Question: how many churches can the Arabs burn before the post-Christian Europeans wake up to reality? Answer: as many as they want. The demographic and spiritual gains that are being rapidly made all over Europe by Islam mean that for many European societies it is almost too late to stand up to the Moslems in their midst. Read articles about the growth of the Islamic population in Western Europe and the growing rate of conversion to Islam for some references.

In the Holy Land, meaning Land of Israel west of the Jordan River, prior to the the intensity of the last few generations, the Christians made up about 25% of the population of the area. Today, due to the force and aggression against them in formerly Christian towns such as Bethlehem in Judea, the number of Christians has shrunk to the point of being negligible. This is the untold story of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Samaria and Judea have been Islamicized almost completely, and this was not the case as recently as 50 years ago. Most of these Christians left to Europe and the US. There are still a few left to tend to the Christian holy sites and they are protected because of the interests of tourism. Does the Christian world, of both Europe and North America, care about this? No, not really. Most of them are too busy thinking that being a secular atheist is the answer to the world's problems. Yes, lets eliminate our spiritual heritage and become totally focused on "logical" means to deal with the world around us. Sure, that makes plenty of sense. It's not like the spiritual vacuum could possibly be filled by something powerful and dangerous like Islam. No, no, that can't be the case. Those Arabs will learn the wonders of secular socialism and the guaranteed moral and economic decline it leads to and all will be well! People are so deluded.

Politically, we are all here hoping for elections as early as the beginning of 2007. Kadima has lost a lot of its support and Netanyahu's popularity is on the rise. The fact that he's right-wing both politically and economically is a great thing, and I hope he'll take the top job in the not-too distant future. We need more tax cuts, spending cuts, and we need to break up more monopolies and create more opportunities for small businesses. We also need to be stronger in the face of the greater Islamic threat, which includes conducting frequent anti-terror operations to keep our enemies weak and disorganized. It's a difficult and dirty job, the IDF is up to the task. All it needs is a leadership that understands that the answer to our problems don't lie in EU support and UN pieces of paper, but rather in practical, terror-reducing action. A good public relations campaign is crucial as well, but a big part of that is a government that acts with a strong moral purpose and not with wishy-washy European-esque nuance. The former is effective and garners long-term respect, while the latter is pathetic and damages our deterrent capability.

I am learning a lot more than I did in the summer with regard to Torah, Talmud and philosopy. I guess the more you know the easier it is to learn even more. The reality is that I can do this for a year straight and become very knowledgable, (3 years and I can get ordained as a rabbi), but I need to do other things with my time as well. There will always be time for part-time study, which is comforting. Rosh Hashana is this Saturday and Sunday, which means a lot of prayer, a lot of time for self-reflection. We are to ask forgiveness for our sins, although forgiveness is only granted if the person repents completely in his heart. You cannot say one thing and feel another in your heart and think that G-d can't figure it out. He's got a direct line to your heart and only 100% repentance will be accepted. We are also to pray for all the good things that we want for ourselves, our families and the Nation of Israel in general in the upcoming year of 5767. We may not see direct answers to our prayers, but that is because G-d knows the best way to move the world forward and oftentimes our prayers are answered, but in ways that may be hidden from our eyes. Hence, prayer is a powerful tool for uplifting oneself and humanity. Of course, prayer has to be primarily focused on getting the strength to improve ourselves, and not just begging G-d for this or that favor.

I will be spending part of the Rosh Hashana holiday at Rav Moshe Kaplan's home. He's a big-time Kabbalist and teaches at my yeshiva. His lectures are amazing and he's one of the leading Jewish scholars of the late 20th/early 21st centuries. I am very honored. Let me say that with all my current learning, I am probably not going to become nearly as religious as many of my readers think I will. There are many levels of religiosity and as of right now, I don't know if I can be where many of my co-students are. Maybe that is a good thing, I don't know. I am just trying to learn as much as I can. After all, the quest for knowledge, both practical and spiritual, is what our short little lives are about. If you don't care for the truth and are not looking for it, then what's the point of life? Secular entertainment and fleeting pleasures are fun, but lowly compared to the ultimate pleasure that our soul seeks, whether we pay attention to its search or not.