Hochmah and Musar: The Chronicles of Ehav Ever

Response to Hebrew Israelite Comments

2011-12-26T19:28:00.001+02:00

Video Response: Wifey Material 2.0

2011-12-25T12:30:00.000+02:00

The following is a video response that I did concerning the below video.

This is my response.

The Walk of the Weary

2011-12-06T17:32:00.007+02:00

A few months ago I read an article about an eighty year old man who is good shape. He spoke at length about how he keeps fit and when asked about his secret he basically said that he walks everyone. No buses and no cabs. His two feet serve as his primary mode of transportation. I can respect this since I love to walk everywhere it is a very rare occurrence that I use public transport.

It is both a matter of saving money and also keeping myself physically fit. Sure there are times when I am tired from all of the walking I do but I keep hearing from people that I have lost a lot of weight. I don't notice it as much because I have always had an interesting way of looking at myself. When I was younger I always saw myself as older and as I get older I now see myself as younger. Maybe that is the key to staying young.

The Hardest Part

2011-11-24T15:03:00.000+02:00

So now back to the basics. Today I had to travel to Tel Aviv to take care of some business at an office there only to find out that the office was closed due to Thanksgiving in America. I couldn't believe it, even though the office is based from America, but I guess the waste of the trip was the biggest problem. I haven't been much into Tel Aviv for a while just because of how some parts of it remind me of living in NYC, which I loved for a while, and at the same time the more seedy parts of Tel Aviv really bother me. Add to the fact that finding kosher food is a chore in many parts of Tel Aviv and I find that as I wanted to return to the desert in Southern Israel as soon as possible.

Egged Bus

It wasn't always that way. There was a time, years ago, when I enjoyed certain elements of Tel Aviv more but now with time and age I just don't have any interest anymore. The worst part of it was that I was not able to take my laptop which would have allowed me to do some work on the book. I did a lot of the initial writing of the book on the buses from either Jerusalem to the desert or the bus from Jerusalem to work. It brings back memories to think of the early development of the book and to consider I am getting close to the final steps.

So far I am putting in the edits that I made to the written copy and I am wishing that I had done both at the same time. Then again the written edits were more of a framework of what I needed to do with each chapter and now I think I am getting a more rounded story. Currently, I am on page 62 with a total of 373 pages to check.

Currently, I am trying to describe the main character's reaction to being in a place where the inhabitants are behind the times so to speak and he must walk a very delicate line with them. The main fight I have right now is with various forms of procrastination, something that has plagued me for a number of years in my life. What keeps me going is when I consider the impact that this book I am writing will make when I complete it. I keep dreaming of the day when I will receive the book with its cover and will be able to tell everyone that I actually did it. I also consider that as far as I know no one has written a book like this from the perspective that I am writing it from and I keep imagining how it can change so many things.

I am still wrestling though with the book cover design. There was a time when thought of going for the simple but a part of me thinks that I should go for something visually stunning. The advantage of the simple approach is that people may remember it easier when there is something symbolic and I kept thinking of something on the level of Heidi Durrow's book The Girl Who Fell From the Sky. Yet, I also thought of how epic the covers of the Dune books are and a part of me wants something like that. Especially since the main character of my book reflects a background that I keep saying isn't really represented in the sci-fi genre. I keep thinking of something epic like the following.

It all seems like a dream right now, kind of like how things felt when I dreamed of living in Israel so many years ago. There were times when I wanted the reality to hurry itself along so I could wake up knowing that I was in the reality. So with that I probably should get back writing this book so that this won't be some thing that I regret never having done.

Incorrect Translation: Part 4

2011-11-21T22:52:00.003+02:00

As promised this is the fourth and final segment of my critique on false translations. IF you haven't read of PART 1, PART 2, and PART 3 please start there so that it will be clear what this post is about.

During the early version of my review there was someone who claimed that the a theory about the development of the Torah created by European Christians proved the BOY. For those who bring up the Documentary Theory aka the Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis in order to defend the BOY. This theory posits that the Torah, and only the Torah, is not a single text written by Moses but a series of documents collected over time.

The problem is that the Documentary Theory is about the different writing styles in the Torah and it is only a THEORY. There is no hard evidence that Documentary Theory is true, that is why it is called a theory or a hypothesis. Jewish and Samaritan sages, on the other hand, have discussed and can explain every segment of Torah and its transmission from Mount Sinai to the present era. If you read through the information you will also see how the Documentary Theory also disproves the HOY claim that their text is based on an original text.

The Torah Scroll

According to Jewish Law, a sefer Torah (scroll) should be preferably written on gevil. Gevil is a form of skin made from the whole hide, after the hair is removed. The precise requirements for processing gevil are laid by the Talmud, Geonim and Rishonim. They were reconfirmed as "the law according to Moses" by Maimonides, in his Mishneh Torah.

Gevil Torah Scroll

According to the Talmud (Tractate Bava Batra 14b and Gittin 54b), gevil existed during the time of Moses (approximately 1280 BCE); Moses is described as using gevil for the Torah scroll he placed into the Holy Ark of the Covenant. Elsewhere in the Talmud (Tractate Gittin 54b), there is testimony that Torah scrolls were written on gevil.

200 Year Old Torah Scroll

The oldest Yemenite manuscripts are those of the Hebrew Bible, which the Yemenite Jews call "Taj" ("crown"). The oldest texts dating from the 9th century, and each of them has a short Masoretic introduction, while many contain Arabic commentaries.

Jewish Claim Authenticity

According to Jewish texts from 2,000 years ago there are three views of how the Torah was composed. A first view states that the entire Torah was given all at once to Mosheh (Moses) at Mount Sinai. In the maximalist view, this dictation included not only the quotations that appear in the text, but also every word of the text. A second view holds that although Moses wrote the vast majority of the Torah, the last four verses of the Torah were written after his death by Yehoshua bin-Nun (Joshua). A third view holds that YHWH dictated four books of the Torah, but that Moses wrote Devarim (Deuteronomy) in his own words (Talmud Bavli, Meg. 31b). All classical rabbinic views hold that the Torah was entirely or almost entirely Mosaic and of divine origin.

The Torah given to the entire nation of Yisrael (Israel)

Judasim further holds that YHWH is not a human and does not communicate with humans in methods that can attributed to human thought. As Rabbi Mosheh ben-Maimon (1135-1204 CE) who wrote in the Mishnah Torah and the Moreh HaNevuchim (The Guide to the Perplexed) explained that that the Torah was written in the words of humans with divine concepts as the basis. The Jewish perspective further holds that the Torah is written in different styles for theological purposes and understanding the Torah can only be done by understanding the Oral Teachings about the text.

Another aspect of the giving of the Torah is that the entire nation of Yisrael (Israel) heard and saw the voice of YHWH when He spoke. Thus, when Moses presented the Torah it was not just his word, the revelation was to hundreds of thousands of Israelites. In this light Moses and also later scribes could not change or fake the text because hundreds of thousands could attest to what the original text was. Judaism also holds that before Moses died he made 12 copies of the first Torah he wrote and gave a copy to each of the 12 tribes. Further, several Jewish sources such as Pirke Avoth and the Mishnah Torah list the names of all of the Jews from Moses to the 2nd Cent. CE who preserved the Torah from Mount Sinai.

Mori Amnan Yitzhaq writing the last letters of a Torah Scroll

From Rav Ashe (Talmudic times) back to Moshe (Moses) there were forty generations of great men; that is to say: (1) Rav Ashe, (2) from Rabba, (3) from Rabbah, (4) from Rav Huna, (5) from Ribbi Yohanan, Rav, and Shemuel, (6) from Our Holy Teacher, (7) from his father, Rabban Shim`on, (8) from his father, Rabban Gamliel, (9) from his father, Rabban Shim`on, (10) from his father, Rabban Gamliel the Elder, (11) from his father, Rabban Shim`on, (12) from his father, Hillel, and Shammai, (13) from Shemayah and Avtalyon, (14) from Yehudah and Shim`on, (15) from Yehoshua and Nittai, (16) from Yosef and Yosef, (17) from Antignos, (18) from Shim`on the Righteous, (19) from Ezra, (20) from Baruch, (21) from Yirmiyah, (22) from Tsefanyah, (23) from Havaqquq, (24) from Nahum, (25) from Yoel, (26) from Michah, (27) from Yeshayah, (28) from Amos, (29) from Hoshea, (30) from Zecharyah, (31) from Yehoyada, (32) from Elisha, (33) from Eliyahu, (34) from Ahiyah, (35) from King David, (36) from Shemuel, (37) from Eli, (38) from Pinehas, (39) from Yehoshua bin-Nun, (40) from Moshe (Moses), the greatest of all of the prophets, from YHWH.

Jews of Southern Arabia (Habban) Displaying their Torah Scroll

In order to maintain the accuracy of the text a a master copy was kept in the Temple and used as the reference. Jews further list a number of Kohenim (Priests) who insured the accuracy of the text from the time of Moses until the present time.To see how accurate Jews have kept the Torah go to the following link where you can hear how Jews read from the Torah HERE. This is the proof of the accuracy of the text from the Jewish perspective.

The Samaritan Claim of Torah Authenticity

The Samaritans of Northern Israel hold that the first Torah was given directly from YHWH to Moses in the form of a scroll that Moses copied for each tribe. Further, the Samaritans claim that the Levites were charged by Moses with the task of making copies of the Torah for the masses. Similar to Jews, the Samaritans also hold that an that Oral Teachings were given to Israel in order to properly understand the Torah. Also, similar to Jews Samaritans claim that there has been an unbroken chain from Moses to the present era proving the same Torah that was given at Mount Sinai exists today.

Samaritan Abisha Torah Scroll

The Samaritans also claim to have a scroll which they say was written 13 years after the Israelites entered Canaan by a priest named Abisha the grandson of Aharon the priest, and brother of Moses. Information about this scroll can be found HERE on pages 11 and 12 and HERE. The Samaritans claim the Torah to have been passed on to them through a priesthood that can be found in he following list HERE.

Samaritan Torah Scroll in Shechem, Northern Israel

The Documentary Theory

The JEDP Theory found its roots in Jean Astruc (1684-1766), the son of a Protestant minister who had converted to Catholicism, who speculated that Moses used existing written or oral sources in constructing Genesis. By analyzing a) the use of different names of YHWH, b) stylistic differences, and c) patterns, Astruc saw clues of a composite or editorial structure.This method of biblical criticism became known as source criticism, and Astruc believed that Genesis was written from two main sources, the Yahwist and the Elohist which he later thought was too simplistic.

By the early 1800s and contrary to the traditional dating of Mosaic authorship around 1450 BCE the idea that the Torah was written around 900-800 BCE was introduced. Other scholars developed this form of biblical criticism resulting in K. Graf (1815-1869) and Julius Wellhausen’s (1844-1918) 19th century classic the Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis. Julius Wellhausen (May 17, 1844 – January 7, 1918), was a German biblical scholar and orientalist of the Lutheran Christian faith. Wellhausen’s work was influential, because he was able to persuasively correlate the history and development of the Torah with the development of the Jewish faith. This hypothesis became later known as the Documentary Hypothesis.

A more detailed description of the Theory can be found HERE.

Problems with the Documentary Theory

Today, as the result of problems and criticisms brought on by anthropological and archeological findings and literary analysis, very few biblical scholars hold to JEDP theory or to Wellhausen’s Documentary Hypothesis. Notice that in all of these theories none of the creators of the theories have evidence for all of the different writers they claim took part in creating the Torah. They have no names of any of the authors and all of this is speculation. Further, the creators of the theory are Christian theologians from Europe, none of whom had contact with the Middle East. None of those who came up with the JEDP theories including information about for flung Jewish communities that had no contact with European Jewish communities and how their Torah's were virtually the same.

YHWH's Revelation at Mount Sinai to Yisrael (Israel)

An additional problem for these theories is the Dead Sea scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name. The Dead Sea scrolls disprove the various elements of these theory since the differences between the Dead Scrolls, the Masoretic text, and the Samaritan Torah do not match any of the theories for different authorship. All three groups conform in more areas than disagree.

Jewish Torah Scroll with YHWH's (יהוה) Name

Further, 7th century BCE silver scroll found in Jerusalem, containing the priestly benediction matches the text as it is preserved by (Israel Antiquities Authority)

Also, if the documentary theory were correct the Samaritan Torah would have Elohim in it more than YHWH. Yet, the Samaritan Torah has YHWH in it more than Eluwwem (this is the Samaritan pronunciation of Elohim). The Samaritans descend from the Northern Tribes of Israel and according to the Documentary Theory Northern Israel used Elohim in their texts as compared to the tribes of Yehudah (Judah) who used YHWH in their texts.

Samaritan Torah Disproving Documentary Theory

This is the reason why when HOY members who defend the BOY when asked to provide the source from which the BOY was translated they refuse or ignore the request. What they do instead is demonize anyone who questions and their text even when the introduction to their book makes it appear that all that was done was to rework a KJV bible translation.

Further, YHWH guaranteed that the people of Israel would always have those who keep the words of The Creator correctly.

Incorrect Translation: Part 3

2011-11-18T15:11:00.002+02:00

This post is a continuation of PART 1 and PART 2. If you haven't read please start there so that it will be clear what this post is about.

This post concerns a comment that was made by of the HOY supporters. In the comments section of the review one HOY supporter claims that the following is a translation of Yermiyahu (Jer.) 23:26-27:

"How can you (scribes) say we are the wise, and the Law of Yahweh is with us? Behold, the lying pen of the scribes has written them wrong!" and in Yeremyah 23:26-27 - "How long will this be in the hearts of the prophets (scribes) who prophesy lies, yes, they are prophets of the deciet of their own hearts, who cause my people to forget my NAME for Ba'al (Lord), which they tell everyman to their neighbor"

It must first be noted that the commenter did not come up with this on their own. If one looks in the introduction of the BOY the same passage is quoted but without the word (scribes) inserted. Now this commenter of course ADDS in several places (scribes) to their translation. The reality is that both the translation is incorrect and the assertion that both the HOY and the commenter makes that the passage is talking about future scribes is also wrong.

The commenter is basically repeating a part of the HOY theology. The HOY claims that scribes changed all of the Biblical texts and of course they have no evidence for which scribes and supposedly changed the text or when. Grasping at straws they mistranslated a text of legends that claimed that states that the scribes of the pre-1st Temple era (meaning Ezra) fixed the understand of the Hebrew Scriptures. The HOY further claims that a group of scribes known as the Masoretes who operated between the 7th and 11th cent. were responsible for changes in the Torah. For the REAL history of the Masoretes please see this page HERE and HERE.

The word scribes does not show up in any of the Hebrew texts. The statement in this verse in fact doesn't even have anything to do with scribes. In Yirmeyahu 23:16-18 it explains that this statement was made from YHWH to the prophets of Yirmeyahu's (Jerimiah) own time (circa 610 BCE). The following is a copy of the text. Please note that the word in Hebrew for "scribes" is (סופרים) and the word that shows up in the below text is (נבאים) meaning "prophets."

Yermiyahu (Jer.) 23:26-27 From Aleppo Codex

Notice the red boxes around the word (נבאים) "prophets" and never once does the word (סופרים) "scribes" never shows up in the text. Since we know that the Masoretes were never claimed to be prophets we know that this has nothing to do with them. Further, this texts talks about prophets dreaming and speaking falsehood. There is not one statement about writing so we know that a scribe has nothing to do with this passage. We also know that the commenter is also incorrect about the scribes trying to hide the name of YHWH (יהוה).

Check out PART 4 HERE.

Incorrect Translation: Part 2

2011-11-16T07:06:00.004+02:00

So if you haven't read the part 1 to this post I suggest that you go back to the first part HERE. So now I will start dealing with the issues that I mentioned in the first post on this topic. In this post I will explain how the organization calling itself the House of Yahweh (HOY) in their text Book of Yahweh (BOY) changed entire names with no evidence for such. Below are a few examples.

If one goes to this link HERE and looks in the BOY table of contents (click on the right arrow 10 times) one will find a list of the names of the different texts that the BOY contains. You will notice some alterations that the HOY did on a number of names. Here are three examples.

In the Hebrew scriptures there is a record of Ezra the Scribe. In Hebrew his name is (עזרא). The BOY contains Ezraya.
There is a prophetic writing in the Hebrew Scriptures by a prophet who is called Hoshea in English. This is basically the easiest way to write it in English from the original Hebrew (הושע). The BOY claims that his name was Hosheya.
There is further a prophetic writing in the Hebrew Scriptures by a prophet who is called Ezekiel. In reality his name should be written something like Yekhezqel from the Hebrew (יחזקאל). The HOY changes his name to Yechetzqyah.

This begs the obvious questions of where are they getting these spelling/transliterating methods from? The reality is that they are changing names to fit their theology with no historical, archeological, or even textual evidence for their alterations. Here are a few examples based on the above.

Proof #1 - the name of Ezra

Proof #1 shows a copy of one of the oldest complete versions of Ezra from the Aleppo Codex. Notice at the top right how the name is written (עזרא) which can be pronounced in English as Ezra.

Proof #2 - the name of Hoshea

Proof # 2 shows the name of oldest text of Hoshea. In the top right hand corner it is spelled as (הושע). Now it must be noticed that in the second to last line the name YHWH shows up right before Hoshea's name. This line deals with when YHWH began to speak with Hoshea.

Proof #3 - the name of Ezekiel

Proof #3 shows one of the oldest texts of Ezekiel. In the right hand corner you will notice the spelling .(יחזקאל) What also must be noted about the BOY spelling of Yechetzqyah is even partially transliterated. the underlined tz denotes how they incorrectly mixed up two Hebrew letters (ז) pronounced like "z" with (צ) pronounced "tz" or "ss". This could be considered an honest mistake IF it were not for the other alternations they made and the fact that they have had years to correct it.

Further, the Dead Sea scrolls have the oldest fragments of Yehhezqel (Ezekiel) and Pseudo Ezekiel. The Dead Sea scroll fragments also confirm this spelling and the accuracy of the Aleppo Codex text.

Pseudo Ezekiel Fragment - Dead Sea Scrolls

The HOY provides nothing in their book that even shows how these names would be written in Hebrew. It must be noted that the only response that the HOY has to something like this is claim that Jewish scribes changed the texts to take out YHWH's name. This of course has no evidence behind it and also makes no sense since it isn't logical to take out the name in one place in and leave it in others. Also, if you ask the HOY for the individual names of the scribes that they claim changed the text they can't give you any. So they then claim it was the Masoretes who did it. In my next post I will explain this issue further why the HOY is wrong in this.

HERE is Part 3

Incorrect Translation: Part 1

2011-11-05T19:47:00.004+02:00

This post is a way of dealing with responses to a book review I wrote on Amazon concerning a book that is being passed off as a translation of the Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures, Hebrew Bible, etc.). The book in question is called "The Book of Yahweh", which I will denote as BOY in the rest of this post. The book review I wrote can be found at the following link HERE. My review is the first review that pops up and it is called "Untrustworthy, and by no means a translation of any text" dated November 4th, 2005. The book review concerns a fake translation, the BOY, written by an christian style organization in America that calls itself the House of Yahweh, I will call them HOY for short. They are led by a man who calls himself Yisrayl Hawkins.

One of the difficulties with writing a review about a book that is falsely claimed to be a translation is trying to show people why it is a fake. Because Amazon does not allow one to insert Hebrew or pictures I am opting to use my blog as a way to post the issues. My reason for doing this is because I have met people who were misled by this group and others like it and it is often hard to show in a simple English email why said book is wrong. There is also a debate I am involved with in the comments sections with some members of the HOY so this makes it easier to present my points for reference. If you read my book review it will make it easier to follow this post.

So the question that I deal with is, Is the BOY really a translation? What is the source material the translation was produced from? For example, if someone were to tell you they have produced an accurate translation of a 3,000 year old Middle Eastern text in the midst of a number mistranslated works how do you know if their work is any better than the others that exist? Other christian groups such as the Catholics and Protestants have bible's that they claim are accurate translations how does one know that the BOY isn't any different than them? The only way one can know is by researching the issues.

A practical example is the following. If someone were to ask me how does the Hebrew text of Isaiah 8:20 translate from Hebrew to English, I would answer in the following way. (Translation) To the Torah and the testimony/tradition/witness; if a matter doesn't speak like this, it has no dawn.

Said person may say to themselves, how do I know if Ehav translated that correctly? The obvious next step would be for said person demand that I show them what original Hebrew text I translated from. If I actually translated it based on a source then I should have no problem presenting you with the following. Further, they may also demand that I show the oldest versions of Isaiah to compare them to determine if there was ever a change in the text. My response to them would be the following. Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 8:20, in Hebrew looks like this:

Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls

Note: The last word of the first line is the beginning of the statement in question.

Page of Aleppo Codex

Further, you may look at the original text and express the reality that you cannot read it for yourself to which I can take the text and word for word break it down for you in the following way.

Translation - Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 8:20

"To the Torah (לתורה) and to the testimony/witness/revelation (ולתעודה); if a matter doesn't speak like this (אם-לא יאמרו כדבר הזה), it has no dawn (אין-לו שחר)."

The following words are really important for what I am going to be presenting. It concerns the words:

The above is from the Isaiah Scroll of the Dead Sea scrolls. This particular section of it states to the testimony/witness/revelation (ולתעודה). Now what one has to notice about this is the word (ולתעודה) is derived from the root word (ע-ו-ד), which means witness, testimony, custom. It is important to note that this root is also used for witnesses that are inspected for accuracy in courts. All of this can be found on page 589 of the Analytical Hebrew an Chaldee Lexicon as well page 1048 of Jastrow's Dictionary of Targumim, Talmud Bavli, Yerushalmi, and Midrashic Literature.

Another word in question could be the following.

This is also from the same Isaiah scroll and it states, it has no dawn (אין-לו שחר). The Hebrew word (שחר) means the early dawn between the time when it is still dark and about to transition into sunrise. All of this can be found on page 709 of the Analytical Hebrew an Chaldee Lexicon as well page 1551 of Jastrow's Dictionary of Targumim, Talmud Bavli, Yerushalmi, and Midrashic Literature.

If there is a possibility that I have mistranslated for any number of reasons than your question may cause me to either ignore you or to simply pretend as if you should just take my word on it because I am right. Any rational person would consider that they may need to look at the issue on their own in order know for sure. Anyone who reads this is free to choose to either accept, reject, or argue with my translation but they do not have to rely on for the correct understanding. Further, said person may determine that instead of trusting me, or anyone else for that matter, they should learn the languages for themselves and cut out the middle men.

This is the basis for the following posts about the HOY's book and though they are a christian organization in America I feel duty bound as a Jew to bring awareness to people who may be fooled by organizations like this who are basically put out a faulty product. I also am using this forum to respond to some of the HOY members who make comments in the comments section of the review. With this introduction I will post my further comments about the BOY.

See PART 2 HERE.

Update On the Book

2011-10-27T20:19:00.000+02:00

So as I have said before I am in the process of working on a book I hope to publish. The is written and I am not going through and performing a first draft edit. What this means is correcting spelling mistakes and as much grammer as possible. There is also the issue of fixing any plot holes and making sure that the story flows properly.

Because I wrote the book in different stages of throught I have to take information that I came up with later in the process and intergrate it into parts of the book I wrote with earlier concepts. This I would say is the hardest part about writing a book. The idea of consistancy. Yet, on some level I have been thinking about this for years as I have seen movies in the past where there were questions or plot holes with no answers.

I hope to finish the review by next week and then begins the process of going back into the computer copy and implementing the changes. I have dome some of it in areas where I noticed entire sections missing more than likely due to computer errors. All and all the process is fun and I can't wait to see this thing as a finished product.

I can say that this blog has prepared me for this project in more than one way. Yet, at least with the blog I don't have to go back and check for editing. I can just write what I think and let it be what it is. So if you see mistakes in this post, please excuse them. I promise the book will be better.

Top Model, Choices, and Shabbat | Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals

2011-10-02T14:44:00.000+02:00

Top Model, Choices, and Shabbat | Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals

Abir Qesheth Interview - Mori Awadh bin Sleiman

2011-10-01T21:51:00.000+03:00

Episode 35: My Other Home

2011-09-20T05:21:00.000+03:00

Writing a Sci-fi Novel

2011-09-19T17:33:00.000+03:00

It has been a while since I have really maintained this blog so anyone is now reading it probably realizes that a lot has happened since the last time I wrote in this blog. What is new is that I am working on completing a science fiction novel. As I write I am taking a break from one of the chapters that I need to complete. My hope is to finish it tonight and get it printed out tomorrow so I can begin the first draft review process.

I am hoping that this novel, when it is complete, can change the face of current cultural literature. Currently, I don't know of anyone with my background who is writing something like this. It is my hope that I can take this concept and make it into something amazing. I will keep those who are still reading posted on how this goes.

Episode 32: Between Worlds

2011-09-17T21:19:00.000+03:00

Episode 34: The Other Side

2011-09-15T21:07:00.000+03:00

Episode 31: The Reality

2011-09-13T21:35:00.000+03:00

What People Say

2011-09-12T18:54:00.000+03:00

When you live a life like mine you get used to the fact that people will talk, or write things about you regardless of how fair and how nice you try to be about things. Ever since I was a kid I have never really liked conflict just because of the energy and the focus that one has to have to maintain such things. Also, what is the point of conflict if it does not result in some kind of resolution that is either benificial to either one side or the other?

What I find dually strange about conflict and the people who willingly involve themselves in it is the lengths they will go to maintain their conflict and not the lengths they will go to make sure their facts are right. I have had this issue on several occasions such as:

Once a person on a web-site claimed they had been arguing, on-line, with me when if they had just checked their facts they would have realized that they were argueing with someone else. Instead of revising their accusations against me, their false comments remain.
On same web-site, due this person's incorrect comments, another person made comments about me that there was no reason for them to even make, because they don't agree with or understand certain things I have talked about in video. As if have a point of view is a crime to them and they are the beacons of all truth.
I have posted reviews of books, several of which I have negative comments about the actual content of the books, and there are supporters of the book who don't debate my review but instead they create arguements based on incorrect assertations.
There was a time when I took a side in an organization that I was once involved in and because the other side was more numerous I was considered a traitor. Afterwards I didn't fight them but simply went my way and did my own thing.

These things come up no matter what I may say at time or even how I try to present things. This is one of the reasons I even started blogging to begin with in order to express myself away from the conflicts of others. Yet, this all makes me wonder why for some being right is such an important thing. Why is the desire to be the winner so important to the point where a person is willing to throw away their common sense? All of these are questions which really don't have direct answers but as always I know of a way to deal with this. That is to say that if a person puts it in writing and makes it stick this is the way to set things right. It is a way to win.

Episode 29: Change

2011-09-12T17:07:00.000+03:00

The Blog is Back

2011-09-12T17:04:00.000+03:00

Well, just when I thought I was out they pulled me back in. I am returning to blogging at time when I feel like I real must express what I have to say in life. I have done both the written blog and the VLOG and for a while I felt like I had reached the end of both but now I realize that there is still much to say. For now I will add some of the VLOG's I worked on while I was gone just for those who didn't know that I was making video logs for a while.

Ehav Ever - Incorrect Article from Israel News Blog

2010-07-08T20:15:00.013+03:00

So the blog is back for a little while. I didn't think I would start doing a written blog again, until I found out that someone had written an article about me and used a picture of me without my permission. There is an article I found out about that tries to play at the idea that Zionism can't be racist by placing my face on it in an attempt to show people if a person like me is a Zionist, then how can Zionism be racist.

They try to play up the article by acting as if they are describing an illegal racist zionist settler living in the west bank they link to this blog, and then use a photo of mine. The idea being the shock of somone reading the article when they see a supposed "black" face that the person will say, oh wait a minute Zionism can't be racist. What they don't realize is that this method does not work, and it is not even the point of Israel's existance.

There are several problems I have with the article and they are the following:

The authors did not ask my permission before writing their peice.
They did not ask to use my likeness.
The article uses a token black kind of method that does not work, and has been proven not to work.
I don't agree with their methods, and because I didn't agree to the article they misrepresented me.
Their article states that I live in Maale Adummim, and I don't live there anymore.

Most of all if they had simply asked my permission I could have given them a way better article that does correctly represent me and my stance about Israel's existance in the Middle East. So if the owners of Israel News sees this post, I again ask you respectfully to please take down the article including its title.

New Abir Warrior Arts Web-Site

2010-01-27T18:27:00.008+02:00

The Abir Warrior Arts Web-Site has been updated. The site can be found at the below links.

English Abir Warrior Arts Site

אביר אמנות לחימה בעברית

Just in case you are wondering what this is about here are a few videos.

Cold So Cold in Jerusalem

2010-01-26T08:09:00.005+02:00

It January in Israel, and it is FREEZING cold. The good thing is that there is more rain, and as I have mentioned on my blog before we need rain here in Israel. We only get rain in the winter, which means that if we don't get enough during that time we are in for some difficult times during the summer. For the last two years there hasn't been enough rain, and this winter I had heard that we hadn't receiver enough. That is one of the reasons that the water rates have recently gone up. What this means for me is strictly controlling my water use.

One thing I can say is that when it does rain here in Israel it comes down in torrents. There has been news of flooding in the southern part of Israel in the Negev (Desert). These videos are from previous years, but you get the idea.

Back to the cold issue. I am sitting here right now typing this in my room and I am freezing. My famous heater has partially died on me, so at the moment what it is giving is just not enough. I may have to open it up and see what the deal is. One thing I can say is that I can't wait for the spring to come so that I can go out more. Okay, you can now disregard that last part about my heater not working. I opened it up and one of the switches is not working. So with a little bit of engineering it now works again.

So while it may be cold as the Antartic outside, the Chronicles will continue.

My Blog - The Red Headed Step Child

2009-12-12T21:05:00.002+02:00

To my blog, I have to apologize. I haven't spent as much time on you as I probably should. I have been spending my time with another love of mine, the film that I have been going on about. I'm sorry blog, but I had to do a lot of work to prepare for the showing of the film. The showing went well and I got a lot of good comments. Now I have to do some editing and a little bit of refilming. I really hope that I get accepted to the Mixed Roots Film Festival. Well, that is one story.

Next up, the season of the haters has begun in full swing. What it is that I get a number of haters, mostly on YouTube who seem to have two things in common.

They all seem to have the same calender which they use to determine the best time for their hate mail.
They all seem to work off the same script.

The first one I got was one of a person claiming to be Muslim trying to convince me to convert to Islam. It is funny how all my friends who are from Islamic families or from the Middle East are easy to get along with. These types of Muslims I get along with very well and we respect each others similarities and differences. Yet, every once and a while recent, or somewhat recent converts to Islam think that they can convince me of their religious points of view.

The next hater claimed to be a member of the fraternity I used to be a part of Phi Beta Sigma. This person sent an email with all kind of weird claims in it, not understanding the reasons why I left. In fact, this person personified some of the reasons I did leave and ended with threats against my person. Always comical and always something that seems to further press the point that sometimes YouTube can be the nexus of weirdness. lol Only one way to deal with haters.

In any case, back to my blog. I haven't felt like anything really warrented me posted to you of late. I have so much going on, but I hate to drone on to you with mundane things. At the same time there are some things of a political nature I could post on you, but sometimes I really hate politics. I prefer for the real the world to just kick in and eject the politics from life. This is what I think abot politics.

Okay, it is funny to me.

Hey My Blog, I did take recent photos that I uploaded to FaceBook......Whoops My Blog you weren't supposed to know about that FaceBook thing. Trust me, FaceBook means nothing to me. I only did it because EVERYONE kept bugging me about not being on FB. Please understand My Blog it wasn't anything personal. I do plan on getting back to you on some things that I want to write about. I promise.........because without you the Chronicles could not continue.

The Drive

2009-11-27T01:45:00.006+02:00

A few weeks ago something happened in my life. An awakening of sorts. I can't quite explain it, but I started to feel a deeper pride in being Israeli and being the type of Israeli that I am. It may have been when I viewed the completed first revision of my documentary, and I remembered the feeling I had back in 2006 when I completed the book that I was working on. The book still sits on my desk since I vowed to a family member that I would never publish it because of some sensative family issues crucial to the story.

Ever since this awakening a few weeks ago, I have been wanting to do more. That more can simply be described as longing and working towards living my life more and more by the logic of Yisrael that we call Torath Mosheh. There are many things that I had said I wanted to do, but I was to lazy to act upon them. There are things that I did in spurts, but something about finishing my documentary and editing it brought me back to an understanding on how important action is as compared to simply talking about what should be done.

Maybe part of the awakening was that I was letting other parts of my life overshadow my need to be logical. I enjoy so much the difference in a day when I know that I am being the best me that I can be, and how throwing away false logic can make all the difference in taking hold of destiny. That word, destiny, comes up a lot in my documentary and I can say that I get this from the influence my grandmother had on me. She made me believe that I had some grand destiny that I had to live up to. That was not the kind of thing I wanted to hear as a kid, but that is all she would talk about. When she passed away I realized that I had to do something with my life, and no matter what the cost I had to attempt to live up to all of my potential.

This leads to the other day I met with a guy who is going to do some drawings for me. At the outset he told me about a speaking engagement he had just done. He then went into his story. In order to be a Torah based Jew he gave up EVERYTHING. He lost his wife, his kids, his jobs, and a connection to his family. His wife divorced him, his kids told him they didn't want to see him, and he was going to burn in hell, and he was fired from his job. All because he sought out truth, and had a real desire to live by truth. His story really inspired me, and did something to me. I can relate to having to walk your own path to seek out truth, although I have never had it happen to the extreme level he had.

So I found myself this last week feeling so alive, and seeking to do more with my life. I found myself putting up Mezuzoth in places that I had been procrastinating to put them. I found myself doing Mitzwoth (Torah responsibilities) that I had shrugged off for some time. I also found myself starting to figure out ways to stand up for the right things. I love where I can go with my life if I continue with this drive and focus. There is something to be said about change and destiny, but I always find that Dune says it better than I can.

C.O.N.traversy

2009-11-21T19:30:00.004+02:00

Ever since I was kid I was one of the those people who was sometimes the center of contraversy. That is what it means to stand between many different worlds. It is one the main points of the documentary I have been working. After some time I have gotten used to it, because the older I get the less I care about pleasing peoples' sensabilities. I am not the type of person who goes out looking for such things, and I don't believe in throwing my views in the faces of others. I simply believe in putting them out there, and standing on the ground that I am supposed to stand on.

I can tell you have seen some way out there stuff in my day. I have also seen a number of concepts and things that I don't agree with, but I don't feel compelled for the most part to comment on them or get into debates with people on them. The same freedom I have to be is the same freedom everyone else has. If there is anything that I just down right have a problem with, I simply approach on my ground i.e. this blog or on my YouTube videos.

Yet, with all of this I often get people who for some reason feel the need to approach me in ways that are quite laughable. Not only laughable, but remind of elementary school and he way kids pick on other kids. In the end, for me, such things are futile since a certain age most rational adults get past this stage and move on to more adult things. Yet, this is not the case with some.

One of the things I had to personally learn was to not waste so much time with these types of people. Some of them need conflict to, I guess, make their day go smoothly. I have found that there are people who need conflict in order for their lives to have meaning, and there are certain things that feed these people like a good lentil stew. So I made a decision that certain types of arguements I would simply ignore, others I would give a short time frame, and others I would dive right into it but on my own ground.

This comes up every once and a while, because I know that some of the people I am talking also view my blog. So I mean to say that I am still here, and things get better and better for me. More to come from the Chronicles soon.

Quick Update

2009-11-13T15:26:00.002+02:00

I am taking a bit of a break from blogging and vlogging to finish up the documentary so the posts will be a bit sparse. At the moment I am about 90% done with the film, and I plan on having a showing for it on December 3rd, 2009 in Jerusalem. That is a pre-showing to get people's reaction and determine what changes I should make before I send it to the Mixed Roots Festival.

That is all for the moment, but as soon as I finish there will be some fresh updates. Stay tuned.

A Country For Old Men

2009-11-06T01:36:00.007+02:00

So I had a surge of documentary energy this past week, and I put together some good material. The next phase that I need to do is about my childhood in Kansas City. Specifically when I lived on 73rd and Norton, which for so many years has drawn a range of emotions. When my mother and I lived there I felt like I was really a part of something. It was the only place I felt was home. It was a closed off community, not by design but by circumstance. It was the type of neighborhood that did not have through street traffic, but instead only two streets led in and out of it, and not in a straight line. This in a sense made the neighborhood a secure safe haven for those of us who lived there.

For me, it was also this neighborhood design that created a sense of exclusivity since it gave me the feeling that our neighborhood was the entire world. On one side of the neighborhood were the woods that were a part of a huge park, Swope Park, further inclosing the neighborhood from outsiders. I remember thinking that a certain street that led outside of our neighorhood led to a completely different world, and traveling beyond it was like leaving the planet.

Every kind of life cycle event affected everyone in the neigborhood and in the summer there were community barbecues at least once or twice a month. One of the things I enjoyed was to listen to the older men talk. I can't quite figure out why, but hearing old men talk about life and philosophy was such a joy to me. Maybe, because of the fact that my father had passed away when I was three, I saw in these conversations what I wished I had at home. I especially loved to see older men joke around with each other and the jokes that their wives never understood. I enjoyed their zeal for life, and their overly opinionated ferver for what they felt was right. I marveled at what things could be gleaned from the age group of 40 and above. My favorites were those old me that were the modest and reserved types. Yet, I also liked the talkative and joking type of old men that would come up with wacky nick names for us kids. I remember how even with how close the neighborhood was there were at least 2 families that did not have their stuff together, but you dealt with them on their terms and life went on.

Love Lost

I loved that neighborhood so much, and cherished every memory so much that when my mother told me we were moving I felt my heart shatter into 1 million peices. I hated the idea of leaving so badly that I even tried to sabatoge the move. We moved into a neighborhood that had nothing that I could relate to. No community, no friends of value, no childhood games, no barbecues, and no old men to listen to. For a time I let myself slip into the wrong crowd because there was nothing else, and I nearly fell completely away from my family logic. I secretly planned for years after we moved to somehow move back to 73rd and Norton and regain what I had lost. If not 73rd and Norton there had to be some place like it that met the exact same criteria.

I was fanatic in this and when my got my driver's license the first thing I did was to drive to 73rd and Norton to try and find a peice of myself that was missing. Yet, when I got there what I found was that the neighborhood I grew up in was no longer there. The place had become run down, and destitute. The house we once lived in was in ruins, and there were no longer any old men to listen to. I felt so devasted that the only reality I knew was no longer in existance. I felt for many years after this that I had to find this sense I had on 73rd and Norton again. Every place I ever traveled to after that time never met all criteria and there were no old men to learn from and listen to.

College

In college I worked in a lab with a math professor and a former commander in the Navy, and their conversations reminded me of my childhood. They were Dr. Freddie Frazier and Commander Kelley. Throughout the course of my working in that lab I enjoyed hearing the conversations between Dr. Frazier and Commander Kelley and I was reminded so much of the past. Yet, one summer, the conversation stopped when Commander Kelley died of a heart attack while he was cutting his grass. When Commander Kelley passed away things just weren't the same, and he and Dr. Frazier were such good friends and seeing that empty place where Commander Kelley used to sit was hard since I began to realize that I was living in a country without old men. I remember how about a week or so before Commander Kelley passed away he gave his 10 year predictions of where he believed that all of the students who worked in the lab would be. I remember his prediciation for me that I would be completely dedicated to my work. At the time I felt it to be kind of an empty predication since I wanted more from life, even thought I knew on some level he was correct. After that point I never found that kind of feeling again, and maybe this was why for many years I was lost.

A Country For Old Men

That was until I moved to Israel and I found a country of old men. At every turn here I find myself reminded of my life on 73rd and Norton. I find myself hearing, either on the bus, or sitting in the resturants that I am surrounded by the type of conversations that I remember as a kid. I love the things I hear old men talking about here, and it brings such joy to my heart when I encounter the conversations of old men.

Just last night I was waiting at the bus stop near a military base close to Latrun to return home to Jerusalem. There was an older man maybe in his 50's at the stop and he asked me a few questions about the bus that he had been waiting on. He said he had been waiting for an hour and it was already dark. At that moment another older man, also in his 50's, and immediately these old friends began to talk and laugh together. The second old man said he was headed to Jerusalem and he could give his friend a ride. He looked in my direction and asked his friend if there was anyone else that he knew at the stop. He looked at me with an expectation of Why are you not asking me for a ride young man? I asked him, if I could get a ride to Jerusalem and he said, What are you talking about I was waiting for you to hurry up and come along with us. Come on young man the car doesn't mind. Get in.

I made a few of my own jokes on the way back to the car, and they laughed. On the way from Latrun to Jerusalem I listened to them talk and a smile came across my face. The conversations they had reminded me so much of my childhood on 73rd and Norton. How they spoke reminded me of exactly how the old men in my past spoke, with such passion and 100% clarity and confidence in what they spoke about. They talked about a wedding of a young man and woman that they both attended. They spoke about how good the young couple was and how beautiful the wedding was, and how it was such a blessing for two such young people to get married and building a life together. They spoke in detail on how the wedding brought such joy to their hearts. They later spoke about how it is a mistake in Israel that Arabic is no longer a part of the formal education in the schools. They both were fluent in Arabic, being that they were Moroccan Jews and I caught a few phrases in Arabic here and there.

The driver dropped me off in Givat Shaul near the Jerusalem bus station. I made them laugh a bit with some of my wit before I jumped out and I wished them a Shabbat Shalom (good Sabbath). Then they sped off on their way into the Jerusalem night. I just remembered that just the other day I was at a hardware store and the owner struck up a conversation with me. He enjoyed me so much he invited me to come to his some at any time and we could have coffee together.

This is my experience in the Middle East and it is why I say that I am home, and I would never return to live in America or anywhere outside of Israel. Though 73rd and Norton faded away, the concept is still etched into my heart, and one day in the future I will be one of those old men in my country telling my own stories of my passion for life. Yet, maybe that is exactly where I am right now thus this blog and everything that comes from it.

This is my life and I love it so much for these are the Chronicles of Ehav Ever.

A.M.O.P.S. Peace In the Middle East

2009-10-27T05:01:00.002+02:00

In this video I discuss the roots for the modern conflict here in the Middle East, as well as what it will take to attain peace in the Middle East.

A.M.O.P.S. and Documentary update

2009-10-23T14:42:00.002+02:00

So I have one more main video to do for A Month of Positive Solutions (A.M.O.P.S.) That is the video about Middle East Peace. I have completed the slides for it and I will work on the audio after the Shabbat (Sabbath). I think it will be really interesting, and I am hoping that it will have meaning. More on this next week when I put the video up.

The Documentary

So the documentary I have been working on is taking shape. I have done what I consider to be a final outline and I now have a better idea of how to put it together. My goal is to complete it by the middle of December so I can work on refining it and then send it to America in January. I then just have to figure out how I plan on trying to travel to LA if it gets accepted to the Mixed Roots Film Festival.

To Tweet or not to Tweet

I have been considering getting a twitter account. As of yet, I haven't figured out the point of it, so I am a bit hesitant. I just don't like the idea of spending so much time on 4 different sites putting in the same information. I have this blog, I have YouTube and I have Facebook. I am not big into FaceBook, but I have done some things on it recently. The blog and YouTube are my main bread and butter, in the non-financial way, but could twitter maybe help the stats on the YouTube videos? That is the question. Do I then have to go in and set up another friends network. Who knows. I will put off the decision for a bit of time.

Until then the Chronicles wil continue........

A.M.O.P.S. Commentary on Erasing Racism From Jewish Communities

2009-10-22T06:40:00.003+02:00

Continueing with my focus of A Month of Positive Solutions (A.M.O.P.S.). This is the commentary for the video called Erasing Racism From Jewish Communities. If you haven't already viewed that video you should do so first.

Erasing Racism From Jewish Communities

In this video I explore in more detail why Jews and israelis need to return to our own form of logic and reject the Western/Modern concept of race and all racist termonoloty and concepts.

I also explore the origins of the word Goy and Goyyim and how it relates to the concept of Avodah Zara that I brought up in the previous video.

The sources debunking the curse of Ham can be found here.

The Other Black Meat

The Favorite verse of Racists

Children of Hham: Kush, Mitzrayim, Put and Kenaan

Rabbi David Einhorn's Response to "A Biblical View of Slavery"

A.M.O.P.S. Erasing Racism from Jewish Communities

2009-10-19T13:21:00.002+02:00

This is video #3 for A Month of Positive Solutions (A.M.O.P.S.) and there will DEFINATELY need to be a commentary on this once since it deals with Erasing Racism from ALL Jewish communities.

A.M.O.P.S. Teimani from afar (תימני מרחוק)

2009-10-15T12:01:00.001+02:00

Another filler until the next solution is ready. This one pretty much explains itself. If not, let me know.

A.M.O.P.S. My Idea of Beauty Revisited

2009-10-12T00:07:00.003+02:00

So it is still A Month of Positive Solutions (A.M.O.P.S.) but I decided to take a commercial break while I work on the third solution.

Every once and while I like to revisit the idea of how I define beauty amongst the female species. It is often hard to put int words what I find beautiful so I often prefer to give visual examples. I find it necessary to do so now, with the current trend of media that comes out of the west and makes beauty out to be one thing. Since I don't believe in the status quo here is my example of what I find beautiful about women. If you have kept up with my videos you have seen these photos before, but here is a new way of looking at it.

A.M.O.P.S. Strengthening Black Men Through Nationalism

2009-10-07T11:15:00.004+02:00

As you know it is A Month of Positive Solutions (A.M.O.P.S.) and it is now time for the second topic and that is Strengthening Black Men Through Nationalism. This is my take on how black men, especially those in America, can strenthen themselves through some basic elements of Nationalism. If you click on the video and go directly into YouTube the resources in the video are on the side description section.

More than likely there will be a commentary to explain more details on this video.

New Abir Martial Arts Video

2009-10-06T10:33:00.002+02:00

Just decided to take a quick break in the videos for a Month of Positive Solutions. I just found out I am in another video on YouTube for the martial art I train in called Abir Hebrew Warrior Arts. Check it out.

A Month of Positive Solutions continues.

A.M.O.P.S. Commentary on Defending Black Women

2009-10-04T10:28:00.001+02:00

It is October 2009 and that means it is A Month of Positive Solutions (A.M.O.P.S.). This is the commentary on the first video on Defending the Honor of Black Women. This video provides more details on the things I dicussed in the first video.

A.M.O.P.S. - Solutions #1 Defending the Honor of Black Women

2009-10-01T02:14:00.003+02:00

So it is 2:15 a.m. October 1st, 2009 and this is the first day of A Month of Positive Solutions (MOPS). This video #1 of the solutions to the problems I listed in the introduction video. That is Defneding the Honor of Black Women. In this video I give some of the solutions I have about dealing with stereotyping of Black Women by western media and how this can be dealt with. Thes represent my personal beliefs in terms of how to deal with the problem. They are not the end all of defeating racism in western media but they may be a start in actually working out solutions vs. continous discussion about the problems. Feel free to leave feedback, because I don't claim to hold the solutions. I have 1 or 2 commentary videos that I will put up in the next few days. Let me know your thoughts, comments, etc.

For more information about the issues click on the video to watch it from YouTube. I have a list of sources of the stereotypes that are play.

A Month of Positive Solutions Ad

2009-09-27T16:03:00.003+02:00

To all an easy fast this Yom Kippur. If I have wronged anyone in my words and posts on this blog I apologize in advance.

Darfur Refugees in Israel

2009-09-23T17:58:00.002+03:00

The Mazal of Being Me

2009-09-22T03:46:00.009+03:00

As I have written about before on my blog, one of the things I love about being here in Israel is how things just seem to always work out for me. There are times where I think I have a problem, but something about my attitude and being in my homeland combined give me the strength to deal with all the realities I face. It may be like the old Jewish saying goes, that when a Jew lives outside of the land of Israel our prayers and our blessings really don't belong to us, as a nation. They belong to the nation we are situated in. That may be why Rabbi Mosheh ben Maimaon (Rambam) wrote in his monumental work the Mishnah Torah that it is forbidden for a Jew to leave the land of Israel and settle permantly in another land. That is outside of a faimine, or some pretty major distress.

משנה תורה - הלכות מלכים ומלחמות פרק ה

יא אסור לצאת מארץ ישראל לחוצה לארץ לעולם--אלא ללמוד תורה, או לישא אישה, או להציל מיד הגויים, ויחזור לארץ; וכן יוצא הוא לסחורה. אבל לשכון בחוצה לארץ, אסור--אלא אם כן חזק שם הרעב

(Translation - Mishnah Torah, Laws of Kings and Wars Chapter 5)
11) It is forbidden [for an Jew] to leave the land of Israel to the lands of the world. Unless to learn Torah, to marry a wife, to deliver oneselves from enemy nations, and to return to the Land [of Israel]; it is permitted to do business. But to dwell outside of the Land [of Israel] it is forbidden. Unless there is strong faimaine....

There is further a concept that every nation has been given by Hashem (G-d) a divine entity, an angel if you will, to receive the prayers of that nation. The concept goes on to state that in Israel we don't have an angel, we have Hashem. Thus, when a Jew prays in another nation his/her prays are counted with that nation. Yet, when we are in our own nation, we receive so much more since we are on our home soil. I know both feelings, and after I moved to Israel I completely understood the feeling of both concepts. It is because of how I feel about this that I also wish the same for other dispersed peoples such as African Americans, Kurds, Armenians, the Amazigh (berbers), and Native Americans.

In fact concerning the dispersion of West Africans into the Americas, I came across an interesting site that will be a part of my month of Positive Solutions. The site is that of Fihankra International, and I really applaud them on the work they are doing to help return various African Americans to their native homelands.

Specifically, this comes into play for the video on Strengthening the Black Man through Nationalism which I am currently working to finish this week. More on that next month.

To the Point

So now to what really caused me to write those post. Yesterday, I went into the office to find myself caught in some of what we call in Hebrew "Balagan" i.e. a mess. Being the Israeli I had to make it known that this particular mess always happens. When I become Israeli me, people many times back up and back off, because very few people have ever seen me angry. Those who have are often shocked because it can look like this.

Yet, I am not one of those people to get angry and remain angry. Once I let loose I can go back to being normal Israeli Ehav Ever. So yesterday, was a bit of a balagan, but I don't let those things get to me.

The only problem was that my normal ride back to Jerusalem wasn't at work yesterday. So I decided to wait for the 433 bus. Now for those of you who know Israel I work near Qibbutz Gezer, which near a lot of ancient Israeli history. So I waited and waited and waited for the bus. It didn't really matter to me when it came, since my new libearation from having a car makes me feel good in accepting a ride whenever it comes.

Gezer Platform

A young man came to the bus stop where I waited and was trying to flag down a ride (hitchhiking in Israel is a big thing). I asked him if he knew when the next bus was coming, but he didn't know. He said that he had a friend that was coming to pick him up and if she was going to Jerusalem he would ask if she could give me a ride. She arrived and agreed to give me a ride to the entrance of Jerusalem at Givat Shaul. She dropped off the guy and I remained in the back seat as she flew, and I mean flew, through the hills leading up to Jerusalem. The night sky and air was so wonderful to me, and I felt a certain sense of freedom that I haven't had in years. I was a passenger, and I could sit back and enjoy the trip. For years I have had cars, and I had forgetten how liberating it is to not have to worry about those things, but to simply accept life as it comes at you.

Ariel view of Givat Shaul

She dropped me off at the edge of Givat Shaul and I walked from there home to Rechavya, which I would have to imagine is about 4 or 5 km. I love the freedom of walking so much that I pretty much refuse to take buses and cabs, unless I am in a big hurry, but now a days I am not. I love the feel of the night air across my face, the feel of the Jeusalem streets and sidewalks under my boots. I love the feel of the night and the lights across the hils. I have so much to be grateful for that Hashem gave me the opportunity to return to my real home.

So that is my little slice of life here. Through all the thigns that happen to me, I love it all. The Chronicles of Ehav Ever will continue.

You Have to Love It

2009-09-20T20:30:00.007+03:00

I found a long time that I was definately doing something right when the haters come out of the woodwork. I actually love it when I get hate mail, just because it makes know that I am going in the right direction when people feel that they need to contend with me. It is an interesting state of affairs, and I enjoy some of the creative hate mail I get. I sometimes wonder if people take classes in this stuff, because they all seem to follow the same script. Yet, to all the haters keep it coming. It gives me more to write about, and the videos. I can't forget the videos. Many of the videos I have been able to do are the result of hate mail. Something about getting hate mail gives me energy to work with, and I always feel more enthusiastic to do more.

I dedicate this to the haters, in the most adult fashion I know how.

Rosh Hashanna

So Rosh Hashanna just ended here in Israel, and I have to say that there is nothing like experiencing it in Jerusalem. I loved the feeling of walking through history and the things I studied today really opened up my eyes to a number of things. Many of these things are personal, and I wouldn't write about them but I am so glad to be who I am, where I am. There is one thing I will say. I once read the words of a rabbi that I have become friends with. He once wrote that there is nothing like studying Torah in Hebrew in the land of Israel, and everyday I see how correct he was in writing that. Life is a great thing for me, and I enjoy every moment of it. I always love the feeling I have coming off of Rosh Hashannah into Yom Kippur because there are so many possibilities in my life, and I love to write about all of them. Hashem has given me so much to grateful for, and I enjoy every bit of it and thus that is why I blog and VLOG.

I write about the good and the bad because it is important to record the stories of my life. There is a lot that can be told about a man from the good and the bad and how he deals with them. I am a unique person, yet we are all unique, but I am the only person like myself that I know of blogging in the way that I do. This may be one of the reason that I get heat from various weirdos, but that has been true throughout my life. That is another thing that is funny. I don't get normal haters, I get ones who come off the wall with some truely comical stuff. I sometimes just sit back and laugh at them, because I have to give them credit for their strange egos.

I guess it is like the old story goes.......

Haters beware, because no matter what you say or do, you don't want a peice of me.

If you do, I am right here in Jerusalem, Israel and The Chronciles will continue....so there. ha ha!

Month of Positive Solutions Update and More

2009-09-18T10:11:00.005+03:00

Well, the last few weeks have been something else. I started working from home last week, and it has been a liberating feeling being able to be more open with my time to get some personal things done.

A Month of Positive Solutions Update

So I now have two videos ready for October, and the Month of Positive Solutions that I proposed. So far it looks like I am going solo on this project and maybe that is how it should be. The two videos I have ready are about Defending the Honor of Black Women. There is a main video and a commentary. I will begin posting the videos on October 1st, and continue through to the end of October.

I started working on the video about Uplifiting the Black Man through Nationalism, and I think that video will really be something else. In all of these videos I am not presenting ideas that have never been heard before, but I want to put them out there in a way so that people can stop making excuses on why they are doing the work and taking the action.

As I mentioned before, at this point in my life I am strictly action orientated, and I don't have time for talk about a problem. There is only so much time in any person's life, and I want to leave behind a legacy of action so that even if I can't accomplish a certain thing, someone in the younger generation can take my solutions and run with them.

The last two videos will be somewhat of my magnum opis in dealing with Erasing Racism from Jewish Communities and also How to Establish Peace in the Middle East. These two topics will be contraversial, and will be my greatest work in life (I think).

Concerning YouTube

I have been getting more people wanting to argue with me, and some people who simply want to discuss issues. I have even begun to respond to some in Arabic like here. Something lately has made me feel like I have to step up my game in everything. Time is a critical thing in any person's life, and I have let so much of it pass me by like the wind on a spring day. Not anymore, and I will live my life to fullest, and part of that means standing up for something. I have a number of causes that are important in my life and those things need to attention so I will give them their proper due, and let the reality that I live in wash over me like water pouring from a cup.

Concerning FaceBook

So I am back on FaceBook, although I somewhat don't want to be. In 2007 I left FaceBook because they began taking off Maale Adummim as Israel. Living in Maale Adummim at the time I refused to be a part of such a site. So I left, and it was for the best sicne I didn't really use FaceBook to the level that some people use it. I am more of a blogger and YouTube kind of guy. I get board with the social networking sites sometimes since they can get in the way of really living my life.

Yet, my martial arts teacher the Aluf Abir, and a few others kept pressing me to get on so I did. I have been told that people can't find me on FaceBook. I did a search on my name and I found myself, so I am not sure why people can't find me. You should be able to type in Ehav Ever, and find me. I would guess that it should be that easy.

Shanna Tovah

In any case tonight begins Yom Teruah/Rosh Hashanna a time for the people Yisrael and the Benei Noach to draw closer to Hashem, blessed is HE, the creator of all things. It is a time to draw nearer to the reality that we all should be living under.

(Translation of the Arabic title - A little of the Jews of Israel)

May we all come out on the other side of things with much happiness and joy. So to all may you all be written in the book of Life and the book of Remembrance.

The Chronicles will continue.

Abir - Qesheth Hebrew Warrior Arts (אביר)

2009-09-13T19:14:00.003+03:00

The below video is my latest one on the Abir - Qesheth Hebrew Warrior Arts. It is a Jewish fighting technique that I have mentioned on this blog before. When I get a chance I will place a translation of the Hebrew text.

Previous posts on Abir can be found at the below links.

Training in Abir

So What's Nu?

The Way of the Israeli Warrior

Episode 28: The Truth About Zionism

2009-09-13T11:24:00.002+03:00

Pretty much self explanatory.

The Complexity of HER – The Finale

2009-09-12T21:48:00.007+03:00

So this is the final chapter about HER. If you haven’t read part 1 and part 2, you DEFINITELY need to read those posts first in order to understand this post.

The Last Date

Sometime after the second date, I called HER and schedule for another time to go out. It was about two weeks and counting until she was set to return to South Africa, and I could feel like we were heading to a critical time in our situation. Neither of us wanted to be 100% direct, but that was okay for that moment.

So when I called HER concerning our next date I had something special planned in my dating bag of tricks. I called HER with this requirement for our date. Each of us had to come up with 3 questions that the other person had to answer. This was one of the classic getting to know you games that I learned from a comic I once read. It is one of those games that, with the right person, can last all night long.

The Outing

So met at a pastry and coffee shop near Yaffo street in Jerusalem on a Thursday night. I arrived after her, and saw here sitting at one of the corner seats. We exchanged our greetings and proceeded with the small talk and from there we went into our 3 questions. As the time went by we learned even more about each other and neither of us wanted the time to end. I remember how cute she was, especially when a certain song by the 1980’s group the Police came on. It was her favorite from the group and she kept doing this cute little back and bouncy dance as she sang the words to the song. I kept thinking to myself how much I would love to see her like this for the rest of my life.

We sat there exchanging our joys, our ups, our downs, and victories in life over pastry tee and wine. Since I was paying she asked if it was okay if she had wine, of which she had 3 glasses. Yet, she said that it may not be a good thing since she may end up doing something she would regret. The time came when the waiter informed us that it was midnight and they were closing. As we left I told her I would drive her home to Katemon. As we walked to my car the wine kicked in and I took her arm under mine and told her that I was there for her. I noticed that the emotion on her faced changed to partial comfort and partial concern.

When we finally arrived at my car we began to talk about destiny. She implied that it was not fair that she was leaving when she finally met someone who was so much like her. I tried to comfort her by telling her that it was okay, and that we have to play the cards we are dealt. I wanted to say anything that would make her feel better, even I didn’t really buy into myself. I remember the look of regret on her face as I try to simplify the situation by making it seem if our destinies are not in our own hands. Much of what we were experiencing seemed so much some of drama based movie.

I don’t think she believed that I really felt the way I tried to act, but regardless she offered me to come to her place for tea, and I agreed partially because I just didn’t want to let go those moments with her. Internally, I was still holding out hope that she would give up this plan on leaving Israel and returning to South Africa. I felt that I had so much more to offer her here in Israel, than she would ever find in South Africa. Yet, if her heart was there and not here I could not stand in the way of that.

The Regret

So we went to her place for tea, and the reality began to set in that we felt something for each other, but that there was no way it could ever work. During the conversations she let on that she once believed that she was meant to be alone. I also had similar ideas about myself, and I began wonder why would could have so much in common, yet be on the verge of never having the opportunity to be together.

I held her hand at one point, and she told me that she was nervous about this and that she had something that she needed to talk to me about. She said that she had to talked to her mother and HER girlfriends about the entire situation with me and that she felt bad because it was like she led me on knowing I was looking for some serious that would lead to marriage, yet she was leaving. She said that she almost didn’t accept the setup in the first place because of this, and now she felt like she had led me on.

She said to me, your holding my hand don’t you see me shaking? I said to her, you can’t blame yourself I continued to want to be with you even though I knew you were leaving. I am the master of my emotions and I am the only one who can hurt me. I can choose to be hurt or I can choose to take actions to prevent myself from being hurt. So you don’t have to worry about hurting. I like you, a lot, but I know that we just were meant to be. It is what is. She asked me, do you say that a lot, it is what is? I said, yes I do say that a lot. She said, so do I.

I assured her by telling her that all of my life I wondered and prayed if there was someone like myself somewhere in the world. Many nights I would look into the night sky and wonder if the woman who was like me was looking into the same sky nearby or on the other side of the world. Now that I know that she does exist, I can live the rest of my life in peace simply knowing that she exists. I told HER that I know that she was that woman, and even though we could never be together I was happy to finally met her and that would be enough to carry me for the rest of my life. I predicted for her that one day she would meet a man who was the right man for that moment. She asked, well what about you? I said, I am not good with people. I only know how to fade away and become a ghost. More than likely I will walk the desert alone because that is my destiny. Yet, don’t worry about me, because that is my lot in life.

Somewhere at 4:00 in the morning it was time for me to leave. Before I left, she hugged me and whispered, we have gone from holding hands to hugging already. The way she said it was as if it were not exactly a good thing. As I walked down her hallway I turned several times to smile and wave her goodbye.

The Hard Solution

When I got home, I made a straight forward decision that I could not have any more contact with her. I could not bear the burden of losing her after developing more feelings about her, and I could not allow HER to feel the situation was her fault. I was the one who initiated the entire thing when I asked for the setup. I allowed myself to jump in, in order to not be left out, and I put her in this situation.

So I did what I know how to do best; I disappeared. I erased HER phone number from my phone, and I threw away HER contact information inSouth Africa. I did this before I memorized any of the information. It was better to hurt her for the right reasons, than to hurt her later for the wrong reasons. That was my logic, and it wasn’t easy to live up to, but that is one of the things about being a man. There are times when we have to take the road less traveled and walk down the painful path; at least that’s what I told myself.

I didn’t hear from after the last date. Maybe she did the same for the same reasons. Who knows? How could something so right be so wrong? Maybe it simply is what it is.

My Message to HER

Just in case she (HER) were to ever read this post, this is my message to HER. I am sorry that I disappeared on you the way that I did. I was afraid, the same way I sense you were, that the more I got to know you the more I would hate that I couldn’t get close to you. I did what I did because I didn’t want you to feel that this was your fault. I knew from the start what I was getting into, and I don’t regret meeting you. I just didn’t want you to think that you had led me on. Every moment I was with you, I enjoyed and longed for more, simply because of who you were.

For so many years, I forced myself to believe that someone like you didn’t exist and that I was made to be alone in this world. People had always told me the old Hebrew and Arabic sayings that Hashem (G-d) created each person who could potentially be married by splitting up one soul and that it was up to the two souls to find each other. That each person who could be together had the name of their intended on their foreheads and only Hashem (G-d) could see it, and that they could only sense when they met. After meeting you I realize that all of these have truth to them. We just didn’t meet at the right time, and as we both said, it is what it is.

It was wrong for me to put you in a position that you would feel bad about. Yet, I just wanted so much to be near you. Every moment of those three dates were like pure gold, or refined platinum; so priceless; so precious and worth more than I can put into words. Each time I was with you, I wanted more, but I knew that this was wrong for me to place my hopes and dreams at your door step. While I apologize, I also want to thank you for making me believe that all those things I prayed about in my youth could come true. This is why I didn’t call you after that last date, because I feared what I would feel when you went back to South Africa. I thought that if I played the role of the bad guy you could move on easier. Whether I made the right decision or not will never be known to me, but I do miss you and sometimes I consider that maybe it would have been good to see you one more time.

In the future don’t be afraid of being the apple of some man’s eye. You are a special woman, and you don’t have to be afraid of being happy. You have just as much right to happiness as does anyone willing to take hold of it. My hope is that you will find the man of your dreams one day and he will be able to show you how beautiful you are. If you do that I will feel happy in my own heart for you, and though it is not with me I can live with that. Do me a favor and every once and a while think good thoughts of me, the way I think good thoughts about you.

Outro

So now that all of this has been put out in the open, the following can be stated as truth. I met her on a cool Jerusalem morning for breakfast, and I wasn’t expecting much from the setup. Little did I know that what I would find that day was someone so much like myself. At that time I felt like she was the one I had been searching for all of my life. She was from South Africa and though we came from two different worlds we had so much in common, and I thought that somehow I could convince HER to stay with me here in Israel. Yet, we both knew deep down in our hearts that this was not possible. In order for her not to blame herself I had to do the right thing and walk away, making me the bad guy. This is the story of what happens when you have to let go of a good thing.

Through the good, the bad, the difficult, and the victories in life.........These are the Chronicles of Ehav Ever

The Complexity of HER – Part 2

2009-09-09T01:42:00.008+03:00

Sorry it took a little while to get part 2 out, but I wanted to get some videos out on YouTube. If you are new to my written blog, or you have not yet viewed part 1 of this story I suggest that you go back and read Part 1 before you read this post. So now that you are up to speed, back to the story. The below song goes well with this post about HER.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

So everything was going well with this date, and I couldn’t believe it and just as my guard was going down, she said something that changed everything. She said, “There is one thing that you have to know. I am going to be leaving Israel and going back to South Africa in 4 weeks. I have been here for four years and I came kind of on a whim and I feel like it is time for me to go back home."

I was somewhat floored by this, and there was only one word in the English lexicon that fully expresses what went through my mind. What was that word you ask? DAWWWWWWWWWWMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT! Why does this have to happen now? She could be the one, and now she is leaving. Why does my life have to always lead to these complex issues?

How could this be, the perfect woman is sitting right in front of me and she is leaving in 4 weeks. She has been in Israel for four years and all this time I never met her, and now she is leaving? What kind of cruel joke is this? I began to wonder why I even believed from the start that this could possibly go somewhere. My fatalist nature took over and I began to have all kinds of thoughts about the situation. I almost felt like paying for both our meals, packing it up, and going back home right then and there. Yet, something about HER made me simply say, you know according to Halakhah (Jewish religious law) once you have moved to Israel you are not supposed to leave. That is according to the Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon). I said it in a joking manner, even though I was being quite serious.

Somehow the conversation got back to martial arts and after our breakfast date we went to the park and I showed her a few moves. It was so interesting that she knew some moves herself, and she was intense. She was also very strong and cunning when it came to martial arts. All I could think was, be still my heart. (Writer’s note: I have always had a thing for tough women.) As the time drew near for both of us to part ways to start preparing for the Shabbat (Sabbath) I offered to take her home, and we agreed to see each other again after Shabbat
.
Why I am Doing This Again?

Our plans for after Shabbat didn’t go through because she forgot that she had agreed to meet with her girlfriends. I was a bit afraid that this was her way of feigning interest, or at least that is what the paranoid part of me said. Yet, we rescheduled and went out another night and again the déjà vu element kept coming up again and again. I wanted to sit there all night and learn about her for she was a mysterious type.The big issue here is why I am going through this again?

Yet, my thoughts kept going back to the fact that she would be leaving. I considered that maybe I could somehow convince her to stay in true movie fashion. Perhaps if I kept up the pressure she would cave and give up this foolish move back to South Africa. What I wanted to know was what was the draw to return to a place like South Africa? As much as I wanted to answer her this vital question I never did. Maybe the better question was, why am I still seeing her? She had made her decision to go back to South Africa. Why continue down a path that was going to lead to one or both of being hurt?

I have complete control over my emotions, or so I thought. I can always make sure to keep my guard up and simply let the lead to its logical conclusion. Yet, what point would that serve, to simply keeping her, start caring for, only to lose her. Then I would be left with the what ifs of life, with the memories of how close I was to bliss.

The Slow Waltz

After the date I walked her home, and I found it so hard to part company with her. Every time we said goodbye some new conversation would start, and even though the Jerusalem night was chilly her presence was warming to me. I found myself hoping that the night would last longer, and that maybe I should just call in sick.

I wanted to try to get her to see that she didn't need to go back to South Africa. I could help her find whatever it was that was missing. I could be the one that could help her find her place in this Topsy Turvy world call the Middle East. Together we could do wonders, and I know in my heart she also saw the possibilities. Yet I felt like there was something she was running away from. There was somthing that she was afraid of. If only I knew what it was, but alas she was not willing to tell me.

I finally left on a high note making her laugh with my advances as to how “pleasing to the eyes and the soul” she was, after which I ran down the street rejoicing that I had made her smile. She was the jewel that lit up the night sky and as I drove home to Maale Adummim I saw the moon and the stars in a new way. Yet, she was leaving in about 3 more weeks, and I could not escape the hurt that was coming soon on the horizon. My logical senses were telling me that this wouldn't end well at all.

Part 3 the finale coming soon. Until then.........The Chronciles of Ehav Ever shall continue.

The Complexity of HER – Part 1

2009-09-04T01:44:00.011+03:00

I have been holding off on doing some writing, choosing instead to do the videos, but I need to write about something. Better yet, not something, someone. To protect the innocent I will refer to his person as HER. Listening to the following song made me think of HER. Play it as you read this post, and you will understand why.

Introduction

I met HER on a cool Jerusalem morning for breakfast, and I wasn’t expecting much from this setup. Little did I know that what I would find that day was someone so much like myself. At that time I felt like she the one I had been searching for all of my life. She was from South Africa and though we came from two different worlds we had so much in common, and I thought that somehow I could convince HER to stay with me here in Israel. Yet, we both knew deep down in our hearts that this was not possible. In order for HER not to blame herself I had to do the right thing and walk away, making me the bad guy. This is the story of what happens when you have to let go of a good thing.

The Story

It all began one day on Shabbat (Sabbath) in Maale Adummim when I had been invited by a family to have lunch with them. There were two other single men, like myself, that had been invited and whenever we all got together things were lively and laughs were had by all. Somehow the topic of transitioning from the single life to the married life came up. The conversation then switched from theory to actually changing the status of the single guys to married guys. Yet, in order to do that we were going need to be set up (Shidduchim). So the youngest of us single guys said he was ready and gave a list of what he wanted. Then the second single guy also said he was tired of being single and he gave what he wanted.

Not to be left out I also said, I was tired of being single and I also wanted to be setup. The wife of the house, immediately stated that she could not help me because I was not ready. You see, a few months earlier I spurned the idea of being setup since I had been setup with the wrong kind of women in the past. So the wife of the house stated that because of my excuses in the past I was not serious nor was I ready. I quickly rebuffed that I was now ready, and serious so I gave my list. She asked dark or light. I said dark. She asked size preference, and I answered athletic. She asked observance to Judaism level. I answered normal, not so far on either side of the issue. She then agreed to go to work to set us all up.

The Issues

Anyone who has read this blog and watched the videos I did about the Mystery of Women knows that I had some serious issues in my life regarding trust. They would also know that I have issues with understanding the female species. So I carry my load, like we all do, and I have attempted for a number of years to master myself and find peace of mind in that regard. Yet, I found myself for a number of years cutting myself off from the possibility of dating simply because I didn't want to unload my issues on anyone. My joys are my joys, and that is personal. My victories are mine to revel in and to keep close like clothing to the skin. My pain is my pain, that I bury deep under layers of protected guilt and regret. My sense of reality is something I sometimes guard since I know that I take so many things personally.

Love is such a complex thing for me, since it sometimes seems to contradict logic. Why do things that belong to me, such as emotions, becomes the possesion of someone else who can take what is mine and make it her own. She can embrace my inner feelings, and once I expose them, she can walk in triumph as she wears those things that I hold so dear like the most precioius of jewelry. It was all of these issues that most people don't understand, so maybe it was this that made people believe that I was not ready to be setup. Maybe they were right and maybe they were wrong. So complex!

If Wishes Were Fishes We Would Eat Steak

As much as I was ready I wasn’t expecting to hear anything, and so I pretty much forgot about the whole thing. Then one day I turned my phone off for a time to take care of something, and when I turned it back on I had a message from the wife of the house. The message stated that she had found someone for me to go out with, and to call her back. Wow, that was a surprise, but more than likely this will be another mismatch like all the other setups, I thought to myself. So I called the wife of the house and she said that she found a woman that would meet with me. I asked her a few questions about who this woman was. She told me that she was of African descent, and had a very interesting story since she was adopted by an Ashkenazi Jewish family at the height of Apartheid in South Africa. If I agreed she would get the woman’s number and I could call her. I agreed, even though, I didn’t think much was going to happen.

The First Date with HER

I got the number and I called HER and we agreed to meet at Coffee Joe’s near the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem, not far from Talpiyot. We met on a Friday morning and when I saw her sitting there waiting for me I thought that she was cute, but again I didn’t think much of the situation. As we began to talk about various things it became apparent that I was going through a series of déjà vu’s. First of all, I mentioned something about how I used to read comic books. She then stated that she used to read comic books. I mentioned that Wolverine was one of my favorites, and she said that Wolverine was her favorite. I talked about how I train in martial arts and that a lot of people don’t understand me, and then she responded that she trained in martial arts for a number of years. I even told her, that I was experiencing some major deju vu with her. She intially didn't respond to this, except to laugh, but I could tell by the look on her face that she was feeling the same.

Could it be that I had finally found THE ONE? Could she be the one that I had hoped existed somewhere, but over time I had given up on? That is a woman that is so similar to myself, whom I had prayed so many years to meet, yet as the years passed I stopped believing in. Is it possible that everything in the past did not work out simply to prepare me for this moment to meet HER? So many thoughts went through my head as we sat there and talked for about 2.5 hours with time seemingly going by so slow. Every joke was met with a genuine laugh, things that were normally secret became revealed with a simply manner of easy banter. Could it be that all of those lonely nights where I would look at the moon and the stars wondering if Hashem (G-d) had created me in singularity she was on the other side of the world wondering the same? So many questions I wanted to ask so many things I wanted to say. Yet, this was the first date and was it even right to contemplate such things?

It was then though that she sprung something on me that would change the course of EVERYTHING.

Sorry to be a spoiler but, stay tuned for Part 2! Untill then........The Chronicles of Ehav Ever will continue.

The Chronicles of EE, A Documentary In Progress

2009-09-02T05:55:00.007+03:00

So as you all may remember I am working on a documentary that I hope to enter into the Mixed Roots Film Festiaval. It will be somewhat of a redux of this blog and my video blogs, specifically dealing with what led me to move to Israel and what keeps me here. It will be my magnum opus, about my life and will hopefully do some justice for people who are my position.

The Position

What positioin is that you ask? Well, as you may have read on the side of this blog I come from a mixed background. Yet, as you may read in a number of posts about my past that I grew up in a number of different environments and only recently decided that I was going to live my life based on all of the element of what it took to make me. Of course, my decision was that Yahaduth (Judaism) would be the center jewel and everything else would surround that.

That last statement is important, because from time time I get comments on my YouTube page from people who try to claim I am deny my "blackness." In reality I can't deny something I don't use to define myself. The family that I had that was from Africa were specifically from three regions that are modernly known as Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania. They were eventually mixed with Jews who made their way into the region from Yemen and North Africa. So accept all of this, but I am very specific about what I accept. I accept ONLY what my family once accepted for ourselves before America, and it would seem to me that I am being very clear about the fact that I have West African ancestry from SPECIFIC locations. I know what this means for me and my own personality, better than anyone else. It also no secret that I go by the Yemenite and the Senegali sides of my ancestry, that is me and that is how I define myself.

If someone else feels that this falls into their definition of black, then so be it, but for me the black and white dichotomy is meaningless and an American based phenomena so I pretty much ignore. Of course there are those who have labeled me a sellout because of that, but so what I could care less how anyone else wants to define me. I am the master of my own ship, and I have had people talk down of me no matter what path I chose. Yet, that is another story.

Get Back to the Documentary

So the title of this post is about the documentary I am working on. It is progressing nicely, and starting next week I will be walking around to places in Jerusalem to film the segments of myself. I have already done 3 interviews of fellow Israels, some of whom are of mixed descent and I have a few more that I will look into adding. I have also started working on some segments to fill between the discussions about myself and the world I live in here in Israel. I have even gotten some interest at my job from people who didn't I know I was doing films on YouTube.

What this means though is that I will have to look into stepping up my game a bit. Last week my room mate hosted a friend of his who is a film maker from South Africa. He put me onto a film software from Adobe that has some real power behind it. So now I need to start working on learning it, something I sometimes I hate. I really need though because I want to have some map animations for the film and for future YouTube videos. I also may need to buy a better camera to do some of the filming. The small digital camera I have works wonders, but maybe I also need something more high end to really capture Israel in its real beauty.

I need to focus all my energies on this one since I want people to understand that often what they get from Western media about the Middle East is not very accurate. I also know that there aren't many people with my experience and my Israeli reality. Not to brag, but I have finally come to terms that my experience is unique and I can't bottle that up any longer. Sometimes this is hard to put into words, because my life here in Israel is just something that I live and I often find it hard to really give something that seems so regular to me. It is like taking pictures of a place where you live. Sometimes you are so accustomed to your own world that you don't see what may be different about it when compared to the rest of the world.

So good people I will do my best to write about this process as it progresses. Until then the Chronicles of Ehav Ever will continue.

Cry Me A River and the Wisdom of Women

2009-08-21T15:33:00.012+03:00

I once told a female friend of mine about how me and my male friends would often get together and discuss things such as emotions, etc. She responded, I would love to be a fly on the wall when men talk about emotions. I have always wondered about that statement, because I consider myself a guy with a good good handle on my emotions and I see nothing special about the attempt to master them.

For example, when I am afraid I often can pyche myself into using that fear to plot out the most logical course of action. When I am angry I only explode after I have thought out and planned to lose it so that it can be known that my pushover persona is only an act. When I am happy, there isn't much else there except being happy and I can be happy even in my lowest moments because that is the way I was raised.

About the only thing that bothers me so to speak is when I am around the type of people who want to Cry Me a River. That is not to say that I am not sympathetic to people's problems and situations. I just don't have a lot of patience for peoples' problems without the need to discuss solutions. I learned a long time ago that I could choose between crying about what is wrong or not working out correctly in life, or I could spend my time developing solutions and working through those solutions. I am a firm believer that if I try to search for a solution I will either find one, or I will fail. Yet, in either case at least I tried and I would rather live with the knowledge that I tried and failed rather, rather than the knowledge that I never tried. I beleive that I can make my own destiny, but that requires action on my part.

The Practical Application

Not long ago a collegue was going on with me about his problems. He is having a hard time finding a job, money, and issues with traning in martial arts. Many times before this conversation he basically went through the same spill. He has a wife and parents to support, he doesn't have time to train in maritial arts, he doesn't have the money for it, etc. After a while I got tired of hearing it, because I am solution orientated. I once told him that what he needed to do was drop the martial arts training, because it costs money, and work on finding a solution to his money problem. Taking care of his family is NUMBER one priority, and everything is further down the list. He is blessed to even have a wife to stand with him through the tough times, because some guys don't get that. At a certain point, my solution was to distance myself from him.

Maybe my solutions are harsh, but that is the way I live my life. When I have a problem I vent about it once or twice, and then I start working on solutions. I also don't like people to know about my current personal problems preferring that people see me at my best. Maybe it is also because I feel most alive when I am working on solutions rather than letting my problems get me down. I also learned to channel my fear and my anger into constructive areas of my life.

So that is me, and I understand that not everyone is able to do that. Some people define themselves simply by focusing on their own sorrows, and hurt in life and never moving past them. There are people who can't deal with the fact that life is harsh and full of its dissappointments and hardships. There are some people who can't see the forest from the trees to realize that you either get busy living or you get busy dying. to quote the Shawshank Redemption. Not everyone can understand that sometimes the best of our humanity can shine through in the darkest of hours and that is when we really find out what we are made of.

I was the same way until a woman named Mesha, that I once loved ,told me that I needed to let the past be the past and concern myself with solutions. She saw how I kept going back over and over with a situation that had happened years earlier, and how it was eating at me. She boldy told me to stop cyring a river, because EVERYONE has problems. What I needed to do was get off my soap box and deal with the issue until its finality, and move on. Looking back, I am so glad I learned that from her. Her advice has been a shining light to me, and I never got a chance to thank her for teaching me that life lesson.

Another example of this. A friend of mine is working a job that is causing him so much stress and pain. He has told me how his wife keeps telling him that she wants a healthy husband who comes home in joy, not one who is tired and has now sign of life in him. Not long ago when another event took place, his wife told him in bold words.

תקום, תנעול את הדלת, ולך לביתה

Translated that means, Get up, lock the door (to your office), and go home. I told my friend that it is good that he has a woman that is with him on that, and wants him in a healthy mindset for their family life. To have a woman who has your back like that is something else, and almost nothing in the world can compare to that feeling.

So to all the women who read this blog and you see that man that is special to you dealing the hardships of his life. Go to him one day and lift up his chin and tell him, Hey you are strong enough to beat this thing. And even if you can't I am here for you. So get up and get back out their soldier and win that war. Do this for the sake of your role in the lives of men, because the wisdom of a woman can be something else.

Sorry I haven't posted much

2009-08-14T14:43:00.004+03:00

I have no excuse except for the fact that I am soaking up all the things that are going on right now, and I am trying to get organized at my apartment. Living in Jerusalem has a different tone to it, so my blogging may be a bit erratic as I will more than likely be more calculating in my videos and writing concerning topics. So here are some more updates in my life.

US Visit

So it is official I will not be visiting the US next month. Yet, I feel good about not going for some reason. At first I thought I needed to visit the US for some reason, but now that the opportunity to do so is no longer avaible I feel good, and I don't know exactly why. So when it comes to the idea of visiting the US next month, Dr. McCoy from Star Trek said it best......

The Chronicles of Ehav Ever: The Documentary

So as I mentioned before I am working on a documentary that I want to submit to the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival next year. In a sense it will be a redux of my blog and my videos on YouTube, but will a lot more about me and how I am affected by living in Israel and how I affect others around me. I think that it will be safe to say that there hasn't been anything like this yet, and I hope to learn a lot about myself in the process. At the moment I am scouting out locations for where I am going to film. I plan on doing some really scenic and organic places since I love nature.

I have a defined outline for the video, and I have at least 3 more people to interview. One next week, and another maybe the week after. So we will see what happens.

The News

A while back I was asked to speak at a memorial for Yair Stern, and there was a video of it on Israeli National News. I sometimes don't like how I sound in interviews so I kind of kept from putting it on my blog, but in any case here it is.

I have to admit that there are so many things that I need to blog about, and I will because I must. I must because I feel like this next year I need to make a number of strides for the sake of history. Not just mine, but that I have story that needs to be told.

A Month of Positive Solutions Update

So I have been working out the concepts of the solutions that I will be proposing for the upcoming Month of Positive solutions. I have the first video pretty much down pat, so now I need to work on the Audio I have spent some time on another blog posting some of the ideas I have and now I must put that into video format.

So that is the short summary of what is up for now. By the way the below video has nothing to do with this post, but I love how creative this video is.

In Jerusalem, Videos, and Photos Coming Soon

2009-08-08T22:17:00.003+03:00

So as I said in the last post I am in Jerusalem. Talk about a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in moving and I mean all three literally. It was a little hard to say goodbye to Maale Adummim after living there for 2 years, but in comparison to moving to the holiest city in the Jewish world there is no comparison, for me, to living in Jerusalem. I feel so central to everyting that I need in my life right now, and I am at a better arm's length to the things that I want to do for this next year.

Today marked the second Shabbat (Sabbath) I have spent actually in Jerusalem. The last time I spent a Shabbat in Jerusalem was back in 2004. It is ironic that it was spent in the same neighborhood where I now live called Katamon. Back then it was with a late friend of mine who passed away in 2005 and now it is with new friends. I love the fact that this place lends itself to so many possibilities, and I want to make the most of those possibilities during my time of more relaxed working.

This will I still have a lot of unpacking to do, and I recently had a situation that came up that has changed some of the plans I had for this year, but that is life and that is okay. I did plan on visiting the US for month in Sept. but the method I was going to use to do this has dried up so I won't doing that and maybe it was for the best. Everytime I have moved away from a place, going back to visit it always has reinforced why I left in the first place. Then I go through the desire to return back to where I was currently living. So going to the US may have simply reninforced why I left and only made me want to hurry up and get back to Israel. It is as I have written before that I feel I have lived more in the last two years (here in Israel) than I have most of my life.

There may be other issues at play that may have it be better that I don't visit the US, so maybe that is fate on some level. I will admit that one of the reasons that I wanted to visit was to see a small group of people that I connect with on the net, but maybe this was not as important that I felt it was at one time. So sa la vi. I don't claim to believe the worst when something doesn't work out, but sometimes there could be a method to the madness. Maybe it was simply a matter of Jedi Politics ala Clerks.

I'm Back.....Again

2009-08-03T05:30:00.002+03:00

I have been gone a while from blogging because I have been dealing with moving again. Last week I made the big move from Maale Adummim to Jerusalem. So the Chronicles will continue this week, as I get more settled. Until then enjoy this.......again.

Videos that I Just have to make

2009-07-15T11:05:00.005+03:00

I have a LONG list of videos hat I JUST HAVE TO MAKE. This is one of the reasons that I decided that I would need to leave my job, at least as a full time employee. There is just so much out there, in terms of stereotypes and unsung history, feelings, and emotions that I feel like I need to do something drastic to make a difference. I have for a while thought off and on about doing a few things here and there, but now I see it as a moral imparative. I have been reminded so much of the words of Rabbi Isaac Sasson who once told me.

Because of your unique situation, you need to stand up against racism and
antisemitism where ever it stands in chorus. The concept of race that exists in
the western world is a myth and it has some many bogus elements to it. If there
is something, as Jews who have picked up that is incorrect or racist YOU MUST
stand against it. If there is something that is anti-semitic within in the
framework of your other ancestries you also need to stand up against it. You
don't have a choice in this matter. So now tell me what are you going to do to
stand up against these things?

For months, I remember how Rabbi Sasson would hound me about this issue. I didn't have an answer then because that was such a huge challenge to try and meet. What could I do to face off against something like that? I have my own views about race and such, but those are my views and they are not the most popular. People in the west often preferred the classical versions because they are quick, simple, and require less thinking. I also hate to debate people about things I believe in or know to be fact.

All of this changed somewhat when I moved to the Middle East. I could finally face the issues on my own home turf, with the kind of mindset that I have. Starting this blog was the second part of this change, and doing VLOGs (Video Logs) has been the latest. That is not to say that I am blind about racism and antisemitism, as it is perceived in the west, I just have less connection to either one since my life no longer has to revolve around such issues.

Yet, I still harbor a concern about issues related to them due to Rabbi Sasson's words. So I can only reply to him the only way I know how at this point. I am going to do videos abou the issue. So there are a few videos that I know I need to work on during my time away from work, and here they are.

I am going to do a video basically dubunking the entire Curse of Ham mythology. I am going to prove that the concept is not Judaic in nature, and is historically false. This will have to be for 2 to 3 videos since there is so much ground to cover.
I am going to do a video about how illogical racism is, especially that which can possible exists amongst SOME Jews. That is to say that there are some, not all, Jews who have picked up racist ways of talking and thinking, and at the same time they expect people to respect their rights as Jews. Because there are some Jews who have picked up racist concepts, it is being leveled against all of us. I will be putting this mindset on notice since I know exactly how to deal with this one.
I will be doing a video on REAL Tziyonut i.e. Real Zionism. I have already started working on this video. I just need to start working on the audio. I am a proponet that Zionsim has been hijacked by both non-Jews and Jews who mis-represent it or have twisted it into something it was never meant to be.
I will be doing a video about effective ways to deal with Anti-semitism, from the Ever family perspective. I can tell you right now, it is very rare that I call someone an anti-semites. In my mind there are some people who simply have a different perspective then me when it comes to the entire Middle East situation. In some cases me and said people agree 90%, even though they think they know what I believe as a Zionist (some of them are often surprised to find out what I believe). In other cases there are people who hate Israel, hate Jews, etc. I don't need to call these people anti-semites. I recognize them for what they are.....MY ENEMIES. Once that is established can respectfully handle each other like enemies do.

All of this while I am working on a documentary about my life, at least the part of it that led me to return to the Middle East, and to vow to remain here no matter what. So it is time to declear war on foolishness, tomfoolery, and ignorance. All of these things are vidoes that MUST do because.........These are the Chronicles of Ehav Ever.

Episode 26: What's the Deal, What's New?

2009-07-10T05:24:00.001+03:00

This video is pretty much what I said in my last post, but in video form.

Setting THE PLAN in Motion

2009-07-07T05:51:00.005+03:00

About a month or two ago, I posted that I had a big decision to make about my future. The post was called Destiny and Taking Chances. I didn't post exactly what the decision was because I wanted to make sure I was walking down the right path and wasn't making a hasty decision. So yesterday the time was right and I made my decision. This scene from one of my favorite Anime, Big O, on some level explains the emotions I had about all of this.

For so long there have been so many questions about my destiny here in Israel, and much of that was clouded and shrouded in mystery because it was not yet time for me to make the decision of a lifetime. As I mentioned before in younger years I was always fearly of taking chances, but yesterday I made a decision to take one of the biggest chances I have taken in my life. Yesterday I tendered my resignation from my job in order to do the following:

Spend a year working on my Hebrew
Spend said year working on a documentary on my choice to move to Israel
Spend said year to work on more educational videos
Spend said year filming and recording to the oldest members of my family
Spend said year reinventing my path in life

This is the decision, and now my future seems less cloudy. Now the show can really begin. Now I want to really begin the Chronicles of Ehav Ever. It may seem crazy for someone, in this current worldwide economic crisis, to leave behind a good paying job in order to pursue their real purpose in life. To that I say that I have to be true to myself. If not now, when? If not me, who? I can only be Ehav Ever, and for so long I had lost sight of what that meant to me. So now I have to work twice as hard to keep things afloat, but that is what has always made me, me.

Win or lose, I can at least say that I made the decision and I won't look back and wish I had taken the chance. So now it is up to me to find my destiny, and I can tell all of you I am very excited about this because........these are the Chronicles of Ehav Ever.

An Easy Laugh

2009-07-04T22:22:00.006+03:00

I will admit, that when it comes to getting a laught out of me.....I am real easy. There are many things that make me laugh that some people would call stupid. Maybe it is because I am wired that way. It also seems that when I am around kids they pick up on this and they are always trying to make me laugh.

Most of my close friends have been people who are very funny. We would end up spending our time trying to make each other laugh. I once almost sent a friend of mine back to the hospital after he had a hernia surgery, because we made the mistake of joking around.

So since I am such an easy laugh here are few things that get me every time.

Episode 25: Walking Away From Phi Beta Sigma

2009-07-02T21:19:00.001+03:00

Episode 24: A Month of Positive Solutions?

2009-06-30T04:41:00.000+03:00

Episode 23: A Message to the Haters

2009-06-17T02:17:00.001+03:00

It has been a long time since I have gotten hate messages on this written blog. Yet, every once and a while on my VLOG on YouTube I get people who want to argue about things, call me names, etc. and I am never sure what they actually think they can accomplish with it. So in true YouTube fashion I had to make a video for the haters.

Torn Between Two Worlds

2009-06-16T06:44:00.000+03:00

When you are culturally mixed sometimes you are torn between two competing worlds, with the chance that when you choose one world over another conflict is bound to happen. I know this well, for reasons that I often prefer not to talk to much about. Spock from the Star Trek series, to me, is a prime example of this battle of having parents from two different worlds and how one has to try and reconsile between the two. For those who don't know, Spock's mother was human and his father Vulcan. Because the cultures and the methods of thinking were so contrastingly different Spock was often caught between the need to be logical, the Vulcan side, and the emotions that existed because of the human side.

The following videos are my favorite examples of this internal battle.

The Plan, A Month of Solutions...and my role

2009-06-09T05:31:00.004+03:00

So I talked to my mother a few minutes ago about my plan that I mentioned in the previous post. (I know that as of yet I have really not said what it is, but don't worry it is coming.) We had a good discussion about it and she presented a few more things I need to add to my consideration list. I also talked to a friend of mine at work and he gave me some really strong reasons that I should push forward. More on that later.

Ehav The Talking Head

In other news, a few months ago I was interviewed for an in the works documentary about stereotypes here in Israel. This past Sunday the woman who is working on the documentary had a screening for the first edit. It was really interesting and I was really glad that for a first edit it came out so well. This has further got me thinking that I may make my own documentary about my life and maybe send it in next year for the Mixed Roots Film Festival. We shall see what happens.

A Month of Solutions?

In other news, I have been considering revisting an idea I had from back in 2007. It was then that I was inspired to try to push for a week of positive blogging. I did it along with a number of people around the world, and I think the results were really interesting. I had considered at that time of doing it every year, but I felt that on some level it had accomplished what it was supposed to.

I am now considering trying to organize something like a month of pure solutions. The angle is still in my head, but this time I am inspired by the reverse of what I mentioned in my post about how people love drama. That is people love to debate and go through drama, without ever really getting into solutions. I have even seen situations where solutions are completely skipped over in order to cotinue the debate and such. That is not all people, but I think on some level one of the reasons is because it takes less work to go on and on about a problem than it does to actually roll up one's sleaves and get to work on a solution.

So I think I am going to do the opposite. I think I am going to pick 5 things that I think could change:

My immediate world. My country, community, etc.
The immediate world of someone else
The way the world views another group

All of the solutions would be based on my background as an Israeli and I would most likely do VLOGS (Video Logs) the solutions I come up with. I did this once with the video response about why black businesses don't survive. In those two videos I laid out the reasons I believed that African American businesses may have problems, and also what some of the solutions may be. Yet, I made the solutions a bit veiled simply because I believe that sometimes all some people need are to have things laid out in a clear fashion and then they can make their own choices. One twist I think I would add to this is that I would make a concerted effort from the time of the video till I breath my last breath to see the solution come to some level of fruition.

I feel the need to do something like this because as an Israeli I have a responsibility to do these kinds of things with my life. I will be working on this idea in the next two or more months. So that is it for now. The Chronicles will continue.

Destiny and Taking Chances

2009-05-28T10:21:00.005+03:00

Before I moved to Israel I was a fearful kind of person. In my childhood I feared conflict and thus was an easy target for bullies since I was to afraid to learn how to defend myself. I was also afraid of making mistakes and failure, even though I made a number of mistakes and failed at a number of different things. Later in life I was afraid of loosing my job in order to take a chance and chase after my dreams.

Two years of being Israel has helped changed much of that part of myself. I no longer fear failure and I no longer am afraid of bullies. I am not afraid of loosing my job, and as time goes on I am less afraid of taking chances. So this leads me to an important decison that I need to make in the next few months after I move. It will concerning chasing after a dream that I let fall to the wayside when I was younger, and I only revisted a few times during my adult life.

At some point a male has to decide if he is a man or a boy and is he strong or is he weak? This was my greatest fears in my youth because I felt for so long that I didn't have the tools to make my life what I wanted, instead I made my life what other people wanted. Coming to Israel has changed that because first of all coming here was a dream that I developed because I knew it would force me to face my fears. I also knew that no matter what happens I would not leave Israel, except to visit a place, and I was here for better or for worse. That includes war, that includes world ridicule, and that includes the possibility of having to stand alone in order to do what is right.

So with this upcoming decision I am going to be making it at a time when times are tough all over the world. It is a time where it seems like all of a humanity is crying out for a different path that what we have inherited and that there are many people who are being awakened to their true purpose in life. I have learned so many interesting things within the last two years of me living in Israel as to where I can say that I have lived more in the these last two years than I have most of my life.

Maybe it is because I am becoming less fearful of really living, even if that means that some uncomfort is involved. Even if that means standing against the slings and arrows of all kinds of people I don't have to stand there and take it. I can be a man, pick up the closest thing to a weapon and defend myself. I can also be that man who stands up for others or provides that shoulder of support for others.

This decision that is coming is one that I have been feeling coming on for some time now. I realize that now that I am 34 I can't wait any longer to truly decide if I am going to make my own destiny or am I going to allow others to dictacte my life to me? Now is the time, and I have gained many of the tools that I need to accomplish something that gives a man a sense of mastery of his destiny and that is FREEDOM!

I was once asked by a woman I went out with once to play a word association game. The game was a bit of a psychology test. She would say a word and I would have to respond with one word, the first word, that popped into my head. I think I mentioned this story in another post. She went through various words, but my response to her on one word caused her to have a question mark look on her face. What was that word you ask? FREEDOM! What was my response you ask.....ISRAEL!

What does that mean to me, you ask? It means so many things. It means that I no longer have to fear walking through the streets at night, fearing the penetrating glances of others. It means that I no longer have to explain myself to others. It means fluency in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. It means that when I fail and I fall down, I will immediately put my hands to the ground and push myself back up. It means I no longer will accept being grouped with people who don't share the same moral outlook as myself. I don't have to accept other peoples interpretations of who I am. I am who I am, I am who I say I am, and I am the only human who gets a say in that matter at this point in my life. Yet, most of all it means Israel. True Israel is not yet a free country. Unfortunately, we are influenced by pop culture, the after affects of Western colonialism in the Middle East, the fear of becoming the Torah based society that we are supposed to be. Yet, this is our country and we can fix these things. We can be more than we currently are, but we have to be willing to stop talking about it and do it.

It also means that I don't have to accept my faults. I can choose to stop making the same mistakes, and I can choose to turn away from un-Torah like and unproductive behavior. This has always meant that there are people and things I may have to walk away from, but I am an expert in that. I know how to hold them, I know when to fold them, I know how to walk away when the dealings done.

I had many heroes when I was a kid, but at some a man has to become his own hero. When I turned 28 every time I thought of heroics I thought of myself. I saw my own face in that mirror, being the type of hero I needed to be, at least for me. I am not the most powerful, and I am not the most intelligent. Yet, I am the best Ehav Ever (אהב עבר) that has come of the assembly line. They litterally broke the mold when they made me, and no other Ehav Ever has stepped up to the plate and tried to fight the good fight like I have. Narcasitic? Maybe, but I can't help it, that is who I am.

So that is that. Next week I will work on plotting out my the possible paths I should take with this decision. This has always worked for me. I basically write out what it is I have to do and I work out all the possible ways to do it. I list the pros and the cons, the good and the bad, the hard parts and th easy parts. Then I go through it and make my decision. I won't say publically what this decision is until I make it. Yet, when I do make it will be wonderful. because I make my own destiny It will be a story for the ages, and maybe, just maybe, it will be another addition to the Chronicles of Ehav Ever.

People Love Drama?

2009-05-24T05:36:00.008+03:00

So lately I have been checking out other people's blogs and YouTube videos in comparison to the last few months of simply working on my own videos, and I have been finding that people seem to love drama. What I mean is that it seems like there are some many debates and arguements going on about a range of topics, which lead to the name calling and very few solutions. Now I love a good debate as much as the next person. Yet, the older I get the less I care about debate and the more I am concerned with the discussion of putting solutions in place.

As I mentioned before, I was not always this way. There was a time when I liked to be a part of the drama crowd. I complained on a number of things, but very seldom worked on solutions. That was until one day was I shown a path that led to action and that action involved working with kids. The concept being that if you could direct, redirect, or change the mindset of a child before what I call "pop culture" gets to them you could in turn change the world.

What I have noticed though that in some of these drama debates, these kinds of words get lost in the need for more debate and more drama. It is like some people get so lost in the debate that actually outlining solutions is not as important as keeping the debate going. That is completely fine, if that is what people really want, but to me it would seem that working on solutions would be the prominent issue. I have been chalking this up to the fact that I grew up in a different environment where there were people who were through talking and debating the drama and instead they were doing something about the drama.

It is like saying, if a community structure is the problem then all you have to do is build a PHYSICAL community. If adult pshychology is the problem, you start working with the kids in order to prevent them from taking up a failed pshychology. If a lost culture is the problem, you do the research and try your best to fill in the gaps. If particular people are the problem, you do the best you can to bring them to the table and if they refuse you cut them off and excommunicate them.

These things can be talked about all day, but putting them into action changes the whole landscape. That is just the way I see things, and maybe I am wrong in my thinking. Yet, I guess for most people they need the drama. Besides drama sells and it keeps peoples' attention a lot longer than quick and speedy resolution. I guess that is why the soup opera industry is so popular.

The Latest

2009-05-20T19:16:00.005+03:00

It is so funny how the written aspects of this blog are quickly becoming updates between the time when I do videos. I can't help it, but I really enjoy making the videos. I also feel that it is easier for me to express myself in video where in writing I am confined by my ability to type and how well I can make the words express what goes on in my brain. I once even experimented with that voice/typing software several years ago and that didn't work very well for me. So for a while I feel like the videos are the better way for me to do this.

So on to the latests news in the Chronicles of Ehav Ever.

Computer Updates

So I finally found a cable that I can use to recover my old hard drives from my laptop and even from some older hard drives that I had sitting around from my OLD OLD computer. For those of you who weren't checking out my blog back then, several months ago my laptop crashed and left me without access to my life which is on my computer. You can read about it here. So now I have gotten access again to all the old information, photos, fonts, etc. that were a staple of my Chronicles. So in other words.

Okay so this video has nothing to do with anything, but I found that video so funny.

Moving Soon

So at the end of July I will be moving to a new apartment. I don't know exactly where yet, but I am thinking about moving out of Maale Adummim to Jerusalem. Living here in Maale Adummim has been great, and really like it here, but it could be that I have outgrown it and I need to move into Jerusalem proper. I had offer to move into a Jewish building that was in the middle of an Arab neighborhood, but that just wasn't something I can do at this point in my life.

Pretty much every option I am looking at is in or around Jerusalem. I couldn't even imagine living more than 10 minutes away from Jerusalem. I like the vibe of Jerusalem and it may be because it is the spiritual center of Israeli and Jewish culture, but it is so hard for me to explain it. I just can't get enough of the energy I feel when I walk the streets of my country's capital. I never felt this way in any other place, and I always want to keep this feeling until my last breath.

Of course I had to go back to the resturant Coffee Joe where I found pancakes and this is how I felt.

Documentaries?

A few months ago I was interviewed for a in the works documentary about racism, prejudice, and culturism in Israel. I may have to do a reshoot, but I really enjoyed the fact that I did it all in Hebrew. If they do the followup of me I am a bit more prepared. My Hebrew is good enough to do it, but I find that I am better if I write out my ideas first.

This also gave me the idea that I may take the video chronicles I do and make them into a documentary of myself. I may even submit it next year for the Mixed Roots Festival, so we will see. I am starting to map out what I think would be a good documentary of who I am and what I feel about things.

The Joke of the 2 State Solution

So I have been keeping up here and there on the issue of America and Europe's concept of a 2 state solution to try and solve the middle east problem. To be quite honest, after living here more than 2 years I can say that the two state solution is a joke and is not a realistic solution for the middle east. It also begs the question of what right do the western countries have to dictate to the world what is a solution.

The problems in the middle east don't revolve around Israel and our issues with the Arab world. The problems really revolve around the legacy of western powers who have spent the last several hundred years colonizing and then messing up a number of countries around the world. I think I can express this better in a video than I can in writing it. Yet, what I can tell you is that if the western world would stop feeding money into the region (both to us in Israel and the Arabs) , take back their weapons they are supplying to both sides, and let us solve our own problems the middle east would be a different place.

Episode 22: Israeli Languages and Dialects

2009-05-13T22:33:00.004+03:00

Everybody Wants a Peice of Me

2009-05-06T06:35:00.005+03:00

So if you go down to some of my previous posts you will see that I did a video on Israeli national indentity and Jewish Migrations into West Africa. Now it seems that some of the Hebrew Israelites on YouTube are offended. They are a comical bunch, and they say some really funny things. (At least it is funny to me.) I have never understood why they go out searching for conflict, but they have to realize that they can't win that one with me.

My recent Hebrew Israelite stalker has been trying to force me into taking down the videos I did, as if he could actually force me to do that. It has always interested me, as a former I am right and everyone else is wrong kind of person, how some people go out of their way to try and make themselves right and everyone else is wrong. When I was in the mode of thinking I had the answers to the universe, I kept it mostly to myself. My logic was because I was right and the world was wrong, there is no need for me to beat people up side the head with it.

I have come a long way in that regard, and maybe that is why some of these types gravitate towards trying to either prove me wrong, hurt my feelings, etc. What they don't realize is that they can't hurt my feelings, only I have the power to do that. Also, what they don't realize is that when a person confronts me to debate me, especially when I know I am right, I will take the debate to all kinds of angles and I won't stop until they get tired of dealing with me. I am methodical, I take my time to craft my arguements, and I respond without reacting. (Yes I was on the debate team in high school.) I have also had a lot of experience with getting emails from people who disagree with my views, even though I don't try to force anyone to accept my views. Yet, this whole situation has given me some ideas for some new videos.

Note: All of the above took place on YouTube.

Food for thought: Holy Pancakes

2009-05-01T17:41:00.005+03:00

People often ask me, would I ever move back to the United States, and my answer is no. There is nothing for me there, and Israel is my home. Yet, there was one thing that I do have to admit I knew was going to be a problem. That is to say something I knew I was going to miss. What is that you ask?.......pancakes.

I love pancakes, and when I lived in the states trying to find kosher pancakes was ALWAYS a problem. Sure I could have made my own, and I did make them for Passover (that is to say the FOR Passover kind of pancakes that don't rise.) Yet, there are just some foods that I always liked to have made for me.

Maybe it harks back to my childhood when my mother would make the world's best banana pancakes, banna nut bread, and cookies. Ah yes, those were the days. That is until the evil years came when we moved to the suburbs and the pastries came to a halt, and what was once rivers of pancakes and banana nut goodness became a desert void of pastrioral delight (I know that is not a word!)

So every time I visited Israel I could never find a place that made good pancakes. There was one place I found while on a tour north of Tel Aviv, but those pancakes were nothing compared to what I had known in my childhood. There was also a place I found in 2004 in Jerusalem that made some of the best waffles I had ever had, but when I went back to them in 2007 they had become a sushi place. It was that I knew that I was going to have to say goodbye to pancakes, and thus that was the only thing I feared about living in the Middle East. The loss of good kosher pancakes.

Yet, today a light shone forth from the hills of Zion. (Literally, Jerusalem is also known as Zion.) During my time in Jerusalem today to pray at the Kotel (Western Wall) and to find some good lotion I decided to stop off in one of the local coffee/resturants where I once met a date. I thought I would just stop in and have the same brunch I had the last time. You know, eggs, toast, salad. (Here in Israel salad is also for breakfast). When they handed me the menu I was shocked to see something that I haven't seen in more than 2 years. It was a parting of the maple seas, if you will. This was a different menu that they didn't have the last time I was there. This menu had............

PANCAKES! Truly, it was a blessing that by chance I decided to go to that resturant. What joy as I sat waiting for the yummy goodness. They even had banana pancakes. Yet, the true test was the taste. One bite and a wave of emotions overflowed as I remembered my youth, with my mother making those gold cakes on the griddle and log cabin syrp (I have completely forgotten how to spell it) glistening in the sun light.

So as I ate my pancakes with salad on the side. Life took on a whole new meaning. Zion took on a whole new meaning. Truly this is my home, in the Land of Israel, the holy land, in Jerusalem, the holy city, and there are pancakes. I now miss nothing, I lack nothing, and the light of heaven has shone down on me for I have partaken in Israeli holy pancakes and thus there was joy across the land stride.

I'm Still Here

2009-04-30T06:04:00.002+03:00

Just in case anyone who reads this blog wonders, yes I am still here. I have been focusing on some other things of late, and as with all things life goes through its cycles. Not much new to report, at least from the stand point of interesting things to write about. I have some more video ideas, but I just don't feel like putting them in video just yet.

Lately, I have been more of a YouTube mainstay than anything else, I think partially to get ideas for future videso, but also I like to hear and see people's expressions sometimes over reading them. I have been keeping up with some of the various debates concerning race, culture, and revolutionary thought. Maybe it is me, but it just seems like something is stirring in the world. I can't explain it, but it is just one of those feelings.

I know I haven't written about current events as much because it seems like right now there is so much waiting around the world for something. It could be partially because of the economy, the swine flu, Somali pirates, Obama, etc. but I just have this feeling like we are all on the cusp of a period in history. What exactly it is and what it means, I am not sure, because it is just a thought.

It so crazy that lately I have been able to get motivated to write anything, and it seems like doing the videos is much more up my alley. Maybe I am just lazy, but if so.....so be it. More later.

I Love History and Culture: Senegal and Mali

2009-04-23T20:38:00.000+03:00

I love history and culture. I wish there was a way to make my living studying them and researching.

Ancient West African Megacities

Empires of gold and knowledge part 1 Into Africa

Futa Marriage Part 1

Futa Marriage Part 2

Futa Marriage Part 3

Episode 21: תורת ההגיון Logic

2009-04-17T06:12:00.004+03:00

The following video is on logic. I was thinking about doing it as a series, but I am not sure about that yet. It is in Hebrew, and I was a little tired so forgive any mispronunciations. I am still working to finish translating it.

Episodes 19 & 20: Jewish Migrations into West Africa Parts 1 & 2

2009-04-14T10:58:00.006+03:00

These videos are based on a presentation I once did at Shearith Israel: The Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in NYC in 2007. They are conncted to the Video I did on Israeli National Identity. I would suggest that you see that video first. It is on various documents that talk about the Jewish migrations into West Africa that came from three sources.

1) Southern Arabia
2) North Africa
3) Spain and Portugal

Sources for the information presented can be found at the end of the presentation. I will post Part 2 as soon as possible.

Ramdom Thoughts on Change

2009-04-11T21:50:00.007+03:00

So I am sitting here at my computer after Shabbat listening to the clattering of the fan in my computer wondering how I am not getting annoyed by the constant clanging. I think there is some dust stuck in there, and I ran out of air in the can to do anything about it. So some random thoughts popped in my head. I don't feel like putting them in a video for the moment so I guess I will do some writing on my blog.

My thoughts lately have been about change.

In the last few years of my life so much has changed in ways that I never would have dreamed of lets say 10 years ago, or 15 years ago. Even within the last two years since I moved to Israel I have changed and I look back with the consideration of who I am and who I am becoming.

It once angered me that I was not making the progess that I needed and wanted to make in my life. It angered me so much that I thought change was beyond my grasp. I once thought I knew what that was and what it meant for me and now I am content with not knowing. Yet, the question still lingers of why do I exist, and what is my ultimate purpose in life? Is it simply to overcome a group of obsticales to face them anew on another day, or is there something else in store for me?

I also looked back on this blog to see where I have come from since 2006-2007 when I started it. Whether it was the Week of Positive Blogging or the series I did called Why Do Men Cheat, I can see that blogging has changed my life and how I view myself. Then, thanks to the influence of Tiffiny Jones of the Mulatto Diaries I have, began the Vlogging and once again more changes. I have so many ideas that I want to put into video, but there seems to be so little time to do this. If only I could do this for a living.

Then for the last few days my thoughts turned to HER. I talked about HER in the 2nd video about The Greatest Mystery. She was the second story in the video. She told me before she left that she would be coming back for Pesah (Passover). Part of me has considered how I would feel if I was to suddenly get a call from HER. This part of myself somewhat wishing that she would call me. Yet, p of me wishes I could simply get her out of my mind, but I know that will take some time. I tend to this part of me has the more logical approach and the less painful. It is times like this that I wish I did not have emotions, but instead work on pure Torah logic. Yet, I guess I will have to keep working on my emotions and where I place them.

Part I am not quite sure what this post is about. It is something that just crossed my mind that I needed to write.

This video has nothing to do with this post, but I thought it was funny.

חג שמח ומועדים לשימחה

2009-04-08T16:11:00.002+03:00

So here in Israel Pesah (Passover) begins in just a few hours. I am off to stay with some friends in Talpiut (that's near Jerusalem). I hope to have a few posts next week, more than likely written.

So to all I wish you all a kosher and safe Pesah. May we merit the redemption of our full nation, our full people, and the world.

Episode 18: Israeli National Identity

2009-04-02T22:51:00.002+03:00

In this video I discuss history Israeli national identity from ancient times to the modern day. Please not that this is HEAVILY abbreviated history since there is so much that could be said on this topic. I also cover the issue of Israeli/Jewish ethnicity.

Episode 17: The Greatest Mystery - Part 3

2009-03-25T22:37:00.002+02:00

So this is the 3rd video about the mystery of women. Yet, in this video I explore my own issues.

Episode 16: The Greatest Mystery - Part 2

2009-03-21T22:56:00.000+02:00

In this episode I give more detail about how I started to figure out that I don't know the first thing about women.

Episode 15: The Greatest Mystery - Part 1

2009-03-14T23:18:00.002+02:00

In this episode I tackle one of the greatest mysteries known to man.

Episode 14: My Musical Tastes Part 2

2009-03-13T05:49:00.002+02:00

As promised, this is part 2 of my musical tastes. Enjoy and let me know your thoughts.

Episode 13: My Musical Tastes

2009-03-05T13:48:00.000+02:00

So this video is in response to blogger Shlomo ben Raphael. He made a comment on my meditation post concerning the music that I use, and my musical influences. This is part one of a two part discussion on how I have been influenced by music and how my culture influences my musical tastes.

See, I told you that the Chronicles of Ehav Ever would continue......

Motivation

2009-03-02T04:57:00.005+02:00

Greetings all. I keep looking at my blog and noticing that it has a been a while since I put together any kind of post whether it be video or written. I have a few video ideas, but they will take a bit of time to put together so all is not lost. The problem on some level is the motivation. Maybe I need someoen singing songs like this to me in the background of my life.

Johnny Bravo and Mr. T

It is cold here in Israel right now, and it has been raining a lot (Thank G-d). Cold is like cryptonite for me and I tend to want to sleep more. I am also working on improving my flexibility and my Hebrew verb by verb.

Other than that I recently went spent the weekend at Maale Shlomo in the Shomron area. It was really beautiful and I was able to climb one of the semi mountain/semi hills there. The view of both sides was simply breathtaking and I wished so much I could have taken photos. I will go back when it is warmer and take some photos.

On another note, I recently came across an old video that I was once in love with. It is called ህዝበ ለህዝበ ኢትዮጲያ in English that is the People to People tour. It is the Ethiopian Dance Troupe from about 1987/1988. After the various countries of the world sent aid to Ethiopia during one of the worst droughts in their history they sent their dance troupe around the world to perform in a thank you kind of performance. I used to have the version they did in Wasington DC on VHS until the taped messed up. I learned pretty much every Ethiopian dance from this video. It was to the point where when I traveled to Ethiopia in 2001 all of my friends there were amazed that I knew all all the local dances. Here are my favorite parts of the performance.

People to People Tour part 1

People to People Tour part 2

People to People Tour part 5

So other than that, I promise there will be more soon. I have a videos in the planning stages so please be patient with me. Until then the Chronicles of Ehav Ever continue.....

Episode 12: התבודדות Meditation?

2009-02-20T13:41:00.002+02:00

As promised I am back and ready for action. In order to prepare for the upcoming videos about REAL Zionism I decided that I needed to take some time to focus. This video is about the Jewish concepts of what is called התבודדות Hitbodedut, or meditation. It must be said that Hitbodedut is not what most westerners are accustomed to, but is more an issue of contemplation or focus. Watch the video it will be explained.

Note: For those who can't read Hebrew, there are some Hebrew quotes that I didn't translate for the sake of time and substance. I may add a translation of some of them to this post later.

The Chronicles will continue....................

The Happenings - מה חדש

2009-02-13T15:05:00.008+02:00

I am still not exactly "back" yet. There has been a lot going on in the last few weeks. I thought about posting some things and then changed my mind. I thought about doing a series of videos on my take on race, and then I changed my mind. Of course as usual the Everybody Wants a Peice of Ehav Ever train has been chugging along, but at this point I don't mind.

So What's Nu?

As many of you may know the national elections have come and gone here in Israel. As I mentioned in a previous post my vote was for Ichud Leumi. What you did not know was that I have been politically active in Ichud Leumi. This for me is an interesting change. When I lived in America I stopped voting YEARS ago because I hate politics and I didn't believe in the system. Here in Israel, I still hate the politics, but not being politically active here can be the difference between life and death, more war and less war, and corruption and less of it. As you can tell some things need to change, and I decided that I want to be part of that change. I just don't want to live in a country where the political scene looks like this.

So during the election I was is called in Hebrew a (משקיף) Mashqif for Ichud Leumi. What this meant was that I was authorized to go and check out the voting stations and make sure that things were okay with the voting ballets as well as sitting in at times to oversee the voting process. This also included helping and overseeing the counting of the votes. It seems like we have millions of political parties here and it makes you feel like this. trying to fiture them all out.

All and all, this was an EXTREMELY interesting and educational process to see. from the inside I will do a video on all of this later.

Ehav Ever the Film Maker/the Talking Head?

So I am working on a documentary of sorts, but none of you will ever be able to see it. I quess I can't exactly call it a documentary. It is more like a training video for the martial art, Abir, that I train in. The version of it that I am working on now is one for my own private use at home so I start making some more advanced progress in the next couple of months. I stopped training, outside of class, for a few weeks because of the election. Now I am back and ready for action. Working on this video has been liberating for me, and my creative juices, especially since I had a recent situation that had me feeling down for a week or two. I will have to decide if I want to share that or not.

Now with the experience I am gaining with this training video, I may just start working on my own documentary. You know, actually take the Chronicles of Ehav Ever on the road and do what I am currently doing but in locations and making into an oddessy. I just have to figure out the central theme. If any of you have ideas on what I should film and talk about let me know.

Next, about a week ago I got an interesting message on my blog of someone who wants to interview for a documentary on prejudices in the Middle East. I spoke with the woman putting the project together and it a really interesting sounding project. It looks like I will be interviewed as a talking head and also on my experiences. She found my blog through a friend who found my blog. Wow the world is such an interesting place.

Get Off Your Butt and Get Back to the Hebrew!

So I fell off the wagon a bit. I have spent the last few weeks not getting my Hebrew more fluent. For a while I accepted where I was and just simply passed through and spoke Hebrew with the people I normally speak with and English with the few people that I am so used to speaking English with. Yet, now I can't just sit back and be satisfied with my current level. I need to get back into action. So the (כפפות) gloves are coming off and it is time to get back to it. I have waisted to much time in the last few weeks being lazy. I am getting back to study of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic like never before. I have got to get organized and take charge of the time.

So with that the Chronicles of Ehav Ever will continue, and the Vlog's are coming back with a vegence in just a few weeks.

Taking a Break

2009-02-06T07:32:00.003+02:00

So I am going to take a break from blogging and Vlogging for a few weeks. Here in Israel we have national elections next week, and as I said once before on my blog voting here can be a life or death situation.......LITERALLY! Vote in the wrong government and wars, corruptions, and forced expulsions are the result.

I am also working on a few videos for various things I am a part of. I am working on a group of training videos for Video, the Israeli martial art I train in. 3 of the videos will not be public, but I will make one for all of you to see. For those of you who are non-Hebrew speakers, sorry but they will be in Hebrew. Also, I am going to work on a number of videos about REAL Zionism. Unfortunately, REAL Zionism has been hijacked by various Jewish and even non-Jewish talking heads and it is time for REAL Zionism to be promoted. More on that soon. So until I make my triumphant return I will leave you all to your own devices. Yet, don't cry these videos one of my favorite movies, Top Secret, so hold you over until I get back.

Top Secret - The French Resisitance in Germany Roll Call

Top Secret - Souvenir

Top Secret - Granada!

Top Secret - Nice Shooting Chocolate Moose

Ichud Leumi - האיחוד הלאומי

2009-02-03T22:53:00.004+02:00

Greetings all. Sorry that I have been out of sight for a while. The election season is jumping off here in Israel. For a while I did not know how I was going to vote. Initially, I felt that there was no party that really addressed the issues that I believe in. That was until I became involved in the Zionist Freedom Alliance and also Ichud Leumi. This video is one I put together from a speech of Professor Aryeh Eldad, son of former Lechi freedom fighter Israel Eldad, here in Maale Adummim.

For Now

2009-01-28T05:41:00.005+02:00

As you may have heard, the war with Hamas is over, FOR NOW. There is a bit of a calm that is coming over people, FOR NOW. Politics is beginning to start up with elections here in Israel in about 2 weeks, FOR NOW. It seems that so many have quickly moved on from the war to the current state of the world economies and such. There was talk of a truce with Hamas, FOR NOW.

It is interesting how things here in the Middle East rest on FOR NOW. I have talked to many people who realize that this current "cease fire" is FOR NOW. Hamas is restocking their weapons cash, playing more and more of the victim, and the world has its sorrows. Here in Israel, there is more and more talk that the war, which should have been waged earlier and a lot longer, may have been used as a political tool of the current Olmert government to try to win the upcoming elections. As well as a tool to try and put western backed Mahmud Abbas of Fatach in a more favorable light. FOR NOW, FOR NOW, and FOR NOW.

FOR NOW, there are still attacks from Hamas, which are considered minor somewhat. IDF Soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Gaza terrorists on 25 June 2006, has not been found or free from Hamas.

So much for the plans, truces, and failures of mice and men; FOR NOW.

Hamas Attacks IDF Soldiers, 1 Dead

(IsraelNN.com) Less than a week after the IDF left Gaza, Hamas terrorists returned to “business as usual” with an attack on Israeli soldiers at the Kissufim crossing Tuesday morning in a new violation of the ceasefire that killed one soldier and wounded three others. The fallen soldier was a non-commissioned officer and was identified as a Bedouin, whose name his family declined to publish.

One officer was seriously wounded and two other soldiers were lightly wounded.in the attack The officer was airlifted by helicopter to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, where he was rushed into emergency surgery. The other two soldiers were evacuated to Soroka by ambulance.

Terrorists detonated the explosive device around 8:00 a.m. after they had planted along the security fence as an IDF soldiers' vehicle patrolled near the Kissufim crossing. The terrorists also fired a number of rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at Israel.

The IDF responded with machine gun and tank fire and shut down the crossing points

According to the Hebrew-language Yediot Acharonot, IDF ground forces returned to Gaza in response to the violation of the ceasefire. Hamas was warned repeatedly by Egypt and Israel not to test Israel's resolve. The government has threatened an immediate and harsh retaliation to any ceasfire violation.

Gunfire was clearly heard in central Gaza, according to local sources, and Israeli helicopters reportedly were seen firing bursts from machine guns. Gaza sources reported one dead, who they said was a farmer, in an exchange of gunfire between soldiers and terrorists. Two explosions were heard in Gaza City as well.

"We hit Hamas hard [in Operation Cast Lead], but that does not mean it will disappear," said Defense Minister Ehud Barak during a Tuesday morning visit to soldiers stationed near Gaza. "There will be attacks occasionally."

Hamas struck on the eve of the visit of new United States Middle East envoy Sen. George Mitchell.

According to the IDF, Hamas told its operatives following the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead to continue to target Israeli soldiers, despite having called for a ceasefire. IDF sources said Tuesday’s attack shows that Hamas does not intend to include activities against Israeli soldiers in its ceasefire agreement.

Hamas previously fired mortar shells on the western Negev on the first day of the truce.

Source: Arutz 7

Video Response: What is a Sellout?

2009-01-24T20:55:00.005+02:00

Okay, so this is one the last video responses I will be doing for a while. This one concerns a topic that is quite personal to me and it is the matter of being called a sellout. I remember as a kid being called all kinds of names because I didn't match up to what some people's expectations of being "black" was supposed to me. I also remember people being called sellouts for the most erronious type of issues. This of course was when I lived in America when race seemed to mean more than it does in my life here in the Middle East.

So this video is in response to the following VLOG from YouTube user smileyousee.

So here is my response.

Video Responses: Black Business

2009-01-21T06:14:00.003+02:00

Greetings all. For those of you who live in America, congradulations on your historic moment with the inaguration of Barak Obama.

So, I have been working hard on getting more videos down in the Chronicles, and I decided I wanted to do more video responses. There are a lot of interesting people and interesting point being made by people on YouTube, and I thought I would step into the fray.

So this time I viewed the following video by YouTube user lundyncanada.

Why Don't Black Businesses Survive?

So here are my video responses to the question.

Response #1

Response #2

So what do you think? Until the next video, which is on the way really soon, The Chronicles of Ehav will continue.

Episode 11: Understanding Me

2009-01-17T23:52:00.003+02:00

So I knew as soon as I started doing the videos about Israeli Reality I was going to start getting hate mail. So it has begun, first from someone who has a problem with the war between Israel and Gaza, the second from someone who is a Hebrew Israelite, and now I got my first death threat from someone in Greenland. I will have to do a video in the future about the death threat I recently received from a Muslim in Greenland, but for now this video is about the hate mail I got from the Hebrew Israelite person and the person who had a problem with Israel.

Episode 10: My Israeli Reality Part 4

2009-01-16T12:38:00.002+02:00

So this is part 4 of My Israeli Reality. This one deals with questions from various people I knew form my time at Prairie View A&M University. The question being how are Blacks/African Americans treated here in Israel as well as the Middle East. More than likely I will need to do another video to further explain it a bit more. This is more directed towards people who are not Jewish or Muslim.

I Forgot - I'm Back!

2009-01-14T15:49:00.002+02:00

Okay, so I completely forgot to put this post up when I bought my new computer and returned to the VLOG scene. It may be late but I am going to do it anyway because there is something so funny about talking and signing animals. So this is how I felt when I got the new computer working.

Note: After MIB 2 I almost thought about buying a Pug, but I couldn't find the talking variety.

Episode 9: My Israeli Reality Part 3

2009-01-13T05:51:00.004+02:00

Greetings all. I have a lot of videos that I filmed that I will be posting in the coming weeks. Some of them dealing topics related to the current war with Hamas and some of them not related.

This particular video is the continuation of My Israeli Reality, dealing in particular with those who are interested in traveling to Israel and concerned about things like safety and such. I have more footage about this so therey may be a second video on this subject.

Just in case you were wondering, I was stuck in traffic while I filmed this and some of the other upcoming videos. So for those who are interested in more specific questions about visiting this part of the Middle East let me know and I will try and answer it. Until then...............the Chronicles of Ehav Ever continues.

Israel, Darfur, and Other Realities

2009-01-12T06:14:00.006+02:00

People say all kind of stuff about us here in Israel, and Jews. There are those who claim we control the world's financial markets. (If this is true I haven't seen any financial benefit from it.) They say we are tring to hold back various ethnic groups. They say that we are the source of much of the world's problems. When I lived in the US this would affect me because being Jewish I knew these lies were similar to the lies I heard from racists about Africans and African Americans. I guess these are the kind of lies that make people sleep better a night. Maybe it is these kind of lies that make people justify a bad experience from a small number of individuals, becoming a systematic way of thinking from an entire group.

Now that I live in Israel, I don't care what lies people say about us Israelis/Jews. I stopped being an apologetic Jew for the Jews who do wrong. I stopped trying to make the world understand, because there are people just like myself around the world. Of course there are people who are not Jewish and have suffered more or just as much as we have. I hate how there are some many people who almost want to use suffereing as a compitition of who got it the worst. People can say all they want about us here in Israel, but since I actually live here I know the truth. I am not simply stating an opinion about things I hear about, or that a news agency told me. I am living the reality in the Middle East. There is a big difference. Here are some elements of those truths.

Israel That You Didn't Know

Darfur Children Start Over In Israeli Schools

The leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement

Interfaith Debate Between Jews and Muslims

Israelis Working to Help Darfur Refugees Stay in Israel

Darfur Rally in Jerusalem (2006)

The Chronicles of Ehav Ever will continue.

Episode 8: My Israeli Reality Part 2

2009-01-11T00:08:00.004+02:00

Greetings all. I am back. I have a new computer and the video Chronicles will continue. I want to thank everyone for their concern and prayers. It means a lot to me to have so many people who are concerned.

Episode 8 is me talking about some of the historical issues concerning Gaza, and the war that is now going on there. There will be another video after this one to pull the ideas together as well as give more historical background so stay tuned for Episode9 coming soon.

The following video gives an Israeli perspective on what lead to the current war.

Tagged by Tiffany Jones

2009-01-08T16:09:00.008+02:00

As some of you may know, I am often not into tagging. Yet, if the right friend and the right kind of tag comes along I am more than willing to do it. So this time I was tagged by Tiffany Jones of the Mulatto Diaries Blog. (She also has a Vlog here). So Tiff for you I am more than willing....here goes. I am long winded and each of my random facts are stories in themselves. (Bohemian Hippie Chick if you are reading, I know I still owe you a tag. I promise to get to it.) As all of you I am LOOOOOOOOOOOONG winded when it comes to the past, so sit back, relax, have a cup of tea or Turkish coffee. Here are some of the random Chronicles of Ehav Ever.

The Mission (aka the Rules)
1. LINK TO THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU
2. POST THE RULES ON YOUR BLOG
3. WRITE SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF
4. TAG SIX PEOPLE AT THE END OF YOUR POST AND LINK TO THEM
5. LET EACH PERSON KNOW THEY ARE TAGGED AND LEAVE A COMMENT ON THEIR BLOG
6. LET THE TAGGER KNOW WHEN YOUR ENTRY IS UP
7. DON’T BREAK THE CHAIN (not actually a rule)

6 Random Things About Ehav Ever

Fahrenheight 451 was one of the most moving books I ever read. I could totally relate to the main character's well laid out life that was changed by his first, hidden search for truth and how he initally lost everything in the process. I read the book several times and it really opened my eyes to good liturature dealing with human choices and having to choose between what is comfortable and what is right.

I pledged Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. in the Fall of 1996 at Prairie View A&M University, Dangerous Delta Theta Chapter. I was #5 of 11 of the line called The Legion of Doom. My original line name was Braniac (yes they spelled it wrong on my line shirt). They said it was because I seemed like a living computer since I seemed to know something about everything. I later changed my line name to PuPPeT MaStEr, after hearing the song Puppet Master by Dr. Dre and B-Real from Cypress Hill. I liked the moniker since I was always obsessed with control. Left Phi Beta Sigma when I became religious, due to having conflicts between Sigma meetings taking place on Saturday afternoons and wanting to keep the Shabbat (Sabbath) properly. I also knew that my dedication to Phi Beta Sigma was in direct conflict with my life as a religious Jew so one day I called up a younger fraternity brother, Amen (we all called him Amen), who was the closest I ever felt to having a little brother. I gave him all of my Sigma stuff, minus the stuff that had my line information. This included Sigma history books that were about 20 years old, Sigma magazines from the 1940's, 1960's, and 1970's, etc. that I had collected in my journeys in search of Sigma history. Unfortunately, he was randomly murdered in 2005 right after he had graduated from college. I carry his picture in my wallet as a reminder of his friendship. When I first contiplated being religious and leaving Sigma behind he was the only one who really understood why. The last time I saw him was on a cold Sabbath on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. We bumped into each other after not seeing each other for months. I was leaving a Shabbat (Sabbath) dinner and he was on his way home. We agreed to call each other in about a week. He was murdered that week.

I was once a part of a Kansas City, Missouri radio show called Generation Rap on KPRS The HOT 103. One of my mentors Dr. Carl Boyd, whom I have written about on this blog, hosted the show and was a good friend of my mother. When I was in high school I became involved in his youth group Generation Rap, and over time I and my friend Asayn Wyatt became regulars on the show (1992 to about 1994). I also did a birthday rap song for the radio station that they used when they called people by request for their birthdays. I think they were using the song on air in 1994. I did the music and I wrote the song. I still remember some of the song. The hook was, It's your birthday. Yeah! It's yourbirthday. Tight! And everything's going to be alright! I even remember some of the CHEESY lyrics. Woke up one morning, yawning, early dawn in Kansas City the place with no pity. Yet, today's a new day it's my birthday, and kind of like Burger King I want it my way. (Cheesy!)

When I was a kid, probably 3 or 4, I trained in Karate for a while and quit. I quite Karate because I was a wimp at the time and the training seemed to hard. When I living in the Bay Area, California (1999 to 2000) I trained in Capoeira for 1 year. I left because I didn't feel like I was advancing and the people I trained with were very secreative about teaching me the songs. When I lived in NYC I trained in Krav Maga for a short time. I couldn't get into Krav Maga because I needed something that spoke more to my need for both physical and spiritual balence. I now train only in Abir, and have been doing so for about 1.5 years and I get both. I now train kids/teenagers in Maale Adummim for free. I have 2 serious students and others who pass through every once and while.

I once had dreams of being involved in the music industry. I was once in a short lived KCMO rap group when I was in High School. When I say short lived, I mean SHORT LIVED. We were being used as a promotion by this supposed music label in KCMO. They were extremely shady with others, but nice to us. I left the group when I my mother got made when I refused to be involved in religious activities and was working in a rap group. I also performed once, while in college, in front of some execs from Rap-A-Lot Records in Houston. I also performed once at a talent show put on by Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. In both situations I saw how shady the music industry is, especially the rap industry, and one day when I needed money I sold my keyboard and that was it. For a number of years I had a tape with all of the songs that I worked on, I mostly did the music while in college. I made the mistake of giving the tape to someone who said they were interested in my stuff and I never got it back. I did have some songs copy written though in the 1990's. One of the songs I wrote and produced was like my signature song that was known with my friends. It was about my failed relationship with Annette Wallace and the song was called called Say What's On Your Mind. It was basically about how if she would have said how she felt from the start I wouldn't have wasted her time and my time dating her. Everyone who heard that song loved it because I sampled part of a Mary J. Bladge song, I think My Life, and an Isaac Hayes song, Walk On By. I was told that I had a way of expressing emotions in words. I also had another song that me and my friends would make up silly raps to. Part of it was a sample of I Wanna Rock With You by Michael Jacken. The song was called Glide and Swerve. I had a friend named Sean Slade who, when his part of the song came up he had just came back from class and he bust into the dorm room and started rapping. It was so funny. I recently met up with someone on my college's Alumni web-site who remembered that song.

I was once into Shintoism as a kid. When I was 10 my family went to Okinawa, Japan to visit my now former stepfather who was in the Marines. While in Japan I became enamored by Japanese culture and I picked up Shintoism. Shinto (神道, Shintō?) is the native religion of Japan and was once its state religion. It is a polytheistic and animistic faith, and involves the worship of kami (神, kami?), or spirits. Some kami are local and can be regarded as the spiritual being/spirit or genius of a particular place, but others represent major natural objects and processes; for example, Amaterasu (the Sun goddess), or Mount Fuji. I left my interest in Shintoism behind when I became more interested in studying Islamic philosophical thought. I left all of that, and other stuff I had picked up along the way, behind when I returned to Judaism.

Bonus - I just had to include this story. Once when I was in college (Prairie View A&M University) there was a concert where the female singing group Jade and some other groups performed. Me and my friend Quin did not have money to go see the concert, but we decided to go behind the building where they performed and wait to see if we could meet them. We kept imagining what would happen if Jade came out and how we would play it cool, and what would happen if the singers from Jade started talking to us. We waited and waiting for a long time behind the building. We weren't alone since there were other guys who had the same idea. Right before Jade came out I kept saying I was going to keep my cool and act like I didn't know who they were. As soon as they came out me, Quinn, and the other guys jumped up in a hurry and ran towards them like a bunch of groupies.

One of the singers, the one on the right of the above photo, walked my way shook my hand and asked me, "How did you like the concert?" I was speachless......partially because she talked to me but mostly because we did not even see the concert. I responded, "The concert was great. You make me weak at the knees. Oh wait a minute! Wrong singing group." She had this surprissed look on her face and then she walked away laughing. Weak at the Knees was a song by another R&B group SWV as well as a classic song by Steve Arrington.

Thanks Tiffany for tagging me. I really feel good about sharing these things. These are things I haven't thought about in a long time. I haven't decided who I am going to tag yet, but I will decide maybe tonight or tomorrow. Until then....... the Chronicles of Ehav Ever will continue.

Four Katyushas Rockets Hit Northern Israel

2009-01-08T09:04:00.003+02:00

Four Katyushas Hit North, IDF Retaliates
Source: Arutz 7
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

(IsraelNN.com) At least four Katyusha rockets hit northwestern Israel, in the area of the coastal city of Nahariya, around 7:35 a.m. Thursday morning. One of the missiles hit the roof of an old age facility in Nahariya.

The IDF has been on alert for rocket fire from Hizbullah and is investigating areas of impact. Schools in Nahariyah were ordered closed, and Lebanon also closed schools in Beirut out of fear of IDF retaliation.

Two elderly people from the old-age facility are being treated in Nahariya Hospital for light shrapnel wounds in the legs, and four others are being treated for shock.
The Home Front Command has ordered residents to enter shelters.

Hizbullah's Al Manar television station reported that Israel retaliated with five mortar shells, and the IDF confirmed that artillery fire was aimed at the source of the rocket firings.

Hizbullah has smuggled in from Syria three times more rockets than it possessed before the Second Lebanon War two years ago. It has not taken responsibility for the rocket attacks, which may have been initiated by another terrorist group with the approval of Hizbullah. Israeli media reported that the rockets were older models and probably were fired bya small terrorist group.
In the south, sirens warning of incoming Gaza terrorist rockets were activated at around 8:00 a.m. in Ashdod. No one was wounded and there were no reports of property damage.