Haveil Havailm #166: The MommyBlogger Edition

Welcome to Haveil Havalim #166, the MommyBlogger Edition.

Thanks to FrumeSarah (I'm sure it's her fault) and Jack (for jumping on my innocent little comment!), I agreed to play hostess to the Haveil Havalim Jewish Blog Carnival.

Read more about it:
Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs -- a weekly collection of Jewish & 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. The term 'Haveil Havalim,' which means "Vanity of Vanities," is from Qoheleth, (Ecclesiastes) which was written by King Solomon. King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other 'excesses' and realized that it was nothing but 'hevel,' or in English, 'vanity.'

I must admit that it was fun putting it all together, albeit a little nerve-wracking to get it all done around Shabbat and the the last day of Religious School today!

Please please please publicize HH on your own blog and share the news about it!

So without further ado, here goes...

Jewish Life & Times...aka Sammy's Picks


ProfK asks some serious questions about the role of parents vs schools. Are Jewish charter schools the answer? Daled Amos explores this idea.

Jewish Sandwich wrote Losing our Religion, reminding us to be respectful of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi customs.

Strong Jewish Women presents Mirror, Mirror, on the Tabernacle......, an interesting take on the gifts of the Israelite women.

Schvach shares a potentially-davenning Jewish pigeon.

Velveteen Rabbi offers a poetic rendering of Parashat Behar. So do I, with my weekly parasha haiku. The Rebbetzin's Husband gives an excellent drash about heroes, shmitah, and the Nazir.

Did you know that observing one-day Yom Tov can actually be more stringent than two-days? Read BZ's post for much more.

Can we be unaffected by traumatic events? A Simple Jew poses the question.

Life-of-Rubin compares Crown Heights to Israel, for the good and for the bad.

In and On Israel...aka Yael's Picks


We turn our prayers to those injured in the attack on Ashkelon this week and ask...what now? George Bush was in Israel this week, and he had this to say, as analyzed by Yid with Lid.

60Bloggers has played host to some great posts this week. Jameel give us Israel's Youngest Fallen Soldier, Rabbi Daniel Brenner (fellow Badger!) gave us Eretz Yisrael, Gila Weiss chipped in with ?האם תרצו, Leah Jones gave us Postcards to Israel, Leah Koenig was Eating My Way Through Israel. If you haven't been reading 60bloggers, go check it out from start to finish. It's such an interesting conglomeration of various Jewish writers and bloggers from all parts of the Jewish world.

Jameel breaks the gag-order on the Olmert scandal here and gives an examination of The Laundry Man that adds another layer to the news. Batya looks at the NY Post on the same subject.

Batya shared a bit of politics along with the winner of the World Bible Contest as well as thoughts about a Muslim's words.

Think the Israel conversion issue doesn't affect you? Read this from On the Fringe's Shira Salamone. A Rebbetzin's Husband offers an English transcript of the court rulings.

Dr Savta wrote birthday wishes for Israel (so young!).

Ilana-Davita gave us a description of Yom Ha'atzmaut in France....

Me-ander shows us the newest Israel coin - the shnekel!

A fighting spirit is what it takes, says British Yosef.

Eric dissects an article on Israel from the LA Times. He is awaiting their response.

Post-Yom Haatzmaut Thoughts from Dan at Tzipyah remind us criticism is just as much a part of our celebration as the celebration itself.

Soccer Dad investigates the propagandizing of the term Nakba. Yid with Lid discusses the myth of the term Palestinian, and he attended the UN Nakba Rally and shared his thoughts.

For Toby at A Time of the Signs, strangely translated packaging abounds!

Robin invites us to know hope.

Treppenwitz, whose son Yonah had his tonsils out this week, live-blogged and got a chuckle out of the experience. Glad he's home and doing well!

FrumeSarah brings a musical twinge to her musings on Israel.

Israel is getting on the anti-plastic-bag bandwagon, says the Green Prophet.

Yisrael wonders whose hat is burning now, which mikveh he's really in, and what George Bush is doing with that pushke.

JC@Simply Jews tries to explain some Israeli logic. Is it logical? You decide!

Work-related thoughts from Israel definitely offer a giggle from Benji Lovitt. I'm hooked!

More Interesting Posts...Jewish Culture and the Like...aka David's Picks


Jewish bloggers are lurking everywhere, Schvach thinks. Are we?

Robert Avrech examines the story of a Jewish kid who made it big in Hollywood...not the one you're thinking of, I'm sure.

Miriam takes a personal approach to defending human rights.

Did you know that we have our own Wikipedia entry? I didn't!

The growth and change of our life dreams was the topic for Tuesday Torah by FrumeSarah.

Marci participated in a Rabbis for Human Rights gathering and posted about it.

Jena@BullseyeBaby (subject of this wonderful interview here, btw) writes about the power of seeing the sun.

In case you missed it, The Jew and the Carrot shared this story about Masbia, a soup kitchen serving steaks.

Leora does some beautiful artwork and she shared it with her daughter's kindergarten class.

What can we trust in our children to learn? A Mother in Israel explores this question.

A bonus if you read this far: One lucky commenter on this week's Haveil Havalim post will win a signed CD by The Josh Nelson Project, the new release Lift. His music is really wonderful. Make sure you leave me an email address to get in touch with you. In honor of my hostess-ing, I'll even ship it to Israel or wherever you're from! (Comments will close on Wednesday at 10am Central Time and winner notified shortly afterwards)

From Josh's song L'dor VaDor...
We are words and we are stories, we are pictures of the past
We are carriers of wisdom, not the first and not the last...

May we all be carriers of wisdom...

Please send your posts for the next edition of the Haveil Havalim Blog Carnival via the Blog Carnival Submission Form. If you're interested in hosting or receiving more information about the carnival, please contact Jack at talktojacknow-at-sbcglobal-dot-net

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...