Parshas Tetzaveh/Zachor

Parshas Tetzaveh/Zachor - Winning the Lottery!


The Chofetz Chaim Video: The Rosetta Stone


Appeal to help family of Golders Green M1 crash victim


Al Jazeera Retracts Gaza Flood Article, Publishes Correction


S.S.S.S. Nesivos Shalom Parshas Tetzaveh – Zachor

Acts of kindness

Mezakim announces a mishloach Manos camppaign.


Send Mishloach Manos to IDF Soldiers

Hiring a Rabbi – A Halachic Analysis

The Way of Loving-Kindness

Murgen vet zain gur andresh

VIDEO: Lakewood Resident asks Rav Chaim Kanievsky about Moving to Eretz Yisroel before Moshiach Comes - See more at: http://www.thelakewoodscoop.com/news/2015/02/video-lakewood-resident-asks-rav-chaim-kanievsky-about-moving-to-eretz-yisroel-before-moshiach-comes.html#sthash.9hEHZXQv.dpuf


Click here to read an inspiring last exchange of emails between a brother and siter in a post titled Ariel Left Me With Hope.

A coalition air strike near the Iraqi border town of al-Qaim killed at least 17 Islamic State militants and nine civilians overnight, a hospital source said.

...Separately, coalition planes bombed al-Rutba district, 385 km west of Baghdad, killing six Islamic State militants and 11 civilians, according to a source in the local hospital. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2970018/Air-strike-near-kills-17-Islamic-State-militants-nine-civilians-Iraq.html#ixzz3SqNLEENO


Why isn't anyone decrying the civilian casulaties? I guess because Israel wasn't involved in the strikes.


Germany's top Jewish leader suggested on Thursday that Jews shouldn't wear the traditional skullcap, or kippa, in areas with large Muslim populations but also said that hiding isn't the right approach to concerns about anti-Semitism.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-jewish-leader-wear-kippa-muslim-areas-29238539

Two and a half

Kosher food-cart vendor says he‘s blocked by ‘halal mafia’ in NYC


And the dimensions of the Aaron should be - two and half Amos its length, one and a half Amos its width, and one and a half Amos its height. Why are the dimensions of the Aaron in half Amos (by the Shulchan the dimensions are 2 Amos x 1 Amah)?

The Baal HaTurim says, Chazal teach that the Aaron represents Torah. The significance of halves is to teach us, one must break himself (half) over the Torah. In order to reach a high level in Torah, one can not sit back and relax. Rather, he must be "Maymis Atzmo Aleha" - kill himself over toiling in Torah.

Kli Yakar offers a different answer. Since the Aaron represents Torah, halves are representing the fact that even an accomplished Talmid Chachom is never finished learning. There is always more to learn and understand. A person is never more than a fraction of the way to completing the Torah.
http://www.thejewisheye.com/rev_ptrumah.html


A 2014 Jewish Press article begins with the words, "Secretary of State James A. Baker is surely one of the most reviled public figures both in Israel and among American Jews. "
http://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/feautures-on-jewish-world/george-bush-james-baker-and-the-jews/2014/10/31/


The Algeminer reports that Secretary Baker will be a speaker at the J Street Conference to be held in March.


Below is an excerpt from a daily email I received from the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation.

Generally speaking, unless one is certain that a given statement is not in the category of forbidden speech, he should not utter it. Even if he is inclined to think that it is a mitzvah to utter the statement and that he will receive reward in the World to Come for it, nevertheless, he should refrain from doing so. In this way, he will be saved from Divine retribution.

For example, if in fact one was obligated to speak critically of a certain individual and did not do so out of uncertainty, he will be able to come before the Heavenly Court and say, “I was not sure whether or not I was permitted to criticize him to others; therefore I chose to remain silent.’’ Conversely, if he will speak critically of the person when in fact this was wrong, or if he will mistakenly initiate a quarrel out of the conviction that it is a mitzvah to do so — how will he exonerate himself before the Heavenly Court? How will he excuse his having spoken the forbidden and having been the cause of strife? He will not be able to say that his uncertainty impelled him to speak, for if he was uncertain he should not have spoken.

 

The trumped up kosher sandwich

Oy, gevalt!
An orthodox Jewish man is suing the Trump Soho after he allegedly spent $146 to get a special hot kosher meal there — and was served a cold non-kosher turkey sandwich instead.
Continue reading: http://nypost.com/2015/02/13/man-sues-trump-hotel-after-being-served-non-kosher-sandwich/


Couple's Wedding Had Deep Effect


A college student who claimed she was threatened by a gunman on campus — adding that it may have been because she’s Muslim — admitted to police that she lied about the whole thing, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Continue reading: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/14/college-student-said-reason-gunman-threatened-her-could-be-because-shes-muslim-but-there-was-one-big-problem/

Paying tithes

A North Carolina mother of four who recently quit her jobs at Walmart and McDonalds to care for her four young children is believed to be one of the winners of the $188 million Powerball jackpot — and it’s what she’s planning to do first with her millions that’s surprising.

Marie Holmes, 26, told WECT-TV that she’s planning to donate money to church after she receives her payout.

“First I’m going to pay my tithes, because I wouldn’t have none of it if it wasn’t for God,” she said. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/13/the-surprising-thing-this-struggling-single-mother-of-four-plans-to-do-after-she-turns-in-her-winning-powerball-jackpot-ticket/#

Joshua Bonehill arrested and banned from London

The Archbishop of Canterbury last night issued an extraordinary apology for the British bombing of Dresden during the Second World War.

In what was immediately criticised as an insult to the young men who gave their lives to defeat the Nazis, the Most Rev Justin Welby told the German people of his ‘profound feeling of regret and deep sorrow’ over the attack.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2952945/Archbishop-says-sorry-bombing-Nazis-Justin-Welby-attacked-bizarre-apology-Dresden-raids-makes-no-reference-RAF-heroes-killed-Hitler.html#ixzz3RkglTeFq

Apologies

As anger mounts over their demand that Jewish students supporting the State of Israel be expelled, Durban University of Technology student leaders on Thursday backed down and apologised. Continue reading: http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/dut-src-sorry-for-jewish-call-1.1817916#.VN36Y5VATIW

A True Friend

Dr. Ben Carson scrubbed from SPLC’s extremist watch list, issued apology

If and when

In this week's portion we are taught the laws regarding lending money: "If (im) you shall lend money to any of My people. . .do not act towards him as a creditor; do not lay interest upon him" (Exodus 22:24). Rashi, the great medieval commentator, states that although the verse uses the Hebrew word "im - if" which would usually imply a voluntary act - and therefore no obligation to lend money to a poor person in the first place - it is in fact one of three places in the Torah where that word instead means "when", suggesting an actual command to lend money. The question still remains, however, that if Hashem intended to teach the obligation of lending money to a poor person, why does the Torah use the terminology of choice?
Read more: http://shortvort.com/mishpatim-parasha/11661-if-a-when


WATCH! EXCLUSIVE! CREEPY: Mayor of Tel Aviv Warned Bob Simon He Could Be Killed In “Car Accident in New York”

As we read in this week's parsha about the laws Hashem set forth for the nation of Israel, "And these are the ordinances that you shall set before them," it is ironic that a CNN co-host declared, "Our laws do not come from G-d, your honor, and you know that. They come from man."
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/02/12/cnns-cuomo-our-rights-do-not-come-from-god/

Jewishness

Gotnews reports, "One of the Chapel Hill shooting victim’s tweets reveal anti-Semitic, anti-white, anti-Israel, and anti-Zionist views."
http://linkis.com/gotnews.com/O5jpI

Bob Simon, the award-winning ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent who stoked controversy with a 2012 piece about Israel, died Wednesday night in a car crash in New York City, CBS said.
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/214621/bob-simon-stoked-israel-controversy-on--minutes/#ixzz3RVR7i48P

Below is an excerpt from a 1991 JTA article.

CBS News correspondent Bob Simon was worried that his Jewishness might cost him his life during the six weeks he and three colleagues were prisoners of the Iraqis while the Persian Gulf war raged.

“I thought my number was up when they started accusing me of being a member of Mossad,” the Israeli intelligence service, said Simon, who is normally based in Tel Aviv.

He said his captors “kept shouting ‘Yehudi, Yehudi’ at me.
http://www.jta.org/1991/03/06/archive/cbs-newsman-bob-simon-tells-of-ordeal-as-captured-jew

Bipartisan criticism of President Barack Obama's proposed authorization of force against ISIS mostly has to do with the use of U.S. troops and limits on the commander-in-chief. But one Republican lawmaker noticed something else that he calls quite troubling - omission of the word "Jews."

Freshman Lee Zeldin is the only Republican Jewish member of Congress, and says it immediately leapt off the page that the President's proposed resolution specifically singles out several ethnic groups threatened by ISIS: Iraqi Christians, Yezidis and Turkmens, but says nothing about Jews. http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/11/politics/white-house-isis-jewish/

Austrian prosecutor: Call to kill Jews is legal criticism of Israel

A group of students at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) in South Africa are calling on all Jews to be deregistered from the college.
Read more: http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/south-african-university-student-council-demands-jews-be-expelled

Vehicles

In the latest of a string of attacks, a vehicle in which a Hassidic rebbe was riding in on Wednesday on its way to the Mount of Olives was hit by heavy rocks, as rioting Arabs attacked the vehicle. The Rebbe of Koznitz was on his way to say memorial prayers on the Mount when Arabs in the Wadi Joz area of Jerusalem set upon the vehicle, nearly turning it over.
Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191225#.VNuwCpVATIU

Video: ‘Top Gear’ Tries to Outrace Hatzalah

Op-Ed: Who Was Kayla Mueller?