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



18 Nov 2022

The Lost Siddur

Someone posted on Facebook about a siddur that hee ofund at Newark airport. Anyone recognize it?

Shots fired at rabbi’s house in Essen, Germany

12 Nov 2022

Holocaust Education

The Guardian has no problem labeling Rabbi Meir Kahane "the anti-Arab terrorist" as can be seen here. Yet, in an article about the Munich Olympics Massacre, those who killed 11 Israeli athletes were referred to as "the Palestinian militant organisation Black September."

Montana Tucker is Bringing Holocaust Education to TikTok and Instagram

6 Oct 2022

Collateral Damage

Teshuva is always accepted at any age. A person can sin most of his life and at the end do proper teshuva and erase a lifetime of bad and die a tzaddik. However there could be collateral damage that cannot be repaired; the children. Children tend to learn by example as they mimic their parent far more than we understand. When a child grows up watching their parents behave and act in a certain way, even if one day the parent wake up and do an about face and completely change their ways, they cannot expect the children to follow.

The Melitzei Aish says that this is hinted in the words of the Parsha "Sheechais Lo Lo, Banav Mumam", this can be read "Corruption, not him, his children are left blemished." No amount of self corruption cannot be repaired but the children they remain scarred forever. (Iturei Torah)
http://www.thejewisheye.com/rev_phaazinu.html

4 Oct 2022

CPR

When someone has a heart attack, CPR is performed on the individual to revive the physical body. As we enter Yom Kippur, when our soul is on the line, let us practice CPR for the soul.

Tzedaka- Charity - C

Tefilla - Prayer - P

Teshuva - Repentance - R

Wishing all a gemar chatima tova, a year blessed with good health, happiness and kol tuv.

The Power of Forgiveness

A Shidduch Tale: A Terror Wave, A Bus Ride, & The Power Of Forgiveness

Martina Navratilova Tweets and then Deletes Antisemitic Libel

27 Sept 2022

Warning Against Complacency

FEMA warns Florida against complacency as Hurricane Ian nears

Attack drones launched over Uman amid Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage

ראשי תיבות לשנת תשפ"ג

תהא שנת פעמי גאולה

תהא שנת פעמי גואל

תהא שנת פתח גאולה

תהא שנת פריצת גדר

תהיה שנת פיתוח גידולנו

תאמינו שהמשיח פתאום גואל

תהיה שנת פתאום גאולה

תהיה שנת פריחה גדולה

תראו שהילדים פתאום גדלו

https://www.bhol.co.il/forums/topic.asp?cat_id=4&topic_id=3185859&forum_id=771

17 Sept 2022

Paying Respects

Just saw a message on Facebook.

Thought for the day:

If people are happy to stand in line for 6 hours in order to spend 5 minutes paying their respects to a deceased Queen, why would they object to standing (or sitting) in shul for 6 hours on Rosh Hashanah to pay their resspects to KIng of the Universe?

8 Sept 2022

The Meeting

Jewish Group to Sue New York for Banning Guns in Houses of Worship

The day was 27 January 2005, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and the place St James’s Palace. The Queen was meeting a group of Holocaust survivors. When the time came for her to leave, she stayed. And stayed. One of her attendants said that he had never known her to linger so long after her scheduled departure. She gave each survivor — it was a large group — her focused, unhurried attention. She stood with each until they had finished telling their personal story.

It was an act of kindness that almost had me in tears. One after another, the survivors came to me in a kind of trance, saying: “Sixty years ago I did not know if I would be alive tomorrow, and here I am today talking to the Queen.” It brought a kind of blessed closure into deeply lacerated lives.


https://www.rabbisacks.org/archive/the-queen-is-defender-of-all-britains-faiths/

6 Sept 2022

Mass Arrival

War-torn Ukraine prepares for mass arrival of Hasidic Jews to Uman

Caroline Glick: The six false, failed assumptions of the two-state solution

Nidon Al Shem Sofo

The parsha discusses the Ben Sorer Umoreh - the wayward and rebellious son. His Avairah is that he stole from his father and bought and ate Tarteimar (a certain weight) of meat and a half of a Log of wine. What's so terrible about this Avairah that should warrant the death penalty for this child? Rashi tells us that the sentence is based on the Avairah he will transgress at later time (Nidon Al Shem Sofo). He will eventually exhaust his father's money, and stand at the crossroads and steal and kill other people. Therefore the Torah says, "let him die as an innocent person and not die as a guilty person."

The Meforshim ask, why do find by Yishmael that the Torah judged him "Baasher Hu Sham" - in his current state? We see in Bereishis 21:17, when Yishmael was dying of thirst, the Malachim said to Hashem, "Why are you about to save Yishmael? His descendants will kill Klal Yisroel, at the time of the churban, by thirst. Why should you cause a miracle to happen to him and give him water?" Hashem answered, "Right now he is righteous, I will judge him based on his current status. Why then is the Ben Sorer Umoreh judged based on what he will do in the future?

The Maharal answers, at the the time that Yishmael was dying, he did not commit any Avairah with regard to holding back water from Klal Yisroel. Therefore Hashem judged him based on his current status. On the hand, the Ben Sorer Umoreh already started committing the Avairah that will lead him to kill - stealing from his father and buying and eating Tarteimar (a certain weight) of meat and a half of a Log of wine. That is why he is punished now for his future sin.

http://www.thejewisheye.com/rev_pkiseitzei.html

Mincha of Yom Kippur - R. Yaakov Mizrahi

30 Aug 2022

Leaving Russia

Obama-Era Tea Party Targeter Appointed to Create IRS Office Overseeing 87,000 New Agents

Jews are leaving Russia again – is history repeating itself?

It’s Open Season on Jews in New York City

"Soim Tasim Olecha Melech" "You shall appoint a king over you" There is a Mitzvah in the Torah to appoint a king over Klal Yisroel. Why then, many years later, did Shmuel HaNavi admonish Klal Yisroel for asking for a king? Some Meforshim explain, although appointing a king is a Mitzvah, it is one that we would rather not have to be Mikayim. Just like there is a Mitzvah to give one's wife a Get; which only applies if one wants to divorce his wife, and that Mitzvah is one that the Torah would rather you are never Mikayim. So too, Hashem wants Klal Yisroel to be on a madraga not to have to need a king. Shmuel admonished Klal Yisroel for sinking to the level of needing a king.

http://www.thejewisheye.com/rev_pshoftim.html

21 Aug 2022

His First Shidduch

In this past week's Torah Tidbits, Rabbi Avi Berman gratefully describes how he made his first shidduch recently. Click here to read and scroll to page 4.

Israeli public bus comes under fire in West Bank attack

19 Aug 2022

My Identity

Living Joyfully with Shaindy Plotzker

What my 10-year-old son innately understood about a simple way to combat antisemitism

Because you hearken to these laws (Deuteronomy 7:12)

The commentaries dwell on the Hebrew word eikev in this verse—an uncommon synonym for “because.” Many see a connection with the word akeiv (same spelling, different pronunciation), which means “heel.”

Rashi interprets this as an allusion to those mitzvot which a person tramples with his heels—the Torah is telling us to be equally diligent with all of G‑d’s commandments, no less with those that seem less significant to our finite minds.

Ibn Ezra and Nachmanides interpret it in the sense of “in the end” (i.e., “in the heels of,” or in the sense that the heel is at the extremity of the body)—the reward being something that follows the action. A similar interpretation is given by Ohr HaChaim, who explains that true satisfaction and fulfillment comes at the “end”—the complete fulfillment of all the mitzvot, and by Rabbeinu Bechayei, who sees it as an allusion that the reward we do receive in this world is but a lowly and marginal (the “heel”) aspect of the true worth of the mitzvot.

Baal HaTurim gives a gematriatic explanation: the word eikev is used because it has a numerical value of 172—the number of words in the Ten Commandments.

Tzemach Tzedek (the third Chabad rebbe) sees it as a reference to ikveta d’meshicha, the generation of “the heels of Moshiach” (the last generation of the exile is called “the heels of Moshiach” by our sages because: a) they are the spiritually lowest generation, due to the “descent of the generations”; b) it is the generation in which the footsteps of Moshiach can already be heard). This is the generation that will “hearken to these laws,” as Maimonides writes: “The Torah has already promised that the people of Israel will return to G‑d at the end of their exile, and will be immediately redeemed.”

https://www.chabad.org/parshah/in-depth/default_cdo/aid/53666/jewish/Eikev-In-Depth.htm

16 Aug 2022

The Seized Passports

DOJ offers Trump his passports back



Why is the above tweet not flagged as disinformation?

Man Fined Thousands Of Dollars For Littering Anti-Semitic Fliers At Homes

13 Aug 2022

5 Minutes

Senior UN official loses her post after tweet condemning PIJ rocket fire at Israel

NY Times cuts ties with Gaza freelancer who called to kill Jews ‘like Hitler did’

"LiDaber Bam BiShivticha BiVaysacha UvLechticha VaDerech..."

"You must learn Torah at all times - when you are sitting in your home or traveling on the road etc.

"A person once came to Rabbi Yisroel Salanter and asked him, "Rebbi, I only have 5 minutes a day to study Torah, what topic should I study during that time?" R' Yisroel answered, "Study Mussar during those 5 minutes, you will then see that you really have a lot more time than 5 minutes a day to learn Torah.

http://www.thejewisheye.com/rev_peikev.html

7 Aug 2022

We Did Not Eat

Joint List MK deletes tweet blaming Israel for children's deaths

Al Jazeera initially published, "Israeli jets pounded the Gaza Strip for a second day on Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including six Palestinian children." An updated article reads, "A senior commander of a Palestinian armed group and six children have been killed in the Gaza Strip as Israeli jets continued their bombing of the besieged enclave."

Tisha B’Av Program with Rabbi Simon Jacobson

Miriam Peretz welcomes grandchild as IDF kills operative that killed her son

5 Aug 2022

4 Aug 2022

In the Palm of Your Hand

Neighbors react as daughters of Washington Hebrew Congregation leader die in house fire

Ryan Jewell posted on Facebook "URGE your friends, family, your public-everyone and anyone who will listen to INSURE that wherever they stay-home or away-sleepovers, friends homes, vacation homes-name it..that there are working smoke alarms. Pack them in your suitcase, clip them to handles, put them in kids backpacks-whatever. Stay NOWHERE without working smoke alarms. Check them, Test them. Bring your own. I mean look, you can get a smoke alarm THAT FITS IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND:"

Dvar Torah on Tisha B’Av by Rabbi Mordechai Kalatsky, Rav of Congregation Knesseth Israel, Minneapolis, Minnesota

27 Jul 2022

Denied Entry

St. Louis Jewish groups host Cori Bush amid scrutiny of congresswoman’s ties to antisemitic activist

The meeting came amid scrutiny of Bush’s ties to Neveen Ayesh, a Palestinian-American activist and government relations coordinator at the Missouri Chapter of American Muslims for Palestine. Ayesh repeatedly tweeted about her hatred of Jews and expressed a desire to “set Israel on fire with my own hands & watch it burn to ashes along with every Israeli in it.”

https://jewishinsider.com/2022/07/st-louis-jewish-groups-host-cori-bush-amid-scrutiny-of-congresswomans-ties-to-antisemitic-activist/

One of the Legislative Activities in Missouri was to pass Resolution number 9 - a summary follows below.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of Aldermen of the City of Saint Louis that we pause in our deliberations to recognize and honor Neveen Ayesh.
https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/city-laws/resolutions/resolution.cfm?RSDetail=true&RSId=13881

A Facebook post by Ms. Ayesh about the death of a journalist included the following.

The settler colonial racist entity known as Israel assassinated Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh while wearing a readily identifiable blue Press Vest. They shot her as she reported the truth of the the occupation they enforce daily with armed, lawless brutality.

Haredi Jews denied entry to Jordan