Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor | | | | Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement | | | The more frequently you focus on your appreciation and gratitude for each breath, the greater will be your sense of daily gratitude... Now say, 'I am joyfully grateful for each and every breath.' If you have any doubt of your gratitude, just imagine the alternative for a moment - not being able to breathe! Find the Silver Lining: When things don't work out the way you wish, always look for some positive outcome to the situation working out the way it did. For example, you can always be grateful that things didn't turn out even worse. You have infinite value and worth! You already know you have strengths and inner resources. But you have even more strengths and resources that you are not yet fully aware of, and they will enhance your life as you become more aware of them. There are many more strengths and inner resources that you can gain and build up from now on. Love Yehuda Lave | | | Stressed Mothers Have More Girls - A Lot More Girls Here's some advice for men who want a son: Be nice to his future mother. Yet more research has now demonstrated that women harrowed by physical and psychological stress during pregnancy are less likely to have a boy.
How less likely, exactly? In general, human procreation is biased toward males: Globally, 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. This make evolutionary sense if you figure that young boys are more likely to die than young girls — whether because they're more daring, more annoying, or more stupid (to sum up: more likely to play chicken). Our long-term evolution did not factor in polygamy.
Full Story (Science) | | Facebook Aims To Give Israeli Startups A Leg Up At The Playground Of all the Facebook offices in the world, only Facebook Israel specializes in accelerating local startups. Underlining that commitment, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg recently came to Tel Aviv to inaugurate The Playground, Facebook Israel's new physical space for startups – as well as for communities, nonprofit organizations and businesses. "Israel is a startup nation, second only to Silicon Valley, with the highest density of startups in the world," Sandberg said on August 14 as she cut the ribbon on the new facility with Facebook Israel Country Director Adi Soffer Teeni. "Today I met entrepreneurs who use our services to find customers, hire people and grow their business. They are building communities and creating jobs and turning bold ideas into technologies that change the world. This is what The Playground is all about – building connections, developing skills and fostering innovation." Sandberg said The Playground will be a meeting and event space bringing together entrepreneurs, businesses of all sizes, NGOs and communities. "We expect to reach 15,000 people per year with programs, trainings, office hours, and mentoring. We want the community to consider The Playground as a second home where they can meet and learn," she said. A full floor of facilities The Playground takes up 16,000 square feet — a full floor of Facebook Israel's six-year-old Rothschild Boulevard office, which houses more than 300 employees dedicated to marketing and sales. Facebook also runs a 200-employee R&D center in Tel Aviv's Azrieli Sarona Tower. The Playground also encompasses a live studio for video production, a podcast room, a device lab, workshop areas and co-working areas. "The Playground will allow us to scale everything we currently do in the Facebook Israeli office," said Soffer Teeni. "It will create a dedicated space for the Israeli ecosystem, bringing together old and new, traditional and digital; and most importantly, people." Facebook Israel's head of communications, Maayan Sarig, tells ISRAEL21c that The Playground is unique to Israel. Among its other functions, The Playground is the new address for 13 consumer startups in Facebook Israel's Startup Growth Program, launched last May. "Our Startup Growth Program supports consumer-centric, post-seed stage startups," said Soffer Teeni. "We are building professional tracks, one per domain — product, marketing, tech, and management — to accelerate the leader of that domain within the startup from someone who has some orientation in product and marketing, to a top-tier professional who can lead the domain from seed to growth stage." The 13 startups include: - Voom (formerly Skywatch), the world's first on-demand, usage-based insurance solution for specialized mobility such as drones.
- Workiz, SaaS-based software that provides scheduling, invoicing, CRM, and reporting solutions to field service management companies.
- Klever, a shopping app combining fast auctions and deep discounts.
- Lumen, a device and app that shows you if your body is using fats or carbs for fuel and gives daily personalized meal and workout plans.
- Venn, transforming urban neighborhoods into shared communities.
- Rewire, the first innovative international banking platform for migrants working around the world.
- Maapilim, direct-to-consumer online wellness brand selling handmade, Mediterranean sourced grooming products for men.
- EquityBee, helping startup employees get the money they need to exercise their stock options before expiration.
- Shookit, distribution-tech company offering hyperlocal fulfillment centers for local entrepreneurs selling and delivering consumer products, groceries and parcels.
- Elementor, a free page builder plugin for WordPress creators.
- Modli, modest fashion e-marketplace featuring multiple designers.
- Apps Village, SaaS platform enabling small and medium businesses to create branded mobile apps.
- Bookaway, an online platform helping users book ground travel services from local transportation suppliers worldwide.
While she was in Israel, Sandberg also visited the local branch of her organization, Lean In, promoting gender equality in the workforce; met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin; and accompanied her parents, Joel and Adelle Sandberg of Florida, as they donated a new ambulance at the Jerusalem national headquarters of United Hatzalah, Israel's largest all-volunteer EMS organization.
Full Story (Israel21C)
| | Etz Hasade Flour Mill and Shilo Block Settlements On the first day of Chul Amoud Sukkot 2019 (5780), we memorialize Ruthy Breener by going to the Shomron. We see the Kush Shilo and the most interesting Kosher Ground stone flour mill in Israel. | | How Adam and Eve Made Peace With Abel's Murder By Menachem Feldman The first portion of the Torah begins with pristine beauty.The serenity was short lived The creation of a graceful, peaceful world, culminating with the creation of the day of rest, as the Torah describes: And G‑d saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good, and it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day. Now the heavens and the earth were completed and all their host. And G‑d completed on the seventh day His work that He did, and He abstained on the seventh day from all His work that He did. And G‑d blessed the seventh day and He hallowed it, for thereon He abstained from all His work that G‑d created to do.1 Alas, the serenity was short lived. We turn just a few pages and we read of successive disasters. Adam and Eve taste the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, internalizing both good and evil, thus implanting within themselves an inclination to evil, creating a constant struggle within the human heart between the G‑dly soul and the animalistic soul. We read about Adam and Eve being told of their mortality. At the end of their lives, they would return to the earth. They understood that it would take death for the evil and good within them to separate. The body and the evil inclination would return to the earth, and the soul would return heavenward, to G‑d. We then read of the first murder in history. We read about they were comforted how Adam and Eve had to face a double tragedy; the murder of their son Abel, as well as coming to face with the fact that their son Cain was capable of murdering his own brother. The Midrash relates that Adam and Eve wept beside the corpse of Abel, unsure what to do with the body because this was their first encounter with death. The Midrash continues: they saw a bird (araiv in the Hebrew) burying a dead bird in the ground. Adam and Eve decided to do the same and buried Abel in the earth. On the surface, this Midrash explains how they found a solution to the technical question of how to dispose of the corpse. On a deeper level, however, this Midrash contains profound insight into the human condition. Adam and Eve were at a loss, not only about what to do with Abel's body, but they had a much deeper question: how to respond to absolute evil? How could they continue to live after witnessing the depravity of which humanity was capable? True, they too had sinned. They too had been condemned to natural death. They too were not perfect. But they could never have imagined that a human being could act so brutally, that one human being could or would afflict an unnatural death upon another human being. They could not imagine that a person could act in a way that was the polar opposite of what G‑d had intended. G‑d therefore sent the bird to teach Adam and Eve how to respond to absolute evil. According to the Sages, the araiv is terribly cruel toward its young, abandoning its offspring at birth. Adam and Eve witnessed this same bird engaging in the truest form of kindness. The Sages2 explain that burial is referred to in the Torah3 as "loving kindness and truth," because when doing kindness with a living person the doer can always expect a favor in return. Not so with burial. When we are kind to the dead, we do not expect anything in return. Thus, the kindness is absolute. The kindness is true kindness. Adam and Eve looked at the araiv and understood. They received the wisdom on how to react. They now understood that the response to absolute evil is absolute kindness. True, evil must be stopped and contained, but the remedy to absolute depravity within humanity is absolute love and compassion. They were comforted. They were comforted, because they now understood that when we are kind to the dead, we do not expect anything in return profundity of evil that the human is capable of is matched only by the profound kindness within the human spirit. They understood that the same human heart capable of boundless hate is likewise capable of boundless love. We, too, must take this message to heart. We look around the world and see intense cruelty. We know that we must respond with intense kindness. Like Adam and Eve, we understand that this earth is a complicated place, that humanity is capable of extremes. Like Adam and Eve, we respond to negativity with a greater commitment to absolute kindness. When we face unspeakable cruelty, we take a step toward extreme kindness, bringing us closer and closer to G‑d's vision of a perfect world. A peaceful world. A world that experiences the tranquility of the seventh day. The tranquility of Shabbat.4 Footnotes 1. Genesis 1:31 - 2:3. 2. See Rashi to Genesis 47:29. 3. Genesis 47:29. 4. Based on the teachings of the Rebbe, Reshimot, booklet 25. By Menachem Feldman | | Birkat Kohanim at the Western Wall - Sukkot 2019 Last Wednsday morning, during Sukkoth, thousands of people came to receive the traditional priestly blessing at the Wailing Wall also named the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Western Wall is the last remaining remnant of the 1st and second Jewish Temples. To Jews, it is the holiest spot to pray in the entire world. Hundreds of "Kohanim"(Jewish descendants of Aharon, brother of Moses) come to the Wailing Wall to bless those present with the priestly prayer that appears in the Bible: 'May G‑d bless you and guard you.
'May G‑d shine His countenance upon you and be gracious to you.
'May G‑d turn His countenance toward you and grant you peace.'" (Numbers 6:24-26) Although the blessings are still said today, only twice a year on the festivals of Sukkot and Passover is it performed on such a large scale. This ceremony has been held in Israel since 1970 and since then it has become a tradition that attracts thousands of people. | | Who said, "Violence does not help?" RABBI MEIR KAHANE in 1988 wrote the following article. As you read it simply change the names and it could have been written today. Who said, "Violence does not help?" A dozen Israeli leaders, including Shamir, Peres and Rabin, solemnly advised the Arabs (for their own good, we must assume) that "violence and riots do not help." "Riots do not help? "Violence only hurts your cause?" our leaders said. Balderdash! Of course, violence helps, why else did Mr. Shamir decide to help form the Stern group (cruelly called "gang" by the British and Jewish Establishment types who warned that "violence would not help"…) And, if violence and rioting did not help the Arab cause, why is it that the "Palestine" question has been headline news almost every day. And what forced the Americans and West who, from the beginning were comfortably isolating themselves from the problem. Now they condemn Israel and demand that a political solution be found? Who said, "Violence does not help?" The "Palestinians" seeing that every political effort had failed, reasoned, why should violence be perceived as not helping? Knowing that television and news media thrive on "action." Why should the Arabs not attempt to give them that, knowing that hundreds of millions of people all over the world would be seeing it? Who said, "Violence does not help?" What put the Soviet Jewish issue on page on of The New York Times and as the major story on almost every television station, if not violence? And what made the British get out of Palestine? What led to the creation of a Jewish state, if not violence? How much good did non-violence do for the Jews of the Holocaust? Of course violence helps. It helps to force an issue onto the headlines and consciousness of the world. It makes people talk about the issue. And then, if the violence is accompanied by clever propaganda, it helps remarkably well and that the confused object of your violence does not know how to deal with you and your violence, why – of course – you continue and escalate that violence. The truth is violence has already succeeded in making Israel retreat. When Shamir and Rabin and Peres declare that as soon as order is restored, Israel will sit down to discuss "complete" autonomy and a political solution of the "Palestine" problem, that is exactly what the aim of the violence was. And had there been no violence, Shamir and the Likud would have been perfectly content to sit for another 20 years with the status quo. The Arabs understand an essential truth of world relations. They understand that the world cares little about any issue unless it is prodded. Nations and peoples, for the most part, are involved and preoccupied with their own problems. If one wants to be heard, he must not only shout, for the world has long been inured to shouts. The one who wishes to be heard must shock. And there is nothing more shocking than violence. This is true for all peoples whether their cause is right or wrong. And of course, the Arab case is wrong. But it does not remove the essential reality of the very great effectiveness of violence. On the day that the helpless and hapless Jewish "leaders" stop babbling about the ineffectiveness of violence and concentrate more on improving their own ineffectiveness by putting down of the violence, Israel will be in a much better position of security. Violence helps the Arabs. Crushing that violence in the most effective and the quickest way helps the Jews. | | See you Sunday, bli neder Shabbat Shalom and enjoy Parshat Noah Love Yehuda Lave | | | |
