:

1. "Some Days It's Hard To Live In Israel" by Malkah Fleisher
2. "Parshat Shemot" by Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Reich
3. "Israel's Jewish Population Surpasses United States" by Ezra HaLevi
4. "Aliya? To Which Country?" By Jack Engelhard

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1. "Some Days It's Hard To Live In Israel" by Malkah Fleisher

News of Thursday's horrific suicide bombing in Tel Aviv is depressing an already thoroughly depressed populace. The not-quite Prime Minister hasn't bothered addressing the people in the wake of the stroke of the real Prime Minister, who himself never really bothered to do anything the people wanted him to do, either. The Holy City of Hebron is being ransacked, as indisputably Jewish land (even the Supreme Court has recognized that the Shalhevet marketplace building belongs to the Jewish City of Hebron) is being yanked from underneath the Jews (or rather, the Jews are being ripped from upon it). A formidable, gray-slabbed wall is carving our country into a prison, gasoline costs a fortune, and there's not a Bed, Bath and Beyond on the continent. I don't think I've ever been so frustrated in my life.

One might ask, "Malkah, what the heck? Why are you putting yourself in this situation? And don't give me this garbage about 'oh, I moved to Israel to make a difference, I moved to Israel to be with my people, blah, blah, blah. YOU'RE NOT MAKING A DIFFERENCE! Look around you – the whole country is going to H.E. double hockey sticks, and frankly, I don't see your big Zionist imprint all over the big revolution that HASN'T sprung up since you got here!!!"

My first response would be that you're very rude – kiss your mother with that mouth?
Secondly, I would say that you should NEVER discount an impending revolution. When it happens, you owe me a case of Krembo and a big apology. Malkah Fleisher votes with the Jews, every single time.
And thirdly, I never said I would win the war. I said I would fight it. If the biggest difference I can make for my people and my land is by buying milk here and not in America, then that's what I'll do, and to heck with all the cynical exilophiliacs who don't have any better ideas to put out there. If I die before we set things right, or if I die in the process, you'll write on my tombstone "Here Lies Malkah Fleisher: She Tried."

So there you have it. There are no easy answers and no foreseeable let up to the problems that we face. But I've come here to try – I hope you will, too.

My advice to you - buckle in for the long haul and load up on some comfort food.

Malkah's Apple Cake

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon baking soda
3 apples, cored, peeled, and chopped
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped dates
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven (somewhere between hot and super hot). Line a rectangular or circular cake pan with parchment paper. Mix the flour, oil, sugar, eggs, and baking soda in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the apples, raisins, dates, cinnamon, and nutmeg, coating the fruits with the spices. Mix the fruits into the dough mixture. Pour mixture into pan, bake 50 minutes (also makes great muffins!), and forget about the problems for a while.

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2. "Parshat Shemot" by Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Reich for Aloh Na'aleh

"And these are the names of the children of Israel who came down to Egypt (Shemot, 1:1)." Rashi indicates that enumerating the names of the children of Yaakov, who we have already met in the book of Genesis, is a sign of how precious they (we) are to God. They are compared to the stars which God lovingly displays in the heavens, calling each by its name.

The Chatam Sofer comments that we, the Jewish people are indeed compared to stars because it is our task and privilege to illuminate what can sometimes be a very dark universe.

Generally we see stars from a distance, hundreds, thousands or millions of light years away. That distance prevents us from viewing them as they really are – huge orbs of pulsating energy and light with a tremendous influence on other celestial bodies and the very space around them. In Egypt (the Diaspora) we too are a pale reflection of our potential power. Viewed from the right perspective and setting however, we are a blazing source of energy and light.

Israel is the setting in which a Jewish soul can come to full expression of its potential power. Leaving Miztrayim, (Egypt) is not easy. The Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote that we all have our "meitzarim," narrow places that can keep us confined. Sometimes those narrow places can even take the form of a lovely home on five acres. But leave Mitzrayim we must, if we are to arrive at our true destiny.

Aloh Naaleh! As sons and daughters of Israel, let us shine forth as a beacon of faith, illuminating the world with the message of "Shma Yisrael" from the holiest place in the universe, the Land of Israel.

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3. "Israel's Jewish Population Surpasses United States" by Ezra HaLevi
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=96801

For the first time, Israel has more Jews than the US, according to Hebrew University Prof. Sergio Della Pergola. Tel Aviv has also overtaken New York as the city with the largest Jewish population.

Dr. Della Pergola, who released the statistics at a conference in Jerusalem this week, said that the new figures are partly the result of the increase in Israel's Jews, but greatly due to the shrinking Diaspora. The percentage of Jews, within the global populations, has decreased by one third since 1970 due to intermarriage and assimilation.

According to Della Pergola, the Jewish people now comprise .21% of the world's population – whereas they comprised .35% in 1970.

In 1970, there were about 10 million Jews living outside Israel. Only 7.75 million remain. The slight increase in the number of Jews in the world – from 12.65 million in 1970 to nearly 13 million now, is only due to the growth of Jews living in the Jewish state, Della Pergola said.

The demographer said that the only thing that has kept the number of American Jews stable is the hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews that have moved there. He says there is no reason that the size of the Diaspora communities will not continue to shrink.

A previous study done by Hebrew University's Institute of Contemporary Jewry concluded that, barring mass immigration to the Jewish State, by 2030, the majority of the Jewish people will live in Israel due to demographic trends alone. Such a situation would have far-reaching implications according to Jewish law.
Click here for an in-depth analysis of the matter:

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[The following peice is an anti-Aliyah article. I include it for the sake of debate - Ed.]

4. "Aliya? To Which Country?" By Jack Engelhard
http://web.israelinsider.com/views/7410.htm

An Israeli novelist I'm corresponding with, sharing tips, asks me if it's all right to mention Netanya in his novel, in case Netanya is gone in a year.

Only an Israeli could ask such a question.

That same day I'm reading that the Israeli government is expanding certain settlement blocs outside Jerusalem. The next day I'm reading that, fearful of international condemnation, the expansion plan is nixed. A day later Ariel Sharon says that the expansion will go ahead, yes, but that he's prepared to uproot and destroy these new settlements upon any agreement with the Arabs.

In other words, Israelis and newly arriving Jews are welcome and invited to put down permanent roots anywhere in Israel, until those permanent roots are permanently uprooted. Every inch of Israel is negotiable. Or, as Israeli politicians and diplomats refer to the Land of Israel -- bargaining chips. Just like Gush Katif, which was vacated from Gaza, vacated of Jews for an Arabs-only zone ("All Jews Out Of The Pool!"), to make room for peaceful Kassam rockets being hoisted from new and improved Gaza.

In the middle of all this, I'm getting e-mails, from Israel, urging me to make Aliya.

Sharon himself urges me to come on down and make Israel my new home.

Sharon is big on Aliya.

But suppose, a year ago, I had made Aliya to Gush Katif? Today I'd be without a job, my kids without a school, all of us without a home, except in a trailer park.

Suppose "Next Year in Netanya", Netanya is gone just when I decide to move in?

Suppose "Next Year in Jerusalem", Jerusalem is gone by the time I get there? After all, Mahmoud Abbas now says the Western Wall is his. Why not? Only Israeli "intransigence" (a word re-coined by Steven Spielberg) would keep Abbas from the Kotel and all the rest. A Jerusalem void of Jews would be seen by the world as a step forward. In Hebrew, forward is read as Kadima.

What if I decide to make my ascent to Beit El and by the time I get there, there is no place to set a ladder, if you are Jewish, like Jacob?

Suppose I pick up to move my family to Hadera and by the time I arrive Sharon and company have already established it as part of an Arab-only state?

What if I decide to make Ashkelon my new home but Sharon has already shaken hands with Abbas and Ashkelon is a done deal?

Suppose Ashdod is just right for my family and no agreement has been reached between Sharon and Abbas, but Condoleezza Rice phones Sharon (boss to employee) and tells Sharon that Ashdod is needed for a Palestinian state, and that the people who live there already, if they are Jewish, had better get packing? So forget Ashdod.

Pardes Hanna. I stayed there once when I was deep into Krav Maga, Israeli martial arts. I thought, then, that this would be the place. But suppose Pardes Hanna is to be wrapped up with a ribbon and handed over to the Palestinian Arabs, for the promise that they will murder fewer Jews today than they did yesterday? Peace, in other words.

An Egyptian military man was once asked if he is against the existence of a Jewish State. No, he said, that is okay, as long as all of Israel is confined to Tel Aviv's main boulevard, Dizengoff Street. Sharon and company must have been listening, as well as the U.S State Department, headed by Condi Rice, for that is the pattern.

Aliya means Dizengoff Street.

Suppose I stay put until Israel decides to act like it's for real.