Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers



Accept Difficulties With Joy

Since it is impossible for a person to completely be spared the difficulties and misfortunes of life, it makes sense to accept them with patience, tolerance - and a positive attitude. This ensures living a good life, both for practical reasons and because it is the Torah's attitude.
Today, when something - even small - goes wrong, take a deep breath and accept the reality with joy. Remember, it might all be for your best anyway.

Love Yehuda Lave

 Here is Gil Lox's story: "Thank G-d I am here now". I am having Shabat with him on 1/10/14 G-d willing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuQzBvhjZes&feature=youtu.be








Please take the few minutes to enjoy this truly beautiful video.



Subject: Fwd: Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers





    Forty students from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
took a classical approach to the flashmob as they flash waltzed
Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers at the new Sarah Wetsman Davidson Hospital
Tower in Jerusalem . Doctors, patients and passers-by joined in the fun.

    The surprise concert was part of Good Deeds Day, an annual
event  that originated in Israel in 2007 and now takes place in over 50
    countries worldwide. On this day volunteers reach out to the less
    fortunate and the vulnerable.


    The  Academy students enjoyed the day so much that they
have decided to
schedule regular concerts at the hospital. Hadassah Medical  Organization
treats over one million patients annually, without regard  to race, religion
or national  origin.
        Absolutely Beautiful..!!!












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Syd













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Monday, December 30, 2013

Rendering first aid after a motor vehicle accident and Moses on what is Success




Life can be a Constant Party

The Bible says the life of someone who has a positive attitude about all that occurs is likened to a life of constant parties. (see Proverbs 15:15) His entire life is full of happiness and joy. Such a person does not need special situations to supply him with happiness. Whatever he does and wherever he is, he finds things to be happy about. He grows constantly from each experience and from each person with whom he comes into contact.
Mastering this attitude requires time and effort, but is a very worthwhile investment. If you want your life to be a constant party…
Love Yehuda Lave

Subject tried to run over an officer


Subject: Rendering first aid after a motor vehicle accident


Please remember that proper care and stabilization of the victim is critical. It's VERY fortunate for the victim that the local police officers in this footage
were fully trained and aware of this fact.

They were immediately able to immobilize him, were able to prevent him from further injuring himself, and should be commended for their speedy actions.

The Miranda Rights can come later ...

Quote from Rabbi Sacks on the Parsha

Rabbi Hutner's point is that greatness cannot be achieved without failure. There are heights you cannot climb without first having fallen.

For many years, I kept on my desk a quote from Calvin Coolidge, sent by a friend who knew how easy it is to be discouraged. It said, "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." I would only add, "And seyata diShmaya, the help of Heaven." God never loses faith in us even if we sometimes lose faith in ourselves.

The supreme role model is Moses who, despite all the setbacks chronicled in last week's parsha and this, eventually became the man of whom it was said that he was "a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were undimmed and his energy unabated" (Deut. 34: 7).

Defeats, delays and disappointments hurt. They hurt even for Moses. So if there are times when we too feel discouraged and demoralised, it is important to remember that even the greatest people failed. What made them great is that they kept going. The road to success passes through many valleys of failure.  There is no other way.



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Sunday, December 29, 2013

BREATHTAKING PHOTOS and the King David hotel with Rabbi Plizkin




Cherishing Opportunities

When someone deeply loves another person, he cherishes opportunities to express that love by coping with hardships for the sake of that person.
Similarly, a person who loves the Almighty will cherish periods of suffering as opportunities to express his love and devotion.
Love Yehuda Lave

Jim Collins, one of the great writers on leadership, puts it well:

The signature of the truly great versus the merely successful is not the absence of difficulty, but the ability to come back from setbacks, even cataclysmic catastrophes, stronger than before ... The path out of darkness begins with those exasperatingly persistent individuals who are constitutionally incapable of capitulation. It's one thing to suffer a staggering defeat… and entirely another to give up on the values and aspirations that make the protracted struggle worthwhile. Failure is not so much a physical state as a state of mind; success is falling down, and getting up one more time, without end.

  On Thursday night 12/26/13, I got to reconnect with one my main inspirations of Positiveness and Happiness, the powerful Rabbi Zelig Plizkin. He is still at, making people think about their happiness. At one time I thought it would be worthwhile translating his Religious concepts into modern spirituality. It is still a worthwhile Idea and I do it in my own way every day.
Love Yehuda Lave








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Thursday, December 26, 2013

Can you figure these out? And Growing up as the Prince of Egypt





 All Events and Situations are Neutral Until You Have Self-Talk About it

Realizing that your self-talk is a key factor of the way you view any event or situation allows you to understand the power of your self-talk.
Your self-talk is the key factor that decides whether you will live a happy life or an unhappy life; whether you frequently experience positive things or negative things. Your self-talk is the key factor that changes encounters with kind, friendly, helpful people into encounters with cold, selfish, and uncaring people, or vice versa.
When someone really comprehends the power of self-talk, he understands on a deep level that his life experiences depend on how he views them. Your outlook is the key to the quality of your life. The difficulty involved with dealing with potentially challenging situations and people depends on your viewpoint and perspective. Your viewpoint, based on your self-talk, makes the situation harder to deal with, or easier.
When you have a "good eye" and see events and people in a positive light, you will have a totally different experience than someone who has a "bad eye." With a "bad eye," you see problems and hardships and difficulties everywhere. With a "good eye," people treat you better and life events will work in your favor. You see opportunities, where those with a "bad eye" see misfortune.
Love Yehuda Lave


 
 
Don't rush.



Study each picture and try to determine what it represents, before looking at the answer below the picture.


=============================================================


Put on your thinking cap.



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eggplant


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Doctor Pepper



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pool table


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Tap dancers


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Card Shark


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The King of Pop


=========================================================




















I Pod



=============================================================















Gator-Aide



====================================================================














Knight mare



==============================================================















Hole Milk



=========================================






Light Beer


======================



Get 'em all? Com'on be honest! Pass them on to your smart friends.











Rabbi Efriam Sprecher on Moses as the Prince

Moses – Born for Leadership
Published: Wednesday, December 25, 2013 12:33:13 PM
Although born to a noble Levite family, the son of Amram and Yocheved, Moshe had an upbringing in his formative years in the palace of Pharaoh, the mightiest world power of his day. Despite the fact that all the firstborn Israelite males that were born during the same period as Moshe were ordred killed by being cast into the Nile, G-d, through Hashgachah Pratit (Divine Personal Intervention), manipulated events so that Moshe would not only survive Pharaoh's deadly decree, but grew up a prince in the very home of the ruler that would have had him killed along with his Israelite bretheren.
It is even more compelling that Moshe also grows up in the very home of the ruler that he eventually confronts head on, challenges, and overcomes as he becomes the redeemer of Israel. The very fact that Moshe was raised by spending his formative years in such close proximity to the world's most powerful noblemen and rulers of the Egyptian royalty was in effect a Divinely engineered leadership training program, tailor-made for Moshe Rabbenu. If Moshe was to challenge and ultimately defeat the Egyptian political machinery to benefit his people, then it was certainly a pre-requisite for him to have a personal and intimate understanding of the inner workings of Egyptian leadership and what makes it tick, something that could only be attained by being raised in that royal environment from a very young age. Furthermore, Moshe,being born into the tribe of Levi and to parents as noble and righteous as Amram and Yocheved, inherited unique spiritual qualities for leadership. A Moshe can only arise as the product of such a home, dedicated to Jewish spiritual leadership. It is from this same home that Moshe's siblings, Aharon and Miriam, emerged and became distinguished national leaders in their own right. In fact, G-d tells the prophet Michah, "I brought you up from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves I redeemed you, and I sent my agents for you, Moshe, Aharon and Miriam." This verse teaches that G-d is an equal opportunity employer.
Rabbi Naton Slifkin on growing up as the prince



The Prince of Egypt
Posted: 24 Dec 2013 02:05 PM PST


Orthodox Jewish reactions to the Dreamworks movie "The Prince of Egypt" were generally negative. Moses was portrayed as being too young, and not holy enough; Aharon was portrayed in a poor light; Tzipporah was not particular tzanua; etc., etc. To be sure, there is what to criticize, including some inaccuracies that probably don't even occur to people; for example, the Torah does not describe Yocheved as dangerously floating Moshe down the river (although it makes for a terrific song in the movie), but rather as placing him in the reeds.

But there is one major theme in the movie which, while it probably grates on the sensitivities of some Orthodox Jews, is an important part of the story.

We're all brought up being taught that Moshe was the greatest tzaddik ever, and the Egyptians were the worst resha'im. And so when The Prince of Egypt depicts Moses as having a close relationship with Rameses, and being emotionally torn up when assisting in the plagues inflicted upon him, this makes some of us uncomfortable. But I think that this is an extremely valuable point in Moshe growing up in Pharaoh's palace to begin with.

Ibn Ezra says that the leader of the Jewish People could only be someone who grew up in such circumstances. Had Moshe grown up as a slave, with the lowly mentality of a slave, he wouldn't have had the confidence and character traits to be a leader. Attacking the Egyptian who was hitting the Jew, and saving the Bnos Midyan – Moshe was only capable of these things because he had grown up as royalty. But perhaps growing up as the prince of Egypt was also important as it placed him in a test that was crucial for his future as leader of the Jewish people:

"And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brothers, and looked on their burdens; and he spied an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers. And he looked this way and that way, and he saw that there was no man; and he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand". (Exodus 2:11-12)

Many years ago, I heard a terrific drush on this from Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopez-Cardozo, quoting Rav Shlomo Kluger: that we are being told here about the identity crisis of the prince of Egypt. When Moshe saw the Egyptian beating the Jew, "He looked this way and that way" – he looked at his royal Egyptian upbringing, and at his Jewish ancestral roots. "And he saw that there was no man" – he saw that he lacked a true identity. "And he slew the Egyptian" – within himself. "And hid him in the sand" – he totally detached himself from the Egyptian mindset, and aligned himself fully with the fate of the Jews.

This was the trial of identity for Moshe. Would he give up all the luxuries and familiarity of Egyptian culture, as well as the relationships from his life so far, to go over to "the other side" and reunite with the slave nation? Moshe passed the test. But I don't think that this trial of identity was only about his slaughter of the Egyptian. I think that, even if Moshe aligned himself fully with the Jews, it could not have been easy for him to leave Pharaoh's house, and to be involved with inflicting the plagues that harmed Pharaoh's home.

Consider this: as Rav Chaim Friedlander in Sifsei Chaim notes, a major theme of the entire Exodus is hakaras hatov (gratitude) - with two notable examples being Moshe not being able to smite the river and the dust, both of which saved him. Even though this was not a conscious act on the part of the river and the dust, Moshe nevertheless felt hakaros hatov towards them. Now, hakaros hatov is not an intellectual position; it is an emotional sentiment. If Moshe had this emotional connection, this feeling of gratitude, to the river and the dust, imagine how much of an emotional connection and feelings of gratitude he would have had to the home that raised him!

If we perceive Moshe as being Moshe Rabbeinu from day one, like all Gedolim are portrayed as being malachim from birth, then it's hard for us to imagine that he could have had these feelings towards Pharaoh's home. But if we realize that Moshe grew up as the Prince of Egypt, then we can certainly understand that his gratitude towards Pharaoh's home must surely have exceeded his gratitude towards the Nile and the dust. This is something that the movie does a good job of illustrating, and especially the pain that Moshe would have felt in his role with inflicting the plagues upon Egypt.

Feeling this distress, yet not letting it stand in the way of his vital job on behalf of his fellow Jews, was Moshe's akeidah. To be a leader requires tremendous dedication to the people. Moshe had to bring that dedication to light - by painfully giving up on his upbringing as the Prince of Egypt.



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Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Lessons in Manliness from Bass Reeves and King David's Tomb



Bless Others

Rabbi Noson Tzvi Finkel of Slobodka would sometimes sit near the window of his house and quietly bestow blessings and prayers on all those who passed by.
Once when Rabbi Finkel was walking down the street, he turned toward a house and said, "Good morning." Rabbi Finkel explained: "Most people only wish someone a good morning when they see them face to face. But even when we do not see them, we should still develop good will toward them."
Love Yehuda Lave

I am having a great time hanging around King David's Tomb. Here is my insights and views:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svaFV22vFHU



From
Rabbi Twerski

A bit more sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and like a wanderer, your poverty will come (Proverbs 6:10-11).


No one sets out in life with the goal of being a failure, and if people would only recognize the consequences of bad habits, they would avoid them.
From my work with alcoholics, I can attest that no one sets themselves a goal of becoming alcoholic, but what may have started out as safe social drinking advances very surreptitiously to become dependence and addiction. Future addicts find they need gradually increasing amounts of alcohol to put themselves at ease, until the quantity they consume becomes toxic and results in disaster.
So it is with laziness. What harm can there be in just a bit more sleep or a little more rest? Indolence, however, can stealthily creep up on people, catch them, and suck out their vigor and diligence.
Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, like a "wanderer" who appears on the scene unexpectedly, one finds oneself in poverty. Indolence has taken its toll.
Breaking bad habits does not come easily, and even some people who arise early and who may feel they are not indolent might discover that they are fond of procrastination, which is just another variety of indolence.
A proper amount of sleep and rest is essential for good health. Diligent people schedule their rest and relaxation so that they do not inadvertently become victims of the seductive character of indolence.


Today I shall ...
...
try to do that which needs to be done without delay, and schedule my periods of sleep, rest, and relaxation.


Lessons in Manliness from Bass Reeves

Who was the greatest Deputy U.S. Marshal of the Old West?
Wyatt Earp?
Wild Bill Hickok?
How about Bass Reeves? Bass who?
Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves was arguably the greatest lawman and gunfighter of the West, a man who served as a marshal for 32 years in the most dangerous district in the country, captured 3,000 felons, (once bringing in 17 men at one time), and shot 14 men in the line of duty, all without ever being shot himself.
He was also a black dude.
To understand the story of Bass Reeves, you first need to understand a bit of the fascinating history of Oklahoma. Let's start there.
Before Oklahoma was a state, it was a territory. When the "Five Civilized Tribes" (Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, Seminoles, and Chickasaws) were forcibly removed from their ancestral homes in the Southeast, they were relocated to the middle of the country, to an area called the Indian Territory.

Because the Five Tribes sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War, the federal government forced them to renegotiate their treaties and cede the Western half of Indian Territory for the settlement of other tribes. This was called the Oklahoma Territory, and it was opened in 1890 to white settlers. The two territories were referred to as the "Twin Territories."
The Indian Territory boasted an unusual mix of peoples and cultures. It was the home of Indians, Indian Freedmen (the black slaves of the Indians who were emancipated after the Civil War and made citizens of the Five Tribes), white settlers and African-Americans who had formerly been slaves to white masters in the South who rented land from the Indians as sharecroppers, and finally, outlaws fleeing the law and squatting on the land.
The Indian Lightforce police and the tribal courts governed this diverse population. But the tribal courts only had jurisdiction over citizens of the Five Tribes. So if a crime was a committed by an Indian and/or it involved a fellow Indian, it was handled by these tribal courts.
Non-Freedmen blacks, whites, and Indians who committed a crime against a person who was not a citizen of the Indian nations had to be tried in the U.S. federal courts in Paris, Texas and Fort Smith, Arkansas. And so the only U.S. law enforcement officers or judicial figures in Indian Territory were the U.S. Marshals, who rode for miles over the prairies, for months at a time, looking for wanted criminals to arrest and bring back to Fort Smith or Paris.
This made the Indian Territory a highly desirable place for horse thieves, bootleggers, murderers and outlaws of all varieties to hide out and lay low. At the time, it was estimated that of the 22,000 whites living in Indian Territory, 17,000 of them were criminals. This was truly the Wild West, or as the saying of the time went, "No Sunday West of St. Louis. No God West of Forth Smith."
"Eighty miles west of Forth Smith was known as "the dead line," and whenever a deputy marshal from Fort Smith or Paris, Texas, crossed the Missouri, Kansas & Texas track he took his own life in his hands and he knew it. On nearly every trail would be found posted by outlaws a small card warning certain deputies that if they ever crossed the dead line they would be killed. Reeves has a dozen of these cards which were posted for his special benefit. And in those days such a notice was no idle boast, and many an outlaw has bitten the dust trying to ambush a deputy on these trails." -Oklahoma City newspaper article, 1907
Indian Territory was the most dangerous place for a U.S. Marshal to work then or ever. In the period before Oklahoma statehood, over one hundred marshals were killed in the line of duty. It helps to put that number in perspective: Since the US Marshals Service was created in 1789, more than 200 marshals have been killed in the line of duty. 120 of those were killed in the Indian and Oklahoma territories before statehood in 1907. That's right, half of all the U.S. marshals ever killed were killed in the Twin Territories.

A man really had to have true grit to be a marshal at this time and in this place.
Bass Reeves had that grit in spades.
Reeves was likely the first African-American commissioned as a deputy U.S. Marshal west of the Mississippi River and was brought into the service by Judge Isaac C. Parker, aka the "The Hanging Judge." Parker presided over the largest federal court district in U.S. history (74,000 square miles) and sentenced 88 men to be hanged during the course of his career. For more than half of his years on the bench, no appeals of his decisions were allowed. Reeves and Parker enjoyed a professional and personal relationship of great mutual respect.
It was a respect Reeves worked hard to earn.
Reeves stood 6'2 in a time when men were much shorter, and he had very broad shoulders and large hands. He was a giant among men. Such a large man needed a uncommonly large horse ("When you get as big as me, a small horse is as worthless as a preacher in a whiskey joint fight. Just when you need him bad to help you out, he's got to stop and think about it a little bit."). He rode the territories with two six-shooters, his trusty Winchester rifle, and a big black hat upon his head. Needless to say, Reeves cut an extremely imposing figure.
But it was his reputation more than his appearance that really struck fear in the hearts of the "bad men" of the territories. Contemporaries described Reeves as a "lawman second to none," a man who was "absolutely fearless," and a "terror to outlaws and desperadoes." He was said to be the "most feared U.S marshal that was ever heard of in that country," and his nickname was the "Invincible Marshal;" the undisputed king of narrow escapes, "at different times his belt was shot in two, a button shot off his coat, his hat brim shot off, and the bridle reins which he held in his hands cut by a bullet."
Reeves was also know for his honesty, dogged persistence, and unswerving devotion to duty and the law. He always got his man; having arrested 3,000 criminals, he only once failed to nab the man he was after. He never shot a man when it wasn't necessary and they hadn't aimed to kill him first. And he never changed his policies or treatment of folks on the basis of race, ethnicity, or even familial ties; all were equal under the law. Not only did Reeves arrest the minister who baptized him, he also arrested his own son after the young man murdered his wife in a fit of jealously. None of the other marshals wanted the latter assignment, but Reeves simply strode into the Chief Deputy Marshal's office and said, "Give me the writ." Two weeks later, he brought in his son to be booked.
Oh, and he had an awesome mustache.
Reeves' deeds and exploits are the stuff of Hollywood films, but they're absolutely true and offer us several lessons in manliness.

Lessons in Manliness from Bass Reeves

It's Never Too Late for a Man to Have a Second Act

Bass Reeves was born a slave in Arkansas in 1838. When the Civil War broke out, his white master joined the Confederate Army and took Reeves along to serve as his body servant. Reeves bided his time, until one night he saw an opening, laid out his master with his mighty fists, and took off for the hills a free man. He was taken in by the Keetoowah, an abolitionist sect of the Cherokee Nation.
When the war was over, he struck out on his own and settled with his family in Van Buren, Arkansas, making a good living as a farmer and horse breeder. He was the first black man to settle in Van Buren, and he built his family an eight room house with his own hands.
He started making some extra money by helping the U.S. Marshals with scouting and tracking and soon earned a reputation for himself as a man who knew what he was doing and could be relied upon.
He was commissioned as a Deputy U.S. Marshal in his own right in 1875, when he was 38 years old. During this time marshals were paid for the number of criminals brought in and the distance traveled in capturing them and bringing them back to court. With so many miles to cover in Indian Territory, and with his legendary effectiveness for tracking down wrong-doers, Reeves made a great living at his job. And so it was only as he was nearing 40 that he found his true calling.

Compensate for Weaknesses by Cultivating Signature Strengths

"My mom always said she heard that Bass was so tough he could spit on a brick and bust it in two!" -Willabelle Shultz, granddaughter of fellow marshal
Because he grew up a slave, Bass Reeves did not know how to read or write. Being an illiterate U.S. Marshal was highly unusual—the men needed to fill out forms and reports–but Bass got and kept his job by compensating for this weakness with other valuable strengths.
First, he could speak the Muskogee language of the Creeks and Seminoles, and he could also converse pretty well in the languages of the other Five Civilized Tribes. He took the time to get to know the tribes and their customs, and they respected him for it. His friendly and sterling reputation among Indians, blacks, and whites alike led folks to trust him and give him assistance and tips they didn't feel comfortable sharing with other marshals.
Reeves knew Indian Territory like the back of his hand, and his scouting and tracking skills were second to none.
But his most notable strength was his prowess with firearms. He carried two big .45 caliber six-shooters and wore them with their handles facing forward. He employed the cross-handed draw, as he believed it was the fastest way for a man to grab his guns. And indeed, he was known as a man who could draw with lightning fast speed; numerous men tried to beat him, and 14 of them died in the attempt.
But unlike what you see in movies, cowboys in the West did not rely on their pistols; those were their back-up firearms. A cowboy's weapon of choice was his trusty Winchester rifle, and that was the gun Reeves used most. But he was a proficient marksman with both weapons. Ambidextrous and always cool under pressure, Reeves could fire an accurate shot with pistol or rifle, with his left hand or his right. It was said he could draw "a bead as fine as a spider's web on a frosty morning" and "shoot the left hind leg off of a contended fly sitting on a mule's ear at a hundred yards and never ruffle a hair."
Turkey shoot competitions were popular at territorial fairs and picnics, but Reeves was banned from entering them because he was too darn good. Once, when he saw 6 wolves tearing at a steer, he took them all out with just 8 shots from the back of a galloping horse.

The Mind Is Just as Powerful a Weapon as the Gun

"If Reeves were fictional, he would be a combination of Sherlock Holmes, Superman, and the Lone Ranger." -Historian Art Burton
Despite Bass' legendary strength and prowess with firearms, he didn't simply go after criminals with guns and fists blazing. Rather, he took a far slower, methodical, and ultimately more effective approach. He was an intuitive and quick-thinking detective who often got his man from being smart and crafty.
Reeves was a master of disguise, a tactic he used to sneak up on unsuspecting outlaws. They would undoubtedly see a giant black man on a giant horse coming for them, so when Bass was closing in on a man, he would switch to a smaller ride, and he learned tricks from the Indians on how to look smaller in the saddle.
And often he would ditch the horse all together. For example, one time he dressed like a farmer and lumbered along in a ramshackle wagon pulled by old oxen. He drove the wagon close to a cabin where six outlaws where holed up, and as he passed their hide out, he pretended to get the wagon snagged on a large tree stump. When the outlaws came out to help this humble farmer, he coolly reached into his overalls, drew out his six-shooters, and placed the men under arrest.
On another occasion, Reeves was after two outlaws who were hiding out at their mother's house. Reeves camped 28 miles away to be sure they didn't see him coming or hear he was in the area. Then he ditched his marshal duds and stashed his handcuffs and six-shooters under a set of dirty, baggy clothes, flat shoes, and a large floppy hat into which he shot three bullet holes. Dressed like a typical tramp, Reeves sauntered up to the felons' hideout and asked for something to eat, showing them his bullet-ridden hat and explaining how he had been shot at by marshals and was famished from having walked for miles to flee the law. Having ingratiated himself as a fellow outlaw, the men ate together and decided to join forces on a future heist. After everyone had fallen asleep for the night, Reeves crept up to the two outlaws and handcuffed them in their sleep, careful not to wake them. In the morning, Reeves bounded into the room and woke them up with his booming voice, "Come on, boys, let's get going from here!" As the men tried to get out bed, they quickly realized they'd been had by crafty old Bass Reeves.

Be Reliable–The Details Matter

Even though he was a tough-as-nails badass, locals also remembered Reeves as a man known for his "politeness and courteous manner" and as someone who was "kind," "sympathetic,"  and "always neatly dressed." He was also a man who took pride in getting the details right.
Reeves was unable to read or write and yet part of his job was to write up reports on his arrests and serve subpoenas to witnesses. So when he had to write a report, he would dictate to someone else and sign with an "X." When he would get a stack of subpoenas to serve to different people, he would memorize the names like symbols and have people read the subpoenas out loud to him until he memorized what symbol went with what subpoena.
He took great pride in the fact that he never once served the wrong subpoena to the wrong person. In fact, many of the courts specially requested that their subpoenas be served by Reeves because he was so reliable.

Keep Cool. Always.

"Reeves was never known to show the slightest excitement under any circumstance. He does not know what fear is. Place a warrant for arrest in his hands and no circumstance can cause him to deviate. " -Oklahoma City Weekly Times-Journal, 1907
Bass Reeves had an uncanny ability to stay calm and cool, even when he was in a really tight spot.
He found himself in that kind of tight spot while looking to arrest a murderer, Jim Webb, who was hanging out with posseman Floyd Smith at a ranch house. Reeves and his partner moseyed up, tried to pull the old, "we're just regular cowboys passing through" trick, and sat down to get some breakfast. But the two men weren't buying it and sat glaring at the marshals, pistols at the ready in their hands. An hour went by and Reeves and his partner still didn't have an opening to make a move on the outlaws. But when Webb was momentarily distracted by a noise outside, Reeves jumped up, wrapped his large hand around Webb's throat, and shoved his Colt .45 in the surprised man's face. Webb meekly surrendered. Reeves' partner was supposed to jump in and grab Smith, but he froze. Smith fired two shots at Reeves; he dodged them both, and with his hand still around Webb's neck, he turned and took Smith out with one shot. Then he ordered his partner to handcuff Webb and called it a day.
Reeves was the target of numerous assassination attempts but he often saved his own neck by staying completely calm and in control. One time, he met two men out riding who knew who he was and wanted him dead. They drew their guns and forced him off his horse. One of the men asked if Reeves had any last words, and Bass answered that he would really appreciate it if one of them could read him a letter from his wife before finishing him off. He reached into his saddlebag for the letter and handed it over. As soon as the would-be-assassin reached for the letter, Bass put one of his hands around the man's throat, used his other hand to draw his gun, and said, "Son of a bitch, now you're under arrest!" The outlaw's partner was so surprised he dropped his gun, and Reeves put both men in chains.
Another time, Reeves faced a similar situation; this time three wanted outlaws forced him from his horse and were about to do him in. He showed them the warrants he had for their arrest and asked them for the date, so he could jot it down for his records when he turned the men into jail. The leader of the group laughed and said,"You are ready to turn in now." But having dropped his guard for just a second, Reeves drew his six-shooter as fast as lightning and grabbed the barrel of the man's gun. The outlaw fired three times, but Reeves again dodged the bullets. At the same time, and with his hand still around the barrel of the first man's gun, he shot the second man, and then hit the third man over the head with his six-shooter, killing him. All in a day's work for Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves.

Build a Bridge

When Reeves was appointed a marshal by Judge Parker, the judge reminded him that "he would be in a position to serve as a deputy to show the lawful as well as the lawless that a black man was the equal of any other law enforcement officer on the frontier."
Bass took this responsibility seriously.
Black law enforcement officers were a rarity in other parts of the country, but more common in Indian Territory and surrounding states like Texas. In fact, despite Hollywood's depiction of the Old West as lily white, 25% of cowboys in Texas were African-American.
Because of the reputation Bass earned as a marshal who was honest, effective, and doggedly persistent–the Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal of the Western District, Bud Ledbetter, called Bass, "one of the bravest men this country has ever known"–more black marshals were hired in Indian Territory; a couple dozen were part of the service during Bass' tenure. Nowhere else in the country could a black man arrest a white man. Bass had paved the way, and done one of the manliest things a man can do—build a bridge and a legacy for others to follow.
Sadly, when Oklahoma became a state in 1907, it instituted Jim Crow laws that forced black marshals out of the service. Despite his legendary record as a deputy marshal, Reeves had to take a job as a municipal policeman in the town of Muskogee the year before he died. But his shining example of manhood cannot so easily be passed over and still speaks to us today.





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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Downplaying the holocaust, and Yehuda at King David's Tomb



As We Think, So We Are

Regardless of where a person actually is physically, he is really where his thoughts are. A person constantly has a choice to think elevated and uplifting thoughts - or negative, self-destructive thoughts. How old you feel is greatly dependent on your attitude about yourself. Elderly people can increase their vitality and vigor by considering themselves young.
We constantly talk to ourselves. We can choose to be our own best friend by telling ourselves positive thoughts, or our own worst enemy by repeating negative thoughts.

Love Yehuda Lave

The below story portrays of the New York Times has always had anti-semitism, My you tube below shows how the Jewish world has recovered to Party-Harty in King David's Tomb!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvHFKhqudiw



 A young Jewish woman of valor reveals the toxic mutation that's been baked into the genes of The New York Times from the very start. Published on Oct 30, 2013
Section One: Cultural Commentators. Anna Blech, HCHS '14 "Downplaying the Holocaust: Arthur Hays Sulzberger and the New York Times"


A real American Hero: Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise , Idaho


You're a 19 year old kid.
You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam .
It's November 11, 1967. 
LZ (landing zone) X-ray.
Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so  intense from 100 yards away, that  your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out.
Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.
As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.
You look up to see a Huey coming in. But.. It doesn't seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.
Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.
He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.
Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board.
Then he  flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety.
And, he kept coming back!! 13 more  times!!
Until all  the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.
He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.
Medal  of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise , Idaho
May God Bless and Rest His Soul.
I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing,but we've sure seen a whole bunch  about Lindsay Lohan, Tiger Woods
and the bickering of congress over Health Reform.
Medal of Honor Winner Captain Ed Freeman
Shame on the media !!!
Now... YOU pass this along.
Honor this real hero. 
Please.





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Monday, December 23, 2013

"Teaching Techniques" and the old and new cities of Jerusalem





Discuss Growth With Others

Our thinking is shaped and corrected only through the exchange of thoughts with others. To sharpen yourself, communicate with friends who are striving toward the same goals. An intellect which depends entirely upon itself is prone to stagnation, fantasies or erroneous ideas.
Here is an example below of non-verbal communication and how dangerous it is!! (see the videos)

Love Yehuda Lave

In Yesterday's email, I inadvertently left out my trip to the wailing wall in Jerusalem:


Here it is:


On the way to the Wailing wall to wail with Joy and tears:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIdb_MFGEx0
Here is today's you tube on the old and new cities of Jerusalem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWgxJf02f6I

 
 "Teaching Techniques"...

Click on each of the videos in order of Brazil , Egypt and then USA !!!
 










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Sunday, December 22, 2013

Socialism Explained - Abbott & Costello and the wailing wall in Jerusalem





Apply What You Have Learned

When you hear a good idea, focus on what you can do on a practical level to apply what you have learned. Don't feel that you fulfill your obligation by just hearing good ideas. On the practical level, what can you do to improve?

Love Yehuda Lave

Socialism explained
here is the link, hope it lightens your day


On the way to the Wailing wall to wail with Joy and tears:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIdb_MFGEx0


Trust Must Be Earned


by Rabbi Laibl Wolf


Orwell was 29 years before his time.  1984 has occurred in 2013. We live under the watchful eyes of governmental voyeurs, being watched and eavesdropped on by self appointed 'security bureaucrats' and our private space invaded by officious aliens.
On the one hand one might be tempted to respond, so what? Why resent the voyeur? Or is that Big Brother cramps our style? Are we not secure enough to be oblivious of others' quest for our vital statistics?
Or is their something inherently immoral about invasion of privacy, about super secret governments undertaking clandestine and covert activities against its citizens? And we must therefore resist.
At the same time is it not also true that most people in today's world will defer to the argument that security and intelligence services are necessary to protects its citizenry by keeping tabs on anti social and terrorist groups?
So where to draw the line in the sand?
There is a Mishnaic (Jewish literary) wisdom teaching that we should always behave as if we are being observed by 'a watchful eye' and listened to by 'a listening ear'. There is however a crucial distinction: Trust. The wisdom teacher was referring to the Divine eye and ear. The 'greenback' says it all: In G-d we trust. Not so governments and political leaders!
I recall, as a young final year law student, listening to a lecture by one of the most distinguished English jurists who happened to be visiting at the time; the iconic Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls (no, not the car nor the bread! – the English do have a somewhat peculiar set of historical distinguished titles, even, 'The most Noble Order of the Garter, for chivalry – spare me!) Lord Denning identified the law of privacy as the most significant law in existence. He didn't wax eloquent about ethics or apply inscrutable legalistic reasoning.  He simply correlated the sense of privacy with psychological wellbeing. We cease to be truly human when we live in a fishbowl.
Yet Snowden and Assange are not noble heroes. One only has to read of their 'other sleazier sides' to recognize obvious opportunism. But they have certainly struck a respondent chord with societies throughout the world. Why? People simply don't trust their leaders.
Trust is to cast your lot with someone – utterly and fully.  It is to rise above logic and emotions to be fully committed to the other despite all. Most children trust their parents in that way. Most parishioners trust their religious leaders like that (or used to!) Most spouses trust each other like that (well, perhaps a trifle overstated in our own days). Most citizens used to trust their President like that. But trust relationships these days have eroded to the point of actual suspicion.
In such a climate of distrust - mistrust that is often substantiated by the facts on the ground - it is neither the time or setting for Big Brother to rule the roost.
That is not to say that we are sufficiently grown up, mature, honest, and filled with integrity that a police force is not warranted, that there should be no laws for wiretapping, or that surveillance of truly suspicious activity should not take place. And we have no choice other than to trust the judiciary to supervise the efficacy and ethical use of such mechanisms.  But a general system of surveillance, holus-bolus, dredging millions of innocent phone calls, a general dredging exercise without parameters, in the fond hope that it might turn up some criminal intent – sorry, I simply don't trust you to do that, Mr. President.
Trust must be earned, and leaders today have, by their mendacious behavior simply not earned it.
- See more at: http://www.spiritgrowjosefkrysscenter.org/blog/laibls-world/trust-must-be-earned?inf_contact_key=8860ae5219a676c1d3eeb8596f0f56721749f4add117440167e32838cde0aebc#sthash.wR9slO3l.dpuf






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Friday, December 20, 2013

In Case you are bored and Surviving Failure




Use the Ideas you Learn

Every person is unique. When you read ideas, try focusing on how they relate to you and your individual personality. Some ideas you'll want to incorporate into your world view. Other ideas you may want to share with someone else. (In this way, you'll be using those ideas as a tool for doing an act of kindness.
What idea that you heard had the biggest impact on your life? Think of someone you can share that with. If you can't think of a specific person, share it with a stranger. Simply say, "I heard this idea, what do you think about it?"
Love Yehuda Lave



Just in Case You Have Nothing Better to Do  (i.e. Bored) or having a senior moment.
 
Just Click on the Door Stop then click on the larger image:

 
 









Just in Case You Have
Nothing Better to Do
(i.e. Bored) or having a senior moment.
 
Just Click on the Door Stop then click on the
larger image
 
 




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Surviving Failure

Vayechi - 14 December, 2013 / 11 Tevet, 5774 By Rabbi Sachs

Bereishit ends on a sublime note of reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers. His brothers were afraid that he had not really forgiven them for selling him into slavery. They suspected that he was merely delaying his revenge until their father died. So after Jacob's death they express their fear. Joseph however insisted:

"Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. (Gen. 50: 19-21)

This is the second time he had said something like this to them. Earlier he had spoken similarly when he first disclosed that he – the man they thought was an Egyptian viceroy called Zophenat Paneakh – was in fact their brother Joseph:

"I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no ploughing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God." (Gen. 45: 3-8)

This is a crucial moment in the history of faith. It marks the birth of forgiveness, the first recorded moment at which one person forgives another for a wrong they have done. But it also establishes another important principle: the idea of divine providence. History is not what Joseph Heller called it, "a trashbag of random coincidences blown open in the wind." It has a purpose, a point, a plot. God is at work behind the scenes. "There's a divinity that shapes our ends," says Hamlet, "rough-hew them how we will."

Joseph's greatness was that he sensed this. Nothing in his life, he now knew, had happened by accident. The plot to kill him, his sale as a slave, the false accusations of Potiphar's wife, his time in prison, and his disappointed hope that the chief butler would remember him and secure his release – all these events that might have cast him into ever deeper depths of despair, turned out in retrospect to be necessary steps in the journey that eventuated in his becoming second-in-command in Egypt and the one person capable of saving the whole country – as well as his own family – from starving in the years of famine.

Joseph had in double measure one of the necessary gifts of a leader: the ability to keep going despite opposition, envy, false accusation and repeated setbacks.

Every leader who stands for anything will face opposition. This may be a genuine conflict of interests. A leader elected to make society more equitable will almost certainly win the support of the poor and the antagonism of the rich. One elected to reduce the tax burden will do the opposite. It cannot be avoided. Politics without conflict is a contradiction in terms.

Any leader elected to anything, or more loved or gifted than others, will face envy. Rivals will say, "Why wasn't it me?" That is what Korach thought about Moses and Aaron. It is what the brothers thought about Joseph when they saw that their father loved him more than them. It is what Antonio Salieri thought about the more gifted Mozart according to Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus.

As for false accusations, they have occurred often enough in history. Joan of Arc was accused of heresy and burned at the stake. A quarter century later she was posthumously declared innocent by an official court of inquiry. More than twenty people were put to death as a result of the Salem witch trials in 1692-3. Years later, as their innocence began to be perceived, a priest present at the trials, John Hale, admitted, "Such was the darkness of that day ... that we walked in the clouds, and could not see our way" (quoted in Robert A. Divine, T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, America Past and Present, Volume I, Pearson, 2001, 94). The most famous false accusation of modern times was the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a French officer of Jewish descent accused of being a German spy. The affair rocked France during the years 1894 and 1906 before Dreyfus was finally acquitted.

Setbacks too are part of the life-story of the most successful. J. K. Rowling's initial Harry Potter novel was rejected by the first twelve publishers she sent it to. Another writer of a book about children suffered twenty-one rejections. The book was called "Lord of the Flies," and its author, William Golding, was eventually awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

In his famous commencement address at Stanford University the late Steve Jobs told the story of the three blows of fate that shaped his life: dropping out of university, being fired from Apple, the company he founded, and being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Rather than being defeated by them, he turned them all to creative use.

For twenty-two years I lived close to Abbey Road, North London, where a famous pop group recorded all their hits. At their first audition, they performed for a record company who told them that guitar bands were "on their way out." The verdict on their performance (in January 1962) was: "The Beatles have no future in show business."

All this explains Winston Churchill's great remark that "success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

It may be that what sustains people through repeated setbacks is belief in themselves, or sheer tenacity, or lack of alternatives. What sustained Joseph, though, was his insight into Divine providence. A plan was unfolding whose end he could only dimly discern, but at some stage he seems to have realised that he was one of the characters in a far larger drama and that all the bad things that had happened to him were necessary if the intended outcome was to occur. As he said to his brothers, "It was not you who sent me here, but God."

This willingness to let events work themselves out in accordance with providence, this understanding that we are at best no more than co-authors of our lives, allowed Joseph to survive without resentment about the past or despair in the face of the future. Trust in God gave him immense strength, which is what we will need if we are to dare greatly. Whatever malice other people harbour against us – and the more successful you are, the more malice there is – if we can say, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good," we will survive, our strength intact, our energy undiminished





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