Statement by PM Netanyahu: Prime Minister’s Office, May 13, 2021
““What is happening in Israel’s cities over the past few days is unacceptable. We have seen Arab rioters set fire to synagogues and vehicles and attack police officers. They are attacking peaceful and innocent citizens. This is something that we cannot accept; it is anarchy. Nothing justifies this and I will tell you that nothing justifies the lynching of Jews by Arabs and nothing justifies the lynching of Arabs by Jews.
We will not tolerate this. This violence is not us. We will restore administration and governance in Israel’s cities everywhere, in all cities, in the Jewish-Arab integrated cities, in Jewish cities, everywhere.
I have ordered the police to adopt emergency powers, to reinforce with Border Police units and, of course, to impose curfews where necessary. …”
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Hamas’s Missile Threat to Israel: Guermantes Lailari, IPT News, May 13, 2021
“Hamas missiles have killed Palestinian civilians, including children, for whom Hamas has falsely accused Israel of being responsible for their deaths – an accusation blindly reported by the mainstream media.”
If not for the Iron Dome missile interception system, Israel would now be experiencing an intolerable level of destruction that would have forced a massive and costly ground invasion into Gaza.
Since Monday, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups are using missiles and technology supplied and designed by Iran to rain rocket fire onto Israeli population centers. Since the beginning of the conflict, Hamas has launched 1,750 missiles from Gaza. Approximately 300, or about 20 percent, fell inside of Gaza according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). As a result, those Hamas missiles have killed Palestinian civilians, including children, for whom Hamas has falsely accused Israel of being responsible for their deaths – an accusation blindly reported by the mainstream media.
For the Sake of Peace, Israel Must Rout Hamas: Bret Stephens, NY Times, May 13, 2021
As of this writing, terrorists in Gaza — the word “terrorist” fits people who take indiscriminate aim at civilians to achieve political goals — have fired some 1,750 rockets at Israel since Monday.
That’s a number worth pausing over, and not just because it has had the effect of overwhelming Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense. Gaza is often said to be sealed off and utterly destitute. Yet Hamas, which rules Gaza, seems not to have had too much trouble amassing this kind of arsenal, or too many qualms employing it in a way it knew was sure to incur a heavy Israeli response.
The usual rule in life is that if you throw the first punch you can’t complain if you’re counterpunched. The test of Western policy and public opinion is whether they will let Hamas break this rule.
The Book of Ruth: A Zionist Story for Shavuot: Moshe Phillips, Algemeiner, May 6, 2021
“In America, it is a true tragedy that the magnificence of Shavuot has degenerated for many into synagogue board member installations, cheesecake recipes, and confirmation graduations.”
The duality of Shavuot is undeniable — the yom tov exists, or rather co-exists, with distinctly different facets. On the one hand, there is its status as an agricultural festival marking the wheat/barley harvest and the related celebration of the precociousness of the Land of Israel; another aspect is its historic commemoration of the most remarkable event in the origin story of the Jewish people — the Revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
Passover and Shavuot are connected by family ties — that is, Nachshon, a hero of the Seventh Day of Passover, and Ruth’s husband Boaz.
Seasons of Love – A video message for Shavuot from Rabbi Sacks
Shavuot Bikkurim Celebrations In Pre-State Eretz Yisrael: Saul Jay Singer, Jewish Press, May 12, 2021
“With the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, both the bringing of the first fruits to Jerusalem and the poignant avowal ceremony ceased, but the Jews who worked the land of Eretz Yisrael in the early 20th century decided to revive the millennia-old celebration of the first fruits in their own manner.”
As per the Torah (Numbers 28:26), bikkurim – or the first fruits of the “seven species” grown in Eretz Yisrael (wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates) – were brought to the Beit HaMikdash in Jerusalem and offered as a sacrificial gift to Hashem on Shavuot.
Jewish National Fund label sheet depicting the Seven Species.
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For Further Reference
IDF Deception Leads To Massive Aerial Assault on Hamas’s ‘Metro’: Yaakov Katz, Jerusalem Post, May 14, 2021 — At about 9 pm on Thursday night, the IDF began assembling ground forces along the border with the Gaza Strip. Some armored and infantry battalions joined the artillery batteries that had been deployed days earlier to pound Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets.
Is Israel Reaching A Tipping Point With Internal Clashes?: Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, May 13, 2021 — The battles on Israel’s streets, as clashes between mobs of Jews and Arabs have unfolded since the beginning of this Ramadan, poses a significant threat to the country.
Reading Ruth: Leon Kass, The Tikvah Fund, May 12, 2021 — The Book of Ruth tells one of the Hebrew Bible’s most beautiful and beloved stories—chronicling how a childless widow from a foreign land rises to become the ancestress of Israel’s greatest king. But as Dr. Leon Kass and his coauthor (and granddaughter) Hannah Mandelbaum demonstrate in their new book, Reading Ruth: Birth, Redemption, and the Way of Israel, this ancient tale is about far more than one woman’s rise from misery to glory.
Sacred Time Ep 11: Shavuot – The Treasure from Sinai: Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik, YouTube, June 6, 2019 — On Shavuot, Jews celebrate receiving the Torah at Sinai. With all its commandments, the Torah is the source of Jews’ most profound joy. But how can law, so complex and didactic, be a source of joy and inspiration that leads to an encounter with God?
A Tale of Two Women – A Shavuot shiur by Rabbi Sacks: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Office of Rabbi Sacks, June 8, 2016 — To launch the new Koren-Sacks Shavuot machzor, Rabbi Sacks delivered a keynote shiur in London on 7 June 2016 to a packed room in Finchley United Synagogue.
