During the counting of
the Omer because of the many deaths in the Bar Kochba Revolt, we usually say
the Tachnun Prayer. The exceptions are Yom HaAtzmaut, Pesach Sheni, Lag B’ Omer
and Yom Yerushalayim.
Thursday Night was
Pesach Sheni, the make-up Pesach: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4372315/jewish/10-Facts-About-Pesach-Sheni-Every-Jew-Needs-to-Know.htm
Parsha Emor
This year
is the 40th anniversary of my second son’s Bar Mitzvah
In the
double Parshiyos last week, we discussed 79 Commandments. Starting with the
holiness of the Cohain Gadol on Yom Kippur and the service continuing onwards
to a nation that should be holy for, I, the L-RD your G-D is holy.
This week,
we continue with the holiness of the ordinary Cohain. More of the Yom Kippur
Service ending with a reminder of Shabbos and other Yomim Tovim.
21:1 And
the LORD said unto Moses: Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say
unto them: There shall none defile himself for the dead among his people; 2
except for his kin, that is near unto him, for his mother, and for his father,
and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother; 3 and for his
sister a virgin, that is near unto him, that hath had no husband, for her may
he defile himself.
There are
seven close relatives whom a Cohain can mourn and even bury if there is nobody
else to take care of them. This is for a plain Cohain.
4 He shall not defile himself, being a chief
man among his people, to profane himself.
For other
relatives an ordinary Cohain cannot defile himself and a Cohain Gadol even for
the seven close relatives.
5 They shall not make baldness upon their head,
neither shall they shave off the corners of their beard, nor make any cuttings
in their flesh.
We saw in
chapter 19 that even a regular Jew cannot make cuttings for the dead nor cut
the corners of their beards by shaving. Cutting for the dead unto bleeding is a
Shiite custom left over from idol worship.
6 They shall be holy unto their God, and not
profane the name of their God; for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, the
bread of their God, they do offer; therefore, they shall be holy.
Any Cohain must
be particularly holy.
7 They shall not take a woman that is a harlot,
or profaned; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband; for he
is holy unto his God. 8 Thou shalt sanctify him therefore; for he offers the bread of thy God; he shall be
holy unto thee; for I the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy.
A Levi or ordinary
Yisrael can marry a divorced woman or even a woman of shady reputation or a
convert but a Cohain can only marry either a virgin or a widowed woman but the
Cohain Gadol can’t marry a virgin.
9 And the daughter of any priest, if she
profanes
herself by playing the harlot, she profanes her father: she shall be burnt with
fire.
A daughter
of a Cohain, like her father has more Kedusha than an ordinary Yisrael or Levi.
Therefore, her punishment is more severe. Instead of the death penalty by
stoning, she shall die by having molten lead poured down her throat – burning.
Tamar was the daughter of a Cohain so Yehuda, upon learning of her pregnancy
asked that she get the death penalty by burning. She is saved by producing his
staff and signet ring: “By this man I am pregnant.” Only then does he realize
that she tricked him and brought about Moshiach.
10 And the priest that is highest among his
brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, and that is consecrated
to put on the garments, shall not let the hair of his head go loose, nor rend
his clothes; 11 neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for
his father, or for his mother; 12 neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor
profane the sanctuary of his God; for the consecration of the anointing oil of
his God is upon him: I am the LORD. 13 And he shall take a wife in her
virginity.
This
applies only to the Cohain Gadol.
14 A widow, or one divorced, or a profaned
woman, or a harlot, these shall he not take; but a virgin of his own people
shall he take to wife. 15 And he shall not profane his seed among his people;
for I am the LORD who sanctify him.
The Cohain’s
children must be born in holiness otherwise they are Hallalim. Unlike the
non-Jewish concept, if a Cohain were to have relations with a virgin out of
wedlock, the child born would be a Cohain or daughter of a Cohain and not
profane.
16 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 17
Speak unto Aaron, saying: Whosoever he be of thy seed throughout their
generations that hath a blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his
God. 18 For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a
blind man, or a lame, or he that hath any thing maimed, or anything too long,
19 or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, 20 or crook-backed, or a
dwarf, or that hath his eye overspread, or is scabbed, or scurvy, or hath his
stones crushed; 21 no man of the seed of Aaron the priest, that hath a blemish,
shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire; he hath a
blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.
In fact a
man can be unblemished and even become Cohain Gadol on merit but if he breaks
his foot/leg/arm by accident, develops a cataract, etc. he must resign.
22 He may eat the bread of his God, both of the
most holy, and of the holy. 23 Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come
nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profanes not My holy places; for I am the
LORD who sanctify them. 24 So Moses spoke unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto
all the children of Israel.
Such a blemished Cohain can flay the
Korban and even eat from it in holiness and ritual purity. Only the blemish prevents
him from offering up a Korban.
22:1 And
the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that
they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, which
they hallow unto Me, and that they profane not My holy name: I am the LORD. 3
Say unto them: Whosoever he be of all your seed throughout your generations,
that approaches unto the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto
the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from
before Me: I am the LORD.
The Torah
at this point goes to the ritual purity of a Cohain. Tuma is a spiritual
blemish.
4 What man soever of the seed of Aaron is a
leper, or hath an issue, he shall not eat of the holy things, until he be
clean. And whoso touches any
one that is unclean by the dead; or from whomsoever the flow of seed goes out;
His seed
goes out involuntary or a state of gonorrhea.
5 or whosoever touches any swarming thing, whereby he may
be made unclean, or a man of whom he may take uncleanness, whatsoever
uncleanness he hath; 6 the soul that touches any such shall be unclean until the
even, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he bathe his flesh in water.
7 And when the sun is down, he shall be clean; and afterward he may eat of the
holy things, because it is his bread. 8 That which dies of itself, or is torn of beasts, he
shall not eat to defile himself therewith: I am the LORD. 9 They shall
therefore keep My charge, lest they bear sin for it, and die therein, if they
profane it: I am the LORD who sanctify them. 10 There shall no common man eat
of the holy thing; a tenant of a priest, or a hired servant, shall not eat of
the holy thing.
A priest cannot
give Teruma or part of a Korban to a common Yisrael or to pay a contractor.
11 But if a priest buy any soul, the purchase
of his money, he may eat of it; and such as are born in his house, they may eat
of his bread.
His
non-Jewish slave can eat of the Cohain’s food as he is the Cohain’s property.
12 And if a priest's daughter be married unto a
common man, she shall not eat of that which is set apart from the holy things.
His
daughter has married out of Kahuna and she is forbidden to eat the Cohain’s extraordinary
Kodesh Food. However, if she married a different Cohain, her status remains
unchanged.
13 But if a priest's daughter be a widow, or
divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto her father's house, as in her
youth, she may eat of her father's bread; but there shall no common man eat
thereof.
If his daughter
returns to depend upon her father or brother’s support; then she can eat again
Kodesh.
14 And if a man eat of the holy thing through
error, then he shall put the fifth part thereof unto it, and shall give unto
the priest the holy thing. 15 And they shall not profane the holy things of the
children of Israel, which they set apart unto the LORD; 16 and so cause them to
bear the iniquity that brings guilt, when they eat their holy things; for I
am the LORD who sanctify them.
He has
trespassed by eating even accidently food for a Cohain even if he ate from the stomach
or other holy part of his own Korban.
17 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 18 Speak
unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto
them: Whosoever he be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers in Israel,
that bringeth his offering, whether it be any of their vows, or any of their
free-will-offerings, which are brought unto the LORD for a burnt-offering; 19
that ye may be accepted, ye shall offer a male without blemish, of the beeves,
of the sheep, or of the goats. 20 But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye
not bring; for it shall not be acceptable for you. 21 And whosoever bringeth a
sacrifice of peace-offerings unto the LORD in fulfilment of a vow clearly
uttered, or for a freewill-offering, of the herd or of the flock, it shall be
perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein.
Not only
the Cohain must be unblemished but if one offers up a Korban it shall be
unblemished. Just as a Cohain cannot have a broken bone, blind, hear lobe
ripped to shreds, etc. so too the Korban must be unblemished.
22 Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a
wen, or scabbed, or scurvy, ye shall not offer these unto the LORD, nor make an
offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the LORD. 23 Either a bullock or a
lamb that hath any thing too long or too short, that mayest thou offer for a
freewill-offering; but for a vow it shall not be accepted. 24 That which hath
its stones bruised, or crushed, or torn, or cut, ye shall not offer unto the
LORD; neither shall ye do thus in your land. 25 Neither from the hand of a foreigner
shall ye offer the bread of your God of any of these, because their corruption
is in them, there is a blemish in them; they shall not be accepted for you.
No matter
how learned, holy and purity or Torah Leaders are; if they are ordinary people
and not Cohanim, they are forbidden to take the place of an ordinary unlearned
Cohain (only schooled in offering of course).
26 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 27
When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth, then it shall be seven
days under the dam; but from the eighth day and thenceforth it may be accepted
for an offering made by fire unto the LORD. 28 And whether it be cow or ewe, ye
shall not slaughter it
and its young both in one day. 29 And when ye sacrifice a sacrifice of
thanksgiving unto the LORD, ye shall sacrifice it that ye may be accepted. 30
On the same day it shall be eaten; ye shall leave none of it until the morning:
I am the LORD. 31 And ye shall keep My commandments, and do them: I am the LORD.
32 And ye shall not profane My holy name; but I will be hallowed among the
children of Israel: I am the LORD who hallow you, 33 that brought you out of
the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD.
It is cruel to kill a beast and its young
on the same day. Of course, the Nazis, Hamas, Hezballah, etc. this never
bothered them.
23:1 And
the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say
unto them: The appointed seasons of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be
holy convocations, even these are My appointed seasons. 3 Six days shall work
be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, a holy
convocation; ye shall do no manner of work; it is a sabbath unto the LORD in
all your dwellings.
The Torah
cannot mention enough the holy Shabbos. It seems that the Yetzer to keep doing
work/Melacha and not rest is stronger than turning the world off for close to
25 hours. Last week’s YouTube on preventing dementia perhaps helps some people
realize the benefits of Shabbos. I know of a story of a Project Manager some 25
or 30 years ago who worked large electronics firm in Israel. The man worked 16
hours a day to keep the project on schedule and running. He worked on Shabbos
too. One Sunday or Monday after a few months he did not show up to work. His
assistant found out that he had a mental breakdown. Shabbos is not only
honoring the fact that G-D rested, it is honoring mankind to refresh is soul.
4 These are the appointed seasons of the LORD,
even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their appointed season. 5 In
the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at dusk, is the LORD'S Passover.
We now go through
the three Regelim (Regel = foot and the name comes from walking up in a pilgrimage
to Yerushalayim or prior to then, the Mishkan).
6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is
the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD; seven days ye shall eat unleavened
bread. 7 In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no
manner of servile work. 8 And ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the
LORD seven days; in the seventh day is a holy convocation; ye shall do no
manner of servile work.
The first
and seventh days are holy but it is one full holiday.
9 And the LORD spoke unto Moses saying: 10
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When ye are come into the
land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall
bring the sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest. 11 And he
shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you; on the morrow
after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And in the day when ye wave the
sheaf, ye shall offer a he-lamb without blemish of the first year for a
burnt-offering unto the LORD. 13 And the meal-offering thereof shall be two
tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by
fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour; and the drink-offering thereof shall be
of wine, the fourth part of a hin. 14 And ye shall eat neither bread, nor
parched corn, nor fresh ears, until this selfsame day, until ye have brought
the offering of your God; it is a statute for ever throughout your generations
in all your dwellings.
One is forbidden
to eat new grain (usually barley ripens before wheat) called Chadash until the
Omer is brought. On Chag Shavuos, the fiftieth day, we bring the first fruits
called Bikurim.
15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow
after the day of rest, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the waving;
seven weeks shall there be complete; 16 even unto the morrow after the seventh
week shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall present a new meal-offering unto
the LORD.
This Pasuk
is said each night before making a blessing for the counting of Omer.
17 Ye shall bring out of your dwellings two wave-loaves
of two tenth parts of an ephah; they shall be of fine flour, they shall be
baked with leaven, for first-fruits unto the LORD. 18 And ye shall present with
the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock,
and two rams; they shall be a burnt-offering unto the LORD, with their
meal-offering, and their drink-offerings, even an offering made by fire, of a
sweet savour unto the LORD. 19 And ye shall offer one he-goat for a
sin-offering, and two he-lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of
peace-offerings. 20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the
first-fruits for a wave-offering before the LORD, with the two lambs; they
shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. 21 And ye shall make proclamation on
the selfsame day; there shall be a holy convocation unto you; ye shall do no
manner of servile work; it is a statute for ever in all your dwellings
throughout your generations. 22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou
shalt not wholly reap the corner of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the
gleaning of thy harvest; thou shalt leave them for the poor, and for the
stranger: I am the LORD your God.
We now have
finished the Mitzvah of Chag Shavuos.
23 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 24
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, in the first
day of the month, shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial proclaimed with
the blast of horns, a holy convocation. 25 Ye shall do no manner of servile
work; and ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
Horns and
later on we shall learn trumpets on Rosh Hashanah.
26 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 27
Howbeit on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; there
shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls; and ye
shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD. 28 And ye shall do no
manner of work in that same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make
atonement for you before the LORD your God. 29 For whatsoever soul it be that
shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from his people.
30 And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any manner of work in that same day,
that soul will I destroy from among his people. 31 Ye shall do no manner of
work; it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your
dwellings. 32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of solemn rest, and ye shall
afflict your souls; in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even,
shall ye keep your sabbath.
Yom Kippur
is in holiness almost like a Shabbos. But on Shabbos we have seven Torah Aliyah
and on Yom Kippur only six. The afflicting is not bathing, anointing, washing
one’s hand more than the first joint, eating, family relationships and wearing
shoes or leather sandals.
33 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 34
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of this seventh
month is the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD. 35 On the first
day shall be a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work.
Chag Sukkos
is the last of the Regelim to go up to Yerushalayim.
36 Seven days ye shall bring an offering made
by fire unto the LORD; on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you;
and ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD; it is a day of
solemn assembly; ye shall do no manner of servile work.
Unlike the seventh
day of Pesach that is a Yom Tov, this eight day is a special holy day within itself
and the blessing of “Who has reached this season” is said in Kiddush at night.
37 These are the appointed seasons of the LORD,
which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to bring an offering made by
fire unto the LORD, a burnt-offering, and a meal-offering, a sacrifice, and
drink-offerings, each on its own day; 38 beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and
beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your
freewill-offerings, which ye give unto the LORD. 39 Howbeit on the fifteenth day
of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruits of the land, ye shall
keep the feast of the LORD seven days; on the first day shall be a solemn rest,
and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. 40 And ye shall take you on the
first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and boughs of
thick trees, and willows of the brook, and ye shall rejoice before the LORD
your God seven days. 41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days
in the year; it is a statute for ever in your generations; ye shall keep it in
the seventh month. 42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are
home-born in Israel shall dwell in booths; 43 that your generations may know
that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out
of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. 44 And Moses declared unto the
children of Israel the appointed seasons of the LORD.
Those mentioned above are your Yomim Tovim
from the Torah and anything else is declared by the Rabbis.
24:1 And
the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 'Command the children of Israel, that they
bring unto thee pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn
continually. 3 Without the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, shall
Aaron order it from evening to morning before the LORD continually; it shall be
a statute for ever throughout your generations. 4 He shall order the lamps upon
the pure candlestick before the LORD continually.
The Ner
Tamid or continually burning lamp in the Mishkan/Mikdash never went out.
5 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake
twelve cakes thereof: two tenth parts of an ephah shall be in one cake. 6 And
thou shalt set them in two rows, six in a row, upon the pure table before the
LORD. 7 And thou shalt put pure frankincense with each row, that it may be to
the bread for a memorial-part, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD. 8 Every
sabbath day he shall set it in order before the LORD continually; it is from
the children of Israel, an everlasting covenant. 9 And it shall be for Aaron
and his sons; and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy unto
him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire, a perpetual due.'
This is the
shewbread.
10 And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose
father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and the son of
the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp. 11 And
the son of the Israelitish woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they
brought him unto Moses. And his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of
Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. 12 And they put him in ward, that it might be
declared unto them at the mouth of the LORD.
His mother
was a Bas Yisrael but his father had taught him bad habits.
13 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 14
'Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him
lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
The
witnesses shall put him to death by stoning and then the nation shall join in.
15 And thou shalt speak unto the children of
Israel, saying: Whosoever curses his God shall bear his sin. 16 And he that
blasphemes the
name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall
certainly stone him; as well the stranger, as the home-born, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
This is an
automatic death penalty.
17 And he that smites any man mortally shall surely be
put to death. 18 And he that smites a beast mortally shall make it
good: life for life.
Murder, if
there are witnesses, deserves the death penalty. However, murdering an animal
requires only compensation.
19 And if a man maim his neighbour; as he hath
done, so shall it be done to him: 20 breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for
tooth; as he hath maimed a man, so shall it be rendered unto him. 21 And he
that kills a
beast shall make it good; and he that kills a man shall be put to death. 22 Ye
shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for the home-born;
for I am the LORD your God.' 23 And Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and
they brought forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stoned him with
stones. And the children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses.
The man who
cursed was stoned to death as a warning and example for all.
School Pals of Berlin May 1939 by
Their fathers walked them to school one last time so they could say
goodbye.
It was May 1939. Berlin. The two girls were nine years old. They
had been inseparable since they were six.
Same school. Same synagogue. Same ballet lessons. They sat in each
other's living rooms in the afternoons and ate too much candy and got in
trouble together. The Nazi laws had already barred Jewish children from public
parks, swimming pools, and theaters, so they had spent the last two years
almost entirely in each other's apartments.
In the schoolyard that morning, Annemarie and Ilse held each other
and wept.
They promised to stay in touch.
Their fathers led them away in opposite directions.
Ilse's family had managed to bribe a shipping company for passage
on a freighter from Italy to Shanghai — one of the only ports in the world that
did not require visas in 1939. Annemarie's family was still trying to find any
way out.
Ilse wrote her best friend a letter from Shanghai a few weeks
later. She told her where she was. She said they would find each other after
the war.
Annemarie never wrote back.
For the next eighty-two years, each of them assumed the other had
not made it.
Ilse Kohn — who would later go by Betty Grebenschikoff — survived
the war in Shanghai, where about twenty thousand Jewish refugees had ended up
by 1941. She worked at an American post exchange after the war. In 1948 she
married a Russian émigré named Oleg Grebenschikoff. They moved to Sydney. Then
to New York. Then to Atlantic City. They had five children and eventually seven
grandchildren.
Annemarie Wahrenberg — who would later go by Ana MarÃa — fled in
November 1939, six months after Ilse, with her family to Santiago, Chile. Her
father had been arrested and released by the Gestapo, and the family had
understood that they had to go anywhere they could. She learned Spanish. She
married. She had two children, six grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren. She
spent the rest of her life in Santiago.
Both women's extended families had been almost entirely taken in
the war.
Both women, separately, became Holocaust educators in their adopted
countries. They wrote memoirs intended only for their families. They spoke in
schools. They told the story of being a Jewish child in Berlin in 1938 and
1939.
They never stopped looking for each other.
Betty mentioned her best friend by name in nearly every speech she
gave. She mentioned her in the testimony she recorded for the USC Shoah
Foundation in 1997.
I had one particular girlfriend, whose name I always mention, she
said into the camera. Her name was Annemarie Wahrenberg. I never knew what
happened to her. And I'm always wondering if maybe she's somewhere and if she
can hear this.
Ana MarÃa, in Santiago, was doing the same — searching online
databases of Holocaust survivors, asking colleagues, hoping.
Neither of them found the other.
The reason was simple. They had both changed their first names
later in life. Annemarie was now Ana MarÃa. Ilse was now Betty. The maiden name
Wahrenberg had become Ana MarÃa's married name's adjacent surname; the maiden
name Kohn had been replaced by Grebenschikoff. Even the spelling of Annemarie
had become Ana MarÃa. No search engine on Earth was going to find them through
each other.
Eventually, both women began to assume that, despite their hopes,
the other had been taken.
In November 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, an
archivist at the USC Shoah Foundation named Ita Gordon logged onto a virtual
Kristallnacht event hosted by the Interactive Jewish Museum of Chile.
A 90-year-old woman appeared on her screen and began to tell the
story of fleeing Berlin as a child.
She talked about her best friend in Berlin. The two of them in the
schoolyard. The promise to stay in touch.
Ita Gordon had been at the Shoah Foundation for 28 years. She had
indexed thousands of testimonies. Something about the story tugged at her memory.
After the event, she went into the Foundation's archive. She typed
in Wahrenberg. She typed in the name of the synagogue. She typed in the name of
the school.
She got a hit.
It was a 1997 testimony given by a woman named Betty Grebenschikoff
in Atlantic City, New Jersey — in which the speaker mentioned, by name, a
childhood best friend named Annemarie Wahrenberg, and said she hoped, somehow,
the woman might hear her voice.
Ita picked up the phone.
It took tenacity and patience, she said later. But it's easier if
you're inspired.
A few weeks later, in December 2020, Betty Grebenschikoff and Ana
MarÃa Wahrenberg saw each other for the first time in 82 years on a Zoom call.
Their families gathered around them.
The two old women started speaking in German almost immediately.
Betty's grandchildren had never heard her speak German before in their lives.
The grandchildren cried.
Betty and Ana MarÃa didn't. They started laughing.
We're not the girls we used to be when we were nine, that's for
sure, Betty later told the Washington Post. But we kept giggling like we were
little kids.
For the next year, they had a standing weekly Sunday phone call.
They talked about the old days. They talked about their lives now. They talked
about everyone who had not made it.
In November 2021, during a lull in the pandemic, Ana MarÃa flew
from Chile to St. Petersburg, Florida.
The two 91-year-old women hugged each other at the airport for the
first time in 82 years.
It was real and unreal at the same time, Betty said.
They drank champagne together. They appeared at a public reunion
event at the Florida Holocaust Museum together.
They stayed in close touch until the end.
Betty Grebenschikoff died in February 2023. She was 93.
Ana MarÃa Wahrenberg is still in Chile.
Of the millions of people who said goodbye in 1939 in some
schoolyard, on some platform, at some farm gate, two of them found each other
again before the end.
The schoolyard is still there in Berlin.
There is a stone in front of the building today that lists the
names of the children of that school who did not come back.
It is a long stone.
The names of the two friends who said goodbye one morning in May
1939 are not on it.
10 years
ago, I was in FL for a Holocaust Memorial I just mailed the
above story to Ivan, who’s story is mentioned
below:
How Ivan Gluck survived the Holocaust
Ivan was born in Hungary and was about six years old when the
Nazis sent Adolf Eichmann into Hungary in 1943. He was lucky to be in in a zone
under the auspices of Raoul Wallenberg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Wallenberg A number of houses were
set up as a free and safe zone by the diplomat and the Jews here were kept
alive and not deported.
To put it modestly, they had the bare minimum of food and
clothing to survive the harsh winters until they were liberated. Sometime in
1944 the allies began bombing and they were not spared from the bombs. Some
people were killed or wounded in the bombing. Sufficient food was scarce.
Ivan was saved when his building was bombed exactly down the
elevator shaft and the bomb miraculously did not explode and it was defused.
The Jews had to work for their living and they were not like the refugees of
today but managed to hold out until the liberation and afterwards. For the
liberation was the 17th of January 1945 and conditions were
harsh. Not all the Jews who were in this zone survived.
Upon liberation, some of the local Hungarian anti-Semites
started attacking the Jews but through all this Ivan survived.
Arye Leister survives WWII Poland.
On Sept. 1st 1939, Hitler started his Blitz
Krieg into Poland splitting up the country with the Russians. Arye was also
between six and ten at the time. A discussion was held and since they were
closer to the Nazis it was decided that the women would stay with their
possessions and the men would flee towards the Russian-Polish Border. Because
of this, Arye would never see a Nazi Soldier the entire war. The men hopped on
a crowded train car until it halted and then they continued on wagon and foot
towards the Russian Border until the Russian Border came to them with the
division of Poland. They were placed in work camps.
The food was meager and Arye had a father and a 17-year-old
brother with him. They gave him some extra food. The father and brother were
actually undernourished and eventually the brother developed typhus and died.
This process took time and his brother was hospitalized but the conditions to
put it mildly were not a private room in the NIH today. His father continued on
for some time and they were transferred into the interior of Russia. During a
bombing or due a disease, Arye lost his father too.
With barely enough food or clothing he continued on the word
details throughout the war escaping bombs, cold and famine. There were
anti-Semites in the liberated areas who harassed or even murdered Jews so life
was not good at this time. Upon liberation he looked for his home and found a
few relatives that survived out of a large family.
Both Ivan and Arye moved to the States and are now living
in Florida.
This year is the 60th
anniversary of my return to Judaism
The following is copied from 10 years ago.
Since then I read Prof. Steven Weinberg
(Nobel Prize winner)
That after the first three minutes, the
universe was several
Light Years wide which is above and beyond
Einstein.
Editing will be in blue to update.
60th anniversary of my starting to believe in
HASHEM. Part 1
What started out as a morning dream right before I woke up was to
change my life. I was an atheist or at least agnostic in my belief. I observed
more or less nothing. My family on my mother’s side were Reform Jews for over
100 years I was the product of all this. My father’s father broke away from
traditional Judaism from a family that was born into the world of a Jewish
Publisher and exposed too much to modernity and at the age of 17, his father
had died and his older brother who converted in order to teach in the
University influenced him. This and the fact that most likely he had been taken
to the Kaporos ceremony or his father had examined a Shochet in action. The
slaughter of the chickens, the German -Austrian propaganda and his older
brother had gotten him to give up.
I posted this fifteen
years ago when my friend Carl mentioned here was still alive. He passed away
last year on Chaf Tammuz so may this mention raise his Neshama. Now on the occasion of the 50th anniversary
of two private miracles, I am posting this week the occurrence of the first one
and next two weeks the continuation.
As I wrote last week, I am about to tell a very-very personal
story. It was the spark that initiated my becoming Frum. But first a bit of a
background first: I was brought up a 6th Generation Reform Jew. My grandfather,
a cigar smoker, had insisted that I start learning in Reform Sunday School for
my Bar Mitzvah so after the High Holidays of 1956 (5716) my mother enrolled me
in the Steven Wise Free Synagogue. It was almost completely free of being a
Synagogue and anybody who went there could not easily become the Wise son.
I was just a little over 9 and 1/2 when I introduced our first Chanukah
into our house and little be known to me the first Seder that I was to conduct
would only be reported to my dying grandfather in the cancer ward of Montefiore
Hospital in the Bronx. I never had what Rabbi Simon Jacobson wrote this year:
“Tatte, ich vel ba dir fregen fir
kashes…” (Father, I will ask you
four questions).
That is how I – and millions of other children – would begin asking the traditional
four questions at the annual Passover Seder. This year, for the first time in my life, I do not have my father
before me to ask him the questions. I will not sit at his table, as I did for
so many years, watching him quietly smile as we would pose the four questions.
No I had to conduct the Seder myself, because my father had been a
child sent to a Catholic Orphanage at the age of 3 during WWI and he never had
a Seder from his anti-religious father. I even tried to answer the questions in
my own way from my scanty knowledge of Torah on that first Seder. Due to my bed
time and it was daylight savings time, the Seder was conducted before Sun down.
In fact, we had no knowledge of selling Chametz or the forbidden use of
Chametz. This was in fact the first year that we had Matzos in the house. My
mother treated me to a dish called Gefilte Fish that I had never heard of and
for me made Matzo Ball Soup. (Somehow this tradition had penetrated her
generation.)
As the Reform wear their Tallisim as a scarf and we had no Tallis
in the house, I grabbed the hand me down Scarf that I inherited from my
anti-religious grandfather to have some sort of link to the elders and
conducted the Seder in English from the Reform book that I had received from
the "Temple". My father told me that I was making a joke of the
religion to which I answered that I had no Tallis and this was the closest
thing that I had and a link with my forefathers. And my late grandfather’s scarf (father’s
side) was all I had. My other grandfather was in Maimonides Hospital in the
Bronx dying of cancer. My brother and I would play in the park below and he
would wave from his room to us.
A year or two later, I visited my friend whom I was to learn in my
adulthood the son of members of the Communist Party. They invited me to a lunch
at their house and they were going to put Bacon on their Matzos. Now eating
Bacon on Bread during Pesach might not have bothered me but not on Matzos that
were something holy during Pesach so I declined. This was perhaps one of some of the tests that I had from HASHEM
but at that time it did not correlate with me but reflecting back over the
years, the refusal although far from Yiddishkeit was a religious plus for a
fellow too young to fully observe Mitzvos. These little things help one’s Neshama to
advance to a higher spiritual plane and get help from heaven. It is more than
ritual purity, it is the purity of spirit.
When I was close to 14 the Reform Rabbi of the Free Synagogue of
Flushing was teaching me how to become an Atheist. I walked out of the
Synagogue, left the Reform and eventually did become an Atheist or Agnostic at
the age of 16 but I didn't need to be Jewish or have Synagogue for that. That test I passed, but the atheistic-liberalism from the Reform
teaching had wounded my soul so perhaps this caused the slippage at the age of
16. For life is not a continuous Aliyah in gains but steps forwards and
backwards. Sometimes as we say in Israel, one has to
make Yeridah (going down from the land) in order to make a permanent Aliyah
(going up to the land of Israel).
Something else happened to me during these years, I spent my whole
free time in Astronomy with the exception of dating like a red blooded
non-religious fellow does. When the Ranger Seven went to the moon, the first
photos were transmitted back live and I watched them with my friend. I told
him, "I saw these photos before, I remember them." Then I recalled a
series of dreams that I had around the age of 12 or 13 and passed it off a
coincidence and my concentration on Astronomy.
During my first year of College in CCNY, things were not going as
I had expected. I had managed to skip a year of College Chemistry and Physics,
but going into the second year with first year of Calculus not under my belt
and getting used to a new environment was hard. I had not listened to my friend
Jerry who told me do the course again and “get a few A's under your belt.” Well
that was my desire to graduate younger - I guess to get to Vietnam quicker.
Still I entered CCNY and revised a non-existent Astronomy Club with the help of
Professor Cotton. At the end of the year, I worked as an assistant for him and
proctored the final examination. After the exam a woman came up to me old
enough to be my mother. She was interested how a freshman could proctor an
examination and where I learned Astronomy from. Her name by the way, Toby
Willig* whom
I would have years later for guidance on my path to becoming Frum. All this
time, I lead weekend Astronomy expeditions to my country house in Greenwood
Lake, NY. *She later become the President of Emunah and is the mother of
Rabbi David Willig Shlita.
It was the weekend of April 21 to 23. Archie (aside note for those
who remember the comic books – he was married to a Betty so I found out how the
Archie comics that I read as a kid ended) drove me up to the bungalow. We were
going to observe the last of the Lyrid or Eta-Aquarid Meteor Shower, took
photos of the sky on Friday and Saturday nights. (Remember I am an Agnostic
more of a Goy than Jew) On Sunday morning after coming up from our observing
position on the dock with an 85 to 90% view of the sky I noticed a drunk driver
had rammed the mailboxes on the side of road and I changed my camera setting
from night to day (that would prove a bad mistake). I figured that I could get
a write up about 18year old youths from NJ that drove to NY to
drink in our local Greenwood Lake paper (but I never did in the end). [To this day it is my opinion that at
18years of age can be inducted into the army to die for his country, he is old
enough to drink. They eventually lowered the voting age to 18, but NY changed
the drinking age to 21.]
After resting up, we drove home to the City. The next morning, I
had a dream that was about to change my life. I dreamt that I was going to see
the biggest fireball meteor that I ever saw in my life. (Including to this day) I dreamt that I was going to see this great fireball, get my
name in the New York Times with the article starting on the front page and then
meeting two female class mates outside of the Physics office in CCNY getting
congratulations and a kiss on the check from them and being congratulated by
Professor Mark W. Zemansky. (The famous Physics book in those days was Sears
& Zemansky and he was a famous specialist in Thermodynamics. A great dream
especially the part with the girls and that was that. (I bet you expected a
young non-religious assimilated youth to dream of meeting Rav Moshe Feinstein,
The Lubavitcher Rebbe and Rav Yosef Baer Soloveitchik by the Physics Dept.)
But wait, that afternoon I was on the number 7 train home from
CCNY on the elevated part of the tracks and I looked out towards the south and
said to myself "The Meteor is going to come out of the South". It was
late in the afternoon and I was restless. For some reason, I could not learn. I
figured I would walk over 13 blocks to my friend Carl and go across the street
from him to Dr. Glass's Pharmacy to purchase sunglasses.
Carl decided to walk me back to my house to get some exercise. We
were going up Greenpoint Ave between 47th and 46th street when Carl said to me,
"Take off those sunglasses you look like an idiot as the Sun has just
set." No sooner did I remove them and place them in my pocket. Carl says,
"Look at that it is too bright to be a meteor it must be a UFO!" Sure,
enough going from South to North was a meteor with a diameter as wide as the
moon leaving a giant contrail in the sky. I raced home to get my camera. But I
had my focus stop at F22 for the mailbox photo instead of F2 for the contrail
photo.
Somehow the dream was in the background and I managed to call up
the NY Times. I gave them my roll of film and a full scientific report on the
meteor, speed, color, and other details. They wrote the article. Some lucky
fellow managed to actually photograph the meteor in flight so I was out of luck
especially because of my camera F stop. And the next day, everything fell into
place.
At that time, did I recognize the miracle - of course not. Why should I believe
it was more than an accident and I went about my school work on April 25th, '66
with little worries and cares and bit of pride for making the NY Times. (In
those days it was not known as an extreme leftist rag). All went about
according to the laws of nature and I continued my studies through summer
school to learn more Calculus like electron spin Matrixes.
In early August, I had finished my summer school and was back up
at Greenwood Lake waiting for the Perseid Meteor Shower. It was a cloudy night
so as I lay in my bed, I began to reflect on the physics behind my dream. Let's
see my brainwaves were in my bed on the morning of April 24th and the earth was
in such and such a point in space traveling in its orbit at 25,000 mile per day
going around the Sun at 18,000 miles per hour with the Sun going around the
galaxy at such and such miles per hour. My mind waves had gone to the
observance of the meteor then to the NY Times that evening, the reading of the
NY Times article on my way to College, the Physics Dept. the Next Morning and
also on the Subway Train the previous day. Trying to figure out things I
realized that my mind had been: (1) Back and forth in time. (2) My brainwaves
had travelled back and forth instantly distances greater than the speed of
light. This called for a new theory of Physics that could explain the
phenomena. I began to go deeper and deeper into the consequences of my theory.
There was a dimension above time and space for this travel (little did I know
that Klein in 1923 had come up with a 5th dimension and in the future around
1980 Prof. Schwartz of UCLA was going to come up with 11 dimensions proven
mathematically.) My conclusion was that one's brain waves somehow could travel
physically back and forth to anyplace in the Universe instantly! I called this
the Principle of Cosmic Unity or the Principle of Oneness. This would be the
biggest thing in my family since the Exclusion Principle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_exclusion_principle
My mind was ticking away faster than any quad I7 computer will
ever be. Suddenly the Oneness hit me like a ton of bricks. The Universe is ONE!
Suddenly, something vague buried deep in my subconscious from 9-10 years back
in Sunday School hit me. One of the few sentences that I knew in Hebrew "SHEMA YISRAEL HASHEM
ELOKAYNU HASHEM EHUD" (Hear O' Israel, The L-RD our G-D, The L-RD is One.)
The Good Mapamnik debates the man with the Kipa (Yarmulke):
Politically, I was moving more to the right but religiously, I was
still with MAPAM and the anti-religious people. The week after my new physics
theory, I was back in CCNY to pick up my grades and I stopped off at the
Physics Dept. A fellow named Himmelstein was packing up his stuff as he was
going for his MS and PhD at Columbia University and leaving us. I had never
said more to him than hello or goodbye but my theory was in the back of my
mind. I wanted to find out from him if G-D could exist. We debated and argued
for a few hours about Cain meeting his wife and other G-D walking in Gan Eden,
The Hand of G-D, etc. I had a Catholic concept of Heaven and Hell and he
dispelled that. My whole Atheistic an Agnostic belief was just about out the
window after about two hours of debate and me absorbing everything he said about
miracles being natural events with minute probabilities.
Still it was going to take another miracle to get me solid in my
faith and a visit from my friend Howard to set me on the right track but that
is going to be another story later on. I will only end this part of the story
with a note. For some time, I learned Chavruta in Rehovot with Dr. Pinchas Fuchs. We debated
whether or not one should say Hallel on Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence
Day) or not. He replied to me that even for a private miracle one should say
Hallel all the more so for a national miracle. I decided to look for the
Newspaper Clipping that I had from ’66. It turned out that it said April 25,
’66. I looked up the date: Hey or the 5th of Iyar! (Ind. Day)
The two days of Miracles occurred on the 4th and 5th of
Iyar! 7 years after the meteor on the same Hebrew Calendar night, my son Asher
Shalom was born! Copied and pasted from
writing by Danny Shoemann Shlita (who was bullied off
of the internet by the Charedim with all his great contributions.) If one experiences a miracle, one should celebrate the day of
the miracle every year. On this day one should set aside time to thank Hashem
for the miracle and to talk about the miracle. Source: Kitzur Shulchan Aruch
61:3 Part two next week.
Rating one’s own quality of life. By Rabbi
Yerachmiel Tillis
https://ascentofsafed.com/cgi-bin/ascent.cgi?Name=1481-32
It is not easy to find
an English lecturer in Bnei Brak and it is harder yet to find a good one. Rabbi
Aharon Levin is both. Once, he totally wowed the students of Yeshivas HaKotel
in Jerusalem's Old City with his presentation, and then again at the end of his
captivating talk when he threw in the following personal story.
Shimon, a student of
Sephardic ancestry, learned together with him in the prestigious Slabodka
Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Years later, Shimon was diagnosed with cancer, and Rabbi
Elimelech Firer, the renowned medical referral expert, felt that his best
chance of recovery would be at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Shimon turned to
his old friend and asked if he would accompany him to Mayo to serve as a
translator.
[Mayo is such a
world-class medical center that among its teams of everything-medical are also
translators of every language, but they are not always available, and one who
is in pain does not wish to wait hours to explain how they are suffering.]
When you are requested
a favor of this magnitude and under such circumstances, there really aren't a
variety of options, so off the two flew to the Mayo Clinic in July 2006. The
Mayo Clinic, and the city of Rochester, Minnesota, in which it is located, is a
world away in terms of an environment where Torah scholars would feel at
home.[1] One evening, the loneliness of Shimon and Rabbi Aharon somewhat
dissipated when they were invited for supper to the home of Mayo's sole
Orthodox physician, Dr. Axel Pflueger. On that occasion Dr. Pflueger related
the following incident.
One day while doing his rounds in Mayo, he saw written at the foot of the
bed - and unable to be viewed by the bed's paraplegic occupant - "Because
of Bob's poor quality of life, his social worker should encourage the family to
declare DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) and medications should also not be
administered."
Dr Pflueger was
appalled at the audacity of the doctor who penned this note, one who was
clearly endowed with an acute case of 'Doctor-thinking-he-is-G-d-Syndrome.'
Accordingly, Dr. Pflueger lodged a complaint against the note's author, Dr.
O'Neill, with the Mayo Clinic ethics committee.
Bob (real name) was a
46-year-old who was involved in an automobile accident when he was six. Like
most suffering from spinal cord injury, he had increased risk for respiratory
tract infections like pneumonia due to the weakened muscles in the chest and
abdomen, which cannot breathe robustly or cough.
When Bob would
contract pneumonia, which he invariably did on a yearly basis, he had no
recourse but to travel to Mayo to be healed. It is not unlikely that many
people might conclude that a paraplegic suffering annually from pneumonia and a
host of other issues has a very low quality of life.
The ethics committee,
like everything else at Mayo, is the gold standard. The head of the ethics committee
invited Dr. Pflueger and Dr. O'Neill (not his real name) into his office to
resolve the complaint. As is standard, the accuser is given the floor first.
Dr. Pflueger began by asking Dr. O'Neill to rate his own quality of life
on a scale of 1-10. (At the Mayo Clinic, everything is done on a scale of 1-10.
"How is your pain 1-10? how much relief do you feel 1-10? describe your
immobility 1-10.")
O'Neill thought for a moment and replied "6-7." This is not the
kind of answer one would expect from a person who has climbed to the highest
rung in the medical world, holding a prestigious job at Mayo. Why, 6-7 is
barely passing!
Axel Pflueger then
turned to the head of the committee, acknowledged to be one of the most
celebrated medical ethicists in the world, and inquired, "What precisely
are the criteria to determine one's quality of life?" The chairman
articulated a well-rehearsed impromptu response, "A person, and only that
individual, can determine their own quality of life."
To which Pflueger countered, "Then what, if I may ask, is your
quality of life 1-10?" The chairman responded with a disappointing 7-8.
Pflueger then proposed that they pose this question to Bob. So, all three
traipsed over to Bob's room.
"Hey Bob,"
Pflueger asked in the company of his colleagues, "what would you say, on a
scale of 1-10, is your quality of life?"
"9-10," Bob
responded without any hesitancy. "And I'll tell you why. In the morning
the sun's rays shine on my face and neck, radiating soothing warmth. Sometimes
when the weather is good, my mother wheels me outside on my gurney and I am
able to smell the perfume of the flowers and hear the singsong of the
birds…"
Suddenly Bob got lost in his contemplations. "I am going to have to
change my answer," the supine speaker corrected himself. "I am
definitely a full-fledged 10." With a nostalgic appearance, he reminisced,
"Sometimes my mother makes me oatmeal, and because of my condition the
only oatmeal I can eat, like all other foods, is a watery gruel. Upon occasion
she grates apples very finely and throws in cinnamon and the flavor is just out
of this world!"
Bob continued to hold forth, justifying his top score, while the two
doctors looked at each other in an apotheosis of remorse.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Source:
Excerpted and adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from in article in the Jewish Press,
January 20, 2023, by the famous Jewish storyteller and author, Rabbi Hanoch
Teller.
Why this week? This is the first full week of IYAR, nicknamed "the
Month of Healing," because the Hebrew letters of its name are also an
abbreviation for "I, G-D, am your healer."
[1] Although there is a warm Chabad presence there. Treat yourself to a
tour through their web-site [chabadrochestermn.com] which includes the ways in
which they interact with Mayo -Y.T.
Milestone: Michael
Tilson Thomas, 81, https://www.timesofisrael.com/famed-jewish-conductor-michael-tilson-thomas-dies-at-81-of-cancer/
Milestone: Yair Garbuz,
80, artist & satirist. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/vkoeriio3
Inyanay Diyoma
Day 932 since Oct. 7th Day 55 of Roaring Lion/Epic Fury start of week 134
Shavua Tov,
a good week to all. I was not planning to write tonight. When I shut down on
Friday, the Iranian FM had landed in Pakistan and was awaiting an 18-hour
flight of Witkoff and Kushner to travel for indirect talks. President Trump has
a Queens, NY allergy to BS. He cancelled that and said that if they are
interested, they can call up Washington.
Why no
attack as of now? Trump the builder does not in particular like destroying
infrastructure. If push comes to shove, it might come to it.
In Israel there
is a critical shortage of Arrow 3 Missiles making Oct. 7th look like
a non-starter for investigation. Instead of budgeting 18 million per missile,
the damage caused is a number of billions. This is not counting human lives.
Yair, Avner and sometimes Sarah Netanyahu are out of the country. No sweat off
of his brow. The Finance Minister and higher ups do not live near prime
targets. The Defense Minister delayed the project because of an internal Likud
Job Give-away list.
Despite the
we cease and they fire in Lebanon, Netanyahu has finally authorized a reply to
the rockets and drones sent into Israel on Friday, Shabbos and Motzei Shabbos.
Last but
not least, it was announced that PM Netanyahu underwent radiation therapy for
Prostate Cancer. He supposedly is clean now. Other news and updates tomorrow.
Apr. 26th
Day 933 since Oct. 7th Day 56 of Roaring Lion/Epic Fury
We have enough trouble
with Lebanon, lack of arrow missiles and Iran without covering a Trump
Assassination Attempt. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/secret-service-line-fire-whca-shooting-still-unpaid-due-dem-led-shutdown
Trump rushed off stage.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426069
My friend, Col. Avraham
was steaming. Some idiot under his command took upon himself to cut off the
power panels supplying the water to a former South Liberation Army Town under
his command. This is the same town where the Statue was destroyed and replaced
by the wrong Statue. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426085
Lebanon an anti-tank
missile cache. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426051
Iran’s Ethic Minorities
Targeted. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426062
Ministry of Defense has
to operate. https://www.jpost.com/defense-and-tech/article-894137
Apr. 27th
Day 934 since Oct. 7th
Day 57 of Roaring Lion/Epic Fury
Day 933 since Oct. 7th Day 56 of Roaring Lion/Epic Fury Part 2
I had things to do yesterday
and got things out quickly. I left the second half of the news in the lurch.
While I was about to head to Mincha, the public was informed that Sgt. Schwartz
fell in Lebanon. He was hit by a drone with others from his tank wounded. As
the rescue helicopter came in, another drone exploded near-by. The helicopter,
though damaged, managed to bring the wounded to Rambam Hospital.
https://www.aol.com/articles/argentina-eyes-falklands-again-time-170843781.html
His girl friend, the
look out, watch the drone hit and kill Sgt. Idan Schwartz. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426034
US to deny anti-Israel
green card applicants. https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-894121
Watch 15 Shachidim in
Lebanon. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426054
6 less terrorists in
Bint Jbeil. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426050
Hezballah rocket
launcher strikes. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426041
Elimination in Gaza of
weapons transport. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426063
https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-cabinet-officials-were-likely-targets-of-washington-shooting-acting-ag-says/
Drone attack foiled. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426034
Haredi
community leader Rabbi Dov Lando declared this evening (Sunday) in his speech
at the Ponovezh Yeshiva that yeshiva students will not join the army in any
situation - whether there is a conscription law or not. It
might be politically popular to send everybody to the army. Arabs are not
accepted to military intelligence and barely into the army. Retarded and
mentally ill are exempt and stop lying about Yeshiva Boys. It is their
learning that prevents deaths from missiles as we don’t have enough Arrow 3
missiles. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426109
They more the wicked tried to afflict them, the more
they multiplied. (Shemos aka Exodus 1:12).
Sanctions don’t work. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426141
New flotilla enroute to Gaza. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426109
Israel
recently passed a message to the Trump administration warning that any easing
of the naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz will be interpreted by Tehran as
weakness, Channel 12 News reported. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426131
https://www.timesofisrael.com/father-six-year-old-son-found-dead-in-suspected-murder-suicide/
11year old dies of
wounds from Erev Pesach. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426079
Dr.
Varda Saadeh, who was fired from a teachers’ college in Beersheva on the
grounds that she justified the October 7 massacre in a series of social media
posts, will receive more than 200,000 shekels in compensation. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426078
35years old with twins
dies despite two hospital visits. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426059
800meter long terror
tunnel destroyed. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426093
Man, 37, was
responsible for terror in UK. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426139
Pay to slay withheld. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426134
Weapons cache in
children’s bedroom. Among the weapons located:
explosives, ‘Kalashnikov’ rifles, grenades, RPGs, machine guns, munitions, and
combat equipment. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426135
A
father and his teenage son were arrested last Wednesday after an investigation
into swastika graffiti at the teen’s school led police to search their home,
where authorities said they found chemicals used to make explosives. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426130
A map of the human
liver. https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/rkmvj7o6we
To phase out US
Military Aid. The agreements cover 10-year
periods. The Israeli team will be led by Defense Ministry Director-General Amir
Baram and will include Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Leiter,
representatives of the defense and finance ministries, the IDF and the National
Security Council, ynet's sister publication Calcalist has learned. https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/sywo27j6wx
Ukraine War – Russian
Troops starving eating dead comrades. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/r15gqj3p11x
20,000 sailors trapped
in Persian Gulf. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sye3tc2abx
No tax to new
immigrants. https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/r1d4b33pbg
Op-Ed Yossi Yehoshua
Israel’s weak point. https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/r1d4b33pbg
Op-Ed Trump’s plan to
freeze Iranian Crypto. Ron Ben Yishai. https://www.ynetnews.com/opinions-analysis/article/rj1rkfs6zx
Her husband died but
she built an empire. https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/rkxylei611g
Berlin
Culture Senator Sarah Wedl-Wilson has resigned over a scandal involving the
improper distribution of 2.6 million euros in public funds intended for
projects combating antisemitism, German media reported over the weekend. https://www.ynetnews.com/jewish-world/article/bjli8ri6ze
Wild fires in Japan. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-894140
Iranians abuse female
prisoners. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-894119
Six
anti-Israel activists were charged for using a van to ram down a Leicestershire
drone factory gate
and causing destruction to the facility, the Leicestershire Police announced on
Saturday evening. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-894122
Apr. 28th
Day 935 since Oct. 7th
Day 58 of Roaring Lion/Epic Fury
I think that Trump was
expecting the Iranians to break. He does not understand the Shiite victim
philosophy. The original grandson of Mohammed went with 70 men
against the Calif of the Omayyad Empire and was defeated. This became his
“victory” for Shiite philosophy. Victimization is victory for them.
Mossad work awards. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426197
A
bombing attack was prevented on Tuesday near the community of Esh Kodesh in the
Shiloh area. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426200
Total War on Youth
Gangs. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426201
It is
forbidden to hurt somebody on Shabbos but when you are a fanatic sudden Halacha
from Moshe goes out the window. The
police announced today (Tuesday) the arrest of three suspects, residents of
Beit Shemesh aged 32 and 41, on suspicion of involvement in the severe assault
of a Haredi soldier and his friends during last Shabbat. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426202
The
growing threat posed by explosive drones operated by Hezbollah in southern
Lebanon has become a major concern for IDF forces operating in the area,
according to a report aired this morning on Galei Tzahal. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426191
2 soldiers wounded in
drone attack. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426188
Bahrain citizenship
removed for 69 people. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426185
A
rock was hurled on Sunday morning at the window of Aleph Bet Judaica, a Judaica
shop in Toronto, in the latest incident of antisemitism in Canada’s largest
city. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426183
Terror infrastructure
dismantled. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426183
Belzer Hassid abducted
and murdered in Columbia. https://www.ynetnews.com/jewish-world/article/sjthzztt11e?tbref=hp
Children losing safety
as drones penetrate. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjqkc3aa11x
https://www.algemeiner.com/2026/04/27/cruz-calls-us-join-israel-taiwan-recognizing-somaliland/
https://www.algemeiner.com/2026/04/27/scarier-than-holocaust-survivor-nazi-camps-oct-7-dies-92/
https://www.algemeiner.com/2026/04/27/hezbollah-embeds-terror-apparatus-lebanons-health-system/
https://www.algemeiner.com/2026/04/27/hezbollah-embeds-terror-apparatus-lebanons-health-system/
Golani eliminates terrorists
and weapons cache. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426161
“Expectant Widow” when
freedom of speech goes too far. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-894381
Muslims in German:
“Kill the Jews” sprayed all over the country. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-894427
Peace with Egypt??? https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-894382
Apr. 29th
Day 936 since Oct. 7th
Day 59 of Roaring Lion/Epic Fury
A short Op-Ed: It just never ends! - Diane Weber Bederman
Alternate reality. AI
now used to show attempted assassin in IDF Shirt. The new public opinion polls
vary. I can tell you that Channel 12 with 50 MK’s for the current coalition in
the next Knesset is skewed to the left. Channel 13 has 57 with somewhere between
50 and 52 for the current opposition. Channel 14 shows a slight loss for the
current coalition but with a majority. Bennett’s leaving of his ‘religious’
image to support homosexuality, public transportation on the holy Shabbos, and
other things will come back to haunt him.
Hezballah small
explosive drones by either optical fiber, internet, etc. are killers.
Contractor worker killed and his son injured in Lebanon by one of them. They
also killed Sgt. Idan Schwartz a few days ago. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-contractor-killed-his-son-wounded-by-hezbollah-drone-in-southern-lebanon/
Follow the money: https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-qatar-offered-to-look-after-icc-prosecutor-who-issued-warrants-for-israeli-leaders/
https://www.algemeiner.com/2026/04/28/german-intelligence-warns-rising-iran-linked-terror-threat/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-mediterranean-warmer-saltier-more-acidic-and-rising-fast-report/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/northern-council-head-five-others-arrested-on-suspicion-of-bribery/
President and King
agree no nuclear Iran. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426246
Op-Ed by Vice Admiral
Maron: Sham ceasefire must end. https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/04/28/the-sham-ceasefire-must-end/
Ceasefire in Lebanon is
not forever. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426242
https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/04/29/us-presses-israel-to-maintain-lebanon-ceasefire/
https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/04/28/irans-oil-industry-nears-point-of-no-return/
MK Stern to join
Eisenkot. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426236
Berlin branch of
Israeli Restaurant to close. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426245
Former FBI Director
faces charges for round about threat on Trump. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426241
Sanctions cracking
Iran’s alternative banking. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426247
Apr. 30th
Day 937 since Oct. 7th
Day 60 of Roaring Lion/Epic Fury
Iran can only go for so
long until their oil wells are capped. It could be that they do have more
storage facilities than the US estimates or a pipeline towards the Caspian Sea.
Whatever it is, mid-terms and other politics, Trump will wait only so long
before the Nice Guy turns Tough Guy. CENTCOM Commander is going to meet today
with President Trump either today or tomorrow. All options are on the table but
Trump may choose partial options. There might be another Iranian Guard
Decapitation in store. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-894659
Next week Netanyahu
flies to Washington. To meet with Lebanese President?
Fire in the North that
does not cease: https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-chief-says-theres-no-ceasefire-in-south-lebanon-amid-continued-fighting-with-hezbollah/
Khamenei Iran wants
nuclear missiles: https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rk5bn3gr11e
Shabbos is coming.
Shabbos Times: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/shabat/
Drivers warn of
Navigation Confusion on Samaria Road. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426260
Op-Ed Barry Shaw: Where
are Hamas Leaders? https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426265
The Shachid who crossed
the yellow line; https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426279
COS we won’t leave
without security. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426297
Israeli man accused of
sex crimes in ICE Custody. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-894681
The article below did
not explain if she converted to be a Druze or Jew. I believe the former as if
Jewish, her problem could have been solved at once. https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-years-in-limbo-court-lets-syrian-convert-live-in-israel-with-husband-a-disabled-vet/
The
Beersheba Magistrate’s Court has convicted Dr. Mohammad Azzam, a former
physician at Soroka Medical Center, of membership in the ISIS terrorist
organization, following what the court described as a prolonged process of
radicalization. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426340
20years two Arabs posed
as Israelis. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426271
More Chassidim moving
to Emmanuel. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426255
Not yet on the
internet. On private land at the base of Chashmonaim with a separate entrance
from road 446, Gerer Chassidim are planning to build 9 story buildings for 478
families. The small town is mostly private houses or attached houses (2
families on a lot). They are also mostly more modern Orthodox with some more
religious of the 1500 families living in the town.
As of now, the Swiss
will not recognize the Land of OZ or Palestine. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426262
IDF dog killed saving
many soldiers. https://www.ynetnews.com/environment/article/s1zevtyazl?tbref=hp
In
an urgent letter sent Thursday to Transport Minister Miri Regev, the chief
rabbi of Tzfat, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, criticized the transportation
arrangements for the upcoming Meron celebrations, claiming they effectively
exclude large segments of the population, particularly members of the
national-religious community and residents of Israel’s periphery. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426336
Charedi extremist block
Yerushalayim. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426289
Aussie Police were
warned. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426328
Hezballah downs IDF
Drone. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426330
A
veteran farmer from the Jordan Valley has filed a civil lawsuit seeking NIS
160,000 in damages from activist Amir Pensky, a member of the anti-settlement
movement Looking the Occupation in the Eye. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426329
Smuggling indictment. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426334
Hamas sniper disguised
as medic. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426333
Teen rescued from
desert flood. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426319
May 1st
Day 938 since Oct. 7th
Day 61 of Roaring Lion/Epic Fury end of week 134
I condemn
any attack on people over their religious beliefs. The same goes for political beliefs. My family went through
the inquisition, fled the holocaust and I personally was a victim of
antisemitism. However, that does not give me or anybody else the right to
attack a non-Jew. https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-arrest-man-suspected-of-attacking-french-nun-at-jerusalem-biblical-site/
The hatred
displayed towards the nun was bad but missing a weapon like this. https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/04/29/ntisemitic-stabbing-golders-green-london-shomrim/
Now back to the
conflicts around and with us.
Hezballah arming with
more drones. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426381
Buried Iranian Missiles
still can murder. Iran is using the ceasefire to dig
up the missiles and other munitions stored underground or buried in US and
Israeli strikes, a US official and two others familiar with the matter told NBC News.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426384
A
Republican state legislator in New Hampshire faced a disciplinary hearing this
week for having tweeted a "final solution" reference at a Jewish
Democratic colleague. https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-894806
Op-Ed Dr. Martin Sherman:
Iran - Why the War must be won. https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/04/28/into-the-fray-iran-why-the-war-must-be-won/
Israel has received
6500 tons of munitions is 24 hours by air and sea.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-894754
New
York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani publicly addressed the
historical tensions surrounding the 105.6-carat Koh-i-Noor diamond. https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/r1aootwrbx
Shas vs. Degel HaTorah.
“I am boiling with rage," Gafni said in an interview with Radio Kol Barama. “There was a clear decision that we
would go into the opposition and give up ministerial positions - and Shas is
not honoring it. We left the coalition, but they refused to do so. They
continue to run government ministries and openly admit that they are still part
of the coalition." https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426369
New Political Poll. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/426382
https://www.timesofisrael.com/rats-infest-gazas-tent-camps-biting-children-and-spreading-disease/
A healthy,
peaceful, joyous and restful Shabbos,
Rachamim
Pauli
