I want to invite you to read an experimental blog where I am posting links to important updates on world affairs, politics, religion and future trends. You'll be able to access the same reliable sources of news, analysis and commentary that I read.
Click on the link below, or copy and paste the following address in your web browsert:
With Hurricane Hanna headed our way, we want to encourage you to make good preparations.
There are two valuable emergency alert systems:
Beth Israel Emergency Calling Chain
If you want to be included in the Beth Israel Emergency Calling Chain for closings, cancellations, and other emergency actions affecting the congregation, please send an email with your contact information, including:
and the following:
Also indicate whether you are a Beth Israel Member, Regular, or Visitor.
If you join the Beth Israel Emergency Calling Chain, you will receive one call, and you will be assigned to call 2-5 others. In this way, we can cover the whole Emergency Calling Chain quickly. You may receive more than one call, if you are also on a ministry team calling list.
If your information is incomplete, you will not be included in this Beth Israel Emergency Calling Chain, and your email will be returned to you for completion.
To register, send your email with complete contact information to: rabbi@dlshalom.com .
Jacksonville Emergency Communication Network
As well, we want to encourage you to register with the Jacksonville Emergency Communication Network, which has an automated emergency alert system organized by the local government. You can register through the following link. This is especially useful for anyone living in a mobile home or other manufactured housing.
Click here to register with the Jacksonville Emergency Communication Network
Shalom,
Rabbi David and Rebbetzin Sandy Levine
From Rabbi David:
We’re taking the side of caution, and cancelling our services for this weekend.
Please call a few friends or members of your ministry team and ask them to pass the word on to everyone they can.
I want to encourage you to celebrate Shabbat at home this weekend. Here are some simple ideas:
Prepare a nice Erev Shabbat meal for tonight.
You can light candles (you may need them J), welcome in the Shabbat with a cup of wine or grape juice and some challah or other bread. Sing the Shema together, and ask God for his Shabbat rest in your home.
Take some time to read and discuss the scriptures, especially the Parsha and Haftorah.
You’ll find them below, along with the supplemental readings for the week.
Parsha: Ekev ~ Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25
Haftarah: Isaiah 49:14–51:3
Supplemental Readings: Dan. 1-12; 1 Pet. 1-5
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and for those in need in Jacksonville.
Our Saturday night Worship Time is also cancelled and will be rescheduled.
All activities for next week should be normal, including the Men’s meeting on Wednesday evening.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David
Dear Beth Israelites,
Tropical Storm Fay may bring serious flooding, downed trees and limbs, bridge closings, and power outages.
If we have to cancel services Friday or Saturday, we will post that information on our Beth Israel blog ( http://davidlevine.typepad.com/bimc ), and send out emails to those on the Beth Israel Prayer Chain.
As well, we will notify the Times-Union ONLINE (www.Jacksonville.com), and WJXT-TV Channel 4 (www.news4jax.com).
If you have questions about services or cancellations, please check those sites or your email first.
We plan to decide about Friday services by noon Friday, and for Saturday services by 6pm Friday.
Rabbi David Levine
CALIFORNIA - A moment before beginning his dinner, Masab, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, glances at the friend who has accompanied him to the restaurant where we met. They whisper a few words and then say grace, thanking God and Jesus for putting food on their plates.
It takes a few seconds to digest this sight: The son of a Hamas MP who is also the most popular figure in that extremist Islamic organization in the West Bank, a young man who assisted his father for years in his political activities, has become a rank-and-file Christian.
Continue reading "Haaretz: Hamas leader's son converts to Christianity" »
Today in Israel is the International Bible Quiz for Jewish Youth, and one of the four finalists is a Messianic Jewish 11th grade girl. Despite the Chief Rabbis protest, the other contestants told the Jerusalem Post they were going to participate. And the Israel Education Ministry is sticking to its story that the Messianic Jewish girl is Jewish.
We'll post an update as soon as final results come in from today's competition. In the meantime, here's the latest story from the Jerusalem Post:
Time Magazine recently featured a cover story which says that the rediscovery of the Jewishness of Jesus is one of the ten most revolutionary ideas today.
You can read the whole article by clicking on this link, Time Magazine: Re-Judaizing Jesus.
Rabbi David Levine's sermon podcasts April 4 and 5, 2008 both address this topic as he presents a study of this week's Torah and Haftorah readings.
The nation's intelligence chief said Sunday that internal Hezbollah groups or Syria may be to blame for the killing of a Hezbollah commander that has led the FBI to put domestic terror squads on alert in the United States.
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said the United States is still reviewing the case following the death last Tuesday of commander Imad Mughniyeh. Hezbollah blamed Israel and has pledged to attack Jewish targets worldwide in retaliation. That led the FBI last week to be vigilant for possible threats in the U.S. against synagogues and other potential Jewish targets.
The Lebanese newspaper A-Safir reported Saturday that the Lebanon-based guerilla group Hezbollah has deployed 50,000 "activists" along the southern border with Israel and declared a state of high alert in southern Lebanon.
According to the report, the organization has also evacuated all buildings in the area designated for social or political purposes in recent days, in preparation for a confrontation with Israel in the wake of the assassination of Hezbollah terror chief Imad Mughniyah.
| Lebanon quake felt in Israel | |
 | |
| By Zafrir Rinat and Eli Ashkenazi | |
| |
| The 5.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Lebanon at about 12:30 P.M. on Friday was felt in many parts of Israel. People from the North to the southern coastal plain reported furniture and other objects shaking, but no injuries or serious damage was reported. In Lebanon, however, newspapers reported yesterday damage to a few abandoned buildings in villages north of Tyre as well as frightened residents running to the beach and reading verses from the Koran. According to the Geophysical Institute of Israel and the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake took place northeast of Tyre, at a depth of about 10 kilometers. The center was located in a geological rift that is the direct continuation of the Dead Sea Rift, which runs the length of Israel and continues into Lebanese territory. | |
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