בס׳ד

"Where does it say that you have a contract with G-d to have an easy life?"

the Lubavitcher Rebbe



"Failure is not the enemy of success; it is its prerequisite."

Rabbi Nosson Scherman



26 Mar 2018

From here to there

What is the row over Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism about?

Notes From Johannesburg

'נכדת הנרצחת: 'לפחות חזרת לעולם האמת

The Salute

Liberals refuse to face the left’s growing anti-Semitism

I Have A Problem With David Hogg’s ‘Salute:’ Here’s Why

Jewish leaders savage Jeremy Corbyn for ‘hostile’ views on Jews

Rebecca Diserio writes, George Clooney was one of the big donors to the “March for Our Lives” event that took place yesterday, and he penned a letter demanding only anti-gun kids should speak on stage, saying, “You make me proud of my country.” 
Read more: https://madworldnews.com/clooney-anti-gun-marchers/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=madworldnews

How about putting the blame on Hollowood stars who make movies where the hero is the one who uses a gun? What part do Hollywood actors have in a young man purchasing a gun?

23 Mar 2018

Hate "Crimes"

Parshas Tzav / Shabbos HaGadol - We Want Hashem Now!

Rabbi Mendel Kpalan posted on his Facebook page videos of a man throwing a rock at the Thornhill Synagogue alog with the comment, "Yet despite this obviously anti-Semitic and hateful act, replete with the historically ominous imagery of shattered glass — posted hours ago on here on my Facebook wall and shared umpteen times by so many — there has been nothing but deafening silence from the very same moralizing elected officials who flipped out when a young Muslim girl faked an attack on her Hijab."
 https://www.facebook.com/rabbikaplan/posts/1580190858746992

Below is reporting from The Star on the two incidents that Rabbi Kaplan wrote about. One has "hate crime" in quotes, while the other doesn't.

York Regional Police are investigating a “hate-motivated crime” after the front doors of a synagogue in Thornhill were smashed in an apparent outburst of anti-Semitic violence caught on camera.
Read more: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/03/21/police-investigating-after-man-caught-on-video-vandalizing-thornhill-synagogue.html

Over the next 10 minutes, she said she was attacked not once, but twice, by a man who is now a suspect in a Toronto police hate crime investigation.
Read more: https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2018/01/12/man-cuts-hijab-off-girl-in-scarborough-police-say.html

Prime Minister Trudeau addressed the supposed hijab attack at a news conference which can be seen here.

17 Mar 2018

Confessions

Meet the tech evangelist who now fears for our mental health

The Talmud Sotah (32b) explains, that the reason the sin offering (Chatos) and the burnt offering (Olah) were slaughtered in the same place, by the northern part of the Mizbayach, was to save sinners from embarrassment. Anyone witnessing someone bringing a Chatos could assume that it was a Olah, which is brought as a donation and not necessarily as kaparah for an aveira.

Using this as a source, the Sages made a regulation that Shmoneh Esreh must be recited quietly, in order not to embarrass people who confess their aveiros during their tefilah.
http://www.thejewisheye.com/rev_ptzav.html

The first Torah reading in orbit, and 5 other soaring facts about Jews in space

Defense in Duma Arson/Murder Trial: State Investigation Consisted Entirely of Threats and Violence

15 Mar 2018

Walkouts and good deeds

CNN Runs Story Comparing ICE Agents To Nazis



This morning I read an article titled Tenn HS Students Brawl, Rip Down American Flag During Walkout Against ‘Gun Violence’ which contained a video of how some students resorted to less than peaceful behavior during a school walkout.

Later in the day I was passing a mall in Central Israel when a young girl stopped me and asked me if I would consent to write about a good deed I had done today on a bulletin board her school had placed in the shopping center. I agreed and saw that the board was titled "70 Good Deeds" which was a reference to Israel celebrating 70 years of independence in approximately a month's time. The girl handed me a candy that was attached to a slip of paper with a short biography of celebrated Israeli author Uri Orbach along with a poem about the Sabbath that he had composed.

I contemplated the contrast between the two school activities and wondered whether the school walkouts in America should have emphasized good deeds and respect for one another. This evening I found this letter addressed to American students. It was written by a retired teacher and is chock full of advice for them.
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A public apology

Parashat Vayikra- The Danger of a Scholar Who Lacks Manners

Poland Looking to Recapture Role as Holocaust Commemoration Center

The View’s Joy Behar Issues Public Apology Over Insult to Christians

רבני לונדון קבעו: יום תפילה על גזירת החינוך


11 Mar 2018

The key to success

Warren Buffett Once Told a 14-Year-Old Kid the Secret to Success in 1 Simple Sentence

שמעו קטע: שירת 'אדון עולם' במטוס לצרפת

Parshas Vayikra: The Belzer Rebbe - Salt The Korban Mincha For A Perfect Mixture

Chazzanus Meets Jazz in “Sheyiboneh” Performance

Tweet tweet

A Father Disappointed in His Son

Last month Legal Insurrection tweeted Twitter suspends anti-Semitism watchdog Canary Mission after campaign by anti-Israel activists. Meanwhile Meanwhile, many of the people who Canary Mission exposed for anti-Semitism and terror support remain on Twitter.

In an update, Legal Insurrection posted The Canary Mission Twitter account appears to have been restored.

On March 7, Louis Farrakhan tweeted The FBI has been the worst enemy of Black advancement. The Jews have control over those agencies of government. #Farrakhan

The tweet is still up.

החרדית מהר נוף שניצחה במרתון ירושלים

5 Mar 2018

Stonewalling

How Sainsbury’s helped a woman with advanced Alzheimer’s keep working

Democrats Stonewall Ed Civil Rights Nominee As Anti-Semitism in Schools Rises 94%

Sen. Todd Young: Palestinian Authority-supplied textbooks for UNRWA schools “promote violence and support martyrdom”

The Ultimate Marathoner

On the Occassion of Three Seders and Two ss

Rebbe's Letter Prevented a Suicide

YouTube Sponsoring 9/11 Truther As Part Of Multimillion Dollar Diversity Program

IsraellyCool alerts his readers to Ontario Jews To Host “Liberation Seder for Palestine”

The organization conducting the seder is offering two more seders, one in Hamilton, on the 2nd of April, and one in London, on the 6th of April.
They write about the legacy of Rabbi Akiva, as well as the ritual part of the seder.

Grape juice (fruit of the vine) will be included for the ritual part of the Seder. Unfortunately, the Ontario Government has moved its application system for Special Occassion Permit online.
http://www.jelithin.ca/seder-2018-london.html

I don't believe that ritual traditions and the legacy of Rabbi Akiva includes conducting the seders on the fourth day and the last day of Pesach. I also wonder why the faux spelling of occassion as opposed to thte true spelling, occasion? Is it to draw attention to the faux seder?

Below is a paragraph taken from a letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe which can be viewed in its entirety by clicking the first link of the post.

As for the question, wherein lies the preservation of our people, and what is its historic destiny? - the answer is not difficult to find if we examine the pages of our history throughout the many centuries of our sojourn among the nations of the world. It is neither power, nor country, nor even a common language that preserved us in the past, but our Jewish way of life in accordance with the Torah, Torath Chayyim (the Law of Life) and Mitzvoth, whereby Jews live. Those who sought new ways, or staked the future of our Jewish people on other factors...disappeared without trace. Only the eternal Torah and Mitzvoth, the true Jewish way of life, preserved us in the past, as will preserve us in the future. 

3 Mar 2018

The Address

Jewish Group Outraged by BDS Founder’s Address to EU Parliament

צפו: כשהשוטרים הגויים רקדו עם החרדים המחופשים

Latest Palestinian Blood Libel: Bloody Purim Treats

"Kichu Mayitchem";"Take from yourselves a separation as a donation to the Mishkan." What does this peculiar word "Mayitchem" - "from yourselves" come to teach us? Isn't it obvious that the donations are coming from yourselves?

The Kli Yakar answers, many times people give Tzedoka only because of social pressures. They feel that they must give because it would be embarrassing to say "no" to the prominent Rosh Yeshiva who came to his house. Or at an appeal in his Shul, it would be disgraceful for him if he does not announce that he too is giving a substantial sum to this worthy cause, after all his buddies threw around the "big numbers". Such donations are not Mayitchem - from yourselves. It is not you giving the money, rather the social pressure of others. The pasuk is telling us that for the donations of the Mishkan it should be purely yours. Whatever you give should be what you would like to give, not what you would like others to think that you gave!
http://revach.net/parshas-hashavua/quick-vort/Parshas-Vayakhel-Tzedoka-From-Deep-Down/1893



1 Mar 2018

Coins of fire

Parashat Ki Tissa- Enabling Our Misvot to Ascend

פרשת כי תשא • הגאון רבי דוד לאו עם וורט על הפרשה

Police in France arrested four teenagers who are suspected of beating a Jewish boy with a stick and taking away his kippah outside a synagogue north of Paris.
Read more: https://www.jta.org/2018/03/01/news-opinion/arab-teenagers-arrested-beating-jewish-boy-outside-paris-area-synagogue

The Medrash tells us that in order to explain the mitzva of the Shekalim, Hashem took out a coin of fire from underneath his Kisei HaKavod and showed it to Moshe. Rav Elyashiv asks two questions. First, had Moshe Rabbeinu never seen a coin in his life? Second, what exactly is Hashem doing hiding coins under his Kisei HaKavod?

He answers with a Tosfos in Chulin (42a) that Moshe couldn't understand how money, the most earthly of all creations, can save someone's neshama (Kofer Nefesh). So Hashem showed him a coin. Which coin? The gemara in Bava Basra (11a) says that during a hunger year Munbaz HaMelech emptied out his treasure chest to feed the poor people. His family became very mad that he was squandering the royal wealth. To this he replied that he is not losing the money, he saving the money up in Shamayim in a place where it will last forever while they squander money down on earth where it will eventually disappear.

Rav Elyashiv says these are the coins that Hashem took out to show Moshe. The coins that are given for tzedoka with Mesiras Nefesh are precious and are saved by Hashem under the Kisei HaKavod. Moshe understood that coins are made of destructive fire. They cause jealousy, cheating, stealing, and murder. Hashem showed him that coins can be made out of productive fire. Coins given for tzedoka can light the world and warm the world with their "Holy fire". On these coins Hashem said "Kazeh Yitnu". If the people give in this fashion then even coins can be Kofer Nefesh and money can redeem your soul.
http://www.thejewisheye.com/rev_pkitisa.html

Happy Purim

The man was a garbage collector. He was walking down the street dumping the garbage bags and fitting empty bags into the small bins that lined the streets of central Israel. When he saw me, he broke into a smile. "Happy Purim," he greeted me exuberantly. "Chag Purim Sameach. Chag Pesach Sameach."
He blessed me with health and wished that my life would be filled with happy occasions. I broke into a wide grin and told him that he had made my day and had brought a smile to my face. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to wish him the same that he had wished me.
As I walked away, I reflected on what had just transpired. Most people would judge the man by his profession and how much money he was earning. I thought to myself that, although he was a garbage collector, his net worth was more than any millionaire.

The JPost reports 1946 US REPORT SHOWS POLES TREATED JEWS AS BADLY AS GERMANS DID

NEW DIGITAL PLATFORM BRINGS TOGETHER JEWISH VOICES FROM ACROSS SPECTRUM

Crown Heights Shomrim Take Down a Perp Stealing Packages Off Porches