The way we treat our cell phone

Khamenei Threatens to Annihilate Israel – After Obama Sends Him Secret Letter

Op-Ed: Why and When was the Myth of al-Aqsa Created?


A federal jury found a Palestinian immigrant charged with immigration fraud guilty on Monday for failing to disclose her conviction and imprisonment in a Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two people.
Continue reading: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/481660d6167c4b5b83f9916d0e2785ac/jury-deliberates-fate-palestinian-bomb-convict


I received a couple of items in emails this morning which I thought I would pass on to you below. The video below had the subject line, "What a Kiddush Hashem."
I agree.

 

The soul of Mashiach ben Yosef

Ladaatinfo reports on a lecture delivered by Rabbi Eliezer Berland in which he opined that Maran Hgr"a Ovadia Yosef, z'l  had the soul of Mashiach ben Yosef, only this generation did not merit his revelation and the bringing of "geulah."


Rabbi Benjamin Blech writes about a Jewish perspective on assisted suicide, in the wake of Brittany Maynard's tragic death last week.


Let me be clear. Had Brittany Maynard come to me while weighing her decision to ask for my input I would’ve shared with her my ambivalence between faith and feelings. I could understand her fear of facing an unbearable future. I could empathize to the best of my ability with her desire to avoid seemingly certain horrors. Yet to her question – who has the right to tell me that I don’t deserve this choice? – I would have to answer: “Only the One who has given you the gift of life has the right to end it.” Taking the life of another is called murder. It is not because we have no right to take someone else’s life. It is because we have no right to take away life. So too, we have no right to take away our own existence from this earth.


Rabbi Blech reminds readers that he was presented with a diagnosis by a doctor of "a fatal illness for which there is no cure. Research on the Internet informed me that from the time of diagnosis I would have no more than six months to live. That happened almost three years ago. With great thanks to God and in almost all certainty as response to my prayers and the prayers of countless others, I feel fine today and hopefully look forward to the proverbial 120 years of life."

Thankfully, Rabbi Blech did not choose to end his life and is still writing in his inimitable fashion and imparting words of wisdom to his avid reading audience.

Questions

VIDEO: Launch of New Global Women’s Movement – Ner Echad

Collive has a reponse by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to a question about weight loss over here.

Many of the questions posed at the State Department briefing of October 29th focused on Israel including the two questions below.

QUESTION: Okay. And did you see Prime Minister Netanyahu’s response, and in particular his reference to the security of – I think he said the Israeli people and Jerusalem, although he may have said Israel and Jerusalem. But implicit in his comment was that Jerusalem is theirs, which, of course, is not a position that the United States – belongs to Israel – which is not a position that the United States --

QUESTION: Right. But are you proud of the fact that the – is the Administration proud of the fact that it, quote/unquote, “boxed” Israel in or out of conducting some kind of military operation against the Iranians?
Read full transcript: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2014/10/233492.htm

I have been ending the posts the last few days with a video regarding Brachot perek 1, after reading about IsraelMatzav posting a notice requesting "people to study Mishna in memory of (Karen) Yamima Mosquera HY"D."

A quality education

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is to donate $50,000 (39,000 euros) to help rebuild United Nations schools in Gaza, the UNRWA said Wednesday.
... "We must all work to ensure Palestinian boys and girls, and all children everywhere, receive a quality education in a safe environment."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/186770#.VFFLSZtATIU

Let's hope they receive a quality education.

WATCH: Video Of Yehuda Glick Taken Just Minutes Before He Was Shot

On CNN, Wolf Blitzer Says Kaddish

Shidduch Group 2nd Conference

Raccoon atop a lamp post

Just came across an unusual photo which can be viewed by clicking the link to the article.

PHOTO: Raccoon Atop Lamp Post in Queens

A raccoon has been rescued after climbing to the top of a light post in Queens and clinging there for hours.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Raccoon-Stuck-Light-Pole-Woodhaven-Queens-280681672.html?_osource=outbrain_recirc=obinsite

הגר"ח קנייבסקי לרב שמשון הלפרין: "חיה זיסל הייתה נשמה גבוהה"

Jonathan S. Tobin has written an article in Commentary titled Obama, Not Bibi, Created U.S.-Israel Crisis, in which he details the pejorative a White House official called Prime Minister Netanyahu, as written about by columnist Jeffrey Goldberg.

But President Obama and his foreign-policy team aren’t just annoyed by the prime minister. They’ve come to view him as public enemy No. 1, using language about him and giving assessments of his policies that are far harsher than they have ever used against even avowed enemies of the United States, let alone one of its closest allies.

Jeffrey Goldberg's article is titled The Crisis in U.S.-Israel Relations Is Officially Here and the journalist opines that the breakdown, in good part, can be assigned to Netanyahu and his cabinet.

Twitter users have pointed out to Mr. Goldberg the words he used in a 2008 article.

So, all you rumor-mongering, fever-headed Jewish conspiracists: Support McCain, if you want, and there are credible reasons for doing so, but stop smearing Obama in the face of overwhelming evidence that the man is a great friend of Jews and of Israel.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2008/10/dear-jews-stop-the-obama-paranoia/8913/

Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder and Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, has called on President Barack Obama to “name, apologize for, and repudiate” the anonymous official who was quoted, in an Atlantic Magazine article by Jeffrey Goldberg, describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “chickens....”
 http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/10/28/top-jewish-leader-hier-calls-on-obama-to-name-apologize-for-and-repudiate-anonymous-official-who-called-israeli-pm-netanyahu-chickenshit/

Yesterday I wrote about IsraelMatzav posting a notice requesting "people to study Mishna in memory of (Karen) Yamima Mosquera HY"D."

A flood of Bibles

Last year there was Thanksgivukkah; This year, as Halloween falls on Shabbat, an organization is hosting a “Challahween Kabbalat Shabbat.”

Houston Mayor Annise Parker has received a flood of Bibles — somewhere between 500 and 1,000 according to a spokesman for the mayor’s office — after the city subpoenaed the church sermons of five local faith leaders opposed to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, which the mayor signed in May.
http://www.theblaze.com/?story=guess-how-many-bibles-have-arrived-at-the-office-of-the-houston-mayor-after-she-subpoenaed-pastors-sermons

The United Nations Relief and Works agency for Palestine Refugees has urged the international community to block Israeli plans to relocate thousands of Palestinian Bedouins from the central West Bank, in fear the move could lead to further violations of UN charter.
The UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl said on Sunday that the implementation of such a plan would stoke concerns "that it amounts to a 'forcible transfer' in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention".
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/09/un-warns-israel-against-relocating-bedouins-201492118213997830.html

Egypt may relocate thousands of Bedouin to widen buffer zone near Gaza border
Egypt is considering expanding the jurisdiction of military courts and displacing thousands of residents to enlarge a military buffer zone near the border with the Gaza Strip following an attack on security forces in the area.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.622751

Is the Egyptian transfer considered "in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention"?

IsraelMatzav posted a notice requesting "people to study Mishna in memory of (Karen) Yamima Mosquera HY"D."

The last moments

The Yeshiva World writes about MK Yoni Chetboun being menachem aveil the family of Chaya Zisel Braun HY”D.

The pained young father turned to Chetboun and shared his last moments of his daughter’s life. “I pointed out the Har Habayis to Chaya Zisel explaining this is where Avraham was ready to sacrifice Yitzchok Avinu. A willingness to be moser nefesh for Kiddush Hashem. And I also was moser my only daughter”.
- See more at: http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/267717/bereaved-father-to-mk-chetboun-protect-the-bnei-torah.html#sthash.dQ27uoZu.dpuf

Another Anti-Semitic Hate Crime At Claremont McKenna College

Weasel Zippers has a post titled UC Berkeley Libs Trying To Get Bill Maher Disinvited From Speaking At Graduation For Criticizing Islam… which opines, "If Maher stuck to bashing Christianity he’d still be in good standing with his comrades on the left."

The State Department question and obfuscation session of October 27th had more than its share of questions about Israel including an answer by Jen Psaki in the video below in response to a question regarding Israeli settlement units.

A few other questions asked included the following exchange.

QUESTION: In the case of the Palestinian American teenager who was killed on Friday, are you – do you know the circumstances under which he was shot?

MS. PSAKI: I don’t have any more details.

QUESTION: There are – okay. The reason I ask is because there are reports out there that he was throwing Molotov cocktails at cars on a highway. And I’m wondering, if that is the case, would you have still been so speedy in putting out a statement and offering your condolences to the family? The argument that is being made by some in Israel is that this kid was essentially a terrorist. And you don’t agree with that, I assume, but I don’t know, so that’s why I’m asking.

MS. PSAKI: Correct, we don’t. I don’t have any more details on the circumstances now.

QUESTION: So you – does that – that would apply even if he was throwing Molotov cocktails?

MS. PSAKI: I’m not going to speculate. I don’t have details to share.

Read the entire briefing at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2014/10/233404.htm.

Mi'Yagon l'Simcha

Kikar Hashabat writes about a hachnosat sefer Torah to take place this Thursday in the merit of the two young Gross girls who were niftar earlier this year after an exterminator visited their home.

Collive posts A mother writes a painful public letter to the happily married classmates of her daughter.
The letter has garnered over 100 comments, just as the Mishpacha article by Shlomo Rechnitz evinced many opinions about how to go about solving the shidduch crisis.

Rabbi Lazer Brody has an article titled The real Shimon Cohen.

Real "winners"

THE French municipality of Valenton (near Paris), has just named a street after Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian terrorist convicted in 2004 of murdering at least five Israelis.

At the inauguration of the street, Valenton mayor Françoise Baud called Barghouti “the face of the unwavering resistance of the Palestinian people against the occupation, the crimes, the destruction, the apartheid and the colonization perpetrated by the Israeli government”.
Continue reading: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/15843#.VE3vGJtATIX

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa on Sunday condemned last Wednesday's terrorist attack in Jerusalem.
The condemnation came hours after a citizen of Ecuador, 22-year-old Karen Mosquera, died of injuries sustained in last week’s attack, in which three-month-old Chaya Zisel Braun was murdered as well.
"We will reject violence from wherever it comes," Correa wrote on Twitter, according to AFP, expressing his solidarity with the woman's grieving relatives.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/186630#.VE3vo5tATIU

What took so long for the condemnation? Is it violence only when it affects a citizien from your country?

Cosmic X reports:
Do you remember the "intermarriage of the year", when Moral Malka "wed" Mahmud Mansour a couple of months ago? Well, it looks like Moral picked a real "winner":
Continue reading: http://cosmicx.blogspot.be/2014/10/mahmoud-mansour-arrested-for-drug.html

Yid with Lid reports on a debate between Democrat Sen.Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Scott Brown.

The collapse of the incumbent Sen.Jeanne Shaheen's campaign continued Sunday morning at a candidate's forum taking place at Reform Synagogue Temple Adath Yeshurun. The heavily liberal crowd (Reform Jews tend to be the most liberal skewing Jews) booed the incumbent and called her rude after she interrupted Republican Scott Brown during his concluding remarks:
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.be/2014/10/audience-boos-rude-democrat-senjeanne.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/NWlS+(YID+With+LID)

 

Does the Senator have to worry about the outcome of the election, particularly with voting machines reported about in the article below?

Voting machines that switch Republican votes to Democrats are being reported in Maryland. “When I first selected my candidate on the electronic machine, it would not put the ‘x’ on the candidate I chose — a Republican — but it would put the ‘x’ on the Democrat candidate above it,” reported Donna Hamilton. - See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/another-calibration-error-machines-flip-gop-votes-democrats-maryland-64063/?
 

Your name shall be Abraham

לבכות: האמא בירכה שהחיינו בברית
In the week that we read in parshat Lech Lecha, "your name shall be Abraham," a baby has received the name Avraham (Chaim) after his father who was niftar before the bris. 

A woman, 22, has died Sunday, four days after she was mortally wounded when a terrorist plowed into a Jerusalem crowd with his car Wednesday.
She is the second victim of the attack to die. The first, baby Chaya Zisel Braun, died Wednesday.
The woman is a citizen of Ecuador who reportedly came to Israel with the intention of converting to Judaism.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/186617#.VE05tJtATIU

BREAKING: NYPD Officer Shoots Man Who Ran At Him With A Box Cutter

As I read the headline, I immediately thought if anyone would remark that this was a disproportionate response and I have already seen a comment posted,  "I can hear it now...it was unfair because he only had a boxcutter and the cop had a gun.."

Many of composer Johann Sebastian Bach's best-loved works may have actually been written by his wife, an academic has claimed.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2808296/Did-Mrs-Bach-write-composer-s-finest-works-Handwriting-analysis-proves-musician-s-second-wife-penned-best-pieces-academics-claim.html#ixzz3HHcuAxKK