The secret message

Tisha B'av 5775 - The Prerequisite of Shalom-Harmony, To Usher In The One Who Is Shaleim-Perfect


Think You’re Having a Bad Day? Read This Poem…and Then Read the Secret Message Hidden In Plain Sight

The 36 commandments?

I will not link to the letter that some of you might have read from a young woman who wrote about her Hasidic insular community but I will correct her statement about the Lammed Tes Melachos - "the 36 commandments kept on Shabbat."
Actually, it's 39.

I was speaking to a friend this morning about individuals who wish to leave the tight-knit community and are embraced by individuals who get them to try a piece of bacon and tell them, "you see, nothing happens if you eat unkosher." My friend asked me why these individuals have to go to the other extreme. Can't those people who find their environment too stifling be given tools to find jobs and incorporate into the secular world, while still keeping kosher and Shabbat?

שני טון בשר טרף שהוברחו מהרשות הפלסטינית נתפסו בדרך לירושלים

A double Mazal Tov

תקדים עולמי: תאומות נישאו לתאומים וילדו בהפרש 20 דקות - All I can say is Mazal Tov, Mazal Tov.

This Story About a 21-Year-old Orphan Trying to Get Married Will Make you Cry

When Tisha B’Av Falls Out On Shabbat – The Wide Ranging Ramifications

Citizenship guidance

When 'Tevye' Came to the Rebbe

Breitbart reports on guidance for citizenship clarified by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Under the clarified guidance from USCIS, certain immigrant candidates for citizenship do not need to declare that they will “bear arms on behalf of the United States” and “perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States.”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/21/obama-admin-updates-eligibility-requirements-to-omit-portions-of-citizenship-oath/

Halacha for Postponed Tisha B'Av

SALT: Parashat Devarim

A YouTube video titled 60 Minutes: Sir Nicholas Winton "Saving the Children" contains a question asked by the interviewer to Nicholas Winton regarding the Czech Kindertransport.

Did you approach any other countries to take some of the children?

The Americans. but the Americans wouldn't take any. Which was a pity. We could have got a lot more out.

Winton had written President Roosevelt asking the US to take in more children. A minor official at the US Embassy in London wrote back, "The Unites States government was unable to help."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0aoifNziKQ

Watch as ICE Director Is Forced to Tell Ted Cruz He’s ‘Absolutely Right’ After He Disputes Her Claim During Hearing

Spanning the decades

We have had plenty of talk over the years, but progress towards peace and an end to this senseless violence will not happen through talk but through actions. And the disengagement is genuine, positive action..
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/aug/02/comment

Isaac Herzog August 2005

“From a security standpoint, the disengagement was a mistake because it was done unilaterally,” http://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/gaza-disengagement-a-security-mistake-herzog-says/

Isaac Herzog July 2015

A majority of Israelis maintain they opposed the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip, and over half believe Israel should resettle the territory, a poll published Monday said.
 ... “Since we known a majority of the public in 2005 supported the disengagement, it’s very clear that some of the respondents don’t feel comfortable with their past support for the disengagement and therefore testify today that they opposed it,” Inbar said.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/poll-most-israelis-opposed-gaza-pullout-support-return/

“We Don’t Know The Terrorist’s Motive”…

בשל חובות עתק: ישיבת לוצרן בשוויץ סוגרת את שעריה

In Scotland, a desperate bid to reclaim a long-unknown Jewish identity

Aleph, Lamed Hey

Sefer Devarim is Moshe's closing message to Bnei Yisrael where he gives the mussar for the aveiros they have done, reviews with them all the mitzvos, and warns them about the future. The Gemara says (Bava Basra 165a) that most people steal, a few enter illicit relationships, and everybody speaks Avak Lashon Hara.
The Vilna Gaon finds a Remez to this gemara in the opening words of the parsha. "Eileh Hadevarim Asher Diber Moshe El Kol Yisroel". Eileh (Aleph, Lamed, Hey) is for Avak Lashon Hara. That is why it says El Kol Yisrael, because we are all oveir on this.
http://revach.net/article.php?id=570

Jewish Man Killed in Hit-and-Run After Verbal Dispute Over Parking Spot

Why My Kids Are Going Back to Jewish Day School

Famous rabbi: Aborted-fetus face cream 'not kosher'

Bad coordination

Housing Illegal Aliens At Detention Centers Costs More Than Four Star Hotels

Pollard's attorney: Despite reports, no word yet on his release

A NATO airstrike hit two Afghan military checkpoints on Monday in a restive province east of the capital, Kabul, killing seven Afghan troops in what an Afghan official describes as an accident due to bad coordination.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/07/20/coalition-airstrike-afghanistan/30402917/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

No UN condemnation? No ICC trial? Just let Israel use the defense "an accident due to bad coordination" and see what happens.

How Could We Have Known: The Jews Who Voted For Obama

What is this guy doing on YouTube? Particularly worrying are the amount of likes he received and the hateful comments.

Beautiful Instagram

The NYPost reveals the names of the victims of the limo crash on Long Island.

Brittney Schulman, 23, and Lauren Baruch, 24, both of Smithtown, Amy Grabina, 23, of Commack and Stephanie Belli, 23, of Kings Park died in the crash near Vineyard 48 in Cutchogue, authorities said.
http://nypost.com/2015/07/19/drunk-driver-charged-in-crash-with-limo-that-killed-4/

An Instagram Amy composed for her father reveals what a special daughter she was..

Happy Father's Day to the greatest father there is 💙❤️ I love you and appreciate you more than you could imagine. Thank you for everything you do for me and forever being my number one fan  

The remains

The remains of 86 Jewish people sent to Nazi gas chambers in 1943 have been discovered at a forensic medicine institute in eastern France.
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/remains-of-86-jewish-holocaust-victims-used-for-human-experiments-by-nazis-found-hidden-in-strasbourg-lab-10400263.html

TEHILLIM – HaRav Matisyahu Solomon Taken To Hospital

Seaweed that Tastes like Bacon Reminiscent of Talmudic Teaching

Anashim

Moshe Rabbeinu retells how he told Hashem that the burden of leading Bnei Yisrael alone was too much for him. Moshe then tells Klal Yisroel (Devarim 1:13), "Havu Lachem Anashim...", Provide yourselves men, wise and understanding and renowned to your tribes...

Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky points out that the plural for men is Anashim instead of the more logical "Ishim" which would be plural for the singular for of the word man "Ish". What is Anashim and what is the basis for this word that has no root in the singular? He answers that one individual man and a group of men are two non-related concepts. A group of men is not multiple individuals. It is a new concept that is totally unrelated. This is why the Torah uses a word that is not related to the singular form.

He also adds that we find this in other languages as well including Russian, German, and Lithuanian. http://revach.net/parshas-hashavua/quick-vort/Parshas-Devarim-Rav-Yaakov-Kaminetzky-The-Novelty-of-Many-Men/4645

The Queen has made her first appearance since footage showing her performing a Nazi salute as a young girl was published in The Sun. 
Read more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3167103/Queen-breaks-cover-time-Nazi-salute-pictures-Sun.html