To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - The shofar shoes
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 09:03:16 -0500

The shofar shoes
By Rabbi Avi Shafran

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- WHEN MY dear father, may he live and be
well, showed me his new "shofar shoes," I was reminded of how uniquely Jews
steeped in Jewish tradition look at the world.

It was just about a year ago, several hours before the arrival of Yom
Kippur. My family and I had the wonderful privilege of spending the High
Holidays in Baltimore with my father and his wife (my wonderful "second
mother," as I refer to her; I lost my own beloved mother a decade ago).
Father is the rabbi of a small congregation and serves as the recording
secretary of Baltimore's widely respected Orthodox rabbinic court.

Before he showed me the shoes, he recounted how his old cloth "Yom Kippur
shoes" -- leather footwear is forbidden on the Jewish Day of Atonement --
had grown uncomfortable. These new "shofar shoes," however, he explained,
were much better.

He is someone, without question, who can appreciate a good shoe. As a child
in a Polish shtetl, the only shoes he ever had were those first worn and
outgrown by older siblings. To this day he attributes his size 6EEE feet to
the confining, ill-fitting footwear of his youth. And during the years of
World War II, when he and his yeshiva-colleagues found themselves unwilling
guests of Josef Stalin in a Siberian labor camp, the frigid temperatures
made foot-covering a matter not of comfort but of life or death. He recalls
how he and his friends would wrap long pieces of cloth in layers around
their feet for insulation. When he says the morning blessing "Who has
provided me all my needs," which Jewish tradition teaches refers to shoes,
he surely relates to it better than most of us.

 My father richly appreciates so many other things too. He takes powerful
pride in his children and grandchildren. None of them is particularly
"successful" in the world's gauge of the word, in the acquisition of wealth
or property. No dot-com millionaires among his progeny to date. But they are
all, to a person, observant Jews, immersed in the life, texts and traditions
of the Jewish religious heritage. And my father knows that the
great-grandchildren with which he has been blessed -- and, with G-d's help,
those yet to come -- will grow up in dedicatedly Jewish homes. That, he
insists -- not what the world thinks -- is true success, Jewish success.

So many things, I pondered, are so different when regarded through deeply
Jewish eyes. Even what a New Year's day means. To the wider world, January 1
is a day of partying and revelry, an opportunity to get drunk and have a
good time. Rosh Hashana, by contrast, is a time of judgment --- a time of
happiness, to be sure, but of trepidation as well, of regret, of apologies,
of repentance.

My father blows the shofar at his shul on Rosh Hashana. The blasts of the
ram's horn call all who hear them, in Maimonides' words, to "awaken,
sleepers, from your slumber," to reject the "silly distractions of the
temporal world" we occupy; to focus on what alone is real: serving our
Creator and being good to one another. To see the world, in other words,
through Jewish eyes. No wonder my father was so happy to discover that the
comfortable Yom Kippur shoes he had found were "shofar shoes."

I didn't understand at first what a "shofar shoe" was, though, and told him.
He smiled and responded patiently, "Why, each one has a shofar on it."

When I expressed skepticism, he went to his bedroom and emerged triumphantly
with the footwear.

And when he held them up for me to see, his Jewish eyes taught mine a
lesson.

I don't think I'll ever look at the Nike "swoosh" quite the same way again.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rabbi Avi Shafran is American Director of Am Echad, an international
organization promoting Jewish unity

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - "Mary, I am totally yours."
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 15:29:20 -0500

Totus Tuus
"Mary, I am totally yours."

http://www.ewtn.com/entrustment/index.htm

The motto of Pope John Paul II contains within it the theology of the
Entrustment of the Third Millennium. "Mary I am totally yours! You, who
are the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, form us into images of your
Divine Son." As we begin the Third Millennium of the Christian era our
world desperately needs this entrustment, an act which begs the grace to
reform and renew human hearts. Only in this way can the Third Millennium
become a Civilization of Love, rather than a culture of death.

The Entrustment of the Third Millennium will take place within the
context of the pilgrimage of the Catholic Bishops to Rome for their
Jubilee Day. At 10:00 a.m. (4:00 a.m. Eastern) on Sunday 8 October in
St. Peter's Square, the assembled bishops will concelebrate the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass with Pope John Paul II. After Holy Communion, the
Pontiff will go before the image of the Virgin of Fátima and make the
act of Entrustment.

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Weekend News Today items (10/6/00)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 18:26:49 -0400

Russia has ''tangible proposals'' to end Middle East violence

                         Weekend News Today
                         Source: AFP

Mon Oct 9,2000 -- Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said
Monday that Moscow had "tangible proposals" to help end the
recent flare-up of violence in Israel and Palestinian territories. "We
have tangible proposals for resolving the crisis that we have to
propose and discuss with the concerned parties," Ivanov told
reporters before departing for talks in Israel and Palestinian
territories. Asked if he discussed the proposals in Beirut or during
his visit to Damascus earlier, Ivanov said: "Until now, no, because
it was more important to hear the ideas of the leaders in Beirut and
Damascus."

Ivanov was accopanied by a 30-strong delegation including
Alexander Sultanov, head of the Middle East and North Africa
department at the foreign ministry, who met with Hezbollah chief
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. Sultanov told reporters that he "traded
ideas" with Nasrallah about a possible swap of the three kidnapped
Israeli soldiers for the release of Lebanese detained in Israel. The
Hezbollah chief originally offered to trade the three captured Israeli
soldiers for 19 Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel. But he is now
considering Palestinian pleas to demand the release of Palestinian
prisoners, numbering some 1,500.
 

US accepts EU military arm on equal footing with NATO

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: AFP

Mon Oct 9,2000 -- The United States accepts that the European
Union's new defense arm should be put on an equal footing with
NATO, US Defense Secretary William Cohen is to tell European
allies here on Tuesday. The message, contained in a speech
prepared for delivery at a NATO defense ministers' meeting,
amounts to a tacit surrender of the alliance's 51-year primacy on
European military matters. In the speech, a copy of which was
obtained by AFP, Cohen assures the Europeans that the United
States will not withdraw from the continent and says NATO will
remain the "indispensible anchor" of US engagement in Europe's
security.

He adds that the United States in all liklihood would be part of any
military action of significant scale undertaken by the Europeans,
and that it would be difficult to imagine in such a case that the
Europeans would prefer to act alone. "That said, it is clear that in
the future NATO will no longer be the only major multilateral
structure with a role in responding to crises, including military
crises, which could affect European stability and security," he
says. The development of a European security policy, with military
capabilities to back it up, is "a natural, even inevitable part of the
process of European integration begun after World War II," he
says.

"Let me be clear on America's position: we agree with this goal --
not grudgingly, not with resignation, but with wholehearted
conviction," Cohen asserts. A senior Pentagon official said the text
of the speech was given to NATO member countries on Friday,
ahead of its delivery Tuesday at an informal meeting of alliance
defense ministers. It marks a marked shift in tone and substance
on the part of Washington, which viewed with some misgivings the
European Union's efforts to develop an autonomous military
capability.

Israel rejects U.S. summit proposal

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: Ha'aretz

Mon Oct 9,2000 -- Israel has rejected the U.S. initiative for an
emergency summit between Prime Minister Ehud Barak,
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and United States
President Bill Clinton. Israeli and U.S. sources say that the U.S.
administration is also unenthusiastic about holding a summit as
long as violence in the area continues. Egypt has refused Clinton's
proposal to host the summit. Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr
Moussa on Monday denied reports that a regional summit will take
place in Sharm al-Sheikh.

An diplomatic source in Jerusalem said Barak would agree to
attend the summit only if it was well prepared, following the failures
of the July summit in Camp David and last week's summit in Paris.
 

Israel gave the U.S. administration two conditions for attending the
summit:

* A clear call from Arafat to stop the violence. "Even if it takes
some time to achieve total calm, we expect a clear and
unequivocal order from Arafat to the Tanzim to stop the violence,"
said a political source.

* Political preparation to ensure that the summit will end with an
agreement. Israel demands that Arafat agree to the U.S. bridging
proposals. Barak has undertaken to accept the proposals as a
basis for negotiations. The Palestinians have not yet accepted
them and object to the main issues within the U.S. proposals,
which do not recognize the right of return for refugees or
Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount. "We will not attend
another summit just to talk, as we did in Camp David and Paris,"
the political source said.

UK Government 'to promote virginity'

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: faith
                         Source: BBC

Mon Oct 9,2000 -- The UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate
in Europe. So, the government is going to launch an ad campaign
to encourage teenagers to remain virgins. The controversial
campaign, to be launched before the end of the year, will
encourage young girls and boys to resist peer pressure to have
sex. It will include slogans such as "Sex - are you thinking about it
enough?" The campaign aims to cut rates of teenage pregnancies
in the UK, which is one of the highest in Europe. One of the
campaigns will tackle the problem of peer pressure, which can
persuade young women to have sex early in their teenage years.
Other advertisements will address questions such as contraception
and the risks of disease. More than 90,000 girls under the age of
19 get pregnant each year. The Family Planning Association
welcomed the campaign. A spokeswoman said: "We think its a
good idea. As far as we know it has been very well researched. It's
being well publicised and well funded. "I think it is also going to be
aimed at boys and condom use, which again will be useful,
because increased condom use influences rates of sexually
transmitted infections, and this is also important."

A technology first! - Cow may soon deliver a rare cloned ox baby

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: faith
                         Source: CNN

Mon Oct 9,2000 -- On a farm in Sioux City, Iowa, "Bessie" may
soon be the first cow ever to give birth to...not a cow, but a rare
cloned Asian ox. If everything goes according to plan, she will
herald a stunning new way to save endangered, or even recently
extinct, animals. The bovine surrogate mother is expected to give
birth to the baby ox, "Noah" next month. "He will be the first
endangered animal we send up the ramp of the ark," said Robert
Lanza, the V.P. of medical and scientific dev. at Advanced Cell
Technology, and one of the lead authors of a study published
Sunday in the journal Cloning. "This is no longer science fiction. It's
very, very real." Scientists had previously shown it is possible for
one species to give birth to implanted embryos taken from a similar
species. But this is the first time they have combined that
technique with cloning. Noah doesn't have a father. Before being
implanted in Bessie's uterus, the egg was artificially induced to
begin dividing without being fertilized.

The technique could not be used on long-extinct species because
the DNA donor cells must come from a live animal, one that has
been dead for less than five days, or one that has been frozen
since its death. The goal of the research is to use the cross-
species cell transfer technology to reprogram human cells for
medical purposes, said Michael West, chief exec. officer of ACT.
Until then, if Noah's birth is successful, developers say the
technique could be used to repopulate rare animal species. The
Spanish government has given ACT approval to clone the bucardo,
a newly extinct Spanish mountain goat. The last bucardo died
earlier this year and was immediately frozen. Also being
considering are the rare animals: African bongo, the ocelot and the
giant panda. "We're not trying to build a big Noah's Ark and save
every animal, but we want to point the way for how this can be
done," he said. "Saving the world is a tall order, but we're trying."
"The danger is that this could be seen as an alternative," said John
Rennie, editor of Scientific American magazine. "But cloning is just
one more tool to use along with the rest of the measures we
already take to preserve species." "This is the very first time this
technology has ever generated a full pregnancy."

Mideast diplomacy intensifies, Clinton calls for another Egypt
summit with Mubarak, Barak, Arafat, and Abdullah

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: Ha'aretz

Mon Oct 9,2000 -- In an effort to salvage what remains of a Middle
East Peace Process, U.S. President Bill Clinton called for an
urgent summit meeting with leaders in the region to be held in
Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak did
not immediately agree to the idea of hosting the midweek regional
summit, but said he would discuss it with Palestinian Authority
Chairman Yasser Arafat during Arafat's visit to Cairo on Monday,
officials said. During the summit, Clinton and Mubarak would meet
with Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Arafat and Jordan's King
Abdullah.

International efforts to end the bloodshed in the Middle East
doubled on Monday but tension was high as Barak's deadline
neared for Palestinians to halt their wave of protests. U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan was on his way to Israel to try to
use personal diplomacy to end 11 days of bloodshed in which at
least 84 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed. The United
States and Russia stepped up their own frantic efforts, including
the initiative to summon the peace summit.

Israeli Arabs seek UN action to halt attacks

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: AFP

Mon Oct 9,2000 -- An Arab Israeli MP called Monday for UN chief
Kofi Annan to intervene to stem what he described as an
"escalation of violence" against the nation's Arab minority by Israeli
police and Jewish civilians. MP Azmi Bishara made his appeal the
day after a rampage by a mob of young Jews settlers against Arab
residents of Nazareth in northern Israel that left two people dead
and many more wounded.
 

Germany offers to mediate Israeli prisoner release: Hezbollah

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: AFP

Mon Oct 9,2000 -- Germany has offered to mediate for the release
of three Israeli soldiers being held since Saturday by Hezbollah
guerrillas, the group said Monday, amid expectations that
Hezbollah would demand more than just the freeing of Lebanese
held in Israel. "We have been contacted by Germany, but also by
other parties," a spokesman for the Iranian-backed Shiite
fundamentalist party said when questioned about rumours
surrounding German involvement.

Arafat holds talks with Mubarak about peace process

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: AFP

Mon Oct 9,2000 -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat held talks here
Monday with President Hosni Mubarak amid Egyptian fears the
Arab-Israeli peace process was "in danger of blowing up" because
of escalating violence. Arafat held almost two hours of talks with
Mubarak, accompanied by Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mussa
who rushed back to Cairo after cutting short an official visit to
Turkey, officials said. But a Palestinian spokesman said Arafat
would return to Gaza in the early afternoon to meet with UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan, who will already have seen Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Barak on the first leg of a peacemaking
mission.

http://216.219.160.226/cgi-
bin/readnews.cgi?day=00_10_9&item=#971127431

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Israel sees no end to violence as ultimatum expires
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 18:47:30 -0400

Israel sees no end to violence as ultimatum expires

TEL AVIV, Oct 9 (AFP) - An Israeli ultimatum to Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat to halt violence or see the peace process end
expired unheeded Monday, government officials said amid frantic
diplomatic activity to end the bloodshed.

"We have seen no sign that Arafat has given orders for the violence
to stop," spokesman Avi Pazner told AFP.

Israel's acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami also said he saw
no sign of an end to the violence raging in the Palestinian
territories, and he ruled out any chance of a summit between Arafat
and Prime Minister Ehud Barak until then.

But the officials gave no indication of Israel's next step, expected to
be taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Barak late Monday.

Israel had earlier warned that it could crush the 12-day rebellion
which has cost almost 100 lives by overwhelming force.

"We've done so much in order to continue and to proceed with the
peace process that we would not like to see it suddenly breaking
down," another Israeli government spokesman, Nachman Shai,
said on CNN television.

"But at the same time, if the Palestinians speak fire, we know how
to respond. If they speak peace, if they want peace ... the entire
Israel, headed by Prime Minister Barak, will be ready to do
everything, every effort, every step in order to continue with the
peace process."

Ben Ami was speaking at a press conference with UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan, who arrived in Tel Aviv at the start of a mission
his spokesman said was aimed at preventing a Middle East
conflagration.

Annan was also due to meet Arafat, who earlier saw Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, and would possibly go to
Lebanon and Syria, officials said.

Annan said at Monday's press conference he wanted to bring the
two sides back to the negotiating table.

"Our first objective is that the action must shift from the streets to
the bargaining table. The bloodshed must stop and the conflict
must not be allowed to spread," he said.

Annan is aiming not only to end the deadly Israeli-Palestinian
violence but defuse a potential confrontation over the kidnapping of
three Israeli soldiers by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

"I have not come with any magic formula or solution," he cautioned.
"Time is short stakes are high, the price of failure is more than
anyone of us wants to pay."

"I am hopeful that we can control the situation but this cannot be
done by the leaders alone," he added.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, arriving from Syria and
Lebanon, was also due to meet Ben Ami at midnight (2200 GMT)
in a Tel Aviv hotel.

Ivanov said before leaving Beirut, "We have tangible proposals for
resolving the crisis that we have to propose and discuss with the
concerned parties."

Israel's statements came after violence continued in the West
Bank, but on a much lower scale than in previous days, though as
the day wore on clashes with Israeli troops increased.

Israeli forces fired on hundreds of youths throwing stones at them
at El-Bireh to the north of Ramallah, injuring 45 people, hospital
sources said.

Similar fighting also flared in Nablus and Hebron, but one of the
main flashpoints, Netzarim in the Gaza Strip, was quiet.

The total death toll nevertheless reached 98 since violence erupted
on September 28 after Israel's right-wing opposition leader Ariel
Sharon committed sacrilege in the eyes of the Palestinians by
visiting a disputed holy site in Jerusalem.

In a worrying new development two Israeli Arabs were killed in
clashes with young Jewish men in the northern Israel town of
Nazareth.

And a Palestinian found dead in the West Bank was reported to
have been mutilated by Jewish settlers who killed him, though the
army said he died in a car crash.

Israel's northern border with Lebanon was also quiet as Israel
marked the holiest day in its calendar, Yom Kippur, though
Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon hurled a hand grenade
over the wire at Israeli troops, who did not respond.

In Beirut, efforts continued to secure the release of the three Israeli
soldiers whose capture Saturday by Hezbollah escalated the
tension.

Annan's representative in Lebanon, Rolf Knutsson, said he was
optimistic about the possibility of a prisoner swap after meeting
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

But the picture was complicated by Palestinian demands for
Hezbollah to hold out for the release of all Arabs held in Israeli jails,
amounting to some 1,500, and not just the 19 Lebanese the group
originally sought.

Knutsson told journalists he had called on Lebanese President
Emile Lahoud to impose Beirut's authority with troops and police
on the troubled border with Israel, currently only manned by
Hezbollah.

But he said that Lahoud had not "made any undertaking to do
anything specific."

Beirut, where Damascus is the main power-broker, has said it will
not guard the border until there is a "global peace deal" with Israel
involving Lebanon and Syria as well as the Palestinians.

Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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