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GOOD MORNING! Here's something interesting from the Book of Jewish Lists
by my very good friend "Ron Landau." A partial list of inventions by Jews: (If you know of more, tell me)
1. Polaroid Camera -- 2. Adding Machine -- 3. Traffic Light -- 4. Scale-model train -- 5. Blue jeans -- 6. Valium -- 7. Microphone -- 8. Teddy Bear -- 9. Stainless Steel -- 10. Disc records -- 11. Sound movies -- 12. Telephone -- 13. Kodachrome -- 14. Hot dog bun |
Edward Land Abraham Stern Charles Adler Joshua Lionel Cowan Levi Strauss Leo Sternbach Emile Berliner Morris Michtom Benno Strauss Emile Berliner Isador Kitsee Jacob Reis Leopold Mannes & Leopold Godowsky Abraham Levis Joe Friedman |
___By the way Alexander Graham Bell acknowledged that he drew upon Reis's
1861 device in constructing his phone. It is interesting to think that all those years in my youth I could have been playing with a Cowan train. I guess he figured he could sell more Lionel trains than Cowan trains...
Q & A:___What is L'ag B'Omer and How is it Celebrated?
___According to Jewish cosmology, the day begins with nightfall. That is why all holidays start at night after the stars can be seen. Saturday night, May 5th, begins the holiday of L'ag B'Omer. You may have seen advertisements for picnics from synagogues and JCC's.
___L'ag B'Omer is the 33rd day of the Omer, the period between Pesach and Shavuot. On this day the plague which was killing Rabbi Akiva's disciples stopped. It is also the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar, the Kabbalah, the book of Jewish Mysticism. Tradition has it that the day of his demise was filled with a great light of endless joy through the secret wisdom which he revealed to his students in the Zohar.
___In Israel there are huge bonfires across the country. From Pesach onwards the children gather fallen branches and old tires and build pyres often 20 and 30 feet high. Then as the sky grows dark, they are lit and the sky is filled with flames -- and smoke. (I have often wondered what the reaction is to the pictures from the US and Russian Spy satellites.)
For more on "L'ag B'aomer" go to ShabbatShalomAudio.com!
COMING CLOSE TO GOD |
or Listen FREE On-Line |
Torah Portion of the Week
Emor Leviticus 21:1 - 24:24
___This week's portion sets forth the standards of purity and perfection for a
Cohen; specifies the physical requirements of sacrifices and what is to be done with blemished offerings; proclaims as holidays the Shabbat, Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.
___It reminds the Jewish people to provide pure olive oil for the Menorah and designates the details of the Showbread (two stacks of 6 loaves each which were placed on the table in the portable sanctuary and later in the Temple once a week upon Shabbat).
___The portion ends with the interesting story of a man who blasphemed God's name with a curse. What should be the penalty for this transgression? Curious? Leviticus. 24:14.
* * *
Dvar Torah
based on Growth Through Torah by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin
___The Torah states:
"And you shall count from the day after the day of rest, from the day that you brought the wave offering of the Omer, seven complete weeks they shall be." (Leviticus 23:15). |
___Why do we have the emphasis on counting the days of the Omer until Shavuot?
___The Torah gives us a mitzvah to count the days from the second day of Pesach until the holiday of Shavuot ("Shavuos" in the Ashkenazie pronunciation). The root of this commandment, wrote the Chinuch (a book, now available in English, that gives an understanding and details of each of the 613 mitzvot) is that the essence of the Jewish people is the Torah. The Israelites were redeemed from Egypt in order to accept the Torah at Sinai and to fulfill it. The counting of the days from the exodus from Egypt until the day of the accepting of the Torah is an expression of the importance of the Torah for the Jewish People. Just as a person who is enslaved and knows that he will be liberated on a certain day will count each day until he finally gets his freedom, so too, we count the days until we receive the Torah. Counting the days shows that our entire being has a strong desire to finally reach the end of the time we are counting. (Sefer HaChinuch 306)
___The greater your appreciation of the Torah, the more you will study it. Realizing how important the Torah is for us as a nation and for each of us individually, we will have great joy and pleasure when we devote ourselves to studying and mastering it. Every year when we count the days between Pesach and Shavuot, we once again repeat this message daily for forty-nine days.
___For some excellent opportunities to learn Torah via the internet, check out
aish.com and aishaudio.com!
CANDLE LIGHTING - April 27
(or go to http://www.aish.com/shabbat/candlelighting.asp)
Jerusalem 6:41
Guatemala 6:02 - Hong Kong 6:32 - Honolulu 6:39
J'Burg 5:17 - London 8:10 - Los Angeles 7:21
Melbourne 5:12 - Mexico City 7:42 - Miami 7:36
New York 7:36 - Singapore 6:53 - Toronto 8:05
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
Advice for public speaking: If you haven't struck oil in the first three
minutes ... stop boring!
-- George Jessel
With deep appreciation to Len & Michelle Leader |