LEARNIN' HARD PLAYIN' HARD: July 2006

10,000 WEBSITE HITS

Scroll to the very bottom of this site and you will see that we have recieved over 10,000 visits to this website since we set up on march 14th just after purim, the vast majority of our visits have been from south africa followed closely by america and england, we also have a solid fan base in israel, australia. india, spain, maritius, and various other countries.

THANKS TO ALL OUR FANS FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT

TA BOYS HEAVY UNDERDOGS FOR SUNDAY GAME

Tomorrow may just be a day of reckoning for the TA shul football team, sitting towards the bottom of the B leauge they come up against the mighty maccabi giants of the A league, despite reports of fear in the TA camp after staunch freestate defender Raphael Cotton pulled out of the squad, spirits are high, GK boruch immerman was quoted saying "if the kaiser cheifs can beat man utd anything is possible"
Other members of the team are wondering how they got to the quater finals.

GOOD LUCK BOYS

YOUTH MINYAN BACK AGAIN

THE TA YOUTH MINYAN WILL RE-OPEN THIS WEEK IN THE ZAL,

WE START AT 9:30 PLEASE MAKE AN EFFORT TO COME ON TIME

THE MINYAN WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A HECTIC BROCHA ALL ARE INVITED TO JOIN

A SHABBOS OF PEACE FOR A PEACEFUL NATION

It was a friday afternoon, just like today, and the first man just could not stand the temptation of munching on the forbidden fruit from the "tree that let us differenciate between good and evil"

To this day we live, breathe and act upon the effects of this treacherous misdeed, to the extent that our sages tell us that "there is no good without a lil' evil, and no evil without a lil' good" have a look around this world of ours, what confusion, the UN is a supreme example.

There is one catch, the result of this sin was not manifest until after the holy shabbos, from friday morn up till shabbos eve, a full 36 hours of full, complete, holiness and serenity.

We are also taught, that the seven days of our week, reflect the seven days of creation, the heavnly peace of the first shabbos replays itself weekly on our holy day of rest.

This matter is magnified when we refer to the shabbos of this week, shabbos chazon, where the holy temple is shown to us in the sky, a glimpse of the ultimate redemption and eternal rest.

We find ourselves during the nine days, in a state of mourning for the temple of old, thousands of years later the jewish nation still suffers, jewish blood still flows on the very same ground, and the nations of the world show precious little sympathy, and now shabbos chazon is upon us.

Let us pray, that we can find rest in this shabbos of calm, may the families of departed souls find consolation, may the soldiers be shown an easy victory, may the displaced jewish families find comfort, and may the leaders in the holy land find it within their hearts to make the right decisions to protect those under their jurisdiction and may the serenity that this shabbos brings us carry through to the ultimate redemption.

THE MIDDLE PATH

Lovey dovey jews, that's who we are, the two character traits synonymous with the jewboy are kindness and mercy, it runs through our veins it beats in our hearts, the love of our fellow is a natural, genetic inherant part of us.

Miamonidies writes, that the path on which all men should travel is the middle path, the abraxas bridge, no extreme is good, we must strive to find a balanced equilibrium in all matters in which we conduct ourselves, anyone who finds himself leaning unhealthily in one direction should search for a balancing medium.

For us as jews who time and time again have handed an olive branch to our enemies only to have it thrown back into our faces, and as we wonder in shock what we've done wrong this time, maybe we need to find our middle path.

The torah is a book of rules, a book of guidelines, restrictions and yes, severity, the perfect antidote to create the balancing act between being merciful and being too merciful, if the baby cries when you take away a knife he's been playing with no one will tell you that the nice thing to do is to return the knife.

The torah is clear about how to handle a situation as we see unfolding before our eyes daily in the holy land, if one approaches to kill you, one is obligated to take the first shot to eliminate the threat, even if the threat is only in potential and even on the holy day of shabbos.

Without the guidelines of the torah, the jewish people is faced with it's worst enemy, the confused jew, the 300 british jews who paid 10,000 pounds to take our a full page add in the london times condemning the acts of their brothers on the front lines, defending the jewish state, the 10% of Israeli jews that still cry over israeli aggression that provokes the murderous actions that they live with daily.

As teenagers in israel face the heroic task of physically defending the land, it is our responsibility in the diaspora to fight this war on a different front, by using our inborn attributes to share the light and fulfillment that comes with torah knowledge and observance, with all jews that may not have had the opportunity of torah exposure.

Let us bring judaism to the jew, let us take tefillin to jewish offices and mezuzos to jewish homes, let us share the illumination of the shabbos candles with all jewish women, and let jewish education be available to all jewish children, let there be a tzedakah box in every jewish establishment, and may acts of goodness and kindness be the stuff of our daily lives.

Together, with this spirit of unity, we can stand strong as a jewish nation with one heart and one soul, and when the people of the book follow the guidelines of the book, the nations of the world will see that jewish blood is not cheap.

MESIVTA TRIP TO GOLD REEF CITY

The monthly Sunday trip was a mixture of planed chaos, organized madness and premeditated euphorria.

Yosef and Yaakov riding the UFO for the 9th time (out of 16)

ISRAEL: in are hearts, in are minds, and on the big wheel.

TA SHUL FOOTBALL TEAM TAKES A HIDING

Our boys suffered a horrific defeat this afternoon at the hands of a team whose name we shall not mention, the final score was 4-0 the game left many questions to be answered and many are fearfull for their positions, much more to follow, as the team manager promises that"heads will roll"

CANE CUTTERS RESORT, CHABAD HOUSE WEEKEND GETAWAY

THE CHABAD HOUSE WEEKEND RETREAT

what a hectic couple of days, for those of u who were there, no question good times that will last forever, from the building of the shul to the snorkeling, absolutely staunch, for those who missed for whatever reason, i'm sure u will hear all about it, the pics are here and there should be more to follow, a big up for Rabbi Eitan Ash for once again delivering a solid program, to levi, dave and mendel for being there and of course romeo and simon, last but not least you boys who made it what it was.