Five Towns Jewish Home - 9-28-17

September 28, 2017

Pages 7, 9, 10, 11 & 59

Around the

Community

38

Rabbi Reuven Feinstein, Shlit”a, Visits Long Beach

42

Yachad Opens Branch in the Five Towns

vcuY Vnh,j rnd

Distributed weekly in the Five Towns, Long Island, Queens & Brooklyn

INSPIRATION Zev and Yocheved’s Journey from a Church in Texas to a Shul in the Galil pg

56

Community Comes Out for Sulitz Tehillim Kollel

– See page 3

SEASONS LAWRENCE

330 Central Avenue, Lawrence, NY 11559

Your Favorite Five Towns Family Newspaper

Page 53

76

A TRIBUTE TO NECHEMIA Rabenstein, a”h, Builder of Generations

By Rabbi Yaakov Bender

pg

60

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Dear Readers,

I

her chosson under the chuppah, she is creating the walls of the home in which this new couple – this new being, as they join together – will live, grow and create a family. It is said that a chosson and kallah comes into the marriage with a clean slate, as their aveiros are washed away on that day.

On Yom Kippur, too, I come out feeling like a new person. As I walk out of shul, I feel refreshed, I feel whole. The day of Yom Kippur itself has the power of forgiveness. And we each come out anew, like a new being free of the chains of iniquity staining our hearts. The first few minutes after Neilah, as we walk home, we don’t want to break that pristine, fresh start that we’re given on Yom Kippur. Our walk is free from loshon hara, our first bracha after the fast is said clearly, we speak calmly to our children as we usher them into bed for the umpteenth time.

I hope that we can continue to see ourselves as new people in the upcoming year as we endeavor to break old habits, strengthen our relationships, and become better people.

n this week’s issue, Rafi Sackville writes about the journey that Zev and Yocheved Woodward embarked on in the past few years. The piece is titled “Inspiration,” and, indeed, it is an inspiration to read. Rafi tells of two souls – both non-Jews – who were missing something in their lives, searched to fill those voids, and found it in the Jewish People. And now, two people who once belonged to a nation commanded to follow sheva mitzvos bnei Noach are now members of an esteemed People who lovingly adhere to 613 commandments.

Reading about the Woodwards’ steps towards Yiddishkeit made me think of them as they crossed that final goalpost and became full-fledged Jews. Essentially, the Woodwards became new people.

Their names are now followed by “ben Avraham” or “ben Sarah.” Zev can be included now in a minyan; Yocheved ushers in Shabbos with her candle lighting.

Before we wouldn’t even have let them touch our wine; now, we can share a l’chaim with them in celebration of their updated status.

Most of us had the privilege of being born into the Am Ha’nivchar. But there are certain times in our lives when we become “new people.” As a kallah circles

Gmar chasima tova, Shoshana

Yitzy Halpern PUBLISHER

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The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Contents LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

8

COMMUNITY Readers’ Poll

8

Community Happenings

36

NEWS Global

13

National

22

Odd-but-True Stories

34

ISRAEL

PEOPLE

72

Israel News

18

Inspiration by Rafi Sackville

76

In Tribute to Nechemia Rabenstein, a”h, Builder of Generations by Rabbi Yaakov Bender 60 Major Moshe Levy’s Heroism in the Yom Kippur War

by Avi Heiligman

96

PARSHA Rabbi Wein

64

Abandoning Self-Deception by Rav Moshe Weinberger

66

JEWISH THOUGHT Lip Service by Eytan Kobre

68

Don’t Come Running to Me by Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz 70

70

Learn to Let it Go by Rabbi Dr. Naphtali Hoff 72

Dear Editor, In your dating column a couple of weeks ago regarding the guy who was pining over the girl, Shira, who would not agree to go out with him, you missed an opportunity. Without disputing the perspectives of any of the columnists (although I think the Rebbetzin and the Mother were way off base), I would have hoped for an ending for your summary as follows: Taking all of the above into account and not necessarily changing any of the conclusions or the advice, this situation illustrates one of the dysfunctions that we have created for ourselves as a community. The obsession with intensively investigating somebody before agreeing to go on a date and ranking him or her on multiple scales and applying ridiculous labels like “aidel kneidel” or “yeshivishe-modern” can be self-defeating, since there is no assurance that the sources of information are knowledgeable and unbiased or that they even use the same terms to mean the same thing. That flawed process and the notion that going out on a date with somebody can mark you forever as a certain kind of person and foreclose other opportunities (just as

You Know What Your Father’s Going to Say by Rabbi YY Rubinstein 74

HEALTH & FITNESS Commit Yourself to Never Doing These 9 Things Next Year by Dr. Deb Hirschhorn 84 Intermittent Fasting by Aliza Beer, MS RD

86

Living Life as a Jew by Dr. Hylton Lightman

87

The painting on this week’s cover, “Prophet Sparks,” has been reproduced with permission from the artist, Yoram Raanan. (c)2017 www.yoramraanan.com

it happens when schools ask where else you have applied) have created immeasurable damage and complications. In this time of the Yamim Noraim, everybody would do well to resolve never to toss around the all-knowing “I just don’t see it,” or “It’s not shayach,” as well as to keep all this in mind when reciting the half-dozen or more “Al chet” clauses that apply.

A Reader Dear Editor, Now that the New Year is upon us, I want to let you know how much my family enjoys reading your paper every week. There is always something for every member of the family – from recipes and thoughts on Torah for me, to news tidbits, photos of their schools and jokes for the kids, and interesting quotes and political articles for my husband, there’s always something we enjoy.

I wish you much continued hatzlacha. You do a tremendous service to the frum community by providing wonderful, kosher content for our families.

Sincerely, Nora Heller Dear Editor, Dr. Deb’s article, “Three Changes You Should Make Today,” was inspiring. Even more than that, she offered practical advice. It was so practical, that right after reading her article, I was able to focus on two of Continued on page 12

FOOD & LEISURE The Aussie Gourmet: Food to Break the Fast

90

LIFESTYLES Dating Dialogue, Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW

80

How to Evaluate a Business by Chaim Homnick

88

Your Money

101

What are You Hungry For? by Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., CLC, SDS

102

HUMOR Centerfold

62

POLITICAL CROSSFIRE Notable Quotes

92

U.S. Must Think Outside the Box on North Korea by David Ignatius

95

CLASSIFIEDS

97

Do you eat milchigs or fleishigs after a fast?

81 19 %

Milchigs

%

Fleishigs

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Sale Dates: October 1st - 4th 2017

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The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

interesting, pleasant addition to our Shabbos seudah. And when we offer rides to people, we will only do it if the person is on our way and we have extra time to spare. But we won’t offer them rides if we need to drive a few blocks out of our area or if the person looks a bit different than us.

Rabbi Lipsker seems to be different. He has created an enormous, remarkable chessed organization for people that society has forgotten or shunned. Yes, these people have done something wrong. But they are Jews. And Rabbi Lipsker sees past their criminal scars and views the neshama that shines through.

What an amazing zechus! He is a true somech noflim, emulating Hashem’s middah of lifting up those who are fallen.

Rabbi Lipsker’s chessed should be an inspiration and an impetus for us to do chessed that may go beyond our comfort zone and help those who may be forgotten or disgraced by others.

Gmar chasima tova, Naomi Teichman

Look for the Sukkos issue of TJH in stores on Tuesday, October 3.

Views expressed on the Letters to the Editor page do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jewish Home.

Continued from page 8

her points: not interrupting and becoming a listener. Since reading the piece, I have become aware of these two points and am consistently working towards them.

I hope that this new year will be a

more productive, worthwhile year as I work on becoming a more respectful, connected person.

Shani N. Dear Editor, Rabbi Lipsker is a true angel. It’s easy to do chessed for people who

are interesting and grateful and can reciprocate at times for you as well.

Chessed is great for most of us – when it makes us feel good. For instance, having people for a Shabbos meal is a nice chessed. But many of us will only invite over guests when it’s convenient and the guests are an

Please send all correspondence to: editor @fivetowns jewishhome.com.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

The Week In News

AfD Wins Big in Germany

ies, including Cologne and Frankfurt.

When she was addressing her supporters after the results were announced, Merkel said she had hoped for a “better result.” The election saw the Christian Democrat (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) come away with their worst results since 1949, when Germany held elections for the first time after World War II. Merkel added that she would take into account the “concerns, worries and anxieties” of voters of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in order to win them back.

For Seven Days

It’s Your Castle

Kurds Vote for Independence Angela Merkel has been re-elected for a fourth term as Germany’s chancellor. Her conservative CDU/ CSU party had its worst results in almost 70 years, however, she was still able to hold on and maintain a majority in the German parliament. The nationalist, right-wing, anti-Islam AfD party made historic surges and came out with its first seat.

The AfD has not only entered the German parliament for the first time, but it’s also succeeded in being the strongest of the smaller German parties, making it the third-biggest party in the incoming legislature.

Having failed to enter the Bundestag in the last election, the party is now likely to have nearly 100 seats in parliament. It’s the first time since the Second World War that a party professing such xenophobic, anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic views has been voted into the Bundestag.

Undoubtedly the AfD was able to garner support from Germans who are angry with the influx of asylum-seekers. They have bashed those who they say order them to be quiet under the banner of “political correctness.” Some members have espoused the values of the extreme right, and one of its co-leaders, Alexander Gauland, said publically that Germany should be proud of its past and the achievements of its soldiers in two world wars.

Many Germans were shocked at AfD’s strength in the elections and gathered to protest the results. They congregated outside of the AfD’s headquarters in Berlin with signs that blared, “Refugees are welcome.”

Protests were also held in other cit-

Treat yourself like a King with The Sukkah Center For nearly 50 years, Initial results from the vote on Kurdistan independence show that a whopping 93 percent of voters support independence; 6.71 percent object to becoming an independent state. Iraqi Kurds headed to the polls on Monday, despite the elections being rejected by the government in Baghdad, the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, Turkey and Iran. The vote was a big concern for Kurds, as evidenced by the large turnout. Nearly 3.3 million voters – out of 5.2 million eligible – took part, a whopping 72.16 percent.

Kurdistan gained autonomous governance based on the 2005 constitution, but is still considered a part of Iraq. The region was created in 1970 based on an agreement with the Iraqi government, ending years of conflicts.

The Kurds are the world’s largest ethnic group that occupy one geographical area but don’t have their own country. Despite the deep desire and what many believe is a human right, there are many critics who say that the ballot could cause destabilization, ethnic violence, and hamper the fight against ISIS in an already unstable environment.

With majority of Kurds residing in Iraq, the central government in Baghdad has rejected the referen-

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

dum as illegal and unconstitutional.

Its Supreme Court officially suspended the ballot — not that the Kurds were listening — and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi threatened military action if the vote leads to violence.

Turkey and Iran issued a joint statement with Iraq saying they were considering deploying “countermeasures,” although they didn’t specify what or how.

Baghdad and Erbil have for long disputed sovereignty over a number of regions, most notably the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, besides contending over petroleum exports’ revenues from those regions.

“We have the right to choose our destiny and fulfill our dream,” Dallo Mohammed, a 32-year-old accountant from the town of Khanaqin, said.

“I am a Kurdish citizen. This is how I was born, and this is how I would die.”

The estimated population of 35 million Kurds are mostly Sunni Muslims living across mountainous regions across Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Armenia. During WWI they almost became their own country when the 1920 Treaty of Sevres carved up the Ottoman Empire and proposed an independent state for

Kurdistan. However, disagreements and subsequent treaties meant that never happened. Since then Kurds have been at the mercy of the countries they belong to and have been subject to a complex web of oppressive enemies, forced allegiances and internal divisions.

N. Korea & U.S. Continue to Clash

The foreign minister of North Korea has warned that the country may test a powerful nuclear weapon over the Pacific Ocean in response to President Donald Trump’s threats

of military action. Ri Yong Ho spoke with reporters in New York after Kim Jong Un made an unprecedented televised statement following Trump’s UN speech last week.

President Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea in a speech to the UN General Assembly which he followed up with a tweet saying that Kim Jong Un was “obviously a madman” who would be “tested like never before.” Kim then appeared on North Korean television and said that President Trump would “pay dearly” for the threats and that Kim will now “consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hardline countermeasure in history.”

“I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue,” Kim threatened. “I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”

Hours after the television statement, Ri Yong Ho said that Pyongyang could launch a nuclear weapon test. “This could probably mean the strongest hydrogen bomb test over the Pacific Ocean. Regarding which measures to take, I don’t really know

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since it is what Kim Jong Un does,” said Ri. The White House has expanded the “peaceful pressure” it is placing on North Korea by adding more sanctions on the country and with those whom they do business. The executive order charges Treasury Department authorities to target individuals who provide goods, services or technology to North Korea.

China, which is the supplier of most of North Korea’s imports, was hit hardest by the new set of sanctions.

Even so, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was clear that “this action is directed at everyone” and that the steps are “in no way specifically directed at China.”

Gabbai Killed in Mexican Quake A gabbai in Mexico was tragically killed in the powerful earthquake that rocked Mexico last week. ZAKA, the emergency response organization, found the body of R’ Jaime Achequenze Ashkenazy, z”l, in a collapsed office building. R’ Ashkenazy

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was the gabbi and community assistant at Maguen David, an Orthodox shul in Mexico City. He was also the owner of a textile business located in the city center.

Fresh Mandate for Japan

R’ Ashkenazy had just come back from distributing money to the poor for Rosh Hashana before he was crushed during the quake. Although an Argentine native and citizen, R’ Azkenazy lived in Mexico for 40 years. He had endured the similarly destructive earthquake in 1985, which resulted in thousands of lives lost and left his business in ruins.

However, with help from the community, he was able to reestablish it.

The volunteers worked through Rosh Hashana to locate R’ Ashkenazy’s body under the instructions of Mexico’s chief rabbi, Rabbi Shlomo Tawil. Mati Goldstein, who is the International Rescue Unit Chief Officer for ZAKA, said that “immediately after the Sabbath went out in Mexico (early morning Israel time), we received an update from our team in Mexico that they had recovered the body of the missing Jewish man. The ZAKA team, which was on the scene at the time the earthquake struck, will remain until we receive an update that there are no more missing people.”

R’ Ashkenazy had seven daughters and one son, all of whom are married with children. His son-inlaw is the chief rabbi of Mexico, Rabbi Tawil, and his son is a rabbi and instructor at Yeshiva Ateret Yosef elementary school.

The earthquake took over 300 lives. Hundreds of bodies and survivors have been pulled from the 38 buildings that collapsed during the quake. The IDF’s Home Front Command sent a 71-member team to assist with the rescue efforts. IsraAID and iAid also sent delegations to help with the search and rescue.

In the past two weeks, Mexico has been hit with three massive earthquakes, the largest of which measured 8.1 on the Richter scale.

The prime minister of Japan is banking on his recent rise in popularity to pull off the dissolvement of parliament’s lower house as he seeks to overcome a “national crisis.”

Shinzo Abe, who has been in power for five years, is seeking a fresh mandate to move a large part of Japan’s budget to fund social agendas such as education and to form a tougher stance on North Korea in light of Kim Jong Un’s recent missile and nuclear tests.

“I will dissolve the lower house on September 28,” Abe told a nationally televised news conference on Monday. The election was originally to be held on October 22nd.

Many see the new date as a result of Abe’s jump from 30 percent approval ratings in July to over 50 percent in September. Abe is betting that his coalition government can keep its lower house majority even though it may lose its “supermajority” of twothirds. A supermajority would allow Abe to achieve his long-held goal of revising Japan’s postwar pacifist constitution and enhancing its military’s role.

Abe has been known for tackling hard problems with a firm hand. He recently asked his cabinet to compile a 2 trillion yen ($17.8 billion) economic package by the end of 2017 which is to focus on education, child care, and encouraging corporate investment while maintaining fiscal discipline.

Aside from being popular, Abe’s political rivals also have extremely low popularity numbers. Abe’s main opposition, the Democratic Party, is recording single-digit approval ratings.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

tree, and the rock or tree will say, ‘O Muslim, servant of Allah, this Jew is behind me, kill him.’”

Not all Muslims share this belief.

Moderate Palestinian Islamic thinker Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi described the hadith as a “fabrication” and condemned Saudi Arabia for teaching it. “The prophet couldn’t have said that and it contradicts the text of the Koran. The prophet said anything attributed to me not in harmony with the Koran is not true. This can’t be true because it totally contradicts the text of the Koran. Teaching this to children is incitement and anti-Semitic. Saudi Arabia and any other Arab countries teaching such nonsense should stop and this should be eliminated from the educational systems.”

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 terrorists were Saudi citizens, Saudi officials promised educational reforms. However, according to this recent study, it seems that the curriculum was not changed.

“Saudi Arabia’s officials should stop denigrating other people’s personal beliefs,” Human Rights Watch concluded. “After years of reform promises there is apparently still little room for tolerance in the country’s schools.”

Three Killed by Terrorist

Saudi Arabian Schools Teach Hate & Violence

In Saudi Arabia, anti-Semitism is a subject taught in elementary school.

Human Rights Watch found during a recent review of Saudi Arabian textbooks that children are formally taught that the “Day of Resurrection” will not come until Muslims kill Jews.

The organization also revealed hateful and disparaging references to Christians, Shi’ites and Sufism.

“As early as first grade, students in Saudi schools are being taught hatred toward all those perceived to be of a different faith or school of thought.

The lessons in hate are reinforced each following year,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, said in a press

release last week. Forty-five Saudi textbooks and student workbooks produced by the Education Ministry for the primary, middle and secondary education levels were reviewed as part of the study.

The curriculum is based on tawhid, or monotheism. The textbooks discuss that one of the indicators of the coming of the “Day of Resurrection” is the killing of Jews.

The passage, from a quote attributed to Muhammad, reads, “The hour will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and Muslims will kill the Jews.

The Jew will hide under the rock and

In Israel, the nation mourned for three Israelis who were killed by a Palestinian terrorist in Har Adar on Tuesday. Border policeman Solomon Gavriyah, 20, civilian security guards Youssef Ottman, 25, from Abu Ghosh, and Or Arish, 25, a resident of Har Adar, were laid to rest in separate funerals.

Gavriyah was buried in his central Israel hometown of Beer Yaakov in an emotional ceremony that saw several of his family members collapse in grief. In Jerusalem, Arish was buried

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

in the city’s Givat Shaul Cemetery. In the nearby Arab Israeli town of Abu Ghosh, hundreds attended the funeral for Ottman. The burial was held in both English and Arabic and was attended by police officials, Knesset members, and town mayor Issa Jaber.

Gavriyah, who was posthumously promoted to staff-sergeant, had joined the Border Police for his mandatory national service and had recently been serving as a policeman in the Jerusalem area along the boundary with the West Bank.

The 20-year-old was mourned by his girlfriend as “the best person I knew.” “You never complained. You were a warrior. A hero, my hero,” she said.

His sister had to stop during her eulogy because she was overwhelmed with emotion; family members comforted her as she stepped away. “You were the pride of our family. You were an inspiration to all of us. I don’t know how we can go on without you,” she said through tears, before breaking down.

“He put himself in front of the terrorist. He stopped him, even as his own life was taken,” Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said. “You came to this land as an immigrant. You became one of its defenders.”

Erdan said that “the acts of heroism” displayed by Gavriyah, as well as Ottman and Arish “allow those in Har Adar, and all of us in Israel, to live in peace and security.”

“Islamic extremists are trying to drive us out of our home through rockets on our borders and through stabbing and shooting attacks in our cities and towns,” the minister said in pointed remarks. “Efforts to reach compromise are important but whenever we have Palestinians who want to kill innocent Israelis and the Palestinian Authority supports them, we will stand strong and we won’t give in. The terrorists will not get anything.”

“Solomon, I promise that we will not give up and give in, for your sake.

We will continue to build our national home, we will continue to build our country, because it is our home,” Erdan concluded before a 21-gun salute closed the ceremony, echoing off the high-rise buildings surrounding the small cemetery.

In Abu Ghosh, Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev praised Ottman for protecting lives in the face of “cowardly” terrorism. “Two men went to work this morning. One for life, one to save lives, and one of death, who went to take life away,” she said, referring to Ottman’s killer, Nimer Muham-

mad Jamal, as someone whose name “should be blotted out.”

“We have no patience for people who take part in cowardly terror attacks,” she added, noting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the house of the attacker would be demolished. “They must choose: Terror or making a livelihood,” Regev said of the Palestinians.

The early morning attack also killed 25-year-old security guard and Har Adar native Or Arish. According to Channel 2, Arish was not scheduled to work on Tuesday morning, but re-

quested the shift because he was saving up money to attend university.

Just after 7 a.m. on Tuesday 37-year-old Jamal had approached the gates of Har Adar. When officers who were opening the back gates of the community to Palestinian laborers approached him for acting suspiciously, he withdrew a pistol from his shirt and began to fire. Ottman, Gavriyah and Arish were killed in the attack. Another man, the settlement’s security coordinator, suffered serious gunshot wounds to his stomach and chest. His injuries after surgery were

19

downgraded to light-to-moderate.

The terrorist was killed by officers.

Jamal had a valid work permit. He was a father of four. His wife had fled to Jordan a few weeks ago, citing domestic violence and leaving him with their children. Hamas praised the terrorist and called for others to commit similar acts of terror.

Israeli forces arrested Jamal’s brothers after the attack. Netanyahu had said he will be razing Jamal’s family’s home and rescinding work permits for his relatives.

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

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Israel and the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain are bonding over their mutual enmity toward Iran. Bahrain has been slowly dropping its hostility levels towards the Jewish State for some time and may be announcing the establishment of official relations in the next year, according to Middle East experts.

Bahrain, which has a Shiite majority population, has accused Iran of setting up aggressive terrorist cells inside their kingdom. A Bahrain official has been telling press outlets in the Middle East that establishing ties with Israel would not be problematic because “unlike Iran, Israel does not pose a threat to Bahrain.” The government has recently ordered mosques to stop giving sermons that are critical of Israel.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Associate Director of the Wiesenthal Center, met with the Bahraini king in the capital city of Manama last February. The king personally invited Hier to his palace and Hier said that “the king made a clear statement: ‘It’s illogical for the Arab world to boycott Israel.

We must find a better way.’” Bahraini Prince Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa even attended a large event for the Wiesenthal Center last week,

after which he visited the pro-Israel Museum of Tolerance.

Bahrain is a group of islands in the Persian Gulf. The country of 1.4 million people has no official relationship with Israel, however, Israeli businessmen and tourists have been visiting the island nation more frequently over the past few years. In 2010, a Bahraini princess was given life-saving treatment in an Israeli hospital.

Intel in Israel Releases “Best Processor Ever”

A new desktop computer processor has been unveiled in Haifa by a development team for Intel Corp.

The new processors are faster and stronger than the previous generations put out by the computer giant.

The new family of 8th Gen Intel Core processors was built for content creators, gamers, and anyone in need of high performance standards, said Intel. The chips include the Intel Core i7-8700K, which is being called the “best gaming processor ever” by the U.S.-based computer firm. The new chips are able to provide 25 percent more frames per second than the previous generation of Intel Core processors. According the company, they are more “accurate, faster, powerful and compat-

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The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

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ible than earlier versions, allowing for high quality of graphics creation and consumption.”

Intel has been operating out of Israel since 1974. The company has a production center in Kiryat Gat and four development centers in Haifa, Yakum, Jerusalem and Petah Tikva.

The development center in Haifa is the company’s largest such site outside of the United States. Over 10,000 Israelis are employed by Intel.

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who initially demanded the GAO report, called the fees “outrageous.”

“At this rate, passengers are going to have to start showing up with a suitcase full of clothes and a suitcase full of money just to get on the plane,” Nelson said. “It’s high time the airlines rein in these outrageous fees.”

Earlier this year, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that in the first quarter of this year the average cost of a domestic airline ticket was $352, which is the lowest average price during the first three months of the year since data collection began in 1995.

Hurricane Maria Slams Puerto Rico

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Remember the days when you were allowed one free checked bag on domestic flights? Well, those days are mostly gone and they won’t likely return since airlines have reaped major earnings from checked bag fees.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. airlines earned a record $1.2 billion in checked bag fees and $737.5 million in reservation change fees during the second quarter of this year.

This is the fifth consecutive quarter that bag fee profits have surpassed $1 billion.

Just recently, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced that airfare has decreased since airlines began charging separately for “perks” like checking bags and priority boarding. However, when customers choose to opt for those addons, the price of their ticket usually exceeds the difference.

“As a result, customers who paid for checked bags paid more on average for the combined airfare and bag fee than when the airfare and bag fee were bundled together,” the report states. “Conversely, passengers who did not check bags paid less overall.”

Bill Nelson, the Florida senator

The island of Puerto Rico has sent out an S.O.S. in the wake of Hurricane Maria. In parts of northern Puerto Rico, floodwaters reached more than 10 feet.

Some of the towns affected were still reeling from Hurricane Irma when Maria hit. For example, in Loiza, a north coastal town, 90% of homes (about 3,000) were destroyed

by Hurricane Maria just days after Irma. There are communities totally isolated after bridges and highways collapsed. In Rio Grande, officials are still trying to assess the number of families trapped in their homes.

Mayor of the southern city of Juana Diaz Ramon Hernandez Torres said with tears in his eyes, “It’s a total disaster.”

No part of the island of Puerto Rico was spared in Wednesday’s storm. Many areas were left with no way of communicating due to power outages, lack of cellphone service, and no internet connection. Local mayors and officials were unable to reach central government to call out for help.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

By Saturday, mayors and representatives from more than 50 municipalities across Puerto Rico were able to meet with government officials at the emergency operations command center to discuss rescue plans. Many of the mayors learned about the meeting through media reports over satellite radio. The meeting focused on providing all communities with the basic necessities: drinking water, prescription drugs, gasoline, oxygen tanks and satellite phones. Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced that officials are in the process of centralizing medical care and shelters for the elderly. He said he will be distributing 250 satellite phones to mayors across the region to facilitate communication.

He urged the mayors to develop a “buddy system” with other local officials to maintain contact.

The hurricane brought 160 mph winds to the island, knocking out power on the entire isle. Officials are estimating that it will take three weeks for power to be restored in hospitals and six months for the rest of the island. While most of the main roadways were still waterlogged, men, women, and children all across the island were stranded without food to purchase or medical treatment. Drinking water was in short supply. Much of Puerto Rico’s water is run by electricity.

“There is horror in the streets,” San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz told The Washington Post.

“People are actually becoming prisoners in their own homes.”

“Whenever I walk through San Juan,” Cruz said, she sees the “sheer pain in people’s eyes... They’re kind of glazed, not because of what has happened but because of the difficulty of what will come,” she said. “I know we’re not going to get to everybody in time... Two days ago I said I was concerned about that. Now I know we won’t get to everybody in time.”

The official death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria has risen to 10. One person died when he was struck in the head by a panel. Another died in an accident with an excavating machine. Three died in landslides, two in flooding in Toa Baja, and two police officers in Aguada drowned when the Culebrinas River overflowed. One person in Arecibo died after being swept away by rising water. Officials believe there are likely many other casualties that have yet to be confirmed.

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Most Expensive Moves in the U.S. While many big cities are overflowing with residents, there are some cities that are looking to grow and are competing for new occupants. However, Americans are moving less than ever; in 2016 just 11.2% of Americans relocated, an all-time low.

For people who do move, the trend is that they remain within the

same general area or region. People often move for more space or a nicer house but want to stay near their friends and family and keep the same job. It is also common for people to move when their lease expires. Oftentimes, families relocate to be in a better school district, to be closer to work to decrease commute time, or simply to cut costs.

Although many times moving Continued on page 26

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

may seem like it’ll save you some money, keep in mind that it costs to make a move. Depending on location, movers with a truck can cost upwards of $1,000.

Recently, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the total cost to move within major U.S. metro areas and ranked the top 25 most expensive cities to move to.

Included in their calculations were the costs of moving plus the price of an average month’s rent and deposit for a three bedroom house or apartment.

The ten most expensive cities to move to in the United States are listed below. Notice how the top five are located in California: 1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Cost of living: 24.1% greater than nation Median household income: $101,980 2. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA Cost of living: 21.9% greater than nation Median household income: $88,518 3. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Cost of living: 16.1% greater than

nation Median household income: $80,032 4. San Diego-Carlsbad, CA Cost of living: 16.6% greater than nation Median household income: $67,320 5. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Cost of living: 17.6% greater than nation Median household income: $62,544 7. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT Cost of living: 20.1% greater than nation Median household income: $86,414 8. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY, NJ, PA Cost of living: 21.9% greater than nation Median household income: $68,743 9. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA, NH Cost of living: 10.3% greater than nation Median household income: $78,800 10. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Cost of living: 9.4% greater than nation Median household income: $75,331

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Food Delivered to Your Fridge

Love having your groceries delivered to your door? There’s no need to shlep the bags to the car or unload them from your trunk. But Walmart plans on taking things even further.

On Friday, Walmart announced that it is testing a new service – delivering groceries straight to your fridge.

Customers in Silicon Valley taking part in the trial can buy products from Walmart.com and have them delivered. But if they are not home when the delivery comes, the driver will receive a one-time passcode that

will unlock their door for them. The customer will be notified that the driver has the code so they can watch the driver through a doorbell camera. The driver can enter the house, put the food away in the kitchen, and then leave. The door will lock automatically.

The new service will certainly elicit “ooh” and “aahs” from some. Others, though, may find it a bit creepy to have a stranger walk through their homes.

Deliv CEO Daphne Carmeli said in an email to CNNMoney that all drivers “undergo a comprehensive screen process” as well as “regular audits, ratings and checks.” She added that drivers taking part in the Walmart delivery trial all agreed to being videotaped.

Walmart spokesperson Ravi Jariwala conceded that this might be not for everyone. Even so, he pointed out that we live in an age where we get rides from strangers on Uber, ask people to pick up our dry cleaning on TaskRabbit, and stay in strangers’ homes on Airbnb.

Putting food in your fridge may just be the next step.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Trump vs. the NFL

President Donald Trump has been sparring with a new foe and they’re big, brawny and really good with a ball: the NFL. It began with Trump’s disapproving comments regarding players who choose not to stand when the national anthem is recited by the opening of games.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted, “If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast. Fire or suspend!”

The Twitter storm came after Trump rescinded a White House invitation for NBA champion Stephen Curry. The president uninvited the popular two-time MVP for the Golden State Warriors, saying he would not be welcome at the White House for the commemorative visit traditionally made by championship teams. “Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!” he tweeted early Saturday.

The sparring continued when Trump tweeted later on, “If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”

Throughout Sunday’s 14 games, many teams, players, and owners took a stance by either boycotting the anthem, kneeling, or locking arms. Once again they had Trump’s attention. Shortly after many games aired Trump tweeted, “Great solidarity for our National Anthem and for our Country. Standing with locked arms is good, kneeling is not acceptable. Bad ratings!”

Many athletes came out in protest of the president’s tweets and comments. LeBron James, current-

ly one of the most famous athletes in the major leagues, also released a video on Saturday, saying Trump has tried to divide the country. “He’s now using sports as the platform to try to divide us,” James said. “We all know how much sports brings us together. ... It’s not something I can be quiet about.”

Kneeling in protest was originally introduced by San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick who knelt in protest of police treatment of blacks and social injustice. People in the community are comparing his antics to the moves made by Martin Luther King, Jr. Kaepernick’s kneeling prompted others to protest and many were accusing Trump of racism since the trend began with an African-American player. However, while boarding Air Force One on Sunday Trump reiterated, “I’ve never said anything about race. This has nothing to do with race or anything else. This has to do with respect for our country and respect for our flag.”

Additionally, the NFL game operations manual, which describes policy – not rules – for the NFL, states, “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand and refrain from talking...

“It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offences.”

In other words, kneel whenever you want – but not during our national anthem.

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Terror in Nashville Church Burnette Chapel Church in Nashville, Tennessee, was the scene of horror on Sunday when a gunman attacked innocent worshippers. Melanie Smith, 39, was tragically killed as she walked from the church to her car after her weekly prayer service.

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The shooter sought more victims and burst into the church through the sanctuary’s main door wielding two pistols and “began indiscriminately shooting,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said.

At the time, there were about 50 people still inside the building. Six were wounded by gunfire and another victim was pistol-whipped. Robert Engle, 22, the church’s usher, courageously confronted the masked gunman. As the two struggled, the gunman mistakenly shot himself.

“He’s the hero,” MNPD chief Steve Anderson said about Engle. “He’s the person that stopped this madness, so we’re very, very, very grateful to him.”

Engel is being treated in the hospital for moderate wounds. He released a statement saying, “I’ve been going to this church my whole life, since I was a small child. I would have never, ever thought something like this would have happened.”

Engle said he did not want to be labeled a hero. “The real heroes are the police, first responders and medical staff and doctors who have helped me and everyone affected.”

The shooter, Emanuel Kidega Samson, 25, was hospitalized with

gunshot wounds and released to police custody. Samson is a legal U.S. resident originally from Sudan.

Church members claim that Samson had attended the church in the past.

However, he had not been seen there in a while.

Travel Ban 2.0

The travel ban is here to stay, for now. On Sunday, President Trump issued a new order banning almost all travel to the United States from seven countries, including most of the nations covered in the initial ban.

Trump reiterated that the reasoning behind the ban is threats to national security posed by allowing citizens of specific countries onto U.S. soil.

Beginning in October, most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea will be

indefinitely barred from entering the United States. Additionally, citizens of Iraq and some groups of people in Venezuela who seek to visit the United States will face restrictions or heightened scrutiny.

Trump’s original travel ban, enacted when he took office in January, sparked outrage. The original ban expired last Sunday, prompting the new announcement despite impending Supreme Court hearings on the topic set for October 10. Many are claiming that the ban is unconstitutional and contradicts the fundamental beliefs of American society. The new ban is set to take effect on October 18.

“As president, I must act to protect the security and interests of the United States and its people,” Trump said in the proclamation, which White House officials said had the same force as an executive order. He added that the restrictions will remain in effect until the governments of the affected nations “satisfactorily address the identified inadequacies.”

The new regulations are being described as a more targeted effort than the earlier ban. Each of the countries will be under its own set of travel restrictions. In most instances citizens of the listed countries won’t be

allowed to immigrate to the United States and will be rejected from coming to work, study or vacation in the U.S. For some countries, for example, Iran, the government will be allowed to send specific people on student exchanges, though visitors will be subject to enhanced screening. Certain government officials of Venezuela and their families will be barred from visiting the United States. Somalis will no longer be allowed to immigrate to the United States, but may visit with extra screening.

Administration officials said on Friday that the new policy was the result of months of deliberation that included the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the White House and other agencies involved in security and U.S. borders.

Detroit Most Violent It’s a statistic they are surely not proud of. On Monday, according to new 2016 figures released by the FBI, it was determined that once again Detroit has been crowned the most violent big city in the United States. In

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fact, according to the FBI, the Motor City saw more murders last year than Los Angeles, which has four times as many people.

Despite the numbers, Detroit Police Chief James Craig does not agree with the FBI’s computations. “Just because it’s coming out of the FBI” doesn’t mean it’s accurate, he said He added, “I reject it,” saying his own data using a new software system shows violent crime went down 5% in 2016 and has been trending downward since 2013. “I am confident the Detroit police crime statistics are very accurate,” Craig said at a press conference on Monday.

According to the FBI’s 2016 Uniform Crime report, 13,705 violent crimes – including murders, attacks against women, assaults and robberies – were reported in Detroit last year. That’s a 15.7% increase from the year before, which saw 11,346 violent

crimes in Detroit.

Detroit was given the designation of No. 1 on the list of most violent cities in the U.S. with populations of more than 100,000. Behind Detroit, rounding out the top five most violent big cities are St. Louis at No. 2, followed by Memphis, Baltimore and Rockford, Ill., according the FBI’s 2016 Uniform Crime Report.

In 2015, St. Louis held the title of most violent city in the country. Detroit ranked No. 2, even though it saw a 13% drop in violent crime that year.

This year, the two cities switched positions, with Detroit taking the top spot again.

Detroit saw 303 murders in 2016, compared to 295 the year before – a 3% increase. In comparison, Los Angeles, which has 4 million people compared to Detroit’s 669,000, saw 295 murders in 2015.

The highest murder rate in the U.S. in 2016 went to St. Louis, which had a rate of 60 murders per 100,000 people in 2016. Baltimore was second with a rate of 51 murders per 100,000. Detroit was third, with 45 murders per 100,000 residents.

Nationwide, violent crimes also went up for the second consecutive year. According to the FBI data, the

number of violent crimes rose 4.1% in 2016 from the year before. On the flip side, property crimes dropped 1.3% in 2016, marking the 14th straight year for a decrease in that crime category.

Codfather Sentenced

Was it greed or was it kindness?

On Monday, the courts agreed that it was greed, and Carlos Rafael, the New Bedford, Mass. fishing magnate whose brash business style earned him the nickname “The Codfather,” was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax evasion and flouting

fishing quotas. Rafael’s case could potentially impact the ability of hundreds of fishermen to continue working out of the port where he ran his illicit enterprise.

In the federal courthouse in Boston, Rafael, 65, told US District Judge William G. Young he mislabeled more than 700,000 pounds of fish not out of greed, but to protect workers whose jobs were threatened by limits on dwindling cod stocks. “This is the stupidest thing I ever did,” Rafael said in a statement read by his lawyer, William Kettlewell. “I didn’t do it to hurt anybody. I did it so my people could keep their paychecks.”

But the judge didn’t think it was stupidity that led Rafael to his life of crime. “This was a corrupt course of action from start to finish. It’s a course of action of extensive corruption designed to benefit you, to line your pockets. That’s what it is and why the court has sentenced you as it has.”

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Lelling, who prosecuted the case and was recently nominated as U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, said the 46-month sentence was justified.

Lelling said Rafael evaded federal limits by falsely reporting cod as less valuable fish, hurting small fishermen

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desert is a person, then those entities can sue individuals, corporations and governments over resource pollution or depletion. Future lawsuits in its mold might seek to block pipelines, golf courses or housing developments and force everyone from agriculture executives to mayors to rethink how they treat the environment.

who followed the law.

Rafael owns one of the largest groundfish fishing fleets in the United States. The court did not address what will happen to his 13 vessels and the valuable fishing permits used in Rafael’s scheme. The federal government is seeking to seize those assets, worth more than $19 million.

On Monday, more than 40 fishermen who worked for Rafael came from New Bedford to watch the sentencing. Many said they were stunned by his sentence and afraid they would

now lose their jobs.

“He kept hundreds of jobs afloat,” said Shawn Machie, an Acushnet fisherman who works on one of Rafael’s boats. Machie, 47, who has 3-monthold twins, said Rafael was forced to skirt regulations that prevent fishermen from making a good living.

“It wouldn’t be like this if it weren’t for unfair regulations,” Machie said.

“Why does the government got to squeeze people into a position where they gotta do stuff like this to survive?’’

Is a River a Person?

Even though a river meanders through the forest does that mean it’s a living being?

In a recent federal lawsuit, a Denver lawyer and a far-left environmental group are asking a judge to recognize the Colorado River as a person. It’s the first of its kind and, if successful, can upend environmental law. See, if a river or a forest or a

Several environmental law experts said the suit had a slim chance of success at best. “I don’t think it’s laughable,” said Reed Benson, chairman of the environmental law program at the University of New Mexico. “But I think it’s a long shot in more ways than one.”

The suit was filed on Monday in Federal District Court in Colorado by Jason Flores-Williams, a Denver lawyer. It names the river ecosystem as the plaintiff – citing no specific physical boundaries – and seeks to hold the state of Colorado and Gov. John Hickenlooper liable for violating the river’s “right to exist, flourish, regenerate, be restored, and naturally evolve.”

Because the river cannot appear in court, a group called Deep Green Resistance is filing the suit as an ally, or so-called next friend, of the waterway.

If a corporation has rights, the authors argue, so, too, should an ancient waterway that has sustained human life for as long as it has existed in the Western United States. The lawsuit claims the state violated the river’s right to flourish by polluting and draining it and threatening endangered species. The claim cites several nations whose courts or governments have recognized some rights for natural entities.

The lawsuit drew criticism from those who scoffed at its premise. “I think we can all agree rivers and trees are not people,” said Senator Steve Daines of Montana. “Radical obstructionists who contort common sense with this sort of nonsense undercut credible conservationists.”

Flores-Williams says the suit is an attempt to level the playing field as rivers and forests battle human exploitation. As it stands, he said, “the ultimate disparity exists between entities that are using nature and na-

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ture itself.” Imbuing rivers with the right to sue, he argued, would force humans to take care of the water and trees they need to survive – or face penalties. “It’s not pie in the sky,” he said of the lawsuit. “It’s pragmatic.”

The idea of giving nature legal rights, however, is not new. It dates to at least 1972, when a lawyer, Christopher Stone, wrote an article titled, “Should Trees Have Standing?” Mr. Stone had hoped to influence a Supreme Court case in which the Sierra Club wanted to block a ski resort in the Sierras. The environmental group lost.

Even though this concept seems laughable in the United States, other countries have embraced objects as living beings. In Ecuador, the constitution now declares that nature “has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.”

In New Zealand, officials declared in March that a river used by the Maori tribe of Whanganui in the North Island is a legal person that can sue if it is harmed. A court in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand has called the Ganges and its main tributary, the Yamuna, to be living human entities.

3x5 What?

Question: when is a cheat sheet not a cheat sheet?

Answer: when it’s an oak tag.

It all started on September 20, when Professor Reb Beatty of Maryland’s Anne Arundel Community College wrote on Facebook that students in his class were allowed to bring in a “3x5” cheat sheet to use during an upcoming test.

Elijah Bowen is a student who knows how to read between the lines.

Since Beatty never specified the unit of measurement of the cheat sheet – just saying it has to be 3x5 – Brown brought in a 3 by 5 feet cheat sheet to help him on the exam.

Beatty instantly noticed Bowen’s ingenuity when he walked in to ad-

minister the test. And he was gracious enough to note that he was outsmarted by his student.

“Appreciating the fact that (a) [the student] had the intelligence to realize this shortcoming and (b) the audacity to actually put this together and bring it in, there was no reason to not allow him to use it,” the professor said.

He uploaded a photo of Bowen spread out with his ginormous notes during the test along with the caption, “Well played and lesson learned for me.”

According to the Capital Gazette, Bowen passed the exam with flying colors, getting a “high B or a low A.” The student said that he didn’t end up relying too much on his gigantic crib sheet.

“I had to refer to the card only a couple of times, it was very big,” Bowen told the newspaper. “It was more comical than anything.”

For the Love of Bugs

Most kids at age nine like to ride their bikes, go swimming and play baseball. But not Sophia Spencer.

She loves bugs. But, like, really loves them. In fact, she wrote a paper on them.

Spencer, who lives in Canada, was one of two authors of a paper published earlier this month in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America. She and Morgan Jackson, an entomologist who works at the University of Guelph Insect Collection in Ontario, wrote about the importance of social media for making science more accessible to the public.

It all started about a year ago, when Spencer’s mother wrote to the Entomological Society of Canada asking if there was anyone there who might encourage her then 8-year-old daughter’s interest in insects. Sophia would be taunted by classmates because of her love of bugs and her mother was concerned her passion would soon wane because of the bullying. She asked if an entomologist would be able to speak with Sophia “for even five minutes.”

Soon, the hashtag #BugR4girls was buzzing as the Society tried to crowdsource a mentor for Sophia.

Jackson was amazed at the responses and decided to publish a paper describing how social media platforms like Twitter can draw attention to entomology. He asked Spencer to be a co-author.

In the paper, nine-year-old Sophia writes: “My favorite bugs are snails, slugs, and caterpillars, but my favorite one of all is grasshoppers. Last year in the fall I had a best bug friend and his name was Hoppers. When I first found Hoppers, I was kind of scared because that was the first time I held a grasshopper. When I grabbed him, he peed on me, and I thought he had bit me and that was my blood, so I flinged him and he landed somewhere on the stairs, but I found him and I was still a little bit scared, but I realized that he still liked me, like that was just a way to see if I was going to hurt him! I’d find him on the porch, or on the roof of my bug cage, or the side and it’d be really funny. And then I’d give him a little drop of water, which was really cool. I really like being a bug expert, but a lot of kids at school, they’re killing grasshoppers, especially the big kids at my old school…

“If somebody said bugs weren’t for girls, I would be really mad at them…

I think anything can be for anybody, including bugs.”

Now that Sophia is an esteemed writer in the bug world, her classmates have changed their opinion of her. She also reported getting recognized while she’s out and about, which makes her feel good “even if [she’s] not supposed to talk to them because they’re strangers.”

Since its publication less than two weeks ago, Spencer and Jackson’s paper has become one of the most popular papers ever published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America, according to Altmetric.

Seems like it’s really a bug’s life.

Better 80 Years Late than Never

bed, return it now. No, the librarians won’t throw it back in your face, although they may just charge you a huge fine.

Last week, The Young Lady at Home by T.S. Arthur was finally returned to the Attleboro Public Library in Massachusetts. It’s only about 80 years late. The book was stamped with a due date of November 21, 1938.

Yes, it was taken out during the Great Depression.

Library deputy director Amy Rhilinger said a man had been cleaning out his friend’s basement when he came across the book. She says the library staff thought it was “awesome” the book was returned even though it’s in terrible condition and can’t go back into circulation.

If the library would be charging a late fee it would have amounted to around $2,800. Thankfully, they’ll be passing on the charge.

Flying Motorcyles Stuck in traffic on Rockaway Turnpike? That may just be a thing of the past if Sebastian Thrun has his way.

At the Tech Crunch conference in San Francisco the Kitty Hawk CEO envisioned a future rife with flying motorcycles as the preferred mode of transportation.

“Three years from now flying cars will be very hot,” Thrun, who was the driving force behind Google’s autonomous car program, predicted. “We should not be getting stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel or the Bay Bridge anymore. You should just be able to go on your flying motorcycle and go wherever you want to go. That is actually becoming reality now.”

Thrun revealed that his company’s first product will be ready in February of next year. “And it’s more of like a flying motorcycle than a flying car,” he added.

Sounds like we’ll be living the Jetsons’ life in more ways than we thought. Sure beats traffic on the Belt.

Not Just Another Diamond If you still have that book from the library collecting dust behind your

Lesedi La Rona weighs 1,109 carats and is the size of a tennis ball.

The world-famous diamond was pro-

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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cured by Graff this week for a whopping $53 million. Lesedi La Rona is the world’s largest diamond.

What to do with such a big stone?

According to Laurence Graff, the company’s chairman, his team of master craftsmen will work “night and day to ensure that we do justice to this remarkable gift. The stone will tell us its story, it will dictate how it wants to be cut, and we will take the utmost care to respect its exceptional properties. This is a momentous day in my career.”

The diamond is the largest rough diamond discovered in the last 100 years. It was found in Botswana and, according to the Gemological Institute of America, it stands out for its quality and transparency.

Earlier this year, Graff also acquired a 373.72-carat rough diamond that was originally extracted from the Lesedi La Rona rock, as well as the largest heart-shaped diamond in the world, which weighs 118.78 carats, or 23.5 grams.

Tobias Kormind, managing director of the online retailer of diamond jewelry 77Diamonds.com, said that the sale marks an important moment for Britain’s heritage in diamonds.

“The only larger diamond previously unearthed was the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond, discovered in South Africa in 1905, and it was cut into smaller stones, the largest of which is the 503-carat Star of Africa, which sits in the Queen’s Sceptre within the Crown Jewels. It’s unlikely the Lesedi La Rona will yield a larger diamond than that, because the priority for Graff will always be quality, not size, but the stone could yield two pear-shaped diamonds of over 200 carats each,” said Kormind.

Sounds like a gem of a find.

Toilet Art Barney Smith’s art has been going down the toilet. And we mean that literally.

The 96-year-old has spent most of his life making art on toilet seats.

He has already decorated more than 1,300 covers and owns the Toilet

Seat Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas.

Ever since he was a child Smith loved art. But it was a job working as a plumber in 1921 that sparked his eccentric hobby.

Almost 70 years ago, Smith was at a plumbing supply house and realized that they just discard the toilet seats. He spotted 50 toilet seats laying on a dock to be thrown away, so he let the owners know he’d like to have some of them. He went home and applied his art to one of the toilet seat covers that night, and his hobby was born.

“I stay busy day and night working on toilet seats,” Smith said in a video shared by odetothecommode. com. “That’s my hobby.”

Smith has decorated 1,317 toilet seats since he began his artwork.

He’s hoping that his work will live on long after him.

Smith, who still opens his museum daily, is hoping to sell his collection to someone that will keep the museum open and free for visitors.

Each one of Smith’s toilet seats has a story behind it, he says.

“I am hoping it will stay with America. I am hoping that they will take this and put this in a museum, and that folk art will not ever leave,” Smith said.

Sounds like he’s flush with pride with what he does.

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Around the

Community Preparing for Rosh Hashana at Shulamith

I

n the days before Rosh Hashana, Jews around the world busied themselves in preparation for the upcoming chag, and at Shulamith School for Girls, students in every grade did the same. At the Early Childhood Division, the girls “shopped” for items needed for yom tov and taste-tested apples, pomegranates and more. They learned all about Rosh Hashana, celebrating the birthday of the world and the coronation of Hashem, our King. They enjoyed hearing the shofar blown by Rabbi Feigenbaum.

In the Lower Division, Kitah Alef prepared for the chag by creating honey dishes, moznayim, and Rosh Hashana cards.

A Thousand Ways to Shine

A

new year has started at Shulamith High School for Girls, and with it, a new season for opportunities, challenges, and exploration. Interested in coding? There’s a club for that.

Fascinated by how detectives gather evidence at a crime scene? There is a club for that, too.

Want to create a fashion portfolio?

Why not join that club?

Last week, the students of Shulamith sampled a wide variety of clubs and co-curricular offerings, and this week they began their explorations in earnest. Students in the Shakespeare elective started studying the famous playwright’s works, and they will cap this experience by going to London to explore his hometown. STEM students will collaborate on robotics challenges, engineering projects, and design thinking. Aspiring chefs will partici-

pate in a Chopped club and learn classical cooking techniques on their way to creating gourmet meals. In Fashion Design, students will begin creating their first fashion masterpieces.

The school also launched a number of interschool and intramural sports programs, including tennis, basketball, track and field, and yoga, giving its avid student-athletes an outlet for

boosting their fitness while building their skills and practicing teamwork and sportsmanship.

The diverse menu of electives and clubs complements a full program of limudei kodesh studies and academic disciplines, which are themselves taught in ways that promote active exploration, inquiry, and discovery every day. Taken together, they cultivate in

each Shulamith student intrinsic motivation and entice her to venture outside her comfort zone, as she tries out experiences she may have never imagined herself enjoying.

Shulamith is stimulating its students into new ways of thinking outside the box, as they conceive new visions of their future selves in school, careers, and life.

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Around the Community

Rabbi Reuven Feinstein, Shlit”a, Visits the Young Israel of Long Beach

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tradition that started many years ago, first in the home of Rabbi Sam Krischer, z”l, a talmid of Mesifta Tiferes Yerushalyim, and continued by Rabbi Yitzchok Frankel, shlit”a, also a talmid of MTJ, while he served as rav at the Bachurei Chemed shul continues to this day.

Although Rabbi Frankel has relocated to the Five Towns, the annual Mesifta Tiferes Yerushalyim breakfast tradition is maintained at the Young Israel of Long Beach in honor and respect of Rabbi Sam Krischer, z”l.

As per tradition, on the Sunday of Selichos a breakfast is held in support of the Yeshiva and the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Reuven Feinstein, shlit”a, addressed the assemblage. This year was no different; a large gathering came out to honor Joe Strassman, a distinguished attorney and member of the BACH Synagogue who relocated to Long Beach with his family several years ago. Rabbi Moshe Greene, rav of the BACH, presented a beautiful Kesser Shem Tov plaque with the picture

At the Chazarah Siyum in Yeshiva of Far Rockaway in honor of 19 bochurim who chazared Maseches Kiddushin over the summer

of Rav Moshe, zt”l, and an appropriate inscription to Mr. Strassman. Rabbi Jerry Kleinman served as breakfast chairman.

After being introduced by the breakfast chairman, Rabbi Chaim Wakslak, Morah D’osrah of the Young Israel, explicated the pasuk, “B’picha u’blvavcha lasosah” as a reflection of the greatness of HaGaon Rav Moshe who should always serve as a role model for each and every one.

Specifically, Rav Moshe combined an unfathomable level of Torah erudition – b’picha in combination with an exceptional level of modesty, sensitivity and love for every Jew – u’blvavcha.

Rabbi Wakslak then went on to extoll the virtues of the guest of honor who, together with his wife Rhonda, have established themselves as community-minded people who have built a beautiful family and embraced Torah observance. Joe accepted the honor with great humility and expressed his fealty for the Yeshiva and for the Feinstein family given their familial

Rabbi Reuven Feinstein, Joe Strassman, Rabbi Chaim Wakslak, Rabbi Moshe Greene, and Rabbi Edelman

relationship through the marriage of their son to a grandchild of Rav Reuven, shli”ta.

Rabbi Reuven Feinstein, shlit”a, then addressed the assemblage sharing with them an elaborate dvar Torah and words of inspiration appropriate for the impending yomim noraim. In particular he made reference to the subtle influences of American society upon the Jews who live in America.

He adjured those in attendance that it is most important to recognize the

insidious influences of these subtleties in order to defend against them and protect the delicate personality of the Jewish neshama. This particular event takes on added significance because it affords the members and friends of the Lido/Long Beach to meet, greet and hear words of inspiration right before the yomim noraim.

Everyone in attendance certainly felt better prepared for the upcoming days of tefillah and repentance.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Works of art by the HAFTR Art Institute are on display at Cravingz in Cedarhurst. The Art Institute is overseen by Mrs. Dale Malekoff and provides a unique and comprehensive art experience. It consists of unified presentations in a studio setting with a variety of materials, media and techniques to allow for the expression of the students’ concepts, perceptions and intuitions. The art curriculum is designed to meet the needs of serious art students in preparation for portfolio requirements.

The Dime Digs In with Kulanu

Shofarot at HALB

PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB BLOCK

L-R: Yair Rosenrauch, Kulanu programming, Rosa Bach, Michael Dunne, and Chris Reide of the Dime, Rachael Berg, and Dr. Raskin

T

he Dime Community Bank, represented by Cedarhurst branch manager Christopher Reide, recently gifted a block of Brooklyn Cyclones tickets to Kulanu Academy. Executive Director Beth Raskin graciously accepted and offered the seats to students, faculty and their families as a warm-up to the fall school season.

Chris, accompanied by Cedarhurst branch personnel Michael Dunne and Rosa Bach, toured the Kulanu Academy campus. Rachael Berg, Fundrais-

ing and Special Events Coordinator, described the various services and programs as she led her guests on a tour of the Kulanu facilities.

“The Dime Community Bank is all about community,” explained Chris.

The Dime proudly participated in the Kulanu Fair and in the production of “Yosef” with their financial support.

Volunteer opportunities and future collaborative activities were discussed. The Dime is a friend Kulanu Academy can count on; you can bank on it.

T

he students at HALB were excited to get ready for Rosh HaShana. We had shofar workshops, machzor workshops and Selichot.

The younger grades participated in a hands-on shofar-making activity. Many volunteers were called up to participate. Together the children were able to saw, cut and carve out a horn of a real ram and create a working shofar for their classroom!

The middle school girls attended

a workshop at the home of Morah Farbman. The girls went through the pages of the machzor and properly noted what to say and focus on during each tefillah.

The Sephardi children at HALB were invited to recite Selichot throughout the entire month of Elul.

Thank you Rabbi Marciano for running the minyan and for ensuring that our Sephardic children are fluent in their minhagim.

Wishing everyone a shana tova!

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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Around the Community

Third Annual TEAM Shabbos Movement to Unite Hundreds of Shuls and Communities Nationwide

O

n Shabbos Parshas Vayechi, December 30, hundreds of shuls in communities nationwide will join the third annual TEAM (Traditional End-of-life Awareness Movement) Shabbos, a project of the National Association of Chevra Kadisha (NASCK). Following last year’s resounding success under the leadership of Rabbi Elchonon Zohn, this initiative will continue to help raise awareness throughout our community about the Torah’s perspective on endof-life matters.

Beginning the preceding week and throughout the Shabbos, shuls around the country will be participating in the Team Shabbos movement in various ways. Rabbis will dedicate their sermons, lectures and shul programs to generate the discussion. Many shuls will be utilizing their weekly program and shul material (i.e. newsletters, e-blasts) to focus on relevant topics, while some will collaborate with NASCK to coordinate a special event in their community to boost awareness. Some of the topics that will be addressed include the Torah’s view of the inherent value and sanctity of life, the importance of being prepared to make proper medical decisions, choosing and helping others to choose traditional Jewish burial practices, and writing wills in accordance with Halacha.

Because end-of-life discussions are not easy to talk about, many of these very important obligations and far-reaching matters are infrequently addressed on a communal or individual level.

“Due to a lack of awareness about the inherent sanctity of every moment of life,” says Rabbi Elchonon Zohn, “many people make end-of-life medical decisions that are contrary to Torah values. The goal of TEAM Shabbos is to open the discussion about ‘Respecting Life - Here and Hereafter’ in a unified national movement to facilitate the necessary awareness about these issues.”

Last year’s TEAM Shabbos movement was a national success with overwhelming positive feedback. “Many of the rabbonim that presented drashos or shiurim on end-of-life were sur-

prised at the positive and accepting attitude that their communities responded with,” Rabbi Zohn explained.

“The ‘It’s about time’ sentiment was an oft-repeated phrase this Shabbos.”

“The tzibbur welcomed the opportunity to learn about the importance of end-of-life directives and halachic wills, as well as hear an overview of the halachos of end-of-life situations and issues related to a bais hakvaros,” explained Rabbi Dovid Heber, Rav of K’hal Ahavas Yisroel Tzemach Tzedek in Baltimore, Maryland. “Thanks to the efforts of NASCK, these sensitive topics were addressed ‘l’maaseh uv’rov am’ in our shul, together with many other kehillos in our community and nationwide.”

Many Torah-observant people do not fully understand the modern-day practical applications of end-of-life concepts such as pikuach nefesh and mes mitzvah. These important concepts require individuals to make proper medical decisions and assist less-observant friends, relatives, acquaintances and co-workers in choosing traditional Jewish burial practices.

In fact, a rabbi from Maryland noted, “Given the level of knowledge of the people in my shul, I was very surprised how unfamiliar they were with the many important hashkafos and halachos that pertain to end-of-life.

I’m so grateful to TEAM Shabbos and NASCK for giving me the push and the opportunity to speak about it.”

“We will continue to keep the discussion open and to generate awareness surrounding the importance of the inherent sanctity of life and choosing traditional afterlife choices,” says Rabbi Zohn. “We encourage communities to join NASCK’s many ongoing programs dedicated to support, inform, educate and inspire all those seeking information about traditional Jewish burial, including programs promoting halachic living wills and EMES (Emergency Medical Education and Sign-up) cards.”

To have your community join or for more information about the National Association of Chevra Kadisha (NASCK) and TEAM Shabbos, please visit www.nasck.org or call 718-8476280.

Torah at Chatzos Halayla

THE SEGULAH

which brings all its partners an abundance of yeshuos.

Boro Park | Williamsburg Monsey | Monroe | Meron

Avreichim engaged in Torah study in Kollel Chatos in meron at 2:30 am

The HANC Family mourns the loss of

Rebbetzin Goldie Fendel z”l and is forever indebted in its Hakarat Hatov to her for all that she enabled HANC to become.

We wish the entire Fendel family continued strength through this challenging and difficult time.

More than 65 years ago, Rabbi Meyer and Rebbetzin Goldie Fendel envisioned what others said was not possible. Their dream of providing a high-quality Jewish education to generation upon generation of Long Island Jewry became a reality through their dedication and that of the many who joined them in their mission. Their leadership, commitment, warmth, and foresight enabled the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County to be established and thrive on Long Island. Our HANC “founders” - individuals with a strong desire to build a Jewish educational institution to meet the needs of our diverse Jewish community - came together in unity to offer their time, talents, expertise, funding and unconditional love to build the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County.

Throughout the years, the Fendels have served as inspirational role models, exemplifying the highest ideals and bearing the torch of Torah on Long Island.

Through their vision and endless hard work, the lives of thousands of young Jewish students have been forever enriched.

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Yachad Opens Branch in Five Towns New Facility Houses a School, Adult Day and Vocational Program, and More PHOTO CREDIT NAFTOLI GOLDGRAB PHOTOGRAPHY

T

he Long Island branch of Yachad held an open house on September 11th with a celebratory kickoff for the newly opened school, adult day and vocational program, and other services and resources for people with disabilities and their families in the Five Towns and neighboring communities.

Community members, caregivers, local rabbis, and parents of children with disabilities attended the event, which highlighted the school, the adult day and vocational program, parent support group, and social and recreational programming at the community center. It’s located in Ohr Torah, 410 Hungry Harbor Road, North Woodmere, where Yachad houses their school, offices, adult day and vocational program, a therapy room, and an open area for program-

ming and support groups.

The open house was a warm and welcoming evening, with sushi and refreshments for family and friends of Yachad, where those new to the program had a chance to tour the facility and meet staff.

Rabbi Ahron Rosenthal, the Director of NY Yachad, gave a short presentation and a brief recap of how the Long Island branch was established.

“We were approached by families in the community about ten months ago seeking a number of needs, including an elementary school, adult day and vocational program, and local programming,” Rabbi Rosenthal said, “and we were able to put those programs and service together in under a year.”

Dr. Lichtman, the International Director of Yachad, then spoke about

the broader vision and mission of Yachad, which is to ensure that every individual has a place in the community. “They are our children and we want them to be a part of our community,” he said.

“We are now a community resource for the Five Towns and surrounding communities and are here for the community and responding to their needs, whether the school or adult day and vocational program or as a center for the community,” Rabbi

Rosenthal concluded.

The Long Island branch of Yachad is open and operating now and is a welcome place for all members of the community.

If you would like more information on the school, adult day and vocational program, or any of its programs, contact Meira Samet at sametm@ou.org or 516-730-9255, or call the main number for Yachad, 212-613-8229.

Children choose being happy over being right. Adults choose being right over being happy.

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Around the Community

Elul Sparks of Inspiration for Women of SKA’s Past, Present and Future

S

eeking yom tov preparation in hearing rousing words of Torah, an overflowing crowd of students, alumnae, mothers, sisters and future parents gathered for a morning of learning at the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls on Sunday morning, September 17. The

stellar list of speakers included Rabbi Isaac Rice, head of the Torah She’Beal Peh department; Mrs. Elisheva Kaminetsky, Director of Religious Guidance and Tanach Department Chairperson; and Mrs. Avigail Shmulewitz, limudei kodesh faculty member and grade level advisor.

“Representatives of SKA’s past, present and future are all here assembled in one place, searching for Elul inspiration that will draw us all closer to Hashem and to our people,” Mrs. Helen Spirn, SKA Head of School, noted in her introductory remarks.

Introducing the New and Exciting Long Island Synagogue and Social Hall in Inwood Community-Wide Simchas Bais Ha’Shoeva

S

unday night of Chol Ha’Moed Succot, October 8 at 8:45 PM the entire community is invited to a Simchas Bais Ha’Shoeva at Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv. At that time, we will announce the Long Island Synagogue and Social Hall that will soon be built.

The long-awaited project will result in a state-of-the-art, multi-level facility for simple or elegant simchos. The plan allows for fixed-price weddings as well as luxurious “a la carte” affairs. It will enable all of our families to have a wonderful, local alternative for their special occasions. We expect that the building effort should take eighteen months to complete.

The project is a non-profit effort of the Davis Memorial Fund, led by Rabbi Dovid Greenblatt. Rabbi Greenblatt

plans for the building will be a beautiful, state-of-art destination which will be an exciting addition to our bustling community.

Community rabbonim and leaders have expressed their support and interest in this exciting project. The multi-year effort for approval received the wonderful support of many local government officials, including Hempstead Town Supervisor Anthony Santino, Hempstead Town Deputy Supervisor Anthony D’Esposito, Councilman Bruce Blakeman, and Nassau County Bridge Authority Chairman James Vilardi. A large group of local Jewish leaders, including Yeshiva of South Shore Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky, and many others, worked together with local officials to

get this major project approved.

The Simchas Bais Ha’Shoeva celebration will be in Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv. The Yeshiva today has close to two hundred students and is a respected “Torah-home” for men of all ages.

The Yeshiva is open around-the-clock and staffed with wonderful shiurim for those wishing to grow in their Torah learning. The Rosh Ha’Yeshiva Rabbi Naftoli Jaeger, shlit”a, and many others in the Yeshiva leadership have participated in the effort of getting the project to succeed. The Yeshiva is glad to be the host of this exciting Simchas Bais Ha’Shoeva.

Entertainment will include live

music with Eitan Katz and catering in the sukkah by Catering by Michael Schick. The generous Corporate Sponsors for the evening include Gourmet Glatt, Seasons, Emporio, Birch Event Design, and Luxe Events.

We are counting on the generosity of our community to make this project a reality. Please reserve building dedications by contacting Dovid Greenblatt at the Davis Memorial Fund (516) 295-0296 or at davismemorialfund@gmail.com.

Come this Succot Chol Ha’Moed and celebrate this wonderful announcement together with our Community!

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Work has begun on the first mikvah in the town of Na’ale thanks to the generosity of many members and friends of The White Shul in conjunction with One Israel Fund during their Three Weeks campaign

Singing in Unity at HANC

R

abbi Mordechai Shapiro, the talented music teacher at HANC’s Samuel and Elizabeth Bass Golding Elementary School in West Hempstead, flew to Houston to participate in an OU-sponsored solidarity trip to bring chizuk to the Jewish community there. Together with Nachum Segal, from JM in the AM, and his keyboard player, Sruly Goldstein, they entertained the families who survived the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.

Travelling through the community, he was struck by the destroyed buildings and the mounds of belongings that were piled in front of the houses. Since many families had to move out of their

homes to hotel rooms, the Robert M. Beren Academy has been hosting communal meals for the families who do not have cooking facilities. “We did a little concert and they were extremely appreciative. The children were smiling. Parents came over and said: ‘You don’t know how special it is that you are here.’”

In addition to the entertainment that Rabbi Shapiro and Nachum Segal provided, Rabbi Shapiro reported that he witnessed an extraordinary outpouring of support from Jewish communities all across the country. “I saw trucks from Seasons in Lakewood and Evergreen in Monsey that drove for days to de-

liver everything from diapers and wipes to cereal, food for Shabbos, everything you can imagine. To see Jews from all over the country pitching in was inspiring to me.”

In anticipation of the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the students at HANC’s Samuel and Elizabeth Bass Golding’s Elementary School in West Hempstead were treated to an amazing concert by their remarkable music teacher, Rabbi Mordechai Shapiro.

As he entertained the crowd, the children sang along, often swaying arm-in-arm with their friends. There was so much ruach in the room that the children spontaneously stood up and began to dance

with delight. The energy and excitement was truly contagious. Included in the program was a beautiful duet, sung by Rabbi Shapiro and Rabbi Yaakov Sadigh, the principal of HANC. Later in the program, Rabbi Sadigh spoke about the importance of hakarat hatov, acknowledging when someone helps you and saying thank you to them. He encouraged the children to thank the people in their lives who help them, including their parents for all they do, to people in school who work so hard every day to teach them, prepare the building and supplies, etc.

It was a very profound lesson for everyone, and he set

hakarat hatov as one of the mitzvah goals for the new school year at HANC. HANC wishes one and all a shana tova.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Yeshiva Har Torah Gets a Special Visitor

T

he Yeshiva Har Torah Kitah Aleph journey to learn to read and write in Ivrit (Hebrew) kicked off with an exciting start.

After meeting the characters of their virtual classroom, the children received a special surprise visit from Ariot the Lion. Ari-ot traveled all the way from Eretz Yisrael to wish the children a warm mazal tov upon beginning their journey. He presented each student with a new choveret (workbook) that each child proudly accepted with anticipation and excitement. We look forward to what will surely be a year of tremendous growth and success for our first graders at YHT.

A Great Beginning to the School Year at Gan Chamesh

T

he school year at Gan Chamesh, Chabad’s Early Childhood Center is off to a great start. To begin the year, the teachers and staff took part in an awe-inspiring trip to the Ohel, the burial place of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, z”l. This presented a perfect opportunity to daven and ask Hashem for a successful and meaningful school year. The teachers and staff met with parents at an informative parent orientation

program on Wednesday evening, September 6. Everyone had an opportunity to hear about the unique philosophies of the school. The evening highlighted some of the innovative, multisensory Reggio inspired programs that Gan Chamesh has implemented.

Gan Chamesh runs elaborate and exciting enrichment programs revolving around the yamim tovim.

The children enjoyed a hands-on,

fun filled Rosh Hashana fair that provided them with a vast array of educational experiences. They painted with pomegranates, picked apples from an apple orchard, sorted apples by color, measured their height in apples, listened to different shofar sounds, and visited a Tashlich pond that had real fish, among many other interactive stations. The staff and administration of Gan Chamesh look forward to implementing other

inspiring programming and working together with the parents to ensure that the children have a great, successful year at Gan Chamesh. Wishing you all a shana tova u’metuka!

For more information about Gan Chamesh, Chabad’s Early Childhood Center, please contact Susy Adler or Suzanne Wallin, the program directors, at 516 295-2479.

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theanelisgroup.com

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

HANC High School’s Opening Ceremony

By Daniella Rothman and Gabby Schoenberg

W

elcome to HANC High School 2017-2018! We are so excited for the upcoming school year, and we know it will be a great one. To kick off the year, we had a great welcome back orientation, organized by our Student Senate.

We started with raffling off three

prizes, and, of course, all the winners were seniors. We were then welcomed back by Rabbi Adelman as well as introducing this year’s staff.

It was so great to see everyone once again and to be reunited as a school. To end off this fun event, everyone enjoyed ice cream. It was an amazing way to start off our “sweet” year and we can’t wait to see what it has in store for us.

First graders at Yeshiva Darchei Torah admired the new Middos Mission banner in the Darchei Torah hallway

Sh’eefa: Inspiring the Women of 7th Grade Welcome at HANC Our Community n Tuesday, September 5, the social work intern.

Y

ou can feel the excitement as the participants of Sh’eefa walk down the steps of Aish Kodesh at 894 Woodmere Place, on a Sunday morning or after a long day of work or college. Entering a spiritual oasis of Torah learning for women in the Five Towns community, post-seminary women can maintain their ruchniyus after their time spent learning in Israel. They are greeted with a smile and a feeling of knowing they belong, allowing them to connect with similar-minded young women, and are left inspired through the thought provoking shiurim.

Sh’eefa proudly presents shiurim and programming on Sunday mornings as well as every night of the week. Sh’eefa prides itself in having world renowned lecturers, mechanchim and mechanchos from our community, the tri-state area and Eretz Yisroel. In addition to the various speakers, Sh’eefa provides the young women with unique chessed opportunities, enabling them to assist and

connect with members of our community.

Elul was truly a special time at Sh’eefa. Rabbi Ephraim Frenkel, the menahel, and Mrs. Aviva Zakutinsky, program director, made sure that this was a month bursting with inspiration. Some of the speakers included Rabbi Mordechai Burg, Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, Ms. Chevi Garfinkel, Mrs. Shoshana Jaeger and Rabbi Yussie Zakutinsky. With hundreds of participants of all ages and backgrounds, from post-seminary to mommies to bubbies, everyone joined together to learn and spiritually prepare for the yomim noraim.

Sh’eefa is already looking forward to a jam-packed schedule for 5778 with shiurim from phenomenal educators, as well as uplifting Shabbatons, Melave Malkas and other exciting events. For more information on how to get involved, visit www. sheefa.org and follow us on Instagram @sheefaseminary1.

O

Hebrew Academy of Nassau County Middle School held a gathering to officially welcome all seventh graders to HANC. After a few announcements and introductions from Rabbi Hecht, Dr. Levey and Mrs. Steiner facilitated a program utilizing the six pillars of character. These are: fairness, trustworthiness, caring, responsibility, respect, and citizenship.

After giving a brief introduction to the program, each student randomly selected a character education stress ball that indicated which group (fairness, trustworthiness, etc.) they would be a part of for the program.

The students then joined the group leader with the same character education stress ball. A big thank you to our group leaders: Mrs. Jennifer Morey, assistant principal; Mrs. Miriam Steiner, school social worker/high school director of admissions; Mrs. Rachel Fryman, director of Learning Support; Mr. Stephen Potok, math teacher; Mr. Benjamin Kalimi, science teacher; and Mrs. Estee Esses,

Each group worked on defining what their specific character meant to them by writing and drawing on a poster board size puzzle piece. Once all the groups finished, everyone gathered back together as one large group. Each group then presented to the rest of the class their puzzle piece. Once all the groups and puzzle pieces were on the table, it became apparent to the group that one piece was missing that was needed to complete the puzzle. Dr. Levey retrieved the last puzzle piece which had “HANC” written on the board.

The takeaway from this program is that what makes HANC so unique and special is that each one of us, on a daily basis, to our friends, teachers and everyone else, demonstrate each character trait – fairness, trustworthiness, caring, responsibility, respect and citizenship.

After this portion of the program and some words about scheduling and such from Rabbi Hecht, the students enjoyed ice cream sundaes and popcorn provided by the PTA.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Getting To Know You: SKA Freshmen Retreat

By Sara Stein, SKA Class of 2021

O

n Monday, September 11, the ninth grade class of the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls set out for a once-in-a-lifetime experience...Freshmen Retreat.

As soon as the girls boarded the buses to Camp Kaylie, they instantly felt that they would have an amazing time. That proved true on the beautiful grounds of the camp. There, the freshmen had the opportunity to get to know the other students and faculty outside of their school setting, bond, and, of course, have a wonderful time.

The girls were joined by our Grade Level Advisors, Mrs. Ash, Mrs. Engel and Mrs. Leibtag, Associate Principal Ms. Elana Flaumenhaft, Rabbi Zakutinsky, Director of Student Programs,

Social Worker and Admissions Liasion Ms. Lisa Fogel, and, of course, Mrs. Helen Spirn, Head of School. All of these incredible members of the faculty and administration ensured that a meaningful, safe and entertaining time was had by all.

One of the ways they did this was by organizing entertaining games and activities for the students to enjoy, including fun races, karaoke, and dodgeball. The girls were even given duct tape and cardboard to make a boat which would be able to float across a certain distance in the lake!

Once the girls had a chance to work together with their fellow freshmen, they had the chance to explore the grounds of the gorgeous camp, utilizing all of the activities. Some of the most popular were go-karts, ten-

nis, and basketball. After two days of enjoyment, to their regret, they had to return home. However, before they left, they received yet another surprise – a delicious ice cream party. After all of the fun that the Class of 2021 had, if one asked any student what she thought of the trip, she would definite-

ly say that she had the best time of her life.

Mrs. Spirn summarized everyone’s feelings! “It was a pleasure to join the freshmen on their Retreat and watch them begin to meld as a grade while beginning new relationships with warmth, compassion and grace.”

As Mideast Diet Trends, Top Israeli Wineries Release Food & Wine Pairing Guide

I

n response to a growing American demand for wine-pairing advice for an increasingly trendy Middle Eastern cuisine, Israel’s leading Golan Heights and Galil Mountain wineries are releasing a pocket guide to Middle Eastern food and wine for the New Year.

The guide, which can be

downloaded for free (http:// yardenw ines.com/press/f avorite-middle-easter n-foods-w it hthe-right-wines/), provides an

eclectic menu of Middle Eastern foods available in the U.S., whether in restaurants, from street vendors

or in supermarkets, and matches them with the most appropriate wine varietals.

The wineries created the guide in response to a burgeoning demand for information about the Middle Eastern diet, as increasing numbers of people seek healthier and vegetarian food options. At the same time, more and more people are seeking to include wine as part of a healthy diet, with numerous studies showing the benefits of moderate wine consumption, or simply want the right wine for their favorite Middle Eastern dishes.

“Whether it’s in wine shops, at tastings, or just in the grocery aisle, more and more people are asking us about which wines go with various Middle Eastern foods,” said Dorit Ben Simon, executive manager of Yarden Inc., the U.S. importer of Golan Heights and Galil Mountain wines. “So we wanted to provide this free guide as a way to help people see how different wines can enhance these wonderful foods.”

The wine guide, for example, recommends that you pair medium-bodied riesling or rose with hummus; sauvignon blanc with Is-

raeli salad; chardonnay or rose with chicken pilaf; and even pinot noir or riesling with stuffed grape leaves.

The guide also recommends pairings for popular desserts, like a late-harvest riesling or muscat with baklava, or moscato with rice pudding.

The wineries are also hoping to expand the food and wine pairing initiative beyond the pocket guide, since the new Mideast cuisine is ever evolving. The wineries are urging people to contact them about food and wine pairings not featured in the guide, and they’ll provide further recommendations.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

aRba minim aRba minim ct io n al ity . la rg e se le Be au tif ul , to p Qu e nc rie pe ma ny ye ar s of ex

Councilman Anthony D’Esposito, School Board Chairman Lance Hirt of Lawrence, HALB Principal Rabbi Altabe, HALB Middle School Principal Uriel Lubetski of Valley Stream, and Hempstead Town Supervisor Anthony J. Santino at the HALB Chanukat Habayit ceremony

Esrogim large selection including chazon ish

lulavim large selection of deri lulavim

hadasim & aravos muvcharim

rabbi shayeh Kohn

917.597.5717 rabbi yecheskel Kaminsky

718.471.4209 707 Bolton road (garage in back of house)

call for hours accepting orders at skohn@yofr.org

Kitov esrogim center

Rabbi Herschel Reichmam Provides Rambam Family with “Tips for Teshuva”

R

ambam Mesivta’s Annual Teshuva-Thon featured Rabbi Herschel Reichman, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University, as its Maggid Shiur. The learning problem with held on Tzom Gedalya and featured father and son davening, chavrusah preparation of sources, and the shiur.

Rabbi Reichman specifically focused on practical aspects of teshuva, explaining that everybody can participate and gain. In analyzing the sources on hilchos teshuva, which the boys prepared with their fathers and Rambam rebbeim, Rabbi Reichman quoted a “diyuk,” that he heard from his Rebbe, the Rav. “Yom Kippur bestows forgiveness not just on those who have repented (the classical explanation of the words of the Rambam) but also on those who haven’t completely forsaken sin but are ‘In the process on doing teshuva.’” As long as one realizes that he has to change for the better, and is committed to strengthening their relationship to Hashem, the process is in effect and Yom Kippur will provide them with atonement.

Rabbi Reichmam also spoke about the one universal issue all Jews can improve upon. He said that everybody knows that the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed because of sinas chinam, petty hatred and infighting.

“Rav Kook teaches us that we need to have a dosage of ahavas chinam, unbridled love of our fellow man,” said

Rav Reichman.

Referring to the end of Tefilas Zakeh which we say before Yom Kippur, Rabbi Reichman said that it is meritorious for us to forgive people who have wronged us and we should not hold any grudges. “Although in fact there are times when we will feel defeated, because people have wronged us, there is an opportunity to grow from defeat and develop a different and healthier perspective on life,” explained Rabbi Reichman.

The shiur concluded with a robust question and answer period from both rebbeim, talmidim, and their parents. All in all, the special learning program helped make the fast into a meaningful and insightful experience in preparation for Yom HaKippurim.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Gearing up for a Great New Year at Gesher

S

tudents at the Gesher Early Childhood Center are excited about the special yomim tovim that they are learning about. With record enrollment for the 201718 school year, Gesher is looking forward to a shana tova filled with bracha and simcha for all of its students and their families.

Yomim Noraim at Kol Yaakov

By Shoshanna Friedman

Y

eshivat Kol Yaakov of Great Neck is preparing for the yamim nora’im by writing Rosh Hashana greeting letters home, with a special tzedaka collection initiative for the victims of recent hurricanes in Florida and Houston, and by learning the laws of kashering an animal and kapparot.

All classes wrote letters to their parents with their tefillot for their parents and or themselves. Boys wrote beautiful letters filled with hakarat hatov, thanks, good wishes for their parents, and a few even itemized a few new toys they’d like to see in the coming new year! Teachers encouraged age-appropriate understandings so toy requests were allowed.

Boys are also excited to play their part in helping those in Klal Yisrael in need due to natural disasters in their areas. Two boys from each class have been appointed a Hesed Captain and are in charge of making daily tzedaka collections which will be turned into a check and sent for Jewish disaster relief for the Florida,

Atlanta and Houston Jewish communities.

Finally, this past Sunday, Kol Yaakov had a special kashering and kapparot demonstration by Mr. Navid Hakimian with live chickens and recently shechted chickens as well. First, Mr. Hakimian explained and demonstrated the kashering and salting process. After, he also explained and illustrated kapparot for the boys. Boys came in small groups for close ups of both kashering and kapparot and experienced the howto process for themselves.

The yamim nora’im are so much more meaningful when students participate in them firsthand and upclose.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community Sulitz Tehillim Kollel parlor meeting at Moti Klein’s house

Rabbi Chaim Rubin, son of the Sulitza Rebbe, speaking

Mr. Moshe Ungar, president of the Sulitza Kehilla, speaking

Rabbi Yisroel Gold speaking

The Sulitza Rebbe speaking

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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Around the Community PHOTOS BY IVAN H NORMAN

A Kinus Teshuva was held at Yeshiva Darchei Torah this week. The presenters were Horav Yaakov Bender and Eliahu Rominek. Present for the Kinus was Horav Yechiel Perr, Rosh Hayeshiva of Yeshiva of Far Rockaway and a talmid of Rav Aaron Kotler, zt”l. Rabbi Bender asked Rabbi Perr to speak and share some of the insights of Rav Kotler, zt”l, with the large crowd.

The Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce co-hosted a pre-Rosh Hashana meeting with Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, the Republican challenger to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in the upcoming elections

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

HANC High School Special Pre- Rosh Hashana Gathering

O

n Tuesday, September 19, HANC High School gathered in their auditorium for what was an inspirational pre-Rosh Hashana assembly.

The program opened with the principal, Rabbi Shlomo Adelman, addressing the students and letting them know how proud the yeshiva is of the various pre-Rosh Hashana activities, all of which took place in just under nine days since the start of school.

These activities included the junior girls packaging food at the JCCRP and a meaningful sophomore Yom Iyun. Rabbi Adelman highlighted the

Houston Relief Mission and thanked Rav Yitz Rabovsky for leading “HANC Hurricanes for Hurricane Relief,” as well as recognizing director of Student Life Rabbi Daniel Mezei for organizing the entire mission.

Through an audio-visual presentation, Rav Yitz and the students who participated in the mission shared their experiences in Houston in a real and powerful manner, urging all of the students to apply the lessons to their daily lives. These lessons were learned through meeting a hardworking woman who, after a full day’s work, went on to help give out dinner to those

in need and meeting a rabbi from a Houston outreach center as he helped sort toothbrushes and toothpaste at a distribution center.

The HANC team landed in Houston in the early afternoon and under the hot Texas sun (before any lunch) went directly to a house which needed to be completely emptied because of mold and damage. For the next 36 hours, the HANC team was ready for whatever was needed, such as unloading a fully stocked truck of supplies at a huge warehouse, ripping up someone’s flooring with crowbars and hammers, and then visiting local shuls

to help make minyanim and distribute much-needed funds raised by the HANC community.

After the presentation, Rabbi Yisroel Chesir shared a magnificent story with a heartfelt message which impressed upon the student body to think of others as they prepared to approach the yomim noraim.

Before concluding the program, a school-wide hatarat nedarim was said followed by HANC’s music teacher, Dovid Klaver, leading the entire school in singing while playing the guitar, bringing great spirit through melody and harmony to all in attendance.

Bruce Blakeman Spearheads Rally against BDS

R

oger Waters is a well-known English singer who co-founded Pink Floyd, an avant-garde rock group in 1965. He left the group in 2013 because of a dispute he had with other members. He has used his concerts as a political platform to support Hamas and lambaste the state of Israel, openly supporting the BDS movement.

When word came that he booked a concert in the Nassau Coliseum, plans for a protest emerged.

Concerned about the spread of anti-Israel rhetoric and incipient anti-Semitism, the Nassau County Legislature held a hearing in May of 2016 to solicit community input about legislation that would bar the County from doing business with any company that promotes the boycott of Israeli goods or services. Understanding the significance of the legislation, the entire student body of Rambam Mesivta attended that hearing and a number of student representatives rose to the podium to speak out in favor of the pend-

ing legislation. The legislation passed unanimously.

It was only natural that Councilman Bruce Blakeman, a co-sponsor of that legislation and a staunch supporter of Israel, would call Rambam’s Rosh Mesivta, Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, to bring students from Rambam to speak out against the Waters concert in the Coliseum. The answer, of course, was affirmative!

Councilman Blakeman spoke poignantly about his support for Israel and his principled opposition to both the BDS movement and Roger Waters.

Pointing to a blow up picture of the inflatable pig with a Jewish Star and a money sign that Waters frequently brings to his concerts, Blakeman expressed his outrage and labeled it as blatant anti-Semitism.

Rabbi Friedman and Rambam’s Principal, Rabbi Yotav Eliach, spent time prepping the students on the issue, providing important details about the dangers of BDS, the history of Roger Waters statements and actions

during his concerts, the implications of Nassau County’s legislation and the strategy of the protest itself.

Rabbi Friedman was invited to speak at the rally and characterized Waters as a “racist with a guitar.”

That label stuck and was picked up by members of the media who represented all of the major channels.

Students from Rambam, Yoni Auerbach, Itai Eliach, Gavriel Haviv, and Benjamin Weiner addressed the crowd and media. Some read excerpts of a letter written by the Anti-Defamation League about Waters’ anti-Semitic rhetoric. Students from the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County also joined the protest voicing their concern about the upcoming concert and expressing their love of the State of Israel. Councilman Blakeman was joined by Legislator Howard Kopel who characterized the entire BDS movement as being anti-Semitic.

Despite the fact that the rally was held hours before that evening’s concert, Waters was impacted by its mes-

sage and referred to it during the concert.

And although those that purchased tickets may have heard music, according to protesters he remains “a racist with a guitar.”

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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Around the Community

Hebrew Hockey League

By Michael Edery

“I

s ice hockey hard? I don’t know, you tell me. We need to have the strength and power of a football player, the stamina of a marathon runner, and the concentration of a brain surgeon. But we need to put all this together while moving at high speeds, on a cold and slippery surface, while five other guys use clubs to try and kill us. Oh, yeah! Did I mention that this whole time we’re standing on blades 1/8 of an inch thick? Is ice hockey hard? I don’t know, you tell me! Next question.” -Brendan Shanahan, NHL Hall of Famer; Stanley Cup winner, Olympic Gold Medalist, World Championship So after a long, hot summer, we, at the Hebrew Hockey League, are proud to re-introduce our Friday program to the community. We are the only shomer Shabbos ice hockey program this side of the Mississippi.

Our head coach and co-founder, Hank Levin, having grown up on Long Island, played the youth hockey

system all the way up to Juniors, then College, and finally the Pros. With a shoulder injury forcing him into premature retirement from the Detroit Red Wing farm system, Hank, or as he is affectionately known as Coach Hank, moved into the private sector to share his love of the game with anyone that wants to learn it.

Coach’s teaching style is somewhat unlike other coaches the author has studied under, in that while firm and assertive he is not condescending or disparaging of a student that makes mistakes or fails on the first, second, or tenth attempt at successful execution. Coach looks at effort, not only at success.

Additionally, Coach treats each of his students like his only student, not like a number. Which actually means that he will stand on top of you and make sure you don’t get away with cheating, or not bending your knees fully, or “pretending” to need a drink because your thighs are on fire, or schmoozing with your buddy. Also, unlike other coaches, he explains so well and so thoroughly that by the time he’s done explaining, you won’t have any questions left. You will know exactly what to do!

I always tell him that if I had a

math teacher as good as he is a hockey teacher I may have actually turned into a somebody.

Our other co-founder, and author of this article, is, well, how shall we say this...not really very good at hockey and actually a student of his own program but has an unabashed love of the game! Which, really, at 50-years-old, is all that one needs to keep on playing, and staying in motion. It all began 42 years ago on a pond in Montreal, when 8-year-old Michael Edery first laced up a pair of cheap skates for “skating day” at school and the rest is history...

So when you join us, expect to see me doing the same push-ups as the 12-year-olds and looking at coach for encouragement. That’s when he will say, “Good work, Michael,” but really I know that he’s just being nice.

The program runs on Fridays at Long Beach Arena from 1:15-3:15 and includes an open puck shook from 1:15-2:00, then skills and drills from 2:00-2:45; that’s when we break into different stations and works on various skills, power skating, puck handling, battle-drills, etc.

Beginning 2:45-3:15, we have an organized scrimmage, which includes a referee and coaches, with the intention of trying to implement that ses-

sion’s lessons into real game experience.

Typically, about two-thirds into the season, the HHL will host a Hebrew Hockey Cup series, a 5 or 7 game series, in which the players battle for the Hebrew Hockey Cup, essentially a kiddush cup on steroids.

So beginning on September 15th at 1:15 at Long Beach Arena, located at Bay Boulevard in Long Beach, expect to see a bunch of guys schlepping big, giant, hockey bags, loaded with about 50 lbs. of equipment.

So how good is our instruction?

Well, one of our graduates is currently in the NA3HL development program – the third highest level junior hockey in the nation and the highest in the NY area. This player was also scouted by four teams out of the Greater Metro Hockey League (GMHL) in Ontario, Canada, as well as some other U.S. teams.

Did I mention that this player is my son, Avi? OK, this player is my son Avi. So kudos to the HHL upon the good work!

For further information please call Michael Edery at 516-569-3454 or email at Michael@paradigmcre. com.

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

In Tribute to Nechemia Rabenstein, a”h, Builder of Generations

By Rabbi Yaakov Bender

Y

eshiva Darchei Torah and the entire Far Rockaway/Five Towns community suffered a major loss on Erev Rosh Hashana with the petirah of Mr. Nechemia (Norman) Rabenstein, a”h. Reb Nechemia, the patron of Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s Rabenstein Learning Center, passed away after a short illness.

Reb Nechemia was an extraordinary individual who found his calling in helping the underprivileged. He was the first one to help whenever he became aware of a person in need.

He provided assistance without fanfare, shunning any glory or kavod.

It was nearly a quarter-century ago when he dedicated the resource center at Yeshiva Darchei Torah. After all, is there anyone more deserving of a helping hand than children who cannot make it?

Our director of development, Reb Zev Bald, and I would bring Reb Nechemia to visit the Center, explaining to him exactly what was going on in these rooms, with one-on-one tutoring and the full gamut of special-education techniques.

Overcome, Reb Nechemia would stand there and cry.

He bemoaned that he got caught up

in World War II as a young man and never completed the yeshiva learning that he would have liked. Rebuilding after the Holocaust, he made it his life mission to ensure that the light of Torah would never be extinguished. He never forgot all of his relatives who perished in the War. And he vowed to avenge their deaths by helping to build Torah in America.

He loved his shul, the Agudah of Long Island, and its rabbi, Rav Yaakov Reisman, shlita. He loved davening in what he considered a “fartzeiteshe shul,” a shul founded and run in the classic, European style.

Chazal say that one should honor his wife more than himself. They weren’t talking about Nechemia. He didn’t just honor his wife, Frida, a”h; he negated himself completely. He didn’t exist. It was all about her needs and her happiness.

I remember once going to Florida with Rabbi Bald, literally in and out, just to visit Reb Nechemia. The one thing that struck me during those few hours was his absolutely fantastic kavod for his wife. Before leaving his house, we asked him and his wife to pose for a photo. I showed the picture to my sons and told them, “This is the

way I want you to treat your wives, till 120 years.”

His ehrlichkeit was beyond compare in the business world. I could write story after story about this. Suffice it to say, the man never took a penny that wasn’t his.

In a generation in which kavod for rabbonim has unfortunately fallen, he always showed them the most tremendous respect. He was decades older than me, yet he never failed to treat me with respect and menschlichkeit.

He also had a great sense of humor and his happiness was infectious.

When he walked in to shul in Florida, I could sense the entire atmosphere change – they were all focused on Nechemia. This all happened with humility on his part, not one ounce of gaavah. Chazal say that a person needs to have 1/64th of a measure of gaavah.

Nechemia didn’t even have that much.

Reb Nechemia’s legacy is evident in his daughters, Mrs. Susan Rosenberg and Mrs. Gladys Neuman, who are always there to help others and always first to do a davar shebikdusha.

Nechemia’s grandsons, the Rosenbergs and Neumans, were extraordinary talmidim here at Darchei for many years, and we now are privileged

to have his great-grandchildren learning here.

It is thanks to Nechemia Rabenstein that the Rabenstein Learning Center is the pacesetter in American chinuch today. Nechemia was also the very first donor when it came time to build our new complex. Concerned that the building campaign was taking too long, he said to Rabbi Bald, “I want to see this building complete before I leave this world.”

Baruch Hashem, he was zocheh to see it, completed and occupied, for the final six years of his life.

I feel bad that there was no week of shiva. There could have been two full books of stories written by visitors. But I think, in a way, he received the levaya that he wanted: On erev yom tov, four hours before candle lighting. I imagined him saying, “I love this; I don’t want to disturb anyone.”

Most of our Yeshiva parents did not know Nechemia Rabenstein, but Yeshiva Darchei Torah will never forget him.

The Rabenstein Learning Center, the building, and, most of all, the hundreds of children who succeeded thanks to him, are his eternal legacy.

Yehi zichro baruch.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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TJH

Centerfold

You gotta be kidding Jacob, a good yekkie, was planning a trip to Israel for Sukkos. He spoke to his travel agent in advance and requested a window seat.

On the day of the trip, he arrived at the airport and was assigned an aisle seat. After a long and frustrating flight to Israel, he called his travel agent to vent. “I can’t believe you

put me in an aisle seat when I insisted that I wanted a window seat,” he complained.

The travel agent answered with his own question, “Why didn’t you ask the person who was sitting in the window seat near you if they wanted to switch?”

“I would have,” replied Jacob, “except that the seat was empty.”

A Blessing for Good Luck…

May this year bring you the luck of Joan Ginther of Las Vegas (age 70): $5.4 million: Amount Joan Ginther won in the Texas lotto in 1993 $2 million: Amount Joan Ginther won in the Texas lotto scratch-off game “Holiday Millionaire” in 2006 $3 million: Amount Joan Ginther won in the Texas lotto scratch-off

game “Millions and Millions” in 2008. $10 million: Amount Joan Ginther won in the Texas lotto scratch-off game “$140,000,000 Extreme Payout” in July 2010.

1 in 18 septillion (not a billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion or sextillion): Odds of the same person winning 4 different lottos. So all you hoping this will happen to you, keep on dreaming!

…And Good Business Skills May this year bring you the business skills of Steven Ortiz of California: When he was 17-years-old, in 2008, Steven Ortiz started out with an old cellphone and bartered his way to a 2000 Porsche Boxster over a

Riddle me this?

Four Fruit Two

In the supermarket, the aisles are num-

period of two years and less than 15 trades. Here’s how he did it: Cellphone → iPod touch → dirt bike → Macbook Pro → Toyota 4Runner → Custom Golf Cart → high-end dirt bike → street bike → 1975 Ford Bronco → 2000 Porsche Boxster

bered from one to six from the entrance. Dishwashing liquid is next to bottles and it is not the first item you see when you come into the store. You will see the meat aisle before the bread aisle.

Tins are two aisles before bottles and

B. C. D.

1.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

meat is four aisles after fruit.

A. What is the last aisle (aisle six)?

B. In which aisle can bottles be found?

C. What is in the first aisle?

D. In which aisle can tins be found?

Answers: The aisle order is: 1) Fruit; 2) Tins; 3) Dishwashing liquid; 4) Bottles; 5) Meat; 6) Bread A. Bread

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The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

METS 2017 SEASON WRAP-UP TRIVIA

3.

4.

5.

6.

ANSWERS

$35,500 per centerfold?!)

4.

B (DeGrom has 15 wins; Matt Harvey has 5 wins…The Dark Knight is a real slayer!)

5.

A (Bruce

2.

Which Mets player had the most hits this season, with a meager 127 hits? a. Jose Reyes b. Asdrubal Cabrera c. Yoenis Cespedes d. Wilmer Flores How many games was the Mets longest winning streak this season? a. 5 games b. 7 games c. 9 games d. 11 games Based on his 2017 salary, how much money did Yoenis Cespedes get paid per game played in 2017? a. $54,050 b. $98,350 c. $185,020 d. $277,777 Which Mets pitcher had the most wins in 2017? a. Robert Gsellman b. Jacob deGrom c. Seth Lugo d. Matt Harvey (yeah, right!)

Who hit the most homeruns for the Mets this year? a. Jay Bruce b. Michael Conforto c. Curtis Granderson d. Yoenis Cespedes How many starting pitchers did the Mets use this season? a. 6 b. 8 c. 9 d. 12

1.

B 2.

A (Unfortunately, it happened in the first 10 games of the season) 3.

D (How do I get a job like that…I only make

1.

7.

8.

9.

Who was the Mets first base coach in 2017? a. Dick Scott b. Tom Goodwin c. Tim Teufel d. Dan Wharthen Which team did the Mets have the most wins against this season (as of last Monday)? a. Phillies b. Braves c. Giants d. Reds Which team did Jacob deGrom hit his first ever homerun against, this season? a. Yankees b. Marlins c. Angels d. Nationals

Scorecard 7-9 correct: You’re really good! Maybe Cespedes should give you some of his salary – after all, you probably did more for the Mets this year than he did!

4-6 correct: Take your average and cut it in half and you are still way ahead of any Mets player.

0-3 correct: You are B-A-D…B-A-D…B-A-D! Or, shall I say, “You are rebuilding.”

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had 29 homeruns for the Mets before he was traded… classic Mets) 6.

D 7.

B 8.

A 9.

D

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13

Torah Thought

Yom Kippur

By Rabbi Berel Wein

T

he sublime holiness of the day of Yom Kippur is ushered in by the declaration of the annulment of vows in the Kol Nidrei service. Obviously we do not want to appear before the Heavenly court with outstanding unfulfilled commitments. But attempting to discharge one’s committed, seriously

undertaken commitments by cancelling those obligations unilaterally seems, at first glance, to be a slippery way of escaping one’s responsibilities.

Why are we so confident that Heaven will agree to this and truly wipe that slate clean for us? The Torah itself appears to be quite strict

and exacting in matters of vows and commitments. “All that you verbally commit to shall you fulfill” is apparently the governing principle of the Torah in these matters. Yet we are sure that Heaven will accept our nullification of vows as being valid, both legally and morally.

I believe that the reason for this becoming acceptable and even somewhat noble lies in the majestic concept of Yom Kippur itself. Forgiveness is a Heavenly trait. Human beings may forgive slights and insults and not act vengefully but

possess so that they gleam with their original luster; Yom Kippur polishes our souls, removing the tarnish that dimmed it over the year.

Since the body is not serviced on Yom Kippur, the soul, for this one day of the year, takes precedence and Heaven restores the soul to its original state of being and with its connection to its Creator. The soul needs no physical nourishment or exterior garments of show. It longs for the tranquility of the day and for the dialogue it conducts with its Creator through the soaring prayers of Yom

The day of Yom Kippur is a touch of Heaven here on earth. within themselves the hurt and the grudge remains. Such is our human nature, the instinct of self-preservation that is part of us from our first breath to our last.

But on Yom Kippur we ask Heaven to truly forgive us and to reverse time, so to speak, so that our sins and hurtful behavior appear never to have really occurred. Heaven does not bear grudges. And the day of Yom Kippur is a touch of Heaven here on earth.

What a gift this holy day is to us!

The reversal of time makes us all clean and fresh again. The body may feel its years and infirmities but the soul is refreshed and revitalized. Before holidays and special occasions we polish the silver items that we

Kippur.

And because of the magical reversal of time that Yom Kippur endows us with, we are able to relive the experience of the service of the High Priest in the Temple service of Yom Kippur. The past, present and future all merge seamlessly on Yom Kippur because our souls are eternal without barriers of time to distract us. So our inner selves are able to experience what to our physical selves is an unseen and remote occurrence. This ethereal quality of Yom Kippur should be treasured and appreciated by us on this, the holiest day of the year.

Gmar chatima tova. Shabbat shalom.

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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

From the Fire

Yom Kippur Abandoning SelfDeception

By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

R

abbeinu Bachaya says that the purpose of everything one does during the day is the Torah we learn at night and that the ultimate purpose of the Torah we learn at night is to prepare ourselves for Shabbos. He continues that the purpose of all of the Shabbosim of the year is to prepare one to reach the yomim tovim. And the purpose of all of the yomim tovim is to enable one to prepare for Rosh Hashana and the ten days of teshuva. But the purpose of Rosh Hashana and the ten days of teshuva is to prepare for Yom Kippur, and the purpose of all of Yom Kippur is to reach that one last hour of Yom Kippur: Neila. And the pinnacle of Neila is when we call out, with a whole heart and with simplicity, “Shema Yisroel Hashem Elokeinu Hashem echad!” and “Hashem Hu HaElokim! Hashem is G-d!”

The pasuk we quote (Melachim 1:18:39), “Hashem is G-d!” is from the Jewish people’s reaction to Eliyahu Hanavi’s showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mr. Carmel. Eliyahu Hanavi used that opportunity to rebuke the Jewish people for lacking any sense of embarrassment at the double life they were leading. He told them (Melachim 1:18:21), “How long will you dance on two sides of the fence?! If Hashem is G-d, go after Him! And if Baal is, go after him!” On one hand, they were Jewish and kept mitzvos, but on the other hand, they

were immersed in one of the basest forms of idol worship. He wanted to imbue them with a sensitivity to such contradictions. Even if they were not perfect, they should at least feel embarrassed when they serve the Baal and see it as a contradiction to the holiness they longed for as Jews.

Because this recognition that Hashem is G-d is the culmination of Neila, it means that if we focus on nothing else at Neila, it must be this recognition of the truth. While cultivating a feeling of embarrassment and shame is not in vogue these days, it is critical to living a meaningful life. As the Gemara (Nedarim 20a) says, quoting the pasuk in Shmos (20:16), “‘In order that fear of Him should be upon your faces’ refers to embarrassment; ‘in order that you not sin’ teaches that embarrassment brings to fear of sin.” We cannot continue pretending that the aveiros we do are nothing and do not pose a contradiction to righteousness and attachment to G-d.

Several times throughout Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur we say the piyut, “Supernal King,” in which we contrast the true King’s splendor with the “impoverished king,” Man. The paytan tells each of us with our little fiefdoms, “You dwell amidst deception.” We indulge in whatever our weaknesses are but deceive ourselves into not realizing that our indiscretions are incompatible with

our true aspirations.

A person must be sensitive to the contradiction of davening Mincha from the same electronic device on which he looks at things at which a Jew is forbidden to gaze or on which he has wasted so much time with idle entertainment. If it were permitted, many people would download the Machzor and daven from them on Yom Kippur as well! We so often fail to recognize the contradictions we live with. We must live with the simple recognition that Hashem is G-d and He sees everything. In our lives of deception, we may delete our browsing history and think that we have fooled our wives, won’t get caught, and have erased what we have looked at. But we cannot deceive G-d. He sees everything. Recognition of this fact is the simplest element of faith.

Our tefillos at Neila have such potential. We do not have to promise Hashem that we will not sin at all in the coming year; that we will be like the Chofetz Chaim, the Chazon Ish, or the Baal Shem Tov. Nor could we.

But it would bring such blessings down into the world and into our lives if we simply said to Hashem, “I’m not going to live a lie anymore.

I can’t promise that I won’t slip up again this year, but I’m not going to live in my little kingdom of deception anymore. I won’t live a lie. If I fail, I will at least feel a little embarrassed

about it.”

There is a whole crop of deeply spiritual musicians in Eretz Yisroel, many of whom are baalei teshuva through Breslov. One of them, Amichai Chasone, expresses this feeling so beautifully in his song “Aba Yakar,” “Precious Father” in an album called “Alma,” “World.” In this song, he sings, “For me to cross the imaginary boundary I have created for myself, I must, I must be true. And if I do not have truth, there is no faith.

And this hurts me. It hurts me, precious Father!” This is exactly the feeling we must have. We must recognize the truth.

O

ne of the great tzaddikim of our generation was the Bobover Rebbe, Reb Shlomo’le.

Anyone who has met Reb Shlomo’le is fortunate and one can even inspire himself to do teshuva just by looking at a picture of him. The Rebbe survived the war with his son Naftul’che and the two of them originally settled in the Upper West Side.

The Rebbe was so broken he felt he had no strength to attempt to build up Bobov chassidus again and wanted to live the rest of his life learning in the back of a beis medrash somewhere, were it not for the Satmar Rov’s encouragement and chizuk. At the beginning, he and his son started a little shtiebel in the Upper West Side. It was so small, they sometimes

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2015 2017 The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29,

did not even have a minyan.

One Friday night, the Bobover Rebbe was in the street looking for a tenth man for Kabbalas Shabbos and Maariv and he spotted someone he thought was Jewish, so he said to him in Yiddish, “Come, we need a tenth man for the minyan.” Initially, the man refused, but the Rebbe insisted, so the man, Yankel, told him, “You know, back home, I was the baal tefilla, I led davening. So I will join you if I can lead the davening.” The Rebbe complimented him, telling him that they were fortunate to have found someone to lead the davening. The few chassidim in the shtiebel were a bit put off since it appeared this man, a fellow survivor, was not at all observant. But the Rebbe invited him to lead, so he led the davening.

The following Friday night, Yankel did not wait to be invited to shul or to lead the davening. He walked right into shul and straight up to his place and began leading Kabbalas Shabbos. The next morning it was the same thing, and he led Shabbos morning davening as well. This went on for several weeks and the regular attendees in shul began to get more and more annoyed. It was clear that this man was not even observant, yet he walked straight into shul to lead the davening every week. Then, one Friday night, Yankel did not show up.

The Rebbe waited a little bit for him but they eventually started without him. And he did not show up Shabbos morning either. Worried, the Rebbe asked his son Naftul’che and his friend to go find Yankel. They initially protested, pointing out to the Rebbe that this was Manhattan and not Bobov. They had no idea where to look. But the Rebbe insisted, so they went out.

Naftul’che and his friend went to a nearby park, and lo and behold, they found Yankel right away, sitting, reading a newspaper, and smoking.

This confirmed what they already knew; that Yankel was not at all observant. Not wanting to embarrass him by approaching him and “catching” him in the act of smoking on Shabbos, they returned and told the Rebbe that they had found Yankel.

“Well, where is he?” They answered

that they had found him smoking.

But the Rebbe argued, “No, he was not smoking.” But the Rebbe’s son, Naftul’che told his father that indeed, they were fairly close to him and got a good look. It really was Yankel. “No, that wasn’t Yankel smoking. You made a mistake.” Naf-

Naftul’che and told him, “See, I told you it was the German smoking. Not Yankel.”

W

e are also damaged by the coarseness of this world.

While none of us can com-

The Rebbe told them, “No, Yankel was not smoking. The ‘Daitsche,’ the German, the Nazi was smoking. It wasn’t Yankel. Now go get Yankel.”

tul’che’s friend spoke up, confirming that indeed, it was Yankel, and that he recognized him and saw him smoking on Shabbos.

The Rebbe told them, “No, Yankel was not smoking. The ‘Daitsche,’ the German, the Nazi was smoking.

It wasn’t Yankel. Now go get Yankel.”

They were bewildered and did not fully comprehend what Reb Shlomo’le was saying. But they went back to the park only to find that Yankel had already left. They returned to the shtiebel and told their father, who was very upset and disappointed. Yankel never did return to the shtiebel.

The Rebbe went onto to move to Crown Heights, and then Boro Park, where he began slowly rebuilding the Bobov dynasty. About thirty years after Reb Shlomo’le’s time in the Upper West Side, he was making a weekday tisch with hundreds of chassidim and a new face walked into the room crowned with a beautiful beard and peyos. The man approached the Rebbe and asked, “Do you remember me?” The Rebbe looked at him and thought but could not place the face.

So he explained, “I’m Yankel, the one who led the davening in the Upper West Side.” The Rebbe was overjoyed! He hugged and kissed the man and asked him what brought him to Boro Park. He placed an envelope in front of the Rebbe and told him that he was making a chasuna and wanted to invite the Rebbe. The Rebbe told him on the spot that he would be there and then turned to his son

pare what we have been through to what Yankel and the Bobover Rebbe went through in the war, what we have been through has put us in a position where we find ourselves doing things that do not reflect who we really are. We must hear the voice of

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Reb Shlomo’le of Bobov saying to us, “It’s not really you. It’s the German.

The evil inclination. The other side.”

Let’s be honest about what we’re doing wrong but recognize who we really are. Our mistakes are not who we are. They are a departure from our essence, our true goals.

May we merit to daven with truth and keep in mind that while we cannot promise G-d that we will be perfect, we can resolve to end the lies and abandon our little kingdoms of deception. May we merit to see the return of the Navi who taught us sensitivity to the truth and an intolerance for living a life of contradictions, Eliyahu Hanavi, with the coming of Moshiach, may it be soon in our days.

Rav Moshe Weinberger, shlita, is the founding Morah d’Asrah of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY, and has served as Mashpia in Yeshiva University since 2013.

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OCTOBER 29,28, 2015 | The Jewish Home SEPTEMBER 2017 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Between the Lines

Lip Service

By Eytan Kobre

Well done is better than well said.

-Benjamin Franklin

I

n 1888, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef – a student of R’ Yisrael Salanter and then-resident of Vilna – was appointed Chief Rabbi of New York, where he would champion Orthodox Judaism against formidable opposition from Reform, Conservative, anti-religious, and Communist factions. After years of hardship and struggle in New York, Rabbi Yosef suffered a debilitating stroke that left him unable to speak publicly for the last five years of his life.

Shortly before his untimely passing, however, Rabbi Yosef made known that he would be delivering a Shabbos Shuva sermon, despite his ailments. Because hardly anyone had heard him speak in years, news quickly spread of the chief rabbi’s intentions, which garnered a great deal of publicity and interest.

At the appointed time, Rabbi Yosef sat facing an enormous crowd, comprised of every faction of the Jewish community – those who had been loyal to him from the outset and those who had sought to ruin him.

He began softly, weakly. “Shteit in Rambam in Hilchos Teshuva…” (“The Rambam states in the Laws of Repentance…”)

He stopped.

He paused.

He started again. “Shteit in Rambam…”

Another stop. Another pause.

And then another attempt to begin.

He fought mightily to remember what the Rambam had written but he simply could not. After another unsuccessful try, he sat in silence, tears streaming down his face.

Then he spoke again, in a different tone and with a different purpose. “Do you understand what it means for the Genius from Volozhin to forget a Rambam? Witness man’s demise! Repent now, because there will come a time when you will want to repent, but you just won’t remember how…”

Rabbi Yosef cried. Those gathered cried. And they took his words to heart.

It is said that he accomplished more on his final Shabbos Shuva than he did in all his years in New York (The Rav Hakolel, pgs. 412416). His unwitting actions that Shabbos made a deeper, more lasting impression than his words ever had.

D

uring the Ten Days of Repentance – and especially on Yom Kippur – one prayer stands out as the focal point of our service: the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.

The Thirteen Attributes originated after the sin of the Golden Calf as part of G-d’s pledge never to destroy the Jewish people (Shemos 34:6-10; Bamidbar 14:17-19). In revealing His attributes, G-d assured the Jewish people that, in times of urgency, the Thirteen Attributes would never go unanswered (Rosh Hashana 17b; Eliyahu Zuta 23). This is the covenant to

which we refer in “reminding” G-d, so to speak, “You taught us to say the Thirteen [Attributes], and remember for us today the covenant of the Thirteen [Attributes].”

So that’s it? Chant some attributes and we’re home free? Sounds easy enough.

And according to some, it is just that easy: we merit salvation by reciting intently or meditating deeply over the Thirteen Attributes (Rabbeinu Bachaye, Shemos 34:6; Ramban, Emuna U’Bitachon, Chapter 19).

But others – pointing to the many who have recited the Thirteen Attributes without salvation – regard mere recitation as insufficient. To them, G-d’s covenant requires emulation of the Thirteen Attributes (SheLaH, Shemos 34:6; Reishis Chochma, Sha’ar HaAnava Chapter 1; Ein Yosef, Rosh Hashana 17a; Alshich, Bamidbar 14:17). Indeed, the great Kabbalist R’ Moshe Cordovero compiled a treatise (Tomer Devora) fashioned after the Thirteen Attributes, describing how each is to be cultivated and honed – and he is quick to caution against the notion that mere recitation of the Thirteen Attributes accomplishes the goal of salvation.

The young nephew of a wealthy merchant once asked to join the family business. As luck would have it, the uncle was in the market for a responsible and trustworthy manager to oversee the day-to-day operations of his stores. With his nephew more than happy to oblige, the merchant

enumerated a list of daily tasks and a rigid schedule. Handing the to-do list to the youngster, the merchant promised the handsome monthly salary of 50 gold coins for his work.

On the payday following his first month on the job, the young man asked for his salary. Before handing his nephew the money, the merchant wanted to know how business was going. Without hesitation, the nephew rattled off the long list of duties and the detailed schedule the merchant had given him.

“Okay,” the merchant replied.

“But how are the stores?”

“The stores?” asked the puzzled young man. “How would I know? I haven’t been to any of them. I have, however, memorized the list you prepared for me – perfectly, I might add.”

The uncle was incredulous.

“What? You haven’t even visited the stores? Didn’t it dawn on you that you needed to act on the list rather than just memorize and regurgitate it?”

So it is, explained the Chofetz Chaim, with our recitation of the Thirteen Attributes. Of course we can recite the Thirteen Attributes.

That’s no feat. But G-d wants us to act on them and emulate them and incorporate them into our lives. Like the merchant’s list of chores, the Thirteen Attributes are the roadmap for what we ought to be doing.

G-d’s covenant that the Thirteen Attributes would never go unanswered was conditioned upon emu-

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lating and personifying them (Rosh Hashana 17b; Sota 14b [“just as He is compassionate, so you should be compassionate”]). After all, “it is not the study that is primary, rather the action” (Avos 1:17).

The same idea is expressed at another high point of the High Holy Day service, U’Nesaneh Tokef, in which we proclaim that “teshuva (repentance), tefilla (prayer), and tzedakah (charity) overturn the bad decree.” In nearly every Machzor, three words appear above those words: above “teshuva” is “tzom” (fast); above “tefilla” is “kol” (voice); above “tzedaka” is “mamon” (money). Repentance, prayer, and charity are familiar concepts in our tradition, but those little words remind us to give them expression through tangible action. Without such action, the concepts remain just that: concepts.

(The numerical value of each of the three words – “tzom,” “kol,” “mamon” – is 136, which also is the numerical value of the word “sulam,” ladder. Tangible actions are the ladder by which one reaches the lofty concepts they are intended to repre-

sent.)

Yankel, known to be an opponent of the Hasidic movement, once visited the town of Sassov during the month of Elul, and he couldn’t help but notice something odd: the Rebbe, R’ Moshe Leib Sassover, would

Now Yankel just had to prove the Rebbe’s followers wrong. So, early the next morning, as the Rebbe left his home with a package of food and an axe, Yankel followed close behind.

Dressed as a peasant, the Rebbe walked deep into the woods, took out

“Do you understand what it means for the Genius from Volozhin to forget a Rambam?

Witness man’s demise!” consistently arrive in shul after Selichos already had concluded.

Confident in his position, Yankel confronted the Rebbe’s followers.

“How can your Rebbe miss Selichos every day? What kind of a Rebbe skips Selichos?”

“You don’t understand,” explained the Rebbe’s devotees. “The Rebbe is late because he ascends the heavens on behalf of the Jewish people to beseech G-d on their behalf.”

his axe, and chopped a tree into firewood. Bundle of wood in hand, the Rebbe then trudged along to an old, run-down hovel, where an elderly woman opened the door.

Seeing the load of chopped firewood, the woman apologized that she could not possibly accept so large a bundle of wood since she lacked the money to pay for it. “No problem,” R’ Moshe Leib answered. “You can pay me whenever you have the money.”

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Then the elderly woman told the Rebbe that she was not strong enough to lift the wood, and R’ Moshe Leib heaved the heavy logs into the furnace and lit a fire. And as he lifted each successive log and tossed it into the furnace, he recited one-by-one each of G-d’s Thirteen Attributes. Hashem, Hashem, G-d, Compassionate and Gracious…

Yankel ran back to town and straight into the shul where he had challenged the Rebbe’s disciples.

When they asked whether he had seen the Rebbe ascend the heavens, Yankel answered enthusiastically, “Yes, yes, high into the heavens. And perhaps higher!”

That is what it means to not only recite the Thirteen Attributes but to embody them. That is not lip service – it is true service.

Eytan Kobre is a writer, speaker, mediator, and attorney living in Kew Gardens Hills. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? E-mail eakobre@outlook.com.

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21

The Observant Jew

Don’t Come Running to Me

By Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz

H

ave you ever heard someone talking on the phone and from the one part of the conversation you hear you can imagine other side? It happened to me recently when I overheard my wife talking to one of her friends. I heard her say, “Well, just don’t complain if you go to the dentist and she has nine cavities.”

I can just imagine that the woman on the other side had said something like her child had eaten three packs of sour gummy worms, or was chewing gum constantly, or that her daughter wanted a Slurpee every day (wait, that would be MY family…).

The only ones who know what prompted that remark are my wife, her friend, and possibly a spouse or child on the other end who wouldn’t know what my wife said, but it was clear that my wife was reminding her friend that whatever she just said could lead to some negative results.

If it did, she’d have no one to blame but herself.

It reminded me of the old joke about parents warning their children away from dangerous behavior.

“Don’t climb up there, it’s too dangerous!”

“Oh, Mommy! Come on, I’ll be careful.”

“OK, fine,” she relents, “but if you fall down and break your leg, don’t come running to me.”

Now, maybe it’s because when parents are yelling at their kids there’s a lack of oxygen to their brains and they say funny stuff, but

the mother is so intent on telling her son that he did it to himself that doesn’t even realize the irony of her words. You know how that type of conversation goes: “Who do you think you are?”

Well, if she doesn’t know, why is she yelling at me?

“Did you think that was a smart thing to do?” Well, obviously I did

done what he or she did in the first place. Sounds reasonable, right?

However, it struck me that Hashem doesn’t work that way. He does tell us, “Don’t do that, it’s dangerous!” When we persist, He does say, “OK, fine, suit yourself.” But that’s when the difference becomes clear.

The next line isn’t, “When you fall and break your neck don’t come run-

I’ve seen bumper stickers that say, “Don’t blame me; I didn’t vote for him!”

because people don’t plan to do dumb things.

“Did you really think you would get away with that?” Um…yeah?

The point is that when we do things without thinking them through, or allow ourselves to do risky behavior, other people will generally point out that we were wrong and we deserve, or at least must face, the consequences of our foolishness.

When they warn us not to do something silly or irresponsible, it absolves them of caring and being sensitive when we get hurt from our actions. And why not? It serves us right.

I’ve seen bumper stickers that say, “Don’t blame me; I didn’t vote for him!” It’s people washing their hands of other people and problems because the person shouldn’t have

ning to me.” It’s actually, “When you fall and get hurt, come to Me and I’ll make it better” and “Turn to Me and I’ll ease your pain.” Think about that.

He doesn’t rub it in and try to make us feel bad. Hashem doesn’t get any perverse pleasure from watching us hurt ourselves. In fact, it hurts Him but HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows He must give us the chance to learn from our mistakes and make the right choices afterwards and in the future.

The Navi tells us that Hashem doesn’t desire the death of the wicked, but rather their repentance and their return to Him and His guidance. If they destroy themselves, Hashem hasn’t “won,” and He has no ego that prevents Him from accepting sinners who wish to turn their lives around.

In fact, we learn the lesson of teshuva, repentance, from Kayin, son of Adam, who was the world’s first murderer. There was nothing he could do to undo his evil act, but it was not too late to change himself and do away with the murderer he had once been. The Midrash tells us that when Kayin told his father that he’d been given a clean slate, Adam said, “Such is the power of teshuva and I didn’t know!” He was then inspired to compose the psalm, “Mizmor shir l’yom haShabbos.”

Though through his sin Mankind was pushed out of Gan Eden, Adam praised G-d because Hashem still gives us Shabbos, a taste of Olam HaBa, to let us know that we’re not too far gone. One day we will go back.

It celebrates and remind us of the fact that Hashem is constantly saying to us, “If you hurt yourself, please come running to Me.”

Jonathan Gewirtz is an inspirational writer and speaker whose work has appeared in publications around the world.

You can find him at www.facebook.com/ RabbiGewirtz and follow him on Twitter @RabbiJGewirtz. He also operates JewishSpeechWriter.com, where you can order a custom-made speech for your next special occasion. Sign up for the Migdal Ohr, his weekly PDF Dvar Torah in English. E-mail info@JewishSpeechWriter. com and put Subscribe in the subject.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Sukkot Day Trips Eve Harow With Guide

Bar Kochba’s Yehuda and Modern Gush Etzion Monday, October 9, 2017 Tishrei 19, 5778

• We start in Hevron at Ma’arat Hamachpela, and the rarely open Ulam Yitzchak

• Then we’re off on a jeeping tour of Gush Etzion!

• In Kfar Etzion we will have a dairy mehadrin lunch at the Hamama’s Sukkah followed by the powerful film about the 1948 War in Kfar Etzion • Visit the pioneering Kashuella Ranch and Bat Ayin Cost: $95 per person (345 Shekels per person) Cost includes r/t armored transportation, guide, water, jeeping, entry fees and lunch

Under Living Schach in The Jordan Valley • At the Einot Kedem Ranch meet the inspirational Atidyas, their at-risk kids, sheep, dates, mangos and olive trees.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017 Tishrei 20, 5778

• Then we will visit Yinon’s Spice Farm in Na’ama and the see the effect of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement • Enjoy a dairy mehadrin lunch in the Sukkah of Cafe Cafe Bika'a • Travel up into the Shomron to tour the growing community of Kochav HaShachar • Head south on the Allon Road to Mitzpe Dani, its Midrasha and Tanach inspired view Cost: $75 per person (275 Shekels per person) Cost includes r/t armored transportation, guide, water, entry fees and lunch Trips departs promptly at 8:15 AM from the Liberty Bell Parking Lot (behind the Sonol Gas Station) and returns approximately 6:30 PM

* Itinerary subject to change due to security, weather and/or other considerations. ** See website for Cancellation Policy, Terms and Conditions.

FOR RESERVATIONS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION visit www.oneisraelfund.org/daytrips // email to daytrips@oneisraelfund.org or call Sarah Tacher in Israel: 516.239.9202 x18 // 050-587-7710 (Rings Israel Hours)

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

A Fulfilled L fe

Learn to Let it Go

By Rabbi Naphtali Hoff, PsyD

“Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” -Herman Hesse

Y

om Kippur, the most serious day of the Jewish calendar, is here. As in the past, we go to shul on erev Yom Kippur to make

New Location Norma & Carmela From “Creations” Have moved to: 32 Norton St. Inwood, NY 516-295-2216

PROVIDING EXPERT ALTERATIONS AND TAILOR SERVICES

our final preparations for the awesome day. Printed in the machzor is a tefillah (prayer) that I must admit I haven’t recited as well as I should have over the years. It is called tefillah zaka (pure prayer) and it is a lengthy, penitential prayer. In tefillah zaka we speak in great detail about how we have sinned, including how different parts of our anatomy and mind were misused for illicit purposes. Later in the text we arrive at a paragraph that, though positioned towards the end, is really the essence of the prayer.

“But since I know that there is hardly a righteous person who never sins between man and his neighbor, Yom Kippur does not atone until one appeases his neighbor … behold, I extend complete forgiveness to anyone who has ever sinned against me… or injured me… and just as I forgive everyone, so may You grant me favor in every person’s eyes, so that they will grant me complete atonement.” (Due to this paragraph’s central importance and the fact that many people do not complete the entire prayer before Kol Nidrei, the Chofetz Chaim urged people to recite it at an earlier part of the prayer so as to ensure its recitation.)

When I say that haven’t recited this prayer properly I refer mainly to the above paragraph. After all, there have been people who have hurt me, sometimes in serious ways. They seemed very content with their be-

havior and most did not seek forgiveness. Even though I recognize that if we all – myself included – willingly forgave one another then we would all be able to approach Hashem for the atonement that we desperately seek, it is so hard to forgive sometimes, especially if their behavior hurt my career and/or affected my family.

I suspect that most of us have struggled with this point. We simply have a hard time letting go and are prepared to hold grudges indefinitely when we feel that we were right, even to our own detriment.

It is said in the name of the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch that the Rebbe asked why it is that children don’t bear grudges and adults do. Children may get upset at their parents, teachers, friends and others. They’ll say, “Mommy, you’re the meanest parent ever!” and genuinely mean it. They will tell a friend that they have no intentions of playing with them ever again and storm off to another part of the playground.

Yet, within but a few minutes all is typically forgotten and they move on in those same relationships.

Adults, in contrast, can hold onto grudges for decades. Someone who mistreats us in business, does not extend to us the requisite respect, speaks badly about us, or commits some other unforgivable act (including and perhaps especially family) can receive the silent treatment (or

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worse) for the rest of their lives. Why, asks the Tzemach Tzedek, are adults so much more reluctant to forgive?

His answer is simple, yet deeply profound. Children, he says, choose being happy over being right. Adults choose being right over being happy.

My interpretation of this is as follows. Children care most about their relationships. They define themselves by their social connections and will make that a top priority. Even when they have been wronged they seek to quickly move on so that they can get back to what they enjoy most, playing and spending time with others. Their happiness – defined by the relationships that they have – remains paramount and serves as a Teflon coating around their egos.

Adults, on the other hand, are more focused on their self-identity. We measure ourselves not only by our relationships but also by our values and behaviors. What I believe and, by extension, what I do and value makes me who I am. And we develop strongly-held convictions

around those beliefs. When others hurt us, whether their intention was personal or self-serving, we see that as an attack on our very essence.

Such feelings are harder to let go of and can often linger indefinitely. At that point, it’s no longer about what they did but about how they make you feel, or whether they are morally or otherwise upstanding enough to deserve to be in your good graces.

As the popular saying goes, “You

You did something that hurt me. But I want to move forward in my life and welcome joy back into it. I can’t do that fully until I let this go.”

On Yom Kippur we do everything in our power to loosen ourselves from our physical, corporeal shackles and become spiritually elevated.

We want to become pure like malachim and, in a sense, emulate Hashem as well. He describes Himself as merciful and compassionate, and our

Children, he says, choose being happy over being right. Adults choose being right over being happy.

can be right or you can be in a relationship.”

Forgiveness isn’t a sign of weakness. Instead, it’s simply saying, “I’m a good person. You’re a good person.

sages direct us to follow in His ways.

“Just as He is merciful, you too shall be merciful. Just as He is compassionate, so too shall you demonstrate compassion.”

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There is little that we can do to emulate our Maker more than to follow in His ways. Consider for a moment what it must “feel” like to be Him. Every day His Word is violated innumerable times. People know what’s right and yet fail to live up to that standard. Regularly and consciously. Does Hashem hold grudges? Does He block our attempts at repentance? Of course not. And while we recognize that Hashem is not trapped by the human limitations that often block us, we can still use His compassionate, merciful standard as inspiration for our own behavior.

Wishing us all a gmar chasima tova.

Rabbi Naphtali Hoff, PsyD, is an executive coach and president of Impactful Coaching and Consulting. He can be reached at 212.470.6139 or at nhoff@ impactfulcoaching.com. Get his new leadership book, “Becoming the New Boss,” on Amazon or at becomingthenewboss.com/order.

MAY YOU BE JUDGED TO BE SEALED IN THE BOOK OF LIFE FOR A HEALTHY AND SWEET YEAR

HON. GARY F. KNOBEL Candidate for Re-election District Court Judge TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD, 2nd DISTRICT

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Another L

k

You Know What Your Father’s Going to Say

By Rabbi YY Rubinstein

S

iblings, as I wrote in my last book, are something Hashem decided for whatever reason, I should not have.

I am an only child. Thinking about those words as I write them ... that’s a very strange phrase. It makes it sound as though I am the only child in the world. Of course, an only child might have been treated like that by their doting parents. They may have (to employ another strange sounding phrase) “spoiled them rotten.”

Thankfully, my parents resisted that temptation.

As a boy I certainly recall feeling as though I was indeed all alone. When I was bullied or treated badly at school and I had no big brothers to protect or advise me on how to deal with the situation, being alone in the world seemed very real.

When I became a father of six children and observed their interactions with each other, my sibling-free childhood sometimes appeared, on reflection, a place of unrivaled bliss and serenity.

There was the time when one

of my sons, aged four and a half, climbed over the bars and into the crib of his little brother, aged two.

The two-year-old had the most unruly hair anyone had ever seen. It stuck out in all directions.

No matter what we did to it, the follicles refused to cooperate and promptly returned the hair to its original Einstein-ish appearance.

My late wife and I were eagerly awaiting his third birthday when the traditional first haircut would solve the problem of his rebellious hairstyle once and for all.

We didn’t get the chance.

Neither of us ever did discover where his older brother got hold of the scissors and we shuddered to think of him climbing into his brother’s crib with them in his hand. In any case, he decided that the time for hair removal was a year earlier than scheduled and he set to work. When I came in a while later the older brother and his scissors had made their escape. My youngest son sat surrounded by shorn curls, completely unaware that his little

head now bore a remarkable resemblance to a pineapple.

If I think back (and I don’t have to do so too hard), I can think of hundreds of interactions between my children where I had to move from loving to strict father mode.

The question of “Did you do this or that to your brother?” was accompanied with the sort of look a hawk gives a mouse as it swoops down on it from the sky.

That was usually enough to elicit an admission of guilt. The next stage, of course, was to get them to feel regret and remorse as when I asked another son, “Are you sorry for cutting the pages out of your brother’s schoolbook?” (what was it with my kids and scissors anyway?).

If the head nodded up and down, I accepted the apology and the next stage was obvious, “Then go tell your brother you are sorry and you will never do anything like it again.”

T

he phrase we use to address Hashem in our Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur

prayers is “Avinu Malekinu.” Before He is our King, He is our Father. That is why when we stand before Him on these crucial days and express regret and remorse, you know exactly what the “Tatty” is going to say next, “Then go tell your brother you are sorry and you will never do anything like it again.”

The Rambam makes that clear as daylight in Hilchos Teshuvah Chapter 2:9, “Neither your teshuva and expressions of regret to Hashem nor Yom Kippur can atone for what you have done to hurt others. For that you have to secure their forgiveness.”

What, though, if you were the victim and it was your head that was left looking like a pineapple?

The Chofetz Chaim comments in his Ahavas Yisroel, “It is extremely common that from some minor disagreement over a truly trivial matter, dislike grows between two people. No open hostility and hatred is apparent between them, however they endeavor to avoid each other’s company. In the vernacular we would

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say that ‘things are not right between them.’ From that, real and actual enmity has begun to take root. The trivial issue evolves into something more serious and actually crosses the line to contravene the commandment, ‘Do not hate you brother in your heart.’”

The pasuk could, of course, have simply written, “Do not hate your brother.” The addition of the words “In your heart” requires investigation.

The Pele Yoetz offers a crucial observation. “Hatred for another is most toxic and deadly when it remains hidden in someone’s heart, while superficially he pretends that there is nothing wrong at all. This is a condition for which there is no cure. When enmity exists between two people and they show it and make the hatred clear, a mediator can come along, deal with the issues and help re-establish friendship.

If, though, one keeps his hatred concealed and hidden, no remedy is possible and it lasts forever.

That is why the Torah specifies prohibits hating someone in your heart.”

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur demand that if two people find that “things are not right between them” they try their best to make them right as much as they possibly can. The best way to achieve that is to go back to the beginning and do something you may have forgotten to do at the time. Apply the mitzvah of dan l’kaf zechus.

The Chofetz Chaim suggests that you have to explain to someone the reason why you have started to feel animosity towards him and adds, “When a Jew feels animosity towards another, he should not conceal his feelings.

Instead, the Torah insists that you tell him of your feelings (in a gentle and calm way) and ask, ‘Why did you do this or that thing?’ Then you should banish the memory from your mind.

This should be your constant approach.”

I hope it is not a chutzpah if I suggest adding something to the Chofetz Chaim’s words. Say to

is one mitzvah that will guarantee that Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are a failure and that is if

“Hatred for another is most toxic and deadly when it remains hidden in someone’s heart, while superficially he pretends that there is nothing wrong at all.”

the person you are not sure but “you think” he has hurt or damaged you. Then spell out what you think the person did.

There are three possible outcomes of doing this.

The first is that the person explains that what you thought seemed to have happened was simply wrong. He offers a different explanation of events and suddenly the story you thought was so certain changes completely. (That has happened to me countless times when I bring my hurt to someone I think caused it.)

The second is that the person explains that what you thought seemed to have happened was right. The person admits both his guilt and his regret and explains that he was so ashamed he simply didn’t know how to come and tell you so.

The third is that that the person explains that what you thought seemed to have happened was right and he feels not the slightest smidgen of regret whatsoever.

What happens in that case will depend on many factors and will need input from your rav but you are certainly no longer guilty of hating your brother in your heart.

Rabbi Dessler quotes Chazal who say that how you treat others is how Heaven treats you. There

we didn’t do the mitzvah of dan l’kaf zechus. As a consequence, Heaven will not, chas v’shalom, be dan us l’kaf zechus.

In a few days’ time we will be

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standing in front of our Father Who may have had to move from “loving” to “strict” Father mode.

When we express regret and remorse, we know exactly what He is likely to say next. It will either be, “If you want me to forgive you, then go tell your brother you are sorry and you will never do anything like it again.”

Or, “Are you quite sure you are certain about what you think your brother or sister did to you?

Before I forgive you, go and tell them, in a gentle and calm way, ‘It seems to me that you did this or that thing… and see what they reply.’”

Doing both of these things guarantees that when it then comes to getting our Father to forgive us, He will recall that how we treated others and is how He will treat you.

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hoever adopts Torah Judaism and confesses the unity of Hashem, as it is prescribed in the Torah, is counted among the disciples of Abraham our Father. -From Rambam’s letter to the convert Ovadiah

I

first made acquaintance with Zevulun (Zev) Woodward late on an April evening last year. We were in shul and his face was unfamiliar. I walked over to say hello. He and his wife Yocheved had just made Aliyah from Dallas, Texas. It took no more than the mention of the only person I knew in Dallas for Zev’s eyes to lighten up.

Think of all the people you know who have made Aliyah. Think of the sacrifices they had to make in coming from their country of birth; family, friends, comfort, language, culture, a difficult bureaucracy, just to name a few. Aliyah requires a total life adjustment.

Multiply that level of difficulty twice, even three times and get a sense of the scale of sacrifice Zev and Yocheved have made on their Aliyah.

For example, some Aliyahs don’t work. Many people come here in the hope of making it, but make tentative arrangements and have safety nets in place just in case of failure. So determined were Zev and Yocheved to make a success of their Aliyah that, despite their age (they’re into their 70s), despite their lack of Hebrew,

despite having lived their entire lives in Texas, despite all that, they sold everything they owned with the notion that by “burning their bridges” they wouldn’t find reason to return to the States.

There is another difference between the Woodwards and most everyone you know making Aliyah; Yocheved and Zev weren’t blessed with a Jewish education in their

They did all of these things with a passion and cheer that is infectious and inspiring. Their faith in Hashem is immutable. The love of chessed is indefatigable. Their defiance in the face of adversity is breathtaking.

Their story offers a glimpse into the lives of a couple who sacrificed everything to live in Israel, a country that even a year later they remain in love with despite the frustrations,

Yocheved sums up this period of her life thusly: “You can’t study Torah and stay in error.”

youth, the scantest notion of Yiddishkeit, or even the concept of Israel as a life destination. In fact, it wasn’t until they were both well into their 40s that they first met a Jew. They have spent over forty years on a spiritual journey through the desert. It’s a journey they didn’t have to make. No one told them to search for that elusive truth they failed to find in the churches of their youth.

They weren’t forced to become members of Bnei Noach, or to take the ultimate plunge under a chuppah, followed by a flight to Israel and the two-and-a-half hour drive to the Western Galil.

the lack of language, and a culture as crazy as a redneck at a rodeo.

B

oth were born and raised Christian; in Zev’s case, in the Church of Christ; Yocheved, a mixed household of Baptists and Methodists. That long road also ran through a working lifetime for Zev as an engineer for Union Pacific Railroad, the largest railroad in the United States. He rode freight trains a mile long. Of his workmates he chuckles again before describing a “rough and rowdy bunch.”

Yocheved worked as an engineering technician for a company dealing

in exploration, drilling and production of oil wells, and an eight year stint as an employee for US Post.

Yocheved speaks softly, but with the passionate determination of a wise Jewish grandmother. She doesn’t recall a story, as much as relive it. Her brachot are pronounced clearly and with a sense of intention that never fades through repetition.

Yocheved’s father worked for an oil company and was transferred often. She describes her youth as unstable because the family never put down roots. Born in Mineral Wells, about 50 miles east of Fort Worth, she recalls the two churches at the end of one of the streets she lived on and how on Sundays she would walk to the corner and watch her father enter the Methodist church, while she accompanied her mother to the Baptist house of prayer. This didn’t last long as her mother died when Yocheved was 13-years-old.

Zev has a cherubic face, a flashing smile, and sports the hardened twang of a true central west Texan.

He is dedicated to Yocheved and fondly refers to her as “wahf.” He was born in Woodson, only 50 miles to the east of Mineral Wells. Today its population is over 230, but when Zev was young it was home to 350.

He had many questions for his pastors and preachers, but they brushed him aside. It was a customary practice to keep parishioners in the dark.

Zev chuckles and suggests this is be-

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cause his preachers didn’t know the answers themselves.

Jews are spiritually or halachically curious. We ask questions.

This is what we do. It seems almost unnatural not to seek out the truths that are ours for the taking.

Moreover, Orthodox Jews are in shul seven days a week. In contrast, churchgoers spend about an hour on a Sunday in church and a 45 minutes Bible class during the week. The rest of the time are left to their own devices. This was the sum of Zev’s childhood church experience. It left him wanting. Like Yocheved, he was curious. He had questions no one could or would answer. He sums it up succinctly when he says, “They don’t want you to know much.” He oftentimes felt that his questioning of his pastor or preacher threatened them.

In short, his experience in church boiled down to a simple matter of faith. Yes, there were precepts that needed to be followed, but they were humanistic, like being a good citizen and being moral, but there was an insistence that “we had to have the J-man because we weren’t good enough to reach G-d.”

Woodson was a tough farming town. It wasn’t a place you were expected to do anything other than follow in the path of your elders. This included Zev’s extended family and his anti-Semitic parents.

Yocheved echoes a similar sentiment. As a child she had an unbreakable faith in G-d – “whoever that G-d was” – but grew to resent the fact that her parents didn’t go to church often. Her experience in church never amounted to more than a lot of “taught morality.”

I

t was during the 1970’s that Yocheved and Zev’s lives converged after they were introduced by her sister’s high school sweetheart in Dallas.

In 1990 they came to Israel on a tour arranged by one of their local churches. Yocheved recalls standing on the balcony of their hotel in Jerusalem and watching a shepherd herd his flock of goats across the hills below her. “It was as if Hashem had

taken the Magen David and circumcised our lives,” she recalls. Despite the experience of such a spiritual awakening, she was at a loss: she had nowhere or no one to help her channel those feelings.

Their pursuit of the truth continued haphazardly. With no one to guide them, they were left to their own devices. Yocheved would customarily devour as much Christian literature in the local library looking for evidence that “the J-man” was the true “son of G-d.” These forays

current Christian Bible Jews are depicted as blinded from the truth.

They will eventually discover this Christian truth, and Yocheved was taught that that day of reckoning was coming. Never once had the idea occurred to her that Jews knew anything that she needed to know. What she didn’t know couldn’t teach her.

Or so she thought.

26 miles away in Jacksonville, Texas, the local Noachide congregation, a group of G-d-fearing, truth-seeking, disenfranchised

into history revealed little more than what she believed were fabrications.

In 1979 they moved to Palestine, Texas, where they chanced upon a Ben Noach who shared a similar experience. He introduced them to a minister who was preaching in a southern Baptist church studying the Hebrew roots of Christianity. He had lived in Israel for five years and invited them to a Torah study class. They learnt things that are fundamental to Jews but revelatory to them. For example, they had no idea how the Torah was divided into parshiot.

Everything he taught them was antithetical to what they had learnt till then. A constant notion would catch Yocheved by surprise: in the

Christians, had lost their meeting place. They came to Palestine where they rented a hall. The Woodwards began attending the Noachide meetings. The only downside was that many of these newly acquired friends began converting to Judaism.

The opening paragraph on the Aish.com website’s guide to Noachides reads: The Torah, as explained in the Talmud, presents seven mitzvot for non-Jews to observe.

These laws are the pillars of human civilization, and are named the “Seven Laws of Noah,” since all humans are descended from Noah.

They include the prohibition against murder, theft, idolatry, cursing God,

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sexual immorality, and eating the limb of a live animal. The seventh law is a positive obligation to set up a system of justice.

Their pastor, who eventually converted and currently lives in the middle of Israel, slowly began moving away from the concept of Baptist theology and began preaching the Torah way of life from the pulpit. It took almost a year before he was questioned by his parishioners. Eventually he voluntarily moved away from church and eventually converted to Judaism.

The meetings were based on Jewish sources, which led Yocheved and Zev to begin purchasing books from Feldheim and ArtScroll. They were moving in a new direction. The pastor was moving ahead in his own spiritual quest. It was his belief that anyone that breaks the least commandment is the least in the kingdom of heaven. It came to a point when he refused to hold the meetings in his house as he didn’t want anyone to drive on Saturday. He didn’t want them sinning. This, despite the fact that Bnei Noach are not supposed to keep Shabbat.

Many ideas were floated: they could all move geographically closer to each other. Someone suggested they buy a plot of land in Colorado and live communally. None of these ideas bore fruit.

Yocheved and Zev spent months studying alone. They purchased Torah tapes. Yocheved sums up this period of her life thusly: “You can’t study Torah and stay in error.”

What they were lacking was a rabbi who could guide them. It was at this time that Yocheved found herself in total conflict with herself. She had finally come to the realization that they “had been duped” and that the “J-man was not real.” Yocheved confided in a friend from the group, who whispered that she knew exactly how she felt. She and Yocheved cried together over the fact that they had invested so many years of their lives promoting and believing in lies.

She was terrified to tell Zev about the “shock and horror about discovering the truth.” She didn’t know

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how he would react.

On the same weekend Zev was out fishing with the pastor, who confessed that he didn’t believe in Yashka anymore. “The same pastor said, ‘J--- is not real.’ It was a shock.

‘I can’t believe you’re saying this. Say it again, pastor,’” Zev repeated over and over. He was initially incensed, and yet the more he thought about it the more he was inclined to agree with the pastor.

When Yocheved discovered Zev had come to the same conclusion she knew “it was a sure sign from heaven.”

I

n 1997 a lot of their group began to convert one way or another; Reform, Conservative or Ortho-

dox. Yocheved and Zev had no support. This state led them learning more about the seven Noachide laws.

After years of study they were sworn in as Noachides in Florida.

Then they sought guidance from an Orthodox rabbi. They wanted to learn as much about Judaism as they could.

The thought of becoming Jewish never crossed Zev’s mind until his mother died. Another stumbling block was his work on the railroad.

He knew that the announcement of his interest in Judaism would have seen him quickly fired for a fabricated misdemeanor.

Both Yocheved and Zev expressed the difficulty of life as Bnei Noach.

“It’s an empty life as a Bnei Noach.

There’s nothing to spiritually guide you. No chagim, nothing spiritually satisfying.”

In 2000 they met with one of their rabbis. They wanted to keep Shabbat and were looking for a way forward.

They were instructed to remain Noachides. They were heartbroken. The rabbi explained that as Bnei Noach they were effecting the world in a positive way and could convert when they got older. The years as Bnei Noach passed slowly.

When Yocheved talks about Israel, tears abseil down her cheeks.

“Think about our sages who died trying to get here,” she says. “There’s no way to say to Hashem that You’ve gifted us with such a holy land and not live here. We knew it would be difficult.”

And it is. Both Woodwards have suffered their fair share of intransigence at the hands of Israeli bureaucracy. Zev chuckles when he says, “They’re people that don’t have reasons for not doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”

They cherish the six years they spent in the Ohr HaTorah community and were, in turn, cherished by the kehilla. They lived next door to Yoni and Yona Chatzinoff. Yoni says that to call the Woodwards extremely beloved would be putting it mildly.

There are a few people with complete families in Dallas. A younger generation has moved to Dallas with grandparents living in the big cities.

The Woodwards were proxy grandparents for many.

Zev became the shul’s handyman, and could always be found at the house of one of the rabbis fixing something. Before they converted, Zev was proud to be the Shabbos goy.

When women were in their ninth month of pregnancy, he would sleep on his couch so he wouldn’t miss the knock on the door in the middle of Shabbos night.

Yoni Chatzinoff can remember the day of their wedding and the excitement in the kehillah. Yocheved doesn’t remember the excitement as much as the weight of the world on her shoulders.

I

t was on the 5th of Elul that they finally took the last leap towards the life they are living today.

Yocheved becomes emotional when relating her trip to the mikvah. She realized how becoming a Jew would halachically affect her relationship with their children, one of whom still believes their parents are going to hell for converting. The others are, for the most part, supportive.

Ma’alot doesn’t provide the comprehensive Torah classes they were used to in Dallas. They know there are more opportunities in other cities, but have fallen in love with the Galil and have decided to stay.

Zev and Yocheved have had an effect on me I never quite expected.

When I see their dedication and devotion to the Torah way of life, when I try to comprehend just how much they have sacrificed, I am driven to better myself. When I walk into shul about to reel off a tefillah by rote, all I have to do is look up to see Zev in his regular seat at the back, shake myself together, and do a reset.

Yocheved and Zev are an inspiration to all who meet them. May they continue to grow in their spiritual journey along the path in which they see Hashem and His wondrous ways in every facet of their lives.

Rafi Sackville, formerly of Cedarhurst, teaches in Ort Maalot in Western Galil.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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Dating Dialogue

What Would You Do If… Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters

I’m engaged to Mendy and we plan on getting married after the yom tovim.

Mendy is a perfectionist. I used to think I was also, but nothing compared to hm. When he walks out of his house, everything about him is so perfect he could be on the cover of a fashion magazine.

He is also a perfectionist about his entire life. He’s very structured about his day and what he needs to accomplish every hour and, it seems, even every minute. I am also very organized and never start off my day without a list of what I need to do. And I can’t even remember the last time I got into bed at night that everything on my list wasn’t successfully crossed off. Though Mendy and I are on the same page in many aspects of our lives, I think what drew both of us to each other is this need for order and planning. I have a mother who is anything but… and Mendy’s mother is also not the most organized person in the world.

But now that we’re engaged, I’m seeing a downside to Mendy’s need for perfection. I guess I sort of sensed it when we were dating, but not the way I’m seeing it now. He is very, very anxious. Almost to the point where he seems obsessive about what he – and now what I – need to accomplish. For instance, I have more free time on my hands than he does. He gave me a list of real estate brokers to contact last week in order to check out apartments for us. He gave me the list on Monday, and on Tuesday he was already asking me about how many brokers I spoke to, how many apartments I saw, what were the pros and cons to each one, and though I felt I was on top of the situation and ran around and saw quite a few potential places to rent, he couldn’t stop asking me why I never got around to meeting up with one of the brokers on his list that I hadn’t had time for. I thought I had done a great job and was waiting for Mendy to tell me so and, instead, he made me feel as though I slacked off and wasn’t taking “apartment hunting” seriously enough. He wasn’t mean to me, and he isn’t mean. It’s just that he seems to get so frustrated and maybe even a little frightened, when things don’t play out exactly the way he expects them to.

I’m seeing that he worries tremendously about the big things and the little things equally. Even though I would think that most details surrounding a wedding is usually handled by the kallah and her family,

Dear Navidaters,

Disclaimer: This column is not intended to diagnose or otherwise conclude resolutions to any questions. Our intention is not to offer any definitive conclusions to any particular question, rather offer areas of exploration for the author and reader. Due to the nature of the column receiving only a short snapshot of an issue, without the benefit of an actual discussion, the panel’s role is to offer a range of possibilities. We hope to open up meaningful dialogue and individual exploration.

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he needs to know everything, from the color of the flowers to the tablecloths. I don’t understand why he cares and why he is so invested in these details.

The worst part is that he’s starting to have an opinion and share it regarding how I look. Maybe he always had on opinion and never said anything, but now he seems comfortable enough to share his opinions. Not to sound conceited, but I believe I always look and dress appropriately and well. Recently, we were meeting up with an old friend of his and his wife for dinner and Mendy actually told me which dress to wear and that I should wear my hair down rather than in a ponytail, which I often do. He didn’t say it in a mean or bossy way, but in a matter-of-fact, “I think you would look great if…” sort of way. But still …

I’m really starting to resent his micromanaging every little detail of his life and mine. He thinks he can leave nothing to chance. He never acts disrespectful, but I see that his need for perfection takes over and he gets frustrated if everything around him isn’t just so. Aside from this craziness, Mendy is a really nice, kind, loving, smart, successful guy. But I’m wondering whether I’m about to walk into a life that is totally insane! Is this a great, big red flag being waved in front of me that I should take more seriously?

The Panel The Rebbetzin Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz, M.S. here are several red flags here, not just one. And you are wise to have noticed the perfectionism, control, insecurity, unrealistic expectations, anxiety and frustrations Mendy is exhibiting. Together, these are probably indicators of some mental health issues.

In addition, ask yourself: Will these qualities be good for me? Will he be an emotionally supportive spouse? Will he be respectful of me and my person?

Obviously, the answer is no.

Get out and get help to process the breakup. You seem perceptive and mature. Aim to acquire the skills to notice and clarity qualities in a potential mate early on.

But do not confuse my suggestion of getting help with a critique of you. Move on and thank G-d you saw these things early on and did not fall into marriage with an emotionally unstable and potentially abusive person.

T

The Mother Sarah Schwartz Schreiber, P.A.

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old the wedding!

Imagine a linear scale, a

ruler of sorts. At one end you have the word “tidy”; a little bit down the scale, “organized”; still further, you read, “perfectionist.” At the far end of this ruler: “obsessive-compulsive disorder.” Mental illness is a continuum. We all have our personality quirks, our meshugaasim.

Some women can’t leave the house if there’s a dish in the sink; others can’t leave the house without checking the lock twenty times.

How can you tell if Mendy’s perfectionism is veering towards the diagnosable (in psychological terms, DSM V)? It has to do with his ability to function both personally and socially. If I read between the lines, Mendy’s once-admirable organizational skills are beginning to trespass through your comfort zone. Maybe it’s the anxiety over getting married; maybe the dark side of his personality surfaces as he gets more comfortable with you. Whatever the triggers, any trace of an obsessive-compulsive character (i.e., Mendy’s micro-management) necessitates a visit to a mental health professional.

To clarify: do not consider marriage to Mendy unless he acknowledges he’s become a “control freak”; do not commit to him unless he undertakes therapy that will give him the tools to function as a more balanced, even-keeled husband who will love you, respect you, and give you your space.

Another Shadchan Tzipporah Feldman any people go with the obvious when it comes to putting two people together for a date. He’s serious and studious, let’s find a serious, studious young woman. He loves to stay home all the time, let’s look for another homebody. He’s super-organized and meticulous about every detail of his life, let’s make sure she is the same.

My feeling is that many people do better when there is a balance, so that any extreme can be tempered.

And when two people find a middle ground, the serious guy sees what it’s like to actually laugh a little and lighten up, the homebody discovers that it’s nice to spend a day at the park, and the uptight, organized person learns that maybe life will go on if everything isn’t necessarily checked off their lists.

Seems like you and Mendy were suggested for one another because you had so much in common. But too much of a good thing is usually not a good thing. My guess is that during your dating, you both admired and encouraged one another’s behavior.

But now that you’re dealing with real life issues, you’re seeing that it’s become extreme.

If you were still at the dating stage, I might suggest you walk away, because it’s a lot for anyone to man-

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Is that the role you want to take on for the rest of your life? The obedient wife who doesn’t speak up for herself? age. But it sounds like the hall is booked and the flowers are chosen.

Not only that, but you mentioned quite a few wonderful qualities he brings to the table. This doesn’t mean that you still can’t break off the engagement, but before doing something so drastic and final, maybe take on some new behaviors of your own and see how that shakes up the dynamic between the two of you.

Don’t go along with his demands and see whether he can handle that. His reactions will be very telling. If he is able to hear a new idea and respect a new approach to handling responsibilities, you have what to work with.

If not – you may have to call it quits.

The Single Tova Wein

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his shidduch is getting messy.

When “organized” shifts into

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“micro-managing,” you have to ask yourself whether this is someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. I understand why he was so attractive to you early on. Being brought up by a mother who didn’t have it together can leave some scars, and the Mendys of the world certainly seem appealing straight out of the gate. But now, it seems, his needs are escalating.

What I’m wondering is whether you ever say “no” to him and, if you

do, how that works out. For instance, when he suggested which dress you should wear to dinner, could you have said, “That’s an interesting idea, but I decided to wear the blue dress instead,” and show up in the blue dress with your hair in a ponytail? Could he handle that? Can he deal with Plan A falling flat and being O.K. with Plan B? That’s what you need to identify.

Since you mention that he is generally a good guy, maybe he just

Pulling It All Together The Navidaters Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists

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endy is exhibiting some unsavory behaviors that are making you very u n c o m f o r t a b l e , and for good reason. You have great intuition! Let’s get you and Mendy into a therapist’s office to discuss his new behaviors together. I don’t like some of the things he has been saying to you; in particular telling you how to wear your hair and nitpicking about the real estate brokers. He is showing signs that he is not easy to please and perhaps potentially controlling. I understand the time-sensitive nature of your email, as your wedding is around the corner, but you have no choice but to pump the brakes and take as much time as you need in therapy to figure this out – either as a couple or by yourself.

You can suggest going for some premarital counseling to work out some issues with an objective party and learn about healthy communication and compromise. I personally think couples therapy is the route for you at this point in time. Yes, Mendy potentially needs professional help, however, being that you are marry-

ing Mendy, you need information…now. You don’t have the luxury of Mendy simply beginning therapy now on his own. You cannot speak to Mendy’s therapist unless Mendy gives permission, which he may or may not do. We cannot take any chances.

Now, is this pre-wedding jitters or is this how Mendy behaves when he is stressed? Or, even worse, is this how Mendy behaves when he begins to feel comfortable? You need some insight into Mendy’s behavior.

If you haven’t done so already, you must express your concerns to Mendy. The way Mendy reacts to your concerns about his behaviors will be very telling. Look out for the following (if done in therapy, the therapist will be on the lookout for both of your behaviors and will reflect them back to the both of you and help you have a conversation about it): His facial expression and body language. Does he stay engaged with you, keeping eye contact? Is

needs to be challenged and understand that it’s O.K. to not get what he wants. This could be a very helpful and healthy way for him to grow into a more successful individual – in terms of life skills. That’s what husband and wives often do for one another. Help each other soften and grow.

But now is the time to explore whether or not he is even open for growth. Before the wedding. So get to it – the clock is ticking!

he leaning in toward you? Does he have a look of concern on his face, sadness or remorse for the way he has made you feel? That’s what we want to see. Or, does he turn away from you and disengage?

Does he become quiet as a mouse, not participating in the conversation? Does he get in your face?

His words. Does he express an awareness of his issue (anxiety, OCD, pre-wedding jitters, etc.?) Does he apologize? Or does he lack insight into his actions? Does he downplay?

Does he externalize and blame you?

Does he deny what he has been doing and make you feel like you’re crazy for even having these thoughts? If he has any of these negative reactions, that would be a serious red flag. I would suggest you stare at that red flag. It’s waving. It’s there. Even if it tells you it isn’t. It will be waving the day you get married.

You don’t mention anything about your reactions to Mendy’s new behavior. What did you say when Mendy suggested you wear your hair down? How did you respond when Mendy was frustrated that you didn’t see more brokers? If you’ve been quiet, you need to look at that. Is that the role you want to take on for the rest of your life? The obedient wife who doesn’t speak up for herself? If

Too much of a good thing is usually not a good thing.

you’ve been quiet and haven’t told him how this makes you feel, now is the time.

These dynamics form very early on in relationships, and once formed they are difficult to break. We don’t want Mendy to be the nitpicking, controlling husband and we certainly don’t want you to be the obedient, back-bending wife making excuses for her husband’s bad behavior (“He’s really a nice guy.” “He had a rough day.” “He’s just stressed.” “I know he doesn’t mean it.”).

Everyone takes a risk when they get married. None of us know the future or the changes our spouse will make along the way. However, when the decision to marry itself is what feels risky, yes, indeed, that is a red flag. Make sure you are happy; validated, cared for, thought of, admired and respected…with your hair down and with your hair in a ponytail.

All the best, Jennifer Mann, LCSW Esther Mann, LCSW and Jennifer Mann, LCSW are licensed, clinical psychotherapists and dating and relationship coaches working with individuals, couples and families in private practice in Hewlett, NY. To set up an appointment, please call 516.224.7779. Press 1 for Esther, 2 for Jennifer. To learn more about their services, please visit thenavidaters.com.

If you would like to submit a dating or relationship question to the panel anonymously, please email thenavidaters@ gmail.com. You can follow The Navidaters on FB and Instagram for dating and relationship advice.

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Dr. Deb

Commit Yourself to Never Doing These 9 Things Next Year

By Deb Hirschhorn, Ph.D.

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ere is a gleaning of some thoughts from the last year that struck me as important. Sorry for being a bit negative in saying all these “don’ts” but it is Yom Kippur after all, so perhaps a bit of caution on the “don’t” side will be a little spice along with my best wishes for a really sweet year.

1. Don’t Say, “But I’m Not Arguing!”

Because the fact that you said that means you are.

2. Don’t Say, “With All Due Respect…”

Because the fact that you’re saying it means you’re about to insult someone. Which is not exactly a “respectful” thing to do.

Now, of course, you are entitled to your opinions. No one should stifle you. But how, exactly, are you saying that opinion?

A good rule of thumb is that if you and the other person are not adding new information to the argument after you’ve said the same thing twice, then it is certainly time to pleasantly leave or at least change the topic.

3. Never Promise What You May Not Be Able to Keep Mike: “I really will clean up my stuff; just let me finish my work.”

[The next day] Shira: “You promised to clean up, remember?”

Mike: “I really meant to but I was

4. Never, Ever Comment on the Appearance of Someone Else’s Spouse For good or for bad, comments mean you are looking at people of the other gender. That can make the one you’re married to uneasy. Furthermore, comments on appearance mean that you may have things to say about his (or her) appearance that you aren’t saying. That, too, can make your spouse uneasy.

it’s bothering you. I understand. But you will not feel better if you talk about this other person pejoratively.

I promise: you will not feel better.

The problem may even get worse if it should come back to them that you were telling stories about them.

I am suggesting you discuss the matter with them directly. You may feel you may not be able to for a number of reasons: Maybe that other person will take your feedback as an attack and instead of being kind to you and sorry they did something hurtful, they will attack you for having the audacity to question them.

Believe it or not, there are people like that.

Another possibility is that the other person is a boss or someone in a higher position than you. This could be the case in many social arenas other than work: community politics or shul politics, to name two.

So let it go. Sometimes these sorts of things are here for a test. Can we just plow through without doing something bad in response?

Alternatively, take the issue to a third party to mediate. That’s what we tell our children to do when they’re arguing.

5. When Your Feelings are Hurt, Don’t Stoop to Gossip; Deal Directly With the Offender Or, alternatively, let it go. Those are your two choices.

Why? The reason you gossip is because

6. Don’t Ever Say, “You Wanted Me to Be Honest, So I’m Going to Tell You Exactly How I Feel.”

I am not suggesting you should lie. You should not do that either.

And you should be honest with your spouse. Even about horrible

too tired.”

Mike, think of it this way: If your boss, or The Boss, called upon you to do it, you’d do it. Treat your wife at least as well if not better.

Of course your intentions were good. We know that; that’s a given.

But relationships are built on promises kept, not dismissed. So you have to think ahead to the possibilities that may derail your plans. Only when you are quite sure that nothing will get in the way can you go ahead and make commitments. Note that history is the best guide for this: If you run into the same sort of obstacle frequently, then plug that obstacle into the equation before you commit to something.

mistakes you made.

But….

When you start off with those words, usually your honesty becomes brutality. See, it is not the honesty that’s the problem. It’s your choice of words. If only you could sugarcoat them just a tad, that would be kinder.

This just happened to me in therapy. I had a frank conversation with a wife about what bothered her about her husband. At the end, I had a clear idea of what the problem was and where I needed to go with it. But do you really think I told the husband, “Buddy, you’re in deep trouble”?

I was, in fact, concerned about just how I would tell him how bad his wife was feeling. I didn’t want to overwhelm him, but very often people who’ve been working hard in therapy and translating those efforts into wonderful behavior changes still have a ways to go. This can be discouraging. So the last thing I wanted to do was be brutally honest.

As Mary Poppins famously said, “Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.”

So again, it’s not the honesty that’s the problem, it’s the brutality.

7. Don’t Lie Just making sure that you know I do encourage honesty. Don’t lie.

Ever. Well, almost never.

I told my personal lie story here once and I can happily tell it again.

When I was married just over a year, I had not yet gotten pregnant.

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My mother, a”h, was in dire need of heart bypass surgery and she didn’t want it. She was depressed over the loss of my father, something she’d never gotten over. The cardiologist was trying to impress me of the urgency of her need. So one day, I went to visit her in the hospital – she couldn’t lift herself to get out of bed – and told her a lie. “Mom,” I said, “I’m pregnant!” She was so happy. She rethought everything and decided that very day to go ahead with the heart surgery. Hashem, in His kindness, rewarded me for my lie. Two months later I became pregnant.

There’s a simple rule of thumb on lying: If it is to save your skin, it’s a lie, and it’s not permissible. If it is to help another person, then sometimes it is the right thing to do.

8. Don’t Say, “I am Not Close to My Grandchildren Because….” Instead Do Something about It You feel close when you invest yourself – your thoughts, your attention, your time – in someone else. If you and your grandchildren are separated by miles, then Skype or Face-

Time with them at least every week.

And think about them in between: How are they doing in school? What are their interests? Do they like their classmates? And so on.

It may even require little islands of time that you set aside, two minutes here, three there, to soak up good feelings about who they are: their personalities, the little things

to stop feeling pain when the pain becomes unbearable. Smart move.

But those same children will often grow up to do the same thing during intense moments with loved ones.

The problem is that pain is information.

We go to the doctor because we feel pain that we know shouldn’t be there and we want to get to the bot-

See, it is not the honesty that’s the problem. It’s your choice of words.

they do and say.

It’s amazing how important grandparents are to children; they automatically adore you, so return the favor even if it takes some effort.

9. Don’t Cut Yourself off From Your Feelings Children very intelligently learn

tom of it so we can treat the source.

But we don’t always do that with emotional pain. And that is too bad.

We need the information that comes from understanding why we are in pain so we can take smart steps to heal from it.

Many people in our society are so used to cutting off their feelings

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that they aren’t even aware what their feelings were in the first place.

They aren’t aware, either, that they cut them off. The whole subject feels alien to them and frightening to tackle.

But avoiding this difficult subject brings with it added problems. When we react without feeling, we can hurt those we love – as well as ourselves.

Not only does distancing ourselves from our feelings cut off information and understanding but it may come across as callous and coldhearted, something that may be a direct contradiction to who we really are.

Start with looking inside at who you really are and what you really feel. That is a beginning. And then try to understand your family’s feelings, too. That makes you human.

That makes you connected.

Dr. ` Hirschhorn is a Marriage and Family Therapist. She can be reached at 646-54-DRDEB or by writing drdeb@ drdeb.com.

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Health & F tness

Intermittent Fasting: Pros and Cons

By Aliza Beer MS, RD

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om Kippur is a day of atonement and mandatory fasting.

One of the many benefits is that some of us are lower on the scale the next morning. Most often that number bounces back up with a normal day of eating. There are those in the nutrition community that believe intermittent fasting to be helpful to weight loss and general health. “Intermittent fasting” is a term used to describe ways you can manipulate your eating patterns. It involves not eating for specific periods of time, with the intent to lose weight and improve health.

Intermittent fasting can include anything from multiday fasts to skipping meals a few times a week.

Many people consider it appealing because it allows them unlimited calories on non-fasting days.

What exactly is intermittent fasting? There are a number of different versions, the most popular being the 5:2 diet. This is where the person eats between 500-600 calories a day for two non-consecutive days in the week. For the other five days of the week, there are no restrictions. Another version is the 16/8, where one can only eat during an eight-hour period every day, and one must keep this set period, i.e. 11 am- 7 pm, consistent every day. The

other 16 hours one can drink zero calorie beverages only. Another version is to fast for 24 hours once or twice a week.

There have been studies done that show possible health benefits to intermittent fasting, in addition to weight loss. These claims include

doctor prior to beginning any new diet program. If you are diabetic or hypoglycemic, fasting could be dangerous. People with cardiac issues should not voluntarily fast, as it can affect their cardiac function.

Age will also play a role in how well your body deals with fasting. Older

As with any change to your diet, you should consider the risk factors.

improving the body’s sensitivity to insulin, lowering inflammation, improving the digestive system, and reducing body fat. Much of the research is only showing short-term benefits, and more studies are needed to confirm these claims. Many of the studies published on fasting were small, short in duration, or conducted on animals. Further research is required in humans to see if these benefits are directly caused by fasting.

As with any change to your diet, you should consider the risk factors. You should also consult your

adults may function better with an overall decrease in calories than total fasting or severe restriction for extended periods of time. Potential side effects for anyone who fasts include fatigue, dizziness, low energy, and trouble concentrating. Increasing hunger may lead some to binge on non-fasting days, which could lead to weight gain as well as blood sugar control issues. This pattern may exacerbate binge-eating tendencies for those struggling with disordered eating.

Intermittent fasting has the potential to lower your metabolism by propelling your

body into starvation mode, which can cause muscle to be broken down for energy instead of fat.

If you are considering intermittent fasting as a weight loss tool or for possible health benefits, discuss it with your doctor first since they are the most familiar with your health history and follow their recommendations. Though some studies do show that intermittent fasting results in short-term benefits such as weight loss, there are few longterm studies. It is still unclear what this type of periodic eating does to eating behaviors, body composition, metabolic rate, and overall health in the long run. It also hasn’t been confirmed that intermittent fasting will result in a greater and/or more sustainable weight loss compared to a regular daily calorie restricted diet.

Wishing all of my readers a gmar chasima tova and an easy fast.

Aliza Beer is a registered dietician 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.

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Health & F tness

Living Life as a Jew

By Dr. Hylton I Lightman, MD, DCH (SA), FAAP

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ur neighbors know that we haven’t subscribed to The New York Times in years because my wife has arranged to receive their Times “leftovers.” Whatever my wife’s reasons are for no longer subscribing to the Times, she has chosen not to break her lifelong habit of reading the “Sunday Styles” section. Truth be told, this section no longer holds the same charm for her but a habit is a habit.

This is how Tova Mirvis’s well-written piece entitled “Finding G-d in a Hot Slice of Pizza” from the September 10th Times’ “Modern Love” column in this section made its way into our home.

Mirvis was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home in Memphis, attended a Jewish school, graduated from Columbia University which abounds with Jews and where she met her husband, a fellow Member of the Tribe from a similar upbringing when she was in her early twenties, moved to the Boston area, gave birth to three children, and pursued a career as a writer who has been published several times. Clearly, she is educated, bright and ambitious, and her career is on the ascent.

In her recent “Modern Love” piece, Mirvis weaves together her lifelong religious restlessness which led to her abandoning Orthodox Judaism, together with how she initiated her young son into eating non-kosher pizza. According to Mirvis, when she and her son’s father divorced, there were “no rules for who retains the rights over the children’s beliefs.” Only tacitly did they agree that when the children are with Dad, they would do as he does (he lives

as an Orthodox Jew) and when with Mom, they would do as Mom does.

Writes Mirvis, “Like rulers of neighboring kingdoms, we only have jurisdiction within our own borders. Our children are dual citizens.”

Whoa and Woe. What a burden for our precious children to carry.

It’s said that children are the casualties in a divorce. Sadly, this is true. Yet how greater is the damage

about several things. She doubted while growing up but did she speak with an appropriate person like a teacher or rabbi? Did she ever sit down with her parents or other loving family members? Were there positive role models during her camp experiences? Did she do the “gap” year in Israel? As an adult, did she seek spiritual guidance regarding her questions? We Jews are encour-

We are here because we have clung to Torah, the same Torah that was given to us thousands of years ago at Har Sinai.

when Mom and Dad lead such different lives. I hope that Mirvis and her ex-husband discussed raising emotionally, physically, and spiritually healthy children because that trumps all.

No matter, you can’t fool kids.

Mirvis opens her piece with her 10-year-old son asking, “Do you really believe G-d cares about kosher pizza?” Children pick up by osmosis the spoken and unspoken in their parents. It’s amazing how our children absorb our beliefs. They have a sixth sense about what we hold near and dear: by the same token, they know beyond a doubt our Achilles heel. This forms the foundation for that searching, questioning time called adolescence and young adulthood.

Mirvis’ piece left me wondering

aged to question. Mirvis must have been exposed to our people’s answering a question by asking a question at some point. The Talmud is replete with this dynamic.

My hunch is that Mirvis’ Jewish growth stagnated somewhere along the way and never kept pace with her secular education and career. As a result, she was on one level “Jewishly” and then veered off, yet never sought out the tools or developed the skills to grow as a Torah Jew. The national parks are beautiful – Mah rabu maasache Hashem – How beautiful, Hashem, are Your creations. But national parks are not the proper environments for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. To be in shul with a community of people, singing the timeless prayers and reading the words that are meaningful today, long after the

Anshe Kneset HaGedola wrote them in their infinite wisdom – that’s what yom tov is supposed to be. You can visit the national parks on other days of the year.

Undoubtedly, Mirvis has created a new community for herself. I’m sure she’s been embraced within its folds and validated. She will emerge as some kind of leadership voice for it. She has skills and is primed for it.

A cursory study of Jewish history portends no longevity for this kind of digression. Despite the odds, and with so many peoples who have professed our destruction as well as those among us who’ve assimilated, we Jews are still here. We have survived pogroms, anti-Semitism and other outside forces, as well as inside ones. We have thrived. Our contributions to society are far greater than our numbers. We are here because we have clung to Torah, the same Torah that was given to us thousands of years ago at Har Sinai.

And it will be the Jews who cling to Torah who will herald and usher in the era of Moshiach.

I sincerely wish Tova Mirvis and her children a happy and healthy Jewish new year 5788. Should you read this, our door is open to you: when your travels bring you to the Five Towns, we’d love to host you in our sukkah or at our Shabbos table.

Dr. Hylton I. Lightman is a senior statesman amongst pediatricians, an internationally-recognized authority and diagnostician, a public speaker, expert witness and go-to resource for health issues in the Orthodox Jewish community.

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Studying Sm

rt

How to Evaluate a Business A Guide for Buyers and Sellers

By Chaim Homnick

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or every Silicon Valley tech startup like WhatsApp that is sold for $19 billion (with only $10 million in sales revenue that year!), there are a thousand small businesses sold for $190,000 or even $19,000. Evaluating a business or a company is complicated, and oftentimes buyers and sellers find themselves hopelessly deadlocked over wildly disparate evaluations.

Some sellers are too sentimental and overvalue their business based upon personal attachment while others aggressively project the company’s potential and stubbornly hold out for a sale price that is unrealistic based upon current revenue.

Whether someone is looking to sell their family restaurant, a thriving ecommerce website, or a side-gig jewelry store that they run out of their living room, the principles are similar, albeit often misapplied by each side.

These same principles are important when seeking an outside investment for a lesser amount of equity as well.

This column is by no means authoritative and every case is unique, but the goal is to provide a rough outline of the process and some examples to help both buyers and sellers determine how to value a business so the negotiations start in the same ballpark and a deal is more likely to be made.

THE BASICS Evaluating a business sounds like it should be a simple process with some standard, universally-accepted calculations. However, even if you brought in several unbiased experts to evaluate a business, chances are they will also end up with different results as there are a plethora of variables and subjective factors involved in the process of ascertaining the value of a company.

As a starting point, there are two major ways to calculate the price of a small business. One is the company’s ability to generate sales, cash flow and/or profits. The second method is to value the company based on its assets. The method utilized will depend on the size of the company, its risk profile, the industry it is in, and a slew of other particulars.

Most basic asset evaluation formulas go something like this: 1.

Add up the value of all the assets such as cash, stock, facility and equipment and receivables.

2.

Add up liabilities, such as any bank debts, company debts and payments due.

3.

Subtract the liabilities from the assets to get the net asset value.

The three steps above determine the asset value of a company which is most relevant for companies that are

at risk of going out of business, that have more significant assets than sales, or that must be sold quickly.

The purpose of calculating the assets helps establish a baseline value for what the company is worth on paper and protects a buyer or investor by evaluating it at its current asset worth if the company were dissolved.

The next stage is where the majority of issues and discrepancies in perspective arise. Businesses with strong sales or profits or upside will have their values determined by more complex metrics including potential ROI (return on investment), positive cash flow, multiples based on EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes), and more.

CAPITALIZED FUTURE EARNINGS This is one of the most common vehicles for calculating a business’s value. It involves working out the net profits of the previous two or three years, comparing it to other businesses in the industry (or other investment opportunities), determining the investor’s desired ROI (the higher the risk, the higher the requisite return), and then determining a purchase price that is projected to earn the investor their desired return.

This is similar to the approach many investors take in all their in-

vestments from real estate to stocks to hard money loans. Weigh the risk, establish the desired ROI, and invest accordingly.

EARNINGS MULTIPLES Every potential seller of a business or business owner seeking an investment loves the idea of multiples. In fact, many businesses do sell for anywhere between 2 a 6 times the company’s earnings. This is where the issues arise. A buyer might want to pay 2X earnings and start seeing a return relatively quickly while a seller wants to cash out and receive 4X or 5X or 6X earnings even if it isn’t realistic.

However, using a multiple on earnings depends on the exact type of business, the predictability of sales from year to year, and many other factors. Generally, the standard industry multiplier is the starting point and is then adjusted based on the specifics of the business. Businesses that make millions can have high multiples while oftentimes smaller businesses with less revenue and less upside will have smaller multiples.

Consider the following examples.

A local clothing store that steadily makes $75,000 per year will likely have a relatively low multiple because of the limited upside and the fact that an investor doesn’t want to spend years earning back their initial invest-

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2015 2017

ment; a local clothing store has limited upside because it isn’t suddenly going to earn millions. Meanwhile, a company with rapid growth and diversified accounts (thus less risk) may command a far greater multiple, especially if it has a high ceiling on the growth it can achieve.

Meanwhile, a stable business with steady and diversified revenue streams can be easier to project but it may also lack the high-risk/high-reward profile that some investors seek. Know what your business is and understand how it is going to appear to a potential buyer or investor.

POTENTIAL VS. RISK

FINANCIAL RECORDKEEPING

Silicon Valley is littered with the ghosts of failed startups and the venture capitalists who poured millions into them hoping for the next Uber.

Drugstore.com, Guvera, and Beepi are just a few examples of companies that were pre-revenue or overvalued based on upside yet raised over $100 million in funding before ultimately closing up shop. A pre-revenue business or a cash flow positive business with risky upside or a company that has a large chunk of their business coming from one account has a high risk profile. The major venture capitalists are willing to throw money at these companies in the hopes of finding the next Snapchat, but for an average investor or buyer, a small business with a lot of associated risk is going to have its value downgraded accordingly.

While it sounds obvious, professional record-keeping is crucial! If your company lacks clean financials and money flies in and out of accounts without proper oversight and accounting practices, it will make selling your business difficult. Telling a potential buyer or investor that your business made “around $50,000 plus two yeshiva tuitions and one wedding” doesn’t inspire confidence in the reliability of your balance sheet.

Many people view their small business as a personal ATM and the IRS as an unfortunate nuisance. That may seem like a smart, easy way to operate your business, but it makes selling the business or taking on an investment far more difficult. So know your numbers and have sound financials!

OPERATOR FEE Consider Dan, a hardworking pizza shop owner. His store does well and he takes home $100,000 a year in salary. To Dan, his business earns $100,000 per year. To an investor, Dan’s pizza store earns far less. An investor or buyer realizes that it costs (hypothetically) $65,000 annually to hire an operator to take on Dan’s role in running the pizza store. Dan viewed his salary and extras as the business’s net profits when in reality the business truly nets $35,000 each year after accounting for the industry-standard salary. Thus many small businesses are not nearly as profitable as their owners believe and this is a critical factor in determining the value of the company.

INTANGIBLES There are other factors that may be relevant to the business’s evaluation or add intangible value to the company. A company may have any of the following that can add value to the business: patents, proprietary technology or products, unique licensing deals, big-box retailer accounts, other partnerships or deals.

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U

ltimately, business evaluations are in the eyes of the beholder. Sellers want the deal to fund their next stage in life while buyers want to haggle the best possible price for their new acquisition. The same thing is true of businesses looking for a cash infusion via a partial investment. Either way, the above information should help both sides come to the table with a better understanding of the mechanisms behind evaluating a business. Then it is up to them: Deal or no deal?

Chaim Homnick is the College Advisor at Mesivta Ateres Yaakov of Lawrence and also teaches 5 periods of Honors/ AP English Literature. Chaim is the owner of Five Towns Tutoring (fivetownstutoring.com). He scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and the LSAT and tutors both extensively along with most Regents exams. He has a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership and Administration and an MBA. For questions, comments, previous articles or tutoring, he can be reached directly at chomnick@gmail.com or 305321-3342.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

In The K

tchen

Breaking the Fast

By Naomi Nachman After a fast, my family loves to eat dairy as it is much lighter to digest after a day of fasting. There are two staples on my post-Yom Kippur menu: the first is a quiche and the second is cheesecake. Both of these recipes double well, so I usually make two of each and freeze the extra to serve during the upcoming (hectic) chag of Sukkot.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake with Oreo Crust Ingredients Crust: 2-3 cups Oreo cookies finely ground Filling: 16oz. cream cheese ½ cup sour cream 2 eggs ½ cup sugar 1 teaspoon lemon juice ½ teaspoon vanilla extract ½ cup chocolate chips

Preparation In a food processor chop up the cookies until you get a coarse crum-

Zucchini Onion Frittata A light and healthy breakfast or lunch, frittata is basically a crustless quiche.

Ingredients 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons oil 1 medium onion, cut into halfmoons 2 medium zucchini, thinly sliced ½ cup grated parmesan cheese, divided 8 large eggs ¼ cup milk 1 teaspoon kosher salt ½ teaspoon ground black pepper ¼ cup chopped fresh basil

Preparation Melt butter with oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high

heat; add onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini; cook for 10 minutes, until soft. Remove from heat; stir in half the grated Parmesan cheese.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk together eggs, milk, salt, and pepper until well-blended. Pour over vegetable mixture in skillet.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until set; then set oven to broil. Broil about 5½ inches from heat 1-2 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Sprinkle evenly with remaining grated Parmesan cheese and basil.

Prepare Ahead: Veggies can be cooked ahead of time. Rewarm when ready to complete; proceed with recipe.

Recipe from Perfect For Pesach

by Naomi Nachman with permission from Artscroll

ble. Press the crumble evenly into the bottom of an 8x8 square pan, forming crust.

In a medium bowl beat the cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract until smooth. Slowly add in chocolate chips.

Pour into prepared crust and bake at 350°F for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes shut off the oven and let the cheesecake cool inside the oven for another hour. This prevents the top from cracking.

Remove and cool. Chill until firm.

Photo by Miriam Pascal

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Naomi Nachman, the owner of The Aussie Gourmet, caters weekly and Shabbat/ Yom Tov meals for families and individuals within The Five Towns and neighboring communities, with a specialty in Pesach catering. Naomi is a contributing editor to this paper and also produces and hosts her own weekly radio show on the Nachum Segal Network stream called “A Table for Two with Naomi Nachman.” Naomi gives cooking presentations for organizations and private groups throughout the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan area. In addition, Naomi has been a guest host on the QVC TV network and has been featured in cookbooks, magazines as well as other media covering topics related to cuisine preparation and personal chefs. To obtain additional recipes, join The Aussie Gourmet on Facebook or visit Naomi’s blog. Naomi can be reached through her website, www.theaussiegourmet.com or at (516) 295-9669.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 2017 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29,28, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Notable Quotes “Say What?!”

No, I wouldn’t rule it out - Hillary Clinton, who relentlessly mocked candidate Donald Trump when he refused to state during a debate whether he would accept the result of the 2016 elections, when asked on NPR last week whether she would consider challenging the legitimacy of the 2016 elections once more information about “Russian interference” comes out

I think no one, including me, is saying we will contest the election.

- Ibid., the next day, after, perhaps, realizing the irony of her prior comments

Hopefully he hasn’t ordered the killing of people and journalists and the like.

- Ibid., in an interview with Charlie Rose, talking about President Trump and comparing him to Putin

Apple CEO Tim Cook is claiming that the $1,000 iPhone X is a good value. Cook said, “It’s the last phone you’ll ever need for the next eight months.”

- Conan O’Brien

There’s no question that raising minimum wage is a faster way to get people more money very quickly. I think … the result of that, will be that quite quickly, the prices in restaurants who … are supported and basically run by people who [make] minimum wage will raise their prices. It’s not without cost that we [raise wages].

That’s all I’m saying.

He was under pressure from Rudy Giuliani.

- Hillary Clinton’s new theory, disclosed in her interview with Charlie Rose, as to why then-FBI Director James Comey reopened the investigation into her emails several days before the election

We had leaders who wanted to give people a safe space to loot and to burn. Now in Missouri if you loot the only safe space you’re going to have is in a jail cell. If you’re going to riot we’re going to cuff you. Violence and vandalism is not protest. It is a crime.

- Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens warning demonstrators in St. Louis not to riot and vandalize following a judge’s decision on Friday to acquit a former police officer for the killing of a black man

- Celebrity chef Mario Batali at a conference, talking about the push to raise minimum wage for restaurant workers

MORE QUOTES

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

69 93

We had a bunch of big football matchups yesterday. You had the Eagles against the Giants, you had the Patriots play against the Texans, and you had the president against everyone.

– Jimmy Fallon

This is our democracy. We did not vote for you or for any politician.

We don’t owe you nothing. This is what democracy looks like.

- What approximately 40 protestors who identified themselves as “undocumented youth” chanted at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) at a town hall in which they demanded quicker actions on “amnesty”

Just stop it! Just stop it now! Just stop it now! Just stop it now! Stop it!

- Ms. Pelosi attempting to respond to the protestors, before abruptly leaving the town hall meeting

I was talking to a president of an African country yesterday and he actually cited Rocket Man back to me… Look, this is a way of getting people to talk about him but every other international community now is referring to him as Rocket Man. - UN Ambassador Nikki Haley when asked on ABC about President Trump referring to Kim Jung Un as “Rocket Man”

President Trump is using his 2020 campaign fund to pay his legal fees, which experts say is “wrong but not illegal.” Coincidentally, “Wrong But Not Illegal” is also Trump’s 2020 campaign slogan.

[Shorting] America has been a loser’s game. I predict to you it will continue to be a loser’s game.

- Warren Buffett at a Forbes magazine party last week, predicting that the Dow will hit 1 million points within 100 years

I’m cleaning out the White House.

We’re going to sanitize the White House. We’re not going to take what is happening in this country.

Haven’t you taken enough?

- Rep. Maxime Waters (D-CA) while eulogizing Dick Gregory at his funeral

The answer is yes.

- Sen. Bernie Sanders’ response when asked last week whether he would “consider voting to reduce U.S. aid to Israel or U.S. arms sales to the Israeli military,” in an interview with The Interceptor

I waited until the national anthem ended, I took off my shirt, threw my Bills hat on the ground, walked out.

- Erich Nikischer, who was a stadium worker for the Buffalo Bills for 30 years, telling WGRZ-TV that he quit right after he saw Bills players kneeling during the anthem as a form of protest

– Conan O’Brien

MORE QUOTES

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SEPTEMBER 2017 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29,28, 2015 | The Jewish Home

I arrived at a self-diagnosis: I was suffering from Trump Hypertensive Unexplained Disorder, or THUD. For almost five decades, I had been the picture of health, but eight months into Trump’s presidency, I was suddenly ailing. Trump is the only variable, I told my doctor.

A teacher in South Carolina has been suspended after she gave her 5th grade class a homework assignment asking them to justify the KKK’s treatment of African-Americans. Also suspended — the kid who got an A. – Seth Myers

I will stand here in the well of the Congress, and I will call for the impeachment of the president of the United States of America.

- Rep. Al Green (D-TX) calling for President Trump’s impeachment over his comments that NFL players should show respect for the national anthem and not kneel while it is being played

How can one person be on the wrong side of everything in history?

- Trevor Noah, on “The Daily Show” positing that President Trump is wrong about everything in the world. Period.

– Dana Milbank, Washington Post, in a column titled, “Trump is Killing Me, Really,” in which he talks about suddenly having all sorts of medical ailments that he never had in the past

I know THUD is a real condition because I have a scientifically valid sample to prove it. I told my editor about my new medical state, and he reported that he, too, has been newly warned by his doctor that his blood pressure has become borderline, and things could go either way.

- Ibid

Last night Kim Jong Un released a rare statement attacking President Trump and referred to him as a dotard. Then Trump said, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words I don’t know will never hurt me.”

- Jimmy Fallon

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

95 5

Political Crossfire

U.S. Must Think Outside the Box on North Korea

By David Ignatius

T

he Trump administration often talks about North Korea policy as if it’s an on-off switch.

President Trump thundered Tuesday that the U.S. will “totally destroy” North Korea to defend itself and its allies. But Defense Secretary James Mattis blandly insisted the next day that it’s “still a diplomatically led effort.”

Somewhere in this maze of public statements – including Thursday’s announcement of new economic sanctions on North Korea – there’s a nuanced American policy. But the seeming binary options are weirdly reminiscent of the nuclear standoff of the Cold War, when the only choices seemed to be a conflict with massive loss of life – or surrender to the adversary’s demands.

To escape this straitjacket, strategists in the 1970s and ‘80s began to devise new conventional and nuclear weapons, and ultimately, missile defenses. A similar creative re-examination is needed now.

We can always hope that the Trump administration’s strategy will work: Maybe Trump’s threat to Pyongyang of “fire and fury” will convince China to halt oil deliveries; perhaps the North Koreans will enter negotiations; maybe an interim peace agreement will stabilize the situation so “final status” talks begin about eventual de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and withdrawal of American troops.

That’s the best outcome, certainly. But to be prudent, U.S. officials

and their allies should assume it won’t work. They need to be planning other options, with a coldblooded rationality that is the opposite of schoolboy taunts about “Rocket Man.” U.S. officials need, first, to decide how serious a threat North Korea truly poses to America. If major cities are at risk, and Kim Jong Un’s

pressure” against “an unprecedented, grave and imminent threat from North Korea.”

Suppose you take a less drastic view of Kim and conclude that the real target of his antics is China.

He clearly fears Beijing’s influence: He brutally murdered his uncle and half-brother, both of whom were said to be close to China. His missile and

This is a nightmare scenario, but if you believe Kim is truly a nightmare leader, then you must think about the unthinkable.

erratic behavior can’t be deterred, then perhaps the U.S. should indeed be planning to de-nuclearize North Korea by force.

If the U.S. adopted this maximalist strategy, it would begin a buildup of forces that, by most estimates, would take at least two months. Japan and South Korea would begin intensive civil-defense programs to protect their populations and minimize civilian casualties.

This is a nightmare scenario, but if you believe Kim is truly a nightmare leader, then you must think about the unthinkable. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems to be doing just that. His op-ed in The New York Times Monday was more polite than Trump’s bombast, but no less firm. He urged “concerted

nuclear tests defy Trump, but even more the repeated warnings he has received, and ignored, from President Xi Jinping.

If we see Kim as a regional threat, rather than a global one, then perhaps the right response is an intelligence strategy that begins with the reality of his split with China – and takes off from there. Back in 2003, China suspended oil deliveries for several days (blaming the problem on a supposed pipeline malfunction) and North Korea quickly began negotiations. In the deniable realm of intelligence operations, it’s always possible that a pipeline could “malfunction” again, or that other crippling difficulties could arise for Pyongyang and its mercurial leader.

Suppose, instead, that the U.S. and

its allies decide that North Korea isn’t worth the risks of either military or covert action. What then? To be cynically honest, we must recognize that sometimes it’s less costly to bribe an adversary than to go to war. What blandishments would get Kim to agree to halt his testing program? Is there a “freeze” option, as suggested by Robert Einhorn of the Brookings Institution, that would stop escalation, prevent proliferation and stabilize the situation – but leave de-nuclearization for the distant future?

Finally, are there defensive measures that can sharply reduce the North Korean threat? For the past decade military planners have been touting a “boost-phase” intercept, which could destroy North Korean missiles in the first several minutes after launch.

The Pentagon has started a new program to build a lightweight, powerful laser carried on big, high-altitude drones that could loiter outside North Korean airspace. The lasers won’t be ready until 2023, at the earliest. But how about a simpler version that would shoot fast interceptor missiles from existing drones? Some Pentagon planners say such a system could be deployed soon.

President Kennedy famously solved the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 by thinking outside the box.

Similar creative thinking is badly needed now on North Korea. (c) 2017, Washington Post Writers Group

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Forgotten Her es

Major Moshe Levy’s Heroism in the Yom Kippur War

By Avi Heiligman

Meeting with Yitzhak Rabin. Notice Levy’s missing right hand

I

n the many wars and battlefield engagements that Israel has fought they were the least prepared and expectant of the attack on Yom Kippur 1973. Syrian tanks were rolling through the Golan Heights and Egyptian armor had breached the Bar Lev Line in the Sinai in less than two hours. Israeli nuclear missiles were armed in the ensuing panic. American planes soon resupplied Israelis who were low on just about every type of material needed to fight the war. Eventually the IDF was able to push back on both fronts and negotiate a ceasefire on their terms. During the bitter battles, the IDF took severe casualties, and many soldiers were decorated for their heroics on the battlefield.

Moshe Levy was one of these men who despite all the odds saved the lives of his fellow soldiers.

Levy (sometimes spelled Levi) was 28-years-old with a wife and two young children when the war broke out. Levy was in a mechanized unit and had been in a car accident a few weeks prior and was nursing a broken kneecap when his unit was called to reserve duty before the war. With his leg still in a cast he was exempt from duty but he wanted to be with his unit when they were sent to the southern front. He told his wife, “They don’t need to call me. I’m still going.”

When Levy arrived at the front on October 8, he found his unit deployed east of the Suez Canal at a place called

Al Qantarah El Sharqiyya. Levy was given an armored vehicle personnel carrier called a half-track and sent to locate Egyptian commandos. A week later, on October 15, the IDF commander received a call to rescue soldiers trapped in an ambush. However, when Levy’s unit came on the scene they found out that the 20 or so Egyptian soldiers that were attacking the Israelis actually numbered in the hundreds. “They had 120 tanks to our 98 soldiers,” Levy said.

Even though they had walked into the trap themselves, they weren’t going to leave anyone behind and Levy’s unit started to prepare for the Egyptian attack. The commander told them that they, with a few other small units in the area, were the only thing between them and Tel Aviv. A frum soldier, the only one in Levy’s unit, started saying Tehillim and the non-frum soldiers not knowing any better replied, “Amen.” Sadly, that soldier was killed in the upcoming attack but he inspired other soldiers towards teshuva (it was closer to Hoshana Rabbah at this point in the war than to Yom Kippur).

When the Egyptians came towards the Israeli position they waited until the IDF vehicles were bunched together to begin firing rockets and missiles that had been buried in the sand. It was that first barrage that did the most damage.

Many of the IDF vehicles were hit, and Levy saw a rocket heading straight for

Recovering from his injuries

his half-track. Suddenly, he felt a boom and the next thing he knew he had lost an arm. The soldiers under him were more in a panic seeing him injured than Levy was about his own plight. He said to the men in his vehicle, “One missile went above us and one missile didn’t reach our vehicle. In about a minute another missile will fire directly at us. We must jump outside the vehicle.” He recalled, “As I jumped, my soldiers jumped after me, except for four. A minute later, the four who stayed in the vehicle were killed by a missile.”

Looking around and seeing the devastation Levy felt that he had no choice but to attack the Egyptian post. The situation looked hopeless so he went armed with an Uzi and a couple of grenades to protect the remaining men in his unit. As he approached the enemy’s machine gun nest on a hill they were so amazed to see a one-armed soldier coming alone that they failed to notice that he was pulling the pin of a grenade with his teeth. Levy threw the grenade ten meters away from the post and killed several enemy soldiers and destroyed the position. In the blast he was hit by shrapnel from his own grenade in the face and chest. With the thought of “if I stay here I am dead,” Levy managed to crawl back to his own lines.

A short time later, IDF paratroopers arrived on the scene to stabilize the front and were evacuating the severely wound-

ed first. Levy refused to be sent back to the rear until all of the other wounded soldiers were removed from the battlefield. When he was finally looked at by a doctor, the physician stared in disbelief at Levy.

It took two months for Levy to recover from his injuries, and he still wanted to be sent back to his unit. Finally, one doctor agreed on the condition that Levy was accompanied by a doctor to his unit.

The State of Israel won the war but they lost the most service members in their history. Over 2,500 were killed in the line of duty, and Israel swallowed the bitter message to make sweeping changes in intelligence and defense networks.

Moshe Levy retired as a major from the IDF and is the president of anti-terrorist technology company. Levy was awarded the Medal of Valor for his actions during the war and is still alive today. He has spoken several times about his experiences and even about his encounter with the Lubavitcher Rebbe who gave him spiritual advice when he needed it the most. Moshe Levy’s story is unique in that not only was he a war hero but he took the lessons to heart for the rest of his life.

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.

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE: Prime Sunrise Hwy Location, 13000SF Lot with 10000SF Free Standing Bldg & 2 Partial Basements, Vacant Adjoining Lot Included, Retail/Office Use, For Sale …Call Lenny for More Details (516) 2953000 www.pugatch.com

EAST ROCKAWAY: 1,500+/-SF Office Space in Professional Elevator Bldg W/Full Bsmt & Ample Parking, 3 Private Offices, Conference Rm, Bullpen & Reception Area, For Lease… Call For More Details Broker (516) 792-6698

CO-OP FOR SALE

2 BEDROOMS APT IN FAR ROCKAWAY available furnished newly renovated basement apartment with high ceilings, airy and light Brand new kitchen and appliances. All rooms have split air conditioner. Full bathroom and WiFi. Please call Ricki 347-248-9160 $1350 + utilities

SEEKING PAYROLL CLERK in Valley Stream corporate office to process weekly payrolls, & benefits. *detail oriented *tight deadlines *proficient in Microsoft Excel Apply at: (case sensitive) https://goo. gl/m2cGVc

CEDARHURST: Fabulous & Very Spacious 2BR, 2Fbth, Storage Units, Close To All...$2,650/mo Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com

FIRST GRADE MORNING ASSISTANT TEACHER needed for a Bais Yaakov in Far Rockaway – to start immediately.

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FAR ROCKAWAY: BUNGALOW New from the Ground Up, Roof, Siding, Eik, 2BR, Near All…$1,950/mo.

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PRESCHOOL ASSISTANT TEACHER needed for a Bais Yaakov in Far Rockaway – to start immediately.

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HEWLETT: 2,512 +/- Turn-Key Medical/Office, All Rooms have Sinks, Lovely Atrium-like Setting, 8 Car On-Site Parking, Handicap Access, For Lease… Call Randy For More Details (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com LYNBROOK 725 +/- SF Commercial Co-Op, Any Professional Use, Waiting Room, Exam Rooms, Lab, Reception, Consultation, Can be Fully Furnished, For Sale … Call for More Details Broker (516) 792-6698

FAR ROCKAWAY 833 Central , 1st floor, balcony, doorman. Completely renovated, near LIRR, 2BR/2 full bath, 2 DW/sinks, wood cabinets, granite counters $339 917-572-9644 WOODMERE: BEST BUY – NEW PRICE SMALL PETS OK: Beautiful Corner Unit In Elevator Bldg, 2BR, 5 Closets, All Large Rooms, Sunny & Spacious, Close To All...$165K Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Classifieds classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com / text 443-929-4003 HELP WANTED YESHIVA KETANA OF LONG ISLAND is looking for a dynamic, positive and professional afternoon assistant for a general studies first or second grade position.

Please fax resume to 516-368-9199 or email to office@ykli.org Local F.T. Accounting Office Seeks P/T JR. ACCOUNTANT proficient in Q.B. knowledge of payroll tax, sales tax, business tax and individual taxes Qualified applicants should please e-mail resume to: 5towntaxoffice@gmail.com PART TIME ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Looking for a energetic person to assist in busy religious office in the area.

Good people skills and writing skills a must. Word, Excel, computer skills, and Yeshiva experience a plus.

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Email resume to design5@gmx.com Bnos Bais Yaakov of Far Rockaway is seeking full day co teachers/ assistants. Great Experience. Excellent Pay. Transportation from Brooklyn provided.

718 490 4459

HELP WANTED Pugatch Realty Corp., in Woodmere, is looking to hire and train a select group of motivated Realtors. If you are looking to build a career in real estate, or looking to take your existing career to the next level, there is no better place to start that the #1 Real Estate Brokerage in the Five Towns…

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F/T & P/T REGISTERED NURSE openings to work with adults who have developmental disabilities within residential settings in Brooklyn, Manhattan, or Long Island. Current NYS RN, min 2 years hospital experience. OHEL: 855-OHEL JOB, www.ohelfamily.org/careers BOYS KIRUV SCHOOL LOCATED IN KEW GARDENS SEEKS GENERAL STUDIES TEACHERS for upper elementary grades. Must be proficient in Common Core curriculum and comfortable with technology in the classroom in addition to receiving training in an award winning system.

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SHIDDUCH DATING? NEED PLACES TO GO? Check out Pegishaplace.com WIG GEMACH Everyone in our community deserves to look great! Donate used wigs and make a world of a difference.

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FIVE TOWNS OFFICE LOOKING FOR immediate hire of several people…part time and full time…starting at $15 per hour. Need detail- oriented person to handle A/P, A/R, customer service, and ability to negotiate bids and contracts.

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The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Your

101

Money

Sink Your Teeth into This One

By Allan Rolnick

“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.” -Yogi Berra

T

he calendar is full of little-known commemorations that probably escape your attention, and this month is no exception. Some of them are just silly, like September 19’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day. (Although, really, if you don’t think pirates are cool, what’s wrong with you?) Some are obscure, like September 23’s Restless Leg Awareness Day. But some of those special days resonate with everyone. And that brings us to September 20: Pepperoni Pizza Day. Yes, it’s really a thing, and yes, it’s magnifico!

Just about everyone loves pepperoni pizza. Even vegans can enjoy it with dairy-free cheese and meatless pepperoni substitutes. (Don’t mock it until you’ve tried it!) Americans eat over 100 acres of pizza per day, and 36% of those pies have pepperoni on top. We eat over 250 million pounds of pepperoni on our pizza every year.

Naturally, tax collectors love it . . . so let’s see how they take their slice or two of the pie.

Pizza is a $44 billion industry here in the U.S. The top 50 chains, led by Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Little Caesars, and Papa John’s, account for $24.75 billion in sales. Smaller chains and independents gross $19.75 billion more. That means billions in sales taxes going to state and local governments, billions in corpo-

but cross-state tax compacts aren’t quite so flexible.

Fortunately, taxes on pizza aren’t all “takeout.” Every one of those gooey delicious pies starts with raw ingredients like wheat flour, tomato sauce, cheese, and meat. Our tax code offers some savory tax breaks to the farmers who supply those ingre-

There are 76,723 pizzerias in America.

rate income taxes from the companies that sell those pizzas, and billions in personal income taxes from the actual people who own those businesses.

There are 76,723 pizzerias in America. Every one of those parlors pays property tax on the location.

It would be poetic if New York-style pizzerias everywhere paid tribute to New York and deep-dish pizzerias nationwide kicked up to Chicago,

dients. Pork producers, for example, get depreciation deductions for farm equipment and confinement facilities to turn three-pound piglets into 275-pound hogs in just six months.

That’s a lot of pepperoni!

Does all this pizza talk have you thinking about opening your own place? Watch out for audits! Pizzerias are largely cash businesses, which makes it easy to skim off profits. In the early 1990s, the IRS conducted

an in-depth study of mom-and-pop pizzerias in the Providence, RI, area and wrote an entire guide for auditors examining them. If you’re under audit, and the examiner suspects you’re underreporting your sales, he might contact your meat supplier to see how much pepperoni you bought, then compare it to the pizza sales you report. If the numbers don’t add up, you’ll have some ‘splainin to do!

Finally, don’t be fooled by places serving “flatbreads.” It’s pizza. They just call it flatbread to charge more.

We realize there’s no easy way to transition from pepperoni pizza to tax planning. But there is a connection. The less you pay in tax, the more dough you’ll have to enjoy America’s favorite comfort food!

So make sure you have a plan before you get hungry, and let’s see how much more of your income “pie” you can actually eat!

Allan J Rolnick is a CPA who has been in practice for over 30 yea rs in Queens, NY. He welcomes your comments and can be reached at 718-896-8715 or at allanjrcpa@aol.com.

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Life C ach

What are You Hungry For?

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., CLC, SDS

Y

ou’ve got to be impressed with this religion. In preparation for the fast day, we have a fast day! One would have thought that one was enough in such a short time period.

The 10 Days of Repentance start and end with a fast day! So maybe there’s a way to look at this. Perhaps there’s a message in the not eating, like: Don’t eat your heart out about past deeds. Instead, just move for-

Mango – let “man go” from chayil to chayil!

And what should we serve up on our spiritual platters?

Be a “sage,” take the “thyme” to review the menu of the day.

As an appetizer, recognize we all have flaws, but they can be “over easy” if we apologize sincerely.

For the salad course, make sure you respect the “kale” and are never

Yom Kippur looms large in our minds but larger in our stomachs.

ward and make sure to use your best efforts!

Yom Kippur looms large in our minds but larger in our stomachs.

No matter how much we eat in anticipation of the day, when the morning begins everyone’s wishing for their Starbucks.

But there’s no getting around it: the day’s menu is all about food for the soul, not for the body!

Still, what food would be good to focus on this Yom Kippur if you have to: Lettuce – have a year of blessing!

Orange – you glad you are here to ask for another chance?

Tongue – make sure you can hold it in the year ahead.

Noodle – use it in all your endeavors.

an “iceberg” to anyone.

As a main, make sure to continuously work on making an “entrée” to greater heights.

And as a dessert, make sure you remember there’s always “s’more” you can do to be an even more amazing person.

This is all just some food for thought as we enter the holiest day of the year. So, let’s hope G-d cooks up a delicious year for us all. Stuffed with blessings, and topped off with a treat, jumping right out for us, the appearance of Moshiach!

Rivki Rosenwald is a certified relationship counselor, and career and life coach. She can be contacted at 917705-2004 or rivki@rosenwalds.com

The Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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