So Lemrick Nelson, who apparently mercilessly stalked Yankel Rosenbaum up Brooklyn Avenue in Crown Heights, gets another chance to have his guilt proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Don't forget that despite Nelson's fingerprints on the knife that penetrated Rosenbaum's back, his blood was also found on Nelson's pants.

I'm sure that after all these years you know that there is one more thing that is unique about the Yom Tovim that you may not be conscious of, and that is that for some reason they never seem to arrive on time. Without fail---year after year---the holidays are either here early or late. Of course, as you know, that has everything to do with the lunar year and the relationship between our planet (that's the earth) and the moon as well as the nature of our calendar.

They could have danced all night. Actually they did kind of dance most of the night as Shloimy Klein of Crown Heights and Chanie Rosenberg of Montreal, Canada were married Monday evening at the Beth Zion Congregation in Montreal. It was clear and very cold as scores braved temperatures near zero degrees as the chupah was held just outside the main entrance to the very impressive synagogue building.

>Being an undercover Shliach has its challenges and "nisyonos". It wasn't a role I chose but rather one I fell or was maneuvered into as a matter of fate, I suppose. Functioning undercover may sound humorous, and at times it is, but the way things have changed out there it has slowly become a serious endeavor.

It's hard to see and even more difficult to understand. That is until you had the privilege to observe the life and now have the opportunity to remember Rabbi Sholom Ber Gordon, z"l.

For one day this week I wasn't me. It was unusual because---like you and yourself---we are saddled---for better or for worse---with being who we are every day of our existence. But this past Monday, April 15th, the 3rd of Iyar and the 18th of the Omer, I didn't only take off from work but I took off from being me for a day. It was an awe inspiring and fascinating experience.

We're All Settlers.

Our Secretary of State, Colin Powell, urged Israel, upon his departure from the Middle East last week, to come to grips with "the destructive impact of settlements" and the fact that their existence are an obstacle to peace. The truth is that I'm still undecided about whether Colin Powell really says what he means or just floats these antagonistic word combinations out there so that they play well and buy time in the Arab world.

Needless to say or write I do not have too much use for the United Nations. They spend a lot of money and accomplish very little. In addition they are very unfriendly to Israel and to Jews in general. So far I've been very pleased that the Israel cabinet has displayed the fortitude to keep the UN scoundrels out of Jenin where the UN team was preparing to excoriate Jews and Israel and once again declare the Jews the real Nazi's and the Palestinians the real Jews. It's this sought of fraud that is common every day fare in the UN. If there is anything in the world that the UN is united about it is that they are united against Israel.

It's said part jokingly and more than half seriously that the two things that you are assured of as you travel around the world are that you will most likely find two thing everywhere you go. And those two things are Coca Cola and Lubavitch. Business people who have no attachment or involvement with Chabad frequently plan their travels around where a certain Chabad House may be located. You can travel to Las Vegas, Knoxville or Quito, Ecuador and there will be a Lubavitch House in which you can catch a minyan or a Shabbos meal.

I sat with the widow late into the night. The way it worked out I did most of the talking. There were lots of silent spots too at which point I really wasn't sure about what to do. Not that it was uncomfortable or anything but at those points I mostly either just looked down or just stared straight ahead.

They are years that seem increasingly long ago. Despite their increasing distance, however, it is clear to me now, that they will never fade away to a place beyond retrieval. They are so special, in fact, that they seem to not be a matter of what once was, but rather live side by side with the reality of the present.

In a different life maybe I would have been a food critic. It just seems that I have this predisposition to relating things to or writing and making reference to food. Now you do not need me to tell you that food is essential to life and I guess that's why it is such a big part of life. We can't live without food---it's also difficult to live with it.

Sitting in Ben Gurion Airport late one night last week, the thing that caught my eye was the torn lapels. I was preparing to return to New York after three days of visiting my daughter who is attending seminary in Jerusalem as well as friends in and around the Old City. Shabbat at the Kotel was high and exhilarating. Contrary to what people feel comfortable believing the place was packed with students and tourists welcoming the holy Shabbat on a warm and always exciting evening. We danced in circles with pomp and exuberance in anticipation of the arrival of the Sabbath queen.

As Jews who live outside of Eretz Yisrael and as those who feel so intertwined and attached to whatever goes on there, it is a continuing struggle to express our personal attachment to the people and the land. So it is that my quick jaunt over last weekend was yet another step in my seemingly ever-continuing effort to acquire Eretz Yisrael while still living in the Diaspora. My quest, while not unlike that of so many others, manifests itself in multiple ways. More interesting, however, is how others in the same position as you and I deal with these circumstances.

Flying into Israel a few weeks ago the man sitting next to me said as we neared the end of our journey that he was surprised that we were just 100 miles from Ben Gurion Airport and the plane was still traveling at 39,000 feet. Until he said what he did I was quietly thinking to myself that I recall a time when the descent into Israel would start a good hour or so before touchdown and that the planes used to gradually lower their altitude from the mid to high thirty thousand foot level to the 20's and then gradually lower until we landed.

With my younger daughter and her friends studying in Israel for the year we have been privy to a number of e mail updates from her school about their preparedness in the event of war in the Gulf and in the event Saddam decides to fire his scuds, once again, in Israel's direction.

The highpoint was also the low point of a once again all too quick jaunt into Israel last week. Ostensibly planned to visit our daughter studying in Jerusalem we nevertheless found ourselves slaves to the hectic tourist schedule that seems to come naturally to those who live with the contradiction of loving Israel and living here. How much can you pack into six short days and the idea that there will always be time to rest later?

Two thoughts to start. First is that if one travels to Israel---especially these days----and is a writer, then one should be able to squeeze out more than two or three columns from the experience. The second---and only slightly connected to the first is---that if you are on a diet (like I have been for the past few months and down 21 pounds) then you quickly realize that traveling is not compatible with dieting.

I was getting used to the frustrating rope a dope of the UN on the issue of Saddam Hussein his WMD and Iraq. Somewhere inside I believed---naively, though---that the world or at least the civilized world had outgrown savage conflict. But I was wrong. Bombing, fighting, killing and torture seem too frequently to be the natural state of the human condition. What can I say---that I'm disappointed in humanity? That could be the understatement of the new millennium.

"If You, Oh Hashem, would preserve and remember sin, O My Lord, how could anyone survive?"

These words are King David's in Psalms, words that most shuls recite every day at the conclusion of morning and afternoon Tefilos. In the past this space has expressed that the words---while being said widely around the Jewish world, are uttered too perfunctorily and without appropriate focus and concentration. Indeed, we do say them every day, after a final and speedy Aleinu, before scooting out to the shul parking lots and driving off to our daily realities.