Haveil Havalim 213: It's been a long time

It's now 2:40 AM and I'm just now beginning to compose this week's Haveil Havalim. But wait! What is a Haveil Havalim? I never thought you'd ask. 

Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs -- a weekly collection of Jewish & Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It's hosted by different bloggers each week and coordinated by Jack. The term 'Haveil Havalim,' which means "Vanity of Vanities," is from Kohelet, (Ecclesiastes) which was written by King Solomon. King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other 'excesses' and realized that it was nothing but 'hevel,' or in English, 'vanity.'

As everyone who's anyone knows, we're right now in the days of Sefirah, between Pesach, the festival of our liberation, and Shavuos, the festival of the giving of the Torah, otherwise known as Pentecost. These 49 days were originally quite joyous and whatnot, but then a bunch of Rabbi people had to go around disrespecting each other, and BOOM! G-d cuts them up something cruel, which resulted in the something cruel practice of acapella music. Actually, I spent a good twenty minutes trying to explain to someone tonight why the whole thing was bunk anyway, but she wouldn't listen, and in commemoration of that failed attempt I'll be classifying every post presented here with a song that I think would go well with it. Don't listen to these songs, of course, because that would be a mortal sin (according to her), but maybe on Lag B'omer you come back here to get the full list and give me some hits, you wonderful people you. 

All right, on with the show. I was thinking that the Rebbe was always particularly about opening with Dvar Malchus (Torah), so here we are. Paul Kipnes over at Or Am I? presents Redemption Comes Thru Singing, which would seem, to me at least, to fit in with Avraham Fried's Baruch Haboh from Shtar Hatnoim. 

Next up is a delightful entry from muse over at Shiloh Musings, Birkat HaChamah Videos none of which I watched, but which I'm sure are well worth watching. By the by, my friend Yossi had a nice little exposé of the whole thing with his Correction, which at the time brought me great joy. And oh yes, appropriate music for muse's would be Yaakov Shwekey's Shehechiyanu from Shomati, and Yossi's post would go very nicely with a dash of Ich Hob Gevart from MBD's album of the same name.

Continuing in the sun-worship (blessing, whatever) vein is Yisrael Medad's And The Sun Rose Over Shiloh, whose musical accompaniment would be Shlomo Carlebach's Hiney Lo Yanum (I have no idea from which album).

My own humble contribution to this group of Torah words, Almonds too, would go well with the Marcus Brother's Furt a Yiddeleh from the very first 8th Day album.

 One of the problems I have with frum Jews is that traveling with 'em is always a major Chillul Hashem (the title song of 8th Day Vol II: Brooklyn, or maybe even the title song of Lipa Schmeltzer's Lipa Baderech?); with that in mind, here's this week's Anti-Semitism.

We'll start off with a dose of LB who blogged Responding to ?New? Antisemitism which ends off with a call for mass emigration to the Zionist entity, which is good enough for me to recommend Ron Eliran and Amos Ettinger's Sharm el-Sheikh. 

Next up is muse's Will The U.S. Stop This Deal?. The deal referenced is one selling drones to Russia, and I just have to wonder, do we really want to sell military shtuff to Medevev and Putin? I mean, these are the same dudes who blasted the heck out of Georgia this past summer... hmm, come to think of it, wasn't Israel selling military goods to the Georgians also? Are they trying to replicate US policy in South America in the early fifties? On that note I'd have to recommend Moshe Kravitsky's Schizophrenic Soul.

And that concludes this week's peek at the jerks who hate us. Next up? Culture. Woohoo! I can tell your excited. First up is Lady-Light and Our Illustrious Guest. It would seem to me that this would be a good time to say that the best thing about gezheh is six feet under, but it does seem like the guest lived up to his illustrious heritage, so I won't. I'll just mention that Yosef Karduner's Sheimot Hatzadikim from Choice would seem to fit the bill here. 

Mark has Major League Baseball Opening Day Rosters, all about the amazing Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and now, Jason Kubel...I'm just kidding. It's actually about Craig Breslow, our beloved Jewish Twin who has not started the season off to well, but at least he has that sefirah beard going for him. Speaking of Sefirah, how about some Sefirah music? Lipa Schmeltzer's Men Darf Bahalten from Leeilu Uleeilu, which seems to fit in nicely with the whole beginning theme Mark is working at over here. 

And that's it for culture. Good thing, because I was never big into culture. History though, that's more my line. Muse (my, she's been busy as a bee) wants us all to Remember The Titanic! Honestly folks, is anyone ever going to forget it? Just to make sure you don't, go listen to Benny Friedman's (btw, Mazel Tov!) Achas Shaalti. 

Ben-Yehudah has Jewish Naqba النكبة which is all about the Jews who were kicked out of Muslim lands with nary a penny of compensation. I'm not sure who sang it originally, I think Amudei Shaish, but MBD and Baruch Abittan did a fine job with Yizkereim at Hasc XV.

All good things must come to an end, but don't worry, there's (hu)more on the horizon! Sorry, I know that was bad. I couldn't resist that introduction for Humor. Get it? Great.

Muse (holy smokes, she must be working overtime!) has an Important Annoucement! for us all, and while your reading, listen to Chaim Israel's The Blue Sky from Garden of Life.

Shtetl Fabulous was getting a manicure and came up with Tatu Tattoo which would be nicely accompanied by ibid's Playing on Pain from ibid.

Toby Curwin has Duck Duct - Redux which features some snikcohg snleilpg, which could only be rectified with Piamenta's Slach Na from Big Time.

Elisson has a cute post ON RED SEA PEDESTRIANS which reminded me of Shlomo Simcha singing Shlomo Carlebach's Moshe v'Aharon on Hasc XV.

I had a cute little post Dear TRS: Reality sets in answering your questions, and because Kiddush Hachodesh is all about math, why don't you listen (on Lag B'omer, of course) to Lipa Schmeltzer's Kiddush Levana from Letova?

And foremost in our minds if last on the humor list is our mentor and sage JackB telling us all about The Best Clothing You'll Ever Own, which at first I kind of doubted, but now? I'm a believer. Speaking about belief, how about Miami Boy's Choir's Ani Maamin from It's Min Hashamayim (a cop-out, I know)?

Rahel starts off Israel by paying A Visit to the Light Rail Depot which is cool. I may be a staunch conservative, but I love trains. Is there a better song to listen to on a train than Abie Rotenberg's Ride the Train from the second Journeys? I think not.

Yisrael Medad wonders at those who aren't staunch conservatives in Jeremy, J Street Jew and Roger Cohen Keeps Getting Tougher which would go nicely with a little Arabic Medley from Sameach Music's Sephardic Dance Mix 1. And yes, I know they're Persians, not Arabs. 

LB complains about morons in the Israeli army and media with Religious Soldiers and the Establishment, which put me in mind of Avraham Fried's Aleh Katan.

Ben-Yehudah waters the mouth with Jealous?, though I'm not sure why anyone would have to toivel a brand new BBQ. Having problems with digestion? Listen to ibid's Adon Hashalom from Chazak for peace and calm.

Karen has some photos of The KOTEL on Pessach. Wish I was there. Jerusalem is Calling (Avraham Rosenblum, title track).

Eric tells all of us that Lieberman's Two State Solution might just work, but would it be the best solution? Is there a best solution at this point? Of course there is! It's MBD's Moshiach! (Or anyone's Moshiach, for that matter).

Harry says that Yoga puts religious Israelis in an uncomfortable position, and that TV’s The Office to open a Petach Tikva branch, and that Foto Friday - Yuval Nadel takes to the air. Those are all pretty self-explanatory, no? And I think Dudu Fisher's Lo Yarda Shechina from Odecha would sound good right around now. Work out the connection yourself, I can't think of one.

Joel Katz asks, "Hey, where can you get all the articles dealing with religion & state in Israel -- in ONE place, every week, including ultra-Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Secular points of view -- you name it... Religion and State in Israel is the only review of media coverage on issues of religion and state in Israel. Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement." The answer is that it's all at Religion and State in Israel - April 13, 2009, which is simply begging for Oif Simchos' Tzarich Liyot B'yachad from Od Avinu Chai.

Oh, this is a surprise. It's Ben Yehudah with some Jewish Music! He asked, What's Different About This "Mah Nishtanah?" Go listen and find out. Convenient, no, that I didn't even have to come up with my own song for that one?

Now it's time for Judasim our oft-misunderstood religion. Lady-Light gives us another song with Ki Ata Kadosh. . ., straight from Adi Ran.

Mordechai Torczyner, the Rebbitzen's Husband (but aren't we all [females excepted]?) explains what I have always believed in A Tale of Two Loves: 3-day Yom Tov, and Shir haShirim (Song of Songs) which puts me in mind of Avraham Fried's Around the Year (title track).

Shvach Yid defends himself in Schvach - פני דל  and let me say that "Hey, I'm a Lubavitcher, and I read at least this post!" He also blogged about Schvach - פני דלa and even though it looks like it's the same post, it's really two posts. The London School of Jewish Song performed at one of the early Hasc concerts-that would seem to fit the bill here.

Home Shuling has The ultimate in home shuling which sounds like it's about Chabad Houses but is actually about Pesach. Ken Burgess provides the soundtrack with The Hero from I'll Never Walk Alone in the Desert.

Leora Wenger writes strictly for orthodox Jews (no peeking!) in Banging on the Bimah, which goes nicely with Country Yossi's Deaf Man in the Shteeble.

David Curwin gets all dikdukey on us with omer, all about the history of the word omer and the phrase sefirat haomer, which goes well with Vetaher from Lipa Schmeltzer's Letova.

Mordechai Torczyner, The Ugly Side of Kashrus Recommendations, which is very interesting (and disturbing), coupled with Gershon Veroba's Bugs, from Just One Shaitel, makes a new beginning for Kashrus,  and Baila ends it off with some delicious-looking Challah on Happy Day-after-Pesach! I hope there's no bugs involved in that! 

Now we're onto Personal, and Elisheva has a whole lot of personal shtuff going on at Update: Freedom and all that. How about some Bein Kach u'Bein Kach from Avraham Fried (title track)?

Yoav B made it on, no worries, with Passover in the IDF: The true meaning of Freedom, which touched even this cynical old blogger, as did Lipa Schmeltzer's Yoishvei Eretz Yisroel from A Poshite Yid.

GP talks about horses in Blessed by the Best « Manely Montana, and even though I don't like the beasts much myself, I do like Avraham Fried's Al Tirah from Bein Kach u'Bein Kach.

Politics it is to end the night, and Barbara begins it with Wah! Wah! Israel's Bullying Us!, which sounds like a cry for help, or at least The Sydenham Choir's L'Dor Vador, from Shabbat.

Shmuel Sokol will end it for us here folks, with Foreign Policy's "evenhandedness" unfair to Israel, and it seems like as good a time as any for Moshe Kravitsky's American Lies.

And that's all folks! Sheesh, it's been fun, and make sure to submit your next post with the carnival submission form, and check out all the old haveil's at the blog carnival index page. So long, and thanks for all the gefilte fish!