Sunday, December 24, 2006

The End of an Era!


The End of an Era
The Very Last
Double Digit
HAVEL HAVELIM!

Number 99!!!

This is a historic moment in Jewish literature, so take a deep breath, and imagine that I've done a good job. Please… I feel the burden of responsibility on me. Enough kvetching…
On with the show!

To start with, if you haven't yet seen it, visit the
latest and greatest Kosher Cooking Carnival!

CHANUKAH

Read Akiva's
favorite Chanukah story.

And from
Reb Chaim HaQoton: The Hasmonean Mistake, the Chanukah story continued.

Here's Parshat Miketz by Moshe Burt.

See the
Chabad Chanukah pictures from around the world. I looked for one of the chanukiya they put at our junction, but it wasn't in the collection. (thanks lakevent)

Read
YID With LID: Fighting for Justice A Shoah Survivor's Story

Read
J O S H U A P U N D I T's The story of Hanukkah; there's plenty there including illustrations.

Life of Rubin found a
Pez Menorah.

Happy Channuka from psychotoddler.

And
Rubicon3 sings The Dreidel Song - Texas Swing Style.

Here's a
great Dry Bones classic!

Check out all of the gorgeous
Chanukiyot ~Sarah~ has posted.

Judy Gruen is
In a Sweat Over Holiday Gifts!

Rachel, again, posts
The Menorah of Courage. Some stories need to be told every year.

Now that Nathan is in Israel, Hanukah has a
different meaning.

Look at Dave Bender's
fantastic photos. I had trouble going into his blog and I'm glad that he sent me the photo link. Thanks Dave.

Here's a
Chanukah meme from Soccer Dad. I was getting nervous, but B"H, he didn't tag me. Besides that post, there's another great post with pictures of the Channuka house.

Ezzie shows
Elianna enjoying Chanukah.

Jameel gives his opinion on
sufganiyot. Mine are different.

And Jack complains of
too many presents.

Here's
nuch epes a chosid: Freilichen Chanuka; I love the picture!

See this new
Chanukah film by Gil Ronen; thank to Brenda.

Mottel writes about
The Sad Case of the Hanukkah Bush.

Take a
look at the candles in the windows!

I just couldn't resist
Modern Uberdox: The Menorah in the Window...

Here's what A Simple Jew's
wife has to say about Chanukah.

By the time you read this it will be
Esser Agaroth: The Day After Hanukkah.... (though at this moment—as I write this—we still have a day and a half left.)

Now for the
NY's Funniest Rabbi: Chanukah Quiz. Let's see how much you know.

And here's
Reb Chaim HaQoton's Rock of Ages.
Elie writes about
the fifth day of Chanukah.

ISRAEL

The big Chanukah extravaganza here was
the Olive Festival! See the pictures.

Read about the
Mt. Zion Redevelopment Project; it's a project funded by the good Jews of Atlanta.

Shiloh Musings: Stoicism is not Heroism! What do you think?

From Moshe Burt:
Which Leader Will Bring Israel to Take Responsibility Instead of Depending upon the Nations for Her Security?? That's a good question.

No nonsense about Migron from Mark!

Slightly Mad tells us about
a cultural boycott of Israel.

Read Moze's
confession, and at the same time you'll see her suggestions to the Histadrut.

There are
many types of heroes, and not all are soldiers.

Cozy corner tells us about
Moderate Muslim politics on Israel.

The Elder of Ziyon says:
Time for the PalArabs to step up. But they won't.

What's the connection between
Begin, Yamit, El Al and Shabbat?

Meryl takes
A closer look at these “crude, homemade” rockets.

And Treppenwitz gives some
details about the Israeli Labor Party.

"Carl's Corner"
I'm giving Carl a special spot, because he sent me a slew of posts all at once, and at this point in my HH preparation, I don't feel like scattering them. Also, some of you may know that last month I challenged you to a
"Who are these bloggers and what do they have in common contest?" And now you know for sure; they are Carl and I. The event was the NCSY Reunion during the OU Convention in Jerusalem. Here are some things we have in common:
Blogging
We were both NCSY Chapter President
We were both NCSY Regional Vice President
We were both NCSY National Financial Secretary
We made Aliya
We're members of the Ben Zakkai Honor Society.
We both thought it "clever" to wear old sweatshirts to the reunion, and we can both fit into our old sweatshirts—take a look at my post to see the picture.
And no, we didn't know each other then (he's younger) and we didn't plan wearing the sweatshirts together.
And now, here are his posts:
Persona non grata in Manchester
US Neocons expected Israel to attack Syria
Main entrance to Temple Mount on the verge of collapse
Why they deny the Holocaust
Olmert's stupidities
What went on at the Holocaust denial conference
Misreading Abu Mazen
'Palestinian' Civil War Update - Five more 'Palestinians' killed; IDF denies it's a civil war
Will France become pro-Israel? Dhimmi Carter's petrodollars Anti-Semitism


MISCELLANEOUS

My husband celebrated Chanukah by
visiting Har HaBayit accompanied by the man who introduced him to it, Menachem Ben Yashar.

For those of us who haven't been in Australia,
Sarah's pictures are very tempting.

Simply Jews shows us that shidduchim are a lot better than
this. And is Allah better than yoga?

Check out
Fred's latest creations.

Have you read
The Jewish Voice? It looks interesting.

Here's the
Yisrael Medad-Ralph Lord Roy Correspondence.

Take a look at Shoshana's new blog,
Kindness Happens; the contributors are some of the most popular Jewish bloggers around.

Read:
Daf notes: Daf Yomi - Rosh Hashana 13 - Omer and Chanukah and Rosh Hashana 15 - THE TORAH DICTATES THE LAWS OF NATURE.

According to
Emes Ve-Emunah: Hundreds of Children are sexually abused.

Now you can see it,
the shechita; that's right, from Life in Israel.

Cross-Currents » Just for the Record is by Jonathan Rosenblum.

Read about
Women of Valour on Jewish Current Issues.

Meryl says:
There's hope for us yet.

According to
Instapundit.com – read, not quote, the Koran.

There is nothing worse than having a seriously ill child. Amber's parents
Bagel Blogger and Baleboosteh share with us their feelings. Refuah Shleimah, and may G-d give our two friends the strength to deal with it all and give all their children lots of love and support.

Elder of Ziyon reminds us not to forget Islamic Jihad.

A Simple Jew's baby says
her first word! It's "dada," of course.

On esser agaroth you can learn the
most important cooking advice.

Here's the
Jewish Blogmeister: J Blogger Interview: Featuring LakeVent!

Olah Chadash writes about her very tough
Bubby Becky.

An interesting post from Mystical Paths mentions the "catch 24" of
eiruv building.

Read what
The Pragmatician says about Kindness.

According to NYC Educator, there's
hell in NJ for those public school students who don't believe in "j."
AbbaGav reassures us that
he's not dead.

Smooth writes
that Barcelona is restoring its Jewish quarter, but that's not as good as it sounds.

Cosmic X posted a
picture I've thought about taking. OK, Cos' you won!

Westbankmama has
good news.

The Israeli Tikkun Blog tells about his First Official Judaism Lesson; what an adventure! Good luck!

Read the
Weekly Megillah! You can sign up and get it straight to your inbox.

There are some interesting points in
Letters of Thought: The Kapote Conundrum.

Walking for Israel is
calling all Jews. Just that you know, the walking isn't in Israel, but check out this new blog.

Check out:
Jewish Blogmeister: Get your Jewish Hero Trading Cards... he's not talking about Sandy Koufax!

Read what
got to my husband.

If you want to practice your Spanish, check out
Herut חרות.

Penny Stock reminds us that
things aren't as they first seem.

Here are:
Media Backspin, the editor's picks.

And according to
Media Blog on National Review Online, ABC News Analyst: Plight of Palestians Similar to the Holocaust.

Yid with Lid writes about the
60 Minutes show about the Shoah.

Marallyn reminisces about
NYE in the "old country."

And Ya'aqov wonders when he should
take down the succah.

Now, I'm sure that you never expected to see an interview with Santa in Havel Havelim, and I must admit that I certainly never expected to include one, but this isn't your everyday Santa; this is a Santa like you've never met before, but then again, what do you expect from
The Bagel Blogger?

The term “Havel Havelim” is from Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, which was written by King Solomon, who built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other “excesses” and finally realized that it was nothing but norishkeit, “havel” or in English “vanities.” I think that King Solomon and his father King David were the original "bloggers." The books they wrote, when you take them chapter by chapter, can easily be described as blog posts. The stones they used to write on made them last, so that we can read them now. I doubt if today's technology will give our words any lasting effect.

Here's a special message from
Soccer Dad:
Next week's host is Bagel Blogger. Please note that to make #100 special we're asking everyone to submit a post from this year and, if they have it, a post from last year.
Send your links for the next edition of Havel Havelim via blog carnival, and at the same time you may discover other “carnivals” to visit and enter. You can also use those forms to send kosher recipes and other kosher food posts to the Kosher Cooking Carnival. Blog carnival also has a great listing of recent carnivals for your sidebar. You can either get one for a specific carnival, like HH or KCC, or a general one.

Thanks to
Soccer Dad for his hard work keeping this going, and if you want to host, please let him know at dhgerstman at hotmail dot com.

This appears in the
UberCarnival.

Please put up a blurb on your site alerting readers to Havel Havelim. Thank you!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great work Sarah and thanks for the links. Is it time for Pesach recipes yet?

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry - Batya.

Sarah Likes Green said...

excellent work as usual! :)
(thanks for the links!)

Carl in Jerusalem said...

Wow! If I'd known you were going to link so many, I would have sent more! :-)

Got to go post the linkies on my site before I run out to my shiur....

And by the way Batya, I tell my kids that I'm 26 (and those who are under 7 actually believe it), so you can be 29:-)

Batya said...

avromi, sarah, thanks!

and carl--29?!
I'm much younger!

Anonymous said...

wow!!!!!! thanks for the hat tip and can't wait to go visit everyone else...shavuah tov...wowowowow...stay safe

Anonymous said...

Great Job!

YMedad said...

Humbled to be in such great company. Proud to be linked to the Kosher Me-andering Muse of Shiloh

Jameel @ The Muqata said...

I'm happy to announce that I didn't eat ONE (or more) Sufganiyot the entire Chanuka (nor before or after!).

I did succumb however, and eat a bunch of latkes....

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Link! By the way, as for having things in common- I am also a member of Ben Zakkai (I was regional VPE and President but no National Board...). Happy Post Chanukah!

Batya said...

I wish to thank all of you, since I couldn't have done it alone.

AS said...

Fantastic!

Neil Harris said...

Thanks for the link. Curious about your NCSY history...please email me
Neil Harris
Midwest NCSY Regional Pres 1989

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the kind mention--but it's not according to me, actually. It's a Christian teacher who believes the rest of us are going to hell, and deems it appropriate to tell his public school students they're coming along for the ride.

Carl in Jerusalem said...

Neil,

We are both way before your time.

Batya said...

thanks-jb, neil and nyce!

neil you knew a different ncsy

and nyce, sorry if my wording wasn't clear. I know that you were just reporting.

Soccer Dad said...

Carl,
Which makes it all the more amazing that Neil is older than you (and Batya).
David
I was also a chapter president and Regional VP. But I was never on the national board and haven't made Aliyah. yet.

Irina Tsukerman said...

Great job!

Batya said...

Irina and sd, thanks!
sd, what, you too?
I also edited my regional paper, my first real journalism venture!

Batya said...

thanks bb
How's it going with the big one oh, oh?