This is the fascinating story of three young Israeli engineers who read the ad published by Google for their Lunar X-Price competition and swept a whole country to believe Israel should become the third country to land a spacecraft on the moon.
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Ron Jacobsohn Discovers the True Meaning of Passover
Passover is considered one of three most of the most important holidays in the Jewish calendar. There are extra steps to preparing for Passover that we don’t have with any other Jewish holiday and that’s why we consulted with our experts ahead of time so this Passover will be an extra kosher one.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
Passover is considered one of three most of the most important holidays in the Jewish calendar. There are extra steps to preparing for Passover that we don’t have with any other Jewish holiday and that’s why we consulted with our experts ahead of time so this Passover will be an extra kosher one.Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser:
The holiday is called Passover because of the plague of the death of the first born, which was the tenth plague that the Egyptians suffered during the exodus experience, and the Jews what they did was they slaughtered the Paschal Lamb. They took from the blood and were commanded to put on their door posts to signify or to let the Angel of Death know to pass over that home.Rabbi Yuval Cohen Asherov:
Ancient Kabbalahlist say this holiday is the birth of the soul. According to how much a spirituality and effort a person put into these 7-days it determines the whole year the energy of the soul over the body.Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser:
Passover kitchen: the counters were cleared, cleaned, boiling water poured on them and then we foil everything so it becomes kind of the ‘ NASA space kitchen’.Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser:
Those preparations of searching for the Hametz, have a spiritual aspect to it. Meaning: Hametz or yeast, or things that have risen; have to do with the ego and our attachments. Meaning, when we are looking for Hametz we’re also kinda of an emotional turnover. It’s a physiological turnover.Rabbi Yuval Cohen Asherov:
So in this night of the Seder we read the story of our life. This story that we read is the story of the soul. How it can re-birth and overcome the body and go to freedom. A person must be free and a free person means that he can control his will.Rabbi Yuval Cohen Asherov:
It is interesting that that this night is called the Seder Night which means the night of organization. This is the name of the night, but why? It could be called ‘ night of freedom’ or ‘ night of the matzo’ but no its called the ‘ night of seder’ why because there is a very strict order that we should do the things. We drink 4-cups not whenever we like but there are certain places over this night that we drink the cups of wine and in between we eat like four or five pieces of matzo in a certain order. And this is the main thing: wine and matzo.Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser:
The Matzo is obviously symbolizing the bread of poverty. Also importantly symbolizing the hurry that we left in. We had to leave in a rush; we got basically thrown out of Egypt. It says that we didn’t have time for the bread to rise and so, every Matzo that’ s Kosher for Passover had a maximum of 18-minutes from when the flower and water meet until the backing is done.Rabbi Yuval Cohen Asherov:
We believe that Elijah the prophet is the messenger for the redemption and it is according to our tradition he will come three days before the messiah. Three days before the redemption, the Geula, Elijah the prophet comes with the Shofar and he goes over the hills and mountains of Israel and he blows the shofar so every time we say Elijah the prophet it means that redemption is close, is soon, so because this night is the night of redemption that we go out of our own jail, so the natural thing is to have Elijah the prophet come in and say OK its accepted.Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser:
There is a prohibition against work on Passover. Thank god in Israel everyone is off work the whole week of Passover. Basically we wear all week long our finest clothes, we wear our Sabbath clothes all week long. Trips, time to spend with the kids, its really family time, its down-time, low-tech just getting back to basics during that week.Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
So now that we know what needs to be done… The only thing left is start implementing…
For JN1, I am Ron Jacobsohn wishing you all a very Happy Passover from Tel-Aviv. -
Ron Jacobsohn attends the inaugural event of Intelligence² in Israel
The worlds leading debate club for the past decade is make Aliah to Israel as Intelligence² is holding its inaugural event with a heavy subject to debate about: If Israel continues on its current course it cannot remain both a democratic and Jewish state.
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Ron Jacobsohn with Barack Obama on his States Visit to Israel – Day 3
Obama’s three-day State Visit is coming to an end with very good results for both Israel and the United States, however before going away the weather made a dramatic turn.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
Obama’s 3-day State Visit is coming to an end with very good results for both Israel and the United States, however before going away the weather here in Israel made a dramatic change.Obama began his third and final day in Israel with honoring the graves of Theodore Herzl and Yitzhak Rabin, accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. Following Jewish tradition he laid a wreath and stone at the graves. At Rabin’s grave, Obama paid his respects to family members of the late prime minister, including daughter Dalia Rabin and his granddaughter, Noa Rotman.
Next the American President went to Yad VaShem, the national Holocaust memorial Museum, wearing a kippa, Obama rekindled an eternal flame next to a stone slab above ashes recovered from extermination camps after World War II Soundbite Barack Obama, President of the United States “Here, on your ancient land, let it be said for all the world to hear: The State of Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust. But with the survival of a strong Jewish State of Israel, such a Holocaust will never happen again.” Narration Following the US president’s speech Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi and chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Yisrael Meir Lau also spoke.Israel Meir Lau , Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi:
Yesterday promised us we are not alone, but do not be too late,” he said. “Help us have days of light after the dark tunnel.”Following the visit at Yad Vashem, Obama met with Prime Minister Netanyhu for lunch at the King David Hotel and them insisted on visiting Bethlehem, where Christians believe is the birth place of Jesus, before embarking to the airport by car and not by air as originally planned because of the stormy weather.
Barack Obama’s next station in his Mid East tour is Jordan only 15-minutes plain ride from Israel.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
With all good intentions of the Israeli organizers to make this a triumphed finale to the three days State Visit of President Obama in Israel, the organizers her at Ben Gurion Airport has to cancel the going away ceremony because of the gusty winds who made everything fly away including the flags, the tents and almost Air Force One.
For JN1, I am Ron Jacobsohn at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. -
Ron Jacobsohn with Barack Obama on his States Visit to Israel – Day 2
600 lucky students from universities and colleges across Israel are attending the very anticipated Barack Obama speech at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, the excitement is high as no one really knows what the American President will be talking about.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
600 lucky students from universities and colleges across Israel are attending the very anticipated Barack Obama speech at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, the excitement is high as no one really knows what the American President will be talking about.Although there was an air of skepticism in the hall where over 3000 people gathered to hear what the American President had to say, it seemed that Obama managed to win them over. Barack Obama, President of the United States “Make no mistake, those who adhere to the ideology of rejecting Israel’s right to exist — they might as well reject the earth beneath them and the sky above, because Israel’s not going anywhere. So long as there is a United States of America: “Atem lo levad”. You are not alone! Israel is the most powerful country in this region. Israel has the unshakable support of the most powerful country in the world. Israel is not going anywhere. Israel has the wisdom to see the world as it is, but –but this is — this is in your nature — Israel also the courage to see the world as it should be. Sometimes the greatest miracle is recognizing that the world can change. That’s a lesson that the world has learned from the Jewish people”.
Major General, Amos Yadlin, who served as the Israeli Military Attaché in Washington, claims Obama has redeemed himself with the Jerusalem speech.
Amos Yadlin, Director, Institute for National Security Studies:
If you compare this evening, which is a wonderful evening, to the 2009 trip to Cairo, when he spoke basically on the right of Israel to be a Jewish state because of the Holocaust and never pay any attention to the 3000-years that we have been here, he corrected it, he spoke to what Israelis care about this time. And I think this is a big change and this will be, I believe, a change in the attitudes of the people in Israel to the President.Dov Lipman, newly elected Member Knesset from Yesh Atid, who emigrated from the United States in 2004, was very impressed by the American President.
Dov Lipman, Member Knesset (Yesh Atid):
I think he has done a fantastic job. I was a skeptical beforehand; I didn’t know how much can a presidential visit really do, but they’ve definitely catered it towards messages towards the Israeli people. Listen, as a member of the Knesset, he didn’t come to speak to the Knesset. And a lot of people were hurt by that. But I think that his point was, that we’ve tried politics before and it hasn’t really gone very far, lets make it more human and reach out to the people. He has done a masterful job of doing that I hear on the street. And I think, the same way the Knesset we brought new blood in, and put none politicians in the mix it helps tremendously, I think that’s going to help in the American-Israeli relationship as well.The most crucial question was, did Barack Obama convince Israel’s next generation, the students, in his sincerity.
Maxim Pachter, Technion University:
I thought that it was a great speech. He spoke directly to us, to the next generation, to the future of Israel. He spoke to the students, I was really impressed.Hannah Yam, Bar Ilan University:
He did give me some hope and I really connected to many of the things he said”.Carol Daniel Kasbari, Palestinian from East Jerusalem (www.commongroundnews.org):
I was a little bit too much Israeli, too much… but then I understood that it’s all about connecting us to his idea of peace and he really knew how to get to peoples heart.Iris Cohen, Hebrew University:
I think everyone was impressed with the way he said things. I just don’t know how well the new government in Israel is going to take all these message that he is now given us.Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that President Obama hit all the right notes in his speech but more than that the students who came to listen to him truly believed him that he will do anything in his power to bring real and lasting peace to the region.
For JN1, I am Ron Jacobsohn at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.