Haveil Havalim - The Makeup Edition

Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs -- a weekly collection of Jewish and Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It's hosted by different bloggers each week and coordinated by Jack. Opinions expressed in the posts below are not necessarily endorsed by me.

After several weeks of the Blog Carnival submission system not working, on July 21 the internet blurped and I suddenly had over 60 messages in my inbox, including a couple of acknowlegements of submissions I had made in weeks in which others were scheduled to host.

Although I'm not officially scheduled to host this week, as far as I can tell nobody else is either, so I'm posting a makeup edition. I'm sticking to no more than three posts from a single person, and am taking them from the top of my email list, hoping those are the most recent submissions. I left out those that were written a month or more ago.

If you have been thinking about hosting, please sign up now. We need more hosts, it really isn't difficult at all, and it will be much appreciated. See how to sign up at the bottom of this post.



Judaism:
I ask, Do You Feel Bound by God's Commandments? posted at TC Jewfolk.

Want your fabulous new rabbi - or even your not-so-new rabbi - to stick around? Mordechai Torczyner has some excellent advice in Proper care and feeding of the Rabbi posted at The Rebbetzin's Husband.

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat presents a poem and a meditation on prayer in Poem: morning prayer posted at Velveteen Rabbi.

Lizard responds to a couple of posts about whether or not a synagogue should ask on its application whether a potential member is a convert in Is Daring Within Us? « for Your honor posted at for Your honor.

Rutimizrachi writes a thoughtful piece about how our words and actions can hurt others in "See me, feel me, touch me, heal me!" posted at Ki Yachol Nuchal!.

I ponder the question, Why Become Jewish? posted at To Kiss A Mezuzah.

How do we increase our spirituality? Mordechai Torczyner plans to look deeper into the question in A need for Jewish Spirituality posted at The Rebbetzin's Husband.

Cutting oneself is not the way to convince your parents to let you wear skirts, according to Josh Waxman in Cutting oneself for tznius posted at parshablog. I can't say I argue with him on that, although I find it hard to believe that a rabbi really approved of the idea.

What's your state of mind? Read about two possible options as Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver presents Reaching a higher level of consciousness posted at A Chassidishe farbrengen.

Batya writes about the current period in the Jewish calendar in Three Weeks of Mourning, Judaism and Details posted at Shiloh Musings.

Being an agunah has to be a hard thing to take, but Harry tells of a story when it leads to violence in Agunot in the NYPost posted at ISRAELITY.

Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver writes about Jews and our sins in A Jew? Sin?! Unthinkable! posted at A Chassidishe farbrengen.



Israel:
Get access to a wide variety of Israel-related posts in Joel Katz's Religion and State in Israel - July 18, 2011 (Section 1) and Religion and State in Israel - July 18, 2011 (Section 2) posted at Religion and State in Israel.

Hadassah Levy offers some thoughts on a young woman with a lot of chutzpah in Getting Birthright Wrong posted at Jewish Ideas Daily.

I make my first foray into fisking in Fisking "Another Flotilla Standoff: The Audacity of Hate" posted at To Kiss A Mezuzah.

Rivkah Lambert Adler finds it difficult to speak with Americans who are reluctant to make aliyah in Rendered Speechless posted at Bat Aliyah.

As writers, we may be particularly interested in Rutimizrachi's post about judging books without reading them in Eine Kleine Book Burning posted at Ki Yachol Nuchal!.

Harry writes about biblical animals in Foto Friday – In search of the yakhmur posted at Israelity.

Harry presents The new U.S. ambassador posted at ISRAELITY.

Julie prepares to review playgounds in Israel in Back to the playground posted at Walkable Jerusalem.

Julie reviews her first playground in The Hildesheimer Park -- Jerusalem Playground Review, pt. 1 posted at Walkable Jerusalem.



Leiby Kletzky's Murder:
This one needed its own category, IMHO. It doesn't really fit into the other categories.

The story hit way to close to home for Mystery Woman, as she explains in Why? posted at Mystery Woman.

Allison Josephs writes about the murder in A (Real Life) Stranger Among Us: The Murder of Leiby Kletzky | Jew In The City posted at Jew in the City.

The United States seems like a dangerous place to Batya in Reflecting on America posted at Shiloh Musings.

Rutimizrachi presents "May the death of this boy mark the end of all anguish..." posted at Ki Yachol Nuchal!.



Antisemitism:
Independent Patriot/Elise presents UNESCO Declares the Rambam is not a Jew and Jewish History Invalid posted at Liberty's Spirit.



Culture:
Mordechai Torczyner wants to know how we can stop ourselves from feeling numb in Spirituality and the Numbest Generation posted at The Rebbetzin's Husband.

Hadassah Levy presents David Mamet's Homecoming posted at Jewish Ideas Daily.



Personal:
Batya tells us about her experience with airport food in Eating Kosher on The Go, JFK Airport posted at me-ander.



How you can participate:
You may submit your blog post for the next edition of Haveil Havalim by using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. You can volunteer to host from that page as well. Go ahead, you know it will be a great experience!