Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor

Create the Taking Action Habit

Create the habit of taking action right away. To make anything a habit, you keep doing something many times. The wise person doesn't wait until a new habit becomes a habit. He acts the way he would act if he already had the habit. And then automatically his actions become a habit.

As you can see below, Ambassador Friedman is an action taking person

Love Yehuda Lave

FRIEDMAN: IF REPORTERS CAN’T GET GAZA STORY RIGHT, KEEP MOUTHS SHUT

With all the criticism Israel has gotten, nobody has identified the less lethal means by which Israel could have defended itself over the last 4 weeks", US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said.BY GREER FAY CASHMAN  JUNE 4, 2018

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman attacked the media on Monday, claiming that journalists had an obligation to work harder before reporting criticism of Israel.

The example he gave was recent coverage of the ongoing conflict along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.
If journalists can’t list alternatives that Israel can use to better counter the threats from Gaza, he said, “keep your mouths shut.”

“With all the criticism Israel has gotten, nobody has identified the less lethal means by which Israel could have defended itself over the last 4 weeks… If what happened isn’t right – what is right? It seems to me that in this journalistic environment nine out of 10 articles that are written about the Gaza conflict are critical of Israel,” said Friedman at The Media Line’s Press and Policy Conference which took place at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem.

Friedman said that criticism of Israel could be legitimate but that journalists were not fairly reporting on the reality along the border with Gaza.Play VideoPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanks US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman for tweeting the truth about Havat Gilad terror shooting and the Palestinian's funding of terrorists, January 10, 2018

“The conflict in Gaza has dominated the headlines in the last three to four weeks. Lots and lots criticism of Israel. Some of it even legitimate… I think even the State of Israel itself hasn’t completed its own internal inquiries as to what happened. Maybe there are some things they could have done better. I’m sure there’s always things you can do better,” he said.

Some 150 guests attended the conference honoring the opening of The Media Line’s new Jerusalem bureau.

Since becoming ambassador, Friedman has had a constant relationship with the press, and acknowledged that while he does not enjoy criticism, he does appreciate it because it is helpful in enabling him to understand people who don’t agree with him. “But it’s important to know that there is a critical mass that does agree with me,” he added.

A lawyer by profession, Friedman said that every responsible industry needs to self-regulate, but he hasn’t seen that happening in journalism, part of the reason being the impact of social media.

He warned that the barrier for entry to journalism is so low, that there is a frequent danger of inaccuracy and damage.

For all that, as an American raised in a country in which “a free press is the cornerstone of democracy,” Friedman championed that principle but underscored its legal limits, such as respecting the privacy of people who are not public figures.

Alluding to the importance of reporting the story without insinuating the personal views of the journalist, Friedman said that nobody knew until after Walter Cronkite (who has long been regarded as a paragon of American journalism) retired, that he was on the far-Left and vehemently opposed to the Vietnam War on which he reported, without anyone being aware of how he felt about it.

About today’s journalism, Friedman said: “There’s tension between getting it out fast, and getting it right.”

He gave credit to The Media Line founders Felice and Michael Friedson, whose priority, he noted, is to get the story right.

That didn’t mean that he agreed with everything they publish, he clarified. “No one in the media should have to be an echo chamber,” but they should aim for accuracy. Even though he had points of disagreement with the press, he said he admires it. “It’s a thankless, difficult job. People do it for the right reasons – because they care.”

In a panel discussion that included Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, Deputy Knesset Speaker Hilik Bar, Egyptian academic Haisam Hassanein, who is studying for a PhD at Tel Aviv University, and Palestinian academic Iyad Muhsen al-Dajani, who is studying for a PhD at the Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies at Friedrich Schiller University in Germany, there was a consensus that the only way in which to bring about an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was for the two sides to learn each other’s history, culture and suffering because only through mutual understanding and networking could they begin to know each other as neighbors instead of as enemies.

Al-Dahani had resisted Palestinian pressure that tried to dissuade him from attending a conference at which Friedman would be a speaker. Hassanein, who had previously been a student at Tel Aviv University and had given the valedictorian address, was met with animosity in his home country.

When he was a young firebrand youth leader, Hanegbi had been one of the key opponents to a peace agreement with Egypt. “I thank God that I failed,” he said on Monday.  

He also said that when Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister following the May 1996 elections, only six months after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, there was still a lot of bitter feeling in the country. The media had been very hostile to Netanyahu, and his people did not know exactly how to deal with the situation. Netanyahu had told them that they had come into office with a big deficit, and they had to prove themselves, stick to their policies, follow their conscience and ignore the media. 

To stress that no matter what they did the media would be against them, Netanyahu had said that if he would emulate Jesus and walk on water, the headline in the media the next day would read “Netanyahu can’t swim.”

Great new Hasidic movie in Yiddish called Menashe

Read all about it here

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/30/how-menashe-put-hasidic-new-york-on-screen

Jackie Mason On Speaking Spanish:

There may be those among you who support including Spanish in our national language. I for one am 110% against this! We must preserve the exclusivity and above all, the purity of the English language.

To all the shlemiels, shlemazels, nebbishes, nudniks, klutzes, putzes, shlubs, shmoes, shmucks, nogoodniks, and momzers that are out there pushing Spanish, I just want to say that I, for one, believe that English and only English deserves linguistic prominence in our American culture. 

To tell the truth, it makes me so farklempt, I'm fit to plotz. This whole Spanish schmeer gets me broyges, especially when I hear these erstwhile mavens and luftmenschen kvetching about needing to learn Spanish. What chutzpah!

These shmegeges can tout their shlock about the cultural and linguistic diversity of our country, but I, for one, am not buying their shtick. It's all so much dreck, as far as I'm concerned. 

I exhort you all to be menshen about this and stand up to their fardrayte arguments and meshugganah, farshtunkene assertions. It wouldn't be kosher to do anything else.

Remember, when all is said and done, we have English and they've got bubkes! The whole myseh is a pain in my tuchas!

SISTERHOOD

By Evelyn Haies

©June 5, 2018

They wake up in the morning and share the dawn,

Twins, a family, from when they were formed

They grow up together each and every day

They cry and laugh, scream and dream as they crawl and play

Twins, they share the scary and the lovely

They grow, walk and run with each other so very closely

They sleep together, a comfort against nightmares

Twins, they live with each other in a home they share.

Sisterhood, they are girls with separate hearts

They are unique and live apart

They are descendant of the matriarchs

They are family from the patriarchs

They are children of Sarah, Rivka, Leah and Rachel

Twins were the wives of Israel

They formed an eternal nation

With a holy destination.

They are a moment in history that is a lifelong movement

Sisterhood traverses a course for fulfillment

Not by jealousy, animosity, apathy, untruths and misdeeds

When partners they will succeed

They are members through genealogy and history

Their truths are verified by archaeology

Sisterhood members share a common gravity

Roots are their rights and the foundation for their insights

Sharing a common past and present, they are the future

When united their legacy can be assured

Cultivating a relationship with honesty and trust

Makes a friendship that evil cannot bust

Acting with kindness, caring and sharing

Planning and giving builds a mission for living

Sisterhood is not by birth but an arrangement for worth

Women together are a force for a higher purpose

Sisterhood which embraces its common past

Is mother of a relationship that lasts

They are a completion in a world of division

They are separate but when united in decision

They are a formation that minimizes hate

They are a concentration that maximizes a positive fate

Sisterhood saw, sees, dreams, builds forever

As sisterhood studies, learns and acts in unity

It provides s beneficial opportunity,

As sisterhood is strong as a team it merits

Giving it gets

Discussing the issues, forming missions

Belonging is a partnership paying commissions

Extending themselves to diminish what ravages

Sisterhood brings up the averages

Sisterhood is a benefit for humanity

Embracing is sanity

Sisterhood stops the fall

It is a benefit for all

The givers are takers

because they are creators

Sisterhood are the offspring of Leah and Rachel, twins

Joining in is not being left out, everyone wins.

Don't let others dictate how you act.

As a host and his guest left the apartment building, the doorman greeted them in a belligerent tone of voice. The host responded in a gentle tone of voice and with a very pleasant smile.

"Is he that grouchy all the time?" the guest asked.

"Sometimes even worse," the host answered.

"Then why are you so pleasant in your response to him?" the guest asked.

"Because," the host answered, "I am not about to let him dictate how I am going to act."

If we react to others' provocation, we are essentially allowing them to control our behavior. A sign of slavery is being deprived of the ability to think for oneself, so here, if we react reflexively rather than rationally, we are at least temporarily in involuntary servitude. How foolish to allow ourselves to become enslaved, even momentarily.

The antidote is to avoid reflex reactions. We can make it a point never to respond when provoked until we have stopped and allowed ourselves ample time to think rationally about what has happened and to plan what would be a rational, well-calculated response.

One might think that delaying a response to provocation is out of consideration for the other person, to protect others from one's own wrath. This is true, but secondary. The primary reason is that we maintain our own freedom and do not become puppets manipulated by others.

Today I shall ...

avoid reflex responses, and maintain my freedom and dignity as a rational person.

See you tomorrow

Love Yehuda Lave