"His sudden absence left people with a feeling of incompletion," says Dan. The vacuum was quickly filled with nostalgic feelings and heroic images.

"Sometimes, when a central figure is taken out of the spotlight, we tend to idealize him. We forget the controversies and emphasize his positive characteristics to the extent that we see him as a father figure. A similar thing happened with Rabin."

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During his political career, former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was heavily criticized and demonized. After his assassination (BY THE HASSIDIM)  in 1994, he was immortalized as a great leader and a symbol of peace, says Dan.

In the same vein, the public is less open to hearing about Sharon's negative traits or dubious actions since his physical downfall.

Speaking as a media strategist Dan says, "In truth, there is no connection between the true nature of the public figure and the image. The image is usually connected to one characteristic: for example, [MK Avigdor] Lieberman as a bully, [Dan] Meridor as a nerd...

Rv:13:12: And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

Rv:13:14: And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

"It is true that a person's image cannot be sold like a product, because in any case, a person talks and offers his opinions. But like a product, the image can be boiled down to simple, digestible characteristics.

"That's the power of satirical programs like Eretz Nehederet. They can easily make a caricature of a personality's most obvious characteristic and the public laughs - because the person is really like that to a certain extent."

Last January, when he was a clear favorite in polls leading up to the March elections Sharon was regarded positively, and this became frozen in the minds of the Israeli public.

"All people make mistakes, therefore it is natural that had Sharon continued in his political career, he [too] would have made mistakes. But Sharon's sudden departure from political life prevented him from doing so and the idealized version lives on."

It is therefore unsurprising, says Dan, that books are currently being published that portray Sharon in a more positive light. "If they had been published two years ago, it might have been a different depiction."

Lior Chorev, who worked with Sharon as a strategic consultant for Arad Communications, gives a different spin. According to Chorev, the time Sharon spent in the public eye as prime minister allowed for his true, complex character to emerge. It gave the public time to understand him and to appreciate the many layers of his personality.

After his wife Lily passed away in March 2000 and he became prime minister in 2001, he was less defensive with the press and exposed his more human side. It already broke down some of the earlier, more negative theories about him, says Chorev.

The Israeli people was able to see, for example, the role his family played in his life. Just three years ago he spoke publicly for the first time about the accidental death in 1967 of his son Gur at the age of 11.

Once Sharon became prime minister, says Chorev, the yardstick by which he was measured changed. Given the timing of when he left office, January 2005, he will be judged on three historical topics: "the security fence, disengagement and the fight against terror," says Chorev.

all the markings of the beast for Sanhedrin

Chorev argues that it's still too early to write Sharon's biography from a historical perspective because time has yet to reveal the impact of Sharon's actions.

"The world is relative, so he will not just be judged by his actions but also by those of his successors," says Chorev.

But already it's clear that Sharon's departure from office heralded a new era in Israeli politics, says Chorev. Sharon is probably the last prime minister alive who fought in the War of Independence and lived the history of the state from the first day.

They noted that no biography had been written about Sharon that explored his political rise since his resignation from the Defense Ministry in 1983.

"The idea was not just to tell the story but to understand the key to Sharon. Why is he so controversial? Why did the man who was the most hated in the Arab world and the most hated in Israel end up as one of its most popular politicians?" asks Hefez.

The lack of a comprehensive book seemed strange to the authors, given that already in 2001, they believed Sharon was one of the four most beloved leaders in the country - alongside former prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin, David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin.

Ariel Sharon: A Life, which was published in Hebrew in 2005 and by Random House at the beginning of October, is both Hefez's and his assistant Bloom's first book. (Hefez works as the editor of Yediot Aharonot's Friday magazine Seven Days.) As reporters and editors, the pair wanted to do a longer body of work that would explain to the younger generation and new immigrants something about Israel's history.

They paid little attention to the political pundits who at the time predicted that Sharon's tenure in office would be brief. As a personality Sharon was compelling, irrespective of the length of time he actually spent as prime minister.

When Sharon gave a watershed speech in September 2001 at the Latrun amphitheater, they started to understand just how interesting the story could become.

At the time, Sharon was considered a right-wing politician. He led and had founded the Likud party, which rejected the idea of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.

At Latrun, he told the group of teachers gathered there: "Israel wants to give the Palestinians what no one else ever has: the opportunity to establish a state of their own." With those words he rejected the tenets of his party while standing at the spot where he himself had almost died in battle during the War of Independence in 1948.

"That was the turning point. You had to understand that he was going somewhere," says Hefez, who began the book exactly at this crossroad.

remember the crossroads in 2001....well we are now well beyond the crossroad and now on the road to hell........those who do not have Christ Jesus are.....anyway

"We believe that one of the central reasons he did it was because he was 73. He said to himself, 'I do not trust [former prime minister Ehud] Barak and [his Likud rival and former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu] Bibi. I am the last one left, the one who can do this,'" said Hefez.

In their book, Hefez and Bloom date the shift to a 1979 visit to Egypt in which Sharon visited the temple of Abu Simbel. Looking at the hieroglyphics carved into the shrine Sharon asked the assistant who was with him, Eli Landau, "What do you think, will they write something like that about me?"

Is it already written?

"Depends what you do, Arik," Landau replied.

HEFEZ AND BLOOM did not develop a personal relationship with Sharon through the writing and researching of Ariel Sharon: A Life nor did they have one prior to the conception of the book.

But the fact that they never sat down with Sharon one-on-one didn't stop them from feeling as if they knew him.

"It's easy to [feel like you] know Ariel Sharon without [really] knowing him. Everywhere you go, you meet people who knew him," said Hefez.

"There was no dearth of material," said Hefez.

Initially they thought they would talk with Sharon for the book. They made overtures to his son, Omri, and to Sharon's staff, but they balked when they understood that conditions would be attached to the many hours of needed conversations, said Hefez.

Fearing they would not be free to write everything they wanted to, they decided to speak with everyone bar the prime minister and his two sons. There were, says Hefez, "hundreds of people to interview."

HEFEZ VIEWS the work as a textbook on the life of Sharon. The authors shy away from none of the controversial elements of his story save for those which they felt descended into unimportant gossip of no overwhelming historical interest. That was particularly true of a number of personal stories that involved people who had died and therefore could not dispute their veracity, says Hefez.

Whether discussing the corruption charges against Sharon when he was prime minister or his stormy relationship with his superiors in the army, they shy away from taking sides and instead aim to present a balanced argument.

They hold back little when talking about Sharon's political manipulations and contentious relationships with his rivals: Begin, Netanyahu and former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir.

Hefez and Bloom remain the only authors to date to provide detailed accounts of Sharon's rise through the ranks of the Likud and into the office of prime minister.

Among the many moments described in the book is the famous showdown between Shamir and Sharon in February 1990 at the Likud Central Committee meeting known as the "night of the microphones." Predicting that he would need to shut Shamir down at some critical juncture in the evening, he instructed his assistant Uri Shani to bring a wire cutter.

According to the book, "Shani told Sharon that he could control the volume of Shamir's microphone with the dials at his fingertips, but Sharon insisted, 'Bring the cutter!'" At the critical moment when Shamir called out, "Who supports me?" Shani cut the cord.

Sharon's volatile relationship with Peres is also charted. Among others things, the authors contend that it was Sharon in 2000 who helped swing the Knesset vote against Peres for the presidency and in favor of Moshe Katsav (Likud) as an early bid to show that the Right (Aholah)  could overtake the Left to regain the government.

According to the book, "An aide of Katsav's spent the tense minutes before the vote in the Knesset searching for Sharon. After combing the halls he found him in the cafeteria, hunched over a bowl of soup.

"Sharon assured him that everything had been taken care of. When he had finished eating, he walked into the general assembly hall, sat down in his seat, and smiled at Peres.

After Katsav emerged victorious, Sharon said, 'This is proof that with a unified nationalist camp we could switch the government.'"

But five years later when Peres lost his bid for chairmanship of the Labor party, Sharon threw him a political lifeline by inviting him to join his new centrist party, Kadima. According to the book, when asked by reporters if he wasn't worried that Peres would drag him to the left, Sharon laughed. "Can you see Shimon dragging me?"

The authors continued following Sharon through to the formation of Kadima. According to the book, Sharon was on the fence until the last minute. In the end, he concluded that he could not hold on to the reigns of power within the Likud at the price of making decisions for the nation.

THE 773-PAGE manuscript was first published in Hebrew in 2005 under the title The Shepherd: The Life Story of Ariel Sharon by the Miskal - Yediot Aharonot Books and Chemed Books that is attached to their paper.

Hefez and Bloom worked on the book in their spare time, mostly on weekends or after hours. The year-and-a-half they initially estimated it would take them turned into four. By then they were only two months away from Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, so they waited and cut the Hebrew edition at that point. They made mention of his anticipated upcoming leadership battle with Netanyahu.

In releasing their book in English at the start of October they cut it down from 175,000 words to 160,000.

Some things were added, among them the details of Sharon's decision to leave the Likud, the formation of his new political party Kadima and a description of the first stroke on December 18 and the more serious one on January 4, from which he has yet to recover.

Brain contusion caused by the surgeons 9 months ago

http://www.chabad.org/library/article.asp?AID=295601

The letter which represents the month of Av is Tet, which is the 9th letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and its gematria (numerical value) is also 9. As the first letter of the word tov, the Tet represents the concept of concealed good which is waiting to be revealed. It also represents the concept of pregnancy, both in its form (with its rounded, introverted shape) and numerical value (alluding to the nine months of pregnancy). (see image above

Hefez said that he actually prefers the 485-page English version published by Random House. "We think it's a better book," said Hefez, sitting in a caf in Ra'anana just before heading out for a US book tour.

But that doesn't mean he believes that their work is completed. They are now working on an updated Hebrew version, but as yet they have no publication date.

While in New York they hope to interview Sharon's estranged sister Dita who has lived most of her adult life in the US, for the last 12 years as a recluse.

Even as they acquire new information, Sharon's story continues to change. With the former prime minister still in a coma, the final chapter of his life remains open; and the rapidly shifting situation in the region - including the war in Lebanon last summer - means that the impact of his decisions on the future of the state is still unclear.

Whatever the outcome is, says Hefez, "We feel that we fulfilled a certain historical mission and that we wrote another chapter of Zionist history."

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