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| Thursday, Jul. 24 '08, 21 Tammuz 5768Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report |
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http://www.web-view.net/Show/0X71BE0575485DB85781ABF8EFF18DF30AAD13308EF5F2205ACA7CC5A36F3EAB7A.htm
Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
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Thursday, Jul. 24 '08, 21 Tammuz 5768
HEADLINES:
1. JEWISH GROUPS CHALLENGE OBAMA: SHOW SUPPORT FOR UNITED JERUSALEM
2. OBAMA WINDS UP VISIT WITH PSALM 122 AT WESTERN WALL
3. PARENTS MOVE TO ISRAEL, SON CAUGHT IN TERROR ATTACK SAME DAY
4. SECURITY TIGHTENED AT CONSTRUCTION SITES IN JERUSALEM
5. NEW GROUP AIMS TO UNIFY NATIONAL RELIGIOUS CAMP
6. COUNTERPOINT ISRAEL BEGINS IN DIMONA AND YERUCHAM
7. THREE YEARS OF HARDSHIP FOR GUSH KATIF EXPELLEES
8. US GOV'T FINDS 'RELIGIOUS BIAS' IN ACCUSATIONS AGAINST JEW
9. HANDICAPPED: 'WE'RE SHUTTING DOWN THE STATE!'
10. HARRARI HARPS RECREATES BIBLICAL INSTRUMENTS
1. JEWISH GROUPS CHALLENGE OBAMA: SHOW SUPPORT FOR UNITED JERUSALEM
by Hana Levi Julian
The Coalition for a United Jerusalem held a news conference in the capital Tuesday night to demand that US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama express unequivocal support for the unification of Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty.
The Coalition, which represents a group of Jewish organizations including the American Israeli Action Coalition, the Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel, Emunah Women, the Rabbinical Council of America in Israel, the Worldwide Young Israel Movement and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), called on Obama to reaffirm his positive views for the future of Jerusalem.
[video:123333]
Can't see the video player? Click here.
Last Month: Supports Jerusalem, then Backtracks
The presumptive Democratic nominee declared at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. last month that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of the State of Israel. Within 24 hours of that speech, however, Obama found himself swiftly backpedaling in the face of Arab fury over his remarks. He clarified his stand by saying it was up to Israel and the PA to determine to status of the capital.
Last week, he went even further, saying that what he meant by "undivided" was that barbed wire fences should not divide the city as they did during the Jordanian occupation of eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria between 1949 and 1967.
"We hope that the Democratic Senator's stay in Israel will provide him with opportunities for learning as he comes to appreciate the full import of the Jewish struggle to secure our rights and ensure our national safety in a region constantly awash in violence," commented Jeff Daube, director of the ZOA's Israel office.
Nearly 100,000 American voters reside in Israel, and Rabbi Aaron Tirschwell, director of Israel Operations at the Worldwide Young Israel Movement, said that "many here as well as their families and friends in America view the issue of a unified Jerusalem as a litmus test for a candidate's pro-Israel bona fides."
In its statement to the media, the Coalition also called on Obama to:
* Disavow subsequent retractions which qualified his original calls for an undivided Jerusalem to mean only that it would not be separated by barbed wire as in 1948-67;
* Declare that security and access to all holy places can be guaranteed only by Israeli sovereignty, as demonstrated during the past 41 years;
* Acknowledge that Israeli withdrawals from Southern Lebanon and Gaza in the past have led to destabilization and increased violence and terror, and that these withdrawals presage a similar deterioration likely to occur in eastern Jerusalem if Israel were to withdraw and turn the area over to Fatah, which would likely be usurped by Hamas;
* Take immediate steps to introduce balance and a pro-Israel perspective by appointing a number of foreign policy advisors more likely to consider an undivided Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty.
Obama Visits Sderot: 'A Friend of Israel'
Visiting the rocket-battered western Negev city of Sderot with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak Wednesday afternoon, Obama said that "Israel should not talk to Hamas as long as it poses a threat to its citizens."
He added, "If someone was to fire at my house, where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything within my power to stop him and I expect Israel to do the same." Sen. Obama also declared that peace "will not be achieved by endangering Israel's security… I was among the first to declare that Israel has every right to defend itself. No country in the world would agree to a situation in which missiles continuously land in its territory."
The Democratic Senator spoke to reporters at the city police station, next to neatly-stacked piles of empty Kassam rocket casings, adding that he would not pressure Israel into any peace deal that would compromise her security.
Obama assured both Israelis and American Jews that "as an American and as a friend of Israel that [we] stand with the people of Sderot and all of the people of Israel."
2. OBAMA WINDS UP VISIT WITH PSALM 122 AT WESTERN WALL
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama wound up his two-day visit to Israel Thursday morning with a pre-dawn visit to the Western Wall (Kotel), where he and his wife quietly read Psalm 122.
The Psalm is a prayer for peace for the city, where the Temple Mount site behind the Western Wall is the holiest place for Jews around the world. Sen. Obama did not speak with reporters about his recent retraction of a statement that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel.
After having made the pronouncement at an American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) meeting, furious Arab criticism forced him to explain that he actually meant that Jerusalem should not be divided by barbed wire, as it was during the Jordanian occupation of eastern Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967.
He and his wife spent about 10 minutes at the Kotel, where he wore a white skullcap (kippa) and was escorted by the Western Wall's Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich.
He silently read the Psalm, which states:
"A Song of Ascents of David. I rejoiced when they said unto me: 'Let us go unto the house of HaShem. Our feet are standing within thy gates, O Jerusalem; Jerusalem, that is built as a city that is compact together; Whither the tribes went up, even the tribes of HaShem, as a testimony unto Israel, to give thanks unto the name of HaShem.
"For there were set thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; may they prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
"For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say: 'Peace be within thee.'"
After completing the Psalm, he observed the widespread tradition of putting a small note between the rocks of the Western Wall but did not reveal what he wrote.
As he left, many people tried to shake his hand, and one voice cried out, "Jerusalem is not for sale."
3. PARENTS MOVE TO ISRAEL, SON CAUGHT IN TERROR ATTACK SAME DAY
by Ze'ev Ben Yechiel
The last thing the Rapps expected on Tuesday, their first day of Aliyah (immigration to Israel), was a terrorist attack. Harold and Aviva Rapp had finally gone to sleep Tuesday afternoon, the fresh Nefesh B’Nefesh olim (new immigrants) resting after their exhausting 11-hour flight to Israel.
[video:123339]
An hour into their much-needed slumber their phone rang. The Rapps' son Gershy, who lives in Israel but whom they hadn’t seen yet, called with chilling news. With her husband sound asleep, Aviva herself struggled to stay awake as she listened to her son: "I've been injured in a terrorist attack." She later learned that he was hurt only lightly.
[audio:123338] Can't hear the audio? Click here
In an exclusive interview with Israel National Radio’s Yishai Fleisher, Aviva shared her enthusiasm and indomitable spirit, unabated by Tuesday’s events, and told listeners that she was happier than ever to be living with the Jewish people in their land.
Aviva’s son Gershy was on the number 13 bus, on his way to his parents’ Jerusalem apartment, when an Arab construction worker rammed his tractor into the Egged bus.
“First, I felt a bump, like a large crash,” recounted Gershy. "I thought it was an accident, that the driver lost control of his tractor. But then the tractor pulled away, drove off for some time, came back, and swung his shovel into the side of the bus, right where I was sitting.”
The tractor terrorist, the second in less than three weeks, was trying to turn the bus over, like the previous attacker did. This attacker was also a Jerusalem Municipality construction worker, as had been the first, and this one also had a criminal record, as had the first.
As Gershy saw the tractor’s shovel veering toward the place he was sitting, he jumped into the aisle, hurting his knee. The renegade Arab worker maneuvered the shovel into the bus once more, but that was to be his final act: Civilians and military personnel gunned down the terrorist before he could kill anyone.
Aviva Rapp didn’t remember hearing the details of the story: “He really woke me out of a deep sleep, and he told me that he was in a pigua (terrorist attack) and that he was OK.” That was all she could understand in the fog of her exhaustion. “I couldn’t comprehend the rest, because of my tiredness.” Aviva fell back asleep, too exhausted to continue worrying.
The Rapps are no strangers to terrorist attacks: Their daughter-in-law Sarit witnessed the Café Hillel bombing, as one of the last people to leave the restaurant before the deadly explosion occurred. Sarit had several friends injured in the attack. While the intifada raged and anxious parents overseas scrambled to rush their children out of Israel, Aviva and Harold, also known as Noam, encouraged their children to stay.
Asked if the latest attack, occurring hours after their aliyah flight and injuring their son, has discouraged them, Aviva replied with a resounding no: “We were among those parents that did not bring our sons home when they were here during the Second Intifada. We always felt a commitment that we hoped our children would make aliyah, and through them, perhaps that would get us there, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Reuniting the family was a longtime dream of the Rapps, and their first day as new olim marked the realization of that dream. “Aside from the bad things happening, for me it was just a blessing that we were here to support Gershy, and this was part of my dream that our family should be together, for good times and bad times.”
The aliyah of Noam and Aviva Rapp marked the completion of a larger project, one that involved two families. “My husband's brother made aliyah around 25 years ago, and they have five boys, my children’s cousins, who’ve grown up here, and grew up not knowing each other… It was my dream to unite the two families; together we have a minyan [prayer quorum of 10 men]."
“That’s a product of - and this is what gets me very emotional -” she said as her voice faltered in mid-sentence, “that their father, Yaakov, was a sole survivor in the Holocaust, and he never made it to Israel. But one son made aliyah, and by producing this - by one son making aliyah and us joining him - we’ve got a minyan, and that was a big deal to me.”
Commenting on the Rapp’s “miraculous” day—their aliyah, followed by their son surviving a terrorist attack—Fleisher asked Aviva why they had not reunited in another country, such as her native Canada. She answered that after coming back to Toronto from a “Ten Spies”-style reconnaissance of Israel in preparation for Aliyah, “all I could think of was 'white bread'. Toronto is… there is just no substance there, and there is no kedusha [holiness] there.... Toronto, New York, any place outside of Israel doesn’t have the kedusha that’s here. ”
“It’s just a different feeling”, Aviva continued. “People [who] move here, [who] love it here, it doesn’t matter how hard they struggle, and how hard things get, they would never leave.
“There is just something that makes you feel that you belong here.”
4. SECURITY TIGHTENED AT CONSTRUCTION SITES IN JERUSALEM
by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
Security has been heightened at construction sites around Jerusalem, following two back-to-back terrorist attacks by Arab construction workers using bulldozers and tractors to kill Jewish civilians. In an attempt to reduce the risk of Arab workers becoming terrorists while on the job, Jerusalem police have introduced a series of new measures.
Tuesday’s attack, which left 24 injured, was a repeat of the deadly July 2 rampage that killed three people. Police and the General Security Services worry that the two attacks will inspire similar attacks among the thousands of Arab construction workers around the city.
Among the new measures that Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco announced are random spot checks of Arab workers from eastern Jerusalem, as well as a general review of their criminal records. The terrorist in Tuesday's attack had a criminal record and was a relative of a Hamas legislator who has been jailed by Israeli authorities.
Heightened police presence was evident throughout construction sites in the city the day after the attack, and the measures were already implemented on a smaller scale following the attack three weeks ago, according to public security officials.
Both terrorists were employees of the Jerusalem Municipality, and Husam Taysir Dwayat, the first bulldozer murderer, also had a criminal record, including a two-year sentence for the rape of a Jewish woman. After several years working for the Municipality, Dwayat got into his work vehicle and murdered three Jews, crushing men, women and children. Ghassan Abu Tir, Tuesday’s terrorist, was previously convicted of drug and theft offenses.
The Jerusalem Municipality was unaware of the two terrorists’ criminal records, but even if the city had access to the records it would not have been enough to prevent them from getting hired.
Israeli law generally forbids employers from checking prospective employees’ criminal records, unlike the United States and other countries, which allow the checks. However, the police have the authority to run background checks, and Wednesday officers from the Jerusalem police district were present at construction sites to question local Arab workers and check their IDs.
So far there has been no move from the Jerusalem Municipality or the Knesset to allow employers to conduct background checks on Arab workers.
5. NEW GROUP AIMS TO UNIFY NATIONAL RELIGIOUS CAMP
by Gil Ronen
A new organization named Kulanu ("all of us"), which aims to unite the national-religious factions into one party, held its first conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Kulanu intends to establish a committee that will create a system through which members of the new party will be chosen.
[video:123332]
Rabbi Elyakim Levanon of Elon Moreh said at the conference: "This council needs to be not just an entity that elects Knesset Members or creates the infrastructure for election of the party's candidates. It must accompany the Knesset Members with consultation, advice and guidance."
The unification initiative calls on members of the splintered national-religious camp to learn to work side by side with other people who share their ideals but disagree on methods, priorities, nuances and style.
"Everyone lifts his flag and says - only this way!" Levanon explained the problem emotionally. "If the other deviate by a millimeter to the left or to the right they are not willing to listen. The others become the enemies of the vision."
6. COUNTERPOINT ISRAEL BEGINS IN DIMONA AND YERUCHAM
by Hillel Fendel
Counterpoint Israel 2008 has begun - an educational summer-camp program both for Israeli development town teenagers and US college students.
Taking place in two southern-Israel development towns, Yerucham and Dimona, the camps began on Wednesday of this week. They are run by 22 college students who decided they want something more than the usual "summer in Israel," for some 110 Israeli teenagers who might otherwise while away the summer with little to do.
The "Counterpoint Program," designed by Yeshiva University's Center for the Jewish Future (CJF), says the camps are designed to "empower and build the next generation of Israeli youth by providing them with important life skills." Though they are run by religious college students, half of whom are from Yeshiva University in New York, no religious programming is in the schedule. Rather, the goal is to run "creative programming promoting positive self-image and self-esteem... based on Jewish values and identity."
The activities include music, fashion, language, arts, dance, sports and even driving safety classes. Known to the local residents as English-language camps, after the language of instruction, they have had waiting lists for several months.
Learning Goes Both Ways
The college students are likely to be profit even more than the Israelis during the program. During their several days of orientation last week before the camp began, they toured the Old City of Jerusalem, visited the Retorno facility for youth at risk, took part in English-teaching workships, spent time at the Holon Blind Museum where they were "treated" to the experience of being blind for nearly an hour, and had two days of preparations featuring learning sessions and workshops.
Improvement of English writing and speaking skills is an important feature of the programs, at the specific request of the local municipalities that wished improve the teens’ chances of high school graduation and college acceptance.
Shuki Taylor, Counterpoint Director, speaking with Arutz-7 on only the second day of the camps, said, "The first thing that impresses me this year is the tremendous response and interest shown in the program by both the participants and their families. We did not greatly publicize our work until now - this is the third year of the camp in Yerucham, and now we have begun in Dimona as well - but apparently the word got around."
In addition, he said, the discovery and cultivation of individual talents is emphasized. The various workshops close with a high-profile event attended by the public, where the teens perform and/or exhibit their work and are awarded trophies and prizes.
Shuki explained that a typical camp day is divided into three parts: "The first part is classes, given in English, on self-image, social relationships, how to choose friends, priorities, and the like. So far, we have seen that the participants have so much to ask and say that there is simply not enough time. The second part are chugim, activities such as music, fashion, and the like. In the late afternoon, we have recreation, such as trips, games and the like, in which we try to conbine values and fun."
The Yerucham Camp is funded by the Larry and Leonore Zusman Family, while the Dimona Camp's benefactors are the Charles and Lynne Schusterman Family Foundation.
7. THREE YEARS OF HARDSHIP FOR GUSH KATIF EXPELLEES
by Hillel Fendel
The Knesset Audit Committee is likely to support a public inquiry committee that will investigate the government's treatment of the Gush Katif expellees. Twenty housing units have been approved for former residents of the now-destroyed Gush Katif town of Shirat HaYam in Maskiyot in the Jordan Valley.
81% of Expelled Families Still Far From Permanent Homes
Three years after the Disengagement, the Knesset Audit Committee is on the way to initiating a public inquiry committee that will investigate the government's treatment of the Gush Katif expellees. The proposal follows this week's release of a report showing that 81% of expellees are still in temporary housing, among other grave findings.
A special gathering was held at the Knesset on Wednesday to mark the approaching third anniversary of the Disengagement. The results of the survey - conducted by the Brain Base Institute, headed by Prof. Yitzchak Katz, for the Gush Katif Residents Committee - were presented for the occasion.
The survey shows that of the 81% still on wheels, nearly half of them believe that it will take at least two more years - five years since their expulsion - until they are able to move to permament homes. Two-thirds of the expellees are unhappy with their temporary housing.
The numbers of unemployed are also very worrisome. Though unemployment nationwide has dropped to its lowest level in 13 years, the jobless rate among the former Gush Katif residents is 17% - 2.7 times higher than the rest of the country.
Half of those without jobs continue to seek work, but the other half were thrown against their will into the job market at an age at which they believe they will not be able to find another job, and are therefore not even looking. Nearly a third of those who worked in agriculture - a mainstay of the Gush Katif economy - are currently without work.
Maskiyot - Approved Again
Some good news has been reported, however. The government has once again approved construction of new housing for the Jordan Valley community of Maskiot, where Gush Katif expellees from Shirat HaYam are living in temporary quarters. Former Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced a similar decision in December 2006, but abruptly rescinded it a month later - apparently the result of international pressure not to allow Jewish construction in areas contested by the Palestinian Authority.
The radical left-wing Peace Now organization, whose goal it is to end all Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, decried the approval. A Peace Now spokesman said that the decision to allow more Jewish housing in the Jordan Valley means the eternalizing of a demographic situation that will prevent a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria, said the decision was long-overdue: "I am very happy about Barak's decision to allow construction in the Jordan Valley, especially in that it will help families from Gush Katif."
Financial Situation - Bad
Other results of the above survey: Well over a third of those made homeless by the Disengagement/expulsion - 37% - describe their economic situation as bad or very bad. Of these, 40% say they require financial help from friends or relatives.
A quarter of the expelled Jews say they are using their compensation money for day-to-day living, leaving them little or nothing with which to build houses to replace the ones the government razed to the ground.
The survey shows negative feeling towards the government, army, and even among their immediate families. The expellees' physical and psychological health has been negatively affected as well.
About a quarter perceive a desire among the youth not to enlist in the IDF. About half sense a drop in their physical health directly related to the Disengagement - including depression, sleeplessness, fears and various sicknesses. Over half - 55% - have required psychological help during the last three years.
Nearly 30% report a deterioration in relations between immediate family members, while 45% say they are pessimistic about their future.
Government Tries Damage Control
To counter the numbers, the government's Disengagement Authority, known as Sela, released its own report, claiming that 72% of the expelled families had "implemented a solution for the construction of their new homes."
Moti Sender, editor of the Katif.net site, responded, "Thousands of evictees living in deteriorating, temporary 'caravillas' for three years already, look at each other in disbelief. This is called 'implementing a permanent home'?"
MK Uri Ariel, Chairman of the Knesset lobby for the Gush Katif expellees, said, "If the picture is so rosy, why is Sela still around? Why doesn't it reduce its work force to 20%? The true picture is very grave, and I call upon every Israeli to come to the temporary housing sites and see for himself."
8. US GOV'T FINDS 'RELIGIOUS BIAS' IN ACCUSATIONS AGAINST JEW
by Hillel Fendel
A final report released by the U.S. Department of Defense finds that an Army engineer accused of spying for Israel over ten years ago was unfairly targeted because of his religion.
The Army engineer, David Tenenbaum, is an Orthodox Jew.
The U.S. government report did not specify any corrective action to be taken on behalf of Tenenbaum.
Harassed Amidst Accusations
The New York-based YeshivaWorldNews website reports that Tenenbaum was given a polygraph test in 1997 regarding charges of espionage, and that he was urged to confess to having spied for Israel. Among the harassment measures he experienced in this connection, he said, were: anti-Jewish epithets being shouted at him, the confiscation of his computer, the erasure of his name from the e-mail system at the military facility in Warren, Michigan where he worked, and the ransacking of his home by investigators.
YeshivaWorldNews, which has been tracking the story, reported that the FBI conducted a year-long criminal investigation against Tenenbaum, after which the Justice Department concluded that there was no basis on which to prosecute him.
Tenenbaum has maintained throughout the ordeal that he was persecuted merely because of his religion.
Senator Initiates Investigation
The Defense Department report vindicating his claims was initiated over two years ago at the behest of Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The report acknowledges that Mr. Tenenbaum was “the subject of inappropriate treatment by Department of the Army and Defense Investigative officials.” It noted negatively the government's use of a personnel security investigation “as a ruse for a counterintelligence investigation."
"Subjected to Unwelcome Scrutiny Because of His Faith"
Most significantly, the report stated, “Mr. Tenenbaum’s religion was a factor in the decision that resulted in the inappropriate continuation [of the investigation]... We believe that Mr. Tenenbaum was subjected to unusual and unwelcome scrutiny because of his faith and ethnic background, a practice that would undoubtedly fit a definition of discrimination..."
Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, who represented Agudath Israel of America in pressing the government on the case, said that the report is a "historic disavowal by the Defense Department of the notion that religious Jews are somehow to be regarded, by virtue of their religion, as untrustworthy employees of the government.”
No Compensation, No Punishment
However, as noted, no compensation was determined for Tenenbaum, nor was there any indication that the perpetrators of the discrimination would be punished.
9. HANDICAPPED: 'WE'RE SHUTTING DOWN THE STATE!'
by Gil Ronen
For a few hours Tuesday evening the entrance to Jerusalem was blocked by protesters in wheelchairs. The representatives of the Handicapped People's Association have been holding a strike outside the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services for nearly 50 days, demanding that the disability insurance be linked to the cost of living index.
[video:123334]
"We want at least the minimum wage," one of the protesters explained, and another shouted: "We are shutting down the state!"
The handicapped people's struggle remained outside the headlines and so, they decided that more strident measures had to be taken.
10. HARRARI HARPS RECREATES BIBLICAL INSTRUMENTS
by Ben Bresky
For the past 25 years Micah and Shoshanna Harrari have been manufacturing Biblical style harps and lyres in their workshop. They spoke to Israel National Radio about how they began, why they do it and the snowstorm that brought them to Israel.
Question: Tell us a little about Harrari Harps.
Shoshanna Harrari: We build Biblical harps, the restoration of King David style harps. We call them the Kinor David, equivalent to a small harp, and the nevel equivalent to a lyre. They haven't been in existence for approximately 2,000 years. About 25 years ago, we brought it back, to its rightful place here in Israel. Some harps are built personally for people on order from our web site. We hand carve designs as the customer asks. There are different woods to choose from, many woods from Israel, some from Africa, very beautiful and musical woods. We also build harps for the Temple Institute, hopefully for the future temple.
Question: What's the difference between regular harps and your harps?
Shoshanna Harrari: The harp of Israel goes back to the Tanach. It is written that the first person to play was a man called Yuval who played on a kinor. The next person was King David, who was the one who brought it to a very high level of awareness. He used it as a spiritual instrument to connect to Hashem. Then it went right into the Beit Hamikdash where there were 4,000 Leviim who played the harp. The tribe of Levi taught their children at age three to play on the nevel, the kinor, the shofar, and the silver trumpet. They also had cymbals and they sang. That was the music in the Beit Hamidkash (Temple).
So what is the difference between our harp and other harps? Our harps are based on those kind of ancient harps of Israel. They've just been missing for 2,000 years. They are the Avraham Avinu, so to speak, of harps.
Harps changed according to the countries they lived in. For example, Ireland and the British Isles have a tradition of harps but they are slightly different. What Western people today know as the harp is called the concert harp. It is very large and is no more than 150 years old. It is meant to be played only by professional musicians. You have to study many years before you can even do anything with it. But our harps are meant for regular people.
King David was a shepherd. He didn't go to a conservatory to learn to play the harp. He played the harp because had something in his heart and in his soul that he wanted to express through music to bring it up to the Creator of the universe. Our harps are very easy to make a sound out of. Children can play them too. They're meant to express spiritually something that is deep inside, the shir hadash (new song).
Question: What are the Hebrew letters on the harps for?
We put the aleph bet (the Hebrew alphabet) on the nevel which has 22 strings and therefore the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, allowing a person to expand their music into words and prayers. Each string corresponds to a letter. So you can do things, like playing a word for example, the word ahava is made of four letters, aleph hay vet hay, and you can make a simple melody. So if you have a good imagination, this sound is connected to the word love. you can actually daven with the Hebrew words of the aleph bet put into a musical vibration.
Question: How did you two first get involved in making harps?
Micah Harrari: About 23 years ago my wife Shoshanna had a friend that had a little harp. She asked me to make her one. I was an instrument maker at the time. But we were moving around a lot so it was hard to set up a shop. The last place we lived in was Vermont and we were about to set up a workshop. But I guess G-d didn't need another harp maker in America and he kind of pulled us out of there in middle of the winter and here we are in Israel.
Shoshanna Harrari: After several years of my having a desire for a harp we finally came to Israel. One day Micah said, you remember that harp you wanted? I'll make it for you. By hashgacha, we came across an archaeology book where it shows a picture of a cave in Megiddo called the Megiddo Harpist. That harp is what we used as our example. By another wonderful situation, the story was picked up by a journalist from the Jerusalem Post and it went out all over the world. She, in her research, declared that we were the first harp makers to make the harp of David in 2,000 years. The other information comes from the Talmud, where it talks about the number of strings and how many Leviim were playing in the Beit Hamikdash. We took all the information from whatever sources we had and we began to build harps.
Question: Tell us the snow storm story.
Shoshanna Harrari: This is sort of how we came to Israel. We were wandering around the United States looking for the perfect home. We assumed it would be in some physically beautiful place with no people around. We kept going farther and farther into the wilderness until we were living in Colorado in the Rocky Mountains. Someone showed us a one hundred year old miner's cabin made out of logs. It had a dirt floor and no facilities. It was basic shelter. But we were very happy and we lived there. Every day Micah would chop wood and I would go down to the river and collect water to drink.
Our entertainment at night would be to light up the wood stove and the candles that I made and read a chapter out of some novel. I remember that year we read Dr. Zhivago. It was like what people used to do for before they had television and computers. Every week we would go into the little town of Telluride, Colorado and trade our used books for different used books that we never read before.
One week we didn't go for some reason. We figured, so what, we'll go the next day, but that night there was a big snowstorm. Just the kind that they only have in Colorado. It was a blizzard. You couldn't see anything but snow. It was very quiet and we were sleeping and didn't hear it. We woke up in the morning and couldn't get out of our door. So we were snowed in and actually we really thought this was very romantic. Just like in a movie. It was exciting. We had wood and food, and we could open the window enough to get snow to melt for water.
But after the second day, we had cabin fever. But there was no way out. We didn't have a telephone. No one even knew where we were. We were stuck in this cabin, it was still snowing and we had read all the books from the used book store. We were very low on entertainment. But there was one book that we never really read. That was the Tanach. We got it somewhere and carried it around. We figured you're always supposed to have something like that around with you, but we never actually opened it or read it.
But that night we were so bored that we opened up this book and began to read from the beginning, or as you could say "in the beginning". We kept reading it and it completely captured us. We knew the basic stories like Noah and the ark, but we never really sat down and read it. We were so into this book that even after the snow stopped, we read it as much as we could. Finally we got to the Prophets, and it said "and in those days that Hashem would call his children from the four corners of the earth, from the north the south the east and the west, and He will bring them back to their own land and He will replant them and never uproot them again." We felt as if it was a personal invitation from the Creator of the universe to his special holy land. And since we were Jewish, we're His children. Besides, we're wandering anyway.
It's a long story, but we went to Vermont and from there we were supposed to make harps, but we were pulled out of Vermont and went straight to Israel. We knew nothing about Israel. Mainly because we didn't want to know. My parents had come as tourists and my father had an entire slide show from Metula to Eilat. But I never saw one slide because I was totally not interested. So when we finally got to Israel, it was a brand new world. A year and a half later we started making the harps and that's when our life really began.
Question: What is the door harp?
Micah Harrari: It hangs on the inside of your door and when the door opens and closes it plays. Kind of like a battery-less alarm or a wind chime.. it brings a nice sound into the house. if you've ever read Chaim Potok's Davida's Harp you'll know what I'm talking about. on the side is a hook where for Shabbat you hang the strings and balls up on the side so it doesn't play on Shabbat. So it's got a heksher.
Question: Tell us about the healing aspects of the harp.
Shoshanna Harrari: Three thousand years ago David, who was at the time just a shepherd, was brought in to play for King Saul. It says that Saul knew that someone had been anointed in his place and he would go into deep depression. Although he knew that he had lost the kingship, his servants didn't know. They just knew that their king was upset and they wanted to make him feel better. They didn't call for a doctor or psychiatrist or give him Prozac. They brought in the best harpist in the land, David, because they knew that the harp would make him feel better. So the irony of the story is that the one they brought in was exactly the one that King Saul was concerned about in the first place. It says when they brought in David and he would begin to play with his hands, Saul would begin to feel better and the evil spirit of depression would depart from Saul. It's a very powerful thing to say for a simple little instrument that has a sweet beautiful sound. But why did they chose the harp? They had other instruments. They somehow knew, not scientifically, but they knew. %aad%
Now 3,000 years later, we have the tools to test things. They have been doing medical testing of the harp on people and they have found that it seems the vibration of the harp as opposed to the guitar or violin or other nice instruments seems to resonate with the healthy vibration of the human being. If a human has stayed up too late or doesn't feel good, their healthy vibration goes down and that's when they get colds or flu or chronic fatigues syndrome. But just the vibration of the harp helps.
On our web site we have an a section called Healing Harps with newspaper clippings with people using harps in medical ways. One article is a story about a surgery. They had a woman playing the harp dressed in scrubs. She is completely covered sitting there playing the harp while another woman is having open heart surgery. They wouldn't do this unless it had an effect. They had a BBC documentary with cancer cells and as the harp begins to play the cells begin to change shape. Another study that's being done here in a hospital in Jerusalem found that the sound of the harp increases oxygen absorption, which is a real problem in this day and age because we have less and less oxygen in the atmosphere. They found it helpful for Parkinson's Disease, multiple sclerosis and other nervous disorders. This to me is a confirmation to me to what they seem to have known 3,000 years ago, that they brought in David to play the harp for their ailing king.
Question: What are the different harps you build?
The term kinor would also known as a lyre or lyre in Greek. The nevel is known as a harp today. The kinor is taken from the Bar Kochba coin, the money used in the time of Shimon Bar Kochba and the Roman occupation. It has the imprint of a little kinor on it. In the Talmud it says there were ten strings. In the psalms, many times it says upon a harp of ten strings I will praise thee Hashem. There's something special about the number ten.
We started making the kinor as well, but unlike the article about the harp, no one knew about it. But one day a man came to us from the religious neighborhood of Meah Shearim in Jerusalem. He heard we had had a ten stringed harp and was very interested in this because in his Talmud studies his big focus was looking for signs of the coming of Moshiach. He said he old enough to have seen the rebirth of Israel in 1948. He saw the Six Day War. He saw the ingathering of the exiles, which is still going on. But one thing he never saw was the ten stringed kinor.
We asked him why this was so important in particular. He replied that it is written in the Talmud that this is connected to the coming of Moshiach and the beautiful song that will rise from the day when the world that is to be will be united in one harmonious whole, as he put it. He counted the strings and was very happy. He told his friends and they came to visit us as well and told us even more interesting things like for example the music of future is going to be different than the music of today.
Even the very scale that music is played on because it's going to be played on a scale of ten notes and not anymore of a scale of eight notes. Right now we're into the octave. According to these people, two of the notes you can't physically hear. That isn't so surprising because if a person is religious, then they know of the perech shira, which is a beautiful prayer showing how the entire universe is singing praises of Hashem right now. Not just the birds and the frogs but the stars in the sky, the leaves on the trees, everything. We just can't hear it. We can stand outside in a completely silent night and listen and very few of us can hear the stars singing. But in the future our ears will be open and everything will change.
Question: Any final words you would like to say about your harps?
Shoshanna Harrari: The way David played his harp is that he would hold it over his heart and put his ear on the wood and begin to play extremely quietly. But in his ear it was really loud. He would sit like this for hours and the vibration of the harp would shake loose the shell around his heart and he would stand there before the Creator in the way he really was with no pretensions or ego. At that moment Hashem would send the ruach hakodesh, the holy inspiration to teach him certain songs, words and music that would come into his mind. And that's how he wrote the Psalms. All we have left of it right now are the words. But there used to be musical compositions to all the Psalms. They were played on the kinor or nevel in the Beit Hamikdash. On the pilgrimage festivals, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, the sound of the harps were heard in Jericho. They must have been playing a lot of harps.
This is what we lost when we went into exile and hung our harps on the willow trees. The wind and the rain and snow and sun and time made them into stardust and it's only now that it has returned. Why is it so important? These are Jewish instruments. The fact that they've returned means good times will be coming. There will be a time when we will play these instruments in the Temple. We won't have to worry about making money or terrorism or health problems. We will sit around and play our harps and thank Hashem for everything and bring into this world a great, great joy.
For more information on Harrari Harps you can visit their web site at http://www.harrariharps.com
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