The efficacy of prayer

The Jewish Press has an article titled Rosh Chodesh Av: Global Shema for Israel's Success  and Protection of our IDF.


INN writes about an early recitation of the Shema prayer.


At 2:30 A.M., Jews Blast Shema Prayer at Muslim Neighborhood

Tired of waking up to muezzin calls on loudspeakers in the middle of the night, Jews mount an aural counterattack.
Read more and listen to the prayer at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183405#.U9XMZ_mSyK0


NY boy has Bar Mitzvah in Polish town his grandfather once fled

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal skirted a question of whether his group would ever recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, saying only that Palestinians would make that decision once they had a state of their own with no Israeli presence.
Continue reading: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/will-hamas-recognize-israel-as-a-jewish-state/


The young people of Bnei Yisroel who were about to go into Eretz Yisroel. Moshe Rabbeinu in his last address to them retold the story of their parents' mistakes in the Midbar. When retelling the Cheit of the Meraglim, Moshe says that they were punished and routed by the Emori in their effort to go to Eretz Yisroel without permission. After this defeat they came back to the Machaneh and began to cry. The pasuk says (1:45) "V'Lo Shama Hashem B'Kolchem", Hashem did not listen to them. The next pasuk says that they stayed in Kadeish many years. Rashi says that they stayed there for 19 years without wandering around. The Netziv says that we see from here that even when Hashem does not listen to our tefilos and does not grant our request, the tefila still helps. While their tefilos did not repeal the gezeira of staying in the Midbar for 40 years, it helped that they settled in one place did not need to wander for 19 years. We can't always get what we want but we always get something! http://revach.net/tefila/article.php?id=3949