Yom Kippur: Day of Forgiveness

Today is start of Yom Kippur. It is the day that Jews will try to ask G-d for forgiveness. It is also the last day to have obtained forgiveness from people we have hurt or saddened. One might ask how hard it is to ask forgiveness and/or obtain forgiveness. Nowadays, a lot of Jews, using up to date technology, will write mass Texts, Facebook Status, or Twitter to ask for forgiveness. It is a very arbitrary and childish act. If one is making an attempt to obtain forgiveness, according to Jewish law, just asking for forgiveness is not enough. They have to make necessary efforts to obtain that forgiveness. Then how would the Jewish Law define obtaining forgiveness?
According to Jewish Laws, one must first think very hard and analyze his past year’s acts. Through that, that person must first be truly honest to himself and figure out whether anybody could have got hurt, mad, sad, embarrassed, or ridiculed by his acts whether his acts were intentional or unintentional. After that, they have to go up to that person and expressly ask for forgiveness and state specifically the reason for what they are asking for forgiveness. They must be sincere in their apology and it should not be arbitrary just because Jewish Law is requiring him. He or she must do anything and everything reasonable to obtain that forgiveness. If one truly makes the effort to obtain the victim’s forgiveness, the victim MUST forgive the other person. This is the spirit of the Yom Kippur and it should be done before Yom Kippur. After obtaining that forgiveness, that person who has committed the act must actually ask from G-d for forgiveness for sins he has committed during the year and all the people he have hurt. According to Jewish Law, G-d WILL to forgive your sins if you have truly asked for forgiveness from others, because the logic is that “if the Human beings are that forgiving which is a positive act, The G-d Almighty, who is the Creator and Designer of the all Humans and everything that is positive cannot be Forgiving?” After Yom Kippur, that person is obligated to have truly improved his acts toward others and that person MUST make efforts to prevent himself from committing the same acts or saying the same things to others that might hurt them. THIS IS THE SPIRIT OF YOM KIPPUR.
However, in today’s society where everything is mocked including religion, people simply send a mass text to everybody asking for forgiveness. As much as it is a nice gesture, however it becomes truly annoying when somebody is asking for forgiveness in such a impersonalize fashion. If that is not enough, you would receive hundreds of Texts asking for forgiveness, and on top of that, sometime you would see the same text you received from different person. The person who was truly hurt by that person’s act would think, “What? I am not worthy of your time so that you’d pick up the phone and talk to me?!”
In conclusion, Yom Kippur should not be the reason that we ask for forgiveness. In all aspects of life, we should be careful not to hurt others’ feelings. With that said, I hope all my Jewish friends have an easy fast.

Military Channel’s Documentary about Israeli Commandos

I have always enjoyed watching Military Channel. However, I never ever thought these guys would go this far and might I add that I am pleasantly surprised. Well, here is a documentary about Israeli Commandos. While you are watching these clips, just try to pay attention what is the ultimate message that these commandos are sending or what is the motive behind every soldier. As oppose to Terrorist apologists and fighter of religion of peace or Arab countries, they are not saying: we’re here to kill, destroy, or ruin. Rather, they are motivated by protecting their citizens. That’s the ultimate difference between the two sides: one is there to kill and destroy because they are motivated by hatred and lack of tolerance for another religion’s right to establish their existence as a nation and the other is there to protect its citizens and their safety and security. Enjoy the documentary ;)

Miracles in the Mist of Dark Times

I know a lot of Palestinian Terrorist, Apologists, and their supporters in this country first deny the Holocaust and then they use it as a theme for their own struggles. However, there are stories like this that just reminds of who is the Nazi in this story and who is the victim. When I read this story, it reminded me of the same miracles where the Nazi soldier's gun would get jammed and the Jew was able to escape. Now, we see the similar stories in Israel. Wherever a Jew goes, miracles like these tend to follow them. Ironic part is that it is the same animals who use the Nazi theme for their fraudulent cause to justify committing horrific acts like these. Here is the source of the story, but I have also copied and pasted it here.

Moreno describes ‘miracle’ escape from Hamas attacker
By BEN HARTMAN AND KHALED ABU TOAMEH
09/03/2010 02:13


Couple wounded in West Bank shooting saved by terrorist's rifle malfunction which allowed them to hide in roadside ditch. A husband and wife who were wounded in a shooting attack on Wednesday night in the West Bank escaped death when one of the attackers’ guns jammed and they were able to hide in a nearby ditch.

Ma’aleh Efrayim resident Moshe Moreno told Army Radio on Thursday that he and his wife, Shira, were driving on Route 60 when a car pulled up behind them and began “riding his bumper.”

Moreno said he waved to the driver, signaling him to pass, and “then we took a turn and the car passed us and opened fire.”

The terrorists sprayed the car with automatic rifle fire and the vehicle spun out of control, overturning on the side of the road.

The attackers approached the car when suddenly, amid the hail of gunfire, one of their rifles malfunctioned, and the Morenos were able to escape.

“One of the guns jammed and we took the chance to roll out of the car and take cover,” Moshe said.

The Morenos hid in a ditch and called police, who rushed to the scene to search for the assailants.

Moreno added that he and his wife, who was lightly wounded, were lucky that the shooting took place as they were driving on an incline, saying that if the gunmen had attacked as they were heading downhill they would probably have plunged off the road to their deaths.

Speaking from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for a gunshot wound to the shoulder, Moreno told Channel 2 that as the gunmen passed his car they “opened fire from, at most, one meter away. Luckily, I was only hit in the shoulder.”

The incident was the second in two days in the West Bank, both claimed by Hamas. In a terror attack outside Kiryat Arba on Tuesday night, gunmen riddled a car with bullets, killing four residents of the settlement of Beit Hagai.

Moments after that shooting, paramedics rushed to the scene, including Zaka rescue and recovery organization volunteer Maimon Even-Haim, whose wife, Kochava, was among the four victims.

Even-Haim’s friends in the rescue unit tried to keep him from reaching the car where his wife lay mortally wounded, but he could not be swayed.

Speaking to Channel 2 on Wednesday, Even-Haim said, “She looked so beautiful, so pure. I kept telling her, I’m here, I’m here, but she didn’t move.”

Even-Haim said his colleagues told him his wife died instantly, but when he arrived he could tell that “she didn’t. I saw her face and could tell she didn’t die right away.”

A Palestinian Authority security source said on Thursday that its men had seized the car used in the Beit Hagai attack.

The source said that the car was found in Hebron and that the PA security forces were now questioning several suspects linked to the vehicle.

The source refused to comment on reports that the PA has arrested two men suspected of involvement in the attack.

The PA security forces have arrested more than 300 Palestinians from different parts of the West Bank since the attack.

The crackdown has been described as the largest security operation by the PA since its inception.

Hamas, however, announced that the number of those arrested by the PA in the past 48 hours had reached 550. It said another 1,500 Palestinians suspected of affiliation with Hamas had been summoned for interrogation by the various branches of the PA’s security services.

Hamas said that the detainees included prominent political figures, physicians, engineers, university students, former security prisoners who were released from Israeli jails, and relatives and friends of Hamas legislators living in the West Bank.

Eyewitnesses told The Jerusalem Post that the Fatah-dominated security forces also rounded up dozens of worshipers as they emerged from mosques following evening prayers in many cities and villages.