This morning I woke up at the ung-dly hour of 5 something AM and couldn’t get back to sleep. So I decided to see if there was anything new and interesting to watch online and that’s when I came across this.

They do not believe in peace talks. They do not want to share the land. They are well armed and are carrying out increasingly violent attacks, even targeting innocent civilians. They are members of Israel’s militant far right, and they are threatening to become Israel’s next big problem.

Read more about this documentary on the PBS webpage.

I’m far from being the most informed person when it comes to the many complicated nuances involved in the Israeli/Palestinian situation. However I just don’t understand how the extremists in this video can see themselves as being any different than Palestinian extremists. Murder is murder and misappropriation of G-D is insanely wrong regardless of whether you call him Allah or Hashem. Don’t get me wrong I think that much of what is done at the hands of Palestinian extremists is horrible but watching this documentary it’s clear that the bullshit flows both ways.

Anyhow I was disturbed by this documentary but it was very informative and I highly recommend checking it out.

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

Part five

Part six

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Andrew Cohen the man behind WIE and self proclaimed Spiritual Guru was in Israel last September on some kind of teaching tour. During his visit he took some time out to participate in an interesting interview which discussed among other things, Israel and what Cohen refers to as “Evolutionary Spirituality“.

I’ve known of Andrew Cohen and his work for about six or seven years thanks to a friend who talked me into buying an issue of his What Is Enlightenment magazine. Coincidentally (or maybe not, who knows) that issue also turned me on to Don Beck and Spiral Dynamics which is something I’m hugely interested in but that’s a topic for another post.

While I’m off-topic I might as well mention that Ken Wilber also recently did an interview (phone) with a journalist from Israel. I meant to post about it while Tamara was here but to be honest several of his comments aggravated me so much I decided not to bother for the time being. Let’s just say that I didn’t feel he came off all that “Integrally Informed” about Judaism and I basically figured that if I didn’t have anything positive to say, I might as well not say anything at all. However maybe I can come back to it later on this week and try tying it into this post. Who knows?

Okay let’s try to get back on track with this here post…

At least on the surface much of Cohen’s Evolutionary Enlightenment shtick resonates with me and I believe that many aspects of his Evolutionary Spirituality are quite compatible with Judaism, at least the more liberal/progressive expressions of it. However many things about the man and the way he personally manifests in the world just doesn’t work for me. I suppose there are several reasons for my cautiousness about him but they aren’t relevant to this post, so I won’t bother going into them. For me the bottom line is that Andrew Cohen is right on the mark about a few things which are IMO both important and worthy of exploration. I don’t have to accept him as enlightened or as my spiritual teacher in order to benefit from his views, so I see no need to throw the guru out with the bath water.

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I must confess that although I enjoy caffeinated beverages in all of their varied manifestations I had not given any thought to Kosher for Passover pop/soda. In fact when I first learned that such a thing even existed I thought to myself “man this is ridiculous”. Then again I myself am a fairly ridiculous guy much of the time, so it should come as no surprise that I didn’t manage to make it through my first Passover without purchasing a little bit of the Carbo-Caffeinated Kosher for Passover goodness.

It basically all started when Tamara (who if memory serves me right claims she doesn’t like soda beverages) informed me that she’d purchased 2 2 L bottles of the magical and holy stuff. Then the next morning I awoke from a very bizarre dream which although I no longer remember the specifics of, seemed to somehow revolve around Kosher for Passover Coke.

Then on Monday while out and about with my father we made a stop at the kosher grocery store where among other things, we each picked up a 1.5 L bottle of kosher for Passover Pepsi. Now I’m not talking about the local made stuff, cuz this was the real deal imported from Israel, complete with Hebrew ingredient labels and no English. I haven’t spoken to my father yet so I don’t know what he thought of his Kosher for Passover Pepsi but I can proudly proclaim that mine was all drunk up in less than a day!

What can I say soda pop is crack and I’m an addict!

Anyhow yesterday I decided to spend a few minutes researching up on Kosher for Passover cola beverages when I stumbled upon this little snippet from NPR. It’s only a couple of minutes long and is a must for anyone who holds kosher for Passover Coke close to their hearts.

Enjoy (hey isn’t that a trademark owned by the Coca-Cola people?)

Passover Produces a Real Coke Classic

by Linda Wertheimer

Weekend Edition Saturday, April 10, 2004 · Kosher-for-Passover Coke is made with sugar — not corn syrup — just like in the old days. And that’s why many true Coca-Cola fans stock up during the Jewish holiday. NPR’s Linda Wertheimer talks about the difference in taste with Ralph Roberts, co-author of Classic Cooking with Coca-Cola.

Technorati tags: NPR, Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola, Kosher for Passover

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