August 29, 2008 Rabbi Berel Wein: 20/20 sightlessness Caroline B. Glick: When history is not repeated JWisdom: Blessed or Cursed: It's Really Up to You by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky August 28, 2008 Steve Lipman: A Comeback for the 'Jewish Jordan' Jeffrey Weiss: Researcher reports 'intriguing' diabetes breakthrough August 27, 2008 Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald: Removing the perfectionist's mask The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Nunn: Summer harvest linguine JWisdom:: The Missing Link in Spiritual Life by Rabbi David Aaron August 26, 2008 Yaffa Ganz: Grandma gets lessons in staying cool Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: The Dems' 'soft' jihadist JWisdom:: Today: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Plague of indifference August 25, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: A friend is bearing a silly grudge from a supposed wrong. What recourse do I have? Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama through Muslim Eyes JWisdom:: The knowledge you need to overcome your insecurities by Malka Schulman August 22, 2008 Rabbi Berel Wein: Life's essential ingredient Caroline B. Glick: Dominos anyone? JWisdom:: Actually, Do Sweat the Small Stuff! by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky August 21, 2008 Today in Biblical History by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Popularization of Kabbalah: 20 Menachem-Av 1558 CE Jonathan Rosenblum: Lessons from the Beyond JWisdom: : The Olympian within is rooting for you -- yes, you! –- to go for the gold August 20, 2008 Jonathan Tobin: Misleading Platform Platitudes The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Chicken Salad with Asian Dressing JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: America's Defense of the Jews --- Until WWII by Rabbi Nosson Scherman August 19, 2008 Dennis Prager: If the Almighty doesn't exist Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Obama's Islamist problem has nothing to do with his upbringing JWisdom: Think your life is messed up? by Rabbi David Aaron August 18, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Business with Friends Diana West: Roars About Russia, Bare Whispers About Islam JWisdom: Relationship agony: The real cause by Malka Schulman August 15, 2008 Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: To love the Divine Caroline B. Glick: Georgia, Israel, and the nature of man JWisdom: The Truly Righteous Don't Demand Entitlements by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky August 14, 2008 Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Confessions of broken spirit Libby Lazewnik: The Numbers Game JWisdom: Six Questions You'll Be Asked in Heaven? - Uh - Let's Just Take One for Now! by Gavriel Aryeh Sanders August 13, 2008 Jonathan Tobin: Georgia should be on their minds The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Go Greek: Pair flavorful lamb kebabs with a hearty salad JWisdom: Human hybrids aren't science fiction by Rabbi David Aaron August 12, 2008 Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bless us Daniel Pipes: The West's Islamist Infiltrators JWisdom: From Sadness to Gladness: The Route from Tisha b'Av to Rosh Hashana by Rabbi Mordechai Becher August 11, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: A Jewish view on fair pricing Caroline B. Glick: Ignoring failure in Gaza JWisdom: 'Communication' Is Not The Answer! by Malka Schulman August 7, 2008 Rabbi David Gutterman: A Continuing Story With a Sustaining Goal Rabbi Berel Wein: Mourning and morning JWisdom: Yes, we are still in exile by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky August 6, 2008 David Ashenfelter: Government made military engineer's life a living hell because of his faith, Defense Department report documents Jonathan Tobin: Speak the Truth; Defeat the Lies JWisdom: Jewish Spirituality: Fusion or Confusion? by Rabbi David Aaron August 5, 2008 Chris Leppek: Church/state wall beginning to crumble? Paul Greenberg: Exit Olmert (no encore, please) JWisdom: Serenity: Make the commitment by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders) August 4, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Am I taking advantage of another's psychological quirk? Andrew Silow-Carroll: A black and a Jew walk into the White House… JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Edward R. Morrow visits the ‘living dead’ by Rabbi Nosson Scherman August 1, 2008 Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: We have the power to alter another's destiny — use it well Caroline B. Glick: Why Olmert — finally — did it JWisdom: Life By The (Book of) Numbers by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky July 31, 2008 This Week in Biblical History by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Ezra the Scribe returns from exile Joan Verdon: Demure is in demand: More brides seek 'modest' gowns JWisdom: You don't have to be ‘compatible’ to have a stable, happy relationship by Malka Shulman July 30, 2008 Jonathan Tobin: Does Israel need 'tough love'? The Kosher Gourmet by Gail Borelli: Pickling captures the fleeting tastes of summer's fruits and vegetables JWisdom: Serenity: It's Really Up to YOU! by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders) July 29, 2008 Rabbi Avi Shafran: Good things happen Dick Morris: How Israel's race could shift ours JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Equal but Not Jewish or Jewish but Not Human? July 28, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: How and when to lie Steven Emerson: More Perils of Interfaith Dialogue JWisdom:: A TripTik for Your Spiritual Journey by Rabbi Dovid Gross 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 Week of 7 Iyar Dedicating the new walls of Jerusalem By Rabbi Yonason Goldson http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The same month in which Jews commemorate Yom Yerushalayim, the day upon which the modern state of Israel regained sovereignty over Jerusalem's Western Wall, also offers us the opportunity to observe the anniversary of another event even more significant in the history of that great city. Two years after the first celebration of the Purim festival in the year 3405, the Persian king Achashverosh died, leaving his throne to his young son, Darius. Although he considered himself a Persian, Darius inherited from his mother, the Jewish Queen Esther, a great benevolence toward the Jews. In 3408, the second year of his reign, Darius not only gave permission to the Jews to rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem but helped finance the project, sent building materials, and threatened the governor in Samaria that he would deal most harshly with any interference. Under the direction of Zerubavel, the prince of Yehudah, together with the prophets Chaggai and Zechariah, Jewish workers completed the second Temple in the year 3412. On the third day of the Hebrew month of Adar, the Jews in Israel inaugurated the new Temple amidst great rejoicing, bringing peace offerings of 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 sheep, in addition to 12 goats as sin offerings for each of the tribes of Israel. At the time Zerubavel and the other leaders returned to rebuild the Temple, one of the greatest Jewish sages, Ezra the Scribe, had remained in Babylon to assist his rabbi, Baruch ben Neriyahu. When Baruch died the year following the completion of the Temple, however, Ezra traveled to join his colleagues in Israel. What Ezra found there distressed him so profoundly that he ripped his garments and tore out his hair. Although Zerubavel and his colleagues had succeeded in organizing the people to rebuild the Temple, they were not successful in turning the mostly impoverished, fractious, and disaffected Jews back to Torah observance. Many prominent Jews, including sons of the High Priest himself, had become indifferent to Jewish tradition and practice. Where the leaders who preceded him had proven unable to form any strategy, Ezra took immediate action, declaring a fast, calling a public assembly, and exhorting the people with such passion that, with only minimal resistance, the Jewish populous proclaimed their loyalty to G-d, confessed their transgressions, and committed themselves to renewing the holy covenant of the Jewish nation. Rather than castigating the people for their transgressions, which might well have driven them even farther away, it was the genius of Ezra to arouse their sense of shame and their desire to return to the path of Godliness. By expressing and displaying his own personal grief at how far the people had descended, by declaring the urgency with which they must distance themselves from their sins, Ezra brought about repentance on a national scale. Despite the impressiveness of Ezra's success reversing so much of the damage of decades after only a few months, enormous obstacles remained to a Jewish renaissance in Israel. The people were for the most part uneducated, and the fire of Ezra's exhortation could not ignite an entire country to devote itself to the slow and arduous task of reestablishing the foundations of Jewish scholarship and literacy. The people remained poor and uneducated, the internal danger from dissenters and the external danger from hostile Samaritans remained a threat, and Jerusalem remained a sparsely settled ruin. Ezra had labored to solve these problems, but the tide only turned when, after a decade, he was joined by the prophet Nechemiah in the year 3418. One of Darius's most influential advisors, Nechemiah succeeded in gaining permission to join Ezra after he received a deeply distressing letter describing the state of affairs in his homeland. Nechemiah arrived to find the walls of Jerusalem still torn down from the Babylonian invasion almost a century earlier and the gates of the city still charred and ashen. He recognized that as long as Jerusalem stood in ruins, the Jewish people would continue to see it as a reminder of their shame and their degradation. Only by restoring the city to a portion of its former glory could the people rouse themselves from the mindset they were still an exiled and vanquished nation. Nechemiah swiftly organized a labor force and directed it toward the reconstruction of the walls surrounding the Jewish capitol city . Led by an apostate named Sanvalat HaChoroni, the enemies of the Jews first tried to demoralize Nechemiah's workers, mocking their efforts by calling out to them that the job was too great, that even if they could rebuild the walls their construction would crumble the instant that even a fox ran upon it. When they saw that the workers were nearing completion despite their taunts, Sanvalat's company conspired to attack the workers and tear down the walls themselves, but Nechemiah learned of their plan and stationed guards with bows and spears to protect the city. Having lost the element of surprise, Sanvalat attempted to lure Nechemiah to a meeting where he could be assassinated, but this plan also failed. Neither Nechemiah nor any of his workers allowed themselves the luxury of changing their clothes or bathing during this project, and in only 52 days they completed work on the walls that had laid in crumbled ruins for 90 years, dedicating their completed project on the 7th day of the month of Iyar. The Samaritans and the surrounding gentile nations looked upon the Jews of Israel with a new awe, giving the Jews themselves a much needed sense of their own power and potential. But it was not only enemies from without that caused trouble for the Jews. The few Jews who had acquired wealth and prestige for themselves had used their good fortune to make loans to their poorer brethren, loans whose value were recovered first from the fields and properties of the borrowers and then by indenturing their sons and daughters into personal service. When Nechemiah learned of this he gathered the wealthy Jews and publicly berated them, asking them sarcastically if their next step would be to sell their poor brothers as slaves to the gentiles. So stinging was Nechemiah's rebuke that the wealthy Jews promptly forgave the loans and returned the children to the parents and the properties to their owners. By thus restoring a new measure of security and economic stability to the Land of Israel, Nechemiah set the restoration of the Second Commonwealth of the Jewish nation on a secure course into the future. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes inspiring articles. Sign up for our daily update. It's free. Just click here. JWR contributor Rabbi Yonason Goldson teaches at Block Yeshiva High School in St. Louis. Comment by clicking here. © 2006, Rabbi Yonason Goldson