Five Towns Jewish Home 09.26.24

Savta Rachel’s

Dear Readers,

Sometimes, children are the biggest philosophers. They tend to ask the questions that we rarely ponder: Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green? What happens to day when night comes? Does the sun ever sleep?

They look around the world with a freshness and curiosity that adults lost years ago.

When I put my four-year-old to sleep, we go through the list of all the people who love her. This has become part of our routine: “Good night, shluf gezunt. Abba loves you. Mommy loves you…” We go through the whole family, and she lights up as we specify each person. And then I conclude, “Hashem loves you.”

A few weeks ago, she interrupted me. “Of course, Hashem loves me. If He wouldn’t love me, He wouldn’t have made me.”

Sometimes, little kids are smarter and more observant than many adults in this world. Because we all know Hashem loves us. We all know He made us. But the matter-of-fact attitude of “of course, He loves me” is not always felt

by people many years older than toddlers.

Life gets in the way, and we don’t always live with that certainty, that conviction. It gets lost in the back of our minds amid the many things that take place in our lives. It’s still there, but it’s not given the prominence it deserves.

But perhaps Elul is a good time to renew that understanding and bring it to the forefront of our minds each day. “Of course, Hashem loves me. If He wouldn’t love me, He wouldn’t have made me.” If we would walk around with that conviction, our days would be brighter. Every occurrence would be influenced by that belief, as we feel surrounded by His love and support. And during Elul, when we truly feel His closeness, His love for us only feels stronger.

It’s a powerful mindset that can help shape our outlook as we approach the new year.

Wishing you a kesiva v’chasima tova, Shoshana

Yitzy Halpern, PUBLISHER publisher@fivetownsjewishhome.com

Yosef Feinerman, MANAGING EDITOR ads@fivetownsjewishhome.com

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Dear Editor,

Can one be nitzav, standing, and moving, vayelech, at the same time? Yes. The mind stands as the evaluator and directs movement. This synergy keeps man from falling into the trappings of the evil inclination. This construct is the only model by which to defeat desire. Desire, a manifestation of the heart, is all-encompassing and instinctively overtakes all the faculties of a person. But it’s the mind’s movements that can strategically maneuver towards victory.

Steven Genack

Dear Editor,

It never fails to thrill me. It’s Erev Shabbas Kodesh, and we’re headed off to our favorite kosher supermarket. We walk in and are greeted with the dulcet tones of our melodic Shabbos nigunim over the sound system. This is our music!! Our people! Here’s where we belong! It’s been four years since we made the big move. We left the city during the height of the Covid epidemic, eager to begin the next chapter of our lives. With many thanks to the Al-mighty, it’s been a positive move on all accounts. How amazed I was when we needed the services of an exterminator to get rid of the carpenter bees in our backyard. The exterminator arrived, crowned with his kippah, obviously one of ours! Then it was time for the piano tuner to tend to my piano, also one of ours! Same with the repairman for the washing machine... And the banker... and the pharmacist... and all the medical professionals. What a thrill!

The 5 Towns/Far Rockaway community is blessed with fabulous rabbanim and rebbetzins, so devoted to their kehil-

los! Wonderful shuls! No need to worry about finding a minyan of men. Minyanim available around the clock! How reassuring for the gentlemen in our families! We dare not take that for granted. That’s not the case throughout the metropolitan area.

And then we have the absolute treasure of our community, the famed Ohel Sara Amen group, in memory of Sarit Marton a”h. Hosted so graciously by Mrs. Lori Marton, orchestrated with such finesse and devotion by Reb Corinne Fuchs, this Amen Group is the source of much inspiration and encouragement. It has been 18 years since the creation of this incredible group. Myriads of “amens” have been generated here, bringing merit to the entire community! Hosting remarkable speakers on a daily basis, as we approach the Yamim Noraim, Lori’s basement has practically become our home away from home! And what a lovely, welcoming home it is! It’s a place to connect with lovely, like-minded, growth-oriented women. Torah, avodah and gemilus chassadim form the foundation of this group. What a bracha for all the participants! How fortunate we are to have such a valuable resource in our backyard!

The Manchester, the newest gathering place for our nshei chayil, is hosting fabulous programming, with many thanks to Daniella Wolfson and Chavie Mandelbaum. Debbie Eisikowitz, through her 5TFR Rosh Chodesh Series, has been arranging for over three decades, monthly gatherings for the women of the entire community, uniting all the shuls, adding to the achdus and vibrancy of the Five Towns. Kudos to all!

Continued on page 14

V’chol mishe’oskim b’tzarchei tzibbur b’emunah, Hakodosh Boruch Hu yeshalem secharam!

Wishing all a kesiva v’chasima tova. A year of mazal and bracha! A year of peace and tranquility! May we share only besurot tovot among all Acheinu kol bais Yisrael. May all be blessed, ad bli dai! And may we all soon find ourselves on the wings of the eagle, being transported to Eretz Yisrael hakedosha, where we will dwell together G-d willing, b’shalom ub’shalva. Most sincerely, Miriam Liebermann

Dear Editor,

I recommend to your readers to use a pencil to mark each page of a book after they are done reading it. That could make reading a lot more fun and interesting and make you read a lot more. People usually only succeed if they are having fun, and by making reading fun, you will read a lot more.

Thank you for printing this letter and thus improving your readers’ lives.

Shlomo Klein

Brooklyn, NY

Dear Editor,

The world isn’t as it should be. The general rule in the velt is to stay in your lane, put your head down, and get what you can for yourself. The world has misplaced its reason for existence without realizing it. Its moral compass is gone, and we are in an uncontrollable ethical tailspin. The world was like this once before, right before a man named Noach started to build a teivah. With money, power, status, or physical pleasure; people’s actions are only held accountable to their own standards. This is not the way it is supposed to be. We are l’malah min hateva. We are tzelem Elokim. We are Yidden! We are supposed to be the ones who do not take the easy path. We do not give up. Hashem our Creator designed us this way. We are here to serve a purpose. Tikun Olam. We don’t stay in our lane with blinders on in times of trouble. We pull over and help the person on the side of the road. We lead by example!

We have to understand that we are Hashem’s dandelions. We grow and finish our cycle of making that place better before feeling the winds of Siyata D’Shmaya that blow us to a new spot that needs us to grow and find new ways to help. We, the seeds of enlightenment, come from the tree of Hashem. We see life through a different set of lenses, the lens of Torah. There are a plethora of different ways, whether through becoming a member of

an organization or for people to act as individuals, to help out each other. A person can join Shomrim to safeguard the community. Or join Hatzalah to help the injured. Or join Chaveirim to help with car trouble. Or join the Chevra Kadisha or ZAKA to help with a mais mitzvah. Or join Partners In Torah and learn over the phone with someone. A person can grow aravos to give away. A person can smile at a Yid who looks down and out and give them a hearty shalom aleichem to lift their spirits.

The different opportunities for one of us to do a chesed for another Yid are endless. We are here to make the world a better place for each other. Once a Yid makes chessed an important part of their lives, mitzvah goreras mitzvah truly has an intoxicating effect on one’s neshama. Often, after one’s first taste of helping others, they start looking for more organizations to join and more opportunities to do chesed for our brothers and sisters, and this will hopefully help bring about Moshiach bimhayra viyameinu.

Jesse Vogel

Dear Editor,

So many at the United Nations and even some in America are criticizing Israel for injuring many bad terrorists. They should be ashamed of themselves. They weren’t half as mad about the 8,500 rockets and the drones that the terrorists shot at Jewish civilians.

A special shout out of thanks to Congressman Richard Torres who blasted congresswoman AOC who denounced the Jews for self-defense.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Eli Reitt

Lakewood, New Jersey

Dear Editor,

I am aware that it is difficult finding suitable teachers and rebbeim for our children, but nevertheless, they must not be abusive to these innocent, impressionable neshamos. When my son, who is now in his forties, was in yeshiva, he was told by his rebbi and his English teacher that he will never amount to anything. Yet, baruch Hashem, he is a wonderful family man, a successful businessman and a big baal tzedakah. Ironically, the same administration that made him feel like a failure comes to him for donations!!

Unfortunately, this style of teaching has not changed, teachers throw around painful insults to students. Today’s children go to school with too much anxiety, between the bullying from peers and bullying from teachers. Not every child is a cookie cutter type, and a perfect A

student, Last week, my granddaughter was called “brain dead” by her teacher in front of the class. When we send our children to school, we don’t expect them to be abused by role models. Administrations should focus on students’ strengths instead of their weaknesses. It’s time for the administration to teach teachers to create a positive learning environment in order to minimize teens at risk and to ensure that every student can reach their potential and become successful adults. Children need positive reinforcement and encouragement.

I was very impressed and happy to read in your newspaper last week that there is finally a community organization that is training teachers how to ensure that every young person, even those who are not conventional students, will find a place to fit in our community. This organization is long overdue and a necessity in these challenging times to minimize the heartache some adolescents suffer in school and outside.

A Concerned Grandparent

Dear Editor,

Thank you for your interesting and informative publication.

I read with interest “A Whole New World” in last week’s issue, from Rabbi Moshe Weinberger.

Near the end, on page 97, an alleged story involving Rav Gedaliah Schorr, zt”l, of Torah Vodaath is told, about his last moments, before passing away at a sheva brachos after speaking. The problem is that much, if not all, of what is stated is incorrect. For example, it says that he went in a wheelchair – false. It states that he said that the gift Hashem gives to the chassan and kallah is forgiveness, “the husband’s ability to forgive his wife and a wife’s ability to forgive her husband.” While Rav Schorr spoke of forgiveness, according to authoritative accounts, he spoke of Hashem’s forgiveness of the chassan and kallah, mechilas avonos, which is different from them forgiving each other.

The Jewish Observer, after Rav Schorr’s passing, related this in a remembrance by Rabbi Nosson Scherman of Artscroll/Mesorah Publications. Someone from his family also pointed me to

the sefer Migdal Ohr, by his son, R. Yitzchok Meir z”l, p. 179, for the same info.

Wishing you a good year.

Sincerely, Longtime reader

Dear Editor,

While R’ Shimon bar Yachai and his son Elazar were hiding in a cave for fear of the Roman government, the Sages in Eretz Yisrael were studying the reproof.

”Why is it,” they asked, “that the first reproof (in Parshas Bechukosai) is followed by comforting assurances, whereas the severe reproof in Parshas Ki Savo ends with no consolation?”

They wanted to send the question to R’ Shimon bar Yachai, but did not know his hiding place.

R’ Yose bar R’ Yehuda spied a group of doves. A solitary dove trailed behind them.

“Dove, dove,” he entreated, “you are a faithful messenger since Noach’s times, and you symbolize the Jewish people. Fly to R’ Shimon bar Yachai.” He wrote down the question, placed it in the dove’s beak, and the dove brought it to R’ Shimon.

“This question was asked in the Heavenly yeshiva,” Eliyahu disclosed a secret to R’ Shimon bar Yachai: “The last verse, ‘And G-d will return you to Egypt in ships,’ is a blessing in disguise. It hints that in the future G-d will perform miracles similar to those which occurred after the Exodus. The nations will want to destroy the Jews in ships [today’s missiles], but instead they will drown [in chips placed in pagers].”

Psalm 21:13, “You shall place them as a portion apart, with Your bowstrings You will aim at their faces.” Hashem will completely round up the enemy, setting them up as a target of His punishment (Metzudos).

Doves have been used for communication purposes since the days of Noach until modern history of World War I (homing pigeons), until the use of telephones replaced them. Hashem was the Director of the chain of events that created the chips (ships) which caused the recent miracles. May we merit continued miracles and salvations from Hashem.

Elli Epstein Ocean, NJ

Sri Lanka’s New President

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a 55-year-old Marxist-leaning politician, won the Sri Lankan presidential election on Sunday, as the country continues to reel from an economic crisis that it is only beginning to recover from. Unlike his opponents in the race, incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, the victor is the first in his family to hold office.

“We believe that we can turn this country around, we can build a stable government … and move forward. For me, this is not a position; it is a responsibility,” Dissanayake said after his victory.

Wickremesinghe was eliminated in the first round of voting, as he secured just 17% of the vote. Dissanayake won 42.3% of the vote, while Premadasa won 32.8%. This is the first time that Sri Lanka has held an election where no candidate was able to secure the required 50% of votes after the first round, thus necessitating a second tally. Using a preferential voting system, voters ranked their picks.

According to the election commission, voter turnout was high, with around 75% of eligible voters participating in the election.

“Mr. President, here I handover to you with much love, the dear child called Sri Lanka, whom we both love very dearly,” said Wickremesinghe in his concession statement.

Sri Lanka’s last election was held in 2022, after Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was president at the time, ran away and resigned amid protests against the terrible economy, which was caused by a significant foreign exchange shortage.

Dissanayake has vowed to dissolve parliament within the first forty-five days

of his time in office.

“The election result clearly shows the uprising that we witnessed in 2022 is not over,” said University of Colombo political scientist Pradeep Peiris. “People have voted in line with those aspirations to have different political practices and political institutions. AKD [as Dissanayake is popularly known] reflects these aspirations and people have rallied around him.”

The country’s weak economic recovery was facilitated by a $2.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is supposed to help Sri Lanka get on track with managing inflation and the high cost of living, paying off debt, and growing the economy. Some of Dissanayake’s past promises, such as cutting taxes, have concerned investors who believe such measures would interfere with the IMF program, although the president-elect, while campaigning, sang a different tune, claiming that he wouldn’t go against the IMF.

NZ Pilot Freed From Indonesia

After over 18 months of being held hostage in the Papua region of Indonesia, Phillip Mehrtens, a pilot from New Zealand, has been released. He was abducted on February 7, 2023, by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNBPB), a militant group considered by Indonesia to be a terrorist organization, in Nduga, an area in Papua. The group held Mehrtens hostage in an attempt to pressure New Zealand into pushing Indonesia to permit the Papua region’s secession.

“Today, finally, I have been freed. I am very happy that shortly I will be able to go home and meet my family,” Mehrtens said at a press conference in Timika, Indonesia, speaking in Indonesian. “Thank you for everybody who helped me today, so I can get out safely in a healthy condition.”

Winston Peters, the prime minister of New Zealand, stated, “We are pleased and relieved to confirm that Phillip Mehrtens is safe and well and has been able to

20 talk with his family. This news must be an enormous relief for his friends and loved ones.” Peters credited his office, including those in Indonesia and in his country, for leading “a sustained wholeof-Government effort to secure Phillip Mehrtens’ release.”

Led by Egianus Kogeya, TPNPB, which is part of the Free Papua Movement, has kidnapped others in the past. At first, they said they would murder Mehrtans if New Zealand failed to comply with their demands. Over the past year, his captors have consistently released low-quality videos proving that the man was still alive, with much of the footage showing him surrounded by militants, holding bows and arrows and guns.

Papua, which was once a Dutch colony, officially became part of Indonesia in 1969 after a hand vote, of which some dispute the legitimacy.

Ayatollah Pardons

Nearly 3,000

In honor of the anniversary of the birth of Mohammed, who is considered by Islam to have been a prophet, and upon the recommendation of Iranian

Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni

Ejeh, around 1,290 prisoners were pardoned and another 1,596 others saw their sentences commuted by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. The pardons were announced on Friday by IRNA, a state-run news agency.

Among those released from prison were forty or more foreigners and thirtynine individuals who were convicted of crimes against the state of Iran. Fifty-nine individuals saw their death sentences dropped and commuted to imprisonment, the report added.

Faezeh Hashemi’s five-year prison sentence came to an immediate end after the pardon. Hashemi, a politician who is the daughter of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was imprisoned in September 2022 for participating in protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being detained by

Iran’s morality police for supposedly not wearing her hijab correctly.

Over 8,000 foreign nationals were imprisoned in Iran as of June, around 6,620 of whom were from Afghanistan, according to Iranian authorities. Many of the foreigners were also from India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iraq.

At one point in 2023, the supreme leader pardoned around 82,656 prisoners, according to Ejehi, around 22,000 of whom were detained after participating in protests. Ejehi added that Khamenei did not pardon thieves or violent criminals.

700 Inmates

Released in Congo

More than 700 inmates were released from the largest prison in Congo, the

country’s authorities said Saturday, as officials sought to ease overcrowding in a facility where at least 129 people died in an attempted jailbreak this month.

Congo’s justice minister, Constant Mutamba, announced their release during a visit to the Makala Central Prison, where the deadly episode highlighted the alarming conditions faced by inmates in the only prison in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital and one of Africa’s most populous cities.

Mutamba promised that Kinshasa would get a new prison, though he did not give details.

Of the 729 inmates released, most — 648 — were released on bail.

On the evening of September 2, inmates, whose cells had been without water and electricity for more than a day and a half, tried to break out to escape the stifling heat, several inmates told The New York Times.

The details remain unclear, but most of the deaths occurred in a stampede that followed, while at least 24 people were fatally shot while trying to escape, the country’s authorities have said. Several female prisoners were assaulted, according to Human Rights Watch and Congo’s interior minister.

The Makala Prison, which was built

in 1957 during the era of Belgian colonial rule and little renovated since, has a capacity of 1,500 but has at times held 10 times more than that.

The prison’s director, Joseph Yusufu Maliki, has been suspended, and dozens of inmates accused of assaulting female inmates during the jailbreak soon face trial.

Human rights organizations and journalists have long described conditions in Makala and other prisons in the Central African country as inhumane: overcrowded, violent and filthy.

Last year, more than 500 inmates died from suffocation and various diseases at the prison, according to Emmanuel Adu Cole, a human-rights activist based in Kinshasa. Cole said that out of about 15,000 inmates, only 2,500 had been convicted; the rest were awaiting trial.

“Most of the inmates have no reason to be held in such inhumane conditions,” Cole said in a telephone interview. “This cannot continue.”

More than 500 inmates had been released from the Makala Prison in August, before the attempted jailbreak shed a new light on the conditions there. (© The New York Times)

Deadly Coal Mine Explosion

At least 49 people died this week in an explosion at a coal mine in east Iran.

A methane gas leak on Saturday sparked an explosion at the mine in Tabas.

Around 70 people had been working in the mine at the time. Some bodies found show no sign of trauma, suggesting that those people died from gas inhalation prior to the blast.

Such gases are common in mining, though modern safety measures call for ventilation and other measures to protect workers.

On Tuesday, a lawmaker and member of parliament’s mine committee said the safety system of the mine was not working and “even the central alarm system was broken or did not exist.” Lawmaker

Zahra Saeedi added that workers learned of the safety issue just before the disaster but couldn’t leave in time. Two of the dead were health and safety experts at the mine, she said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what safety procedures were in place at the privately owned Tabas Parvadeh 5 mine, operated by Mandanjoo Co.

Iran’s mining industry has been struck by disasters before. In 2017, a coal mine explosion killed at least 42 people. ThenPresident Hassan Rouhani, campaigning ahead of winning reelection, visited the site in Iran’s northern Golestan province, and angry miners surrounded the SUV he rode in, kicking and beating the armored vehicle in a rage

In 2013, 11 workers were killed in two separate mining incidents. In 2009, 20 workers were killed in several incidents. Lax safety standards and inadequate emergency services in mining areas are often blamed for the fatalities.

Landslides in Japan

Record rainfall in Japan’s Noto Peninsula caused deadly flooding and

landslides in a region still recovering from a catastrophic earthquake earlier this year, the national broadcaster NHK reported Sunday.

At least one person was killed and seven others are missing, NHK reported. Forecasters warned of more rain through Monday, and 100,000 people are under evacuation orders.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency on Saturday issued an emergency heavy rain warning, the highest level of alert, for Ishikawa prefecture, which includes Noto Peninsula. Residents’ lives were in imminent danger, the agency warned, adding that there was a high chance that a disaster had already happened in some areas.

Two cities in Ishikawa prefecture broke rainfall records Sunday, according to the meteorological agency. About 10.7 inches of rain fell in Wajima City in six

26 hours, nearly double the previous record of about 5.5 inches, which was set in 2007. In the nearby Suzu City, 7.5 inches of rain fell in six hours, compared with the previous record of 5.2 inches, set in 1989.

The emergency warning was downgraded Sunday morning, but the agency warned there would be more rain before it eased Monday. A further 3 inches could fall in the Hokuriku region, which includes Ishikawa prefecture, by the end of Sunday, the agency said, while parts of southern Japan could receive up to 6 inches.

Authorities issued evacuation orders for more than 100,000 people in Ishikawa and another prefecture nearby, Kumamoto, NHK reported.

One person died after a house was swept away by a landslide in Suzu City, NHK reported. Three people across Wajima City, Suzu City and the town of Noto were reported missing after being swept away by floodwaters, the broadcaster said, and four others who had been conducting earthquake restoration are missing.

In the nearby Kurobe City, in Toyama prefecture, about 60 people were stranded while riding a tourist train after a mudslide flowed into the tunnel they

were traveling through, NHK reported. Noto Peninsula was struck by a powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake on New Year’s Day. At least 229 people were killed, according to NHK, making it the deadliest earthquake in a decade. (© The New York Times)

Hezbollah’s Arsenal of Weapons

It started with beepers, then walkie talkie, and then airstrikes. For the past week, Israel has put Hezbollah on the offensive, taking out large swaths of

its army and weapons systems. But according to the Wall Street Journal, Hezbollah is well-stocked when it comes to the weapons it has in its arsenal.

The terror group has kept in reserve a massive arsenal of rockets, drones and antitank missiles that it can deploy to counter Israeli advances, the Journal says. One of those weapons is an Iranianmade guided antitank missile called Almas—the Persian word for diamond— which gives Hezbollah a much higher degree of precision in its strikes than it had when it last fought a war with Israel in 2006.

Israel wants to avoid a ground war with Hezbollah, as the war they fought years ago ended in a stalemate.

“It’s a little like saying to the United States in 1980, ‘Let’s go back into Vietnam,’” said Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and former U.S. government official, who co-wrote a recent study of Hezbollah’s arsenal.

The risk of full-scale war escalated further on Monday, after Israel intensified its airstrikes across Lebanon including in the capital Beirut, killing almost 500 people and wounding more than 1,600 others in the deadliest single day in

Lebanon since the Gaza war began last year. Hezbollah also launched missiles into Israel.

Israel has said it wants to push Hezbollah back from the border and degrade its military capabilities so that the more than 60,000 people who have had to evacuate their homes in northern Israel because of Hezbollah missile strikes over the past 11 months can return home.

Over the past few months, Hezbollah has been preparing for war. It has expanded its tunnel system and repositioned its fighters and weapons. Iran, which supports the terror group, has increased its shipments of small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and guided and unguided long-range missiles. It is said that before October 7, Hezbollah had a stockpile of 150,000 rockets and missiles.

“The south is like a beehive right now,” said a former Hezbollah military officer. “Everything the Iranians have, we have.” Still, Israel’s military has far more advanced weaponry, including F-35 jet fighters and multilayered air defenses. Israel’s air superiority would allow it to unleash devastating airstrikes and cripple Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure, as it did in 2006.

But Hezbollah doesn’t need to win the war with its technological advances. Instead, it would hope to keep Israel stuck in a war of attrition, much like Hamas is doing in Gaza.

IDF Kills Top Hezbollah Commander

In an IDF strike on Beirut last Friday, several top Hezbollah commanders were killed, including the terror’s group head of military operations Ibrahim Aqil, who was also the militant group’s acting commander of the Radwan Force and who had been promoted to the most senior military member of the terrorist organization’s top military entity, the Jihad Council, following Hezbollah leader

Fuad Shukr’s assassination in July. Most notably, Aqil was, according to the Israeli military, actively planning an invasion into northern Israel, which would have been a similar attack to Hamas’ October 7 massacre in southern Israel.

Of Aqil’s death, Hezbollah said that “one of its great leaders” had been killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” a phrase that means he was eliminated by Israel. The terror group added that Aqil, a “great jihadist leader,” has now “joined the procession of his brothers, the great martyr leaders, after a blessed life full of jihad, work, wounds, sacrifices, dangers, challenges, achievements, and victories.”

Due to his involvement in the 1983 bombings of Lebanon’s American Embassy and U.S. Marines barracks in the country’s capital, Aqil was also wanted by the United States, who placed a $7 million bounty on the commander.

On Friday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Our goals are clear, and our actions speak for themselves.” Following and preceding Israel’s strike, around two hundred rockets were launched by Hezbollah at the northern Galilee and the Golan Heights, although the terror group’s strikes reportedly caused no deaths.

According to an Israeli official quoted

by Axios, around twenty commanders from the Radwan Force were eliminated in the same strike.

“They gathered underground, under a residential building, in the heart of the Dahiyeh, while using civilians as a human shield. They met to coordinate terror activities against Israeli civilians,” said IDF Spokesman Rear. Adm. Daniel Hagari. “Aqil and the Radwan Force commanders who we attacked are the commanders who drew up and led the Hezbollah terror group’s plan, to be carried out on the day the order was given, to attack into the northern territory of the State of Israel — what they called ‘the plan to conquer the Galilee.’”

Hagari added, “Hezbollah intended to raid Israeli territory, occupy the communities of the Galilee, and murder and kidnap Israeli citizens — similar to what Hamas did on October 7.”

Lebanon’s health ministry said that the Israeli strike, which struck down an apartment in south Beirut, caused fourteen fatalities and sixty-six injuries. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, said the terrorist organization would take revenge for Israel’s attacks.

“The Hezbollah commanders we eliminated today had been planning an ‘October 7’ on the northern border for years. We reached them and we will reach anyone who threatens the security of the citizens of the State of Israel,” said IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.

“The sequence of operations in the new phase [of the war] will continue until our goal is achieved: The safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” added Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister. “Even in the Dahiyeh in Beirut, we will continue to pursue our enemy in order to protect our citizens.”

The strike came shortly after a major attack reportedly orchestrated by Israel, wherein Hezbollah’s pagers blew up, killing at least thirty-seven terrorists and injuring thousands. In July, Shukr was killed in another strike on Beirut. And in January, Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy leader of Hamas, was also eliminated in Beirut.

The U.S. was not informed of the strike before it happened, as far as White House spokesman John Kirby was aware. Joe Biden, the president of the United States, said his goal is to “make sure that the people in northern Israel as well as southern Lebanon are able to go back to their homes, to go back safely.”

Due to the constant threat of a major Hezbollah attack, thousands of Israelis living near the northern border were forced to evacuate. The terror group has been attacking Israel since October 8 and has

Hamas Lies on Deals

According to a Channel 12 report released last Wednesday, the November hostage release agreement ended eight days into the deal because Hamas lied and said that the female abductees who were supposed to be released had passed away, proposing to instead release three live hostages – two men and one woman – and seven bodies. However, Israel was absolutely sure that those female hostages who Hamas said were dead were actually alive. The Jewish state believed that if it accepted the proposal, Hamas would instantly murder the abductees that the terror group said were dead.

Though the report concluded that the November ceasefire’s end was not the fault of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but rather the fault of Hamas, the same report purported that Netanyahu has been working to repeatedly “torpedo” more hostage release agreements since December for political purposes.

Noa Argamani, who was rescued in June as part of an IDF operation that saved four living hostages, was one of the seven abductees whom Hamas falsely said had passed away.

“In the hours before [that day’s scheduled set of releases], Hamas announced via the mediators that the women who were supposed to be freed were dead,” said a senior Israeli security official, as quoted by Channel 12. “But we knew for certain that they were alive. Hamas said that Noa Argamani was dead, but not only her, and that others could not be located. And that was despite the fact that we had agreed in advance on the whole list of names [of living hostages to be freed].

“If we played their game, we made clear to the political echelon, Hamas would murder the women. A minute later, they’d shoot them in the head. If we’d allowed them to play us, we’d never have seen those women again,” said the official.

Instead of releasing the seven

hostages, Hamas suggested that it would free Mia Shem, who came home on November 30, the day before the agreement ended; Romni Gonen, who remains in captivity; and Carmel Gat, who was murdered by Hamas last month along with five other hostages, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

“Coalition threats” from Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, two far-right ministers, also played a role in the ceasefire’s end, according to an

anonymous minister.

National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot, in an interview in August, also said that some elderly male hostages could have been released if Israel continued the agreement despite Hamas going against the deal.

According to the report, Netanyahu supposedly rejected an Egyptian proposal on December 24 and barred Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Mossad chief David Barnea from meeting the following

27 was called “very generous” by Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, and that the premier accepted Biden’s May 31 proposal and the U.S.’s “final bridging proposal” on August 16. All those deals were rejected, not by Netanyahu, but by Hamas.

“Those who want to help in the effort to free our hostages should put pressure on the murderer [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and not on the prime minister of Israel,” added the premier’s office.

An Israeli Spy for Iran?

Moti Maman, a 73-year old-Israeli Jew from Ashkelon, was charged on Thursday with conspiring to advance Iranian assassination plots against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Shin Bet director Ronen Bar.

According to the investigation, Maman, a businessman who previously resided in Turkey, was smuggled into Iran twice. In April, he met Eddy, a wealthy businessman who resides in Iran, at a business meeting organized by two Turkish individuals, Andrey Farouk Aslan and Junayd Aslan. Maman went to Samandag, a city in Turkey near Syria, met with two of Eddy’s representatives, and spoke to the Iranian businessman on the phone since Eddy wasn’t able to leave Iran at the time.

In May, Maman met with Andrey, Junayd, and the two representatives, again in Turkey. And because Eddy still couldn’t leave Iran and make it to Turkey, Mamam was smuggled into Iran through a land crossing near Van, according to the Shin Bet.

day. Other potential deals were reportedly struck down in March, May, and June.

In response to the Channel 12 report, the Prime Minister’s Office said the report “echo[s] the propaganda of the terrorist organization Hamas” and promotes “false claims.” Netanyahu’s office noted that all U.S. proposals were accepted by Netanyahu, thus refuting “the claim that he sabotaged any deal for political reasons.” The office added that a proposal sent by Netanyahu on April

While in Iran, Maman, openly identifying himself as an Israeli citizen, had a meeting with Eddy and Iranian security official Khwaja, during which the Iranian businessman proposed that Maman conduct a number of missions against Israel on behalf of Tehran, such as planting money or handguns at particular places, taking pictures of public places, and intimidating other Israeli operatives for Iran who weren’t following through

with their orders. Maman responded that he would consider it, left for Turkey, and then returned to Israel.

In August, Maman came back to Iran, once again smuggled in a truck that was driving through a Turkish land crossing. During that visit, he allegedly went to Eddy’s residence, where he met with Iranian intelligence officials, who requested that he “advance assassination attacks” on the prime minister, defense minister, the head of the Shin Bet, or other important individuals, such as Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister. According to the Shin Bet, the assassination plots were orchestrated in an attempt to avenge the death of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas who was killed by Israel in July on Iranian soil.

During the meeting, Maman requested that he be paid $1 million upfront. The next day, he made the same request but was rejected by Iranian intelligence officials. Before leaving Iran, an Iranian intelligence official gave Maman 5,000 euros for taking part in the meetings, and the agents said they would reach out to him later. When Maman reached Israel, Israeli authorities detained him.

According to Channel 12, Maman told investigators upon being arrested, “It’s good that you arrested me, I don’t know where it could have gone.” The man reportedly did not deny wrongdoing, and his attorneys attributed his participation in the meetings as “an error of judgment” and noted that he has “cooperated, and continues to cooperate fully with the authorities.”

“We have not yet seen the investigative materials, so at this stage, it is difficult to go into the details of the case,” said Eyal Besserglick, the suspect’s lawyer. “It can already be said that this is a person who has greatly assisted the security services of the State of Israel, whose children serve in the security forces, and who made an error of judgment in the context of his business.”

“At a time when the State of Israel is at war on several fronts, an Israeli citizen goes to an enemy country on two different occasions, meets with Iranian intelligence agents, and expresses a willingness to carry out serious terrorist acts on Israeli soil. His actions helped Iran and its intelligence agents in their campaign against Israel,” said a senior Shin Bet official, calling the situation a “very serious affair, which is an example of the great efforts of the Iranian intelligence agencies to recruit Israeli citizens to advance terror activities in Israel.”

“The Shin Bet views with severity any

contact by Israelis with Iranian elements. While the motive for the contact in the first place is a business pretext or criminal, it does not diminish the severity of the acts,” the agency said, adding that Maman committed “a serious security offense, even [though] the motive for the contact [with Iranian officials was] criminal or business-related.”

Iran has, on several occasions, attempted to recruit Israelis to spy or commit crimes on behalf of Tehran.

Life Without Parole

On March 22, 2021, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa massacred ten people shopping at King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. This week, the murderer was sentenced to life without parole after a jury rejected his insanity claim and found him guilty of first-degree murder.

In addition to the 10 counts of murder, Alissa, 25, was convicted of 45 other felony counts, including attempted murder, assault and using a prohibited large-capacity magazine during the commission of a crime.

Alissa was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole – one for each victim – as well as an additional 1,334 years in state prison.

“Justice has finally been done,” said Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty after the sentencing.

Speaking ahead of the sentencing Monday afternoon, Nikolina Stanisic, whose 23-year-old brother, Neven, was killed in the shooting, described her sibling as “a caring, kind and selfless person.”

He was their parents’ “first joy, their first happiness, and their first sadness and heartbreak,” she said.

“Our life without Neven is not a complete whole life,” she went on. “There’s someone who is always missing.”

Jurors heard 10 days of testimony, during which the prosecution argued that despite being diagnosed with

36 schizophrenia after the shooting, Alissa was legally sane when he carried out the attack. He was found incompetent to stand trial in 2021; he was deemed competent in 2023 after undergoing treatment in a state hospital.

“The evidence in this case is straightforward. What happened on March 22 of 2021 is not a mystery; it was on video,” Assistant District Attorney Ken Kupfner said in his closing argument, before ticking through every felony count Alissa is facing and pointing to the actions that prosecutors say prove beyond a reasonable doubt he acted “after deliberation, and with intent.”

Alissa is “not somebody who is insane.… Somebody who thinks a mass shooting is fun, they’re sick. We agree he’s mentally ill. He has schizophrenia, but he’s not insane,” Kupfner said.

Many of the victims’ family members appeared in court and became emotional and tearful as the verdict was read. Ahead of Alissa’s sentencing, several family members shared wrenching tributes to their loved ones and described the pain they have suffered since the shooting.

Eric Adams Investigation

Federal prosecutors investigating whether Mayor Eric Adams conspired with the Turkish government to funnel illegal foreign donations into his campaign have recently sought information about interactions with five other countries, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The demand for information related to the other countries — Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan — was made in expansive grand jury subpoenas issued in July to City Hall, the mayor and his campaign, the people said. The prosecutors’ focus on the other five countries has not been previously reported.

The full scope of the inquiry into the mayor is not publicly known, and it

remains unclear why investigators were seeking information about the additional countries or whether Adams has had dealings with them. But the investigation has focused at least in part on whether, in exchange for illegal donations, Adams pressured the Fire Department to approve a new, high-rise Turkish Consulate in midtown Manhattan despite safety concerns. Investigators have also examined free flights and flight upgrades the mayor received from Turkish Airlines.

The New York Times first reported on the July subpoenas last month, weeks before a burst of investigative activity focused on five of the mayor’s highestranking aides.

On Sept. 4, federal agents conducted searches and seized the phones of the police commissioner, the first deputy mayor, the schools chancellor, the deputy mayor for public safety, and a senior advisor who is one the mayor’s closest confidants.

Those actions brought to four the number of federal corruption inquiries swirling around Adams’ administration, and prompted the resignations of the police commissioner, Edward A. Caban, and the mayor’s chief counsel, Lisa Zornberg, who left the administration after Adams resisted her advice to clean house.

On Friday, FBI agents also searched the homes of the interim police commissioner, Thomas G. Donlon, whom the mayor appointed Sept. 12. Donlon disclosed the search in a statement late Saturday in which he said agents had taken 20-year-old “materials.” But several people with knowledge of the matter said that the materials were classified documents and that the search was unrelated to the four other investigations of the mayor and senior members of his administration.

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office, Fabien Levy, said City Hall officials had been asked not to comment on the content of the subpoenas, “but, as we have repeatedly said, we will continue to fully comply with any law enforcement inquiry.” (© The New York Times)

CA Limits

Smartphones in Schools

This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that requires schools to limit or ban the use of smartphones. The law came about amid a growing consensus that excess

smartphone usage can increase the risk of mental illness and impair learning.

California is not the first state to tackle the smartphone issue. Thirteen other states this year have banned or restricted cellphones in school or recommended local educators do so, after Florida led the way by banning phones in class in 2023.

California, with nearly 5.9 million public school students, has followed the lead of Los Angeles County, whose school board banned smartphones for its 429,000 students in June.

That same month, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for a warning label on social media platforms, akin to those on cigarette packages, likening the problem to a mental health emergency.

Murthy cited a study in the medical journal JAMA showing adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media may be at heightened risk for mental illness. He also noted that a Gallup poll showed that the average teen spends 4.8 hours per day on social media.

“We know that excessive smartphone use increases anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues – but we have the power to intervene. This new law will help students focus on academics, social development, and the world in front of them, not their screens, when they’re in school,” Newsom said in a statement.

Investigating Butler

According to Ronald Rowe, the acting director of the Secret Service, the federal agency bears responsibility for the breach in protocol that led to the attempt on GOP presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump’s life on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“There was complacency on the part of others that led to a breach in protocol,” acknowledged Rowe at a Friday press conference, adding that those responsible for the failure “will be held accountable.”

“This agency has among the most robust table of penalties in the entirety of the federal government and these penalties will be administered according to our disciplinary process,” added Rowe. He did not specify what punishments the agency would administer.

According to a Secret Service report on the July 13 assassination attempt, there were “serious communications failures between the U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement that made it harder for officers to respond to the attempted assassin.”

“A consistent theme gathered from state and local law enforcement personnel who helped secure the Butler rally was the presence of communications deficiencies,” the agency noted. “These deficiencies included gaps in colocation of law enforcement resources to share information, the variety of radio frequencies/channels used … and the capability of agency personnel to clearly convey the Secret Service’s protective needs.”

For example, there were “multiple

standard conduits of communication that were not in operation on July 13,” and some of the rally’s law enforcement parties “had no knowledge that there were two separate communications centers on site,” the report added.

He noted that the Secret Service is still investigating the assassination attempt that took place last week at Trump’s golf course, although he did not go into details about the incident. According to investigators, Secret Service agents shot at a man who was holding a weapon and hiding in bushes near a fence by Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach. The suspect fled before being able to even see the former president and was later apprehended after a car chase.

“Having been there and seen the vantage point whether they were on the public side or … the private side, the bottom line is the individual was detected,” he said, adding that agents were “sweeping ahead” without specifying whether the Secret Service was watching the fence’s public or private side.

Rowe also added that the Secret Service and law enforcement agencies “will have what we need” on January 6, 2025, to ensure the 2024 election certification process’ protection.

Severe Obesity on the Rise

Severe obesity – especially among women – is on the rise in the United States, according to new government research.

The U.S. obesity rate is about 40%, according to a 2021-2023 survey of about 6,000 people. Nearly 1 in 10 of those surveyed reported severe obesity, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Women were nearly twice as likely as men to report severe obesity.

The overall obesity rate appeared to decrease slightly from the 2017-2020 survey, but the change wasn’t considered statistically significant, as if it didn’t truly decline. But severe obesity climbed from nearly 8% in the 2013-2014 survey to nearly 10% in the most recent one. Before that, obesity had increased rapidly in the U.S. since the 1990s, federal surveys showed.

Measures of obesity and severe obesity are determined according to body mass index, a calculation based on height and weight. People with a BMI of 30 are considered to have obesity; those with a BMI of 40 or higher have severe obesity.

“Seeing increases in severe obesity is even more alarming because that’s the level of obesity that’s most highly associated with some of the highest levels of cardiovascular disease and diabetes and lower quality of life,” said Solveig Cunningham, an Emory University global health professor who specializes in obesity.

The new study also found that obesity rates varied by education. Almost 32% of people with a bachelor’s degree or higher reported having obesity, compared with about 45% of those with some college or a high school diploma or less.

Obesity rates also varied by place. In West Virginia, more than 41% of adults suffered from obesity; in Washington, D.C., less than 24% of adults reported having obesity. People in the Midwest and the South were found to have the highest rates of obesity.

Last Kmart Closes

“Attention, Kmart shoppers. The store will be closing in just a few minutes…” The retail giant announced this week that it is closing its last full-scale store in the mainland United States.

The store, located in Bridgehampton, New York, on Long Island, is slated to close October 20. That will leave only a small Kmart store in Miami. There also are a handful of stores in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In its heyday, there were more than 2,000 Kmarts in the U.S.

Transformco bought the assets of Sears and Kmart out of the bankruptcy of Sears Holdings in 2019.

Struggling to compete with Walmart’s low prices and Target’s trendier offerings, Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2002 — becoming the largest U.S. retailer to take that step — and announced it would close more than 250 stores.

A few years later, hedge fund executive Edward Lampert combined Sears and Kmart and pledged to return them to their former greatness. But the 2008 recession and the rising dominance of Amazon contributed in derailing that mission. Sears filed for Chapter 11 in 2018 and now has just a handful of stores left in the U.S., where it once had thousands.

Baseball’s 50/50 Club

For the first time in MLB history, a player has hit fifty home runs and stolen fifty bases in just one season. The baseball record was broken last Thursday night when Shohei Ohtani, a top player for the

40

Los Angeles Dodgers, hit his fiftieth home run of the season in the seventh inning of a game against the Miami Marlins. Earlier in the same game, he stole his fiftieth base of the season. During the game, he also broke his personal record, achieving his first ever five-hit game.

No baseball player has previously stolen fifty bases and hit fifty homers in one season, making Ohtani the founder of what the MLB calls the “50/50 Club.”

ESPN baseball columnist Jeff Passan noted on X that Shohei Ohtani founded the 50/50 Club “in his first year with a new team… In the same season, his closest friend stole $16 million from him… While rehabbing from reconstructive elbow surgery… On a day in which he went 5 for 5 with two homers and two stolen bases.”

“No one in MLB history had gone 5-5 with 2 homers, 4 extra base hits and 2 steals. And no one has ever gone 6-for6 with 3 homers, 5 extra base hits and 2 steals,” MLB.com columnist Anthony Castrovince posted on X. “Shoheit Ohtani did it on the day he christened the 50-50 Club. There is only one Shohei Ohtani. Incredible.”

In the top of the ninth inning, he also hit a three-run blast, bringing his total to 10 RBI in one game.

On August 30, Ohtani broke a previous record in a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks when he became the first MLB player in the “43/43 club.” Now, he’s in the 51/51 club.

In December 2023, he signed a $700 million 10-year-contract with the Dodgers. Thanks in part to Ohtani, the Dodgers, before Thursday, achieved a mark of 90-62, a record in the MLB’s National League West division.

Newsom Bans Plastic Bags

Starting in 2026, stores in California will be banned from providing or selling

plastic bags to customers, thanks to a law that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on Sunday. Previously, thin plastic bags were banned in California, but this bill, which was approved last month by state legislators, will also ban thicker plastic shopping bags, as well.

Once the law goes into effect, customers will only be given paper bags.

State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat and supporter of the law, claimed that most people do not reuse or recycle plastic bags, citing a study that indicated that each person, on average, wasted around 11 pounds of plastic shopping bags in 2021, up from 8 pounds in 2004.

“We are literally choking our planet with plastic waste,” Blakespear said in February.

Oceana, an environmental nonprofit organization, praised the governor for signing the law, thus “safeguarding California’s coastline, marine life, and communities from single-use plastic grocery bags.” The nonprofit’s plastics campaign director, Christy Leavitt, added that the law “solidifies California as a leader in tackling the global plastic pollution crisis.”

According to Environment America Research & Policy Center, an environmental advocacy organization, California and eleven other states have enacted state plastic bag bans of sorts. Hundreds of cities in twenty-eight states also have bans on plastic bags.

In 2014, the California Legislature passed a statewide plastic bags ban, which was approved in a 2016 hand-vote by Californians.

“Plastic bags create pollution in our environment and break into microplastics that contaminate our drinking water and threaten our health,” Jenn Engstrom, the California Public Interest Research Group’s director, said. “Californians voted to ban plastic grocery bags in our state almost a decade ago, but the law clearly needed a redo. With the Governor’s signature, California has finally banned plastic bags in grocery checkout lanes once and for all.”

In 2007, San Francisco became the first city in the United States to enforce a plastic bag ban, after Newsom, who was then the city’s mayor, signed a ban.

Boeing Strike

As the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union’s strike entered its eleventh day, Boeing raised its offer to members.

The new offer would give members a 30% raise over the four-year life of the contract, including an immediate 12% raise, up from the 25% in overall raises and an immediate 11% raise that membership voted almost unanimously against on September 12, just before walking off the job at Boeing plants on the West Coast.

“We heard your feedback,” said a statement from Boeing to union members on its website. “We’ve made significant improvements to provide more money in key areas.”

The new offer also doubled a signing bonus to $6,000, and increased the money that Boeing would contribute to 401(k) plans of union members to match contributions they make themselves. But it did not restore the traditional pension plan that union members lost 10 years ago in a previous labor agreement.

The strike is the first of its kind at the aircraft maker in 16 years. It has brought production of commercial jets to a near-halt.

Boeing is not in good shape. The company reported losses of more than $33 billion over the last five years.

Still, Boeing is a major force in U.S. manufacturing and vital to America’s air transportation system. It is the country’s largest exporter, and by its own estimates contributes $79 billion to the U.S. economy, supporting 1.6 million jobs directly and indirectly at suppliers spread across all 50 states.

In a decision that took place just before the strike began, 95% of union members voted against the previous tentative labor agreement. The company said the new offer is contingent on a contract being ratified by September 27. The union said that there will not be a ratification vote by the deadline because it doesn’t have time to educate members about the offer on the table. It also criticized Boeing for announcing the highlights of the offer while it was still being considered by the union’s bargaining committee.

“They are trying to drive a wedge between our members and weaken our

solidarity with this divisive strategy,” the union said. “This tactic is a blatant show of disrespect to you – our members – and the bargaining process. Boeing does not get to decide when or if you vote.”

Boeing said that it shared the offer with employees in the name of being transparent.

The union has more than 33,000 striking employees.

While Boeing may not lose any sales due to the strike, the inability to assemble and deliver planes already ordered by airlines cuts off a vital source of cash. Boeing gets most of its payment only upon delivery of an aircraft to an airline.

The company has announced that many of its non-union staff will be furloughed without pay one week out of every four during the duration of the strike, and that it will cut back purchases to suppliers and vendors in an effort to save cash. It said it will also reduce pay of top executives.

Nebraska on the Ballot

In all but two states, electoral votes are winner-take-all. But Maine and Nebraska take a different approach. Using the congressional district method, these states allocate two electoral votes to the state popular vote winner, and then one electoral vote to the popular vote winner in each congressional district (3 in Nebraska). This creates multiple popular vote contests in these states, which could lead to a split electoral vote.

In 2020, District 2 in each state was won by the candidate of the statewide popular vote loser. While this was the first time this has happened, the two votes also effectively cancelled each other out. Recently, there has been a push to change Nebraska’s votes to a winnertake-all approach. But on Monday, State Senator Mike McDonnell said in a statement that he would not support altering Nebraska’s current system, which splits its electoral votes by congressional district. Democrat Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in the Nov. 5 election, is slightly favored to win one electoral vote from Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district, which includes Omaha.

A bill to change the system would require 33 votes out of 49 seats in the legislature. Republicans control exactly 33 seats, which means they cannot afford even a single defection with Democrats united in opposition.

“I will not change my long-held position and will oppose any attempted changes to our electoral college system before the 2024 election,” McDonnell said in a statement, noting that the election is only 43 days away.

He urged the governor and other state lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment during the next legislative session and put it on the ballot for Nebraskans to decide.

Despite the Cornhusker State being traditionally red, its 2nd district, which surrounds Omaha, has voted for Democrats twice since it began splitting its votes in 1991. This includes former President Barack Obama in 2008 and President Joe Biden in 2020.

Often referred to as the “blue dot” by Democrats, Omaha could be crucial in the presidential election.

If Vice President Harris won the Rust Belt states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, while Trump captured the Sun Belt states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina,

the Nebraska vote would determine whether Harris won 270-268 or whether the race ended up a 269-269 tie.

And if the Electoral College is tied, the House of Representatives selects the winner, with each state delegation getting a single vote – a scenario that would likely favor Trump.

CA Fire Agent Arrested

A California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection employee was arrested on Friday on suspicion he started five brush fires in Northern California in recent weeks, officials said.

Robert Hernandez, 38, was arrested on suspicion of arson to forest land. He is an apparatus engineer with the agency, which entails operating and maintaining fire engines and water tanks during emergency responses.

Cal Fire said Hernandez ignited the blazes while off duty between August 14 and September 15 in forest land near Geyserville, Healdsburg, and Windsor. Due to the quick action of residents and firefighters, the blazes burned less than an acre.

“I am appalled to learn one of our employees would violate the public’s trust and attempt to tarnish the tireless work of the 12,000 women and men of CAL FIRE,” Cal Fire Director and Fire Chief Joe Tyler said in the statement.

On Tuesday, a delivery driver, Justin Wayne Halstenberg, pleaded not guilty to starting the massive Line Fire on September 5. The blaze forced the evacuation of thousands of people east of Los Angeles, injured a firefighter, and destroyed a home. He was charged with 11 arson-related crimes.

Authorities said Halstenberg attempted to start three fires within an hour. Two of the blazes were extinguished by firefighters and a good Samaritan, and a third became the Line Fire, which has burned 61 square miles in the San Bernardino mountains. It was 53% contained on Friday.

In July, a man was arrested on suspicion of starting the Park Fire in Northern California by pushing a burning car into a gully. Ronnie Dean Stout was charged with felony arson of an inhabited structure or property. He pleaded not guilty.

California Sues ExxonMobil

In a first in U.S. history, a state has sued a fossil fuel company for allegedly lying about the benefits of recycling.

On Monday, Rob Bonta, the California Attorney General, sued ExxonMobil, saying that the corporation executed “a decades-long campaign of deception,” wherein the company spread lies about recycling through clever marketing and a half-a-century’s worth of public statements.

The goal of Bonta’s lawsuit, which was brought to the San Francisco County Superior Court, is to force ExxonMobil “to end its deceptive practices that threaten the environment and the public” and pay

several fines.

“Plastics are everywhere, from the deepest parts of our oceans, the highest peaks on earth, and even in our bodies, causing irreversible damage — in ways known and unknown— to our environment and potentially our health,” Bonta said. “For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible. ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health.”

ExxonMobil defended itself in a statement, accusing California of having an ineffective recycling system.

“They failed to act, and now they seek to blame others. Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills,” the company said. “We’re bringing real solutions, recycling plastic waste that couldn’t be recycled by traditional methods.”

The lawsuit came as part of a relevant investigation launched by the Department of Justice over two years ago, during which secret documents were released.

The suit claimed that the corporation, which is the second-largest oil and gas and the biggest polymer producer, “falsely promoted all plastic as recyclable, when in fact the vast majority of plastic products are not and likely cannot be recycled, either technically or economically” and “continues to deceive the public by touting ‘advanced recycling’ as the solution to the plastic waste and pollution crisis.”

The lawsuit alleges that ExxonMobil’s goal was to convince customers to purchase and use more non-recyclable plastic than they normally would have. Of all the plastic in the world, only around nine percent is recycled; in the United States, only around five to six percent is recycled.

More Emojis

44 more cute pictures to enhance your backand-forth texts with your band of buddies.

One of the new emojis to debut next year include an exhausted face with bags under its eyes. Yup, that’s most of us after a week of exams or staying up late cooking for three-day yom tovs.

Other emojis set to take over your phone or computer include a root vegetable, a harp, a leafless tree, a fingerprint, a shovel, a purple splatter, and a flag for the remote island in the English Channel called Sark

Emojipedia, a popular emoji reference site, released sample images a few months ago. Recently, the Unicode Consortium, the non-profit that oversees global emoji standards and new releases, approved the new emoji lineup.

The exhausted emoji face had the honors of winning the “most anticipated” emoji in the World Emoji Awards, receiving more than 60% of the vote. The splatter and shovel came in second place and third place, respectively.

We have no words…just emojis.

Cat-astrophe Averted

When a cat dashed into the woods of Yellowstone National Park during a camping trip in June, his California owners, Benny and Susanne Anguiano, thought they’d never see him again.

The couple searched for five days through the woods near their campground

at Fishing Bridge RV Park but never found their 2-year-old male siamese cat, Rayne Beau, pronounced “rainbow.” Susanne Anguiano said that Rayne Beau’s sister, Starr, started to meow through the screen door of the trailer. Eventually, when the couple made the tough decision to drive home to Salinas, California, Starr, who had never been away from her brother, meowed all the way back.

“Leaving him was unthinkable,” Susanne Anguiano said. “I felt like I was abandoning him.”

But almost two months later, Rayne Beau was found wandering the streets of Roseville, California, three hours north of where the Anguianos live and more than 800 miles away from Yellowstone National Park.

When a worker from a local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals notified the couple that rescuers had identified Rayne Beau from his microchip, Benny Anguiano said they were shocked that the cat had made it back to California.

The couple met Rayne Beau and his sister when they were 11 weeks old and decided to foster and then adopt them.

During their search at Yellowstone, Benny Anguiano said a campsite worker told him that there had been grizzly bears and coyotes spotted around the area, and that their cat was likely to have been eaten by one of the forest’s predators. After hearing this, Benny Anguiano convinced his wife that it was time to leave.

When the couple reunited with him, they said Rayne Beau had lost 40% of his body weight. He was restless in his carrier, but once they released him in the car, he calmed down.

“He just looked at me, and then he put his head down and just fell fast asleep,” Susanne Anguiano said. “He was so exhausted.”

The couple said Rayne Beau has been

back home since early August and was doing well. Susanne Anguiano is hesitant to travel with her cats again, but if she does, they won’t be so far away from home.

Sounds purrfect. (©The New York Times)

Saved from a Snake

Arom, a 64-year-old woman living in Thailand, was washing the dishes when she felt something bite her leg. Looking down, she saw a python, which then proceeded to wrap its huge body around her until she fell to the ground.

“The snake just shot forward and bit me,” she said.

For two hours, the woman, alone in the home, attempted to free herself from the massive snake. She called for help repeatedly.

Finally, after two hours of being squeezed by this giant reptile, a neighbor heard her cries and called the police.

“We were shocked to see the lady was tied down on the floor with the python wrapping around (her),” Police Major Sergeant Anusorn Wongmalee of the Phra Samut Chedi Police Station in Samut Prakan, a province south of Bangkok, said. “The snake was really big.”

It took rescuers about 30 minutes to free her, after which she was sent to the hospital for treatment, according to the police.

The snake escaped afterward, police said, adding: “We couldn’t catch it.”

Thailand is home to 250 snake species, including three varieties of pythons — the reticulated, Burmese and Blood — according to Thai National Parks. Although pythons are not venomous, they coil themselves around their prey and squeeze them to constrict blood flow before swallowing their victims whole.

The attack on Arom is the second such incident in the country to attract global attention in recent weeks. Last month, a man was bitten by a python while sitting in the bathroom. He managed to survive the encounter by hitting the snake with a cleaning brush before calling a security guard to help remove it.

Ssss-ounds ssss-cary.

Python Challenge

Speaking of snakes, the Florida Everglades now has less pythons than it did a few weeks ago. Ronald Kiger is the winner of the Florida Python Challenge. He won the grand prize of $10,000 by removing 20 Burmese pythons from the Everglades during the 10-day hunt.

This year, more than 800 people from 33 states and Canada participated in the challenge; hunters removed 195 Burmese pythons from the wild.

The rest of the prize money was divided amongst competitors in the contest’s three categories: novice, professional and military. Donna Kalil was one python away from a tie with Kiger. Kalil, a contractor with the South Florida Water Management District, got a $2,500 prize for catching 19 pythons in the professional category.

Also in the professional category, Marcos Rodriguez caught 16 pythons for the prize of $1,500, and Quentin Archie won a $1,000 prize for catching the longest python in this category at 8 feet 11 inches (2.7 meters).

The challenge took place last month. Hunters were tasked with humanely killing the Burmese pythons and turning in the carcasses to any of the contest’s three check stations in South Florida.

“Over 14,000 pythons have been successfully removed by FWC and South Florida Water Management District contractors since 2017,” said Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “This collective effort continues to have a direct positive impact on the Everglades and our native wildlife through removal and awareness.”

This year’s competition was a little bit smaller compared to last year. In 2023, more than 1,000 hunters participated, and 209 pythons were removed.

A female python can lay about 50 to 100 eggs at a time, which is why the competition is held during hatching season in August. According to the wildlife agency, about 22,000 pythons have been removed from the state since 2000.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “He who has been bitten by a snake fears a piece of string.”

Around the Community

Special Children’s Center Five Towns Fundraiser

The Special Children’s Center Five Towns Fundraiser was a night to remember! Thank you to all who came out and were involved in making this night so memorable.

JCCRP’s Successful Rosh Hashana Distribution

On September 22, Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula (JCCRP) distributed Rosh Hashana food packages to 350 local Jewish families, including single parents and those who teach in local yeshivas. Preparation for the event began the week before, as over 130 volunteers prepared the food boxes. JCCRP distributed 27,000 pounds of produce, $18,000 in gift cards, 2,000 pounds of chicken, and 9,000 pounds of dry goods for the holiday, including candy platters!

On the day of the event, with the immense assistance of RNSP members, boxes of carefully prepared holiday foods were placed in the cars of local Jewish families with the utmost respect. Each family was received with a smile and handed a candy platter and gift cards as an extra thank you gift for attending the distribution. Local families greatly appreciated the food packages and thanked staff profusely.

We are grateful to our community

partners who made this distribution a success, including community donors who enabled us to gift each family with gift cards and a robust holiday package containing seasonal items worth well over $100. Thank you to the following schools that pack food for our event:

eration of NY for their support of JCCRP programming. If you are interested in volunteering at future JCCRP distributions, please email volunteer@jccrp.org.

Thank you to Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato for volunteering at the distribution. Thank you to UJA-Fed-

“Last year, this year, and next, I and standing strong for our entire Long Island community, even when few on the other side of the aisle will join me, Together, we will not back down.”

- Assemblyman Ari Brown

Yeshiva of South Shore’s 7th grade class with Rabbi Shonek, Yeshiva Ateres Eitz Chaim, Nishmas Hatorah’s 12th grade class, and Rambam Mesivta High School.

HANC ECC Open House

On Sunday morning, the doors of HANC’s Early Childhood Center in West Hempstead opened to welcome prospective students and their parents for the annual Open House. Families from West Hempstead, Oceanside and Queens poured into the building, forming the largest crowd ever to attend this annual event. The children were eager to begin a morning of play and enjoyed the play structures that were arranged around the lobby for them. As the guests assembled in the auditorium, Rabbi Ouriel Hazan, Head of HANC West Hempstead Campuses, welcomed the new families, and Mrs. Trudy Rubinstein, HANC’s Early Childhood Director, spoke about the robust educational program that HANC provides for the young students. The children then went to visit the classrooms, in which they engaged in various fall and Rosh Hashanah themed activities led by the ECC staff. As the children moved from room to room, they engaged in multi-sensory activities including sorting through sensory boxes to locate hidden Rosh Hashanah items,

light tables with Rosh Hashanah shapes, separating apple colored pom poms into groups of colors utilizing child-safe tweezers, and decorating a shofar with Rosh Hashanah stickers. The children also made colorful Rosh Hashanah cards for their grandparents or special family members, which HANC will mail to them before Rosh Hashana. Incorporating STEM discovery, building creativity and sensory exploration illustrated the multi-faceted approach to learning that is at the core of a HANC Early Childhood Education.

Father-Son Shofar Shiur and Workshop at YOSS

This past Sunday, Rabbi Moshe Shonek, 8th grade Rebbe at YOSS, led a father-son/grandson shofar workshop. The program began with Rabbi Zev Davidowitz, Menahel HaMechina, expounding on the inyan of shofar, then Rabbi Shonek gave a shiur on Hilchos Shofar. Together they learned which animals are kosher for the mitzvah of shofar. Rabbi Shonek brought in horns from rams, kudus, gemsboks, cows and many other kosher animals that may or may not be used as a shofar. Rabbi Shonek, a professional Ba’al Tokea in his own right,

demonstrated the different sounds each horn makes and how halach makes an impact of each sound or series of tekios. After his shiur, everyone went outside to make their own Shofar. Each boy received a raw horn, and together with their fathers and grandfathers, they cut, drilled, and sanded it, to create an actual usable shofar - all ready for tekias shofar! Special thanks to Mr. Vaiselberg, campus manager, for directing the drilling, cutting, and sanding part of the program.

Arky’s Mission for HALB

Last week, HALB fifth through eighth graders had the opportunity to hear words of inspiration from the one and only Arky Staiman. Arky is a true modern-day hero, who spent the past year serving in the IDF in Gaza while simultaneously uplifting the world with his Instagram videos. He left the students with a mission to take care of their mental and physical health, work on their relationship with Hashem, and strengthen their relationships with family. Thank you Arky for visiting HALB!

HEALTHCARE HEROES HERE START

YONATAN STRAUS

TOURO’S NYSCAS

TOURO COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE

FUTURE DOCTOR

“Going from Touro’s NYSCAS to Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM) for medical school was a natural choice for me.

Having already experienced the supportive academic environment, I knew Touro would provide a solid foundation while in medical school. The continuity in the educational approach, and the opportunity to build upon the relationships and resources I had already established, were key factors in my decision to pursue my medical studies at Touro.”

Rambam Hosts Annual Camp Seneca Getaway

By David Mastour and Bernie Wiener

This past week, the Rambam Men headed up to Camp Seneca Lake for their Annual Autumn Getaway. After a morning of learning on Sunday, the Rambam Men and faculty departed from the Mesivta for a campus they know well. Throughout the day, the students enjoyed numerous activities and opportunities. A pool was opened and watched by Rambam’s Trained Lifeguarding Team. The camp also contains many diverse fields and courts, allowing high-intensity games to run constantly throughout the retreat. Rambam’s various rebbes also operated learning sessions throughout the two days.

Seneca had many sports options available all across campus from soccer and frisbee to pickup basketball games happening almost nonstop (with occasional staff appearances). Open tennis and pickleball courts were so popular that it led to an unscheduled Tennis Tournament. In the end, Tennis Team Captain Mordechai Jedwab was victorious!

The Volleyball Tournament, which began an hour after arrival, set a tone for

Be My Guest

By Chaya Feldstein

Be My Guest has become synonymous with family. That’s precisely the goal. It isn’t simply a check box off your list of erev yom tov to do’s –it’s the way of life. No guest wants to feel like a project or something done from your hectic to do list.

Now, it can be that one cannot host

the rest of the trip with fast-paced games. Team Eliyahu Yunaev won the glory, and Yunaev, he of the high serve, was named tournament MVP! The annual midnight Home Run Derby and Gold Glove Tournament kept students well awake with scores close until the final batter when Etai Kreitner fittingly ended it with a Grand Slam to close out the night.

The next day’s Football Tournament continued the excitement with 8 teams dueling it out, eventually culminating in the Auto-Drafters, who trailed by 18 and needed a miracle pass to even make it out of the first round, winning the title led by 4 seniors in their last go around at the tourney. Congratulations to Bernie Wiener on being named Tournament MVP!

The camp also contains board game and video game rooms for social bonding and fun. Rambam also hosted its annual Trivia Tournament at the event, with a Kahoot made by Henach Barningham (Junior). Congratulations to Yoni Kogan (Junior), for proving his trivia knowledge that day, may all glory be upon him, and congratulations to the Kahoot Runnerup, Mr. Hillel Goldman.

This trip showcased Rambam’s athletic, academic, and spiritual excellence. This day wasn’t only about

activities, however, but also social bonding. After all, there is a reason middos precedes excellence! Not only was this trip an opportunity for the freshmen to get to know each other better but also the school as a whole.

The trip also featured a siyum by Rebbe, Rabbi Dr. Andrew Sicklick, once again highlighted the school’s love of Torah and commitment to excellence in all its forms.

Rambam is proud to announce that its Big Brother Program, launched by Elazar Schwartz and Avi Katz (Seniors), names known throughout the school for their impeccable leadership in chesed opportunities, began at the retreat. Each freshmen was paired with a senior. After the pairs got to know each other, and the seniors taught them the ropes of Rambam, passing down their three years of wisdom, they played a game of Human Bingo. Each square listed someone with a certain thing, whether that being the ability to speak multiple languages, or if one has a brother in Rambam, or was born on the fourteenth, etc. The freshmen and their big brothers would then have to go find other people who fit those descriptions and introduce themselves. The night also included a senior barbecue, followed by a late-night barbecue for the

whole school.

The next day began with learning. Assistant Principal Rabbi Avi Haar taught the sophomores, juniors, and seniors, while the freshmen and their bunks’ senior advisors were taught by the principal himself, Mr. Hillel Goldman. His session included a game of them trying to sort pictures that, in truth, could all be found in one picture, from the most microscopic to the most macroscopic. Mr. Goldman tied the whole session together by connecting the activity to the theme of perspective and maturity. After a delicious lunch by Seneca’s chefs, the boys were allowed to go to the lake for some boating. What fun!

At the end of the day, the students trekked up to the top of Seneca’s hill and glanced at the campus for the final time this year. Until we meet again, Camp Seneca Lake. The whole school thanks Rabbi Yitz Milworn, Rabbi Avi Herschman, Mr. Hillel Goldman, Aaron Friedman, and the rest of the administrative team for making this Seneca Getaway such a success! Thank you to Ross as well for hosting us at Seneca! The school can’t wait for the next Getaway event, a Friday night Tisch at Mr. Goldman’s house in West Hempstead.

in a practical sense – however, there are other ways to host and recognize the glory of the crown jewel of chessed. That can be making a pre-yom tov phone call, small gift like chocolates, flowers, etc. or a short coffee get together. There are many ways to make a guest feel at home without being around the meal together. It’s a sense of belonging and care with warmth.

One of our amazing ambassadors announced at this month’s meeting, held one week ago, that the only thing she did so far for her pre-yom tov preparations is invite guests. In fact, we all congratulated her that what she did was the most important part of the Holy day’s preparations.

May we merit this Rosh Hashana to be inscribed in the Book of Life with

revealed good as we work arduously as a community to crown the glory of the Shechina by the mitzvah that exemplifies that in a manifestation of chessed: “the crown jewel.”

Your ideas, input and suggestions are welcome at bemyguest@whiteshul.com.

5 Towns Flag Football

What a week it was at the Five Towns FM Home Loans Flag Football League. Week #3 was truly incredible. The boys were so excited to come back and play! In the Pre-1A division, the boys continued working on their skills with Rabbi Jeremy Fine. The 1st grade division had a lot of fun catching the ball and playing with their friends. In the 2nd grade division, the Broncos beat the Vikings. The Patriots beat the Jets, and the Eagles beat the Giants. The top players this week in 2nd grade were Isaac Mishkoff on the Broncos, Shua Sod on the Patriots, and Shlomo Wieder on the Jets! In the 3rd and 4th grade division, the Eagles beat the Broncos. The Jets beat the Steelers. The Seahawks beat the Dolphins. The Saints tied with the Packers. The Giants beat the Patriots, and the Falcons tied with the Vikings. Zevi Brand had great defense and 2 touchdowns. Mordechai Reisz had an amazing 3 touchdowns, and awesome flag pulls from Tyler Scharf! In the 5th and 6th grade divi-

Savta Rachel’s Message of Faith

sion, the Panthers beat the Raiders. The Seahawks beat the Steelers. The Patriots tied with the Broncos. The Dolphins tied with the Giant,s and the Packers beat the Jets. Dave Schoenblum had amazing defense and some game-changing plays. Aaron Levitin had some great catches, and Yaakov Bollag had an amazing game!

In the 7th and 8th grade division, the Patriots beat the Vikings, and the Jets beat the Eagles. Naftali Galler had two crazy interceptions. Ezra Batalion had some great catches, and Yaakov Girnun had a great, all-around game!

Every participant received an amazing frisbee from Maidenbaum Tax Solutions. The participants were so excited to go home and play with the frisbees. Stay tuned for other giveaways this coming season.

Sportsmanship of the week award: 1st grade: Joey Pollack; 2nd grade: Asher Rodin; 3rd and 4th grade: Tzvi Feit; 5th and 6th grade: Shai Well; and 7th and 8th grade: Binyamin Cohen!

This past week, over 300 women gathered at Chabad of the Five Towns for an unforgettable evening, where we had the incredible honor and privilege of hosting Savta Rachel and her son, Aviyatar. Rachel courageously spent 20 hours entertaining five terrorists in her home, while her son Aviyatar, a police officer, negotiated from the outside. By the miraculous hand of G-d,

they successfully eliminated the terrorists, saving Rachel and her late husband David from physical harm. These two remarkable individuals embody the ultimate expression of positivity, resilience, and faith in the face of unimaginable adversity. Their story and strength are an inspiration to us all, especially as we prepare for the new year with renewed strength and faith.

Chaim Siegel giving a chabura at Yeshiva Nishmas Hatorah

Rav Yaakov Bender, Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshiva Darchei Torah, prepares to give out Gemaros to each talmid in Rav Tani Goldbaum’s fifth grade

Rav Elya Brudny, R”M in the Mirrer Yeshiva, delivering a shmuess in advance of Rosh Hashana to Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s Kollel Tirtza Devorah

Achdus at Shulamith

Welcome back! Shulamith School for Girls eagerly welcomed its students back to school after a long summer vacation. The theme for this school year is: Travel Around the World. Our G.O. proudly presented this year’s school song and dance, which our students have already begun singing in the hallways.

Achdut is very important to Shulamith. We strive to make sure that each girl feels included, welcomed, and respected. We kicked off the year with a number of achdut trips including to Adventure Park and Launch for our 6th and 7th graders. Our 8th grade barbecue was a huge success! Each girl got to decorate a pair of new, white sneakers to begin her “journey” this year.

With yom tov being later this year, we have had the opportunity to really help our talmidot get into the swing of things and begin to forge new friendships while maintaining existing ones. We look forward to an amazing year, iy”H, with our wonderful Shulamith students and their families.

Get Ready, Get Set, Daven!

HALB’s Middle School Get Ready Get Set Daven program is off to a great start! Each week stu-

A Great Start

dents who win get a special treat - this week it was an ice cream from the ice cream truck!

Cheder Menachem of Long Island (formerly known as Cheder at the Ohel) has had a wonderful start to the shnas halimudim 5785.

The hallways are once again filled with the uplifting sounds of davening and learning throughout the day. Talmidim are enjoying the beautiful facilities and scenic outdoors. There’s a vibrant energy from the extracurricular programs for Tzivos Hashem and the upcoming yomim tovim.

The school is fortunate to have a ded-

icated team of teachers and staff who work tirelessly to create a supportive and enriching learning environment, contributing to a positive experience for students and parents alike.

Bez”H, they are looking forward to a successful year ahead.

To learn more about Cheder Menachem of LI, please visit chedermenachemli. com or email admin@chedermenachemli.com to book a tour.

From Madrid to Eretz Yisrael

STEM at HALB

HALB students in sixth grade were challenged with building a structure out of spaghetti that could hold up a marshmallow – which is much heavier than they realized! Seventh graders were asked to build a case to protect a water balloon from popping when thrown out of the second story window using the least amount of materials possible. Both groups had a great time putting their STEM knowledge to use with these fun activities!

Rabbi Baruch Garzon’s Lifesaving Mission with EFRAT

By Chana Weissman

In 2009, a single speech in Madrid ignited a movement that would help save thousands of Jewish lives. At the center of this story is Rabbi Baruch Garzon, Chief Rabbi of Madrid (and in fact, the first chief rabbi in Spain since the Inquisition!) who transformed his community’s passion for Jewish continuity into action. Partnering with EFRAT, the organization dedicated to supporting expectant mothers in crisis, Rabbi Garzon has rallied Spanish-speaking communities worldwide. From Spain to Latin America and beyond, his efforts have sparked a global mission, proving that one voice truly can change the future— one baby at a time.

The Birth of a Partnership

When Dr. Eli Schussheim, zt”l, then head of EFRAT, reached out to Rabbi Garzon in 2009, it led to a momentous gathering in Madrid. Dr. Schussheim delivered a powerful address to some 100 attendees, outlining EFRAT’s core objectives: providing emotional, financial, and medical support to expectant women in crisis, empowering them to choose life for their babies.

The message resonated deeply with the community, especially the notion of contributing to the growth of the Jewish population in Eretz Yisrael. Rabbi Garzon and his community embraced the cause, quickly forming EFRAT Spain, a legal entity that would help spread EFRAT’s mission not only throughout Spain but to Spanish-speaking Jewish communities worldwide.

A Global Reach

Rabbi Garzon and his core group began reaching out to other Jewish leaders of Spanish-speaking communities worldwide, organizing events in Miami, Mexico, and Caracas. Through conferences, videos, posters, and fundraising dinners, EFRAT’s message of hope spread. Rabbi Garzon’s modesty belies the impact of his work: millions of dollars raised, all of which were channeled directly to EFRAT’s lifesaving operations.

Even after making Aliyah in 2013, Rabbi Garzon continued his work from Raanana. As the leader of EFRAT Spain, he has remained deeply committed to EFRAT’s mission while also serving as the president of Agudat Moreshet Yahadut Sefarad and Yagdil Torah Raanana. His dedication only deepened after

the tragic events of October 7, 2023, when Israel lost many soldiers in a devastating attack. Moved by the profound loss, Rabbi Garzon launched the “A Soldier Fallen, A Baby Born” campaign, a new initiative aimed at offering hope amid the grief. The campaign, which honors fallen soldiers by supporting new births in Israel, has resonated deeply with the global Jewish community. Through videos, social media, and fundraising events, EFRAT Spain continues to rally Jews worldwide to support mothers in crisis and honor the memory of those who gave their lives for Israel.

A Lasting Message

Over the past 15 years, Rabbi Garzon has remained steadfast in his mission to support mothers in crisis. With EFRAT having saved over 88,000 babies in its years of activity, he continues to witness the joy and hope that these new lives bring. His message to women in distress is clear: “Hashem has entrusted you with the sacred mission of ensuring the continuity of life. Use your strength and give the gift of a new child to Hashem and to the Jewish people.”

Rabbi Garzon also appeals directly to potential donors, reminding them of their

Rav Garzon presents a certificate testifying to the rescue of a baby in memory of a fallen soldier

unique opportunity to make a difference: “You hold in your hands the life of a new Jewish baby. Listen to your conscience and participate generously in EFRAT’s sacred work. Remember, ‘Whoever saves one life in Israel is as if they have saved the whole world.’”

To empower a mother and save a life in memory of our fallen soldiers, visit www.cribefrat.org/one-more-life or contact info@cribefrat.org.

Hagaon Rav Zevulun Schwartzman gave an Elul shiur in Mishkan Yisroel Shul in Woodmere. He is pictured with Rav Doniel Rosen, the rav of the shul

A Celebration of Creativity at Ezra Academy

In a spirited display of creativity and collaboration, Ezra Academy students from grades nine through twelve recently competed in a lively school event themed around Rosh Hashana.. The competition, held all over the school building from the ground floor through the fourth floor, brought together students and teachers to celebrate the themes of renewal, reflection, and joy associated with the High Holidays.

The event featured an array of activities designed to engage students in the rich traditions of Rosh Hashana. Each grade transformed their classrooms into vibrant depictions of the holiday, showcasing their artistic talents through intricate decorations that highlighted the sanctity of the High Holidays. Creativity was on full display, captivating judges and fellow students alike.

In addition to room decorations, students engaged in a poetry writing contest, composing original verses that captured their hopes and aspirations for the upcoming year. The heartfelt and sometimes humorous poems illustrated the students’ diverse perspectives on personal growth and communal values, fostering a sense of unity and purpose.

Resolutions were also a key component of the competition. Each class collaborated to plan meaningful New Year’s resolutions that reflected their commitment to personal and academic

success. The thoughtful resolutions ranged from academic goals to community service initiatives, emphasizing the importance of self-improvement and collective responsibility.

Adding an extra layer of excitement to the event was the bonus round: “Find the Honey Bear.” This engaging game encouraged students to search for hidden honey bears throughout the competition area, symbolizing the sweetness of the New Year. The hunt not only invigorated the atmosphere but also reinforced the joyous spirit of Rosh Hashana.

Teacher advisors played a crucial role in guiding their students throughout the event, fostering a collaborative environment that celebrated creativity and teamwork. It was inspiring to see the students come together and express their understanding of Rosh Hashana in such diverse and meaningful ways. The energy in the room was contagious, as students created original versions of the simanei milsa that were both thought-provoking and comedic. Everyone truly embraced the spirit of the holiday.

As the competition concluded, judges announced the winners based on creativity, teamwork, and the depth of their reflections on the holiday. However, all participants emerged victorious, having deepened their understanding of Rosh Hashana and its significance in their lives.

At their science laboratory on campus, Yeshiva Darchei Torah third graders learned about the properties of air and how helicopter propellers work

Assemblywoman Pheffer Amato & JCCRP Distribute Food For Rosh Hashanah

New York State Assemblywoman

Stacey Pheffer Amato joined JCCRP (Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula) for their annual Rosh Hashanah food distribution. The Assemblywoman personally put boxes of food into the cars of those who signed up which ensured

neighbors would have food to celebrate the upcoming chagim. The boxes included items like chicken, eggs, and a variety of fruits and vegetables.

“Our whole community is incredibly lucky to have a partner like JCCRP who is always working to help anyone in need. Allison Deal and her team are the best

MTA Yeshiva-Wide Shabbaton – A Shabbos of Achdus

This year, the Yeshiva University High School for Boys (MTA), held their Yeshiva Wide Shabbaton in Elul, and it turned out to be a perfect choice. The theme, Mi K’amcha Yisrael, One People. One Family. Together, resonated deeply as the talmidim gathered to daven, learn, and sing together. The timing, during the month of Elul, added a special layer of meaning, with students embracing the spirit of achdus and connection that the theme inspired.

The Shabbaton became a powerful and uplifting experience, strengthening the bonds between students and fostering a sense of togetherness that will carry through the year. MTA had

the distinct privilege of hosting Moreinu Harav Schachter, shlita, along with his Rebbetzin, as well as Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Taubes, and the Yeshiva’s rebbeim and many faculty members.

In addition to competitive roller hockey, basketball, and flag football tournaments, one of the most memorable highlights was the Leil Shishi Midnight Mishmar and farbrengen led by Rabbi Moshe Auslander of #TYH fame. For over two and a half hours, talmidim and rebbeim sang and bonded together, united in song and tefillah, creating a beautiful and inspiring atmosphere that no one wanted to end.

Throughout the Shabbaton, there were meaningful opportunities for

as they have taken the incredible step of making sure no one in our community is hungry or unable to have a proper meal for the holidays. As we prepare to celebrate our holiest holiday and usher in the new year of 5785, I wish everyone a very happy and healthy shana tova,” said Assemblywoman Pheffer Amato.

talmidim to learn with their rebbeim as well as their respective Grade Dean/ Mashgiach. At this time of year, it is especially meaningful to increase limud haTorah and deveikus to Hashem, and this past Shabbos provided the MTA family with the chance to experience something truly special and unique.

One of the most anticipated moments of Shabbos was the Q & A held by Rav Schachter, shlita, and moderated by his son-in-law, Rabbi Tanchum Cohen, MTA’s rebbe of the Senior BMK shiur. Talmidim submitted questions ahead of time, ranging from whether we can/ should celebrate when enemies of the Jews are defeated, to finding a balance between Torah learning and healthy

hobbies. The talmidim sat in rapt attention, fully aware they were in the presence of greatness. The opportunity to engage directly with a Gadol Hador was a profound and unique experience, and MTA is privileged to consistently offer such opportunities to its talmidim. At the conclusion of Shabbos, Rav and Rebbetzin Schachter remained for Melave Malka, joining the talmidim in enjoying the ruach and food. It was a Shabbos filled with inspiration, profound learning, and uplifting davening—but most importantly, it was a Shabbos of achdus among the talmidim of the Yeshiva. It will, b’ezras Hashem, set the tone for a powerful year of growth and learning at Yeshiva University High School for Boys.

Rabbi Oppen visited Lev Chana and taught the students all about the shofar

Ms. Ginsburg’s third grade students at Yeshiva Darchei Torah utilizing the CIJE computer laboratory on the Yeshiva’s campus

Big Sister Little Sister at HALB

HALB Middle School girls had their first Big Sister Little Sister program. Our sixth grade “little sisters” got to meet their 7th grade “mid-

HAFTR Hosts Annual Schoolwide Shabbaton

By Lilly Rotman

HAFTR High School’s 2024 schoolwide Shabbaton was filled with excitement, connection, and a wide variety of activities for students to enjoy. On Friday, September 13, students boarded the buses and headed to Camp Seneca Lake for a weekend of bonding, activities, and new experiences.

As soon as the buses pulled up to the camp, students jumped into sports such as football, tennis, and pickleball, as well as other activities like lake boating

and challah baking. The weather was beautiful, and after a week of being in their classrooms, it was refreshing for students to enjoy the fresh air. Once the activities wrapped up and the afternoon came to an end, students settled into their bunks and began preparing for Shabbat.

The theme of the Shabbaton was “K’Ish Echad B’Lev Echad,” which emphasizes the unity and solidarity of the Jewish people. This idea was woven into the entire weekend and was prominent when everyone released yellow balloons in honor of the hostages being held in Gaza.

Once Shabbat began, everyone gathered

dle sister” and 8th grade “big sister” and work on a project together. The girls had a great time!

for a beautiful davening, followed by a delicious Shabbat dinner filled with words of Torah and beautiful singing. The evening provided a special opportunity for students to connect with peers and teachers, enjoy tasty food, and end the busy week on a high note.

The next day featured a busy schedule of engaging programs, including two keynote speakers, Mrs. Jackie Bitton and Rabbi Yitzy Haber. Mrs. Bitton spoke to the girls, while Rabbi Haber addressed the boys, both offering inspirational and meaningful stories to the students. Later that evening, there was a musical

Havdalah filled with dancing, singing and embracing the unity of the school. The night continued with a delicious dinner and a festive silent DJ. In addition, seniors circled a beautiful bonfire just for them, where they roasted marshmallows, bonded, and reflected on how this would be their final schoolwide Shabbaton.

The 2024 Shabbaton proved to be unforgettable, leaving students with great memories and an eagerness to continue the year together, with the lessons of K’Ish Echad B’Lev Echad in mind.

Frum Matchmaking Hosts Incredible Event at The Cheese Store

This past Motzei Shabbos, Frum Matchmaking held an unforgettable event at The Cheese Store, and baruch Hashem, we had an amazing turnout! Singles from all over the community gathered to connect, enjoy delicious food, and experience a warm, welcoming atmosphere.

A huge thank you to all of the attendees who joined us — your presence made the event truly special!

We are also incredibly grateful to Daniel, the owner of The Cheese Store,

for being so accommodating and graciously hosting us. The venue was beautiful and very inviting! A special shoutout to Chaim Tobaly, of Kol’ Veor Sound and Light, for setting the perfect mood with his lighting expertise, creating a vibrant ambiance.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the incredible shadchanim, Baila Sebrow, Rachel Malinsky, and Shadchan Saf, for their dedication, warmth, and efforts in facilitating meaningful connections. Their presence and

support added so much to the evening, and we truly appreciate the time and care they gave to each attendee.

If you’d like to hear about future gatherings or, sponsor an event, or get involved in our mission to support singles in shidduch dating, please contact us at frummatchmakingevents@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram @frummatchmaking to stay up-to-date with everything Frum Matchmaking.

Shalom Task Force’s Teen Programming

Shalom Task Force (STF) is excited to announce the expansion of its renowned Purple Fellowship program for high school juniors and seniors, alongside the launch of two new initiatives, Shalom Task Force Israel Associates and Shalom Task Force Purple Fellowship Advisors. These programs are designed to educate, inspire, and empower students across various stages of their educational journey, providing them with the skills and knowledge to promote healthy relationships and take a stand against domestic abuse.

Now entering its fifth year, the Purple Fellowship offers high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to gain critical leadership skills through the lens of Shalom Task Force’s work. Participants dive into topics such as the dynamics of healthy, unhealthy, and abusive relationships, learning how to be a supportive

friend, event planning, advocacy, fundraising, and public speaking. A highlight of the program is the planning of “Go Purple Day,” an awareness event in their schools that promotes healthy relationships and shows solidarity with victims of domestic abuse.

Since the program’s launch, over 250 students from 32 schools across the country have planned awareness activities, reaching more than 35,000 high school students.

“Seeing hundreds of teens actively wanting to be involved in our work at Shalom Task Force has been an energizing force for everyone at the organization,” says Dr. Shana Frydman, CEO of Shalom Task Force.

Building on the success of the Purple Fellowship, STF is introducing two exciting new initiatives this year. The first, the Shalom Task Force Purple Fellowship

Advisors, will engage college students to mentor high school fellows. These advisors will guide students through the planning of their Go Purple Day events and facilitate meaningful discussions around the themes of healthy relationships.

Additionally, STF is launching the Shalom Task Force Israel Associates program. A project of the STF Young Leadership Board, this initiative is designed for students spending their gap year in Israel. Participants will have access to exclusive programming and chessed opportunities, enabling them to stay engaged with Shalom Task Force’s mission while abroad. “We are thrilled to help our student leaders execute their vision and grow this program from idea to reality,” Jeffrey Younger, Director of Communications and Program Operations at Shalom Task Force, said.

For more information and to apply: High school students can apply for the Purple Fellowship at shalomtaskforce. org/purple-fellowship. College students can apply to the Advisor program at shalomtaskforce.org/purple-fellowship-advisors. Students in Israel can apply for the Associates program at shalomtaskforce.org/volunteer.

Likras Continues to Ignite the Flame of Yiddishkeit Across Israel this Rosh Hashanah

With the Yomim Noraim upon us, Likras – a movement founded under the guidance of Gedolei Yisroel – continues its tireless mission to bring the light of Shabbos to over 50,000 Jewish families across Israel every week. For nearly 25 years, Likras has been setting up Shabbos tables in public spaces, distributing Shabbos candles to those yearning for a connection, bringing warmth, achdus, and the light of Shabbos into Jewish homes.

As we daven in Rosh Hashana davening, “V’yeida kol pa’ul ki Atah P’alto,” and we ask Hashem that every Yid should know the Ribbono Shel Olam. This

Rosh Hashanah, Likras is redoubling its efforts to help each pintele Yid reconnect through the simple, yet transformative mitzvah of neiros Shabbos. After a year of profound challenges, many in Klal Yisroel are looking for meaning amidst the darkness. Likras offers them a spark of hope, an opportunity to take part in a mitzvah that has the potential to reignite their Yiddishkeit.

As Rabbi Yossef Lok, Director, explains, “The koach of Neiros Shabbos is beyond words. Each flame has the potential to ignite a Yid’s neshama, planting seeds of Torah and mitzvos for generations to come. When a mother lights the Shabbos licht, the entire home

is filled with warmth and kedusha. Time and again, we’ve seen fathers feeling inspired to don a yarmulke and make kiddush, while the children, sensing the ruach of Shabbos, are drawn into the moment.”

With the support of over 700 dedicated volunteers, Likras now distributes candles to more than 50,000 families every single week across 47 cities in Eretz Yisroel. Likras volunteers are at the forefront of this avodas hakodesh, ensuring that every Jew – no matter where they are – is given a chance to infuse their home with the kedusha of Shabbos.

Likras invites the entire tzibbur to join this crucial initiative, especially

as we approach the new year. For just $72, you can sponsor a year’s worth of Shabbos candles for a family, giving them a connection to Shabbos every single week and illuminating their path back to Yiddishkeit.

Likras has received the haskamos of Gedolei Yisroel, including HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, HaRav Yitzchok Zilberstein, shlit”a, HaRav Dovid Abuchatzeira, shlit”a, the Makava Rav, shlit”a, and HaRav Naftoli Nussbaum, shlit”a.

To participate in this incredible mitzvah, visit Likras.us or call 718-600-7799.

The children at Betzalel Milstein Jewish Learning Center, BMJLC, Hebrew School in Lido Beach are ready for Rosh Hashana! Please contact 516- 889-9650 or director.bmjlc@ gmail.com for more information.

Rambam Holds 9/11 Assembly

Featuring First Responder

By Avi Lax

As it has done every year for over 20 years, Rambam Mesivta held assemblies commemorating the horrific terrorist attacks carried out on September 11, 2001.

The assembly started with an introduction from Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman. He spoke about the impact the attack had on people’s lives, both then and now. Next, our principal, Mr. Hillel Goldman, spoke about the specific events of the day, giving the students a historical perspective and a minute-to-minute timeline of how the events unfolded. He then played a video with footage from the time to give the students an idea of what that day was like. Freshman Jonah Goldgrab was also called up to share his grandfather’s experience on 9/11 as the crowd hung on his every word.

The school then had the honor to hear from Mr. Ben Diamond, the contractor of

Book Tasting at HALB

The second graders had a special Book Tasting event. They had the chance to “taste” different genres

of books to determine which types of books they enjoy reading the best.

Freshmen Meet Their Big Sibs

By Sophia Fruchter

ageable.

the new Rambam building, a member of Hatzalah and the fire department, and a First Responder at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Mr. Diamond spoke to students about his 9/11 experience. Mr. Diamond was in Yeshiva University in Manhattan and was a newly certified EMT and member of Hatzalah. He woke up and started his day as usual until he heard another member of Hatzalah over the radio explaining what was happening. Without being called to go, Mr. Diamond ran to the nearest ambulance to work to save as many lives as possible. He also spoke about how the experiences he had that day shaped his future and strengthened his Yiddishkeit. Mr. Diamond is a true hero of 9/11 and a role model to all.

The school thanks all the heroes of 9/11 for their bravery and extends a special thank you to Mr. Diamond for coming to speak to students about this tragic day.

After a fun-filled and exciting summer, students returned to HAFTR High School looking forward to a new year ahead. While faculty and students attended orientations and learned of their new schedules and courses, the freshman class was welcomed with a special Big Sib Program.

The transition to high school can be a daunting experience. To ensure that the freshmen start their high school career with a sense of empowerment and support, HAFTR faculty and seniors kicked off the Big Sib Program on Wednesday, September 3. This initiative aims to support the new students by assigning each freshman to a senior to act as an older sibling throughout the year. This allows each freshman to have a supportive ear to listen to any questions, concerns, or qualms they may have. Overall, having a “Big Sib” in school helps this challenging transition feel much smoother and man-

Immediately following orientation, the freshmen were introduced to their Big Sibs, and together they participated in a fun scavenger hunt. In addition to the thrill of the competition, the hunt helped the ninth graders become familiar with the high school building and learn about the many different locations around the campus. By the end, each sibling pair visited the office, gym, college guidance, G.O., and more. Each location held an envelope containing a clue that the groups had to decipher. By the final clue, the freshmen were prompted to go outside to the front lawn, where they received goodie bags with new HAFTR swag.

The program was a great success, allowing freshmen to acclimate to the high school and get comfortable before classes officially began. The freshmen have a wonderful journey awaiting them, and their Big Sibs look forward to supporting and guiding them every step of the way.

Around the Community

YOSS Pre-Rosh Hashana Apple Picking

Yeshiva of South Shore kicked off the new school year in style with an exciting pre-Rosh Hashana apple picking trip! Over 200 YOSS family members – from grandparents to tiny tots – joined in the festivities, making it an unforgettable afternoon of laughter, creativity, and connection.

Families, both new and old, came together to enjoy the camaraderie with other YOSS families, apple picking, and fun activities at Windy Acres Orchard. Special Rosh Hashana-themed projects were set up for the children to make and take home! These included designing your own honey jar, creating your own Rosh

Hashana scratch art, and decorating a frame for the simanim card!

Thank you to the PTA for generously sponsoring the event. Everyone can’t wait for the next YOSS family event!

Arky Comes to HANC

HANC Elementary School in West Hempstead welcomed a very special guest last week. Arky Staiman, who is originally from Baltimore but made aliyah to Tekoa years ago, shared his experiences as a soldier in miluim (reserve duty) over this past year. After his Yeshiva/Hesder program, he joined the paratroop division, and once his service was complete, he was presented with a very important proposal for his miluim duties. His commander asked him to join the group of brave soldiers who go into the battle areas and bring back the fallen soldiers. Initially he was reluctant to perform this job, but after a conversation with his father, he discovered that his grandfather had performed this same service for the IDF many years ago. “How proud would your grandfather be to know that his grandson was following in his footsteps?” remarked his father. Arky then knew that this difficult yet very special role was for him.

After Arky received training in how to perform this most important task, he luckily was not called upon very often. Sadly, that all changed on October 7. He was called up for reserve duty, and for 250 days he has been in and out of Gaza, retrieving not only fallen soldiers but fif-

Preparation for Shabbos is a Party at Plainview’s Mercaz Academy

It’s Friday, the only day of the week that Mercaz Academy students in grades one through six gather to eat lunch at the same time, and the activity in the cafeteria can seem exponentially multiplied. However, there’s a certain quiet electricity in the air. Students scan the room, clearly waiting for something.

teen hostages who unfortunately were murdered by Hamas in captivity.

Explaining all of this in the softest of terms, due to the age of the young students, he closed his remarks with some guidance for the children: “Take time to exercise and take care of yourself.”

Arky tries to do this every day, because he needs a lot of physical strength to perform his duties in the army. He added, “Spend time with your families. You will never regret it.” In light of the evidence of the fragility of life that we have seen this past year, every minute with your loved ones counts, and not a minute should be wasted.

Perhaps the most profound advice of all was the following: “Every person has their own G-d given talent, skill, ability and strength. Find it and use it to help your family, your community, and Am Yisrael.” We each have something special that we can contribute and every single person can make a valuable contribution.

Arky truly inspired everyone in the room who had the privilege to hear his impactful words. He is a treasure for Am Yisrael and encouraged one and all to step up and do their part to help during these difficult times.

Soon enough, the curtain rises on the stage in the front of the room, and there is a sudden hush as a cast of sixth graders begins acting out a short skit about greeting Shabbat. The skit emphasizes the solemn beauty of greeting Shabbat together in shul and with song, and finishes with a sixth grader with two sparkling red scepters representing Shabbat candles. The curtain falls and the audience segues into Birchat Hamazon, but afterwards, snatches of conversation about the fun can be overheard, with “What do you think will happen next week?” most frequently repeated.

Since the beginning of the school year, Friday’s lunch session has involved a weekly Shabbat party. The festivities focus on each step of Shabbat in order

of occurrence. The first week of school elicited suggestions of how to prepare for Shabbat and the second focused on lighting candles for Shabbat.

“Shabbat falls outside the classroom, but it’s an integral part of Jewish life,” explains Morah Phyllis Tessler, Mercaz Academy’s Director of Programming. “We want to enhance the Shabbat experience in the life of our students.”

With the help of staff members and the “senior” sixth graders, the Shabbat Party uses costumes, music, skits, and props to draw students into the joy permeating the celebration of Shabbat. On special occasions, it may be expanded to include kindergarten and the ECC, as well.

“It makes lunch much more interesting,” said a first grader, and another complimented the giant pink tutu sported by Morah Tessler at the event. Students eagerly anticipate each Friday, wondering what will happen next.

After all, as Morah Tessler points out, “Who doesn’t love a party?”

Strive for 5 at Yeshiva Har Torah

At Yeshiva Har Torah, we are deeply committed to nurturing every aspect of our students’ development. While providing a strong academic foundation, we equally focus on building their social, emotional, moral, and spiritual well-being. With that in mind, we’re excited to introduce our Strive for 5 Core Values—a thoughtful framework designed to inspire personal growth throughout each student’s journey at Yeshiva Har Torah. After much meaningful collaboration, our school community has identified five key values that we believe best represent the character of our graduates: Curiosity, Compassion, Strength, Connect to Hashem, and Make a Difference. Strive for 5 isn’t just a memorable

phrase—it encapsulates our belief in constant growth and self-improvement. As Jews, we are always striving to better ourselves, a lifelong journey of reflection and growth. We teach our students that this process is not only central to their personal development, but also to their Jewish identity.

You’ll see Strive for 5 come to life throughout the Yeshiva Har Torah community—in classrooms, hallways, and every corner of our school. Faculty, parents, and students alike will be part of this journey, as these core values guide us in preparing our children to make a positive and lasting impact on their local communities, Klal Yisrael, and the world at large!

An Inspirational Visit

HAFTR High School had the opportunity to hear from Jennifer Airley (who made Aliyah from Cedarhurst), mother of fallen chayal Binyamin Airley, HY’D, who spoke to the students about the importance of setting meaningful goals and aspirations every year that lead to a fulfilling life, as her son did. She made a request of the students that they find something that are willing to be moser nefesh for.

Chessed Multiplied

The founders and volunteers of the Israel Chesed Center believe that every Jew has the ability to do something for our brothers and sisters in Israel – donating, volunteering, or “simply” taking on a “kabbalah tovah,” doing something as a z’chut, a merit, for our soldiers, hostages, bereaved families; everyone has the power to help.

In its effort to increase chesed and to foster unity throughout our communities, the ICC believes strongly in being “mekapeil chesed,” multiplying chesed opportunities, creating even greater merits for Acheinu B’nei Yisrael!

This past week, the ICC proudly achieved its goal of combining chesed opportunities, enabling more people to perform acts of kindness and create “z’chuyot” for themselves and for the Jewish people, as we approach the Yamim Noraim.

In partnership with Hewlett High School, the ICC launched a volunteer program for students with special needs, enabling students from all communities to perform meaningful volunteer work. This week, they contributed by organizing newly donated books and assisting with preparations for the ICC Sukkah sale. They also learned more about the ICC eBay store, so that they will be able to assist in the ICC online programs. Looking ahead, they will also help pack bags for Israel and promote communitywide events by distributing flyers at local stores. The ICC is eager to continue collaborating with Hewlett High School, and other schools, welcoming more volunteers to contribute their time and talents at the Israel Chesed Center.

On Thursday night, September 19, the ICC hosted a learning and chizuk evening for the Shaar, the groundbreaking

introductory Yeshiva program based at Sh’or Yoshuv. Over 30 members of the Shaar, together with Rabbi Mayer Hurwitz and Rabbi Ephraim Kamin, joined with chavrutot from the community for oneon-one learning on the topic of shofar and Creation. Shlomo Reich, the senior mashpia at the Shaar, together with the Chesed Center’s regular musicians and singers – Menachem Leff, Eitan Agbashoff, Ahron Rosenthal and Sholom Jacobs – led an awesome kumzitz, while the attendees were treated to a Leil Shishi buffet of chulent, kugel and poppers from Crave!

While the learning was incredible, the music spirited and the food delicious, the highlight of the evening was a talk by Yaakov Gottlieb, a Hesder Yeshiva graduate and IDF soldier who, during his current leave from the IDF, dedicated himself to learning Torah at Sh’or Yoshuv! Yaakov spoke about his experiences as a chayal, serving for over 200 days during the Swords of Iron War, and shared reflections on his experiences, the losses that he personally has suffered (a number of his friends have fallen in the line of duty), and his personal growth as an Orthodox Jew who has been defending the land and people of Israel.

On Monday night, the Chesed Center was privileged to host Rabbi Binyomin Sloviter, Morah D’Asrah of the Irving Place Minyan, for a shiur on “Deepening True Connections with Hashem, Others and Ourselves.” In discussing our connections, Rabbi Sloviter mentioned that empathy is a critical factor in our interpersonal relationships, and referenced the fact that the Israel Chesed Center, in its ability to empathize and connect with Jews who live 6,000 miles away, providing the support services that

are needed, is a paradigm of empathy and connection. Acting on the knowledge that fellow Jews are in need, in a way that is helpful to them, is a critical element of emulating Hashem, and is exactly what the Israel Chesed Center is about.

The following evening, the Chesed Center hosted 3 chayalim, veterans of combat units, representing Israel Heart 2 Heart, an organization whose goal is to help IDF Veterans who suffer from PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to cope with difficulties and challenges they face every day. As the war continues, the need for gear for Chayalim and supplies for civilians is as critical as ever, but the demand for support services for soldiers who have bravely defended our land and experienced unspeakable atrocities is emerging as the most essential noncombat need for IDF soldiers.

With October 7 fast approaching, the Chesed Center is preparing a meaningful and powerful way for all members of our community to commemorate the tragedies of last Simchat Torah and its aftermath. The Center will be open all day (beginning at 7a.m.) on October 7 and invites the community to participate in

its programming, beginning with a “Unity Shacharit” for high school senior boys (and fathers) from many local yeshivot (Selichot at 7:45) , and continuing with an all-day “Am Echad B’lev Echad” mosaic project, in which all visitors will participate in making Mosaic Art in commemoration of October 7, which will be displayed locally and in Israel. Visitors will also experience, through art and video, both the horrors of the massacre and the resilience of the Jewish people.

At 6 p.m., in partnership with Israelis for Israel, the ICC will host an “Israeli style” tekes / memorial ceremony, featuring a torch lighting, the reading of victims’ names, divrei Torah from local students, and Tehillim and Tefillot for the hostages and the chayalim.

The Israel Chesed Center is located at 1315 Peninsula Blvd., Hewlett and is open daily. For more information about any of its activities or projects, please contact israelchesedcenter@gmail.com. To join the Israel Chesed Center volunteer WhatsApp chat, go to tinyurl.com/ ChesedVol.

Learning aleph-beis at Shulamith ECC

YUHSG Celebrates Extracurricular Life with Club Fair

At the Yeshiva University High School for Girls (Central), the first weeks of September bring new opportunities and excitement – and for the class of 2028, that excitement is happening on the water and in the air!

This year’s Freshman Fun Day took Central’s newest Wildcats to Manhattan, where they spent the day kayaking on the Hudson River and experiencing the Beast, a speedboat that takes passengers on a scenic thrill ride around New York City. It was a day of fun to kick off the new semester and life at a new school. Freshman Meira Husarsky spoke to the chances for bonding provided by trips like this one: “It was a great opportunity to get to know and spend time with the kids in my grade,” she said.

Another exciting rite of passage for the month of September: Central’s annual Club Fair! The day gave freshmen, as well as returning students, a chance to get involved in Wildcat life outside the classroom. Competitive clubs such as College Bowl and Torah Bowl took the period to scout for new members while performing arts opportunities, like upcoming auditions for this year’s production of Frozen, offered students the chance to discover new talents. Among the performing arts teams at the fair was Central’s award-winning Envision Shakespeare troupe, which placed third overall at last year’s citywide festival with their interpretation of a scene from The Merchant of Venice.

This year’s troupe director, senior Neima Bronstein, emphasized the importance of the organization. “I

NY Assemblymember Sam Berger Meets with YCQ Student Government

couldn’t be more thrilled to be directing for Central’s Envision Shakespeare team,” she said. “The environment is a perfect blend of warm and intellectually stimulating – it allows you to grow as a performer and as a reader, as well as develop deep camaraderie and friendship with other club members.” Neima also pointed out the significance of welcoming new Central students into the troupe.

“I’m beyond excited to welcome new members this year,” she continued.

“In fact, there’s been so much interest and enthusiasm that we had to plan brand-new programming to meet the demand, starting in October with three drama workshops for members and nonmembers alike.”

In addition to academic clubs and teams, over ten Chesed clubs were on offer for Wildcats aiming to serve their communities. A wide range of “fun clubs,” run completely by students, were also on the roster – students could sign up for NCSY 4G, Cooking Club, and more. And when a student interest does not have a club to call home, Central students do the work to form the club on their own. One of this year’s newest additions to the club roster was the Track Club. The club’s faculty advisor: Central’s Physical Education instructor, Ms. Naida Gonzalez, whose nickname among her students is the apt “Ms. Go.”

“The students took the initiative and formed their own club,” she said. “It’s so exciting – we have a lot of great athletes who are interested.” Get ready, everyone – the Central Wildcats are gearing up for a great year!

The newly elected JHS Student Government at YCQ had the privilege of meeting with NY Assemblymember Sam Berger on Monday. Students had the chance to ask Mr. Berger, who represents YCQ’s district, questions about his journey into politics and what it’s like to be a Jewish representative in Albany. He praised the students for seizing the opportunity to make a difference

in their community. He concluded with words of inspiration, urging them to be like Nachshon ben Aminadav, who had courage and faith to “take the plunge,” into the unknown.

Thank you to Assemblymember Berger for taking the time out of his busy schedule to inspire the future leaders of the Jewish people!

YOSS talmidim in Rabbi Greenberg’s shiur exhibited the different opinions in the Acharonim about the size and limitations for a sukkah to be kosher

Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Visited the Home of Reva and Martin Oliner Last Week

Future-Proof Your Career With a Master’s Degree in AI Systems from Touro University

Learn more about some of the exciting, high-paying roles that are using AI to reshape industries from energy to finance – and find out how earning a master’s degree in AI Systems from Touro Graduate School of Technology (GST) can build the AI skills you’ll need to thrive in the future.

Are you ready to join the “AI transformation” that’s reshaping industries worldwide? From healthcare to finance, artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way we work. Professionals who don’t adapt risk being left behind, but those who gain expertise in working effectively with AI can secure high-paying roles and help redefine their fields. Earning a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence Systems can equip you with the tools and knowledge to excel in the future of work.

The Growing Impact of AI Across Industries

Artificial intelligence is already deeply affecting industries like finance, marketing, healthcare, and law. Dr. Shlomo Argamon, Associate Provost for Artificial Intelligence at Touro University, explains that AI’s potential goes far beyond mere writing assistance from tools like ChatGPT. “AI, working together with people, enables improved productivity, efficiency, and innovation in every sector,” he says. “We need professionals from a wide range of backgrounds to bring their expertise and diverse perspectives to AI development.”

This means AI isn’t just about automating routine tasks like generating

reports or planning trips, but about supporting people’s creative and innovative work, Dr. Argamon explains.

“One of the biggest needs right now is for people who can design, build, evaluate, test, and deploy software systems that use AI components,” he explains. “Their goal will be designing and developing AI systems that integrate seamlessly into existing human teams and organizational infrastructure.”

However, incorporating AI into existing systems isn’t as simple as just adding it in and expecting it to function.

“You have to understand how AI works with people, as well as with other technological tools. AI professionals need to understand design thinking and user experience as well as AI and machine learning algorithms,” Dr. Argamon explains.

This kind of expertise will be needed in every industry and has the potential to completely change the way in which professionals in those fields perform their work. In fact, it’s already happening.

Five of the fast-growing roles where AI is improving and changing industry include AI Chatbot Developer, Smart Grid AI Engineer, AI Network Security Specialist, Algorithmic trader and AI Medical Imaging Specialist. These fields are growing rapidly and average salaries range from $90,000 to $170,000.

Touro’s Master of Science in AI Systems

To enter and excel in any of these fastgrowing fields, you’ll need to understand how AI fits into larger systems, how it

interacts with data and users, and how it can drive innovation in your chosen field.

That’s why Touro University Graduate School of Technology is launching a Master of Science in AI Systems. Available both in-person and fully online, this program emphasizes hands-on learning and collaboration. Students explore the foundations of AI, learn how to integrate AI systems into broader workflows, and develop expertise in a wide variety of AI methods that go beyond the basics.

“Our new program fills an important gap in AI educational programs,” says Dr. Argamon. “Right now, you can either sign up for a boot camp or continuing education program that will teach prompting and how to use AI in a specific field, or you can enroll in a highly focused technical degree program teaching specialized technical skills in machine learning and AI algorithms development.

Touro’s new master’s degree in AI

Systems takes a broader view by teaching AI in the context of systems and design thinking. Graduates will be well prepared for a world of accelerating innovation.”

The program is designed for students from any background, from those with a background in computer science or engineering, to professionals or recent graduates in other fields who want to transition to an AI career. As Dr. Argamon puts it, “If you see a need or have an interest in bringing AI into what you’re already doing, this program can help you do so.”

If you’re excited about all the ways that AI is making an impact and are ready to build the knowledge you need to make one of your own, contact info.gst.touro.edu to learn more about the Touro University Master of Science in AI Systems. Your future career in AI is waiting!

Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz Speaks Live to Adopt-a-Kollel Partner Kollel

A partial view of the crowd as Rav Gamilel Rabinowitz addresses the kehilla

On Sunday 19 Elul/September 22, Khal Mevakshei Hashem of Lawrence, NY, led by Rav

Rav Gamliel addressing the shul

Mordechai Yosef Zakutinsky, held a farbrengen in advance of the yamim

The rav of the shul, Rav Yussie Zakutinsky, front, at the event

The shul has partnered with the Kollel of Yeshivas Shaar Hashamayim led by the well-known mekubal Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz. Rav Gamliel addressed the shul live via zoom. The shul’s rav, Rav Zakutinsky, gave a deep talk on inyana d’yoma.

Sdei Chemed is Not Just a Touring Program

By Dovid Teitelbaum

Since my father, Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum, z”l, founded Camp Sdei Chemed in 1969, we’ve only rarely had to cancel camp. My father always said that as long as there was a minyan of boys and parents willing to send them, he would take them to Israel. This past summer, despite a year full of uncertainties, we brought a busload of boys to Eretz Yisroel. We’re grateful to our parents, who were patient, supportive, and trusted our decision to move forward.

No doubt, this summer will go down in Sdei Chemed history as unique. When I tell people we toured the country for two months without hearing a single siren, they’re surprised. But having experienced Israel during war, I know the reality on the ground is often very different from what’s reported. Despite the ongoing conflict, we packed our itinerary, and the boys felt like they did even more than in previous summers.

We traveled from Eilat in the south to Tzfat in the north and were welcomed warmly everywhere we went. People were moved by our visit, often expressing gratitude through tears. Even if we’d only visited holy places, swam in the Mediterranean, and hiked beautiful trails, the trip would have been worthwhile. But this summer, we also aimed to make a difference by connecting with Israel during difficult times.

One of our most impactful visits was

to Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. This space is dedicated to raising awareness about the hostages still held in Gaza, displaying pictures and memorabilia. A VR experience there gave us a glimpse into the horrors the hostages face. More than anything, our presence showed solidarity, and it made a strong impression on our boys.

Our Shabbos in Tzfat, one of the four holy cities, is always a highlight for campers. Despite security concerns and fewer tourists, we decided to go after getting clearance. We publicized our visit, and the local community responded with open arms, eager to welcome us. The artist colony, a main attraction, reopened for us, and our campers were encouraged by their parents to support the local shops. The gratitude we received was overwhelming.

A local yeshiva invited us for a fahrbrengen, sharing snacks, Torah, and Tzfat’s famous cholent. That night, we visited kivrei tzaddikim, led by our new Tzfat friends who accompanied us with stories and guitars. One camper, who had been to Tzfat before, told me this time felt more authentic. With fewer tourists, we had more meaningful interactions with the local residents, who were thrilled we came.

During the Nine Days, we dedicated a day to remembering October 7. We visited the site of the Nova festival massacre at Karnei Reim, where 364 souls were killed, and over 40 hostages were taken. It was a sobering experience. We also saw the pile

of burnt cars near Netivot, a haunting reminder of the tragedy. The boys processed these events in their own ways, sharing their thoughts and emotions in heartfelt discussions and a kumzitz.

Gratitude for the IDF soldiers who keep us safe was another focus of our summer. Campers wanted to do more than just host a BBQ, so we teamed up with Shuva Achim, a rest stop for soldiers fighting in Gaza. With over $5,000 raised by Sdei Chemed alumni, we not only provided a five-star BBQ, but also built a swing and benches for the rest stop. Our campers got involved in every aspect, from cooking to building, and interacted with soldiers, creating unforgettable moments. One of our campers even made a siyum to start the BBQ.

On Erev Tisha B’Av, we heard from Jennifer Airley, who lost her son Binyamin in Gaza. She shared her story with strength and faith, inspiring us all. Later, we helped pack packages for families in need and visited injured IDF soldiers at Tel Hashomer Rehabilitation Center, listening to their incredible stories of survival.

Each summer, we spend a Shabbos in a different Israeli community. This year, it was Kfar Etzion, staying in cozy yurts with breathtaking views of the Judean Mountains. The boys were captivated by the history and the warmth of the families living there. We davened Mincha at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut, where we heard words of inspiration from Rabbi Moshe Taragin.

Our packed itinerary also included new adventures, like renting out the new water park, Waterland Eilat, just for ourselves. Eilat has always been a Sdei Chemed favorite, but this summer, it felt even more special. We added exciting activities like repelling down the Jilabon, indoor skydiving at Flybox, and late-night go-karting. Our hikes through Nachal Prat, Nachal Elal, and Har Sedom took us off the beaten path, adding to the adventure.

But camp is more than just trips. It’s about personal growth. Rabbi Weberman often asks the boys, “When you feel inspired, inspired for what? Inspired to do what?” On our final night, after Maariv at the Kotel, the boys gathered in a circle to share what inspired them most. Their vulnerability and reflections on friendship, growth, and being true to themselves showed the depth of their experiences. This is what Sdei Chemed is all about: inspiring boys to grow and connect with themselves, each other, and Israel.

Sdei Chemed is not just a touring program. Our campers bring simcha and life wherever they go. Every summer, we give awards to campers with exemplary middos, but this year, it felt like everyone deserved one.

L’shana haba’ah b’Yerushalayim next year in Jerusalem.

Dovid Teitelbaum is the executive director of Camp Sdei Chemed.

Around the Community

Because He Cared

By Rabbi Yechiel Spero

The Life and Impact

of Rabbi Moshe Neuman, Beloved Principal of Bais Yaakov of Queens

OWorking his Magic

ne day while learning in Chaim Berlin, Moshe received a message that the rosh yeshivah, Rav Hutner, wished to speak to him.

“Moishe (as he called him), I need a favor from you.”

“Hineni,” was the respectful reply. “Whatever the rosh yeshivah wants.”

“The eighth-grade rebbi is sick and has to be out for the next two weeks,” Rav Hutner explained. “I want you to substitute for him. But please be aware that the class is difficult.”

The young and unmarried Moshe was taken aback. He had not expected this. But the rosh yeshivah was not backing down, and he had already committed to do whatever the rosh yeshivah asked.

Without any teacher training or curriculum, Moshe walked into the classroom and took his place on the other side of the desk. His chinuch career was launched.

But when he first walked into the room, no one paid attention. The boys were talking among themselves, until one of them finally looked in his direction.

The boy didn’t pull any punches. “We don’t want to learn.”

With that proclamation, he turned back to his friends, once again ignoring the new teacher in the front of the room.

Moshe knew he had to think out of the box. He decided that straight talk was the best and perhaps the only way to go about it. “Listen, fellas, the rosh yeshivah sent

me here for the next two weeks to teach you. Has anyone ever heard of the phrase, ‘Chatzi laShem v’chatzi lachem’?”

One or two of the boys answered that it had something to do with splitting Yom Tov: half of it for spiritual pursuits, like learning and praying; and the other half for physical pleasure, like eating and sleeping.

“Correct,” Moshe answered, “so here’s the deal. We’re gonna learn for the next two hours, and when we’re done, we’re gonna go to the playground on Pitkin Avenue and play some basketball.”

This caught their attention. They were intrigued. But one boy asked, “How are we going to get out of the building without being stopped by the principal?”

As if he were one of the boys, Moshe responded, “Don’t worry, I’ve got it all figured out. There’s a fire escape right near this classroom and we’re going to sneak out quietly. You’ll see, we won’t get caught.”

Partners in crime they would be, the rebbi and talmidim.

They started to learn.

And a rebbi was born.

As always, Rabbi Neuman would deflect the praise when telling the story: “They were good boys. We started to learn, and one asked a good question. I showed him that Tosafos asks the same question. And then another made a comment that was found in the Maharsha. They seemed to enjoy the learning. Sure enough, at the twohour mark, as I’d promised, I closed my Gemara and told them to follow me.”

Then the planned escape began. Together, they slipped out of the building and made their way over to Pitkin Avenue, where they had a great time with their new rebbi. Then again, how much older was he than they? After two hours of play, he told

them how to sneak back into the building for lunch. “You will go two by two, just like in the teivah. No one will notice a thing.”

The plan worked.

The following day, they followed the same routine. Half of the time they learned, and half of the time they played. “Chatzi laShem v’chatzi lachem.”

But on day three, Moshe told them, “Listen, fellas. ‘Chatzi lachem’ is not for every day of the year. It’s only for Yom Tov. So today we’re going to adjust it a little bit. Two-thirds of the day we will learn, and the last hour, we’ll have fun and we’ll play. I promise that’s the way it will stay.”

They didn’t say a word; they trusted him. They had also already experienced the joy of learning. So for the next two weeks, that’s the way it was.

Moshe Neuman was a huge success, to say the least.

On his first Thursday on the job, Moshe invited “his” eighth graders to come and learn with him during mishmar, to ask questions on what they had learned during the week. This was well before extracurricular learning programs were popular in schools. Nevertheless, a number of them came.

After two weeks, the regular rebbi returned, and Moshe Neuman went back to his seat in the beis midrash.

A few days later, he received another message — Rav Hutner wanted to speak to him.

“Moishe, I hear that you learned with the eighth graders, and they even came to learn with you during mishmar. What did you do? Hust zei farkisheft? Did you perform some sort of magic? Did you hypnotize them? Tell me everything. I want to know how you did it.”

At first, Moshe demurred. He didn’t want to tell the rosh yeshivah what he had done. He was afraid he would get into trouble for his unconventional teaching methods. Sensing his hesitation, Rav Hutner ordered him, “Moishe, zug! Hub nisht kein moira. Moishe, tell me! Don’t be afraid!” Then he added, “You are not in trouble. I want to know!”

Moshe told his rebbi the entire story, not leaving out one detail. After listening in silence, Rav Hutner started to laugh. But then he turned serious as he shared what would become the foundation of Rabbi Moshe Neuman’s chinuch approach. “Moishe, Moishe, America is America. Nisht Slabodka, nisht Kletzk, nisht Mir, uhn nisht Telshe. Not Slabodka, not Kletzk, not Mir, and not Telshe. It works with basketball and Pitkin Avenue and that’s how you will get them. Remember that.”

Before dismissing him, Rav Hutner made another suggestion. He wanted Moshe to learn for semichah.

“But I want to become a lawyer,” Moshe protested. Rav Hutner paid no attention.

When Moshe repeated the conversation to his father, he looked at Moshe and said, “You know, I never make demands of you when it comes to this kind of thing. But I always had a secret dream that one day you would become a rabbi. After all, Hashem saved us…for what?”

The next morning, Moshe enrolled in the Chullin and Yoreh Deah chaburos in the yeshivah. Rav Hutner recommended a chavrusa, and he and Moshe began to cover ground. At the beginning of the summer, Rav Hutner suggested that the two of them go upstate to Camp Morris and continue their chavrusashaft there. But Moshe hesitated. “I don’t have any money for camp.”

“Hub ich dihr gebetten gelt? Did I ask you for money? I want you to go and learn there with menuchas hanefesh, with peace of mind, and appreciate the break from the city.”

Another timeless lesson learned, one Moshe would incorporate into his life and his approach to chinuch. Money would never play a role in his giving and caring for children. If the child needed it, he would find a way to make it work. And he would never forget the encouragement and boost of confidence his rebbi gave him.

Moshe received semichah from Rav Nissen Telushkin (rav of Bnai Yitzchak Nusach Ari on Georgia Avenue in East New York, author of a two-volume sefer on mikvaos titled Taharas Mayim, and a gadol baTorah), as well as from Rav Hutner himself.

Reprinted from Because He Cared by Rabbi Yechiel Spero with permission from the copyright holder, ArtScroll Mesorah Publications.

Around the Community

JSL Fall: Week 3 Recap

This past Sunday marked Week 3 of the JSL Fall season brought to you by FM Home Loans, and the day was a huge success! The boys were excited to receive drawstring bags, sponsored by Tikva Fire and Future Care Consultants. Jay Essel, the JSL Jaguar, challenged some JSL hockey players to a race—finishing in a respectable 4th place. The Men’s basketball league kicked off this past Sunday night to great fanfare.

JSL Juniors

K/P Hockey: Gavriel Feinsod was on a bedding roll, scoring 2 goals and adding 2 assists as Gerber Bedding tucked away a 6-2 win over Growtha. Refael Rosenberg’s defense was bright as Bright Futures shone in a 7-2 victory over Smash House. Eliyahu Dancykier’s one-handed shot was a posh move, leading Posh Home + Bath to a 3-1 win over SR Whee. Sammy Hofstatter was the central figure for 5 Towns Central, netting 3 goals and making 2 crucial blocks in a 5-2 win over 5 Towns Landscaping. SR Whee’s Mo Platschek had two key stops as goalie, while Yaakov Gross fortified the defense, and Judah Stark’s offensive charge was noteworthy.

K/P Soccer: Eliyahu Frisch’s careful goalkeeping secured the victory as Future Care Consultants outplayed Hewlett Auto Body 8-4. Moshe Obadia was a maiden force to reckon with, scoring 5 goals as Maidenbaum triumphed 8-1 over Better Image Contracting. Asher Brill was just brilliant, scoring 7 goals in his team’s emphatic win.

Football: What a thriller. Tikva Fire was blazing ahead with 5 minutes to go, but Beautox_al came back and tied it up with just 30 seconds left. MVP Aryeh Wechter scored 4 touchdowns and blocked 3 passes for Tikva Fire in the 28-28 tie. Jacob Herman’s full-court touchdown was dental perfection as Newman Dental polished off Rides to Fly in an 8-5 win.

Hockey

1st: Reuven Polinsky’s defense was appliance-like—steady and strong—as Town Appliance clinched a 6-4 win over Simcha Day Camp. Mordechai Benzaquen’s buzzer-beater was seasondefining as Seasons Express delivered a 7-6 victory over Wolf Phone Repairs. Shua Badian’s wraparound goal was just what PlumbPro needed to flush out a 4-3 win against John’s Automotive.

2nd/3rd: Dovid Krigsman put on a dental show, scoring 4 goals to give Newman Dentistry a 6-3 win over Maidenbaum. Asher Newman was built for it, scoring 3 goals to lead Built By Nate to a narrow 4-3 victory against SR Whee. Moshe Ettinger’s performance was entertainment at its best, as he had a great sliding save, helping S.I.N.G Entertainment beat Smash House 5-2. Yehuda Schwartz’s 4 goals framed the picture as The Gallery showcased an 11-6 win over PIP Printing.

4th/5th: Dovid Feigenbaum’s lastsecond goal was a bluebird of happiness for BlueBird Insurance as they flew past

Aleinu – The Power and the Pride

by Yisroel Besser

All the world’s inhabitants will recognize and know…

The Mishnah (Avos 4:4) says that when it comes to the aveirah of chillul Hashem, a shogeig, one who sins inadvertently, is considered to be the same as a meizid, one who sins intentionally. Why should this be the case, in contrast to the rest of the Torah?

Rav Yitzchak Dovid Gutfarb would use a story to explain this, telling of a factory owner from Yerushalayim who dispatches a trusted employee to go pick up a new piece of equipment from the unloading docks in Haifa. The owner parts from his employee, wishing him a safe trip and telling him to send regards

Smash House 4-3. The goalie for Target Exterminating was as sharp as a tack, allowing just 1 goal in their 6-1 win over Marciano Pediatric Dentistry. Gavriel Levine’s pharmacy-fueled feed from the corner set Pinny Weinstein up for a goal as Russo’s Pharmacy filled their win column with an 11-1 victory over Town Appliance.

6th/8th: Yosef Bryks’ beautiful assist helped straighten out the offense as Wieder Orthodontics grinned their way to a 6-1 win over 925 Sterling. Extreme Vent Cleaning made a dramatic comeback from 4 down, as they tied Tikva Fire 6-6 in an exciting finish. A backand-forth battle saw NY Custom Closets and Seasons share the spoils, 2-2, with Yaakov Kopelowitz netting the equalizer with 2 minutes to go.

Basketball

3rd/4th: Josh Kohn’s late shot tied the game 6-6 between Marciano Pediatric Dentistry and Better Image Contracting. Eliyahu Kornbluh’s Russo-worthy stepthrough layup sealed an 18-8 victory for Russo’s Pharmacy over John’s Automotive.

5th-7th: Lazer Roberts was producing in all areas, securing a double-double with 20 rebounds as Sperling Production beat Tiffany Dry Cleaners 25-17. A smash hit deep shot tied the game 10-10 between DJ_CP and Smash House in a high-flying contest.

Men’s Basketball

It was opening night of the Men’s

basketball fall season this week, and the competition was on fire. Yoni Bobker was automatic from midrange, scoring over 30, leading Town Appliance to a triple digit score on offense as they easily defeated Rides to Fly. Ikey Cohen drained 4 from downtown in the 2nd half but it was not nearly enough as Yitzi Wieder and Jeremy Brody overpowered Future Care Consultants 71-54.

Game of the Week In 3rd/4th Basketball, Posh Home + Bath found themselves trailing by 1 point with just 9 seconds left on the clock. As the tension mounted, Josh Feldman took control, dribbling into position and launching a perfectly posh floater. The ball sailed through the air and sank into the net, clinching a dramatic 19-18 victory over Wieder Orthodontics.

to his cousin who lives in Haifa.

The employee sets off, spending his day in the coastal city. The next morning, he returns to work and the boss eagerly asks where the new item is. The employee explains that he didn’t get to pick it up from the dock because he got busy enjoying the sights while in Haifa.

“But don’t worry,” he says brightly, “I did get to give over regards to your cousin, so the trip was a success!”

The factory owner is incensed. “The purpose of your trip to Haifa was to pick up the equipment, and the regards to my cousin was just an afterthought, because you were going there anyhow,” he tells his foolish employee. “Had you come back with the equipment and forgotten to give the regards, that would have been fine, but to come back with just

the regards, is to have totally missed the point!”

A person comes into this world for a purpose: to bring honor and glory to Hashem’s Name. That is the point of the mission, as the pasuk says: “Kol hanikrah vishmi vilichvodi birasiv yitzartiv af asisiv — Everyone who is called by My Name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have fashioned, even perfected” (Yeshayah 43:7).

To be in this world and use that opportunity to desecrate the Name of Hashem, even if it was b’shogeig, inadvertent, defeats the very purpose of Creation.

A Yid lives with a mission at every moment of every day, and that is to proclaim, with his every action, that there is a Creator in the world.

Reprinted from Aleinu – The Power and the Pride by Yisroel Besser with permission from the copyright holder, ArtScroll Mesorah Publications.

TJH Centerfold

International Customs Cheat Sheet

Here’s a list of various customs from countries around the world, just in case you find yourself and your blue hat on a UN peacekeeping mission there.

Japan: Do not use chopsticks to point at something and don’t stab your sushi with them. I guess in the U.S. we are not cool with people using their spaghetti fork to point at things either, so not so strange.

Greece: When a child loses a tooth, they throw it on the roof. Must really make the tooth fairy’s life difficult.

them. Making slurping sounds when eating noodles in the USA is a way of indicating that you’re enjoying them, too, but you still shouldn’t do it because it’s annoying as anything!

Russia: Do not give someone yellow flowers in this country, as they are associated with ending relationships. Isn’t that what vodka is for?

Norway: Use a knife and fork, even when eating a sandwich. No wonder people from Norway are so serious.

China: When giving a gift, make sure that it does not contain the colors white or black, as they are associated with death and funerals. And, make sure you didn’t buy it on Alibaba, because they will know it’s junk.

Thailand: If it’s November and you see platters of fresh fruit, cakes and candy on top of tables that line the streets, don’t eat any. It is for the local monkeys to feast on, in a feast called the Monkey Buffet Festival. Wow, real creative with the festival name.

China: Making slurping sounds when eating noodles in China is a way of indicating that you’re really enjoying

You Gotta Be Kidding Me!

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman are drinking in a bar. A fly lands in the Englishman’s pint. The Englishman is incensed and pushes his beer away and orders another.

South Korea: Do not write someone a note with a red pen, as red pens were used to list the names of those who had died. Red pens scare me too… Every test I ever took came back with a whole lot of red pen.

Nicaragua: It is common to point with the lips instead of the thumb or index finger like the majority of the world. I guess there is a point to pucker face after all.

Spain: If you are in the town of Bunol and you suddenly find people throwing tomatoes at you, you may have simply stepped into the world’s biggest tomato fight which takes place there the last Wednesday of August. If it’s not the last Wednesday of August, well, then, it may just be something you said.

A fly lands in the Scotsman’s pint. The Scotsman looks at the fly, shrugs, and just drinks the fly down.

A fly lands in the Irishman’s pint. The Irishman is furious. He picks out the fly, and violently shakes the fly over his pint glass while screaming, “Spit it out, you dumb fly!”

Match the Country to the Fact

1. This country has been named the world’s happiest country for the past seven years by the World Happiness Report.

2. It is the only country in the world to have a bill of rights for cows.

3. This country has the world’s longest railway, spanning over 9,000 km.

4. The official national animal of this country is a unicorn.

5. This country has the oldest known flag still in use.

6. This country is home to the most overweight people in the world.

7. The national symbol of this country is a cedar tree.

India

Canada

8. This country is home to the oldest university in the world, dating back to 859 AD.

9. This country has the most lakes in the world.

10. This country has a city with the longest name of any city in the world.

Russia

Morocco

Scotland

New

Finland

Lebanon

Denmark

Answers:

1. Finland - Why are they so happy? According to the report, among other things, there is hardly any crime or government corruption. (Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.)

2. India – There is actually a Bill of Rights for cows. (After all, cows are people too! Just ask PETA.)

3. Russia – The Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok is 5,771 miles, making it the longest train ride in the world (and the smelliest too!).

4. Scotland – Its national animal is a unicorn. (I guess when you’re drunk all day, what difference does it make what your national animal is.)

5. Denmark – It has the oldest flag in use. (Gotta be good for something!)

6. Nauru- 95% of the population of this small island nation is overweight. (We can get Ozempic to you guys by boat, if you want.)

7. Lebanon – Their national symbol is the cedar tree (Uh, actually, it’s exploding beepers now! Beep…beep…bye-bye!)

8. Morocco – This country is home to the oldest university, Al-Qarawiyyin. (Also home to the university that you can’t pronounce.)

9. Canada - Our northern neighbor has more than 2 million lakes. (That’s a lot of Cut-tages.)

10. New Zealand - There’s a city called Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamatea turipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu. (There’s no way I can spell that backwards!)

Wisdom key:

7-10 correct: You must have gone to Al-Qarawiyyin University, which is why you hang out at Hachaim V’Hashalom all day!

3-6 correct: The toxins from the Trans-Siberian Railway may have burnt some of our brain cells.

0-2 correct: You are traumatized by knowledge. Did your teacher force you to remember the spelling of Taumatawhakatangi hangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga horonukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu?

Torah Thought

Parshas Nitzavim-Vayelech

By Rabbi Berel Wein

The Torah reading for this week is a fitting conclusion to the year that is about to depart from us. At the end of his long life and after decades of service to the Jewish people, Moshe renews the covenant between G-d and the people of Israel. He makes clear to the new generation of Jews standing before him, a generation that was not part of the experience of Egypt nor present at the moment of revelation at Sinai, that

the original covenant between G-d and the Jewish people remains in force –and he states that it will continue to be so throughout the Jewish future. The covenant cannot be repealed, altered or ignored. It is the basis for all Jewish life, and it is the leitmotif of all of Jewish history.

Moshe admits that there will be events and occurrences in the story of the Jewish people that will be cruel, in-

explicable and irrational. As he phrases it, there will be many “hidden, mysterious” events that the Jewish people will have to experience.

He offers no easy explanation to those events except to say that somehow they are related to the attempts of sections of the Jewish people to annul the covenant and its resultant consequences. The “hidden” part of the covenant belongs to G-d. The revealed part of the covenant – the obligations of Torah commandments and Jewish life – belongs to

The covenant has remained the rock of Jewish identity over all of the ages. Just the knowledge of its existence has created a stubborn Jewish people – with a resolve to maintain its faith and lifestyle though a very small minority in a world of many billions. The Torah itself is the very essence of this covenant. It details its terms and conditions, and its study helps formulate the life that Jews are expected to live. That is why the Torah demands that we study and are aware of this covenant morning and night, traveling, at home, in

It is the basis for all Jewish life, and it is the leitmotif of all of Jewish history.

the Jewish people and are relevant in all their generations and locales. The Jewish people and the Jewish State will always be judged through its relationship to this eternal covenant.

The existence of the covenant has caused us much pain and angst throughout the centuries. The other nations of the world harbor resentment against us because of the uniqueness of our relationship to the Creator of all, as exemplified by this covenant. Many Jewish thinkers have attributed anti-Semitism, in all of its virulent and even more benign forms, to a jealousy over the existence of G-d’s covenant with the Jewish people.

all times and places.

There were, and unfortunately still are, those amongst us who wish to discard the covenant and its obligations and merely to blend in with the surrounding general society. The L-rd, so to speak, has warned us many times that He would not allow this to occur. All of Jewish history teaches us regarding the strength and eternity of this great covenant. In the year that is now dawning upon us, we should all resolutely renew the covenant in our hearts, minds and actions, in order to be blessed with a year of health, success and serenity.

Shabbat shalom.

The Torah (Devarim 30:11-14) tells us, “For this mitzvah which I command you today is not concealed for you, nor is it distant. It is not in Heaven that you should say, ‘Who will go up to Heaven for us and take it for us that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it on the other side of the ocean... For the matter is very close to you in your mouth and in your heart to do it.”

When the pasuk says “this mitzvah,” which mitzvah is it referring to?

According to Rashi, the Ohr Hachaim, and others, this refers to all the mitzvos of the Torah. According to this, the Torah is telling us that all of Yiddishkeit, all of Torah and mitzvos, is attainable and within our grasp. According to the Ramban, however, because it says “this mitzvah,” it seems to refer to one specific mitzvah rather than mitzvos generally, so he explains that it refers to the mitzvah of teshuva. But even according to the Ramban, teshuva also means a return to the totality of Torah, to all of Yiddishkeit, not just one mitzvah.

In any case, the Torah seems to take a person’s initial feeling that true attainment of Torah is impossible seriously. Rather than dismissing the false feeling that the Torah’s demands of a person are too difficult to fulfill, the Torah expends several pesukim addressing this misimpression head-on.

Rav Leib Chasmin, zt”l, one of the great baalei mussar, asks a serious question on these pesukim. Anyone who has studied Gemara is familiar with the concepts of “hava amina” and “maskana.” A “hava amina” is an explanation or opinion which is considered but ultimately

From the Fire

Parshas Nitzavim-Vayelech A Backstage Pass to Divine Service

By Rav Moshe Weinberger

Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

rejected by the Gemara. The “maskana” is the Gemara’s ultimate conclusion. Usually, the hava amina has some relationship to the maskana and is not completely off-base.

For instance, if one person says that flights from New York to Los Angeles last six and a half to seven hours, but someone who has actually taken the flight corrects him and says that the flight lasts only six hours, this is a good example of a hava amina and a maskana. The hava amina is not totally off-base, but shares some resemblance to the maskana. In contrast, it would be absurd if someone had a hava amina that the flight lasts only five minutes. Such a thought is not even worthy of being considered as a viable hava amina In fact, the Gemara and later commentaries often go to great lengths to understand the basis of each hava amina of the Gemara notwithstanding the fact that it is ultimately rejected. The two are usually

someone close to one another.

Rav Chasmin asks why the hava amina and maskana of the pesukim seem to have absolutely no relationship to one another here. The hava amina is that Torah and mitvos are virtually impossible to attain. But the maskana is that, in fact, they are easy, a cinch. Why would the Torah take our natural, basic tendency to see Torah and mitzvos demanding and nearly impossible to truly attain seriously if such an impression is completely and totally off-base?

Rav Chasmin offers an incredibly deep explanation. He explains that there are two perspectives: the view of the outsider and the view of the insider. The outsider’s perspective is the view of one who, even if he is religious, has not yet entered into the world of serving G-d. We can understand this by considering someone who is not Jewish and cannot fathom how a person can go 24 hours

without watching TV, checking his email, going on the Internet, or driving in a car. Such a life seems impossible, intolerable. But that is only because he is an outsider. For us, who are insiders and experience Shabbos every week, we cannot imagine life without Shabbos. Rather than seeing Shabbos as an impossibility, we recognize that it is the source of life and is therefore a cinch to keep.

The Torah’s recognition of our hava amina is addressing the perspective of the body, our physical nature which is not yet initiated into the world of G-dliness. From that outsider’s perspective, Torah and mitzvos seem impossible, distant, and out-of-reach. Yet the Torah’s maskana is that Hashem invites us to come inside, to try out Torah and mitzvos from an insider’s perspective. When we do that, we will see that our previous perspective, the perspective of the body, was totally off-base.

I have spoken with a number of people who have told me, “I cannot get up early in the morning to learn before davening. I must not one of those people. It’s too hard.” The truth is that they only say this because they’re looking at Torah and mitzvos from an outsider’s perspective. If these people would just try it out for a few days, their neshamos would receive such nourishment from the experience that they would experience a jolt of energy and begin to wonder how anyone could live without starting their day with Torah. Those who do this know that when a person starts his day with learning instead of going straight to work, his whole day is different. This is the perspective of an insider.

So Hashem is inviting us in and telling us, “Precious children, do not remain outside. Come in and taste the sweetness of Torah. The truth is that when you know what it is, it’s not an impossible mountain to scale. It’s a cinch, and you will wonder how you ever lived without it.” How is He able to tell us this? Because He knows us better than anyone else.

Many of us have heard our children tell us that they cannot do something we expect of them. But because we know our children and their potential better than they know it themselves, we can tell them that we know they can do it, that they are entirely capable, and that it is a cinch if they would just come inside and see themselves as capable and worthy. Similarly, Hashem knows us better than anyone else and recognizes that we are ready and able to enter into His service as soon as we muster up the strength to see ourselves as insiders and walk into the world of Divine service.

It is only the outsider who says, as Bilaam did (Bamidbar 24:17), “I see it, but it is not close.” He can see G-dliness and the ultimate redemption, but they seem so far away. This is only because he is looking in from the outside. The Jewish people, on the other hand, say, as Yeshaya

Hanavi did (Yeshaya 56:1), “For My salvation is near to come and My goodness to be revealed.” We recognize that even the ultimate redemption is not some far-off ideal, but an imminent revelation worth hoping and davening for.

Our job in educating our children is to show them the excitement of Yiddishkeit so that they will realize that Hashem, Torah, and mitzvos are already in their

eling to New York, they told him he should go to Broadway to see the show “South Pacific.” When he came to New York, he went to Broadway to the theater and tried to buy a ticket to the show. But the box office staff told him that the show for that night was sold out. He could buy tickets for two months in the future but there were no more seats for that night. He tried explaining that he was an important

Hashem invites us to come inside, to try out Torah and mitzvos from an insider’s perspective.

minds and hearts. They will realize that they are insiders with backstage passes to a world of G-dliness.

Rav Shlomo Freifeld, zt”l, the rosh yeshiva of Shor Yoshuv in Far Rockaway, NY, who I was zocheh to be close to, once related that he met a Jew from Tulsa, Oklahoma. This Jew told Rav Freifeld that when his friends heard he was trav-

person in his industry, but it was no use. Rav Freifeld related that the man told him that he came up with an idea. He came back to the theater later that night and asked one of the people coming out of the show for their ticket stub. That way, he could show the stub to his friends back in Tulsa and they would think that he had seen “South Pacific” on Broadway.

What a foolish concept! Rav Friefeld warned the listeners not to be like this person, never going inside but carrying the trappings of Yiddishkeit around with us as if to say, “Look, I put on tefillin this morning. I finished the daf today. I davened Shacharis, Mincha, and Maariv today. I must be an insider,” when we have never experienced the inside of the service of G-d. Hashem calls out to us, “The matter is very close to you! In your mouth and in your heart to do it!” A person doesn’t need to look in from the outside. All we need to do is serve Hashem in truth and we will see that it is not as impossible it is seems from the body’s perspective. We will see that we already have it within us to come inside and live Torah and mitzvos with vitality because we were born to do it.

May Hashem bless all of us that we should enter into the world of the service of Hashem as insiders and recognize that Torah, rather than being impossible, is the most natural thing in the world.

Rav Moshe Weinberger, shlita, is the founding Morah d’Asrah of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY, and serves as leader of the new mechina Emek HaMelech.

Think. Feel.Grow.

The Three Stages of Teshuvah

By Rabbi Shmuel Reichman

The second Daniel woke up, he knew something was wrong. He felt perfectly fine, but he had no memory of who he was. After searching his house, the only useful thing he could find was a book that he seemed to have written. It contained a list of instructions, explaining his life’s story and how he suffers from a form of amnesia, sometimes forgetting who he is. He had written this book as a guide for him in these situations.

As he continues reading through the book, he realizes that it also includes a detailed philosophy of life, a deep spiritual perspective of the world, and an emphasis on living with a mission-centered focus. The book instructs him to seek out a specific mentor, and when he does so, the mentor takes Daniel under his wing and agrees to teach him the true path to greatness. Daniel has an incredible desire to grow and improve, and although he finds the learning difficult, he enjoys the challenge.

As Daniel goes through life, he faces a number of challenges: financial difficulties, relationship struggles, and some health battles. However, the principles in the book and his mentor’s guidance help prepare Daniel for these challenges. He faces each one head-on, always battling through and never giving up. Most of all, they help Daniel deal with his arch-nemesis, Aaron. It appeared as though Aaron’s mission in life was to crush Daniel’s dreams and thwart his every goal. For every step forward Daniel takes, Aaron is always there to challenge him, attempting to push him two steps back. But Daniel never gives up, always managing to push past his challenges. Even when Daniel has a minor setback, he always manages to pick himself back up, re-harness his willpower, and keep pushing forward.

After a lifetime of growing, learning, and contributing to the world, Daniel is now a nearly perfect being. One day, just after waking up, the entire world disap -

pears from under him and Daniel finds himself in another dimension, standing face to face with…himself.

“I’m sure you are confused,” the other Daniel says, “but I will explain everything. I am the real Daniel, or at the very least, the original Daniel. I was created perfect. Everything in my life was easy, clear, and perfect. But at the end of my life, I felt that something was missing. I suddenly realized that I didn’t want to be perfect, I wanted to become perfect. I therefore devised a plan.

“I created a younger version of myself without any memory of who he was. I then created a perfect arch-nemesis who would challenge him, thereby pushing him to grow. This arch-nemesis would develop along with him, continuing to counter and challenge him as he evolved and grew. But I did not leave Daniel to fend for himself; I created a book of instructions that would guide Daniel back to perfection.

“You, Daniel, are a part of me. Therefore, through your journey, a part of me gets to experience the process of becoming perfect.

“You have just finished your journey; you have reached a perfect state. Now, you

A New Year

The birth of a new year is a time of reflection and resolution; a time when hope and inspiration fill the air. We dream about what this upcoming year holds in store; how we can make the rest of our life the best of our life. We all have ideas, ambitions, and aspirations that we yearn to bring to fruition, and the new year gives us “permission” to revisit these goals and breathe new life into them. For a brief moment, everything is crystal clear; we see our purpose and our path with vivid clarity. However, there is an underlying frustration that accompanies this time period as well. If we reflect honestly, we often realize that our new year’s resolutions are awfully similar to those of last year, and the year before, and the year before…

We have brief moments of inspiration, but they soon fade into oblivion, only to be resuscitated for a few more days the next year in the hopes that somehow this year might be different. However, there is another option, a way to actually make this year different. By truly understanding this time of year and fully tapping into

its powerful themes, we can turn what was previously fleeting inspiration into lasting, eternal change.

The Deeper Themes of Teshuvah

Elul and Rosh Hashanah center around the concept of teshuvah, and Parshas Nitzavim is clearly linked to this theme as well. The pesukim in Nitzavim discuss the theme of teshuvah, the importance of choosing life – choosing what is right and connecting ourselves back to Hashem (see the first pesukim of perek 30 in Sefer Devarim). As Parshas Nitzavim is connected to the transition from Elul into Rosh Hashanah, let us delve deeper into the concept of teshuvah. Teshuvah literally means “return,” but whom, or perhaps what, are we returning to? The Gemara (Kiddushin 39b) explains that Hashem created teshuvah before creating the world itself. What is the meaning of this enigmatic statement, and what lessons and implications does it have for us as we proceed through the teshuvah process?

The Rambam (Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Teshuvah 1:1) discusses the threestep process of teshuvah:

• First, one must reflect on their past and acknowledge that a problem exists.

• One must then transition into the present and strongly feel the pain of their mistake, regretting it wholeheartedly.

• Finally, one must look toward the future and resolve to never again commit this same mistake.

This three-step guide is the practical process of teshuvah. However, there is a deeper essence of teshuvah that is the foundation for these three steps, and understanding this deeper essence is the key to truly transforming ourselves through these three steps.

Returning to Your Higher Self Genuine teshuvah is not just about

get to enjoy the perfection you’ve built.”

self-transformation; it’s about self-expression, returning to your true and higher self. As we previously stated, the Gemara (Niddah 30b) explains that while we were in the womb, we were in a perfect and transcendent state of being, and a malach taught us kol haTorah kulah. As the Vilna Gaon explains, this refers to the deepest realms of Torah, a transcendent Torah that lies far beyond this world, beyond the confines of space and time. (Quoted in Maalos HaTorah by Rabbeinu Avraham, brother of the Vilna Gaon. See also Even Sheleimah 8:24.) This Torah is the very root of reality, and you were granted complete understanding of its every detail. Not only were you shown this level of Torah, but you also learned your specific share of Torah; you were shown your unique purpose in the world and how your unique role fits into the larger scheme of the human story as a whole. You were given a taste of your own perfection, of what you could, should, and hopefully will become. And from this transcendent realm, you were birthed into the physical world with the mission to actualize everything you were shown in the womb while in your primordial, perfect state.

In essence, your job in this world is not to create yourself, but rather to recreate yourself — to re-attain your original state of perfection, as you were shown by the malach. This time, however, it must be done through free will — by choosing to become great. Only by overcoming challenge and difficulty and only by asserting your willpower can you fulfill your true potential. In essence, our entire life is a story of teshuvah – returning to our original, higher, and true self.

The shofar is a wake-up blast, meant to shake us from our stupor and return us to our true self. When we hear the shofar’s piercing cry, we yearn to return to our source, to our higher selves. The word “shofar ” shares a root with “le’shaper,” to perfect and beautify. Strikingly, it also shares a root with “mei shafir,” the amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus while in the womb. When we blow the shofar, we are reminded to improve and perfect ourselves, to return to the fetal state of perfection we once knew, and to return to our true selves.

The

Three Stages of Teshuvah

There are three stages of genuine teshuvah:

• The first is individual teshuvah,

where we return to our higher selves, our fetal selves, our true selves.

• The second stage of teshuvah goes beyond the limited self, turning the focus from individual to community.

The third stage of teshuvah is returning to our absolute root and source, to the Source of all sources, to Hashem Himself.

Communal Teshuvah

The Rambam, in discussing the laws of teshuvah, states that someone

The Third Stage of Teshuvah

The third stage of teshuvah is returning to our absolute root and source, to the Source of all sources, to Hashem Himself. The Nefesh Hachaim refers to Hashem as the “neshamah shel neshamos” (the Soul of all souls). Hashem is the root of existence, the absolute root of all our souls. Our journey through life is about sourcing our existence back to Hashem; this is the ultimate teshuvah.

We can now explain the Gemara that states that teshuvah preceded creation

Our entire life is a story of teshuvah –returning to our original, higher, and true self.

who removes himself from the Jewish community has no share in Olam Haba ( Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Teshuvah 3:11). In other words, even if this person keeps all of Torah and mitzvos and is an upstanding Jew, if he disconnects himself from the community, he loses his eternal existence. This requires explanation. After all, this person didn’t commit a heinous or evil act; he merely chose a life of isolation. Why should this warrant such extreme punishment?

The answer is profound. As human beings, we begin our lives as completely self-centered creatures, perceiving ourselves as isolated, separate, and disconnected from everyone else. As we progress through life, we learn to break down those walls and psychological barriers, recognizing that we are part of a bigger self, a collective self, and a higher consciousness. At root, all of Klal Yisrael is one, an interconnected self. Each of our individual neshamos are part of a greater whole, like individual cells that make up a single human body. A central aspect of Olam Haba is experiencing yourself as part of Klal Yisrael, as part of a greater collective reality. If, however, one disconnects themselves from Klal Yisrael, they have uprooted themselves from reality. Just as unplugging a light bulb from its electrical circuit extinguishes its light, a soul simply cannot exist when disconnected from its root. This is not a punishment, but merely a consequence.

This is the second stage of teshuvah: returning to our collective self, to the single soul of Klal Yisrael.

(Kiddushin 39b.). This is not merely a chronological description; it is a fundamental principle: Teshuvah is the root of this world. All of existence is created with the purpose of returning to its source, to fully reflect its absolute root – Hashem. May we be inspired to fully actualize

all three stages of teshuvah this Rosh Hashanah and seal ourselves in the Book of Life, the book of true existence.

Rabbi Shmuel Reichman is the author of the bestselling book, “The Journey to Your Ultimate Self,” which serves as an inspiring gateway into deeper Jewish thought. He is an educator and speaker who has lectured internationally on topics of Torah thought, Jewish medical ethics, psychology, and leadership. He is also the founder and CEO of Self-Mastery Academy, the transformative online self-development course based on the principles of high-performance psychology and Torah.

After obtaining his BA from Yeshiva University, he received Semicha from Yeshiva University’s RIETS, a master’s degree in education from Azrieli Graduate School, and a master’s degree in Jewish Thought from Bernard Revel Graduate School. He then spent a year studying at Harvard as an Ivy Plus Scholar. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife and son where he is pursuing a PhD at the University of Chicago.

To invite Rabbi Reichman to speak in your community or to enjoy more of his deep and inspiring content, visit his website: ShmuelReichman.com.

Delving into the Daf

What’s in a Name?

By Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

The Gemara in Bava Basra 91a provides material for some good trivia questions. What was the name of Avraham Avinu’s mother? What was the name of Dovid HaMelech’s mother? Which famous biblical personality has a sister whose name we know but is not mentioned anywhere in Tanach?

The Talmud states: “Rav Chanan bar Rava further stated in the name of Rav: The name of Avraham’s mother was Amasla’i, the daughter of Karnevo; the name of Haman’s mother was Amasla’i, the daughter of Orvasi…. The mother of Dovid was named Nitzevess, the daughter of Ada’el. The mother of Shimshon was named Tzelelponis, and his sister, Nashyan. In what respect does this matter? In respect of a reply to the heretics.”

The Shevet Mussar writes that Nimrod saw through astrology that a male child would be born who would rebel against him and his religion. He therefore decreed that all boys born at that time should be killed. Avraham Avinu’s mother had a boy and successfully hid him. As a token of gratitude for her actions, her name is mentioned in the Gemara. It is well known in some circles that uttering the name of Avraham Avinu’s mother is a segulah when standing in front of a judge or office for any type of determination. This segulah is based on the Chida.

The Gemara ends the discussion of names by raising a question of why this matters. The Gemara answers: “In respect of a reply to the heretics.” The Rashbam clearly understood the question and answer to be regarding all the names. Heretics will ask us if we know those particular names – and we will

have an answer. This is especially true regarding the mother of Shimshon, who is regarded by many heretics as a prophetess. However, the Maharsha points out that no heretic would ever ask the name of Shimshon’s sister. She is not mentioned anywhere in Tanach. Why, then, does the Gemara mention her name?

Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, zt”l , said the name was mentioned as an answer to the heretics. Someday, someone will suggest that it’s possible to have a baby without any father. They will cite this story of Shimshon as a proof. An angel speaks to Shimshon’s mother, and she

life-changing. This was not a one-day affair but lasted an entire week. At any rate, all the students were glad to be listening to entertaining speeches about Yiddishkeit rather than performing mundane classwork.

When the discussion turned to other religions, a presenter posed the following question: If a “savior” is born without a physical father, how could he be descended, generation after generation, from King David? It seems to be in conflict with the idea that their savior had no biological father, especially since one of the books in the “New Testament” states that their savior’s father

Where does one turn to on such matters?

He wrote to the pope and asked him directly!

later becomes pregnant. In turn, we will cite the Midrash (Parshas Naso) that the angel told her that she would have a baby together with her husband. And as further proof that the couple was not in fact sterile, we will cite this Gemara that says Shimshon had a sister. The heretic may choose to believe what he believes, but the Gemara was making clear that Shimshon had a biological mother and father.

Years ago, Mesivta Chofetz Chaim brought in the famed Arachim seminar (like the Discovery Program), at that time led by Rav Shaya Cohen, shlita, to speak to the 11th- and 12th-grade talmidim. It was inspiring, informative, and

The letter that Rabbi Kelemen received from the Vatican

was Joseph. Despite this discrepancy, their standard answer is that the savior adopted the tribe of his adoptive father.

Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen sought to find the official response to this question and others. This question was the third one he asked. Where does one turn to on such matters? He wrote to the pope and asked him directly! The Vatican duly responded in December 1995. They told him to write to the French Dominican Fathers’ Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem. Undeterred, Rabbi Kelemen proceeded to do so. In January 1996, he received a reply that he should look in the books authored by Raymond Brown. He next wrote to Raymond Brown, who basically

told him to just get his book. His books have “Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur” approvals, which are official declarations that the book is free of doctrinal or moral error. (The letters from the book Permission to Receive are printed here with the permission of Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen.)

The final answer? An admission that the concept of the fatherless baby was invented. Faced with a choice of admitting to an inappropriate relationship or inventing a “miraculous” birth, their religion chose the latter. (The Rambam, in fact, writes that Miriam was married to Fuhpoos, son of Yehuda, and she had a relationship with a non-Jew.) Some would view their savior’s status as a mamzer favorably, demonstrating that one could rise up against all challenges, even an ignoble birth. Yet for the masses, it was preferred to create the idea of a miraculous birth to make their savior more palatable.

Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow is a rebbe at Yeshiva Ateres Shimon in Far Rockaway. In addition, Rabbi Sebrow leads a daf yomi chaburah at Eitz Chayim of Dogwood Park in West Hempstead, NY. He can be contacted at ASebrow@gmail.com.

Headlines Halacha

The Halachic Obligation For Those in Israel to Visit the Website, “FVAP.Gov”

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Is this headline true? Is there actually a halachic obligation to visit FVAP. gov? Would Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, the Steipler Gaon, zt”l, the Slonimer Rebbe, zt”l and the Vizhnitzer Rebbe really say that this is a halachic obligation?

Well, let’s list two qualifications:

1) It particularly applies to American citizens over 18 studying or living in Eretz Yisroel. But it does include seminary girls and yeshiva bochurim.

2) There is an alternative to FVAP.gov, and that is visiting the OU Israel Center in Jerusalem. They will provide overseas voters all the tools and information needed so they can vote in the upcoming election. In the past, these absentee ballots made a difference.

The OU-Israel Office is located at 22 Rechov Keren Hayesod (between Sokolov Street and Mendel Mocher Seforim Street). They can also visit: https:// www.ou.org/votefromabroad.

The Obligation

Is there an actual halachic obligation to vote?

The short answer is yes.

Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, discusses

the obligation to vote in an English letter and finds the source of such an obligation in the notion of hakaras hatov expressing our gratitude. In 1984, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York was conducting a voter registration campaign. Rav Moshe Feinstein was approached and responded that, in fact, Jews should vote.

Subsequently, a letter was released signed by Rav Feinstein delineating the obligation to vote. The letter stated:

“On reaching the shores of the United States, Jews found a safe haven. The rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights have allowed us the freedom to practice our religion without interference and to live in this republic in safety.

“A fundamental principle of Judaism is hakaras hatov — recognizing benefits afforded us and giving expression to our appreciation. Therefore, it is incumbent on each Jewish citizen to participate in the democratic system which guards the freedoms we enjoy. The most fundamental responsibility incumbent on each individual is to register and to vote.

“Therefore, I urge all members of the Jewish community to fulfill their obligations by registering as soon as possible,

and by voting. By this, we can express our appreciation and contribute to the continued security of our community.”

Rectifying An Urgent Matter

On the other hand, the Steipler Gaon, zt”l, seems to view the obligation of voting as a means of fulfilling the need to rectify an urgent matter. Indeed, he is cited in Orchos Rabbeinu p. 141 in Cheshvan of 5726, as even having permitted a mourner within the seven days of mourning to vote when the need to vote is urgent.

Respecting The View of the Gedolei Torah

The Slonimer Rebbe, zt”l, and others (see Bais Yaakov Yerichon L’Inyanei Chinuch 027-028 p. 30) have proposed an entirely different reason for the obligation. They write that the obligation to vote stems from the obligation to respect the view of gedolei Torah.

Strengthening Torah

The Vizhnitzer Rebbe writes that the obligation to vote in Israel stems from the obligation to strengthen Torah (Michtevei Kodesh #238).

Pikuach Nefesh

Is there perhaps an additional reason that applies this year, that it can save Jewish lives? This author thinks that it does. But remember, if you don’t register, you cannot vote.

In conclusion, there does seem to be a halachic obligation to vote either stemming from hakaras hatov, according to Rav Feinstein, zt”l; rectifying an urgent matter, according to the Steipler, zt”l; respecting the view of the gedolei Torah, according to the Slonimer Rebbe; and from the obligation of strengthening Torah, according to the Vizhnitzer Rebbe.

We also do not see any indication that the above reasons are mutually exclusive. In other words, there could very well be five different halachic reasons why those learning or living in Eretz Yisroel should register to vote and actually vote. This is our hishtadlus, according to the aforementioned gedolim.

This article should be viewed as a halachic discussion and not practical advice. The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@ gmail.com.

School of Thought

Ulpan

By Barbara Deutsch

We wanted to do what we thought would be a simple thing: subscribe to the weekend edition of The Jerusalem Post. I searched online for the right link that would enable me to complete the form for subscription; there were numerous options to explore. All of them turned out to be dead ends.

Even the listed phone numbers were a bust.

I finally hit upon a link that proved promising; sadly, my success was shortlived. After filling in all of the necessary information to get the weekend edition delivered to my new home, a final step popped up; I was asked to pick a magazine as a bonus offer. After 20 futile minutes of trying to do just that – I was willing to subscribe to anything at that point to close the transaction – I gave up and tried one more time to call.

Keep in mind that this is The Jerusalem Post, an English language newspaper. The number connected, a first for me in Israel, but it rang and rang for a long while before someone finally picked up; we take joy in small victories wherever we can get them. “Shalom, this is the Jerusalem Post Company. How can I help you?”

I begin by thanking the woman for answering the phone, and I proceed to explain in English that I want to subscribe and have not been able to make any connection through the internet. I am met with deep silence followed by a heavy Hebrew/limited English response: “I don’t understand you, please, Hebrew.”

People who want to make aliyah take note, you will thank me for this hint: Never press the number that directs you to an English speaker. No Israeli office worker will pick up when that button lights up; plus, there is maybe one person who actually speaks English well enough on staff.

I can do this, I think; I have two solid weeks of Ulpan Level Beit and a lifetime of exposure to Yeshivah education (the “h” is a shout out to the Yeshivah of Flatbush, where my kids and their friends actually did learn Hebrew) where I have worked as

an educational professional and studied as a young student, under my belt.

I proceed to explain as best I can that I am a recent oleh (my trump card), and I want to order a weekend subscription to the paper. The woman asks for my teudat zehut number; every Israeli has one and if you can’t remember/memorize the number or you don’t have your card with you at all times, you may as well move back to where you came from because you do not exist.

She also wanted my phone number; a story too sad to share before Shabbat.

“I don’t have a file for you!”

I respond that I am well aware, “I don’t know” is a response that I am fluent in all of the three languages I speak, some better than others.

Frustrated, the receptionist, who is by now wondering why she had the misfortune of answering the call, takes my phone number (best believe that doing that was also not as simple as needing a pen) with the promise that “someone” will call me back later that day when English speakers are available.

He called. We now may or may not have a host of papers: the weekend subscription, an easy Hebrew language edition and a monthly magazine about Jews who are not blessed to live here. Since it took me several attempts at spelling my difficult-for-everyone-to-spell English last name in both Hebrew and English and to additionally articulate letter by letter my email address (four times), I won’t believe it will actually arrive until I actually get the paper in my hands. He promised next week.

Then it’s chag.

This is exactly why I am in Ulpan. There is an ongoing machloket in the Anglo Israeli community as to the importance of learning Ivrit at all. Anglos of all stripes mix with each other in English-speaking social settings, live in Anglo heavy communities, and expect, right or wrong, for everyone to speak or at the very least understand English. Truth be told, most Anglos, myself included, sound like they are speaking English even while

trying to communicate in Hebrew.

Most Anglos’ grammar is pitiful. I will never ever understand the gender, male / female, designations for nouns. I have been told that some words are female and most are male. When in doubt, the word is male.

Ironically, there was a 50/50 split on whether I should stick with it or leave Ulpan when I asked last week.

When I started Esther Schoenfeld Yeshiva High School on the Lower East Side, an hour’s ride on a city bus from my home in East Flatbush, as a young teen, the powers that know these things put me in the Gimmel Class. I don’t test well, especially on standardized ones, so I was not surprised to be placed in a class that was well below my actual abilities.

The same thing has now happened with my level placement in Ulpan. The very kind and serious program director, Hadassa, listened to me talk in my broken grammar for about five minutes, asked me how many times a week I was willing to devote to sitting for 5 hours with a 20 minute recess break, and promptly placed me in Level Beit.

I was willing to devote, for what for me is torture, two times a week.

When I began my Level 3 high school journey, my teachers soon figured out that my “troublemaker self” was in the wrong class and my acting out behaviors were triggered by boredom. They recommended that I move “up.” Our eminent and very savvy principal, afraid of losing staff, convinced me to move to Level 2; Level 1 was filled with geniuses and the daughters of prominent Jewish leaders and rabbis, and the teacher only knew how to control compliant and studious students.

In the two weeks I spent in Level 2, it became clear to me that this level had some equally brilliant girls, 10 times the amount of homework, and morot who did not appreciate my charm or sense of humor.

I was out of there. I promised the Level 3 teacher I would do better and behave. Anyone who knows me from those high school days knows where my abilities as a

strong educational leader found its source.

As I figured myself out, I realized the huge mistake of my decision to give up on myself. Torah learning opportunities were lost; there never again will be a time where I would be able to study without responsibility to a family and a profession. There were serious scholars and brilliant teachers who taught at Esther Schoenfeld High School for Girls. I blew it.

That is why when we bumped into Hadassa of the Ulpan waiting for the bus, I took it as a sign to tell her that I needed to push myself harder and try my luck in Level Gimmel Ulpan If I was going to spend hours in a classroom, I might as well make the most of my time.

Someday, I may even get something of mine printed in The Jerusalem Post – in English or the easy-to-understand Hebrew edition? This kind of edition exists, and I can dream.

In the weeks and days before Rosh Hashana, we think and talk about accountability and forgiveness. I will never be able to make up for the time I have wasted, but I can do something with the time I have been gifted in this best place that I have ever lived.

Maybe Ulpan will grow on me. It’s only nine months till it’s over in June.

Barbara Deutsch is the former associate principal at HANC, middle school principal at Kushner, and Dean of Students at Yeshiva of Flatbush. A not-retired educator, she is trying to figure out life in Israel through reflections on navigating the dream of aliyah as a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend.

Finding the Light in the Darkness

TJH Speaks with Yair Agmon and Oriya Mevorach,

Authors of One Day in October

Yair, Oriya, your book is so moving and emotional and yet it is uplifting as well. How did you two come up with the idea for this book, and what compelled you to start working on it?

Oriya Mevorach: Right from the beginning, the Israeli media broadcast a lot of hero stories. We felt that it was a really smart decision for the Israeli society to focus on that because it really gave people a lot of comfort; it gave us some light in the middle of the darkness. A week after October 7, my manager Reuven suggested that we write a book with the hero stories.

So, I turned to Yair ,and I asked him if he could write the book, but he didn’t want to write it because he was really mentally broken. All of us in Israel were very broken. But after a while, he said, “OK, let’s try it.” And he sent his friend to interview Ofek Livni, one of the heroes, who saved ten people from the Nova Festival in his private car. Yair couldn’t do the interview, because he felt it would be too much for him, but he decided to work with the transcript. Once he got the transcript, he put a pile of tissues near his computer and said, “This is going to be an awful night. I’m going to cry the whole night.” But once he opened the transcript and started working on the book, he felt for the first time that he could breathe again. And then he gave me a call and said, “OK, let’s go. Let’s write the book.”

I wasn’t supposed to write the book. I was only supposed to be the editor – I’m the chief editor of Maggid Books Hebrew division – but after a month, Yair told me that there was too much work and that he needed a co-author. He asked me to be the co-author, and even before he finished the sentence, I said yes.

war started that I felt like there was hope. I was totally obsessed with the news and videos until then, but on that day, instead of spending my time watching horrible news, I spent my time with these heroes. And it seemed like with every hero story, it was like I was becoming healthier and healthier. It was like a cure, like medicine… News is a very dangerous thing. What I realized in the process of writing this book is that, when I stopped being obsessed with news, my mental health significantly improved.

I didn’t do the interviews in the beginning, because I couldn’t do them. But, at the end, I told Oriya that I wanted to interview someone, because it was like a process

We wanted to understand who they are. That was the goal. It’s more important to me that you remember the dynamic and the love between Netta Epstein and his fiancé – the story of their first date and so on – than for you to remember the horrible fact that he jumped on a grenade to save his fiancé’s life.

The center of the book is not the news or the history; it’s the people. And if you finish a story and you understand the essence of these people, we did our job. So, I think that’s what makes this book different. With this book, it’s about the people. You should love each of them. For me, they are not heroes. They are light. When I read the stories, I felt like, “Wow, thank you for being my light through this darkness.”

of healing, and I think people feel that in the book; they feel that these heroes, these people, are the answer for the deep depression that we felt after October 7.

In the beginning I didn’t want to touch the book, I didn’t want to get involved, but then I saw how powerful it was. Like, how do you feel when you read the book? It’s sad, I suppose you cry sometimes, but you also feel that it gives you strength. We’re still trying to understand the magic of this book, but it just gives people resilience.

Yair Agmon: I’m a documentary filmmaker in Israel. When the war started, I was at my home in Tel Aviv. I had two kids then, and now I have another baby. My wife was, at the time, four months pregnant. And when October 7 happened, I totally collapsed. Just, as a father, the idea of raising children in a place where people have kidnapped little kids – I got totally depressed, I wouldn’t go out of my room, I didn’t eat, day and night switched for me, and I became very stressed. During that time, people called me and asked me to document kibbutzim as a filmmaker, but I wasn’t in good shape. Oriya also called me, and I told her it wasn’t the time and that she had to find someone else. But she called me again and again until I decided to work on one story. And in working on that story, that was the first time since the

What I found amazing about your book was that it’s so emotional, and yet every story was so uplifting. At the beginning, you hear people talk about their lives before October 7, and then you speak about what happened on October 7, and then, those last few paragraphs always have an uplifting message. Did the interviewers specifically ask the people for an uplifting message or was that a spontaneous thing?

Oriya: At least in the interviews that I read through, none of the interviewees were asked to tell us something cheerful. That was never the question. Sometimes, the interviewer asked them, “What are you thinking about today?” But they weren’t led to give us hope or anything like that. It was pretty spontaneous.

Yair: It’s important to explain that these interviews were very long, sometimes three hours, sometimes more, and sometimes we did two interviews with the people because we were obsessed – not about these heroes’ stories; we were obsessed with the heroes themselves.

Oriya: I would add something that Yair told us when he guided us on how to interview the people and also on how to write the stories. He said that if you take a headline that tells the story of the hero and the story is “this guy saved his fiancé’s life by jumping on a grenade” – our emotions from reading the headline and article would likely be emotions of appreciation, adoration, and maybe gratitude, but we wouldn’t love him, because we don’t know him as a person. And that, in a way, is an act of erasing the humanity, erasing the person. Half of the heroes we wrote about are no longer with us, and a lot of the families who we interviewed told us, “We don’t want him to become a headline. We want him to still live on as a person.”

Yair also told us something that I originally didn’t understand: that all the interviewers need to get to such a level of intimacy and trust and honesty with the interviewees that we should be able to discuss the heroes’ weaknesses.

When you interview a mother or father about their son, whether he’s deceased or alive, and you ask them about their son’s weaknesses, what you get is compassion. Because when they speak about the weaknesses, it’s not like their teacher is speaking about them; it’s the person who loves them the most who’s talking about them. And it feels incredible; it feels really touching. I think that one of the really amazing achievements of the book is that it showcases that people are often complicated. It’s not like, “Oh my G-d, he was so amazing, he was friendly, everybody loved him.” Sometimes, there are heroes like that, but a lot of them are complicated and that makes you really identify and relate to them.

I noticed that a lot of people in the book, whether they were religious or not – and some of them weren’t even Jewish – mentioned G-d. What do you take from that?

Yair: First of all, you should know that Oriya and I are very different people. Oriya is charedi. She lives in the West Bank. And I am left-wing; I live in Tel Aviv. But we are very soft people. But I want to point out that we

are very different people with different points of view who wrote this book together.

Take, in the book, the story of the Sharabi brothers who were at Nova. They both grew up in ultra-Orthodox families, and they were not religious now. But when you read the interview with Daniel, every other sentence he mentions G-d. It’s in his mouth all the time. They recount a crazy scene, where they’re all in the tank and they’re hiding from the missiles and they’re all praying together.

Oriya: Daniel was the one who told us the story, even though it happened to his brother. He was so excited. They saw that G-d answered their prayer by sending them a rifle.

Yair: It seems like G-d “comes to visit” when horrible things happen, and people see that.

Yair, you mentioned that you are not religious, so I hope this question is not intrusive. When you read these stories of people speaking with G-d and G-d answering their prayers, do those

stories give you chizuk?

Yair: It gave me chizuk to see the goodness and the kindness in people in these times. Some people wanted to call the book “The Heroes Book.” But I said, they are not heroes. They are the light. They are good people. They are kind people. For me, this is a powerful influence. They were the light in the darkness. For me, it helped me to believe in the goodness found in people. And that was very important for me. Because I lost my faith in existing on that day of October 7.

I know this is a hard question to answer because it’s like answering which of your children you love best… But which story resonated the most with each of you? Which hero do you feel most connected to?

Oriya: I would choose Thomas and Emily Hand. I remember there was a video that went viral in Israel five days after October 7, where you see Emily’s father, Thomas, crying. He told the interviewer from CNN that he was grateful when he was told that Emily had passed

The Miracle of the Jar of Vaseline

Daniel and Neriya Sharabi’s Story

By Yair Agmon and Oriya Mevorach

Nova is an amazing festival; it’s just wild. I’ve never seen anything like it in this country: almost forty-five hundred people were there in a few different areas they laid out. The party was from Friday night to the next day, so tons of people slept over in the campgrounds so that they could get up and dance in the sunrise. To bring in the sun.

It’s Shabbat morning; we’re in the campground. The sun is just starting to rise, and we leave our tents. It was a crazy sunrise; I’ll never forget it. Okay, so we go to the dance floor; we’re dancing and feeling the joy when suddenly the music stops. We don’t really get what’s happening, then someone looks up and shouts, “Missiles!” And we see, we actually see the whole sky become grey and white, smoky, with actual explosions, and I begin to see the missiles going up from the direction of Gaza, and I see the whole sky filling up with streaks.

Then all the emergency exits were opened. I’ve never seen emergency exits opened before. We start making our way toward the emergency exits – me, Neriya, Shalev, Yosef, and Karin, and the booms don’t stop, they don’t stop, and we start moving faster and faster until we break into a run. And everyone around us is running like crazy; people start cutting in from the sides, cutting in from here, from there, and there’s this moment when we stop next to the security area, and I hear on the security guard’s radio: “They shot Hassan’s son! They shot Hassan’s son,” who’s one of the

away, because being kidnapped was worse than death. When I saw that video, it really broke my heart. I cried the entire night. But it turned out that Emily was actually alive [and was later released from Gaza].

I really fell in love with Emily. And then I met her, and I met Thomas, and I saw her dancing, and I took a picture with her. I can’t even explain it; the story is just amazing. It speaks about a father who is dealing with an unbearable dilemma.

Yair: There are many beautiful stories from the book that I love. I can point to the story with Camille, the worker from the Philippines. To me, what’s interesting about the story is that you have two women: one is young, healthy, and strong, and she saved the other one’s life. The other one, Nitza, was 95 years old and she didn’t fully understand what was going on. But, when I read the interview, it seemed to Camille as though Nitza had saved her. In the story, they had a crazy moment when Camille was having a panic attack, she was shaking for two hours, and Nitza was just hugging her. Who is the hero in that story? Who saved whom? To me, it

security guards. Then I understood that there’s shooting. That terrorists are here.

So we start running around, shouting, “There’s shooting, there’s gunfire! Run away, there are terrorists!” We keep running, and suddenly I hear a friend of mine from home, a good friend, calling me: “Daniel, come, come! Come here, we need a medic; someone’s been shot!” He knows that I was trained as a combat medic. So we run over with him, and he takes me to this girl who’s been shot, and there are two guys helping her, Ben and Itai. The wounded girl was lying under some car, and Ben and Itai are sitting with her, like, to calm her down, so I go up to them and say, “I’m a medic; I’m here to help!” And I see that she’s been shot three times, once in the thigh and twice in the back; it’s just insane.

I treat her with a tourniquet so that we can evacuate her; there’s an ambulance about seven hundred meters away. Someone brings us a stretcher, then we lift her up and start running with the stretcher – me, Yosef, Ben, Itai, Neriya, and Shalev – we run like crazy, and there’s shooting everywhere. We run toward the ambulance, and the girl is conscious the whole time, poor thing, and the stretcher’s bouncing because we’re running out of sync, and we’re telling her, “We’re almost at the ambulance.”

We see the ambulance and get to it – and it’s locked. There’s no one there, and it’s just locked.

So we’re like, Okay, we’ll take her to the control center. There was this medical control center at the festival, with a doctor and equipment and everything, but there was no way to take her there on the stretcher; we had no chance. And suddenly Bar shows up. Bar is one of the security guards there; he brings his golf-cart, and we lift her onto it and drive with him and drop her off at the control center. We wanted to go right back to where the party was, to bring more wounded people, when suddenly one of the cops starts shouting at us, “Terrorists! Terrorists!”

was so powerful.

That story is very famous in Israel: the worker who saved the old woman. That is the topic, but it wasn’t the story. The story was about two women who cared for each other so much, and they saved each other in the middle of the shoah that was happening outside of their house.

Oriya: Before Shavuot, Yair told me that Camille and Nitza were like Ruth and Naomi. Camille isn’t Jewish, but there’s something so Jewish, so Israeli, in her soul.

I noticed that, in the book, there weren’t any pictures of the people you wrote about. What was the thought process behind not including any photos?

Oriya: It was a dilemma, but at the end, we decided to include a QR code at the end of the book that you can scan, which will bring you to a website where you can see all the pictures.

We realized two things: First, if you include pictures, it becomes a memorial book. And we really didn’t want people to treat it as a book that they should just have on

the shelf as a reminder of what happened. And second, I feel that when you put pictures, it doesn’t allow the imagination to open; it closes the imagination. With this book, the magic is in the words; the words are the medium. I don’t think another medium, such as pictures, would have worked for the book.

Yair: This book isn’t a journalism or news project. It’s literature. You’re supposed to read it and get inspired as you climb from story to story. We felt that the words are the answer, because, in Israel, almost everyone knows the news and the stories, but yet, when you suddenly open the book, it’s a different experience.

How have you changed in the process of writing this book?

Yair: When I started working on the book, I was sad to be an Israeli and I thought that maybe it’s not a good idea to raise children here. And when I finished the book, when my baby was born, I was so happy to have the opportunity to raise my baby girl in this unbelievable country. When the State of Israel is under

and we see a pickup truck full of terrorists! And they start spraying bullets at us; it must be five hundred rounds a minute, and there’s nowhere to take cover so we start to run.

So we’re running, dodging between cars, and suddenly we see a car, a Kia Picanto, and hide behind it. But they saw us, they spotted us, so they are at the Kia, too, and we must, must run. So me and Neriya get up and run out of there, and I look back for a second and see Yosef standing there behind the Kia, and he’s looking right and left like he’s not sure what to do, and I shout to him, “Yosef, run for it! Run!” and then he ducks down behind the Kia, and boom! The Kia’s hit by an RPG.

Neriya says that that was the first time he ever saw me terrified. Both of us are bent over on the ground from the shock of the RPG, and he sees me getting up, turning around, and he realizes that I’m about to run over there to Yosef, and he grabs me and pulls me back down to the ground and says, “Daniel, listen! Yosef is dead. You’re not going there! There’s no way I’m going home without you. And there’s no way you’re going home without me. I understand that you want to go back to Yosef, but there’s nothing to go back to. If you turn back, you’ll be killed on the spot, and then I’ll be killed too, because I’m not going back without you.” That’s what he said to me.

From there, we started running for our lives, and suddenly we see a tank on the shoulder of the road. By that point our group had split up; it was just me and my brother Neriya. When we saw the tank, we both decided that we had to get in there; that was what we had to do. So we both go into the tank, and inside it we see a dead soldier. That was Ariel Eliyahu, may G-d avenge his blood. Later, after the whole thing, we discovered that it was actually the tank of Ido Somech, the tank driver who saved lots and lots of people, but he had already left before we went in. So we were there on our own.

At that point, I want to try and get the tank moving, but you know, I’d never driven a tank before! So I try and play around with the controls, but the tank doesn’t move, won’t move, so I try the tank’s two-way radio, but I realize that

attack, it’s clear to see how heroic our nation is. Everyone left their homes and went out to fight for us and to save us: civilians, cops, soldiers, gun owners, people who saved others with their car, and so on. As the army was collapsing, thousands of people fought and won the battle. And for me, that is the answer to how one can be a father here in the State of Israel.

Oriya: Something really powerful that I realized through working on this book is that there is a light in this world that you cannot achieve unless you go through the darkness. And if you avoid this darkness, you could lose so much, because there is so much good that is waiting for you at the end of the darkness. I think only Jewish people around the world could understand how powerful it is to experience grief as such an enormous group; it’s not only me and my family, but my whole people, the whole Am Yisrael. It’s as though the entire nation is supporting and comforting each other through this grief. And had I not had the courage to read the interview transcripts and work on the book, I would have missed that message.

they don’t hear me on the other side, so I call all kinds of people that I know, but no one knows how to tell me how to start a tank. And suddenly I say to myself, I’ll call my grandfather – he knows!

So I call him, and I say, “Hi Grandpa, good morning! How do you start a tank?” and he’s like just waked up so he says to me, “Good morning, Daniel!” And then I realize that he’s seventy-four years old and I’m not going to stress him out, not even a drop, so I say to him, “Good morning, Grandpa! I love you! Have a happy holiday!” and I hang up.

Well, the tank isn’t moving, so we start looking for weapons. There had to be some kind of weapon there, there had to be! But we open up everything, and in the weapons compartment all we see are prayer books and Bibles. No weapons. So Neriya asks the dead soldier’s forgiveness and searches him for a weapon but doesn’t find anything. Looking back afterward, we understood that there was no ammunition left because they had used it all to fight the terrorists. And in the meantime, we suddenly begin to get hit with heavy artillery aimed at the tank. Serious barrages.

So we can’t exit the tank, but we also can’t return fire because we had nothing, no ammunition. Zilch.

Then Neriya stops everything, and I hear him talking – he’s talking to G-d, and he says, “G-d, I don’t know why You did everything You did! I’m not getting into Your considerations! I don’t get into things I don’t understand! But I do know that there’s a soldier here who was murdered for You, for Your people, and I did everything I could, G-d. I got into that tank, and now it’s on You!” And he starts shouting, “Now it’s Your turn! Give me a weapon! I don’t care how, G-d! You give me a weapon!”

And just as he finishes talking – I swear, it happened the second he stopped talking – he looks down at the dead soldier who was there with us, and there’s a rifle strap right next to the soldier’s shoe. I swear to G-d, that’s what happened.

This article has been excerpted with permission from One Day in October by Yair Agmon and Oriya Mevorach, published by The Toby Press, Koren Publishers.

MYossi Bluming A Glimpse Into Gaza

By Eliyahu RosEnBERg

arching alongside 300 soldiers, Yossi Bluming felt an odd sense of safety, despite the fact that he was literally walking through an active war zone. There his troops marched, accompanied by army tanks and surrounded by raging flames, as they advanced through a newly-flattened area

In His Words…

of the Gaza Strip. They moved swiftly through the towns like an olive-green stream flowing through an abandoned alleyway, their feet stamping in unison. Of course, the force’s large size was, in some ways, disadvantageous, but it offered the troops a sense of temporary comfort and security, for as they say:

a Jew can wear any uniform. a s long as he keeps his allegiance to hashem, he can be doing his mission. a Jew is a Jew is a Jew, and i think Chabad believes in that very much. if he’s in uniform, if he’s a lawyer, if he’s a doctor, if he’s a rabbi, if he’s a guy in yeshiva his whole life – whatever’s best for each person. We can wear many different uniforms.

always have the courage not only to ask questions, but to go for yourself and discover the truth, no matter how crazy it makes you look… if you are armed with the truth, an army of lies won’t intimidate you.

When they hate us as a people, they’ll attack all of us as a people. We have to understand that just as we were attacked together as a people, we have to come together as a people. it’s all our fight together.

“There’s safety in numbers.”

But, despite their momentary feeling of security, the soldiers still felt uneasy walking through the creepy, abandoned streets of Gaza. In the eyes of then-21year-old Yossi, an IDF Master Sergeant and Lubavitch Jew, there was something so ominous, so haunting, about the Gaza Strip. The enclave seemed to be enveloped in an eerie darkness, not only by night, but also by day. There was no electricity in the embattled city they were marching through, and even when the terrorists hid away in their underground tunnels, you could still feel a sense of intense chaos just by inhaling the Gazan air. The small army fundamentally understood that their feeling of safety was illusory and fleeting, as they knew that, at any moment, their peaceful marching could be disturbed by a deadly attack.

As the soldiers continued advancing through the region, they passed by a building that was supposed to be abandoned. Thus, when Yossi, from the corner of his eye, spotted a shadowy figure moving through one of the building’s windows, he was deeply concerned: Was there someone in the building still ? The sergeant, gazing at the nearby structure, instantly stopped in his tracks and steadily aimed his gun at the building. As he positioned his weapon, Yossi hoped his eyes had deceived him. Perhaps what he thought was a human was really the rustling of a curtain or the reflection of the sun But, somehow, Yossi doubted that. He realized, however, that the only possible way that someone got into that building without the troops noticing was if the individual entered through an un-

derground tunnel. Moreover, if that were the case, then this person was very likely a scout for Hamas, spying on Israeli forces and reporting their findings to the terror group.

After another moment of observing, Yossi spotted the shadowy figure once again, and it was plain to see: Peeking out from behind the window curtain was a middle-aged man dressed in light color clothing with a strange-looking device on his neck. Yossi didn’t hesitate. With the machine gun still in his hands, he pulled the trigger and shot the man. And as he witnessed the terrorist’s body fall to the floor – the first person he ever killed – Yossi couldn’t help but momentarily feel as though a part of himself had also died on that day.

“It feels very intimate to kill a human being, another human who’s just like you at the end of the day. You have the exact same capabilities: two hands, a pair of eyes, and a beard. You’re both male human beings living life,” Yossi explains. “When you think of death or when you cause death, all you can bear to see for a fleeting moment is your similarities: that I’m a human being and he’s a human being. And for that fleeting second, the horror of what death is, and the horror of what killing and what war is, almost becomes apparent in your head.”

It’s that dreadful feeling when a soldier enters the abandoned apartment of a terrorist and sees ordinary signs of human life: a bed, pajamas, a toothbrush, and food on a kitchen counter; it hits hard because we don’t tend to think of these sick individuals as human beings who engage in ordinary behaviors, such

as brushing their teeth or eating lunch. But, as Yossi explains, it only takes a moment to shake off that dreadful feeling. When one steps foot into the terrorist’s dining room and finds a machine gun hidden in a closet and a Quran laid out on a table alongside several texts about Sharia law, it’s not difficult to realize that this terrorist is not like you and me. This isn’t a person who is just trying to live an ordinary, innocent life; this is a terrorist whose mission is to kill Jews. This isn’t a battle for territory or a campaign against Palestinians; this is a war for the survival of our nation, a fight against evil itself. And because of that fact, this is so clearly a war that’s worth fighting for.

day, due to the army’s strict schedule and the fact that he had to be prepared for combat at all times. And yet, with Hashem’s help, Yossi didn’t miss a single day of tefillin in Gaza.

When Yossi was on the battlefield, his schedule was set from 4:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., which were the times when he had to be awake no matter what, since that was when Hamas generally attacked. And during his time in Gaza, he and his fellow soldiers lived in collapsed houses and apartments.

of his life. And although being a soldier means constantly facing the possibility of death, Yossi admits that he has never been afraid of chas v’shalom passing away because he knows deep down inside that he’s given his all to his life mission.

The story you just read, as told over by Yossi Bluming, took place in the early days of the ongoing war in Gaza, which was triggered on the tragic day of October 7, when Hamas terrorists launched a surprise invasion into southern Israel, murdering 1,200 people, kidnapping over 250 others, and assaulting, wounding, and displacing thousands more. Today, as we approach the one-year anniversary of the horrific attacks, nearly 100 hostages remain in Gaza, many of whom have tragically passed away while in Hamas captivity. And Israel’s ground campaign, led by our heroic IDF soldiers, continues with what seems to be no end in sight. All the while, the war is obviously taking a toll on our brave chayalim As Yossi explains, while at war, soldiers have little contact with their loved ones and the outside world, they get few hours of sleep, and they aren’t given much food besides for tuna and corn. In his words, “You’re just totally engrossed in the mission for the greater good.” Additionally, Yossi personally encountered several other challenges as a frum Jew fighting in Gaza. For example, it was very difficult for him to put on not one, but two pairs of tefillin (including Rabbeinu Tam) each

“We conquered buildings, lived in those buildings until everyone moved and conquered their regions, and then we started moving again… And so, while you’re waiting for others to finish their [regions], you’re living in collapsed Gazan apartments,” explains Yossi. “You’re living in a blown up, exploded, and pretty much unrecognizable Gazan apartment or house or structure that your commanders decided to take interest in. And so, living there is an incredibly eerie experience. I’ve seen eggs out on the counter with spices prepared… I also once saw Badatz Mehadrin super kosher wafers in a little desk drawer in an apartment in the Rimal neighborhood. And I realized that with these wafers, there was only one explanation of where they could have come from: when these disgusting terrorists went into Israeli territory and looted and brought hostages and anything they set their eyes on, I bet you they brought these wafers from there.”

But in Yossi’s eyes, his role as a soldier is more than just his job; it’s his mission and his life. As a matter of fact, ever since Yossi was nine years old, living in Washington, D.C., he dreamed of joining the army. Although becoming a career soldier is definitely an unconventional path for a Lubavitch Jew such as Yossi Bluming, with courage and determination he made his dream a reality. To him, his ultimate, G-d-given mission in life is to protect Israel and the Jewish people, and he plans to iy”H continue doing so for the rest

“Life is defined by death. Life is defined by being finite. And I think it’s the responsibility of every human being, who wants to take his life seriously, to think about the end, to think about when they will no longer have the privilege of waking up in the morning,” Yossi declares. “ And obviously I’m not perfect, but to wake up every morning and to see that I was entrusted by G-d another day – I have to do something with it… I’ve given my all for what I believe in. I’ve given my all for what I believe to be righteous, what I believe to be good. And that’s something that gives me great comfort when I think of death.”

Today, Yossi, who is in his early twenties, lives in the settlement of Binyamin with his wife, Batya. Around four years ago, he joined the IDF as a paratrooper, spent around fifty days fighting in Gaza in the wake of the October 7 massacre, and is now a Master Sergeant, training soldiers for battle. Although war is undeniably tragic and horrifying, Yossi admits that he had a somewhat enjoyable time in Gaza, as it taught him incredible lessons about mankind.

“War is essentially a catalyst of human behavior, where you will see the most evil a human being is capable of. And then, whenever you thought you got to that maximum, you’ll discover just a little more,” he explains. “And obviously, you’ll see on the flip side, the human mind and body being asked to go above and beyond any limitations they thought that it had. And you’ll see that as a unit, as a battalion, as military, that’s what you’re asked and required to do day in and day out, second after second. And that is an incredible, unbelievable human experience that only a battlefield in a war, and the chaos and destruction that it brings, can offer.”

Yossi Bluming confesses that he doesn’t really feel inspired by rallies or

slogans, although he understands why others would be. What genuinely inspires him, however, is the courage of his fellow soldiers. To see young men fighting for their people, country, and fallen brethren; to see soldiers fighting despite the fact that they aren’t physically suited for the challenges of war—that inspires Yossi. And as he makes clear, no Israeli soldier is forced to fight in Gaza. If someone, for whatever reason, wants to leave the enclave, they can speak to their platoon commander, and they’ll be out of the Strip by that night – no questions asked – and they’ll just be given a different job as, for example, a logistics officer, he explains. And yet, Yossi adds, not one soldier in his unit – not even those who, in his words, have been “cursing the army from the day they were born” – chose to leave the enclave early. That’s what inspires Yossi Bluming: to see soldiers, the Israeli public, and Jews worldwide rise to the occasion, putting their differences and personal views aside, and uniting together for the sake of our nation.

“This was a war against all of us because we are Jews. And they didn’t distinguish, they didn’t differentiate, just like the Nazis didn’t, the Romans, nobody did in our history. When they hate us as a people, they’ll attack all of us as a people,” Yossi Bluming concludes. “We have to understand that just as we were attacked together as a people, we have to come together as a people, not to sign off some form that ‘I also support Israel, I came to a rally,’ but to really pray in our hearts for our brothers and sisters, to weep with them, to rejoice with them, to hug and celebrate and fight with them in whatever ways we can… It’s all our fight together.

“On a positive note, instead of our enemies proving [that we’re all the same by not differentiating between us], let’s do that before they can and say, ‘We are a united nation, a united people, no matter where we are.’ And if that’s the way we are – if that’s the way we are united – then nothing on Earth can overpower us.”

Dating Dialogue What Would You Do If…

Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters

Dear Navidaters,

Our son is 24 years old and started dating only a few months ago, and b”H we’ve gotten many good suggestions. After dealing with my two oldest (girls) shidduchim, this seems a lot more action packed, but I’m starting to think maybe it’s not a good thing.

Our son (I’ll call him Natan) keeps finding reasons he doesn’t want to go out with the girls we are encouraging him to. These are special girls who seem very in line with what he is looking for. His answers as to why he won’t pursue them are mainly surface level things. Things such as the girl’s family stature, wealth, high-end living are things he seems to be drawn to which baffles us especially because we did not raise him this way. How can we effectively handle this?

The Rebbetzin

Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz, M.S.

Natan is a grownup at this time. It’s too late to look to directly try to change his values even though you tried to inculcate values of deeper merit. However, when individual suggestions come up, the two of you have opportunities to help direct him to deeper values in a girl beyond the external ones.

Tactfully using questions about middos, commitment to friends, loyalty, depth, and values will help your son look beneath social standing. Don’t be pushy, and don’t preach. Discuss specific candidates with calmness and help him look for a girl of quality who also meets his other wants.

The Shadchan

Michelle Mond

Dating is a learning experience for everyone involved. Singles must dig deep inside themselves and learn what’s good for them in a spouse. Parents must learn to juggle being a loving and caring parent while also giving space for the adult child’s personal choices.

Natan has only been dating for a few months. He has likely been to weddings of fellow bochurim who married into this kind of wealth and family stature. Natan has probably always had a yearning or “tayva” for this type of lifestyle. That is not something you can effectively shield him from or steer him away from. I understand you did not raise

him in that kind of home, but that does not mean he never noticed others who do live that way.

My advice to you is to try and find him shidduch prospects within the realm of middos that you are looking for, while also taking into consideration the family type he is looking for. Once he actually dates these girls, he might soon see that the cultural difference is too different from how he was brought up. The grass is always greener on the other side.

Allow him the space to experience dating the type he believes is best and see how it works out for him. This type of girl might also be looking for a family of wealth and stature, and after experiencing some rejection, he may come to a different conclusion on his own. Give him space to allow his own experience to be his guide.

Give him space to allow his own experience to be his guide.

The Single

Tzipora Grodko

I

n my experience, people are not receptive to constructive feedback or criticism if they haven’t personally asked for it. Navigating dating is another part of growth and exploration, and sometimes, growth simply cannot

be expedited. Although you can express your feelings and concerns, it’s important to know that you may need to exercise patience while your son comes to his independent conclusion on what he would like to do, based on the experiences he has.

The Zaidy

Dr. Jeffrey Galler

My wife asked me for a preview of this week’s column. I told her the question was about a young man who was determined to marry a girl from a rich family and that I was going to write, “You know, looking back, I wish I had

thought of that when I was dating!”

My wife gave me a look that terrified me and declared, “Don’t. You. Dare.”

So, here are my revised thoughts:

The Past

I feel certain that you have taught your son to seek a life partner who has the proper hashkafa, core values, and character traits and who shares his goals and aspirations.

The Present

Your son is now 24 years old, and you have not been the main influence in his life for quite some time now. More likely, he is currently in a phase where his dating choices are being influenced by friends, schoolmates, and work colleagues. And, unfortunately, it seems likely that

Pulling It All Together

The Navidaters

Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists

Dear Barbara and David, Clearly, this is an upsetting situation to find yourselves in. It seems that you have raised Natan with values that do not align with his desire for the surface level things in life that are his primary focus right now as he begins to date.

The very first thing I want to reflect upon is the “end of the day” bottom line. At the end of the day, the bottom line is that at 24 years old, there is not much that you can do in the way of changing Natan’s priorities. This is one of those things that we as parents are better off accepting and surrendering to the notion that, ultimately, we are simply not in control. All that the worrying and trying to convince and teach and show is meaningless if Natan does not want to change. At

many are advising him, “Marry a girl with a Ph.D. – Pop has dough.”

Furthermore, he has surely discovered that in the world of Orthodox singles, it is much more difficult for young women than for young men. In many respects, it is clearly a “man’s world,” and he has consequently come to believe that that this is his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain entry into a more affluent lifestyle.

The Future

You still can help your son re-focus his dating outlook by reminding him that if he does marry a girl from a richer, more prestigious family, he faces a lifetime of being dominated by and “guided” by his in-laws.

And, you can remind him that a girl from a wealthy family can be very high maintenance and expect him to support her in the style to which she’s become accustomed.

Moreover, a good friend of mine pointed out, your son may discover,

Empower yourself with the knowledge that Natan is responsible for his own choices.

much to his chagrin, that wealthy parents are very reluctant to let their daughters date boys from more humble backgrounds. Oftentimes, wealthy parents are very wary of singles whom they might perceive as gold-diggers or social climbers.

The Warning Marrying into wealth may grant a grander address, Yet often comes along with a greater share of stress.

24, Natan is ultimately going to be making his own decisions.

Some parents choose to engage in the battle – crying, begging, convincing, trying to get someone to talk sense into him... I am knocking or discarding these attempts or telling you not to make them, only expressing the truth which is that we cannot bring about change that someone does not want to make for himself.

Empower yourself with the knowledge that Natan is responsible for his own choices...sometimes sharing that message in a loving way with our children is the best bet to help them see a different path. In other words, if he marries for money and status, there is a whole potential constellation of control and dynamics

and potentially not being happy with his chosen person, and he is the one who will have to live that life.

The other thing I think worth mentioning is that it has become nearly impossible for young adults to support themselves in this economy. Have you had a conversation with Natan around this? How does he plan on supporting himself and a wife? Does he have the ability to? Does he feel that he can’t do it himself? Does he have any understandable fears around this? This may be part of why he is so attracted to the money... and I get that. Is there a deeper motivation here other than status and flash?

If Natan is open to it, you can try to get others involved. Does Natan have a rebbe he is close with? A mentor, perhaps? Perhaps someone for whom such a marriage did not work out. You can also offer Natan the gift of therapy to help him explore his vision of what a marriage is and to help him examine his

values and where they be stemming from. Ultimately, as we all know, some people are very obsessed with gashmius and want to live that life. I know many people who will not entertain dating someone who is not from a certain family or has a certain level of wealth or status. He may find a lovely young woman from such a family, that is always a possibility as well.

Other than connecting him with wise counsel and therapy and keeping an open dialogue with him, I ’m not sure what you can do to effectively handle this. Handling this connotes that you can potentially make him change his ways. But the only one who can change his ways is Natan, if he wants to. And I sure hope he does, because as beautiful as a big house is, and lavish trips, and being part of a chashuv family, there is usually a price to pay when young adults are supported in this way.

Sincerely, Jennifer

Top 3 Changes To Make In Your Dating Life For the New Year

By Devorah Kigel

Rosh Hashana is fast approaching, and it’s time to renew our life for next year! Chazal teach us that in the month of Tishrei everything is up for re-negotiation and we have an opportunity to get a totally different destiny (din in Hebrew) for next year. If you’re single, you probably want to make sure this year is the year you meet “the one.” How can we do our hishtadlus to make sure that happens? In addition to praying (which is probably the most important key), here are my top three recommendations of what to do differently this year.

1. Figure Out

Your Dealbreakers & Stick To Them

There is no perfect person, but there is a person who is perfect for you! In order to find our husband, we’re going to have to cut down our shopping list…a lot. And we have to focus on the things that we really need and not just all the stuff that we want. We want to be discerning, not picky. So give some real thought to what your absolute needs are. Needs are things

that are essential for your happiness and fulfillment, whereas wants usually come from either peer pressure, the media, or more superficial stuff. The deal-breaker list will consist of approximately ten things that are non-negotiable. You can’t compromise on them.

Negative s—These are the deal-breakers, the things that you simply cannot live with. I call them ”airborne peanut allergies.” These are the personality traits and character traits that you can’t even be in the same room with, because you have a visceral negative reaction to them.

Positives—These are the must-haves, the ”deal-makers.” These are the character and personality traits that are so crucial for you that you can’t imagine spending your life with someone who doesn’t have them.

This list is going to be your GPS instructions for how to find Mr. Perfect-foryou. It will keep you focused on what is truly important to you and whether the person you’re dating is the one

If you ’ve really only put needs on your list, it’s completely realistic to get everything on your deal-breaker list. If you need advice on whether your list is

reasonable, bring it to a dating coach or a happily married friend and see what your trusted advisor says.

Basically, we never have to compromise on what’s truly important to us. Settling is not something any of my clients have done, no matter what age they were.

2. Don’t Break Up

With “Mr. Pareve”

Pareve means neutral, it’s neither milk nor meat (like veggies). Who’s Mr. Pareve? It’s the guy you go on two or three dates with, and there’s no real reason to say no. You’re not grossed out by him. He didn’t say anything offensive. He basically has what you’re looking for on paper, or at least so far. He seems like he’s in your ballpark. But he ’s just… pareve . Don ’t break it off with Mr. Pareve after only a few dates!

Instead, please keep dating him. I’m begging you. The thing with Mr. Pareve is that if you date him long enough, he’ll either become Mr. Yay or Mr. Ewww eventually. You just have to give it time.

Many of us have the expectation that

when we meet the right guy, things will click right away. You’ll just know, immediately, that he’s the one. And you’ll feel all these crazy feelings, like I can’t eat –oh, my gosh, I can’t breathe!

The crazy fireworks feelings often go with infatuation, but not necessarily with love. You should feel excited when you decide to get married, but not necessarily so much intense drama. And realistically, it could take some time before you feel like he really is the guy for you.

Many, many of my clients ended up marrying boys who started off as Mr. Pareve. And by the time they got engaged, they were excited to marry him and attracted to him! We’re not talking about Mr. Ewww here – I would never tell you to go on a second date with someone who turns you off.

And if you’re wondering how you can get yourself to feel more attracted, one thing to remember is that for women, physical attraction comes largely from emotional connection. So if you ’re having deeper conversations, and you’re connecting in a deeper, more emotional way, the physical attraction will often follow.

We never want to live with regrets,

looking back, thinking perhaps we ended things prematurely. Remember, it ’ s always better to give it an extra date (or two) to get that elusive clarity in our kishkes. Sometimes with a little patience, Mr. Pareve might just turn out to be Mr. Perfect-for-You!

3. Don’t Be A Wife To A Boyfriend

When I meet with a new client for the first time, I do a dating history. I want to hear what’s been going on over the last five, ten, fifteen, twenty years. Sometimes, I ’m writing pages of dating history –there are five years with this guy, eight years with this guy, three years with this guy, two years with this one. And I think, Oh, my gosh, this is so much wasted time!

But it’s not just time, it’s your heart! Each failed relationship into which you’ ve invested your whole self only for it not to work out is like one more wall you’re putting around your heart, making you more guarded and cynical the next time. You have your guard up.

It’s time for us to take our feminine power back and stop giving it away. But how? Fortunately, there is a way! And

this concept is actually the reason as a secular Jew I was first attracted to Torah Judaism. I didn’t have any beautiful, lofty spiritual reason at first. I didn’t even believe in G-d at the time! I was totally practical and pragmatic. Simply put, I was sick of the secular dating world. And I learned that Judaism offered a better solution.

with us or who are not serious. We’ve made our deal-breaker list. And now we want to date in a way that is conducive to determining compatibility. We want to be logical and smart and focused, and we want to weed out the guys who are not interested in us for the right reasons. And you know how we do that? By taking the physical off the table.

Don’t break it off with Mr. Pareve after only a few dates!

How do we date the Jewish way?

It’s called “shomer negiah” or guarding touch—I call it “dating with dignity.” It’s pretty simple, really. The guy asks you out. He plans the date. He comes prepared with questions to get to know you. He pays for the date, and you owe him nothing in return, except the pleasure of your company. If we’re dating for marriage, we don’t want to be wasting months or years of our lives with people who are not compatible

Even without touching, you will still be swayed by your feelings. You won’t be completely objective. That ’s why it ’ s so important to have a friend or a mentor or a coach to talk things over with. We want to notice potential red flags and incompatibilities while we’re dating. How is he speaking to the cashier? How does he behave around his family and friends? Is he respectful to you? But when we’re infatuated because we’ve been lax on keeping shomer, we won’t even notice. Touch fogs

the brain and clouds your judgment. So, best to set yourself up for technical success by making sure you’re keeping the laws of “yichud ” (seclusion), meaning you’re never alone together.

With these three pointers (and lots of davening) you’re giving yourself the best shot at finding your bashert. Wishing you a happy, sweet new year and a mazal tov!

As a professional Dating Coach, Devorah Kigel has helped well over 300 women get clarity in their dating life and marry their bashert. She has also been teaching classes for women on Judaism since 2001. She has her Masters in French and lived in Paris for 2 years, before discovering Torah Judaism and becoming observant. Devorah and her husband, Reuven, who is the Campus Director for Emet Outreach, host Shabbos guests most weeks. Using humor and honesty, Devorah shares the entertaining personal journey that led her to develop powerful tools to have the relationships you desire. Her book, “Marry a Mensch: Timeless Jewish Wisdom for Today’s Single Woman,” published by Gefen, was released this month and is available on Amazon. For more information, visit www.devorahkigel.com.

Atoddler melts down in the grocery store, and the parent swoops in.

A parent quickly steps in between two fighting children and separates them.

The parent immediately removes the marker from the child’s hand, replacing it with a wet washcloth, and directs the child to remove the mural from the wall.

The parent in the above fictional –but too real – scenarios quickly and efficiently addresses each concern as it arose. The parent deals with each situation as it occurs and is on top of the home environment.

At first glance, we could say that each of those situations was addressed ideally. The question is, “Could they have been handled differently?” Depending on the exact circumstances, the answer is a loud “yes.”

Let’s take another look at the beginning examples, this time adding more context.

Recognizing the toddler was approaching nap time and likely to meltdown, the parent quickly finishes the shopping and brings the little one home. Perhaps the parent delays the trip until after naptime.

Noticing there is only one ice cream bar left, the parent anticipates a fight

Parenting Pearls Thinking Ahead

By Sara Rayvych, MSEd

and asks the children to divide it up before any aggression begins.

Knowing the little one enjoys coloring on walls, the parent keeps markers out of reach and only purchases the super-washable ones.

As opposed to the initial reactive parenting, the latter examples demonstrate proactive parenting. Rather than reacting to a situation that is already happening, the parent anticipates and prevents the mess from ever starting. Going back to our initial examples, this doesn’t mean the fictional parent handled the situations poorly; the question is if it could have been prevented.

Not everything can be prevented, but, when possible, it’s far more effective to prevent a negative situation than clean up the mess afterwards. Similarly, we know it’s much easier to keep a child away from a sick friend than it is to let the children play together and deal with a sick child later.

Parents often find they are disciplining the same negative behaviors repeatedly because kids tend to repeat the same behaviors – both positive and negative. We can anticipate their response based on previous patterns. Knowing our child’s past behavior is a powerful indicator of their future actions. This does not mean children can’t mature

and improve. Children are continuously learning and growing – that’s why adults (formerly children) don’t smack each other in the grocery store, throw down their cereal in anger, or color on their shirts with permanent markers. But change doesn’t happen overnight, and it will take many mistakes and years of growth.

Triggers

While each child and situation is unique, there are certain common triggers – both physical and emotional –that inevitably lead to negative behaviors. Being conscious of these triggers can prevent much parental misery.

Food and drink are a basic biological necessity. We don’t have to go too long into a fast day to recognize this limitation of our bodies. Besides being mandatory for continued life, hungry children don’t act properly. They can tantrum, scream, act aggressively, and overall be unpleasant. Making sure children have meals and snacks is the best way to ensure they don’t get triggered by hunger. Keeping a filled water bottle for trips (or even at home) will keep them hydrated. Kids may need reminders to drink, and parents of picky eaters should be mindful to make sure children are actually ingesting food.

Exhaustion is a tough competitor to hunger when it comes to naming “the top trigger.” Tired children can’t control their behavior and will go into full blown “irrational mode.” Children need adequate sleep at night; little ones require naps during the day, too. Your child’s healthcare provider can give you guidelines for appropriate amounts of rest. We know youngsters are prone to meltdowns when a nap is even slightly delayed, but teens underestimate the amount of sleep their growing bodies need. Late bedtime before early school hours are a terrible combination, and erratic sleep schedules wreak havoc on their bodies.

Kids aren’t the only ones that can get cranky, meltdown or act poorly from lack of nutrition or sleep. Parents, too, can act inappropriately if they don’t take care of themselves. Many parents will make sure their child has everything necessary but will ignore their own needs. Taking care of yourself gives your child the optimal parent. Jealousy and competitiveness are major childhood triggers. “Yanky got a bigger piece of cake than me” is a famous Marvelous Middos Machine line for good reason. Children are continuously measuring what they have against others – especially their siblings. “Is his

piece bigger?” “Did she get more frosting?” “Yes, but she has more pink frosting, not only chocolate.” “Why didn’t I get a sweatshirt, too?” Everything is weighed with scientific precision, and anything can be a source of contention. If not for the frustration it causes, we’d actually find some of their arguments funny.

Competitiveness among siblings is legendary. They want the front seat in the car or the best chair at the dining room table (even if they’re all identical). The child that starts to lose the game suddenly upturns the board or accuses the other of cheating. They can fight over who gets something first, and if it wasn’t them, then they remember who got it first two months ago. Their brains are like running scorecards.

“Because it’s there.” This may sound silly to an adult, but kids are triggered to do a behavior just by something being there. If they see scissors, they will cut something. If they find a marker, they will color. If chocolate cake is sitting on the counter, they become makpid on taste testing before Shabbos. An unlocked door is an invitation to go in or out. We need to take developmental

limitations into account when trying to predict a child’s behavior.

These are some of the more common triggers, but only by observing your child and their patterns can you recog-

Let’s take an example of two children fighting over Yanky’s cake. The first step is to recognize that your child gets upset if his or her piece is perceived as too small. With this awareness, you create

Knowing how to react to a child’s actions is an important parenting skill, but learning how to prevent problems can go a long way towards family harmony and sanity.

nize what precautions are necessary to proactively parent that child.

Being Proactive

There are a few steps to proactive parenting. The first is to recognize your child’s pattern. With that knowledge, you can create a game plan to address that situation. The final step is to be aware and put your game plan into action once you recognize a trigger is present.

a game plan, such as having one child divide the beloved cake and the other pick their piece first. The final step is to remind them, “One divides the cake and the other picks their piece first,” when you have only one piece remaining. If all goes well, you will avoid the fight. You also may want to remind them to sit down and eat over a napkin so the crumbs don’t fly. This is also proactive parenting, but won’t prevent every mess

because younger kids are incapable of such neat eating.

Part of being proactive is being present and having a general awareness of what’s going on within the home environment. Usually this doesn’t require always being in the room, but if two children tend to have friction, they may require a parent within close proximity. This is similar to being present if you know one child tends to push or hit the toddler. Being proactive means recognizing those children need extra observation.

Knowing how to react to a child’s actions is an important parenting skill, but learning how to prevent problems can go a long way towards family harmony and sanity. May Hashem give us the insights we need and the wisdom to use them properly. Have a wonderful Shabbos!

Sara Rayvych, MSEd, has her master’s in general and special education. She has been homeschooling for over 10 years in Far Rockaway. She can be contacted at RayvychHomeschool@gmail.com.

Health & F tness

Top Ten Nutrition Guidelines for Acne Sufferers

By Tamar Feldman, RDN CDCES

Can you help my daughter with her acne? It’s a major cause of distress and is impacting her self-esteem and quality of life. We’ve tried so many traditional approaches, and something tells us that addressing the root and trying to clear her skin from the inside-out is something we should consider. She’s willing to try anything at this point.

In the past, I would address such inquiries with an “I’m so sorry, but I can’t help you” type of response. Research on the subject was too limited, and ethically I did not feel comfortable taking on cases on a broad scale unless I knew that my area of practice was evidence-based. But as a former acne sufferer myself and the mom of teen girls, I fully related to the angst of even mild acne sufferers, and my inability to provide any solution felt like a failure to me with each individual I dismissed.

So after extrapolating some data from other areas within functional medicine that address hormonal and gut bacterial imbalances, and based off of what limited research was available, I decided to give it a go. I felt that success in this area would provide me much needed satisfaction given my own history with acne and felt compelled to provide that much needed address to those who were in current need. With a lot of disclaimers given to potential clients on chance of success, I took on some cases over the course of a period of time.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that all cases had some degree of improvement, many of them significantly, with one or two almost complete. My anecdotal experience in the area made me question why the standard assertion that there is no link between diet and acne, wisely dispensed by Google and most dermatologists, isn’t becoming a stronger challenged premise in 2024.

Shana*, a recent fourteen-year-old I worked with, was ecstatic to find that implementing my top ten list of advice for acne sufferers almost completely cleared her skin within two weeks. I always use six weeks as my time scale to judge efficacy,

and I was just as pleasantly surprised as she was at the rapid success she saw. “I don’t know if I can do this” was her main concern at our initial consult, and I spent most of that first session trying to think of practical and easy meal and snack ideas that she liked and could implement quickly.

At her one-month follow up, she admitted that the change was not as daunting as it seemed to be in the end, and the results she saw were “majorly worth it!”

For the benefit of readers, I’ve summarized the very basics of healing acne from within in an easy-to-read bulleted list. While these are what I call Step One interventions and further nutrition interventions may be needed if these tips are insufficient, many individuals will still see improvement solely from the basic “top ten” guidelines below. As a disclaimer, as with any condition, there are never 100% guarantees for success, but the likelihood of even limited partial improvement is high.

1. At minimum reduce, or at best, cut out completely, all packaged or home prepared foods that contain any inflammatory oils (e.g., partially hydrogenated oil, canola, “vegetable,” soybean, palm). Sunflower oil in a packaged food is OK in limited moderation. Processed snacks with added oils should be kept to a minimum or cut out completely, and mayonnaise

should be avocado- or olive oil-based (homemade recipes are simple and can be stored in the fridge for three weeks).

2. Consume 1-2 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil daily in a salad or low temperature cooked form for anti-inflammatory benefits. For all foods heated above 350 degrees or above a low flame on a stovetop, use avocado oil.

3. Consume 3-4 cups of brightly colored vegetables, and 2-3 small portions of fruit daily, in particular leafy greens, orange vegetables, and brightly colored fruits such as berries/cherries/pomegranate.

4. Consume a healthy anti-inflammatory fat, such as avocado, walnuts, pecans, or almonds daily.

5. Reduce intake of red meat and cheese, and increase intake of protein from white meat chicken, fish, and beans.

6. Grain products such as cereals/ bread/crackers should be mostly whole grain, with minimal added ingredients that are unrecognizable in a home kitchen (e.g., preservatives, emulsifiers, etc.). Unprocessed whole grains such as barley, quinoa, kasha, and brown rice are ideal.

7. Address underlying conditions, such as constipation and/or PCOS, if pertinent. Poor gut health and constipation are at the root of many skin conditions,

and a gut-health trained dietitian can help you improve your digestion. In addition, excess androgens linked to blood sugar spikes are implicated in the acne associated with PCOS, and a registered dietitian familiar with the condition can teach you a blood sugar balancing food plan, exercise tips, and supplements that may improve the hormonal imbalance.

8. Cut out or at minimum limit candy, soda, and foods containing high fructose corn syrup. Use instead honey, organic cane sugar, or coconut sugar in moderation in homemade food items. Packaged food items with table sugar added under 3-5 g per serving are OK in very limited moderation.

9. Optional after 1 month if improvement is not sufficient: Consider reducing cow’s milk intake, or switching to A1 protein-free forms of dairy (available in kosher health stores, or in kosher grocery stores generally under an “organic grass fed” label).

10. Supplement daily with a methylated multi vitamin, 2000 mg of fish oil, 3000-5000 IU of Vitamin D, and a high-quality probiotic with minimum 8 strains/ 50 billion CFU ideally at bedtime. Give the above suggestions a try for 6 weeks, and if improvement is only partial, a slightly more individualized approach may be all that is needed to jumpstart even further success. Best of luck!

Tamar Feldman, RDN CDES, is a dietitian whose mission is to improve lives by empowering individuals to use nutrition to improve their gut health and hormone balance. She is a recognized expert on IBS/SIBO and has developed the Gut Dietitian training protocols on IBS and IBD for Registered Dietitian education. She writes, lectures, and counsels extensively on IBD, IBS, PCOS/fertility, and thyroid health and is the founder of www.thegutdietitian.com virtual practice and co-founder of the app Belly. She can be reached at tamar@ thegutdietitian.com.

Hebrain

by barbara l andesman

Jewish Jeopardy

Nobel Prize l aureates

1)

This American Nobel Laureate (1922-2020) received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2018 at age 96. He is considered the “Father of Optical Tweezers,” which is a highly focused laser beam which can hold and move microscopic objects.

a) Niels Bohr

b) Arthur Ashkin

c) Steven Weinberg

2)

This American economist (1915-2009) was the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1970). Known as “The Father of Modern Economics,” he considered mathematics to be “The Natural Language” of economics. He accepted many facets of Keynesian Economics and spent most of his professional life at MIT.

a) Paul Samuelson

b) Milton Friedman

c) Paul Krugman

3)

This German-born theoretical physicist won the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics “for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”

a) Niels Bohr

b) Adolf von Baeyer

c) Albert Einstein

4)

This Romanian-born American Holocaust survivor became a professor and political activist. He authored 57 books, usually in English or French. His best known book is “Night” which details his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986; the Norwegian Nobel Committee stated that he delivered a message of “peace, atonement, and human dignity” to humanity.

a) Yitzchak Rabin

b) Elie Wiesel

c) Simon Wiesenthal

5)

Born Shabtai Zisl ben Avrohom Zimmerman in 1941 in Minnesota, this American folk singer, author, and writer had hit songs including “Blowin’ In The Wind” (1963) and “The Times They are a-Changin” (1964). In 2016, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

a) Paul Simon

b) Bob Dylan

c) Steve Goodman

tHe YesHiva World

1)

Known as “the mother of all yeshivas” and also called “Etz Chaim,” it was founded in 1803 in Belarus and lasted until 1892; R’Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin became its head in 1854.

a) Mir Yeshiva

b) Telshe Yeshiva

c) Volozhin Yeshiva

2)

During World War II, this Polish Yeshiva relocated to Kobe, Japan, (1941) and then to Shanghai, China, until 1947; it is currently located in Brooklyn, NY and in Jerusalem, Israel.

a) Ponevezh Yeshiva

b) Mirrer Yeshiva

c) Brisk Yeshiva

3)

In 1927, this Lithuanian yeshiva established a High School Department for Girls, and in 1930, the Yavneh Teachers’ Training Institute opened.

a) Mirrer Yeshiva

b) Telshe Yeshiva

c) Chasam Sofer Yeshiva

4)

Founded in 1886 in New York City, this school’s undergraduate division “offers a unique dual curriculum, inspired by the modern orthodox Judaism philosophy of “Torah Umaddah,” Torah and the secular knowledge.

a) Yeshiva University

b) Jewish Theological Seminary

c) Touro College

5)

Founded in 1896, located in New York City, it is the Rabbinical Seminary of Yeshiva University.

a) Jewish Theological Seminary

b) Hebrew Union College

c) Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary

discoveries

1)

This is the accumulation of almost 400,000 Jewish manuscripts and fragments, written from 870-1880 AD and found in the storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue. It was discovered in stages in 1752, 1864, and 1896. They are known as the:

a) Cairo Geniza

b) Afghan Geniza

c) Dead Sea Scrolls

2) In 1960, his “hideaway” was discovered at the “House on Garibaldi Street”; he was arrested in Argentina and executed by the government of Israel.

a) Klaus Barbie

b) Adolf Eichmann

c) Josef Mengele

3)

In 1838, this tunnel which feeds water from Gihon Springs to the Pool of Siloam in East Jerusalem was rediscovered; it dates back to late 8th and early 7th century BCE.

a) Western Wall Tunnel

b) Hezekiah’s Tunnel

c) Templar Tunnel

4)

In 1880, a youth wading in Hezekiah’s tunnel in Jerusalem, discovered this inscription which records the construction of the tunnel in the 8th century BCE; it was cut in the rock.

a) Siloam Inscription

b) Halmidi Inscription

c) Epic of Gilamesh

5)

Discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves, these 981 documents include fragments from every sefer in Tanach except for Megillas Esther.

a) Aleppo Codex

b) Dead Sea Scrolls

c) Codex Sinaiticus

discoveries aN swers: 1-A; 2-B; 3-B; 4-A; 5-B

the yeshiva world aN swers: 1-C; 2-B; 3-B; 4-A; 5-C

Nobel Prize l aureates aN swers: 1-B; 2-A; 3-C; 4-B; 5-B

Mind Y ur Business

Mastering Sales

This column features business insights from a recent “Mind Your Business with Yitzchok Saftlas” radio show. The weekly “Mind Your Business” show – broadcasting since 2015 – features interviews with Fortune 500 executives, business leaders and marketing gurus. Prominent guests include John Sculley, former CEO of Apple and Pepsi; Dick Schulze, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Best Buy; and Beth Comstock, former Vice Chair of GE; among over 400+ senior-level executives and business celebrities. Yitzchok Saftlas, president of Bottom Line Marketing Group, hosts the weekly “Mind Your Business”

Finding Sale S Talen T

show, which airs at 10pm every Sunday night on 710 WOR and throughout America on the iHeartRadio Network.

Since 2015, Yitzchok Saftlas has been speaking with leading industry experts on the “Mind Your Business” show, sharing insightful business and marketing strategies.

In this article, we’ve gathered 5 essential tips from sales experts on how to build your sales team, optimize your process, and close the deal.

Ted Miller iii, C e O of Training Mastery 3

Sometimes finding great sales talent is just as simple as recognizing when people don’t have it in their nature to be powerful in a sales role. Even if they’re very knowledgeable and know a lot about the industry, that doesn’t mean they have what it takes to close a sale. Putting them in a sales position wouldn’t be fair to you, but it also wouldn’t be fair to them. Care enough about your team to find the right people and put them in seats where they are expressing their zones of brilliance. The characteristics that you’re looking for in great salespeople are a deep-rooted sense of compassion and sincere interest in helping your clients succeed. Those that care more, sell more. Because at the end of the day, people will smell what I call “commission breath.” If the salesperson doesn’t care, and they’re just in it for the money, the client is going to smell that from a mile away, and that relationship will fall apart. They need to be a person of virtue, not a person of convenience. But you don’t want to just recruit people with compassion. There is another “C” at play: confidence. Sales is often nothing but a transmission of confidence from one individual to the next. And so, if they don’t have enough confidence in themselves, they’re never going to have the ability to express certainty around your product or service. In sales, the one with the most certainty is going to win every negotiation. So, you have to find a salesperson that has both a high degree of confidence and compassion. You want to have a pre-screening methodology to filter out those two C’s fast.

Freeing Up YOU r Tea M

a dam l ieberman, p resident of l ieberman Training

Many times, when a salesperson starts, they’re doing 12 different things. They’re engaging with the customer, getting the order, following up on shipments, dealing with complaints, filling out paperwork, following up with the billing department, etc. They’re doing a lot of activities during the course of the day that don’t actually involve selling. So, the first thing I tell people who want to grow their sales teams is that if you have a top producer, let’s call him Charlie, don’t find another Charlie; just make Charlie more productive. Have Charlie do more things that actually bring in revenue and create sales. It’s the 80/20 rule. Typically, 80% of your time or effort will bring in 20% of something. And vice versa, 20% of effort will bring in 80% of something. A lot of times, a salesperson will find that he spends 20% of his time on sales and 80% on non-sales related activities. So, the key is bringing in other people for customer service, billing, posting orders, etc. Make Charlie more effective and more productive, by allowing him to focus solely on sales.

ge

TT ing ThrOUgh T he F Ork

d ean harder, Founder of h

Every conversation has a fork in the road. In other words, as a prospect in a sales conversation, you would not want to get together to see the solutions that I have to share until you felt compelled yourself. I didn’t compel you. You felt compelled to want to see it. That’s a fork in the road.

Here’s the key to the fork in the road concept. There are four motivators that cause us to take action: instant gratification, instant pain, future gratification, and future pain. If we put our hand on a hot stove, that’s instant pain. Instant gratification would be deciding that you’re not going to study tonight so that you can watch the World Series, because it doesn’t happen every day. Future gratification is a horrible motivator. People don’t tend to be motivated very much by future gratification, nor do they get motivated by future pain. So, all the different frameworks that I share are built around bringing future pain into the present. When you bring that future pain in and get somebody to see it today, they then realize that they are standing at a fork in the road. That fork in the road isn’t 10 years from now or 20 years from now, it’s really now. That is all built around developing the right conversations, so that people compel themselves to take these micro-action steps.

e dUC aT iOn Mind Se T

a

manda holmes, CEO of Chet Holmes International

Stop selling and start educating. Because of purchase avenues like Amazon, which I call the Death Star of the traditional “commission-breathed” salesperson, 97% of our prospects don’t want to be sold to anymore. They want to be educated. Why? Because they can go online today, and they can purchase something on Amazon without ever having to talk to a sales rep. People are buying houses and cars online without ever having to talk to a sales rep. This is absurd for any person that has been selling for a decade or more. We’re flabbergasted by this concept. So, what are you doing to educate your prospects, so that they see your information and decide they want to talk to a sales rep? The average B2B consumer views five pieces of content before they raise their hand and say, “OK, I’d like to talk to a sales rep.”

Sale S Credibili TY

Maury l itwack, Founder & C e O of Teach Coalition

I once went to meet a donor about a particular cause I was fundraising for. I explained what we were talking about, asked questions, and eventually, asked the donor for money. And he told me no. He wasn’t interested and didn’t care about what we were doing. But, because I showed up, he was willing to give me a contribution. And I turned that contribution down. The reason why is because of advice I had received, which was if the person isn’t actually interested in buying into your pitch, and if he’s only doing so because he feels pressured by you or the situation, that’s not money that the person necessarily wants to give. So, I advised the person that there were three other causes I knew he would be interested in that he could give to instead. To this day, that person is not only still involved in my charity, but a host of other things as well. I share that story, because whether you’re involved in fundraising or sales, that story is about truth. It’s about credibility and the passion we have when we’re credible in our profession.

Notable Quotes

“Say What?!”

Last Friday, Joe Biden turned over a cabinet meeting to his wife Jill. If that’s not bad enough, he then put Hunter in charge of the medicine cabinet.

– Greg Gutfeld

Biden Promises Next Trump Assassin Will Be a Woman of Color

- Babylon Bee

BREAKING: Israel Kills Thousands More Terrorists With Exploding “200 Free Hours of AOL” CDs

- Ibid

We had an open primary, and she won it.

– Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in a recent podcast claiming that Kamala Harris won an open primary, even though that is absolutely not true

I’ve recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

- Legendary NFL quarterback Brett Favre, age 54, disclosing during Congressional testimony on Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease

We can’t afford four more years of this!

- Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at a rally, seeming to forget that his running mate is the sitting vice president

I’m happy to be here, but I just want to be remembered for doing a good job; that’s most important.

- Tinton Falls, N.J., Mayor Vito Perillo at his 100th birthday celebration

I think Trump’s decision on the debate basically does make sense at this point. It’s too risky for him in the final days. He thinks there’s a natural arc here where she’s peaked and now she’s going to really have to figure out ways to get another point or two which are declining.

- Harris Poll chairman and Democratic strategist Mark Penn on Fox News explaining why it makes sense for former President Donald Trump not to debate Vice President Kamala Harris again

I want to be very clear: I thought what Israel chose to do about blowing up the pagers and walkie talkies and after targeting and eliminating membership and leadership of Hezbollah, I absolutely support that. In fact, if anything, I love it.

- Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on NBC’s “Meet the Press”

For the second day in a row, I absolutely endorse weaponizing Hezbollah’s tools of terror against themselves.

- Ibid, tweeting after the walkie-talkie explosions

Hezbollah is currently being run by everyone who last week Hezbollah thought wasn’t good enough to deserve a pager.

– Tweet by Mark Wallace

Israel’s pager attack in Lebanon detonated thousands of handheld devices across of a slew of public spaces, seriously injuring and killing innocent civilians. This attack clearly and unequivocally violates international humanitarian law and undermines U.S. efforts to prevent a wider conflict. Congress needs a full accounting of the attack, including an answer from the State Department as to whether any U.S. assistance went into the development or deployment of this technology.

- Tweet by AOC

AOC tweeting about pagers wounding Hezbollah terrorists but not about 12 Druze kids killed by Hezbollah is a perfect encapsulation of the modern left. Morally bankrupt terrorist sympathizers.

- Tweet by Erielle Azerrad in response to AOC

Why don’t you mention the pagers were on members of a terrorist organization that is committed to destroying Israel? Would you have been defending al Qaeda when America was lighting them up in Iraq?

- Chris Cuomo responding to AOC

A lot of students were caught up in that. And, a lot of the videos on social media gave not just a one-sided view of the conflict, but a totally anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, not just pro-Palestinian view. And for me, it was distressing because, look, I have my own opinions formed over many years.

- Hillary Clinton talking to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria about her experience while on Columbia University’s campus during the pro-Palestinian protests last spring

I am willing to sit down and have a conversation with anybody, but it’s difficult to have conversations with people who hold strong opinions with no factual and historical basis. And so, in trying to talk to students – not just at Columbia but elsewhere – I would be met with slogans. I would be met with attacks and, you know, very inflammatory language.

- Ibid.

And when I would ask, “Well, what about, do you know what happened in 2000 at Camp David?” No. “Do you know what happened in 1947?” No. “Do you know how difficult the relationships have been?” No. “Do you know that there are Arab Israelis and some are serving in the IDF?” None of that. And this whole chanting of, you know, from the “river to the sea.” What does that mean? What river? What sea? That’s what bothered me.

- Ibid.

I grew up understanding the children of the community are the children of the community, and we should all have a vested interest in ensuring that children can go grow up with the resources that they need to achieve their God-given potential.

- Kamala Harris, addressing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 47th Annual Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.

We’re disappointed. We were looking forward to giving the vice president an enthusiastic welcome and we were confident that she would find this, you know, she speaks very much about high ideals and how it’s good to get away from division and come together in unity and all. That’s what the Al Smith dinner is all about.

- Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, voicing his disappointment that Kamala Harris has chosen to skip the historic Al Smith dinner during which historically both presidential candidates have jointly attended in the weeks before the presidential election for the purpose of raising millions of dollars for charity

We’re not used to this. We don’t know how to handle it. This hasn’t happened in 40 years, since Walter Mondale turned down the invitation. And remember, he lost 49 out of 50 states. I don’t want to say there’s a direct connection there, but we’re not giving up, we hope she’s here.

- Ibid.

If you are condemning the precision of Israel’s self-defense without condemning the indiscriminateness of Hezbollah’s aggression, you are not promoting peace. You are obstinately opposing Israel’s right to defend itself against the world’s most heavily armed terrorist organization. How can one be outraged over a precision strike by Israel against terrorists while remaining silent about Hezbollah’s role in firing over 8k rockets against Israel; in displacing up to 100k Israelis from their homes; and in murdering 12 Druze children with relentless rocket fire? The selective outrage is revealing.

- Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY)

Now Israel has blown up walkie talkies in Lebanon. Buyer beware: If you buy anything from Israel, it might have a bomb in it. I don’t see how anyone would ever trust an Israeli-made product again.

- Tweet by Cenk Uygur, a Turkish-American politician and political commentator

Tweeted from a device that undoubtedly has Israeli technology in it.

- Ben Shapiro, in response

If I don’t win this election, Israel in my opinion will cease to exist within two years, and I believe I’m 100% percent right. If I do win, Israel will be safe and secured.

- Trump, speaking at the Israeli-American Council (IAC) conference in Washington last week

Our people have one more secret. And this [promise] is what has stood by our ancestors and us; for it was not only one man who rose up to destroy us: in every single generation people rise up to destroy us – but the Holy One, Blessed Be He, saves us from their hands.

- Dr. Miriam Adelson to Trump, immediately after his speech

Your daughter knows that, too.

- Ibid.

Political Crossfire

The Ominous Implications of the Pager Attack Against Hezbollah

By David Ignatius

The scene in Lebanon last Tuesday was like something out of a bizarre James Bond movie – with pagers exploding simultaneously in the pockets of hundreds of Hezbollah fighters around the country in what appeared to be an ingenious Israeli operation that combined cyberwar with sabotage.

But Hezbollah gets to write the next chapter in this real-life thriller. And Israeli officials were preparing Tuesday night for retaliatory attacks that, if not contained, could trigger the all-out regional war U.S. officials have been trying to head off for nearly a year.

Israel didn’t take credit for Tuesday’s attack, but it didn’t need to. An attack of this sophistication and daring in Lebanon could not have been staged by any other nation. The video scenes of Hezbollah fighters blown to the floor by their own communications devices sent an unmistakable Israeli message to the

Iranian-backed militia: We own you. We can penetrate every space in which you operate.

“When Hezbollah considers how to respond, they should consider that Israel may have more surprises for them. And Israel does,” said one source familiar with Israeli thinking, during an interview on Tuesday.

Biden administration officials were quick to distance themselves from the attack in Lebanon, saying they had not been given any prior notice. For President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the timing couldn’t be worse: This sharp escalation and risk of a wider war comes less than two months before the presidential election – and it might detonate any chance of a Gaza cease-fire deal and the release of Israeli hostages.

U.S. officials were in contact with Iran through a back channel on Tuesday to convey that the United States did not

have any role on the attack. The administration’s sense, for now, is that Hezbollah is confused and panicked, and that it won’t make an immediate military response. If there is an attack, U.S. officials believe Israel can contain the damage –and that, if necessary, the United States will help defend Israel.

Israel’s apparent decision to launch the attack was probably driven by both political and operational factors. The U.S.-led cease-fire plan is stalled, and with it the hope of a diplomatic deal with Hezbollah to calm the border. And having developed the extraordinary ability to turn their adversary’s communications devices into bombs, Israel might have judged that this capability must be used before it could be discovered and the pagers disarmed, as the newsletter Al Monitor reported on Tuesday night.

Israel’s desire to strike Hezbollah harder reflects a broad view among Is -

raelis that the country can’t afford what has become a prolonged war of attrition with Lebanese militia members. Though Israel has effectively neutered Hamas militarily in Gaza, Hezbollah has continued to expand its rocket attacks against northern Israel. More than 60,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate their homes in the north, leaving behind what amount to ghost towns.

The political pressure to deal with “the north,” as Israelis call it, has become nearly as intense as the desire for the hostages’ freedom. “When it comes to Lebanon and the north, there is a growing consensus in Israel that something needs to be done,” said the source familiar with Israeli thinking. The source also noted that the Israeli cabinet on Monday had added a new goal to its list of war aims: The return of Israelis to their homes near the border with Lebanon. The ingenuity of the pager attack was

Israel’s apparent penetration of Hezbollah’s secretive supply chain – which had distributed the exploding devices. The group’s leader, Hasan Nasrallah, had warned his operatives in a February speech to stop using cellphones, which had “become like everyone’s oxygen,” but which gave away the fighters’ positions and sometimes acted as Israeli spying devices.

“Israel no longer needs collaborators,” Nasrallah said. “Its surveillance devices are in your pockets. If you are looking for the Israeli agent, look at the phone in your hands and those of your wives and children.” Nasrallah knew that mobile devices send signals to commercial cellphone towers that can easily be intercepted.

Hezbollah rushed to protect its military network by providing members with special pagers that used a system that was harder to crack. The militia surely never imagined that Israeli operatives could penetrate their supply chain for the pagers. But that’s what appears to have happened, U.S. cyber experts told me. Hezbollah sent a telling message late Tuesday to its operatives: “Each one who received a new pager, throw it away,” according to a source quoted by The Post.

What caused the devices to explode at about 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday? When the attacks began to flood Beirut hospitals with what would be more than 2,800 casualties, several U.S. analysts told me they initially suspected that Israeli malware might have triggered explosions of lithium batteries in the pagers. But videos that captured several of the detona-

aged to get access to the pagers themselves before they were distributed and inserted small amounts of very powerful explosives. Malware inserted into the pagers’ operating systems likely created a cyber trigger, so that when the pagers received a call from a particular number – or some other signal – the explosives detonated, the sources said.

The video scenes of Hezbollah fighters blown to the floor by their own communications devices sent an unmistakable Israeli message to the Iranian-backed militia: We own you.

tions make that theory unlikely. Lithium batteries get very hot before they explode – so hot that nobody would keep them long in their pockets. And the explosion was typically preceded by smoke and then fire, the videos appear to show. What likely happened, U.S. sources told me, was that Israeli agents man -

From a technical standpoint, it was a brilliant operation. Everyone on the military network was a target – including, it appears, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, who was shown on videos entering a hospital after being wounded. The Hezbollah network has now lost its special internal communications system.

And because it appears to have Hezbollah’s number, quite literally, Israel can send messages warning surviving operatives that they will be killed if they try to retaliate, one U.S. source noted. Beyond its devastating effect on Hezbollah, the attack signals the beginning of a new and very dangerous era in cyberwarfare. Any device that is connected to the internet can potentially be transformed into a weapon. The circuits of a “smart” appliance can be manipulated so that they malfunction in a dangerous way. In the Stuxnet cyberattack against Iran’s nuclear program, malware caused centrifuges to spin so wildly that they became unstable and self-destructed. In the future of what’s called of the “Internet of Things,” the errant device could be your phone, refrigerator or television. With each new advance of weapons technology, designers imagine they’ll have exclusive use of the deadly tools of war. The United States once had what seemed a monopoly on drones, for example, but they’re now a pervasive instrument of war. Even the audacious 007 would know that his enemies can turn his weapons against him.

© 2024, Washington Post Writers Group

Political Crossfire Trump Disavowed Project 2025. But Harris Still Owns Her Project 2019

At last week’s debate, Vice President Kamala Harris warned that Donald Trump has “a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025” that he “intends on implementing if he were elected again.” Project 2025 is the subject of an ad blitz from the Harris campaign. It also was a centerpiece of her convention address and remains a refrain in her stump speech. “I can’t believe they put that thing in writing,” she said.

Here’s the problem: Trump didn’t put it in writing; the Heritage Foundation did. It is a policy wish list dreamed up by conservative activists – some associated with Trump but many of them not –and Trump has repeatedly repudiated it. “They know it’s been disavowed,” Trump told me in an interview at Mar-a-Lago this week, but “they have ads about it because they’re lying people.”

Vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz said at the Democratic convention: “They spent a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this. But look, I coached high school football long enough to know … when somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it.” Well, then let’s look at Harris’s own radical policy playbook: the extreme left-wing policies she campaigned on when she ran for president four years ago. Call it “Project 2019.”

Unlike Project 2025, which Trump has never embraced, Harris is on record as having supported the following Project 2019 policies:

-Banning the sale of gas-powered cars. In April 2019, Harris co-sponsored the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act in the

By Marc A. Thiessen

Senate, which would have banned the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2040. Then, during her 2019 campaign, Harris promised to implement an “accelerated model” of the act that would move the target ahead to 2035.

-A federal ban on fracking. At CNN’s September 2019 town hall on the climate crisis, Harris declared, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” She pledged to end fossil fuel leases on public lands as well as all offshore drilling and to weaponize her Justice Department to go after oil and gas companies that have directly impacted global warming, telling the audience she will “take them to court and sue them.”

-Ending private health insurance. In 2017, she was the first Democrat to co-sponsor Sen. Bernie Sanders’s

Medicare for All Act, which would have abolished private health insurance and replaced it with a government-run single-payer system. In 2019, she reaffirmed that position. Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper at a January 2019 town hall whether she would “totally eliminate private insurance,” Harris said yes. “The idea is that everyone gets access to medical care, and you don’t have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval,” she told Tapper, adding: “Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.”

-The Green New Deal. In 2019, Harris co-sponsored the radical Green New Deal. As a candidate, she unveiled her own plan to spend $10 trillion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with a goal of getting to a carbon-neutral economy by

2045. And she vowed to ram it through the Senate with a simple majority, declaring on CNN, “If they fail to act, as president of the United States, I am prepared to get rid of the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal.”

-Decriminalizing illegal border crossings. In 2019, Harris raised her hand during a Democratic debate when asked if she supported decriminalizing border crossings. In an interview that same year, she declared, “I am in favor of saying that we’re not going to treat people who are undocumented and cross the border as criminals.”

-Defunding Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Asked in 2019 if she supported abolishing ICE, Harris replied: “We’ve got to critically reexamine ICE and its role and the way that it is being administered and the work it is doing, and we need to probably think about starting from scratch.” In an ACLU questionnaire, Harris boasted that she “was one of the first Senators after President Trump was elected to advocate for a decrease in funding to ICE” and promised that, as president, she would slash ICE detentions by at least 50 percent.

-Health care for illegal migrants. During her 2019 campaign, Harris came out in favor of providing taxpayer-funded health care for illegal migrants, telling CNN: “Let me just be very clear about this. I am opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education or public health, period.” And in the ACLU questionnaire, she promised that this coverage would include gender transition surgery for migrants held in

federal immigration detention.

-Decriminalizing drug possession. Asked by the ACLU, “Will you support the decriminalization at the federal level of all drug possession for personal use?” Harris answered yes.

-Bailing out violent criminals, defunding the police and letting felons vote. Harris raised money for a bail fund that helped put violent criminals back on the streets. Asked by CNN’s Don Lemon whether “people who are convicted, in prison like the Boston Marathon bomber, on death row, people who are convicted of … assault,” should be able to vote, Harris replied, “I think we should have that conversation.” She has also praised the “defund the police” movement.

-Mandatory gun buybacks. While running for president in 2019, Harris said at a gun safety forum in Las Vegas that she supported forcing owners of millions of so-called assault weapons to give them up, telling MSNBC, “We have to have a buyback program, and I support a mandatory buyback program.”

-Court-packing. In 2019, Harris was asked about the possibility of adding up to four seats to the Supreme Court. She said she was “open to this conversation.” Two months earlier, she had told Politico

that “everything is on the table” when it comes to the court.

-Proposing $46 trillion in new spending. Manhattan Institute budget expert Brian Riedl went through all of Harris’s 2019 campaign pledges to see how much they cost. He found that she had proposed a mind-boggling $46 trillion in new government spending over a decade.

ous positions were deeply mistaken. But if she now recognizes she was wrong, then she needs to explain why she reversed course. It’s not good enough to simply say, “I won’t ban fracking.” What changed her mind, other than shalerich Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes? She needs to explain why, after calling a border wall “a monument standing in opposition to not just everything I val-

If Harris wants to disavow her words and record, she needs to do it herself – and give voters a clear reason for the change.

A caveat: Politicians are free to change their minds. Since taking these extreme stands, Harris has served four years as vice president. Perhaps she has grown in office and learned from hard experience (such as the worst border crisis in more than 100 years, since the Mexican-American War) that her previ-

ue, but to the fundamental values upon which this country was built,” she is now campaigning on a promise to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the wall, and released a campaign ad featuring a portion of the border wall Trump built? It’s one thing to change a position or two over time; it’s another to abandon

huge parts of what you campaigned on – while simultaneously asserting that “my values have not changed.” That suggests Harris’s flip-flops are less out of principle and more out of concern that a 47 percent plurality of voters say she is “too liberal or progressive,” according to the latest New York Times-Siena College poll.

And, critically, which of Harris’s 2019 positions is she actually abandoning? This is the first time since then that she has run on her own agenda, and she has not laid out a detailed 2025 platform. In most cases, the walkbacks of her 2019 positions are coming from unnamed aides. Sorry, but if Harris wants to disavow her words and record, she needs to do it herself – and give voters a clear reason for the change.

Harris can’t saddle Trump with positions he never took while simultaneously expecting to be magically absolved of responsibility for every extreme position she has taken, including legislation she co-sponsored as a senator, on the word of others. She’s the one on the ballot. And until she explains otherwise, so is her Project 2019 agenda.

© 2024, Washington Post Writers Group

Political Crossfire

How Hamas Uses Brutality to Maintain Power

By Julian E. Barnes, Adam Rasgon, Adam Goldman and Ronen Bergman

Early this summer, Amin Abed, a Palestinian activist who has spoken out publicly about Hamas, twice found bullets on his doorstep in the northern Gaza Strip.

Then in July, he said he was attacked by Hamas security operatives, who covered his head and dragged him away before repeatedly striking him with hammers and metal bars.

“At any moment, I can be killed by the Israeli occupation, but I can face the same fate at the hands of those who’ve been ruling us for 17 years,” he said in a phone interview from his hospital bed, referring to Hamas. “They almost killed me, those killers and criminals.”

Abed, who remains hospitalized, was rescued by bystanders who witnessed the attack, but what happened to him has happened to others throughout Gaza.

The bodies of six Israeli hostages recovered last month provided a visceral reminder of Hamas’ brutality. Each had been shot in the head. Some had other bullet wounds, suggesting they were shot while trying to escape, according to Israeli officials who reviewed the autopsy results.

But Hamas also uses violence to maintain its control over Gaza’s population.

Some Palestinians have been injured or killed as Hamas wages an insurgent style of warfare that risks Palestinian lives to strike the Israeli military from densely populated areas. Others have been attacked or threatened for criticizing the group. Some Palestinians have been shot, accused of looting or hoarding aid.

Much international attention has focused on Israeli hurdles to delivering aid to Palestinians, its military operations that have killed tens of thousands of people, and a bombing campaign that has reduced cities to rubble. U.S. officials have repeatedly expressed deep frustration with Israel for those failures, too, as well as for not providing basic security in the territory.

But the reality of the war, according to U.S. officials, is that the Israeli military and Hamas carry out questionable acts nearly every day. Many of the reports reviewed by U.S. intelligence analysts involve Israeli actions: military strikes that kill large numbers of civilians, errant attacks on aid convoys or other deadly incidents. But a large number of reports involve Hamas, both its acts of terrorism against hostages and its abuses of Palestinians.

Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, the head of the U.S. intelligence agency that analyzes satellite imagery, compared the role of intelligence officials monitoring Gaza to that of an umpire.

“We also have a responsibility to tell the whole story,” he said at a gathering of reporters recently. “We certainly are enabling Israel to protect itself. But we are also calling every ball and strike and balk and foul, and we’re doing so in a very complete way.”

This article is based on interviews with more than three dozen U.S. and Israeli officials, Hamas members and Palestinian residents of Gaza. Many of the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence assessments. Many of the Palestinians spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation.

Since the attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, which killed 1,200 people, Israel’s aim has been to “destroy Hamas.” In practice, that means that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to end the group’s hold on power in Gaza. But after 11 months of war, U.S. officials say Hamas’ control has been loosened but not broken.

Palestinians are quick to excoriate Israel for the deaths and destruction in Gaza. But some Palestinians said in interviews that Hamas has put Gaza residents in Israel’s crosshairs by launching attacks from neighborhoods, running tunnels under apartment buildings and hiding hostages in city centers.

And Hamas is still able to inspire fear among the people it rules, despite the chaos that has taken hold across the territory.

“There’s no international law that justifies Israel killing civilians,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a professor of political science who fled Gaza early in the war. “But Hamas has acted recklessly.”

Putting Civilians in the Line of Fire

Hamas’ practice of operating from civilian areas of Gaza has drawn sharp criticism from Palestinians.

“Those launching rockets and firing bullets from civilian areas don’t care about civilians,” said Abu Shaker, whose family has been repeatedly displaced. He asked to be identified by his nickname. “If you want to fight Israel, you should go do that. But why are you coming to hide among the civilians?”

At the beginning of the war, he said, militants fired rockets at Israel from the busy towns of Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat in central Gaza. Residents hurried indoors in anticipation of retaliatory Israeli strikes.

It is notoriously difficult to assess public opinion in Gaza. Mobile phone networks have been spotty. Polling is extremely complicated. Interviews are challenging to conduct, especially during a war. And speaking out against Hamas is risky.

Palestinians interviewed by The New York Times expressed frustration with Hamas, particularly over its practice of embedding in civilian areas. The Palestinians interviewed said that while Israel bore enormous responsibility for the suffering the war has brought upon them, Hamas did, too.

Hamas built access points to its extensive tunnel network inside homes. An aerial photo recovered by the Israeli military from a Hamas commander’s post shows three dozen hidden tunnel entrances marked with color-coded dots and arrows in one crowded neighborhood.

To some Palestinians, an Israeli airstrike July 13 targeting senior military commander Mohammed Deif and another Hamas military leader is an example of the perils civilians face.

Israeli officials say that Deif had entered a villa in a designated humanitarian zone to meet with a Hamas commander who was hiding there. Some 70 Palestinians were killed in the assault, including many women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel later declared Deif dead, but Hamas has disputed the claim.

Munir al-Jaghoub, an official in the Fatah party in the West Bank, blasted Israel for the deaths. But he also condemned Hamas.

“Any soldier who wants to bear arms is required to protect civilians, not to hide among civilians,” he said in a televised interview.

Hamas officials rejected criticisms that the group put civilians in harm’s way and suggestions that it should keep its fighters away from towns and cities.

“There’s no such thing as being outside residential areas in Gaza,” said Husam Badran, a senior Hamas official. “These pretexts, primarily made by the Israeli occupation army, are meaningless.”

“Shut Him Up”

Palestinians who protest face the threat of immediate retaliation.

On Saturday, the Palestinian Jour -

nalists’ Syndicate blasted the “policy of intimidation and threat” facing some journalists in Gaza after a group of gunmen stormed the home of Ehab Fasfous, a reporter and social media activist. While the syndicate did not explicitly name Hamas, it left little doubt that it was behind the raid on Fasfous’ home in the southern city of Khan Younis.

In its statement, the organization said that it viewed the raid with “great severity” and that journalists and their families should be protected.

“Journalists in Gaza are being constantly killed by Israel,” said Tahseen al-Astal, the deputy head of the group.

The Interior Ministry, Thawabteh said, has opened investigations into both incidents.

Hamas has paid particularly close attention to journalists and activists who criticize its rule on social networks and to Western news media, according to U.S. officials and Palestinian analysts. But other Palestinians have also been threatened and intimidated.

Earlier this year, Alaa al-Haddad, 28, an activist from Gaza City, began criticizing Hamas as he watched the news with strangers at a shelter in Rafah. Soon after, Haddad said that his uncle was approached by a member of Hamas. “Shut him up,”

In one incident, a group of Hamas members beat people accused of stealing aid and spray-painted the word “thief” on the back of one of them.

“When internal Palestinian parties go after them, too, their work becomes impossible.”

Fasfous, a well-known critic of Hamas, has long been targeted by the group’s general security service, a secret police force in Gaza that has conducted surveillance on everyday Palestinians, according to Hamas documents obtained by the Times.

Weeks before the start of the war, the unit recommended taking action to prevent Fasfous from reporting as a journalist. “Defame him,” a file from August 2023 read, calling him one of Hamas’ “major haters.”

“We advise that closing in on him is necessary because he’s a negative person who is full of hatred, and only brings forth the Strip’s shortcomings,” the file said.

In an interview with the Times in May, Fasfous said Hamas held critics in contempt. “If you’re not with them, you become an atheist, an infidel and a sinner,” he added.

Ismail Thawabteh, the director general of the Hamas-run government media office, attempted to distance Hamas from the threats and violence waged against Fasfous and Abed. Without citing any evidence, he suggested that the two men were victims of personal disputes or street crime that he said had become increasingly prevalent since the start of the war.

“It Was Horrific”

Hamas also hides hostages among Palestinian civilians, with devastating consequences.

In early June, Israel planned a mission to rescue four of the dozens of living hostages who remain in Gaza. But civilians in the densely populated Nuseirat area proved a complicating factor.

The Israelis sent in rescue vehicles June 8, and when one was damaged, Hamas militants moved in on it. A firefight broke out, and commandos called in the Israeli air force, which began striking the neighborhood.

The hostages were ultimately rescued. But more than 270 Palestinians were killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, though it has proved impossible to determine with certainty how many were Hamas fighters and how many were residents or innocent bystanders.

Many Palestinians are angry at Israel for conducting the raid. But others said they knew that Israel would try to rescue its people, no matter the toll.

Haddad said the man told his uncle.

“This is the story of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” said Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian American who is a fellow with the Atlantic Council. “The powerlessness of being stuck between a ferocious Israeli war machine and a nefarious Islamist group that operates among the civilians.”

While Hamas officials minimize criticisms of their conduct, they broadly argue that the suffering of the Palestinian people is the cost for fighting against the Israeli occupation of Gaza.

Hamas recognizes that “freedom doesn’t come for free,” said Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, a member of the group who spent time in prison with its current leader, Yahya Sinwar.

“There is no liberation movement that has freed its people without paying a big price in terms of civilians,” he said.

But some U.S. and Israeli officials said their intelligence assessments indicate that Sinwar is more interested in inflicting pain on Israel than uplifting the Palestinian people.

“He’s not calculating the impact on human beings or property,” said Ted Singer, a recently retired senior CIA official who worked extensively in the Middle East. “He is calculating on bringing the Israelis down a notch and freeing Palestinian prisoners.”

“I’m totally against mixing prisoners and civilians,” said Kareem, a lawyer who spoke on the condition that only his first name be used to avoid retribution from Hamas authorities. “We saw what the operation resulted in. It was horrific. A very high price.”

According to Israeli and U.S. officials, intelligence intercepts show that Hamas leaders have ordered their fighters to kill hostages if it appeared that Israeli troops were moving in and could potentially rescue them. Earlier this month, Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, suggested that militants had been given such orders.

Israeli officials said they believed that was what happened last month. On Aug. 29 or 30, according to an Israeli intelligence assessment, Hamas militants holding six hostages in the tunnels below the Tel Sultan area of Gaza detected an Israeli military patrol above them. Israeli military officials said they believed that Hamas scouts or a camera revealed the Israeli soldiers’ movements.

Acting on the standing orders not to allow hostages to be liberated, the militants executed their captives and fled the tunnel, according to Israeli officials. The soldiers aboveground continued their patrol, not knowing they had come close to the hostages.

The Israeli military said that the entrance to the tunnel was located inside a child’s bedroom.

“A military force doesn’t do” what Hamas did, said Jonathan R. Cohen,

a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt. “They’re a terrorist organization with a military structure. That’s a terrifying thing.”

A Hold on Power

To break Hamas’ control of Gaza, Israeli officials say they need to destroy not just its military power but also its ability to function as a government. Critics of Israel have questioned that strategy, which they say hurts ordinary Palestinians. But nearly a year into the war, the civilian government still functions.

Thawabteh, the director general of the Hamas-run government media office, said the government still employs thousands of people, helps distribute aid, and organizes Friday prayers. Security services continue to try to enforce the law, he added.

Government-run emergency committees help secure aid and maintain order, Thawabteh said.

“The government in Gaza is living through a time of challenges,” he said. “But it’s still in place carrying out its duties every day.”

Hamas is not the only group active in Gaza. Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a

Hamas ally that participated in the Oct. 7 terror attacks, remains strong. Armed gangs and neighborhood committees operate throughout the territory, with some also making threats and carrying out revenge attacks.

U.S. officials say the groups operate with the implicit blessing of Hamas, though its precise level of oversight and

Aid agencies trying to deliver humanitarian relief to Gaza acknowledge Hamas’ continued control. Aid convoys must coordinate their efforts with local Hamas leaders or risk the aid not getting through.

Efforts to have Palestinians in Gaza who are aligned with the West Bankbased Palestinian Authority help secure

“There is no liberation movement that has freed its people without paying a big price in terms of civilians,” he said.

control of them varies from group to group.

But Sinwar is the unchallenged leader of Gaza. While his day-to-day control of the government is attenuated as he tries to avoid being captured or killed by Israel, he still sets the broad goals and policies for Gaza, according to officials briefed on the intelligence.

aid convoys have fallen apart. U.S. officials say Hamas hostility and threats on those convoys shut down the effort.

Looting has afflicted several Gaza cities after Israeli forces pulled out. Some of the looters may have been hungry people trying to feed their families. Others may have had more base motivations.

Israeli and U.S. officials say Hamas

has tried to stop the looting, but often with brutal tactics.

In some instances, according to U.S. officials, people accused of looting have been shot in the leg. In one incident, a group of Hamas members beat people accused of stealing aid and spray-painted the word “thief” on the back of one of them, according to the Israeli military.

To some Palestinians, the rough justice has added to a climate of fear.

Abed, 35, the Palestinian critic of Hamas who was beaten in July, was attacked after writing on social media and speaking to news media, including to the Times, and believes that Hamas’ leaders want to make an example out of him.

On Wednesday, Abed left Gaza for the first time in more than two decades, one of dozens of wounded and ill people whom Israel permitted to travel to the United Arab Emirates for treatment.

“I feel terrible that I’ve left our family and people behind, but at the same time, I feel safe for the first time in 17 years,” he said in a voice message from his hospital bed in Abu Dhabi. “There’s no one that wants to kill, arrest or follow me.”

(© The New York Times)

Forgotten Her es Heroes of the Marine Corps

By Avi Heiligman

The American Marine Corps is the maritime branch of the military that is responsible for amphibious operations. They also could be called upon to take missions that involve air or land assets. Throughout history they have participated in some of the toughest battles ever fought by American troops including Belleau Woods in World War I and Iwo Jima and Okinawa in World War II. There have been many legendary and historic marines that have made their way into Marine Corps lore. Here are some of their stories.

Many American servicemembers were born abroad and after moving to the U.S. felt a need to serve their new country. Louis Cukela was born in 1888 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today his birth town is in Croatia) and moved to the United States in 1913. His first stint in the military was with the army in 1914; he was honorably discharged two years later. A few months before the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Cukela enlisted in the marines. He was assigned to the 66th Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment and soon was deployed to France. Cukela saw action at Belleau Woods and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and earned many awards and medals including being twice decorated with the Medal of Honor. It is interesting to note that both of his Medal of Honors were for the same action, but one was from the army and the other was from the navy.

The extraordinary action for which Sergeant Cukela received two Medal of Honor citations occurred on July 18, 1918 near Villers-Cotterets, France. The 66th Company had come across an enemy strongpoint, and Cukela warned his men of the danger. Cukela then crawled under heavy gunfire towards a German machine gun and bayoneted the crew. He then picked up the grenades lying in the machine gun nest and tossed them into other parts of the German position. He captured four German soldiers and two more machine guns. Many other decorations were bestowed upon him. Cukela remained in the military throughout World War II serving almost 32 years on active duty.

Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Albert Ireland was awarded an incredible nine Purple Hearts for wounds while fighting the enemy. Hailing from the Hudson Valley region of New York, Ireland began his military career with the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941. He had only a short stint with the northern American neighbors because a sinus condition prevented him from becoming a pilot. Ireland joined many other Americans in joining the U.S. military in the days after the Pearl Harbor attacks, and he soon became a machine gunner in the Marine Corps.

The marines were called upon to lead the amphibious invasion of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in August 1942. Ireland received his first Purple Heart for actions on the Pacific island when two

pieces of Japanese shrapnel hit him in his back and left lung. Despite his wounds and a bout with malaria, Ireland returned to the marines. On Okinawa, he was wounded four separate times on Sugar Loaf Hill while serving with the 1 st Battalion, 4th Marines, 6th Marine Division. After earning five Purple Hearts for actions during World War II, Ireland returned to the U.S. with shrapnel in his lung and became a reservist in the marines.

The decorated marine volunteered for action during the Korean War and initially was denied to be sent to the front lines. It was against regulations to send a marine that had received more than two Purple Hearts into combat, but Ireland appealed to the commander of the Marine Corps and was allowed to join a combat unit. He became a squad leader with Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. In September 1951, his unit was ambushed by the North Koreans, and he told the rest of his squad to find cover. Courageously, he crawled towards the enemy and tossed grenades and fired his rifle. This action killed several enemy soldiers and forced the rest to withdraw. Ireland received the Bronze Star for his exploits. He was wounded four more times while fighting in Korea before the marines shipped him home despite him wanting to stay in the combat zone. In total, Ireland was awarded two Bronze Star medals, nine Purple Hearts, and a host of other medals and citations for his incredible war record.

Snipers have been a part of marine history for over a century, with Chuck Mawhinney holding the marine record with 103 confirmed kills and over 200 probable kills. The Oregon native fought during the Vietnam War and only killed enemy combatants that were carrying a weapon. Often, he would stay up all night at his camp’s perimeter looking to see if any enemy soldiers would attempt a sneak attack. Once, near Da Nang, he saw a group of Vietnamese soldiers crossing a shallow river. Mawhinney calmly shot and killed sixteen of them before the rest ran away. He never had regrets about his record except the ones that got away as he viewed the kills as saving friends and fellow marines that would have been targeted if he didn’t eliminate the threat.

The sacrifices that many marines have made throughout their history are important for Americans to recognize and learn from their dedication to duty. Presented in this article are just three of the many stories of bravery and courage attributed to the men and women of the Marine Corps. Their contributions both on and off the battlefield have won wars and saved countless lives.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.

Chuck Mawhinney, deadliest sniper in Marine Corps history

Albert Ireland

Louis Cukela

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Why Am I SoFull?

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS

The holidays are almost here. Even though they come late this year.

No matter what the calendar states.

After Labor Day, we’re focusing on our fate.

And not just that, but thinking where we’ll be.

At home or traveling to the holy city.

Or cooking, hosting, and truly busy.

Or, at our parents, catered to, by family.

If 2-day festivals have Shabbos join in.

They luckily leave little time for sin.

‘Cuz straight to shul we just keeping going.

Ergo all our mitzvos just keep growing.

Yet, these 3-day holidays knock us out.

‘Cuz praying is not what they’re exclusively about.

Eating meal after meal is a surprising must.

By the end of them, you’re ready to bust!

And it’s not just one time, you get this triad.

It’s Rosh Hashana, Sukkos, and the holiday of “much glad.”

So nine days of stuffing come in quick succession.

Just keep pacing yourself is my suggestion.

And what about those poor moms, who just keep shopping.

I’m sure they feel they’re almost dropping.

At an open restaurant they’d surely rather be booking.

But they are closed, so no way to avoid the cooking!

What’s going on, why all the fuss?

Why is G-d overfeeding us?

The secret is, the body houses the soul.

So to fill it to the brim is the goal!

The plan is for the soul, the body to emulate.

Thus, to fill it to the limit is absolutely great.

It should overfill with love and attraction.

And launch us into a year of peace and satisfaction.