Welcome to homeshuling, your shul away from….oh never mind. It’s my great honor to host this week’s edition of The Jewish Blog Carnival. I’ve included up to three links from everyone who submitted (the first three I received.) As always, inclusion in the carnival absolutely does not indicate Homeshuling’s endorsement. But I do endorse having an open forum for the wide range of voices that make up klal yisrael. Any omissions (other than a few obvious off-topic treif spam posts) were purely accidental.

I took some liberty with the traditional categories, creating a new listing for posts related to Tisha B’Av, and a few other changes that the regulars will notice. I also included some posts that piqued my interest this week, even if they weren’t submitted to the carnival.

Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs — a weekly collection of Jewish & Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It’s hosted by different bloggers each week and coordinated by Jack. The term ‘Haveil Havalim,’ which means “Vanity of Vanities,” is from Qoheleth, (Ecclesiastes) which was written by King Solomon. King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other ‘excesses’ and realized that it was nothing but ‘hevel,’ or in English, ‘vanity.’

Judaism and Jewish Culture

Daniel Saunders looks at a variety of naming traditions in What’s In A Name?  at Adventures in Jewish Thought.

Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver presents Engraved letters: G-dliness must permeate us and The Jew’s mission: Recovering Hashem’s lost gems at A Chassidishe farbrengen.

Cosmic X shares insight into a controversy at Torat HaMelech 8: The Difference Between Uninformed Opinion and Informed Opinion posted at Cosmic X in Jerusalem.

Josh Waxman asks (with tongue planted firmly in cheek) Is Rabbi Asher Dahan a gilgul of Pinchas? posted at parshablog.

Susan Barnes uses her blog statistics to consider some of her readers’ questions in  Your Questions Answered #4  at To Kiss A Mezuzah.

Personal and Parenting

Allison Josephs answers the question What Do Orthodox Jewish Kids and Teens Do for Fun?  posted at Jew in the City.

A Mother in Israel presents a heart-wrenching (well, for me, anyway) guest post about breastfeeding policy in Israel in Whose Babies Are They Anyway? Breastfeeding Twins in an Israeli Hospital posted at A Mother in Israel. I’m sharing this one with my friend and fellow blogger Tanya Lieberman over at the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog.

Dan Friedman shares a conversation with his children about God in Friday Night: Daddy, What’s God? on Kveller.com

Phyllis Sommer tells us Why Jewish Summer Camp Rocks on Ima on the Bima

Tanya Tolchin offers a giveaway of free copy of a new Jewish parenting book at On the Lettuce Edge

Homeshuling (me!) wrote about channeling her daughters’ love of princesses into her new children’s book The Shabbat Princess (have you seen the book trailer?) and wonders Can You Take a Vacation from keeping kosher? at homeshuling.

Israel

Julie presents Back to the playground and The Hildesheimer Park — Jerusalem Playground Review, pt. 1  at Walkable Jerusalem.

Batya grimly concludes Peace? Not in This Generation  at Shiloh Musings. She also hosted the JPIX blog carnival at Me-ander. (She’s one busy blogger!)

Eric presents The Boycott Act – Defensive Democracy At Its Best posted at The Israel Situation.

Rivkah Lambert Adler presents What Goes Up, Must Come Down posted at Bat Aliyah.

Joel Katz puts forth the 2-part post Religion and State in Israel – July 25, 2011 (Section 1) and  (Section 2)  and Religion and State in Israel – August 1, 2011 (Section 1) at the aptly titled Religion and State in Israel.

Harry shares Israelis protest performance of Wagner,  Jerusalem voted 11th best city, and A capitalist’s take on the tent protests posted at ISRAELITY.

Sharon A presents some snapshots of very tiny protestors at  Protest Movements  at The Real Jerusalem Streets.

Cosmic X offers The Truth About the Housing Protests and  The Truth About the Housing Protests II posted at Cosmic X in Jerusalem.

Tomer Devorah has some very strong opinions at Be Warned,  Response from Hevron and  A Clash of Civilizations posted at TOMER DEVORAH.

Nine Days/Tisha B’Av

Jacob Richman reminds us that Tisha B’Av is coming in his August 2 post at Good News from Israel.

Ima2seven presents a very thought provoking shiur at The Three Weeks, The Nine Days, and Tisha B’Av at Ima 2 Seven.

Mordechai Torczyner quotes Alan Alda in the fascinating and surprising post Sending suicidal people form letters posted at The Rebbetzin’s Husband.

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat shares After the fall – a poem for Tisha b’Av posted at VelveteenRabbi 

smb suggests LETS REALLY DO SOMETHING posted at A bit of Light.

Schvach presents It’s That Time of Year Again posted at Schvach – פני דל.

Batya shares The Third Category of Mitzvot and Sins posted at Shiloh Musings.

Kashrut/Cooking/Food

Yosefa  tempts us with Rigatoni a la Vodka – Non-dairy and Upside-Down Stuffed Peppers with Vegetarian Stuffing  at Cooking Outside the Box.

Daniela reviews Chupa Chups Magic Powder Lollipops and Hotpop’s Sweet & Salty Microwave Popcorn posted at Isreview. I think this might be the first time we’ve had a post about lollipops and I was sorely tempted to create a category called “Lollipops” in its honor.

That’s about all! May those of you fasting have a meaningful fast this Tisha B’Av.