RUTHFULLY YOURS

Shield means protection. The Star of David, in Hebrew Magen David, when Magen means shield, is probably the most recognized symbol on earth but no one knows its history. This shield protected the Jewish nation, mostly spiritually, over the millennium of exile and suffering, just as its shields it today.

According to Kabbalah, the esoteric method, discipline, and school of thought that originated in Judaism, the double triangle of the Star of David (Magen David) symbolizes the connection of both dimensions of G d, Torah and Israel: the external level of the soul connects to the external expression of G d via studying the exoteric parts of Torah; the essence of the soul connects with G d’s essence through the study and application of the teachings of Kabbalah.

Marc Bennett is a film maker and an artist living in Colorado, there amongst nature. But Marc is also Jewish and with all that is going on in the world today, he came to the conclusion that he must do something, he must help his people, the Jews and the world. For that purpose he established “The History of the Star of David: an artwork celebrating Jewish culture, history, and identity.”

The body of a 20-year-old Syrian woman, “Rokstan M.,” was unearthed from a shallow grave in the small Saxon town of Dessau last week. Her father and brothers stabbed her to death on her mother’s orders, after she was gang-raped by three men. The rape left her “unclean” and the mother allegedly demanded the killing to restore the family’s honor. German police are seeking the father and brothers. That by itself is not newsworthy; what is newsworthy is the news itself, which appeared in not one of Germany’s major daily newspapers or websites. The tabloid Bild-Zeitung ran the story, along with the regional press, while the arbiters of enlightened opinion buried it. Der Spiegel, the country’s biggest news site, and the Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung, the newspaper of record, made no mention.

The case of Rokstan M. is heart-rending. She had found work in Germany as a translator for the government, but she knew her family would track her down and kill her. “I am awaiting death. But I am too young to die,” she had written on a social media profile. Her story deserves a line or two in the quality press. But it’s one of many that German leaders want to ignore.

Over 14 years after 9/11, this is the best various experts can say about fighting the ideological war against groups like Al Qaeda or the the Islamic State. On the one hand, this panel was depressing, but at least there was some honesty.

“We are failing, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise,” stated former American special envoy Farah Pandith concerning the “war of ideas” against global Islamic threats at a September 30 Washington, DC, event. Pandith and her fellow panelists at the McCain Institute presented before a conference hall filled with 50 listeners a depressing picture of this ideological battle over 14 years after the September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda attacks.

“The field of Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE), Pandith stated while discussing the current umbrella term for ideological anti-jihadism, “has too few people, it is disorganized, and we do not have enough resources.” By contrast, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other “bad guys are doing this 24/7” with ample media resources for jihadist messaging. Yet “during the Cold War, we fought an ideological fight” and “put money where our mouth is” in capabilities.

http://jamieglazov.com/2015/10/15/the-unknown-nightmare-of-being-a-woman-under-islam/

In this new episode of The Unknown, Anni Cyrus shares a Nightmare of Being a Woman Under Islam, telling a heart-wrenching true story.

Don’t miss it.