What prayers does a religious Jew say on Israel Independence Day?

In 2010 Israel Independence Day is April 19.

Hard to believe that even after 62 years, the prayers that a religious Jew recites to mark the day have not been firmly set.

Here is one from Machon Shilo -Al Hanissim - In praise of the miracles...

Vatican Wounded-Bully-Chutzpah

Beyond belief is the chutzpah of this response of the Vatican to the measured and factual criticism that has been directed its way over the past few weeks. It fits the classic "wounded bully" response to merited rebuke. Let us assure the Vatican that nobody takes this mode of their response seriously.

Vatican blasts anti-Catholic 'hate' campaign
By FRANCES D'EMILIO

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican heatedly defended Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, claiming accusations that he helped cover up the actions of pedophile priests are part of an anti-Catholic "hate" campaign targeting the pope for his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

Vatican Radio broadcast comments by two senior cardinals explaining "the motive for these attacks" on the pope and the Vatican newspaper chipped in with spirited comments from another top cardinal.

"The pope defends life and the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, in a world in which powerful lobbies would like to impose a completely different" agenda, Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, head of the disciplinary commission for Holy See officials, said on the radio...more...

Barbed New Yorker Cartoon Rips Catholic Priest Scandal

This New Yorker cartoon rips the priest scandal in the Catholic Church.

JPost: David Sarna Praises Tikkun Olam

Repairing the world or Tikkun Olam is a good virtue, says writer David Sarna in the JPost, and we agree.

...Lurianic Kabbala inspired Bee Season, a highly praised first novel by Myla Goldberg, later made into a movie of the same name. Goldberg says, “For modern-day Jews who aren’t so into the traditional and deistic elements of religion, tikkun olam provides a philosophy of volunteerism. This is the idea that the world is flawed, and the only way it’s going to get better is if each individual does something to try to make it a better place.”

This secular use of tikkun olam has been embraced by Madonna, who has studied Kabbala but says she retains her belief in Jesus, as well as by Britney Spears, Demi Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow (the daughter of a Jewish father and Quaker mother) and others.

When Shai Agassi, originally from Israel, named his low-emission electric car infrastructure company Better Place, he was undoubtedly informed by tikkun olam, making the world a better place....more...

New Yorker Cartoon Contest Misses the Obvious Seder

Our caption: This seder really is different from all other Seders.

Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa makes a big Messa at the Vaticana

First, we must always be sure to differentiate the Vatican administration and management from the thousands of local Catholic Churches and the many millions of Catholic peoples of the world.

Nobody has to do much research to discover that the Vatican is in a lot of trouble these days. Most recently the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa gave a Good Friday sermon in the presence of the Pope in which he compared the growing criticism of Vatican administration to the evils of antisemitism against the Jewish people.

This will forever be known in the university textbooks as the classic case of attempted damage control that does exceedingly more damage than control. Read about it here, here, here and here. [Hat tips to Yochanan Hashlishi, and welcome home.]

The story of the rapid decline and fall of the Pope and the Vatican as we see it is simple and tragic. A cardinal named Joseph Alois Ratzinger assembled massive files over several decades on Church pedophile scandals worldwide, did nothing to respond to them and then lo and behold got himself elected pope. Does it appear to the suspicious outsider that the Vatican leadership was blackmailed into voting for said ambitious and unscrupulous cardinal? He had secret files on scandals covered up by every one of them. We cannot offer any other logical explanation for the self-defeating selection of a reactionary antisemitic German, a former member of Hitler's Youth, to the papacy.

The thousands of Catholic churches in every country will persevere long after the earth opens to swallow up the unceasingly evil purveyors of cover-ups, lies and immorality. Catholic believers around the world will stay faithful to their religion and continue all the good that their religion does for the poor and the downtrodden, without the Vatican. Our heart goes out to them all. Be strong and of good courage.

No question that the entire immoral authority of the Vatican is bankrupt and determined to declare itself so - going headlong into what we will call the biblical Prophet Nahum's version of absolute bankruptcy -- i.e., Chapter 3 (Verse 19, revised to apply to the present travails): There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?

Our iPad has landed!

Our iPad was delivered today. Unboxing and activating tonight.

We can tell it's a winner. Details and inevitable criticisms to follow.

Update 1: We love it, love it. But there are some drawbacks, we agree, as described by the Daily Beast,

 "David Pogue of the Times also wrote a review just for techies, and he says they’ll be less than impressed, calling it “a gigantic iPod Touch." He writes that its hailed e-book reader app, which is difficult to read in direct sunlight, is not going to rescue the newspaper and book industries with its puny 60,000-title selection. Another big turnoff is its inability to play Flash video, resulting in thousands of Web sites showing up with empty white squares."

Sums it up for us, so far.

The TV Simpsons Tour Israel with Sascha Baron Cohen as the Tour Guide

Here is the video from Hulu.

A first look at the Simpsons' upcoming visit to Israel
By Matan Abramovich, City Mouse Online

The first images from the upcoming episode of The Simpsons, in which the animated family visits Israel, were released this week after six months of buzz over the special show to be aired in the United States on March 28.

The episode, titled "The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed," includes scenes of Homer and Bart at the Western Wall with their Israeli tour guide, who will be voiced by British comedian Sascha Baron Cohen, of Borat and Bruno fame.

In the episode, Homer gets "Jerusalem Syndrome" and believes that he is the Messiah. Also, the tour guide bickers and exchanges political barbs with Marge.

"This is an episode that people from all three religions will be equally offended by," said Simpsons producer Al Jean.

The show has featured many Jewish jokes and characters during its 21 seasons on air, most prominently Krusty the Clown (whose Jewish name is Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski).

Baltimore Sun Op-Ed: Let's Civilize Our Political Rhetoric

We second this voice from the Baltimore Sun calling for reason and civility in our political discourse. Hat tip to Mimi.

Politicians: Let's try fairness, nuance and precision in debate

Whether debating health care, national security, or creationism, many politicians, commentators, and media personalities exhibit what psychologists call "cognitive errors." These errors include over-generalization, dichotomous (all-or-none) thinking, selective abstraction (i.e., taking a detail and only dwelling on it while ignoring the larger context), maximization (e.g., of an opponent's weaknesses) and minimization (e.g., of an adversary's strengths). Such errors are not unique to liberals or conservatives -- they are prevalent across the political spectrum.

Hebrew Users Unaffected by Gmail Vowel Outage - Google Offers Hebrew Lessons

Gmail is reporting a widespread vowel outage today.

Fortunately Gmail Hebrew users manage daily without vowels and hence are not affected by the failure.

To compensate for the outage and to guarantee uninterrupted service in the future, Google has offered to  teach interested users Hebrew and to convert them to Judaism.

For details see this post at the Gmail blog.