Connections

Yeranen Yaakov asks Connection Between Draft Law and Rockets?


MIC asks, "Connection between Atzeret and rain?"


An anti-draft rally in Jerusalem this past Sunday, called for by the country’s leading haredi rabbis and billed a Million Man Atzeres (assembly), drew hundreds of thousands of demonstrators.
...The peaceful demonstration, which included no speeches, featured the reading of several passages of Tehillim, selichos, a special prayer for rain, and kabbalas ohl malchus shamayim (accepting the heavenly yoke).
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/idf/hundreds-of-thousands-demonstrate-in-jerusalem-against-haredi-draft-bill/2014/03/05/


The rains began to pour across the country on Saturday, after two months of winter that has been some of the driest in history, in many places. Both the heavy rainfall and cold air this week are the result of mid-latitude depressions from the central Mediterranean Sea, explained Dr. Amos Porat, head of the Israel Meteorological Services climatology department.
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/After-dry-spell-of-almost-three-months-rains-pour-on-Israel-345320


Devarim 11: 13-14


And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day... that I will give the rain of your land in its season.

Ladaatinfo points to results of a survey which shows that 66% of haredim are satisfied with life, compared with 30% for the secular.
http://www.ladaat.info/article.aspx?artid=11319


This week we read a special maftir that inspires us to remember what Amalek did to us, hate them, and accept upon ourselves the mitzvah of destroying the nation’s evil seed and everything it represents. Seemingly, Amalek’s unparalleled hatred for the Jewish People is so significant in Hashem’s eyes that it was deemed fitting and even necessary that such a menace be eliminated.
...Why do we only have a mitzvah to exterminate Amalek? What about all the other anti-Semites?
...Rav Chaim Friedlander gives a different answer . He claims that the threat of Amalek isn’t just physical. It is spiritual as well. Amalek represents the atheistic viewpoint that everything that happens in our lives is random happenstance. In Amalek’s eyes, there is no such thing as hashgacha pratis.
http://www.bircas.org/index.php?page=parshas-zachor