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July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review April 23, 2007 / 5 Iyar, 5767

Somewhere, right now, a mind churns

By Mitch Albom


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Creepy is a young man. He keeps to himself.


He wears odd clothes. He favors black. His hair is sometimes funny. His skin is not so good. At school they roll their eyes, or shake their heads, as he passes by.


Creepy is not popular, nor is he very well liked. Some think he's shy. Some think he's weird. He doesn't talk much. His voice is kind of low. As a kid, he sat alone in the schoolyard. As a teen, he sat alone in the cafeteria.


Creepy is no dummy. He reads. He reads a lot. He watches, too. Movies, TV, games. He watches screens of all kinds, flipping Web sites, working a joystick. Watching is a release for Creepy. Watching is not judgmental. Watching what others do. Watching what others have. Watching video warriors cut their enemies' heads off, blood everywhere.


Sometimes when he watches, his imagination runs wild. He sees a character with a chainsaw or a rifle. He sees carnage. He sees destruction. He sees how one man with the right weapon can wreak havoc, take control, own the day.


Creepy gets ideas.


Creepy is a young man. He hasn't many friends. Girls find him odd. He finds them scary.


He would like, deep down, to have a girlfriend. To party. To laugh. He would like it, but he won't accept it. Not today. Not anymore. Too many times, he had his heart stomped. Too many times, he suffered in silence.


Too many times, he looked in the mirror and saw the wrong man looking back. He is not handsome or "hot" or cool. He does not measure up. He has blamed himself, but that led to nothing. Now he blames others. That feels better. He blames the people who have more, who look better, who get praise. He blames them. Then he hates them. He fantasizes about a world where they are gone.


It would be nice for Creepy to have someone to talk to, all this anger, all these thoughts, but confidants are not part of his world. Talking, he has decided, is overrated. So he writes. He makes tapes. He keeps things to himself. "Nothing," is his answer. "What's wrong?" counselors ask him. "What's wrong?" teachers ask him. "Nothing," he says. They shrug and go on.


His parents? Well, you know. Maybe they're busy. Maybe they're gone. Maybe one died. Maybe one was indifferent. Maybe they did terrible things to Creepy when he was a child. Maybe he's ashamed.


Maybe there is part of Creepy that wants his parents' love desperately, above all else. But in Creepy's mind, those days are gone. You get attention when you warrant attention. He watches his screens. He watches the news.


Creepy gets ideas.


Creepy sees those kids from Columbine, in their long black coats, all over TV and the Internet. Creepy sees Timothy McVeigh — who blew up a building and killed 168 people — and sees his life story broadcast like a celebrity profile.


Creepy sees Cho Seung-Hui, who massacred 32 people on a college campus — and right in the middle of his killing spree, mailed his videos and photos to NBC, like a publicist. And NBC put them on! Splashed them across the screen! In one day, an unknown, a nobody, got superstar treatment. All it took was some bullets and the right postage. One day, from nothing to something. Creepy stirs.


Creepy sees Cho's image, his menacing pose, the weapons in his hands. Creepy knows that pose. He has struck it himself, before a mirror in his bathroom. Something inside is envious. Something inside — the part that says, "Why him, not me?" — is kicking in. Cho got the last say. So what that he's dead, that he killed himself?


Life is so overrated.


Creepy is a young man, or a kid, or a teen. Creepy lives in another state, or across town, or on your block. Creepy is out there, angry at the world, nurtured by a culture that values violence over passivity, beauty over substance, money over love, and celebrity above all else.


Creepy gets ideas.


Creepy gets a gun.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

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