Review of Parsha Chukkas
Our Parsha starts off with the laws
of somebody who dies in a tent or building and brings Tumay Meys unto all those
in the Tent or building and open containers of food. Then on the 3rd
and 7th days one most bathe in a Mikvah of ‘living water’ sprinkled
with some of the ashes of a Parah Aduma. Then on the evening of the 7th,
he is deemed pure (Tahor).
We just finish reading the Chuk of
the Parah and another death occurs. Chuk is a command from heaven that may or
may not have human logic behind it. Statutes are things that all have in their
law books such as not to murder, steal, rape, etc. Ordinances are often laws of
things like Shabbos, Yom Tov, Chol HaMoed with historic connotations.
In our Parsha Miriam dies and the
miraculous ‘well’ that went with them and the people lack water. Moshe and
Aaron were supposed to talk to the rock to bring forth water and instead hit
the rock not bringing about the desired Kiddush HASHEM.
Moshe and Aaron receive the din
that they are to die in the desert.
On Rosh Chodesh Av 2447, Aaron is
ordered to climb Har Hor undress from the outfit of the Cohain Gadol and put on
his son Eleazar. He lays down in a cave on a flat rock and HASHEM kisses him
and draws out his soul. The Cave is sealed and the people see Eleazar as Cohain
Gadol, they mourn Aaron 30 days.
When Aaron dies, the clouds of
glory depart and the Amalek-Canaan in Arad see that they are gone. Immediately
they attack. The people vow before HASHEM and they are victorious.
The tribes want to move north
slightly and are attacked by Sihon the king of Bashan and Og the king of
Heshbon. They are defeated and the Bnei Yisrael own their fortified cities.
The Bnei Yisrael are now camped out
not far from Yarden Yericho on the eastern bank poised to conquer Eretz
Canaan/Yisrael.
Parsha Balak
Some 2-3,000,000 Bnei Yisrael are
encamped not far from the dwelling place of the Moavim.
22:2 And Balak the son
of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. 3 And Moab
was sore afraid of the people, because they were many; and Moab was overcome
with dread because of the children of Israel.
Balak may not have known that the Bnei Yisrael
are relatives of Lot with no land ambition on the territory of Moav. Nor did he
know that Moshe’s wife is from one of the tribes of Midian.
4 And Moab said unto the elders of Midian:
'Now will this multitude lick up all that is round about us, as the ox licks up
the grass of the field.' And Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that
time.
His mistake is not offering water and trade and
trying to keep peace between the nations.
5 And he sent messengers unto Balaam the son
of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the children of his
people, to call him, saying: 'Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt;
behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me.
Balaam is either in Padan Aram, Haran or an area
not far from there.
6 Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me
this people; for they are too mighty for me; peradventure I shall prevail, that
we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that
he whom thou blesses is blessed, and he whom thou curses is cursed.'
Balak and others see Balaam as a man of power who
can sway HASHEM. They do not realize that he is powerless without HASHEM and
does what he can but in the end it is the L-RD who is in control.
7 And the elders of Moab and the elders of
Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand; and they came
unto Balaam, and spoke unto him the words of Balak. 8 And he said
unto them: 'Lodge here this night, and I will bring you back word, as the LORD
may speak unto me'; and the princes of Moab abode with Balaam.
Rewards of Divination. Not like Eliyahu a
non-profit Prophet but he prophesizes for profit.
9 And God came unto Balaam, and said: 'What
men are these with thee?'
G-D knows very well who they are and what is
their cause but does this to open up the conversation.
10 And Balaam said unto God: 'Balak the son
of Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto me [saying]: 11 Behold the
people that is come out of Egypt, it covers the face of the earth; now, come
curse me them; peradventure I shall be able to fight against them, and shall
drive them out.'
He describes the mission of the men and now will
receive his answer.
12 And God said unto Balaam: 'Thou shalt not
go with them; thou shalt not curse the people; for they are blessed.'
You will not go with the men and shall not curse
them for they are blessed. Should have been his answer to them. His advice
should have been to make peace or an alliance with the Bnei Yisrael or a
non-aggression treaty.
13 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and
said unto the princes of Balak: 'Get you into your land; for the LORD refuses
to give me leave to go with you.'
In this case, his answer is vague making him
higher and more important than he really is. This will imply that a delegation
with more princes and wealth might persuade him to come to Balak. Or at least
that is Balak’s conclusion which is utterly wrong.
14 And the princes of Moab rose up, and they
went unto Balak, and said: 'Balaam refuses to come with us.' 15 And
Balak sent yet again princes, more, and more honorable than
they. 16 And they came to Balaam, and said to him: 'Thus saith Balak
the son of Zippor: Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto
me; 17 for I will promote thee unto very great honor, and whatsoever
thou say unto me I will do; come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this
people.'
He has a chance to redeem himself by saying. “I
cannot curse whom HASHEM has blessed. They are blessed. Go and make peace with
the people.” But that is not what he does.
18 And Balaam answered and said unto the
servants of Balak: 'If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I
cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do anything, small or
great.
In short, he is like putty or raw clay in the
hands of G-D and can be formed or molded into any shape the L-RD desires.
19 Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also
here this night, that I may know what the LORD will speak unto me more.'
Instead with such a delegation and riches he is blind
to the truth and plays again his own power. Maybe, he has convinced himself
that he really has the power to influence G-D.
20 And God came unto Balaam at night, and
said unto him: 'If the men are come to call thee, rise up, go with them; but
only the word which I speak unto thee, that shalt thou do.'
It is your will to go with them against MY WILL,
we shall see what will happen to you in the end.
21 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and
saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. 22 And God's
anger was kindled because he went; and the angel of the LORD placed himself in
the way for an adversary against him.--Now he was riding upon his ass, and his
two servants were with him.—
With all this wealth and having two servants, he
could not afford a horse but rides on a jackass.
23 And the ass saw the angel of the LORD
standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand; and the ass turned aside
out of the way, and went into the field; and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her
into the way.
The donkey was loyal to Balaam and turned to save
his life.
24 Then the angel of the LORD stood in a
hollow way between the vineyards, a fence being on this side, and a fence on
that side. 25 And the ass saw the angel of the LORD, and she thrust
herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall; and he smote
her again.
This was a path between Padan Aram and Moav. The
wall of stones were made from Gal- Ead. The pile of witness stones between
Lavan and Yacov. Now Balaam was from Lavan and the Bnei Yisrael from Yacov.
26 And the angel of the LORD went further,
and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand
or to the left. 27 And the ass saw the angel of the LORD, and she lay
down under Balaam; and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with
his staff.
He got very angry at his donkey and smote her.
28 And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass,
and she said unto Balaam: 'What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten
me these three times?'
Three times aka Shalosh Regelim is written: Aka
Pesach, Shavuos and Sukkos.
29 And Balaam said unto the ass: 'Because
thou hast mocked me; I would there were a sword in my hand, for now I had
killed thee.' 30 And the ass said unto Balaam: 'Am not I thine ass,
upon which thou hast ridden all thy life long unto this day? was I ever wont to
do so unto thee?' And he said: 'Nay.'
Ridden on also implies used instead of a wife.
31 Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam,
and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his sword drawn in
his hand; and he bowed his head, and fell on his face. 32 And the
angel of the LORD said unto him: 'Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these
three times? behold, I am come forth for an adversary, because thy way is
contrary unto me;
Your round about way of answering Balak has
turned me into an adversary instead of a protector. All you had to do was
relate the first message fully but you hated Moshe when Pharaoh called you
before his birth.
33 and the ass saw me, and turned aside
before me these three times; unless she had turned aside from me, surely now I
had even slain thee, and saved her alive.'
Now who is the real jackass for if not for her, I
would have slain you.
34 And Balaam said unto the angel of the
LORD: 'I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stood in the way against me; now
therefore, if it displeases thee, I will get me back.' 35 And the
angel of the LORD said unto Balaam: 'Go with the men; but only the word that I
shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak.' So, Balaam went with the princes
of Balak.
Balaam continues but understands he is completely
at the mercy of the Angel and cannot move to the left or the right of what he
has been told.
36 And when Balak heard that Balaam was
come, he went out to meet him unto Ir-moab, which is on the border of Arnon,
which is in the utmost part of the border.
Ir means city so I assume Ir-Moav is the capitol
city at that time.
37 And Balak said unto Balaam: 'Did I not
earnestly send unto thee to call thee? wherefore came thou not unto me? am I
not able indeed to promote thee to honor?' 38 And Balaam said unto
Balak: 'Lo, I am come unto thee; have I now any power at all to speak anything?
the word that God puts in my mouth, that shall I speak.'
Before I had no power from the L-RD and now I
have the power to talk but only what the L-RD shall put in my mouth.
39 And Balaam went with Balak, and they came
unto Kiriath-huzoth. 40 And Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and sent
to Balaam, and to the princes that were with him. 41 And it came to
pass in the morning that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into
Bamoth-baal, and he saw from thence the utmost part of the people.
The mound for sacrifice unto G-D. [I wrote G-D
and not gods as Moav was from Lot and the people may have been sexually immoral
and the men cruel but theoretically, could be believers in one G-D.]
23:1 And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Build me here
seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven
rams.' 2 And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam
offered on every altar a bullock and a ram. 3 And Balaam said unto
Balak: 'Stand by thy burnt-offering, and I will go; peradventure the LORD will
come to meet me; and whatsoever He shows me I will tell thee.' And he went to a
bare height.
He did this a specific time in the very early
morning when HASHEM gets angry and one saying Tachnun can curse his enemies.
Balaam knew the exact second of the anger, but these three days, the L-RD
withheld his anger.
4 And God met Balaam; and he said unto Him:
'I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bullock and a ram on
every altar.'
He went into a prophetic trance in a clean place
away from the other men that are certainly impure.
5 And the LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth,
and said: 'Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak.' 6 And he
returned unto him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt-offering, he, and all the
princes of Moab. 7 And he took up his parable, and said: From Aram
Balak bringeth me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East: 'Come,
curse me Jacob, and come, execrate Israel.' 8 How shall I curse, whom
God hath not cursed? And how shall I execrate, whom the LORD hath not
execrated?
How is it possible to execrate against the will
of the L-RD?
9 For from the top of the rocks I see him,
and from the hills I behold him: lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone, and
shall not be reckoned among the nations.
Of 200 or more nations, they dwell alone as the
L-RD OF THE WORLD dwells alone. (Adon Olam).
10 Who hath counted the dust of Jacob, or
numbered the stock of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let
mine end be like his!
They are humble and immeasurable as the dust of
the earth. Balaam wants to die like the Bnei Yisrael with Teshuva and Vaduie
(confession of sins) so that one gains Olam HaBa.
11 And Balak said unto Balaam: 'What hast
thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast
blessed them altogether.'
What are you doing to me? Instead of cursing
them, you are blessing them!
12 And he answered and said: 'Must I not
take heed to speak that which the LORD puts in my mouth?'
I can only say what the L-RD puts in my mouth. I
have told you already take it or leave it.
13 And Balak said unto him: 'Come, I pray
thee, with me unto another place, from whence thou mayest see them; thou shalt
see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all; and curse me them
from thence.'
Rabbi Pinchas Winston below tells not only of
various incarnations of Balaam before and after. He has a strong desire to
curse like Balak wants but knows HASHEM is the Baal HaBeis and he is only the
utensil that opens up the possibilities.
14 And he took him into the field of Zophim,
to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bullock and a
ram on every altar.
The field had the thorny caper bushes by the top
of the Mountain.
15 And he said unto Balak: 'Stand here by
thy burnt-offering, while I go toward a meeting yonder.' 16 And the
LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said: 'Return unto Balak, and
thus shalt thou speak.'
If I were to put this to music, I might put the
chorus of “Where have all the Flowers Gone” – ‘when will they ever
learn?’ or “The Mermaid” – ‘three times around went our gallant ship and three
times around went she … and she sank to the bottom of the sea,”
He could only speak the words that HASHEM put in
his mouth. He and Balak wanted to “Kalam” curse them to oblivion Kaf Lamed Mem.
Instead he made them “Melech” or king Mem Lamed Kaf Sofeet.
17 And he came to him, and, lo, he stood by
his burnt-offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him:
'What hath the LORD spoken?' 18 And he took up his parable, and said:
Arise, Balak, and hear; give ear unto me, thou son of Zippor: 19 God
is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should
repent: when He hath said, will He not do it? or when He hath spoken, will He
not make it good?
He we have a source that if HASHEM promises good,
he keeps his word.
20 Behold, I am bidden to bless; and when He
hath blessed, I cannot call it back.
Once HASHEM has blessed there is no calling back.
21 None hath beheld iniquity in Jacob,
neither hath one seen perverseness in Israel; the LORD his God is with him, and
the shouting for the King is among them.
There are no sins in Yacov so the KING is with
them and therefore cannot be cursed.
22 God who brought them forth out of Egypt
is for them like the lofty horns of the wild-ox. 23 For there is no
enchantment with Jacob, neither is there any divination with Israel; now is it
said of Jacob and of Israel: 'What hath God wrought!' 24 Behold a
people that rises up as a lioness, and as a lion doth he lift himself up; he
shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the
slain. 25 And Balak said unto Balaam: 'Neither curse them at all, nor
bless them at all.'
If you cannot curse them why bless them.
26 But Balaam answered and said unto Balak:
'Told not I thee, saying: All that the LORD speaks, that I must do?'
Whatever G-D tells me to do, I MUST DO!
27 And Balak said unto Balaam: 'Come now, I
will take thee unto another place; peradventure it will please God that thou
mayest curse me them from thence.' 28 And Balak took Balaam unto the
top of Peor, that looks down upon the desert. 29 And Balaam said unto
Balak: 'Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and
seven rams.'
Balak’s reference point is the idol that is the
god of bodily waste and fertility.
30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and
offered up a bullock and a ram on every altar. 24:1 And when Balaam saw that it
pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at the other times, to meet
with enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. 2 And
Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling tribe by tribe; and the
spirit of God came upon him. 3 And he took up his parable, and said:
The saying of Balaam the son of Beor, and the saying of the man whose eye is
opened; 4 The saying of him who heareth the words of God, who sees
the vision of the Almighty, fallen down, yet with opened eyes: 5 How
goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, thy dwellings, O Israel!
The opening of one tent did not face the opening
of another. One was kept modest from the other.
6 As valleys stretched out, as gardens by
the river-side; as aloes planted of the LORD, as cedars beside the
waters; 7 Water shall flow from his branches, and his seed shall be
in many waters; and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall
be exalted. 8 God who brought him forth out of Egypt is for him like
the lofty horns of the wild-ox; he shall eat up the nations that are his
adversaries, and shall break their bones in pieces, and pierce them through
with his arrows. 9 He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a
lioness; who shall rouse him up? Blessed be every one that blesses thee, and
cursed be every one that curses thee.
Your blessing is so strong that those who bless
you get blessed and those who curse you get cursed.
10 And Balak's anger was kindled against
Balaam, and he smote his hands together; and Balak said unto Balaam: 'I called
thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them
these three times. 11 Therefore now flee thou to thy place; I thought
to promote thee unto great honor; but, lo, the LORD hath kept thee back from
honor.'
Balak was fit to be tied with anger.
12 And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Spoke I not
also to thy messengers that thou didst send unto me, saying: 13 If
Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the
word of the LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; what the LORD
speaks, that will I speak?
Didn’t I warn you this from the beginning?
14 And now, behold, I go unto my people;
come, and I will announce to thee what this people shall do to thy people in
the end of days.'
He did not talk of Moshiach but rather of Baal
Peor and how he could get many to die.
15 And he took up his parable, and said: The
saying of Balaam the son of Beor, and the saying of the man whose eye is
opened; 16 The saying of him who heareth the words of God, and knows
the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, fallen
down, yet with opened eyes: 17 I see him, but not now; I behold him,
but not nigh; there shall step forth a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall
rise out of Israel, and shall smite through the corners of Moab, and break down
all the sons of Seth. 18 And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also,
even his enemies, shall be a possession; while Israel doeth
valiantly. 19 And out of Jacob shall one have dominion, and shall
destroy the remnant from the city. 20 And he looked on Amalek, and
took up his parable, and said: Amalek was the first of the nations; but his end
shall come to destruction.
In the end, HASHEM will have the Kingdom and rule
all the Goyim.
21 And he looked on the Kenite, and took up
his parable, and said: Though firm be thy dwelling-place, and though thy nest
be set in the rock;
From the righteous Yael, they will deserve to live.
22 Nevertheless Kain shall be wasted; How
long? Asshur shall carry thee away captive.
Nevertheless, he gave advice that HASHEM despises
immorality so he proposed using the fertility cult of Baal Peor.
25 And Balaam rose up, and went and returned
to his place; and Balak also went his way. 25:1 And Israel abode in
Shittim, and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of
Moab. 2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods;
and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. 3 And Israel
joined himself unto the Baal of Peor; and the anger of the LORD was kindled
against Israel.
There is no guardian for immorality. The young
men of Shimon and a few other tribes were taken or smitten by the loose morals of
the women of Midian. It did not take much time until somebody had to the use
the toilet. What better a place but to disgrace the idol there – at least they
thought so but did not know that this was how this was the worship of the idol.
4 And the LORD said unto Moses: 'Take all
the chiefs of the people, and hang them up unto the LORD in face of the sun,
that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.'
Take the ring leaders and hang them.
5 And Moses said unto the judges of Israel:
'Slay ye everyone his men that have joined themselves unto the Baal of
Peor.'
And as Moshe finished talking, Zimri came within
the camp with Cozbi.
6 And, behold, one of the children of Israel
came and brought unto his brethren a Midian woman in the sight of Moses, and in
the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were
weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.
And in his Chutzpa said, “Moshe you married a
Midian Woman, so can I.” Of course, the difference being Yisro was Priest of
HASHEM and Moshe married before Matan Torah. For prior to the giving of the
Torah a man could marry two sisters and other relations that became forbidden.
7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the
son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation,
and took a spear in his hand. 8 And he went after the man of Israel
into the chamber, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the
woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of
Israel. 9 And those that died by the plague were twenty and four
thousand.
Those that died would reincarnate
to be students of Rabbi Akiva (reincarnation of Zimri) but instead of honoring
repentance and doing a Tikkun loathed the past sin of the other.
Various reincarnations of Balaam
by Rabbi Pinchas Winston Shlita:
BILAAM IS ONE of the most fascinating characters of
history. He was not at the beginning of his story, nor the end of it. He began
as Lavan, a gentile, and much later ended up as Naval HaCarmelli, a prominent
Jew until he made the mistake of cursing Dovid HaMelech. Naval’s wife was
Avigayil, who eventually married Dovid HaMelech after her husband died of a
stroke.
He comes off as quite the fool, which he was. But it
is also important to recall that the stories of the Torah are reported through
the eyes of God, not the eyes of man. Had the story been told by a people, it
might have sounded a lot more respectable because, as we see from the story of
Korach, people are easily fooled. There are plenty of people today who have the
respect and awe of many who, in the eyes of God, and probably fools as well.
In fact, for all of his ridiculousness, Bilaam knew
some things better than many of us might, and should. When he eventually
accepts the mission to curse the Jewish people, it is out of ta’avah,
overwhelming desire. But it must have hurt a lot to admit at first that he had
no control over himself and that any power he had to bless or curse came from
God. Most of us forget to mention this when receiving praise for an
accomplishment, and we often act as if we can succeed independently of God.
Remember the early days when your friend would come
by and ask you to come out and play, but you knew the answer before you even
asked your mother. You didn’t play games and somewhat humiliated, you just
stated the obvious truth: “I can’t go out. My mother won’t let me.”
Now, all grown up, we’d like to believe otherwise.
“Can you get that for me?” someone might ask us, and the only question we
usually consider is, “Do I feel like it?”
But the truth is, the answer is, “If God will let
me.” So, we say things like b’ezras Hashem—with the help of God, or Im yirtze
Hashem—If God wills it. But it tends to be more of a formality than an actual
heartfelt belief. We’re so used to just willing to do something and having no
problem getting it done.
But that’s not because of any automatic reality. It’s
because each time we will to do something God complies by willing it to happen.
Each time. Each time we want to do something we are powerless to do it. Not
just weak, but powerless. We just seem powerful because God comes through at
the moment we ask Him to, giving us the wrong impression that we are in charge.
Until God forbid, we can’t do what we want to. I
don’t just mean that we can’t do something that humans normally can’t do. I
mean a person can no longer do something that humans normally do, like walk, or
draw, or feed themselves. But even then, we tend to look at it as a human
failing, not necessarily as a change of divine will.
I got a refresher course in this over the last couple
of months. After months of successful jogging, B”H, I hurt my back again, which
resulted in terrible sciatica in my right leg. It used to last only a couple of
days in the past, this time it continued for weeks. The pain was so bad I had
to stop exercising, and standing up for Shemonah Esrai was very painful, making
it hard to concentrate.
Finally, after two weeks it ended, but shifted to my
left leg, probably because I over-compensated because of my right leg. That
lasted weeks too, with a little less pain, but some numbness in different parts
of my leg and foot. As I was dealing with that, I walked into something that
damaged my left shoulder, causing neck and left arm pain and numbness, and
constant pins and needles.
Eventually, I started walking again for exercise just
to stay somewhat active. But during one walk, my shoe caught the top of a
paving stone, and before I knew it, I was flat on the ground. I bruised my
pride, cut my lip, and hurt my rib. I was becoming afraid to go anywhere or do
anything. I considered walking around in hockey equipment just in case.
Then I caught a cold. The sneezing and coughing were
bad enough, but with a damaged rib, they were outright excruciating. Hachoo!
OUCH! Cough! OW! My rib was getting worse, not better because of the cold. It
was kind of hard to be upbeat with all that going on.
Gradually the cold got better and my rib is on the
mend, B”H. The sciatica in my left leg finally left, and most of the numbness
too, thank God. Even my left shoulder and neck have improved greatly, and I
feel relatively normal, at least for me, again, thank God!
But now when I plan to do something, I do not take
for granted that I will be able to, and hopefully, I will never again. Whether
I can go out or not, so to speak, depends solely on my parent, or my Father in
Heaven, to be more accurate. There’s not a lot we can learn from Bilaam other
than what not to do. But this is one lesson from one of the very few things he
did get right.
A warning for people near or past
60: We get to an age where out balance weakens. We are not concentrating on
where we walk or even are in aware of our dangerous behavior of thinking like a
younger person walking. MY PERSONAL TRAINER MAKES IT HIS BUSINESS
Last week I had a Taxi Driver
Story from the Lubavitcher Rebbe. This week a very short film of Holocaust
Survivor 7401 meets 7402 thought dead. https://aish.com/7-4-0-1-tuvia-ariels-incredible-true-story/
Two Righteous Among the Nations. By Yocheved Alt Miller
https://aish.com/two-holocaust-heroes-who-risked-their-lives-to-save-jews-have-died/
Two non-Jews who risked their lives
to rescue Jews during the Holocaust have passed away in recent weeks. Andree Guelen and Jozef Walaszczyk
saved Jews during the most horrific and dangerous of circumstances. Both were
recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.
Here are their remarkable stories.
When
a Nazi soldier asked Andree Geulen one night in 1943 if she was ashamed for an
Aryan like herself to be sheltering Jewish children, she replied with a
question of her own: “Aren’t you ashamed to make war on Jewish children?”
The
moment was a tense one. For several months, Andree had been living in the Gaty
de Gamont School, a girls’ boarding school in her native city of
Brussels where she worked as a teacher.
Unbeknownst to her friends and
family, Andree was a member of the Comite de Defence des Juifs, a
top-secret resistance organization in the city dedicated to saving Jewish
lives. One of the Jewish members of the group - the famous Jewish partisan Ida
Sterno - asked Andree to be her partner. The group needed non-Jewish members
like Andree who could ferry Jewish
children to safe hiding spots.
Andree accepted and was asked to
leave her parents’ home and move into the Gaty de Gamont School.
Once she became a full-fledged resistance member, Andree discovered the
startling truth that the school where she worked was a hub of anti-Nazi
activity. The headmistress, Odile Ovart, was secretly sheltering 12 Jewish
students in the building, refusing to divulge their identities to the Nazi
authorities.
One night in May, 1943, the Nazis
received a tip that Jewish students were in the school. They chose the
Christian holiday of Pentecost to conduct their raid, knowing that many
Christian students would then be home with their families. After waking up each
of the students and brutally interrogating them, the Nazis dragged away the
Jewish students, as well as Odile Ovart and her husband, who were murdered in a
concentration camp.
Andree escaped and rushed to warn
other Jewish students not to return to the school. From that point on, for the
two plus years remaining of World War II, Andree devoted her life to rescuing
Jewish children. She rented an apartment with Ida Sterno, using an assumed name, and helped
create and maintain a complex network of safe houses which sheltered Jewish
children. She traveled throughout Belgium, collecting children from desperate
Jewish families whose parents hoped to safeguard them, and conducted them to
Christian families and even some monasteries which agreed to take them in.
“Ida and I went to pick up the
children from the parents who turned to us for help,” Andree later described.
“We told the parents to prepare a suitcase, and that we would return in a day
or two… I still weep when I think of the times when I had to take children from
their parents, especially children aged two to three, without being able to
tell the parents where I was taking their children.” Many of the children she
saved never saw their parents again.
She later described how she bravely
walked through Nazi checkpoints, ferrying Jewish children to safety. “Often,
when we went to see the Jewish families we would find ourselves in the middle
of a roundup: blocked roads, soldiers at all corners and trucks for the
transport of the people caught in the hunt… Fortunately, we always almost
managed to save some children… We would pass the roadblocks with one child in a
pram, holding the hands of two others. The soldiers would shy away from a
mother with many children…”
Andree placed hundreds of Jewish
children in hiding. She kept secret records of the children’s original names as
well as the aliases she gave them, and where they were being held. When her
friend Ida Sterno was arrested by the Nazis in 1944, Andree kept their rescue
operation afloat, working tirelessly to save Jewish children until the very end
of World War II.
Once the war ended, Andree worked to
identify the children she’d hidden, returning them to any family members who
survived, when possible. She kept in touch with the Jews she’d rescued for
decades, often surprising them by remembering mundane details about their years
in hiding. Years later, Andree addressed some of the children she rescued at a
1998 ceremony at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial. “You placed your
little hand in mine - the other hand held on to the large suitcase with all the
treasures prepared with tears by your mothers - and we left on our journey,”
she recalled. “I loved you then so much; I still love you as much today.”
Andree Guelen was named Righteous
Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1989. (Odile Ovart and her husband Remi were
also named Righteous Among the Nations.) In 1998, Andree was granted honorary
citizenship in Israel. She passed away on May 31, 2022 at the age of 100.
Often compared to Oskar Schindler,
the Czech industrialist who saved Jews during the Holocaust by employing them
in his firm as slave laborers, Jozef Walaszczyk used his managerial job in a
flour factory in central Poland to save the lives of many Jews, putting his own
life at risk.
Before World War II broke out, Jozef
was a brilliant student and was fluent in German. When Germany invaded Poland
on September 1, 1939, Nazi forces appointed him manager of a potato flour
factory in the central Polish city of Rylsk, taking advantage of his German
language skills. The factory provided dormitories for its workers, a perfect
cover to hiding Jews.
Jews in the area were imprisoned in
the nearby Jewish
ghetto in the town of
Rawa Mazowiecka. In 1941, when the ghetto was about to be liquidated and all
Jewish residents deported to death camps, one of Jozef’s friends, Mr. Wengrow,
asked him to intervene. Years earlier, Mr. Wengrow had helped out Jozef with a
loan and now Jozef wanted to pay him back by saving the lives of Mr. Wengrow
and his fellow Jewish prisoners. Could Jozef employ them in his flour factory,
Mr. Wengrow asked?
Jozef said he’d try and scheduled a
meeting with a local Nazi official. When he explained his proposition, the Nazi
pulled out a gun and said, “You want to bribe a German for Jews?”
Jozef persevered and in exchange for
a large bribe, he was able to bring 30 Jews to work in his factory. The
agreement lasted for six months, when the Nazis suddenly demanded that Jozef
turn over his Jewish workers. He refused, and advised the Jews to hide.
Twenty-five Jews evaded capture.
In 1941, Jozef hid three Jewish
women in a secret apartment he rented in order to save their lives.
Jozef and his girlfriend Irena were
visiting a hotel one day when Gestapo guards burst in, demanding to see
everyone’s identification. Irena whispered to Jozef that she was secretly a
Jew. Thinking quickly, Jozef hid her in a closet, then began to retch loudly,
telling the Gestapo officials that he was going to be sick. Disgusted, they
left him alone, never discovering Irena’s hiding place. (“I don’t brag about
it, but I had nerves of steel,” Jozef later explained to researchers’ years
after the war.)
He hid Irena in an apartment he
owned in Warsaw, but later on she was arrested when she went outside to take a
walk. Learning that Irena had been arrested with a group of 20 Jews, Jozef
recalled thinking, “If something was to be done, it had to be done for them
all.” He offered the Nazis holding Irena and the other Jews a bribe. They
demanded a kilogram of pure gold by 5pm that day in return for the 20 Jews. Within
hours, Jozef managed to obtain the gold, freeing all of them.
Jozef rented a second Warsaw
apartment for Irena, and she stayed there with two other Jewish women. Jozef
hired a housekeeper to look after them so they didn’t need to go outside.
Jozef visited Warsaw often, and
brought food and clothes to Jews imprisoned in the notorious Warsaw Ghetto. It
was forbidden for outsiders to enter the ghetto, so Jozef bribed a tram driver
to slow down when he passed through the ghetto, giving him time to hop off the
tram. He also delivered packages to Poland’s Armia Krajowa anti-Nazi
resistance group.
On one occasion, Nazi officials
caught him red-handed with packages destined for the resistance. The Nazis
“started questioning me,” Jozef later recalled. “They beat and kicked. They
made me jump. One machine gun fired at my feet and the other over my head. Then
they decided to shoot me… I was in front of the firing squad and the only thing
missing was: Eins, zwei, drei, feuer! I closed my eyes so as
not to see the rifle fire. And at that moment I hear: ‘Halt!’ I did
not believe I was alive.”
It turned out that the Nazi in
charge decided that death was too good for Jozef and decided to send him
to Auschwitz. But Jozef’s mother managed to ask
a higher-ranking Nazi official to spare her son’s life.
Jozef later married Irena, the
Jewish woman he saved, but they divorced soon after the war and he went on to
marry two more times. He eschewed the spotlight, and seldom talked about his
role in saving dozens of Jews during the Holocaust. In 2002, Jozef Walszczyk
was named Righteous Among the Nations for saving 53 Jews. He passed away on
June 20, 2022 at the age of 102.
Last Shabbos with Yechiel
Michael Aaron
Friday morning, Rabbi Barak Kochavi
called me to invite me to the Rebbe’s Yahrzeit Dinner Farbrengen (German spells
it VER). Since I used to go and even sponsored one of the dinners, I told him I
would come.
Yechiel was one of sponsors this
year as it is three years since his father, Rabbi Yehonatan Benyamin Aaron Zal,
passed away. He completed Seder 5 of Mishnayos.
Yechiel had prepared one speech but
then he heard. The Rebbe never judged people by their looks and Chabad worked
with people who were hippies, no head covering in shorts, etc. One such person
was a non-religious Jew with a letter and numbers tattooed on his arm. (I was
far away from the speaker, distracted – but understood that the Rebbe took his
hand and said something to the effect that his being alive was a Kiddush HASHEM
– I could be wrong)
After that story, Yechiel added a
story about Rabbi Moshe Feinstein the late Gadol HaDor and great Tzaddik that I
heard one of his lectures and gave Semicha to Rabbi Yona Gewirtz Shlita.
A non-religious family of holocaust
survivors managed to come to the USA. There a son was born to them. The father
was a dentist and the mother his secretary-assistant. The son was sent to a
religious school and about the age of 12 wanted to meet Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.
One day Rabbi Moshe came into his
parent’s office with his assistant. The boy sat gaping at the Gaon. After a
while his mother came out grabbed the Rabbi’s hand and said, “Moshe, I am sorry
as much as we want, we cannot fit you into our schedule today.” After his
mother left, the boy ran over to Rabbi (or Rav) Moshe (as he was lovingly
called by almost all being the Rabbi of all other US Rabbis). He said, “I want
to apologize for my mother as she does not know that a woman should not take
the hand of a Rabbi.”
Rabbi Moshe took the boy’s hand and
said to him, “You see the numbers on the arms of your mother and father. What
they went though in the name of being Jewish makes them holier than I. There is
nothing to apologize for.”
The boy grew up and today is one of
the Roshei Yeshivas in the USA.
A sub-story comes out here from
my Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Yacov London TzZal. If I recall every Wednesday was BINGO
Night in the Schul of our Yeshiva. The local Black and Hispanic neighbor would
come to play for a grand prize of I think $1000 or it was $250 with over $1000
in prizes each week.
Being one of the older boys on
scholarship to the Yeshiva, I worked the Kiosk selling sandwiches that Mama
London had made for us boys. Of course we ate some and we sold Pepsi or Coke
& other drinks.
One time before either a primary
or regular election came a Jewish Candidate to speak before the people. He also
donated to the Yeshiva. His daughter held out her hand to shake the Rabbi’s
hand and he did so quickly and a much longer and warmer handshake to the
candidate.
I confronted the Rabbi as we have
a law of forbidding to touch women for a number of reasons from ritual impurity
to not derive pleasure other than one’s wife or perhaps child.
The Rabbi answered me as follows:
One is forbidden to embarrass another person. If he does so and they blush it
is like shedding blood. If I refused to take the hand of this young woman, I
would: One show a distain towards the politician, two embarrass her, three it
was in public and would have ruined the effect of his campaign. “I would be
like shedding blood.”
There is also a Gemara where one
elderly Rabbi carried a bride on his shoulder and said it was like carrying a
log for me but making a bride and groom happy.
In truth at this point I figured
that the two stories and the last one that I believe was in the blog years ago
was enough for this week. I always believe in STRIKE THE IRON WHEN IT IS HOT.
When I read this article on Arutz 7 July 4th by Sivan Rachav Meir, I had to add
it.
Sivan’s Article: The
Most Beautiful story about the Rebbe.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355933
The Rebbe’s Yahrzeit was last
Shabbos and I brought down the story by Rabbi Tilles. *Translated by Yehoshua
Siskin http://inthelandofthejews.blogspot.com
1.
What's the most beautiful story you know about the Lubavitcher Rebbe? I was
asked to answer this question when being interviewed this week in connection to
the 28th anniversary of the Rebbe's passing, which was observed two days ago on
the 3rd of Tammuz. It took some time for me to choose but I believe that the
following story is the most beautiful one that I know.
Rabbi Moshe Feller, chief Chabad
emissary to Minnesota, was asked to write an article for a newspaper on
Judaism, Torah, and Hassidism. He tried to explain in the article what Torah
does for another person and wrote that when a person faints and loses
consciousness, it is said you must get close to their ear and shout their name
in order for them to wake up.
In the same way, he wrote, when a
person is far from their Judaism, far from their identity and themselves, we
need to shout their name and that they are a Jew in order for them to be
reminded of who they are and wake up.
Rabbi Feller sent the article to
the Lubavitcher Rebbe for his approval. Only one word was changed but with
great significance. The Rebbe crossed out "shout" and wrote above it
"whisper." Not to shout into the other's ear, but to whisper into it.
How do we awaken those who are
spiritually unconscious, how do we address those who are cut off from their
roots? The man who influenced millions recommends that we change our approach.
Don't shout at them that they are
not okay, don't roar at them with your beliefs, but rather whisper. You are
about to enter a delicate place -- the soul. Don't approach them with
brutality. Approach them with confidence but also with love, with determination
but with tenderness too.
It would appear that this
approach could benefit us all, in every area of life.
2.
And exercise caution: Avoid ridicule of what you do not understand - at all
costs!*
The
Torah portion of Chukkas (read this coming Shabbat in the Diaspora) begins with
the words *"This is the law of the Torah,"* and then describes a
subject shrouded in mystery until today: the ritual of the red heifer.
Generations of sages examined this mitzvah (divine commandment) that has no
clear explanation.
But
is there a reason behind every mitzvah? Could there be both revealed and hidden
explanations involved -- or none at all? Are we obligated or even able to
understand everything? Do we only perform mitzvot whose purpose we understand
or do we sometimes simply say: "This is the law of the Torah"?
Today,
if something sounds ancient or not up-to-date, the easiest thing is to ridicule
or dismiss it. There is a tendency to think that if a Torah law or commandment
is not applicable to the here and now, then it is certainly irrelevant and may
even become fodder for jokes about our tradition.
Here's
an idea from the Rambam, among the greatest Jewish thinkers of all time,
regarding this matter: *"It is fitting for a person to contemplate the
judgments of the holy Torah and know their ultimate purpose according to his
capacity. If he cannot find a reason or a motivating rationale for a practice,
he should not take it lightly . . . One's thoughts concerning it should not be
like his thoughts concerning other matters."* (Mishneh Torah, Meilah 8:8)
In
other words, on the one hand we should study and make every effort to
understand. The Jewish bookshelf is based on thousands of years of study. It is
fitting to delve deep inside before making assertions we are convinced are valid.
On the other hand, even after we have thoroughly investigated a subject, there
will always be matters we do not understand. And even when we do not comprehend
certain subjects completely or not at all, perhaps because they are not in
keeping with the times, we need to exercise extreme caution not to minimize or
ridicule them.
We
should never demean our heritage since, in doing so, we would only be demeaning
ourselves.
3.
And we never know when we may suddenly realize we are part of that heritage. Here
is a story:
Fish
and Chips: From Miami to Carmiel
A reader from Carmiel sent me a
notice last week regarding "Kikar Miami." At first glance, it looked
like any other restaurant advertisement until I read the fine print: Each
patron who says something positive or optimistic about the Land of Israel would
receive a 10% discount. The discount was meant to coincide with the Shelach
Torah portion, where most of the spies who scouted the Land of Israel returned
with a gloomy and pessimistic report.
I called the restaurant. One of
the workers told me how people who came to the restaurant praised Israel's
highly diversified landscape that includes deserts as well as snowy mountains.
Some customers explained that the fruits, vegetables, and cheeses in Israel are
the tastiest in the world. Others mentioned the special holiness of the Land.
And then there were new immigrants who shared their aliyah stories and how
emotional it was to see with their own eyes how the prophecy of the ingathering
of the exiles has been fulfilled.
I asked about the proprietor and
his story. So, let me just say: "Pleased to make your acquaintance,
Paltiel Koenigsberg." Now 40 years old, he owned two restaurants in Miami,
Florida, until two years ago. He was born in New York and his wife is
originally from Venezuela. His wife's sisters married Israelis who had moved to
the United States and it was ironically through these former Israelis that he
began to fall in love with the Land of Israel.
During the corona pandemic he
began to understand that Miami was not his home. His family sold the
restaurants and left for Israel. Paltiel made aliyah with his wife and six
children (meanwhile a seventh child was born in Israel), his three sisters and
their families, and his mother-in-law, a total of 25 new immigrants in all.
He had never heard the word
Carmiel until his arrival in Israel. He had originally thought to live in Beit
Shemesh because of the large American community there. But in traveling through
Israel, the family fell in love with the North in general and with Carmiel in
particular. "When I first came up north," he recalled, "suddenly
everything was calm. Even the children in the back seat stopped fighting.
"We arrived in Israel
exactly two years ago during Parsha Shelach and the story of the spies and
their negative report about the Land. Only two spies - Calev and Yehoshua -
were optimistic. We too felt a little like spies when we first came to Israel
to check it out but our impressions were out of this world. From one day to the
next we feel less American and more Israeli. We even managed to vote once and
perhaps will soon do so a second time. We thought about how to mark the
anniversary of our aliyah and now, since we have our own business in the Land
of Israel, we decided to share our story with the public."
The Shelach discount is now over,
we are reading the next Parshiyos, but you can still continue in the spirit of
it.
Milestone: Peter Brook, 97,
English Actor. https://www.timesofisrael.com/peter-brook-mystical-giant-who-changed-theater-forever-dies-at-97/
Milestone: Irving Abella, 82, historian. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355985
Milestone: Joseph Turkel, 94, Actor. https://www.aol.com/entertainment/joe-turkel-played-shining-bartender-132920545.html
Milestone: Donato
Di Veroli, 98, Last Roman Jew to survive Holocaust. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356040
Milestone: James Caan, 82, Sonny Corleone of “The Godfather”, etc. https://www.timesofisrael.com/james-caan-godfather-and-misery-star-son-of-german-jews-dies-at-82/
Penny Wise and not pound foolish.
Or a penny saved is a penny earned. Like $114 plus a year for 45 years. https://www.tacorelish.com/after-saving-pennies-for-45-years-this-73-year-old-man-decides-to-finally-cash-out/
Inyanay Diyoma
Iran sends msg to Israel via
Hezballah. But wait Israel knows where their oil and gas fields are. Maybe it
is not the most brilliant idea. https://www.debka.com/hizballah-drones-intercepted-before-reaching-israels-offshore-karish-gas-rig/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-july-02-2022/
Two injured in Syria following
weapons depot attack. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/ryl08v6cc
Boston area College fires an
employee for antisemitic graffiti. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355875
Massive fire rips through Jewish Camp. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355872
Guard at Jewish school where he was
employed as a security guard has been arrested by federal agents for building
and selling untraceable “ghost guns” using a 3D printer. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355873
Former Sec. of State warns Iran Deal not good. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355867
Free hero who saved children from lynch. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355847
Future of Yamina Party will be decided today. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355887
According to Yisrael HaYom, Blue & White party leader
and Defense Minister Benny Ganz is now courting Livni with the offer of a top
place on his party's slate. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355889
Can we believe that this is the true bullet? https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355880
Uneducated Not proud to be an American. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355880
Now the Hungarians Fanatics are
bullying Women. https://www.timesofisrael.com/orthodox-women-who-built-businesses-friendships-online-are-being-told-to-sign-off/
Sad veteran Journalist has ALS. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/veteran-israeli-journalist-moshe-nussbaum-says-he-has-als/
Blue and White in talks with New Hope.
Ministers may switch jobs. https://www.timesofisrael.com/shaked-saar-may-move-jobs-in-reshuffle-blue-and-white-new-hope-in-talks-report/
New UK law against money laundering. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rkkixgoqc
Apple expands to Arabs working in Yehuda and
Shomron. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/bypitho59
Ukraine shells Russian City. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rkn11ghr9c
Universal Drone Delivery Mailbox. https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/07/01/israeli-startup-rolls-out-universal-mailbox-for-urban-drone-delivery/
Syria recognizes the “People’s Republic of
Ukraine”. https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/06/29/syrian-regime-recognizes-russian-backed-peoples-republics-in-ukraine/
Corruption in Canada. https://dianebederman.com/trudeaueyewitness-to-deceit-vengeance-is-mine-sayeth-the-lord/
Shark attack kills Austrian Woman. https://www.timesofisrael.com/austrian-woman-dies-after-shark-attack-off-egypts-red-sea-coast/
Unilever Investor calls Israeli Branch Mngr.
Hero. https://www.timesofisrael.com/unilever-investor-ben-jerrys-boycott-fallout-will-be-lesson-to-multinationals/
Large blaze near Lebanese Border. https://www.timesofisrael.com/firefighters-battling-large-blaze-in-northern-israel-close-to-lebanon-border/
49th Arab Victim - Father murdered
feeding baby. https://www.timesofisrael.com/father-shot-dead-while-feeding-daughter-in-northern-arab-town/
IDF officers participate in Moroccan Drill. https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-idf-officers-participate-in-major-drill-in-morocco-as-observers/
Not the camps but close. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-under-19s-fall-to-3-1-defeat-by-england-in-european-soccer-final/
Last week a loon murdered his mother in Acco
now in Beer Sheva. https://www.timesofisrael.com/man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-murdering-his-mother-at-her-beersheba-home/
Walmart to buy Israel Firm. https://www.timesofisrael.com/walmart-to-acquire-israeli-founded-ar-startup-memomi/
13 more terrorists nabbed. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355941
Copenhagen mass shooting. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355926
Israel to test bullet for DNA and imprint. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355937
Corrosion caused helicopter crash. https://www.timesofisrael.com/never-before-seen-corrosion-caused-deadly-january-chopper-crash-idf-concludes/
Drugs seized. https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-seizes-2-5-million-worth-of-drugs-on-egypt-border/
Actor’s Ketuvah sells for $21,889. https://www.timesofisrael.com/ketubah-of-moe-howard-from-three-stooges-auctioned-for-21889/
Unarmed Black killed with 60 bullets. https://www.timesofisrael.com/protests-in-us-after-video-shows-akron-police-killing-black-man-in-hail-of-gunfire/
Glacier collapse kills six injures 8. https://www.timesofisrael.com/6-killed-in-italy-glacier-collapse-day-after-summit-sees-record-high-temperature/
Bibi just did the stalling to make trouble. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/ryz2rxgjc
Trump will win rematch. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355906
Ed-Op Daniel Greenfield. US Army went woke
recruiting down. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355921
Zelensky cheers Israeli High Court on Refugees.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/07/03/zelensky-cheers-israeli-supreme-court-ruling-lifting-cap-on-ukrainian-refugees/
Investment in Israeli High Tech down. https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/07/03/investment-in-israeli-high-tech-startups-plummets-by-31-in-q2/
Two Jews among the murdered in Chicago. https://www.timesofisrael.com/synagogue-staffer-mexican-grandfather-among-six-chicago-area-shooting-victims/+https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hy9rp2gj9
Arab stabs Jew on Bnei Brak Bridge. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355992
Russia Condemns Israeli Air Attacks. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sk11re2gj9
Inconclusive who killed journalist. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355965
CENTCOM vs. new Russia Gen. is he a dog off
leash trying to re-establish himself? https://www.debka.com/hostile-russian-us-incidents-erupt-in-e-syria-after-key-russian-general-transferred-from-ukraine/
Hezballah drone stunt may have gone too far. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rjzlxqgoq#autoplay
Israel delays housing project because of Biden.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-pushes-off-contentious-e1-settlement-project-amid-us-pressure/
Egyptian closes Red Sea Beaches after 2nd
shark. https://www.timesofisrael.com/romanian-tourist-killed-in-second-deadly-shark-attack-off-egypts-red-sea-coast/
Danon worried about Lapid’s inexperience. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355976
Kidnapping suspect released. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355975
Somalis boo squad member Omar in MN. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355988
Poland and Israel coming back together. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355952
Israeli Boy falls to death in Spain. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355959
Politicians attended but Lapid turned down. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355969
Drive by shooting: https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rydp711gj5
Analysis on the Hezballah drones. https://www.debka.com/hizballah-drones-were-the-opening-shot-of-a-maritime-energy-war-vs-israel/
Thanks to Monique: Moscow orders Jewish Agency
to stop all activities. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-711227
Man tried to stuff 16year old girl in his
trunk. https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-probing-suspected-kidnapping-attempt-of-16-year-old-girl-in-pardes-hanna/
Bibi and especially Sarah’s demand for gifts. https://www.timesofisrael.com/key-witness-describes-incessant-demands-from-netanyahus-for-gifts/
Bullet too damaged to prove who killed
journalist. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355965
Martin Sherman Ed-Op Israel must learn from
Ukraine. https://www.newsmax.com/martinsherman/begin-mossad-vance/2022/07/01/id/1076980/
Should evacuate illegal Bedouins. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356122
Wandering boy in Chicago Shooting is Jewish. https://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-the-chaos-of-the-highland-park-massacre-two-strangers-saved-an-orphaned-boy/
Terrorist arrested for hatchetting Jew. https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-arrested-over-suspected-bnei-brak-terror-attack-says-shin-bet/
Billionaire got protection with Kerry from
Netanyahu. https://www.timesofisrael.com/milchan-aide-testifies-netanyahu-introduced-her-boss-to-kerry-to-help-him-get-visa/
Shots fired at IDF Schem Outpost. https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-says-shots-fired-at-military-post-near-nablus-no-injuries/
Bedouin enlists to spy for terror group. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356139
Assassinated. Japan’s Abe at rally. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356196
Yamina will not make it to the Knesset. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356182
Youth of Gush Etzion Judo Champs. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356188
3,500year old curse found. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356185
Fall of Boris Johnson. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356183
Lame stream media ignores Joe’s voice mail to
Hunter. https://www.foxnews.com/media/abc-nbc-cbs-cnn-msnbc-voicemail-joe-biden-hunter-biden-business-dealings
Israeli Arabs organize to attack Jews. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356172
Ganz meets PLO for concessions. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356160
4year old nearly dies in bathtub. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356153
79year old begins breathing after 50minutes. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356144
Physicist and ballistic expert Nahum Shahaf, refutes
that IDF killed reporter. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356141
2/3rds of US Public believes that Joe Biden
compromised by China. Why are the press ignoring his lies? https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356186
Zelensky – Ukraine will not give up land for
peace. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356165
New antivirus works against Zika & Covid. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356068
Ed-Op Caroline Glick Israeli Foreign Policy
Deadlock. https://carolineglick.com/how-to-end-israels-political-instability/
Ed-Op Martin Sherman No one will come (void
agreements). https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/into-the-fray-martin-sherman/into-the-fray-no-one-will-come/2022/06/27/
Analysis Nahum Barnea – Lapid’s scant military
experience could be his undoing. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/r1bwirxic
Israeli released from Greek Jail. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-man-released-from-greek-jail-describes-inhumane-detention-conditions/
YUK 1 – Herzog to give Biden medal of Honor. https://www.timesofisrael.com/herzog-to-honor-biden-with-presidential-medal-of-honor-next-week/
Hope it is in Chinese at least.
YUK 2 Biden’s Transgender Jewish Health Sec. https://www.timesofisrael.com/bidens-jewish-transgender-deputy-health-secretary-decries-bullying-lauds-israel/
HASHEM we await your
salvation.
Toyota to partner with Quantum Machines. https://www.timesofisrael.com/toyota-partners-with-israels-quantum-machines-for-quantum-computing-solutions/
IBM is acquiring Israeli data observability startup Databand, AI.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/s100qzlxi5
Requesting direct flights to Mecca for Israeli
Arabs. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-asks-saudi-arabia-to-allow-direct-flights-for-muslim-pilgrims-on-way-to-mecca/
50th Arab Mafia Victim. https://www.timesofisrael.com/man-shot-to-death-in-northern-town-amid-unrelenting-deadly-crime-wave/
Jewish Mafia Victim. https://www.timesofisrael.com/man-killed-in-apparent-car-bombing-in-zichron-yaakov/
Highland Park shooter also thought of WI
shooting. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356110
Misspelled sign makes Harris laughing stock. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356108
Saudis mull inviting Israeli Official.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/syp211eno9
Fake narrative of detaining diplomats. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sj7jlvqj9#autoplay
$600,000 to Help Welsh Jewish Center. https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-grants-600000-lifeline-to-turn-old-welsh-synagogue-into-jewish-cultural-hub/
Diphtheria down under, Polio in Israel –
Pandemic Results. https://www.timesofisrael.com/diphtheria-in-australia-like-polio-in-israel-are-collateral-cost-of-pandemic/
Key witness in Netanyahu Trial Doxed. https://www.timesofisrael.com/key-witness-at-netanyahu-trial-files-police-complaint-against-journalist-for-doxxing/
Sexual Abuser allowed into Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-grants-residency-visa-to-us-rabbi-convicted-of-sexually-assaulting-students/
Ukraine warns against Uman Pilgrimage. https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-warns-israelis-against-uman-pilgrimage-this-fall-amid-russian-invasion/
Marvel movie with N. Portman does not really
make the cut for viewers. https://www.timesofisrael.com/not-even-hebrew-hammer-natalie-portman-can-save-marvels-thor-love-and-thunder/
Shot trying to escape. https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-shot-dead-near-jenin-idf-terror-suspect-targeted-trying-to-escape/
Stomach Aches in 5 Star Hotel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/health-inspectors-stumped-as-dozens-of-guests-at-eilat-hotel-report-stomach-ailments/
Arab textbooks preach violence. https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/07/07/unrwa-palestinian-textbooks-still-inciting-antisemitism-and-jihadi-violence-concludes-new-report/
Hamas and PLO leaders meet. https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/07/06/zero-sum-game-pa-leader-abbas-and-hamas-chief-haniyeh-come-together-in-rare-meeting-in-algeria/
Madrid BDS should be a hate crime. https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/07/06/bds-should-be-prosecuted-as-a-hate-crime-president-of-city-of-madrid-tells-visiting-us-jewish-delegation/
Federal Judge restrains Ben and Jerry. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356050
1600year mosaic found depicting Devorah and
Yael. https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/07/06/1600-year-old-mosaic-depicting-biblical-heroines-found-in-ancient-israeli-synagogue/
More demands from Iran. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356048
Bezos bashes Biden on inflation. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356052
Hadassah Doctors help Paralyzed man walk. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356063
Former Syrian Soldier – Iran is the bigger
enemy. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356028
3million NIS in Cocaine seized on Egyptian
Border. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356019
Prison officer fired for pimping for Arabs. https://www.timesofisrael.com/prison-officer-fired-over-claims-he-pimped-female-guards-to-palestinian-inmates/
We should evacuate illegal Bedouins. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356122
Moscow has no Chief Rabbi. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356117
A healthful, peaceful and restful
Shabbos,
Rachamim Pauli
