So much to blog, so little time

Yeshiva Son has come home and later today, Eldest DarDar will arrive with Precious Grandson. Needless to say, I may be so distracted by the naches of it all, that blogging will be exceptionally Lite, if at all, for the next week or so.

In the meantime, you should know that according to an inside source at the Shalem Center, Moshe Yaalon and Natan Sharansky do not have to share an office. JPost got it all wrong, and BtB is here to clarify.

Now while I'm basking in mother- and grandmother-hood, you should take advantage of the extra time on your hands by reading the Shalem Center's quarterly journal: Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation, which (rightfully) boasts "the best in Jewish thought from Israel and around the world."

A quarterly journal published in English and Hebrew editions by the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, Azure offers essays and criticism on Israeli and Jewish public policy, Jewish philosophy, cultural trends, religion in public life, Zionist history and much more. Since its founding in 1996, Azure has brought together a wide range of young and established writers united by a commitment to the richness of Jewish tradition and the centrality of a strong, free, and Jewish State of Israel.

Azure, or techelet in Hebrew, represents the most exalted as­pi­rations of the Jewish nation. In antiquity, an azure dye was applied to one of the white threads in the Jewish fringed garment described in the books of Moses. According to tradition, the hue of this thread “is like the sea, and the sea is like the sky, and the sky resembles the Divine Throne” – serving to remind the Jews of all that is majestic and eternal, and of the obligation to represent these in the world. It was in this tradition that the Jewish national movement adopted the azure-and-white coloration of the Jewish flag, which later became the flag of the State of Israel. And it is in this tradition, too, that we labor herein to present ideas for the Jewish nation, and for the world.

I don't think there is anything we need more right now than "exalted aspirations" for a "strong, free and Jewish State of Israel." Rick Richman would no doubt agree (and while you're at his blog, don't miss his post on the ideological confluence of Judt, Mearsheimer and Khalidi).

The J-blogosphere is absolutely overflowing with good and important work. If you don't know where to begin, see The Watcher's Council awards and or the most recent Havel Havelim at Shiloh Musings, where you can also find news not published by Dhimmedia -- like the stories of an Australian Jew viciously beaten, and the Eighteen Jews ordered out of their homes without trial.

If you're going to read all this, and really do it justice, you may have to quit your day job.

I also recommend (in no particular order, Blog Juice or otherwise) habitual reading of Ocean Guy, Mere Rhetoric, InContext and Solomonia, plus many more in the list to your left.

And if you want to know what "Palestinian residents" are saying, there's always al Reuters:

An Israeli tank moves near Kibbutz Mefalsim, just outside northern Gaza Strip October 18, 2006. Israeli troops backed by tanks pushed deep into the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, clashing with militants as they widen a four-month-old offensive, Palestinian residents said. REUTERS

Me? I'm going shopping for a high chair, so my grandson can sit at the dinner table with us tonight. Nothing, not even blogging, can beat that.