Attn: NY Jews - Termination of kosher certification Effective 05/15/2012 Rosa's Pizza at 350 5th Ave, New York, NY 10011 is no longer kosher certified.
Six years ago I published this bit of humor about current events by Jay Leno: "With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?" Now the Atheists want to censor the ten commandments.
Just for Today only prayers for Esther bas Leah who is undergoing surgery now or is in the recovery room.
As we get closer to the time of the giving of the Torah I would like to express my ideas on the return of Prophecy to Am Yisrael: Tehillim 24:3 Who shall ascend into the mountain of the LORD? and who shall stand in His holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; For what we have lost over the centuries was our ability to keep our faith in HASHEM pure like that of a child. For prophecy was given to fools or crazy people and children. Why all these and children? - Because they have to be protected from harm by HASHEM! The child is simple he prays, dreams and does things without any motive to gain something. In short to get prophecy one has to be a non-profit prophet. Some great Rabbis and even minor Rabbis have received help from heaven when they struggled to help others whom they would never gain from. Prophecy will return to those who upgrade their values to: You shall toil in the study of Torah in order to observe and fulfill [the commandments (Torath Kohanim 26:2).
Bechukotai
26:3 If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them;
If you follow My statutes: I might think that this refers to the fulfillment of the commandments. However, when Scripture says, “and observe My commandments,” the fulfillment of the commandments is [already] stated. So what is the meaning of “If you follow My statutes”? It means that you must toil in the study of Torah [for the word for “follow” here, תֵּלֵכוּ, literally means “walk,” which is a strenuous activity (Gur Aryeh)]. — [Torath Kohanim 26:2] and observe My commandments: You shall toil in the study of Torah in order to observe and fulfill [the commandments (Torath Kohanim 26:2). This is similar to, “[Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances…] and learn them, and keep in mind to do them” (Deut. 5:1) [i.e., learn the Torah in order to keep them in your heart and perform them]. — [Sifthei Chachamim]
This should be your goal to learn Torah so that you can observe and as it is written in Perkei Avos “HASHEM will allow you to learn, observe and teach others Torah”. The Mitzvah is not learning to hold the knowledge in your stomach like you read a novel but to observe and transmit it to the next generation and perhaps others of your own generation.
4 then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield her produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
[I will give your rains] in their time: at a time when people do not usually go out, for example, on Sabbath Eve. — [Ta’anith 23a] the tree of the field: This refers to trees [planted in the field, as opposed to the orchard,] that do not bear fruit, but are destined to bear fruit in the future. — [Torath Kohanim 26:5]
This is a condition if you observe then you will receive this but if you break the contract there is a fine.
5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and ye shall eat your bread until ye have enough, and dwell in your land safely.
Your threshing will last until the vintage [and the vintage will last until the sowing]: For the threshing will be so plentiful that you will be occupied with it until the vintage, and you will be occupied with the vintage until the sowing season. — [Torath Kohanim 26:6] you will eat your food to satiety: One will eat only a little [food], but it will become blessed in one’s innards. — [Torath Kohanim 26:6]
You will not be lacking any food for the supply will over-flow that you will never worry when the new crop comes in because there will be plenty of food.
6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
And I will grant peace: You might say, “Here is food, and here is drink, but if there is no peace, there is nothing!” Scripture, therefore, states, after all this [blessing], “I will grant peace in the Land.” From here, [we learn] that peace is equal to everything else. And so, [this is illustrated in our morning prayers,] when we say: “[Blessed are You, O Lord…] Who… makes peace and creates everything” [a paraphrase of the verse] (Isaiah 45:7). - [see Ber. 11b; Torath Kohanim 26:7] and no army will pass through your land: It is unnecessary to state that they will not come to wage war, but [they will not come] even to pass through your land from one country to another. — [Torath Kohanim 26:9]
7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
In the 6 Day War, all the planes of the enemies of Israel were knocked out from Iraq, Yarden, Syria and Egypt in one fast swoop and often the sleeping Egyptians woke up without their shoes when captured. For revenge, during the Yom Kippur War the Egyptians made the Israeli troops remove their shoes. The Syrian officers fled leaving the soldiers changed to their machine guns in the Golan Heights at first they fought hard but as the Golani Brigade advanced they surrendered or became casualities.
8 And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
of you will pursue: [It will require only five] of your weakest [to pursue a hundred enemies], and not of your strongest [i.e., מִכֶּם means “the weakest (of you.”]- [Sifthei Chachamim; Torath Kohanim 26:10] Five… will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand: But is this calculation correct? [Since five will pursue a hundred, this means that each Jew will pursue twenty enemies;] therefore, should Scripture not have written here: “and a hundred of you will pursue two thousand”? But, [the Torah teaches us that] there is no comparison between a few who fulfill the Torah and many who fulfill the Torah [and thus, here, the larger the group of pursuers, the higher proportionately is the number pursued]. — [Torath Kohanim 26:10] and your enemies will fall [by the sword before you]: [This promise, already stated in verse 7, is repeated here to teach us (Torath Kohanim 26:10)] that the enemy will fall before you, not in the usual manner [i.e., that many of them will fall by the hand of only a few. — [Rash MiShantz ad loc.]
The 20 to 1 ratio is really great. During the Six Day War there were a few million Israel Jews vs. 150,000,000 Arabs in surrounding countries which made a ration of between 50 to 75 and to one.
9 And I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you; and will establish My covenant with you.
You honor me by following MY laws, statutes and commands and I in turn will honor you back with children and if I honor you so others will honor you.
I will turn towards you: “I will turn away (אֶפְנֶה) from all My affairs to pay your reward.” To what may this be compared? To a king who hired some workers [only one of whom worked for him for a long time, while all the others did not. When they presented themselves to receive payment, the king quickly paid the others a small amount, while to the one who had worked long, he said, “They worked merely a little for me, but with you, I must now turn my attention to calculate the substantial amount that I owe you.” Likewise, God will quickly pay the nations the small amount He owes them for their little good deeds, and then He will turn His attention, as it were, to the Jewish people, to calculate their great reward,] as is taught in Torath Kohanim 26:11.]
10 And ye shall eat old store long kept, and ye shall bring forth the old from before the new.
This is an elaboration of Pasuk 5 above how HASHEM will give us a constant supply of food that we will not lack it – of course on condition that we observe and guard the Mitzvos.
11 And I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.
And My Spirit will not reject you: My Spirit will not be disgusted with you. Every [expression of] גְּעִילָה is an expression of the purging of something that had been absorbed by something else, as in the verse, “For there, the shield of the mighty was rejected (נִגְעֲל),” (II Sam. 1:21), it did not accept that anointment, that [warriors] used to anoint their leather shields with cooked fat, in order to have attacking arrows or spears glide off it, rather than pierce the leather.
Based on Rashi I assume that the opposite is also true if we rebel and get disgusted with the commandments. [For some of us we take the prayer as routine others it is their big thing of the day, I like counting of the Omer and the Sefiros while others don’t care if it is Yesod sheh B’ Yesod but just the 41 days in Omer, and others go out of their way to visit the sick or supply sandwiches to family in the emergency room, etc.] We are all part of Am Yisrael when the Mitzvos are loved by us we are loved by HASHEM and when the Mitzvos we repulse then the opposite becomes the situation.
12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be MY people.
I will walk among you: [God promises a blessing of special spiritual quality, involving intimate knowledge of Him (Zeidah Laderech):] “I will stroll with you in the Garden of Eden, as if I were one of you, and you will not be terrified of Me.” Now, one might think that you will not fear Me [under such “familiar” circumstances]. Scripture, therefore, says here, “and be your God.” - [Torath Kohanim 26: 15]
What we weren’t HIS people beforehand? Rather, HE will be with us as teens hang out together with their buddies.
13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.
I am the Lord, your God, [Who took you out of the land of Egypt]: It is worthwhile for you to believe Me that I can do all these things, for indeed “I took you out of the land of Egypt” and performed great miracles for you. — [Torath Kohanim 26:16] The pegs: [A plowing yoke consists of a bar that is placed over the animal’s neck and reins that are placed under its neck and threaded through two holes at each end of the bar. This term מוֹט refers to] a type of peg, which is inserted into the two [holes at the] ends of the yoke. [These pegs therefore jam the reins tightly through the holes,] preventing the reins from coming off the ox’s head and [preventing the] undoing of the knot. [The term is] as [it appears] in the verse, “Make yourself reins and yoke-pegs (מֹטוֹת) ” (Jer. 27:2); cheville in French. Upright: Erect in stature [due to relief from bondage]. — [Torath Kohanim 26:17]
If you are on MY side now and do things in the ways I have commanded, I too will take the reins off of you. So why do you ask we are under such intensive threats from the outside? Our “leaders” are going after their own hearts, eyes and pressure from a person who learned in a Muslim School in Indonesia! Our “leaders” are the ones turning away from the land that HASHEM gave us. They are rebelling against Am Yisrael, Avos Yisrael, Bris HASHEM, etc. So we become terrified of missiles in our land. Just read on:
14 But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments;
But if you do not listen to Me: to toil in [the study of] Torah in order to know the exposition of the Sages [corresponding to verse 3]. I might think that this refers to fulfilling the commandments. When Scripture says, “and you do not perform all these commandments,” the fulfillment of commandments is [already] stated. So what is the meaning of “if you do not listen to Me”? To toil in [the study of] Torah. And what is the meaning of “to Me”? This is speaking only about someone who knows his Master, and yet willfully rebels against Him (Sanh. 109a). Likewise, regarding Nimrod [whom Scripture calls], “a powerful hunter before the Lord ” (Gen. 10:9), [it means that] he recognized God but intentionally rebelled against Him; likewise, regarding the people of Sodom, [referred to as], “very evil and sinful against the Lord ” (Gen. 13:13)- [it means that] they recognized their Master but intentionally rebelled against Him. — [Torath Kohanim 26:18] and do not perform: If you do not learn [the Torah], you will not perform. Scripture hereby enumerates two transgressions [namely, (a) not learning the Torah and therefore (b) not fulfilling its commandments properly]. — [Torath Kohanim 26:18]
15 and if ye shall reject My statutes, and if your soul abhor Mine ordinances, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but break My covenant;
And if you despise My statutes: [This refers to one who] despises others who perform [the commandments];- [Torath Kohanim 26:18] and reject My ordinances: [refers to one who] hates the Sages - [Torath Kohanim 26:18] not performing: [refers to someone who] prevents others from fulfilling [the commandments];- [Torath Kohanim 26:18]
16 I also will do this unto you: I will appoint terror over you, …
Aren’t we better than this? Why do so many Orthodox Jews vote for this bunch of characters? According to the election rules if all the religious parties would stick together into one bundle of a Party, we would have a united group and 35 to 40 MK’s and could form the next government instead there is a split between the Modern Orthodox and the Charedim between the Sephardim and Ashkenazim between compromising on the land and saying that this is land of milk and honey and this lovely land is mine from HASHEM Yisborach!
27:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When a man shall clearly utter a vow of persons unto the LORD, according to thy valuation …
This is a man pledging his worth as a slave to redeem himself with money for the Temple. The section covers property like houses, fields and animals.
34 These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai.
Chazak-Chazak-v’NitChazak
A cute Parable from Rabbi A.L. Potato Chips
A little boy wanted to meet G-d. He knew it was a long trip to where G-d lived, so he packed his suitcase with a bag of potato chips and a six-pack of root beer and started his journey.
When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old man. He was sitting in the park, just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to him and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old man looked hungry, so he offered him some chips. He gratefully accepted it and smiled at him.
His smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered him a root beer. Again, he smiled at him. The boy was delighted!
They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.
As twilight approached, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave; but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old man, and gave him a hug. He gave him his biggest smile ever..
When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?"
He replied, "I had lunch with G-d." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? He's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"
Meanwhile, the old man, also radiant with joy, returned to his home. His son was stunned by the look of peace on his face and he asked, "dad, what did you do today that made you so happy?"
He replied "I ate potato chips in the park with G-d." However, before his son responded, he added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime! Embrace all equally!
Have lunch with G-d.......bring chips.
G-d still sits. You may be going through a tough time right now but G-d is getting ready to bless you in a way that only He can.
Keep the faith!
In response to the above post, Chaya Golda posted this: How a Smile Could Save a Life Sunday, May 6, 2012 By Sara Esther Crispe
I could tell that they had no idea who I was. I tried to remind them about the Shabbat meals I had eaten at their house so many years ago. But to no avail. They really just didn’t remember me.
I wasn’t insulted. I often bump into people I met years ago, without being able to place them or recollect how we knew each other. But in this particular case it was funny, because not only did I remember this family in great detail; they were actually responsible, to a great degree, for my life today.
You see, about 18 years ago, one of their daughters was having her bat mitzvah. For some reason, the parents asked if I would come and speak to her group of friends. In doing so, I realized how much I loved public speaking, and began thinking that it was something I wanted to do with my life. At the time, the only public speaking I had done was teaching 12th grade high school, and that was certainly not the kind of reinforcement I needed to choose it as a career.
They were responsible, to a great degree, for my life today. But showing up at that bat mitzvah, speaking to those girls and having them laugh with me, and then tell me that I inspired them . . . that was something that changed my life.
If only we could know the things we said or did that might have altered someone’s life for the better. If only we could know when we were the right person at the right time who said the right thing. So often, we go through our days thinking we accomplished nothing, having no clue that the person we complimented or smiled at might have needed that smile more than we could ever imagine.
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement, taught that we come into this world for our entire lifetime just to do a favor for another. There is even a cute little ditty that the kids sing with this message. Just one favor. Really? A whole lifetime, and that could be the sum total of it all? And yet, maybe that one favor changed a life? Inspired a life? Saved a life?
At a mental health awareness event a few years ago, I heard a man describe his suicide attempt, in which he jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Few who have made that 220-foot jump have lived to tell their stories. Actually, only 2 percent of those who jump survive. But this man was one of the fortunate ones.
The second his feet left the bridge, he deeply regretted his decision He spoke to us about the power of depression, about the intense loneliness one can feel. The night he made the decision to die, he rode a public city bus to the bridge. He was the last one off the bus at the last stop. As he exited, he looked at the bus driver, desperate for a kind word. But the bus driver never even bothered looking at him.
This young man then made a promise to himself that if anyone smiled at him or asked how he was doing, it would prove to him that his life was worthwhile, and he wouldn’t jump. But no one did. At one point a couple even asked him to take their picture, but, consumed with their own lives, they didn’t pick up on the fact that minutes later their picture-taker would be attempting to take his own life.
Feeling that no one in the world cared about him, and that he had nothing to live for, the man climbed onto the railing of the bridge and jumped. The second his feet left the bridge, he deeply regretted his decision. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die,” he prayed the entire way down. Miraculously, he didn’t. He broke just about every bone in his body, but he lived. Until the rescuers reached him, sea lions swam under his broken body, keeping his head above water.
His story is amazing. But even more extraordinary than his personal survival is the promise he made to himself before he jumped. One smile could have saved his life. We could have been that one person on the bridge. Or that person on the bus with him. We could have offered a smile, or a “have a good night.” And had we offered that smile, we would have gone on our way, having no idea what that small act accomplished. That could have been the favor that the Baal Shem Tov was speaking about.
When I met this family again after so many years, it was clear that the impact they had made on me was much greater than the impact I had made on them. And that was perfectly fine. I didn’t need them to remember me. I just needed them to know how they influenced my life. By giving me the opportunity to speak, they introduced me to something I love, something I have been doing professionally from that point onward. Ironically, I reconnected to this family at a Passover program where my husband and I were the keynote speakers!
Everything we do, the big things as well as the seemingly not so big, can have an impact felt so blessed that I was able to see this family again, that I was able to thank them for what they had given me, and to let them see that they had made a huge difference in the life of someone they didn’t even remember. Having that experience reminded me that everything we do, the big things as well as the seemingly not so big, can have an impact, sometimes even a lifesaving one. So the next time we walk down the street minding our own business, let’s take that second to look up and smile at a stranger passing by. Maybe, just maybe, that is what he is living for. Source: http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/7334/jewish/Sara-Esther-Crispe.htm
By reading this on the net you will know that I am for progress in technology and using the internet to advance Torah. However, there is a dark side to the internet. There are dangers to proper observance and even physical dangers such as the youngster who was lured by an Arab woman to the Shomron to his death. I bring down two articles one from the Union of Orthodox Rabbis and one a newspaper story. There are both male and female Goyim posing a Jews sometimes for nefarious purposes and other times for a Goya to marry a rich Jewish man who does not check into her background. The last case, I received in the course of the last few years letters from Russia and Africa to that effect. The Russian ones all started “darling”. I haven’t used that word on my wife but I do use other terms of endearment. My favorite is the Nigerian scam which a wealthy American Lawyer was taken for $30,000 until he woke up. There are fake Jewish profiles of people on the internet or even a real Jew who could not post his or her real name other than security reasons he would not be the only Moshe or Chaim on the net.
This is taken from the OU Magazine Jewish Action an Article by Jonathan Rosenblum: http://www.ou.org/jewish_action/03/2012/half-shabbos-is-no-shabbos/
Jewish Week reporter Steve Lipman sent more than a few shockwaves through the Orthodox world with his recent article on texting on Shabbos by teenagers educated in Orthodox institutions. He reported on a Shabbaton at which fourteen of the seventeen teenagers present were texting one another. So common is the phenomenon that it even has its own nomenclature: “half Shabbos.”
In a follow-up letter to the Jewish Week, Drs. Scott Goldberg and David Pelcovitz attempted to mitigate the impact of Lipman’s article. Their survey of 1,200 teenagers in Modern Orthodox institutions, they wrote, revealed that only 17.7 percent text on Shabbos [emphasis mine]; 15.5 percent surf the Internet; and 13.5 percent talk on their cell phones. I doubt anyone was particularly consoled by those numbers.
While Lipman’s article and the Goldberg-Pelcovitz survey dealt only with Modern Orthodox students, the phenomenon is by no means confined to that sector of the Orthodox population. A Bais Yaakov principal in a major urban center told me that at last year’s Bais Yaakov convention in Baltimore, one principal told him that he could name twenty girls in his community who text on Shabbos, and another confided that on the last school Shabbaton a number of the girls put on makeup on Shabbos.
A Symptom of a Larger Problem
Texting is just the most open expression of a much more general problem—a lack of idealism, enthusiasm, and connection to Torah on the part of many Orthodox teenagers. One of the principals mentioned earlier told me that two years ago he met with the graduating class of seniors in a Bais Yaakov high school in a fairly insular community—most of the girls’ parents work in Jewish education and do not have the Internet or secular newspapers in their homes. The third most frequently asked question was: “Isn’t Yiddishkeit just something most people do because that is what everyone does? Does anyone really believe it’s true?”
On one level, texting on Shabbos merely shows that our children are not immune to trends in the general society. One Nielsen survey showed that the average American teenager (aged thirteen to seventeen) sends 3,339 text messages a month, about six per waking hour, and for girls the number is over 4,000.
Even if Shabbos were removed from the equation, however, texting would be cause for parental concern. “Addicted” and “bored” are the two most common explanations offered by teenagers for texting on Shabbos. Both should scare us. “Addicted” because it expresses a lack of belief in one’s free will. Psychologists today speak of the “addictive personality,” and it is not implausible to fear that one type of addiction could presage others.
“Bored” is less frightening. But it too is cause for concern. That boredom reflects a shallow sense of self—a lack of self-identity apart from the opinions of one’s friends, with whom one must be in constant contact as if to affirm one’s own existence.
The Lost Art of Thinking
Too many of today’s teenagers are afraid or incapable of thinking about anything deeply. When Israeli teenagers are asked about their life goals, the most common answer is to be a celebrity. The quest for fame, the painful desire to be noticed, is totally divorced from any purpose other than the fame itself.
Given the proliferation of texting, it is a wonder that many teenagers have time for anything else. One thing they will not develop while sending six texts an hour and preserving constant contact with all friends is a taste for the joy of thinking—even sophomorically—about the great questions of life.
More than eighty years ago, Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz, the great mashgiach of the Mirrer Yeshiva, pointed to the loss of the ability to think deeply as the source of the degeneration of life predicted by Chazal during Ikvesa D’Mashicha, Messianic Times. Already in his day, he described how a contemplative person is viewed as a “batlan” wasting his time.
Trends that required a Reb Yerucham to notice eighty years ago are evident to anyone today. A rapidly developing body of scientific evidence and social commentary points to the way that the Internet is changing how we think and the kind of people we are. Nicholas Carr, in his book The Shallows, gathers experimental proof of how the neural connectors of our brains are being reshaped by constant exposure to the Internet.
The Shallows is also, in the words of Tufts Professor Maryanne Wolf, a sustained essay about the “loss of human capacity for contemplation and wisdom, in an epoch where both appear increasingly threatened.” She worries that the type of reading encouraged by the Internet—bouncing from one text to another text, image or video, while being bombarded by messages, alerts and feeds—is inimical to our capacity for “deep reading” and “the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction.”
The Internet allows no white spaces, no time for absorption and reflection. Chazal knew that such pauses are crucial for ideas to have any impact on the recipient. The white spaces in the Torah—the psuchos and stumos—reflect the breaks that Hashem provided Moshe Rabbeinu with so that he could absorb each parashah properly.
Perhaps it is some solace that many Orthodox teenagers are not much different from their secular peers in their “addiction” to texting. But I suspect it will not be much consolation to parents who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure that their children receive a fine Torah education, only to learn that it has not rendered them capable of refraining from texting for one day a week.
Leading by Example
What can we as parents do to combat the “addiction” to texting that makes it impossible to go twenty-five hours without sending a “Gd Shbs” message to a friend sitting right across the table? Unfortunately, the answer is very little if we are not prepared to model different behavior ourselves.
If we automatically accept every new technological advance as a necessity, and the adverse consequences of those inventions as unavoidable by-products of “progress,” then we cannot expect our children to adopt a different view. If our children see us checking our e-mails every ten minutes, or glancing anxiously at our handheld devices even in the middle of a conversation with them, we lack standing to guide them to a healthier relationship with every new handheld invention.
Obviously, a teenager who is busy texting or surfing the Internet on Shabbos does not experience Shabbos positively—at least at this stage in his or her life. One finds oneself almost wishing that they were mechallel Shabbos for ta’avos more readily understood. The casualness with which they transgress Shabbos restrictions, without even the lure of any tangible pleasure, itself adds to the pain.
Creating an Atmosphere
Do we as parents have the tools to reverse our teens’ perception of Shabbos? Again, only if we are willing to ensure that we are conveying a completely different message of Shabbos. And even then, it might be too late to have much immediate impact on those already well into their second decade, when peer pressure is much more dominant.
It is often said that in America we have growing numbers of shomer Shabbos Jews. What we are lacking is erev Shabbos Jews. An erev Shabbos Jew is one who approaches Shabbos with eager anticipation of the taste of Olam Haba that then sustains him or her during the week to follow. A home in which the Shabbos table is set in all its glory on Thursday night, or at least well in advance of candle lighting, is one in which that message is heard.
A home in which a calm descends prior to Shabbos and the parents are dressed to greet the Shabbos Queen is one in which the preciousness of Shabbos enters our children’s consciousness. Needless to say, achieving that pre-Shabbos calm is harder than ever in our fast-paced, frenetic world. It is not easy to leave work early, especially on short winter afternoons under the watchful stares of co-workers and bosses. But arriving home close to candle lighting comes at the cost of an atmosphere in the house of heightened anticipation of Shabbos.
The Shabbos Table
The Shabbos table is the crucial element in instilling a love of Shabbos and of being Jewish. Rabbi Eliezer Menachem Shach attributed the failure of one of his children to follow in his footsteps to the fact that he did not sing more zemiros at the Shabbos table. Only if our Shabbos tables are child-friendly will they have the power to instill powerful positive associations with Shabbos that will accompany our children long after they leave our homes.
Creating the desired atmosphere at the Shabbos table, like most other worthwhile endeavors in life, requires preparation. It means finding divrei Torah that are understandable to our children. It also requires fathers to familiarize themselves with what their children have learned during the week so that they can draw out their participation. Divrei Torah that focus on lessons in middos or mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro can be springboards from the parashah to events in our or our children’s everyday lives. One recent compilation of such lessons from each parashah is Blueprints for Lasting Relationships by Rabbi Hershel Becker, which has enhanced my own Shabbos table in recent months. But the most important thing is that our children see us sharing divrei Torah—even ones they cannot yet fully understand—with enthusiasm, so that they understand that we look to the Torah as our source of values.
Finally, Shabbos is a time to strengthen our relationships with our children, to talk to them, to find out what’s on their minds. The more we use the time to show them our interest in their lives, the more connected to us they will feel, and the more reluctant to disappoint us or depart from what they know to be our most important values.
I do not mean that our Shabbos tables have to conform to some idyllic picture: smiling children sitting attentively at the table and never leaving it to read on the couch, parents demonstrating infinite patience, never stifling a yawn or putting their weary heads down, and no one ever addressing a negative word to a sibling, parent or child. Unrealistic expectations are harmful because they add to parental tension when the storybook picture is not realized. But with advance thought and preparation, most of our Shabbos tables can be uplifted and have a much more lasting impact on our children.
The phenomenon of “half Shabbos” is too widespread to be ignored, and it represents only the tip of the iceberg of a much deeper apathy with respect to Hashem and His Torah. But we should at the same time remember that the teenage years are typically ones of rebelliousness and boundary testing. They are also the years in which peer pressure is strongest, and parental influence is much diminished. However, we can help our children develop Torah values that are not just a reflection of what everyone else is doing. (But even when we are successful in this respect in the long-run, there will usually be setbacks during the teenage years.) Many respected members of the Orthodox world today can likely remember teenage activities that they pray their children will not engage in. And that will no doubt be true twenty years from now for many of those texting on Shabbos today, for whom the intense experience of yeshivah or seminary in Eretz Yisrael still lies ahead.
It should also be recognized that not all students in Modern Orthodox institutions come from Shomer Shabbos homes, and thus some of those texting on Shabbos likely come from homes in which Shabbos is not fully observed and in which there is no sense of reverence for the day. But no matter how many mitigating factors we can find to minimize the revelations about teen texting on Shabbos, the phenomenon will not allow us to remain complacent. At the very least, it is a wake-up call to all parents to re-examine our own attitudes toward Shabbos and to contemplate how successful we are in conveying our own positive feelings and how we can improve.
Jonathan Rosenblum is a columnist for Mishpacha, The Jerusalem Post, the American Yated Ne’eman, and the author of eight biographies of modern Jewish leaders.
We have to tell our children of the dangers of Facebook and not leave them exposed: http://www.5tjt.com/local-news/14134-religious-jewish-girl-kidnapped-drugged-attacked-and-robbed-through-facebook-contact
Khirbet Qeiyafa Excavations Find Evidence Of Solomon’s Temple, Archaeologists Say By Michele Chabin Religion News Service
JERUSALEM (RNS) Archaeologists have unearthed a trove of artifacts dating back to the time of the biblical King David that they say closely correspond to the description of Solomon’s Temple found in the Book of Kings.
Hebrew University archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel said the find “is extraordinary” first because it marks the first time that shrines from the time of the early Israelite kings were found. In addition, two small, well-preserved models discovered in the excavations closely resemble elements described in the Bible.
The multiyear excavations took place at Khirbet Qeiyafa, a fortified city about 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem, adjacent to the Valley of Ella where, the Bible says, the ancient people of Israel were encamped when David slew Goliath.
Excavations yielded a large assortment of pottery, stone and metal tools as well as art and cult objects.
Garfinkel said the people who lived at the site appeared to shun both graven images and pigs – both prohibited by the Hebrew Bible.
“Over the years, thousands of animal bones were found, including sheep, goats and cattle, but no pigs,” he said. “Now we uncovered three cultic rooms with various cultic paraphernalia, but not even one human or animal figurine was found.”
According to Garfinkel, this suggests that the inhabitants observed the biblical bans on pork and graven images – “and thus practiced a different cult than that of the Canaanite or the Philistines” of the time.
Not all archaeologists agree with Garfinkel’s assessment, however.
“These are beautiful finds, but they are not special in that similar ones have been found in various places, and they should therefore not be connected in any way to the ark” or other biblical references, Tel Aviv University archaeologist Nadav Na’aman told the newspaper Haaretz.
Na’aman doubted, too, whether the lack of pig bones suggests that the inhabitants of the settlement were part of King David’s kingdom.
“The Canaanites also did not eat pork,” Na’aman said.
Is that you, Mr. Olmert? Op-ed: The former PM who led Israel into disastrous war has nerve to say he doesn’t trust Netanyahu by Hanoch Daum
We see a man who was disgracefully dismissed from the post of Israel’s prime minister, because he was deeply embroiled in corruption and bribery affairs. Notwithstanding a miracle, this man will be the first prime minister in Israel’s history who will find himself behind bars.
Yet this man stands up and starts to preach. Indeed, the audience is booing him, and others are surprised to see a former prime minister speaking out against his own state while abroad, but this does not bother this man. I don’t trust Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make the right decision on the issue of a war with Iran, he says.
And we are standing there, shocked and wide-mouthed, and wonder: Is that you, Mr. Olmert? Is that you, the same man from the Wynograd Report? The man who according to the Report embarked on war with an ill-prepared army, without an exit strategy, without any strategy in fact? The same man who failed to manage this war in a sane manner?
Is that you, Mr. Olmert, the man who took the puzzling and tragic decision (which merited a special chapter in the Report) to order a large ground force deep into Lebanon after a date for a ceasefire was already agreed on – a decision that brought many more Israeli families into the circle of bereavement?
Do you, the prime minister who led Israel into the most disasterous war that we have known in the past 100 years, have the right to explain to us who you trust and who you don’t?
Miracle Story
Rabbi A.L. was forwarded this note via Shaya as received: I just heard this story also here in Israel and its true – Beverly
Realize the importance of forgiving Subject: Awesome story that happened last week in Israel
B”H
Don’t know if this has or will make the Israeli papers and magazines, but it should. I heard this story from Dr. Yisrael Levy of Tsfas this week. He heard it from a patient this week. The patient heard it from a doctor who teaches a class that the patient attends. The doctor was involved in the story himself. Sorry, nobody gave me any names. Believe it if you are so inclined.
About 2 weeks ago, a man in Israel saw his late father in a dream. He had not been visited by his late father for many, many years and so it was very unusual. In the dream, his father came to warn him. The following words are mine, a paraphrase of how I heard the story:
“You are being summoned in a few days to the beit din l’malla (court appearance in the heavenly court above). You need to testify as a witness against a man who is coming up for judgment. Years ago, when you were his student, he publicly embarrassed you in front of the class. You never forgave him for the humiliation. They are calling you to testify to this against the man when he comes up for judgment.”
The man asked his father in his dream if he would return to earth after this court appearance above. There was no answer. Very shaken by the dream, the man went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky (He is the elderly gadol in Bnei Brak who was recently widowed of his saintly Rebbetzin.) The tzadik annulled the dream. However, the man couldn’t shake off the fear and couldn’t forget about it. He went back to the sage and told him that it still bothered him tremendously.
The sage told him that in this case, he would need to assemble 3 witnesses for a beit din (court ruling). They did that. The three men ruled that the man should search all over Israel for his ex-teacher, hopefully find him still alive, and tell the teacher that he completely forgives him. So the man starts looking for his past teacher. He can’t find him anywhere in Jerusalem . Finally, he finds his address in B’nei Brak and goes to his door. Nobody answers. He knocks on the neighbors’ doors. A neighbor tells him that his past teacher is extremely ill, in the hospital in intensive care, and isn’t expected to survive much longer. He finds the hospital and goes there.
As he is walking towards the door of the teacher’s intensive care hospital room, a doctor (same doctor who told this story to his class) intercepts him and asks him if he is family. He says he is not family. The doctor says that in that case, he can’t see the patient, and he is not allowed to give him any detailed information.
The man is desperate. He tells the frum doctor the story about his dream and the beit din decision. The doctor says, “Well, the man’s son is sitting there outside of his father’s room. Let’s ask him if he grants permission for you to talk to his father. His father is very, very weak.” They tell the story to the son, who decides that it is important and gives permission for the man to speak to his ex-teacher.
The man enters the room and sees his ex-teacher hooked up to tubes everywhere, on a respirator, and looking like he is not long for this world. But he is conscious. He sits down next to the bed and he introduces himself.
“Many years ago, I was your student. One day, you embarrassed me in front of the class, and I have carried a grudge against you for that all these years. I never forgave you. I came to you to tell you that I now fully forgive you with all my heart.” (My paraphrase.)
The sick man said, “Todah (thank you),” and the visitor left the sick man’s room. Within a few hours, the sick man showed much improvement. The vital signs were so good that they were able to start to take out some of the tubes and apparatus. In a another short while, he was sitting up and his energy was returning. Within a few days, he was discharged from the hospital and walked out well.
The man who had the dream and forgave his teacher went back to Rav Kaneivsky to tell him how his ex-teacher has recovered against all odds after he forgave him. The sage told him that in our generation, these open miracles are getting very rare, where it is so clear that the healing came from a spiritual source. And therefore the man has a responsibility to publicize the story. It will help many people to realize the power of the spiritual realm and the importance of forgiving. In this case, two lives were saved by the man being able to forgive his ex-teacher, the man’s life and the teacher’s life.
So I’ve done my part to publicize the story to my e-mail friends. I suggest that we all look inside and see if there is someone whom we should forgive. It could save a life or two. Or at very least take a harsh judgment off of us and them.
Due to the preparation for Yom Yerushalayim and Shavuos I am skipping the Rambam this week. In 5767 I published the part from Gemara Shabbos
Chag Shavuos is coming not this Motzei Shabbos but next Motzei Shabbos and we will need at least a 48 hour candle in Israel and a 72 hr. one in Galus
I am sending this out as Yom Yerushalayim descends upon us. 45 years since the liberation and if we don’t do something to change the demography, the Arabs will become the majority there in a number of years or Moshiach will have to come. Celebrations will commence Motzei Shabbos and Sunday. Rosh Chodesh Sivan will be on Monday night/Tuesday.
I recommend reading the following description from Tractate Shabbos 87B – 88B on the subject of the first Shavuos. In addition we read the Book of Ruth as David HaMelech was born on that day and died on that day. The following is copied from the on-line Soncino Talmud – the original edition. http://www.come-and-hear.com/tcontents.html
"And they shall be ready against the third day" [Ex. xix. 11]. R. Ada b. Ahbha said: "Moses went up (to the Mount Sinai) at daybreak, and descended the following break of day." He went up at break of day, as it is written [Ex. xxxiv. 4]: "And Moses rose up early in the morning and went up unto Mount Sinai." He descended on the following daybreak, as it is written [ibid. xix. 24]: "Go, get thee down, and then shalt thou come up, thou, and Aaron with thee." We see that the Scripture compares the descending to the ascending, and as the ascending was early in the morning, so was also the descending early in the morning.
The rabbis taught: The Decalogue was given to Israel on the sixth day of the (third) month, but R. Jossi said on the seventh day.
Said Rabba: All agree that on the first day of the (third) month the Israelites arrived at the wilderness of Sinai. It is adduced from the analogy of the word "this"; [Ex. xix. 1] "on this day they arrived at the wilderness of Sinai," and [Ex. xii. 2] "this month to be to you the first of months." As in the latter instance the "this" referred to the first, so does it also in the former; furthermore (he said), all agree that the law was given to Israel on a Sabbath; this is to be adduced from the analogy of the word "remember" [Ex. xx. 8]: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy"; and [ibid. iii. 3]: "Remember this day on which ye came out from Egypt." As in the latter instance the very day of their coming out of Egypt is referred to, so is it also in the former instance. Where the rabbis do differ is what day was the first of the month. R. Jossi holds that the first of the month was set on the first of the week, and on that day no commandments were given, because the children of Israel were tired from their long journey. On the second day (of the week) the Lord said to them: "Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests" [Ex. xix. 1]. On the third of the week he commanded them to keep away from the mountain. On the fourth to separate themselves from their wives. The rabbis, however, hold that the first of the month was set on the second of the week; that on that day nothing was commanded the Israelites, they being tired; on the third the cited passage [Ex. xix. 1] was said; on the fourth day they were to keep away from the mountain, and on the fifth to separate themselves from their wives.
An objection was raised: It is written [Ex. xix. 10]: "Go unto the people, and sanctify them to-day and to-morrow." Is this not contradictory to the statement of R. Jossi (in whose opinion the sanctification lasted three days)? R. Jossi may explain this thus: "Moses added one day upon his own authority," as we have learned in a Boraitha: "Three things were done by Moses upon his own authority, and the Holy One, blessed be He, agreed thereto. They are: He added one day (to the period of sanctification), he separated himself from a woman, and he broke the tablets into pieces." "He added one day upon his own authority." What was his object? The Lord said unto him: "To-day and to-morrow," and he construed the words as follows: "To-day must be equal (in duration) to tomorrow; as to-morrow includes the might, so must to-day; the night, however, having already passed, another day must be added in order to make up for the lost night." Whence do we know that the Lord agreed to this? Because the Shekhina did not appear on Mount Sinai until the Sabbath morn. What was the object of Moses in separating himself from a woman? He applied the order given the Israelites (to separate themselves from their wives) to himself in a so much larger degree (i.e., the order having been issued to the Israelites for the reason that they would shortly hear the word of the Lord, it would be so much more proper for him, who frequently was spoken to by the Lord, to separate himself entirely from a woman). And whence do we know that the Lord agreed to this also? It is written [Deut. v. 27 and 28]: "Go, say to them, Return you unto your tents. But as for thee, remain thou here by me." And what was his object in breaking the tablets? He thought: "As concerning the Passover sacrifice, which is only one of the six hundred and thirteen commandments, it is written [Ex. xii- 43]: 'No stranger shall eat thereof,' how can I give the tablets, which contain all the commandments, to the children of Israel, who are now all renegades?" And whence do we know that the Holy One, blessed be He, agreed even to this? It is written [Ex. xxxiv. 1]: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thyself two tables of stone like unto the first; and I will write upon these tables the words which were on the first tables which thou didst break." Said Resh Lakish: "'Which thou didst break' really means, 'which thou didst break rightfully.'"
Another objection was raised: It is written [Ex. xix. 11]: "And they shall be ready against the third day." According to R. Jossi it should be the fourth day. This is no objection! as it is said above that Moses added another day upon his own authority. Come and hear another objection: "The sixth means the sixth of the week and of the month." Is this not contradictory to the statement of the rabbis, who say: "The first of the month was the second day of the week?" Yea, (it may be that) this Boraitha holds to the opinion of R. Jossi.
Come and hear: On the fourteenth day of the month of Nissan, during which (month) the Israelites went out of Egypt, they killed the Passover sacrifice and on the fifteenth day they went out. On the night before that the first-born of the Egyptians were beaten. That day (the fifteenth) was the fifth of the week. Now, if the fifteenth of Nissan was the fifth of the week, we must certainly say that the first of the next month (Iar) was Sabbath and the first day of the following month (Sivan) was the first day of the week. Is this not contradictory to the statement of the rabbis, that the first day of the month was the second day of the week? The rabbis might have assumed that the month of Iar was an intercalary month.
Said R. Habibi of 'Huzunah to R. Ashi: Come and hear: It is written [Ex. xl. 17]: "And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up," and a Boraitha teaches that this day was crowned tenfold, viz.: "That day was the first of the six days of the creation; the first of the days on which the first prince presented his offering before the altar; the first of the days on which the priests (Aaron and sons) did their work in the sanctuary; the first day on which the children of Israel brought their sacrifices into the tabernacle; the first of the days on which the heavenly fire descended upon the altar; the first of the days on which the priests were permitted to eat the sacrifices in the tabernacle; the first of the days on which the Shekhina appeared in the tabernacle; the first day on which Aaron the High Priest blessed the Israelites in the tabernacle; the first of the days on which sacrifices were no more permitted to be brought on the high places outside of the tabernacle, and the first day of the first of the months." Now, if the first day of this year was the first day of the week, we must say the first of Nissan of the preceding year fell on the fourth day of the week, because we have learned in another Boraitha: "Anonymous teachers say that there can be not more than four days' difference between one New Year's day and another." If a leap year intervened, then there may be a difference of five days. Is this not contradictory to the opinion of both the rabbis and R. Jossi? According to R. Jossi there were seven short months (of twenty-nine days) in that year, but according to the rabbis there were eight such months, (consequently the difference from the last year was only in two days,) as this year was an extraordinary one. (And the first day of the month Iar of the last year was on Friday.)
Another objection was raised: We have learned in the Tract Seder Aulim that on the fourteenth day of the month of Nissan, during which (month) the Israelites went out of Egypt, they killed the Passover sacrifice; on the fifteenth they went out, and that day was Friday. Now, if the first of the month of Nissan of that year was Friday, we must say that the first day of the following (Iar) month was on the first day of the week and the first of the succeeding month (Sivan) was on Monday. Is this not contradictory with R. Jossi? R. Jossi will then say that this Boraitha is in accordance with the opinion of the rabbis.
Come and hear another objection: R. Jossi says: "On the second day Moses went up on the Mount Sinai and came back. The same he did on the third day, but on the fourth day, when he came back, he remained." Came back and remained? Whence did he come back--it does not say that he went up at all? Say, then, on the fourth day he went up, came back, and remained. On the fifth he built an altar and offered a sacrifice. On the sixth he had no time. Shall we assume that he had no time because on that day the Israelites received the Torah? (If we say that the second refers to the second day of the week, it must be a fact that the Torah was given on Friday, and would this not be a contradiction to his [R. Jossi's] own opinion?) Nay; he had no time because the Sabbath was at hand.
A Galilean lectured in the presence of R. Hisda: Praised be the merciful God, who gave a triple law (the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Hagiographa) to a triple people (Kahanites, Levites, and Israelites) through a man who was the third child of his parents (Miriam, Aaron, and Moses), on the third day of sanctification and in the third month. We see from this that the Galilean held in accordance with the teachings of the rabbis.
It is written [Ex. xix. 17]: "And they placed themselves at the foot of the mount." Said R. Abhdimi b. Hama b. Hassa: "It appears from this passage that the Holy One, blessed be He, inclined the mountain toward the children of Israel and gave them the choice of either accepting the Torah or being buried right under the mountain." Said R. Aha b. Jacob: "This would accord us the right to protest against any punishment inflicted upon us for violating the law. (For we were compelled to accept it.)" Said Rabha: Although (at that time they were compelled to accept it), at the time of Ahasuerus (King of Persia) they accepted it voluntarily. For it is written [Esther, ix. 27]: "The Jews confirmed it as a duty, and took upon themselves and upon their seed." And it is to be explained: "They took upon themselves voluntarily what at one time they were compelled to accept." R. Simai lectured: "At that time, when Israel answered to the information of Moses, 'We will do and we will obey,' six hundred thousand angels had furnished to every one of Israel two crowns: one for the answer 'We will do,' and one for the answer 'We will obey.' Thereafter when Israel sinned (with the Golden Calf) twelve hundred thousand destroying angels descended and took them away; as it is written [Exodus, xxxiii. 6]: 'The children of Israel then stripped themselves of their ornaments (they wore) from (the time they were at) Mount Horeb.'" Said R. Hami b. R. Hanina: "For in the same passage it may be deduced that in the same place where they were furnished they were taken away from them." Said R. Johanan: All of them were given as a reward to Moses, as immediately after the verse cited it is written: "And Moses took the tent," etc. Said Resh Lakish: We hope, however, that the Holy One, blessed be He, will return them to us, as it is written [Isaiah, xxxv. 10]: "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with song, with everlasting joy upon their head." The expression everlasting means that it was already upon their heads at the time of reception of the Torah.
R. Elazar said: At the time the Israelites said "We will do" and afterward "We will obey" a heavenly voice (Bath-kol) was heard, which said unto them: "Who unfolded unto my children this mystery known only to the angels?" For it is written [Psalms, ciii. 20]: "Bless the Lord, ye his angels, mighty in strength, that execute his word, hearkening unto the voice of his word," and from this we see that only angels can execute first and then obey.
A Sadducee once noticed Rabha studying and observed that he in his absent-mindedness held his (Rabha's) finger underneath his knee and pressed it so hard that blood spurted from the finger. Said the Sadducee 1to him: "Impetuous people, whose mouths precede your ears! Ye are still of the same vehemence! Ye must first hear the Torah before you accept it and not accept without knowing its prescriptions!" Answered Rabha: We who are upright men trusted Him, as it is said of us [Proverbs, xi. 3]: "The integrity of the upright guideth them," but to those men who are continually fault-finding the latter part of the same verse [ibid., ibid.] can be applied, viz. "But the cunning of the treacherous destroyeth them."
R. Samuel b. Na'hmeni in the name of R. Jonathan said: It is written [Solomon's Song, iv. 9]: "Thou hast ravished my heart, O my sister, (my) bride! thou hast ravished my heart with one of thy eyes." This means: When thou didst but receive the Torah, it was with one of thy eyes. When thou wilt obey it, it will be with both of thy eyes.
R. Johanan said: It is written [Psalms, lxviii. 12]: "The Lord gave (happy) tidings; they are published by female messengers, a numerous host." This implies that every word emanating from the mighty God was heralded in seventy languages. The school of R. Ishmael, however, (adduced the same from another passage): It is written [Jeremiah, xxiii. 29]: "Is not thus my word like the fire? saith the Lord, and like a hammer that shivereth the rock?" As the hammer that strikes emits a multitude of sparks, so, is every word emanating from the Holy One, blessed be He, heralded in seventy different languages.
R. Hananel b. Papa said: It is written [Proverbs, viii. 6]. "Hear! for of noble things will I speak." Why are the words of the Torah compared to a noble? To inform us that inasmuch as a noble has in his power the disposal over life and death, so have also the words of the Torah. This is similar to what Rabha said: To those who walk in the right ways of the law, it is an elixir of life, but to those who pursue not the right way, it is the poison of death.
R. Jehoshua b. Levi said: It is written [Solomon's Song, i. 12]: "A bundle of myrrh is my friend unto me, that resteth on my bosom." Said the Congregation of Israel: "Lord of the Universe! Although my friend chastiseth 1 me, still he resteth on my bosom!"
The same rabbi said: "It is written [Solomon's Song, v. 13]: "His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as turrets of sweet perfumes." Every word emanating from the Holy One, blessed be He, fills the whole world with the aroma of spices. If the world was filled with the aroma arising from the first word, where could the second word go? The Holy One, blessed be He, sent forth a wind from His store, which cleared off the aroma of each word, as it is written [ibid.]: "His lips like lilies, dropping with fluid myrrh." Do not read Shoshanim (lilies) but Sheshonim (learned men). The same said again that from each word which came from the Holy One, blessed be He, the soul of Israel was going out, as it is written [ibid., ibid. 6]: "My soul had failed me while he was speaking." But the Holy One, blessed be He, has let down the dew with which He will in the future make the resurrection and bring them to life; as it is written [Psalms, lxviii. 10]: "Rain of beneficence didst thou pour down, O God!"
He also said: When Moses ascended into Heaven, said the angels before the Holy One, blessed be He, "Lord of the Universe! What has one born of a woman to do among us?"
The Lord answered: "He came to receive the Torah." Said the angels again: "Wouldst Thou give a precious thing that Thou hast preserved since nine hundred and seventy-four generations before the creation of the world to a being of flesh and blood? (It is written [Psalms, viii. 5]): What is the mortal, that thou rememberest him? and the son of man, that thou thinkest of him?" Said the Holy One, blessed be He, unto Moses: "Give thou them an answer!" Answered Moses before the Lord: "Lord of the Universe! What is written in the law, which Thou gavest unto me?" [Ex. xx. 2]. "I am the Lord, thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt." Moses then said to the angels: Were ye in Egypt? Have ye served Pharaoh? Of what use can the Torah be unto you? Further, what is written in the Torah [ibid. 3]: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Are ye among the nations that worship idols? And furthermore, what is written in the Torah? [ibid. 8]: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Do ye any labor on the week-days? [Ibid. 7]: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Are ye merchants, that ye must swear? [Ibid. 13]: "Honor thy father and thy mother." Have ye fathers and mothers to honor? [Ibid. 12]: "Thou shalt not kill," etc. Is there any jealousy among you? Have ye any evil intent?
Then the angels confessed and praised the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is written [Psalms, viii. 10]: "O Eternal One, our Lord, how excellent is thy name on all the earth!" but the ending of the verse [ibid. 2], "Thou who hast set thy majesty above the heavens," is not cited in this verse. Then every one of the angels befriended Moses and each of them disclosed some mystery to him, as it is written [Psalms, lxviii. 19]: "Thou didst ascend on high, lead away captives, receive gifts among men," which means that because at first the angels called Moses one born of a woman (man), they at the close gave him gifts, and even the Angel of Death disclosed a mystery to him, as it is written [Num. xvii. 12 and 13]: "And he put on the incense, and made an atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living." Now if the Angel of Death had not disclosed unto Moses this mystery, how could he have imparted it to Aaron?
Said R. Jehoshua b. Levi again: When Moses descended from Heaven, Satan came before the Holy One, blessed be He, and said: "Lord of the universe! Where is the Torah?" And the Lord answered: "I have given it to the earth." Satan descended to earth and said to it: "Where is the Torah?" And the earth answered [Job, xxviii. 23]: "God (alone) understandeth her way, and he knoweth her place." Satan then went to the sea, and the sea said: "She is not with me." He then went to the deep, and the deep answered: "Not in me is she," as it is written [ibid. 14]: "The deep saith, Not in me is she; and the sea saith, She is not with me." [Ibid. 22]: "Perdition and death say: With our ears have we heard a report of her." Satan then ascended before the Holy One, blessed be He, and said: "Lord of the Universe! I have looked for the Torah on the whole earth and could not find it." Then said the Lord unto him: "Go unto the son of Amram." And Satan went to Moses and said to him: "Where is the Torah which the Holy One, blessed be He, gave unto thee?" And Moses answered: "Who am I, that the Holy One, blessed be He, should give me the Torah?" Said the Lord unto Moses: "Moses, art thou a liar?" Said Moses before the Lord: "Lord of the Universe! Shall I claim that Thou hast given unto me a precious thing which Thou didst fondle every day?" Said the Holy One, blessed be He, unto Moses: "Because thou hast humbled thyself, the Torah shall bear thy name," as it is written [Malachi, iii. 22]: "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant."
The same rabbi said again: When Moses ascended unto Heaven (and he was silent), the Lord said unto him: "Moses, is there no peace in thy city?" And Moses answered: "Is it then proper that a slave should salute his Master?" Said the Lord: "Still thou shouldst have wished me well." Then said Moses before the Lord [Numbers, xiv. 17]: "And now, I beseech thee, let the greatness of the power of the Lord be made manifest as thou hast spoken."
Non-Jewish tear Jerking story: http://www.aol.com/video/a-moms-lifechanging-invention-helps-her-daughter-walk-again/517363410/?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl11%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D160598
In Iowa a Marine helps a woman survive but loses his own life: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/14/hannah-luce-kansas-plane-crash_n_1516176.html?ref=impact&icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl4%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D160780
Hebrew only theists want to remove the first four of the Decalogue from a history of law display in a school. The US is slowly dying of either insanity or Alzheimer Disease. (Are the Ten Commandments about to become the Six Commandments? “Thou shalt not edit” is not among the famous list of God’s Laws from the Bible, but a U.S. District Judge has suggested that reducing the Ten Commandments to just six would help solve a dispute between the ACLU and the Giles County, Va., School District. Eighteen months ago, a parent objected to the Ten Commandments being posted in a district high school as part of a huge collage of documents linked to America’s political and legal heritage. Several other documents in the school display reference God, including the Magna Carta and Declaration of Independence, but no one is asking that those be taken down or edited. The school district does not want them removed and the case remains in U.S. District Court. Now federal Judge Michael Urbanski has offered a compromise. He suggested scrapping the first four commandments and leaving just the final six. Urbanski suggested that could resolve the dispute since the first four commandments directly refer to mankind’s relationship to God and the final six concern mankind’s relationship to creation, other people, and things. “You can’t have a display or discussion of American history and law without reading about, or mentioning God,” Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel told WND. “It’s just part of who we are, it’s what shaped our Western Civilization.”)
From Dennis the Jews did this time to blame them and boycott it you anti-Semites: http://www.yourjewishnews.com/Pages/18166.aspx#.T7MWczpyigB.facebook
Inyanay Diyoma
Iran not so diplomatic http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=269535
Syrian Allies running scared of a possible Assad fall: http://www.debka.com/article/21997/
Ed-op: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4227866,00.html
Boys will be activists: http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/what-media-didnt-tell-you-about-obama-boyhood/
Massive Fraud and money laundering under the noses of the IRS and DHS: http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/massive-fraud-ignored-until-this-happened/
60 Iranians working hard to produce the bomb: http://www.debka.com/article/21999/
Is the Israeli jail system big enough to handle tens of thousands of Charedim and put their wives and children on welfare? Take into account, wives, children and tens of thousands of Arabs who would be affected then you got trouble: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=269872
Israel is prepared http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4228910,00.html
What are Obama and Clinton doing to Israel behind our backs? http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/iran-boasts-u-s-has-abandoned-israel/
Does the US have a dictator in the white house – from the New York Times thanks to Ellen: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/04/23/times-reports-on-obamas-unilateral-exercise-of-power-where-have-they-been/
Ed-op on Gaza: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4228828,00.html
Syria is one big mess: http://www.debka.com/article/22001/
True or wishful thinking? http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/israel-staging-iranian-spy-runs-from-iraq/?cat_orig=world
Joint defense task forced tragedy: http://www.debka.com/article/22003/
This week has been marked by a lot of airplanes hovering overhead and explosions at 11:15 of large explosives from the Adam Base. The last time such explosions were and so late at night was by the Marines a few days or a week or so before the first Gulf War. I am not saying that a war will break out so soon.
Iranian FM and his hand in Nukes: http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=270144
You have to see this voter fraud and turn sick: https://www.theprojectveritas.com/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=103
A victory against Syrian sponsored terrorism in a US Court: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4229763,00.html
People came after this man in a verbal lynching and ranting death threats against the accused when the court records show medical injuries and shooting as self-defense what is the USA coming to with political correctness. I am not saying that the man is innocent but give him the benefit of the doubt: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/15/records-detail-george-zimmerman-medical-injuries/
The following articles and same video contain very harsh language to an Israeli Reporter who did not serve in the IDF. After all the left tries to blame the Charedim as not serving: http://www.debbieschlussel.com/49606/wow-famous-hollywood-director-wakes-up-from-his-pan-islamist-slumber-join-the-idf-m-fer/ and Debbie claims that she posted the original post on the net and the later post was stolen from her: However, I received this from Ben one hour before Debbie posted on Facebook page perhaps she was the first on the net. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/awkward-battleship-director-hammers-israeli-tv-host-who-admits-he-skipped-out-on-mandatory-military-service/
Technology can be amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QRt8QCx3BCo
Who is financing the Israeli Arab Parties no surprise here: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=270411
The Iranians are expanding the enrichment facilities: http://www.debka.com/article/22007/
Received this from Yoel it is nothing new but so true: "You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you." ~ Eric Hoffer
*Presidential Medal of Honor Winner*
And in 1968 he wrote this:
The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese-and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace .
Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world. Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June [1967] he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews. No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on .
There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him. The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.
The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us.
Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us.
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A Happy Yerushalayim Day, A good Month and a blessed, peaceful and wonderful Shabbos to all! If you have some time on the long Shabbos Day pray for all the sick of Am Yisrael for a healing, that the ones looking for a marital partner will succeed in finding their Beshert, that those needing employment will find employment, that those needing children the barren among us or wanting a child to name after a late parent, for those needing success, for those needing money for Torah Books, extra cash to help in their conversion to Yiddishkeit, help in repentance, etc. Everybody stay healthy,
Rachamim Pauli
