While I am not a member of the edah hacharadit, I believe you are not only 100% but 1000% correct in these remarks. Everyone has to tolerant of everyone else. Post soldiers where they will not hear women singing. It may be your right to sing, but it is also someone else's right not to hear you sing. This is what I call "keffiyah anti-datit." Again, singing does not bug me but if you want Charedi soldiers to serve, it is imperative to adhere to their really minor and respectful conditions. And putting someone in jail for wearing a beard--ridiculous! Happy and Kosher Pesach to all.

To bshvat is my Hebrew birthday. Blessings to all of you and to the entire jewish people.

This is true, there is no one central leader righteously proclaimed as the Moshiach with the entire world acknowledging him. Not to be funny, but looking at YouTube, filled with rabbis delivering shiurim such as our beloved Rabbi Arush and Rabbi Lazer, what was the most popular video of all time, reaching more than one billion hits-- a South Korean rapper nicknamed Psy who posted a catchy pop tune video called Gangnam Style. While many of us have disagreed with each other in the course of different blogs, I think we can all agree on one thing: Psy is not the Moshiach. Blessings to all!

To all commentators: thank you for your kind words and thank you to Rabbi Brody for doing Hashem's work. From my perspective here, tons of people hae a different relationship toward Hashem because of you Also thank you to Dimarules for the great lecture. One major thing it reminded me of was the tremendous need for Jewish unity. Easy to forget, imperative to remember, at least for me. to DovBeirBarLeib, just to amplify your story about Jabotinsky, I remember reading in a New York Times commemorative article about him ( before I went to live in Israel for half a decade some years ago), that when he was walking through the rubble of the Kishinev program, with ripped up books all over the place, he picked up a small fragment of the Torah that was floating. That fragment had the words, strangers in a strange land on it-- a symbol that concretized what he believed all along . Shabbat Shalom to all.

Thank you for your input, Stephen. I've dealt with Modern Orthodoxy, with The Satmer's, Chabad as well as Rabbis a lot more learned than myself. Each group seems to have a different version of what Hashem wants with respect to making Aliyah and when it needs to done. I also acknowledge that the hashkafa of this site is that American Jews are in error to stay in America. As I mentioned in previous comments, I personally visit this site because I am a big fan of,Rabbi Lazer and the Emunah series which I do not view as passive recreational reading. I am relating to the intention, rhetoric and tone of the comments and offering a suggestion. If the motivation of the commentators here is to agree amongst themselves about how misguided American Jews are in the wake of impending doom, or their violation of Hashem's ways to stay in America then you have absolutely no problem. If your intention is to really motivate American Jews to leave the US to come to Israel, the arguments supplied here will put off American Jews. People do not act because they have been vilified or scared. They will act out,of positive motivation." Not anyone's job here to positively motivate, you may think, "or "I don't care what Americans think."Sure, I get it. But you are operating out of an Israeli mindset even if you are an "Anglo" living in Israel and you will get an equivalent snarky response. Maybe this approach is not just Israeli, come to think of it, Not to be funny, but there is an old American joke that the only thing two Jews can agree on is how much money a third Jew should give to Israel. I think it is a standard Jewish trait, Israeli or American for Jewih people to be 100 percent convinced about what other Jews should do. The most successful Kiruv group in America today is Chabad. If people study their techniques, they will get a deep and major insight into what motivates American Jews. Aliyah, if it is a mitzvah, should be approached as Kiruv work. How do you do that? I think you need another forum on this site. Tht's a biggie. By the way, with all the strong commentary back and forth, I would like to give everyone here a Bracha for Hatzlocha in all their endeavors and a very good upcoming Shabbat.

The mother of the Sandy Hook killer was what they call here a "prepper", which was the reason she was hoarding guns, an assault rifle, water, you name it, in her house in fear of and in preparation for an upcoming doomsday economic or social crisis which such people vaguely call SHTF -- Translated into Plain English, when. _-------- hits the fan. Anecdotally, there is a lot of mental instability within this fear of apocalypse crowd. Her psychotic son got hold of her weapons and was trained by her to use them. I think utilizing a tone of apocalypse or hysteria in attempting to scare Western Jews on a plane to Israel is a questionable strategy. Most American Jews believe such people are crackpots and point to the mother of the killer as confirmation of these beliefs, Hashem should bless Israel, but when we speak about Makom Sakannah, you have to be very careful when discussing certain parts of Israel where families have gotten killed and people continue to live there. I usually visit this blog for its discussion of how to bolster my emunah and have studied books like the Garden of Gratitude thoroughly. However, it is a major turn off to see this constant bandwagon directed at Jews of the Diaspora. Due to the Holocaust, my parents were literally kicked out of Europe, and were part of shearith hapleta, with most family members dead, few escaping, some to Israel, some to Canada, some to Russia and some to the US. I think If people continue to have an ongoing dialogue with Hashem in light of the unfathomable tragedy of the Holocaust before Israel was in independent state, he will cut the Jews some slack to temporarily remain in any country that has been a haven for them until the Moshiach comes,

Seems like every other post on this website seems to have as its mantra that every bad thing on the planet is meant to tell the American Jews, who, by the way, have been studying and speaking a lot of Hebrew and not Yiddish, to make Aliyah.

So let me get this straight. The crazy Iranians continually say that they want to wipe Israel off the planet and people in Israel are not running scared, but in Sandy Hook, where the perpetrator has an Italian last name and is known to be mentally ill with a pistol packing mama, the American public will blame the Jews. Sorry, I don't buy it.

Would like to add here: Obviously, Hashem has given us the ability to succeed and stand out. That being said, most of the Jews I know are basically middle class, like the regular people in Israel. That's why it always irks me that Israelis believe that only finances are keeping Jews in America. I agree heartily that the hand of Hashem can be seen very strongly in all these events, By the way, many are currently very interested in the Emunah message!

Showing a gas line to encourage Aliya is similar to showing a bombed out building in Israel to discourage it. Despite this crisis, many people banded together and helped one another out with a minimum of the rampant types of crimes, societal breakdown that you would find after natural disasters in third world countries.. In terms of making Aliya, people will make it because they have a calling to do so. I have read in many blogs linked to this site that American Jews don't make aliya because they are too tied to their successful materialistic lifestyles, This is a chicken and egg argument. Jews are both educated and smart and tend to succeed wherever they go. They are successful because they are Jews, not staying in America because they are successful.