Always listening

Matt Novak writes about listening devices in an article titled The FBI Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny Wiretapping Your Amazon Echo.

We live in a world awash in microphones. They’re in our smartphones, they’re in our computers, and they’re in our TVs. We used to expect that they were only listening when we asked them to listen. But increasingly we’ve invited our internet-connected gadgets to be “always listening.” http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/the-fbi-can-neither-confirm-nor-deny-wiretapping-your-a-1776092971

How many of us have read the above article and have decided to change the way we speak, knowing what we can say can be eavesdropped by others? How many of us have read Pirkei avot ""Know what is above you — a seeing eye and a listening ear" and have resolved to change the way we speak?

Harvard’s clueless illiberalism

Ellen Futterman offers her best wishes to a Chabad rabbi in an article titled Suffering Seniors; Kudos to Rabbi Novack.

Congrats to Rabbi Hershey Novack, co-director of Chabad on Campus, who is being honored as one of America’s most inspiring rabbis by the Forward, a national Jewish newspaper. His name will be included as part of a larger list published next week by the newspaper, honoring these rabbis for their charismatic leadership within the local Jewish community.
According to the Forward, “In a time of growing secularization and general anxiety about the country’s future, (these) leaders are swimming against that tide and giving their communities a sense of strength and purpose. http://www.stljewishlight.com/news/news_schmooze/article_d5606e1a-1788-11e6-87a0-1782ac322c4e.html

Power Of Prayer: Ragilut InTorah

One nation un indivisible

Video: Clinton Laughs As Supporter Introducing Her Takes “Under God” Out Of Pledge…

In the week that a video is aired of a Hillary Clinton supporter introducing the Presidential candidate by stating, "only Hillary can bring us together as one nation un indivisible with liberty and justice for all," those who read the Torah portion of the week in the diaspora will be reminded numerous times about the word she omitted. Click here and count how many times the phrase, "I am the L-rd your G-d" appears in Parshat Kedoshim.

On the road again

Friends of Chaim Javitz, the bus driver whose bus was torched in Crown Heights, are asking your help to get him on the road again.
Read more: http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=40468&alias=friends-aid-torched-bus-owner

דוגמא מהגר"ח קנייבסקי: תורה - בלי לפגוע

Elderly terror victims: Arabs refused to help us as we bled

Dept. of Justice Investigating Hillary Email Scandal Gave $75K to Her Campaign

The aspiring mogul

This 14-year-old could become a vending machine mogul

Yartzheit of Reb Shaya Kerestirer - 3 Iyar - Click here to read a story about the Rav.

Differing parshas, headlines and spellings

Below are two headlines regarding the stabbing attack in Germany. Which one gives more of a clue as to the identity of the perpetrator? Which one is the CNN headline? With stabbing attacks in Germany and in Israel, what is next? Outlawing knives and scissors?

Knifeman screaming 'Allahu Akbar' kills one person and leaves three more fighting for life after random attack on passengers at train station in Germany

1 dead, 3 injured in knife attack in German train station

Terrorist stabs two elderly women in Jerusalem

I tried to comment on an article about former President Bill Clinton's "doodles on White House stationary" by sharing a link to a post explaining when to use the word "stationary" and when to use "stationery." My comment wasn't posted and the word "stationary" remains in the article.

Last week, I was asking myself the same question as the person who asked the question below. Note- this week the parsha in Israel is Emor while the parsha in the diaspora is Kedoshim.

The exhibit

The Moshe Muller family fund

Historic Jewish exhibit comes to Chicago’s Daley Center

Former Facebook employee: We suppressed conservative news

Family members

This morning I came across a Facebook posting that a young man who lost his mother shared. It was a photo taken at a beach with the words, "I miss my mother" etched in the sand. It got me thinking. When I wished my mother a "Happy Mother's Day" yesterday, did I stop to appreciate that I have a mother in my life?
Thank you, Hashem, for my mother.

A Daughter’s Death Motivates a Mother to Become a Doctor Late in Life

What to Look for in a President

Your friend's success

Terror victim's husband slams outgoing UN chief Ban Ki-moon

In the video below, the speaker talks about the verse, "You shall love your fellow as yourself" which is found in this week's portion of Parshat Kedoshim, which is read in the diaspora. In Israel, the week's Torah poriton is Emor.

One of the most famous phrases in this week’s Torah reading is (Vayikra 19:18), “You shall love your fellow as yourself.” R’ Moshe ben Nachman z”l (Ramban; Spain and Eretz Yisrael; 1194-1270) writes about this mitzvah:

What the Torah is expressing is the ideal, but a person’s heart is not capable of loving another person as it loves itself. Moreover, Rabbi Akiva taught (Bava Metzia 62a) that saving one’s own life takes precedence over saving another person’s life. [Rabbi Akiva spoke of two people traveling in a desert, one of whom has water and the other doesn’t. If there is only enough water for one to survive, he is not permitted to share, which would not be the case if he had to love the other as much as he loves himself].

Rather, Ramban writes, the mitzvah is to desire your friend’s success as you desire your own.
Continue reading: http://torah.org/torah-portion/hamaayan-5775-achareimos/

Some of you may have purchased tickets for this week's powerball lottery; When you began reading an article about how one person had purchased the winning tocket, your thought might have been, "Well, I don't have to bother checking the numbers because I didn't purchase a ticket." Another person might have said, "I know I didn't win because I checked the numbers but let me see if I conceivably could have picked the winning numbers." I didn't buy a ticket but I did check if I could have come up with those numbers and felt relieved that I wouldn't have picked those numbers.
As more details came out, I read that the winning ticket was purchased in New Jersey. Since I know a number of people living in New Jersey, I thoought that perhaps a Jewish person living in Lakewood had won. What was my initiial reaction when I thought about the possible success of a fellow brother or sister? Would I have been happier if the winning ticket had been purchased in Alaska?
"The mitzvah is to desire your friend’s success as you desire your own."
Did I desire my friend's success as I desire my own?

Rosh Chodesh Iyar - a new month - a new beginning to practice "veahavta lereacha kamocha." It's time to give people the benefit of the doubt, to stop the petty arguments about the yerusha, to contact someone with whom you've had a falling out.
I will try to take concrete steps to fulfill the mitzva, iy"h.

The good Jew

In short, to many on the far left, the only good Jew is a secular left-wing internationalist political activist with no particular interest in the well-being of his fellow Jews.
Read more: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/anti-semitism/obama-jewish-heritage-month/

Pop superstar Katy Perry declared in a recent interview that the whole world needs a weekly day of rest “like Shabbat,” to disconnect from social media.
Read more: http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/05/05/non-jewish-pop-singer-katy-perry-says-she-wishes-there-were-a-weekly-worldwide-shabbat-to-disconnect-from-social-media/# H/T Mr. Cohen

Iyar: A Month of Light

A gutten chodesh.

Acts of Chessed

Rav Vosner's Handicapped Granddaughter and Her Orphan Chosson Need your Help to Get Married

Master Your Life's Mission (1st Key)

7 Keys to Mastering Your Life's Mission, #2: Gevura

Parshas Acharei Mos - The Two Goats - great story about R’ Elchanan Wasserman zt”l at the end of the article.