Five Towns Jewish Home 10.15.24

High Spirits at CIMBY 2024

Local Heroes Honored at ZAKA Night

Dear Readers,

It’s hard to remember that just a few days ago we spent the day in shul forgoing food and comforts to connect with our Creator. When we’re davening and really connecting, the significance of what’s truly important in our lives is so clear. We ask for fundamentals; we vow to have the right focus and the right priorities. The Instagram rat race instantly fades away when we see how distracting it is to our relationship with the One Above.

But as we break our fasts, the sincere yearnings we had a few hours before begin to recede to the backs of our minds. As we look ahead towards yom tov, we start to spend time planning menus, icing cakes, and buying clothes for our children. Did we forget about our pledge not to get caught up in the materialism in our lives?

Sukkos comes to remind us that, although we are corporeal beings, our soul is the substance that drives our true desires. We shop, we cook, we buy clothes – and we do it for Him, for our Maker, Who commanded us to spend the next seven days with Him in a structure solely built as a reminder of our faith in Him so long ago.

Our sukkahs are hardly the rickety huts that they are sometimes described. But they are temporary abodes, clearly unfit for year-long living. And yet, in those structures, we are told – commanded – to be happy. Do things bring us happiness? Per-

haps, if they’re the right things, they can. A good meal after a long day, a pretty trinket to brighten your friend’s doorstep, a cozy sweater to remind us that we are warm and loved.

But truly, it’s the relationships that we have in life, the ones we cultivate and cherish, that bring us the most happiness. On Sukkos, we invite our family and friends to share in the yom tov with us, to bask in the connections we have with them and with Him, to elevate our food and our atmosphere in our home of faith.

In our temporary homes, we are reminded that there is one thing in our lives that is never temporary or fleeting. It is our faith in G-d that has traveled with us through the long travails of galus over the many years since we first stepped into His Clouds of Glory. That faith may have looked shaky at times, but it has never been severed or dissolved. The Jewish People, regardless of where they may have built their sukkahs –in Bavel or Spain or Germany – have always raised their heads towards the Heavens as they peered through the s’chach and felt the protection of their Creator.

That faith has always carried us through. It is that faith that brings us true happiness. And it is with that faith that we will greet Moshiach, may he come soon.

Wishing you a beautiful yom tov, Shoshana

Yitzy Halpern, PUBLISHER publisher@fivetownsjewishhome.com

Yosef Feinerman, MANAGING EDITOR ads@fivetownsjewishhome.com

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Wednesday, October 16

Candle Lighting: 5:54 pm Thursday, October 17

Candle Lighting After: 6:51 pm Friday, October 18

Candle Lighting: 5:51 pm

Shabbos Ends: 6:50 pm

Rabbeinu Tam: 7:21 pm

Dear Editor,

As an expatriate of New York, I feel compelled to write to the “The Jewish Home” to express outrage and astonishment over the virtual “radio silence” of Senator Chuck Schumer, a self-proclaimed “Shomer Yisroel”. Senator Schumer is deafeningly silent as Israel is engaged in a seven-front existential war for survival. On several past occasions, Senator Schumer roused me to my feet to give exuberant applause as he assured audiences that he was the indefatigable Shomer Yisroel committed to defending Israel and the Jewish people; this was his “name” and in his DNA. Yet, unlike Lindsay Graham, Ritchie Torres, and Elise Stefanik, all of whom are not Jewish, Chuck Schumer’s voice is muted and barely audible during this precarious and dangerous time. Israel is maligned on college campuses, the UN, and by leaders throughout the world for her audacity to respond militarily to an invasion of 3,000 crazed and barbaric Hamas terrorists and their Gazan sympathizers and continuous rocket attacks from Lebanon that resulted in displacements of citizens in Israel’s south and north, making them refugees within their own country since October 7, 2023. This is the time for a Shomer Yisroel to awaken from his slumber and use the imprimatur of his position as Senate Majority Leader to challenge incoherent policy de -

cisions of the Biden/Harris administration, hostility and callous insensitivity of Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the illogicality of Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau and other world leaders calling for an immediate embargo of paid arms and munitions while Israel is engaged in a seven-front war for her survival.

Immediately, I would like to call for term limits and Chuck Schumer’s resignation as our Shomer Yisroel and suggest that during these precarious times, Lindsay Graham, Ritchie Torres and Elise Stefanik be promoted and rewarded with shared designations of Shomrim Yisroel. Further, as an expatriate and former Democratic resident of New York State, I hope Jewish New Yorkers remember Chuck Schumer’s arrogant “apathy” on emergent issues of extreme importance to the New York Jewish community and Jews throughout the world, namely unconditional surrender of Hamas and Hezbollah and immediate return of all hostages!

Stephen I. Deutsch, M.D., Ph.D. CAPTAIN (retired), Medical Corps, United States Navy

Dear Editor, Sometimes, amidst the hectic hustle bustle of everyday life, we may forget why

Continued on page 16

we’re called the Am Segulah, the Treasured Nation.

But recently, I was reminded!

It was the day that Israel came under a massive attack from Iran and hundreds of deadly ballistic missiles were raining down on our beloved Eretz Yisroel. Like most of you, I was already on high alert and deeply concerned, but as my daughter is currently learning in seminary in Jerusalem, I was especially emotionally invested.

As I was walking into Yeshiva Ketana of the Five Towns that I teach in, my phone began to ring. It was my daughter frantically calling me from inside a bomb shelter! As you can imagine, she was hysterical as shrieking sirens wailed all across Israel and the sound of distant explosions were constant and streaks of flame lit up the night skies.

Feeling utterly helpless from across the ocean, I did what any mother would do. I told her that I loved her and she should say Tehillim and stay strong.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, wiped away a tear, said a silent prayer and walked into my fifth grade boys’ classroom. I took a brief moment to explain that our thoughts and prayers are with our brothers in Israel. Suddenly, without any instruction, fanfare or conversation, the boys all proceeded to take out their Tehillims.

One boy began by reading each pasuk aloud, and, in turn, the rest of them repeated each line! They proceeded to recite three perakim with intense kavana and sincerity. They then all got up and walked to the back of the room, and with their arms embraced around each other’s shoulders, they gently swayed as they sang “Acheinu Kol Bais Yisroel” in beautiful harmony.

In total shock, I stood facing them, holding back tears, my heart bursting with love, appreciation and admiration.

I thought to myself, Wow, this incredible group of 9- and 10-year-old boys have so much empathy and maturity. They have depth and intelligence that far surpasses any lesson plan. They have respect and compassion that can’t be derived from a textbook

And in that moment, I knew why we are called the Am Segulah, the Treasured Nation!

This young generation of talmidim, the future of Klal Yisroel, are living examples of eternal, holy Torah values, molding them into these sensitive, impressive human beings!

Am Yisroel chai!

Donna Simantov

Dear Editor,

Former IDF chief of staff Dan Chalutz is protesting against the current government and speaking out against Netanyahu and right-wing ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich, claiming they are responsible for the problems of this war. Actually, he is the one responsible for everything. He led the pullout from Gaza when others weren’t willing to. That’s what caused these wars and the 2006 war in Lebanon where he did a terrible job. He was blamed for the failures in that war by a government report, and he lost his job because of it. The right wing actually opposed the pullout. He took the job of army chief of staff even though he wasn’t capable of the job, on Prime Minister Sharon’s condition that he would do the pullout of Gaza in 2004.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Ellie Reit

Lakewood, New Jersey

Dear Editor,

“60 Minutes” asked Kamala Harris, the current V.P., if she thought that the U.S. and Prime Minister Netanyahu had a close relationship. She thought for less than a second, and told Bill Whitaker, the interviewer, that she preferred rephrasing the question to whether the U.S. and Israel have a close relationship. She then answered her revised question with a definite “yes” without the interviewer doing a follow up to establish why she felt the relationship was a close one.

It is evident that the U.S. and Israel’s relationship is now further apart than it ever was, even under President Obama. This is problematic on a number of fronts. The first, is that Israel is a democracy, and Netanyahu was duly elected by a majority of the Israeli citizenry to serve as Prime Minister. The issue here is that the U.S. has no right to imply that a leader of another nation that is a principal ally is “persona non grata.” Second, the Biden/Harris administration having originally signed on to Israel’s goals of the war which were to eradicate Hamas and

get the hostages home no longer believes that. The U.S. has continually “red lined” Israel in its attempts to pursue its war, with the latest administration’s warnings not to go after Iran’s nuclear program or its oil fields.

The U.S. has allowed Iran to get rich by not enforcing an oil embargo that President Trump had placed on Iran which nearly bankrupted the country. This enabled Iran to sell oil to China and collect billions of dollars. All this, in an effort to get Iran to agree to deter their nuclear ambitions. The net effect has been that Iran has gone on to enrich uranium. According to Tony Blinken, Secretary of State, Iran is at the threshold of having a nuclear bomb.

Since October 7, 2023, American citizens have been killed by Hamas, and an additional 4 Americans, of the 101 total captives, remain in horrific terror tunnels in Gaza, if they are still alive. What Jew who loves Israel can support Kamala Harris when she doesn’t support Israel?

Jan Henock Woodmere, NY

Dear Editor,

As I look around at the Jewish world, I see a vibrant, growing, beautiful community. Many decades after the Holocaust, when Jewish were hunted down, killed and forced to flee, Hashem has blessed us now with much success and prosperity. But sometimes I think that the success makes us forget the important things in life.

When it comes to Sukkos, I wonder why people feel the need – there is so much pressure – to create expensive “tablescapes” (yes, plastic dishes are not cheap) with matching floral arrangements. And that’s not even talking about the decorations for the sukkah! We need to buy huge murals to cover the walls or designer acrylic wall hangings. Why? Why spend all this money? This is not about beautifying your sukkah! This is about your ego and your gaavah when guests come, and they ooh and ahh over

your sukkah. Hashem has commanded us to make our mitzvos beautiful. But if you are shelling out hundreds of dollars (and pressuring others to do so) that could have been used to help others buy groceries for yom tov, perhaps we need to reevaluate our values and priorities.

Wishing everyone a chag filled with true simcha.

Rachelli L.

Dear Editor, Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, once wrote that it is incumbent on every Jew as hakaras hatov to vote in elections. This year is a presidential election, an election that is supremely important and will guide our country for the next four years.

As a resident of Far Rockaway, I am asking my fellow residents to vote for Stacey Pheffer Amato for Assembly. We need to show Pheffer Amato our hakaras hatov for all the good she has done for our community for the past few years. Any time there is problem or concern, we have been able to reach out to her and she has showed concern for our issues and has helped solves our issues.

Have you been to any Far Rockaway events in our community? If you have been there, so has Assemblywoman Pheffer Amato. I can tell you that I have seen her at every event (and I’m sure she goes to other events in other communities in Far Rockaway as well, so she is certainly busy!). She is always personable and available for each person who comes up to her or she is introduced to.

Those two traits are important traits in a community’s politician: someone who cares for the community and someone who works for our community – in Albany and locally.

I respectfully ask all Far Rockaway residents to vote for Assemblywoman Pheffer Amato on November 5. She has worked hard for us and has earned our vote.

Sincerely,

An educated voter

Nobel Peace Prize

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization composed of survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II. The group, which is often referred to as Hibakusha, is dedicated to freeing the world of nuclear weapons.

The committee lauded the organization “for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.”

“The Hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” the committee said after they announced the winner on Friday.

“As the Soviet and U.S. leaders Gorbachev and Reagan said in 1985, nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought. The Hibakusha remind us of that every day,” said Dan Smith, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s director, praising the committee’s decision. “The bomb on Nagasaki was the second time a nuclear weapon was used in war: Let it be the last!”

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing about 80,000 people. Another 70,000 people were killed three days later when the city of Nagasaki was hit by another nuke. Since then, tens of thousands of survivors have died from the effects of the bombs’ radiation. Thousands of others were afflicted with serious injuries and radiation sickness and have been called “hibakusha,” which means “bomb-affected people.”

Starting in 1956, small groups of the hibakusha began joining together to advocate against the use of nuclear weapons.

“It is extremely meaningful that the prize will be awarded to an organization that has worked for the abolition of nuclear weapons for many years,” Shigeru Ishiba, the prime minister of Japan, said of the committee’s decision.

Nihon Hidankyo is the 141st winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and will be given a prize of about $1 million. The organization was selected because it promotes nuclear taboo, “a precondition of a peaceful future for humanity,” in a day and age when the “taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure,” said the committee.

There are currently nine countries with nuclear weapons: the U.S., Russia, China, North Korea, the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, and Israel. There are currently over 12,000 nuclear warheads around the world.

Keir Starmer’s First 100 Days

On Saturday, Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, marked his 100th day in office after winning the premiership in a landslide victory for his Labour Party in July. His time as prime minister, however, has thus far been tainted by controversy and economic challenges, as Starmer struggles to improve his public image.

“You couldn’t really have imagined a worse start,” Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, said. “First impressions count, and it’s going to be difficult to turn those around.”

Starmer has visited the United States, the United Nations, and other European countries in an effort to prove that “Britain is back” to being an internationally significant country after focusing for years on itself amid Brexit. However, England has been unable to seriously involve itself in global conflicts, including the wars in Israel and Ukraine.

The premier’s accomplishments, according to his government, include ending doctor and railway worker strikes, establishing a publicly owned green energy company, proposing legislation to promote the rights of workers and renters, and discarding the Conservative

Party’s controversial plan to kick out Rwandan asylum seekers.

Starmer’s critics, on the other hand, point to the violent anti-immigrant rioting that wrecked parts of the country and to England’s slow economy, which is reeling from growing public debt and low growth of 0.2%, as per statistics released by officials in August.

The prime minister’s decision to cut retired Britons’ winter fuel allowance, which would ensure that their houses are warm during the colder months, was met with intense criticism from many, including those in his party. That move was one of his first initiatives as premier, with Starmer proclaiming that things will be “tough in the short term” before life improve. He also plans to limit public spending by a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) “black hole,” which he blames on his Conservative predecessors.

Additionally, Starmer came under criticism when a rich Labour donor gave him thousands of pounds worth of clothing items and designer eyeglasses. Although the premier initially maintained that the gift was allowed, he decided to give back 6,000 pounds (around $8,000) worth of presents, including Taylor Swift tickets.

The government is currently waiting

for October 30, when Treasury chief Rachel Reeves will release her first budget.

Was Columbus a Jew?

“In 1492, Columbus was a Jew.” So goes the popular grade-school rhyme. But how true is that claim?

According to DNA analysis conducted by Spanish scientists, Christopher Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe. The 15th-century explorer opened up new worlds to Europe when he discovered the Americas.

Several countries have argued over the origins and the final burial place of the divisive figure who led Spanish-funded expeditions from the 1490s onward. Some have wondered if he came from Genoa, Italy. Others said he was a Spanish Jew

or Greek, Basque, Portuguese or British.

To solve the mystery, researchers conducted a 22-year investigation, led by forensic expert Miguel Lorente, by testing tiny samples of remains buried in Seville Cathedral, long marked by authorities there as the last resting place of Columbus, though there had been rival claims. They compared them with those of known relatives and descendants. Their findings were announced in a documentary titled “Columbus DNA: The true origin” on Spain’s national broadcaster TVE on Saturday.

“We have DNA from Christopher Columbus, very partial, but sufficient. We have DNA from Hernando Colón, his son,” Lorente said during the show. “And both in the Y chromosome (male) and in the mitochondrial DNA (transmitted by the mother) of Hernando there are traits compatible with Jewish origin.”

Around 300,000 Jews lived in Spain before Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand ordered Jews and Muslims to convert to the Catholic faith or leave the country. Many Jews fled Spain and settled around the world.

Lorente also said that the evidence points to Columbus being born in Western Europe.

Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain,

in 1506, but wished to be buried on the island of Hispaniola that is today shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. His remains were taken there in 1542, then moved to Cuba in 1795, and then, it had been long thought in Spain, to Seville in 1898.

Putin Dismisses Russian Ambassador

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov. An order appeared on the Russian government website which said that the decision had been made to “relieve Anatoly Ivanovich Antonov from his duties” as Moscow’s envoy to Washington, D.C.

The decree was dated October 10 and signed by the Russian president. As of now, there is no indication of who will be replacing Antonov.

Antonov had said in July that his posting was about to conclude. In July, Moscowbased newspaper Kommersant spotted a handwritten note that the envoy had sent to congratulate a Moscow think-tank on its 30th anniversary in which he said “my assignment is coming to an end.”

The Kremlin had said on Monday that a new Russian ambassador to the U.S. would be appointed to replace Antonov, 69, who had been head of the Russian embassy in Washington since 2017 during a time in which relations between Moscow and Washington had deteriorated significantly.

When asked if Antonov’s departure signaled that Moscow’s relations with Washington were being downgraded, Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov replied, “No, of course an ambassador will be appointed in a timely manner.”

Born in the Siberian city of Omsk, Antonov specialized in the control of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. He served in the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its successor, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2004, he was appointed director of the

department for security and disarmament before being appointed deputy defense minister between 2011 and 2016. Before his ambassadorial role in the U.S., he served as deputy foreign minister in December 2016.

Only days before the start of the war in Ukraine, Antonov denied that Russia was planning a full-scale invasion. One year on from the start of the war, he said the U.S. government was trying to “fuel the Ukrainian crisis” with accusations that Moscow was carrying out crimes against humanity.

In June 2024, he told Newsweek how there was a need “for a new security architecture,” in the global system. He also claimed that the interests of Russia have been “openly ignored, since there seemed to be no alternative to the dominance of the United States and its immediate satellites.”

Monet Returned

“Bord de Mer” is now back with its original owners.

The Claude Monet pastel painting had been stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish family during the Holocaust. It had disappeared for many decades, only

to show up at an art dealer in Louisiana.

On Wednesday, the painting, valued at more than $500,000, was returned to descendants of its original owners.

The original owners, a Jewish couple in Austria named Adalbert and Hilda Parlagi, purchased the Monet in 1936 to hang in their home. Two years later, the Parlagis were forced to flee the Nazis. They left all of their belongings – including the Monet – in the warehouse of a Vienna shipping company and intended to either ship it to themselves or retrieve it later.

Before they could get the painting back, the German Gestapo seized everything that the Parlagis had hidden in that warehouse. The Monet was then purchased at auction by a Nazi art dealer and disappeared in 1941.

More than 70 years later, the painting resurfaced at a 2016 impressionism exhibition in France. A New Orleansbased antiquities dealer purchased it and

then sold it to a couple in Washington state. The couple had listed it for sale in Houston last year but then surrendered it to the FBI after learning of its “looted history,” the bureau said.

Since then, the FBI has been working to return the Monet to the Parlagis’ granddaughters, one of whom lives in France and the other in Spain. The handoff was made last Wednesday.

“Our grandfather would have been so happy to find out this Monet was being restituted after all his attempts over the years,” the granddaughters said in a statement released by the Commission for Looted Art in Europe. “This is a very moving and exceptional day for us, a day neither of us thought would ever happen.”

The Parlagi family is still searching for several other art pieces stolen by the Nazis, including a signed Paul Signac watercolor from 1903 that was sold to the same Nazi art dealer as the Monet.

Storms in Brazil

At least eight people have died and thousands are stranded without power after violent storms swept across Brazil on Friday.

Seven people died in Sao Paulo,

28 Brazil’s most populated state, from falling trees and infrastructure due to the strong winds and heavy rainfall. Some parts of the country saw winds of up to 60 mph. Daily rainfall was more than 4 inches in some areas.

Blackouts also struck large parts of Sao Paulo on Friday; many people reported issues with the water supply.

The energy firm Enel has said that more than 1.3 million homes and businesses are still without electricity. The company said it was aiming to reconnect power by Monday.

Residents of the Parque São Roberto neighborhood, in Sao Paulo state, held a pot-banging protest on Saturday after going more than 24 hours without electricity.

In the capital, Brasilia, one soldier was killed and another injured at the military police headquarters.

The rain was so intense local media reported that officials inside the Chamber of Deputies – the lower house of Brazil’s congress – were forced to use umbrellas inside as water leaked through the roof.

Some welcomed the rain, even though it was intense. Brasilia had been experiencing a record of more than 165 days without rain. In recent months, Brazil has experienced its worst drought since records began. Dry weather has fueled wildfires across the country, devastating large parts of the Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetlands as well as choking major cities with smoke.

The number of wildfires fires in the Amazon surged to a two-decade high for the month of July, according to government data.

Ukrainian Journalist Dies in Russian Prison

Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared in August 2023 in a part of Ukraine now occupied by Russian forces. For months, her family had been hoping to hear from her. This week, her father received a letter from the defense ministry in Moscow

confirming that Victoriia, age 27, was dead.

No explanation for her death was given.

The letter said the journalist’s body would be returned in one of the swaps organized by Russia and Ukraine for soldiers killed on the battlefield. The death date was given as September 19.

This weekend, friends gathered to remember Viktoriia on the Maidan in central Kyiv. Reporting from occupied areas of Ukraine was extremely dangerous, but her colleagues remember how she was desperate to go there, even after she was detained and held in custody the first time, for ten days.

“Her parents used to call and tell us to stop deploying her, but we never did deploy her!” one of her former bosses recalled.

Most strikingly, Victoriia never used a

pseudonym when reporting even though she wrote openly of “occupied” territory and referred to those who collaborated with the Russians as “traitors.”

Viktoriia’s father previously described how she set out via Poland and Russia last July, heading for occupied Ukraine. It was a week before she called to say she’d been interrogated at the border for several days.

By May, she was in Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog, southern Russia – a facility so notorious for the brutal treatment of many Ukrainians that some dub it the “Russian Guantanamo.”

According to the Media Initiative for Human Rights, another Ukrainian citizen who was released from Taganrog last month told Viktoriia’s family she saw the journalist on September 8 or 9.

In Russia, Viktoriia was never charged with any crime and the circumstances of her detention are not known.

“A civilian journalist … captured by Russia. Then Russia sends a letter that she died?” Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Yurchyshyn told the BBC in Kyiv. “It’s killing. Just the killing of hostages. I don’t know another word.”

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, many civilians have been taken from areas of Ukraine that Moscow

has overrun and now controls. Like Viktoriia’s family, desperate relatives are left with little or no information on their whereabouts or wellbeing and no idea whether they’ll ever get home.

So far, the Media Initiative has collated a list of 1,886 names.

Ittai Fogel, HY”D

Over the weekend, the IDF carried out operations against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, including in southern Gaza. Just a day before, Staff Sgt. Ittai Fogel, 22, of the 401st “Iron Tracks” Brigade, was killed in battle in Rafah.

Ittai hailed from the West Bank settlement of Yakir and served as a tank commander in the brigade’s 46th Armored Battalion. He leaves behind his two parents and four younger brothers. His cousin, Staff Sgt. Elkana Navon, was killed in clashes with Hamas gunmen in the West Bank city of Jenin on August 31.

Ittai’s death brings the number of Israeli troops killed in the ground offensive in Gaza to 354.

On Thursday, the IDF said that three reserve soldiers were killed amid fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. They were all soldiers in the 5460th support unit of the 460th Brigade. Master Sgt. (res.) Ori Moshe Borenstein, 32, from Moreshet; Maj. (res.) Netanel Hershkovitz, 37, from Jerusalem; and Master Sgt. (res.) Tzvi Matityahu Marantz, 32, from Bnei Adam, were killed.

Amid the fighting in southern Gaza, the military said that an officer from the School of Combat Engineering had been seriously wounded. He was transferred to a hospital for treatment.

In central Gaza, the IDF said that troops of the 252nd Division had killed Hamas operatives who were found to be targeting them with anti-tank missiles.

Meanwhile in northern Gaza, where the IDF recently launched a fresh

ground offensive to prevent Hamas from reestablishing itself in the war-torn area, the military said that troops of the 162nd Division had eliminated more than 20 terror operatives in Jabaliya over the last day.

Israel estimates that tens of thousands of Palestinians have remained in northern Gaza throughout the last year of fighting, despite repeated calls for them to evacuate to designated humanitarian zones. It believes that among those who remain there are thousands of Hamas operatives who survived previous rounds of fighting with Israeli forces.

To that end, the IDF issued new evacuation orders over the weekend to two neighborhoods in the northern edge of Gaza City, saying that the area was a “dangerous combat zone.” It urged residents to evacuate their homes and head to safe areas in the south. But the Hamas-run interior ministry instructed civilians to ignore the call to relocate to other areas in the north of the Strip, and also to avoid heading south “where the occupation is conducting continued bombing and killing every day in the areas it claims to be safe.”

The terror organization further accused Israel of carrying out an intentional “massacre against the civilians” in Jabaliya as a way to punish them for refusing to leave their homes.

The IDF has for years accused Hamas of using human shields and embedding its operatives deep within the civilian population to protect itself amid fighting with Israel and says that the IDF seeks to avoid civilian casualties.

Nicaragua Severs Ties

On Friday, Nicaragua announced plans to break off relations with Israel over the war in Gaza, calling the Israeli government “fascist and genocidal.”

Nicaragua’s left-wing President Daniel Ortega, who has been fiercely critical of Israel’s year-long war with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, ordered ties to be cut, said Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is also Ortega’s wife.

Ties between the central American country and the Jewish state are virtually non-existent, so the announcement is essentially purely symbolic.

Israel has no ambassador in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua.

The decision was taken by the Nicaraguan government, which passed a resolution calling Israel an “enemy of humanity.”

According to the resolution, Nicaragua stands against the “genocide, occupation and permanent aggression against the life and dignity of the Palestinian people, which is now spreading to the people of Lebanon and seriously threatening Syria, Yemen, and Iran, endangering peace and security in the region and the world.”

It also “reiterated [Nicaragua’s] warm and constant consideration for the dear families of the Israeli people, who deserve our affection, support, and solidarity, and who are living difficult times as a result of the excessive brutality and hatred of the Israeli government.”

Nicaragua has twice before broken off ties with Israel — once in 2010 under Ortega, as well as in 1982 under the Sandinista revolutionary government led by Ortega following the country’s 1979 revolution.

The country’s decision to cut ties with Israel over the war in Gaza follows similar decisions by Bolivia in November and Colombia in May. The latter break in relations was the most significant, however, as it marked an end to a sevendecade relationship that was historically one of Israel’s closest in Latin America.

Hezbollah Rocket Attack Kills 2

On Wednesday, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets at northern Israel, killing two people in Kiryat Shmona, a town on the border. The victims were identified as Revital Yehud, 45, and Dvir Sharvit, 43.

Yehud and Sharvit had been walking their dogs when the rockets began raining down on their town. The civilians weren’t able to make it to the shelter and were soon declared dead by medics at the

scene. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the assault, which marked the first time in months that an attack from the Lebanese terror group killed Israeli civilians.

The last time Hezbollah killed a civilian in Israel was in early August. As a result of that missile attack, a visiting student was killed. Before then, a Hezbollah attack in July led to the deaths of one man in Kibbutz HaGoshrim and twelve children in a Majdal Shams park.

Intense fighting between the Jewish state and the Lebanese terror group started a day after the October 7 massacre, with Hezbollah launching rockets at Israel in solidarity with Hamas.

The rocket attack on Kiryat Shmona also triggered several local fires. On Wednesday afternoon, Haifa was hit by forty Hezbollah rockets, causing several injuries and power outages in the city’s Kiryat Bialik suburb. Four individuals in their 40s and 50s sustained minor

who were displaced last October from their homes near the northern border, to be able to return safely without feeling concerned about a potential Hezbollah invasion.

“The way back home for the residents of the north passes through…the removal of this direct and concrete threat to the communities of the north. As I’ve said, we are determined to bring them back and you are doing it with your tank treads and your legs,” Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, the chief of the IDF Northern Command, said to the 188th Armored Brigade.

Israel has killed hundreds of Hezbollah operatives and eliminated the terror group’s border infrastructure, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The Israeli military has also launched airstrikes further into Lebanon.

According to a statement released last Wednesday by the IDF, three soldiers – a NCO, a Military Intelligence Directorate Unit 504 reservist, and a soldier from the Alon Brigade’s 8207th Battalion –were seriously injured while fighting in southern Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In all, Hezbollah has killed 33 Israeli soldiers since October 8, 2023, including while fighting along the border and as part of the southern Lebanon ground campaign. During the same timeframe, Israel allegedly killed 516 Hezbollah terrorists, a figure that includes assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Since the beginning of the ground offensive into Lebanon, over 400 Hezbollah terrorists have been eliminated, according to the Jewish state.

Undercover Operation in Nablus

injuries in Haifa, while shrapnel moderately wounded a 16-year-old boy. Safed and other cities in the north were also bombarded with rockets before 5 p.m.

Since September 23, when the Jewish state began its ground offensive into Lebanon, Hezbollah has launched more than 3,000 projectiles at northern Israel. The mission of the ongoing campaign, which marked a major regional escalation, is to allow the 60,000 Israeli civilians,

A group of undercover Israeli commandos from the Yamam counterterror unit eliminated five terrorists in the West Bank’s Nablus city in broad daylight last week, including Issam al-Salaj, the leader of the terrorist organization, AlAqsa Martyr’s Brigade. The operation was carried out during the day in the local Balata refugee camp, with several people witnessing the shooting.

The terrorists, who were armed and believed to have been planning an attack, were in a car when they were shot by Israeli officers with automatic rifles. Other than Salaj, the other eliminated terrorists were not named, although the Israel Police noted that the operatives were “involved in carrying out and planning terror operations against civilians and the IDF.”

Israel has previously tried and failed to eliminate Salaj, including in a Nablus raid in June last year when he escaped with some wounds.

In addition to Nablus and the Balata camp, the Jewish state has repeatedly targeted terrorists in other places in the northern West Bank.

The undercover operation followed a terrorist stabbing in Hadera, Israel, which caused one death and five injuries, and took place just hours prior to the shooting in Nablus.

The Palestinian Authority alleged that Israel has killed over 716 Palestinians in the West Bank since the tragic day of October 7. However, almost all those killed in the West Bank were terrorists, gunmen, or rioters, according to the IDF. Since October 7, Israeli forces have detained 5,250 West Bank Palestinians, over 2,050 of whom have links to Hamas.

ISIS-Linked Car Bombing Plot

The Shin Bet and Israel Police announced on Thursday that they, along with the Lahav 433 serious crime unit, foiled an ISIS car-bombing plan spearheaded by five Arab Israelis. The suspects, who resided in Taybeh, Israel, planned on attacking the famous Azrieli Mall in Tel Aviv, according to the agencies.

The terror group’s members were named as Mahmoud Azam and Ibrahim Sheik Yousef – the leaders of the cell – as well as Sajed Masarwa, Abdullah Baransi, and Abdel Kareem Baransi. They spoke about how many explosives they would need to destroy Tel Aviv’s Azrieli skyscrapers and analyzed terror attack footage from Syria. The group’s leaders spoke with and planned to meet with ISIS members.

Thanks to “precise and effective

intelligence operations,” the plot was foiled in its early stages, which “prevented a major disaster and saved lives,” the Police and Shin Bet joint statement said. The agencies added that they would continue to “use all means at their disposal to thwart plots to harm the security of the State of Israel and its citizens.”

News of the foiled plot was announced after two terror attacks took the lives of Israeli citizens. Last Sunday, an Arab Israeli terrorist shot a Border Police officer dead and injured over ten others at the Beersheba bus station. In Hadera, a city in central Israel, another Arab Israeli stabbed several people last Wednesday, injuring six people. One of the victims of Wednesday’s terror attack passed away from the stab wounds the following day. Additionally, one week before the joint statement was released, seven people were killed in Jaffa after being shot by two Palestinian terrorists from Hebron.

Hamas’ Broader Plan

Israel has released many documents it captured from Hamas, including some with extravagant attack concept plans and letters to Iran from the terror group’s leader Yahya Sinwar.

One of the potential assaults outlined in the documents was a September 11-esque attack, wherein Hamas terrorists would attempt to bring down a skyscraper in Tel Aviv, such as the Moshe Aviv Tower, which is Israel’s second tallest building, or the Azriel Center complex, which includes three skyscrapers with a train station, movie theater, and large shopping mall. In the document that outlined a skyscraper attack, Hamas conceded that it was still “working to find a mechanism to destroy the tower.”

Another plan concerned the Israeli rail system, which Hamas considered trying to hijack to transport terrorists and bombs that could be exploded to inflict serious damage.

“The railway line is designated for transporting fuel, which is a weak point in the event of a train explosion after moving inside one of the cities (a moving

a translated portion of the document read.

Hamas also considered using highspeed attack boats to transport its terrorists and attack Israeli ports with bombs. Of the boat plan, the terror group said it “found a mechanism that works.” Another Hamas document weighed the potential benefits of using horse-drawn carriages to attack Israel.

“It carries three people, one of whom is free to drive and the other two to shoot and fight,” the document stated, adding that chariots are fast and less noisy than other vehicles.

In 2021, Sinwar sent letters to top Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, requesting military support and $500 million worth of financial assistance. The Hamas leader promised that the money and support would be used to achieve the “sacred goal” of destroying Israel within two years.

Although Iran supposedly had no advance knowledge of Hamas’ specific October 7 plans, Tehran was aware that the terror group was preparing for a future attack. The Islamic Republic has mostly resisted attacking Israel directly, instead fighting through its many terrorist proxy groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and

the Houthis. However, on two occasions, Tehran has launched a barrage of rockets into Israel, including on October 1, 2024, when it launched 180 missiles at the Jewish state – an attack for which Israel plans to retaliate.

Two of his deputy mayors and his police commissioner have resigned. His schools chancellor was just replaced. And he withdrew his pick for the city’s top lawyer when it became clear that the City Council would reject him.

With the flood of departures and chaos leaving a considerable vacuum at City Hall, Adams must now rely on a flurry of new appointees and promotions to keep a complex bureaucracy running.

Who is Running NYC?

For Mayor Eric Adams, the challenge of leading New York City has taken on an almost absurd quality, with his administration peppered in recent weeks by a half-dozen significant resignations, four federal investigations and two federal indictments.

Earlier this week, Adams elevated Maria Torres-Springer, a veteran civil servant, to become his new first deputy mayor. She and three other highly respected women in the administration — Camille Joseph Varlack, the mayor’s chief of staff; Meera Joshi, deputy mayor for operations; and Anne WilliamsIsom, deputy mayor for health and human services — are expected to largely oversee City Hall’s key administrative responsibilities.

After Adams’ nomination for the city’s corporation counsel fell through, the mayor said he now plans to nominate Muriel Goode-Trufant, who has spent three decades at the New York City Law Department.

But some of the mayor’s critics say the belated move to place more qualified people in power has come too late.

They fear that Adams’ indictment last month will only worsen his inattentiveness to managing the city and prevent any meaningful long-range planning. He may still face additional charges, prosecutors have warned, and could go on trial next spring, a few short months before a heavily contested primary.

The mayor’s chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, also seems intent on remaining at City Hall, even though she is now under investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for the city’s leasing of commercial properties.

“Our analogy is you can’t throw all the pirates overboard and leave Captain Hook and the first mate on board — that’s not cleaning house,” said John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, a good-government group. (© The New York Times)

Boeing to Cut 17K Jobs

As it deals with a month-long strike, Boeing has announced that it will be cutting 17,000 jobs, ten percent of its global workforce. The U.S. plane-maker

added that it will delay first deliveries of its 777X jet by a year. The company saw a record $5 billion in losses in the third quarter.

In a message to employees, CEO Kelly Ortberg said that the significant downsizing is necessary “to align with our financial reality” after an ongoing strike by 33,000 U.S. West Coast workers halted production of its 737 MAX, 767 and 777 jets.

“We reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and to a more focused set of priorities. Over the coming months, we are planning to reduce the size of our total workforce by roughly 10%. These reductions will include executives, managers and employees,” Ortberg said. Ortberg came to the company in August, hoping to reset relations between the union and its employees. On September 20, Boeing ousted the head of its troubled space and defense unit Ted

Colbert.

The announcement of job-cutting may galvanize workers to come back to the job. Reaching a deal to end the work stoppage is critical for Boeing, which filed an unfair-labor-practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday accusing the machinists union of failing to bargain in good faith. Ratings agency S&P estimated the strike is costing Boeing $1 billion a month, and the company risks losing its prized investment-grade credit rating.

Boeing will end its 767 freighter program in 2027 when it completes and delivers the remaining 29 planes ordered but said production for the KC-46A Tanker will continue.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union representing striking workers, said in a statement that Boeing’s announcement regarding the 767 commercial freighter was troubling and that it would assess its implications.

IAM also described Boeing’s claims against the union with the National Labor Relations Board as groundless.

Jon Holden, President of IAM District 751, said in the statement that Boeing’s attempt to bargain in the press “won’t work and it is detrimental to the bargaining process.”

Even before the strike began on September 13, the company had been struggling to recover from a January mid-air panel blowout on a new plane that exposed weak safety protocols and spurred U.S. regulators to curb its production.

On Friday, Boeing faced a court hearing in Texas in front of a judge who will decide whether to accept the planemaker’s offer to plead guilty to fraud under a deal with the Justice Department. Boeing has agreed to pay up to a $487.2 million fine, spend at least $455 million on improving safety, and face three years of court-supervised probation and independent oversight.

Ethel Kennedy Dies

Ethel Kennedy passed away on Thursday at the age of 96. She was the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, a senator turned presidential candidate who, like his brother President John F. Kennedy, was shot dead by an assassin.

Her passing was announced by her grandson Joe Kennedy III, a former Massachusetts congressman. She had suffered a stroke and was hospitalized a week prior.

“Along with a lifetime’s work in social justice and human rights, our mother leaves behind nine children, 34 grandchildren, and 24 greatgrandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly,” the grandson said on X.

“She was a devout Catholic and a daily communicant, and we are comforted in knowing she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy; her children David and Michael; her daughter-in-law Mary; her grandchildren Maeve and Saoirse; and her greatgrandchildren Gideon and Josie.”

A Chicago native who was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, Kennedy was born in 1928. In 1945, she met Robert F. Kennedy, whom she would marry in 1950. Together, they had eleven children.

Kennedy’s life was beset with tragedy. In 1963, her brother-in-law, President Kennedy, was assassinated, and just five years later, her husband suffered the same

fate while campaigning for president. Before then, she had lost her father and mother, George and Ann Skakel, in a 1955 plane crash. In 1984, Kennedy’s son David died from an accidental drug overdose. Michael, another one of her sons, passed away in 1997 in a skiing accident. She also lost one of her granddaughters, Saorise Kennedy Hill, who overdosed in 2019. And in 2020, Kennedy’s granddaughter Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean and 8-year-old great grandson, McKean’s child, died in a canoeing accident.

Despite her many losses, Kennedy lived a life of activism, founding the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights nonprofit organization to promote freedom. She traveled the world, protesting injustice in, for example, Kenya. In 2014, thenPresident Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor.

“She was … intensely loyal, and we always knew that she would stand fiercely behind us when we came under attack by others,” former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said of his mother, adding she “deeded to each of her 11 children her love of good stories, her athleticism, her competitive spirit, and the deep curiosity about the world and the intense interest in people of all backgrounds, which caused her to pepper everyone she met — from cab drivers to presidents — with a relentless cascade of questions about their lives.”

He added, “I credit her for all my virtues. I’m grateful for her generosity in overlooking my faults.”

TD Bank Settlement

In a settlement with United States prosecutors, TD Bank agreed to pay a $3 billion fine for failing to properly track money laundering by drug cartels. The news was announced on Thursday by regulators.

As part of the settlement, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) levied an unprecedented fine of $1.3 billion. TD will also plead guilty and pay $1.8 billion to the Department of Justice, concluding

the government’s investigation into the bank’s misconduct.

The government suspected that the bank enabled money laundering and violated the Bank Secrecy Act, with the Justice Department stating that TD suffered from “long-term, pervasive, and systemic deficiencies” in its transaction monitoring procedures. A legal filing claimed that the company, which is based in Canada, “enabled three money laundering networks to collectively

transfer more than $670 million through TD Bank Accounts” because it failed to monitor over 90% of transactions from January 2018 to April 2024.

“I want to be clear, these systemic failures did not just create hypothetical vulnerabilities, but they resulted in actual, material harm to American citizens and communities,” stated Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo.

“Time and again, unlike its peers, TD Bank prioritized growth and profit over

and left undeclared over $470 million in cash from a money laundering network. The network gave the workers gift cards to “ensure employees would continue to process their transactions” and not declare them, as they were required to do.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which regulates banks, added that TD Bank processed hundreds of millions of dollars of obviously suspicious transactions.

Bharat Masrani, TD’s CEO, lamented the scandal as a “difficult chapter in our bank’s history.” He also apologized to stakeholders and took responsibility for the company’s failures.

“We have taken full responsibility for the failures of our U.S. [anti-money laundering] program and are making the investments, changes and enhancements required to deliver on our commitments,” said Masrani.

The bank noted that it will be hiring 700 new financial crimes specials and implementing measures to “better prevent, detect, and measure” such risks.

FinCen will be monitoring TD for the next four years to see to it that the bank follows the agreement. Additionally, the OCC will be limiting the banking company’s growth in the U.S. as part of the settlement.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said that TD’s punishment wasn’t serious enough.

“Big banks treat government fines as the cost of doing business,” Warren said in a statement. “This settlement lets bad bank executives off the hook for allowing TD Bank to be used as a criminal slush fund. The Department of Justice and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency need to do better in enforcing our antimoney laundering laws.”

This isn’t TD’s first serious fine. In 2023, the bank was fined $1.2 billion for playing a part in financial fraudster Allen Stanford’s well-known $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

Hurricane Milton Was Fatal

complying with the law. The bank enabled drug trafficking.”

Merrick Garland, the attorney general, echoed Adeyemo’s statement, saying in a press conference on Thursday that TD Bank engaged in criminal activity “by making its service convenient for criminals.”

The Justice Department noted that the bank’s employees, on one occasion, received over $57,000 worth of gift cards, in exchange for which they processed

In just a few weeks, Florida was wrecked by two hurricanes: Helene in September and Milton in October. While the first storm killed twenty people in the Sunshine State, Milton killed seventeen or more, covering parts of the state in three hours with enough rain to last three months. Florida simultaneously faced fatal tornadoes.

Milton hit Florida as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday evening. It barreled east across the state, wreaking

havoc before spinning into the Atlantic. Though the Tampa Bay area was spared potentially catastrophic storm surge, Milton’s pounding wind and rains left destruction in its path and triggered deadly tornadoes far from landfall

Both storms were considered “once in a lifetime” hurricanes. And while Milton was less serious than many had feared, it was destructive nonetheless. Hundreds of Floridian streets were damaged, flooded, or blocked by fallen trees. Over 1,200 people were rescued by first responders, who saved 730 people alone in Hillsborough County.

Additionally, 1.4 million Floridians are without power, and in the city of Sanibel, people have been told to not use their toilets or showers due to a sewer system issue. According to Gov. Ron DeSantis, 2.65 million people have had their power restored.

Around 30% of stations in Florida were out of gas, forcing the state to

import over 37.3 million gallons of fuel on Saturday.

Deanne Criwell, the administrator of FEMA, said the federal agency had sufficient funding to “support the immediate needs” of those hit by the two hurricanes. However, she noted that they would soon be needing more funding.

“We’re assessing every day how much it’s drawing down on that so I can continue to work with my leadership, as well as Congress as far as when we will need a supplemental,” Criswell said. “We will need one. It’s just a matter of when.”

DeSantis said that the Florida National Guard is helping with more than 100 active search and rescue missions throughout 19 counties. The Red Cross on Thursday said it was supporting 83,000 Florida evacuees.

President Joe Biden was expected on Sunday to visit areas in Florida affected by the storm.

Tesla Robot Taxis

Last Thursday, Elon Musk showed off his new cybercabs, robovans, and humanoid robots, as the Tesla CEO pushes his vision for the future of driving: a world where humans never have to be

behind the wheel.

During the event, titled “We, Robot,” Musk featured a fleet of two-seater Tesla cabs that could drive all by themselves and don’t have a steering wheel or brakes. The robotaxis would be priced at less than $30,000, he said, adding that they would be available for purchase “before 2027.”

It’s unclear when Tesla’s autonomous cabs would begin circulating around major cities, potentially eliminating the need for ride sharing apps like Uber or Lyft.

Musk spoke about a future where artificial intelligence controls the roads, a reality that he said would eliminate traffic, make driving much safer, and give people extra time to work or do other things instead of driving. He also discussed the financial inconveniences of having a car when the vast majority of vehicles are left unused for hours upon hours each day.

Currently, Tesla offers its customers a subscription that includes Full SelfDriving technology. However, the AIenabled mode currently requires human supervision and penalizes drivers whom it detects aren’t paying attention to the road. In the near future, Musk hopes to entirely remove the need for human supervision.

“We’ll move from supervised Full SelfDriving to unsupervised Full Self-Driving where you can fall asleep and wake up at your destination,” Musk said. “It’s going to be a glorious future.”

He also unveiled the robovan, a futuristic-looking self-driving minibus that could comfortably hold twenty passengers and should cost fifty cents a mile. Individuals at the event were able to ride around in the cybercabs and robovans at the Hollywood Studio where the presentation took place.

Additionally, Musk showed off Optimus, a humanoid robot he says will be able to perform a variety of general purpose chores and tasks, such as getting its owner’s groceries and mail, mowing lawns, and babysitting.

“Whatever you can think of, it will do,” Musk pledged.

There were several Optimus robots walking around at the event. There, the bots danced, handed out drinks, and played the rock, paper, scissors game with guests.

Musk did not specify when the robots would be available for purchase but said they would likely cost around $30,000.

U.S. Soldier Helped IS

A former soldier in the U.S. Army was sentenced on Friday to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempting to provide the Islamic State group with information to help plan an ambush he thought would result in the deaths of U.S. soldiers in the Middle East, according to the Justice Department.

The soldier, Pvt. Cole Bridges, 24, of Stow, Ohio, also discussed potential locations for terrorist attacks in New York City with an undercover FBI agent whom he believed to be a supporter of the Islamic State group.

Bridges enlisted in the military in 2019 and joined an infantry division in Fort Stewart, Georgia. Before enlisting, he had already been persuaded by radical ideologies, according to the Justice Department.

“Cole Bridges used his U.S. Army training to pursue a horrifying goal: the brutal murder of his fellow service members in a carefully plotted ambush,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

Beginning in at least 2019, Bridges began researching jihadi propaganda and posted his support for the Islamic State group on social media. About a year after joining the Army, he began corresponding with an FBI agent who was posing as an Islamic State supporter.

Bridges and the informant began communicating on an encrypted messaging application around October 2020. Bridges provided portions of U.S. Army training manuals and advice on combat tactics, thinking the information would be used in future attacks against U.S. soldiers, according to court records. Bridges also provided advice on how to fortify Islamic State group encampments to ambush U.S. troops.

There were also efforts to help in domestic plots, federal prosecutors said. Bridges was arrested in January

2021. He pleaded guilty in June 2023 to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to murder U.S. military service members. Those charges each carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. A lawyer for the private could not immediately be located.

In addition to his prison sentence, Bridges was ordered to undergo 10 years of supervised release. (© The New York Times)

Deadly Mine Malfunction

On Thursday, a tour guide died at a gold mine in Colorado after an elevator malfunctioned hundreds of feet below ground. Dozens of tourists were trapped for several hours before being rescued. Patrick Weier, 46, was one of the tour

guides at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine before he passed away.

“This is a county tragedy. This is a Colorado tragedy,” Teller County Commissioner Dan Williams said at a press briefing on Friday.

“All I know is that he was a good man, and he loved his job,” Mikesell said about Weier.

The elevator began to malfunction around noon on Thursday at about 500 feet below ground. Eleven people in the elevator were initially brought out of the mine, including Weier and two children, officials said. Four adults in the elevator were also injured. Twelve others, as well as another guide, who were already on a tour, were rescued after being trapped for approximately six hours at the 1,000-foot level.

To rescue the 12 individuals and tour guide still stuck at 1,000 feet, engineers had to repair the elevator stuck at 500 feet, check the cables and then run a test round by sending it down to the 1000foot level and back up, officials said.

When the group was stuck in the mine, they had water, chairs and blankets to keep them comfortable. Authorities were not concerned about oxygen running out.

The mine, which is about 1,000 feet deep, is a popular tourist destination.

There hasn’t been an incident like this there since 1986.

Another SpaceX Success

On Sunday, SpaceX successfully launched the latest test flight of Starship, the most powerful rocket system ever constructed. The company says the system could one day be used to carry humans to the moon and Mars.

Liftoff of the Super Heavy rocket booster, topped with the uncrewed Starship spacecraft, occurred at 8:25 a.m. ET.

For the first time, this demonstration mission included an ambitious attempt to maneuver the 232-foot-tall (71-meter) rocket booster to a gargantuan landing structure after it burned through most of its fuel and broke away from the upper Starship spacecraft. The booster was successfully caught midair with a pair of massive metal pincers, which SpaceX calls “chopsticks.”

While the booster was caught in the “chopsticks,” the Starship spacecraft continued flying on its own, using its six onboard engines, before practicing a landing maneuver over the Indian Ocean.

Rather than strapping landing legs onto the side of the Super Heavy like the ones that adorn a Falcon 9’s booster, SpaceX instead built a special tower to support the Super Heavy’s return back to earth, hoping this will make the recovery process even quicker.

The tower, dubbed “Mechazilla” by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk for its likeness to a metallic Godzilla, has massive metal arms. The arms, or “chopsticks,” can be used to stack and move boosters and spacecraft at the launch site before takeoff — and they are designed to essentially catch the vehicles midair as they return to Earth.

Musk’s vision is that the chopstick arms will ultimately be able to simply turn around and set a rocket back on the launchpad within minutes of its return — allowing the vehicle to take off again once it’s refueled — perhaps as little as 30 minutes after touchdown.

The goal for each milestone is to hash

out how SpaceX might one day recover and rapidly re-fly Super Heavy boosters and Starship spacecraft for future missions. Quickly reusing rocket parts is considered essential to SpaceX’s goal of drastically reducing the time and cost of getting cargo — or ships of people — to Earth’s orbit and deep space.

High Achievements

Nima Rinji Sherpa is 18 years old, but he is soaring to new heights. The Sherpa from Nepal has become the youngest person to summit all 14 of Earth’s highest peaks.

Nima set the record after reaching the top of Tibet’s Mount Shishapangma last Wednesday, Nepalese mountaineering company Seven Summit Treks said in a statement.

“I dedicate this world record to my project, #SherpaPower,” Nima wrote on Instagram after mounting the peak. “This summit is not just the culmination of my personal journey, but a tribute to every Sherpa who has ever dared to dream beyond the traditional boundaries set for us. Mountaineering is more than labor; it is a testament to our strength, resilience, and passion,” he wrote on Instagram. Nepali climbers, predominantly ethnic Sherpas from the Everest region, have long been crucial to the Himalayan climbing industry, handling equipment, fixing ropes, and supporting international expeditions. Now they are increasingly gaining recognition for their own accomplishments.

“Through #SherpaPower, I want to show the younger generation of Sherpas that they can rise above the stereotype of being only support climbers and embrace their potential as top-tier athletes, adventurers, and creators,” Nima said. “We aren’t just guides; we are trailblazers. Let this be a call to every Sherpa to see the dignity in our work, the power in our heritage, and the limitless possibilities in our future.”

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Nima started climbing when he was 16 years old. He has previously set records by scaling the peaks of Everest and Lhotse within 10 hours. He was accompanied on his latest adventure by his climbing partner Pasang Nurbu Sherpa.

The previous holder of the record, Mingma Gyabu Sherpa, achieved the feat in 2019 at 30 years of age, according to Guinness World Records.

Climbing all 14 “eight thousanders” (peaks higher than 8,000 meters) is considered the pinnacle of mountaineering ambition. These climbers traverse “death zones” where the oxygen levels are too low to sustain human life for extended periods.

“To humanity as a whole: let this climb remind us that the peaks we reach together, united, are far greater than any individual achievement,” Nima wrote after setting the world record.

“As a teenager, witnessing the division caused by borders, wars, racism and other conflicts, I call for love, respect, and harmony among all people.”

Sounds like he’s flying high.

Finally Found

A boot discovered on Mt. Everest is the clue that finally brought closure to a family almost a century later.

In September, a National Geographic documentary team on Mt. Everest found a boot sticking out of a melting glacier. There was a sock sticking out of the boot with the name “A.C. Irvine” stitched onto it. The researchers understood that the sock was the clue that could solve the mystery of what happened to British climber Andrew “Sandy” Irvine, who had disappeared – along with compatriot George Mallory – on Everest in 1924.

The pair disappeared on June 8, 1924, 800 feet below Everest’s summit, as they set off to complete the first documented ascent of the world’s tallest mountain. But no one knew if they made it to the

summit – they had disappeared for what seemed like forever.

Mallory’s body was discovered in 1999. But Irvine’s body was never found. Neither was the camera the two had been carrying, which may have revealed if they summited the mountain or not.

It was only last month that the National Geographic team found the boot. They are now awaiting DNA confirmation to confirm that the boot belonged to the explorer.

“It’s the first real evidence of where Sandy ended up,” co-director Jimmy Chin said, according to National Geographic. “A lot of theories have been put out there.

“When someone disappears and there’s no evidence of what happened to them, it can be really challenging for families. And just having some definitive information of where Sandy might’ve ended up is certainly (helpful), and also a big clue for the climbing community as to what happened.”

A few days before they found the boot, the team discovered an oxygen cylinder from a 1933 expedition that had also attempted to scale Mount Everest. Though that expedition failed, it had found an ice ax belonging to Irvine on the mountain’s northeast ridge, leading Chin’s team to speculate that they might be close to his body.

Following that hypothesis, they spent the next few days scouring the glacier, until filmmaker and climber Erich Roepke spotted the boot.

“I think it literally melted out a week before we found it,” said Chin.

Chin and the team took the boot and foot off the mountain in a cooler when they noticed birds disturbing it and gave it to the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA).

Shortly after their discovery, the team informed Irvine’s family, including his great-niece Julie Summers, who had written a book about the climber.

Summers was “moved to tears” when she learnt of the boot’s existence in an “extraordinary and poignant moment,” she said.

“I have lived with this story since I was a seven-year-old when my father told us about the mystery of Uncle Sandy on Everest,” she said.

“The story became more real when climbers found the body of George Mallory in 1999, and I wondered if Sandy’s body would be discovered next. A quarter-ofa-century after that discovery, it seemed extremely unlikely that anything new would be found.”

He was lost, but now he is found.

Crocs for Canines

For dog-owners, nothing can get between them and their furry friend. Now, Crocs is offering footwear for the four-legged pets.

Pet Clogs are part of a partnership with pet supply company and subscription service BARK as part of Crocs’ annual “Croctober” campaign, when it releases a fan-inspired product.

Companies often release promotional or limited-time items to boost recognition of their brand. Special flavors of sodas or candies, partnerships with influencers or other brands, and even items that aren’t meant to be taken seriously can all help a company get a burst of publicity and help them stand out in a crowded marketplace among shoppers fighting inflation and looking to stretch their dollars.

Pet Crocs, a version of the classic Crocs clogs, is made just for pups. They retail for $50 a pair.

The dog booties, available October 23, will be available in two unique glow-inthe-dark marbled colors: green slime and dragon fruit pink. Dog owners can check out the shoes at www.crocs.com

The shoes will be available in three sizes to accommodate paws of all sizes. Plus, for a limited time, human customers can pick up a pair of matching Classic Lined Clogs.

Americans have been shelling out more money for their furry friends over the past decade. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported pet expenditures increased by 77.9% from 2013 to 2021. Pet owners spent a total of $147 billion on pet-related expenses in 2023, and that number is projected to go up to $150.6 billion this year, according to the American Pet Products Association. Owners can also adorn their dog’s crocs with little charms on them. We’re sure your pet will think it’s paw-fect.

Around the Community

CIMBY 2024

Not even the fierce winds and “light” rain could keep away hundreds of community members from CIMBY 2024!

CIMBY is a well-known Achiezer community tradition that raises money for specific programs that service the community throughout the year, through Achiezer’s amazing lifeline of services. Nearly 100 runners and their families participated in a full-filled day, hosted by

Achiezer and the Shnitzel Guys! After an exhilarating 3K run, the festivities were moved indoors, thanks to the gracious hospitality of Yeshiva Darchei Torah. The runners and their families were treated to an awesome interactive show by the one and only Shnitzel Guys, delicious treats from Party Stem, and fun games and prizes! All in all, it was an incredible day of community and chesed!

MTA Kicks Off Erev Yom Kippur with an Unforgettable Mishmar Madness

One of the most anticipated events of the year at Yeshiva University High School for Boys (YUHSB -MTA) is the Mishmar Madness program, and the erev Yom Kippur edition did not disappoint. Taking place on Thursday night, October 10, this fun, inspirational, and action-packed evening brought together students and rebbeim for a memorable experience. The event was filled with learning, sports, and a strong sense of community — the perfect lead-up to Yom Kippur.

The evening began with the regular Thursday night Mishmar program but quickly transitioned into something even more special. Following Mishmar, students enjoyed a delicious dinner from Dougie’s before rotating through divrei hisorerus from the MTA rebbeim, each delivering meaningful words of inspiration to help everyone get into the right mindset for Yom Kippur. The night also featured the annual “Kumzitz in the Dark,” held in the library, where students sang together, creating a deeply spiritual atmosphere in preparation for Yom Kippur.

But Mishmar Madness is also about

fun and excitement, and the MTA boys got just that. The finale of the 3-on-3 basketball tournament, which had been eagerly anticipated since the Yeshiva-Wide Shabbaton, took center stage in The Den. Mini roller hockey games were played, even ping pong and corn hole tournaments were available options! For the baseball enthusiasts, the Yankees game was live-streamed in the library, giving students a chance to catch some Major League action during the breaks.

The night culminated in a “Fit for Victory” hat ceremony, where the winners of the Shabbaton 3-on-3 basketball tournament were awarded brand-new MTA Nike Dri-fit hats, a coveted prize for all participants. To cap it all off, Rita’s was served in the library, providing a sweet and refreshing end to an incredible night. Whether through learning, singing, or sports, Mishmar Madness once again brought the MTA community together, setting the tone for a meaningful and uplifting Yom Kippur. The Beis Medrash remained open for those who wanted to keep learning, a testament to the dedication and spirit of the MTA talmidim.

One Year Later: Touro Students Join Thousands in D.C. to Commemorate 10/7 Anniversary

On October 7, undergraduate students at Touro University’s Lander Colleges went to Washington, D.C. to commemorate the first anniversary of the brutal Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. The focal point of the trip was a memorial and rally on the National Mall, in which the students joined thousands of other individuals to remember what took place that fateful day. The event not only paid homage to the memories of the lives lost that day but was also a forum for reiterating our unequivocal support for Israel and the urgent need to return the 101 hostages still held captive by Hamas.

The rally featured a diverse group of speakers, including Omer Netzer, father of hostage Sagui Netzer, Israeli Olympian AJ Edelman, and First Nations Chief Joseph and Laralyn Riverwind. The event reinforced the need for solidarity in rallying around Israel’s security and survival against adversary after adversary.

In addition to participating in the ral-

ly, Professor Daniel Friedman arranged a series of enriching educational experiences for the students. The group attended an appeal at the U.S. Federal Claims Court, observing a patent case involving Fitbit and Garmin. Following this, they toured the historic building, which has served multiple roles over the years, such as First Lady Dolley Madison’s residence and NASA’s headquarters, before becoming the Federal Claims Court.

Later, the students explored the halls of Congress, touring the Senate floor, the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Speaker’s Balcony.

The unique access to these significant locations was largely made possible by Judge Matthew Solomson. His dedicated efforts and commitment to providing these students with invaluable experiences greatly enriched their understanding of government operations.

“It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I am so grateful to have seen how our government works from

While the trip deepened the students’ understanding of U.S. political institutions, its core was the commemoration of the tragic events of October 7. By participating in this important anniversary, the

students not only honored the victims but also engaged in critical conversations about Israel’s security, the return of hostages, and the broader implications of political solidarity in the face of terrorism.

that close,” said Lander College for Men student Elazar Jacobs.

Sid Rosenberg Visits the Holy Land with One Israel Fund

Shulamith Focuses on Chessed

To commemorate October 7 this year, Shulamith focused on the importance of doing chessed. We felt that the special idea of chessed is something that can inspire others from the tragic events of October 7. The sixth grade girls went to the Israel Chessed Center, where they were a part of creating a community-wide mural that represents achdus and nenatzeach b’yachad. The sixth grade also sang some songs and helped package supplies for soldiers. The seventh grade went to the Ohel daycare centers to play games and create sukkah decorations with disabled adults. The girls were able to laugh and sing and have a great time with the residents. The eighth grade went to sit and schmooze with el-

derly residents in the Premier and the Esplanade. The girls played Bingo, colored pictures of Yerushalayim, and sang songs with the residents. All the locations

Decision in Bus Stop-Arm Case

In a decision issued this week, Justice Phillipe Solages of the Nassau County delivered a significant victory to local resident Sergey Kadinsky in his case against the Town of Hempstead for alleged fraud in its school bus stop-arm program.

Many Hempstead residents have complained about receiving a ticket for passing a stopped school buses, even though they don’t recall any such thing. Mr. Kadinsky, represented by co-counsel Joseph Aron and Martin Bienstock, filed a lawsuit challenging the Town of Hempstead’s stop-arm law enforcement practices.

Kadinsky’s lawsuit targets the Town’s

reliance on Notices of Liability, which are issued with a “Specialist Certification.” The Specialist Certification attest under oath that there is sufficient evidence to support a violation. Kadinsky’s legal team argues that these certifications are fraudulent. They allege that BusPatrol America, LLC, a third-party vendor contracted by the Town, operates an AI based system that issues these certifications without obtaining evidence of the crucial elements of the alleged offense. Specifically, they claim that the Town never determines whether schoolchildren were actually boarding or disembarking the bus, or whether the bus displayed required

were thrilled to have our Shulamith girls and gave us great feedback. As part of our chessed program, the girls will be returning to these locations during the year. The

markings and lights, even though the law required that the Town have the evidence in hand before issuing the Notices of Liability. The complaint also describes how traffic court prosecutors use procedural shortcuts to obtain court judgments, even though there isn’t evidence to support them.

Underlying the lawsuit is the concern that while the stop-arm program pretends to be aimed at protecting public safety, it is primarily a money-grab by a for-profit operator. In the recent decision, Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Phillipe Solages upheld Mr. Kadinsky’s claims against a Motion to Dismiss, affirming that the lawsuit was filed

to protect the public interest. Justice Solages found that the complaint presented sufficient allegations of potential fraud to allow the case to proceed, underscoring the importance of transparency and accuracy in the Town’s enforcement practices.

With the case now moving forward, it will test the legal boundaries of stop-arm law enforcement and the accountability of municipalities in safeguarding public interests.

The name of the case is SERGEY KADINSKY, on behalf of himself and all other similarly situated v TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD - Nassau County INDEX NO. 619279/2023.

girls all felt inspired by doing chessed for our fellow Jews.

Sid, with a delegation from One Israel Fund, meeting with President Isaac Herzog

The group visiting Ariel University with Michael Rapaport and Hillel Fund, as Sid broadcasts live from the School of Communications building

Sid with Eve Harrow and Scott Feltman of One Israel Fund in Ancient Shiloh

Atlantic Beach ZAKA Casino and BBQ night

This has been a very trying year for our people in general, mostly stemming from the October 7th massacre. A group of amazingly charitable individuals living in and around the Atlantic Beach area decided that they wanted to do something for the volunteers of ZAKA who have had an exceptionally trying year.

For those who aren’t aware of what ZAKA is, it is the brave and steadfast men and women who volunteer to be tasked with one of the holiest and most difficult and trying jobs. They are the ones who went to the hardest hit areas in Eretz Yisroel and around the world to recover those who died and to bring them to proper Jewish burial. With this most recent conflict which was thrust on our people on October 7, they went into active war zones and, with the safeguarding from the IDF, recovered the bodies of our murdered holy brothers and sisters, often under

active fire. These brave men and women put their lives, physical safety, and mental health in jeopardy to give the dead a final kavod of bring them to kevura Yisroel. It is unfathomable for the average person or even the exceptional person to fathom what psychological challenges these amazing tzaddikim have had to endure and continue to go through.

The masterminds of the Casino and BBQ night for ZAKA in Atlantic Beach decided to have this event to raise money to help pay for the continued therapy that is required for the ZAKA members and their families. The cost of therapy that is required is astounding but absolutely necessary. It is one thing to think about the therapy that the ZAKA members themselves require but imagine if you will the impact that it has on the entire family. This event was a beautiful example of how individuals and a community come together to raise money to

help ZAKA pay for the countless hours of therapy for their members.

The Casino and BBQ night in Atlantic Beach was a beautiful night filled with music, friendship, BBQ, the KHN Mixology, and gambling with ZAKA dollars. The members of the community purchased ZAKA dollars to gamble with and were able to exchange their winnings for tickets that were then placed in a Chinese auction to try their luck at winning a host of donated prizes and services. It was a lighthearted and enjoyable night on the water with new and old friends with the proceeds going to a good cause.

New York State Assemblyman Ari Brown was in attendance that evening. When he heard about the event and that there were four local members of the community who dropped everything and put their lives on pause to become ZAKA members and to go to Eretz Yisroel to participate in their holy work in October,

he had to do something. He presented these individuals with official Citations as a way of showing them appreciation for the sacrifices that they have made to help our people when it was needed. He spoke of how proud he was to be a Torah observant assemblyman who gets the honor of being the one to give them the citations.

In the end, the evening was a great success and was fruitful. The proceeds from this event will pay for hundreds of therapy sessions to help the courageous members of ZAKA who ran towards the fire when most would run away. They have just established a new Resilience & Healing Unit for our ZAKA Heroes. Please continue to help us help them so they can continue their holy missions: https://zaka.kvo1.io/tnv5b8 Am Yisroel chai!

Rambam Mesivta Meet The Author Book Club Meets Dr. Jonathan Haidt and Dr. Becky Kennedy

Rambam Mesivta’s Meet The Author Book Club recently had the incredible experience to attend a special event at the world famous 92nd Street Y in New York City, where students heard from Dr. Jonathan Haidt, the man sounding the alarm and the dangers of technology. His recent book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, has sparked a national and worldwide conversation about the proper role of technology for children and parents alike. Dr. Haidt has testified in front of Congress, is a bestselling author, and was recently on The Joe Rogan Podcast.

The event was led by Principal Hillel Goldman, the founder of the Rambam Meet The Author Book Club, who ensured the group was well-fed with a delicious array of bagels and snacks.

The highlight of the trip was the captivating interview of Dr. Haidt, who was joined by Dr. Becky Kennedy, author

Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want To Be, by Stephanie Rhule of MSNBC. The discussion delved into the authors’ past works, with Dr. Haidt’s The Righteous Mind and The Coddling of the American Mind receiving particular focus, while Dr. Kennedy shared insights from her bestselling Good Inside They discussed how the current epidemic of loneliness, anxiety, and depression, particularly of young people, coincided with the rise of the Smartphone and the end of what Haidt calls, “The Phone Free Childhood.” He and Dr. Kennedy went discussed the algorithms used by giant social media platforms designed to hook young people on likes and clicks and they discussed strategies parents and schools should use to avoid having technology impact their physical and social development.

Following the talk, which was fastpaced, controversial, and illuminating, the students were sad to hear that the guests would not be staying around for

autographs or pictures. As a veteran of the Meet The Author Book Club, Mr. Goldman was not deterred and took the boys to the “double secret exit” he knew about and they quickly engaged MSNBC Anchor Stephanie Rhule in a conversation as she was exiting and even posed for a group photograph with her.

After a few more minutes and post-gaming about the talk and waiting for Dr. Haidt, the security guard (who became fast friends with the Rambam Men) let them know (off the record) that Dr. Haidt was now leaving from the front since the crowds had dispersed. The group thanked him, ran to the front and

the next thing they knew they were posing arm-in-arm with Jonathan Haidt, the man many are saying is bringing back childhood to the world.

The Rambam Mesivta Meet The Author Book Club is no stranger to high-profile events like this. Past trips have brought students face-to-face with literary icons such as Malcolm Gladwell, Tom Hanks, Nelson DeMille, Veronica Roth, Rick Riordan, and even baseball Mets legend Mike Piazza. These experiences continue to make literature come to life for the students and provide unforgettable memories.

Ezra Academy Girls Division Celebrates Tashlich at Francis Lewis Park

In a heartwarming and spiritually uplifting event, the girls division of Ezra Academy gathered for a meaningful Tashlich ceremony at Francis Lewis Park on Wednesday, October 10. This annual tradition, rooted in Jewish practice, symbolizes the casting away of sins and a fresh start for the new year.

The day began with a delightful breakfast, where students enjoyed camaraderie and shared their hopes for the year ahead. Following the meal, each girl took a moment for personal reflection, writing letters to Hashem that encompassed their wishes, aspirations, and prayers. This introspective practice set the tone for the sacred rituals to follow.

Once at the serene waters of Francis Lewis Park, despite the wind, the students gathered to recite Tashlich, a powerful prayer that invites participants to symbolically cast away their shortcomings. The event culminated in the release

of white balloons, each representing the letting-go of past transgressions and a commitment to renewal.

The event left the girls feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, ready to embark on a productive and successful year ahead. Faculty and staff expressed their pride in the students’ heartfelt engagement with the tradition, emphasizing the importance of community, reflection, and growth.

Ezra Academy is committed to fostering an environment where students can explore their spirituality and personal development. The Tashlich ceremony was a beautiful manifestation of this mission, encouraging each girl to connect deeply with her faith and aspirations.

For more information about Ezra Academy and its programs, please visit EzraAcademy.org

Rav Nachum Nachumson, a second grade rebbi at Yeshiva Darchei Torah, teaching his talmidim about lulav and esrog

MTA Announces Four Dynamic Programs With YU to Enhance Students’ Education

In a dramatic and groundbreaking new development designed to elevate students’ experiences at the Yeshiva University High School for Boys (MTA), Rabbi Shimon Schenker, Menahel, and Rabbi Daniel Konigsberg, Principal, recently announced the formation of four innovative programs in partnership with the undergraduate programs at YU.

The programs, available only to MTA students and designed to strengthen the bonds between YU and the high school, are dynamic, unique and in some instances, cost saving. In addition, the programs will maximize students’ high school experience by offering opportunities to benefit from a YU education before they leave high school.

The following are brief descriptions of the new programs:

YU Honors Pathways Program

The YU Honors Pathways Program is

designed to recognize and reward a select number of high-achieving students at MTA with early assurance to an honors undergraduate experience at Yeshiva College or the Sy Syms School of Business. This distinguished opportunity highlights academic excellence and provides a seamless pathway to their future as an Honors Student at Yeshiva University.

YU Residency Advancement Program

Designed to give motivated talmidim a head-start on their YU undergraduate experience, students who take a minimum of 12 credits of college courses at YU during their Senior year at MTA will fulfill one of the University’s six-semester residency requirements. With this program, an MTA graduate that attends YU can complete his undergraduate degree in as few as five semesters, while graduates of all other high schools are required

to spend at least six semesters at YU. This initiative also provides students the benefit of earning both YU Course and Residency credit at high school tuition rates.

MTA/YU Shiur Partnership

Each MTA shiur is paired with a YU Rebbe or Rosh Yeshiva once a month to engage with talmidim through a shiur, question-and-answer session, or informal dialogue. This program will provide students with a unique opportunity to learn directly from, connect with and build a relationship with YU’s world-renowned rebbeim while still in high school. In addition to the monthly sessions, the YU Rebbe’s undergraduate students will join the MTA talmidim for a chavrusa seder in the beis medrash periodically. These exciting opportunities to spend valuable time together will foster a sense of unity and shared purpose between the high school and undergraduate students.

YUHS Leadership Track Students accepted into this program participate in on-going seminars, extracurricular leadership activities, and cohort-based programming led by Yeshiva University Leadership Scholars from the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership. Under the expert guidance of Dr. Erica Brown, Vice Provost at YU and Director of the Center, this program is designed to cultivate the leadership skills necessary for the next generation of Jewish leaders.

For more information about these four exceptional programs, please reach out to Rabbi Konigsberg at dkonigsberg@ yuhsb.org or Rabbi Schenker at sschenker@yuhsb.org.

Yeshiva of South Shore Preschool Welcomes Sweet Visitors

Last week, the YOSS ECC was abuzz with excitement as we welcomed Ruth the Beekeeper! As soon as she arrived, the children couldn’t contain their excitement. Ruth taught us all about bees using a fantastic prop bee. This colorful, soft bee made it easy for the children to grasp the different parts of these amazing insects.

With props and interesting bee facts, she captivated the little ones, teaching them how bees make honey and why they’re so important for our environment. Did you know that a single bee can visit up to 2,000 flowers in a day? The kids’ eyes widened with amazement!

After describing the parts of a bee and

how it pollinates a flower, it was time for some hands-on fun! Ruth brought along her bee observation hive—a special, safe way for the kids to see live bees at work. With their little faces pressed against the glass, they watched in awe as bees buzzed around, working diligently. Ruth explained how each bee has a special job, from searching for nectar to caring for the queen.

Ruth the Beekeeper left us all inspired to protect our buzzing friends and the environment. The children couldn’t stop talking about their favorite parts of the visit and couldn’t wait to share all their new learned facts with their families. Most of all, the boys all had a better understanding of davening for a sweet new year!

The Importance of Youth Hockey: A Look at Five Towns Hockey

Youth sports play a critical role in the development of children, providing them with not only physical skills but also important life lessons. Five Towns Hockey, serving participants from Pre-K to 8th grade, exemplifies this ethos by teaching young players the fundamentals of hockey while fostering teamwork, discipline, and camaraderie. This program has become a cornerstone of the community, offering a pathway for children to engage in sports and build lasting relationships.

Five Towns Hockey, now in its 21st season, introduces children to the game of hockey in a structured environment, making it accessible and enjoyable for beginners and more experienced players alike. From the initial stages in Pre-K through the more competitive levels in 8th grade, participants learn crucial skills like skating, ball handling, and shooting techniques. The program is de -

signed to cater to all skill levels, ensuring that every child, regardless of their starting point, can develop their abilities and gain confidence as they progress. Beyond individual skill development, Five Towns Hockey emphasizes the importance of teamwork. Hockey is inherently a team sport, requiring players to work together to achieve a common goal. Through practices and games, children learn how to communicate, support one another, and trust their teammates. These experiences are invaluable, as they teach young players how to collaborate effectively in a variety of situations, both on and off the ice.

As the program continues to thrive, it is clear that Five Towns Hockey is much more than just a sport; it is a fundamental part of the fabric of the community, shaping the character of its young athletes for years to come. www.5townssports.com

Mrs. Kopolowitz’s first graders at YOSS learned in the new YOSS outdoor classroom

Mercaz Academy Tashlich Trip: Plainview to Belmont Lake State Park

Mercaz Academy students in grades one through six left Plainview and traveled to Belmont Lake State Park in West Babylon to perform tashlich. This custom, traditionally recited between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, symbolizes throwing one’s sins into a body of water. The outing took place on a perfect sunny day and opened with a rousing game of “Shimon Omer (Simon Says),” led by Principal Rabbi Kalman Fogel as the buses arrived.

The students were divided into 13 groups of students from every grade, each with a sixth grader and/or teacher to lead. The first pre-tashlich exercise was a Forgiveness Circle; a soft ball was passed around the circle, with the person holding the ball sharing something for which he or she wants to be forgiven or something to improve. This was followed by a Compliment Chain, in which the person holding the ball must compliment the person on their right or speak about a positive quali-

Mercaz Academy “Tashlich Trip” for ECC and Kindergarten

Students in Mercaz Academy’s Early Childhood Center and Kindergarten engaged in experiential learning while performing the ritual casting-off of their sins known as tashlich While they were unable to accompany the older students on a tashlich trip to Belmont Lake State Park, a pool was set up on school grounds to teach these youngest students what happens at tashlich. Once at the pool, the Toddler class enacted throwing their sins into the water. Students in Nursery Aleph, Nursery Bet, and Kindergarten collectively wrote their mistakes on diffusing paper, then placed the paper in the water and watched as the written evidence of their mistakes was washed away in the water. This served

as a powerful example of Hashem’s forgiveness and the fresh new start offered at Yom Kippur. Students followed this up with a thoughtful discussion about things they would like to do better in the new year. Some suggestions offered by the little ones included treating their mothers nicely, not cutting into the line in school, and, of course, never bullying other students. Several students made plans to treat their brothers and sisters better, as well.

These commitments were written on stickers, which were proudly worn for the rest of the day as evidence of all that the youngest Mercaz Academy students have learned about teshuvah

ty they hope to develop. The final exercise was Commitment Stickers. Each student received a sticker on which to write one specific commitment for self-improvement; the sticker could be worn on either the outside or inside of the shirt, depending on the privacy factor.

Students then headed to the lakeside for the traditional recital of tashlich. Rabbi Fogel explained that, while sins can’t literally be thrown away, tashlich offers an important opportunity to consider what behaviors and attitudes are holding us back from being the best possible version of ourselves.

The outing ended with a picnic lunch and time to play in the park and soak up

the sunshine, delighting all Mercaz Academy students and staff and serving as the perfect end to a special tefillah experience.

Social Media Challenge at Ezra Academy

Rabbi Praeger at Ezra Academy recently launched a transformative 30-day challenge, inviting students to voluntarily delete social media apps from their phones. This initiative, which took place in the lead-up to Yom Kippur, was designed to encourage students to reflect on their connection to Hashem and focus on their personal choices. In line with the spirit of introspection and growth that Yom Kippur fosters, the program provided a unique opportunity for students to step back from the distractions of the digital world and immerse themselves in more meaningful pursuits.

The challenge was entirely voluntary, yet over 40 students signed up, driven not only by their personal desire for growth but also by the excitement and encouragement of their peers. The social energy around the initiative created a ripple effect, with many students feeling inspired by the sense of shared purpose and the prospect of exploring life without

constant digital distractions.

Ezra Academy is a place where students are constantly striving to grow, both academically and spiritually. This challenge aligns perfectly with the school’s mission to develop well-rounded individuals who are committed to deepening their understanding of their faith and their place in the world. By taking a break from social media, students are given the space to focus on their studies, relationships, and spiritual growth, free from the constant pull of notifications and online validation.

Ezra Academy could not be more proud of these individual students and Rabbi Praeger for undertaking such a challenge. Without the constant distraction of social media, students may find themselves more focused, present, and introspective. Ultimately, the challenge serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of mindfulness and intentionality, especially during and after Yom Kippur.

YOSS students recognized for their outstanding achievements in both Limudei Kodesh and Limudei Chol received their Bachurei Chemed and student of the month awards

TOURO TAKES YOU FURTHER

JOIN US FOR AN OPEN HOUSE

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2024 | 1:00-4:00pm | 227 W. 60th St., New York

At Touro University’s Lander College for Women, you’ll find academic excellence, a commitment to Torah values, and supportive faculty dedicated to helping you reach your goals. Whether it’s a pathway program to one of Touro’s professional schools, admission to a prestigious graduate school, an internship at a top firm or a job at a fortune 500 company, TOURO TAKES YOU THERE.

For more info contact Mrs. Sarah Klugmann at 212.520.4263 or sarah.klugmann@touro.edu

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Marian Stoltz Loike, Ph.D., Dean

Oraysa Celebrates an Early Simchas Torah

The holy Shpoler Zeideh, one of the early Chassidic Rebbes, was once approached by a desperate woman on Erev Yom Kippur. She tearfully explained that her landlord had threatened to evict her and her family if the rent wasn’t paid by nightfall. Moved by her plight, the Rebbe went to a local inn and encouraged some simple Yidden, who were far from keeping mitzvos, to contribute. They agreed, but on condition that the Rebbe drink a glass of vodka with each of them and bless them with a sweet new year.

The Rebbe obliged, blessing each of them warmly. Arriving home just before Kol Nidrei, he handed the money to the grateful woman and rushed to shul. Entering the hushed shul, where the chassidim were waiting for him to begin the holiest day of the year, he walked up to the Aron Kodesh, flung open its doors, and began singing with a Simchas Torah melody: “Atah hora’isa l’daas…”—to the

astonishment of the crowd.

When Rebbe Pinchos Koritzer heard what had transpired, he explained to the Shpoler Zeideh’s chassidim that our entire avodah from the beginning of Elul until the end of Sukkos is to reach the moment when we can proclaim “Atah hora’isa…” For most, it takes a process of avodah through Elul, Slichos, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur, followed by Sukkos. But for the Shpoler Zeideh, his mesirus nefesh for a fellow Jew—lowering himself to enter an inn and “farbreng” with these individuals—brought him to the level that others only reach after weeks of intense effort.

For lomdei Oraysa around the globe, celebrating a Siyum on Maseches Sukkah just days before Rosh Hashanah was reminiscent of this tale. The ripples of simcha felt by thousands of lomdim worldwide, culminating in many siyumim made by so many chaburos, served as a preview to Simchas Torah. The enthusiasm shared by lomdei Oraysa reflects their passion

and simchas HaTorah upon their completion of the Masechta.

The central siyum in North America was held in the Fountain Ballroom in Lakewood on Sunday evening, September 26. The event was graced by gedolei Roshei Yeshiva, including Rav Malkiel Kotler, and the Nasi of Oraysa in the USA, Rav Noach Issac Oelbaum, shlita, both of whom shared words of bracha. Another powerful address was delivered by the Rosh Yeshiva of South Fallsburg, Harav Elay Ber Wachtfogel, shlita, who spoke via video. He highlighted the benefits of learning with the Oraysa program, which allows for a balance of iyun and covering ground, while maintaining constant chazara. Although learning an amud a day, five days a week, may take longer to complete Shas, this method allows Torah to truly permeate one’s essence—becoming the ultimate antidote to the yetzer hara.

The Mesayem in Lakewood was Dr. Chuna Leibowitz, who shared his passion for Oraysa with the crowd, inspiring many through his heartfelt words.

The siyum was attended by an overflowing crowd, with two participants flying in all the way from Texas! The excitement was palpable, and it was clear from the participants’ expressions that this was their personal simcha—a true accomplishment after months of dedicated learning.

Another gala siyum was held in the Five Towns on Thursday, September 26, at the Oasis Room at Bais Tefilah of Inwood. Harav Meir Braunstein, shlita, and Harav Daniel Rosen, shlita, prominent rabbanim in the Five Towns, enthralled the crowd with their warm words of chizuk. R’ Shlomi Taussig then led the attendees in joyous song and dance for this momentous occasion.

Communities such as Cleveland, Chicago, Baltimore, and even Milwaukee and Houston held their own siyumim, with the Toronto community Bz”h making theirs on Sukkos itself.

Across the ocean, in the UK, a central siyum was held in Gateshead on Thursday, the 26th of September, with over 100 local lomdim in attendance. The hadran was delivered by Rav Dovid Zahn, a Rosh Yeshiva in the Sunderland Yeshiva and an avid lomed Oraysa himself. The crowd then broke into spirited dancing, which seemed to have a unique energy of its own. In a departure from the usual format, Reb Moshe Yaakov Weingarten, a rebbi and lomed Oraysa, shared his thoughts on the tremendous benefits he and his family have gained by being part of the program.

Smaller siyumim were held in Manchester and London, while a beautiful siyum took place in Kiryat Sefer, Eretz Yisroel.

The timing of Oraysa’s next Masechta, Maseches Beitzah, seems preordained. Beitzah primarily deals with the halachos of Yom Tov, and lomdei Oraysa began this new Masechta right at the start of the Yom Tov season in Tishrei.

Hundreds of new lomdim have joined across the world, with numerous new chaburos and shiurim opening in diverse communities, from Johannesburg to Los Angeles, Toronto to Detroit.

To join Oraysa for Maseches Beitzah, or for more information on setting up or joining a shiur or chaburah in your neighborhood, please contact Oraysa at 914-8-ORAYSA or email info@oraysa. org.

YUHSG to Highlight Special Programs During November Open House

On Sunday, November 3, the Yeshiva University High School for Girls (Central) will welcome the community to its annual Open House. The event is a chance for faculty and students to share the Central story and to demonstrate the unique warmth that defines the Holliswood campus. It’s also a chance to share the school’s profile outside the classroom and celebrate the many special programs that make Central unique. “The Central Open House is a chance to bring prospective families into the warmth of Central, meet our amazing faculty, and experience what it’s like to be a Central Wildcat,” said Associate Principal, Ms. Leah Moskovich. “It is a gift to be a link in the Yeshiva University chain, a stellar institution since 1948! We cannot wait to welcome you on November 3rd!”

One of the newest opportunities for Wildcats: the Yeshiva University Leadership Track. Offered in conjunction with YU’s Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership, the track is designed to locate and nurture students who are interested in becoming leaders both within and outside the Central community. These students receive the benefits of a tailored curriculum, mentorship from YU Leadership Scholars, and Student Leadership Training Workshops. “I love the leadership track so much,” said junior Meira Levine. “We plan fun events for the school, and I have made new friendships from being involved in the leadership track at Central.” The Yeshiva University Residency Program and YU Honors Pathways Program are two additional exciting new, and only at Central, programs being offered this year!

There are many more opportunities

for out-of-classroom education immersion within General Studies – Central’s powerhouse ACE (Architecture, Construction, and Engineering) program offers students interested in STEAM careers the thrill of hands-on engineering development as they meet with professionals, visit job sites, and work together to develop their own project. “The ACE program is an incredible opportunity to learn about architecture, construction, and engineering,” said junior Malka Lavner. “We meet with real engineers and architects and also visit current construction sites.” Central’s prestigious Science Institute gives students who qualify a unique opportunity to focus their high school studies on science literacy, research methodology, and lab experience. Institute participants can take advantage of research opportunities at the Einstein School of Medicine, as well as attend YU’s yearly Medical Ethics Conference – another gesture at Central’s close relationship with its parent university.

Central’s art and humanities programs are equally strong: now in its second year, the Adira Rose Koffsky A”H Humanities Program exposes students with special acumen in the humanities to bimonthly seminars offering guest speakers, trips to cultural events, and explorations of art, music, and classic literature. Another celebrated aspect of humanities life at Central: the annual spring musical, with the 2025 production of Frozen following last year’s successful run of The Wizard of Oz

Central also offers programming intended to deepen the spiritual life of its students. Central Ba’Aretz, an exchange program in which Central sophomores live and learn in the south of Israel at Central’s sister school, Ulpanat Bnei Aki-

va Lachish, has proven to be a defining moment for participants. While there, students attend classes, study Limudei Kodesh with their new peers, and fully immerse themselves in Israeli culture.

Senior Reema Gampel participated in a past cohort. “The vibrancy and warmth of the Lachish girls was incredible,” she said. “I enjoy talking to them to this day and cherish the friendships I made.” Mission trips to Israel have also been a part of recent Central life. “My favorite thing about Central is how it fosters a strong connection to Israel,” said junior Shalhevet Koenigsberg, who also traveled with the 2024 cohort. “Our mission to Israel was a chance to visit the country and help out the people in a tangible way and be there for them emotionally. I am so blessed to have had that unique opportunity.”

Another spiritually enriching aspect of Central programming: its Ethics Program, in which students learn about the mussar movement and take steps to improve their middot, and its Rambam Bekiut programs, in which students study the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah with YU Roshei Yeshiva. “Central provides students with opportunities to grow beyond the regular curriculum,” said junior Shira Massihesraelian. “Whether it’s by joining Rambam Bekiut or Central Ethics soci-

ety, students here are enabled to thrive spiritually.” Sophomore Annabelle Klein agreed: ”The Ethics program often serves as a warm place where we can talk about our individual experiences, then discuss the halachic implications,” she said. “If an emotion like anger comes up, we’ll discuss how we might react halachically, and how that fits in with how we responded originally.”

Schoolwide programs that enrich Central life include annual self-care days, which are advised by Central’s psychologist, Dr. Ariella Gettenberg, with an eye toward emphasizing mental health awareness and emotional wellness. Annual Shabbatonim held throughout the year encourage Central students to bond with faculty and with one another during Shabbat. At all levels, Central programming works to bring out the best in each student – and to connect them to the school community in a meaningful way. Junior Leah Grimm, who joined Central at the beginning of this school year, said, “The girls at Central are really nice and welcomed me with open arms. I immediately felt that I was a part of the Central family.” The Central community is excited to welcome visitors during Open House on Sunday, November 3.

HANC ECC had a visit from the fire department today to learn all about fire prevention and safety

Something fishy going on in the Early Childhood Division of TAG: The

Teshuvah, Tefillah, and Tzedaka: YCQ Students Prepare for Yom Kippur

In preparation for Yom Kippur, YCQ students engaged in a variety of meaningful activities to inspire them for the holy day. Students in Grades 1-5 performed kapparot and then donated the money to tzedaka. The fifth grade and Junior High girls ventured to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to perform Tashlich, while the Junior High boys had the opportunity to hear from local rabbanim, Rabbi Ben Tzion Chait, Rabbi Moshe Bamburger, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Greenberg, and Rabbi Yosef Singer. Later in the week, Junior High School students were moved by special words of chizuk from Rabbi Mordechai Finkelman, the Mashgiach Ruchani of Yeshivas Ohr HaChaim.

Rambam Begins Epic Club Hour

By Daniel Stein

Last week, the Rambam Mesivta had its first week of Club Hour! Club Hour is a weekly time on Wednesdays allotted for students to join a club of their choice. Rabbi Yitz Milworn, Rambam’s new Director of Student Activities, offered students a menu comprised of close to 25 clubs to choose from. Everything from Music Appreciation, to Skill and Tell, to Sofer Society, to Mixed Martial Arts was on the table.

In the end, the students selected which clubs to form and spent this past Wednesday pursuing their interests. For example, the STEM Club, run by Senior Shmuel Rabinow, met to discuss plans to build BattleBots this year. The

Boardgame Club, led by Senior Netanel Mannon, has a yearlong competition playing new games that culminates in a championship game with the winner earning a trophy and free boardgames. In the World Culture Club, Elazar Schwartz (Senior) gave a presentation on Movie Culture, which featured many snacks for students to eat during the presentation. In addition to those, the school is also running Knee-Hockey, Sports Club, MMA Club, Chess Club, and an Entrepreneurship Club. Students remain excited to continue with their clubs of choice!

In addition to Club Hour, Rambam’s extracurricular activities motto of “A Team for Every Talent. A Club for Every Curiosity. A Place for Every Person,” is alive and well with a number of

the school’s other times that don’t meet during Club Hour up and running. Students are actively engaged in Parsha Yomi, Aviation Club, Mock Trial, Masmidim Extra Learning, Writers’ Guild, Meet The Author Book Club, the new

and

and

There is indeed something for everyone at

Tzitzit

Tradition Club (run by Rabbi Yossi Ziskind and Freshman Dovid Rabinow), Lashon Tov Club, College Bowl, Marvel STEM Club,

more.

Rambam!

adorable kindergarten talmidos experienced how it felt for Yona to be inside the big fish

Chief Ritchie Taylor came to speak to the second graders at YOSS last week

Mrs. Berenholz’s second grade class at YOSS learned the Pledge of Allegiance

Hands-On Learning Programs for Sukkot at Yeshiva Har Torah

At Yeshiva Har Torah, we believe that true learning comes from active engagement and hands-on activities. Our student-centered, discovery-based learning approach is designed to spark curiosity and foster a deep connection to course content and Torah values. Rather than simply teaching from textbooks, we invite our students to immerse themselves in the learning process by asking questions, exploring ideas, and applying their knowledge in creative ways. This approach is at the heart of everything we do, including special programs that bring Torah learning and the joy of the chagim to life.

In the days leading up to Sukkot, this learning style was on full display as students participated in interactive learning experiences that deepened their understanding of the holiday and its customs. Through engaging workshops and innovative projects, our students discovered the meaning behind the chag and connected with its unique mitzvot

Adding a creative twist to Sukkot preparations, fifth grade rebbe Rabbi Dov Fried ran a STEM-based activity where students built replica sukkot. Students were challenged to construct a kosher sukkah using various building materials, ensuring it adhered to the halachic requirements they learned in the Mishna. This project allowed students to apply their Torah knowledge in a creative, hands-on way.

To learn about the arba minim, stu-

dents at Yeshiva Har Torah were treated to special lulav and etrog workshops run by Rabbi Gary Menchel, our Rosh HaYeshiva, and Rabbi Hal Levy, our Menahel. After learning the relevant halachot, students practiced holding and shaking the lulav and explored the different characteristics of the etrog. Through lively discussions, students learned about the symbolism of the arba minim and the deeper meaning behind them.

Imbuing our students with the joy of Torah and mitzvot is part of the mission of Yeshiva Har Torah, and therefore our younger students in Pre-K, UPK, and Kindergarten enjoyed special pre-Simchat Torah dancing with Rabbi Menchel. Students joined together in a series of songs celebrating Torah and Am Yisrael, and danced with special flags that they prepared to use over the holiday. The dancing underscored the important message of ivdu et Hashem b’simcha – that we should serve Hashem and fulfill the mitzvot with joy and happiness.

These programs are just a small sampling of our classes and programs showing Yeshiva Har Torah’s commitment to active, student-centered learning. Our students don’t just read about Torah values and practices – they live them. These special activities not only enhanced their understanding of the halachot and minhagim of Sukkot, but also strengthened their personal connections to the holiday and beauty of Torah.

Rav Yaakov Bender, Rosh HaYeshiva, and Mr. Ronald Lowinger, president, wishing the talmidim of Yeshiva Darchei Torah a gmar chasima tova

Names Not Numbers at HAFTR

This past week, HAFTR eighth grade students started on their annual Names, Not Numbers project, an initiative that connects students with Holocaust survivors to ensure their stories are preserved for future generations. This meaningful project provides students with a rare opportunity to engage with survivors, documenting their life stories before, during, and after the war. By participating, students not only develop their historical research and interviewing skills but also gain firsthand insight into the realities of the Holocaust.

As in previous years, HAFTR students are collaborating with Lawrence Middle School on this significant endeavor. Together, the students are united in their mission to ensure the stories of Holocaust survivors are never forgotten.

In preparation for their interviews, the students had the privilege of hearing from Tova Fish-Rosenberg, the founder of Names, Not Numbers. Fish-Rosenberg shared the importance of the project and the responsibility the students carry as interviewers and documentarians. Students also watched an example of a past Names, Not Numbers documentary to better understand the impact and scope

An American Minyan in Jerusalem Raises $100K in 25 Hours to Support Thousands of Israeli Families This Holiday Season

Continuing their yearly tradition, the Gibber family from Manhattan’s Upper West Side hosted a unique and beautiful Yom Kippur minyan at Jerusalem’s Dan Panorama hotel, raising $100K—and counting—to support struggling Israeli families through American Friends of Yad Eliezer/B’ezri.

amazing and meaningful Yom Kippur tefillah experience. The Yizkor service might have been one of the highlights of our year.”

of the project.

The students were then guided by Shoshana Soroka, editor of The Jewish Home, who provided them with valuable insight into effective interviewing techniques. Ms. Soroka emphasized the importance of thoughtful questions and the power of preserving survivor narratives. Under her guidance, the students refined their questions, ensuring their interviews would be both respectful and meaningful.

Motivated by the weight of their task, the students left feeling prepared to contribute to this essential project. Their dedication reflects a commitment not just to capturing history but to honoring the resilience and strength of those who lived through one of the darkest periods in human history. As these students are likely the last generation to hear first-person narratives about the Holocaust, the task takes on a new meaning for them.

The Names, Not Numbers project is a testament to the ongoing importance of preserving these stories. Through this work, students are not only documenting history but shaping it – ensuring that the lessons of the Holocaust remain a guiding force for future generations in fostering empathy, understanding, and tolerance.

True to the Gibber’s record, the minyan was exceptional in every way. With a professional men’s choir brought in specifically for yom tov, the tefillah was made all the more special by the choir’s stirring harmonies. The Gibbers handled every detail for the over 100 attendees, who traveled from across the U.S., Canada, France, and Germany, with a large group from the tri-state area including, Lawrence, Flatbush, Manhattan, Teaneck and Lakewood. The family prepared seating arrangements, supplied yahrtzeit candles and machzorim, provided food for the break-fast and everything in between.

All elements came together seamlessly to create an especially moving and special Yom Kippur experience. One participant shared, “Both last evening and today, we haven’t stopped talking about our

In an extraordinary act of chesed, the Gibber family covered all expenses for the event, donating every dollar raised through seat reservations, aliyahs, and more, to American Friends of Yad Eliezer/B’ezri’s High Holiday Campaign, generously contributing to the $3.2+ million dollars being distributed to families in need for the holidays.

In the homes of 4,200+ struggling IDF soldiers, 2,800 needy families, 500+ single mothers, 850+ widows and others, there is celebration instead of stress this High Holiday season, thanks to American Friends of Yad Eliezer/B’ezri’s donors including loyal friends and supporters, such as the Gibber family. AFYE/ B’ezri is extremely grateful for their annual tzedaka initiative and ongoing philanthropy. This minyan was genuinely one to remember.

Learn more about AFYE/B’ezri’s High Holiday campaign and the families they help at www.bezri.org.

Rambam College Bowl Begins

By David Mastour

This past Tuesday, the Rambam College Bowl Mavens held their tryouts. College Bowl is a league in which teams face each other in matters of trivia, with topics ranging from history to math, to sports, to the decryption of complexly worded Hemingway titles.

As we all remember, last year, the JV Mavens had yet another one of their classic epic seasons. Throughout the year, the Mavens dominated the Long Island division, winning every game they played. After traveling to Manhattan to represent their division in the playoffs, the Ravens engaged in an intense battle, being narrowly beaten out by Ramaz. Now, the Mavens are back and stronger than

ever but were tasked with the job of finding a new generation of Mavens to nobly keep the division stable by maintaining Rambam’s rulership over it and expanding Rambam’s glory across the Yeshiva League.

Varsity captains David Mastour (senior) and Daniel Stein (senior) began by selecting the new JV captain, Henach Barningham (junior), a worthy successor capable of leading his Mavens to glory. On that fateful day, hordes of Rambam answered the call of the wojak on the wall, flooding room 012 to try and become Mavens. After many tough questions, the students were evaluated by the captains, and how pleased they were! This year is to be sure another classic epic season for the mavens. Onward to glory they go!

Around the Community

HANC Commemorates October 7

On October 7, students and staff in HANC Elementary School in West Hempstead gathered for an assembly in the auditorium to commemorate the tragedy that befell Israel and Am Yisrael one year ago. Dressed in blue and white in support of family and friends in Israel, the children entered silently into a darkened room. In the center of the room, they discovered an Israeli flag and a yellow loop in support of the hostages illuminated in tea lights, to bring light and hope into the darkness. Joining thirty-five schools from across the country, HANC participated in a nationwide zoom meeting to join forces with other students and staff to pray for Israel, for its brave soldiers, for all the families of fallen soldiers who sustained losses over the past year, and for the safe and speedy return of our beloved hostages. Throughout the course of the Zoom meeting, there were multiple messages from several rabbis and principals, reviewing what had been done to help Israel over the course of this past year but also letting the children know that Israel

still needs them to daven, give tzedakah and to send packages of items needed for the soldiers to continue fighting for our safety and freedom.

Rabbi Zac Frisch, who teaches at Shaalvim, had just returned from his third shift in reserve duty, spending 150 days in Northern Gaza. He described how he was called up to serve as he was holding his children while singing “HaMalach HaGoel Oti” on Simchat Torah last year. He explained to the students that they too can have an impact, even from far away.

“If you daven with our soldiers in mind, if you perform a mitzvah in honor of the soldiers, this helps the soldiers so much. They know you are with us, and when we are in the trenches during the darkest of times, it gives us strength. Continue to pray for Am Yisrael so that we will have success in the war and our hostages will return home.”

Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife and daughters were killed in a terrorist attack, spoke to the children with astounding composure and dignity. “We must

continue to spread a message of strength and unity. Believe in Hashem. We are all part of the Jewish family and Hashem is with us. We have seen many miracles during this war: rockets falling and no one was killed, soldiers saved in miraculous ways. The Jewish people coming together to help and support each other. We pray and hope that this will soon bring the final redemption.” He then challenged the children to accept upon themselves an act of chessd as the ultimate example of achdut.

In addition to the inspiring speakers, the children viewed a video on all of the ways that the world wide Jewish community came together to help families and soldiers in Israel, recited tefillot and Tehillim for the soldiers and the state of Israel, and prayed for the return of the hostages. The program concluded with Hatikvah, with all hoping for a better and safer future for Medinat Yisrael and Am Yisrael.

TJH Centerfold

Not Bamboo-zling You

Bamboo accounts for 99 percent of pandas’ diets. The other 1% is made up of vegetation, fish or small animals. (Definitely trying that after Sukkos…for two days).

Bamboo shoots are commonly used in Asian cuisine. (So are snakes.)

There are over 1,500 species of bamboo in the world! (There’s a guy in Brooklyn who uses every variety for his schach! You can go there on Chol Hamoed.)

The largest species of bamboo can reach 1,300 feet in height. (Imagine how tall they would be if they didn’t drink coffee!)

Bamboo releases 30% more oxygen into the atmosphere and absorbs more carbon dioxide compared to other plants, thus cleaning the air. (Let’s surround AOC’s house with bamboo!)

You Gotta Be Kidding Me!

Seymour comes running into shul one night, all out of breath and very excited.

“What is happening Seymour?” asks Yankel.

“Oh, you would never believe it, Yankel,” says Seymour. “I was trying to catch the bus back from work and I missed it. So I chased it to the next stop, and I missed it again. I kept missing it and before I knew it, I chased it

Bamboo is used not only in construction but also is used in the manufacture of floors, skateboards, bicycle frames and helmets. (If you have a bamboo bike, just remember: no shirt, no service!)

Bamboo was the first plant to regrow after the atomic blast in Hiroshima in 1945, as it can tolerate extreme conditions.

Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on this planet. Some species can grow more than 3 feet in a 24-hour period. (It’s good bamboo doesn’t have a grandmother, otherwise she would have to constantly comment, “Wow, you got sooooo tall!”)

Bamboo is a staple of Eastern medicine and is used for respiratory and digestive illnesses, fevers, and inflammation. (If you get a headache on Sukkos, just grab a piece of schach and rub it on your forehead!)

all the way to here.”

Yankel says, “So, why are you so excited?”

Seymour replies, “What do you mean; it’s amazing I got here and saved the money that I would have had to spend on the bus.”

Yankel replies, “You should have chased a taxi. You would have saved a lot more money!”

Mets Refresher Trivia

Now that all the Mets fans are suddenly back, let’s see what you even remember about your favorite baseball team.

Batting practice

1. The Yankees have won 27 World Championships; how many have the Mets won?

a. 7

b. 16

c. 2

d. 3

2. Who did the Mets lose to in the last World Series that they played in?

a. Yankees

b. Red sox

c. Royals

d. Cubs

Let’s play ball

3. Who is the youngest Mets player ever to reach 1,000 hits?

a. David Wright

b. Darryl Strawberry

c. Edgardo Alfonso

d. Jose Reyes

4. Who did the Mets beat in the 1969 World Series?

a. Dodgers

b. White Sox

c. Orioles

d. Giants

5. Which Mets player won Rookie of the Year in 1983?

a. Doc Gooden

b. Darryl Strawberry

c. Keith Hernandez

d. Mookie Wilson

e. Bottom of the 10th 2 outs, World Series trailing by 1

6. Who was the Mets manager in 1986?

a. Davey Johnson

b. Bud Harrelson

c. Bobby Valentine

d. Jerry Manuel

8. Who hit the ball through Bill Buckner’s legs, in game 6 of the 1986 World Series?

a. Keith Hernandez

b. Mookie Wilson

c. Lenny Dykstra

d. Rafael Santana

7. Which future Hall of Fame pitcher led the 1969 team in victories with 25 and went on to win the Cy Young award that year ?

a. Doc Gooden

b. Nolan Ryan

c. Don Cardwell

d. Tom Seaver

Scorecard:

8 correct- You are Linsane!

6-7 correct - You are not just a “Johnny come lately.” You know your team!

3-5 correct - We got rid of you midseason…which is why we are playing baseball in October.

0-2 correct - You obviously have not visited Shea Stadium recently!

Answer: Too wise you are, too wise you be, I see you are too wise for me.

Think. Feel.Grow.

Mirrors and Windows: The Secret of Schach

By Rabbi Shmuel Reichman

Afather set out one day to teach his young daughter a powerful lesson. When she woke up in the morning, he took her in front of a mirror and asked her, “What do you see?”

She smiled and answered, “I see myself!”

He then took her to the window and asked her, “What do you see now?”

“I see houses, and trees, and grass, and a whole world outside,” she said, this time with a sense of wonder and joy in her voice.

That night, before tucking his daughter into bed, the father again brought her to the mirror.

“What do you see?”

“I still see myself,” she answered, a bit confused as to why they were doing this again.

He then took her back to the window. “What do you see now?” he asked.

“I see…me?” she answered, suddenly very confused. “Did the window turn into a mirror?”

“Be patient, stay focused, and keep on staring at the window. What do you see?”

After a long, silent moment, her eyes lit up. “I finally see it! I see houses and trees and the world outside!”

Her father smiled and explained to his daughter:

“Sometimes, we get so caught up in our own lives that we think everything in life revolves around us; instead of seeing the true nature of things, we see everything as a mirror of ourselves. As a result, we project our views onto everything we see and everything we hear. Instead, we each need to learn how to peer past the surface, past ourselves, and see the endless beauty, wisdom, and depth that lies beneath that surface. When we do so, we turn the mirror into a window, revealing a world of depth behind it.”

The Journey to Sukkos

The journey from Rosh Chodesh Elul through Yom Kippur is a forty-day experience of self-awareness, teshuva, and spiritual growth, whereby we come closer than ever to Hashem and our true selves. This process of closeness culminates in the holiday of Sukkos, which represents the ultimate connection between Hashem and the Jewish People. The center of this connection is the sukkah, which represents the marriage canopy as Klal Yisroel marries Hashem. As we approach this time of closeness, let us delve into the meaning of the sukkah and the lessons it holds for us.

Chazal enigmatically compare the s’chach of the sukkah to the ideal form of beauty. What does this mean?

The spiritual concept of beauty, and its relevance to marriage, is central to the connection we aim to develop through the process of Sukkos. In order to understand this connection, let us delve into the spiritual concept of

beauty. To do so, we must understand the unique beauty of Sarah Imeinu.

Sarah Imeinu

Sarah Imeinu was the most beautiful woman in the world. We know Sarah was physically beautiful, that her beauty was not just of an ethereal, spiritual nature. When Sarah and Avraham descended to Mitzrayim, the Mitzrim, and even Pharaoh himself, desired her (Bereishis 12:14-15. See Rashi). The Egyptians were steeped in immorality, interested only in beauty that ran skin deep. However, we know that Sarah Imeinu was immensely spiritual as well, that she reached the loftiest of spiritual levels (see Rashi, Bereishis 23:1).

At the end of Parshas Noach, Rashi (Bereishis 11:29) explains that one of Sarah’s other names was Yiscah. A name always reflects essence, so we must ponder the meaning of this name and what it reveals about Sarah Imeinu. “Yiscah” means transparent, and Sarah’s true

beauty lay in her transparency. Her inner beauty completely permeated and was loyally reflected through her physical body. Genuine beauty requires the middah of transparency, where the physical body reflects the inner and spiritual beauty, something infinitely greater than any external beauty. True beauty is oneness, where the physical and spiritual melt into a oneness, where the physical doesn’t hide the inner self but reveals it!

It is therefore fitting that the shoresh of the word “Yiscah” is also the shoresh of the word “s’chach,” the roof of the sukkah. According to halacha, the s’chach is the most important part of the sukkah, which is why “s’chach” is the shoresh of “sukkah” as well. What, then, is the connection between transparency and s’chach? The answer lies in one of the deepest themes of Sukkos. Sukkos is about seeing past the illusion of independent self-security, recognizing that Hashem is our true source of protection. This is why we leave our sturdy homes and enter a diras arai, a temporary dwelling place. We show that our faith and trust lie in Hashem, not our “safe” homes. While on the surface, our security and safety seem to come only from our own efforts and hishtadlus, when we look past the surface, we recognize that everything comes from Hashem. This is why the s’chach is the main part of the sukkah – it trains us to see past the surface. The s’chach must be transparent, allowing you to see the stars at night. It must also be loose enough to allow some sunlight and rain to enter the sukkah. Only when we have a transparent surface can we truly see what lies behind it.

The Two Stages Amongst the Yamim Noraim (High Holidays), Sukkos is an anomaly. Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are overtly

spiritual and transcendent days, with intense rounds of prayer and spiritual elevation. Sukkos, on the other hand, is grounded in the physical. The centerpiece of Sukkos is a physical object – the lulav we shake – and much emphasis is put on going through our physical routines in a physical hut. It is the “Zman Simchaseinu,” a time of physical joy and festivities, highlighted by the celebrations of the simchas beis hasho’eivah. How is this the ultimate culmination of the spiritual growth we have worked towards throughout the last month and a half?

The answer to this question is the secret behind the power of Sukkos, as well as a fundamental principle in Jewish ideology.

While the physical can be dangerous if misused, the ideal is not to transcend the physical, but rather to use the physical in order to reflect something higher. Think how many mitzvos are commandments of the mind? Almost none. You can count them on your hand: Believe in Hashem, love Hashem, be in awe of Hashem, don’t be jealous, and just a few more. The overwhelming majority of mitzvos are physical actions which connect you to the spiritual source, Hashem! The act is physical, while the spirituality and mindfulness is

contained within that physical act. We eat matzah, shake a lulav, blow shofar, and wear tefillin; all actions, all physical. We don’t believe in transcending the physical, we believe in using the physical to connect to the transcendent.

Sukkos embodies this lesson in embracing the physical. The purpose of this physical world is for us to use everything it has to offer for a spiritual purpose. This requires us to immerse ourselves in the physical world, but for this immersion to be proper we must maintain control and focus while using the physical. In other words, our root must be transcendent, grounded firmly in the spiritual, and then atop that foundation we can descend into the physical and use it in a transcendent way. This is the key behind the process we undertake through the Yamim Noraim.

We first experience Elul, then Rosh Hashana, and then Yom Kippur, a developmental process of raising ourselves higher and higher above the physical world and deeper and deeper into the spiritual world. It is only once we create this transcendent root that we then re-immerse ourselves into physical living, but this time on an entirely new scale. We must infuse the totality of our spiritual acquisition into our physical life, elevat-

ing our actions and intentions as we move this physical world towards its ultimate spiritual root. Sukkos is the ultimate expression of this ideal, as we infuse the entirety of our spiritual gains from Elul, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur into a physical life of connection with Hashem inside the sukkah. It is in that simple and mundane hut that we draw the connection between the transcendent spirituality we just experienced and the elevated physical existence we are about to throw ourselves into. This is how a Jew lives a life of spirituality.

Two Levels of Reality

This is the most powerful message of life. There are always two levels of reality: the surface level and the deeper, spiritual level. The surface is meant to reflect the spiritual, reveal it, emanate its truth and beauty. But often, we struggle, we forget, we get caught up in the deception that the surface is all that there is. But even when we fail, even when we fall, there is always hope, there is always a path back to our true selves. This is the message of Sukkos; this is the message of life. To strive to see more, feel more, learn more, become more.

May we all be inspired to not only see

past the surface but to then reveal that truth through the surface, to live holistic lives of truth, spiritual beauty, and true oneness.

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

Hair-Raising Thoughts

By Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

Male pattern baldness is a common experience for many men. Some individuals embrace their baldness and even display signs in their office, like “G-d created a few perfect heads. The rest He covered with hair.” Others try to conceal their bald spots. A common one-liner is: “How do you identify a bald eagle? It has all its feathers combed over to one side.” Some may attempt to hide their bald spots by combing over hair from a different section of their head.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani used to employ this tactic. However, one day, he famously gave up his comb-over hairstyle. Rushing one morning in the midst of a busy schedule, Giuliani didn’t bother with the more time-consuming coiffure and simply combed his hair straight back.

The positive reaction was immediate. Favorable reviews started coming in from the press. The Washington Post dedicated a six-column spread to Giuliani’s new look, complete with before-and-after photos. The Post praised him for “allowing his scalp to rise – unashamed – from a ring of smooth, graying fringe.”

What is the Gemara’s view; is calling someone bald derogatory?

The Gemara mentions the saintly Tanna Rebbe Yehoshua ben Korcha (Bava Basra 113). Korcha literally translated means “bald one.” He is not one of the more common Tannaim mentioned in the Talmud; therefore, Tosfos discuss the identity of this Rebbe Yehoshua ben Korcha. Rabbeinu Yitzchak hypothesizes that Rebbe Yehoshua was the son of Rebbe Akiva.

It is known that Rebbe Akiva had a son named Yehoshua. The Gemara in Shevuos (6a) records a conversation that

took place between Rebbe Akiva and a son named Yehoshua. Still, why would Rebbe Akiva be referred to as “bald one”? Was he, in fact, bald? Rabbeinu Yitzchak says he was. Ben Azzai once jovially declared: “All the Sages in the world are like a peel of garlic compared to me except for this bald one.” Apparently, he was referring to Rebbe Akiva. Therefore, knowing that Rebbe Akiva was bald and had a son Yehoshua, it can be surmised that Rebbe Yehoshua ben Korcha is none other than Rebbe Akiva’s son.

Rabbeinu Tam emphatically disagrees. He says that referring to someone as bald is derogatory. As proof, he

impossible that he was Rebbe Akiva’s son. Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi was born when Rebbe Akiva passed away. Yet when Rebbe Yehoshua ben Korcha, already at a miraculously advanced age, met up with Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi (Rebbe), he was significantly more than double Rebbe’s age, which does not compute. (See Tosfos for details.)

Rebbe Akiva did not mind the moniker “Korcha” because it was a backhanded praise that he was great enough to have had 24,000 talmidim.

cites the verse in Melachim, where some youths referred to Elisha HaNavi as “the bald one.” The youths were immediately punished. Bears miraculously appeared and mauled them. Further, a Gemara in Shabbos records a statement where someone derogatorily referred to someone as bald. Moreover, there is no proof that Rebbe Akiva was actually bald. A midrash states that Ben Azzai was jovially referring to Rebbe Elazar ben Azariah, not Rebbe Akiva, by the moniker “bald one.”

Finally, he argues that an incident involving Rebbe Yehoshua ben Korcha and Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi seems to make it

Rabbeinu Tam therefore concludes that Rebbe Yehoshua ben Korcha was not Rebbe Akiva’s son but a different Tanna who was the son of individual who had the name Kerach. It is interesting to note that the Chida quotes a Kabbalist who states that he had a vision of both Rebbe Yehoshua ben Korcha and Rebbe Yehoshua ben Rebbe Akiva. The Kabbalist noted that they are definitely not the same person!

The sefer Ramas Shmuel defends Rabbeinu Yitzchak’s position. He suggests that Korcha or “kerach” did not refer to physical baldness. It referred to

the fact that Rebbe Akiva was left bereft of his 24,000 talmidim. We find in Shas that the term “kerach” refers to something that is missing; a “get kerach” is a document missing the requisite number of signatures. Rebbe Akiva was missing his 24,000 students. Unfortunately, they perished as an act of Divine retribution for not according each other proper deference. Rebbe Akiva did not mind the moniker “Korcha” because it was a backhanded praise that he was great enough to have had 24,000 talmidim. More importantly, it was an ongoing reminder to remember the lesson of those 24,000 students.

We might forget the powerful lesson of the importance of treating our peers with an elevated level of respect. Referring to Rebbe Akiva as Korcha serves as an eternal reminder of that lesson. Every time we come across the name Korcha, we should take the opportunity to eternalize the lesson that even great scholars are not spared if they do not treat each other cordially.

At the same time, we should recall that Rebbe Akiva’s new students, though they numbered only five, were enough to keep the transmission of Torah alive. Quality is as important as quantity.

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

9 Things to Know About Lulav in the Beis HaMikdash

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Reb Dovid Leibowitz, zt”l, a great-nephew of the Chofetz Chaim who learned and helped write the 6th chailek, had a fascinating conversation with the Chofetz Chaim with reverberations and connotations that still exist today. Where and what should we be learning? Should our kids (and ourselves) focus on Kodshim and Beis HaMikdash topics like they do in the Brisk Yeshivos or should we stick strictly to halachos that apply now? This article is recommended based upon the view of the Chofetz Chaim and the question that we are asked l’achar me’ah v’esrim: Did you long for the Ge’ulah?

In 1922, Rav Dovid responded to the call of the Alter of Slabodka to join his newly formed Kollel – Kollel Beis Yisroel. It was headed by the Alter’s son-in-law HaRav Isaac Sher, zt”l.

Reb Dovid informed the Chofetz Chaim of his plans to join the kollel which was to be learning Hilchos Shabbos. The Chofetz Chaim tried to convince him to learn Kodshim instead, saying, “Dovid’l, Dovid’l, you’re a Cohen. What will you do when the Beis Hamikdash is rebuilt and a Jew brings you a lamb for a Chatas and you don’t yet fully know the halachos of the sacrifices?”

Reb Dovid responded somewhat jokingly, “Yes, but what will I do if a Jew tells me he did something on Shabbos and asks me if he has to bring a Chatas?”

The Chofetz Chaim responded immediately, “For that we already have the Mishnah Berurah Chailek Gimel.”

Reb Dovid’s talmidim explained that Reb Dovid held that we still need to study Hilchos Shabbos at much greater depth.

What follows is the author’s understanding of the procedure of the mitzvah of lulav in the Beis HaMikdash based upon four sources: HaKosel HaMaaravi by Rav Rabinowitz (Chapter 14), Dinei Aliyah L’Regel by Machon Avodas HaMikdash, oral rulings given to a friend from Rav Elyashiv, zt”l, and a personal analysis of the sugya. Please consult your own rav or posek as to how to conduct oneself. Please also note that this article does not include a discussion of the mitzvah of re’iyah, chagigah and simcha and ensuring that one is pure.

1. We learn from the pesukim in Vayikra (23:39-40) that there is a Torah mitzvah to use the daled minim for the entire seven days of Sukkos in the Beis HaMikdash and for the first day of Sukkos elsewhere. There is also a d’rabbanan mitzvah to perform it for the other six days elsewhere.

2. The pesukim indicate that when the mitzvah is performed in the Beis HaMikdash, it must be done with a special level of simcha.

3. There is a great debate as to whether the seven-day Torah mitzvah also applies in all of the sanctified Yerushalayim (Yerushalayim HaMekudeshes) – the areas of Yerushalayim that existed in the time of the first Beis HaMikdash. The Yerushalmi (Rosh Hashana 4:3) holds that it applies all seven days to sanctified Yerushalayim This is also the view

of many Acharonim in their reading of the Rambam (Bikkurei Yaakov, Aruch LaNer, Sfas Emes). The opposing view is that of Rashi (Sukkah 41a), the Ritva, and the simpler reading of the Rambam (in Hilchos Sukkah 7:13).

4. For non-residents of sanctified Yerushalayim, the Torah mitzvah applies only to one who finds himself in the Beis HaMikdash. Some have the view that all residents of sanctified Yerushalayim are obligated to perform the Torah mitzvah.

5. What are the geographic boundaries of sanctified Yerushalayim?

a) Southern Boundary – from Har HaBayis down to Nachal Kidron.

b) Northern Boundary – see Tiferes Yisroel Midos (1:3) that it includes all the residential areas during the time of the first Beis HaMikdash.

c) Eastern Boundary – the eastern boundary may end at the wall of the mountain; it is a debate in the meforshim.

d) Western Boundary – from the Kosel until 100 meters.

6. In terms of what defects render the arbah minim invalid on the first day, render the arbah minim invalid in the Beis HaMikdash for all seven days, with the possible exception of the requirement of “lachem” that it must be owned and not “borrowed.”

(The exception may be the view of the Chacham Tzvi in Siman 9.)

7. The specific part of the Mikdash where was done and is to be done is the Ezras Yisroel (Turei Even RH 30a and Minchas Chinuch #324).

8. The six-step specific process was and will be:

a) That they arise early in the morning with the arba minim in hand to go to the Mikdash

b) The na’anuim were performed in the manner that we perform them now.

c) After the Korban Tamid was brought and the Nisuch HaMayim was done, the Mizbeach was encircled once each day – with exception of the seventh day where it was encircled seven times. The Ohr Zaruah 315 states that everyone, Kohanim and Yisroel, too, did this. The Bach (660) and the Kol Bo are of the opinion that it was only Kohanim and no Yisroelim. Some are of the opinion that the encircling was only done with aravos (See Tur 664).

d) They then went down to Har HaBayis to daven Shacharis.

e) They returned to the Mikdash to offer the Korban Mussafs.

f) They returned to Har HaBayis to daven Mussaf.

9. If the first day of Sukkos falls on a Shabbos, when the Beis HaMikdash existed, the mitzvah pushed off Shabbos and they did perform the mitzvah. However, when the first day was not on Shabbos, the mitzvah was not performed on shabbos.

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

Today marked a huge milestone on the journey. We applied for our permanent Biometric Teudat Zehut and our Israeli passport; they are both scheduled to arrive in a month. When you make Aliyah with the help of the remarkable Nefesh B’Nefesh organization, upon landing you, along with all of the olim on your flight, are gathered into a big room filled with representatives from the multiple Israeli Ministries. There are loads of ministries waiting to fill out large stacks of important documents!

For a country that is ranked among the top in technology, there are more outdated computers and paper trails than one would expect or believe.

The most important document is a temporary teudat zehut; it is your Israeli birth certificate. Your assigned number is the key that opens every service that you will need, want or have.

Anglos, in particular, and most olim find out pretty quickly that things having to do with Misradim and Kupot take patience and thick skin. Just to make the appointment for the meeting about a permanent card, you need to go on an Appointment App to schedule; you will find out that there may or probably not be a spot available anytime soon that would be conveniently near your house. The good news is that you can book an appointment anywhere in the whole country, from any place with any of the multiple offices.

Sometimes, there is an appointment so far into the future that your temporary Teudat Zehut will expire; thanks to the large influx of olim this year, the Misrad is currently looking away and being flexible.

There have been times when we passed the Misrad HaPinim closest to us, the one where we went today, and noticed Disney-like lines circling the building. That is one daunting sight.

The week we landed in July, we made the first appointment we could get in Jerusalem. It’s now mid-October and past the three-month expiration listed on our card. As we watched that day draw closer, we got nervous and hoped for the best.

We had been warned by many about

School of Thought

Perspective

By Barbara Deutsch

this appointment: some said the whole thing was simple and quick; others said it was long and complicated. A few had given up trying to get a date in Jerusalem and went to Haifa where the offices are empty.

Right before we went for the appointment, we were advised to use the opportunity to apply for our Israeli passport. The waiting period for that had passed, and we now qualified for its issuance.

When we reviewed our experience with the charming Israeli clerk, an anomaly, we told her about long waits and distant offices. In what we have found to be a typical Israeli perspective, she responded.

“You have to take a day off to come in to file at an office. Why not make a day of it? See the country, go to Haifa. And what about those who live in Haifa? Have they ever been to Jerusalem?”

To live here is to understand that even frustrating moments can turn into opportunities for growth.

Surprisingly, I don’t know if it was the office staff or us, but it was a pleasant and stress-free experience. Forms, pictures, my new Hebrew name Barrbarra, explaining why being born in a DP camp is not an easy security question response, fingerprints and done... Both of us were finished in under a half-hour including minor wait time.

After living three months in Israel, we are beginning to believe that she may be right; it’s your perspective.

Perspective is helping many of us mark this difficult year of war and hostages, brutalities, displacement and spontaneous terror attacks – there is not much to say. The front page on October

7 of the Jerusalem Post was blank save for the date.

As Jews do, around the world, they gathered somewhere communal to mourn together a very difficult day, week, year.

My husband and I went to a commemoration where we listened to Jen Airley, mother of Binyamin, Hy”d. She told Binyamin’s story and of her healing; Jen stressed hope, the future and family celebrations including the bar mitzvah of her son Yosef.

“Binyamin would be so happy and proud that his brother Yosef is wearing his tefillin.”

Every day, she said, Binyamin gets to wrap Yosef in his arms through the mitzvah of his tefillin.

This is Jen’s perspective on healing and holding on to the beautiful son she lost too soon.

Israel gives us a home but more significantly becomes our teacher. To live here is to understand that even frustrating moments can turn into opportunities for growth. As Bob and I reflect on the last few complicated and wonderful months, we look forward to the chagim and the abundance of joy they offer.

We miss our loved ones, friends and family in chutz la’aretz and look forward to celebrating with those who are coming to join us in our newly bought sukkah.

The clerk in the Misrad HaPinim reminded us.

“Everyone has always beat on us, that has only made us stronger. I have come to believe that there will never be a time of no war. Israeli people dance. Never forget to dance.”

Perspective!

Chag sameach.

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.

My Israel Home Friends of Israel

By Gedaliah Borvick

Papua New Guineas’s Highlands

We recently closed a deal in Jerusalem’s Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood. As you drive through Kiryat Hayovel and its neighbor, Kiryat Menachem, you’ll notice a unique feature: many streets are named after Latin American countries, such as Colombia, Guatemala, and Panama.

These street names commemorate the Latin American nations that supported the United Nations Partition Plan on November 29, 1947, which led to the establishment of the State of Israel. While some of these countries have shifted their allegiances since that pivotal moment, their support was crucial in securing the two-thirds majority needed for our independence. The street signs stand as a lasting tribute to our gratitude for their friendship on that miraculous day.

These street signs got me thinking about the countries supporting Israel in today’s challenging times. Regrettably, the number of countries that consistently vote with Israel in the UN can be counted on two hands. For example, in May 2024, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution favoring Palestine’s bid for full UN membership, with 143 votes in favor, 25 abstentions, and only 9 votes against. The dissenting votes came from the United States, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Palau, and Nauru.

Let’s delve into Israel’s relationships with the latter four nations and explore why these small and relatively unknown countries continue to support Israel despite the wave of global animosity.

Micronesia, a tiny North Pacific island, has been a close supporter of Israel because its foreign policy goals are primarily linked to achieving economic development and protecting their vast marine environment, two areas where Is-

been the universal capital of the nation and people of Israel. For us to call ourselves Christians, paying respect to G-d will not be complete without recognizing that Jerusalem is the universal capital of the people and nation of Israel.” He emphasized that PNG values its relationship with Israel, noting that Israel’s expertise in health, agriculture, security, education, and technology is vital for PNG’s economic development goals.

tourists, has a predominantly Christian population. Nauru’s president and officials frequently highlight the significance of the Jewish people returning to their ancestral homeland. Israel has also provided medical assistance and agricultural training to Nauru.

While some of these countries have shifted their allegiances since that pivotal moment, their support was crucial in securing the twothirds majority needed for our independence.

rael excels. The countries also collaborate closely in agriculture, technical training, and healthcare. Additionally, with 99% of Micronesians being Christian, there exists a strong sense of kinship with the Jewish people and their homeland.

Papua New Guinea (PNG), located in the southwestern Pacific, opened its embassy in Jerusalem in 2023. Prime Minister James Marape stated, “Jerusalem has

Palau views the Jewish people as G-d’s chosen ones. In 1994, Israel became the first non-Pacific nation to establish diplomatic relations with Palau upon its independence. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has actively supported Palau by sending convoys of fisheries and agricultural exports to help train the local population.

Nauru, the least-visited country in the world with an average of only 160 annual

All four nations benefit from Israel’s international aid agency, Mashav, which was established in 1958 to help countries tackle development challenges by sharing expertise and technology. Mashav’s efforts to alleviate poverty and foster thriving economies embody the principle of Tikun Olam—perfecting the world in the Al-mighty’s kingdom. Furthermore, Mashav’s inspiring initiatives help forge enduring international friendships, as evidenced by voting patterns in the UN. May Mashav continue to achieve success in fulfilling its powerful mission statement: To lead Israel’s efforts in empowering individuals and communities in need by sharing tools and expertise to achieve sustainable development and transformation within their own societies.

Gedaliah Borvick is the founder of My Israel Home (www.myisraelhome.com), a real estate agency focused on helping people from abroad buy and sell homes in Israel. To sign up for his monthly market updates, contact him at gborvick@gmail.com.

The Wandering Jew Poland, Hungary, and Moldova

Part II

By Hershel Lieber

We left Warsaw Friday morning and arrived in Budapest at about 11 AM. Shabbos was at 4:09 PM, so we did not have time for any meaningful touring. We would have to leave that for Sunday. After checking into the Astoria Hotel, which was once one of the city’s finest, our group divided themselves. The women went shopping on the Vaci Utca, the city’s main shopping street, while some of the men, including me, went to the famed Gellert Thermal Baths. The natural hot

springs provide tranquility and recreation and have separate sections for men and women. The healing properties come from underground caves which are mineral-rich. We came back completely relaxed and refreshed while the women returned with clothing, fine glassware, Herend porcelain, and a couple of other tchotchkes.

After candle lighting, the men went to the Kazinczy Shul, which was followed by a beautiful seudah at the Kings Hotel with divrei Torah and zemiros. I gave

the group an introduction to Budapest in light of its rich Jewish history.

Shabbos morning, we davened at the Chevra Shas Synagogue, where Chabad Rabbi Baruch Oberlander conducted his kiruv activities. Our seudah was again at the Kings Hotel, and for Mincha and Shalosh Seudoss we went to the 1870era Dessewffy Shul. We wanted to experience different shuls and meet with a variety of people. After havdalah, we had a Melave Malka at the Kings with meat blintzes and pan-fried potatoes. Then we

headed to the Duna Palato for a concert of classical music, which was very enjoyable and entertaining. The night was still young, so we walked along the Vaci Utca, whose shops were open late catering to tourists like us.

Sunday was our dedicated touring day. After Shacharis at the Dessewffy Shul and breakfast, I gave a lecture at the Kazinczy Shul to our group about the building and the wartime ghetto where it is located. I added some personal history about my parents, who fled from

The Parliament Building in Budapest

The Fisherman’s Bastion in Budapest

Dinner at Kings Hotel in Budapest

Poland and were in Budapest during the last year of the war. My father, who was in jail, and my mother’s escapades to get him released, including a frightening encounter with Adolph Eichman, ym”sh, form breathtaking chapters in her autobiography. We then went to the Jewish Museum where we were given a personal tour by the director. Afterwards, we went to view the architectural gem known as

the Dohany Street (Neolog) Synagogue.

After lunch, we took a guided bus tour of Budapest’s historical monuments and attractions. In the evening, we traveled to Fisherman’s Bastion along the Buda side of the Danube River. There, we strolled around admiring the structural beauty of the bastion and marveled at the grandeur of the Parliament Building across the river in Pest. We then relaxed

with drinks at the nearby Hilton Hotel lounge and headed back to our hotel. Tomorrow we would be completing the last leg of our trip.

Monday, after davening and breakfast, we headed to the airport and our flight to Kishinev. Kishinev is surely not on anyone’s list of tourist destinations. It happens to be the capital of Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, with very few at-

tractions for visitors to see. Our purpose in visiting the city was to highlight the Jewish institutions that I was involved with for the past eight years and to solicit financial help to maintain them.

A little history is now necessary. Kishinev, prior to World War II, was part of Bessarabia, Romania, whose population was almost fifty percent Jewish. There were over seventy shuls, many schools, and an entire infrastructure that was needed to support a vibrant Jewish life. The chief rabbi was Rabbi Yehuda Leib Tsirelson, who was the head of a famous yeshiva, the leader of the country’s Agudas Yisroel movement, a member of the Romanian parliament, and a well-respected orator. In short, after the war, that whole area was occupied and incorporated into the Soviet Union. Immediately, all organized Jewish life ceased to exist. With the exception of one synagogue that was used for propaganda purposes, religious life was almost completely eradicated. Yiddish was still spoken by many Jews, but both religious and even secular Jewish life was quashed.

In the early ‘90s, the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel, of which I was a founding member, started to send emissaries

Remnants of the famed Kishinev Yeshiva of Rav Tsirelson

Kishinev Beis Olam - Kever of Rav Tsirelson on left

to many former Soviet republics to rebuild Yiddishkeit. Kishinev, which was now the capital of independent Moldova, was one of those cities. We started a yeshiva for teenage boys and simultaneously a girls’ school as well as summer camps. We reached out to parents to enroll their children in our schools and camps. We offered excellent secular education, dormitory facilities, and the opportunity for students to continue their studies abroad (in the U.S., Canada or Israel). At the same time, we were introducing our children to Jewish holidays, Torah knowledge, and religious tradition. We had many successes, but we had our share of setbacks. Recruiting children was hard enough but acquiring the proper staff was even harder. Most difficult was raising money for our project. The expenses far exceeded our intake, and we were always struggling to balance our budget.

Before I undertook to lead this group on an excursion to Poland, I requested that they join me for forty-eight hours in Kishinev where I would show them our project and the progress we achieved over the past eight years. I knew that once they would see our accomplishments, they would undertake to help finance this endeavor.

Back to Kishinev airport and the arrival of our group: we stepped off the tarmac, entered the terminal and were greeted by representatives of the student body as well as the staff. We checked into the city’s best hotel, the Jolly Alon, and went directly to the girls, school. Theres we were welcomed by Rabbis Moshe Eisemann and Yitzchok Aron Fischer, prominent Vaad members. The girls were friendly to their guests but a bit shy. The women of our group reached out to them and presented them with gifts. We later went to the boys’ yeshiva for davening and had our first encounter with the yeshiva bochurim. The building was recently renovated and looked quite presentable. The head of our institutions at

the time was Rabbi Osher Baddiel from London, who addressed the guests. Tuesday was our one and only full day in Kishinev, and “hectic” is not strong enough to describe the pace of our activities. After davening and breakfast, Rab -

lunch at the girls’ school for the women and at the yeshiva for the men. This luncheon was the opportunity for members of our group to freely interact with our students.

Late in the afternoon, the yeshiva

Recruiting children was hard enough but acquiring the proper staff was even harder. Most difficult was raising money for our project.

bi Fischer performed brissim on three of our boys, and some of our group members had the privilege of being sandek. We toured the yeshiva buildings and then took a city tour highlighting Jewish institutions that only recently started to restore themselves after fifty years of repression. We saw the former building of Rav Tsirelson’s yeshiva, now an abandoned, roofless skeleton bereft of its former grandeur. We visited the city’s only permitted synagogue under the U.S.S.R., which was now the headquarters of Chabad. We paid respects at the site of the infamous Kishinev pogroms of 1903 and 1905 and at the monument honoring those victims. This was followed by

sponsored a reception for the German Embassy who provided funds to renovate our dining room. Present was the German, British and American ambas -

sadors, Chabad Chief Rabbi Zalman Abelsky, and other Jewish organization leaders. This was followed by a seudas bris for the three boys who entered the Covenant of Avrohom that very morning. There were speeches, gifts, music, singing and dancing. The most moving speeches were given by our guests, the visiting members of the group. They were truly impressed and touched by the results of the kiruv efforts expended on behalf of our students. They eventually all came through with nice donations that facilitated our endeavors to revitalize Yiddishkeit and spread Torah in Kishinev.

The trip was a resounding success, and I was engaged by the group to lead them on another journey to Spain and Gibraltar in May of 2006. More about that journey in a future article.

Hershel Lieber has been involved in kiruv activities for over 30 years. As a founding member of the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel he has traveled with his wife, Pesi, to the Soviet Union during the harsh years of the Communist regimes to advance Yiddishkeit. He has spearheaded a yeshiva in the city of Kishinev that had 12 successful years with many students making Torah their way of life. In Poland, he lectured in the summers at the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation camp for nearly 30 years. He still travels to Warsaw every year – since 1979 – to be the chazzan for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur for the Jews there. Together with Pesi, he organized and led trips to Europe on behalf of Gateways and Aish Hatorah for college students finding their paths to Jewish identity. His passion for travel has taken them to many interesting places and afforded them unique experiences. Their open home gave them opportunities to meet and develop relationships with a variety of people. Hershel’s column will appear in The Jewish Home on a bi-weekly basis.

Students of Kishinev’s girls’ school Dancing with one of the boys who just had a bris At the bris celebration of three yeshiva boys

Members of the Vaad addressing our group (R-L Rabbis Yitzchok Aron Fischer, Moshe Eisemann and me)

Davening with the talmidim at the Yeshiva of Kishinev

Nation

SEli Paley The Fundamentals of a Torah Publication

By Eliyahu RosEnBERg

omething about the Chevron Yeshiva always seemed magical to Eli Paley. He had learned there as a bachur, following in the footsteps of the three generations that came before him, and when the bochur got married, he desperately wanted to continue his learning there. In his eyes, Chevron was more than a yeshiva; it was the place that inspired his life mission.

In His Words…

Eli Paley was born in the mid-1960s and grew up in Yerushalayim. Raised in what he describes as a “Chevron family,”

i felt that our mission with the publication was to elevate our society, to be a voice for the people. That wasn’t our business plan or the best way to make money; that was our mission… For me, it was always clear that our real customers are not advertisers; our real customers are the readers. i have an obligation to be honest to our readers. People trust us. a nd i would never compromise on that.

Who gave you the right to hurt someone’s business?

Competition makes the market better. if you are the only one in the field, nobody can really appreciate what makes you unique. i think if you really want your business to be good, don’t try to eliminate competition. Try to always be open enough to see what others are doing better, what you can do better, and what you need to improve in your own system. We’re a big community, and there is a need for different voices.

i came to help my father when he bought the publication. i felt bad for him; it wasn’t a good investment at the time… For at least two years, i was a little bit frustrated. Why am i here? This wasn’t my plan. i wasn’t looking for a parnassah! But i remember the day when i said to myself, ‘ l isten, you have your own plans, but haKadosh Baruch hu has his plans as well. a nd if haKadosh Baruch hu put you in this place, it means that you have something to do.’ a nd from that day forward, i realized that i have a mission in life: to serve and elevate our community.

the boy felt that the yeshiva was a part of his very essence. After all, his grandfather and great-grandfather were co-founders of the school, having arrived in Eretz Yisrael in 1925 on a mission to fill the Holy Land with Torah. Perhaps it was that ancestral aim – the mission of bringing Torah to Eretz Yisrael – that motivated Mr. Paley to devote his life to leading Mishpacha Magazine, a publication that has for decades inspired Jews all around the world.

Paley never planned to work for a magazine. And he most certainly didn’t anticipate becoming the publisher of the world’s largest Jewish publication. Rather, he wanted to learn full-time for as long as possible. But, as he explains, Hashem had other plans.

He first started working as a distributor for Mishpacha, a chareidi publication that had just started printing at the time. It was a side job that would allow him to live without needing financial support while also still having more than enough time to learn. He was paid well and only needed to work for one-and-a-half days a month. It was the perfect job for him. But when Eli’s father, a prominent baal tzedakah, decided to acquire the publication, the boy’s life suddenly changed.

“I came to help my father when he bought the publication. I felt bad for him; it wasn’t a good investment at the time… But I didn’t have any background in business, because that wasn’t my dream,” Mr. Paley recalled. “For at least two years, I was a little bit frustrated. Why am I here? This wasn’t my plan. I wasn’t looking for a parnassah! But I remember the day when I said to myself, ‘Listen, you have your own plans, but HaKadosh Baruch Hu has His plans as well. And if HaKadosh Baruch

Hu put you in this place, it means that you have something to do.’ And from that day forward, I realized that I have a mission in life: to serve and elevate our community.”

Eli Paley devoted his life to Mishpacha, becoming the paper’s publisher. With time, the publication became the most successful Torah magazine in Israel and the U.S., setting the standard for similar papers. Paley shaped Mishpacha into what it is today by guiding the publication with the values he learned from his father.

“My father fought on behalf of Sephardi girls who weren’t accepted to Ashkenazi seminaries. He fought for kids at risk. He fought for agunot. He helped Chareidim with housing. That was what I saw in the house I grew up in,” he shared. “I felt that our mission with the publication was to elevate our society, to be a voice for the people. That wasn’t our business plan or the best way to make money; that was our mission… For me, it was always clear that our real customers are not advertisers; our real customers are the readers. I have an obligation to be honest to our readers. People trust us. And I would never compromise on that.” But what really makes Mishpacha unique, besides its integrity, is its lack of affiliation. While it’s a frum newspaper, the publication has never been connected to a particular political movement or Jewish group. In contrast, nearly every other paper at the time of Mishpacha’s inception had some sort of set identity: Litvish, Chassidish, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, etc. Mishpacha was instead a publication that belonged not to one group of Jews but to all of Klal Yisroel. Thus, readers would, one week, see an interview with Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky,

zt”l, and the next week, an interview with the Satmar Rebbe. Mishpacha was also the first Chareidi magazine to feature interviews with great Sephardic rabbanim, such as the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu. Its lack of affiliation was more than just a novelty, however – it was a key feature of the publication meant to foster a sense of unity in a divided Eretz Yisrael. As Eli Paley explains, the paper’s mission of inspiring oneness later became the secret to Mishpacha’s success and its diverse audience.

Mishpacha is different from its competitors in many other ways, but its uniqueness has at times come at a steep price. Rivaling maga-

zines have, for example, slammed Mishpacha for addressing important but difficult topics, such as child abuse and kids at risk, and discussing certain Chareidi social challenges, such as the community’s relationship with secular Israelis and the army draft. Although it’s hard to share disturbing stories, sometimes it’s very important to do so – of course, in a sensitive and non-sensationalist way – in order to bring about awareness of the issues; one who covers up atrocities risks becoming complacent.

Some competitors have even slandered the publication, falsely asserting that it isn’t proper to read Mishpacha. As Eli Paley explains, many of his paper’s rivals have even published blatantly out-

of-context statements from top rabbanim that seemingly condemn Mishpacha in an attempt to ruin the publication’s reputation. However, time after time, rabbanim have defended Mishpacha’s practices and content. The critics, more often than not, aren’t genuinely concerned with the permissibility of reading Mishpacha; rather, they just want to eliminate competition. Mishpacha, on the other hand, has a different philosophy when it comes to its competitors.

“Who gave you the right to hurt someone’s business? Competition makes the market better. If you are the only one in the field, nobody can really appreciate what makes you unique,” Paley noted. “I think if you really want your business to be

good, don’t try to eliminate competition. Try to always be open enough to see what others are doing better, what you can do better, and what you need to improve in your own system. We’re a big community, and there is a need for different voices.”

Eli Paley dreams of a future where Mishpacha could be read by Jews who speak languages other than English and Hebrew. He explains that part of his publication’s mission is to encourage important discussions about societal issues and demonstrate the beauty of Yiddishkeit to the non-religious world. But most importantly, at the core of Mishpacha’s mission is to unite the Jewish people; to show us that despite our differences, we are all brothers and sisters.

This article is based on a podcast, “Inspiration For the Nation,” hosted by Yaakov Langer. To catch more of this conversation, you can watch it on LivingLchaim. com or YouTube.com/LivingLchaim or listen wherever you listen to podcasts (just search for “Inspiration For The Nation”) or call our free hotline: 605-477-2100.

Dating Dialogue What Would You Do If…

Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters

Dear Navidaters,

Thanks in advance for taking the time to consider my question. I’m 32 and have been dating for ten years. I have a good job as an accountant. I bought my own home two years ago in the community I love and fill my free time with lots of chessed and have good friends. I’ve always been adamant about what I wanted/what’s important to me and part of that equation was staying within the New York area (hence buying a house and settling there).

In the summer, I met a really awesome guy while I was traveling to Florida. We went out a few times, but I ended it because ultimately, he can’t relocate due to his custody arrangements (he’s divorced with a child).

I really can’t stop thinking about him. I’ve never had this with anyone before. I wake up with pangs of regret for ending it, and I consider reassessing this shidduch every single day. I am worried if I do start up again, it will end up being too hard for me to follow up with geographical piece and I’ll be back in square one. What do you suggest?

The Panel

We’d love to hear your answers! To be included in the Dating Dialogue column as our guest columnist, email michellemondshadchan@gmail.com.

The Rebbetzin

Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz, M.S.

You know the answer to this question lies within you. You really like this fellow and see a future with him. Why are you so afraid you will back out because of the relocation issue? Why are you so tied to your house? To your local friends and family? Are you very insecure? Are you fearful of taking on stepchildren? Are you too comfortable? What else lies beneath your fear? Think about these questions and get some help to explore them. You know the guy scores high, and you really like him.

You know your job is portable. Do the personal work and renew the relationship with tachlis in mind.

The Shadchan

Michelle Mond

Baruch Hashem, you have so many things that others dream to have: a secure profession, a pleasant well-paying job, a home you own, a circle of friends and a community to which you belong and contribute. You are truly anchored! But…you’ve anchored a bit prematurely. You’re not in the place in life you want to be. This is a

challenge I see often in women who aren’t married the moment they step off the plane after returning from seminary.

Your main priority should be finding the man with whom to build your family and with whom to spend the rest of your life. And you realize that. But due to these anchors, the mental hurdle becomes so, so much harder. You have to put your heart where your head is.

I suggest you see your marriage goal as the ultimate “promotion.” Pursue this relationship with the same tenacity you’ve employed to get where you are now. See where this goes. If this is “it,” then yes, you might end up uprooting from your current job. But that is easily replaceable. You can always sell or rent out the house – just speak to your FLOR (friendly local orthodox realtor!). You can keep your old friendships and get involved in chesed in your new community (there are always opportunities). But to emphasize, the mental hurdle is real and will take some work. Much hatzlacha!

The Zaidy

Dr. Jeffrey Galler

Hey, I understand. You have built a very fulfilling life for yourself, with a great job, home, friends, and community. But, as per Peggy Lee’s famous song, “Is that all there is?”

Despite this month’s hurricanes, Florida living is pretty darn good! And, note that you might be able to keep your accounting job and work remotely. But, if not, in Florida, there are great job opportunities for an accomplished accountant.

You would certainly miss some friends, but your really tight friendships will survive geographic dislocation. And, you would definitely thrive there, being active in their many chessed opportunities and community activities.

I’d like to tell you a story that I once heard. I think it was about the recently de-

ceased Ethel Kennedy, who was the wife of Senator Robert Kennedy and the mother of 11 children.

Someone asked her, “How did you decide to forego a potential career as a lawyer and, instead, devote yourself to family?”

She reputedly answered, “I asked myself, in 50 years, would I rather look at a scrapbook of my major legal cases or look at a photo album of my children and grandchildren?”

Today, of course, an intelligent, accomplished woman, like you, can have it all – family, career, friends, and community. Note how Ethel Kennedy became a celebrated human right’s activist and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Go for it, girl! You can have it all – let’s just hope that the young man feels the same about you as you feel about him.

The Kallah Teacher

Rebbetzin Lisa Babich/5th Avenue

Iam so happy you are asking this question because it is such an important one. As someone who counsels many singles throughout the dating process, this is a question I am often asked.

I think there are two important points to make, and I will start with the one I feel is strongest. Before a person gets married, they have things they are very attached to including their location and home. It is completely valid because that is their world and home. However, once one gets married, their home becomes so much more than a location. The family you build becomes your home as well, and so wherever you live, your world is traveling with you.

Pulling It All Together

The Navidaters

Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists

Thank you for sharing your story so openly. It sounds like you’ve built a beautiful life for yourself, one rooted in community, meaningful friendships, and the values you hold dear. I can sense how difficult it must be to wrestle with these feelings about the man you met in Florida. You’ve spent years shaping a vision of what you wanted your life to look like and now this unexpected connection is making you question that path. It’s okay to feel conflicted – life often throws us these curveballs when we least expect them.

From what you’ve described, this man clearly made a strong impression on you, and that connection sounds real. It’s understandable that you’re having a hard time letting go, especially because those deep connections are rare and meaningful.

That being said, there are certain times when someone may want to live in a different country or place that is so culturally different from yours that it is a change that can be too hard to make. However, I feel that different states within the U.S., especially those that are a short plane ride away, don’t fall into that category. It could be that during the first few months of marriage, you may request to start off in your hometown just to adjust more easily to the changes of marriage, but then you will be moving to a town where your new family and therefore, your new inner orbit or “home,” will be coming with you.

My second point is that I think life is full of cross-ratio benefits. Yes, living in New York is great, but finding a guy you are crazy about and want to spend your life with is also great. Which is more important to you? If the value of living in New York is so strong that you can’t give that up for any guy, then there is your decision. However, if you feel that finding your potential soulmate and starting a family and life with him trumps New York then that is also a choice. I also believe that things don’t have

It’s important that any compromises you make align with your authentic self.

to be so black and white. You can move to Florida and agree to visit New York as often as possible. Maybe you will choose to spend summers or chagim in the Big Apple. It sounds like you met someone you really care about, and I don’t believe the location is a reason to dismiss it. I think through further discussions, mindset shifts, and flexibility you two can make a plan that feels somewhat comfortable for both of you. After all, this won’t be the last time in marriage that you will have to both compromise and find a middle ground.

But it’s also understand - able that the geographi - cal distance, along with the commitments he has to his child, feels like a big challenge. These are very real concerns, and it’s good that you’re taking them seriously.

I encourage you to sit with the following questions, not to force an answer but to gently guide you in clarifying what feels right for you.

Ask yourself:

• What is it about this connection that’s drawing me back? Is it his personality, the way he made me feel, or the potential life we could have together?

• If I imagine myself living in Florida, what do I feel? Can I see myself being happy there? What would I need—emotionally and practically—to make it work?

• What is holding me back from reconsidering this relationship? Is it the fear of change, uncertainty about the future, or something else?

• What am I willing to compromise for love, and what do I need to remain true to myself?

At the end of the day, relationships, especially those that involve geographical challenges, are about compromise, but it’s important that any compromises you make align with your authentic self. If being near your family, friends, and community in New York is non-negotiable, that’s perfectly valid. But if there’s a part of you that wonders whether love and connection with this person could open doors you hadn’t previously imagined, it may be worth exploring. It’s also okay to take a small step forward without making an immediate decision about relocation. Maybe reconnecting with him for a conversation will give you clarity.

You could talk about your concerns openly and see if you both share a vision that could work, even with the current constraints. There may be creative solutions you haven’t yet considered, but it’s okay if there aren’t, too.

The important thing is that whatever decision you make comes from a place of peace not pressure. In the end, life is about choices, and no one path is right or wrong— just what feels right for you. It’s clear that you’ve been intentional about building a life you love, and that same intentionality will guide you through this decision. Whether you stay in New York or explore a new possibility with him, you deserve a life filled with joy, love, and meaning. Trust yourself and your heart—you’ll know the right path when you’re ready.

Wishing you clarity and peace, Jennifer

Parenting Pearls Celebrating Sukkos with Family

By Sara Rayvych, MSEd

After the intense days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, Sukkos is the opportunity to celebrate our close connection to Hashem. We’ve looked inside ourselves to determine what needs improvement and have been reminded of the pain of being separated from The Source. Now we have the opportunity to appreciate our newly built bond. Every Shabbos we step away from the rest of the world and into a universe of just our family, community and Creator. Nestled in our homes, we reconnect after a hectic week of disconnection. Sukkos takes us one step further, as we exit our homes and access the closeness that only a sukkah can provide.

Sukkos is truly a chag of simcha and an opportunity to introduce our children to the beautiful mitzvos of the chag. Kids love sitting in the sukkah and shaking the lulav and esrog. Dancing on Simchas Torah and eating too much candy definitely rate high marks in their minds.

It’s also a chance to recognize Hashem’s constant role in our lives and the

divine protection we receive. After such a challenging year, the sukkah reminds us that the only true comfort we have is knowing that just as Hashem’s ananei hakavod surrounded us millennia ago, that protection continues to this day.

Living In The Sukkah

Living in the sukkah can be such an enjoyable mitzvah. The fresh air, delicious food and smiling faces all combine for a wonderful experience. Our family gets the pleasure of hearing the neighbors’ z’miros emanating from their respective sukkos, while the older boys look forward to sleeping under the stars (through the s’chach, of course).

The meals are the main time we spend in the sukkah. Even families that don’t have formal meals during the week should try to eat together as a family during chol hamoed. Even the simplest warm stew tastes better when enjoyed together in the sukkah.

Rather than simply a place we visit,

the children can be encouraged to do activities in the sukkah. Reading, board games and just shmoozing can all take place outdoors. The children will follow our example. If we keep the sukkah a focus on our yom tov, then we can expect similarly from our youth.

Sukkos With Kids

Kids enjoy being a part of things and the confidence that comes with successfully fulfilling mature tasks. Teens can help build the sukkah, and older children can assist with the decorating. My kids were thrilled when I finally let them take over the posters – and they did an incredible job. Children can also be excellent bakers and help serve. Compliments and sincere praise demonstrate our appreciation of their efforts. Beginning from the age of toddlers, my children have enjoyed shaking the lulav and esrog. It’s hands-on chinuch and helps to foster a love of mitzvos. Parents should assist and demonstrate

the correct way to hold the minim. The lulav and esrog are too fragile to be left unattended around children. In their excitement to be like the adults, children may grab, drop or otherwise damage these items. Don’t leave them out on the table or within the reach of little arms. We also need to be mindful to protect children from the mischief they can cause to themselves. For example, the lulav is long and pointy and looks like a sword to a young person. Children are off schedule from yom tov. By the time Sukkos arrives, they’ve already had an extended period of change. While there is a reasonable chance infants can go to sleep at their regular times, it’s only a fantasy for the rest of the kids. They will be excited for yom tov, they will go to sleep late, and they will be cranky and act off. We can try to keep them somewhat scheduled and make sure they get a reasonable amount of sleep without missing the festivities, but we need to be realistic in our expectations. When we know to

expect that their behavior will be less than ideal, we can be better prepared.

Chol Hamoed

Chol hamoed gives us the opportunity to spend time together while doing activities that would be forbidden during the other days of yom tov. Unfortunately, unrealistic expectations and disagreement can mar the beauty of these days. The halachos of chol hamoed can be confusing at times. Parents should take the time to familiarize themselves so as to properly honor these days and provide a proper education to their children.

Kids may have many ideas for what they want to do over chol hamoed. Maybe they want to travel over three hours to an expensive amusement park. Perhaps they think an overnight trip to California would be awesome. Extravagant daily trips are unnecessary and stressful. It also sets unrealistic expectations for other families, many of whom are unable to afford the yom tov basics. Parents make the decisions regarding all trips and plans. Kids can certainly make suggestions that parents take into

consideration, but the ultimate decision is up to the adults.

Parents set the tone. A trip to a local attraction with cheerful parents is more enjoyable than the most exciting excursion with an angry adult. We set the mood, and we create a fun, warm environment that produces positive

picnic basket in case there are delays getting home due to traffic or other unforeseeable circumstances. Be mindful of nap times and provide a stroller or baby carrier for tired, young walkers. There are public sukkot in the most unlikely of places. Take a few minutes prior to leaving and locate a sukkah

The simplest warm stew tastes better when enjoyed together in the sukkah.

memories. The goal is to create a pleasant atmosphere for family time and strengthen the parent-child bonds. Take pictures and smile next to your child. Often, a little preparation determines the success of a trip. You can have the most incredible trip, but it will end miserably if the kids are screaming to be fed. Pack lunch or dinner and enough snacks and water for the duration of your outing. Add a little more to your

near your intended destination. This not only provides a place to eat, it also shows children the value we place on this mitzvah. I’ve been to places that have advertised having a sukkah on premises. Their booth may have been artistically designed, but the lack of s’chach rendered this creation unkosher. Pack food that can be eaten outside of a sukkah in the event a kosher sukkah can’t be located.

Children have unrealistic expectations, and then become upset when their imaginary plans fail to materialize. We announce “pizza,” and they hear “pizza, fries, drink and ice cream for dessert.” That child may ordinarily be thrilled with just a fresh, hot slice, but is now disappointed when receiving that same treat. Explaining clearly what will be happening, and what they will be receiving, can help keep their expectations to a more reasonable level.

We are about to reach the first anniversary of the day that turned our world upside down. Please be gentle on yourself and sensitive to the needs of others around you, especially the youngest members of Klal Yisroel who may be unable to tune into or verbalize their feelings.

I want to wish everyone a chag of true simcha and shalom.

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.

School of Thought Do Our Kids Actually Hear Us When We are Speaking to Them?

By Etti Siegel

Teachers and parents share something in common: we all talk a lot. We tell our children what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. We are often explaining, teaching, and sharing.

We need to realize that, unfortunately, sometimes what we say is misunderstood! Checking for understanding, in a casual way if you are a parent and a more formal way if you are a teacher, is vital when speaking to kids.

There are a lot of reasons our children might not be “hearing” us.

Younger children may struggle to process complex information or instructions, or they might just assume they understand when they really don’t.

I was visiting a Chassidishe school in my position as a coach, and a first grade teacher shared this very telling story: She introduced the spelling word “crust,” and spelled it out for her students: c r u s t. She gave examples and then held up a piece of bread and pointed to the outside of the slice as she repeated “crust.” Then she asked the class for a sentence. A little girl raised her hand and volunteered, “I crust the street with my mother.”

This is not just a cute story, as something similar happened in my own class in Queens:

After twenty-five years of teaching the same pesukim in Chumash to third graders, I remember having an eye-opening experience. The word “inherit” kept coming up, and I suddenly felt the need to ask my students what the word meant. It seemed silly, as I knew the word was familiar to them from second grade. I was stunned to see blank stares and one child piped up with, “Die.” It hit me then: I had assumed they understood the term without ever checking. This realization served as a crucial reminder that we must not take students’ knowledge for granted; it’s essential to ensure they grasp foundational concepts before moving on.

Another reason they might not be fully hearing you might be distractions. Children can be easily distracted by their environment, toys, or other people, making it hard to focus on what you’re saying.

Of course, besides outside distractions, they might not be fully present. Even if they seem to be looking at you, they may be thinking about something else and not actively listening.

Language comprehension can be another issue. Complex words or phrases may be difficult for your students to understand or they could be missing the background knowledge to process the information you are saying.

My friend taught fifth grade (10–11-year-olds) in a well-known and established school. When she told her students it was time for parsha, everyone was excited and diligently took out their parsha notebooks. Suddenly, she noticed a sullen child who did not take out her notebook. She went over to her and asked what was wrong. The child responded, “I don’t like parsha. When you tell me how Yosef could fit into a pit, maybe I will agree to listen.” The poor child had no idea the word pit had a double meaning, and picturing Yosef in a peach pit was so ridiculous, she decided parsha in general was probably just as ludicrous.

An eighth grade rebbe shared the following with me. In the Mishna, it often mentions times a deaf-mute, a cognitively impaired person, and a minor might be absolved of performing certain mitzvos. My student was agitated and called out angrily, “Why are we discriminating against people working in coal mines?” It took me a second to realize he heard miner, and not minor. He was calmer when I taught him the term for under-age!

Checking for understanding is so important and prevents so much misunderstanding! It is not just the misunderstanding that occurs in that conversation but the misunderstanding that follows the child as he

grows, since learning is built on past knowledge. We cannot wait for our children to ask for a better or clearer explanation. They often think they do understand and so they have nothing to ask. Other times, they are confused but they assume everyone else understood and don’t want to embarrass themselves.

A high school teacher told me she remembers the following incident as if it were yesterday, though it happened over 30 years ago:

She was in tenth grade and busy taking notes. She looked up confused as her history teacher said, “It was not the king’s cup of tea.” They were clearly talking about wars and conquests, so where did tea fit in? She raised her hand, then lowered it as everyone else seemed fine, and she was embarrassed to make a spectacle of herself. Her curiosity was too much, so she put up her hand even as she felt her face flushing from embarrassment. Her teacher was annoyed.

“What do you mean you don’t know the phrase?”

Her teacher then began calling on other girls in the class to explain what “it was not the king’s cup of tea” meant. No one knew.

At that moment, the tenth grader knew she did not have to think of herself as dumb. She began thinking of

herself as brave. She was brave enough to ask for clarification!

So what should we do if we want to have meaningful conversations with our children/ students?

• Get their attention: Make eye contact, use their name, and ensure they are looking at you before speaking. In a classroom, ask for 100% attention and compliment the girls as they give it to you.

We cannot wait for our children to ask for a better or clearer explanation.

• Keep it simple, positive, and age appropriate: Use clear and concise language, avoiding jargon or overly complicated sentences. Praise them when they listen and understand. Be mindful to tailor your communication style to fit their developmental level.

• Be present: Minimize distractions and actively engage with them during conversations.

• Ask open-ended questions: Encourage them to elaborate and share their thoughts. In a classroom,

it might be helpful to ask your students to write their thoughts down and then call on them. It eases stage fright and lets children solidify their thoughts without the pressure of being called on unprepared.

• There are times when a child might need professional help. If you suspect a hearing issue, a child might need to have their hearing checked. If a child consistently struggles to understand language or follow instructions beyond what is expected for their age, consider talking to a speech-language pathologist (if you are the parent) or bring up the issue with the parents as they might not be able to see it as clearly as a teacher might in a classroom setting.

Wishing you a chag sameach!

- Etti

Mrs. Etti Siegel holds an MS in Teaching and Learning/Educational Leadership and brings sound teaching advice to her audiences culled from her over 35 years of teaching and administrative experience. She is an Adjunct at the College of Mount Saint Vincent/Sara Shenirer. She is a coach and educational consultant for Catapult Learning, is a sought-after mentor and workshop presenter around the country, and a popular presenter for Sayan (a teacher-mentoring program), Hidden Sparks, and the Consortium of Jewish Day Schools. She is a frequent contributor to Hamechanech Magazine and The Journal for Jewish Day School leaders. She will be answering your education-based questions and writing articles weekly for The Jewish Home. Mrs. Siegel can be reached at ettisiegel@gmail.com.

Health & F tness

The Do’s and the Don’ts of Sukkos

By Aliza Beer MS, RD, CDN

Sukkot is a joyful time that many eagerly anticipate, particularly for the opportunity to share meals with family and friends. The abundance of food during this time, however, can make it challenging to maintain health goals; especially this year, when we are faced with two sets of a three-day holiday. By equipping yourself with the right knowledge and planning, you can navigate the chag in a way that supports both your physical well-being and social enjoyment.

Preparation in Advance

One of the most effective ways to ensure that your nutritional needs are met during Sukkos is through careful meal planning and preparation. Begin by familiarizing yourself with the menus for each meal and creating a personal meal plan that aligns with your dietary requirements. If you identify meals that include items incompatible with your diet, try to substitute them with healthier alternatives. For example, replace traditional potato kugel with a broccoli kugel or swap fried chicken for grilled chicken. One or two unhealthy

options on the table is fine, but the goal is to present a table filled with mostly healthy options.

Once you have curated your menu, outline appropriate portion sizes to avoid overeating or feeling deprived. This strategy will help you adhere to your meal plan, stay satisfied, and minimize the temptation of foods that may hinder your progress.

Alternatives to Challah

While white challah is often the centerpiece of the table, opting for healthier alternatives can make a significant difference. Sourdough bread is a much healthier and very popular option, as it contains only flour and water, eliminating unnecessary ingredients like oil and sugar. Whole wheat matzah is another favorable substitute, as it is higher in fiber and promotes better blood sugar regulation. Portion control is also essential when consuming bread, as it is a recurring carbohydrate at each meal that can be easily overindulged. Meat

Meat, a staple of many holiday

meals, is an excellent source of protein. However, some cuts are higher in cholesterol, saturated fats, and calories. Selecting lean meats, such as oyster steak or veal, is particularly important for those monitoring heart health or cholesterol levels.

When consuming red meat, limit your portion to the size of your palm and complement it with lighter side dishes, such as roasted vegetables or a fresh Israeli salad. This approach provides balance without excessive calorie intake. Plan to have no more than one red meat serving a day for each set of three-day holiday.

Side Dishes

Side dishes are often the source of hidden calories. Traditional options like mashed potatoes tend to be rich in margarine or mayonnaise. Instead, consider healthier alternatives such as roasted vegetables or salads. For those who enjoy mashed potatoes, cauliflower mash is a nutritious, low-carbohydrate substitute. Similarly, spaghetti squash, zoodles (zucchini noodles), or hearts of

palm pasta are excellent alternatives to heavier pasta dishes that may be served alongside meats.

Portion Control

If you were able to plan your portions in advance, adhering to portion control during meals will be straightforward. However, if pre-planning was not possible, aim to serve yourself one plate of food with balanced portions. Fill half of your plate with vegetables, one-quarter with lean protein, and the remaining quarter with a small portion of a starchy side. The goal is moderation rather than deprivation, allowing you to enjoy the meal while maintaining control over your intake.

Dessert Dilemmas

Desserts such as brownies, ice cream, and apple crumble are often high in sugar and fats, making it important to approach them with caution. While it is acceptable to indulge in a few bites, be mindful of the tendency for one bite to lead to more. Limit yourself to one indulgence per day, ideally during lunch rather than the evening meal. Addition-

ally, consider preparing healthier desserts, such as baked apples with cinnamon or fruit spreads, to reduce sugar intake while still enjoying a sweet treat.

Lighter Evening Meals

With six meals spread over three days, Sukkos can lead to overconsumption. To mitigate this, aim to keep your evening meals light, as calories consumed later in the day are more difficult to burn. Soup is an excellent option for a light yet satisfying meal, particularly when served in the cooler outdoor environment of the sukkah. Opt for low-carbohydrate vegetable soups or classic chicken soup, all of which provide warmth and satiety. Additionally, consider basing the meal around fish, salads, or other low-carbohydrate and lean protein options.

Post-Meal Walk

Engaging in light physical activity after meals can aid digestion and help regulate blood sugar levels. A 20-30-minute walk with family or friends not only promotes health but also offers an opportunity to enjoy time outdoors in good company.

Minimize Temptation

One of the primary challenges during Sukkos is the constant availability of food, which can make it difficult to stay on track. By keeping baked goods

Chol Hamoed

Traveling during Chol Hamoed can present unique challenges when it comes to maintaining a balanced diet. However, with a bit of planning, you can

To mitigate this, aim to keep your evening meals light, as calories consumed later in the day are more difficult to burn.

and treats out of sight, you can reduce temptation. Instead, display a bowl of fresh fruit or a vegetable crudité to encourage healthier choices.

Hydration

Staying hydrated throughout the day is crucial for managing hunger and preventing overeating. Often, feelings of hunger can be a sign of dehydration. Drinking water before and during meals will help you remain hydrated and curb your appetite.

prepare healthy snacks that are both practical and satisfying. String cheese, yogurt, and whole grain crackers with hummus are all portable meal-like snacks that provide satiety. Fresh fruits and vegetables, such as baby carrots, apples, and cut up peppers, can be packed easily and remain fresh throughout the day. Peeling oranges in advance and storing them in sealed containers is another simple way to prepare a nutritious snack for your travels. An excellent tip is to store all foods in sealed containers to

keep them fresh and prevent them from spoiling during travel. Freeze-dried fruit snacks and 100 calorie pre-portioned bags of nuts are some additional snacks that transport easily and will last throughout the day.

While Sukkos offers an abundance of meals, a thoughtful approach can help you maintain your health goals without sacrificing enjoyment. Planning your meals, opting for nutritious alternatives, and practicing portion control are all key strategies for navigating the chag mindfully. By staying active, hydrated, and making smart snack choices during travel, you can further support your overall well-being throughout this time. You can enjoy the holiday while prioritizing your health with balance!

Wishing my readers a wonderful chag!

Aliza Beer is a registered dietitian with a master’s degree in nutrition. She has a private practice in Cedarhurst, NY. Patients’ success has been featured on the Dr. Oz show. Aliza can be reached at alizabeer@gmail. com, and you can follow her on Instagram at @alizabeer

Fd for Thought Blue Star Café

IBy Nati Burnside

n the lobby of a fairly nondescript office building in Hackensack, you’ll find what looks a lot like your standard café for this type of setting. It’s not going to catch your eye, it’s not fancy…frankly, it’s not much of anything. And while you will notice that there is kosher caertification posted on the wall, that’s not entirely strange. More than a handful of office building cafés in Bergen County (NJ) and neighboring Rockland County (NY) are kosher due to the number of kosher-observant workers.

The menu has sections on it that would look familiar in a café like this. There are breakfast options like omelets, bagels, waffles, pancakes, and French toast. There are lunch options like paninis, poke bowls, salads, and wraps. But there’s a page of the menu that stands out from all the usual offerings. In fact, it’s the kind of page that you basically can’t find on any kosher restaurant menu.

Mexican & Latino Food.

That’s right, just like you can order a breakfast plate with your standard classics, you can order Oaxaca Sopes (corn tortillas topped with refried beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa verde, and sour cream).

At this point, you’re probably wondering how this all came about (while also putting the address into your phone and seeing how long the drive is). For that, you have to thank Elmer Jiménez. A veteran of the kosher world, Jiménez has worked for catering companies and restaurants over the last 15 years. But one thing that he always noticed was the lack of Mexican food that the kosher-keeping community had compared to that of the rest of the population. With enough experience behind him, Jiménez decided to open a place where he could make recipes from home but have the Jewish community taste them.

When I was invited to Blue Star Café, I first started with some of the more common items. I did this because I have often heard people complain that some new kosher restaurants with ethnic food menus

are tough to go to given that someone in the party might not have the palate for whatever the food is. That’s not something that you have to worry about at Blue Star given the extensive menu. If you are there for breakfast, the Egg & Avocado Toast is the perfect choice. The toast was perfectly crunchy even after being topped with the avocado, cheese, and egg. The tomatoes on top were an extra note of brightness that paired well with the other elements.

If you find yourself in a similar situation at lunchtime, I’d go for the Volcano Poke Bowl. I really liked how fresh and spicy this bowl was, but feel free to go with a different choice (or make your own) if you aren’t ready for this level of heat. The bowl features a bed of rice with pepper-crusted tuna and salmon alongside cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, jalapeños, and furikake. The crunch on top is provided by tempura onions and shreds of nori and the sauces are a sriracha, a spicy mayo, and a jalapeño mayo. The merger of the different types of heat was a wonderful combination that stood out compared to other poke bowls I’ve had, and I loved that there was such a spicy option on the orderable list of choices.

With all that said, you are likely visiting Blue Star for the Mexican offerings, and there’s no better starter than the Traditional Nachos. House-made tortilla chips are topped with their vegan chili, jack cheese, pico de gallo, jalapeños, and sour cream. For me, the taste of the chili is really what made this different from the nachos at other dairy restaurants. There was a real depth of Mexican flavors and spices in the chili. The heat helped melt the cheese, the jalapeños were avoidable (in case you’re sharing with a person with milder tastes), and the pico de gallo added a freshness that made me feel better about eating nachos.

For something that you can’t find as easily as nachos, try out the Chilaquiles. This Mexican breakfast favorite is made by topping tortilla chips with salsa (in this case, you choose between a red or green version) and cooking them until the torti-

lla chips soften a little and absorb the salsa. While there are several versions of this dish depending on what you add after that, Jiménez decided to make it the way he ate them growing up, with eggs on top. With cheese and onions between the eggs and the tortillas, it’s kind of like a Spanish omelet on top of chips. These were addictive, and I’m glad they weren’t the first thing I tried, otherwise it would have been hard to move on. The texture is an interesting mixture as some of the chips are more crispy than others and the flavors are familiar as things you recognize but are now eating in a different context. And, if eating tortilla chips for breakfast is something you can’t get past, just look at the breakfast menu of any treif restaurant. In other words, everything is breakfast for somebody.

Maybe you want to dip your toe into the Mexican pool. Or maybe you’re looking for something you can order to go that will survive a journey. In those cases, I’d suggest the Salmon Burrito. Grilled salmon, white rice, beans, corn, pico de gallo, and chipotle sauce make up this wrap of deliciousness that I ate in about 15 seconds. Firstly, the chipotle sauce was the perfect amount of smokey and spicy, and it provided just the right amount of liquid to a wrap that otherwise might be too dry. The three-way mixture of beans, rice, and corn was a solid base for the salmon to occupy, and the pico de gallo was there for that acidity that goes so well with fish.

Jiménez was just gaining a little bit

of popularity when the Nine Days rolled around during the summer. He decided to roll the dice and open for dinner that week with an expanded Mexican dinner menu. The result speaks for itself. Blue Star is now open for dinner on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday.

The dinner offerings are impressive. In fact, the best thing that I tasted at Blue Star was the Queso Fundido, a cheese dip that is exclusive to the dinner menu. Served with tri-color tortilla chips, this is like nothing at any kosher restaurant. It’s a cheese dip that isn’t just melted cheese. You can actually dip a chip in, scoop some out, and take a bite. Not only that, but the dip is topped with delicious sautéed mushrooms and veggie chorizo crumbles. I am not joking when I say that I would eat three orders of this if I could.

When I asked Jiménez how he made the Queso Fundido, he said he mixed different cheeses and had to make one of his own because there was no suitable cholov yisroel option available.

Kinda like how he had to make Blue Star because we had no suitable Mexican option available.

Dairy - Counter Service (Breakfast/Lunch) / Waiter Service (Dinner) 2 University Plaza, Suite #117, Hackensack, NJ 07601 (201)-299-0146 | BlueStarCafeCatering.com RCBC (Rabbinical Council of Bergen County)

In The K tchen

Sukkos Soup

By Naomi Nachman

I wrote this recipe last year with Sukkos in mind. I was looking to create a soup that would stick to our bones while eating outdoors on a cool Sukkos evening. My family and guests absolutely loved this soup. This recipe makes a big batch, and it freezes really well.

Ingredients

◦ 2 tablespoons canola oil

◦ 2 strips flanken

◦ 2 medium onions, diced

◦ 2 cloves garlic, minced

◦ 4 stalks celery, diced

◦ 2 large carrots, diced

◦ 2 medium zucchini, diced

◦ 2 can chickpeas, drained

◦ 1 ½ lbs. (24 oz.) frozen broccoli cuts

◦ 1 ½ lbs. (24 oz.) frozen cauliflower cuts

◦ 8 cups vegetable broth or water

◦ 1 tablespoon kosher salt

◦ Freshly ground pepper

Preparation

Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Sear flanken for about 5 minutes per side, or until the meat releases itself from the pot. Remove meat from the pot and set aside.

In the same pot, add onions and sauté until translucent. Add in garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Lower heat to medium-low, add celery, carrots, zucchini, chickpeas, broccoli and cauliflower.

Place the meat back into the pot; add the broth, salt, and pepper. Stir and bring mixture to a boil.

Once boiled, reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 2 hours.

Remove meat and shred off the bones and return the meat to the pot, discarding the bones.

Cook’s Note: Add broth or water till just below the top of the vegetables. Too much water will make a thin soup.

Naomi Nachman, the owner of The Aussie Gourmet, caters weekly and Shabbat/ Yom Tov meals for

in Pesach catering. Naomi is a contributing editor to this paper and also produces

Network stream

Naomi Nachman.” Naomi

Mind Y ur Business

The Art of Public Speaking

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” 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.

Public speaking skills are a valuable asset no matter what industry you’re in. That’s why, in this article, we’re exploring tips from 5 seasoned experts on how to master the art of public speaking, captivate any audience, and effectively deliver your message.

The ImporTance of Speak I ng Sk I ll S Sim Shain, Founder and CEO of ParaFlight Aviation and UrgentFlights.com

In the past, I was absolutely terrified of public speaking. I remember at my son’s bar mitzvah I hired a speechwriter. I got up in front of my family and friends, and I can’t tell you how much alcohol I had to ingest just to get myself through it. I realized that something had to change. I’m a big follower of Warren Buffett. One of the things that he always talks about is how important it is to have both written and verbal skills. He always talks about the Dale Carnegie public speaking course that he took. When you look in his office, the only diploma that he has up on the wall is from that course. He believes, as do I, that your value will increase by at least 50% if you’re comfortable when public speaking. So, I signed up for a public speaking course and it just pushed me. It started very small. You would get up and give speeches that were basically one sentence. And then, you went on to one paragraph, and then, to one page. But it taught me how to be able to jump in, to be able to pause when I need to pause, and to avoid using any fillers like, “um,” “you know,” or anything else like that. And it works for every aspect of business. You’re not necessarily getting up there every day to give a speech. But, you’re always presenting yourself. You present yourself on your phone. You present yourself on Zoom conferences. If you’re comfortable with your business, if you’re comfortable with yourself, if you’re comfortable with your message, you need to be able to get it out. I always tell people, the best thing you can do is take a public speaking course.

k now Your ImpedI men T

ron k arr, Author and Sales Expert

The story I usually begin my speeches with is how I was diagnosed with a speech impediment called rhotacism at the age of fourteen. Rhotacism is the inability to pronounce the letter “R.” It caused me a lot of grief and humiliation, especially with a name like “Ron.” After being bullied mercilessly for years, I finally went to a speech therapist for help. I quit after just 45 minutes because it was just too awkward and too hard for me. I went back to my comfort zone, like we all tend to do. But, around a year later, I decided to try again. And this time, I committed to stick with it for as long as it took. It took more than two years, but who would have thought then, that 43 years later, I would have been inducted as the 40th President of the National Speakers Association! So, the question I always ask my audiences, and you should ask yourself the same, is, “What is your impediment? What stops you from doing more?”

If you’re comfortable with your business, if you’re comfortable with yourself, if you’re comfortable with your message, you need to be able to get it out.

k now Your de STI naTIon

James rosebush, Former Senior Advisor to President Ronald Reagan

There are two things that are necessary for speaking. One, you need to have content. Two, you need to have the ability to drive it home. Seventy five percent of people have a fear of public speaking. But, you don’t have to be afraid. If you get trained, you can find out how to overcome that fear. If you learn about the power of storytelling, you can find success. When you look into the audience, you will see people shaking their heads and nodding. Ronald Reagan had this ability to visualize and tell a story when he spoke. If you tell a story, what do you visualize? The results. The best method for strategic thinking and communication is like using a GPS. If you want to use a GPS to get to your destination, what do you need to do? Put in your destination. Then the GPS can take you there. But, if you don’t have an address to enter, the GPS can’t take you there. You need to know what you want to say. So, the two things that are necessary for speaking are content and ability.

prepare for perfec TIon

d irk Beveridge, Founder of UnleashWD

My philosophy is that, as a speaker and presenter, it is my job, my responsibility, to craft the perfect presentation. It’s my job to understand up front the objectives of that meeting, the audience, their mindsets, their challenges, their obstacles, what they are thinking about their business. And I need to understand my specific assignment that I’m being hired for. And then, it is my job to go into all the research, critical thinking tools, and the stories that we have. And then, it is my job to craft that perfect presentation that drives inspiration to a new way of thinking. That gives individuals that spark to say, “You know what, I can be better tomorrow than I was today.” My goal at the end of a presentation is, as I walk off stage, one executive to look across the room to the other and mouth, “That was perfect.” That’s what I strive for every time, and that’s what I think every speaker should strive for.

w h Y, w haT, and how

Alex Holzer, Communication Coach at Gain Your Voice

The Why, the What, and the How are the three most important questions you’ve got to answer when preparing a speech or presentation. The first question you’ve got to ask yourself is, “Why am I the one speaking?” If you’re going to be thrown up onto the stage, ask yourself, “Why me? Why not anybody else in the room?” That’s probably 50%-60% of the job. Forget about putting pen to paper and writing down anything. You’ve got to be able to justify to yourself why you are the one speaking. For example, maybe it’s because you’re the one who developed the product being spoken about or the neighbor of the event’s subject that can provide a unique perspective.

Once you know why you’re there, then you can start to figure out what needs to happen. That is the What. Ask yourself, “What is my message? What am I sharing today?” Because, you could share anything you want, but once you know why you belong in this setting, that already dictates what you should be sharing.

That leads us to the How, which is just the method. Are you going to do it with humor? Are you going to do it with statistics? Are you going to use a slideshow presentation, handouts, or a question-and-answer format? There’s a million different ways you can go about it.

Notable Quotes

“Say What?!”

Listening to Kamala Harris is like going to Epcot Center—you get a new accent every week.

- Megyn Kelly

In times of crisis, and we’re looking at the images of the aftermath of the hurricane, but it is easy in these moments of crisis to sometimes question our faith; you sometimes lose our faith for a moment — because what we see is so hard to see that we lose faith or a vision of those things we cannot see but must know.

- Kamala Harris speaking at a church in North Carolina

When we think about what’s at stake in this election – well, it’s packed with some stuff! Some fundamental stuff! I say rather articulately.

- ibid., at a rally in Arizona

I listened to Biden yesterday… They asked him, what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran and he goes, “As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.” That’s the thing you want to hit, right? Isn’t that the one you’re supposed to hit? It’s the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons.

- Trump commenting on Biden’s warning to Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities

Mr. President, what did Prime Minister Netanyahu tell you about his plans relating to retaliation?

- A reporter to Pres. Biden

He’s coming over to help with the storm.

– Pres. Biden’s response

There’s probably a lot of misogyny going on there.

- NBC’s Andrea Mitchell responding to a poll showing that people don’t trust Kamala Harris when it comes to the economy

Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.

- Barack Obama at a field office in Pittsburgh talking about black men not being enthusiastic about voting for Kamala

“Now Is Not The Time For Independent Thinking,” Obama Tells Black Trump Supporters - Babylon Bee headline

The Democrats have given us another option. You don’t have to register to vote. On Election Day, have 10 fake names, go to 10 polling booths and vote 10 times. That’s 100 votes, and it’s not illegal. Maybe we should work the system, too.

– Maya Musk, Elon’s mother, tweeting that the right should take a page out of the left’s playbook

If the name were Trump, instead of Emhoff, it would be all over the news. If it were Trump or anybody related to him, it would be on every TV show that is on right now.

- Chris Cuomo criticizing the media’s silence on the report that Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris’s husband, once physically assaulted a girlfriend

When everything went [bad] in the South after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, I didn’t see a convoy of Priuses, windmills, and FEMA social justice warriors coming to save the day. I saw diesel trucks, heavy tractors, fuel tankers, and a whole lotta bearded good ol’ boys putting some of that “toxic masculinity” to work saving lives and rebuilding society. G-d bless the true backbone of America – the hardworking men and women of the middle class.

- Tweet by Rogan O’Handley

You think I’m afraid to rebuild a carburetor? I eat carburetors for breakfast.

- One of the “real men” in an ad by the Harris campaign, aimed at trying to get men to support her

Stephen Colbert asked Kamala what she would do differently than Biden. She said she’s not Joe Biden or Donald Trump. The sad part— she had to look at her driver’s license first.

– Greg Gutfeld, Fox

A new study suggests that engaging in hobbies can stave off dementia. Well, unless your hobby is being president. – ibid.

Hillary Clinton argued that Kamala Harris doesn’t need to defend her policy conditions to her various critics and instead recommends just killing them.

– Greg Gutfeld, Fox

For the first time in three decades, the Teamsters are not endorsing a presidential candidate. Jimmy Hoffa is turning over in his grave, which is really gonna mess with the foundation of Hillary [Clinton’s] house.

– Ibid.

I have declared UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres as persona non grata and barred him from entering Israel due to his failure to condemn Iran’s missile attack on Israel, as well as his antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct. A poll found that 87% of the Israeli public supports this decision. Guterres can continue seeking support from UN member states, but the decision will not change.

– Tweet by Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz

Vance is the first White House wannabe to wear facial hair in 80 years. Our appearance is fundamental to our body language, and research indicates that voters see beards as (surprise, surprise) more masculine. That can be positive to some, reading as strength and competence. But to others, especially women, it can be negative, conveying aggression and opposition to feminist ideals.

- Politico analyzing J.D. Vance’s beard

I don’t [care at all] what some snotty student whose parents are spending $100,000 to study gender studies at Harvard thinks whether I have or don’t have a right to live in my homeland.

- Naftali Bennett, when a Sky News reporter pointed out to him that many university students have been protesting against Irael

Early this morning, peacekeepers at a UN position in Ramyah observed three platoons of IDF soldiers crossing the Blue Line into Lebanon.

- Tweet by the UNIFIL, which is a “peacekeeping mission” in Lebanon

Oh, look, UNIFIL has finally started observing things after 18 years of not seeing Hezbollah under their noses.

– Response by Eylon Levy, former spokesman for Israel

The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes.

- ABC’s Martha Raddatz attempting to fact check JD Vance during an interview by pointing out that illegal immigrants only threw people out of a few apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado

Do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs!

– Vance’s response

I don’t know yet because I don’t have any details from Harris. She has been all sugar, no protein.

- Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary on Fox News talking about Kamala Harris not releasing any details of her economic plans

To be able to work with your son, I think it’s one of the greatest things that a father could ever hope for or wish for.

– LeBron James, after playing alongside his son Bronny James during the Los Angeles Lakers’ preseason game

Experts Say Kamala Can Still Win If She Doesn’t Appear in Public Again Between Now and Election Day.

– Babylon Bee headline

Political Crossfire Secret Documents Show Hamas Tried to Persuade Iran to Join Its Oct. 7 Attack

By Ronen Bergman, Adam Rasgon and Patrick Kingsley

JERUSALEM — For more than two years, Yahya Sinwar huddled with his top Hamas commanders and plotted what they hoped would be the most devastating and destabilizing attack on Israel in the militant group’s four-decade history.

Minutes of Hamas’ secret meetings, seized by the Israeli military and obtained by The New York Times, provide a detailed record of the planning for the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, as well as Sinwar’s determination to persuade Hamas’ allies, Iran and Hezbollah, to join the assault or at least commit to a broader fight with Israel if Hamas staged a surprise cross-border raid.

The documents, which represent a breakthrough in understanding Hamas, also show extensive efforts to deceive Israel about its intentions as the group laid the groundwork for a bold assault and a regional conflagration that Sinwar hoped

would cause Israel to “collapse.”

The documents consist of minutes from 10 secret planning meetings of a small group of Hamas political and military leaders in the run-up to Oct. 7. The minutes include 30 pages of previously undisclosed details about the way Hamas’ leadership works and the preparations that went into its attack.

The documents, which were verified by the Times, lay out the main strategies and assessments of the leadership group: — Hamas initially planned to carry out the attack, which it code-named “the big project,” in the fall of 2022. But the group delayed executing the plan as it tried to persuade Iran and Hezbollah to participate.

— As they prepared arguments aimed at Hezbollah, the Hamas leaders said that Israel’s “internal situation” — an apparent reference to turmoil over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conten-

tious plans to overhaul the judiciary — was among the reasons they were “compelled to move toward a strategic battle.”

— In July 2023, Hamas dispatched a top official to Lebanon, where he met with a senior Iranian commander and requested help with striking sensitive sites at the start of the assault.

— The senior Iranian commander told Hamas that Iran and Hezbollah were supportive in principle but needed more time to prepare; the minutes do not say how detailed a plan was presented by Hamas to its allies.

— The documents also say that Hamas planned to discuss the attack in more detail at a subsequent meeting with Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader at the time, but do not clarify whether the discussion happened.

— Hamas felt assured of its allies’ general support but concluded it might need to go ahead without their full in -

volvement, in part to stop Israel from deploying an advanced new air-defense system before the assault took place.

— The decision to attack was also influenced by Hamas’ desire to disrupt efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia; the entrenchment of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank; and Israeli efforts to exert greater control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, sacred in both Islam and Judaism and known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

— Hamas deliberately avoided major confrontations with Israel for two years from 2021, in order to maximize the surprise of the 2023 attack. As the leaders saw it, they “must keep the enemy convinced that Hamas in Gaza wants calm.”

— Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip said they briefed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ Qatar-based political leader, on “the big project.” It was not previously known

whether Haniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel in July, had been briefed on the attack before it happened.

Prelude to War

The documents provide greater context to one of the most pivotal moments in modern Middle Eastern history, showing it was both the culmination of a years-long plan as well as a move partly shaped by specific events after Netanyahu returned to power in Israel in late 2022.

The attack on Israel killed roughly 1,200 people and prompted Israel to bombard and invade Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and militants. It ultimately expanded into a broader war between Israel and Hamas’ regional allies, leading to Israel’s assassination of senior Iranian and Hezbollah leaders and its invasion of Lebanon, as well as to Iran’s ballistic missile strikes on Israel.

The extent to which Iran and Hezbollah knew about Hamas’ initial plans has been one of the persistent mysteries of Oct. 7. The question took on new resonance in recent weeks, after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and Iran’s strikes on Israel.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has publicly denied that Iran had any role in the attack. And U.S. officials have described intelligence showing key Iranian leaders were caught by surprise, fueling doubts that Iran played a direct role in planning. But Hamas leaders have spoken broadly about the support they have received from regional allies, and there have been scattered and sometimes conflicting reports that Iranian and Hezbollah officials helped plan the attack and train fighters.

The minutes were discovered on a computer found in late January by Israeli soldiers as they searched an underground Hamas command center in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, from which the group’s leaders had recently escaped.

The Times assessed the documents’ authenticity by sharing some of their contents with members of and experts close to Hamas. Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, a Hamas member and a former fighter in its military wing who is now an analyst based in Istanbul, said that he was familiar with some of the details described in the documents and that keeping organized notes was consistent with the group’s general practices. A Palestinian analyst with knowledge of Hamas’ inner workings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive topics,

also confirmed certain details as well as general structural operations of Hamas that aligned with the documents.

The Israeli military, in a separate internal report obtained by the Times, concluded the documents were real and represented another failure by intelligence officials to prevent the attack. The Times also researched details mentioned in the meeting records to check that they corresponded with actual events.

The discovery of these records has set

The

officials familiar with intelligence about Hamas commanders.

The minutes do not provide a clear list of every person at each meeting, but they state that Sinwar attended all of the discussions, while his deputy joined at least three. Several military commanders referred to by only their noms de guerre are also listed as having attended.

Israeli intelligence analysts, according to several Israeli officials and the military’s assessment of the documents,

documents first hint at the operation in January 2022, when the minutes show that Hamas leaders discussed the need to avoid getting dragged into minor skirmishes to focus on “the big project.”

off recriminations among Israel’s intelligence agencies. The internal military review of the documents questioned why Israel’s spies failed either to obtain them before Hamas launched its attack or to discern the strategy they describe. While Israel did obtain Hamas’ battle plans before Oct. 7, Israeli commanders repeatedly dismissed the idea that Hamas had the ability or intention to imminently carry them out.

The Israeli military declined to comment. Hamas and Hezbollah did not respond to requests for comment. Iran’s Mission to the United Nations denied the claims made in the minutes.

“All the planning, decision-making and directing were solely executed by Hamas’ military wing based in Gaza, any claim attempting to link it to Iran or Hezbollah — either partially or wholly — is devoid of credence and comes from fabricated documents,” the Iranian statement said.

Talking in Code

The documents first hint at the operation in January 2022, when the minutes show that Hamas leaders discussed the need to avoid getting dragged into minor skirmishes to focus on “the big project.” Israeli intelligence officers found that Hamas leaders repeatedly used the same phrase in similar contexts, but the officers did not understand what the term meant until reading the documents after the assault, according to two Israeli

cities and villages.

The leaders said it would be easier to target those residential areas if the military bases were overrun first — a prediction that proved to be correct on Oct. 7, 2023. These military plans appeared to be a simplified and slightly modified version of the more detailed battle plan that Israel intercepted in 2022 but dismissed.

In a sign of how covertly the attack was prepared, Yahya Sinwar and his subordinates decided the plans should be kept secret from many lower-ranking Hamas fighters until several hours before the assault, according to the minutes of the June meeting.

concluded that Hamas’ top military leaders, Mohammad Deif, Marwan Issa and Mohammad Sinwar, were among those listed by nickname. The Palestinian analyst with knowledge of Hamas’ inner workings also said he believed the minutes showed Deif was present.

During a meeting in April 2022, the leaders celebrated how the tensest parts of the Muslim month of Ramadan had passed without major escalation, helping Hamas to “hide our intentions” and “camouflage the big idea (our big project).”

They spoke about conserving ammunition and carrying out “a large and convincing disguise and deception process.”

In June 2022, the leaders said the operation was continuing to gather momentum: They noted that Hamas avoided a clash with Israel after Jewish ultranationalists held a provocative march through the Old City of Jerusalem in late May, fostering the false impression that the group no longer sought a major confrontation. While Hamas leaders have spoken vaguely in public about how they tried to deceive Israel in the years leading to the attack, the minutes reveal the extent of that deception.

At this point, preparations for the attack were roughly a month from completion, according to the June 2022 minutes. The plans included striking 46 positions staffed by the Israeli military division that guards the border, then targeting a major air base and intelligence hub in southern Israel, as well as

In the same meeting, Sinwar also briefly discussed with his colleagues how a major attack on Israel would most likely require sacrifices, seemingly from ordinary Palestinians. It was the first and only time that the hardship Palestinian civilians might suffer is hinted at in the minutes. Since the Oct. 7 attack, some Hamas leaders have acknowledged that the resulting Israeli counterattack caused enormous destruction but said that it was a “price” Palestinians must pay for freedom.

Gathering in September 2022, the leadership council seemed ready to begin the attack within a month, during the Jewish high holidays, and Sinwar reviewed the latest battle plans. The documents do not explain why the attack was postponed, but a recurring theme is the Hamas leadership’s effort to enlist support for the operation from Iran and Hezbollah.

Courting Allies

In December 2022, a new far-right government took office in Israel, returning Netanyahu to power. Hamas leaders noted at a meeting the following month that they needed time to assess the government’s behavior, saying that Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right minister known for his provocative actions toward Palestinians, had already made a contentious tour of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The leaders predicted that the actions of the government “will help us with moving toward the big project” by attracting the attention of Hamas’ allies and bolstering support for their attack.

At a meeting in May 2023, Sinwar and his colleagues expressed relief at having passed another Ramadan without getting sucked into a minor confrontation with Israel, despite tensions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and a brief escalation between Israel and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group.

Once again, they seemed ready to finalize plans for the attack. According to the minutes, the leaders debated whether to launch it Sept. 25, 2023, when most Israelis would be observing Yom Kippur, the most hallowed day in the Jewish calendar, or Oct. 7, 2023, which coincided that year with the Jewish holy day of Simchat Torah. The leaders stressed the importance of avoiding any major escalation with Israel that would upset their final preparations.

“We need to control the behavior of Islamic Jihad and others factions, so that we do not resort to provocations that would ruin our project,” the minutes said. In addition, Hamas would aim to convey the impression that “Gaza wants life and economic growth.”

In the same meeting, the leadership council said they wanted to carry out the attack by the end of 2023 because Israel had announced it was developing a new kind of laser that could destroy Hamas rockets more efficiently than its current air-defense system.

Hamas planned to present the attack to Hezbollah, according to the documents, as a way of derailing efforts to normalize relations between Israel and

Saudi Arabia, a move that would have further integrated Israel within the Middle East without fully resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

According to the minutes from an August 2023 meeting, Sinwar’s deputy, Khalil al-Hayya, discussed the plan the previous month with the senior Iranian commander, Mohammed Said Izadi of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, who was based in Lebanon and helped oversee Iran’s relations with Palestinian armed groups. Those minutes also said alHayya intended to raise it with Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader.

The meeting with Nasrallah was postponed, and the minutes of later meetings do not clarify whether the Hamas deputy was able to eventually present that argument to him in person.

While Hamas and Iranian officials have previously acknowledged some level of coordination before the attack, the extent of their communications was not previously reported.

The minutes also undercut reports of a breach between Hamas’ Gaza leadership and its Qatar-based political leader, Haniyeh. The minutes show that the leaders shared sensitive information

with Haniyeh, briefed him on “the big project” and decided that of Hamas’ overseas leadership, only he should be informed of meetings that al-Hayya hoped to hold with Hezbollah and Iran.

The August minutes — the final document seen by the Times — reported that al-Hayya had told the senior Iranian commander, Izadi, that Hamas would need help with striking sensitive sites during “the first hour” of the attack.

According to the document, Izadi said that Hezbollah and Iran welcomed the plan in principle but that they needed time “to prepare the environment.”

As a result, Hamas’ leaders seemed hopeful that their allies would not leave them “exposed,” but they accepted that they might need to carry out the attack alone. The entrenchment of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, as well as the growing Israeli presence in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, “can’t make us be patient,” the August document said.

Al-Hayya’s office did not respond to requests for comment, but in an interview with the Times last year, he described the October 2023 attack as “a great act” that “woke the world up from its deep sleep.”

In the end, Iran did not directly strike Israel until months after Hamas’ attack, and Hezbollah came to Hamas’ aid only on Oct. 8, 2023, after Israel had begun to restore control over its borders. Hezbollah continued to distract the Israeli military from Gaza by firing rockets into Israel. The confrontation led to an all-out war in which Israel assassinated Nasrallah and other Hezbollah leaders and invaded the group’s strongholds in southern Lebanon.

Hamas was more successful in its efforts to mislead Israel. In the early hours of Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli intelligence officers spotted that Hamas fighters had embarked on an unusual maneuver. But they dismissed its significance, concluding that it was a training exercise or a defensive maneuver.

“It is estimated that Hamas is not interested in escalation and entering into a confrontation at the present time,” read a top-secret memorandum circulated by intelligence officers at 3:17 a.m. and later reviewed by the Times.

Just over three hours later, the attack began.

© The New York Times

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Israel Today She and Her Husband Were Taken by Hamas. She Was Freed. He’s Still in Gaza.

By Aaron Boxerman

YAVNE, Israel — Since Sharon Aloni Cunio was released from captivity in the Gaza Strip last November, she has struggled to enjoy basic comforts: eating as much as she wants, using the bathroom when she wants, rolling cigarettes beside her cats in her childhood home.

Cunio, her husband, David, and their now 4-year-old twin daughters were among the roughly 250 hostages abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. She and her daughters were released along with more than 100 others during a weeklong cease-fire. David is still in Gaza.

“I’m still with him in there,” she said. “As long as he’s suffering, I’m suffering alongside him.”

Roughly 101 people — including women, children and older people — remain in Hamas’ clutches a year after the militant group carried out its brutal attack on southern Israel. Hamas views them as bargaining chips in cease-fire negotiations, which have ground to a halt.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has vowed to continue

the war in Gaza until Hamas is obliterated, a pledge that some fear has effectively ruled out the possibility of reaching a deal that would bring the hostages home.

“With every day that goes by without an agreement on the horizon, you break just a little bit more,” Cunio said.

Relatives have organized mass protests in Israel to try to pressure Netanyahu to reach a deal. Slowly, however, hope has faded. Israeli forces have retrieved the bodies of more than 30 hostages since October, some most likely killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, according to the military. Israeli authorities presume dozens more are dead.

Cunio has struggled to return to something resembling a normal life. Air-raid sirens warning of incoming missiles snap her back to the terrifying hours in which militants set her home ablaze. In the first few months after arriving home, she feared that her captors might return to reclaim her.

“I’m not strong anymore. I’m broken,” Cunio said. “My soul is broken.”

She tries to stay strong for her two daughters, Julie and Emma. Once out-

going, the girls now have fits of rage and wake up from nightmares in which “the bad people” come back to abduct them to Gaza, she said.

In July, her family gathered in the backyard of her parents’ home in Yavne, in central Israel, to celebrate the twins’ birthday. The girls blew out the candles and quietly wished for their father to come home.

The Cunios’ kibbutz, Nir Oz, was one of the hardest-hit communities in the Hamas attack. More than 65 people were taken hostage from Nir Oz, including Sharon Cunio’s sister and niece — who were also released in November — and her husband’s brother and his partner.

By the time the Israeli military arrived later that day, scores of Gaza militants and civilians were already gone, leaving much of the village a smoldering ruin.

Cunio’s family; her sister, Danielle Aloni; and niece had been huddled in a fortified safe room. David Cunio managed to hold the door shut, but in an attempt to force them out, the attackers set

their home ablaze, sending dense clouds of smoke billowing under the door.

“It doesn’t look like we’re going to make it out of here,” Sharon Cunio sobbed in a voice message to her family around 11 a.m. “We love you.”

David Cunio opened a window and crept out with Julie before shutting it as more attackers approached, Sharon Cunio said. The two did not make it far before their capture.

As more smoke filled the room, Sharon Cunio’s sister told her to open the window and give themselves up. It would be better for them to be shot dead than die of asphyxiation, she said.

“We shouldn’t have to watch our daughters choke to death,” Cunio recalled her sister saying. “It’s better for us to get this over with quickly.”

The attackers, who Cunio said were wearing civilian clothes, began dragging the women and children out of the shelter, their faces blackened with soot. Soon, they were in Gaza.

She and her husband were reunited, but Emma was nowhere to be found. Outside the building where they were

being held, Israel was carrying out its devastating assault on the enclave in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack.

On their ninth night in captivity, an Israeli bombardment destroyed the complex next to their building, causing part of it to collapse, Cunio said. Broken glass sliced open her head while her lungs filled with dust and smoke.

“It shattered even the slightest hope that someone knew where we were and they might come to rescue us,” she said.

After a few more days in captivity, she suddenly heard the voice of a child drifting into the room. It was her daughter Emma.

“It was even more meaningful for me than the moment I gave birth to her,” she said. “It was getting her back from the dead.”

The reunited family was packed into a room with other hostages. Cunio remembers trying to shield her daughters from the horror of the situation, telling them that their captors were in fact protecting them rather than holding them hostage.

Weeks later, Cunio and her daughters were freed in the weeklong truce in November between Israel and Hamas. Although the cease-fire was intended

to free mostly women and children, she hoped that if it held long enough, her husband might also be released.

But a few days later, Cunio awoke to push notifications on her phone: Airraid sirens were sounding in communities near the Gaza border. The fragile

“Every meeting with them hurls me straight back to that day,” she said.

“There’s a deep sense of grief — for our life before, which is just a constant reminder of what we’ll never have again.”

And with David still in Gaza, she cannot begin to move on, either.

“It was even more meaningful for me than the moment I gave birth to her,” she said. “It was getting her back from the dead.”

truce — already teetering — had broken down, with both Israel and Hamas blaming each other.

“I simply collapsed,” she said.

After several days of rehabilitation, Cunio brought her daughters to live with her parents in Yavne. Most of Nir

Oz’s other residents still live together in a makeshift community in central Israel, but Cunio said she could not bear to join them.

Looking at her daughters can sometimes tear her apart, as they look just like their father, she said. After the girls leave the house for school in the morning, she allows herself to break down.

“I put on a mask in the mornings and the afternoons, when I’m with them,” Cunio said. “The rest of the time, I lose it, I cry, I hide myself away.”

Last year, Cunio and her husband celebrated a decade of being together.

They had gently teased each other about finally going their separate ways, that maybe after 10 years it was time to “call it quits,” Cunio recalled.

The joke still haunts her. “What we made fun of somehow came true,” she said.

The endless roller coaster of leaks by Israeli and Hamas officials on the cease-fire talks to free the hostages has become exhausting. After a while, Cunio stopped allowing herself to feel hopeful.

She often thinks about the last time she saw her husband. Their Hamas captors had informed them that he was being taken away. As both of them cried, he asked her to fight for him, to make sure he was not abandoned to his fate in Gaza.

“I’m scared to death,” she remembers him telling her, before the militants ushered him away.

Cunio later learned from another freed hostage that David had been taken into the darkness of Hamas’ underground tunnels. She has heard nothing about him since.

©The New York Times

It was strange to watch Fox News’ Martha MacCallum yesterday refer to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “unpopularity” in Israel. McCallum is a straight-shooting journalist. So how is it that she is unaware that Netanyahu is the most popular prime minister Israel has had in ages?

Direct Polls is Israel’s most accurate polling company. It was the only one to accurately call the 2022 Knesset elections that returned Netanyahu and his Right-Religious bloc to power. Over the past year, Direct Polls accomplished what was previously considered impossible: It conducted uniformly accurate polls of much smaller local government elections.

Netanyahu’s popularity reasonably sank in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion and slaughter of 1,200 Israelis. But it began rebounding in late November. After National Resilience Party leader Benny Gantz resigned from Netanyahu’s government in June, Netanyahu steadily rose in Direct Polls tracking polls—leading Gantz and Opposition leader Yesh Atid Party head Yair Lapid by double digits in head-to-head matchups. In the intervening months, the gap between Netanyahu and his rival has grown steadily.

On Sunday, two days after Israel eliminated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Direct Polls published the results of its latest tracking poll for Channel 14. It found that for the first time since Oct. 7, the parties comprising Netanyahu’s governing coalition have an outright majority in Knesset seats. If elections were held today, the government would be re-elected. As for Netanyahu, his popularity has reached epic proportions in Israel’s polarized political jungle, enjoying higher ratings than his top two rivals combined. In head-to-head matchups, he leads Gantz

Israel Today

The Secret of Netanyahu’s Unacknowledged and Historic Popularity

By Caroline B. Glick

in favorability 52% to 25% and Lapid 54% to 24%.

Any time Netanyahu walks down the street or his convoy drives past pedestrians, they shout out their support and clamor to take selfies with him. And as Israeli sociologist Dr. Avishai Ben Haim has noted, Netanyahu is the only prime minister since Menachem Begin whose supporters actively pray for him personally.

Despite Netanyahu’s wild popularity, the media narrative in Israel and across the world remains where it was in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7. The standard mantra is the one MacCallum parroted on Tuesday evening. The underlying message is that Netanyahu is prolonging the war to avoid elections.

Aside from being dead wrong, the assertion that Netanyahu is unpopular and is prolonging the war to avoid elections obfuscates the importance of what Netanyahu is doing. If the war is reduced to

a question of politics, then we can ignore its strategic significance. And if we ignore the war’s strategic significance, then we can also avoid the issue of the polls, which show that the public is rallying around Netanyahu in a way no Israeli leader has experienced in recent memory. And if we ignore the polls, then we can ignore the reasons for Netanyahu’s historic popularity.

But understanding his popularity is key to understanding not only the political realities of Israel, but the forces driving events.

The Sources of Netanyahu’s Popularity

Netanyahu’s support stems from two sources. The first is the public’s recognition that Israel is fighting for its survival. The second is the Biden-Harris administration’s hostility.

Oct. 7 was a shattering event. It wasn’t merely a massive terrorist attack. For Is-

raelis, it was a glimpse of the future if Israel fails to win the war. It showed Israelis that we are in a zero-sum game with Iran and its terror proxies. There is no deal to be had with Hamas, Hezbollah or the Iranian regime. Either they win and Israel is annihilated, or Israel wins and they are destroyed as military and political entities. There is no middle ground, no win-win deal.

While the Biden-Harris administration has professed solidarity with Israel since Oct. 7, Hamas’s day of atrocities did not change the administration’s policy goals. Both before and since Oct. 7, the Biden-Harris administration has had two goals in the Middle East: reaching a nuclear accord with Iran through strategic appeasement; and establishing a Palestinian state in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

Both of these goals are opposed by the overwhelming majority of Israelis who view both a Palestinian state and a nuclear-armed Iran as existential threats to the country. Given the outpouring of emotional support Israelis received from President Joe Biden and his advisors after Oct. 7, Israelis reasonably expected that they would jettison their anti-Israel policies.

But the administration did no such thing. Instead, just days after Oct. 7, the Biden-Harris administration unfroze $6 billion in Iranian accounts and transferred the funds to Tehran. Despite mountains of evidence, the administration denied that Iran was involved in planning and approving Hamas’s terrorist invasion. And they ignored the fact that upwards of 75% of Palestinians supported the slaughter of that day and no Palestinian Authority official condemned the atrocities.

Far from standing with Israel, as ear-

as Oct. 8, the administration began a policy of gaslighting Israel, intimating that it was on the verge of committing war crimes by insisting that Israel fight in accordance with the “laws of war,” as if there was any reason to think that it wouldn’t do so as a matter of course.

Just a month into Israel’s ground operation in Gaza, the administration began slow-walking offensive weapons, including everything from assault rifles and bullets to tank and artillery shells, and bombs for air force jets. The only armaments that were steadily resupplied were Iron Dome missiles.

From the administration’s perspective, Israel had the right to self-defense but not to victory. To this end, the administration sought to micromanage Israel’s military operations and minimize the strategic significance. Israelis recognized that fighting to a draw meant being defeated.

Gantz, Lapid and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were all willing to accept the administration’s position. It aligned with the way the military had been doing business for decades. Moreover, by accepting the administration’s dictates, they were showered with praise from the administration. The Netanyahu-hating media used their love fests with the White House and Pentagon as a means to present them as statesmen and Netanyahu as an isolated egomaniac who was only keeping up the fight to avoid new elections.

But the public didn’t buy the media narrative. Far from viewing Netanyahu as egotistical, they saw him as their only hope of preventing national destruction. From the very early stages of the war, Netanyahu distinguished himself as the only leader the public saw: Israel is facing foes who want to kill every single Jew they come across, and if we don’t defeat them, they will.

Netanyahu alone pledged publicly and repeatedly that he would not permit Israel’s fallen soldiers to have died in vain and would not relent in the war effort. As U.S. pressure grew stronger and more aggressive, he was also the only one who didn’t falter.

The administration responded to Netanyahu’s refusal to accept anything short of victory by openly interfering in Israeli politics with the clear aim of either neutralizing him within his government or ousting him from power. To achieve the first goal, Biden, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and their subordinates used the public’s call for national unity to compel Netanyahu to give effective veto power over military operations to Gantz

by making him a partner in the war cabinet. From his position, Gantz was able to consistently weaken Israel’s military operations in line with U.S. dictates. The administration was also deeply involved in Gantz’s decision in June to exit from the government. The idea was that following Gantz’s resignation, Gallant would rally four Likud Knesset members to leave the government with him and form an alternate coalition with the left.

Trump demonstrated to the Israeli public that Netanyahu’s pursuit of victory didn’t dampen U.S. support for Israel at all. Netanyahu’s biggest jump in approval came following that visit.

The Purpose of the Myth of Netanyahu’s Unpopularity

This returns us to the persistent media myth regarding Netanyahu’s unpopularity. To a large degree, the interna -

The assertion that Netanyahu is unpopular and is prolonging the war to avoid elections obfuscates the importance of what Netanyahu is doing.

In the event, Gallant was unable to carry out the plan. And in Gantz’s absence, Netanyahu quickly moved to ratchet up the aggressiveness and the effectiveness of Israel’s war effort in Gaza. The public strongly supported Netanyahu’s moves. Any chance that Likud MKs would join the opposition disappeared.

The symbiotic relationship that the Biden-Harris administration cultivated with the Israeli left did not weaken Netanyahu politically, as the media and its political allies on the left assumed. To the contrary. Since the public agreed with Netanyahu that this was a war for national survival, as the public grew more aware of the administration’s opposition to Israeli victory, its support for Netanyahu grew. Likewise, politicians like Gallant, Lapid and Gantz, who are perceived as having good relations with the Biden administration, became objects of suspicion.

What moved Netanyahu’s approval ratings from the impressive 40s to the stratospheric (in Israeli terms) 50-plus was his trip to Washington in late July. Israelis overwhelmingly view the U.S.-Israel alliance as a strategic imperative. So while they approved Netanyahu’s refusal to bow to American pressure, they worried that the media were right when they accused him of wrecking U.S.-Israel relations.

The enthusiastic response Netanyahu received from lawmakers from both parties as he delivered his speech to the joint houses of Congress and his successful meetings with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald

prime minister with the goal of ousting him from power. To this end, since the early stages of the war, the coverage has been defeatist and demoralizing. For instance, Channel 12’s correspondents and commentators reacted to the announcement by the IDF on Sept. 27 that Nasrallah was killed with mournful faces and barely hidden disappointment. In contrast, the public was elated and energized by the news.

By insisting that Netanyahu is unpopular and his unpopularity is driving his determination to bring victory in war, the media drives a narrative that ignores the strategic implications of ending the war without defeating Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran.

tional media narrative regarding him is shaped by the Israeli media’s coverage. With the notable exception of Channel 14, Israel’s print and electronic media have been central actors in the left’s longstanding efforts to demonize the

But the public isn’t buying it. Netanyahu is supported because by insisting on fighting to victory at all costs and then doggedly maintaining allegiance to his pledge, Netanyahu regained the public’s trust. And now that his determination is yielding victories, from day to day, Netanyahu’s unrelenting determination increases his popularity and makes the administration, the opposition and the media appear increasingly ridiculous and irrelevant in the eyes of the Israeli public. (JNS)

Forgotten Her es Bombs Away

By Avi Heiligman

News reports on September 27 of this year indicated that the bombs used to take out Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah were JDAMs or Joint Direct Attack Munitions. Bombing missions have been in effect since World War I; the types of bombs and munitions used have changed in their morethan-a-century of operations. There are many types of bombs that can be quite confusing to the non-military civilian reader, so let’s take a look at some the bombs and the history behind their use in battle.

Designed in the late 1980s, JDAMs but were first flown operationally a decade later. The premise behind the system is that it takes an unguided bomb, also known as a dumb bomb, and gives it technology like GPS and navigational guidance. JDAMs can be flown on several types of aircraft as they improve the accuracy of existing bombs that specific planes are designed to carry. This all-weather guidance system has been used in many conflicts worldwide since 1999. These include the War on Terror, Iraqi Freedom, and the current conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The Israeli Air Force used eighty JDAMs dropped from F-15I (the Israeli version of the Strike Eagle) on a bunker located in a Beirut suburb to eliminate Nasrallah. The JDAMs used were the

GBU-31 Bunker Buster, and it penetrated Hezbollah’s underground fortifications. IAF’s 69th Squadron flew the planes from Hatzerim Airbase in southern Israel and had planned for the mission that could possibly have a major effect on the war for a long time. The commander of the airbase said, “Dozens of munitions hit the target within seconds with very high precision, and this is part of what is required to hit underground sites at this depth.” Israel has used several types of bombs in eliminating terrorist targets with the JDAM being used on multiple occasions to take out high-value targets.

The GBU-31 2,000-pound bomb is not the only bunker buster bomb in existence. In fact, munitions that can penetrate deep underground fortifications or hardened targets can be traced back to World War II. Germany housed their submarines on the coast of France and other areas in Europe in fortified concrete bases that would give them quick access to the Atlantic Ocean. To stop the attacks on Allied shipping, both the U.S. and the Britain carried out many aircraft sorties seeking to destroy these submarine pens. The weapons used were innovative in design, but it was British engineer’s Barnes Wallis bombs that worked particularly well against other fortified German targets. Barnes’s bombs were narrow with a steel nose and had fins on the back so

it would spin while being dropped from high altitudes. These bombs went faster than the speed of sound and penetrated their targets with such force that they wouldn’t explode until they were deep in the ground. Often, they were dropped near the targets, and the shockwaves would cause significant structural damage to their targets. Sometimes called earthquake bombs, the British developed the five-ton Tallboy Bomb and the ten-ton Grand Slam Bomb.

The Disney Bomb was another British bunker buster that was rocket-assisted in helping it penetrate concrete bunkers. However, it arrived too late in the war to have much effect on German targets. In the years after World War II, bunker busters were further developed and used to good effect in subsequent conflicts.

Before developing the bunker busters, Barnes Wallis became famous for his innovative bouncing bombs. Allied bombers were having a tough time getting through defenses the Germans set up near dams and other naval targets. He added a spin on the bomb which caused it to bounce to its target, thereby avoiding torpedo nets.

In May 1943, the British used the Dam buster bombs to breach two German hydroelectric dams in Operation Chastise. Sometimes the media talks about the weapon used on a mission more than the targets itself. That seemed to be the case

in 2017 when President Trump authorized the use of the 21,000-pound MOAB on an ISIS tunnel complex in Afghanistan. MOAB stands for Massive Ordinance Air Blast or its more popular moniker, Mother of all Bombs. The 2017 use of the bomb was the first time it had been used operationally, and it killed 94 terrorists. Only a handful were built, and the U.S. is very cautious to use it again as it is the largest non-nuclear bomb to be used by the military.

There are so many types of bombs and explosive weapons not detailed in this article. The history behind weapons like nuclear weapons and the Daisy Cutter as well as the weapons mentioned in this article have changed the outcome of battles and wars. During World War II, the U.S. used bombing raids to attack factories and other important Axis targets, and in the current war, Israel taking out high-ranking terrorists with aerial bombs. Countries like Israel and the U.S. have used bombs to great effect, which make it history to be remembered.

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.

Barnes Wallis

JDAM bombs

The MOAB bomb

The Allies dropping bombs over Germany in World War II

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Hop into Sukkos

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS

Ahhhhh…the moon, the stars, the beautiful clear night. Such a joy to behold. The lovely allure of infinity and nature.

Yes, we are outside on the holiday of Sukkos taking it all in. However, from another vantage point….

At this time of the year, you better be witnessing all this through the correct balance of coverage and revelation.

That is to say, in order to do a sukkah roof right, you need to have more shade than light inside your sukkah at the stroke of twelve p.m. And if you do that, then you did it right. You’ve got it made in the shade, so to speak.

There are also many other rules for

constructing what appears to be a relatively flimsy hut.

For instance, where you place the sukkah matters. Of course, I know it matters to you, especially if you’re serving the food. But there is something else here as well.

Interestingly, you can be looking through branches, however, not if they are still a part of a tree! Yet, if it’s off the tree, then you can literally be sitting under the branches while they are shedding ferns, leaves and other debris into your soup –and that’s perfectly fine.

The walls, very interestingly, can be incomplete. If you have at least two walls, plus a third wall that’s merely 26 inches wide, you are good to go.

Can you imagine any architect accepting that as a finished house plan?!

Nevertheless, G-d says this is all you need to construct to meet with code.

And guess what, the walls need only be 40 inches high – kind of gets you saving on windows, too. Because most grown people are at least taller than 3½ feet. Therefore, they should be able to peek out easily.

Of course, if you’re in a cold climate, you may want to provide all four walls and that’s fine, too.

All sounds good so far, correct?!

Remember, though, in all cases, one still needs to be able to see the sky and

Egypt. However, there is another message and perhaps that is why the sukkah need not be so protective….

We are connecting to the ultimate Architect.

When we follow the rules, we are respecting that Designer. When we notice the built-in leniencies and considerations for us, we know that the Architect is thinking of us and taking care of us well.

Most of all, we are recognizing that it is not a house that protects us!

If you saw “The Wizard of Oz,” then you know a house can literally leave its foundation and disappear.

It’s not the inanimate that protects us, but it’s in the attitude and gratitude we have toward Who is running things and Who is protecting us.

have an incomplete covering on the top. So, it seems the elements can still get to you!

But fear not. If it’s raining or unhealthily hot or cold, you can, in most cases, saunter into your comfortable home and eat there.

You may be wondering – or not – what are all the rules and leniencies about?

Well, the sukkah reminds us that we stayed in these little huts in the desert, and G-d took care of us when we were exiting

The way for us to feel full protection is really knowing that the ultimate Architect Who built our entire environment is our Father, our King.

And that is a strong message of this holiday. It’s not the inanimate that protects us, but it’s in the attitude and gratitude we have toward Who is running things and Who is protecting us!

Have fun on your sukkah hops, visiting friends and neighbors, and hop into an inspired loved and loving year.

jbga zgnye

Art by Kira Wolf

All of us sense a feeling of spiritual deflation immediately after the exalted atmosphere of Yom Kippur. To have to plunge immediately and directly into the icy waters of everyday life is much too challenging a task. We have just been given an entire day to nurture our souls and to exist as angels without the necessity of fulfilling the requirements of our bodies. So the L-rd, so to speak, allows us a more gradual descent into our physical, everyday lives. We are asked to forego the comforts and solidness of our homes for a period of time, to dwell in a sukkah, exposed to the heavens and to the natural world.

It is again, like Yom Kippur itself, a place of the soul and not of the body for the sukkah, no matter how elaborate and luxurious we attempt to make it, remains a temporary and exposed environment. The body is aware of this situation and is somewhat discomfort-

Torah Thought

Sukkos

By Rabbi Berel Wein

ed by it. The soul revels in it. Thus the soul hangs on to the last vestiges of Yom Kippur through Hoshana Rabbah, before our bodies return to complete dominion over our lives.

Perhaps that is also one of the reasons that the day of Hoshana Rabbah

of Yom Kippur is still present, for we are living amongst holy clouds and not in physically strong structures.

Jews the world over are willing to spend sizeable amounts of money in the fulfillment of the commandments of the holiday of Sukkos. We are all aware

We are living amongst holy clouds and not in physically strong structures.

is considered as being a High Holy Day and not only as an intermediate day of Sukkot. Though none of the restrictions of Yom Kippur are present on that festival day or throughout any of the joyous days of Sukkot, the spiritual atmosphere

that the price of a lemon or of an orange or any citrus fruit at the local green grocer is rather negligible. Not so the price of an esrog! It is not the fruit itself that makes it so valuable to so many. It is the ability to fulfill the will of G-d

through an esrog – itself a gift of G-d’s bounty that makes it so valuable…as to be almost priceless.

All of the physical instruments that we use throughout our lives are the means through which our souls remain connected to our Creator. Just as the value of an esrog lies in what lies behind the esrog – in what it represents and Who ordained its use on the holiday of Sukkos – we should view everything in life, all of our goods and possessions, friends and families and our society generally, with such a perspective. In essence, that is the basis of Jewish thought and the moral code of the Torah. On Yom Kippur, it is realized and confirmed for us on Sukkos. And it is that spirit of understanding our role in this world of eternal values that truly occasions within us the joy and happiness that radiates from the holiday of Sukkos. Chag sameach.

From the Fire

Sukkos

Students of Avraham, Masters of Destiny

By Rav Moshe Weinberger

Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

The sukkah is composed of two elements, the walls and the schach, the roof of the sukkah. While there are a number of halachic differences between the schach and the walls of the sukkah, the central ones are that one may build the walls of the sukkah out of anything, while one must make the schach out of objects which grew from the ground and are not mekabel tumah, are not susceptible to impurity. Things that grow from the ground, without any human processing, cannot become impure and may be used for schach. They are immune from forces of impurity. It is only after they come into contact with man, when someone uses these natural objects from the ground as resources to create some man-made tool, then they may become impure.

Tree branches, fruits, and vegetables are pure and clean the way that G-d made them. It is only when mankind, starting with the first man, began interfering and

meddling with the way things were created that impurity, death, and detachment entered the world. Therefore, the schach on top of the sukkah is a manifestation of the Divine Presence, the untouched purity of the world as G-d made it. The walls of the sukkah, however, represent man’s contribution to the equation, his attempt to build the world, with all of the problems and complications which come with that. The schach is the contribution of the Supernal King and the walls are the contribution of the impoverished king, to use the language of the piyut from Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

The first day of Sukkos is the Ushpizin of Avraham Avinu, when Avraham is our exalted guest in the sukkah. Rav Chaim Cohen, known as the “Chalban,” writes in Talelei Oros that these two aspects of the sukkah, the schach and the walls, correspond to the two fundamental building blocks of the Jewish People, Avraham and Yitzchak. Avraham was the “doer.”

He never stopped. He excavated wells, he taught thousands of people about service of G-d. He called out to G-d. He fought in wars. He was called a king. He accomplished more to rectify the world as a dwelling place for Hashem than anyone else. Avraham was an actor, affecting the world and exercising his power to choose in order to shape and improve it. Avraham is the personification of the walls of the sukkah, the part of the sukkah made by man.

In contrast, Yitzchak seems completely passive in his life, an object rather than a subject. Eliezer finds Yitzchak a wife at Avraham’s command. The blessings are taken from him by Yaakov. He went along with Avraham and was placed on the altar to be sacrificed. His essence was davening and nullification to the Divine will. He surrendered his life to G-d’s will. Yitzchak is the schach of the sukkah, the untouched contribution by G-d to the equation.

The sukkah represents an amalgam of these two components. On one hand, it is composed of walls which are man-made. These correspond to Avraham who personifies human choice, activity, and the attitude that “it’s all up to me.” A sukkah must also, however, have schach, which is a manifestation of nullification to the Divine will, surrender, recognition of Divine providence, and the essence of Yitzchak. This is why the schach of the sukkah must be constructed in a temporary way. It cannot be a permanent structure because it demonstrates how we nullify our will to G-d’s.

But the walls of a sukkah may not be flimsy or temporary. They can even be permanent structures because in his role as an active participant in his own life, as a master of his own destiny, one must have an attitude of permanence, commitment, and rock-solid fortitude. This was the trait of Avraham who stood on one side against the whole world. No

pressure in the world, even the threat of death, could sway his commitment to the Master of the World. In fact, one of the few requirements for the walls of the sukkah is that they must be sturdy enough to continue standing in the face of a ruach metzuya, a normal-strength wind (Sukkah 24a). The walls of the sukkah teach us that we must have kvius, permanence, in our service of G-d. We cannot be swayed by every common wind that blows.

I once spoke to someone who told me that he only has an hour each day to learn with his chavrusa, and every day they come 10 to 15 minutes late and sometimes if one of them has to stay up late or isn’t feeling quite right, they do not learn at all. They fold in the face of every little conflict or difficulty which arises. Where is the kvius? This is why it is called being “kovea itim l’Torah,” setting aside fixed times for learning Torah. If one values what Torah means to his day, to his life, to his family, then his learning will have kvius. Understanding the value of something is the key to having kvius in that thing. There are people who daven at different shuls each day of the week and several shuls throughout Shabbos. Some daven Friday nights in houses on their block lest they have to walk more than

a block to daven at a regular shul. Never in our history have people davened with a minyan in houses without any permanent holiness. Where is the kvius in one’s davening? One has no kvius in something when he does not know of or truly understand its importance. He does not respect it. And once one is in shul, he must also have kvius in the way

to leave his normal seat for davening, the point is that when one understands the significance of davening, he comes on time to a certain shul. His davening reflects an attitude of kvius

Based on the above, we can also understand why Chazal express this (Brachos 6b) as follows, “When one establishes a fixed place for his davening,

The walls of the sukkah teach us that we must have kvius , permanence, in our service of G-d.

ity for living a kosher Jewish life, when he knows when to put off or reject things that don’t belong in his life, when he recognizes that he is master of his own destiny and does not have to succumb to every wind from the outside world or within himself, the Divine Presence finds a comfortable resting place there. It is told that Reb Chatzkel Shiniver, the author of the Divrei Yechezkel, once had to travel with his gabbai on a very cold and windy night. The two of them were suffering tremendously from the cold so Reb Chatzkel asked his gabbai to make a fire for them. He took some flint stones and tried mightily but he was unsuccessful. So the rebbe asked if he could try, and when he did so, he started a fire immediately.

he davens. Is he focused on the words? Is he looking at parsha sheets or his iPhone or Android device the whole time? That is not kvius One must recognize how his life depends on tefillah and say to himself, “I’m a Yid who davens. That’s who I am. I don’t blow around with every fleeting impulse. My davening has kvius.”

This is why Chazal emphasized the importance of establishing a set place for davening. Although one can sit somewhere nearby and should not ask others

the G-d of Avraham will help him. And when he dies, they say about him, ‘What a humble person, what a pious person, from the students of Avraham Avinu.’” Why is he a student of Avraham simply because he fixed a place for his davening? As we have seen, he learned this attribute from Avraham. That is why he has kvius, he is fixed and he serves G-d come what may. One can only have kvius in a matter when he recognizes and appreciates its value and importance. If a person values tefillah, he establishes a set place and time to daven. It is a causeand-effect relationship.

The Shulchan Aruch begins by commanding a person not to be embarrassed in front of people who make fun of him because of his service of Hashem. One must have kvius. He has to be like a rock, like the walls of the sukkah, unmoved by the winds of the world.

All of that, however, is when he is facing other people and the challenges of the world. But when he is facing Hashem, he must recognize his vulnerability and utter dependence on the Master of the World. He must feel that his life is a temporary dwelling, subject at all times and in all ways to Hashem’s will. With respect to Hashem, he must always say, “It’s not me.”

The way to build a sukkah is to first build the walls. And then put on the schach. Similarly, in one’s service of Hashem, he must first take responsibility for his actions. He must first build his walls. Only after that one can place the schach on top. The Divine Presence, blessing, and inspiration have a place to rest in a strong, committed Jewish life. The walls a person establishes in his life create the parameters of who he is, what he values, and what he is committed to. When one values and takes responsibil-

He then told his gabbai, “I know when we get back, you’re going to tell all of the chassidim that the rebbe did a miracle. But you should know that it isn’t true. But Reb Mendel Riminover…he could do wonders. Once on Shabbos, there was a large storm outside the beis midrash, and one of the windows shattered. The wind was howling through the window and the chassidim wanted to go find a non-Jew to put something over the window, lest the wind blow out the candles in the beis midrash. But Reb Mendel looked out of the window this way and that and told them that the candles would be fine. Just then, the wind stopped blowing through the window. So you see, Reb Mendel Riminover could do wonders, but I cannot. All I know how to do is cup my hands over the spark to allow the flame to grow.”

The tzaddikim of the earlier generations miraculously protected us from the winds of the outside world. But today, our job is to cup our hands around the fire of our Yiddishkeit, not to let it go out. Reb Mordechai of Lechovitsch once said, “The pasuk (Shmos 34:22) calls Sukkos ‘festival of the gathering, the strength of the year.’ A Jew collects all of the strength he needs throughout the year on Sukkos.”

May we merit to learn the lesson of Avraham Avinu and take responsibility to become the masters of our own destiny so that we may rebuild the walls of the fallen sukkah of Dovid Hamelech with the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash and the coming of Moshiach, may he come soon in our days.

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.

Torah Thought

Sukkos, the Nations, and Us

By Harav Yaakov Feitman

Last year, Klal Yisrael suffered our worst attack since Churban Europa , the Holocaust. What should we be doing this year to remember and move on? As we know, the IDF has baruch Hashem completed several amazing retaliations in recent days. For this, we need to thank Hashem and continue to daven for our brave soldiers. We must not fall into the trap of claiming kochi v’otzem yadi, the ancient mantra of those who don’t see the yad Hashem in our daily lives and world events. However, it is not a contradiction to give credit to those who endanger their lives for us while recognizing that all comes from the Creator. Therefore, let us leave the military decisions to those who bear that burden and do what we can this Sukkos.

First of all, let’s take note of the fact that Sukkos is the single yom tov which is the most involved in some aspect with the other nations. The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 3a) famously tells us how the nations will be tested and fail in the future. They will be given one mitzvah to perform and, not only do they refuse

because it is too difficult, when the temperature gets hot, they will kick their sukkah down in anger and frustration. Secondly, on Sukkos, we offer korbanos for the seventy nations, which go unappreciated despite the fact that these sacrifices actually protected them for centuries.

Thirdly, the Navi (Zechariah 14:19), in the haftorah read on Sukkos, predicts that the nations will not go up to Yeushalayim on Sukkos, which will be considered a sin for them. Many meforshim ask the obvious question, “Why is this a transgression for them, when they were not commanded to do so in the first place? Their only obligations are the Seven Noahide laws, so why should they be held culpable for not being oleh regel ?” Indeed, why was Sukkos chosen for this test strange test? It would seem as if a math major suddenly has to pass the Law Boards or Medical Finals. What is wanted of the gentiles on Sukkos?

Rav Yehudah Tzadkah (quoted in the Sefer Vezos L’Yehudah) teaches that when Moshiach comes, he will hand out “citizenship certificates” to all who ful-

filled the mitzvah of sukkah properly. This is actually a specific pasuk (Vayikra 23:42) stating, “All Jewish citizens should dwell in their sukkos.” The Zohar Hakodosh (Parshas EmorI adds that dwelling in the sukkah is a proof that someone comes from the lineage of Klal Yisrael. Again, why Sukkos, not Pesach, Shavuos or Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?

My rebbe, Rav Yitzchok Hutner, zt”l, (Pachad Yitzchok Rosh Hashana 10:1; 12) answers all these questions by citing a Maharal (Gevuros Hashem, Chapter 46). The Maharal demonstrates that Sukkos carries a double significance in the Jewish calendar. It is the culmination of both the Shalosh Regalim , the three major yomim tovim, and the Yomim Noraim, which consist of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkos. The relationship between Yom Kippur and Sukkos is explained by the Gra (commentary to Shir Hashirim 2:17) with the following chronology: Moshe Rabbeinu descended from Har Sinai after receiving the second Luchos on the 11th of Tishrei. On the 12th, 13th and 14th, Klal

Yisrael brought their contributions for the building of the Mishkan, and on the 15 th , they began building. At that point, the Ananei Hakovod – the Clouds of Glory – which had left after we made the Egel, returned. We had been exposed to our enemies and to the dangerous elements of the Wilderness for several frightening months. Then they returned because of our teshuvah. Thus, Sukkos does not simply commemorate the gift of the Clouds of Glory, but their restoration and Clouds of Teshuvah and protection from the world.

This explains many things, but particularly why Sukkos is the yom tov which tests the nations, why it is the holiday which symbolizes our havdalah from them, and the connection to Yom Kippur. Although we received forgiveness on the tenth of Tishrei, Yom Kippur, the proof of that in the form of Divine Protection came on the fifteenth of the month, which is when we begin celebrating Sukkos. It is not insignificant that the worst attack in a century came at the culmination of Sukkos when Jewish exceptionalism and our unique -

ness amongst the nations were proven in several ways. It is only Am Yisrael which celebrates these events, although the nations benefit as well from the korbanos of Sukkos. It is only we who are willing to sit in the sukkah, hot or cold, comfortable or not. It is only we who recognize our sins and do a complete repentance, recognized by Hashem by the return of His Shechinah on Sukkos. However, to return to the Maharal, there is an even deeper connection.

The Pachad Yitzchok (Yom Hakippurim, Maamar 7:1) explains, based upon the Maharal (Gevuros Hashem, Chapter 46), that Pesach comes at the time of the planting, Shavuos the harvest, and Sukkos the ingathering. The Maharal relates these aspects of the agricultural season to the three points of connection between a meshaleach, the one who sends his agent, and the agent himself. On Pesach, we were appointed to be Hashem’s shliach in the world. On Shavuos, we were given our assignment. On Sukkos, upon completion of the mission, we returned, as obligated, to report on the success and fulfillment of the mission. Thus, Sukkos, which represents the finality of the distinction

between Am Yisrael and the Umos Haolam, is a time which arouses the wrath of the worst of our enemies.

In an ideal world, the nations would go up to Yerushalayim to thank us for our service to them in the Bais Hamik-

we collectively declare, “Mission accomplished.” Had the nations gone up willingly to thank us for the seventy korbanos which kept many of them in existence for millennia, all would have been well. But since they are sadly kafuy

On Sukkos, upon completion of the mission, we returned, as obligated, to report on the success and fulfillment of the mission.

dash and beyond. However, when they deny our beneficence to them, they become angry and attempt to annihilate us over and over. We know that there was a Yom Kippur War because down deep they are aware that this day begins the process of establishing the singularity of Klal Yisrael amongst the nations. Furthermore, it leads to Sukkos, when

tovah, ungrateful, for our avodah, it results in savagery, murder and depravity. What we should do is to thank Hashem for His many gifts, for making us the Am Hanivchar and for making us His children, in addition to the Tzelem Elokim which He granted to all of mankind. As we sit with the holy Ushpizin, we should reflect upon our glorious

lineage as the descendents of the Avos. But we should also remember that while that lineage seems to include Yishmael and Eisav, Hashem separated us from them when He declared that only Yitzchok is the true progeny of Avrohom and only Yaakov is the true son of Yitzchok. When Eisav married the daughter of Yishmael, the pact was sealed of our former family and then enemies to attempt to destroy us. My rebbe revealed that when Hitler and the Mufti plotted the destruction of European Jewry it was merely the continuation of the ancient enmity. Then when Yasser Arafat stood before the United Nations, pistol at his side, declaring that Israel must be destroyed, to the applause of the Western nations, that was the modern version of what led to the savagery of last Simchas Torah.

May Hashem once again rescue and save us from these adversaries, with the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu bimeheira b’yameinu. Harav Yaakov Feitman is the rav of Kehillas Bais Yehudah Tzvi in Cedarhurst, NY.

Simchas Torah What to Think While You’re Dancing

By Rav Daniel Glatstein

The Chovos HaLevavos writes that we must constantly strive to upgrade and deepen our understanding of torah, the tefillos that we say, and all aspects of our avodas Hashem. We must work on deepening our appreciation of mitzvos. As we grow older, we need to understand and appreciate the practices we engage in on a deeper and more sophisticated level. if we don’t, we are in danger of observing the torah and mitzvos on the same elementary, simplistic, and basic level as when we were younger. these words of the Chovos HaLevavos can most appropriately be applied to the celebration of simchas torah. to many, simchas torah is a day that is observed in the same way it was observed in their youth. it is a day for the children who parade to the shul with their flags, candies, and toy Sifrei Torah. Let us endeavor to enhance and develop a more sophisticated understanding of the sanctity of the day. Let us try to deepen our appreciation for simchas torah so we can have an awareness for the great spiritual achievements and accomplishments that are available on the very last day of this season of elevation.

Here is a glimpse of how simchas torah was celebrated in days gone by. r av Avigdor Miller wrote an article describing how simchas torah was celebrated as he witnessed it in slabodka: When it was time for a simcha, the yeshivah was unequaled. simchas torah was a tremendous event in the yeshivah; we had a list of eighty-five niggunim that we had to sing that day. We worked all day long dancing around and around. First we came for davening (shacharis and Mussaf), and then we went home to eat, returned for Minchah, and then made the hakafos until nighttime. there were some Lithuanian police standing around because some of the bums in town tried to shoot needles at the yeshiva boys through the windows. the town had deteriorated very much, and the behavior

of some of the youth was inappropriate. in general, the town was antagonistic to the yeshiva. the yeshiva was packed, and all day long the boys danced around, repeating the same song over and over again. you see, the words of the song themselves were mussar, so when you repeated it over so many times with such an intensity of happiness it becomes very deeply rooted in your mind. the simcha had a tremendous effect on the people.

We learn that one of the objectives of simchas torah in the days of old was accomplished by internalizing the words that are sung over and over again. Many great ideals are articulated in the songs of simchas torah. We chant the words, “Toras Hashem Temima meshivas nefesh,” “Ki m’Tzion Teitzei Torah,” and “Ana avdah d’Kidsha Birich Hu” numerous times as we sing them over and over again. by listening attentively and internalizing the words we repeat again and again, like a mussar seder, we can integrate, ingrain, and engrave these concepts in our consciousness.

The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Dancers

Although all minhagei Yisrael are laden with so many levels of meaning and there are endless benefits that accrue to those who observe them properly, let us present seven goals and kavanos to have while dancing that can significantly transform our Simchas Torah into a most elevated experience.

the Mishnah berurah states that on simchas torah the custom in many communities was for even many elders to dance as they recited praises for the torah. therefore, one should strengthen himself to dance and sing for kavod HaTorah, as we find that David HaMelech expended tremendous energy dancing fervidly in front of the Aron of Hashem with all his strength (ii Shmuel 15:16). David publicly displayed his overwhelming simchah shel mitzvah, joy in doing a mitzvah.

the Mishnah berurah then cites the Arizal as hav-

ing stated that the highest summit of kedushah that he was able to achieve was a product of his having rejoiced in the simcha shel mitzvah with all his strength. Likewise, the Vilna Gaon was known to dance with all his might before the Sefer Torah.

We know that the Arizal attained incredible levels of ruchniyus. He was privy to unique revelations to which others were not zocheh. the Chida writes that the Arizal even had access to the ashes of the parah adumah, the red Heifer. the Arizal said about himself that he experienced an extraordinary torrent of torah that sought to emanate from his mouth. And, had he opened his mouth a little wider, the torah would have poured forth in an uncontrollable jet. the greatness of the Arizal is incalculable and yet the Mishnah berurah cites that the highest level he reached was when he rejoiced over doing a mitzvah.

these examples are brought in the context of simchas torah to teach us that possibly the highest madreigah a person can reach, the loftiest height that a person can achieve, is not on rosh Hashanah, yom Kippur, or Hoshana r abbah; rather, it is on simchas torah by rejoicing over the torah.

The

First Objective: Display True Simcha shel Torah

The first objective we should bear in mind on Simchas torah is to be aware that as we dance, through the proper simcha shel Torah we will be elevating ourselves to the highest possible madreigah the loftiest spiritual level we could ever hope to achieve will become accessible to us through exhibiting and truly feeling proper simchas haTorah simchas torah therefore is an opportunity to reach the greatest madreigos

r’ Chaim Palagi also cites the custom brought in the Mishnah berurah that even many zekeinim, elders, dance vibrantly on simchas torah. Furthermore, even though we normally do not dance on shabbos or yom tov, on simchas torah it is permitted due to the kavod haTorah that results. He then brings from the Chemdas

yamim that one who engages in exhibiting and extolling true simchas haTorah is fortunate, because this will repair any pegam, defect, that his neshama may have incurred because he had not given the proper honor and respect to the torah in the past. one can be redeemed from these deficiencies and past grievances by displaying true simchas haTorah on simchas torah. this is another great achievement that can be accomplished on simchas torah.

The Second Objective: The Torah Will Endure

r’ Chaim Palagi declares that one who is zahir, careful, and makes sure to rejoice with the torah on simchas torah is assured that torah will never cease from his descendants. if one wants to ensure that the torah will remain with his family forever, he should rejoice with great excitement over the torah!

r’ Chaim Palagi then states in the name of the Chemdas yamim that he saw a great rav who danced with ecstatic joy on Simchas Torah. It was testified about this rav that for the next three generations he merited a wondrous line of descendants who were talmidei chachamim and marbitzei Torah. All who knew him realized that this was due to the outstanding level of simcha that he displayed on simchas torah.

Ha r av o vadia yosef’s father was nicknamed Gali. this nickname has its source in the great joy, gilah, that he would display on simchas torah. His fathering such an incredible son was attributed to the merit of his great simchas haTorah. He would dance with all his strength and would inspire others to dance as well. He would sing, “Simchu b’sHashem v’gilu tzaddikim” with enthusiastic fervor and intensity. He would also visit many different shuls and wish their chassanei Torah a warm mazal tov.

A proper display of simcha on simchas torah not only elevates us, but it also assures that torah will remain with our descendants. it will assure the continuity and perpetuity of torah in each person’s family. the success of our children in their learning and in their dedication to HaKadosh baruch Hu can be deeply influenced by the level of simcha we display on simchas torah.

The Third Objective: Internalize and Solidify Kabbalos

We celebrate shemini Atzeres as a day added to sukkos because Hashem declares, “Kashah Alai preidaschem”; i.e., Hashem does not want us to take leave of His Presence. r av Hutner wonders how an extra day will resolve such an issue. Whatever difficulty was experienced when considering Klal y israel departing after Hoshana r abbah still remains! it just delayed the inevitable for one day. How does that ease the difficulty of us leaving? there must be something about the additional day that alleviates the longing and prevents the sadness that would otherwise occur at the conclusion of the chag.

r av Hutner cites the targum, who translates atzeres in this context as “kanash” which r av Hutner teaches us means “incubation.” He writes that the purpose of shemini Atzeres is to be “koleit,” to deepen and fur-

ther ingrain within us all the lofty madreigos we have achieved during e lul and the yamim noraim. throughout e lul, rosh Hashana, and yom Kippur, we grew and made kabbalos, accepting upon ourselves practices to increase our zechusim. We committed to daven better, to learn more, to remove distractions that stand between us and our avodas Hashem. We undertook to be more careful in how we speak to our children and spouses.

in honor of all the kabbalos we have made, we dance on simchas torah, on the day added by Hashem. this is not merely an extra, added day; rather, it serves to incubate all the growth we’ve achieved, and it helps us integrate those kabbalos into our lives to make them permanent. We review all those commitments and incorporate them into our minds and hearts. As we dance

Hashem added to the yom tov of sukkos because He feels a loss, so to speak, as we take our leave of Him: Kashah Alai preidaschem. How does adding on a day make it easier for Hashem as we take our leave of Him? in this extra day, in shemini Atzeres, says r av Hutner, lies the heart of the Jewish people, the pulse of Klal y israel.

if we are really taking leave of Hashem, then delaying a day has no impact and does not change the situation. What does change the status quo is that now we are not alone as we take our leave of Hashem; we are accompanied by the torah. o ur ties to the torah are never severed; we never take leave of the torah. the torah shields and saves us even when we are not actively involved in learning it.

If one wants to ensure that the Torah will remain with his family forever, he should rejoice with great excitement over the Torah.

r av Hutner teaches us yet another yesod. rejoicing with the torah is the way in which we are now able to part from Hashem. Were it not for simchas torah, we would not be able to part from Him. Were we to part from Hashem immediately after rosh Hashana, we would have attained new heights with the Yom HaDin, but we still could not take the shofar with us. neither the fast of yom Kippur nor the Arba Minim and the sukkah can be taken with us after the respective yom tov has passed.

but there is one thing that can come along with us as we part from the r ibbono shel olam: the torah. even when we are not actually engrossed in the torah, even when we are not actually learning torah, the torah is still with us, protecting us. As we recite in the hadran, “We will not forget [the torah], and [the torah] will not forget us.”

We deliberately dance with the torah as a way to show that although all the other tashmishei kodesh cannot be taken with us, we can hold onto the torah, and it will serve to protect us throughout the coming year, even when we are not actively engaged in it. thus, the fourth objective is to contemplate that we dance and celebrate with the torah for torah is our very lifeblood from which we never have to separate.

The Fifth Objective:

around the torah, the physical dancing serves to engrain our commitments into our beings, making them part of us and firmly embedding them into our newly improved selves. the dancing helps us internalize our commitment to be more dedicated servants of Hashem, more loyal subjects, and more carefully adherents of the mitzvos.

this deepened commitment is what the “extra” day of shemini Atzeres serves to accomplish, and it is another component of the avodah of the dancing on simchas torah. As we dance around the bimah with great simcha, each time we stamp our feet, let us deeply stamp and engrain these commitments into our hearts.

The Fourth Objective: We Never Take Leave of the Torah e lsewhere, r av Hutner discusses the extra day that

Simchah for All the Torah We Plan to Learn r av Hutner relates an incident concerning the Chiddushei Ha r im. two students of the Chiddushei Ha r im, two talmidei chachamim, were dancing on simchas torah. the Chiddushei Ha r im commented that one of them would tire before the other. As they continued to dance, his prediction proved accurate, and one tired well before the other. His talmidim asked him how he had known.

He answered that the dancer who tired first is, in fact, a much more learned talmid chacham. He was dancing as a celebration of all the torah he had learned this past year. every masechta he had completed gave him tremendous joy, and he danced to celebrate these achievements. But what he already learned is finite, and therefore the dancing will ultimately come to an end. the second dancer, however, is dancing to celebrate his new aspiration and longing to learn more in the coming year. He is dancing for the torah he plans to learn in the coming year. torah that is yet to be learned knows no boundaries — it is infinite — and therefore the

dancing, too, has no boundaries or limits. the Gemara states if one really wants to do a mitzvah and some external force or circumstance prevents him from doing it, Hashem considers it as if he has in fact performed the mitzvah in question.

r av yonasan e ibeshutz explains that when Hashem calculates the value of this type of mitzvah — a mitzvah that the person really wanted to do but couldn’t actually perform — He gives the would-be doer the reward of one who performs a perfect mitzvah. He is rewarded as if he had done the mitzvah to its utmost, with total perfection, which is a stage that people who actually do the mitzvah can almost never attain.

When we do a mitzvah, it is performed with all our human imperfections, limitations, and flaws. We might do a mitzvah in haste, thus belying the importance of the mitzvah, or our attention may be divided and our thoughts not entirely focused on the mitzvah at hand. However it manifests itself, human shortcoming creeps into all we do, and these mortal attributes serve to detract from the perfection of a mitzvah being performed in a truly ideal fashion.

not so with someone who receives reward from Hashem for an intense desire to perform a mitzvah that is out of his reach for a reason beyond his control. i n this case, the reward he receives is the reward he would merit if he were to truly perform the mitzvah in the purest, holiest, most pristine manner. His reward will be much greater than that of one who actually did the mitzvah.

t he second dancer, who is dancing for all the torah he wants to learn, fits into this category. The Torah he aspires to learn has no limit; it is infinite, it is not bound by human limitations in energy and time. t his gives him super-abundant simcha, and he dances with boundless energy. He will not tire as easily when he dances.

o n simchas torah, we are mesamei’ach, joyous, about the oceans of torah we want to learn, the torah that we anticipate mastering in the coming year. Chumash , neviim , Kesuvim , Mishnayos , Gemara, Midrash , poskim — there is so much to learn. it is rechavah min hayam, wider than the ocean. t hinking of this will infuse our dancing with extra strength. As we dance on simchas torah, we should contemplate the fact that we are showing tremendous simcha for the torah we plan to learn in the coming year.

The Sixth Objective:

Topple the Wall Between Us and Hashem

t he Chida records the tefillah that should be recited before each hakafah it reads, “May it be your will, Hashem, that with the strength of these hakafos the iron wall that separates you from us should fall, and we should be surrounded and encircled by torah and mitzvos, both inside and out; We should always cling to you and your torah — we and our descendants .”

t he Chida is teaching us that when we embrace the torah and dance around the bimah, we can break through whatever impediments are preventing us from serving Hashem properly. Whatever prevents us from getting close to HaKadosh baruch Hu can be removed and overpowered with the hakafos that we perform on simchas torah. t he wall that exists between us and Hashem, the wall that does not allow us to truly feel Hashem’s Presence when we daven, the wall that prevents us from connecting to Hashem when we learn, is toppled by the power of our hakafos, with the strength of our simchas haTorah

As we dance on simchas torah, our objective is to break down and eradicate any barriers that exist in our lives that are impediments to our true service of

y issaschar) it was a well-known and accepted fact that during the dancing on simchas torah one could accomplish more with his tefillos than he could with all the tefillos of the rest of the year.

Our objective is to break down and eradicate any barriers that exist in our lives that are impediments to our true service of Hashem.

When the chazzan proclaims, “Ana Hashem hosheah nah, Please, Hashem, save us now,” it is the most powerful ana Hashem of the entire year! reciting this tefillah properly can achieve more than the same tefillah can accomplish at any other time of the year. “Ana Hashem hatzlicha nah” represents the best chance a person has to daven for hatzlacha. “Ana Hashem ya’aneinu b’yom kareinu.” t his was known and accepted: Daven with exceptional kavannah during the hakafos! t hese special tefillos can effect much more than tefillah on any other day of the year! r av olshin cites the teshuvos of the Klausenberger rebbe, who mentions that even though his grandfather, the Divrei Chaim , did not recite the aforementioned yehi ratzon, his other zeide, the bnei y issaschar, did. Furthermore, the Klausenberger rebbe related that he heard from the ziknei chassidim that during the dancing of one single hakafah on simchas Torah in Dinov, there was more crying and more tears shed than on all the other days of the yamim noraim combined! t hese were bechiyos, tears, of simcha.

Crying Out to Hashem

The final objective of the dancing is “tefillah m’toch rikud,” crying out to Hashem through dance to express our joy and happiness in the torah. Tefillos during this auspicious time are the most powerful tefillos of the year.

As noted above, when one is b’simcha, he can reach the highest possible madreigah. More than that, it is also a time of powerful tefillah. We are going to cry out, “Ana Hashem hosheah nah. Ana Hashem hatzlicha nah…” We will recite tefillos beginning with every letter of the aleph-beis .

We must realize that dancing on simchas torah is an opportunity, and perhaps the greatest eis ratzon of the entire year, since simchas torah is considered part of shemini Atzeres and we are still in a personal audience with Hashem.

Hashem. b y showing that we have kavod HaTorah, we break through the spiritual wall and thereby allow a much closer relationship to develop between ourselves and the r ibbono shel olam.

The Seventh Objective:

An Auspicious Time for Tefillah

r av yerucham olshin recollects what he heard as a child from his grandmother. Her father would say that in his city of origin (Dinov, the city of the Bnei

therefore, the time of dancing is a time to daven for one’s own achievements in ruchniyus. it is also a time to daven for one’s children; it is a time to safeguard the perpetuity of torah in one’s family.

These are the habits of highly effective dancers. May all of our tefillos, may all of our avodah, may all of our she’ifos and aspirations come to fruition through the merit of simchas torah. We hope all of our tefillos will be accepted and we will merit to reach great heights. May we be zocheh that the continuity of torah remains in our families and may we merit banim u’bnei banim oskim b’Torah u’b’mitzvos, al Yisroel shalom.

This article has been excerpted with permission from the Mystery and the Majesty by Rabbi Daniel Glatstein, published by ArtScroll/Mesorah.

Rabbi Daniel Glatstein is the Mara D’asra of Kehilas Tiferes Mordechai in Cedarhurst, NY, and author of numerous seforim in Lashon Hakodesh and in English for ArtScroll. He is an international lecturer and maggid shiur. His thousands of recorded shiurim are available on Torahanytime.com, podcast, his website rabbidg. com, and other venues.

Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah

Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah

A Me A ningful D A nce

A Me A ningful D A nce

By Rabbi Aryeh Dachs

By Rabbi Aryeh Dachs

TThe great Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach, often told a story to his students about a group of Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. They had met their certain end; the Nazis were preparing them to be gassed. They stood together, a pathetic assembly of flesh and bones. One Yid alerted the others, “Yidden, today is Simchas Torah!”

he great Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach, often told a story to his students about a group of Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. They had met their certain end; the Nazis were preparing them to be gassed. They stood together, a pathetic assembly of flesh and bones. One Yid alerted the others, “Yidden, today is Simchas Torah!”

The others meekly looked at the man. “What Simchas Torah? Do we have a Torah? Do we have what to make a l’chaim? We don’t even have clothing on our bodies. How should we rejoice here, in this awful place at this awful time?”

The others meekly looked at the man. “What Simchas Torah? Do we have a Torah? Do we have what to make a l’chaim? We don’t even have clothing on our bodies. How should we rejoice here, in this awful place at this awful time?”

sible in our sukkah and where we waved the four- species every day. Our Sukkos service is quite “object- heavy.” The lack of an objectified method of service on Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah is a stark contrast. The message is, that after the month of Elul, Rosh Hashana, the Days of Repentance, Yom Kippur, and seven days of Sukkos, we rejoice in a more intimate way. We celebrate with ourselves, we are Yidden and have a unique and deep bond with the Al-mighty.

sible in our sukkah and where we waved the four- species every day. Our Sukkos service is quite “object- heavy.” The lack of an objectified method of service on Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah is a stark contrast. The message is, that after the month of Elul, Rosh Hashana, the Days of Repentance, Yom Kippur, and seven days of Sukkos, we rejoice in a more intimate way. We celebrate with ourselves, we are Yidden and have a unique and deep bond with the Al-mighty.

This works well with the famous Gemara, which contrasts the days of Sukkos with Shemini Atzeres. On Sukkos, during the time of the Beis Hamikdash, many cow- offerings, representing all the 70

This works well with the famous Gemara, which contrasts the days of Sukkos with Shemini Atzeres. On Sukkos, during the time of the Beis Hamikdash, many cow- offerings, representing all the 70

He would relate that he would be willing to give his whole life of good deeds and Torah study just to be with those Jews dancing in Auschwitz.

He would relate that he would be willing to give his whole life of good deeds and Torah study just to be with those Jews dancing in Auschwitz.

The Yid answered, “You have the Ribbono shel Olam, the Almighty! We are all Yidden! The Nazis cannot take that from us!” And with that encouragement, mustering whatever strength they had, they danced on that Simchas Torah.

The Yid answered, “You have the Ribbono shel Olam, the Almighty! We are all Yidden! The Nazis cannot take that from us!” And with that encouragement, mustering whatever strength they had, they danced on that Simchas Torah.

The students of Rav Shach relate that he would repeat this story often, and when he did so he would become visibly moved, as if it were the first time he had heard the story. He would relate that he would be willing to give his whole life of good deeds and Torah study just to be with those Jews dancing in Auschwitz. The joy and elevation that occurs when a Jew dances with the Ribbono shel Olam is a remarkable experience.

The students of Rav Shach relate that he would repeat this story often, and when he did so he would become visibly moved, as if it were the first time he had heard the story. He would relate that he would be willing to give his whole life of good deeds and Torah study just to be with those Jews dancing in Auschwitz. The joy and elevation that occurs when a Jew dances with the Ribbono shel Olam is a remarkable experience.

It is noteworthy that on Simchas Torah (and Shemini Atzeres), we do not have a specific mitzvah object. Simchas Torah comes on the heels of Sukkos, the holiday where we just spent as much time as pos-

nations of the world, were brought. In contrast, on the day of Shemini Atzeres, just one cow was brought as an offering. The Gemara likens this to a king who makes a grand banquet for all of his subjects. After the banquet, the king asks his most beloved subjects to make a small intimate affair, without the pomp, just for them to enjoy each other. The message is the same; Hashem wants us to rejoice with Him.

nations of the world, were brought. In contrast, on the day of Shemini Atzeres, just one cow was brought as an offering. The Gemara likens this to a king who makes a grand banquet for all of his subjects. After the banquet, the king asks his most beloved subjects to make a small intimate affair, without the pomp, just for them to enjoy each other. The message is the same; Hashem wants us to rejoice with Him.

On Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah, after fifty-one days of service beginning on the first of the month of Elul, we are asked to bring only ourselves, we rejoice with the Torah and celebrate our most treasured asset, our close relationship with Hashem.

It is noteworthy that on Simchas Torah (and Shemini Atzeres), we do not have a specific mitzvah object. Simchas Torah comes on the heels of Sukkos, the holiday where we just spent as much time as pos-

On Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah, after fifty-one days of service beginning on the first of the month of Elul, we are asked to bring only ourselves, we rejoice with the Torah and celebrate our most treasured asset, our close relationship with Hashem.

Excerpted with permission from Our Parshah by Rabbi Aryeh Dachs, Mosaica Press.

Unity in Adversity

By M Alkie schUlMAn

Growing up in a Chabad family, Rabbi Shuey Biston, known affectionately as Rabbi Shuey, understands what it means to be of service to the Jewish people.

“The Rebbe sent my parents down to Miami in the 1970’s to establish a Chabad House. Over the years, they’ve set up many Chabad houses all over South Florida.”

Shortly after Rabbi Shuey got married in 2004, he and his wife Sarah became shluchim at the Chabad House in Parkland which serves as the Regional Headquarters for Chabad of North Broward & Palm Beach Counties (a city forty minutes away from Miami, near Boca Raton) where his parents had started.

“At that point, we were only a handful of families. Since then, the community has expanded to include a Hebrew school with hundreds of students, a Friendship Circle with hundreds of children with special needs, Gan Yisroel Day Camp and Overnight Camp, and a vibrant Chabad House that is growing every day,” says Rabbi Shuey. “Since Covid, Parkland Chabad has really grown exponentially. Today, we have over 150 shomer Shabbos congregants along with hundreds of other secular Jewish families. It’s a beautiful, diverse crowd. We’re one community, one shul.”

Since October 7, it’s no surprise then that Rabbi Shuey was among the first American responders to the war in Israel. Just eight days after the conflict began, he traveled with a group of five individuals, bringing along 54 suitcases filled with gear and supplies for the soldiers.

“There are quite a few kids in our community and the surrounding area that are currently in the IDF,” shares R’ Shuey. Some were already in Israel on active duty, and some got tzav shemone – the call up notice on Simchas

Torah – and had to go straight from shul to the airport to catch their flights. So, they actually never got to celebrate Simchas Torah. “I told the boys on the way out, ‘Don’t worry, guys, even though we can’t celebrate Simchas Torah today, we will celebrate it eventually.’”

In the days following October 7, Rabbi Shuey says they were bombarded with calls from the soldiers and their families, who were requesting helmets, scopes, vests and other tactical gear and supplies. “There had never been a mobilization like this before, there was so much uncertainty, and we wanted to help in any way possible.”

Which is why, a week later, R’ Shuey, his brothers-inlaw, Rabbis Chaim and Eli Lipskar also Chabad rabbis in Downtown Miami and Brickel, and two dear friends and entrepreneurs, Mr. Sam Backer and Mr. Mendy Krinsky, were enroute to army bases in Israel to drop off gear they had collected for their boys.

“We arrived at the army base in the town of Chashmonaim late at night. The soldiers came out, and we gave them all vests. One of the soldiers from Brickel said, ‘You promised us hakafot.’ So at 2 o’clock in the morning, a week and two days after Simchas Torah, we were dancing hakafot on the street right outside the base with dozens of soldiers.”

Of course, nothing in Israel can be kept a secret for too long (nothing non-military, that is). The next day, R’ Shuey, received a video from an Israeli tour guide friend, who asked if that was him dancing with soldiers in the middle of the night. The tour guide’s friend, who lived across the street from the base, had been woken up by the sounds of singing and dancing and recorded the scene. “My friend recognized me and sent it to me,” says R’ Shuey with a laugh.

That October 15 th trip was the first of nine missions they’ve gone on so far together over ten months. When they arrived at Miami International Airport at the start of the war, Fox News and other TV stations were waiting for them in the terminal.

“We were one of the first flights out,” R’ Shuey shares. “The media wanted to see who in their right minds were willing to fly to Israel when everyone was trying to get out of the country!”

R’ Shuey recalls trying to explain to the reporter that they were not afraid to travel when our nation was at war. “The Jewish Nation is one body; when one part of us is under attack, we’re all under attack. The Lubavitcher Rebbe would always stress that there’s no place safer than the land of Israel. He would remind us that, Eini Hashem, the eyes of G-d, are upon the land.”

R’ Shuey shares a funny story.

“I love a good cigar. Whenever I travel to Israel, I bring a few, and the Israelis love them. In America, there’s a concept of a victory cigar. I decided to bring close to 1,000 cigars with me.” When they’d hand out the supplies, R’ Shuey would hand out cigars as well, and it became quite popular among the soldiers. At one point, when they brought cigars to a Golani base, the mefaked, who was a no nonsense commander, objected, saying it wasn’t appropriate during war to be handing out cigars. A few minutes later, after he saw the soldiers’ reaction, “The same guy asked us if we had any more for him to give out as well.”

Holy Sparks

After visiting the base in Chashmonaim and some others in the center of Israel, the team traveled southward.

At that point, R’ Shuey explains, he and his friends, like many, hadn’t even ever heard of Be’eri or Kfar Aza before the massacre; they were only familiar with Sderot, a frequent target for rockets over the past 15 years.

“We decided to make our way there to hand out medical supplies, gear, tourniquets, energy bars and other supplies.”

As they traveled toward Sderot, R’ Shuey contacted Rabbi Kleinman, a Chabad rabbi in the nearby town of Maslul, close to Ofakim, one of the villages that experienced horrific destruction and death. Rabbi Kleinman asked them to first stop in Maslul to offer assistance. He mentioned that though Maslul, baruch Hashem, hadn’t been hit (the terrorists had killed the gate guards but then moved on after being directed by a passing jeep), there were soldiers sleeping everywhere – on trucks, tanks, and jeeps and in the center of the small town.

But before they even reached Maslul, R’ Shuey’s team passed a junction filled with soldiers known as Tzomet Urim, which later on was nicknamed “Tzomet Barbecue” because of all the volunteer-led barbecues that subsequently sprang up there. There were hundreds of soldiers being dropped off from that junction to be split up into their different units. The buzz of drones and the sounds of rockets, bombing and planes were constant. The team decided to stop and distribute gear over there as well as take the opportunity to help soldiers put on tefillin and distribute hundreds of Chitas (a daily study compilation of Chumash, Tehillim, and Tanya), offering them to anyone interested, including placing a mezuza in every D9 bulldozer and a Chitas in every tank, and jeep that passed by.

“You could sense a feeling of real purpose and confidence as soldiers from all walks of life and every age were

gearing up to protect their families and the land they love so much,” comments R’ Shuey.

One memorable encounter involved a tattooed, bare-chested soldier who requested to put on tefillin.

As R’ Shuey was helping him wrap the straps around his arm, the soldier broke down crying. When R’ Shuey asked if everything was okay, the soldier shared that he had been stationed at the Nahal Oz base and witnessed five of his closest friends murdered. Although he and his friends were not religious, he felt compelled to do something spiritual in their memory. They embraced, and R’ Shuey took a picture with him.

Another soldier asked R’ Shuey to put the camera away before he put on tefillin, sharing that if people knew who he was, they’d be shocked seeing him with tefillin. He revealed that he was one of the leaders of “Achim L’Neshek,” a group known for anti-religious demonstrations, including the one that disrupted the Yom Kippur prayers that year in Tel Aviv. He said he was 68 years old and had never put on tefillin in his life but felt things were different now. As R’ Shuey observes, “We saw many barriers crumbling that day.”

“It was only a week after the horrific terrorist attack, planes were bombing, we were in the middle of a war zone. Yet people were turning to do mitzvot. They wanted a pair of tzitzit or a book of Tehillim. I felt the unity of Am Yisroel in those days in a way I’ve never experienced in my life.”

They remained at the junction for a few hours before continuing on their way. On every one of their missions, they would always stop at Tzomet Urim and later when it moved to Tzomet Gilat. On mission four, they were able to organize a concert at Tzomet Gilat with Israeli superstar Akiva, who was serving in Miluim in the North

and came in his uniform for an hour and went straight back up to his base.

Next, R’ Shuey and his team arrived in Maslul, where community support for the soldiers was evident. Maslul has a population of about 200 families. Since the start of the war, the women of the town were busy every day preparing food for the many soldiers stationed there.

“We asked if we could organize a barbecue for them,” shares R’ Shuey, “and an hour later, we were grilling steaks, kebabs and lamb. It was one of the first barbecues for about 300 soldiers, who shared their stories, many of whom had left their homes on the morning of October 7 and had been sleeping in tents.”

After dinner, the women invited the soldiers to take showers in their homes. Seeing the need, Sam Backer immediately committed to building a shower and bathroom facility right there outside the community center in Maslul. In fifteen days, the 20x20 ft facility with showers, bathrooms, and laundry facilities was completed. As a result, the IDF expanded that location as a temporary base for over a thousand soldiers, and the army continues to use it today.

Rabbi Kleinman advised them to go next to Machane Re’im, the main army base and the largest on the Gaza border. The base had been infiltrated by 50 terrorists on October 7. Thirty soldiers were murdered, and much damage done. Though there’s tight security on the base, R’ Shuey explains, the terrorists were able to enter through multiple locations. From there, they attempted to access the war room. Baruch Hashem, they didn’t succeed.

“Had they gotten in,” continues R’ Shuey, “thousands more people could have died as that was where drone operations across multiple towns were controlled.”

The terrorists were finally trapped in the gymnasium, and after hours of heavy battling, the IDF called in an army helicopter to fire on their own base to eliminate the terrorists.

“The shattered glass, bullet casings, and bloodstains were still on the floor when we arrived.”

Rabbi Kleinman introduced the group to Kobi who has served as the chef at Machane Re’im for 22 years. Kobi runs the largest kitchen in the Israeli army, feeding 11 other bases that surround Gaza.

“We told Kobi we wanted to organize a barbecue for the 1,500 soldiers on the base,” says R’ Shuey. “Not a chicken wings barbecue, we said. When Kobi Facetimed us from the butcher to ask what he should buy, Sam told him, ‘Buy everything in the entire store.’ In the end, we spent around $10,000, but it was worth every penny to see the smiles and joy on the faces of the soldiers. We realized the barbecue was about so much more than food; it was a huge hug. It was our way of saying thank you to the soldiers. Thank you for putting your life on the line to protect Am Yisroel. It was also our way of saying you’re not alone, the entire world Jewry is praying for you.”

Afterwards, the group walked around the base, witnessing the extensive damage, including the destruction of what had been a beautiful synagogue. R’ Shuey says then and there he fell in love with the base. He mentioned that his twin sons were becoming bar mitzvah this summer and that he wanted to celebrate it on Machane Re’im. He also mentioned his dream to write and give a sefer Torah to the Re’im base. Sam Backer immediately offered to cover the cost of writing the Torah.

At the end, this dream snowballed into a beautiful project involving over 10,000 soldiers. R’ Shuey relates that

when they returned to the States after their first trip, he learned that during the 1982 Lebanon War, the Lubavitcher Rebbe encouraged writing a sefer Torah and having every soldier participate (in its writing) for the protection of the Jewish people. When the team returned to Israel two weeks later – this time, with over 100 suitcases containing gear and supplies – they brought along a sofer who they’d hired to travel with them. Every base they went to, they’d set up a table and chair for the soldiers to sit down and write a letter. Over 10,000 letters were written.

Even when they were back in America, the sofer traveled to different bases to continue the effort.

“We planned the finishing of it to coincide with my twin sons’ bar mitzvah this summer in July,” says R’ Shuey. “Not only was the first sefer Torah completed by then, but so many soldiers wanted to be part of it, that another sefer Torah dedicated by the Gelman Family was commissioned and finished a few weeks later, this past August!”

It’s worth noting that most of these soldiers were not even observant. Nevertheless, they were running to line up and write a letter.

“Another moving story,” shares R’ Shuey, “is the time we passed an area and saw 20 tanks revving up their engines. We asked them what was going on, and they told us the ground war in Gaza was about to start and they were preparing to go in. When we offered to help the soldiers put on tefillin, the head of the battalion, a bearded man, laughed and told us he was a Rosh Yeshiva from Yerushalayim and all his soldiers were frum.” However, he said, “We’d love to daven Mincha with you before going into battle.”

“We joined them in tefillah, and it was a life-changing experience for me,” says R’ Shuey. “I remember thinking, if

this was the last Mincha of my life what would I be davening for?” After Mincha, everyone sat down at the makeshift table to write letters in the Torah. Afterwards, they danced around the tanks and then the soldiers drove into Gaza. Baruch Hashem, they were victorious that day.

R’ Shuey has many incredible tales, testimonies to the holiness of each member of the Jewish people.

“We got a call from Miami that the soldiers in Be’eri needed army vests and medical supplies,” he says, “so we headed there with the gear, along with tzitzis. There, on a grassy area with looming tanks in the background, at the site of the greatest destruction among some of the most secular Jews, was a long line of people waiting for their chance to write a letter in our sefer Torah.

“The next part of the trip was gruesome,” R’ Shuey shares. While they were in Be’eri, they met chassidish ZAKA volunteers still searching for bodies and body parts. Most of them hadn’t donned tefillin that day.

“They told us their mission was holier, that’s why they hadn’t even stopped to put on tefillin, but now that we were here, they were happy for the opportunity.” R’ Shuey met the head of ZAKA of the South, who related, “I was supposed to be Chosson Torah on Simchas Torah. I packed 600 pekalach to give out to the children in shul. Instead, over the next few days, I collected 600 pekalach – Yiddishe bodies.”

Reb Chaim was exhausted. He said he hadn’t been home in a long time. “All I do is search for body parts. A half hour ago, I found a limb and I said to Hashem, ‘Enough is enough.’ How much more can I take? As I finished, I looked up and saw you guys in the distance writing a sefer Torah. I feel like Hashem answered me – with another mitzvah to perform.”

Witnessing the Strength

Every month, R’ Shuey and his group made a new trip, each time carrying more supplies and expanding their areas of service, to all parts of Israel.

“It was the dead of winter, we got a call from Uvda, the most southern army base,” says R’ Shuey. “‘We desperately need winter gear for 500 soldiers,’ the base commander told me. So, our team purchased $40,000 worth of coats, neck warmers, pants, sweaters and other winter clothes and packed them into 200 suitcases. When we arrived in Israel, we were shocked to see a C-130 Hercules plane waiting to transport us and the clothes down to the base.”

By the third mission, R’ Shuey and his team began including community members, bringing the total to 20 individuals on each mission. On one trip, Vince Misch, who is a GC and a member of Chabad of Brickel, who’d accompanied them, offered to build a Welcome Center and gazebo with artificial grass outside of the army base so parents could visit their soldier children and have a comfortable place to spend time with them since they weren’t allowed on the bases. “$100,000 to build? No problem,” he said. “Done.”

Parkland, it seems, has more than one wonderful, charitable individual. A true philanthropist, a successful young businessman, Mr. Yudi Hercenberg, called up R’ Shuey to say he wanted to do something different.

“I’d like to distribute $18,000 each to 30 widows of the war over three days which will include any woman whose husband had been killed as a result of the current war.” The only requirement, he said, was that they have at least two children and they genuinely need the money. Yudi raised $500,000 between him and his business colleagues.

“It was the most moving experience of my life,” R’ Shuey recounts. “We sat for two hours with each widow, listening to story after story of their husband’s incredible heroism while sitting in awe of their own bravery as they picked up the pieces after their husband’s deaths.”

The Parkland team told the women they wanted to ease their financial burden and each one, invariably said, “No, I can’t take it, give it to somebody who needs it more.” But R’ Shuey responded, “You’re not taking! What you gave us and your people in your family’s sacrifice is giving. We’re just trying to help you in a small way after what you gave to us.”

Reflecting on these experiences, R’ Shuey emphasizes the profound impact of their efforts. “When I got back and showed other rabbis the amazing pictures we had, they said, ‘Are these photo ops or are these for real? Does it really make a difference if we go and visit soldiers?’ I told them, ‘Every hug, every handshake—do you understand what it means to them? We care enough to fly to give them protein bars and cigars; it means the world to them.’” R’ Shuey maintains that he stays in touch with hundreds of chayalim. “We’ve forged a relationship.” As a result of his conversation, other rabbis embarked on their own missions to Israel the following week.

This past July, the Bistons celebrated their twins’ bar mitzvah as R’ Shuey had promised on the Re’im base, along with the completion of the sefer Torah that they had begun to write nine months before. But they did run into a snag. Shortly before the planned celebration, chef Kobi called R’ Shuey and informed him that Bibi Netanyahu was visiting the base to discuss the next phase of war. “No civilians will be allowed on base for three hours.”

“Seventy people had joined us from Parkland,” shares R’ Shuey. “This was a culmination of a dream. We were not going to cancel. ‘Let’s do it earlier,’ I said. So, we made the bar mitzvah seudah at noon, finished up writing the last letters of the Torah, made a siyum and danced with the boys (and soldiers) in the afternoon all before the Shin Bet showed up.” The Akiva concert that they had planned had to be moved to an army base in the Gush.

But the Bistons didn’t want the celebration to be solely about them and their bar mitzvah boys. They wanted to express solidarity with their brothers and sisters in their pain, so they decided to celebrate another pair of twins’ bar mitzvahs alongside their sons. They heard about a set of twins from a non-observant family whose father was serving in Gaza.

“We bought each twin a pair of tefillin and presented it to them at the base. Baruch Hashem, their father was able to get the afternoon off to attend his sons’ bar mitzvah,” shares R’ Shuey.

Message to World Jewry

“There’s no question that as a nation we’re being tested,” R’ Shuey stresses. “Leading up to the Hamas attack on October 7, there’s been significant division and fragmentation within the Jewish world. However, one powerful outcome has emerged: Am Yisrael needs to be united as one. The connectivity we’re experiencing between American and Israeli Jews is both powerful and real.

“We need to go above and beyond for the Jewish people, to daven more and give more. We need to bottle up this energy. We can’t let it slip away.”

From the Philippines to Becoming a Caring Physician

Dr. Yashar Hirshaut

By Malkie Schul M an

Dr.

Yashar Hirshaut’s remarkable journey began in 1938 when, as a newborn, his family fled the rise of Nazism in Berlin, Germany, seeking refuge in the Philippines. As he grew up, he endured the harsh realities of Japanese occupation during World War II.

Even Dr. Hirshaut’s given name was influenced by the Nazi regime. “Hitler mandated that every Jewish child be named Israel or Abraham so they could be easily identified as Jews,” shares Dr. Hirshaut. “The letters in ‘Yashar’ are the first three letters in ‘Yisroel’. My father wanted to name me ‘Yashar’ after the pasuk in Iyov that describes him (Iyov) as an ‘Ish tam v’yashar.’ He asked the German police and was granted permission.

“My father came to Berlin from Poland at age 7 and my mother came from Halberstadt, a large city not far from Berlin. We were a family of two children, my older sister, Ruth, and me.”

In the 1930s already, Dr. Hirshaut’s father saw the handwriting on the wall and began to plan for his family’s emigration to Palestine.

“However, by the time we were ready to set sail, Britain’s White Papers were in effect, and Jewish immigration to Palestine was halted.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Hirshaut’s mother read an article stating that a deal had been made with Germany that permitted 12,000 German Jews to relocate to the Philippines. A successful Jewish businessman in the tobacco industry named Friedler, who came from Cincinnati, had seen potential in the Philippine climate and land for growing tobacco. Friedler was also an avid poker player. Among Friedler’s notable poker partners were Paul V. McNutt, the American High Commissioner to the Philippines; Manuel L. Quezon, the President of the Philippines; and an American military attaché (before he went to the European theater) Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower. (Mamie Eisenhower received a lot of jewelry whenever her husband played.) Friedler was not a particularly skilled poker player, but he was a clever businessman who managed to secure a lot of good land for his tobacco business through these connections. He also leveraged his influence to obtain permission for 12,000 Jews to legally enter the Philippines. Through both his daily poker games and other po -

litical connections including General Douglas MacArthur, Friedler discussed the plight of the refugees and persuaded his partners to let them in.

The Hirshauts were among the first 1,200 Jews on the manifest allowing them to relocate to Manila.

“We sailed via steamship from Hamburg. When we reached the Suez Canal, my father wanted to jump ship and head for Palestine,” Dr. Hirshaut recalls. “My mother was taking no chances. She said to my father ‘No, we’ll get caught and sent back. We’re going to the Philippines. Once we get there, we’ll figure out what to do.’”

Life in Manila

“The heat in Manila was intense, reaching 116 degrees in the shade,” Dr. Hirshaut recalls. The city also experienced tremendous monsoons, and homes were built on stilts to manage the water that flowed in and out.

“The main food staples were rice, rice, and more rice,” he says with a laugh. “Sweet potatoes were common. We would climb trees to get coconuts and hammer them open. There were also papayas, which grew on trees with trunks that ran parallel to the ground for a while before rising upward, making it easy to walk along them. We also enjoyed mangoes and fish.”

Generally speaking, the Hirshauts lived on a pareve diet until the few religious families wrote the Agudah requesting kosher chicken. In response, they were sent funding for Mr. Han, one of the frum men, to travel to Shanghai, China, to learn shechita from the talmidim in Mir Yeshiva who had resettled in Shanghai during the War. “Interestingly,” Dr. Hirshaut notes, “Han means ‘hen’ in Yiddish.”

Manila was an American colony, making the main language there English. The Hirshaut children attended the American School, originally intended for the children of American diplomats. The locals spoke a Malaysian language called Tagalog, which Dr. Hirshaut’s mother learned because she needed to communicate with the shopkeepers. The rest of the family learned only English.

In general, life was primitive in Manila. Few people drove cars; they mostly walked or traveled in calesas or carretelas, which are larger or smaller horse-drawn carriages.

“Consequently,” shares Dr. Hirshaut, “the streets were often littered with horse manure, so you had to watch

where you stepped!”

However, city dwellers like the Hirshauts didn’t have cars or calesas.

“All our clothes were tailor-made. Because of the hot weather, I only wore shorts. I didn’t own a pair of long pants. When we arrived in America, I went to school in shorts. I remember everyone looking at me like I was crazy. After that, my mother went out and bought me long pants!”

Dr. Hirshaut’s father worked for an American company as an accountant. After the war started, the company closed, and he and a non-religious partner opened two stores selling office products. Originally, they closed for Shabbos, but after a few months, his partner wanted to open on Shabbos. The partnership split up, with each of them keeping a store.

Out of the first group of 1,200 Jews sent to Manila, there were only five or six Orthodox families.

“There was no minyan during the week, not even always on Shabbos. But on yom tov, there was always a minyan,” Dr. Hirshaut remembers. “The only synagogue, Temple Emil, was an hour away. Nevertheless, despite the heat, we made the trek every Shabbos.”

The shul was founded by a gentile woman whose Jewish husband’s name was Emil. Emil died before the war, and his widow built and supported the shul in his memory.

Dr. Hirshaut recalls celebrating Sukkos in Manila.

“The lulav was no problem to obtain as palm trees were indigenous to the island. In fact, my father built our sukkah out of palm leaves. However, I don’t remember ever having an esrog,” he admits.

Wartime in Manila

One of Dr. Hirshaut’s earliest memories is of waking up one morning at age three to see cars lined up at the Texaco gas station across the street from their house. “I remember my mother telling me there was going to be a war and there wouldn’t be enough gas for the cars, so people wanted to fill up their tanks. The bombing started in the Philippines after Pearl Harbor was bombed in December 1941. Since it was an American protectorate, Japan wanted to capture it. Mr. Tzvi (Herman) Hirshaut (senior) moved his family into a huge garage in a multistory building as a bomb shelter where they stayed for a few weeks.

Not only did Mr. Hirshaut need to figure out how to

keep his family safe but he had a sefer Torah to protect as well.

“He built a four-sided wagon for our valuables, especially the sefer Torah,” Dr. Hirshaut explains, “Our valuables were already in a valise should the moment arrive that we had to escape.” Throughout the years, the Hirshauts had to flee from their home three times and find a new place to live each time.

There were Jewish American soldiers stationed in the Philippines during the war, and Dr. Hirshaut’s mother, Fannie, cooked for them. There were also some Mir Yeshiva students, who had tickets to the U.S. but had gotten stuck in the Philippines. Since they were from Russia and Poland, they were identified as enemies of the state and thrown into prison.

“First, they came to our house, and my mother took care of them,” shares Dr. Hirshaut. “Even after they were imprisoned, my mother continued to send them food.”

Dr. Hirshaut remembers his mother’s harrowing experience in Manila during the Japanese occupation in World War II. There were no mikvahs in the city, so she had to use the ocean instead. One night, she was stopped by a Japanese soldier who demanded to know where she was going. Well, at least that’s what she assumed he wanted to know because she couldn’t speak Japanese and he couldn’t speak German or English (or Tagalog). The soldier began to beat her.

“To this day, I have a vivid memory of her arriving home all beaten up,” shares Dr. Hirshaut. Baruch Hashem, she survived the ordeal.

“The Japanese were brutal,” Dr. Hirshaut recalls. “Wherever they went, their policy was ‘slash-and-burn.’”

Technically, the Hirshauts were German, and thus allies so the Japanese who weren’t aware of the distinction between German Jew and German gentile, didn’t bother them. Since the Japanese were cruel in general, and usually didn’t stop to ask whether they were German or not, it didn’t make much difference, though, notes Dr. Hirshaut ruefully. “We had to run away with the rest of the Manila inhabitants when we heard the Japanese were coming.” Eventually, Manila totally emptied out, and Dr. Hirshaut’s family moved from downtown to the suburbs, living in an extra room in a Jewish family’s house for four days.

“One Friday,” Dr. Hirshaut recalls, “word got out that

the Japanese were on their way to us. They were throwing hand grenades into every house, ravaging the area.”

The people who owned the house had feared this and had a horse and carriage prepared. “They had no room to take us along, so we were left on our own.”

Although, Dr. Hirshaut’s father had succeeded in saving the Sefer Torah twice before, this time it was not to be.

“We were escaping on foot, and we only managed to save one suitcase. We ran straight into a rice paddy.” Mr. Hirshaut built a lean-to, and the family lived in it for a week. “The water in the paddy was a deterrent from fires,” explains Dr. Hirshaut.

“It boils down to caring about your patients and being committed to their survival, about always treating your patients like real people, not textbook cases.”

Once Germany surrendered, the Japanese were angry at all foreigners, including German ones, so the situation, if possible, became even more untenable.

“I remember at the end watching our whole city burn down (quite a dramatic sight for a six-year-old child),” says Dr. Hirshaut. “Then the Americans arrived, and we were saved.”

Stateside

When Dr. Hirshaut was 7 years old, his family moved to the United States.

“We took a steam ship to San Francisco. The Jews who lived there asked us to stay, but my father wanted to go to the heart of Jewry. So, we went east, ultimately ending up in Boro Park.”

After the war, Mr. Hirshaut reconnected with the American stockbrokerage firm he’d worked at in Manila and established a branch on Wall Street in 1945. He was making money and becoming friendly with wealthy individuals, eventually joining a prestigious financial firm

with branches in China. He ran the China branches until the communists took over, ending that chapter of his business life.

As a young boy, Dr. Hirshaut attended yeshiva RJJ.

“I had such skinny wrists they gave me double portions when giving out lunch,” he remembers. “It was challenging after the war, getting used to a reborn world. The world we had known had vanished,” he reflects. “Everything was new. The Jewish population had been decimated and had to recreate. The Young Israel was the most dynamic group at the time. That’s where I hung out in my growing up years.”

Dr. Hirshaut attended Yeshiva University, graduating as valedictorian. Unfortunately, his father got sick and passed away before graduation. “However, I did follow his desire to become a doctor, graduating eventually from Albert Einstein Medical School in 1963.”

During this time, the Vietnam War was raging, and Dr. Hirshaut was drafted.

“If you were a certain age, there was a lottery. If you got a low number, you had to serve, but if you were in medical school, your deployment was deferred,” he explains. Shortly afterwards, he met and married Perie Katz from Mountain Dale, NY, his wife of more than half a century. They currently live in Lawrence, NY.

“After finishing medical school, the army gave me a choice: go to Vietnam or remain stateside and work in Bethesda, MD, in cancer research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I chose the Cancer Institute,” a field he was to remain in for the next 60 years.

Caring for the Whole Patient

“Oncology was a new field when I started,” he notes. “In the beginning, many of my very ill patients didn’t live long.” Dr. Hirshaut made it his goal during his time at the Cancer Institute to research methods for extending the life of his cancer patients.

“I’ve had many patients in my career since then, and a large number of them led productive lives well past the expected survival rate. Of course, you can’t save everyone, but I never believed in giving up on anybody. It boils down to caring about your patients and being committed to their survival, about always treating your patients like real people, not textbook cases.”

Dr. Hirshaut also believes it’s important to think out

Family photos from the Philippines, Yashar with his parents and sister Ruth

Manila after the Japanese bombing in December 1941

of the box when trying to figure out how to help a patient. For example, while it’s true that the person is suffering from cancer, the cancer might not be the major threat at that moment. It might be an infection that is more serious that needs to be treated right away. “I always asked myself, what is my patient at the highest risk for right now and treated that.”

Aside from the physical component, Dr. Hirshaut feels strongly that emotional well-being is essential to recovery.

“I’d try to get into my patient’s psyche to understand what motivated them towards recovery and if there was any worry or fear that was holding them back. People may have different concerns even if they have the same type of cancer.” With this understanding, he would work on ameliorating his patients’ fears.

Life is filled with challenges, and some of them are frightening. Certainly, a cancer diagnosis is fearsome. The challenge for oncologists is to relay to their patients, Dr. Hirshaut believes, that a cancer diagnosis doesn’t have to be a death knell. There is a whole arsenal of drugs out there today that can help save people’s lives.

“We want to give people hope for a future,” maintains Dr. Hirshaut.

It’s often the situation that after they hear their diagnosis, they despair, believing there’s no hope. An oncologist’s job is to help create a future for their patient so they will have the will to go through the often difficult treatment programs.

Some patients do very well with chemotherapy. Some do not. Some of Dr. Hirshaut’s patients lived for over 20 years with their cancer, remaining fully active, watching their children grow up and marry.

“I had a 90-year-old patient,” recalls Dr. Hirshaut, “that everyone had said their goodbyes to. With Hashem’s help, I was able to work with her, and she lived a productive life until 105!

“Never give up hope,” he stresses.

One of his patients was given four months to live. He came to Dr. Hirshaut and lived for another five years.

Faith is a big part of Dr. Hirshaut’s approach. Reflecting on the emotional toll, he notes, “If someone is very sick and might die, our reaction is often one of despair and deep hurt. We might want to yell at Hashem and say, ‘Why does this have to be the end of the story?’ But it ac-

tually isn’t the end of the story. The real end is determined by Hashem, and there could be something worthwhile for this person even though it doesn’t look hopeful now. How do we really know what anything means? Hashem runs the world, and He has created a world where there can be joy and recovery. Even though this person is going through difficult challenges now, Hashem can make it worthwhile in ways we cannot see.”

He continues, “Should I treat a patient as if there is no life ahead? I would rather act as if the real end of the story is in the hands of the good L-rd, Who has all sorts of answers. I don’t think, why did Hashem do this? Rather I focus on treating the patient, seeing his situation as a problem I want to solve to help heal him.”

Dr. Hirshaut also faced challenges from the healthcare system. A big problem is that hospitals are there to make money, not to make patients better. Euthanasia is a significant threat. One patient was gravely ill, and the hospital wanted to send her to hospice.

“I walked in,” recalls Dr. Hirshaut, “and said to the chief resident, ‘How is our patient doing today?’ ‘She’s dying,’ he answered. I said to him, ‘I sent her to you to get better, not to die.’”

For two weeks, Dr. Hirshaut administered intense treatments with no response, until the final treatment proved successful.

“She lived for five more years,” says Dr. Hirshaut. “My wife danced with her at her grandchild’s wedding!”

Working with patients for decades, Dr. Hirshaut always stayed up-to-date and determined to do everything possible for them. “Often, you have to hold their hand and make sure they want to survive,” he reflects. Even when patients felt hopeless, he would find out the real facts, hold their hands, and often see a surprising response. One memorable story involves a Hispanic woman who came to him pregnant. “Her doctors said to abort, but she was determined to have the baby,” he recalls. With Dr. Hirshaut’s assistance, she safely delivered her newborn.

“A few months later, she came to visit me with her healthy infant son. ‘Baby Yashar is doing well,’ she said to me.”

Having Faith Gives Strength

Dr. Hirshaut observes, “If a person is unhappy and

upset, feeling like they have no future, it’s our duty to create a future for them and persuade them to permit us to treat them.”

He believes that while giving a person no hope is easy, and giving a little hope is only somewhat harder, the biggest challenge is to provide all the hope available at the time.

“If I indicate that as their doctor I’m willing to try everything I can and that I believe there is an ultimate reason why they have to go through this challenge, you’d be surprised at how many people can be helped.”

Not that long ago, a very sick person came to Dr. Hirshaut. “He knew his days were numbered so I worked through with him what that might mean. He had a small percent chance for a nice future in this world, but we worked on looking at it in terms of the bigger picture. I try not to dwell on it,” continues Dr. Hirshaut, “but sometimes, it’s appropriate to point out that even in the worst-case scenario, that the person will die, I try to get the patient to see Hashem has great things in store for him in the next World. It’s never over even when it’s over. Besides for the fact, that no doctor is G-d, so nobody actually knows what the lifespan of another human being will be.”

All doctors can do, believes Dr. Hirshaut, is ask Hashem for help in treating their patients and pray that He gives them a good life in this world and the next. Doctors should be careful of what they say to their patients. If they see themselves as taking care of Hashem’s children, then they will see amazing things.

“Even if the patient passes away, I, as a doctor, shouldn’t say all my work was wasted. I am not the one who knows what will happen to the person either in this world or the next. The next chapter can be better. “

Dr. Hirshaut concludes with a message to physicians and patients. To physicians, he advises, “We haven’t seen the last chapter. Hashem is guiding the story. Don’t give up. Treat each patient with the belief that there is always something more that can be done and that Hashem can transform anything.”

To patients, Dr. Hirshaut shares, “Have faith. Each of us is loved by Hashem. Hashem wants us to rely on Him and believe in that extra measure of hope beyond what we see.”

Dr. Hirshaut’s parents, Tzvi and Fannie Hirshaut

A photo of Dr. Hirshaut from Rabbi Jacob Joseph elementary school

Chol Hamoed Places to Go, Things to Do

With the weather turning cooler and some days filled with sheets of rain, we hope that the sun will smile kindly upon us as we go on chol hamoed outings as a family this Sukkos. If we’re lucky enough to get balmy weather, we can take advantage of the wonderful experiences available outdoors. And if gimshei bracha shower upon us, there are interesting trips to go on indoors as well –so take your pick! Spending time with the family is the goal, wherever the day may take you.

TJH has compiled a list of ideas, activities, and places to go for you to enjoy. Make sure to pack enough food, a portable sukkah, and music for the road and have fun!

Zoos and Farms

Queens County Farm Museum 73-50 Little Neck Parkway, Floral Park, NY 11004 718-347-3276

White Post Farms

250 Old County Road, Melville, NY 11747 631-351-9373

Long Island Aquarium and Exhibition Center 431 East Main Street, Riverhead, NY 11901 631-208-9200

New York Aquarium Surf Avenue & West 8th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11224 718-265-FISH

Prospect Park Zoo 450 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11225

718-399-7339

Queens Zoo 53-51 111th Street, Flushing, NY 11368 718-271-1500

Central Park Zoo 64th Street & 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10065

212-861-6030

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Green Meadows Farm Brooklyn

At the Aviator Sports Center

3159 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11234

718-470-0278

Bronx Zoo 2300 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY 10460 718-220-5103

Long Island Game Farm 489 Chapman Boulevard, Manorville, NY 11949 631-873-6644

Schmitt’s Family Farm

6 Bagatelle Road, Dix Hills, New York 11746 631-549-3276

Union Square Greenmarket

Union Square West, New York, NY 10003 212-788-7476

Lawrence Farm Orchards

39 Colandrea Rd, Newburgh, NY 12550 845-562-4268

Rose Hill Farm

19 Rose Hill Farm, Red Hook, NY 12571 845-758-4215

Greig Farm

227 Pitcher Lane, Red Hook, NY 12571

845-758-8007

Scenic Attractions

Central Park

Boating, biking, the Great Lawn, model-boat sailing, carriage rides, carousel Between 5th & 8th Avenues and 59th & 106th Streets, New York, NY 212-360-3444

Bryant Park

6th Avenue, between W 40-42 Street, New York, NY 10018 212-768-4242

New York Highline

Gansevoort St. to West 30 St. between Washington St. and 11 Ave., New York, NY 212-500-6035

Brooklyn Bridge Park 1 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 718-222-9939

Little Island Floating Park

Pier 55 in Hudson River Park West 13 Street, New York, NY 10014

Fort Tyron Park

Riverside Drive to Broadway, W 192 Street to Dyckman Street, New York, NY

New York Circle Line

Pier 83, West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036

Pier 16, South Street Seaport, New York, NY 10038 212-563-3200

Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island

Ferries from Battery Park, NY 1 Battery Place, New York, NY 10004 212-363-3200

Old Westbury Gardens

71 Old Westbury Road, Old Westbury, NY 11568 516-333-0048

Sagamore Hill

20 Sagamore Hill Road, Oyster Bay, NY 11771 516-922-4788

Sands Point Preserve

127 Middle Neck Road, Sands Point, New York 11050 516-571-7901

Great Neck Steppingstone Park

38 Stepping Stone Lane, Great Neck, NY 11021 516-487-9228

South Street Seaport

89 South St., New York, NY 10038 212-732-7678

Brooklyn Botanic Gardens

900 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11225 718-623-7200

Brooklyn Heights Promenade Downtown Brooklyn—Remsen Street to Orange Street along the East River

The New York Botanical Garden

2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10458

718-817-8700

Wave Hill Public Gardens

675 W 252 St, Bronx, NY 10471

718-549-3200

Roosevelt Island Tramway

300 E Main St, New York, NY 10044

212-756-7476

Union Square Greenmarket

Union Square West, New York, NY 10003

212-788-7476

Historic Richmond Town

441 Clarke Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10306

718-351-1611

Bear Mountain State Park

Route 9W North, Bear Mountain, NY 10911

845-786-2701

The Amish Village

199 Hartman Bridge Road, Ronks, PA 17572

717-687-8511

Mystic Seaport

75 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic, CT 06355

888-973-2767

Amusement Parks

Adventureland

2245 Broad Hollow Road (RT 110), Farmingdale, NY 11735

631-694-6868

Adventurer’s

1824 Shore Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11214 718-975-2748

Luna Park Coney Island

1000 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11224 718-373-5862

Bayville Adventure Park

8 Bayville Ave, Bayville, NY 11709 516-624-7433

Sahara Sam’s Oasis and Water Park & Diggerland

535 N Route 73, West Berlin, NJ 08091 856-767-7580

Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park 1 American Dream Wy, East Rutherford, NJ 833-263-7326

Six Flags Great Adventure

1 Six Flags Blvd., Jackson Township, NJ 08527

732-928-2000

Hershey Park

100 Hersheypark Dr, Hershey, PA 17033 717-534-3900

Indoor Fun Parks

Legoland Discovery Center Westchester 39 Fitzgerald Street, Yonkers, NY 10701 844-740-9223

Fun Station USA

3555 Victory Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10314 718-370-0077

Laser Bounce

80-28 Cooper Avenue, Glendale, NY 11385 347-599-1919

Laser Bounce

2710 Hempstead Turnpike, Levittown, NY 11756 516-342-1330

RPM Raceway Go-Karting

40 Daniel St, Farmingdale, NY 11735 631-752-7223

RPM Raceway Go-Karting

99 Caven Point Rd, Jersey City, NJ 07305 201-333-7223

One World Observatory

One World Trade Center, 117 West Street, New York, NY 10007 844-OWO-1776

Chelsea Piers

Hudson River—Piers 59-62—New York, NY 212-336-6800

Edge at Hudson Yards 30 Hudson Yards, New York, NY 10001 332-204-8500

Woodmere Lanes 948 Broadway, Woodmere, NY 11598 516-374-9870

Funfest Bowling

6161 Strickland Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11234 718-763-6800

Chuck E. Cheese

162 Fulton Avenue, Hempstead, NY 11550 516-483-3166

Kids N Shape

162-26 Cross Bay Boulevard, Howard Beach, NY 11414 866-567-1989

MetroRock Brooklyn

321 Starr Street, Brooklyn, NY 11237 929-500-7625

Area53 Adventure Park

616 Scholes St, Brooklyn, NY 11237 347-305-7448

High Exposure Rock Climbing

266 Union St, Northvale, NJ 07647 201-768-8600

Thrillz High Flying Adventure Park 5 Prindle Ln, Danbury, CT 06811 203-942-2585

Thrillz High Flying Adventure Park 555 South Henderson Road, King of Prussia, PA 19406 484-235-5555

Long Island Adventure Park

75 Colonial Springs Rd, Gate #3, Wheatley Heights, NY 11798 631-983-3844

Flight Adventure Park

1850 Lakeland Avenue, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779 631-619-6000

Trapeze School NY (Circus Academy) 467 Marcy Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206 212-242-8769

Trapeze School NY (Circus Academy)

353 West St, New York, NY 10014 212-242-8769

Empire Adventure Park

1500 Old Country Rd, Westbury, NY 11590 516-992-6778

Urban Air

69 Wesley St, South Hackensack, NJ 07606 201-212-6454

Skyzone Trampoline Park 33 Lecount Place, New Rochelle, NY 10801 914-740-8272

Skyzone Trampoline Park 111 Rodeo Drive, Deer Park, NY 11717 631-392-2600

Skyzone Trampoline Park

241 Market Street, Yonkers, NY 10710

914-510-9119

Rockin’ Jump Trampoline

77 Willowbrook Blvd, Wayne, NJ 07470 973-302-3340

Launch Trampoline Park

163-50 Cross Bay Blvd, Howard Beach, NY 11414 718-593-4204

iFLY

849 Ridge Hill Blvd, Yonkers, NY 10710 914-449-4359

Glow Golf

Roosevelt Field Mall, Garden City, NY 11530 516-747-3682

Smith Point Archery

215 E Main Street, Patchogue, NY 11772 631-289-3399

Dave & Busters

1 Sunrise Mall, Massapequa, NY 11758 516-809-8514

Dave & Busters

1504 Old Country Road, Westbury, NY 11590 516-542-85011504

Dave & Busters

4661 Palisades Center Dr, West Nyack, NY 10994 845-353-1555

Beat the Bomb

255 Water St, Brooklyn, NY 11201 917-983-1115

Iceland Long Island

3345 Hillside Avenue, New Hyde Park, NY 11040 516-746-1100

City Ice Pavilion

47-32 32 Place, Long Island City, NY 11101 718-706-6667

Long Beach Ice Arena

150 W Bay Dr, Long Beach, NY 11561 516-705-7385

Lefrak Center Ice Skating

171 East Drive, Brooklyn, NY 11225 718-462-0010

1 American Dream Way, East Rutherford, NJ 07073

833-263-7326

Summit One Vanderbilt 45 E 42nd St, New York, NY 10017

Something Different

Puppetworks

338 Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, NY 11215

718-965-3391

Make It Too

86 Cedarhurst Ave, Cedarhurst, NY 11516 516-341-7660

Build a Bear

Roosevelt Field Mall

630 Old Country Road, Garden City, NY 11530 516-248-0027

Build a Bear

9015 Queens Blvd, Elmhurst, NY 11373 718-289-7135

Artrageous Studio

5 N Village Ave, Rockville Centre, NY 11570 516-255-5255

Sloomoo Institute: Slime Museum 475 Broadway, New York, NY 10013 Sloomooinstitute.com

Once Upon a Dish

659 Franklin Ave, Garden City, NY 11530 516-742-6030

Brooklyn Clay Industries

63 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11205 301-395-0143

Color Me Mine

123 Baxter St, New York, NY 10013 212-374-1710

Color Me Mine

177 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10023 212-877-0007

La Mano Pottery

110 West 26 Street, New York, NY 10001 212-627-9450

Casa de Spin

81 Grand Avenue, Massapequa, NY 11758 516-654-7746

Taro’s Origami Studio

95 7th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11215

718-360-5435

Bury the Hatchet

25 Noble Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222 917-243-9696

2BA Pilot Flight Lessons

9100 Republic Airport, Farmingdale, NY 11735 516-662-8887

Classic Harbor Line Sailing

Chelsea Piers, Pier 62, New York, NY North Cove Marina, Battery Park, New York, NY 212-627-1825

The Beast Speedboating W. 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036 212-563-200

Jamaica Bay Riding Academy

7000 Shore Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11234 718-531-8949

Bethpage Equestrian Center

499 Winding Road, Old Bethpage, NY 11804 516-845-1000

New York Equestrian Center 633 Eagle Avenue, West Hempstead, NY 11552 516-486-9673

Museums

Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum Pier 86, 12th Avenue and 46th Street 212-245-0072

9/11 Memorial and Museum

200 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10006 212-266-5211

Jewish Museum

1109 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10128 212-423-3200

Museum of Jewish Heritage

36 Battery Pl, New York, NY 10280 646-437-4202

Living Torah Museum

1603 41 Street, Brooklyn, NY 11218 718-851-3215

Long Island Children’s Museum

11 Davis Avenue, Garden City, NY 11530

516-224-5800

Spyscape

928 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10019 212-549-1941

Museum of Illusions

77 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10014 212-645-3230

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National Museum of Mathematics

11 East 26 Street, New York, NY 10010

212-542-0566

Museum of Ice Cream

558 Broadway, New York, NY 10012

866-665-1018

Banksy Museum

277 Canal Street, New York, NY 10013

Brooklyn Children’s Museum

145 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11213

718-735-4400

Jewish Children’s Museum

792 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11213

718-467-0600

Children’s Museum of Manhattan

212 W 83rd St, New York, NY 10024

212-721-1234

NYC Fire Museum

278 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013 212-691-1303

Cradle of Aviation

Charles Lindbergh Blvd, Garden City, NY 11530 516-572-4111

American Museum of Natural History

Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024

212-769-5100

Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10028

800-662-3397

Frick Collection

1 E 70 St., New York, NY 10021 212-288-0700

Lower East Side Tenement Museum

103 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002 877-975-3786

The Skyscraper Museum

39 Battery Pl, New York, NY 10280 212-945-6324

CitiField Non-Game Day Tours

41 Seaver Wy, Queens, NY 11368 718-803-4097

Yankee Stadium Tours

1 E 161 Street, Bronx, NY 10451 646-977-8687

Madame Tussaud’s New York 234 W 42 Street, New York, NY 10036 212-512-9600

Vanderbilt Museum & Planetarium

180 Little Neck Road, Centerport, NY 11721

631-854-5579

Liberty Science Center

Liberty State Park, 222 Jersey City Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ 07305 201-200-1000

Crayola Experience

30 Centre Square, Easton, PA 18042 1-866-875-5263

The Franklin Institute

222 North 20th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103 215-448-1200

Please Touch Museum

4231 Avenue of the Republic, Philadelphia, PA 19131 215-581-3181

Imagine That! Children’s Museum

4 Vreeland Road, Florham Park, N.J. 07932 973-966-8000

TJH assumes no responsibility for the kashrus, atmosphere, safety, or accuracy of any event or attraction listed here. Due to some Covid restrictions still in place, it’s suggested to call before heading out. Have a great time!

Hoshanos

By Ra BBi immanuel BeR nstein

One of the special features of the service on Sukkos is the Hoshanos, where the congregation circles the bimah with the arba minim in hand, reciting special prayers for salvation. This commemorates the practice in the Beis Hamikdash, as recorded in the Mishnah, whereby the Kohanim would circle the Mizbeiach on each day of Sukkos. In our times, the bimah takes the place of the Mizbeiach, since it is the place where we read about the korbanos that are offered on the festival.

The Shechinah in Exile

One of the themes that permeates the Hoshanos prayers is that of “Shechinta b’galusa — The Divine Presence in exile.” On a basic level, this represents the idea that Hashem’s Presence in the world is intimately tied up together with the experiences of the Jewish People, for it is through their success as a people that He is known to the world. If so, then when the Jewish People are in exile, so too is the Divine Presence, for Hashem’s kingship cannot be expressed and is therefore not recognized by the nations.

Correspondingly, in this regard, when Hashem will deliver us from our exile, He will also, so to speak, be delivered with us. Thus, we open the Hoshana service by saying, “Hosheainu l’maancha Elokeinu , Save us, now, for Your sake, our G-d,” and so on. This idea receives even more explicit expression in the concluding “Ani Vaho” section of the Hoshana prayers, where we note that the word “Vayosha — He [Hashem] saved [the Jewish People]” can also be read as “Vayivasha — He

was saved,” and that the phrase “Vehotzeisi eschem — I will take you out [of egypt]” can also be read as “Vehutzeisi itchem — I will be taken out along with you.”

Toppling Evil

This idea will explain the background to the number of Hoshana circuits performed over the course of the festival. On each of the first six days, we perform one circuit, while on the seventh day we circle the bimah seven times. This parallels the events in the very first battle that took place when we entered the Land of Israel — the battle against Jericho. There, too, the people circled the city once a day for six days, and on the seventh day, they circled the city seven times, at which point the walls surrounding the city crumbled. In spiritual terms, we are looking to recreate this process, whereby the forces that surround evil will likewise crumble, and we will be able to be redeemed from our exile.

The Mood of Hoshanos

A major insight into the nature of the Hoshanos can be gleaned from the halacha that if a person is unfortunately in a period of mourning, they do not participate in the Hoshanos circuit. The Vilna Gaon explains that the hakafos (circuits) in the Beis Hamikdash constituted the quintessential fulfillment of the mitzvah of “You shall rejoice before Hashem your G-d, for seven days,” hence, a mourner cannot participate in them. This is a very striking statement and perhaps also a little unexpected. How does circling the bimah represent our joy during Sukkos — and its high point, no less?

Although we translate hakafos as “circuits” that we perform around the bimah, which, practically, they are, it is clearly more meaningful to relate to them as a parade around the bimah. Sukkos is a time of celebration, and hakafos are a celebratory parade. Although they are somewhat more formal than the dancing and merriment that takes place in the Beis Hashoeivah celebrations or on Simchas Torah, nevertheless, they are celebratory at heart, and hence, a person who is in mourning cannot participate in them.

This understanding of Hoshanos can, and should, completely change our perspective on these circuits and the atmosphere that is meant to accompany them. There tend to be many logistical considerations that occupy our minds during the Hoshanos circuits, beginning with confirming which Hoshana is the one for that day, continuing with the question of how to hold the siddur and the arba minim without causing damage or injury to the person in front, as well as charting a course that will effectively allow everyone to successfully circumnavigate the bimah! However, notwithstanding the need to handle all the above issues, how crucial it is that this not result in our losing sight of what the Hoshanos are all about. As we circle the bimah during the Hoshanos, we should be sure to do so with joy.

licating the circuits around Jericho and expressing joy — intersect. We noted that the number of circuits over the course of Sukkos parallels those around the city of Jericho. Of course, the physical walls of Jericho are no longer of any concern to us. Which walls, then, are we looking to crumble?

On a general level, we could answer that all forces of evil are fortified by walls. However, on a personal level, the walls are those that separate us from Hashem. even after having done teshuvah during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, which we are confident has been accepted, and having unloaded our sins, there can still be barriers between us and Hashem. It is these we are looking to crumble. Indeed, whereas in Jericho, the walls we were looking to topple surrounded the enemy we were looking to conquer, on Sukkos,

It is with this joy that we will break through anything that stands between us and Hashem.

the walls surround the Torah scroll that stands at the bimah, and we are looking to break through them so we can embrace it completely. The question is, with what power can we hope to crumble those walls? Are we expecting the miraculous energy that was present in Jericho to reappear and work for us here as well? Perhaps. But it appears that the energy comes from the second idea that embodies the Hoshanos, namely, that of the joy of performing a mitzvah before Hashem. It is with this joy that we will break through anything that stands between us and Hashem. And if we are able to do so, our personal attainment will, in its own way, be no less than those miraculous events all those years ago and, what’s more, will set us on a course to see their completion.

Sea, there are three verses that each contain seventy-two letters. Combining the letters from these three verses together thus gives us seventy-two three-letter names of Hashem. Specifically, the letters are combined by taking the letters of the first and third verses going forward, and from the second verse going backward. Thus, the first letter of the first verse, vav, the last of the second verse, hey, and the first of the third verse, vav, give the name, Vaho.

The name “Ani” is likewise made up from the thirty-seventh letters going forward-backward-forward. naturally some questions arise:

• Why specifically were these two names “Ani” and “Vaho” chosen from the list of seventy-two?

• In the system presented by Rashi, the name “Vaho” is earlier than the name “Ani.” Why do we mention them in the reverse order?

• Why does this system involve counting the letters of the middle verse backward? Surely, going forward is the intuitive direction, as indeed we do with the first and third verses!

• What is the significance of these names being embedded in verses leading up to the splitting of the Red Sea?

• What does any of this have to do with Sukkos?

2 Out of 72

In response to the first question, there is a fascinating principle propounded by the Vilna Gaon — which relates to numerous areas in Torah — whereby a group that consists of seventy units is also represented more generally by a set of two. For example, we are aware of the concept of the seventy root nations of the world. In addition to these, we also refer to the nations of Yishmael and e isav. These latter two are not part of the seventy; rather, between them they represent all of them. Similarly, in our situation, we note that of the seventy-two names, the two that are chosen are the first and the thirty-seventh. These are the names that represent all of the seventy-two names, divided into two groups of thirty-six.

Tosafos also address the question of why these two specific names were chosen. They explain that this, too, relates to the theme of “the Shechinah in exile” that so pervades the Hoshanos service. The Midrash writes concerning two verses, (1) “V’Ani b’soch ha’golah — And I am in the midst of the Diaspora,” and (2) “V’Hu assur b’azakim, — And He is bound in chains,” that the terms “ani ” (I) and “hu” (He) in those verses both refer to Hashem, saying that when the Jewish People are in exile, He is there with them and, so to speak, bound in chains. Thus, we pray: “Ani Vaho hoshiah na,” that Hashem Who is with us in exile should redeem us and the Divine Presence along with us.

Ani Vaho

Synergy – Finding a Breakthrough

Upon further reflection, the above two ideas —

At the conclusion of the Hoshanos, we say, “Ani Vaho hosheah nah , — Ani Vaho, save now!” According to the Mishnah, this phrase goes back as far as the times of the Beis Hamikdash, where it would be said by the Kohanim when they circled the Mizbeiach. What is the meaning of “Ani Vaho”? Rashi explains that these two words are actually two names of Hashem. In the section leading up to the splitting of the Red

Forward, Backward, and Forward

To understand why the letters of the middle verse are counted backward, we first need to contemplate the significance of each name comprising three letters. A name of Hashem reflects the way in which He interacts with the world.

Rabbeinu Bachya explains that the three letters

S68 that comprise each name correspond to the three primary attributes of Chessed, Din, and Rachamim — kindness, justice, and mercy:

• Kindness reflects an unqualified act of goodness on Hashem’s part, regardless of whether the person merits to receive it.

• Justice reflects a system whereby the person receives good only if he deserves it, and likewise, receives punishment if he deserves it.

• Mercy constitutes a middle ground, whereby the person may not fully deserve that good, but it is nonetheless based on consideration of some merit that he has.

In Jewish mystical thought, the attribute of kindness is associated with the right side, while that of justice is associated with the left. It is for this reason that the verse from which the first letter of each name is taken, representing kindness, is read forward, for that involves starting from the right side. Conversely, the middle verse, from which the letter representing justice is taken, is read backward, for that entails starting from the left side, as is appropriate for that attribute. In light of this, we note that the third verse, representing the attribute of mercy, is also read going forward, i.e., starting from the right. This reflects the fact that although this attribute is neither pure kindness nor pure justice, it is essentially much closer to the former than the latter.

Sukkos and the Splitting of the Red Sea

It is most interesting to consider the fact that the two names that become so central in the Hoshanos on Sukkos are rooted in the verses leading up to the splitting of the Red Sea. Indeed, as we ponder these two things, we can begin to see how connected they are: Sukkos is the time when we are judged concerning water for the coming year.

Our very first judgment as a people regarding water took place at the Red Sea, when we were judged as to whether we were worthy to have the sea split for us and stay open as we passed through. The Midrash relates that the Attribute of Justice charged that we were guilty of many sins and were not deserving of such a miracle. However, in the end, Hashem had mercy on us, ascribing our misdeeds to external circumstances and pressures. Thus, as we are being judged on Sukkos, we invoke names that were revealed at the splitting of the Red Sea, asking Hashem to have mercy on us now in our judgment regarding water as He did then.

In this regard, it is fascinating to note that throughout the course of the Chumash, the Torah uses various terms with which to refer to the redemption: “V’hotzeitzi — I will take [you] out,” “V’hitzalti — I will save you,” “V’ga’alti — I will deliver you,” “Ha’podech — [the One] Who redeemed you.” There is only one instance where a different term is used to denote salvation, and that is at the event of the splitting of the Red Sea: “Vayosha Hashem bayom ha’hu es Yisroel m’yad Mitzrayim — Hashem saved Israel on that day from the hand of egypt.” Hashem’s salvation at the Splitting of the Sea is associated with the specific term “Vayosha,” the very term that is the motif of the “Hoshana” service on Sukkos.

The splitting of the Red Sea also relates to the theme of Sukkos, generally. Sukkos commemorates the Ananei Hakavod with which Hashem surrounded and protected us in the midbar. The first time we see Hashem’s cloud act in a protective (i.e., not only guiding) capacity is described in the very verses from which the seventy-two names are derived: Hashem moved the cloud from being in front of the Jewish People to behind them, thereby plunging the e gyptians into complete darkness and slowing down their advance, as well as absorbing any arrows or missiles they tried to launch against the Jewish People.

In the future, we will see how although our national experiences through history took place within the natural frame of world events … it was Hashem

Who was overseeing those natural events and experiences.

Rambam: Calling On Salvation

Thus far, we have discussed the term “Ani Vaho” as denoting two names of Hashem. A very different approach to this term can be found in the Rambam’s Commentary to the Mishnah: I say that they are calling out to the One Who said, “Ani, Ani, Hu — I, I am He,” a verse which was said concerning the victory and salvation of Israel. As if to say, “You, the One Who says, ‘See now that I, I am He [Ani, Ani, Hu],’ save us now, as You have promised us.”

This approach will help explain a basic question regarding the phrase “Ani Vaho,” namely, the order of the two terms. If they are names of Hashem, why is the earlier name “Vaho” mentioned second and the later name “Ani” mentioned first? According to the Rambam’s explanation, the matter is understood, as this

is the order that the two words appear in the verse, “Ani Hu.”

Harmony

However, while the Rambam himself presents his approach that the words “Ani Vaho” refer to the verse in Devarim as an alternative to the idea that they refer to names of Hashem, other commentators explain that those words in Devarim are themselves also associated with the two names of “Ani Vaho.” Thus, Rabbeinu Bachya, in his commentary to Devarim writes: These words [“Ani” and “Hu”] are both Divine names, as we say, “Ani Vaho hoshiah na.” How are we to understand the presence of the two names “Ani Vaho” in that verse in Devarim?

The verse in question is at the end of Parshas Haazinu, which foretells the history of the Jewish People. The verse states that when history has run its course, the people will realize that it was Hashem Who had guided their experiences throughout their exiles. In this context, the two names “Ani” and “Vaho” are referenced.

To understand the full significance of their presence in that verse, we need to discover one more thing about these two names. One of the great scholars among the Acharonim, R’ Wolf Heidenheim, explains that the two names “Ani” and “Vaho” are themselves abridged representations of the two names Adnus and Havayah. As we have discussed in an earlier chapter, these two names represent Hashem as the Controller of the world and its Creator, respectively. As such, the verse is saying that in the future, we will see how although our national experiences through history took place within the natural frame of world events — events that were at times baffling, confusing, and even heartbreaking and distressing — it was Hashem Who was overseeing those natural events and experiences (Ani), the very same Hashem Who created the world and its nature in the first place (Vaho). As we have seen, this idea is one of the core themes of Sukkos: looking at one’s harvest that has been produced through natural agricultural means and processes, and seeing behind it the hand of the One Who provided the Ananei Hakavod for us in the midbar.

Reality and Recognition

With this, perhaps we can now understand why the order of the names “Ani Vaho” as we call upon them is the opposite of the order in which they appear in the verse. For while in terms of reality, Hashem as Creator (Vaho) of the world will then guide its nature (Ani), from the point of view of our perception, the order is reversed: first we look at the world around us and see it as being guided by Hashem (Ani), and from there we perceive Hashem as the Creator (Vaho) behind it all. In the merit of this recognition, we call upon Hashem to save us and bring us to the point where our entire history will receive full perspective and understanding: “Ani Vaho hosheah nah!”

This article has been excerpted from Sukkos: A Symphony of Joy by Rabbi Immanuel Bernstein published by Mosaica Press.

Moadim Responsa Sukkos

By Ra BBi a kiva Willig

If someone is looking at an esrog to buy it and accidentally knocks off the pitam, must he pay the seller? If yes, what amount does he pay — the price it could have sold for, or the amount the seller paid for it? Does the fact that this esrog is acceptable for some of the days of Sukkos affect the price?

The Mishnah states that one who damages is obligated to pay regardless if the damage was intentional or unintentional, as “Adam muad l’olam bein shogeg bein meizid bein ir bein yoshon.” The Shulchan Aruch codifies this as the halacha, but the Rama adds that an oness gamur is absolved from paying for damage. These principles apply to damaging an esrog as well; assuming there was some degree of negligence, one must pay for the damage done.

The question of a person who damages his friend’s esrog (which was not for sale) and how much he must pay in restitution is discussed by the poskim. The Ba’er Heitev cites the Maharam Mintz, who maintains that one must compensate the owner for a kosher esrog but need not pay the value of his expensive esrog. Thus, even if the owner of the esrog bought it for $100, if a kosher esrog can be purchased for $50, the one who caused the damage is required to pay only $50. The Ba’er Heitev adds that if the damaged esrog is physically larger than

a standard esrog, and thus more valuable after Yom Tov, he must compensate the difference of value between the two esrogim. However, the Ba’er Heitev then cites the Chacham Tzvi and others who disagree and require that the entire value of the esrog be restored, even though cheaper esrogim are available. The Chacham Tzvi argues that since the esrog has retail value, even though one can fulfill the mitzvah with a cheaper one, the full price of the esrog must be paid.

In the case of damage caused to an esrog that is for sale, the Chacham Tzvi claims that even the Maharam Mintz would agree that one is required to pay the full price of the esrog. We do not view this act of damage as “ruining” the owner’s mitzvah but rather as causing financial loss, since he was planning to sell it and not use it. Whatever price that esrog was being sold for must be paid in full. This holds true even if the salesman purchased the esrog for a fraction of the current sale price.

There are many ways to damage an esrog, but a common sort of damage is breaking the pitam. The Rama writes that a broken pitam is problematic only on the first day of Sukkos (and the first two in chutz la’aretz). Since chaser is acceptable during the remainder of Yom Tov, a broken pitam is acceptable as well. The Mishnah Berurah, however, cites other authorities who maintain that a broken pitam lacks the quality of hadar, which is

essential for an esrog, and is thus unacceptable the entire Yom Tov. The Mishnah Berurah adds that if there is no other esrog available on the latter days of Sukkos, one may recite a bracha on an esrog with a broken pitam.

Based on the above, it is certainly reasonable to argue that one who breaks the pitam of someone’s esrog on Chol Hamoed would not need to pay, as the esrog is kosher. However, if one breaks the pitam of an esrog that is for sale, the full sale price must be restored.

Is it preferable to take the lulav and esrog in the sukkah before davening, or should one wait until Hallel in shul?

The Mishnah states that one is to perform naanu’im with one’s dalet minim while reciting Hallel. Tosafos adds that naanu’im should be done after reciting the bracha on the lulav as well. The Rambam mentions the naanu’im done during Hallel, but he does not specify when the initial netilah takes place. The Shulchan Aruch does write that the mitzvah of dalet minim is performed after Chazaras Ha’shatz and then continues with the naanu’im performed in Hallel as they are the completion of the mitzvah that began with netilah. The Vilna Gaon similarly indicates that one recites the bracha on the lulav prior to reciting Hallel.

However, the Arizal is cited by numerous poskim as

S72 suggesting that one take the lulav before Shacharis and in the sukkah. The Mishnah Berurah cites the opinion of the Arizal that the dalet minim should be taken in the sukkah. In the Shaar Hatziyun, he mentions that perhaps the intention of the Arizal is that one should fulfill the mitzvah of dalet minim at the earliest possible time. Thus, one who wakes up in the sukkah should take the lulav immediately. Similarly, the Mishnah Berurah assumes that according to the Arizal, the lulav should be taken at neitz ha’chamah, before davening, due to the principle of zerizim makdimin l’mitzvos. In the Shaar Hatziyun, he also suggests that there are Kabbalistic reasons for the practice of taking the lulav in the sukkah.

One nafka mina between the various explanations of the Arizal’s practice relates to the “preference” of walking out of shul before Hallel to shake in the sukkah. This is in no way a fulfillment of zerizim , but it may fulfill any Kabbalistic reasoning for fulfilling the mitzvah in the sukkah.

In deciding if one should shake the lulav before davening, numerous Acharonim discuss the question of how to balance the principles of zerizim makdimin and “tadir v’she’eino tadir, tadir kodem .” The Aruch Hashulchan claims that the custom of Gedolei Yisrael was to shake early in the sukkah, before davening. However, many other poskim favor fulfilling the mitzvah in shul in the context of Hallel, either because it is inherently the proper time for the mitzvah or based on tadir kodem, as the mitzvah of tefillah is more tadir than the mitzvah of dalet minim.

Interestingly, Rav Moshe Sternbuch distinguishes between the first day of Sukkos and the other days, suggesting that zerizim makdimin plays a role only on the first day when the mitzvah is d’Oraysa. On all other days, the mitzvah should be fulfilled in conjunction with Hallel.

In summary, there is basis for each of the customs, and every individual should follow his family custom.

Is it acceptable to hold both the lulav and esrog with one hand during Hallel and Hoshanos?

The Gemara states that the lulav bundle is held in the right hand, while the esrog is held in the left hand. In fact, the Beis Yosef cites the Orchos Chaim as ruling that one would not fulfill the mitzvah of netilas lulav if he were to hold both the lulav and esrog in one hand. The Taz disagrees, noting that although including the esrog in the lulav bundle does invalidate the mitzvah, holding all four in one hand does not. The Mishnah Berurah cites both opinions and concludes that if one took all dalet minim in one hand, he should do it again in the correct fashion, but a new bracha should not be said.

The Gemara is clear that one should hold the dalet minim while reciting Hallel. Moreover, the Rambam implies that the naanu’im are an intrinsic part of the mitzvah of lulav, and he includes the naanu’im of Hallel. Thus, it is proper to hold the lulav bundle in the right hand and the esrog in the left hand for the entire Hallel.

The Tur records the custom to circle the bimah on each day of Sukkos after Mussaf while holding the lulav and esrog. The Bach explains that after Mussaf is the proper time, because the hakafos are done zecher laMikdash , and in the Mikdash, the hakafos were

performed after all the korbanos were offered. However, the Shaarei Teshuvah writes that the minhag Yerushalayim was to perform Hoshanos after Hallel. Similarly, the Aruch Hashulchan writes that the custom of Rav Saadya Gaon was to say Hoshanos after Hallel because one is already holding the lulav and esrog. He adds that the Ashkenazic custom is to say Hoshanos after Mussaf, whereas the Sephardic custom is to say it immediately after Hallel. The Bikurei Yaakov writes that the principle of zerizim makdimin l’mitzvos would seem to support the position of the Shaarei Teshuvah, but the minhag nevertheless should not be changed. Rav Soloveitchik suggested that the question of when to perform Hoshanos depends on whether it is done zecher laMikdash, and should therefore be done after Mussaf, or it is a continuation of the mitzvas lulav, and thus should follow Hallel.

Some Rishonim cite a Yerushalmi: “V’keitzad hu seder ha’hakafa? Kol Yisroel gedolim v’ketanim not-

The Shulchan Aruch specifies that one who cannot sleep due to wind, insects, or a smell in the sukkah is not obligated in the mitzvah, and the Magen Avraham cites the Rosh’s view that this also applies to eating.

lim es lulaveihem b’yadeihem he’yeminis v’esrogeihem b’yadeihem ha’semolis u’makifin…” From the language of the Yalkut, it appears that the lulav and esrog should be held in both hands, even during the Hoshanos. The Magen Avraham writes that the lulav should be in the right hand during Hoshanos, but he does not specify that the esrog must be in the left hand. Rav Elyakim Koenigsberg suggests that the necessity to hold the lulav and esrog in the right and left hands respectively during Hoshanos should depend on whether it is related to the core mitzvah (which would require both hands) or if it is zecher laMikdash (which would not require both hands).

Rav Yerucham Gorelick reported that in Brisk, someone would hold the siddur for the chazzan so that he would be able to use both hands to hold the lulav and esrog. It is quoted that the Brisker Rav was careful to do this as well, and this is also the opinion of the Ben Ish Chai. However, other poskim (including the Steipler Gaon) were not particular about this.

In summary, one should hold the lulav and esrog in the right and left hands respectively during Hallel, and there is certainly reason to say that the same be done during Hoshanos. It is proper to either balance one’s siddur or use a Hoshanos card that can be held or affixed to the arm. But if it is too difficult to do so, there is room for leniency, as there are Acharonim who were not concerned about this.

By Hoshana Rabbah, my aravos are usually dry and wilting. Is it better to use the fresh aravos I bought for the lulav or for Hoshanos? If I use them for the lulav, can I use them afterward for Hoshanos?

The Mishnah states explicitly that dry aravos cannot be used for the mitzvah, and even those that are only somewhat dried out should not be used l’chatchilah. This is codified by the Shulchan Aruch. However, what constitutes “dry” is not discussed in the Gemara or Rishonim. The primary discussion is found regarding hadasim. Regarding hadasim, the Tur cites two opinions regarding the definition of “dry” — either when the leaves crack from scratching with the force of the fingernail, or only when the leaves turn entirely white. The Shulchan Aruch assumes the second view: that only when the leaves turn white are they unfit. The Mishnah Berurah explains this to mean that the leaves must turn white and crack to be considered dry and unusable.

Regarding the aravos, the Shaar Hatziyun writes that only when all the green coloring has disappeared from the leaves are they considered dry; presumably, they must crack as well. Additionally, the poskim assume that aravos that turn yellow are kosher. Thus, if most of the aravos leaves crack to the touch and are either white or black, they are unusable for the mitzvah of dalet minim. However, if they have not dried out to that degree, they may be used.

The Gemara cites two opinions regarding if the lulav bundle can be picked up a second time for the purpose of fulfilling mitzvas aravah, and the Shulchan Aruch cites both opinions. The Mishnah Berurah writes that all agree that if one removes the aravos from the lulav bundle, they may then be used for Hoshanos. In fact, one can argue that it is preferable to use the aravos of the lulav for Hoshanos based on the concept that once an item has been used for one mitzvah, it should be used for another. On the other hand, because the aravos are set aside for a mitzvah, they should not be used for any other purpose. The Eishel Avraham writes that using the aravos for Hoshanos is not considered benefitting from a mitzvah and is therefore permissible.

Being that it is preferable to use aravos that are fresh and green, the Mishnah Berurah writes that when they are available, one should try to use fresh aravos. While fresh aravos are not always available in shul most days of Chol Hamoed, on Hoshana Rabbah when they are available, one can and should use the aravos for mitzvas lulav and then for Hoshanos.

The poskim mention different numbers of aravos to be taken on Hoshana Rabbah. The Mishnah Berurah writes that one should take at least three, and some take a bundle of five. He adds that there are two customs as to whether the bundle should be tied, and he attests that our custom is to tie the bundle. If a person does use

S74 aravos from the bundle for the lulav, he should tie them back into the bundle before using them for Hoshanos.

If I will be in a place without a sukkah for a day, can I eat sushi or plain rice outside the sukkah?

Although the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah includes eating, sleeping, and living in our temporary residence, not all food items require a sukkah. The Mishnah permits casual eating, achilas arai, outside the sukkah.

The Gemara cites one opinion that maintains that any amount of fruit and small amounts of bread (no more than the size of an egg) may be eaten outside of a sukkah. The Gemara also reports a dissenting opinion that fruit does require a sukkah if one eats a substantial amount. The Rambam writes that one may eat fruit and drink water outside the sukkah. He then adds: “U’mi she’yachmir al atzmo v’lo yishteh chutz la’sukkah afilu mayim harei zeh meshubach, One who is stringent and does not drink even water outside of the sukkah is praiseworthy.”

The Rosh also expresses this opinion, allowing one to eat fruit of any amount outside the sukkah. However, he also writes that the Maharam MiRotenberg assumed that fruits require a sukkah if one is koveia seudah on the fruit. The Rosh then cites Rabbeinu Peretz, who maintained that wine and cheese are unlike fruit and do require a sukkah when there is kevius seudah.

The Shulchan Aruch writes that any dish made from the five grains requires a sukkah, and he cites the Rambam, who is lenient regarding eating any amount of fruit outside the sukkah. Although the Chayei Adam assumes that when eating fruit with friends, it is proper to eat in a sukkah in accordance with the view of Maharam MiRotenberg, the Mishnah Berurah does not accept this view. Moreover, he points out that according to the Shulchan Aruch, meat, fish, and cheese are like fruit and can always be eaten outside the sukkah. However, elsewhere, he cites some Acharonim who maintain that when eating meat or cheese b’kevius, it is best to do so in a sukkah.

My father points out that the Rosh writes that meat and cheese do not require sukkah because they do not constitute a meal, as opposed to bread or other dishes made from the five grains. Today, however, that is not necessarily the case. Nowadays, a meal often consists of chicken or fish without any bread. It is therefore arguable that meat and fish must be eaten in the sukkah in our day. Rav Moshe Sternbuch makes a similar point and argues that food items like potatoes and meat certainly require a sukkah.

Since rice is not one of the five grains, it does not automatically require a sukkah when eaten as a meal, but it is questionable if it is akin to fruit, which do not require a sukkah, or more like potatoes, which may require a sukkah. However, when eaten as part of a sushi roll, rice is in the category of fish/meat eaten as a meal, in which case some Acharonim hold that it should ideally be eaten in a sukkah. My father maintains that because sushi is now eaten as a meal, it should be eaten in a sukkah.

What is the halacha regarding sitting in the sukkah during fifty-mph winds?

The Gemara states that one who is mitzta’er, uncomfortable due to the conditions in the sukkah, is not obligated in the mitzvah of sukkah. Tosafos writes that

this is based on the rule of tishvu k’ein teduro, while the Ritva writes that the sukkah must inherently be a place of tranquility, which is impossible under these conditions. The Rosh cites the S’mak, who maintains that being uncomfortable removes the obligation to sleep in the sukkah, but not the obligation to eat in the sukkah. However, the Rosh disagrees and understands that mitzta’er applies to eating as well. The Shulchan Aruch specifies that one who cannot sleep due to wind, insects, or a smell in the sukkah is not obligated in the mitzvah, and the Magen Avraham cites the Rosh’s view that this also applies to eating.

The Mishnah Berurah points out that the thresholds for eating and sleeping are different; some winds would not interfere with eating but do impede sleeping. While there is no exact wind speed that the halacha labels as creating a situation of mitzta’er, it would seem that gusts above fifty mph make people uncomfortable, and one is therefore entirely exempt from sukkah at that time.

The Gemara states that a kosher sukkah must be able to withstand a ruach metzuyah, normal wind. The poskim assume that this applies to both the s’chach and

Rav Yerucham Gorelick reported that in Brisk, someone would hold the siddur for the chazzan so that he would be able to use both hands to hold the lulav and esrog.

the walls of the sukkah. The Shulchan Aruch codifies this halacha, but it remains unclear how powerful a ruach she’einah metzuyah is. I believe it is fair to assume that fifty-mph winds are categorized as unusually strong winds. Therefore, even if these very strong winds do in fact blow down the sukkah or s’chach, that does not indicate that the sukkah was invalid the entire Yom Tov. If strong winds blow over any part of a sukkah or the s’chach, it may be rebuilt on Chol Hamoed.

What are the halachos regarding killing/trapping a bee or wasp in or around the sukkah on Yom Tov? What about mosquitos and fruit flies?

The Torah prohibits trapping animals on Shabbos, but the Gemara limits this to the types of animals that are commonly trapped for use. However, one who captures an insect does not violate Torah law, as humans don’t benefit from these insects. The Rambam codifies this and writes that trapping bugs and mosquitoes

is prohibited only by Rabbinic law.

The Beis Yosef and Bach argue as to whether bees are the sort of animals that are “commonly” trapped. The Mishnah Berurah notes that the majority view is that bees, like all other bugs, are ein b’mino nitzud, and trapping them is therefore Rabbinically prohibited.

The Shulchan Aruch codifies this Gemara and writes that trapping bugs is prohibited by Rabbinic law. The Rama then cites the Mordechai, who warns against trapping bugs when sitting outside during the summer months. Obviously, this is very relevant on Sukkos, when eating outdoors.

The Gemara further limits the Torah prohibition of trapping to an instance in which one desires the trapped animal. If trapping is done to protect oneself from being attacked or bitten by an animal, it is a melacha she’eina tzericha l’gufah and permissible min haTorah. Although the Gemara prohibits trapping a flea, Tosafos writes that if the bug is on one’s body and biting him, it can be caught to prevent the discomfort. This is codified by the Shulchan Aruch. The Mishnah Berurah explains that because trapping these “undesirable” animals is Rabbinically prohibited, Chazal allowed one to trap them in a situation of discomfort. He adds that although the language of the Shulchan Aruch implies that one is allowed to trap the flea only after it already bit, the Taz maintains that it can be trapped even when it is inside one’s clothing and about to bite.

The Shulchan Aruch writes that if there is concern that an animal will bite and cause real damage, it can be trapped when in the vicinity, even when it is not “attacking.” The Shemiras Shabbos K’Hilchasah delineates four categories of animals for our purposes: dangerous, painful, mildly painful, and annoying. Any animal that poses a real danger to a child or adult may be killed or trapped, even when at a distance. If the animal can cause significant pain, one may trap it and, if absolutely necessary, it can be killed as well. If the animal’s bite is only mildly painful, it cannot be trapped unless it is biting or about to bite. An animal that is merely a nuisance may not be trapped.

Based on these rules, a mosquito should not be trapped unless it is actually biting or on one’s clothes/ body. However, if there is a real concern that the mosquito may transmit a dangerous virus, it can be trapped. A yellow jacket or wasp, which often causes “significant pain,” can be trapped if it is flying around people, even before it bites. Fruit flies, which are merely a nuisance, may not be trapped at all on Shabbos/Yom Tov.

Obviously, anything that is dangerous may even be killed on Shabbos/ Yom Tov when necessary. However, short of a dangerous situation, one may not kill any animal on Shabbos/Yom Tov.

One may certainly set up any sort of trap before Shabbos/Yom Tov, as long as he isn’t active in any way in trapping on Shabbos/Yom Tov itself.

This article has been excerpted with permission from the publisher from Rabbi’s Responsa – Moadim by Rabbi Akiva Willig, published by Mosaica Press.

How Can I Get Happy and Stay Happy?

By Samuel Haft a S related to r aBBi BorucH leff

(The following ideas have been born in part due to a severe health challenge I’ve been dealing with for the past 12 years: losing my voice and the ability to speak.)

We Need to Redefine True Happiness

Everyone wants to be happy, but we all struggle with how to attain it.

We all have preconceived notions as to what happiness actually is, and these notions are most often based on the culture and society around us. But what if there was a state of happiness that could be self-actuated at all times through all societies and civilizations no matter the historical period? Must there always be a “pursuit of happiness” or is there a state of happiness that is always within our reach no matter the struggles and challenges in our lives?

Let’s explore this extremely vital topic.

We are all physical beings, and we need physical things to survive in this world day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year. Beyond mere survival and living on very basic needs, we all seek a certain level of comfort and ease in our physical existence. Yes, we can survive on bread and water and with basic clothing and a roof over our heads, but we know there is much more available in the material world and we naturally desire more comfort and pleasures. When we see what is available to make our physical lives more pleasurable, we regularly crave more and more things. It’s possible to be happy with basics, but it becomes extremely difficult when we raise the bar of our expectations and needs as yesterday’s luxuries become today’s needs.

Can Anyone Be Happy with Western Values?

One-hundred years ago, no one had air conditioning in the summer and today we wonder how they could survive a summer without it. If our definition of happiness and comfort is based on what we have in terms of serving our physical comfort, then we will inevitably be left disappointed very often. We will be subject to anxiety and worry, as we will always anticipate and wonder as to whether the anticipated comfort will come to fruition. We will often be subject to frustration and disappointment, as it is inevitable that in many areas of life the anticipated comfort or experience will not manifest itself as we had hoped, leaving us feeling empty, dissatisfied and discontent. Inevitably, as we see with many Hollywood celebrities, they are not happy for very long, and their emptiness persists if they live with goals of western values of happiness. In western society, the amount and variety of pleasures is always increasing. If we keep embracing the pursuit of these pleasures, we will experience a never-ending race with great disappointments. This is compounded many more times if we base our happiness on what we see those around us attain. If a nice house 100 years ago had a few rooms, the most basic houses today would be considered mansions in those times. The fact that almost everyone today has indoor plumbing means that the common man today enjoys much better circumstances than kings did many, many years

ago. But this fact will never resonate with us if we keep watching what our neighbors keep adding to their material lives. It is quite clear that if we are basing our happiness on the attainment of our desired physical pleasures, we will most often come up lacking, and this will affect our overall feeling of happiness. Rather, the way to get happy and to remain happy is to totally transform the way we understand happiness.

A Genuine Path to Happiness

As believing Torah Jews, we know we must serve Hashem, and we do this by fulfilling the mitzvos He has given us. We serve Him by overcoming our temptations and desires to do the wrong thing and by trying to make proper choices utilizing the power of free will that He gave us. If we work hard in these spiritual pursuits, we know that we are serving Hashem even when we fail because Hashem values our efforts. The primary factor goes by how difficult it is for us, and no matter how many times we fail, if we made good efforts, Hashem values them tremendously. This is the depth of what the mishna in Pirkei Avos (5:26) states, “Lefum tzaara agra.”

How can we define happiness within this context? When we live our lives trying to overcome our natural inclinations, when we live a life of genuine effort, we won’t usually feel ecstatic all the time or even feel a great many active positive feelings of joy and happiness. But we will

feel an overriding sense of serenity and satisfaction that we are living life the way it should be lived. We will experience a menuchas hanefesh which one might describe as an even keeled experience, as opposed to a life of joy which would depend on a positive/good experience.

The major benefit of focusing one’s life on succeeding in free will decisions is that it helps maintain one’s emotional health through a sense of satisfaction, fulfillment, meaning and purpose. We can describe this as the concept of attaining emotional health. Emotional health is not necessarily a positive/good experience, but it is simply the absence of a negative and therefore a mere even keeled experience. Most of us won’t go to sleep at night thinking, “I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow to experience the positive/good life of being emotionally healthy,” but we will live serene, content lives, rather than feeling emotionally unhealthy.

Emotional Health

Emotional health is a very similar experience to physical health. We can describe emotional health as an even keeled experience, just like physical health is an even keeled experience.

Physical health is not a positive or good experience; it is merely the absence of unwanted physical pain and therefore a mere even keeled experience. Nobody goes to sleep at night thinking to himself, “I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow to experience the positive/good life of physi-

cal health,” he’s simply in pain when he is physically unhealthy.

If we redefine happiness as menuchas hanefesh, satisfaction and an emotional healthy state, we would be able to feel this way constantly.

It is true that there are holy and righteous people who can live life truly being internally ecstatic even for daily basic health and regular ordinary physical experiences. They can appreciate “regular, ordinary” mitzvah accomplishments and be very joyous with them. However, most of us are not on the level to feel the constant joy of mitzvos, or the love for Hashem in all that we do, which can bring ecstasy to these tzaddikim. Many may focus on Olam Habah and the goal to gather reward in the Next World to feel happiness in this world, but that too remains elusive for most of us, as we don’t actually see those results here, even though we believe and accept the truth and reality of Olam Habah. So, for most of us, the goal to live an even keeled, neutral, meaningful life should be paramount.

A Day in the Life

Let us now describe a “day in the life” of two different types of people, based on the ideas we have discussed. First, let’s describe someone who is living life making great effort to make good choices. To make things somewhat simpler, the scenarios will not include the daily challenges of marriage and raising children.

Moshe wakes up in the morning and has a strong desire to snooze his alarm, but he overcomes his natural inclination and gets out of bed. Then, he washes netilas yadayim and has a strong desire to mutter the bracha quickly, but he overcomes his natural inclination and says the bracha with kavana. He makes his way to shul, and on the way to shul he sees someone else who seems to have more pleasure than him (money, status, popularity, etc.) and has a strong desire to be jealous of him, but he overcomes his natural inclination in order to dismiss his emotional impulse of jealousy.

He davens Shacharis and has a strong desire to mutter the tefillah quickly, but he overcomes his natural inclination and davens with kavana. After davening, he goes to the restroom and after finishing, he has a strong desire to quickly say “Asher yatzer,” but he overcomes his natural inclination and says the bracha with kavana. Then, he eats breakfast and has a strong desire to eat sugar cereals but overcomes his natural inclination and eats healthy cereals instead. While eating, he has a strong desire to aimlessly scroll through his phone and the internet but overcomes his natural inclina-

tion and decides to learn Torah while eating instead. Then, when he gets in his car to go to work, he has a strong desire to listen to the radio/music, but he overcomes his natural inclination and decides to listen to Torah shiurim instead. Also, while driving, he has a strong desire to look at inappropriate billboards, but he overcomes his natural inclination and looks away instead.

He gets to work and has a strong desire to aimlessly wander through the internet instead of giving 100% of his efforts to his employer or clients but overcomes his natural inclination and gives his full effort/attention to his employer or clients instead. At work, one of his colleagues makes a mistake which hurts the

and gives in to his natural inclination and snoozes the alarm. Then, after eventually getting out of bed, he washes netilas yadayim and has a strong desire to mutter the bracha quickly and gives in to his natural inclination and does not say the bracha with kavana. He makes his way to shul, and on the way to shul, he sees someone else who seems to have more pleasure than him (money, status, popularity, etc.) and has a strong desire to be jealous of him. He gives in to this natural inclination and becomes jealous of him and is resentful of that person due to his jealousy.

Then, he davens Shacharis and has a strong desire to mutter the tefillah quickly and gives in to his desire and davens with-

We will feel an overriding sense of serenity and satisfaction that we are living life the way it should be lived.

entire team, and he has a natural inclination to berate his colleague on account of this mistake but overcomes his natural inclination and is patient/generous with his colleague instead.

Throughout the day, Moshe is met with different challenges and chooses to rise over natural inclinations to pursue the right choices. He uses his lunchtime to eat a healthy lunch and learns Torah while eating. He gets to Mincha early and davens slowly with kavana. He works hard at his job. He listen to a shiur in the car on the way home from work and takes a break when he gets home to unwind in a kosher way.

Moshe is someone who is living a happy life, a life of satisfaction and menuchas hanefesh. He knows he is doing good things as he overcomes struggles and uses his free will to become a better servant of Hashem. He may not experience extreme joy in his life every day, but he has even keeled, emotional health.

Let’s now describe someone who doesn’t live like Moshe but lives quite the opposite.

Yehoshua, who on the outside looks very similar to Moshe, decides not to succeed in free will decisions and pursues laziness/comfort/pleasure instead.

Yehoshua wakes up in the morning and has a strong desire to snooze his alarm

unwinding mindlessly.

Moshe is satisfied with himself and happy based on our new definition of happiness, while Yehoshua never truly feels happy and satisfied at all.

Driving in Neutral

out kavana. After davening, he goes to the restroom and after finishing, he has a strong desire to quickly say “Asher yatzer” and he gives into that desire.” He eats unhealthily at breakfast and scrolls mindlessly through his phone.

When he gets in his car to go to work, he has a strong desire to listen to the radio and music and gives in to his desire and wastes his time while driving. Also, while driving, he has a strong desire to look at inappropriate billboards and gives in to his desire and looks at the inappropriate images. When he gets to work, he has a strong desire to aimlessly wander through the internet instead of giving 100% of his efforts to his employer/clients, and he gives in to his desire and wastes time at work. At work, one of his colleagues makes a mistake which hurts the entire team, and he has a natural inclination to berate his colleague on account of this mistake, and gives in to his desire and scolds his colleague, thereby causing great pain to his colleague.

Throughout the day, Yehoshua is met with different challenges but gives into his strong desires. He uses his lunchtime to eat an unhealthy lunch and mindlessly scrolls the internet while eating. He gets to Mincha late and speeds through the davening. He wastes his clients’ and employer’s time at work. When he get home, he spends time

The approach of happiness based on a neutral, even keeled sense of living properly and trying hard to make the right choices and do the right thing can have a tremendous effect on how we react when we face serious struggles in life. This is especially the case when what we want and the goals we aspire to in life do not seem to pan out and are apparently not in line with Hashem’s will since He hasn’t allowed them to occur. For example, if someone has not been able to find a marriage partner for many years, one must try to accept Hashem’s will and not define his happiness based on whether he has found a spouse. In these circumstances, we are bidden to accept Hashem’s will and align our will with His will, as it says in Pirkei Avos (2:4). If our goal in life is to fulfill our wants and pursue our pleasures, then our goal will be dependent on circumstance, but if our goal in life is to align our wants with Hashem’s wants and succeed in free will decisions, then fulfilling our true, proper goal in life will be in our control, and we can be content, independent of our circumstances. If our goal in life is to somehow thank Hashem even when our own goals are not met, then we can remain happy even if we don’t get what we think we need, which we apparently didn’t really need, since Hashem didn’t give it to us.

We have to try to become content regardless of our circumstances. The way to achieve this feeling of serene acceptance regardless of circumstance is if we can define happiness as a neutral, even keeled life of emotional health as opposed to defining happiness as a positive life of pleasure. Happiness and positivity day by day is the key to living a productive life, but the way we usually define happiness makes it very elusive and difficult to achieve. With our redefinition of happiness, this vital human need is now well within our reach!

The ideas above have been endorsed by the following distinguished rabbanim: Rav Mendel Blachman, Rav Elya Brudny, Rav Yechiel Perr, zt”l, Rav Moshe Brown, Rav Mordechai Willig, and Rav Akiva Tatz.

Salted Dark Chocolate Almond Joy Truffles

By Danielle Renov

I love anything coconut. And then add in dark chocolate. Yum. Bonus, that they’re easy to make, gluten free, and customizable!

Ingredients

* 2 cups shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened

* ½ cup powdered sugar (if your coconut is sweetened already, leave out the sugar)

* ¼ cup almond butter

* 7 oz (200 g) good quality dark chocolate (I like 70% cocoa for this)

* 1 tsp coconut oil

* Maldon salt

Preparation

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, combine coconut, sugar (if using), and almond butter. Mix well to fully distribute the almond butter throughout the coconut. (I like to put on disposable gloves and do this by hand.)

Remove a heaping tablespoon of coconut mixture and form into a ball. Place ball on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining coconut mixture.

Freeze for at least 1 hour.

Meanwhile, combine dark chocolate with coconut oil. Melt until it is smooth and shiny. (You can do this step in the microwave, melting in 15 second increments and stirring each time, or by placing chocolate and oil into a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water and stirring until melted.) Once chocolate is melted and shiny, dip frozen coconut balls into chocolate, gently shaking off any excess chocolate.

Place on prepared baking sheet; sprinkle with salt. Refrigerate until chocolate has hardened.

Variations

I gave you the basic form of this recipe to leave room for you to experiment and customize to your liking. Go ahead and replace the almond butter with any nut butter you like. Some of my favorites are peanut, hazelnut, and sun!

Tips + Tricks

If you want to add a crunch factor to these truffles (which I highly recommend), think about adding chopped nuts to the coconut mixture, and then sprinkling them onto the chocolate with the salt so that everyone knows what’s in them!

Note

If you’re not into the whole dipping chocolate thing, feel free to place melted chocolate in a ziptop bag, snip off a tiny piece of one corner, and simply drizzle over the coconut balls.

Reprinted with permission from Peas, Love and Carrots by Danielle Renov, published by ArtScroll/Mesorah.

Refusing to Let Go

by Rabbi y echiel Spe R o

During the years of the Holocaust, the Nazis made use of six primary death camps, also known as extermination camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka.

But it’s important to know that the tens of labor camps also brought about many hundreds of thousands of deaths. Labor camps were death camps, as well. Don’t be fooled by the name.

Some of the labor camps are well known, others not so well.

One such camp was Hasag.

The camp was filthy, and food was scarce. It was not unusual to see dead bodies all over the camp. Somehow, though, the inmates maintained a vestige of shemiras hamitzvos. It wasn’t every day and it wasn’t all mitzvos. But they tried hard to observe some semblance of any mitzvah they could, especially those connected to yom tov.

Before Sukkos, they found a corner between two factory buildings. Providentially, there was some lumber piled up right there, perfect for the walls of their sukkah. Not only that, but they came across some branches that seemed to have fallen from Heaven. They would serve as the s’chach.

On Sukkos, the inmates took turns, clandestinely slipping into the sukkah with a morsel of bread, so they could fulfill the mitzvah.

It was a far cry from home. There was no fresh challah or hot soup, no joyous camaraderie, no hanging decoration, no divrei Torah. However, those few stolen moments in the sukkah gave them a feeling of hope, a feeling of life.

But with Simchas Torah coming up, they were at a loss. Where would they find a Sefer Torah? After all, what was Simchas Torah without one?

Certainly, it would not be easy to muster up the joy of the day. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that Simchas Torah marked the one-year anniversary of the liquidation of the Czestochowa Ghetto, and many of the inmates hailed from Czestochowa.

Still, if only they could find a Sefer Torah… Their prayers would be answered through the most unlikely of heroes.

He was a cobbler, a shoemaker.

It was rare for the Nazis to show appreciation to any

of the inmates. Most were treated like vermin or worse. But Mendel was an expert shoemaker. More specifically, he crafted the most beautiful boots. Thus, the cobbler, who created shiny boots for the Nazis, was elevated by the Nazis to privileged status and usually went straight from his work right outside the camp to the camp kitchen, where he received a generous portion of food. But one day of Chol HaMoed, he finished his day job and instead of heading for the kitchen, headed straight toward his barracks.

Whispers and rumors began to circulate. Soon enough, the word was out. Mendel had a Sefer Torah!

But how? How did he manage to obtain it? And how did he smuggle it into the camp?

As they passed the head of the cot, the inmates kissed the wooden board above the Sefer Torah.

The Nazis had confiscated tashmishei kedushah and stored them near the cobbler’s workplace. A short while earlier, he had smuggled a shofar into the barracks. Now, to obtain the Sefer Torah, he used the only effective form of bribery he knew; he offered one of the Nazi guards a custom-made pair of boots. Those were the magic words. A short while later, the Sefer Torah was in his hands.

And since it was a small one, he was able to wrap it around his body. Though it made him look bulky, with his loose-fitting prison garb, he pulled it off.

Little did Mendel know that the Sefer Torah had been in a pile with hundreds of other items that were scheduled to be destroyed the next day. He had saved it from going

up in smoke.

Now, he had to hide it. A minyan gathered every Shabbos in one of the quieter barracks. Mendel petitioned the group, “Who wants to hide the Sefer Torah?”

Two volunteers stepped forward. One of them held onto the Sefer Torah, clutching it closely, while the other one removed a board from the head of one of the wooden cots, placing the Sefer Torah gently inside the hollow space.

A buzz spread throughout the camp. We will be celebrating Simchas Torah with a Sefer Torah!

The skeletal inmates finally found purpose and reason to live.

The day arrived.

No flags. No candy. No children on shoulders.

But they had a Sefer Torah!

Of course, they didn’t sing loudly; they didn’t dance by stomping on the boards. In fact, they didn’t even hold the Sefer Torah. Instead, they quietly and gingerly walked around the plain wooden cot, because, for the moment, it was worthy of honor; it contained the Sefer Torah. As they passed the head of the cot, the inmates kissed the wooden board above the Sefer Torah.

It’s not that they were afraid to die; they were afraid that if they removed the Sefer Torah from its hiding place, perhaps it would be destroyed — and that, to them, was more frightening than death.

And so, they “danced” for hours, singing the same song over and over. “Sisu v’simchu b’simchas Torah ki hi lanu oz v ’orah — Rejoice and be glad in the gladness of the Torah, because it is our strength and light!”

Oz v’orah. Strength and light.

The Torah lifted their spirits that night and gave them the strength and inspiration to continue to live.

After years of suffering and loss, the war finally ended. The Torah survived.

And so did its people.

Sitting in the aron of the Gerrer Beis Chassidim in Bnei Brak, among other holy Torah Scrolls, is a tiny Sefer Torah with a story to tell. Once a year, on Simchas Torah, this Sefer Torah is held tightly by a nation that loves it dearly.

And refuses to ever let go.