Five Towns Jewish Home - 3-28-18

March 28, 2018

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

Your Favorite Five Towns Family Newspaper

jnau raf dj See page 7

Around the

Community

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Rabbi Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin Visits Far Rockaway

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Local Officials Help out at JCCRP

62 Preparing for Pesach around Town

– See page 3

SEASONS LAWRENCE

330 Central Avenue, Lawrence, NY 11559

SEE OUR 40 PAGE PESACH PULLOUT SUPPLEMENT Inside this Issue: Bobker on Pesach...................................... S4 Pesach Story: They Never Made it to Thoughts on Yom Tov..........................S10 the Seder......................................................S24 TJH Chol Hamoed Guide....................S27 Delicious Pesach Recipes....................S38 From Pulpit to Palette: Artist Yitzchok Let My People Go! TJH Speaks with Moully Talks about Melbourne, former Prisoner of Zion R’ Yosef Orange Socks, & Matzah Balls...........S18 Mendelevich................................................ 93

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

‫ברוב שבח והודאה לה‘ יתברך‬

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Dear Readers,

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viet prisons and gulags for more than a decade, he was constantly dreaming of his beloved land, yearning to join his brothers and sisters in Israel. His days, though hard and tormented, were filled with goals that he set for himself: to learn Hebrew, to champion for his fellow Jews’ rights, to pray, and to teach others about Yiddishkeit. His body became a mere shell but his mind became sharpened during those years of imprisonment. Every event was seared into his brain; he became closer to G-d and to His mitzvos. In a sense, despite the barbed wire and the barracks in which he lived, Yosef Mendelevich was free.

Being free means being able to think for oneself.

It means being able to make your own decisions, being able to determine your life’s purpose. And, as free people, we can decide if our lives will be ones of joy or ones of struggle.

Pesach, of all holidays, highlights the dichotomy between our joys and our struggles.

It is not easy making 16 yom tov meals in one week. It is not easy hosting other families in your home. It is not easy washing endless dishes on little sleep or running after the ever-present matzah crumbs. But there are so many moments during Pesach that should make you stop and marvel, “Look at what I’ve been working for.” Admire your beautiful family sitting around the Pesach Seder, each person different in their own way. Listen to the young ones’ melodious voices as they chant the Mah Nishtana.

Take time to catch up with your relatives. See how the cousins – young and old – delight in each other’s company. Spend time in the kitchen with your grandchildren as they help you prepare a salad or set the table. Shep nachas at how your children have grown up to be such fine parents. These are the glimpses of freedom that we all have over the holiday.

If, over the course of yom tov, we are able to tap into those joyful moments, then really, truly we are a free.

Wishing you a wonderful Pesach, Shoshana

recent study came out that determined that mothers with young children who work outside the home end up “working” almost 100 hours a week. So mothers are working practically around the clock, give or take a few minutes each day that they get to take a shower and maybe go for a walk. Let’s not talk about what goes into making Pesach – the cleaning and shopping beforehand and then the nonstop cooking, cleaning and entertaining that takes place during the eight days of yom tov.

But how many of us are walking around feeling trapped and stifled by our over-the-top workweek?

I would venture to say that even though our “jobs” are a constant rat race we enjoy the work that we do.

That’s because for us, for mothers, it’s not “work” when we wake our children in the morning, send them off to school, make them supper, give them baths, do homework with them, read them books, brush their teeth and put them to bed. Yes, we’re busy. But it’s not drudgery when we know that we’re nurturing our children.

Work, it seems, is all in the mind.

Cleaning for Pesach is not easy. It involves a lot of physical labor. There’s vacuuming and dusting, organizing and disposing, scrubbing and mopping.

But, aside from my aching muscles – hey, I haven’t been to the gym in a while! – I enjoy cleaning for Pesach. It’s an impetus that propels me to deepclean my home and pushes me to organize areas that sometimes are conveniently forgotten in the busyness of life. I don’t see Pesach cleaning as backbreaking labor; there’s a higher purpose to all those pre-Pesach tasks.

When the Jews were in Mitzrayim they weren’t able to listen to Moshe’s words because they were short of breath; they were so entrenched in their enslavement that their minds weren’t free. A free man is able set goals for himself; he’s able to dream and act upon those dreams. But a slave? He’s trapped in his master’s world, unable to escape even in his thoughts.

When Yosef Mendelevich was imprisoned in So-

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The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Contents LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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COMMUNITY 8

Readers’ Poll Community Happenings

45

NEWS Global

13

National

26

Odd-but-True Stories

40

ISRAEL

S38

Israel News

22

The Greatest Summer Camp You Can’t 126 Attend by Rafi Sackville

PEOPLE 93 From Pulpit to Palette: Artist Yitzchok Moully Talks about Melbourne, S18 Orange Socks, & Matzah Balls Let My People Go! TJH Speaks with former Prisoner of Zion R’ Yosef Mendelevich 93 Reliving History by Avi Heiligman

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PESACH Rabbi Wein

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Freedom Doesn’t Mean Free by Eytan Kobre 86 Not to Be Believed by Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe 88

S10

Tomorrow is Another World by Rav Moshe Weinberger Bobker on Pesach

S16 S4

A Seder Guest by Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky

S10

The Missing Fifth by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

S12

L’CHVOD HACHAG Pesach Story: They Never Made it to the Seder

S24

TJH Chol Hamoed Guide

S27

HEALTH & FITNESS How to Enjoy Freedom by Dr. Deb Hirschhorn

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Dear Editor, You can never rationalize the Jew-hate people like Louis Farrakhan espouse. You can talk to them until you’re blue in the face that their ideas are false and vile. And you will never get anything from them. They are the epitome of “Eisav soneh es Yaakov.” There’s something twisted in their minds; something so irrational and insane.

And yes, I believe that the Democrats really have a “Louis Farrakhan problem.” Because if they can revere someone with such irrational and insane views, perhaps they are filled with others who are unwell and have twisted views in other areas. It’s time for them to wake up – not because he’s Jew-hater, but because he’s indicative of a possible larger, deeper problem within the Party.

Sincerely, Yoram Kruchin Dear Editor, I read with interest “Bringing Back Yiddish, One Speaker At A Time” in your paper of last week (issue dated March 15, 2018, p.112-113).

It was nice to read about people who didn’t grow up with it, learning Yiddish in later years, and connecting to their Ashkenaz heritage in that way.

I would like to correct one thing in the interview, however.

Cover painting by Lola Lieber, a”h

Our Bodies are Free but Our Minds are Enslaved by Mindi Werblowsky 106 Saketkhou, LMSW

It states in the beginning that Yiddish was created in the tenth or eleventh century for Jews that were migrating from Spain northward into Holland, Scandinavia, and Eastern European countries.

According to that logic, Yiddish, the Ashkenazic language, was created for Sephardic Jews (who had Ladino, Judeo-Español, as their own jargon) then?!

Rather, from my readings, what happened was that (as related by the great Rav Elazar of Worms, known as The Rokeach, in his commentary on the siddur) Jews migrated to the Rhineland area of Germany, the heartland/cradle of Ashkenazic Jewry, from northern Italy (Lucca), upon the invitation of Carlo, the ruler of Mainz. They were not Sephardim (Italy was and is distinct from Spain), but Jews that had come to Italy from Eretz Yisrael, and had a mesorah going back to the churban Beis Hamikdash. They were a separate and distinct group from Sephardim, with their own traditions, although there were occasional cases where the two groups crossed paths. In such an Ashkenazic milieu Yiddish came about.

A shainim dank, Yiddish Redner Dear Editor, The restaurant in Maine that is going to only be taking reservations via postcard has the right idea. It’s time for us to go back to basics. We Continued on page 12

Matzah: How to Ease Digestion by Cindy Weinberger MS, RD, CDN 108 FOOD & LEISURE A Taste of Pesach

S38

The Aussie Gourmet: Cauliflower Fried “Rice”

110

Ferocious Charoses by Naphtali Sobel

112

LIFESTYLES Dating Dialogue, Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW

100

Your Money

133

Pass Out or Pass Over by Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., CLC, SDS

134

HUMOR Centerfold

82

POLITICAL CROSSFIRE Notable Quotes

114

No, Liberals Don’t Hate America by Marc A. Thiessen

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CLASSIFIEDS

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Do you eat gebrochts on Pesach?

76

%

YES

24

%

NO

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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Continued from page 8

Dear Dr. Stern, Is it really reasonable for my wife to expect to receive “new teeth” within an hour?

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are so used to getting things instantaneously now, we no longer have patience to wait a few moments to enjoy life’s little pleasures.

Small gestures that make us step back and wait for a bit are very welcome reminders in today’s society to stop and smell the roses.

Chana Horot Dear Editor, There’s the “i” of the iPhone and the “i” of Individual. These two “i’s” stand for different propositions. The “i” of the iPhone stands for the idea that “I” want and deserve everything with the inability to say no due to a lack of self-control (a point made by Rabbi Alon Anava in one of his recent Pesach shiurim). The “i” of individual stands for the core idea that one must discover his essence and live by his mission to the greatest degree possible.

The power of the individual was discussed last year at the OU’s Tour De Force Torah in The Citi event, by Rabbi Zweig, rosh yeshiva in Miami Beach, Florida. Luckily, I stayed until the end to hear his powerful words.

Rabbi Zweig said words that you might not have expected from a rosh yeshiva. His emphasis was that G-d doesn’t want carbon copies of people but rather individuals who take advantage of their G-d given gifts no matter the trade or profession. He

said only when individuals are engaged in their respective talents does G-d reap satisfaction from his nation.

It was the speech “of the individual.”

The Zohar puts forth the famous idea that the 600,000 souls symbolic of a nation leaving Mitzrayim and accepting the Torah are reflected in the 600,00 letters of the Torah, with each Jew having his own individual letter. My first cousin, Rabbi Nagen, rosh Kollel in yeshiva Otniel, takes the Zohar further and says that as each individual changes so does his letter in the Torah, creating a Torah that’s changing on a constant basis.

As one discovers his essence and reaches the understanding of his mission, his Scriptural letter grows with him, thus expanding the overall breadth of the Torah, as everyone else’s letter is growing as well.

Yetziyas Mizrayim was an individual and collective celebration. On the one hand, each individual had the chance to internalize the awe of G-d and literally enjoy the relationship to a G-d Who skipped over their individual homes. But we also left as a united people, together in heart and spirit. A nation is only as great as its collective individuals, but specific individuals who are living out their unique missions.

May everyone meet their essence and uncover their individual mission so that a creative nation can emerge.

Steven Genack

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

Please send all correspondence to: editor@fivetownsjewishhome.com.

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Remember to suspend your lawn service for the week of Pesach It is forbidden to have your gardener/landscaper do work on your property during Chol Hamoed (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 543:1).

Many people either forget to deal with this or are simply unfamiliar with the halachah. Please take advantage of this reminder to make a 1-minute call to your gardener and prevent chillul haMoed. And tell your friends and family, too.

Chag kasher v’sameach!

Plan ahead … email shmirashamoed@gmail.com for a handy list of upcoming Yomim Tovim to give your gardener so he can schedule appropriately.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

The Week In News

Living the High Life

public of the Congo Brazzaville, Congo Damascus, Syria N’Djamena, Chad Khartoum, Sudan Port au Prince, Haiti Sana’a, Yemen Arab Republic Bangui, Central African Republic 10. Baghdad, Iraq I guess having a barbeque with Baghdad Bob just ain’t that much fun.

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Peru’s New President

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Think about this for a minute: if you can live in any city in the world, which city would you choose?

Now think about this: which city would be the last city in the world that you would choose to live?

According to Mercer’s just released annual quality of living ranking of all major cities in the world, Vienna is the best city to live in. The Austrian capital has held this vaunted place for the past nine years. The criteria for the rankings include political stability, health care, education, crime, recreation and transport.

Rounding off the list of the top ten cities are: 1. Vienna, Austria 2. Zürich, Switzerland 3. Auckland, New Zealand 4. Munich, Germany 5. Vancouver, Canada 6. Düsseldorf, Germany 7. Frankfurt, Germany 8. Geneva, Switzerland 9. Copenhagen, Denmark 10. Basel, Switzerland and Sydney, Australia (tie) So, where do the cities you love rank among the 231 major cities of the world?

Well, let’s start with your favorite – Miami. It comes in at 64, tied with another city that warms our hearts, Los Angeles. Think the Van Wyck is a nightmare? Well, New York ranks 45.

Tel Aviv comes in at 104. Jerusalem was not considered for the list, likely due to geopolitical perversion.

The worst cities in which to live, just in case you are looking for a place with good upside or are interested in experiencing misery, are as follows: 1. Conakry, Guinea Republic 2. Kinshasa, Democratic Re-

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Peru’s new president, Martin Vizcarra, is promising to fight the corruption that has been plaguing the country. His predecessor was forced from office after a vote-buying scandal was exposed, and Vizcarra’s first message to his people was: “Don’t lose faith in our institutions; let us show you that Peru is bigger than its problems.”

The former vice president gave a 15-minute inauguration speech that was full of promise but light on specifics, aside from a promise to construct an entirely new Cabinet. He flew in from Canada to assume the role as he was serving as the ambassador during the past few months, which were some of the most tumultuous in the country’s recent history.

His predecessor, 79-year-old President Kuczynski, submitted a letter of resignation after sitting trial for impeachment over a bribery scandal.

The campaign to oust him from power took a huge upswing last week when a video emerged of the president’s allies attempting to buy the support of an opposition lawmaker to block his impeachment.

The downfall of Kuczynski – and many other politicians – was his association with Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction giant that has admitted to spreading some $800 million in bribes to officials across Latin Amer-

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

ica, including $29 million in Peru.

Kuczynski denied any ties to the construction giant for many months, but documents came to light that showed that his consulting firm had received $782,000 in payments from Odebrecht a decade ago, some of them when he was a government minister.

Vizcarra, who was not recognized by 81 percent of Peruvians in a poll taken in March, is facing an uphill battle. Before becoming vice president in 2016, his only other political experience was as governor of Peru’s second-least populated province. In three weeks, he will face his first international political test when he hosts President Donald Trump and other Western Hemisphere leaders at the Summit of the Americas in Lima.

Corruption Charges Continue in S. Korea The former president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, is being held on bribery charges. He was detained last

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Prosecutors grilled Lee earlier this month over the almost-20 charges that he was involved in in a wide-ranging bribery scandal which saw him collect around 11 billion won ($10.28 million) from different institutions and individuals. He denies all the charges that have been brought against him.

The arrest warrant was issued late at night by a South Korean judge who felt that Lee “could destroy evidence” and must be picked up immediately.

The former president was taken to a Seoul detention center after midnight.

Lee, who served from 2008 to 2013, says the investigation is politically motivated by prosecutors that worked for the current, liberal administration. Lee’s successor,

ex-President Park Geun-Hye, was removed from office after an influence-peddling scandal crippled her presidency. She is standing trial for bribery, abuse of power and coercion.

Prosecutors in Park’s case are seeking a 30-year jail term. The verdict is expected to be delivered in early April.

3 Killed in Attack in France

France was struck by terror yet again on Friday when a gun-wielding terrorist stormed a grocery store on a quiet corner in southern France.

The terrorist, Moroccan-born Redouane Lakdim, 25, was known to authorities for petty crime and drug-dealing. More importantly, he was already under surveillance since 2014, his name was supposedly registered in the

“Fiche S” list, a government register of individuals suspected of being radicalized but who have yet to perform acts of terrorism. Despite this, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins there was “no warning sign” that Lakdim would carry out an extremist attack. Authorities are focusing the investigation on how the suspect obtained the weapons used in the attack. The Islamic State group proudly claimed responsibility for the massacre that left three dead and at least 16 wounded.

The four-hour saga started at 10:13 a.m. when Lakdim hijacked a car near the town of Carcassonne, killing one person in the car and wounding the other. He then fired six shots at police officers who were on their way back from jogging near Carcassonne, said Yves Lefebvre, secretary general of SGP Police-FO police union. The police were wearing athletic clothes with police insignia. One officer was hit in the shoulder, although the injury was not serious. Lakdim then drove to a Super U supermarket in nearby Trebes, where he stormed the store shouting, “Allahu akbar!” and said he was a “soldier of the Islamic State.” He shot and killed two people inside and took an unknown number of hostages.

There were reportedly about 50 peo-

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The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

ple inside the grocery.

Shortly after, special police units converged on the scene while authorities blocked roads and warned residents to stay inside. The attacker was killed by elite police as they stormed the market.

A heroic police officer who happened to have been shopping in the store at the time is credited with helping authorities move swiftly.

The off-duty officer, Col. Arnaud Beltrame, offered himself up in a hostage swap but was able to leave his phone on connected to the police, and they were able to track the goings-on inside the store based on what they heard from Beltrame’s phone. He suffered life-threatening wounds and is in critical condition.

“He saved lives,” France’s President Emmanuel Macron said. This is the deadliest attack in France since Macron took office last May. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo demanded that the lights of the Eiffel Tower be turned off at midnight in tribute to the victims of the attack. At the national stadium outside Paris, 80,000 soccer fans and the national teams of France and Colombia observed a minute of silence on Friday night to honor those killed in the attacks earlier in the day.

Iran Building Military Facilities in Syria

Iran is building military facilities in Syria very close to large squadrons of Russian forces in the war-torn country. According to newly released reports, the construction of the secret military buildings was started as supposed civilian residential buildings and only later revealed to be housing for Shiite fighters from Iran.

Israeli news outlets are reporting sources inside of Iran say that the buildings were constructed close to Russian assets because Israel is not likely to risk attacking targets in such close proximity to Russian forces and angering Moscow. The Russian forces are being used as “human shields” to protect Iran’s interests in Syria.

Iran, according to unnamed,

high-level sources, is looking to change Syria from its Sunni majority.

The Shiite militias sent there – over 10,000 of them – are not only there for fighting but are there to start seed communities by bringing over their families and friends so that hundreds of thousands of Shiites will live in Syria. These numbers are more impressive when taking into account that an estimate 5-6 million Sunni Syrians have left their homeland in the long, painful civil war.

UN’s Top Countries to Live In

The annual Human Development Report has been released by

the United Nations which evaluates nearly 200 countries based on a number of categories, including life expectancy, education, gender equality, and financial wealth. The report then ranks the countries in order of best to worst places to live in the world. Here is a look at the top ten places to live in 2018.

Coming in at number one for the 13th year in a row, Norway is the number one country to live in the world. The country ranked highest in standard of living, life expectancy, and education. The highly successful, publicly funded healthcare system leads to a very impressive 82year average life expectancy.

Second on the list is a tie between Australia and Switzerland.

Education makes up over 5% of the national GDP in Australia and the UN found that most students in the country attend school for around 20 years. Switzerland ranked highest in overall health with the average age of 83 and a relatively low risk of contracting diseases like malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis.

Coming in at number four is Germany. Over 96% of Germans have at least some secondary education. It helps that all universities are free for residents and international students.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

THIS YEAR,

we are grateful to have TAKEN YOU OUT from the difficulty of navigating the various rewards programs; we have SAVED YOU from misusing your rewards; we have REDEEMED YOUR miles and points for top dollar; and we have BROUGHT YOU to the land of milk and honey (and many other lands as well) without having to break the bank...

So this Pesach, the entire PEYD Team says thank you, for another milestone year.

‫לשנה הבאה בירושלים‬

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Union, swept through the upper floors of the “Winter Cherry” shopping center on Sunday afternoon where a cinema complex and children’s play area were located.

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The next on the list are Denmark and Singapore, which tied each other in this year’s rankings. Denmark scored high marks for its gender wage gap, which is only at 7.8%, compared to 17.9% in the U.S. Singapore scored well thanks to a life expectancy of over 83 years.

The Netherlands ranked seventh on the list due to a relatively low rate of income inequality. The wage gap between classes has been steadily decreasing since the mid-1990s. Ire-

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land came in next with its low crime rate helping its score. The homicide rate in Ireland is only 1.1 per 100,000 people. Canadians live to 82.7 years, landing it the number 9 spot.

Rounding out the top 10 is a tiescore between the United States of America and Canada. More than half of Canadians graduate from college, giving it a high score. The U.S. ranked well thanks to its median income of $59,039 per year.

64 Killed in Russian Mall Fire A busy shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russia, was the scene of horror over the weekend when a fire engulfed the center. At least 64 people were killed; many of them were children.

The fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet

Emergency services said they had extinguished the blaze, but later said it had reignited and that rescuers were struggling to reach the building’s upper floors because the roof had collapsed. TV footage on Monday showed thick black smoke rising from the yellow building.

Anna Kuznetsova, Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, said the fire had been caused by incompetence and warned there were many similar shopping centers.

“Other regions, the bosses of other malls must right now, without waiting for (routine) checks, ask themselves: Have we done everything we can to ensure something like this doesn’t happen here,” Kuznetsova said in a statement.

The shopping mall, a former cake factory, had few windows or doors and the exits were blocked.

Witnesses were quoted by Russian media as saying that the fire alarm had failed to go off, and that many people had found themselves trapped because exit doors were locked. Some people jumped from windows on upper floors to escape the flames.

Other big fires in Russia have often turned out to be the result of serious violations of fire safety regulations. In 2009, 156 people were killed in the city of Perm when an indoor pyrotechnics display at a nightclub went wrong. The owner of that nightclub was convicted of negligence and sentenced to almost a decade in prison.

Holocaust Survivor Stabbed to Death Two men have been arrested over the killing of an 85-year-old Jewish woman, a Holocaust survivor, whose

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stabbed body was found after her Paris apartment was set ablaze, police said on Monday. Mirelle Kanol, who lived alone, was stabbed at least 11 times, an autopsy showed of her charred body. An arsonist had started a fire in her apartment in at least five different areas.

It is said that one suspect was a regular vistor to Kanol whom she treated “like a son” and had visited her that day. No details were given on the second suspect.

A granddaughter of Kanol, Noa Goldfarb, wrote on Facebook that her grandmother was murdered by a neighbor who is a Muslim.

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“Twenty years ago, I left Paris knowing that neither my future nor that of the Jewish People is to be found there,” wrote Goldfarb, who lives in Herzliya, Israel. “But who would’ve thought that I was leaving my relatives where terrorism and cruelty would lead to such a tragedy.

Grandmother was stabbed to death 11 times by a Muslim neighbor she knew well, who made sure to set fire to her home and left us not even one object, a letter, a photograph, to remember her by. All we have are our tears and each other.”

A Paris lawmaker who spoke with one of the woman’s sons said that as a child Kanol had managed to evade the notorious 1942 roundup of over 13,000 Jews in Paris during World War II. Fewer than 100 of those who were detained at the so-called Vel d’Hiv cycling track and then sent to the Nazi death camps survived.

The CRIF umbrella grouping of French Jewish organizations urged “the fullest transparency” by the authorities investigating the killing, “so that the motive of this barbarous crime is known as quickly as possible.”

France’s half-a-million-plus Jewish community has voiced increasing concern over a rise in violent anti-Semitic acts. “The barbarity of this murder sends us back to that of Sarah Halimi just one year ago,” Francis Kalifat, president of the CRIF umbrella of French Jewish

communities, said.

Halimi was a 66-year-old Jewish teacher and physician who prosecutors say was murdered by her Muslim neighbor in April partly in connection with her Jewish identity. Anti-Semitism was included in the indictment against Halimi’s suspected killer, Kobili Traore, 28, after CRIF and BNVCA vocally protested its absence from the draft document.

Overpriced? Or Just Expensive?

Just in case you are considering a city based on its quality of living but want to make sure that the cost of living is not excessive, we turn to the just released 2018 Worldwide Cost of Living survey released by The Economist. The following are the ten most expensive cities in the world, with ties for second and sixth place.

10. Sydney, Australia 9. Tel Aviv, Israel 8. Copenhagen, Denmark 6. Seoul, South Korea 6. Geneva, Switzerland 5. Oslo, Norway 4. Hong Kong, China 2. Zurich, Switzerland 2. Paris, France 1. Singapore Although New York doesn’t crack the top ten, we are right there near the top of the second tier as the 13th most expensive city to live in in the world.

And just in case you are looking for a cheap place to live, here are the ten cheapest cities to live in, with ties at six and nine: 9. New Delhi, India 9. Bucharest, Romania 8. Chennai, India 6. Algiers, Algeria 6. Karachi, Pakistan 5. Bangalore, India 4. Lagos, Nigeria 3. Almaty, Kazakhstan 2. Caracas, Venezuela 1. Damascus, Syria Hey, how about starting a community in Damascus? Discuss.

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due to mutual concerns over Iran’s increased hostility and nuclear ambitions.

Jonathan Spyer, director of Israel’s Rubin Center for Research in International Affairs, says that the Saudi concession shows that positive signals are being sent even though there is no current Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty. “I think that what this shows is even in the absence of that you can have small gestures that are of real meaning,” said Spyer. “That’s what I think that this Saudi decision to allow the overflights consists of.

It’s small but significant.”

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lowed to cross Saudi Arabian airspace took place this past week. “This is a historic moment,” said Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz on the tarmac as the Boeing Dreamliner rolled to a halt. “It is the first time that there is an official connection between the state of Israel and Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Allowing Israel-bound planes to cross over the Arab country is a clear sign of the improvement of ties between the Arab kingdom and the

Jewish state. The flight marks the end of a decades-long ban on the use of Saudi airspace for Israeli commercial flights. There will be three flights in each direction each week.

El Al currently operates a service to India, flying into Mumbai via the Red Sea, in order to avoid flying over Saudi Arabia and Iran. The newest flight approval comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described relations with the Arab world as the “best ever.” It is largely

Nikki Haley, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, called the members of the Human Right Council “foolish” last week for passing five resolutions which condemn Israel. The resolutions were passed during the Council’s 37th session, during which only one resolution was passed for North Korea, Iran, and Syria.

“When the Human Rights Council treats Israel worse than North Korea, Iran, and Syria, it is the Council itself that is foolish and unworthy of its name,” Haley said in the statement.

“It is time for the countries who know better to demand changes. Many countries agree that the Council’s agenda is grossly biased against Israel, but too few are willing to fight it. When that happens, as it did today, the Council fails to fulfill its duty to uphold human rights around the world.”

Haley also reminded the UN that

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the United States is still deciding whether or not it will remain on the Council, saying that these resolutions are another blow to the Council’s “credibility.”

“The United States continues to evaluate our membership in the Human Rights Council. Our patience is not unlimited. Today’s actions make clear that the organization lacks the credibility needed to be a true advocate for human rights,” she said.

The five resolutions that were passed include a call to end all arms sales to Israel and calls on Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights. The Jewish state was also condemned for human rights abuses against Palestinians. The last two called for an Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 lines and for Israel to halt any settlement activity.

Israel Says it Bombed Syrian Nuclear Reactor Over ten years after the destruction of a Syrian nuclear reactor, Israel has confirmed that its air force was responsible for the 2007 air raid. The

Jewish State was widely believed to be behind the September 6, 2007 attack but never admitted it and censored any media reports that alleged its responsibility.

It is now known that eight fighters flew on the secret mission at low altitude to the suspected plutonium nuclear reactor in the Deir el-Zour region of eastern Syria. “On the night between September 5-6, 2007, Israeli Air Force fighter jets successfully struck and destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor in development,” an IDF statement said. “The reactor was close to being completed. The operation successfully removed an emerging existential threat to Israel and to the entire region, Syrian nuclear capabilities.”

It is believed that North Korea helped Syria develop the nuclear reactor. Damascus has never admitted to

developing a nuclear facility and did not say anything about the facility after the attack, only that their airspace had been violated.

Israel stayed silent after the attack because the Jewish State feared retaliation and war. Privately, Israel’s political leaders and its military and intelligence chiefs contacted or met with their allies in the West – the U.S., UK, France and Germany — and in the Arab world — Egypt and Jordan — to share the information with them.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also called Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

All of those players, in turn, kept silent.

In 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it was “very likely” that the site was a nuclear reactor.

PA Funding Cut Until Pay-to-Slay Stops Aid that was earmarked for Palestinians has been cut by President Donald Trump until they stop paying terrorists and their families for their murderous deeds. The Taylor Force

Act, which gets its name from a U.S. army officer that was stabbed to death in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian terrorist, was included in the recent $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill President Trump signed into law.

U.S. funds going to the Palestinian Authority will be stopped until Ramallah ceases making payments to terrorists in prison and the families of those that have been killed committing terrorist acts. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, one of the authors of the Act, gave thanks to the family and friend of Taylor Force for lobbying Congress to pass the bill.

“I truly appreciate the hard work of the Force family and the many friends of Taylor Force who made it clear to Congress the practice of #PaytoSlay must be stopped,” he tweeted.

Senator Bob Corker, one of the

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bill’s main sponsors, is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He testified that the PA has been paying as much as $3,500 a month to Palestinians who commit acts of violence and their families.

Not surprisingly, the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the bill and vowed to continue paying families of “martyrs and prisoners.” Spokesman Yusef al Mahmoud said that the “martyrs and prisoners are, in the eyes of our people, sacred symbols of freedom and struggle and opposition to humiliation and surrender.”

Jordan Sends Palestinians to Jail for Terror Plots A court in Jordan sentenced a Palestinian to several years of hard labor after he was found guilty of plotting to commit terrorist acts against Israel.

Three other men from the Palestinian Authority were given similar sentences for smuggling arms into Judea and

Samaria.

The State Security Court in Amman convicted the terrorist after he was captured attempting to enter Jerusalem from Chevron. He was arrested and charged with plotting to commit an act of terror. He first raised suspicions when he stopped people in Chevron and asked them what the best route was to enter Jerusalem.

The report, which was published by a newspaper in Jordan, did not say how the men ended up standing trial in Jordan, which has not controlled Judea and Samaria since Israel took over the region during the Six Day War in 1967.

The three men that were convicted of attempting to smuggle weapons each received three years of imprisonment with hard labor. One of the defendants is from the Palestinian-controlled city of Shechem and visits Jordan regularly. He planned to smuggle weapons back into Shechem on one of his usual trips.

The number of terrorist attacks on Israelis in February was 25 percent higher than in January. The Israel Security Agency (Shabak) reported 149 terror incidents in Judea and Samaria and from Gaza, up from 118 the month before.

Moms Work Almost 100 Hrs/Wk

Hey, moms. Are you exhausted?

Are your nails cracked from all that scrubbing? Are your legs aching from standing at the stove for hours? It’s no wonder.

According to a recent research study by Welch’s, mothers who juggle children and a job end up working 98 hours per week. There are, if you do

the math, only 168 hours in a week.

Essentially, mothers are working nonstop for their families. And that’s not counting all the work that goes into making Pesach – cooking, scrubbing, cleaning, shopping, schlepping, organizing, folding, dusting, shining, vacuuming, brushing – you get the idea.

The study looked at 2,000 mothers in the United States with children ages 5- to 12-years-old. These mothers were found to be working 14 hour days – clocking in at 6:23 a.m. and then ending their motherly duties at 8:31 p.m.

Where the dads were is anybody’s guess.

So what helps out these busy moms? Turns out that wet wipes, drive-thru meals, grandparents and Netflix were some of the biggest helpers for those nonstop mothers, along with a reliable babysitter and tons of wine.

“The results of the survey highlight just how demanding the role of mom can be and the non-stop barrage of tasks it consists of,” said Casey Lewis, Welch’s Health & Nutrition Lead.

“Busy moms may identify with the list of ‘lifesavers,’ which highlights not just a rigorous workload but a constant requirement to feed and fuel the family,

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the past six years. The report, which asks respondents about their coffee consumption over the past day, found that 64% of people had a cup of coffee over the past 24 hours.

According to the report, 82 percent of coffee drinkers drank it at breakfast; 41 percent sipped it between breakfast and lunch; and 13 percent chugged it in the evening.

When it comes to where people get their coffee, it turns out that there is no place like home – 79% percent of people brewed coffee at home; 40% had coffee which was brewed outside of their home.

According to a report by Smart Asset, Portland, Oregon, has the most coffee shops per capita.

The Smart Asset report, which looked at average Yelp ratings for coffee shops, the percent of coffee shops which are exceptional, the number of coffee shops, the number of roasters and the amount of Google search traffic for the term “coffee,” here are the top ten cities for coffee fanatics in the U.S.: 1. Portland, OR 2. Seattle, WA 3. Oakland, CA 4. San Diego, CA (tie) 5. New Orleans, LA (tie) 6. San Francisco , CA 7. San Jose, CA 8. Denver, CO 9. Austin, TX 10. Honolulu, HI Well, we know that Portland is weird and now we may know the reason why.

week in and week out.”

A busy schedule leaves less time for mom-time. Some mothers struggle with setting time aside for the hobbies, seeing their friends, and even going to the bathroom without a little child in tow.

The result? Only about one hour and seven minutes of “me” time each day. Despite the minute amount of downtime for busy mothers, those few moments are necessary to recharge.

According to Psychology Today, having “me” time not only helps you unwind, but also reboots your brain and can improve your relationships with others by helping you gain a better understanding of yourself. “Me” time also allows moms to take care of themselves, which is so important when four in 10 moms say their lives feel like a “never-ending series of tasks.”

Seems like every day should be Mother’s Day.

The Best Part of Waking Up Ahh! That may very well be the sound of you taking a sip of your coffee.

According to the just released National Coffee Association’s National Coffee Drinking Trends report, the number of Americans drinking coffee has reached its highest percentage in

Bolton New National Security Advisor National Security Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster will be stepping down from his position in the Trump administration. He will be replaced with former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, the third person to hold the title during the Trump presidency.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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“After thirty-four years of service to our nation, I am requesting retirement from the U.S. Army effective this summer after which I will leave public service. Throughout my career it has been my greatest privilege to serve alongside extraordinary servicemembers and dedicated civilians,” McMaster said in a statement, adding, “I am thankful to President Donald J. Trump for the opportunity to serve him and our nation as national security advisor.” Trump responded by saying, “I thank General McMaster and his family for their service and wish them the very best.”

McMaster’s departure was expected as Trump is overhauling his team ahead of the talks he is to hold with North Korea. The president was known to not care for his style. He had clashed with many other members of the Trump administration including former Trump advisor Steve Bannon and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

McMaster’s opinions also clashed with many of President Trump’s. He is a fan of continuing the Iran nuclear deal and opposes the term “radical Islamic terrorism.” He also supports free trade deals with allies like South Korea.

The incoming Bolton has been quite outspoken in his criticism of Iran. “Our goal should be regime change in Iran,” he said earlier this year.

Trump Expels 60 Russian Diplomats

In retaliation for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain the Trump administration ordered the

expulsion of 60 Russian intelligence and diplomatic officers in New York and Washington and the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle on Monday.

Twelve Russian diplomats at the United Nations in New York and 48 at the Russian Embassy in Washington face expulsion by the U.S. government for what senior administration officials described as covert intelligence operations that undermine U.S. national security.

The U.S. government also ordered the Russian Consulate in Seattle closed by April 2. Senior administration officials said they believe it has served as a key outpost in Russia’s intelligence operations, in part because of its proximity to a U.S. submarine base as well as Boeing manufacturing facilities.

Monday’s actions were in response to the March 4 nerve-agent attack in Salisbury, England, which was blamed on Russia and critically injured a former spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia. The show of solidarity was especially notable because Britain’s plan to leave the European Union has strained relations with many of the country’s neighbors.

The U.S. move came in coordination with 14 European nations, which almost simultaneously announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats on Monday in a broad attempt to disrupt the Kremlin’s intelligence network across Europe.

“We remain critical of the actions of the Russian government,” European Council President Donald Tusk said as he announced the actions by 14 European Union countries to expel Russian diplomats. “Additional measures, including further expulsions within the common E.U. framework, are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks.”

Tusk did not say which European Union countries were expelling Russians. Germany, France, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland all made individual announcements, and more were expected to follow.

Separately, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, whose country is not a member of the E.U., also said his country would kick out 13 Russian diplomats.

Taken together, the expulsions were an unusually wide-ranging expression of solidarity against Russia following the attack. The E.U. and the United States also coordinated economic sanctions against Russia after the Kremlin annexed Ukraine’s

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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tion against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization and is calling for talks to resolve the trade dispute.

Crimean Peninsula in 2014, but subsequent actions have been more piecemeal.

“To the Russian government, we say, when you attack our friend you will face serious consequences,” said a senior Trump administration official, who briefed reporters. “As we have continually stressed to Moscow, the door to dialogue is open,” the official added. But Russia must “cease its recklessly aggressive behavior.”

The expulsion of 60 diplomats in

the U.S. is believed to be the most sweeping since the Reagan administration ordered 55 diplomats out of the country in 1986.

In December 2016, the Obama administration expelled 35 suspected Russian “intelligence operatives” in retaliation for Moscow’s interference in the U.S. presidential election. Last August, the Trump administration shut the Russian Consulate in San Francisco and diplomatic annexes in New York and Washington.

China Hits Back in Tariff War China has responded to new U.S. taxes on imported Chinese metals with reciprocal tariffs on $3 billion worth of imports from the United States. The Chinese tariffs will apply to imports of U.S. pork, recycled aluminum, steel pipes, fruit, and wine.

China also plans to pursue legal ac-

China’s retaliation came hours after President Trump instructed Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to begin taxing at least $50 billion in Chinese imports. These additional tariffs were in addition to the metal tariffs Trump ordered earlier this month. The tariffs affect other countries aside from China. The news sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average in a downward spiral, falling 724 points, almost 3 percent. All major Asian indexes fell as well.

“The U.S. declared a trade war, but China is acting quite restrained.

The list that China has announced appears to be a retaliation, but still, it is very measured,” noted Li Yong, senior fellow of China Association of International Trade. “The move sends a message that China is able to fight back, but we still want a trade peace instead of a trade war.”

President Trump defended his administration’s move. “This has been long in the making,” he said. Trump added that the tariffs could affect as much as $60 billion in goods. “We have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on” with China affecting hundreds of billions of dollars in trade each year, he said.

As he signed the tariffs order, Trump told reporters, “This is the first of many.”

Trump tried to make it clear he wasn’t trying to provoke China or its leader, President Xi Jinping. “I view them as a friend. I have tremendous respect for President Xi,” Trump said.

But the U.S.’s trade deficit with China is “the largest deficit in the history of our world,” he added.

CA City Votes against Sanctuary Laws The Trump administration has been vocal about its disapproval of California’s sanctuary laws. Earlier

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this month, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against California over the state’s immigration laws.

The goal is to block the laws passed

by California’s legislature last year.

They also vowed to crack down on policies that limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal authorities. The Justice Department is arguing that one of the state’s laws, which in certain circumstances prevents local officials from giving information to immigration agents or from handing over detained immigrants to federal custody, is unconstitutional and violates a federal statute on information sharing.

While many cities have vowed to fight the federal suit and uphold state policies, one city in California has voted to opt out of the state’s sanctuary laws. Los Alamitos of Orange County’s city council voted earlier this week and with a vote of 4 to 1 to exempt itself from the sanctuary laws. Another vote must happen in order to confirm the

decision.

“This is important for us, for our city, for our community,” Warren Kusumoto, the mayor pro tempore of Los Alamitos, said ahead of the vote.

Kusumoto talked about the importance of the local measure, citing “a conflict between two governing documents – the Constitution of the United States and the state constitution itself.”

The city’s mayor said he has received calls from other city council members and mayors that are “interested in being part of this.” “They really want to know what was the process and are trying to get advice on how to go to the next steps,” Mayor Troy Edgar said.

This announcement was met with uproar in one of the country’s most liberal states. California Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, a Democrat who represents parts of Los Angeles, said the Los Alamitos City Council is “egregiously misinterpreting the U.S. Constitution and are on the wrong side of history.”

“Los Alamitos has an opportunity to protect its residents, but is instead siding with a racist and xenophobic Trump administration hell-bent on instilling fear in immigrants across the nation,” Carillo said in a statement.

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Kushner Leading U.S.-Mexico Relations

President Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill into law this past week, though he was unhappy that it did not pay for his border wall between Mexico and the United States. Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior advisor, sees the bill’s passing as a step in the right direction. He has been trying – pretty successfully – to tone down his father-in-law’s rhetoric when it comes to Mexico.

Kushner has reportedly asked Trump to stop saying that he will get Mexico to pay for the wall he has planned. Jared has also gotten Trump to exempt Mexico from the new steel and aluminum tariffs and to renegotiate, rather than destroy, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Kushner has also built personal relationships with many in the Mexican government, including Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray. His work, according to sources in Mexico City, has served to soften the countries’ relationship after Trump and President Enrique Peña Nieto clashed bitterly over the wall.

Next week, when Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, visits Mexico the two countries are expected to introduce the first two of about 25 agreements that have come about thanks to Kushner’s diplomacy. One such agreement creates joint inspections to stop the flow of drugs across the border and the other uses technology to make the inspection of legal cargo a much smoother process.

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9 Iranian Hackers Charged The latest victims of cyber-violence are American government agencies, dozens of universities, and some private companies. On Friday, nine Iranian defendants were charged

with criminal activity and sanctions by the Trump administration for cybercrimes.

The group is accused of creating a hacking scheme in order to swipe sensitive information from about 320 universities on behalf of the Iranian government-tied Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The hackers, working remotely from Iran, stole expensive science and engineering research which was then used by the government or sold for profit, prosecutors said.

The indictment claims that the hackers used a basic scam to filter systems. They sent over 100,000 professors emails with compromised links. The emails appeared to be coming from colleagues at other university with links to authentic articles.

Once the victims clicked on the link, it steered them to a malicious Internet domain that led them to believe they’d been logged out of their systems and that asked them to enter their log-in credentials. That’s when the hackers simply logged in and stole their credentials.

The Justice Department says the hackers stole roughly 31 terabytes of academic research and intellectual property that was then sent to servers outside the United States for profit. The information that was stolen, which was sold through two websites to customers in Iran, cost U.S. universities about $3.4 billion to procure and access.

The hackers were also accused of breaking into the networks of government organizations, such as the Department of Labor, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the United Nations. Additionally the group penetrated networks of private sector entities including technology companies and law and consulting firms.

The nine defendants were affiliated with an Iranian company called the Mabna Institute. The company was contracted by the Iranian government to carry out the hack.

“By bringing these criminal charges, we reinforce the norm that most of the civilized world accepts: nation-states should not steal intel-

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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lectual property for the purpose of giving domestic industries an advantage,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said as he announced the charges.

It is unlikely that the defendants will ever be prosecuted in an American courtroom since there’s no extradition treaty with Iran. But the grand jury indictment, filed in federal court in Manhattan, is part of the government’s “name and shame” strategy to publicly identify foreign hackers, block them from traveling without risk of arrest, and red-flag their countries.

“People travel. They take vacations, they make plans with their families,” said FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich. “Having your name, face and description on a ‘Wanted’ poster makes moving freely much more difficult.”

In Tehran, Bahram Ghasemi, spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, condemned the move and called it “provocative, illegal and without justification.” Ghasemi said the charges are “another sign of hostility of the U.S. government towards the Iranian nation.” He said the U.S. will not take any benefit from the move aimed at “thwarting” the scientific growth of Iran.

Obesity Rising Drastically in Adults

It’s not just yom tov that brings on the extra pounds; the trend seems to be that American adults across the nation continue to grow increasingly heavier.

In 2015 and 2016, close to 40% of Americans adults were obese, a drastic increase from a decade earlier, federal health officials reported last week. Another 7.7% were severely obese. Back in 2007 and 2008, 5.7% of American adults were severely obese and 33.7% percent were obese.

The survey counted people with a body mass index of 30 or more as obese, and those with a B.M.I. of 40 or more as severely obese.

With the prevalence of severe

obesity the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and various cancers rises as well. In recent years, there has been a huge initiative to spread awareness about the dangers of obesity and the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, but according to the numbers it doesn’t seem to be all that effective, which has public health experts concerned.

“Most people know that being overweight or obese is unhealthy, and if you eat too much that contributes to being overweight,” said Dr. James Krieger, clinical professor of medicine at the University of Washington and executive director of Healthy Food America, an advocacy group.

“But just telling people there’s a problem doesn’t solve it.”

According to the latest survey data, young Americans are improving more than adults. Among Americans ages 2 to 19, 18.5% were obese in the 2015 and 2016, while 5.6% were severely obese. The study found that the percentage of youths who are obese and severely obese rose slightly from the 2007-2008 timeframe, but not enough to be statistically significant.

Dr. Craig Hales, co-author of the survey research, said the small increase in childhood obesity “could be due to sampling error,” and that the upshot was “no increasing or decreasing trends over the last 10 years.”

“Something different is happening with adults and youth,” he pointed out.

However, there doesn’t seem to be an obvious reason why. Fast food sales in the United States rose 22.7 % from 2012 to 2017, according to Euromonitor, while packaged food sales rose 8.8%. Perhaps this is a contributing factor.

Happier Teens Use Phones Less

Want happy kids? Take away their smartphones.

According to researchers at San Diego State University and University of Georgia, teens who are hooked on

their phones and other digital devices are “markedly” unhappier than their less-plugged-in peers.

The researchers studied more than a million 8th, 10th, and 12th grade American students participating in the long-term “Monitoring the Future” study. Participants were polled on their mobile device and computer use and their amount of face-to-face social interactions with others. They were also surveyed on their level of overall happiness.

The authors found that teens who spent more time hanging out with friends in person and less time texting or video chatting were happier than those who spent more time in front of a screen. There was a notable increase in overall life satisfaction for students who participated in more extracurricular activities or sports, as well as those who read actual print publications more frequently. The research team believes that habitual use of smartphones or computers to socialize was a key factor in how unhappy a participant felt.

“The key to digital media use and happiness is limited use,” says Jean M. Twenge, the study’s lead author and a professor of psychology at SDSU. “Aim to spend no more than two hours a day on digital media, and try to increase the amount of time you spend seeing friends face-to-face and exercising – two activities reliably linked to greater happiness.”

And while Twenge suggests allowing a maximum of two hours for screen time, she says the study showed that the happiest teens were those who spent a tad less than an hour per day on digital media. That statistic includes teens who report not using digital devices at all – which means some use of technology makes children happier. But after that first hour, unhappiness rose steadily among participants as their total screen time increased.

Not surprisingly, the authors point out that studies have shown self-esteem and life satisfaction levels dropped sharply after 2012, which is the same year that the number of Americans who owned a smartphone jumped over 50 percent. To that point, her study only adds to the wealth of work that’s determined parents must monitor how much time their teens are spending online.

“The advent of the smartphone is the most plausible explanation for the sudden decrease in teens’ psychological well-being,” she says.

Orlando Shooter’s Dad was FBI Informant

On Saturday it was disclosed by prosecutors that the Orlando nightclub terrorist’s father was a secret FBI informant for more than a decade, prompting questions about whether authorities may have missed warning signs leading up to the massacre.

The news, disclosed on Saturday to lawyers representing the Pulse nightclub shooter’s wife, Noor Salman, in her own terrorism case related to the attack, also led to immediate calls by the defense for a mistrial.

“Seddique Mateen was a FBI confidential human source at various points in time between January 2005 and June 2016,” the defense lawyers, in a court document filed Sunday, quoted Assistant United States Attorney Sara Sweeney as saying in a letter.

The 31-year-old Salman is accused of obstruction of justice, as FBI agents say she lied to them in the hours after the Pulse nightclub attack, and is charged with aiding and abetting Mateen’s allegiance to ISIS. Sweeney’s letter said that during a search of Seddique Mateen’s home in June 2016, investigators found receipts for money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan in the months leading up to the horrific attack at the Orlando nightclub, which left 49 people dead. “As a result of the discovery of these receipts, an FBI investigation into Seddique Mateen was opened,” the letter reportedly said. “S. Mateen has not been informed by the FBI about the investigation.”

The letter also stated that, in November 2012, an anonymous tip indicated Mateen was seeking to raise up to $100,000 in donations to contribute toward an attack on the Pakistan government, the lawyers wrote.

The defense lawyers say that holding back the information about Mateen has not allowed them to create the best possible defense for their client.

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Salman’s lawyers, who deny she has anything to do with the attack, started presenting their case on Monday. The government prosecutors rested on Thursday without ever calling Seddique to the stand, despite him being on the witness list, according to the Orlando Sentinel. In opening statements, defense attorney Linda Moreno said Salman was a person with a low IQ who did not know “she would wake up a widow, and Omar Mateen a martyr for a cause that she didn’t support.”

Months earlier, at the height of the 2016 presidential election cycle, Seddique was spotted cheering on Hillary Clinton and waving an American flag at an Orlando-area rally where she paid tribute to the victims of his son’s rampage and condemned his “hatred.”

Mateen’s presence – right behind Clinton – was first noticed by WPTV in Florida. The TV station later interviewed Mateen, who held up a large, yellow pro-Clinton banner calling her “good for national security” and “gun control laws.” Though Mateen claimed he had been “invited” to the Kissimmee, Fla., rally outside of Orlando, he also suggested the invitation may have come in the form of a mass email.

Mateen was quoted as saying that “it’s a Democratic Party so everybody can join.” He also called Clinton “good for [the] United States versus Donald Trump.” As for his son’s actions, he said he wishes his son had joined the Army and fought ISIS. “That would be much better,” he told WPTV.

Facebook Dives into Damage Control Mode

Mark Zuckerberg is very sorry, and he is hoping it’s not too little too late to save his social media company.

The Facebook CEO took out full-page ads in seven British newspapers and three American newspapers to apologize for the ongoing Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal that left millions of users with compromised privacy.

Zuckerberg attempted to clarify the situation by reiterating that the company has already stopped third-party apps from “getting so much information” and that Facebook has started “limiting the data apps get when you sign up.”

This direct apology comes after many were outraged that Zuckerberg’s initial post on his Facebook page addressing the situation didn’t fully take blame or apologize for the invasion of privacy. Even during his flurry of interviews in the days following the breach he didn’t apologize.

The first verbal apology was on CNN. “This was a major breach of trust, and I’m really sorry that this happened,” Zuckerberg told CNN’s Laurie Segall in an interview last Wednesday. “We have a basic responsibility to protect people’s data, and if we can’t do that then we don’t deserve to have the opportunity to serve people,” Zuckerberg said.

Cambridge Analytica is a data mining and analytics company based out of London that gained access to data on as many as 50 million Facebook profiles thanks to generous data-sharing policies Facebook app developers implemented back in 2014.

This data, which was sold to Cambridge Analytica against Facebook’s terms of service, reportedly informed the firm’s election ad-targeting toolset used by the campaign of President Donald Trump and others.

The situation has left Facebook treading in roiling water. Numerous lawsuits are pending. The government has submitted several inquiries and users are rallying for a boycott using the hashtag #DeleteFacebook.

Additionally, the company’s share price dropped 2.7% on Thursday, the day after Zuckerberg made his first public comments acknowledging the scandal. Facebook has lost $59 billion in value since the report broke over the weekend. Even so, the company now has a $479 billion market value.

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travelers. The list also included the least expensive month for traveling to each destination, a helpful tip for those who have flexibility. The ranking was generated based on reviews and ratings over a 12-month period.

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As you head to Miami for Pesach and the airport is packed with passengers, there is always a thought nagging at the back of your mind: maybe I should offer to get bumped from the flight. I’ll earn myself another flight and I’ll come a day later; what’s the big deal? But when you’re dealing with families and sedarim a day delay is a big deal.

Well, Allison Preiss found out that being bumped from a flight is a big deal – a big, fat $10K worth of a deal.

Recently, when United Airlines oversold a flight from Dulles International Airport, they asked for volunteers to be bumped, offering $1K in travel credits for the flight. But no one was biting and so they were telling the lowest-fare passenger – who was Allison – to leave the flight.

Thus began Allison’s twitter storm. Allison is a communications director from Washington.

“United tried to get me to sign a document that says I volunteered my seat on this plane when I was involuntarily denied boarding. Sketchy,” she wrote. “On the upside, I wasn’t physically dragged off the plane and my dog wasn’t killed on board, so I’ve got that going for me ... which is nice,” she added.

The twitter storm brought Allison a bonanza in travel credits. After being bumped from the flight Allison received $10,000 in travel credits plus two $10 meal vouchers. “I also got two $10 meal vouchers. I am go-

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

ing to go INSANE at Pizza Hut,” she remarked.

“Well,” Allison later admitted to ABC News, “I can say it was the best flight delay ever.”

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For more information visit lcm.touro.edu Want your workers to work harder? Offer them pizza.

A recent study claims that people are more motivated to work harder when they’re offered pizza over cash and that pizza can make people more productive at work when used as a stimulus.

Psychologist Dan Ariely details the study in his book, Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations.

Ariely used four different groups of employees at an Intel semiconductor factory in Israel and rewarded them for increased productivity.

One group was offered a bonus of about $30, another pizza, another a compliment from their boss, and the last group was offered nothing.

Ariely found that pizza, as opposed to cash and compliments, was the biggest initial motivator. The promise of pizza increased productivity by 6.7 percent on the first day – all for a slice of ooey, gooey goodness.

Interestingly, the pizza wasn’t powerful enough to fuel them for a whole week. Over the course of the weeklong study, the success of the pizza group dropped off and the most successful group ended up being the group that received compliments.

Perhaps, Ariely opines, pizza would have been the overall winner if he had been able to parcel out the reward via home delivery. “This way … we not only would give them a gift, but we would also make them heroes in the eyes of their families,” he wrote.

Now we know why the pizza shops are packed after Pesach. So many hours of hard work putting the Pesach dishes away...

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A Dragon PT

Arthritis doesn’t just affect humans. Recently, a Komodo dragon at

the Denver Zoo was showing signs of the debilitating disease and arthritis was found in one of his knees. How do you care for a Komodo dragon, a carnivorous reptile known to kill and eat humans?

Enter Dr. Tammy Wolfe, a physical therapist. She has been working with 15-year-old Raja at the zoo.

Since she’s been giving him therapy, the dragon has been completely changed.

“Hi, sweet boy! You’re looking

awesome!” she greets her patient. He closes his eyes as she manipulates his joints. But despite his relaxed nature, Wolfe has to be on guard. Behind that smile lays 60 razor-sharp teeth.

Arthritis runs in the family.

Wolfe also treated Raja’s late father, Castor, for the condition.

Wolfe keeps a broom on-hand at all times when she’s with Raja – just in case the dragon decides to give her a love tap.

“I just hope they’re well fed when

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required to cook pasta. They were, I’m sure, trying to make the silly Americans not feel too dumb.

Florentine chef Fabio Picchi sought to right the issue by offering the women four hours of Italian cooking lessons in one of his restaurants.

“They will have lunch in our restaurant with two of my extraordinary cooks,” Picchi said. “They will teach them the simple basics that are very good if done well. I think this can be useful to them, but also to us.

Understanding is what is beautiful and necessary.”

Apparently these exchange students have a lot to learn.

Running for 3

I come in,” Wolfe says about the dragons.

I have a hunch she doesn’t want to be his lunch.

Remember to Add Water Cooking spaghetti can’t be easier. Boil a pot of water, dump in the pasta, and voila! You have yourself a

delicious Italian dish.

For some, though, making pasta is just too hard. Recently, three American exchange students in Italy attempted to make pasta but ended up making a fire instead.

The three 20-year-old women purchased a package of pasta from a store in Italy, placed the contents in the pot, and then turned on the fire.

Within minutes, they were staring at flames leaping from the pot.

“We put the pasta on the fire without the water – we thought it

was cooked like that,” the students said.

Firefighters arrived at the scene to extinguish the blaze and told the exchange students they also weren’t aware that boiling water was

Ann Marie Cody has been running around a lot. She has triplets and life is very busy.

But this week, the Californian mom was running for a reason. She broke her second Guinness World Record when she completed a marathon while pushing her triplets in a stroller at the Modesto Marathon with a time of 4 hours, 6 minutes and 33 seconds, surpassing the previous Guinness World Record for “fastest marathon pushing a triple pram (female)” by nearly 20 minutes.

She was running with her 15-month-old triplets while she completed this feat.

Cody and her kids previously made the Guinness Book of World Records for “fastest half marathon pushing a triple pram (female)” when they performed a similar feat at the Fresno Half Marathon with a time of 1 hour, 47 minutes and 59 seconds.

The mother’s record-breaking runs raised funds for the El Camino Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Mountain View, where her triplets were cared for by doctors.

“It’s fun to break records but more important for me to help support the hospital and staff that took such good care of us,” Cody said.

“Our babies were born at 33 weeks and spent weeks in El Camino Hospital NICU. I can’t thank the staff enough, and wanted to give back in a way that included the triplets.”

She said the record attempts also served as bonding time with her kids.

“Running with the stroller is tough, but it’s a great activity that we can do together,” Cody said. “Ex-

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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posing my two sons and daughter to their community and outdoor activities is a bonus, though after a few miles, it’s nap time.”

For the triplets and for the tired mom.

An Afghani Donald Trump

You may think that Donald Trump lives in the White House but there’s another one – and he’s only 18-months-old and living in Afghanistan.

When little Trump was born, his father, Sayed Assadullah, saw his light hair and decided to name him after the American president. “[President] Donald Trump has a lot of special qualities,” Assadullah said in a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “He’s very capable, he’s serious, and he’s a good politician and a good writer.

“Because he’s a really good person, and he wrote a lot of impressive books, and because he was a successful businessman, we decided to name our son Donald Trump.”

According to the original report in The New York Times, Assadullah comes from a poor farming family but he earned a college degree and read Trump’s books. He also watched the U.S. president on a television, which is powered by solar panels provided to the village by an aid organization.

Naming the little boy after the famous billionaire would boost his chance of success in life, Assadullah hoped.

For now, though, the name has

created a feud in the family. Usually the grandparents have the first say on a baby’s name but Assadullah rebelled, with the backing of his wife Jamila. When the decision was revealed, Assadullah’s family ridiculed him and then became angry.

He told The New York Times: “They told me, ‘How you can select the name of an infidel for your son?’

My father is an angry man. He told me that he could not tolerate the fact that I call my son Donald Trump.

“So I left and moved my family to Kabul.”

This kid is going to be great. Buhlieve me.

“Most Interesting Man” Judges Beard Contest

The man made famous by being “the most interesting man in the world” while pitching Dos Equis beer loaned his expertise with his perfectly groomed facial hair by helping to judge a contest looking for the best beard in Vermont. Jonathan Goldsmith, whose close-cropped beard was a key part of the image of the cigar-smoking sophisticate, judged the Best Beardies competition on Saturday. It was sponsored by the Vermont chapter of the Make-a-

Wish Foundation.

This year’s competition raised $45,000 for Make-a-Wish Vermont, topping the nearly $30,000 it brought in last year.

So whose facial hair is the best in the land? Chip Fortune, of Colchester, won over the judges with his mountain man-style beard and was named 2018’s Top Beardie.

The other winners were: Troy Headrick, of Burlington, urban beard; Louie Coli, of Westford, freestyle beard; Dillon Mears, of Plainfield, people’s choice; and Steve Jalbert, of Barre, top fundraiser. The winners were among this year’s 20 competitors who made it to Saturday’s finals. They each won a plaque, a gift card for beard care products, and bragging rights.

According to Goldsmith, a beard reveals the personality of the man who sports it.

“If it’s wild looking, unkempt – that has some statement. If it’s immaculately trimmed, it might mean that he keeps a clean desk,” said Goldsmith, a Vermont resident who now promotes tequila. “If it’s really long, I would say that it’s somebody who is his own man and doesn’t really care about convention.”

Jalbert, 33, has a long beard that covers his bald pate. He said friends, family and admirers of his beard, which he’s been working on for about a year, urged him to enter. “The biggest thing is you have to have patience. It doesn’t grow fast,” Jalbert said.

There’s a science to ensuring that his beard remains kempt, he said.

He washes it several times a week and he uses oils to keep it tame and looking good. “Most people have a good thing to say about a guy with a good beard,” said Jalbert, who raised $2,070 in contributions.

Wonder what they have to say about sefira beards.

Get Married.

Save a Tree Bowling? Skydiving?

Don’t stay home on chol hamoed!

TJH Chol Hamoed Guide in our Pesach supplement

These women are going out on a limb to save a giant ficus tree in Snell Family Park in Fort Myers, Florida.

The tree has been in the park for more than a century and now it’s at risk for being cut down.

Cooper, who lives near the park, has mobilized to save the fig tree.

Her most daring move? Her Saturday nuptials to the tree, complete

with flowers, music, a tree-decorated wedding cake and a canine ring-bearer named Little Bear.

Though rooted on city property, some of the Indian laurel’s 8,000-square-foot canopy and root system extends to a neighboring lot, for sale for $1 million. Last year, would-be buyer Jeff Romer asked the city what his legal responsibilities to the tree would be. “All I was doing was my due diligence on the lot,” he told the Fort Myers Beautification Advisory Board at its last meeting. “If I’m allowed to touch the tree, trim the tree, prune the tree ... because I don’t want to be liable if the tree falls over onto the neighbor’s house.”

Since then, the city’s public works department has said that it is considering cutting down the tree and replacing it with small trees.

But neighbors became tree-mautized when they heard of the news.

And then, on Saturday, Cooper and others wearing white vowed to honor and protect the tree before 50 wedding “guests.”

Cooper got the idea from a group of women who’ve been protesting deforestation in Mexico by marrying trees, she said. “So I saw that and I thought, ‘Oh we should marry the ficus tree — kind of giggle, giggle — but everyone said it’s a really good idea, so I said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’”

The city has since said that it won’t cut down the tree; it will only be pruned. But still Cooper, the hopeful bride, is not happy.

“It’s still not saved,” she said.

“It’s still not decided, and that’s what I don’t understand. If the arborist says it can be trimmed and if ... Jeff Romer stood up at the last meeting and said I never asked for the tree to be cut down, and if we all in the neighborhood don’t want it to, why are we still talking about cutting the tree down?”

If they cut down the tree, Cooper says, “I’m going to be a widow.”

And that would be a tree-vesty.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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Around the

Community MAY Alumni Yarchei Kallah – A Huge Success

T

his past week, Mesivta Ateres Yaakov held their annual Bein Haz’manim Yarchei Kallah on inyanei Pesach. Although primarily geared for alumni returning from Eretz Yisrael for bein haz’manim, the Yarchei Kallah also attracted alumni from the greater community. This year’s program drew over 50 graduated talmidim for shiurim, learning, schmoozing and “catching up.”

Each morning following Shacharis, alumni were treated to a lavish breakfast during which they caught up with friends, current talmidim and rabbeim. Seder began with shiurim on the Haggadah delivered by Mesivta and Yeshiva Gedolah rabbeim, providing insightful divrei Torah for talmidim to share at their own sedarim. Following the Haggadah shiurim, talmidim, together with the 12th grade, were provided ma’areh mekomos with which to prepare for the day’s iyun shiur on different Pesach topics.

Rabbi Yossi Bennett, Assistant Menahel, commented, “Each year it is one of our most highly anticipated events and a highlight of our

year when our talmidim return either from Eretz Yisroel or from their respective yeshivos or colleges in America. The enormous response from our talmidim returning to learn with their MAY rabbeim is a

huge chizuk, both for Rabbeim and for current talmidim. It bears testimony to the strong connections and relationships that were forged while they were here at the Mesivta and to the fact that those relationships re-

main intact.”

Recordings and source material for the various shiurim are available on the yeshiva’s website at www.ateresyaakov.com or through the yeshiva’s office.

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Many dedications are still available. Contact newbuilding@kshul.com or visit www.kshul.com/newbuilding Shul Name

Reserved

Lobby Digital Z’manim Display

Reserved

Main Sanctuary

Reserved

Wall of Sponsors

$18,000

Aron Kodesh

$180,000

Audio/Visual Systems

$15,000

Simcha Hall Name

Reserved

Shul Shtenders

Reserved

Ezras Nashim Mezzanine

Reserved

Main Lobby Chandelier

Reserved

Bima

Reserved

Sheimos Box

$15,000

Main Lobby

Reserved

Women’s Section Chairs

Reserved

Cornerstone #1

Reserved

Women’s Section Tables

$15,000

Cornerstone #2

$75,000

Kitchen Equipment

$15,000

Shul Entry Portico

Reserved

Simcha Hall Chairs

$15,000

Amud

Reserved

Simcha Hall Tables

$15,000

Ner Tamid

Reserved

Security Camera System

$15,000

Bais Medrash Entry Foyer

Reserved

Main Lobby Coatroom

Reserved

Shul Courtyard

Reserved

Menorah

Reserved

Women’s Entrance Lobby

$50,000

Skylight

Reserved

Children’s Classroom A

$36,000

Simcha Hall Washing Station (2)

Reserved

Children’s Classroom B

Reserved

Main Entry Mezuza

Reserved

Simcha Hall Lobby - Men’s

$36,000

Main Shul Mezuza

Reserved

Simcha Hall Lobby - Women’s

$36,000

Main Building Doors

Reserved

Men’s Section Tables and Chairs

Reserved

Women’s Entry Main Doors

Reserved

Founder - Plaque (Multiple)

$25,000

Women’s Entry Mezuzah

Reserved

Catering/Prep Kitchen

Reserved

Rabbi’s Desk

Reserved

Rav’s Office

Reserved

Rabbi’s Office Chair

$10,000

Kisei Shel Eliyahu

Reserved

Simcha Hall Mezuza

Reserved

Elevator and Chairlift

$25,000

In-Shul Digital Z’manim Display

Reserved

Ezras Noshim Lobby North

Reserved

Master Builder - Plaque (Multiple)

$10,000

Ezras Noshim Lobby South

Reserved

Main Shul Doors

Reserved

HVAC System

$25,000

Rav’s Chair

Reserved

Main Shul Chandelier

Reserved

Rav’s Shtender

Reserved

Yomim Noraim Paroches

Reserved

Children’s Library (in Classroom)

Reserved

Shalosh Regalim Paroches

Reserved

Kiddush Levanah Set

Reserved

Shul Window

Reserved

Decorative Wall Clock

Reserved

Shul Windows (11)

$18,000

Sefarim Bookshelf - Rav’s Office (3)

$7,200

Kohanim Washing Station

Reserved

Sefarim Bookshelf - Ladies Section (3)

$5,000

Kiddushim Plaque

$18,000

Sefarim Bookshelf - Classroom (2)

$5,000

Shalosh Seudos Plaque

$18,000

Sefarim Bookshelf - Main Shul (7)

Reserved

Yartzeit Plaque

Reserved

Sefiras Ha’omer Display

Reserved

Parnes Hashavua Plaque

$18,000

B’rich Shemei Display

Reserved

Holocaust Memorial

Reserved

Modim Display

Reserved

Rabbi’s Copy Machine

$18,000

Pitum HaKetores Display

Reserved

Rabbi’s In-shul Private Bookcase

Reserved

Mezuzos (15)

$3600

Rabbi’s Foyer/Waiting Room

Reserved

Friends of KAY - Plaque (Multiple)

$1800

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

‫ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם‬

Join us in building our future Kehillas Ahavas Yisrael, under the dynamic leadership of

Rabbi Daniel Glatstein ‫שליט״א‬

is in the midst of an ambitious project to build a new permanent home.

Centrally located on the Cedarhurt-Woodmere border, our new building promises to be a Makom Torah where the entire community can enjoy our daily tefilos and many shiurim.

Thousands of people around the world access Rabbi Glatstein’s Torah knowledge every day, listening and watching to an endless stream of his shiurim online. Many of those daily shiurim are broadcast right from our shul, and our new state of the art building will be the source of countless more. Now, you too can participate in establishing an inspiring and permanent home for Torah and Tefilah in the Five Towns, and a base for shiurum to eminate across the globe.

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Kollel Tirtza Devorah Prepares for its 13th Anniversary Dinner

By Benzion Kaplan

K

ollel Tirtza Devorah of Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway has announced the date and venue for its 13th anniversary dinner: Wednesday, May 16, the second day of Sivan, at Ateres Chynka in Brooklyn, New York.

The Kollel was established in 2005 at the request of alumni of Yeshiva Darchei Torah who, upon their return from learning in Eretz Yisrael, sought to continue their growth under the guidance of their rabbeim and roshei yeshiva. That initial “kibbutz” of bachurim grew into a full-fledged kollel that is the crown jewel of Yeshiva Darchei Torah.

Today Kollel Tirtza Devorah is comprised of 40 distinguished fulltime yungeleit, most of them alumni of Darchei Torah, plus an additional 30 members of its afternoon Kollel mechanchim, which includes rabbeim from various yeshivos.

In addition to the sugyos of the “yeshivishe masechta,” there are three chaburos that focus on halacha

sugyos.

The avreichim are privileged to learn under the guidance of the rosh kollel, Rav Dovid Bender, shlita. They also receive bi-weekly vaadim on shalom bayis and chinuch from Rav Yaakov Bender, Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshiva Darchei Torah, and regular chaburos and vaadim from Rav Shlomo Avigdor Altusky, Rosh Yeshiva.

Most of the yungeleit have settled with their families around the Yeshiva, enhancing Yeshiva Darchei Torah – and the entire Far Rockaway/Five Towns community – with their learning and personal example.

Alumni of the Kollel have gone on to become rabbeim, marbitzei Torah, and committed baalei batim in communities across America. *** This year’s dinner is the fourth such event since the Kollel’s inception. Accepting the Parents of the Year award will be Harav and Rebbetzin Shlomo Feivel Schustal, shlita, whose son, Reb Avrohom, is a member of Kollel Tirtza Devorah and an alumnus of Darchei Torah.

Rav Schustal is a rebbi, rav and mentor to innumerable talmidim. Today he is the rosh yeshiva of Tiferes Yerachmiel, a yeshiva that he established in Lakewood. He previously served as a maggid shiur in Brooklyn’s Yeshiva Torah Temimah for many decades and counts hundreds of roshei yeshiva, rabbonim and marbitzei Torah among his talmidim. Kollel Tirtza Devorah is fortunate that Rav Schustal, a living embodiment of gadlus baTorah, has agreed to be a part of this upcoming ma’mad of kavod – and hachzokas –haTorah.

Dr. and Mrs. Yitzchok (Jeff) Knobel, the parents of Reuven, an alumnus of the Yeshiva and a member of the Kollel, will be receiving the Kesser Shem Tov Award. The Knobels are true b’nei Torah and beloved members of their kehillah, Beis Medrash Torah U’Tefillah in Flatbush.

Mr. and Mrs. Mordechai Heinemann will be presented with the Eitz Chaim Award. Having been a full-time member of the kollel for four years, Mordechai now works in the accounting field. The Heinemanns epitomize

Rav Shlomo Feivel Schustal will be one of the honorees at the Kollel’s dinner

the lives of Bnei Torah, with Mordechai continuing to learn and daven at the Yeshiva on a constant basis.

The dinner chairman, Mr. Avi Schron, is renowned for his involvement in myriad devarim shebikdusha. His son-in-law, Reb Netanel Myerowitz, is a member of Kollel Tirtza Devorah and an alumnus of the Yeshiva.

The members of Far Rockaway’s Kollel Tirtza Devorah, a division of Yeshiva Darchei Torah.

Top Row, L-R: Rabbis Yehuda Jaffe, Simcha Alter, Tani Goldbaum, Aharon Bain, Reuven Knobel, Mordechai Lichtenstein, Chaim Katz, Yair Kenig, Avi Lauterbach, Chaim Tepfer, Simcha Horowitz and Rafi Patow. Second Row, L-R: Rabbis Moshe Noble, Aaron Lowinger, Boruch Rosenberg, Dovid Engelberg, Eli Wiener, Pesach Horowitz, Eli Schuck, Tzvi Schwartz, Yechiel Fragin, Yisroel Wallach and Moshe Aronov. Third Row, L-R: Rabbis Yehuda Zwick, Shlomo Schwartz, Emmanuel Zerovabeli, Moshe C. Horowitz, Moshe Wischogrodski, Netanel Myerowitz, Levi Simsowitz, Dovid Bain, Yacov Sprecher and Meir Safdieh. Bottom Row, L-R: Rabbis Yechiel Bloom, Yossi Reisman and Ephraim Gurwicz; Rav Shlomo Avigdor Altusky, Rosh Yeshiva; Rav Dovid Bender, Rosh Kollel; Rav Yaakov Bender, Rosh HaYeshiva; Rabbis Efraim Molinsky, Avrohom Schustal, Eli Winzelberg and Zev Kops.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Combatting Anti-Semitism

A

ssemblywoman Nily Rozic partnered with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to host a briefing for legislators outlining the recent increases of anti-Semitic incidents across the country.

In response to the release of the ADL’s recent audit identifying a 57% rise in anti-Semitism nationally and a 90% increase in New York State, Rozic has authored legislation to create hate crimes recognition and response training for all law enforcement agencies. Dozens of legislators attended the briefing led by ADL Senior Associate Regional Director Melanie Robbins and joined the discussion on how to best respond to the concerning data.

Rabbi Frand Speaks in West Hempstead

T

he entire West Hempstead community joined together for a night of unity and inspiration. Chazaq, Young Israel of West Hempstead, Anshei Shalom, Eitz

Chayim of Dogwood Park, Bais Torah U’Tefillah and Chabad sponsored this wonderful and inspirational pre-Pesach shiur with Rabbi Frand. Rabbi Frand is well-known across the

world through his books, audio CDs and speaking engagements. He is one of the most popular lecturers of our time.

There was a packed standing

room-only room of men and women who enjoyed hearing words of wisdom and chizuk before Pesach.

Among the many things Rabbi Frand spoke about was that the goal of the Seder is to strengthen us in our faith, inspire us in our observance of the Torah, and give us a closer and deeper relationship with Hashem.

In addition, our task on the night of the Passover Seder is to explain to our children what we see as our role in this world and to be role models, as well as good Jews in society.

Also, he expressed how we have to always have hope and never give up.

We must believe there is a reason for everything and although it may not be understood right away, eventually it will all become clear why certain things happen in our lives.

It was truly an honor to have Rabbi Frand join the West Hempstead community. All came away from the shiur with chizuk and inspiration going into the Pesach holiday.

HAFTR Hawks Boys’ 8th Grade Basketball Champions

O

n Thursday, March 22, the boys’ 8th grade basketball team, who were undefeated this season, played the Magen David Warriors for the league champion-

ship. And, with a stifling defense and a fast-paced offense, the Hawks defended their championship and took home the trophy and another championship banner.

Congratulations to the entire team, to their coach Joey Hoenig and to their beloved assistant coach, Leroy Samuel. What an incredible season and we thank them all for

representing HAFTR in such a positive light by playing with heart and passion but also with middot and class.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Applying Halachic Sources to Real World Situations at Model Beis Din Competition

I

n 1977, a Jewish couple from Lakewood, NJ, learned that their pregnancy would lead to conjoined twin girls sharing a single heart.

It would be impossible for both babies to survive. Surgeons at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia recommended separating the twins to allow the stronger one to live.

The couple decided to seek rabbinic counsel before deciding to allow one baby to die. What would the right decision be? Was it ethical to allow the weaker baby to die in order to save the stronger one? The rabbis deliberated for days before deciding.

Students from yeshivas in New

al weeks reading sources, weighing the moral and ethical considerations, and reviewing halachic opinions. The night before, they stayed up late into the night finalizing their team’s positions. They got up early to finalize their opening statements. By morning they were ready to debate.

Now in its fifth year, the Model Beis Din is a unique opportunity for students to learn how to use Torah sources to inform complex decisions.

“The dilemma posed in this case was a morally complex one, and the students succeeded in mastering difficult Jewish sources which brilliantly addressed it. This is just the kind of

Participants during the competition

Dr. Moshe Sokol, Dean and Professor and LCM. The competing teams took turns arguing their case before a judge – rabbinic faculty from LCM. Students

The winning team from Mesivta of Philadelphia

York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Tennessee representing eight teams struggled with the same question at Touro’s Lander College for Men’s Model Beis Din last week. The boys had spent sever-

nuanced reasoning we cultivate in the students at Touro’s Lander College for Men (LCM). There is no area of life that the halacha does not address, and our Model Beis Din competition brought that principle to life,” said

nervously shuffled stacks of papers as they strived to prove their points.

Over time, the nerves settled and students became strong and confident speakers. They rebutted each other’s arguments and parried questions

from the judges, honing their analytical skills and learning from one another. “We are all competing with each other, but the inter-team discussions are very complementary. It’s fun,” said Yitzy Tanner of Mesivta of Philadelphia.

“The students have gained a tremendous amount through the experience. This brings them closer to Torah, to halacha, to Judaism and most important, to G-d,” said Rabbi Chaim Jachter of Torah Academy of Bergen County.

At the end of the day, the entire group gathered to celebrate the winning team. A team from Mesivta of Philadelphia’s A Team took the first place prize. (The school brought two teams, thanks to the program’s popularity.) Yeshiva Ohr Yisroel of Boston took second place, and Cooper Yeshiva High School of Memphis came in third.

“It is an inspiration to see your accomplishments and to watch you grow to the best of your abilities as ben ha’Torah,” said Rabbi HaRav Yonason Sacks, shlita, esteemed Rosh HaYeshiva of the Beis Medrash L’Talmud and one of the judges.

Flaum’s, Celebrating a Century of Appetizing Food A family Tradition from 1918-2018

F

or five generations, the Flaum family has been serving up fresh kosher pickles and herring, fish spreads, dips and salads that bring the delightful taste of oldworld tradition to every table. Celebrating its 100th year, the famed

Flaum’s brand, which began as an appetizing store on Lee Avenue in Williamsburg, has rolled out a series of new products including their new herring line. For immigrants who lived on the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, a trip to Flaum’s was an

obligatory stop as a way of connecting with some of the foods of “der alter heim.” Today Flaum’s is a leading producer of a full line of salads, Mediterranean delicacies, dips and fish products. Whether it’s a weekday or Shabbos, tens of thousands

of people choose Flaum’s Appetizing for their spreads, dips, herring and other delicious Jewish heritage food because of its exceptional taste; it has become the herring of choice at Kiddush celebrations all over the country.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

Around the Community

HAFTR High School students packed the Pesach shelves at the Marion and Aaron Gural JCC

Yeshiva of South Shore Pays Tribute to the Legacy of Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky, zt”l

M

omentum builds as Yeshiva of South Shore gears up to pay tribute to the legacy of Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky, zt”l, one year after his petira.

On Sunday, April 15, rabbeim, alumni, parents, and supporters of the Yeshiva and the Five Towns community will gather in The Sands Atlantic Beach for the Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky Memorial Dinner.

The special evening will launch the rededication and renaming of the Yeshiva that he founded and led for over six decades. Formerly known as Yeshiva Toras Chaim, the Yeshiva will now be called Yeshiva Toras Chaim Bais Binyamin, taking the name of their visionary leader and the builder of the Five Towns Community. Rav Binyamin Kame-

netzky, zt”l, devoted his life to providing a Jewish foundation to countless individuals. The Yeshiva of South Shore was Rav Binyamin’s labor of love and the centerpiece of his vision. It is the makom Torah in which he nurtured and inspired generations of students.

The campaign is dedicated to ensuring that the Yeshiva continues to thrive and that its building can be renovated to meet the needs of current and future students.

“My father was a man who not only founded, but also embraced this community as well. We look forward to honoring his memory with our beloved family, friends and talmidim on April 15,” said Rav Mordechai Kamenetzky, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshiva of South Shore.

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Around the Community

Pre-Pesach Achiezer Highlights Achiezer Dinner We are grateful for the massive outpouring of support at our recent Dinner which took place on February 15, 2018. Our annual Dinner is our only fundraiser and support like this ensures that Achiezer and its dedicated team can continue to be there for the community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Aside from financial support, we are especially gratified that this year’s campaign included nearly 1,400 separate donors, spanning across Bayswater, Far Rockaway, Inwood, Lawrence, Cedarhurst, Woodmere, Woodsburgh, North Woodmere, Hewlett, Valley Stream, West Hempstead, Atlantic Beach, Long Beach, Oceanside, Belle Harbor and beyond. Seeing community members from nearly every background and from every affiliation in attendance was a particular chizuk to the staff, the board and the hundreds of Achiezer volunteers. As was mentioned at the Dinner, this community is truly united like no other.

A Dignified Pesach for All The core of Achiezer’s mission is to treat each individual in our community as if they were our own family. Pesach can become a burdensome time for everyone. For some, it is simply impossible to properly prepare for this yom tov. In conjunction with Achiezer’s Westwood Financial Management Division and Gourmet Glatt, over 150 families received special stipends for yom tov, enabling them to buy what they need for their families with discretion and dignity.

Achiezer Zichron Dovid Chesed Shel Emes Although there will be many more details in the coming weeks, we are pleased to inform the community that this community-wide initiative has now moved on to the next phase.

It was almost a year ago that we initially launched a group of volunteers from every corner of the community who would be available to assist our local chevros kadisha to ensure that whenever and wherever a community member passed away, our volunteers would be at the side of these families able to assist in whatever manner required. Additionally, these volun-

teers were trained for special clean up needs to ensure the utmost kavod ha’meis in each situation. Several weeks ago, a new training took place for men and women who are now training for a new chevra kadisha that will perform taharos whenever chas v’shalom the need arises. The training was given by Rabbi Elchonon Zohn, shlita, of the Vaad HaRabonim of Queens. While we hope these services are never needed, it is a comfort knowing that so many volunteers are ready to be there for our own. Special thanks to Rabbi Binyomin Forst, shlita, and Rabbi Dovid Bender for their constant guidance throughout.

Respite Room Program Expansion Achiezer’s hospital support network is a well-known service in the community. This vital lifeline ensures that whenever a community member and/or their family find themselves in a hospitalized situation they have one number to reach out to for a full range of support services. While the Respite Room portion of the program humbly began with one room at South Nassau Communities Hospital, we are pleased to report that several additional hospitals are now working with Achiezer and are completing plans to construct beautiful new Respite Rooms for these families who find themselves in these difficult situations.

St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway has begun plans for a brand new Respite Room which will be on the first floor adjacent to their new emergency room. NYU-Winthrop Hospital will be building a new Achiezer Respite Room as well and we hope that these plans will begin construction in approximately several weeks. Finally, we are pleased to announce that Long Island Jewish is beginning construction in several weeks on a brand new Respite Room which will be strategically located with the ability to service the main LIJ campus as well as the Katz Women’s Hospital. Achiezer would like to extend its heartfelt gratitude to Israel Lieber and Dynamic Cabinetry and Design for their tireless efforts for this division.

Community Camp Fund The unity of our community was beautifully showcased last June. After several community members became aware of hundreds of children in the community that were not planning on attending summer camp, an Achiezer Emergency Camp fund was launched.

In a mere 12 hours, a staggering $154,000 was raised, which sent 512 children to camp. Of course, this was all completed without any overhead expenses. While we hope that this summer there won’t be that many community members struggling, in the event that the need is there, we will announce the plans after Pesach iy”H to once again have a special fund enabling those who cannot afford to send their children to camp. If there is anyone who would like to discuss a particular sponsorship for this program, please be in touch with Aliza Wartelsky at the Achiezer office at (516) 791-4444 ext. 112.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu is Always There…

Less than two weeks ago, Achiezer received an urgent call on erev Shabbos from a young man in the community. He explained that his wife had been hospitalized due to an infection and, although they expected a pre-Shabbos discharge, the labs had come back indicating that the infection had worsened. He was seeking medical advice and assistance with Shabbos plans. Once it was explained what the situation was, we advised him to seek out the

advice of a particular infectious disease specialist. We explained how to make that happen and advised him to call back with any issues.

He did, indeed, call us back, closer to Shabbos and explained that he was told that this doctor was not on call and would not be able to see his wife. What could Achiezer do? We reached out to the doctor directly but did not receive immediate confirmation that he had received our message. Moments later, just before Shabbos, we received a call back from this patient’s husband, flabbergasted, explaining that he had gone back to his car to get some items he would need for Shabbos, and on his way back through the hospital, he happened upon a doctor in the lobby and noticed from his nametag that he was indeed the very specialist that Achiezer told him about. He approached the doctor and explained all that had transpired over the last hour and how they were specifically seeking his advice. Although the doctor was not on call and only in the hospital for administrative reasons, he turned around and headed with the husband directly to this young lady’s room who thankfully has since been discharged from the hospital in good health. There are thousands of doctors on staff in this hospital and, obviously, there are many things which take place behind the scenes that we will never know of, but sometimes our efforts our smiled upon with simple and obvious siyata dishmaya.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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Around the Community

Preparing for Pesach at Gesher

Kaituz Bridal Collab

A

sk any girl about her dream wedding. She has it all planned and Pinterested down to the color of her nails and the length of her lashes. Ask any bride about her dream wedding and she’ll likely throw her hands up in despair.

The morning after her engagement she probably stepped into the gown shop with an excitement that soon turned to worry and then anxiety.

After visiting the tenth florist and trying on the thirtieth pair of shoes, the bride is teary-eyed and demanding a wedding on the beach with nothing other than her soul mate.

Upon the engagement of her sister, Marlene Kolangi had a similar experience. Together, they visited one too many vendors and spent way too much time. A stage expected to be filled with joy was instead unnecessarily frustrating. Marlene then opened Kaituz and vowed to create an experience that every bride and her family would look forward to.

With her signature positive attitude and attention to detail, Marlene has spent decades helping brides find the gown that makes their eyes sparkle and their personality shine through.

“The Kaituz bride is someone whose vision and dream is to feel unique and exclusive. Kaituz makes certain that her special day is one that she will never forget and whose memory will last a lifetime,” she says.

Since launching her boutique,

Marlene met and listened to the frustrations of hundreds of brides and, with their sentiments in mind, she created the Bridal Collab. A revolutionary concept, the Bridal Collab brings an all-star team of top-rated wedding vendors together. They’re there to inspire, advise, and execute the dream wedding without the nightmare experience. The Bridal Collab is the culmination of years of listening, planning and conceptualizing what you need and by, taking the stress out of planning, the bride can make memorable choices about her special day. To launch this groundbreaking innovation, the wedding connoisseurs will come together on April 16 at The Woodmere Club. The debut will highlight what sets them apart. From an inimitable focus on customer service to expertly guiding you through the process, the dream team is there to bring your vision to life. At the premier, Marlene will be showcasing the Kaituz custom line consisting of fifteen gowns which are both timeless and trendy, bringing runway celebrity style to the masses in a modest and fashion forward way. In addition, there will be the opportunity to win $10,000 towards your wedding with the incredible Bridal Collab team.

“For every bride, for every woman, at the Bridal Collab, it’s all about YOU!”

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

YUHSB Robotics Team Competes In First Tech Challenge SuperRegional Championship

T

he Yeshiva University High School for Boys robotics team, Lionotics 2, is the first-ever yeshiva high school team to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge East Region Super-Regional Championship.

The competition was held at Scranton University in Scranton, PA, from Friday, March 16th through Sunday, March 18th. As the event overlapped with Shabbos, the team was faced with the dilemma of being unable to participate in rounds that took place on Saturday, March 17th. Lionotics 2, with the help of YUHSB administrators and Yeshiva University’s Department of Legal Affairs, worked closely with FIRST representatives to reach a resolution that would enable the team to participate in the competition without compromising their religious observances. “Our team worked tirelessly to advance to this level of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition,” said YUHSB Head of School Rabbi

Joshua Kahn. “We are grateful to FIRST for promoting cultural diversity and making the accommodations necessary to enable our team to compete.”

While other competing teams played their matches over the course of three days, Lionotics 2 played all nine of their matches back-to-back on Sunday, leaving no time to strategize or make required improvements and repairs to their robot. Lionotics 2 was created this year to make room for students who wanted to join YUHSB’s robotics team, Lionotics, which was already full. Despite this being the team’s inaugural year, they surpassed the pre-existing YUHSB team in the FIRST Tech Challenge and won the NYC Championship to qualify for this event.

As a rookie team with little to no competition experience, Lionotics 2

embraced the challenge of competing in consecutive rounds despite the disadvantage it presented. “As soon as we met the boys we knew they had the passion for robotics, but more important, a thirst for learning and experiencing new challenges such as this competition,” said Tom Zawislak and Dave Hackett of Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics, the East Super Regional hosts who were instrumental in making the accommodations necessary for the team to compete. “We were thrilled to see them engage with so many other teams and create fun for themselves and share their fun with others. They truly came ready to play and were competitive on the field throughout all of their matches. Very impressive performance by a rookie team!”

The competition started off with a win for Lionotics 2, but ultimately

took a downturn as issues continued to arise. “In one match, one of the robot’s critical components was smashed by another team’s robot and bent, and our team didn’t realize until the next round when it didn’t work right due to the rush from match to match,” explained Lionotics 2 team member Elishama Marmon (‘20).

“The robot also had connectivity issues, and there were several matches where it was unresponsive due to unplugged wires or glitches.” The team finished 23rd out of 36 teams in their division and as a result, will not move on to the World Championship.

“Thanks to our experience at this competition, we now have a better understanding of what we need to do to win at such a high level,” said Marmon. “We are working on improving the team and hope to advance to Worlds next year.”

Shulamith Tops the Torah Bowl

T

he Torah Bowl semi finals are structured in such a way that any team can win, regardless of its position in the division standings before the competition. Teams five and six compete, teams three and four complete, and the two winners then compete against each other.

The winner of that match then competes against the team that was second in

the standings, and the winner of that match competes against the top team in the division. In the end, the Shulamith team came out on top, winning two out of three after losing the first match in the final round.

After Pesach, the Shulamith team will now go on to compete for the League Championship. Cheers to the entire team, and to their coaches, Mrs. Rookie Billet

and Morah Shoshana Fischman, for their extraordinary

diligence, hard work, and desire to study as much To-

rah outside of the classroom as they can.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Local officials lent a helping hand before Pesach by giving out food with the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty at the Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula (JCCRP) on Friday, March 23. L-R: Councilman Donovan Richards; David Greenfield, CEO of Met Council; State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo; Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato; and Moshe Brandsdorfer, Executive Director of JCCRP

A Special Siyum at YOSS

Y

itzchok Burger, a second grader in Rabbi Menachem Bernstein’s class at Yeshiva of South Shore, set a wonderful example for his classmates when he made his first siyum. He decided, along with his father, to

attempt to finish a masechta in Mishnayos. They began during father-son learning and slowly worked through Maseches Succah. Joined by his father and grandfather, Yitzchok came to school and made a beautiful siyum l’ilui nishmas his great-

grandfather whose yahrzeit was that very day. Yitzchok prepared a “Bar Mitzvah- like” drasha and summary of the Mishnayos and presented it to the class. It was followed by dancing and treats for all the talmidim. Mazel tov!

Japanese Scholars Meet with Faculty at Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies

O

n March 22, two Japanese scholars of Judaic studies visited Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies to discuss their research and the state of Jewish studies in Japan. The scholars – Dr. Masahiro Shida and Mina Lee – originally met with Dr. Mordechai Cohen, associate dean of Revel, at the World Con-

gress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem last summer.

Shida’s research focuses on the Ramban, while Lee’s work explores the Jewish community of Venice in the 17th century. The two will also accompany Cohen to the next World Congress of Philosophy in Beijing this summer, where they will deliver academic lectures in their fields of spe-

cialization.

Instrumental in organizing the World Congress is Dr. Youde Fu, founder and director of The Center for Judaic and Inter-Religious Studies in China. Cohen regularly delivers lectures to Fu’s students in Shandong University.

“It is particularly gratifying, as a YU professor, to be able to facilitate

a link between Jewish studies scholars in faraway lands,” said Dr. Cohen.

“These young Japanese scholars met me in Jerusalem and visited us at YU, and as a result are forging ties with the growing community of academic Jewish learning in China. This visit attests to the global reputation of YU as a center for academic Judaic studies in a variety of fields.”

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Around the Community Talmidim at Siach Yitzchok prepared for Pesach by baking matzah, learning new nigunim for the seder, making their own haggadahs, and wearing kittels for the seder.

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The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community A view of the recent Grand Bechina at Yeshiva Darchei Torah, when the third, fourth and fifth grade talmidim took a 100-question test on yedios of Sefer Shemos. All the participants were the entered into raffles for fabulous prizes.

The Office of Senator Todd Kaminsky is offering internships to qualified high school, undergraduate, graduate and law school students in the Senator’s Rockville Centre office. For more information, please contact Senator Todd Kaminsky’s office at kaminsky@nysenate.gov or (516) 766-8383.

Creating Pesach Haggadahs at CAHAL

I

n every CAHAL class, from kindergarten through eighth grade, the children have been preparing personalized Haggadahs to take home and share at their Sedarim. The teachers have invested much time and preparation to create Haggadahs that resonate with the students and bring the story of yetziyat Mitzrayim and Pesach to life.

In the third/fourth grade CAHAL class in Bais Yaakov Ateres Miriam, the girls not only made a Haggadah to take home for their Seder, they experi-

enced the Haggadah. Acting out the Pesach story and discussing the descriptive details, the girls gained a whole new meaning of Maggid. Morah Aviva Balsam photographed the scenes that the girls acted out and placed their pictures on Egyptian scenes. One such page from their Haggadahs shows the class walking through the Yam Suf, as the girls pointed out the marble floor, fruits, water, and the Egyptians chasing behind them. What a great way to bring personal meaning to the Pesach Seder!

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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‫בס“ד‬

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community It was another special night at Yeshiva of Far Rockaway this past Thursday, March 22, as bochurim, parents, and rabbeim came together to celebrate a siyum of 20 bochurim of the Yeshiva who were mesayam Masechtos Kiddushin.

PHOTO CREDIT: IVAN NORMAN

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The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

‫בס“ד‬

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

BOBKER ON PESACH Let My People Go - And Know Who's Boss

he saga of the Exodus now ranks as one of the oldest-known continuously observed holidays in the Western world. Its theme has captured the creative imagination from John Milton (whose Paradise Lost lists the plagues with his usual dense Latinate syntax) to George F. Handel’s choral work (Israel in Egypt whose furious violins and hopping rhythms introduce wit in the great drama) to William Blake’s passionate and dramatic poetic use of Exodus imagery to declare that “Israel’s paths take us where reason cannot”) to the three nice Jewish boys from Los Angeles – Geffen, Spielberg, and Katzenberg – whose animated film of Moses, titled (incorrectly), The Prince of Egypt, in 1998, cut many corners. If you’re looking for a religious experience, skip this celluloid sequel and read the Book instead even though G-d Himself would have agreed with the film’s ad campaign: “The power is real, the story is forever, the time is now.”

The peak of Egyptian oppression occurred under the 67-year reign of

Rameses II. The Jews rejoiced at his death, prematurely it seems. For it was under the tyranny of his successor, Mernephtah, that “they cried to G-d,” in an agonizing period of serfdom. This Pharaoh was a phony Pharaoh: according to the Midrash he would study the times of the tides of the Nile, and enter the water precisely the moment that the water began to rise, so that it should appear to be rising to honor him.

But how did the Jews get to Egypt in the first place? As a result of a famine which drove them there. The Torah uses the word va’yagar (“temporary dwelling”) which seems odd for a period of over 200 years, but the transitory expression reflects the fact that the Jews never considered themselves Egyptians, maintaining hope for a future permanence of their own homeland.

Meanwhile the Torah crowns Pesach the first of the shalosh regalim, the “three pilgrimage festivals,” when Jews ascended en masse to Jerusalem on a regular basis, to “ha’Makom asher

yivchar Hashem, the site G-d chose to make His Name great.” This festival has three precise designations (each linking the Chag Ha’Aviv, the festival of spring’s wheat and barley harvest season, to a people’s redemption from slavery): they are Chag Ha’Matzot (“Feast of the Unleavened Bread”), the Torah designation in commemoration of the physical exodus; Chag Ha’Pesach (“Festival of the Paschal Offering”), refers both to the paschal lamb and to G-d’s “passing over” (as in “protecting”) the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt during the plagues; and Zeman Cheiruteinu, (“Season of Our Freedom”), the liturgy expression that marked Israel’s establishment as a free and independent people.

As an aside: the term Chag Ha’Pesach is technically incorrect: it is simply “Pesach,” a reference not to a yom tov but to a specific day, the 14th of Nissan, the time of the Pesach sacrifice. In Morocco, the seder evening is called Layl Al-Rass, “Night of the Heads,” reflecting the custom to eat heads of

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018 The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

sheep in commemoration of the paschal offering in the Temple.

In English, we know this festival as “Passover,” a word derived from the Hebrew pasach, as in “the L-rd will pass over” any Israelite home whose doorpost had been sprinkled with the blood of a sacrificial lamb. Philo, first-century Alexandrian philosopher and exegete who interpreted the Greek version of the Torah (Septuagint), called Pesach the “crossing-feast” for a different reason: he traces the name not to the destroying angel passing over the Israelites but to “the crossing of Israel itself” from Egypt to the Red Sea. The etymology of pesach ranges from its root psh which means “to limp, hobble, jump” (as in G-d “jumping” over the homes of the Jews); to the Akkadian sound-alike word pashahu, which means “to appease” (although there is nothing expiatory in the Pesach saga); to an Egyptian expression meaning “a stroke, blow” (as in G-d’s final tenth plague “blow” in “striking” the firstborn of the enemy). Ironically the term passover was introduced into the Jewish lexicon by a die-hard 16th century anti-Semitic Bible scholar, William Tyndale, a talmid of a vicious Jew-hating Protestant, Martin Luther, he of Reformation-fame, and the compiler of the universally accepted King James’ English translation of the Torah (1611), responsible for such theological expressions as “Let there be light,” “Salt of the earth,” and “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

O

n the 10th day of Nissan, the Jews were commanded (at great personal risk) to gather unblemished one-yearold male lambs for a twilight sacrifice (zebach) to be held four days later. Why a lamb? This animal was worshipped by the Egyptians as a sacred animal; thus its destruction is the first of many theurgic Pesach rituals linked to the symbolism of redemption from Egyptian idolatry (avoda zara). This is why the paschal lamb is eaten at night, a time when Jewish mystics believed demonic power to be on the ascendant, thus vanquishing it at the moment of its greatest strength.

When the public display of Jews killing the local deity passed by without Egyptian wrath, Chazal declared that Shabbos the first Shabbos HaGadol in

“

The Haggadah is not a “book,” as we understand a book to be, but a mosaic of passages, a tapestry of images, a whole-cloth of borrowings, “a great and mighty Divine poem,” as per Rav Kook.

history, literally the “Great Sabbath,” a term not found in either T’nach or Talmudic literature (although it appears in the Zohar); an absence that sent many Torah scholars of the Middle Ages on a search for its genesis. The Machzor Vitri, compiled by R’ Simchah ben Samuel of Vitry, a 11th-12th century French sage, which also includes responsa from his teacher, Rashi, is brutally honest: it admits that no one knows why or how it got its name.

(For Judaica enthusiasts, you can see pages of the original manuscripts of the Vitri Machzor at Oxford Library, England, with handwriting in the margins

by R’ Eleazar ben Judah, at the British Museum, at the Biblioteca Palatina library in Psarma, which miraculously survived a heavy Nazi shelling in 1944, and, closer to home, at the [Conservative] Jewish Theological Seminary, New York.)

Nearly every year I hear a different explanation for the expression Shabbos HaGadol. Some trace it to the day’s special haftorah where Elijah is identified as playing a primary role in the “great” (gadol) Messianic age. This is based on the Talmud’s vort that Pesach is the archetype of the future redemption (“...in Nissan they will be redeemed in time to come”). This led Rabbi Yechiel Epstein to conclude that Shabbas HaGadol or Shabbas Shuva, between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, should be one of the two contiguous Shabbosim that, if kept, would merit the coming of the Moshiach.

Meanwhile, Rabbi J. B. Soloveitchik, head of Yeshiva University, Manhattan, and the seminal figure of Modern Orthodoxy in America for 50 years, notes that the word geula is only used to describe two occurrences: the Egyptian redemption and the messianic age (by the way, purkan, also a term of salvation, comes from mixing the words ‘Purim’ and ‘Chanukah’).

Because Pesach held the secret to redemption, Rabbi Yaakov Moelin (Maharil) from 14th century Worms, Germany, and R’ Moses Isserles (Rama) – whose Ashkenaz customs in the Shulchan Aruch come from R’ Moelin’s Minhagei Maharil, an authoritative codification of German Jewish minhagim – would read the Haggada on Shabbos HaGadol, although R’ Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, the Vilna Gaon, disapproved of this custom for Litvishe Yidden.

The go-to place for explanations is

S5 55

Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter, scion of the Ger dynasty known as the Sfas Emes (“The Language of Truth”), after his classic Torah commentary. The Gerrer Rebbe saw it differently: the term Shabbos HaGadol was a post-Liberator declaration that the holy Shabbos had now taken on a new historic-theologic significance; i.e., it had become “greater” than before the exodus. Why? Because this was the first Shabbos of Israel as a people, a national moment of maturity which not only transformed them into “gedolim,” but also catapulted Shabbos spiritually into a Shabbos “HaGadol.”

This also explains why there is a “second Shabbos” within the repetition of the Ten Commandments.

G

-d’s presence in history is felt right at the seder table, making the Haggadah’s commercial demand seem inexhaustible, its audience unlimited. It is by far the number one top-seller and by far the most illustrated, of all Jewish books. The 1454 Rhineland Haggadah of the scribe-artist Joel ben Simeon is the inspirational epitome of hiddur mitzvah (“beautifying a commandment”) with wild animals, domestic beasts, and crouching figures all supporting elaborate decorative double arches, festooned with fantastic towers and figurehead medallions, in which are listed the laws of Pesach.

In fact, more Torah commentaries exist on the Haggadah than on any other Jewish text, including the Bible.

From the day it made its first appearance (1482) in Italy’s Reggio di Calabria, Judaica collectors have amassed more than 3,500 separate editions. Consider: during the entire 16th century only 25 Haggadahs were printed; by the 19th century publishers were churning out 1,269 Haggadahs a year… and this record was broken in just the first half of the 20th-century! (A relatively complete Haggadah fragment, dated to 8th or 9th century Palestine, was discovered among the 300,000 manuscript fragments in the Cairo geniza of the Ben Ezra shul.)

Its scholarly lure is underlined by a startling fact: in comparison to the oldest-known, 13th or 14th century Haggadah manuscript (currently in Russia’s Leningrad Library that consists of only four leaves (8 pages), the early-20th cen-

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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

 The Birds’ Head Haggadah, Franconia, Southern Germany, ca. 1300, the oldest surviving Ashkenazi Illuminated manuscript, now in the collection of The Israel Museum in Jerusalem

tury Otzar Peirushim veTziyyurim (“Treasury of Commentaries and Illustrations”) was bursting with over 300 pages, and still growing.

When Chaim Herzog made history by being Israel’s first president to officially visit the United States, President Ronald Reagan searched for an appropriate gift and gave Chaim, yep, a Haggadah. It is the

 A Survivors' Haggadah was used in the Munich Displaced Persons (DP) camp, compiled by Lithuanian Yosef Dov Sheinson with woodcuts created by another survivor, Miklos Adler

perfect gift because, throughout history, its variety fits all sizes, ranging from the rare illuminated 15th century First Nuremberg Haggadah to the elegant Sarajevo Haggadah, to blue-and-whites (Maxwell House, who have distributed more than a staggering 80 million copies!), to a rarity that depicts Jews with heads of birds (to avoid drawing human

 Bizarre hare-hunting drawings in the famous c.

1460 medieval Ashkenaz Haggadah

images), to Holocaust survivors (A Survivors’ Haggadah was used in the Munich Displaced Persons (DP) camp, compiled by Lithuanian Yosef Dov Sheinson with woodcuts created by another survivor, Miklos Adler), and to bizarre hare-hunting drawings (the famous medieval Ashkenazi Haggadah) that illustrate the Kiddush.

The question is obvious: what do hares have to do with Pesach? They derive from a legitimate question as to which order, if Pesach starts on motzei Shabbos, should one say the Kiddush and make Havdalah.

The sequence of the brachos were “summarized” in the Talmud – yayin (wine), Kiddush, ner (candle), Havdalah, and z’man (as in “time”

Sending blessings for a happy and healthy Passover

Councilman

Bruce Blakeman

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

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S7

 One of the seven wonders of the Jewish world is by far the 14th century 109-page Sarajevo Haggadah, a lavishly illuminated masterpiece, that now resides in an underground bank vault in the heart of the capital of Bosnia

 Pages 3 and 4 from an old Haggadah discovered in the Cairo Genizah

of the festival) – into yak’n’haz, an expression which sounds like jagtden-Hasen, German for “hunt the hare.” This led some Haggadot (and Machzorim) to illustrate the relevant page with hunting scenes (despite the fact that Judaism frowns on animal hunting for pleasure).

Thanks to Adolf Hitler & Co., very few works of Jewish art by Jewish artisans survived Europe.

That’s what makes the Nuremberg Haggadah so special. Handwritten in Ashkenaz Hebrew script in sepia ink on parchment and embellished with vibrant gold, red, blue, green, and yellow colors, the Haggadah was produced in 1449 by scribe-artist Joel ben Simeon (aka Feibush Ashkenazi), known as “the Leonardi da Vinci of Jewish illustrators” and dedicated to Rabbi Nathan Judah ben Solomon, a 14th century Provençal Jewish doctor and scholar who is famous for translating scientific works from the Arabic into Hebrew.

But one of the seven wonders of the Jewish world is by far the 14th century 109-page Sarajevo Haggadah, a lavishly illuminated masterpiece, considered one of the most precious and priceless Jewish manuscripts in the world; its style, replete with full-page miniatures, relates to the Gothic school prevailing in Catalonia. Produced in northern Spain, it was brought to Bosnia via Salonika in the 16th century by Jewish-Spanish refugees and, for many centuries, belonged to the Koen family in Sarajevo. It resurfaced in 1894 when a little Jewish

for asking Ma ha-seder she-baseder? What order is there in the Seder?

There is none.

The Haggadah is not a “book,” as we understand a book to be, but a mosaic of passages, a tapestry of images, a whole-cloth of borrowings, “a great and mighty Divine poem,” as per Rav Kook. Its ingredients are a mixed menu from the Torah, enhanced and embellished with sayings from the Midrash and Mishna, pesukim from Tanach, stirred with blessings, prayers and songs – all accompanied by such a myriad of Pesach halachos that an entire mesechta is named after it. Yet all these “bits and bytes” of Judaic Scriptures, so seemingly diverse at first, come together in a perfect union to comply with the order to “expound the whole section.”

The epic grandeur of the Haggadah was first transmitted verbally from fathers to sons and daughters.

Eventually, the Sanhedrin had its original luster reduced to writing and ordered Jews to sing the Song of Exodus daily in their Shacharis morning prayers, attracting a rare Zohar reward: “Whoever reads the Shira daily with devotion will have the merit to read it in Olam Haba, the World to Come.” The seventh day of Pesach is marked by the immutable lyrics of the soaring Shirat ha-yam, a self-abnegating “Song of the Red Sea” that British chief rabbi, R’ Joseph Hertz, calls “the oldest song of national triumph still extant.” It is an eternal music of modesty, a poetic and dramatic recollection by an emotional people

boy tried to sell it at school after he had been left penniless by the death of his father. It then became the property of the Sarajevo National Museum; during World War II, it was smuggled to safety in a mountain village by a Muslim professor, resurfacing in 1995 when Bosnia’s president produced it to “prove” it was undamaged from the 1992-96 siege of Sarajevo. It now resides in an underground bank vault in the heart of the capital of Bosnia.

P

esach has a magnetic allurement, a fascinating appeal, a powerful attraction. It towers mightily and majestically in the Jewish calendar over all the other yom tovim. As one of the three devoted entirely to Jewish national liberation (the other two are Chanukah and Purim), Pesach reigns supreme because it is the only one anchored in the Torah itself. As a source of Judaic inspiration it is thus fons et orgio, exquisitely preeminent, a window through which the vastness of all of Judaism can be glimpsed.

The catalyst is the Haggadah, a marvelously enticing work acting as a separate “stand-alone” Hebrew manuscript, an ancient piece of narrative pedagogy that, according to Rashi “captivates the heart” of a daring, daunting drama. Yet those flipping through it in search of a logical coherent structure will be disappointed. Since this is a night of questions, one may be forgiven

of its liberation, brimming with poetry of gratitude that glorifies the Name of G-d.

Song permeates the choreography of Torah: we find Jews singing on the night they depart Egypt, and later when a well of water springs up in the wilderness. The sweet lyricism of Shir ha’Shirim expresses the joy of love and spring and is an exquisite fixture of the Shabbos that falls within Pesach. (If this song was about an event that had just taken place; i.e.: a brand new composition, how could the Jews spontaneously all sing the same song? They didn’t: Moses sang the song on behalf of the Israelites who would then, in chorus, “repeat each and every thing that Moses” sang.)

Before he dies Moses sings a song of comfort; Joshua, Devorah, Barak, King Yehoshaphat, and David, the “sweet singer of Israel,” all burst into song when they vanquish or escape their enemies, whilst Solomon can’t help but sing along with his Temple’s dedication. Yes, there were many songs, but only one Shira!

Have a freiliche un kosher yom tov.

Joe Bobker, alumnus of Yeshivas HaRav Kook in Jerusalem, is the former publisher and editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Jewish Times, author of the popular Torah With a Twist of Humor and the 18-volume “Historiography of Orthodox Jews and the Holocaust.”

Mr. Bobker can be reached at jbobker@ gmail.com.

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

A Seder Guest He's Here the Whole Time.

But Invite Him In Anyway

By Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky

I

n recent years it has become common to refer to a “Fifth Son,” the one who isn’t mentioned in the Haggadah. These are the Jews who don’t show up to the Seder either because they have no place to go, they don’t care to attend a Seder, or they’re not even aware that it’s Pesach.

Since the concept was introduced, the category of the “Fifth Son” has apparently been expanded to include others who, for whatever sad or unfortunate reason, aren’t eager or are

not part of the Seder. Truth be told, there is an underlying theme of inclusion throughout the Seder from the moment we begin the recitation of the Haggadah by inviting all who are hungry and needy to join us at the table. We even open the door to invite Eliyahu Hanavi inside.

Indeed, there are many invitations, both subtle and overt, over the course of the Pesach Seder. It seems that we are forging a nation once again in almost the same way it was

forged over 3,000 years ago: with a kaleidoscope of characters, holy descendants of our illustrious forebears who left Egypt.

But in our quest for inclusion, I often wonder about an invitation that is curiously not extended. The invitee is not totally forgotten, of course. He is right there in the back of everyone’s busy mind as they attend to the salt water and charoses, the dipping and the leaning, the matzah and the maror.

O

ne of the most meaningful stories I ever heard involves the holy Berditchever Rebbe, Reb Levi Yitzchak. It was a typical summer morning. Davening was over, and the men were putting away their tefillin and getting ready to go out to work. Some of the men would continue their day in the beis midrash immersed in Torah or reciting Tehillim.

The homes of Berditchev were bustling with activity. Women were sending their boys off to cheder, and young

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER The Jewish Home | MARCH 29, 28, 2015 2018

girls were busy helping their mothers.

Then all of a sudden a buzz began to circulate throughout the town: The gabbaim had let it be known that the Rebbe, Reb Levi Yitzchak, had a very important announcement to make at 2 p.m. in the main shul of Berditchev.

An air of anxiety descended upon the shtetl. No one knew what had prompted this proclamation, and they were frightened. Was there another governmental edict on its way to harass an already beleaguered populace? Was there a captive who needed funds to buy his freedom?

What urgent announcement would the Rebbe make that would warrant the interruption of everyone’s daily routine? People spoke to each other in hushed tones, speculating on the content of the great message the holy Rebbe would impart.

At 2 p.m. the shul was packed. Men were reciting Tehillim while the women in the balcony swayed in nervous anticipation. Then Reb Levi Yitzchak entered the room. The creak of the door’s old hinges sent shudders down the swaying spines of both the chassidim and the ancient prayer books they held. As he approached the bimah in the center of the sanctuary, people quietly moved aside to let him pass.

The Rebbe walked slowly to the bimah. He was wearing his tallis and tefillin. His steps were deliberate and steady. His face radiated holiness and spirituality. Everyone present was filled with awe as well as a sense of alarm.

The Rebbe looked around the room in the dead silence as the chassidim braced themselves. Then he looked heavenward and back at the assembled crowd. “Rabbosai!” he thundered. “Ich vil dir dermonen — I am here to remind you, that there is a Ribbono Shel Olam in this world!”

And just like that, the Rebbe walked out.

S

itting at the Pesach table, we talk about frogs and pajamas to the small children, about Rabbi Elazar’s white beard to the school-age kids, and the Four Sons to the next generation of mothers and fathers.

But do we speak enough about the Aibershter, the Creator of the World, the Kol Yachol, Master of Everything?

I don’t mean to disparage the

beautiful divrei Torah that are shared, but it occurs to me that we sometimes forget to make the Ribbono Shel Olam the focal point of the Seder.

My zaide pointed out to me many years ago that Hashem is referred to in the Haggadah as “Hamakom” and “Hakadosh Baruch Hu,” among other names. There’s a sense of immediacy, a reminder that He is right there with us and part of the conversation.

I recently learned a new word, “verisimilitude.” It means the appearance of being real. A play that tries to reenact an experience attempts veri-

him. “What in the world will you talk about?”

Sibelius shook his head in wonder.

“Why, I’ll talk to them about music!”

His friend was shocked. “Music?

What do businessmen know about music? Why don’t you invite musicians to your party?”

Sibelius laughed. “Why would I want to invite musicians? They won’t want to talk about music. All they’ll want to talk about is money!”

We fill our Seder night with different pshatim on the Haggadah.

It’s wonderful.

The Seder night is an island of emunah, and the more we speak about the Source of all faith, the stronger our children will be.

similitude. But on the Seder night, everything we do must transcend the attempt because we are leaving Egypt. And just as we relive the pain of the exile and the wonder of the ten makkos, we must also relive the mora gadol, the amazing awe at the giluy Shechinah.

Indeed, t he revelat ion of Hakadosh Baruch Hu was not a onetime event in Mitzrayim; it is present in our dining rooms and kitchens, and we must welcome the holy Shechinah into our hearts and homes.

Many of us worry about the future of our children being raised in a galus atmosphere whose morals are antithetical to the Torah. But the Seder night is an island of emunah, and the more we speak about the Source of all faith, the stronger our children will be.

I once read a story about a famous composer from Finland named Jean Sibelius. It seems that back in the early 1900s he hosted a party, but instead of inviting his fellow musicians, he invited only businessmen.

“Why did you invite businessmen to your party?” someone asked

We tell stories about gedolei Yisrael. It’s great.

We make sure we are mekayeim the mitzvos with regard to everything we must eat, and, of course, sipur yetzias Mitzrayim. Again, wonderful.

And we are careful to get the afikoman back in time and eat it before chatzos.

But let us not forget that every breath of the evening must be filled with the presence of the Ribbono Shel Olam!

I was once at a Seder where the participants spent an hour quibbling over a certain detail. I wanted to cry out, “Rabboseinu, the time has come to say Shema and be mekabeil ol malchus Shamayim!” I could almost hear Reb Levi Yitzchak’s klap on the bimah reverberating in my mind.

The most important conversations we have with our fellow Yidden around the Seder table are not the ones about gematriyos or existential concepts. They are about the Ribbono Shel Olam, and all He does for us.

The kinderlach don’t want to talk only about frogs. They want to hear about G-d!

35 S11

A

number of years ago, my friend, Reb Mendy Kofman, related the following story he heard from Rabbi Yaakov Rubin, the Brezdovitzer Rebbe of Boro Park, known for the warm way in which he helped many new Russian immigrants to this country. Amazingly, one of these families had remained strongly committed to Judaism even behind the Iron Curtain. In fact, the Rebbe hosted a sheva brachos at his synagogue when one of the daughters got married.

During the meal the Rebbe rose to speak, praising the family’s incredible perseverance and discussing the Divine providence that had led them to America. “Baruch Hashem,” the Rebbe concluded, “the Ribbono Shel Olam helped them and they got out of Russia.”

At that moment a booming voice interrupted him in a heavy Russian accent. It was the father of the bride.

“Der Ribbono Shel Olam hut nisht geholfen! The Ribbono Shel Olam did not help us!” he said.

The Rebbe froze for a moment and said, “I mean, with the assistance of the Almighty…”

Again the voice cried out, “The Ribbono Shel Olam did not assist us!”

Every eye in the room was fixed on the two men, the Rebbe stammering and the bride’s father glowering. Then the Russian man’s face broke out into a huge smile. “Listen carefully to what I’m saying. The Ribbono Shel Olam didn’t help us. The Ribbono Shel Olam didn’t assist us! Er hut altz getun—He did everything!”

Of course, singing about the frogs and measuring our matzos are great things. But let us not forget that every second of the evening should resound with the cry of that very smart Russian man: “Er hut altz getun!”

So when you open the door to let Eliyahu Hanavi in at the end of the Seder, make sure that you’ve already opened it at the beginning to let the Ribbono Shel Olam inside.

Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky is the rosh yeshivah of Yeshiva Toras Chaim at South Shore, a weekly columnist in Yated Ne’eman and Ami Magazine and the author of the Parsha Parable series.

This article originally appeared in Ami Magazine.

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

The Missing

Fifth

By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

M

any commentators, among them the Vilna Gaon, have drawn attention to the influence of the number four in connection with the Haggadah. There are four fours: 1. The four questions 2. The four sons 3. The four cups of wine 4. The four expressions of redemption: “I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and free you from their slavery. I will deliver you with a demonstration of My power and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to Me as a nation.” (Ex.6: 6-7).

It may be, though, that just as an X-ray can reveal an earlier painting beneath the surface of a later one, so

beneath the surface of the Haggadah there is another pattern to be discerned. That is what I want to suggest in this piece.

The first thing to note is that there is, in fact, another “four” on the seder night, namely the four biblical verses whose exposition forms an important part of the Haggadah: 1. “An Aramean tried to destroy my father . . .”

2. “And the Egyptians ill-treated us and afflicted us . . .”

3. “And we cried to the L-rd, the G-d of our fathers . . .”

4. “And the L-rd brought us out of Egypt . . .” (Deut. 26:5-8) There are, then, not four fours, but five.

In early editions of the Talmud

tractate Pesachim (118a) there is a passage that perplexed the medieval commentators. It reads: “Rabbi Tarfon says: over the fifth cup we recite the great Hallel.” The medieval commentators were puzzled by this because elsewhere the rabbinic literature speaks about four cups, not five. The Mishnah, for example, states that a poor person must be supplied with enough money to be able to buy four cups of wine. In both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds the discussion revolves around the assumption that there are four cups on seder night. How then are we to understand the statement of Rabbi Tarfon that there is a fifth cup?

Among the commentators three views emerged. The first was that of

Rashi and the Tosafists. According to them, there are only four cups on the seder night, and it is forbidden to drink a fifth. The statement of Rabbi Tarfon must therefore be a misprint, and the texts of the Talmud should be amended accordingly.

The second was that of Maimonides. He holds that there is a fifth cup, but unlike the other four, it is optional rather than obligatory. The Mishnah which teaches that a poor person must be given enough money to buy four cupfuls of wine means that we must ensure that he has the opportunity to fulfill his obligation. It does not extend to the fifth cup, which is permitted but not compulsory. Rabbi Tarfon’s statement is to be understood to mean that those who wish to

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

drink a fifth cup should do so during the recitation of the great Hallel.

The third view, that of Ravad of Posquières, a contemporary of Maimonides, is that one should drink a fifth cup. There is a difference in Jew ish law bet ween an obligation, chovah, and a religiously significant good deed, mitzvah. The first four cups are obligatory. The fifth is a mitzvah, meaning, not obligatory but still praiseworthy and not merely, as Maimondes taught, optional.

Thus there was a controversy over the fifth cup. Rashi said that we should not drink it; Maimonides that we may; Ravad that we should. What does one do, faced with this kind of disagreement? Jewish law tries wherever possible to propose a solution that pays respect to all views, especially when they are held by great halachic authorities. The solution in the present case was simple. A fifth cup is poured (out of respect for Ravad and Maimonides) but not drunk (out of respect for Rashi).

When a disagreement occurs in the Talmud which is not resolved, the Sages often used the word Teyku, “Let it stand.” We believe that such disagreements will be resolved in the time to come when Elijah arrives to announce the coming of the Moshiach. One of his roles will be to rule on unresolved halachic controversies.

An allusion to this is to be found in the word Teyku itself, which was read as an abbreviation of Tishbi yetaretz kushyot ve’ibbayot, The Tishbite, Elijah, will answer questions and difficulties. This therefore is the history behind “the cup of Elijah” – the cup we fill after the meal but do not drink. It represents the “fifth cup” mentioned in the Talmud.

According to the Jerusalem Talmud, the reason we have four cups of wine is because of the four expressions of redemption in G-d’s promise to Moses. How then could Rabbi Tarfon suggest that there are not four cups but five? The fascinating fact is that if we look at the biblical passage there are not four expressions of redemption but five. The passage continues: “And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the L-rd.” (Exodus 6: 8)

There is a further missing fifth. As mentioned above, during the course of reciting the Haggadah we expound four biblical verses, beginning with, “An Aramean tried to destroy my father.” In biblical times, this was the declaration made by someone bringing first-fruits to Jerusalem.

However, if we turn to the source we discover that there is a fifth verse to this passage: “He brought us to this place [the land of Israel] and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Deuteronomy. 26: 9). We do not recite or expound this verse at the seder table. But this is strange since the Mishnah states explicitly, “And one must expound the passage beginning, ‘An Aramean tried to destroy my father’ until one has completed the whole passage.” In fact, we do not complete the whole passage, despite the Mishnah’s instruction.

So there are three “missing fifths” – the fifth cup, the fifth expression

The fifth cup – poured but not drunk – was like the cup broken at Jewish weddings. It was a symbol of incompletion. It meant that as long as Jews were dispersed throughout the world, facing persecution and danger, they could not yet celebrate to the fullest. One great sage of the twentieth century, the late Rabbi Menahem Kasher, argued that now that there is a State of Israel, many exiles have been ingathered and Jews have recovered their sovereignty and land, the fifth cup should be re-instated. That remains for the halachic authorities to decide.

W

hat, though, of the four questions and the four sons? There was a fifth question. The Mishnah states that a child should ask: “On all other nights we eat meat that is cooked, boiled or roasted; but this night only roasted meat.” This text can still be found in

It meant that as long as Jews were dispersed throughout the world, facing persecution and danger, they could not yet celebrate to the fullest.

of redemption, and the fifth verse.

It is also clear why. All three refer to G-d not merely bringing the Jewish people out of Egypt but also bringing them into the land of Israel. The Haggadah, as we now have it and as it evolved in rabbinic times, is, in Maimonides words, “the Haggadah as practiced in the time of exile,” meaning, during the period of the Dispersion. The missing fifth represented the missing element in redemption.

How could Jews celebrate arriving in the land of Israel when they were in exile? How could they drink the last cup of redemption when they had said at the beginning of the seder, “This year slaves, next year free; this year here, next year in the land of Israel”?

the early manuscripts of the Haggadah discovered in the Cairo genizah.

It refers to the time when the Temple stood and the food eaten at the seder night included the paschal offering, which was roasted. After the Temple was destroyed and the practice of eating a paschal lamb was discontinued, this question was dropped and another (about reclining) substituted.

Was there a fifth child? The late Lubavitcher Rebbe suggested that there is a fifth child on Pesach. The four children of the Haggadah are all present, sitting round the table.

The fifth child is the one who is not there, the child lost through outmarriage and assimilation. Rabbinic tradition tells us that in Egypt, many Jews assimilated and did not want

to leave. The Torah uses a phrase to describe the Israelites’ departure from Egypt, Va’chamushim alu bnei Yisrael mi’Mitzrayim (Exodus 18 :13). This is normally translated as “The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.” However Rashi, citing earlier authorities, suggests that chamush may not mean “armed.” Instead, it may be related to the word chamesh, five. The sentence could therefore be translated as, “Only a fifth of the Israelites left Egypt.”

The rest, he explains, perished in the plague of darkness. The plague itself was less an affliction of the Egyptians than a way of covering the shame of the Israelites, that so many of their number did not want to leave.

The loss of Jews through assimilation has been an ongoing tragedy of Jewish history. How do we allude to it on seder night? By silence: the fifth child – the one who is not there.

So the beneath the surface of the Haggadah we find, not four fours, but five fives. In each case there is a missing fifth – a cup, an expression of deliverance, a verse, a question and a child. Each points to something incomplete in our present situation. In the half-century since the Holocaust the Jewish people has emerged from darkness to light. The State of Israel has come into being. The Hebrew language has been reborn. Jews have been brought to safety from the countries where they faced persecution. In the liberal democracies of the West Jews have gained freedom and even prominence and affluence.

But Israel is not yet at peace. In the Diaspora assimilation continues apace. Many Jews are estranged from their people and their faith.

Something is missing from our celebration – the fifth cup, the fifth deliverance, the fifth verse, the fifth question, and the fifth child. That is a measure of what is still to be achieved. We have not yet reached our destination.

The missing fifths remind us of work still to be done, a journey not yet complete.

This article has been excerpted with permission from Rabbi Sacks’ Haggadah.

For more from Rabbi Sacks, please visit www.rabbisacks.org.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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Beverly Hills in Israel

A quarter of a billion shekels has been invested in the development of Ramat Givat Zeev - an unprecedented amount for a neighborhood in Israel Ram a t Givat Zeev neighborhood - the neighborhood known as ‘The Most Expensive Neighborhood in Israel’, has been breaking records from the beginning of its development, until now. The first phase of residents purchasing properties recieving their keys has passed with great success. So far, a quarter of a billion NIS has been invested in the establishment of the Ramat Givat Zeev neighborhood. To date, the investment per unit of housing is the highest in Israel.

To the entrepreneurial company, CHISH Nofei Israel it was clear that the marketing strategy for the apartments in the new neighborhood would have to showcase that it w as an exclusive area for US residents seeking to immigrate to Israel and looking for a place that would rem i nd them of the lifestyle they were accustomed to in places like Lawrence, New York, or Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. This strategy helped form the community

that all the good and beautiful things promised to them, exist and are of the highest caliber. The neighborhood is b uilt in an exclusive and luxurious manner. It has bea u tiful squares, lamp-posts, sidewalks and quality paved roads, 40 acres of parks and facilities imported fro m the United States, a basketball court, tennis court, fitness facilities and special facilities for children.

Everything is ready and perfectly in place- something that has not yet occurred in a building project in Israel, before occupancy.

Educational institutions, religious services and beginning of the establishment of a famous yeshiva The construction of the central mikveh in the neighborhood, one of the most luxurious in the country, with an investment of over NIS 4 million, is currently being completed! The mikveh covers an area of about

neighborhood’s population, to establish a branch in the neighborhood.

It should be noted that the local council also contributed its share in the assistance to the new neighborhood and financed the construction of the central synagogue, which costs about NIS 5 million, and its construction is of course underway. The head of the council, Mr. Yossi Avrahami, decided to transfer the construction fee to the main building and expedite construction.

A great end to the project - Real estate experts expect prices to rise by more than 60% During the period of construction of the neighborhood,

because Ramat Givat Zeev brings America to Israel.

The neighborhood planning soon became popular amo n g Diaspora Jews. Although there were man y concerns about the CHISH Nofei Israel’s dec l aration that this project was too ambitious and not h ing like it had been created before, potential buy e rs quickly put their trust in the developers, and the apartments were sold one by one. The buyers’ exc i tement was evident on their faces, for the first tim e they could live a unique community life to whi c h they were accustomed to in the Holy Land.

A combination of luxury while not having to compromise on the quality of life.

One success after another: a beautiful neighborhood was ready in time for the first wave of residents From the very beginning of the process, Ramat Givat Zeev neighborhood encountered success after success.

The goal was to reach the occupancy stage when the nei g hborhood was already ready with the amenities and luxuries like, parks, religious services, shopping centers and everything a neighborhood resident needs in o rder to live comfort and luxury. Indeed, the 150 families who have recently entered their apartments in the new neighborhood have been amazed to discover

300 meters.

Another goal was to establish educational institutions in t he neighborhood in order to save the residents fro m sending their children out of the neighborhood every morning. The educational institutions are a real lifelines for the residents of Ramat Givat Zeev, and we already know that the schools will attract not only the residents of the neighborhood, but students from all over the greater Jerusalem area, and from abroad. In under a year of occupancy, plans for other permanent structures, like kindergartens, day care centers, a girls’ school and a boys’ school, are underway.

Ano t her exciting prospect for the residents is the negotiations between the Nofei Israel and one of the veteran yeshivas, which shares the same spirit of the

the r e were real estate experts and various con t ractors who admired the quality and unp r ecedented character of Ramat Givat Zeev, bot h in terms of beauty, as well as in terms of the lev e l of finishing and professionalism, the quality of the apartments and the houses themselves. There is no doubt that this type of quality neighborhood is yet unseen in Israel.

The increasing demand on the part of buyers has reduced the inventory of apartments left. Real estate exp e rts estimate that with the end of the sale of apartments, prices will rise in the neighborhood. Experts predict that with the end of the sale of apartments and vil l as, prices are expected to jump more than 60%.

Those interested in Ramat Givat Zeev, will be impressed to find all the quality and all the services they need, and will prefer to live in the neighborhood than in the city of Jerusalem. For a resident of the United States who wants to make Aliyah, will not be bothered by the price increase, the only place where he would feel at ease, and like he is at home, is Ramat Givat Zeev. Many of the buyers already testified that had it not been for the Ramat Givat Zeev neighborhood, they would not have made an Aliyah in such a short period of time.

At the end of occupancy, Ramat Givat Zeev is expected to accommodate about 450 families.

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

From the Fire

Pesach Tomorrow is Another World

By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

I

was in Paris, France, for a beautiful chassunah a few years ago.

I had never been to Paris before.

When I arrived, I traveled directly to the hotel, which was in the same Jewish neighborhood as the chasunah, which took place in a Chabad girls’ school, the largest in all of Europe. The building was surrounded by a high wall on all sides like a military compound. All around the wall were twenty or thirty French soldiers carrying rifles, although many of them did not appear too fond of those they were charged to defend. After what I saw and heard from those who live there, I had the following thought on my way back to the United States.

The Torah tells us, “Remember the day when you went out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life” (Devarim 16:3). What differentiates this mitzvah to remember the exodus from Egypt every single day of the year from the mitzvah to recount the Exodus Pesach night?

The key distinction is that which we read in the Haggadah (and Pesachim 116b), “In every generation, a person is obligated to see himself as if he personally went out from Egypt.”

On Pesach night, we taste the bitterness and tears. We experience the joy personally. We see the blood, fire, and columns of smoke.

We say, “The Holy One did not only redeem our fathers. Rather, He even redeemed us with them.” We live the Exodus. This is the main difference from the daily mitzvah to remember the Exodus. It is one thing to mention and remember Hashem taking us out of Egypt. But it is an entirely different matter to actually see himself as personally emerging from slavery to freedom at G-d’s hand.

How can we, living at a time of greater and more widespread prosperity than at any other time in Jewish history, possibly relate to the poverty, oppression, and suffering experienced by our grandfathers and grandmothers? We simply have nothing in common with them experientially. How can we fulfill Chazal’s instruction to see ourselves as if we personally experienced Hashem’s redemption from Egyptian slavery?

At the seder, we hold up a broken piece of matzah and say, “This is the bread of affliction that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt.”

Rashi (on Devarim 16:3) says that this is “bread which reminds us of the affliction with which we were tormented in Egypt.”

On my way back from Paris, I began to think: perhaps through this broken matzah we can relate to what our grandparents went through in Egypt in one respect.

The Gemara (Pesachim 116a) says we use a broken piece of matzah because “it is the way of a poor person to use a broken piece of matzah [so he can hide away the rest for later].”

A hungry person does not know what tomorrow will bring. He has no idea whether, the next day, he will even be able to obtain the meager amount of bread he managed to find today. That uncertainty, that need to horde for the next day, is what we think about when we call matzah the bread of affliction.

My father told me that when he was in Mauthausen during the Holocaust, one of the biggest decisions each person had to make was what to do with the meager piece of moldy bread he received. Some maintained that it was better to save a portion because he did not know whether he would have any at all the next day. My father, how-

ever, had seen some Jews searching through the barracks, rifling through others’ things, trying to find a hidden morsel of food. He therefore said to himself, “Even if I hide some of my food, I don’t even know if I will still have it tomorrow.

And I don’t even know whether I will be alive for a few more hours. It is better to take what is certain and eat any food I can find right now.”

When people are poor, afflicted, and broken, they lack any feeling of security or stability. They lack any sense of continuity. This uncertainty can lead to an excessive fear about what the future will bring.

The tragedy of poverty is that it instills a desperate obsession to control one’s situation, to rely on one’s self rather than on G-d.

We see that the broken piece of matzah recalls this fear and uncertainty. But why is this broken piece of matzah hidden between the two whole matzahs at the seder? What is the significance of the two whole matzahs? They, like the two challahs we use every Shabbos, recall the miraculous mann our grandparents ate in the desert after leaving Egypt.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

The Torah says Hashem gave us the mann “in order to deprive you, to test you” (Devarim 8:2).

This pasuk is outwardly very difficult to understand. We were in a desert, a place with no food at all.

The mann sustained us every single day. It filled us up so we would not be hungry. And it was delicious. If one thought of nothing when he ate it, it tasted like a wafer fried in honey (Shmos 16:31). And if a person thought of his or her favorite food, it had that taste (Shmos Rabah 25:3).

If the mann kept us alive, filled our stomachs, and tasted delicious; how could the Torah say that its purpose was “to deprive you, to test you?”

Despite all of the blessings of the mann, its challenge was the mitzvah, “Do not leave over from it till morning” (Shmos 16:19). The Jewish people had just emerged from the poverty, affliction and deprivation of Egypt. They had not yet fully absorbed the faith in Hashem’s care for them. They were still gripped by the fear of what tomorrow would bring. Many of them therefore had an irresistible urge to horde the mann, lest there would be none the next day, as the pasuk says, “And they did not listen to Moshe and some men left over [mann] until morning. And it became full of worms and rotted...” (ibid. 20). People even failed the test on Shabbos when they went out to attempt to collect mann even though they were told there would be none there (ibid.

27). The impulse to focus on tomorrow at the expense of the obligations of today was simply too strong.

Perhaps this is why Hashem caused an entire generation to grow up in the desert learning how to live with serenity despite having only one day’s food at any given time. It is so difficult to free one’s self from the need to think he is in control of his own life. G-d therefore caused us to go to bed every night with nothing in the fridge for the next day. He wanted to redeem us from the mentality of poverty and affliction. He wanted us to learn how to feel secure and serene because of our trust in G-d. We had to learn to live for today without worrying about tomorrow.

That is why, at the seder, we

place the broken piece of matzah, which personifies the bread of affliction, between the two whole matzahs, which remind us that we do not need to know with certainty what tomorrow will bring. He wants to free us from the ultimate internal

Paris today to get a sense of one of the key aspects of the oppression our grandfathers and grandmothers endured in Egypt.

When we take out the piece of hidden matzah at the end of the seder, we call it Afikoman, which

We had to learn to live for today without worrying about tomorrow.

slave-mentality in which we worry about the future even though we have everything we need today. It is enough that we entrust our lives in Hashem’s care.

How can we relate to this today?

I spoke to one Yid in France who told me he operates a yeshiva in a town about an hour from Paris that has always had between 200 and 300 students. But it only had eleven students at the time that we spoke because so many Jews are afraid to publicly identify as Jews by sending their children to a Jewish school or have moved to Eretz Yisroel, Canada, or Miami.

One rebbe in Paris told me that although it is not reported in the news, and they do not want it to be, a Jewish child is beaten up in the streets virtually every day. No one knows when the next anti-Semitic or Islamic terrorist attack will occur. Everyone contemplates what to do with their bank accounts and homes. The non-Jews in Paris know that the Jews want to leave and sell their homes, so they have adopted an approach of waiting them out.

Why should they offer a market price for a Jewish family’s million dollar house when they can obtain it for a fraction of that price later on?

The feeling of uncertainty about tomorrow in the ancient Jewish communities of France and all around Europe is palpable. And while we still feel safe and secure in the United States, just like the Jews in Berlin felt in 1932, all we have to do is think about the vulnerability felt by our brothers and sisters in

is a contraction of the words “Afiku mann – take out the mann.” By doing so, we daven to Hashem, “Master of the World, help us to remove all that we have horded away because we were worried about tomorrow, because we felt so vulnerable!

Help us internalize the lesson of the mann. Free us from that poverty, that desperate need to take control

because we feel so out-of-control.

Liberate us from the worry about tomorrow that destroys our ability to live for and enjoy today. Allow us to live just for today without obsessing over what will happen tomorrow.”

May Hashem bless us with the ability to surrender the care of our lives to Hashem. May we feel the freedom from worry about tomorrow. May we internalize the reality that “all a person has in this world is the day and moment in which he is serving G-d. The next day is an entirely different world” (I Likutei Moharan 272). May our incorporation of this reality of the redemption from Egyptian poverty and affliction bring us into the world of Moshiach 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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From Pulpit to Palette

Artist Yitzchok Moully Talks about Melbourne, Orange Socks, & Matzah Balls

By Rena Gray itzchok Moully is a busy man. Constantly traveling for work-related errands – from running screen printing workshops to public speaking to delivering commissioned art pieces – the best way to catch a moment with the artist is during the drive, as I did following a recent workshop of his in HAFTER Middle School in Lawrence, NY. Once you have him, though, he grants you instant access to the driving force behind his art and success: his soul.

Busy is a blessing for Moully. The life of an artist has long been known to be a gamble at the mercy of the public. But with Moully’s intuition and determination to share his ideas with the world, as well as a lot of siyata dishmaya, more and more people are vying for him to use their neighborhoods as his next canvas and his one-of-a-kind designs are currently in high demand. All in a day’s work for the Chassidic pop artist.

Outback Origins

Born in Darwin, Australia, Moully’s unconventional upbringing might have something to do with his ascendancy in this previously unexplored area

by Orthodox Jews. “My parents were hippies,” says Moully with a chuckle. While there was little Jewish presence in what he calls the “capital of nowhere,” Moully relates that his mother was always a very spiritual person. Instead of prayer services on Yom Kippur, Moully remembers spending the day with his mother meditating by a creek. When he was around 4 years old, Moully’s grandfather took ill and his parents decided to make the move to the suburban streets of Melbourne to be closer to the hospital.

During that period Moully’s mother began attending her parents’ traditional synagogue, where she made the acquaintance of a rabbi who changed her life. She decided that Yitzchok, their only child, would begin

attending a Jewish day school. Moully’s parents became connected to Chabad in Melbourne, and it was through them that the family came to Yiddishkeit.

The Moullys sought to continue their growth in a place that would support their newfound love of Judaism in conjunction with their love of nature. They settled on the idea of a kibbutz in Israel. Moully’s parents saved up and made arrangements for the following itinerary: Melbourne to Los Angeles to New York to Israel. They put their plan into fruition and landed in New York in time for the High Holidays.

At the conclusion of the yomim tovim someone suggested that the Moully family write a letter to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, asking his advice at this crossroads of a lifetime. They did, and he advised them to stay in New York for the time being. So stay they did.

Those 4 ½ years proved to be life-changing for the impressionable young boy. “Looking back I think I can understand why the Rebbe wanted me to stay,”

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Orange Socks

says Moully, “to absorb all that spiritual energy.” He believes that those years helped solidify his commitment to Yiddishkeit and would fuel his spiritual expression in years to come. They never made it to the kibbutz.

The family returned to Melbourne where the now fully-religious Moully grew into adulthood. By this point he knew that he wanted to be a rabbi and consequently attended rabbinical college in Morristown, NJ. He married his wife Batsheva in Toronto, and together they began their lives as youth directors at a Chabad center in Basking Ridge, NJ. “I was living out the embodiment of what I thought I was meant to do in this world,” Moully recalls. “I thought this was what it was all about.”

Passion Discovered

Creative by nature, photography was Moully’s medium of choice, which he dabbled in as a side hobby. “Photography was my means of expression,” says Moully, “but by no stretch would I have called myself an artist.”

That was all about to change. One night, Moully came across a painting technique called silkscreen printing. “A lightbulb went off and I realized I could take my photos and translate them into art,” Moully recalls. Less intimidating than freehand art, screen printing had caught hold of Moully’s imagination, even though he had zero experience in the field. “I had the expression, the creativity – just no technical skills,” Moully laughs. “I tried and failed, tried and failed.” It took a year just to produce his first piece, what with constructing his own frames and getting the hang of the specialized procedure. But when he did, he was hooked.

The silkscreen process is similar to using a stencil, but with more detail. It uses a screen (originally made from silk, now more often synthetic) with very small holes, to allow select colors through in the desired areas. A light-sensitive emulsion works to

essentially burn the image onto the screen. Moully’s subject matter in his pop art collection is comprised predominantly of Judaic themes featuring iconic symbols like kiddush cups, Torah scrolls, and dancing chassidim in bright, bold colors.

" I kind of call that my self-portrait in jest because the orange socks are me," Moully shares. "Under the black hat there is a wealth of vibrant, colorful energy waiting to be released."

Rabbi by Day

Early on in his painting career Moully began to become recognized for his artwork with a gallery showing in Lambertville, NJ, followed by an article published in The Forward in 2006, in which the writer dubbed him “rabbi by day, artist by night.”

Moully describes his life at the time as being divided into separate boxes – a box for family, a box for art, one for his rabbinical responsibilities, and so on.

“That was my balance,” Moully says. Until it wasn’t.

“It got to the point where [the art] was taking up too much strength, time and mental energy,” Moully admits. His home now bustled with the activity of five children. He wondered whether he should continue this pursuit, asking the question he now uses to title his speeches around the country, “What’s a good Jewish rabbi doing painting?” Moully’s next step

was to ask his own rabbi and mentor for guidance. “‘You’re asking the wrong question,’” Moully quotes his rabbi as saying. “‘The question isn’t, Should you paint? The question is, How can you take the gift G-d has given you and impact the world?’” To Moully it was a total paradigm shift. “It took a long time and a lot of soul searching to realize my mission isn’t just to be a youth rabbi, a Chabad rabbi, but it’s to be an artist,” says Moully, “to create my work that’s very much inspired by the Torah and love of Judaism and convey it in my own voice.” Leaving the security of his rabbinical position and paycheck was daunting, to say the least, but with the conviction of his mission now crystal clear, Moully was ready to take the plunge.

“Lots of people can and should be rabbis,” he says. “Nobody else can do my art.”

Becoming a full-time artist didn’t happen overnight. With patience and perseverance (and a “very supportive wife”) Moully began to get his name out in the art world. His piece entitled “Orange Socks” depicts the silhouettes of Chassidic men walking behind each other, one sporting anomalous orange socks. “I kind of call that my self-portrait in jest because the orange socks are me,” Moully shares. “Under the black hat there is a wealth of vibrant, colorful energy waiting to be released.”

What is Chassidic Pop Art?

“Pop art is like popular culture, with bright, bold colors,” Moully explains. “It’s a loose term.” Indeed, Dictionary.com defines pop art as “art based on modern popular culture and the mass media.” For Moully it means making his work accessible to the general public, in message and price tag. “It’s not highbrow,” he says. “I want my work to have meaning and I want people to find meaning in my work.”

And indeed they do. “Orange Socks” has since come full circle after being commissioned as a largerthan-life-sized mural in the Jerusalem Biennale for

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Overflowing Blessings

Matzah

Dancing Darkness into Light

Contemporary Jewish Art this past fall. According to Moully, this piece actually served as the inspiration to create the exhibit, whose theme was Popthodox, a fusion of Orthodox pop art. The innovative work drew the attention of visiting guests and many stopped to snap a picture in front of it.

One Tishrei in 2009 during his stint as “rabbi by day,” Moully traveled to Crown Heights to buy a lulav and esrog. He came across a few guys selling some out of a small space on Kingston Avenue. Moully inquired as to the fate of the space after Sukkos ended and was told it would be available for rent. Throwing his caution to the wind he made arrangements to rent the space as an art gallery to the tune of $1,000 for one week. He used Facebook to publicize his intent to make a show and invite other artists to participate.

“I titled it ‘Chassidim with Color,’” Moully says.

“If you define yourself as a chassid and have color to share, you’re invited.” Each artist was charged $50 to cover costs. Moully had no idea what the turnout would be or how the gallery would be received by the public. He didn’t have to worry, though. Artists poured in, young and old, experienced and amateurs.

Every wall was covered with art.

“It was a mind-blowing experience,” he recalls.

Simchas beis hashoeiva celebrations in Crown Heights had people dancing down the length of Kingston Avenue and in and out of his gallery all night long. He couldn’t close the doors, even after the official 2AM closure. “It was electric,” says Moully.

He even ended up selling an original piece, completely covering the cost of renting the space.

“That was really the precursor to the Creative Soul,” Moully continues. The goal of the Creative Soul art gallery was to give Orthodox-Chassidic artists a voice and a venue in which to share their work. The response was encouraging. “People in the community really cared,” Moully says. It continued successfully for three years, hosting events and becoming a beloved staple of the community. Unfortunately, it is now defunct; Moully was living in New Jersey at

the time and had left his rabbinical post to pursue his own art. Perhaps he will revisit the idea in the future, but for now, he’s sticking to current projects.

Appropriate in name, “Matzah” is a colorful, Warhol-esque rendition of the iconic food. “I love the repetitive imagery, repeating a validation of a single image over multiple colors,” says Moully. “At the same time I wanted to mix it up a bit by giving my own spin on [it] with the handmade round matzah getting smaller until it ends up as a matzah ball in soup – a fun twist on a traditional Passover food.”

Moully partnered this piece with a second version, replacing the handmade matzos with the square, machine-made type. He found that the square matzos are more commonly recognized by the public and in the name of inclusion, he wanted to have both.

“Cups of Freedom” and “Overflowing Blessings,” also pieces connected to Pesach, both highlight kiddush cups as their subjects, the former depicting the cups at the seder in colorful fashion while the latter has its cup overflowing with wine.

Ideas and Inspiration

Where do his ideas come from? True to his character, Moully refers to the Torah for its explanation of how ideas are formed in a person’s mind. The first approach to solving any problem should be to apply tremendous effort in finding a solution. It’s hishtadlus, and it’s hard work. At the same time a person

" That flash is your neshama," he says. "Your ideas come from your soul."

Sharp Edges is required to realize that he can’t do it alone, not without help from Above.

“What is chochmah?” he asks. “Koach mah. ‘Mah’ is being able to recognize your own limitations, your strengths and where they end.” The person who toils to follow through with his inspiration will undoubtedly reach an impasse as to how to go about it. In Moully’s experience, it is often just at the point of recognizing that he’s gotten as far as he can go that he’s gifted with a flash of inspiration. “That flash is your neshama talking to your conscious,” he says.

“Your ideas come from your soul.” He maintains that his ideas are not his own; they are G-d’s. “By investing myself in this and being willing to put myself out there without a backup plan,” Moully continues, “I know I have G-d in my corner.”

As Pesach approaches, Moully talks about some of his pieces that draw themes from the holiday.

As can be expected in the art world, everyone’s a critic. Another artist once commented to Moully that his pieces should be “edgier,” and not so “sweet.” “I don’t think I’m so sweet,” says Moully goodnaturedly.

“I don’t just explore light, fluffy things; I think my work has depth and meaning,” he continues. “But I’m a positive guy and I want to share positivity.”

Moully strives to achieve a healthy balance between navigating the art world and making adjustments to succeed within it without compromising on his values. “I’ll try to give my work an edge, do new things, make people stop and think, within the confines of remaining respectful to Torah and mitzvos,” Moully explains. For example he describes a past project of his following the tragedy of the Har Nof massacre. The piece’s main feature was part of a ripped tallis splattered with red paint to look like blood. It was a physical manifestation of Moully’s own pain and the pain of klal Yisroel. For a while he retained the rest of the severed tallis without any

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clear idea of how to use it. It came to him after the tragic story of Sarah Litman in Israel, who attended the funeral of her father and brother instead of walking down to her chuppah. The contrast between the sad events of that day with her ultimate wedding celebration inspired Moully to use the remaining “bloodstained” shreds of tallis as the chuppah in his second piece. Moully is adamant that these two pieces are not for sale; they belong together in a museum and are currently in need of a good home. “They belong to all of us and tell our collective story of the Tisha B’Avs and the Tu B’Avs of life,” Moully maintains.

The Pop Art Rabbi Today

Moully has since moved away from the silkscreen technique and is now primarily involved with, but not limited to, paint on canvas. “People call me the Jewish Warhol; I want to move away from that,” he says. “I see my work as broader.” At the moment he’s into drip painting using liquid acrylic and syringes, essentially exploding paint onto a canvas. “Sometimes pieces evolve over time; if I’m not happy with it I might add layers, and it becomes new piece,” says Moully.

He adds, “I just got approval to do a two-story mural in Crown Heights depicting the theme of aha-

With his family

vas Yisroel, inclusion.” Inspired by a group promoting inclusion for persons with physical and mental disabilities, Moully is working on gathering funds to create this enterprise – a community scene with people of all abilities interacting, asserting the truth that a community is made up of all kinds of people.

And he’s not afraid of running out of ideas, either.

“I have so many ideas,” he says. “I feel that if all the ideas that were stuck in my head came out, the world would be a better place.” One such idea is “Plus One,” a mural of nine silhouetted men and boys dressed in different recognizable Jewish attire. A space in the middle of the group renders it an incomplete minyan. “You complete the picture,” Moully explains. No matter who you are or what you look like, you belong.

“I’m not going to say I’m singlehandedly going to be the antidote to any discord within a community,” reasons Moully, “but I have my voice and I have a responsibility to use it.”

Moully tries to empower others to find their unique voice and to share it with the world because “that’s the way we make the world complete.” His advice to young artists? Go for it. “Find your own unique voice,” he urges. “Hippie parents, Chabad rabbi, that’s my voice.”

Each individual has a unique experience and perspective on life. “There’s what you say and how you say it and how you share it with the world,” he continues. “Share your soul, take risks and G-d has your back.”

Moully’s work is available for viewing at the Metal Art Studio, 576 Central Ave, Cedarhurst, NY 11516, or online at moullyart.com.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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They Never Made it to the Seder

By Yochanan Butman

I

t was the morning before Passover, 2016, and preparations were in high gear. The G. family, residents of a small town in Israel’s north, planned to spend the holiday with relatives in Modiin, a city located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Helped by her oldest son, Mrs. G. bustled around kitchen, cooking up a storm for the extended family who would be joining them in Modiin. They would be 35 people in total.

Meanwhile, Mr. G. piled the rest of the children into the car and set out to Modiin with the family’s luggage in the trunk, under the children’s feet, and anywhere else it would fit.

It was already late in the afternoon

when the cooking was finished, and mother and son finally left for Modiin in the family’s second vehicle.

To their consternation, there had been an accident on the road, and traffic crawled along at a snail’s pace. The sun was about to set, and they were still almost 100 kilometers away from their destination.

With no choice, they pulled off the road and entered the nearest city, which happened to be Hadera, a city that hugs Israel’s Mediterranean coast.

At first they considered spending the holiday camped out in their car.

Even if they were alone, they had plenty to eat. But they soon realized that such a plan would be imprac-

tical. Instead they decided to see if they could find a family who would be able to host them for the holiday.

“Excuse me,” said Mrs. G. to a boy sitting in the courtyard of a nearby building. “Is there a family in this building that is celebrating this Passover in the traditional way?”

Sure enough, the boy indicated that there was such a family who lived on the first floor of the complex, the D. family.

Mrs. G. knocked on the door with her heart in her throat, hoping that she and her son would at least have a place to sleep for the holiday.

“Hi,” she said nervously to the woman who opened the door with a

surprised look on her face. “My son and I got stuck in traffic and it’s almost Passover. Would you perhaps be able to put us up for the holiday?”

“Um ... sure ... I guess so ... I mean, let me ask my husband,” replied Mrs. D., and then disappeared down the hall.

Moments later she returned to say, “You’re welcome to come stay with us. It will be a bit tight, but we’ll be happy to have you. I just need to warn you that our family is on a very strict vegetarian diet, so you may find our food somewhat different from what you are used to.”

“Food?” exclaimed Mrs. G. “I have enough food in the car to feed 35 people. Come, let me bring the

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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pans inside, so we can at least get them into the refrigerator before everything spoils in the car.”

The D. family watched in amazement as a seemingly endless parade of fish, meat, salad, and chicken soup made its way into their humble home. After the soup had been placed on the stove, the pans stacked on the hot plate, and the holiday candles lit, the women began chatting.

“I want you to know,” revealed Mrs. D., “that a miracle just took place in our home.

“I wasn’t exactly truthful before. We aren’t really vegetarians.

We’re just very poor. My husband and I have both been out of work for some time, and we are under tremendous financial pressure. In order to explain to the kids why pita and hummus has become our meal for breakfast, lunch and supper, we decided to tell them that we were experimenting with a new vegetarian diet.

“We have nothing at all for Passover, and we’re not the kind to stick our hands out and beg. We decided to have our seder over at Chabad, where we knew we would not be expected to give a donation, but we

for Passover?’ He looked at calmly and just said, ‘Don’t worry, G-d can help us within the blink of an eye.’ I cannot say that I was comforted, but what choice did I have?

“This morning I asked him

"My son and I got stuck in traffic and it's almost Passover. Would you perhaps be able to put us up for the holidays?"

had no idea what we would do for the rest of the holiday.

“As the days passed, and the pantry remained stubbornly bare, I asked my husband, ‘What will we do

again, and he just said that he had faith in G-d and that he was sure that everything would work out.

“This afternoon, I broke down crying. ‘Even if we miraculously

get ingredients, there’s not even enough time to cook them,’ I sobbed in the safety of our room, where the children would not see me. ‘If G-d wants to send us Passover food – and I am sure He will – he can make sure it is cooked and warm,’ was his response. On one hand, I was touched by his faith, but it was also maddening. Was he making fun of me, or was he just naive?

“Now just minutes before candle lighting, G-d sent you with a car full of delicious Passover food, enough for us to celebrate just like we had in years past.”

Postscript: This story – which was told by Rabbi Yochanan Butman of Chabad of Hadera – did not end there. Mrs. G. made it her personal business to discreetly help the D. family, and they’ve made substantial progress on the road to financial stability.

Reprinted with permission from Chabad.org.

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chol hamoed

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places to go, things to do

This year, Pesach comes out just a few days after snow blanketed the city. Even though we hope to have balmy temperatures, remember that nothing warms you up more than enjoying quality time together. Take advantage and spend time with the family during chol hamoed – indoors or outdoors.

TJH has compiled a list of ideas, activities and places to go for you to enjoy. Make sure to pack enough food (macaroons, matzah and marshmallows!) and music for the road and have fun!

zoos and farms Queens County Farm Museum 73-50 Little Neck Parkway Floral Park, NY 11004 718-347-3276

White Post Farms 250 Old County Road Melville, NY 11747 631-351-9373 New York Aquarium Surf Avenue & West 8th Street Brooklyn, NY 11224 718-265-FISH

Long Island Aquarium and Exhibition Center 431 East Main Street Riverhead, NY 11901 631-208-9200 Prospect Park Zoo 450 Flatbush Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11225 718-399-7339 Queens Zoo 53-51 111th Street Flushing, NY 11368 718-271-1500

$30.00 $1.50

Individual Tickets

Chol Hamoed Pesach PARK HOURS ONLY ON Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, April 2nd, 3rd & 4th from 11AM to 6PM

No food will be available on premises

Central Park Zoo 64th Street & 5th Avenue New York, NY 10065 212-861-6030

Bronx Zoo 2300 Southern Blvd Bronx, NY 10460 718-220-5103

Green Meadows Farm Floral Park, NY 11002 718-470-0224

Long Island Game Farm 489 Chapman Boulevard Manorville, NY 11949 631-878-6644

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

scenic

attractions Central Park Boating, biking, the Great Lawn, model-boat sailing, carriage rides, carousel Between 5th & 8th Avenues and 59th & 106th Streets, New York, NY 212-360-3444 Bryant Park 6th Avenue, between W 40-42 Street New York, NY 10018 212-768-4242 New York Highline Gansevoort St. to West 30 St. between Washington St. and 11 Ave. New York, NY 212-500-6035 Brooklyn Bridge Park 1 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 718-222-9939 Fort Tyron Park Riverside Drive to Broadway, W 192 Street to Dyckman Street New York, NY New York Circle Line Pier 83 West 42nd Street New York, NY 10036 212-563-3200

Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Ferries from Battery Park, NY 1 Battery Place, New York, NY 10004 212-363-3200

Old Westbury Gardens 71 Old Westbury Road Old Westbury, NY 11568 516-333-0048

Brooklyn Botanic Gardens 900 Washington Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11225 718-623-7200

Jamaica Bay Riding Academy 7000 Shore Pkwy Brooklyn, NY 11234 718-531-8949

South Street Seaport 89 South St. New York, NY 10038 212-732-7678

Brooklyn Heights Promenade Downtown Brooklyn—Remsen Street to Orange Street along the East River

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THIS PESACH ENJOY A PIZZA AND DESSERT AT BERRYLICIOUS! NON-GEBROKTS Pesach 2018 Hours: FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

MARCH 30 MARCH 31 APRIL 1 APRIL 2 APRIL 3 APRIL 4 APRIL 5 APRIL 6

9 AM-5PM CLOSED 8:30PM-1AM 8AM-1AM 8AM-1AM 8AM-1AM 8AM-5PM CLOSED

PIZZA IS CHOLOV YISROEL & GLUTEN FREE COFFEE all flavors are

SMOOTHIES MUFFINS

CHOLOV YISROEL or PAREVE

CHAG SAMEACH

Queens 69-48 Main St. Flushing, NY 11367 718.59.BERRY

QUEENS STORE WILL BE SERVING FRENCH FRIES & SWEET POTATO FRIES FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE.

Five Towns 590 Central Avenue Cedarhurst, NY 11516 516.792.3848

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

CHOL HAMOED PESACH WITH

The New York Botanical Garden 2900 Southern Boulevard Bronx, NY 10458 718-817-8700

THE UNCLE YOU KNOW AND LOVE

Wave Hill Public Gardens 675 W 252 St Bronx, NY 10471 718-549-3200

amusement parks

Six Flags Great Adventure 1 Six Flags Boulevard Jackson, NJ 08527 732-928-2000 Adventureland 2245 Broad Hollow Road (RT 110) Farmingdale, NY 11735 631-694-6868 Luna Park Coney Island 1000 Surf Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11224 718-372-0275

Adventurers (formerly Nellie Bly Park) 1824 Shore Parkway Brooklyn, NY 11214 718-975-2748 Sahara Sam’s Oasis and Water Park & Diggerland 535 N Route 73 West Berlin, NJ 08091 856-809-4168

Album MI C O IKE L

Mystic Seaport 75 Greenmanville Avenue Mystic, CT 06355 888-973-2767

The

IS

Historic Richmond Town 441 Clarke Avenue Staten Island, NY 10306 718-351-1611 The Amish Village 199 Hartman Bridge Road Ronks, PA 17572 717-687-8511

PESACH FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMIL Y

N NE G TO V E YO R B UR EFO TOW N RE!

Bronx Zoo Treetop Adventure Climb and Zipline Bronx River Parkway at Boston Rd Bronx, NY 10460 347-308-9021

indoor fun parks

Legoland Discovery Center Westchester 39 Fitzgerald Street Yonkers, NY 10701 866-243-0779

THREE AMAZING SHOWS! Congregation Aish Kodesh MONDAY ApriL 02, in 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere, NY 11598 FIVE-TOWNS Showtime 1:30 p.m. doors open 1:00 p.m.

WEDNESDAY Bais Shaindel High School ApriL 04, in 685 River Ave, Lakewood, NJ 08701 LAKEWOOD Showtime 1:30 p.m. doors open 1:00 p.m.

THURSDAY ApriL 05, in QUEENS

Congregation Ner Mordechai

Pharoah in Pajamas

8233 Lefferts Blvd, Kew Gardens, NY 11415 Showtime 11:30 a.m. doors open 11:00 a.m.

ORDER TICKETS ONLINE: UncleMoishysWorld.com

$14

Tickets will also be sold at the door.

HELP UNCLE MOISHY FIND THE AFIKOMEN!

MEDIA SPONSOR:

GET YOUR UNCLE MOISHY AFIKOMEN GIFT AT THE DOOR

For more information about bookings, school events, concerts, or group ticket rates call us at: 844-4-UNCLEMOISHY (844-486-2536) or visit us at www.unclemoishysworld.com

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Fun Fuzion at New Roc City 19 Le County Place New Rochelle, NY 10801 914-637-7575 Fun Station USA 40 Rocklyn Avenue Lynbrook, NY 11563 516-599-7757 @ Play Amusement 229 Route 110 Farmingdale, NY 11735 631-815-5355 Laser Bounce 2710 Hempstead Turnpike Levittown, NY 11756 516-881-9620 RPM Raceway Go-Karting 40 Daniel St Farmingdale, NY 11735 631-752-7223

One World Observatory One World Trade Center, 285 Fulton Street New York, NY 10007 844-OWO-1776 Chelsea Piers Hudson River—Piers 59-62 New York, NY 212-336-6800 Woodmere Lanes 948 Broadway Woodmere, NY 11598 516-374-9870 Funfest Bowling 6161 Strickland Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11234 718-763-6800 BounceU 3495B Lawson Blvd Oceanside, NY 11572 516-593-5867

Chuck E. Cheese 162 Fulton Avenue Hempstead, NY 11550 516-483-3166

Brooklyn Boulders 575 Degraw Street Brooklyn, NY 11217 347-834-9066

Kids N Shape 162-26 Cross Bay Boulevard Howard Beach, NY 11414 718-848-2052

Trapeze School NY 2 locations in NYC: Pier 40 in Hudson River Park, NYC; South Williamsburg, Brooklyn 212-242-8769

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

Exclus D e a l s i ve Coupo & ns

Don’t Settle for Bowling

Discover Hundreds of Trips

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.com

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

THE LARGEST VIRTUAL REALITY DESTINATION IN THE UNIVERSE

something different

Puppetworks 338 Sixth Avenue at 4th Street Park Slope, NY 11215 718-965-3391 Make It Too 86 Cedarhurst Ave Cedarhurst, NY 11516 516-341-7660 Build a Bear Roosevelt Field Mall 630 Old Country Road Garden City, NY 11530 516-248-0027 Artrageous Studio 5 N Village Ave Rockville Centre, NY 11570 516-255-5255

10% OFF DURING PASSOVER BREAK 4 EAST 34TH STREET • WWW.VRWORLDNYC.COM • @VRWORLDNYC *with presentation of this ad in-store

Air Trampoline Sports 1850 Lakeland Avenue Ronkonkoma, NY 11779 631-619-6000

Skyzone Trampoline Park 111 Rodeo Drive Deer Park, NY 11717 631-392-2600

Skyzone Trampoline Park 33 Lecount Place New Rochelle, NY 10801 914-740-8272

Rockin’ Jump Trampoline Park 241 Market Street Yonkers, NY 10710 914-510-9119

Hot Skates Roller Skating Rink 14 Merrick Road Lynbrook, NY 11563 516-593-1300

Once Upon a Dish 659 Franklin Ave Garden City, NY 11530 516-742-6030 Baked in Brooklyn 242 Wythe Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11249 718-384-2300 Color Me Mine 123 Baxter St New York, NY 10013 212-374-1710 Taro’s Origami Studio 95 7th Avenue, 2nd Floor Brooklyn, NY 11215 718-360-5435

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museums Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museums Museum Pier 86, 12th Avenue and 46th Street Intrepid Sea, Air and Space 212-245-0072 Museum Pier 86, 12th Avenue and 46th Street 9/11 Memorial and Museum 212-245-0072

200 Liberty Street New York, NY 10006 9/11 Memorial and Museum 212-266-5211 200 Liberty Street New York, NY 10006 New York Hall of Science 212-266-5211

47-01 111th Street Queens, NYHall 11368of Science New York 718-699-0005 47-01 111th Street Queens, NY 11368 718-699-0005 Jewish Museum

1109 Fifth Avenue Jewish Museum New York, NY 10128 1109 Fifth Avenue 212-423-3200 New York, NY 10128 212-423-3200

Museum of Jewish Heritage 36 Battery Pl. Museum of Jewish Heritage New York, NY 10280 36 Battery Pl. 646-437-4202 New York, NY 10280 646-437-4202

Living Torah Museum 1601 41 Street Living Torah Museum Brooklyn, NY 11218 1601 41 Street Brooklyn, NY 11218 718-851-3215 718-851-3215

Long Island Children’s Museum Long Island Children’s Museum 11 Davis Avenue 11 Davis Avenue Garden City, NY 11530 Garden City, NY 11530 516-224-5800 516-224-5800

Brooklyn Children’s Museum Brooklyn Children’s Museum 145 Brooklyn Avenue 145 Brooklyn Avenue Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY NY 11213 11213 718-735-4400 718-735-4400 Jewish Jewish Children’s Children’s Museum Museum 792 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, NY 11213 718-467-0600 Children’s Museum Children’s Museum of of Manhattan Manhattan 212 212 W W 83rd 83rd St St New York, NY 10024 New York, NY 10024 212-721-1234

212-721-1234

NYC Fire Museum NYC Fire Museum 278 Spring Street 278 Spring Street New York, NY 10013 New York, NY 212-691-1303 10013

American Museum of Natural History Central Park West at 79th Street American Museum New York, NY 10024 of Natural History 212-769-5100 Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024 Metropolitan Museum of Art 212-769-5100

1000 5th Avenue New York, NY 10028 Metropolitan Museum of Art 800-662-3397 1000 5th Avenue New York, NY 10028 Frick Collection 800-662-3397

1 E 70 St. New York, NY 10021 Frick Collection 212-288-0700 1 E 70 St.

New York, NY 10021 212-288-0700 Lower East Side Tenement Mu-

seum

Lower EastStreet Side Tenement Mu103 Orchard seum New York, NY 10002 103 Orchard Street 212-982-8420 New York, NY 10002 212-982-8420

Liberty Science Center Liberty State Park, 222 Jersey City Liberty Science Center Boulevard Liberty State Park, 222 Jersey City Jersey City, NJ 07305 Boulevard 201-200-1000 Jersey City, NJ 07305 201-200-1000

Crayola Factory 30 CentreFactory Square Crayola 30 Centre Easton, PASquare 18042 Easton, PA 18042 1-866-875-5263 1-866-875-5263

The Franklin Institute

The Franklin 222 North 20th Institute Street 222 North 20th Philadelphia, PAStreet 19103 Philadelphia, PA 19103 215-448-1200 215-448-1200

Please Touch Museum

Please Touch Museum 4231 Avenue Avenue of of the the Republic Republic (formerly (formerly 4231 North Concourse Drive) North Concourse Drive) Philadelphia, PA PA 19131 19131 Philadelphia, 215-581-3181 215-581-3181 Imagine That! Children’s Museum 4 4 Vreeland Vreeland Road Road Florham Florham Park, Park, N.J. N.J. 07932 07932 973-966-8000 973-966-8000 TJH assumes no responsibility TJH assumes no responsibility for the kashrus, atmosphere, for the kashrus, atmosphere, safety, or accuracy of any safety,ororattraction accuracy listed of anyhere. event event or attraction listed Please call before you go. here.

Have Please call before you go. Have fun!

212-423-3200

212-982-8420

Museum of Jewish Heritage 36 Battery Pl. New York, NY 10280 646-437-4202

Liberty Science Center Liberty State Park, 222 Jersey City Boulevard Jersey City, NJ 07305 201-200-1000

Living Torah Museum 1601 41 Street Brooklyn, NY 11218 718-851-3215 Long Island Children’s Museum 11 Davis Avenue Garden City, NY 11530 516-224-5800 Brooklyn Children’s Museum 145 Brooklyn Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11213 718-735-4400 Jewish Children’s Museum 792 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, NY 11213 718-467-0600 Children’s Museum of Manhattan 212 W 83rd St New York, NY 10024 212-721-1234 NYC Fire Museum 278 Spring Street New York, NY 10013 212-691-1303

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

Crayola Factory 30 Centre Square Easton, PA 18042 1-866-875-5263 The Franklin Institute 222 North 20th Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 215-448-1200 Please Touch Museum 4231 Avenue of the Republic (formerly North Concourse Drive) Philadelphia, PA 19131 215-581-3181 Imagine That! Children’s Museum 4 Vreeland Road Florham Park, N.J. 07932 973-966-8000

TJH assumes no responsibility for the kashrus, atmosphere, safety, or accuracy of any event or attraction listed here.

Please call before you go. Have fun!

PRESENTS

PESACH MANIA MEEDDYY OM CO R JUGGLE

MAGIC SHOW FOURTH DAY CHOL HAMOED

THURSDAY, APRIL 3 TAG - 444 BEACH 6TH STREET - SHOWTIME: 12:30 TICKET PRICES: $18 & $25

JEWISHTICKETS.COM JUDAICA PLUS

FOR MORE INFORMATION: SUKI & DING 718-854-6902 WWW.SUKIDING.COM

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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Taste of Pesach

OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

a

0

Strawberry Mousse Pareve • Yields 12 mousse cups

0

I was reviewing the cookbook photos that David, our photographer, had delivered to my inbox. My kids were drooling over all the gourmet foods as they looked over my shoulder. When I got to this picture, my kids unanimously requested it as a dessert for Shabbos.

P.S. It was a hit!

INGREDIENTS 2 (16-ounce) bags frozen strawberries 2 (16-ounce) packages strawberry jello 1 TBS lemon juice 16 ounces whipped topping, not whipped, divided 1/4 cup sugar

PREPARATION Prepare the jello layer: Thaw one bag of strawberries; slice berries. Place 4-5 strawberry slices into each dessert glass.

Make one package of jello according to package directions. Pour a small amount into each glass to cover the strawberries.

Place into refrigerator to set.

Prepare the mousse layer: In a saucepan over medium heat, combine remaining strawberries and sugar. Stir until strawberries fall apart and become liquid.

Add in remaining package of jello; stir.

Remove from heat; transfer to a large bowl.

Let cool for 5 minutes.

Place topping into the bowl of an electric mixer; whip until stiff.

Combine half of prepared whipped topping with strawberry mixture in bowl to make mousse. Spoon mousse over set jello in glasses.

To finish, add a layer of remaining whipped topping over the strawberry mousse.

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Doughless Potato Knishes Pareve • Yields 12 knishes The perfect snack for Erev Pesach when everyone is hungry and looking for something to eat. An all-around crowd pleaser, you can prepare them in advance — they freeze beautifully.

Spicy Kani Cakes Pareve • Yields 12 kani cakes

0

In October, when we were working on the initial draft of Volume IX, we sidelined this recipe because we were not sure if kani was going to be produced kosher for Pesach. I got really excited when I saw it in the freezer section over that Pesach. We already had our first fabulous entry for Volume X! INGREDIENTS Kani Cakes 1/2 red bell pepper, diced 1/2 green pepper, diced 1/2 yellow or orange pepper, diced 2 cloves garlic, crushed 2 TBS Cajun seasoning 4 scallions, trimmed and sliced thinly 1 (20-ounce) loaf frozen gefilte fish, defrosted 1 (16-ounce) package kani sticks, shredded by hand and cut into small pieces Oil, for frying

PREPARATION Make the cakes: Combine first 6 ingredients and mix well. Add gefilte fish and kani. Mix until well incorporated. Mixture will be somewhat sticky. With wet hands, form the mixture into approximately 12 patties.

Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet over medium heat; pan cook the patties, 3-5 minutes per side. The cakes are ready to be flipped when they lift easily from the pan.

Prepare the Cajun aioli: Whisk together aioli ingredients in a small bowl.

Serve kani cakes with Cajun Aioli.

Cajun Aioli 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 TBS Cajun seasoning 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon honey Salt, to taste Pepper, to taste

If you can’t find kosher for Pesach Cajun seasoning or you would like to make your own, here is our recipe: INGREDIENTS 3 TBS paprika 3 TBS salt 1 TBS black pepper 1 TBS garlic powder 1/2 TBS onion powder 1 teaspoon cayenne 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme PREPARATION Combine and store in container for up to 6 months.

an

airtight

Recipes reproduced from A Taste of Pesach 2 with permission from the copyright holders ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications, LTD.

INGREDIENTS 1/4 cup oil 2 large onions, finely diced 4 potatoes 3 eggs 1 cup potato starch 2 teaspoons salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1 egg yolk, beaten, for brushing PREPARATION Peel potatoes; cut into chunks. Cook in salted water until soft. Drain and mash well.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or coat with nonstick cooking spray or oil.

Heat oil in a skillet. Add onions; sauté until translucent. Combine with eggs, potato starch, salt, and pepper. With wet hands, form dough into 1-inch balls. Place on prepared baking sheet. Brush tops with beaten egg yolk.

Bake 20-30 minutes, until golden-brown.

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Wishing Our Famiy & Friends

a

Happy, HealtHy and KosHer pesacH!

At Margaret Tietz Nursing and Rehabilitation Center Yomim Tovim are a sweet and uplifting experience. s

State-of-the-art separate Meat & all Cholov Yisroel Dairy Kitchens under the Vaad Harabonim of Queens

s

Daily & Shabbos Minyanim/ Full High Holiday Schedule

s

Shabbos Elevator

s

Shabbos Hospitality Apartment for visiting family members located only a block away

s

An integral part of the Jewish community for more than four decades, Margaret Tietz is proud to deliver unparalleled Subacute Rehabilitation, as well as Long-Term, Medically Complex and Hospice Care in a newly renovated, comfortable and completely Kosher setting.

Eruv connecting our facility to Kew Gardens Hills, Jamaica Estates/Holliswood, Hillcrest/ Fresh Meadows & Briarwood

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Festive Shabbos & Holiday Meals conducted by our Shabbos Rabbi

Margaret Tietz Nursing & Rehabilitation Center is a voluntary, not-for-profit health care provider.

164-11 Chapin Parkway, Jamaica Hills, NY 11432 www.TietzJewish.com • (718) 298-7829 Centrally located near the Queens communities of Kew Gardens Hills, Hillcrest & Jamaica Estates. Only 20 minutes from Crown Heights, Manhattan & the Five Towns.

Monday - Friday • 9am - 3pm

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

Please join as we pay tribute to the legacy of Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky, zt”l.

This special evening will mark the re-dedication and re-naming of the Yeshiva that he founded and led for over six decades, as:

‫ בית בנימן‬- ‫ישיבה תורת חיים‬

&

YESHIVA TORAS CHAIM BAIS BINYAMIN

the dedication of:

‫מכינת תורת אברהם‬ THE ABRAHAM AND SARA SILBER MIDDLE SCHOOL By the Silber Family

YESHIVA OF SOUTH SHORE 1170 William Street • Hewlett, NY 11557 516.374.7363 x212 Banquet@YOSS.org • RBKlegacy.org

THE LOUIS AND GERTRUDE FEIL TORAH CENTER By the Feil Family

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Around the Community

Remembering Rav Binyamin, zt”l

A Father’s Lessons on Leadership

By Rabbi Zvi Kamenetzky

A

s the 11 month kaddish period has ended and the first yahrzeit of my father, zt”l, approaches, I face the challenge of creating links and shortcuts to his persona which would serve as iconic reminders to hold onto to perpetuate his memory and emulate his ways.

Aba was a leader in every which way. He led the community in building and maintaining shuls, schools, tzedaka organizations, yeshivos, kollelim and mikvaos. He stood at the forefront when it was necessary to lobby for the construction of mosdos or to seek admission for patients to hospitals or students to the educational institutions they sought entrance to.

His determination to interact and intercede on behalf of so many diverse individuals and causes leads us to the earliest commentaries of what defines a leader.

In his quest to find a successor, Moshe Rabbeinu seeks the help of G-d, “Let the L-rd of the spirits of all flesh appoint a man to lead the congregation…” Hashem then identifies Yehoshua as “a man who embodies spirit.” In both instances, Rashi defines “spirit” as one who is able to relate to the spirit and individuality of each and every person. Apparently, what defines a leader is someone who can understand, relate to and interact successfully with the myriad of personalities, temperaments and sensitivities of all those he will lead.

I cannot think of anyone who my father was unable to communicate with. His ability

to reach out each erev Shabbos with close to 100 widows to cheer their day and wish them a good Shabbos was something I had difficulty relating to. I would ask, “Aba, do you really believe they are all interested in hearing from you?” Until the Friday afternoon of his petira when the phone calls were not made. His tiny flip phone was inundated with messages from those same almanos, “Rabbi, I am worried about you. Why haven’t you called today? Do you realize how I wait to hear your cheerful voice each and every Friday?” It made no difference to him which synagogue they were affiliated with or how much tzedaka they gave.

He understood their spirit and combined it with his own.

The story is well-known that one morning while waiting to be picked up by one of the talmidim of Yeshiva Gedolah to go to Shacharis, a school bus driver passed by Rav Mordechai’s home and noticed my father waiting at the curb. He stopped the bus, opened the door, and asked my father, “Rabbi, what are you waiting for?” “I’m waiting for my ride to the synagogue just a few blocks from here and it’s getting late,” he replied. “Hop on, Rabbi, I’ll take you on over there.” How do we understand the connection of a non-Jewish school bus driver recognizing a rabbi on the curb and taking the time to care for his needs?

When one understands the role of the community leader and the quality of connecting to the spirit of each individual it is quite simple.

Each year my parents, z”l, would spend the Yamim Noraim with us in Skokie, Illinois, where I served as a Rebbe and Mashgiach Ruchani at the Fasman Yeshiva High School of the Hebrew Theological College (Skokie Yeshiva). While building my sukkah, I was in need of a tall ladder to assist in laying the s’chach. My first thought was to hop over to the yeshiva just a block away and ask the caretaker if I could borrow the yeshiva’s ladder. As I headed to my minivan my father asked me, “Zvi, where are you going now?” “I’m running over to the yeshiva to borrow a ladder,” I replied. “Why must you go to the yeshiva to get a ladder; don’t you have a next door neighbor?” “Aba, the next door neighbors are a Yugoslavian couple with no children with whom I have little to do with. In fact, sometimes I feel they may be annoyed with the amount of noise coming from the loud banter of my kids! I feel uncomfortable asking them for a ladder.” Aba was disappointed with my response. “Don’t you realize that you are a person of stature in this quiet community surrounding the yeshiva?

How can you not have a relationship with your neighbors?

Please do not tell me you feel uncomfortable having a conversation with your next door neighbor because he is elderly and from a foreign country! I would like you to go next door, knock on the door and introduce yourself. Then politely ask him if he has a ladder you can borrow. You will see what kind of a kiddush Hashem you will create.” Sure enough, he was right, and the neighbor couldn’t have been happier to oblige and continue to reciprocate in the friendliest way for all our years in the neighborhood.

I can go on and on with stories of how my parents we able to show confidence in leadership in ways few would imagine.

I will reserve those chapters for the upcoming book, “Reb Binyamin,” soon to be published.

However, just as I began in my opening paragraph, this characteristic of spirited leadership is only of value if we can be sure

Rav Binyamin with his grandson Boruch and son Rabbi Zvi Kamenetzky

it will be carried and passed on to future generations with the knowledge that our actions are guided with the subconscious message of “That’s exactly what Zaidy would have done!”

A number of years ago during our Shabbos morning seudah there was a knock on our front door. There stood a gentile fellow who lives just around the corner from our home in Toronto. “Good afternoon. I’m your neighbor from around the corner,” he said.

He scanned our Shabbos table taking inventory of those sitting around about to sing “Yom Zeh Mechubad” when he spotted my 9-year-old son. He pointed at him and exclaimed, “I knew he had to be one of yours! Well, I just wanted to let you know that the young man over there is someone you should be very proud of. I have no doubt he will be one of your great leaders.” We all sat stunned at the prediction of this fellow regarding a boy of whom we are always proud but were puzzled what great mofes this kid could have possibly pulled off.

“Let me explain,” he continued. “This morning, at about 8 a.m., I was out walking my dog when this boy walked by hurriedly, probably because he was on his way to one of the many synagogues to where most of the neighbors are headed at that time. But what blew me away was how he greeted me with a wide smile and a hefty ‘Good Morning.’ I was impressed at the confidence and good manner of this Jewish boy and his neighborly manner of greeting another person despite the morning rush. But that wasn’t

enough. A few seconds later I saw him looking back and pausing for me and my poodle Daisy to catch up to him. He then said to me, ‘You know, sir, your dog is really very cute!’ That line touched my heart and made my day. Where does a kid that age learn just the right thing to say so another person should feel good? I have a lot of respect for the Jewish people who make up the majority of this neighborhood. But it is nice to know you are raising future leaders who have the right spirit of respect and have the ability to connect to people of other cultures and religions. I can assure you he will one day be a leader of whom you and your family will be proud. Have a good day and a good Shabbos.”

My son sat there red-faced with his signature smile as a small tear of nachas welled from my eye.

“What made you say that, Boruch?” I asked.

“I dunno,” he answered, “but one thing for sure, Zaidy Kamenetzky would have said the same thing.”

Aba, I hope you and Mommy are having nachas from your special places in Gan Eden.

You spent your lives nurturing and educating a community of leaders for future generations.

We join the community in celebrating your spirited legacy.

Rabbi Zvi Kamenetzky is the youngest son of Rav Binyamin and Rebbetzin Tzirel Kamenetzky. He currently resides with his family in Toronto where he is the Menahel of the Joe Dwek Ohr Haemet Sephardic School.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

Five Towns Shabbos Zikaron In conjunction with the Yeshiva of South Shore Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky Memorial Dinner

Shabbos Parshas Shemini, April 14, 2018 ‫שבת קדש פרשת שמיני תשע”ח‬ Remembering the pioneer and founder of our community,

‫הרב בנימן בן הרה"ג ר' יעקב קמנצקי זצ"ל‬ Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky, zt”l Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva of South Shore upon approaching his first Yahrzeit on ‫ב’ אייר‬.

We thank the participating Rabbanim and Kehilos who will be paying tribute to the Rosh Yeshiva’s life accomplishments in their Shabbos drashas.

PARTICIPATING SHULS CEDARHURST Congregation Beis Medrash Rabbi Dovid Spiegel

HEWLETT

WEST HEMPSTEAD

Congregation Anshei Chesed Rabbi Simcha Lefkowitz

Young Israel of West Hempstead Rabbi Yehuda Kelemer

Kehillas Beis Yehuda Tzvi Rabbi Yaakov Feitman

INWOOD

Chofetz Chaim Torah Center Rabbi Aryeh Zev Ginzberg

Beis Tefilla Rabbi Pinchos Weinberger

Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum

Agudath Israel of Bayswater Rabbi Menachem Feifer

LAWRENCE

Beis Medrash Ishei Yisroel Rabbi Naftoli Weitz Beis Medrash of Woodmere Rabbi Akiva Willig

Congregation Beth Shalom Rabbi Kenneth Hain

Congregation Aish Kodesh Rabbi Moshe Weinberger

Congregation Shaarei Tefilla Rabbi Uri Orlian

Congregation Beis Efraim Yitzchok Rabbi Tzvi Ralbag

Kehillas Ateres Yaakov Rabbi Mordechai Yoffe

Yeshiva Gedolah of the Five Towns Rabbi Moshe Katzenstein, Rabbi Yitzchok Knobel

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Congregation Eitz Chayim of Dogwood Park Rabbi Efrem Schwalb WOODMERE

Bostoner Bais Medrash of Lawrence Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz BAYSWATER

Beis Torah U’tfilla Rabbi Uriel Lesser

Beis Medrash Ohr Shlomo Rabbi Chanina Herzberg

NORTH WOODMERE

Congregation Knesses Yisroel Rabbi Eytan Feiner

Beis HaKnesses of North Woodmere Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz

Yeshiva of South Shore

Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky MEMORIAL DINNER Sunday, April 15, 2018 • The Sands 5pm Reception • 6:30pm Program

Young Israel of Woodmere Rabbi Herschel Billet, Rabbi Sholom Axelrod

COMMUNITY-WIDE SHALOSH SEUDOS Congregation Beis Medrash 504 West Broadway, Cedarhurst Sholosh Seudos and Divrei Zikaron to follow Mincha To join the tribute, please contact Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky: SK@RBKlegacy.org YESHIVA OF SOUTH SHORE 1170 William Street Hewlett, NY 11557 516.374.7363 x212 Banquet@YOSS.org • RBKlegacy.org

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Around the Community

HAFTR Partners with the Simon Wiesenthal Center

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n March 8, HAFTR Middle School hosted an event focused on building capacity in adults and students with regard to effectively combating hate speech and anti-Semitism on the internet and social media.

The evening program began with an introduction by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, followed by a workshop with Senior Researcher from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Mr. Rick Eaton, and closed with a conversation led by HAFTR Middle School Principal Joshua Gold. The L-R: Eastern Director for the Simon Wiesenthal Center Michael Cohen, Senior Researcher for the Simon Wiesenthal Center closing conversation engaged the au- Rick Eaton, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Vice Chairperson of the HAFTR Board dience in a dialogue with a panel of of Education Gabby Muller, HAFTR Middle School Principal Joshua Gold, HAFTR President Yaron Kornblum, and HAFTR HAFTR 8th grade students who had Chairman of the Board Neil Wiener participated in a workshop earlier that day, as well Vice Chairperson the fight against hate speech in the the fight against hate. HAFTR also ing with the Simon Wiesenthal Cenof the HAFTR Board of Education, myriad ways it manifests itself on- wants to thank Mr. Michael Cohen, ter in providing programming for our Mrs. Gabby Muller, and HAFTR line. HAFTR looks forward enthu- Eastern Director for the Simon Wi- students and school community that President, Mr. Yaron Kornblum. siastically to continuing to build the esenthal Center, for helping to plan positions us to be positive and proThe evening was extremely informa- partnership with the Simon Wiesen- this event and strengthen the rela- active agents for change in the fight tive, and all in attendance left feeling thal Center and providing a robust tionship between HAFTR and the against hate speech and anti-Semequipped and well-informed on how program for students and parents, Simon Wiesenthal Center. itism,” explained Mr. Joshua Gold, “HAFTR is excited to be partner- principal of HAFTR Middle School. to be a positive agent for change in developing the future leaders in

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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Around the Community

SKA Poetry Slam

SKA faculty member Mrs. Arielle Parkoff with SKA Poetry Slam students

S

KA students organized and hosted a dynamic Poetry Slam on Thursday, March 22, at the Young Israel of Woodmere. They were joined by local schools DRS, Shalhevet and Rambam; Frisch and Flatbush braved the snow and also attended. Students were asked to write both bop and free verse poems.

The poetic theme resonated with all performing poets because as we move through the Jewish calendar we encounter many experiences, positive and negative, wild and somber. In the time between Purim and Pesach, our mindsets and emotions are shifting and changing. The student poets wrote about exploring

change and transition in their everyday lives or in the greater society/ world. The poets had a maximum of five minutes to perform both poems and were judged on their use of language, adherence to the theme and form and the quality of the performance.

SKA almost swept the finalist round as Melanie Sokolow, Tova Rosen and Jenny Lifshitz won awards for Best Bop, Best Free Verse and Best Overall Performance. Chani Berger and Sara Stein also participated. Our thanks go to faculty advisor Mrs. Arielle Parkoff for assisting in making this a stellar event. It was really a remarkable day!

“I kind of call that my self-portrait in jest because the orange socks are me. Under the black hat there is a wealth of vibrant, colorful energy waiting to be released.”

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Around the Community

The Skverer Dayan, Rav Yechiel Michel Steinmetz, delivering a shiur at Kollel Tirtza Devorah of Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway.

He is shown walking with the Rosh Kollel, Rav Dovid Bender.

Kollel Chatzos News Round-Up

At a Kollel Chatzos women’s melava malka

By S. Spielman Behind Every Great Woman… ure, behind every great kollel yungerman stands an isha gedola, a noble eishes chayil who supports him in his tremendous undertaking. But who stands behind this great woman and provides her with support?

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Kollel Chatzos’s Nshei HaKollel Melave Malka!

At this melave malka, the women’s achievements are uplifted on the pedestal it deserves. From the sumptuous seuda to the thoughtful takeaways, the entire event highlights the magnitude of these nshei chayil’s avoda. As the women mingled and swapped “only Kollel Chatzos mo-

“That was a symbol of the status of Russian Jewry – you had to go in prison to have a real Seder Pesach” -Yosef Mendelevich, page 93

ments,” and as they listened to several insiders present a thought-provoking panel, exploring together frequently-asked-questions by Kollel Chatzos families, they empowered each other with the fortification to continue supporting their husbands with commitment and pride.

Midnight Questions When someone has a question in middle of the night, it’s often an urgent need-an-answer-now question.

It’s also often an important need-ananswer-from-a-competent-rav question.

That’s why communities were particularly gratified to hear that Kollel Chatzos added another dayan to each kollel, so that two dayanim are now on hand to pasken the most

pressing, pertinent (and ordinary) shaylos that Yidden confront nightly.

Rain, Snow, Sleet – They Shine!

You know how life screeches to a halt on snow days? What happens to Kollel Chatzos on this past winter’s many snow nights?

Nothing!

The same van that transported the yungerleit to kollel every midnight brought them on the toughest nights of the years. After all, the van is a fourwheel drive, equipped to drive on all terrains. And the talmidei chachamim are fueled by a true ahavas Torah. So, it didn’t matter what weather was raging outdoors. Inside, the kol haTorah continued to storm every night of the winter.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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Around the Community

Tov V’Chesed Expands to Two Giant Warehouses to Accommodate 38,000 Children this Pesach

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2,000 boxes loaded with fresh food for Pesach landed on the doorstep of 38,000 children in Israel over the course of last week.

These deliveries were part of a gargantuan operation by Tov V’Chesed to free starving children across Israel from their hunger and shame this Zman Cheiraseinu.

Over the past two months, tens of thousands of requests for food for Pesach poured into the Tov V’Chesed office, maxing out Tov V’Chesed’s giant warehouse in Yerushalayim, which was used for yom tov distributions over the past 14 years. Unfazed by the overflowing demand, Rabbi Shisha scoured locations across Israel for a second warehouse that was big enough to house Tov V’Chesed’s mammoth Pesach operation and central enough to reach every single neighborhood in the country. After rigorous searching, the right warehouse was located in Beit Shemesh, and the Tov V’Chesed team jumped right into the operation with their

trademark zeal.

While the rest of the world was busy vacuuming corners in search of chometz, Rabbi Shisha and his team of volunteers were busy searching for sources for 1,387,765 pounds of food.

Once all the orders were placed, both Tov V’Chesed warehouses were engulfed in a whirlwind of deliveries from suppliers and frenzied packing.

What do 2 warehouses, 127 determined volunteers, 5 weeks of nonstop hard work and 52,000 boxes equal? 1,387,765 pounds of food and

simchas yom tov for 38,000 hungry children.

This equation seems impossible – but nothing is impossible for Rabbi Yaakov Eliezer Shisha, the founder of Tov V’Chesed. Driven by his childhood promise to ensure no child experiences the hunger and shame he did, Rabbi Shisha runs this mammoth chessed operation year after year.

5,200 impoverished families found the fruits of Tov V’Chesed volunteers’ hard work at their door

this week. 76,000 little eyes lit up at the sight of what they innocently believed was a standard grocery order. Deprived of food for months, the boxes filled with an abundance of fresh, top quality food products for Pesach meant the world to these starving children.

No matter how big the burden grows, Rabbi Shisha is determined to never turn away a hungry child.

He therefore turns to you with an urgent request for help. Over the past 2 days, 165 additional families have applied for emergency assistance.

These families have been desperately searching for sources of income, hoping to be self-sufficient by the time Pesach rolls around. Unfortunately, Pesach is just a few days away and these families, still hungry and destitute, had no choice but to reach out to Tov V’Chesed for food at the last minute.

Please do all you can to save the hungry children from the families who still need food for Pesach! You have the power to send these children food so they can enjoy a simchas yom tov. No matter how much you can give, every dollar you send will mean the world to a hungry, pained child.

Donations can be made online at www.tovvchesed.com, over the phone at 845-517-0656, or mailed to POB 855, Monsey, NY 10952. Tizku l’mitzvos!

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Apply Your Yeshiva/ Seminary Credits or Your Rabbinic/ Secular Degree Toward: An Accredited BACHELORS DEGREE BS in Business BS in Behavioral Science/ Human Services BS in Cyber Security (and other computer related fields) Additional Majors are available: contact YIEP • Apply up to 67 Judaic credits in transfer toward the required 127 credits of the degree • Government tuition grants and loans available • Registration is currently underway

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Around the Community

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TheYIEP@gmail.com | 917-209-8204 | www.theYIEP.com

T

he YIEP (Yeshiva Initiatives Educational Programs – www.theyiep.com), established by Rabbi Pesach Lerner, offers a unique program that trains members of the Orthodox Jewish community seeking to enter the mental health field and serve in the Orthodox community, as well as the broader Jewish- and non-Jewish community. Together with Bellevue University, YIEP offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including a Master of Science in Clinical Counseling (MSCC), which is the only mental health program geared for Orthodox students that is accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. YIEP launched the MSCC program in October 2014 and will graduate its second cohort in May 2018, with three more cohorts in process. The next session will begin in mid-August 2018 and then January 2019.

Modeled after national licensing standards, the MSCC prepares students for the national licensing exam to become a professional mental health counselor. It is a 60 credit-hour online graduate degree program, which includes a practicum and internship component that helps students gain valuable experience in the field. The MSCC coursework centers on the theoretical and applied principles of psychological counseling and trains students to assess and treat individuals, couples, and families. It is a regionally accredited graduate degree with an option for students to pursue licensure in their home state.

While the courses offered by the Bellevue University/YIEP MSCC program are online and there is a fourday on-site seminar in Brooklyn, NY, the practicum and internship can be done wherever the student resides.

Degrees from yeshivas can fulfill the undergraduate degree requirement and tuition is lower than New York area programs because it is based on Nebraska rates, which is home to

Bellevue University.

“This is an important and valuable educational program that is transformative for the students and the community alike,” said Professor Esther Lustig, LCSW-R, an instructor, professional advisor, and mentor of the YIEP MSCC program.

“The unique piece to the YIEP program is that we have a very specific course that allows students to grapple with some of the major mental health issues that exist in the Orthodox community,” she added.

“Nothing is off the table; everything is discussed, even the most difficult issues. These are issues that need to be faced and practitioners who want to work in the Orthodox community need to understand them.”

One of the hallmarks of the YIEP MSCC is the internship requirement.

“There is a strong experiential component to this program; it’s not just reading books,” said Professor Lustig. “We have students interning at so many interesting places because our program is recognized and we have a good reputation.”

“This is probably the most Torah-sensitive program of this nature around and our students receive a serious education,” said Rabbi Lerner. “As all our students are from the Orthodox community, some of whom participate in the online coursework from Israel, there are no scheduling issues relating to Shabbos or yom tov.”

Rabbi Lerner remarked that the YIEP attracts all types of Orthodox Jews, including Yeshivish, Chassidish and Modern Orthodox, and that classes are for both males and females, but is very sensitive to the guidelines of tzinius and halacha. He added that many YIEP students were sent to the program by their Roshei HaYeshivos and community rebbes, with the hope that they will return to their community to work there as professionals.

For more information about the program, contact Rabbi Lerner at THEYIEP@gmail.com.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community PHOTO CREDIT: IVAN H NORMAN

Yeshivas Ateres Shimon held a kumitz on Monday night in Far Rockaway The guest speaker was Rabbi Shalom Rubashkin who spoke on mesiras nefesh.

Pictured here is Rabbi Mordechai Groner, Rosh Hayeshiva, with Rabbi Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin and the guitarist, Reb Yosef Newcomb

Half a Marathon, Twice the Fun! Team OHEL runs the NYC Half Marathon to Benefit OHEL and Camp Kaylie Children

T

his year saw the largest number of Team OHEL participates in the annual United Airlines NYC Half Marathon. Runners trained exceptionally hard and were determined to exceed their physical and charitable goals.

Team OHEL’s fundraising from the NYC Half Marathon supports Camp Kaylie’s Scholarship Program, and helps children challenged by disability attend the most inclusive summer camp and enjoy the experience of a lifetime.

This year, the 2018 United Airlines NYC Half Marathon featured a completely redesigned route for the 22,500 runners who passed many of the iconic landmarks of NYC. Thousands of people cheered from sidewalks and windows as runners pushed through 13.1 miles. Team OHEL runners were regaled with high fives, air horns, megaphones, pompoms, flags, and hand-crafted posters made by individuals from the East Broadway and East 10th St. men’s residences of OHEL Bais Ezra.

Team OHEL had some especially

talented runners this year including Aaron Greenblott (1:51:14), Ronald Samuel (1:52:49), and Jeremy Lavitt (2:00:10). OHEL’s generous fundraisers were led by Ruben Leibowitz, Aaron Greenblott, and Jeffrey Stern.

Alan Secter, OHEL’s Chief Development Officer, adds, “The fundraising efforts of Team OHEL are critical in providing many services and programs that OHEL provides to thousands of individuals and families in the community, and their efforts inspire countless others to join them in opening new doors of support and opportunity for the most vulnerable in our community, to everyday individuals and families facing significant life challenges.”

Interested in other Team OHEL Events? Participate in the Five Boro Bike Tour on May 6, the OHEL Xtreme Challenge Classic on May 27 and the 2018 TCS NYC Marathon on November 4.

Please contact Meital Cafri at 718686-3217 or meital_cafri@ohelfamily.org to join Team OHEL!

The Haggadah is not a “book,” as we understand a book to be, but a mosaic of passages, a tapestry of images, a whole-cloth of borrowings, “a great and mighty Divine poem.”

- Mr. Joe Bobker, page S4

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Gedolei Yisroel Encourage Dirshu As They Embark on Last Seder in Shas

By Chaim Gold

V

ienna is where it all started.

In 1923, Rav Meir Shapiro proposed the concept of a Daf HaYomi in Vienna. In Elul, 1929, the first siyum haShas was held in the Sophiensaele Hall in Vienna and now, on 2 Nissan, 2018, a large siyum on Daf HaYomi Seder Nezikin was held at the same Sophiensaele Hall in Vienna.

The siyum was arranged by Dirshu, the worldwide Torah movement that has transformed Daf Yomi learning for tens of thousands of Yidden by establishing a testing regimen that ensures that thousands of Yidden the world over not only “do” the Daf but actually learn the Daf, know the Daf and are ready to get tested on it. They are rewarded for excellent results.

HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Scheiner, shlita: “You Are Doing Revolutionary Things on Behalf of Torah!”

In advance of the siyum in Vienna and other siyumim in locales worldwide, the senior members of Dirshu’s hanhala led by its Nasi, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, visited senior Gedolei Yisroel from Eretz Yisroel who not only gave heartfelt brachos to lomdei Dirshu on their accomplishments up until now, but with their far-reaching vision, were already looking ahead to the limud of Seder Kodshim, the final seder in the Daf Yomi cycle which will culminate in the next Dirshu World Siyum.

The venerated Rosh Yeshiva of Kamenitz, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Scheiner, shlita, despite his advanced age and weakness, became infused with energy when he heard

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Rav Dovid Hofstedter greeting Harav Yitzchok Scheiner

about the upcoming siyum in Vienna and that preparations were already underway for the next Dirshu World Siyum. Rav Scheiner exclaimed, “You are doing revolutionary things on behalf of Torah! Dirshu has accomplished things that have never been achieved before!”

HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein, shlita: Different Bochurim, Different Yeshivos, Different Determinations At the home of HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Ponovezh Yeshiva, the Rosh Yeshiva received the Dirshu delegation with great warmth. When Rav Edelstein was told about the plans for the siyum in Vienna during the month of Nissan and the plans to also establish a Daf HaYomi B’Halacha shiur in every shul in Vienna, Rav Edelstein was impressed and inquired about the size and make-up of the community in Vienna.

Rav Hofstedter then related to the Rosh Yeshiva the remarkable story that transpired at the most recent Dirshu Convention in Stamford, Connecticut where a yungerman bought the one aliya sold at the convention for 10,000 blatt Gemara! Rav Gershon was flabbergasted!

“That is far more blatt than the entire shas!” he remarked. Rav Hofstedter explained the very systematic chazarah system that this talmid chochom implemented and told Rav Edelstein that just last month he participated in the siyum in New York that the man made on the 10,000 blatt learned in one year.

Rav Gershon gave his heartfelt

bracha for success in the upcoming limud of Seder Kodshim and the major Dirshu World Siyum that will follow.

Achdus and Large Siyum Gatherings Increases Learning With great yiras hakovod, the hanhala of Dirshu approached the humble abode of HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Slabodka Yeshiva. Rav Landau gave his heartfelt bracha for hatzlacha rabbah in advance of the siyum on Nezikin and the Dirshu World Siyum as lomdei Dirshu embark on the last seder in the cycle.

Rav Landau’s home is no stranger to Dirshu activities. Just a few months ago, a beautiful haschala of Dirshu’s Daf HaYomi B’Halacha on hilchos Shabbos, Chelek Gimmel of Mishnah Berurah was held at the home of Rav Landau and attended by a number of poskim. In his remarks, Rav Dov said, “Those who understand the importance of learning hilchos Shabbos and facilitating the learning of hilchos Shabbos and halacha in general for others are worthy of tremendous bracha. A person cannot move on Shabbos without the knowledge of hilchos Shabbos, in all of their myriad details. Learning hilchos Shabbos with a program enables a person over the course of time to learn all of the halachos and when he does that, he is zoche to everything good!”

HaGaon HaRav Shimon Baadani, shlita: The Primacy of Chazarah One of Dirshu’s most enthusiastic supporters who, despite his ad-

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

Rav Dovid Hofstedter discussing the upcoming siyum on Seder Nezikin with Harav Shimon Baadani

vanced age is always ready to come and give chizuk to lomdei Dirshu, has been the great Sephardic Rosh Yeshiva, HaGaon HaRav Shimon Baadani, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshiva Torah V’Chaim and a senior member of the Shas Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah. In his fascinating recent meeting with Rav Hofstedter and other members of the Dirshu leadership, Rav Baadani emphasized that the most important thing is to encourage lomdei Torah to chazer, to repeatedly review what they learn, because “no one has ever been successful in learning without constant review.”

The Sanz-Klausenberg Rebbe, shlita: More People are Joining the Daf Hayomi Because of the Large Gatherings Made to Celebrate the Accomplishments of the Lomdim One of the inspiring visits was the one to the Sanz-Klausenberg Rebbe, shlita, in Netanya. Rav Hofstedter highlighted how the Rebbe’s father, the previous Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe, with the creation of Mifal HaShas, was the first one to encourage accountability in Torah with testing and served as an inspiration for Dirshu.

When the Rebbe heard about the siyum before Pesach in Vienna and after Pesach in Australia, he said, “It is clear that the fact that more and more people are joining the Daf HaYomi is because of the large gatherings made to celebrate the accomplishments of the lomdim. I recently traveled back and forth to America and on the trip, I saw so many Yidden, of all

types, sitting and leaning the Daf HaYomi. This wasn’t always the case.”

HaGaon HaRav Shraga Shteinman, shlita: “My father felt a shutfus, a partnership, with Dirshu.”

HaGaon HaRav Aharon Leib Shteinman, zt”l, had attached tremendous value to the role that Dirshu plays in facilitating limud haTorah and he possessed tremendous love for all lomdei Torah. He attended Dirshu’s major events, even the most recent Daf HaYomi B’Halacha siyum in the Nokia Stadium when he was over 100 years old.

The hanhala of Dirshu visited his son and successor as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Orchos Torah, HaGaon HaRav Shraga Shteinman, shlita, who is also a son-in-law of HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, shlita.

Rav Hofstedter related numerous stories about Rav Shteinman’s efforts on behalf of Dirshu and his personal friendship that exuded tremendous warmth. Rav Shraga nodded in agreement and said, “My father felt a shutfus, a partnership, with Dirshu.” Rav Shraga Shteinman continued, “What you are doing – the Gemara and the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha Mishnah Berurah program – are a tremendous zechus!”

HaGaon HaRav Eliyahu Abba Shaul, Rosh Yeshivas Ohr L’Tzion, has also been an enthusiastic supporter of Dirshu and Dirshu’s programs for bochurim in his yeshiva.

When Rav Abba Shaul heard about the siyum in Vienna and the upcoming siyumim in Australia, Budapest, and Berlin where so much Torah is

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Hanhalas Dirshu meeting with Harav Shraga Shteinman

being learned and where people are taking tests, he was filled with joy.

“Pilei Pelaim! There is nothing greater than this degree of zikui harabbim,” he said.

Perhaps the words of Rav Yitzchok Scheiner best encapsulated the thoughts and reactions of the numerous Gedolei Yisroel that Dirshu visited

in advance of the upcoming siyumim.

He said, “[Facilitating so much Torah learning with tests and accountability] is something that makes me jealous of Dirshu. I know that jealousy is generally not permitted, but in this case, I am jealous of the harbotzas Torah!

Hashem should bentsch the entire mishpacha of Dirshu!”

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MARCH 28, OCTOBER 29,2018 2015| The | TheJewish JewishHome Home

TJH You gotta be

kidding

A young boy walks into the grocery store and asks for detergent. The grocer asks the young boy if he is planning on doing laundry.

“No,” replies the boy, “I’m going to use it to wash my frog.”

“But you shouldn’t use this to wash your frog. It’s very powerful and if you wash your frog in this, he’ll get sick.

In fact, it might even kill him,” says the grocer.

But the boy was not to be stopped and carried the detergent to the counter and paid for it, even as the grocer still tried to talk him out of washing his frog.

About a week later the boy was back in the store to buy some candy. The grocer asked the boy how his frog was doing.

“Oh, he died,” the boy said.

The grocer says, “I told you not to use that detergent on your frog.”

“Well,” the boy replied, “I don’t think it was the detergent that killed him.”

“Oh? What was it then?” asks the grocer.

The boy replies, “I think it was the spin cycle.”

Centerfold Hotel Terms and What They Really Mean Old world charm = Shared bathrooms Tropical = Rainy Options galore = Nothing is included in the itinerary Secluded hideaway = Impossible to find or get to Knowledgeable trip hosts = They know how to point at a star on a map and say, “You are here.”

the wall…

It will keep your kids entertained for hours Family atmosphere = If we are short on towels, be prepared to share Nominal charges

fee

=

Outrageous

Standard = Sub-standard Deluxe = Standard

No extra fees = No extras. Period.

Superior = One free shower cap

Live music = Some lonely local convinced the hotel to let him play bad guitar in the lobby on Tuesday evenings between 7p.m. and 8:30p.m.

Open bar = Disease-infested ice machine in lobby

Parking available = We will valet your car for a small fee of $47 a day Game Room on premises = There is an old bacteria-carrying arcade game in a dusty hole in

Riddle me

this?

Cozy = Small

Continental breakfast = Free mini muffin All the amenities = Two free shower caps Light and airy = No air conditioning Picturesque = Your room will definitely be overlooking a rooftop parking lot

1. What is the most curious letter?

2. What are two things that nobody eats right after they wake up?

3. What has 13 hearts, but no other organs?

4. How many bananas can you eat if your stomach is empty?

5. When you look for something, why is it always in the last place you look?

See answers to the right of the opposite page

Jewish Home | MARCH29, 28,2015 2018 TheThe Jewish Home | OCTOBER

Hotels Trivia

2. Stephen King was inspired to write his 1977 novel, The Shining, after staying at the Stanley Hotel in room 217, which was purportedly haunted. Where is the Stanley Hotel? a. Hooksett, New Hampshire b. Estes Park, Colorado c. Easton, Pennsylvania d. Salem, Massachusetts 3. The largest hotel in the world has 7,351 rooms.

Which hotel is it?

a. First World Hotel (Malaysia) b. The Venetian and the Palazzo (Nevada) c. Sands Cotai Central (Macau) d. Izmailovo Hotel (Moscow) 4. The Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan hotel in Yamanashi, Japan, is the world’s oldest continuously-operating hotel.

When did it first open? a. 1842, nineteen years before the Civil War started b. 1602, fourteen years before William Shakespeare died c. 1384, one-hundredand-eight years before Christopher Columbus discovered the new world d. 705, one-thousandand-eighty-three

years before the U.S. Constitution was signed 5. If you want to spend a night in Manhattan and you book the Ty Warner Penthouse in the Four Seasons Hotel, how much will it cost you? (Just so you know before you book: Max occupancy: 3; check in at 3PM and check out at 12PM) a. $760 b. $1,400 c. $3,600 d. $45,000 6. What happens every day at 11AM at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis? a. A group

of ducks are marched through the hotel to the lobby fountain b. An Elvis impersonator sings “Walking In Memphis” c. Free grits are given to all hotel guests d. The hotel fountain is cleaned out from all the coins thrown into the iconic fountain 7. According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), the average daily hotel rate in the U.S. is $122.64.

What was the average hotel rate in 1940? a. $3.21 b. $17.40 c. $32.60 d. $47.05

 Wisdom Key

 Answers

6-7 correct: You win a night at the Ty Warner Penthouse in the Four Seasons Hotel.

Just go there and tell them I sent you. Oh, also, just make sure you have $45K to pay for the room.

3-5 correct: You are a middle of the road type of person.

You are probably a proud card-carrying member of the Hamptons Inn Club.

0-2 correct: What happened?

You stayed at the ICEHOTEL in Sweden and got permanent brain freeze?

Answers to Riddle Me This: 1. Y; 2.

Lunch and dinner; 3. A deck of playing cards; 4.

Just one—after that, it’s not empty anymore; 5. Because when you find it, you stop looking!

1. Where is the world’s largest ice hotel located? a. Quebec, Canada b. Kirkenes, Norway c. Jukkasjärvi, Sweden d. Oberland, Switzerland

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1. C- Building the hotel is a year-round process. In March and April, 4,000 tons of ice is harvested from the Torne River and kept in cold storage over the summer.

Construction takes place in November and December and the entire ICEHOTEL is then open between December and mid-April, when the structure begins to slowly melt and return to the Torne

7. A- If you factor in inflation, $3.21 in 1940 is roughly equal to $53.56 today.

5. D- Included in the $45K is a personal butler, a chauffeur who will drive you

6. A- The ceremony is reversed at 5p.m., when the ducks walk on the red carpet and into an elevator which takes them to their palace on the roof of the hotel.

4. D- The Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan hotel has been owned by the same family for 52 generations.

3. AApproximately 35.5 million guests have stayed in the First World Hotel since 2006.

2. B River.

anywhere in a Rolls Royce, and a $65,000 bed with 22-karat gold woven throughout the bedspread)

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Torah Thought

Pesach

By Rabbi Berel Wein

O

ne of the more amazing things about the holiday of Pesach is that even though it is over 3,700 years old it is relevant and current to our world today just as it was when it was originally celebrated by the Jewish people in Egypt long ago. It naturally speaks to every generation in a different tone and nuance, but its basic message of human freedom and G-dly service has never changed. Its rituals and commandments are the key to its longevity and survival over all the centuries and, in spite of all of the challenges and difficulties that are so replete in Jewish history. In fact, were it not for these rituals and commandments, the holiday itself, if not even the Jewish people, would have long ago disappeared into the ash heap of history.

The G-dly instinct that has made ritual a daily part of the life of every Jew has been the surest method of Jewish survival and continuity. It is what binds the generations one to another in families and nationally.

Without it, the disconnect between generations and the circumstances of society would be so great that it would be impossible to overcome.

The night of the Pesach seder is the greatest example of the power of ritual and tradition to preserve human relationships and to bind disparate generations together. It is no exaggeration to say that the Jew-

ish world is founded on the night of the Pesach seder. Without it, we are doomed to extinction. With it, we become immortal and eternal.

I myself have always been privileged to celebrate Pesach and the seder at home. I only went to a hotel for Pesach once in my lifetime when my wife was ill, and we had no other choice. I am not here to decry all of the Pesach programs that exist and

pearing from the Jewish scene in many parts of the world.

Let me hasten to say again that I do not criticize anyone for any reason who celebrates Pesach at a hotel or with any sort of organized program.

There are many circumstances in life that justify these choices. However, for the purposes of Jewish continuity and survival, I feel that it is important for children to remember a family

It is no exaggeration to say that the Jewish world is founded on the night of the Pesach seder.

prosper worldwide. I understand and appreciate why they are so popular, and in our generation of relative affluence in the Jewish world, it is completely rational to use these services.

But it is completely ironic that in our time, because of technological advances, all sorts of automatic appliances, Pesach kitchens and an unbelievable plethora of prepared Pesach foods and products that giving one’s family the unforgettable experience of a Pesach at home is slowly disap-

Pesach at home, to recall how their parents and grandparents conducted a seder, and to be able to give personal expression to the glory of the holiday and to the memory of our history.

At the Pesach seder there is a potential for uniting hundreds of years of family memories. Grandparents remember their grandparents, and the little great-grandchildren, whose sole interest is to extort their elders for the return of the afikomen, are united in binding together hundreds of years

of family life and Judaism. A seder at home with the family provides the optimum setting for such an emotional and spiritual experience.

Eighty years ago, I attended the first seder that I can recall. It was in the house of my grandfather who was educated in the great yeshiva of Volozhin and who was a rabbi of a congregation in Chicago as well as being one of the heads of the yeshiva that then existed in Chicago. That seder is one of my earliest memories in life. I remember the deference that my father and uncles paid my grandfather and I recall how my cousin and I hesitatingly recited the four questions to him and the delight that showed on his face when we did so.

There were about 30 people at my grandfather’s seder that year. Only my cousin and I still survive but I have tried to pass on the memory of that seder to my own grandchildren and now great-grandchildren. By so doing, a whiff of Volozhin, and even of Egypt and Sinai, may be transmitted to them and from them to their generations as well. Like all else in Judaism, Pesach is memory. And memory is the most powerful tool for the preservation of a Jewish way of life.

I wish you and your families a happy and kosher Pesach.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Between the Lines

Freedom Doesn't Mean Free

By Eytan Kobre

You have freedom when you're easy in your harness.

-Robert Frost

P

icture a violin string, unraveled yet detached.

Some might consider the string free because it is unrestrained.

But free to do what? The string produces no sound; it serves no purpose.

Only when fastened to the violin – and tightened tautly – is the string free to reverberate with sound. Only then is the string truly free to fulfill its promise.

This is the great paradox of freedom, the dominant theme of Pesach, when G-d took us of Egypt, “from slavery to freedom.” Indeed, the liturgical moniker for Pesach is not the “Time of Our Redemption” but the “Time of Our Freedom.” The celebration of our freedom guides our conduct at the Seder: it is the reason we drink four cups of wine (Pesachim 108b; Pesachim 117b; Rambam, Chometz U’Matza 7:9), it is the reason we recline (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 472:2; Rambam, Chometz U’Matza 7:7), and it is the reason we use our finest tableware (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 472:2).

We revel in our newfound freedom,

though a few thousand years old, but few of us contemplate what our freedom means and why we celebrate it.

Freedom is not the absence of all constraint, nor is it the ability to act entirely as we please.

Freedom is the ability to do not what we want but what we are destined to do.

A tale is told about the first dove created. It complained to G-d, “I have no teeth or claws with which to defend myself. I’m small and have two scrawny legs, so I can’t flee from attackers. How will I survive?”

G-d heard the dove’s plea and agreed to rectify the situation.

A short while later, the dove returned and complained even more bitterly than before. “It was bad enough before. But now I have these two large clumps on my back. They only add weight and make it harder to escape those who prey on me!”

“You don’t understand,” G-d explained. “Those clumps are wings.

They’re to help you fly.”

The Torah’s commandments are likened to the wings of a dove (Berachos 53b). To the uninitiated, the Torah’s dictates seem restrictive or stifling. But they enable us to fly. Because they create and perpetuate a connection with G-d, they are tools of freedom – allowing us to unshackle ourselves from a society that regards

freedom as a life with no responsibilities and no obligations and no commitments.

The difference between the Torah’s notion of freedom and the misguided spirit of freedom pervasive in society is underscored by the emancipation of the Jewish indentured servant. At the expiration of his sixyear term, he goes “lachofshi chinam, liberated, free” (Shemos 21:2). But lest we think that this was an unrestrained liberation to run amok, we are told that it was not a liberation of “chofshi” but of “cherus” (Rashi, Shemos 21:2). There’s a difference.

The latter is the power to do as one pleases; the former is the power to do as one should. Sure, the emancipated Jewish servant no longer is in servitude to his master, but a Jew is never entirely free. Because while we are not to become “servants to servants,” we are to be servants to G-d (Kiddushin 22b; Bava Metzia 10a).

It is therefore no surprise that “by freeing the servant in the seventh year we commemorate the exodus from Egypt” (Ramban, Shemos 21:2).

In both cases, freedom was simply a means to an end – not the end itself.

And, paradoxically, when freedom is abused, it results in subjugation. Is the smoker – free to smoke – truly free? Is the alcoholic – free to drink – truly free? And what of the

status seeker who will do anything to fit in? Are any of them truly free? Of course not.

Unrestrained freedom is a poor substitute for authentic liberty. Consider two societies. In one, the people are unregulated. This society requires a heavy police presence, surveillance systems, electrified fences perhaps to keep all that unrestrained “freedom” at bay. People are afraid to walk alone. The other society is one that is bound by and adheres to law.

There is no need for fences or alarms or police. People walk the streets without fear. Only the latter society embodies true freedom. Yes, there are rules. But those rules allow the people to be free. It is the absence of rules that inhibits freedom.

At its core, that is what Pesach celebrates: the freedom to serve.

Moshe made this clear from the outset. He didn’t tell Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go simply to be free. There was a purpose to this freedom: “Send forth My people, and they will serve Me” (Shemos 7:16, 26; 9:1). “Praise the servants of G-d – not servants of Pharaoh” (Megilla 14a). Freedom for the Jewish people means the freedom to serve G-d.

For this reason, the Exodus culminated not when we cleared the Egyptian border but when we received the Torah. “When you lead the

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

nation from Egypt, you will worship G-d on this mountain” (Shemos 3:12).

Receiving the Torah was the purpose of redemption (Sefer HaChinuch 306); the physical exodus from Egypt was but the first step in the nation’s seven-week journey to true freedom, which is why Pesach and Shavuos are, in a sense, one long holiday (Kad HaKemach, Atzeres). Receiving the Torah and agreeing to obey its commands was the capstone to the freedom we first tasted when we left Egypt.

This is what we aspire to in Hallel, when we sing, “I am Your servant the son of Your maidservant, You have opened my chains” (Tehillim 116:16).

You have opened my chains so that I may be Your servant.

Alas, “the only truly free person is one immersed in Torah” (Avos 6:2; Eruvin 54a). It is the Torah that make us free. As John Locke put it, “The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there

is no law, there is no freedom.”

Ours also is a freedom from the ordinary laws of nature, by which we should have been annihilated long ago. “And He took out His nation the Jewish people from amongst the [Egyptians] for an eternal freedom”

Jewish people that we are free to stay in G-d’s service.

This eternal freedom to be with G-d – whenever, wherever, whatever – is epitomized by Shlomo Carlebach’s tale of the last Seder in the Warsaw Ghetto.

"But I know this; somewhere in the world, there will always be a Moishele who will ask his father the Four Questions."

(Ma’ariv Liturgy). This was no ordinary freedom. It was an enduring freedom. It was an eternal freedom.

It was a freedom predicated upon our being a nation of G-d and of Divine law. Redemption was the one-time exodus from Egyptian bondage; freedom is G-d’s eternal promise to the

It was the second night of Pesach, and the Nazis, ym”sh, were liquidating the Ghetto. Moishele huddled together with his father in utter darkness. And as generations of Jewish children had before him, Moishele asked his father the Four Questions.

But before the father could return

JONATHAN PALEY, DDS, CERT. ORTHO.

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the age-old but scripted answer, Moishele asked his father two more questions of his own.

“Tatteh, will I be alive next Pesach to ask you the Four Questions? Will you be alive to answer me?”

Moishele’s father held him tightly, tears teeming from his eyes. “I don’t know if you will be alive next Pesach to ask the Four Questions. I don’t know if I’ll be alive next Pesach to answer them. But I know this: somewhere in the world, there will always be a Moishele who will ask his father the Four Questions.”

And, in a sense, that is the freedom we celebrate on Pesach. It isn’t the cheap, fleeting freedom to act as we please. It is an eternal freedom – a “cheirus olam” – to do that which destiny calls upon us to do.

Eytan Kobre is a writer, speaker, and attorney living in Kew Gardens Hills.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

E-mail eakobre@outlook.com.

SUSAN FRIEDMAN, DDS, CERT. ORTHO.

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Rabbinical Reflecti ns

Knot to be Believed

By Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe

I

f Purim provides us with insight into Divine Providence through that which is nistar or hidden, it is Pesach that frames hashgacha pratis for us through that which is openly manifest, or nigleh. However, even things right before our eyes can sometimes be grossly misinterpreted. In fact, the world has been designed to cloud our judgment when interpreting circumstances and events.

The Ramchal in Mesilas Yesharim (Perek 3) quotes the Gemara (Bava Metzia 83b) that explains the pasuk in Tehillim (104:20), “Tashes choshech vihi Laila, You laid down darkness and it was night,” refers to this world, which is similar to night.

He explained that darkness can lead to two errors. Darkness can either totally occlude that which is before a person, preventing him from seeing anything, or it may make one thing be perceived as another thing entirely. The physicality and materialism of this world can have similar effects, preventing a person from seeing the stumbling blocks that are scattered everywhere like mines in a minefield. Even more perilous, however, is when one’s sight is distorted and a person perceives evil as though it were goodness itself and good as if it were evil. This second error is worse because for such a person, it isn’t enough to lack the ability to see the truth that is staring him in the face, but he will also find all sorts

of rationalizations and justifications for obtuse theories and explanations why his course of action is the absolutely correct one. While the first outlook is obviously not a good one, there can be optimism that the person will realize that he just wasn’t seeing the entire picture and, upon it being pointed out, will recant his position. In the latter situation, however, a person often builds strong defenses and arguments to bolster his position and effecting change is often exceedingly challenging.

your life miserable!” Their response?

“Exactly!”

While the proverb of “there are none so blind as those who will not see” has been attributed to the English writer John Heywood in 1546, a much better source is from Yirmiyahu (5:21) where the Navi describes foolish people as “ainayim lahem v’lo yiru,” they have eyes, but do not see. If we refuse to see the events in our lives as lessons from which we are to learn, we will constantly misinterpret the messages and make

It is simply that the human condition is inherently myopic.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard from teenagers who have argued with their parents, and whose parents have refused to capitulate, “They’re only doing this because they hate me!” I have replied, “Really? Your mother carried you for nine months and then gave birth to you; your parents have fed you, clothed you, changed your diapers and, perhaps most challengingly, paid your tuition. And why did they do this? It would seem that it was all part of some sinister plot to make

ourselves miserable in the process.

The Gemara in Brachos (60b) tells us, “Kol d’avid Rachmana l’tav avid” – that everything that Hashem does is for the good. It is no coincidence that Chazal use the term “Rachmana,” the Merciful One, in this statement. They could have written Hashem, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, or Ribono Shel Olam, but they did not. They used this term to emphasize that everything, absolutely everything, that comes from Hashem is a manifestation of His mercy and

kindness, and is for our good, even when we don’t see it. Sometimes we can see it right away, sometimes after the perspective afforded by the passage of time, and sometimes, not in our lifetimes. That doesn’t obviate the goodness; it is simply that the human condition is inherently myopic.

Pesach is the yom tov where the Yad Hashem was so clear that it was almost impossible not to see Him. There is an amazing Medrash Shocher Tov (Tehillim114) on the pasuk, “Oh hanisa elohim lavo lakachas lo goy mikerev goy, Or has any god ever miraculously come to take for himself a nation from the midst of a nation?” that says that just as a person would remove a fetus from its mother’s uterus, so too did Hakadosh Baruch Hu bring Yisrael out of Mitzrayim. A fetus’s existence is totally dependent upon its mother and derives every aspect of its sustenance from her. So too, Klal Yisrael was so totally immersed in the Egyptian civilization that it was unimaginable that they could survive as an independent entity. It was under these conditions that Hashem extracted us and transformed us into a new nation, the Am Hashem, His people! There was no room for error, misinterpretation and rational explanations. The goodness and mercy of Hashem was clearly apparent to all. It is this awareness that we want to internalize at Pesach and the message that we must strive to inculcate

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

into our children.

We need to look at our own lives and undergo a thorough introspection, finding the Yad Hashem as much as we can. Let me elucidate this point through a story that recently occurred very close to me.

One of our daughters was expecting a child a few weeks after Pesach.

However, one Tuesday night, in her 32nd week, her water broke and, although she did not go into labor, it was required that she be hospitalized. Once there, the medical team gave her the medications to help her baby’s development and they told her that their goal was to keep her from delivering until the end of the 34th week, at which point they would be confident that there would be minimal risk to the child. Subsequently, an ultrasound revealed that the baby was in breech position and that it would be likely that the delivery would have to be via Caesarian. As it happened, she went into labor on Motzei Shabbos, but did not progress in a normal fashion. Further examination revealed that the baby was in a “frank breech” position, meaning bottom down firmly engaged, that there would be no possibility for it to be delivered naturally and that they would perform a Caesarian imminently. Dealing with a dangerous premature labor that was not progressing normally and requiring surgery, as the medical team was about to administer the anesthesia, in her pain and fear, our daughter cried out, “Why is Hashem doing this to me?

How could He be so angry with me?”

In all fairness, it seemed like a reasonable question at the time.

However, when a healthy baby boy was removed from his mother’s womb, it was revealed that there was an actual knot in the umbilical cord, which can only be caused by a loop in that cord, which this little swimmer passed (whose ability, in this Zaide’s imagination, rivals that of Michael Phelps) right through.

If the baby had been carried to full term, it is unlikely that it would have been viable.

If the delivery had progressed normally, it is unlikely that it would have been viable.

Had he not been in the breech position, it is unlikely that it would have been viable.

The only way for this precious

neshama to have come into this world safely was prematurely and in a breech position! My daughter immediately recognized that she was the recipient of Hashem’s endless chessed and that it was all engineered so that His kindness was readily apparent even to us nearsighted individuals! There was no mistaking what was clearly nigleh.

Our obligation is to search constantly and relentlessly to recognize

that just as in Mitzrayim, Hashem extracted us from that toxic womb and forged us into His nation, He continues to do so for us, constantly, both individually and for Klal Yisrael. Now that’s geulah.

And let me tell you, this Pesach, there is one Zaide who is eagerly anticipating bringing another member of Klal Yisrael into the bris with Hashem.

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Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe is the Rosh HaYeshiva of Ateres Yaakov, a local Mesivta (MAY) and Yeshiva Gedolah, with over 220 talmidim, and the rav of Kehillah Ateres Yaakov. Besides his decades as an experienced mechanech, Rabbi Yaffe holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and is licensed to practice in the State of New York. Any topics of interest, questions or comments can be sent to editor@ fivetownsjewishhome.com.

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Let My

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People Go! TJH Speaks with former Prisoner of Zion R’ Yosef Mendelevich

By Susan Schwamm

It was the late 1980s and the home of Reb Shlomo Freifeld,

zt”l, was a popular destination on Shabbos afternoon for many who sought to hear Reb Shlomo’s words of wisdom, imparted during his weekly shalosh seudos drasha. With his flock around him, Reb Shlomo would sit propped up in a large chair, hardly able to move due to progressive back cancer. The lessons he taught were invaluable in molding his many students who came from near and far to hear him speak with passion about what it means to be a Yid. But at one particular shalosh seudos he taught his students perhaps the most important lesson without even uttering a word.

It was when a guest from Israel, Reb Yosef Mendelevich, walked in. Reb Shlomo looked towards the end of the long table and, with a look of surprise, noticed the slight man. Reb Shlomo lifted his eyes and tilted his head back. With a sense of urgency he turned to his gabbaim and said, “I must stand up right now.” The gabbaim realized that they should not question this unusual request of their rebbe. After several minutes of maneuvering, Reb Shlomo was standing at his full height. The room was silent as the former Prisoner of Zion, R’ Yosef Mendelevich, made his way towards Reb Shlomo for a warm embrace.

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Yosef with his father, Moshe, his mother, Chaya, and his two sisters, Eva and Rebecca, in a park in Riga in 1957

Y

osef Mendelevich was ten years old when he first spoke to G-d. He grew up in a warm, loving home, which was traditionally Jewish. Ironically, it was the non-Jews in Latvia who made sure to remind Mendelevich of his race. In first grade, the teacher went around the room, asking each child what their nationality was. To be a “Soviet” was held in the highest regard; Ukrainians and Asians fell lower in esteem. None, though, could be lower and more derogatory than to be a Jew. His classmates chortled when he whispered of his nationality; he told the teacher he “didn’t know” what his father did. To feign ignorance was better than to relate that his father was a junkman, a lowly job relegated only to Jews.

His father’s profession led to his arrest in 1957. Yosef came home after attending a New Year’s performance with his sister. His mother answered the door with trembling hands and a fearful face. Khrushchev’s minions were searching the house. They had arrested two men for unlawful hunting; a search of the men’s homes turned up homemade bullets, which they said they manufactured with scrap from Yosef’s father’s store.

A search of the Mendelevich home yielded no gold or riches, contrary to what propaganda fed about Jews and hordes of treasure secreted on their property. Even so, the elder Mendelevich was put on trial.

The day of the trial the Mendelevich children did not go to court.

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In Riga with members of the Jewish underground, 1968

Perm 36 Labor Camp (photographed in 1972). In the center, the hut in which Yosef was imprisoned. Photo taken from the guard post

The prisoner’s gaze a few hours after his release from prison, March 1981

But young Yosef tried to sway justice in his own way. “My G-d,” he begged his Creator, “I do not want my father to be imprisoned. Do not let tragedy befall us.”

Yosef writes in his book, Unbroken Spirit, “It was the first time in my life I was aware of turning to G-d. I had no religious upbringing, and knew nothing about the Creator of heaven and earth. And yet, though I didn’t even know if He existed, still I prayed to him.

lectures around the world about his experiences and emunah. He speaks fluent English, Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew.

But at the time of his bar mitzvah Yosef did not know Hebrew. He did not know much about his religion.

What he did know was about the rituals that Jews perform on certain holidays. On Pesach, his father would manage to bring a few matzos for the Seder and he would regale his children of the history of the Jews,

dition that were performed in the Mendelevich home stoked the Jewish embers in Yosef’s soul. “I can still remember how I ground up matzah to make matzah meal for kneidlach, or how I stuffed hamantashen with poppy, or crushed potatoes for latkes,” he writes. “These preparations involved arduous effort.”

But still, he says, “A warm corner is reserved in my heart for not just the joy of celebrating the holidays but the joy of preparing for these holidays, which seemed no less exciting than the holidays themselves.”

Asked about how we can inculcate our children with a love and desire for Yiddishkeit, Yosef demurs.

“I’m not going to instruct you how to do that.... People say I’m a hero but I’m a regular man. And whatever I did, everybody can do. I tell the children I speak with that when I was a regular Russian citizen I lived a dull life. But then I discovered the meaning of my life – being Jewish! Being alive is the biggest meaning to be a Jew! Being Jewish is the best thing in your life; you will be happy. Being Jewish is the secret to happiness.”

"If in a time of crisis you find yourself asking for divine help, ultimately you will come to acknowledge G-d."

“I suppose this happens frequently. Unless your ears are deaf to your heart’s entreaties, if in a time of crisis you find yourself asking for divine help, ultimately you will come to acknowledge G-d.”

T

oday, R’ Yosef lives in Israel after spending more than a decade in Soviet prisons and gulags because of his desire to immigrate to the Holy Land. His seven children and their families, all chareidi, live there as well. He

starting with Creation. “At least I knew I belonged to a people with its own heritage,” Yosef writes.

“I don’t imagine that my father consciously attempted to raise us as Jews; he was simply incapable of acting otherwise. For him it was a kind of inner spiritual necessity. And as I review my own life, I realize that the same holds true for me: I simply could not have behaved otherwise.

I was a Jew, and could be nothing else.”

The small rituals of Jewish tra-

A Young Zionist Yosef’s desire to connect more to his roots during his teenage years was intense. He painstakingly taught himself how to read Hebrew, finding a sefer Shoftim that once belonged to his grandfather, who was Lubavitch.

Each day, he would challenge himself to read from the sefer. His father also taught him Modeh Ani. But

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what most propelled Yosef’s desire to become more connected to Torah was his love for Eretz Yisroel.

In 1961, Aunt Fania, who was old and in ill health, was given permission to leave the Soviet Union and emigrate to Israel. She sent her relatives letters and postcards from her new home, and Yosef, young, passionate, and energetic, would use a magnifying glass to count every tree in those postcards of his beloved Israel. He joined a Zionist youth group and listened to Kol Israel on the radio.

Each Jewish holiday brought excitement for those in the Zionist groups. Their dancing on Simchas Torah and Purim was mixed with an added exhilaration of being able to hear a new Hebrew song or dance the hora. The Jewish holidays symbolized a reassurance that the Jewish nation is flourishing; their hope in living in their own land was reaffirmed.

Being a Zionist in the Soviet Union was frowned upon. Meetings between the young Zionists were held in secret; Mendelevich and his friends worked clandestinely to churn out a newspaper, Ha-Iton, for the group. Their homes were subject to searches; their members subject to interrogations by the KGB. Most members of the Zionist organization in the Soviet Union did not become frum. Yosef is the exception, not the rule. Slowly, though, he told himself that if he so desired to live in the Jewish state, “I must begin living like a Jew, like our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” He stopped working on Shabbos, wouldn’t eat pork, and covered his head with a beret.

Prisoners of Zion Operation Wedding took place on June 15, 1970. There was no wedding involved. In fact, Mendelevich and 15 others were orchestrating a hijacking in order to produce international outcry for their cause.

The ragtag group sought to buy all the seats on a small 12-seater plane, ostensibly for a trip for a wedding.

They intended to tie up the pilots, fly the plane to Sweden, and then ultimately land in Israel. But far too many people knew about their plan

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

The code name for the hijacking had been Operation Wedding − and here was Yosef like a bridegroom being carried on the shoulders of the people welcoming him at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport

– and the KGB caught whiff of their scheme. All the participants were arrested before boarding the plane and were charged with high treason.

Yosef was 22 years old at the time.

Each of the participants were found guilty and sentenced in December of that year. Yosef received a sentence of 15 years in prison.

And so began more than a decade of abuse, imprisonment, starvation, and mistreatment for young Mendelevich, who was tossed between prison and gulags, solitary confinement and frigid cells, mind-numbing work and backbreaking labor.

Ironically, it was deep in the Soviet prisons that Mendelevich strengthened his love of Yiddishkeit

and G-d. His mind was always busy, learning Hebrew, teaching words of Torah, studying Hebrew books. His devotion to mitzvos drew the ire of his Soviet minders, but other Jews in the prisons saw him as their leader, the one who was able to teach them of their tradition.

The Jewish people are an am k’shei oref, a stubborn nation. Yosef was obstinate in his observance of mitzvos in the gulag. He would work feverishly during the week to make up his quotas so as not to work on Shabbos. Other times, he would sit idly near a machine on Shabbos, awakening the wrath of his supervisors, so as not to work on his holy day. At one point, he went on a

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hunger strike to prevent authorities from shaving his beard. He would save his sugar rations for Shabbos so as to have something special for Shabbos. There was a constant fear of an informant, a prisoner who wanted preferred treatment, who would tell authorities that Yosef was organizing a Shabbos meal or studying a Hebrew book or talking about Israel’s victories. Countless times he was thrown into solitary confinement or his possessions were confiscated because of his religious actions. And countless times he and his fellow prisoners organized hunger strikes – Yosef once went on a hunger strike for 56 days to have his Hebrew books returned to him – to protest their mistreatment.

Yosef’s prison challenges came in all forms.

One time authorities tried to make him cooperate and give them names of people who weren’t following the rules. But Yosef wouldn’t collaborate, and they had one officer who tried to befriend him.

“Hey, Yosef, I look at you, you don’t look Jewish at all,” the officer said. “You remind me of my brother.

You are a young man, you have a future, you shouldn’t be arrested. You know Russian literature; why do you need Judaism?”

Yosef recounts the inner struggle he felt. “You know if someone is interrogating you, you fight back. But then he starts acting like your friend saying, ‘You know, I understand. I would advise you to speak. Now is not the time to be stubborn.’ But I had to protect myself. He was the nachash who seduced Adam HaRishon. I had to fight back. I had to build a wall between me and him, showing him that although I look like him and speak his language, I was altogether different. How? Torah and mitzvos. So I had to build a wall from Torah and mitzvos.”

It was then that he decided to cover his head with a handkerchief.

The officer looked at him and taunted him, “I thought you were normal.

What are you doing with a handkerchief on your head?”

Yosef began to explain that it’s a Jewish tradition to cover one’s head.

“It was my first row of wall that I built between me and him,” he said.

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Yosef's wedding, with his bride, Katy Seroussy, an activist in Shomer Achi Anochi for the release of Prisoners of Zion

Eventually, he kept more and more of Jewish traditions, “praying and keeping Shabbos until finally it was a complete wall and he understood that I was altogether different.”

Coming into prison, Yosef told his friend that they needed to make real yarmulkes. His friend cut pieces of cloth from his pants and made yarmulkes for them with needle and thread. Eventually, a special commission from Moscow determined that their yarmulkes were illegal, commanding the prisoners to remove their head coverings. Officers would beat them and would take away their yarmulkes, only to have the two prisoners make more yarmulkes.

But then, the Soviets threatened Yosef with a bigger stick.

According to the rules, Yosef was able to meet with his father once a year. They told him that he could meet with his father if he removed his yarmulke.

“I understood that if I give up this small tradition I was afraid that I would give up everything. So I decided for me it was ya’hareig v’al ya’avor. I tried to never remove my yarmulke, even for the meeting with my father. So I did this for seven years until he passed away. I never saw him. Each time that he would come, they said, ‘Remove your yarmulke,’ and I said, ‘No way.’”

Yosef’s father died at the age of 66.

“We say by Moshiach that the father will follow the son, and it hap-

pened – my father started following mitzvos before he passed away,” Yosef notes.

R

ecently, I met with R’ Yosef in a friend’s home in New Jersey, where he was staying during a speaking tour in the United States. He said that when he

With President Reagan, Vice President Bush, and Avital Sharansky at the White House, 1981. Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Library

There’s a difference between the heart and logic, seichel.... We wanted to stop being the ‘silent Jewry.’ We wanted to speak out. And we felt that it would be our cry to other people to do something for Russian Jewry.

“Somehow the Communist propaganda succeeded in making people believe that Russian Jews were

"Being Jewish is the best thing in your life; you will be happy. Being Jewish is the secret to happiness."

speaks to young audiences, undoubtedly talk of a hijacking awakens his young listeners.

“Boys are sleeping – they see a rabbi with a white beard – but the moment I say hijacking, I get them interested,” he notes.

Yosef recalled that their hijacking plan was not built on “seichel”; it was a plan that came from the heart.

One person who was supposed to be involved in the hijacking asked Yosef to go over the details a few weeks before the event. “But I told him, you know, the plan is problematic but I am not going to go over the details....

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different from other Jews. Other Jews have a right to be Jewish, and Russian Jews, for some reason, decided to assimilate – how stupid.

And why did people accept this propaganda? Because it made them comfortable that they shouldn’t make any effort to help Russian Jewry – that’s not my problem. So we had to speak up; to tell people, we are dying to be Jewish. We felt that we were doing something, and it turned out, as they say, if you do something small from the beneath, the Ribbono Shel Olam is helping you to a much bigger extent.”

Although the Soviets would have preferred to keep the attempted hijacking out of the news, word of the incident reached Western ears. Eva, Yosef’s sister, met with a scientist after the trial who took her to Western journalists to tell the story. The prisoners’ objective – to raise outcry about their plight – was fulfilled.

But it took Yosef eleven years of imprisonment to finally reach the Holy Land. After his release, he spent a few months writing his book. Unbroken Spirit is over 300 pages and details R’ Yosef’s life up until that point. I asked him how he was able to write it with such detail.

“You know, after you go through all the experiences, it’s like on your brain,” he said. “I will tell you a story about Rav Chatzkel Abramsky, the famous Chazon Yechezkel. When he was released from the gulag, he came to England, and started writing his Chazon Yechezkel. People were astonished, how could he write this right after his release. He said he would write from his memory all of the commentary. And that happened with me. Each time something would happen, like I had a feeling, Remember, Yosef, you have to tell it to the people. It was like a computer in my head, and I remembered.

Nowadays, when I read my book I feel like I put in too many details, but back then, it was like a diary.”

Pesach in Prison Throughout the eleven years, Yosef experienced many Shabbosim

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and yomim tovim. Each one was seared into his memory. Each thread of linen lit on a Chanukah night was important, each piece of bread refused on Pesach was significant. But R’ Yosef’s most memorable Pesach in imprisonment was his last.

“During my sentence, I spent three years in a harsher prison because I kept Shabbos. I was notorious in the prison... I was in a cell with my friend, Hillel Butman, who, in fact, was the source of the idea for the hijacking... I suggested to Hillel after Purim, ‘Let’s have a Pesach here.’ He told me that it is impossible in prison to have a kosher Pesach Seder so I decided I would do it myself.

“I had in my belongings a postcard with a Pesach plate from a museum in Jerusalem, an old German plate, produced from the 17 th century. And there, on the side of the postcard, I had written down the whole Seder Pesach. So I started preparing.

It was a whole story how I procured everything, for example, in the beginning I looked for marror and I decided I need something to use for salad. Walking in the exercise yard – they had small exercise yard on the top of the building – I noticed something like an herb is growing from the asphalt. So I said that I will use it for Pesach. And I thought that it was a good symbol that a small leaf was breaking through the asphalt to try to reach the sun.

“Then, later, I decided I needed wine, and I had raisins. When I was arrested, for some reason, my father sent me two pounds of raisins.

I had some raisins, and I decided I would make wine out of it. Each week we were given a small spoon with sugar, and everybody would eat it immediately because we didn’t have anything sweet, but I saved, I believe, 300 grams of sugar. I had a flask, some raisins, some water, and sugar beneath my bed, hoping that it would produce wine.

“But I needed a Seder plate so I decided I would use the Russian newspaper, and I would make a circle from the newspaper. The problem was that they would give one newspaper during the day to the cell and after a few hours take it away so they can use it for different things. So in

At an exhibition of a small tallit and kippah that Yosef made in prison.

Courtesy of the Wolfson Museum of Jewish Art

order to keep the newspaper up to the evening, I asked the supervisor to give it to me before there was a shift change, and I made a circle out of the newspaper for the Seder plate.

“I prepared everything and then I told Hillel, ‘Let us have the Pesach Seder.’ And he told me, ‘No, I told you already it is impossible.’ But

“The next day Hillel disappeared.

They came to the door and said, ‘Butman, get your stuff, and come with me.’” Yosef later found out that Butman was released and was able to immigrate to Israel. “That’s the symbol – that he was released from prison on Pesach!” he says. In Israel, Butman told Yosef’s family that he

"I never saw him. Each time that he would come, they said, 'Remove your yarmulke,' and I said, 'No way.'"

then I uncovered my Pesach plate, and he looked at it and said, ‘Well, you have this and you have this...

You know this is very good, but you don’t have the wine. Without the four kosos there’s no Pesach!’ So I took out the wine and he opened the cork, smelled it, and he told me that it’s real wine!

“After we finished the Seder he told me that for the first time in his life he had a real Pesach Seder.

“That was a symbol of the status of Russian Jewry – you had to go in prison to have a real Seder Pesach.

was conducting sedarim in prison.

They were buoyed by the news that he was doing relatively well despite the dire circumstances. .

Another memorable yom tov was one particular Chanukah, his first one in the labor camps. There were only eight Jews in the camp, and not all of them were interested in religious observance. Yosef, though, convinced them that Chanukah is also about celebrating our nation’s independence so they would be interested in becoming involved in the festivities. The group petitioned

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the authorities for the right to have a seudah for the holiday, which was summarily denied. Furthermore, the authorities said that gathering together in groups of more than three people was prohibited. But the prisoners decided to defy the authorities.

They started to collect food. One prisoner, Shimon, noticed a truck bringing goods into the factory in the labor camp. He saw that there was around four or five potatoes in the truck. Yosef helped him jump inside – risking authorities noticing them and punishing them for attempting to escape – and so they had their potatoes for latkes. “For latkes, we were willing to sacrifice everything,” Yosef recalls. They cut the potatoes into small pieces and fried them to make latkes for Chanukah.

Another prisoner, a Lithuanian nationalist who was not Jewish, was a carpenter and he carved a menorah out of wood for the Jewish prisoners. Yosef pilfered paraffin from the factory, and the Jews joined together in the section of the barracks of a German officer, who was given a certain respect in the camp, every night after working at the factory.

They distributed treats and played dreidel.

“These nights no supervisors came to the area and we felt that we won, that they were afraid of us!” Yosef exults. “So we would go into the middle of the labor camps, singing, whatever we could sing, am Yisrael chai, it was a victory!”

Throughout the years Yosef would hear of his friends and acquaintances who managed to make their way to Israel. Hearing the news of them making aliyah filled him with joy. He felt that his great sacrifice – being in the camps, standing up for his rights as a Jew, going on hunger strikes to produce public outcry – was worth it if it effected change and helped bring more Jews to the Holy Land. Still, though, his intense yearning for Eretz Yisroel never waned.

Aliyah—Finally On February 10, 1981, two KGB officers approached Yosef and told him to pack his things. He was shown a watch and some money

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and told that he would be able to get them later. Yosef was then put on a plane and transferred to a prison in Moscow. But no explanation was given for the transfer and panic began to set in.

Slowly, he counted the days. On February 18, after finishing morning prayers, Yosef was ordered out of his cell with his belongings. When he asked if he should take his blanket he was told by a guard, “Why are you taking your blanket, you idiot?”

Those harsh words awakened a special hope. No blanket could mean a possible release.

Given a new suit, Yosef was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and told he was going to be deported immediately. The news filled him with jubilation. He was finally returning home, although it was to a home he had never been.

A Russian plane brought him to Vienna. There he was greeted by Israel Singer of the World Jewish Congress.

Years later, he found out how some people were pushing for his release behind the scenes, particularly the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Rabbi Yitzchak Kogan is now the rabbi at the Bolshaya Bronnaya synagogue in Moscow. But Kogan was not always a rabbi. He was, at one point, an engineer in nuclear submarines. After learning of his family’s past as Chabad chassidim, he became interested in shechita.

Rabbi Kogan traveled to Georgia to be trained as a shochet and he started to teach others his craft.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, hearing of this new shochet, sent a shaliach to check out the nuclear science who was now a shochet. The shaliach tested Rabbi Kogan and was amazed – the shechita was perfect.

The shaliach was excited and told Rabbi Kogan that he would tell the Rebbe, who would bless him for peace. But Rabbi Kogan said, “Don’t bless me. Bless Yosef Mendelevich, who is in prison for eleven years.

All his friends have been released.”

Within a short time, Yosef was released.

“I did hear that the Rebbe can produce miracles,” Yosef said. “And I never tested the Rebbe anymore.”

When Yosef came to Vienna, the

Yosef with Katy, his sister, and family members after receiving an award for courage at a Chabad ceremony in the Kremlin in December

Israeli ambassador there connected him with Menachem Begin, the prime minister. He was asked what his first request as a free man was. “I need tefillin,” Yosef said. “For eleven years I had no tefillin.”

Tefillin? The Israeli ambassa-

radio, to the Hebrew language he talk himself, and the many vocabulary cards he quizzed himself on during his many years of prison, this Prisoner of Zion was finally going to be able to make his way to his Holy Land.

"That was a symbol of the status of Russian Jewry - you had to go in prison to have a real Seder Pesach."

dor looked around, thinking there was no tefillin in the room in which they were standing. But then, Israel Singer came forward with the prized tefillin.

“Before coming to release you,” Singer said, “I went to the Rebbe and told him that I was going to see you released. I asked him, ‘What should I bring?’” The Rebbe told him to bring tefillin.

For decades Yosef was dreaming of Israel. From the postcards sent by his aunt that he scrutinized, to the newspaper he edited, to the news reports he listened to on the

“My dream was,” he says, “when I was released, I would go by foot from the airport to the Kosel. You know, going through the forests and fields, lying on the earth, and kissing the flowers, then silently coming to my sisters, and saying, ‘Here I am.’

But when I came to the airport in Israel there were thousands of people. And there was Hillel Butman, who told me, ‘I brought thousands of people, they will bring you wherever you want.’”

The police escorted Yosef to the Kosel, where he was able to kiss its stones.

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“I felt exhausted and tired,” he recalls. “I had a siddur, I prayed. I was like a soldier coming in from the battle. I had no questions, nothing.

And then I asked myself whether it was worthwhile to continue my life.

I accomplished whatever I was here for, and there was no other goal in my life.

“Mentally I was exhausted.”

He had accomplished his goal.

Was there anything left for him to do in his lifetime? But then, slowly, slowly, “step by step,” he told himself that he had a new task in life. He met his wife, Katy, the second day he arrived in Israel when he arrived for a press conference. They were married that Kislev and started a family. And Yosef never stopped advocating for other refuseniks, Russian Jews being held in the Soviet Union against their will, always wanting to bestow the gift of aliyah onto other Jews yearning for their own land.

Now, he teaches other Jews and inspires others with his stories of emunah and determination, two characteristics that are timeless lifelines for the Jewish people.

O

n the night of the Pesach Seder, as we sit down and recite “Avodim ha’yinu,” we are all Prisoners of Zion. We are all locked in Mitzrayim, a country in which no slave was able to escape, yearning to serve our G-d and ascend to our Holy Land. We are subjugated to backbreaking labor, to mind-numbing work, to manipulations, to abuse. And then, at the last moment, when we feel all is lost, Hashem Himself brings us out swiftly and definitively. We are free! Free to serve Him, free to live as Jews, free to conquer the land promised to us hundreds of years before.

The galus is long and sometimes we forget the spiritual destitution that keeps us shackled. We sadly overlook what it means to yearn to live our fullest lives as Jews. But every once in a while, someone like Yosef Mendelevich comes along and reminds us that the shackles are real, the galus is deep, and the redemption waiting on the other side can – and will – in a moment shatter the dense darkness.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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Dating Dialogue

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

Dear Navidaters,

Our daughter is 18 years old and wants to get married! She has always had a mind of her own and followed her own path. There is a neighborhood boy who she has been friendly with for years and the two of them told my husband and I that they wanted to sit down with us because they had something very important to discuss. At that point, my husband and I had no idea that they were anything more than friends and couldn’t imagine what they wanted to talk to us about.

We set up a meeting and basically they both said that they wanted to get married. Oh, and the young man (boy) is not yet twenty! Neither of them have careers and both have a lot of figuring out to do when it comes to how they could support themselves. But more importantly, besides supporting themselves, I view them both as babies. They are so immature and don’t even know it.

My husband and I told them absolutely not. They need to wait a few years, grow up a bit, figure out who they are and what they want to do with their future, and if at that time they both still feel strongly about one another, we can talk marriage. They told us that they’ve made up their minds and if we don’t agree, they’ll have a small wedding in a friend’s backyard. And they mean it.

We spoke to the boy’s parents and they are OK with them getting married! We were shocked to hear that they had his parents’ support, which would make it easier for them to have a little wedding in their friend’s backyard.

We just don’t know what to do. Do we go along with this “meshugas”? Our daughter said that if we don’t support their marriage, she’ll never speak to us again. We feel as though we are caught between a rock and a hard place. I believe that no matter what we say or do, she’ll get married and probably be divorced in no time!

Is there any strategic way of handling this mess?

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.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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The Panel The Rebbetzin

The Mother

The Shadchan

Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz, M.S. our daughter seems to be using emotional blackmail. You are upset because they cannot support themselves and you think they are too immature to commit to something so serious. The young couple seems hellbent on one outcome and his parents support them. Your reasonable suggestion of waiting is being rejected out of hand.

You do have a mess on your hands.

You are not being heard. They think you are putting down their “meshugas” and that you don’t believe their commitment. They say they know themselves and their feelings and have adult support for the planned marriage.

The only strategic thing to do right now is to get help from trusted advisors/mentors/rabbis/family counselor who are outsiders. Find yourself some help and adopt active listening styles so that the atmosphere becomes less tense.

Short term, you need to stop talking in absolutes and keep an ongoing dialogue going. Communicate less rigidly and get some help on the how’s and what’s as the trusted advisors/mentors/rabbis/family counselors work out some terms for framing discussion about a possible marriage. Important things like where to live, money on which to live, and what will be with school and professions will begin to surface from a neutral but interested trusted party. Focus on these matters but the skilled outsider will eventually move the couple (and his parents) to come up with some plans and to respond with more practicality. A skilled counselor will have the young pair study budgets, costs, and more.

You may have to consider revising some of your financial plans for your child.

The crucial thing is to keep talking and keep many options on the table.

This is not a simple situation to solve. Skilled help will move the process along. Where it will go is anyone’s guess.

Sarah Schwartz Schreiber, P.A. f you follow the Navidaters, you will notice a recurring theme.

“My daughter wants to get married and I’m completely opposed to it.”

“My son is not mature enough for the burden of a family.” “My daughter has threatened to never speak to us, to marry in her friend’s backyard.”

Rebellious children. Parents who know best. In the words of the French philosopher, “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose,” the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Not to trivialize your pain, your dilemma comes down to convincing your daughter that both she and her boyfriend are too young to get married, even if they are of legal age.

To complicate matters, his parents are in favor of the union (makes me wonder what’s wrong with Junior). So, in essence, your little girl is throwing a tantrum (“I’ll never speak to you again”) and you counter with the standard, ineffective “no beautiful wedding for you!” You are definitely in a lose-lose predicament.

This delicate situation is best left to professionals. Garner all your persuasive powers and convince your sweetness to accompany you and your husband to a qualified family therapist. While you may not be able to convince her to ditch Romeo, you may get her to agree that it is in their best interest to postpone the wedding – maybe for a year or two.

Bear in mind: your goal in therapy is not to dissolve the relationship (even if you pray for this fervently) but to reinforce your child’s trust in you and keep the lines of communication between you and your daughter open and loving. And if, after counselling, your daughter goes ahead as planned, may it be like, in the words of my Bubby, “What’s so bad? They’ll grow up together – and fast!”

Michelle Mond hey say you must jump into the pool to learn how to swim. That is often the case with many of our life milestones; we often must jump into a new experience to grow into it. This applies to marriage, parenthood, and any profession. Married couples grow and mature through working on themselves in marriage and in the months leading up to it. Parents learn parenthood by changing diapers and staying up at night with a cranky baby. And doctors learn medicine less-so in medical school and more-so while jumping into the fire of internship.

Nowadays, societal norms dictate that marriage occurs when a couple is, on average, in their early-to-midtwenties. But that wasn’t always the case. Whether in the Jewish or secular worlds, couples would get married around ages 18-20. Were they mature?

Probably not remarkably. But those young couples had enough feelings toward each other to truly desire a great relationship and they made it work.

Decades later, they are still madly in love with the other. There is something to be said about a fresh, young relationship with no relationship baggage.

Frankly, you might be wrong about their immaturity. Consider this: most young couples nowadays continue “going out” for years, hardly thinking about marriage. The fact that you daughter and (gulp!) future-son-inlaw have been discussing marriage is a sign that they’re light-years ahead of the maturity curve. They might be immature compared to you, but so are many early-20-year-olds nowadays, including chassanim and kallos! In truth, you daughter is in a way better position than most – it seems like she solved her “shidduch crisis” on her own. She knows this young man and accepts him with all his strengths and weaknesses. Rather than forcing them to wait a few years (and who knows if their betrothal relationship will last that long) and risking heartbreak and

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Your daughter is behaving like a ticking time bomb.

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the prospect of having to jump into the world shidduchim/dating (use your imagination), it seems like Hashem gave them a tremendous gift. Rather than reject it, embrace it!

Now, you voice a very valid concern about them not having the means to support themselves. As they say, if you can’t beat them, join them. It seems like your daughter is willing to get married with or without your blessings. This would entail getting married and facing the stormy seas of life without your guidance and support, estranged from your family. Wouldn’t you prefer that she marry and start her life with your gentle (and not-too-involved) guidance, knowing she and her future family will remain forever grateful, close, and part of your loving family? Team up with them. Take them out to dinner and explain your change of heart. Show them why they must develop a clear career plan to support themselves in this voyage called adulthood. As the adult with your head stuck firmly between your shoulders, be the advisor and mentor they need. Perhaps, if they don’t feel pressured to drop the relationship, they will decide to have a longer engagement in order to start building a way to make a living. Either way, they will be more open to hearing your advice. They might struggle for a short while and learn to live within their means, while building themselves up with the help of Hashem. Much nachas!

The Single Tova Wein agree with your instincts that are telling you and your husband that your daughter is way too immature to consider marriage. Aside from her

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age, the fact that she and her boyfriend approached you with an ultimatum, rather than a thought-out plan for how they could make a marriage work at their tender young ages, is very telling.

Had they met with you and explained how they could make a marriage work and instilled some confidence in you, the outcome would have looked very different, despite their ages.

The first thing I would encourage you to do is to figure out whether there is a neutral party that would be willing to talk to your daughter and explain to her some basic facts of life, someone who would not make her feel threatened, but rather cared for. If such a person exists (a previous teacher, a

mature friend, a relative), that would be great. I think the dialogue between the four of you has already gotten very heated up and you need to bring in a calmer voice into this conversation.

Secondly, tell your daughter that you were caught off guard and failed to ask the important questions. What are her thoughts about supporting themselves at this point without careers and do they have plans to continue with school once they marry? Also, how would these plans be compromised if she found herself pregnant immediately? Try to sound curious, rather than judgmental, and hear her out. By asking simple questions in a

Pulling It All Together The Navidaters Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists

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o u r daughter’s ultimatum, and the secretive nature of this budding relationship, may signal that she is an immature eighteen. I do wonder if this behavior of hers is isolated and out of character or if she has always been somewhat impulsive with a “my way or the highway” attitude. If the latter is the case, though this is absolutely shocking to you, you are no stranger at this rodeo. This has to be so incredibly painful for you and your husband: watching your daughter walk into a potentially bad situation while she threatens to cut you out of her life.

Let’s look at the facts for a moment and approach this with practicality.

With the emotional (and perhaps financial) support of her future in-laws, your daughter can have a wedding and pursue her intention of getting married.

She can make this happen with or without you. If you continue with your “absolutely nots,” be prepared to lose her.

My advice is the same as the panelists’.

Your daughter is behaving like a ticking time bomb. The worst thing you can do (though completely understandable!) is to become a second ticking time bomb.

Your new goal is to try to diff u se this situation. How c a n parents do this?

Since you are not the first parents to be in this situation, there are some general guidelines.

While ultimately you would love to see her not go through with this, the goal isn’t to stop her. The goal is to secure your relationship and perhaps get your daughter to start thinking differently about this potential marriage. I’ll give you a step-by-step course of action plan.

1. You and your husband should approach your daughter calmly. You may want to invite her boyfriend over and approach the two of them as a couple. Tell her/them that you’ve had time to think this over and you regret your initial reaction. You are sorry.

2. Validate their relationship and love for each other and desire to get married. Tell them you are happy that they found each other and are in love.

That’s right, Mom and Dad…you are onboard now! (Remember, if you don’t do this, you lose your daughter.)

non-threatening way, you may enable her to start thinking long term and practically, rather than in the moment, with her immature “I want what I want and I want it now!”

Finally, if none of the above changes up the dialogue at all, see if there is room for compromise. It could look something like, “if you could manage to wait a year, we’re prepared to pay your rent for the first two years of marriage, while you finish getting your degrees.”

Or, “we’re willing to make you a beautiful wedding if you agree to see a marriage counselor for six months in order to get a better handle on what marriage really entails.” Be creative. Most people can hear compromise if they get enough good stuff.

3.

Tova Wein used the word “curious.” Do not interrogate with questions about finances, careers and schooling; rather, get curious. Convey the message that you love her very much and will support her decision. You just have some concerns and you’re wondering where she and her boyfriend are holding on these issues.

4. If your daughter is respectful and enjoyable to be around, spend as much time as you can with her and her boyfriend. Invite them for dinner, to the movies, to hang out on Sunday afternoon, etc. Keep communication open and flowing. The greatest impetus for an immature couple to marry is a naysayer.

5. If they do go through with this wedding, buy a lovely dress for a backyard wedding.

Some of the panelists encouraged you to encourage or even beg your daughter to see a therapist for pre-marital counseling. Your request will carry far more weight if you do this once your relationship is repaired. I agree that it is wise to try to persuade her to do so. Please keep the following in mind.

Even the most skilled professional cannot convince someone to do anything they do not want to do. If they are hellbent on getting married with complete disregard and lack of preparedness for life, they will get married. The question is whether or not there is a part of your daughter that has concerns or would be open to hearing the therapist (or maybe

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Try to sound curious, rather than judgmental, and hear her out.

If all your efforts fail, and they run off to their friend’s backyard and get married, you’ll all survive whatever happens. You may just get the surprise of your life and witness a wonderful marriage or they may fail and learn from their mistakes. Either way, we don’t always (often) have the control we would like to have over those people whom we love.

even you once things calm down).

Maybe your daughter will come around or maybe she won’t. Maybe you’ll witness a beautiful marriage between two young people that grows in a mature and deeply rewarding union, or maybe it will end in divorce. Try to step away from the belief that this is the absolute end of the world. This is your daughter’s life and she gets to make this decision for herself. It may feel impossible, but every day take a small step toward refocusing on those areas of your life that are in your control. If you are a spiritual person, then give this one to G-d or ask yourself what opportunity there is for your own growth in this shocking and unsettling situation. If there is any self-work for you to do, then that can be your focus.

All the best to you and your husband! You two need a spa day or a vacation! You deserve it.

Sincerely, Jennifer Esther Mann, LCSW and Jennifer Mann, LCSW are licensed psychotherapists and dating and relationship coaches working with individuals, couples and families in private practice in Hewlett, NY. To set up a consultation or to ask questions, please call 516.224.7779. Press 1 for Esther, 2 for Jennifer. Visit www.thenavidaters.com for more information. 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

How to Enjoy Freedom

By Deb Hirschhorn, Ph.D.

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o appreciate Pesach, you have to work hard, right?

I mean, we left slavery but we definitely didn’t get off easy. Well, I shouldn’t say that: We had the mann and didn’t need to do laundry. Okay, to appreciate Pesach today, we have to first enslave ourselves to then breathe a sigh of freedom on seder night – unless we fall asleep at the table (which happened to me once, sort of).

So when my son told me, before I left the U.S., “Ima, you’re here to enjoy yourself; don’t worry, we’ll do everything,” I was very disappointed. But as it happens, my daughter-in-law, who probably gets me better than my son and also is due three days before Pesach, was delighted with my offer to help and told me, “Ima, my kitchen is your kitchen.” So motzei Shabbos, I covered the counters with foil and today after she and I had a journey to Osher Od, the equivalent of a kosher Costco back home, I made a vat of chicken soup. I was happily exhausted, feeling that Pesach spirit.

Isn’t that awfully strange, to be happy because I worked hard? And to want to? Well, to me, it really does reflect the meaning of Pesach. I want to capture something of the way our

ancestors felt back then. They were in slavery and our kitchen preps bear a very weak resemblance to it. It gives us a taste of what they had gone through, a mere sip from the bitter cup. (And it’s not so bitter anyway. I do love to hear exclamations of “delicious!” as people taste my chicken soup.)

When we left Mitzrayim, we were given a new lease on life. We were free.

We could decide what we wanted to do. Making choices is a very exciting thing, something we hadn’t had the chance to do in 210 years. With that, comes joy. You feel alive when no one dictates what you’re going to do. Even tiny grandchildren want to exercise that freedom – and they get joy out of doing so. “No! I don’t want to eat my meat!” says my four-year old grandson.

“I hate it!”

“Tell him he ate it and liked it last week,” the logical adult coaches me, the savta, by phone. So I do as instructed.

“No, I hate it!”

“Okay, tell him just this one time, he can choose a treat after dinner if he finishes it.”

Repeating the offer and filling the plate, I hand it to a happy boy who quickly remarks, “Mmmm, yummy!”

Win for freedom to manipulate par-

ents (and savtas).

That’s a thrill for him, isn’t it? It’s inborn. And what a gift to be able to exercise it. So, besides enslaving ourselves to the kitchen, what are some of the other rules for getting the most out of our freedom?

Don’t Take Freedom Away From Other People That means don’t control the checkbook or be the final person to decide where you’re going for vacation, what restaurant to go to, which show to watch, or whether to have your sister over for yom tov. It’s got to be a joint decision and it cannot be forced upon the person you presumably love.

That also means that even if you are not ranting and raving and you’re not making threats, you must not use the more subtle forms of control that are highly effective at getting things done your way – and enslaving the other person to you: 1. Scowling 2. Withdrawing 3. Playing victim (One of the worst I ever heard was from a sick, elderly person who told his wife, “You’ll get to do whatever you want when I die.” Both are now deceased.)

4. Sarcasm Of course, the above list can either enslave the loved one who is afraid to speak up, or it can chase away the loved one who’s had enough of Mitzrayim.

When you can’t seem to reach a mutual decision there are still options that don’t impair anyone’s freedom. Here are healthy solutions: 1. You can take turns deciding that particular thing; 2. You can give in so as to build some good will for when you’ll need it; 3. You can opt to do something else at the same time, provided that is not insulting or hurtful to your partner; 4. You can flip a coin.

Don’t Take Joy Away From Other People Even if you are not manipulative in even a subtle way to control the other person, you can nevertheless remove their joy in life. Why would you do that? What’s the gain? There isn’t any.

The bonus of freedom is joy, and if you take that away, you’ve robbed someone of their very life. Here are some things to avoid doing: 1. Making negative remarks about them, their looks, their capabilities, their choices, their parents, their sib-

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

lings, their career, their accomplishments: being pushed away is joyless.

2. Not being excited enough or happy enough for them about their looks, their capabilities, their choices, their parents, their siblings, their career, their accomplishments: being thought weird is joyless.

3. Looking blankly at them when they try to explain something and getting tired of the process of trying to understand: being not worth the effort to understand is joyless.

4. Teasing that is not welcome and which puts the other person down: being made to feel like garbage is joyless.

5. Flirting with friends and associates: being second class is joyless.

6. Kvetching: you may want sympathy and that is understandable, but if you complain a lot then it implies the other person’s value doesn’t compete very well with what’s bothering you; it too is joyless.

Here’s how to turn each of these negatives into positives: 1. Your negativity is coming from

something within you that is bothering you. Solve that problem and you won’t have to spread that negativity around.

If your spouse is the source of the pain, then discuss it! But discuss it in a non-accusatory way because I would bet you’ve been throwing the ball back and forth for a long time.

can use that same principle with our spouses.

3. This same response goes for not understanding what your partner is explaining to you. Take some deep breaths and clear your head so you can focus.

4. Are you afraid to be direct?

Isn't that awfully strange, to be happy because I worked so hard?

2. When your own troubles are eating you up so much that it’s hard to focus on the other person, then perhaps focusing on the other person is exactly your remedy: sometimes intense focus on something benign takes the sting out of your own issues. That is how work we love heals our pain and we

Why? Why tease instead of expressing your true feelings, the vulnerable ones underneath the anger and sarcasm?

5. It’s hard work to repair what’s broken and it’s a lot easier to pretend that the colleague or neighbor you’re flirting with has all the attributes you want. He or she doesn’t, so stop pre-

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tending. The truth is, no one does. No person is made to order. In fact, we come imperfect in order to spend some time and energy perfecting ourselves – and helping our partner do that, too.

Yes, it’s more work, but it ends up with something tangible which the fantasy person you’re playing with doesn’t have.

6. Just say, “I need a little sympathy!” If you’ve been kind and not hogging the sympathy, then your spouse will be more likely to give it to you than if you kvetch. On the other hand, if you are actually a choleh, an ill person, then you need the medical options that will help you through; don’t lean on your spouse.

All this is kind of hard, but not really. Certainly better than some Gestapo throwing your babies into the Nile River.

Dr. Deb 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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Madraigos

Our Bodies are Free but Our Minds are Enslaved

By Mindi Werblowsky Saketkhou, LMSW

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n Pesach we celebrate the Jewish nation’s redemption from slavery. After 210 years of backbreaking slavery and persecution we witnessed the miraculous events of the Ten Plagues and were freed to receive the Torah and become the Jewish nation. Since that time, the history of the Jewish people is littered with eras of persecution, expulsion, and slavery as well as times of great triumph and redemption.

At the beginning of the Jewish nation’s slavery in Egypt, the Jewish people were able to keep their minds free. They continued having children and stayed strong in their belief in Hashem and their redemption. The Egyptians observed that the Jewish people were not broken, despite their enslavement. And so they instituted the avodas pharech, the unbearable work. Many mifarshim explain that this work was designed to psychologically break down the Jewish people.

The Egyptians assigned men’s work to the women and women’s work to the men. They took away Shabbos, the one day of rest and rejuvenation, so there was no break. They had the Jewish men sleep in the fields so that they could not go home to their wives and children at night. They observed and correctly concluded that for the slavery to be complete, the minds of the Jewish people had to be enslaved along with their bodies.

Dr. Viktor Frankl discusses this idea in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, his autobiography detailing his experiences during the Holocaust. Dr. Frankl founded a theory of therapy called Logotherapy based on what he experienced in the concentration camps. He concluded that the inmates who were able to keep their minds focused on the future redemption or on another larger life goal had a greater chance of surviving. Those

who were able to prevent their minds from becoming enslaved were better equipped to withstand the atrocities their bodies had to endure. Logotherapy is a psychological analysis that focuses on finding meaning in life. In his explanation of Logotherapy, Dr. Frankl explains that the main barriers on this quest for meaning in life are materialism and affluence.

We are fortunate enough to be living during a time of unprecedented freedom and liberation in all aspects of our lives. However, we are ultimately witnessing the truth of Dr. Frankl’s words. The rates of depression and anxiety among teens have risen to unprecedented numbers. Almost every adolescent we meet with

school as it becomes too hard for their brains to focus on details and put the effort into learning.

Anxiety rates in adolescents have peaked due to the pressures of doing well in school, upholding household responsibilities, and maintaining social status. More and more adolescents are turning to marijuana as a method of self-healing their anxieties and depression.

This “mental enslavement” has taken its toll on parents as well. Numerous rabbanim, mental health professionals, and speakers have emphasized the need to “disconnect” and form stronger emotional relationships with our children. But this enslavement is not limited to smart-

In this age of privilege and prosperity, the ultimate riches have become lost.

has been diagnosed with ADHD. Our bodies are experiencing various physical pleasures and freedoms but our minds are slowly deteriorating and becoming truly enslaved.

We are enslaved to our phones and the internet. Having social media has been directly correlated with an increased rate of depression as we become envious and saddened at the “happier” lives we see others posting.

Increased exposure to television and movies has been proven to decrease a child’s ability to focus in school as their minds are accustomed to constant scenery change and flickering.

Rav Orlowek states in his chinuch book, Raising Roses Among Thorns, that children who consistently watch television begin to have difficulty in

phones and internet. As wealth and success have abounded in our communities so has the need to “keep up with the Joneses.” It is extremely difficult for our children to experience menuchas hanefesh when we, as parents, are constantly measuring our cars, clothes, homes and even cell phone models next to our friends and neighbors. The need to measure up will even prevent some parents from seeking appropriate physical and mental health for their children.

In this age of privilege and prosperity, the ultimate riches have become lost. Judaism is built on the importance of a mesorah, the chain between father and son, mother and daughter. We are raised and taught to look to our parents for wisdom and

guidance, and in turn, to teach us how to be parents and teachers. But these chains on our minds have caused the links between the generations to corrode. At Madraigos our clients are constantly asking us, “Why does this not work? Why can’t I parent my children the way my parents raised me?

Why is my youngest child so different than my older ones?” The general consensus in the mental health world is that parents today do not and cannot raise their children the same way they themselves were raised.

To address this very topic Madraigos will be hosting a communitywide Parenting Event on Thursday, April 19th at Congregation Beth Sholom in Lawrence, NY. The event is titled “Parenting Then and Now – What’s Changed?” Our community will have the privilege of being addressed by Rabbi Berel Wein and Dr. David Pelcovitz. Rabbi Wein will be addressing “Then,” lessons we can learn from the way our parents parented. And Dr. Pelcovitz will be discussing “Now,” what has changed and what has to be done differently. The entire community is invited to join us for this crucial event, free of charge. Following this event, Madraigos will also begin its fifth series of parenting support groups geared towards parents of adolescents. Three groups have successfully “graduated” from this support group and one more group is currently ongoing, scheduled to graduate prior to the parenting event.

For further information about Madraigos, the parenting support group or Parenting Then and Now, please contact the Clinical Director at Madraigos, Mindi Werblowsky, LMSW. As clinical director at Madraigos, she can be reached at mwerblowsky@madraigos.org or at 516-371-3250 ext. 112.

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theanelisgroup.com

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

PA R E N T I N G Then and Now

W H AT ' S C H A N G E D ? an evening of PRACTICAL INSIGHTS and INSPIRATION

RABBI BEREL WEIN

The Voice of Jewish History and Founder of the Destiny Foundation

DR. DAVID PELCOVITZ

Professor, Straus Chair in Psychology and Education, Yeshiva University

T H U R S DAY, A P R I L 1 9 . 8 pm

B ET H S H A LO M BA L L R O OM . 3 9 0 B R OA DWAY L AW R E N C E , N Y 1 1 5 5 9 F R E E A DM I S S I O N FO R M E N A N D WO M E N

For seats or information, please contact Mindi Werblowsky mwerblowsky@madraigos.org or 516-371-3250 ext. 112 Advance registration is available at https://parentingpart2.eventbrite.com

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Health & F tness

Matzah: How to Ease Digestion

By Cindy Weinberger MS, RD, CDN

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he word most commonly associated with Pesach is matzah.

Matzah symbolizes the unleavened bread that baked on the Jews’ backs as they were exiled from Egypt. Thus, matzah is the food associated with freedom and therefore we eat it in abundance to celebrate Pesach. Not only are we commanded to eat matzah, we are also prohibited from eating leavened bread which forces us to eat matzah.

Some people look forward to eating matzah for eight days. Some people even eat matzah a whole year as part of a diet. However, for some, the thought of eating only matzah for eight days straight is dreadful.

Why is the thought of so much matzah so nerve-wracking? Unfortunately, many suffer from constipation after eating large amounts of matzah, causing lots of discomfort.

Fortunately, there are ways to ease the discomfort.

Here are some tips to help ease digestion this Pesach: Drink lots of water. Drinking plenty of water fills you up, thus suppressing your appetite so you don’t eat as much (matzah and other foods). Furthermore, drinking water also flushes toxins from your body preventing constipation and regulating bowel movements. Of course, you can’t replace the four cups of wine with water, but whenever you can, drink water instead of other beverages to help your body ease digestion.

Aim for 6-8 cups of water throughout the day.

Exercise. Physical activity promotes digestion and regular bowel

movements by decreasing the time it takes food to move through the large intestine. This limits the amount of water absorbed from the stool into the body. On Pesach, when we mostly go from meal to meal and sleep in between, your metabolism is not working as it usually does and therefore you experience changes in your bowel habits. Try to take walks in the mornings or afternoons, or whenever you have a chance. Even getting up and walking around for 10 to 15 minutes several times a day can help the body and digestive system func-

insoluble or soluble. Soluble fiber is viscous and forms gels in the gastrointestinal tract. Fiber has a wide range of benefits: from slowing down digestion, keeping one satiated for longer, forming bulk, easing constipation, to lowering cholesterol levels.

Therefore, fiber should be eaten daily, especially over Pesach when many tend to get constipated.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are the best source of fiber and are an appropriate choice for Pesach. Even though some fruits and vegetables are restricted over Pesach for some,

Even getting up and walking around for 10 to 15 minutes several times a day can help the body and digestive system function properly.

tion properly. If you have time during chol hamoed, do vigorous activities and try to fit in as much physical activity as possible.

Eat plenty of fiber. Fiber is essential for so many reasons, one of them being its role in digestion.

Since fiber isn’t digested by the body, it moves relatively intact through your stomach and intestines and then leaves the body fully intact.

Dietary fiber can be classified as

there is still a large variety. Eating a lot of fruits and vegetables over Pesach will not only ease your digestion, but it will help prevent weight gain too. With potatoes, potatoes, and more potatoes, the weight gain over eight days of Pesach is inevitable for most. However, instead of filling up on the kugels and potatoes, fill up on vegetables. You can roast vegetables, steam vegetables, eat them in a salad, or enjoy them in other ways.

The trick is to have self-control and choose the yummy vegetables from a table full of carbs.

When it comes to dessert, snacks or even breakfast, choose fruit. As mentioned above, fruit is packed with fiber, along with other vital nutrients as well. Like vegetables, fruits provide plenty of fiber to help ease digestion and will fill you up, leaving less room for cakes and macaroons.

It is inevitable to avoid matzah over Pesach, especially since one is obligated to eat it on the seder night.

Matzah also characterizes Pesach and therefore should not be restricted on Pesach. However, try to limit matzah sandwiches, matzah pizza, and other matzah-based foods.

When you do have to eat matzah, choose whole wheat. Whole wheat matzah contains triple the amount of fiber found in regular matzah and will help alleviate those symptoms of constipation.

I wish you and your entire families a chag kasher v’samaech. We should all be zocheh to the true geulah speedily in our days.

Cindy Weinberger MS, RD, CDN, is a Master’s level Registered Dietitian and Certified Dietitian-Nutritionist. She graduated CUNY Brooklyn College receiving a Bachelor’s in Science and Master’s degree in Nutrition and Food Sciences. She is currently a dietitian at Boro Park Center and a private nutrition consultant. She can be reached at CindyWeinberger1@

gmail.com.

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In The K

tchen

Cauliflower Fried “Rice”

By Naomi Nachman

Since my book came out last Pesach many people have told me that they’ve made this their go-to recipe for a healthy, low-carb side dish. This dish is not only “Perfect For Pesach,” it’s also a perfect side dish for all year. You can now even skip the step of making your own cauliflower rice because many kosher supermarkets now sell kosher for Pesach frozen premade rice cauliflower in a bag (one brand that produces this is Heaven and Earth). This makes this recipe even easier and quicker to prepare.

With imitation Pesach soy sauce improving over the years, it’s really nice to have Asian dishes on the menu for Pesach. Feel free to switch up the vegetables and use your favorites in place of those used here. This recipe is a great way to use up leftover chicken or meat. You can also omit the chicken or meat for a pareve side dish.

Meat or pareve – yields 6 servings

Ingredients 2 TBS olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 1 TBS fresh ginger, minced 3 cloves garlic, crushed 2 medium carrots, diced (about 1 cup) 4 scallions, thinly sliced 2 TBS imitation soy sauce ½ pound cooked meat, chicken, corned beef, or pastrami, shredded 2 large eggs, beaten and scrambled in a small sauté pan 1 batch cauliflower “rice,” prepared according to directions on page ¼ cup chopped almonds, or other nut (optional) Salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation Heat olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until soft, approximately 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low.

Add ginger, garlic, carrots, and scallions.

Sauté on low until vegetables are soft, 5-7 minutes.

Add soy sauce, meat, and eggs. Stir in cauliflower “rice” and nuts, if using. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook’s tip: If you can’t find frozen cauliflower, prepare this with fresh: put two heads of cauliflower through the food processor, then place into a bowl and cover with water. Microwave or boil in a pot until soft, then drain and squeeze dry according to the instructions for frozen cauliflower.

Reproduced from Perfect for Pesach by Naomi Nachman with permission from the copyright holders ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications, LTD. Photo credit Miriam Pascal.

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.

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Chef

Trnare tristique. Morbi tempor eros quis eros ultricies, vitae pulvinar felis rutrum. In vitae lacus eget erat interdum vehicula quis non tellus.

Talk

Ferocious Charoses The Apple of My Eye

By Naphtali Sobel

M

y mother in-law can be found in her Pesach kitchen in the wee hours boiling and straining dates, making her renowned chalek, which is a Middle Eastern versions of charoses. She ships mason jars of this spread to her beloved family members in L.A., and a jar or two remains for her family out on Long Island. Chalek tastes so good that besides being a dip for bitter herbs, you might be caught in the fridge at 3a.m. with a spoon in your hand, eating out of the jar and turning your head both ways making sure no one is looking.

Other Sephardic versions of char-

oses might include dates, figs and raisins, and may contain spices such as ginger and saffron. My father-inlaw, on the other hand, makes the classic Ashkenazi charoses since the Sephardic version is too “piquant” for his eastern European palette.

His is an apple chutney combining chopped apples, walnuts and wine.

Some more modern versions might include brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and maple syrup.

Charoses is used during the Seder to signify the bricks and mortar the Egyptians forced us to make in our slavery. Therefore, we make charoses into a chunky paste-like

form to resemble what our ancestors made in Egypt. Tractate Pesachim states that charoses stems from the Hebrew word “cheres” which translates to clay. The apples represent that even through the hardships and persecution Jewish couples were still reproducing. They would give birth in the apple fields so the Egyptians would not confiscate their babies. An angel would return their babies to them at a safer time.

Charoses to Pesach is like honey to yomim noraim. We smear it on practically everything for eight days straight. It can be used to stuff a chicken, accompany a perfectly

grilled veal chop, or a crispy seared duck breast. You can use pomegranate seeds and chopped walnuts as a finishing garnish. Charoses is best prepared with a variety of apples but use whatever is in your fridge.

Although I don’t expect you to stay awake in the wee hours straining dates, I will offer you some more simple charoses-inspired recipes.

Naphtali Sobel is an experienced chef and food consultant. He is available as a personal chef and for consulting. He can be reached at napsob87@gmail.com.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

R ECIPE IN GR ED IEN TS

Facon Apple C ornish Hen 1-3 1lb. Cornish hens

For stuffing 1 large apple any var iety 5 TBS chopped walnuts pastrami 1 pack facon, beef fry, or navel e sag 2-3 spr igs tarragon or ½ tsp nutmeg or apple spice Pinch salt and black pepper For Spice Rub hen 2 TBS date syr up (silan), per 1 TBS garlic powder 1 tsp paprika ¼ tsp black pepper optional Pinch of dried dill and thy me,

FOR

Yo u

FRO M THE KIT CH EN OF

N aphtali Sobel

Waldorf Salad

and 1 green 2 large apples, preferably 1 red 2 stalks celery 12-15 red grapes ½ cup walnut pieces ½ cup mayonnaise Pinch salt 1/3 tsp garlic powder 1/3 tsp black pepper tional) 1/3 tsp dried or fresh dill (op 1 TBS lemon juice

C haroses

2 apples of choice s 1 cup ground walnuts or almond 2 TBS red wine 2 TBS white or brown sugar ½ tsp cinnamon Pinch of salt ½ tsp vanilla

PR EPAR AT IO N

nish hen: Pre pare the fac on apple cor sage or tarraCube apples and facon. Pull the the herbs and gon leaves off the stem and add ff the hens and spices to the stuffing mix. Stu of the roasting place extra stuffing on bot tom pan. syrup and Mix spices. Smear hen with date syrup. Bake at sprink le spice rub on top of the 350°F for 60-75 minutes. with broiler Note: This recipe can be made chickens as well.

Slic e celery Pre pare the Waldor f salad:

pes in half. Mix and apples thinly, and cut gra spices together. mayonnaise, lemon juice and and walnut s to Add celery, apples, grapes, dressing before mixing bowl and coat in the serv ing. all of the inPrepare the charoses: Blend

unt il desired gredients in a food processor texture is reached.

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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Notable Quotes “Say What?!”

Ne. – A recommended pronoun to replace “he” or “she” that was on a politically correct pronoun pamphlet handed out to students at Kennesaw State University in Georgia

Ne laughed. I called nem. Nir eyes gleam. That is nirs. Ne likes nemself.

- Examples given in the pamphlet for use of the pronoun “ne”

Golfer Rory McIlroy said there should be a limit to how much alcohol fans can buy at events because they’re getting too rowdy. And also, he’s tired of hearing drunk people try to say “Rory McIlroy.”

- Jimmy Fallon

I think Keith Ellison has to be fired immediately as deputy chairman of the DNC. Not only has he become close to Farrakhan, but he has lied to the American public about ending his relationship with Farrakhan. We know that he continued to meet with Farrakhan even after he said he no longer met with him. This is the leadership of the Democratic Party.

G-d bless you.

– One of the terms listed as offensive in the AntiOppression Guide of Simmons College in Boston (which recently invited Linda Sarsour—who called for jihad against America—to speak on campus)

- Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz talking about the Deputy Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Rep. Keith Ellison’s relationship with Jew-hater Louis Farrakhan

Engineers have crafted a futuristic jetpack that lets you fly up to 10,000 feet in the air. It even has a cool name: It’s called “YOU Try It First.”

- Jimmy Fallon

They asked me if I’d like to debate this gentleman, and I said “no.” I said, “If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the [daylights] out of him.”

- Former Vice President Joe Biden in a speech at University of Miami last Tuesday, talking about President Trump

Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people, Joe! - President Trump, responding in a tweet

America is the land of opportunity.

Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough.

- Statements on the University of California’s list of unacceptable “microaggressions”

They came to office in the days following election recruiting and were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side.

- Carol Davidsen, media director for the 2012 Obama campaign, in a recent tweet about how Facebook allowed them to access the personal data of its users in 2011 because the social media giant was hoping Obama would win

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I read about a man in Ohio who just ended his streak of eating Chipotle for 500 straight days.

When asked why he decided to stop, his family said, “Oh, he died.”

- Jimmy Fallon

I killed him and I ate him.

- Rangers pitcher Martin Perez disclosing to the Fort Worth StarTelegram what he did to a bull that charged at him on his ranch and caused him to break his arm

If you have a hundred thousand dollars and you are an unhappy person and you think that having a million dollars is going to make you happy, it is not gonna happen. I mean, then you will look around and you will see people with two million. It doesn’t work that way. You will not be way happier if you double your net worth.

- Warren Buffett in a recent interview on CNBC

In financial news, billionaire investor Warren Buffett is facing some criticism after saying in a recent interview, “You will not be way happier if you double your net worth.” Spoken like someone who has $90 billion.

So to give you one brief example, [the] University of Phoenix, it’s a for-profit school — a lot of people have heard of it — the Obama administration declares that the company is not serving students well, and they say, “We are going to suspend GI dollars from the Pentagon for soldiers to study at the University of Phoenix.” Well, you can imagine, this for-profit university, its stock price goes from like a hundred dollars a share down to three dollars a share overnight. So what happens? Marty Nesbitt, Barack Obama’s best friend, says, “Hey! We’ll step in and buy it. We’ll step in and buy the company.” They do. They basically buy it for three cents on the dollar, and then, lo and behold, imagine what happens next. The Obama administration decides that, “No, we are going to allow GI dollars flow to the University of Phoenix,” thereby boosting the valuation of the company again.

– Peter Schweizer, author of Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, in a recent interview, talking about the corruption of the Obama administration

- James Corden

But he is partially right. Happiness does not come from net worth. It comes from the things you can BUY because of your net worth.

A 102-year-old woman broke a pair of world track and field records. The 102-year-old ran the 100-meter dash with a time of “February.”

– Conan O’Brien

- Ibid

If these dangerous policies continue out of California, we might need to build a wall between California and Arizona as well to keep these dangerous criminals out of our state.

- Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) during a round-table discussion about “sanctuary cities” at the White House

Where are you from?

- Question that the State of California is suing the federal government to have removed from the 2020 Census

I'm still the same, you all moved. You all went so ... far out you lost everybody.

- Comedian Roseanne Barr to Jimmy Kimmel, responding to his surprise that she voted for Donald Trump, who he called "Captain Wacko"

A lot of us, no matter who we voted for, we don't want to see our President fail.

- Ibid

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On our college campuses, you folks are reading the labels, they won’t put any sugar in their body, they don’t eat carbs anymore, and they’re very, very fastidious about what goes into their body and then you buy a street drug for $5 or $10, it’s laced with fentanyl, and that’s it. So I guess my short advice is, as somebody double your age: eat the ice cream, have the French fry, don’t buy the street drug.

Believe me, it all works out.

- Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway speaking to a group of college students at a White House forum

In Indiana, police found a man at a White Castle with a container of dangerous chemicals. The man at a White Castle with the dangerous chemicals is known as “the cook.”

At worst, I was not clear in my responses and because of what was going on around me may well have been confused and distracted — and for that, I take full responsibility. But that is not a lack of candor.

– Disgraced former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in a Washington Post op-ed, excusing his lying to investigators with a not very original excuse

– Conan O’Brien

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After I left office, what I realized is that the Obama Foundation could potentially create a platform for young, up-andcoming leaders, both in the United States and all around the world to come together, meet together, create a digital platform where they could exchange information. If I could do that effectively, then I would create a hundred, or a thousand, or a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas.

- Barack Obama speaking at a conference in Japan

Since it came out that Facebook’s data was misused during the 2016 election, their stock has taken a huge dive. You can tell Mark Zuckerberg is worried because today he applied for a job at MySpace.

China is pressuring Washington not to impose big tariffs on its steel.

You can tell China’s playing hardball because today they said, “Remember – we have your new iPhones.”

– Jimmy Fallon

- Conan O’Brien

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Political Crossfire

No, Liberals Don't Hate America. And Conservatives are Not Racists

By Marc A. Thiessen

I

’m a rock-ribbed conservative who wants Republicans to keep control of Congress. But I’m not unhappy that Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone appears to have lost the special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District.

Why? Because he insulted my mother.

Trailing his Democratic opponent in a district Donald Trump won by 20 points, but which still has more registered Democrats than Republicans, Saccone hit on a genius idea to turn out the vote: At a campaign rally just before voters went to the polls, he declared that liberals hate America and hate G-d. “I’ve talked to so many of these on the left,” he said. “And I tell you, many of them have a hatred for our country... I’ll tell you some more – my wife and I saw it again today: They have a hatred for G-d.”

My mother is a liberal Democrat, and I can tell you: She does not hate America or G-d. Quite the opposite; she is one of the most patriotic people I know. She grew up in Nazi-occupied Poland, fought with the Polish underground, was taken to Germany as a prisoner of war, was liberated by Patton’s Army and moved to London.

Eventually, she became a doctor and made her way to the United States, where she became a U.S. citizen.

There is no one prouder to be an American. When Poland held its first free elections in 1989, Polish Ameri-

cans living in the United States were invited to vote. Many did so, but my mom refused. She loved the land of her birth, but she was an American citizen now and would not vote in a foreign election. When someone hears her thick Polish accent for the first time they often ask, “Where are you from?” She answers proudly: “New York City.”

aunt or uncle – or even your kids. We should not stand for politicians from either party who insult them or question their motives or their patriotism.

Too often, politicians on both the left and right do just that. We saw this recently when, during an event in India, Clinton insultingly claimed that Trump won the parts of the country that weren’t “moving forward.”

We disagree about politics, but we both love America and want to make this country great.

She’s also a proud Democrat, who voted for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. We disagree about politics, but we both love America and want to make this country great. We just have different ideas about the best ways to do it.

So when Saccone says liberals hate America, he’s talking about my mother. I take it personally. And you should, too.

Whether you are liberal, conservative or in between, I’ll bet that you have a loved one who disagrees with you about politics. It might be a sibling or a parent or a beloved cousin,

She said those voters liked what she characterized as Trump’s message that “you know you didn’t like black people getting rights. You don’t like women, you know, getting jobs. You don’t want, you know, to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are.” If you have a loved one who didn’t vote for Clinton in 2016, you should be offended. I doubt the people you love are against civil rights, or women working, or people of color succeeding. They just thought Clinton was a terrible choice for president – an impression she confirmed with those comments.

We see it in the gun control debate that followed the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said that if you’re not in favor of immediate action on guns, “you’re an accomplice” to the Parkland killer. Seriously? Do you have a loved one who disagrees with you about gun control? Are they accomplices to mass murder? No, they just disagree that gun control is the solution.

The problem exists on both sides of the aisle, and it’s not just politicians. American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks recalls how a few years ago he was giving a speech at a large conservative event. “I said that while my own views are center-right, I have no reason to believe progressives are stupid or evil,” he recalls. “An audience member countered, ‘You’re wrong: They are stupid and evil.’” Brooks is from Seattle, which means almost every member of his family is progressive.

Progressives are not stupid and evil. Conservatives are not racists and misogynists. Our fellow Americans who disagree with us are not our enemies. They are our fellow Americans who differ with us. And we should not put up with politicians, on the left or right, who can’t seem to understand this. (c) 2018, Washington Post Writers Group

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Forgotten Her es

Reliving History

By Avi Heiligman

The Nile River

C

ertain modern historians debate what actually went on in Ancient Egypt at the time of Yetziyas Mitzrayim since the Egyptians didn’t keep a lot of

records on the events that took place. Only a few hieroglyphics have been deciphered that tell of Moshe Rabbeinu and the enslavement of the Jews. Since the use of

ancient historians wasn’t popular until the Greeks, centuries after Yetziyas Mitzrayim, we should realize that the Egyptians only wrote down what they wanted people in later generations to know. This type of documentation was very prevalent in Rome where, for example, the Arch of Titus depicts the destruction of the Jews but doesn’t tell of the tens of thousands of Roman soldiers who were killed during the battles. We know that the Jews won several battles from historians.

There were very few of these historians in Ancient Egypt. Midrashim tell of events not written in the Torah plus with other historians at the time from other areas paint a picture of Ancient Egypt in the times of Yetziyas Mitzrayim.

Ancient Egyptians were very skilled in warfare. The country was the most powerful country for several centuries. It was known for its chariots which in today’s military would amount to tanks. The Torah first refers to these chariots being used in battle in Az Yashir. The pasuk says, “Sus v’rochbo rama v’yam, the horse and its rider were thrown into the sea.”

The Egyptians made very good use of animals in battle. It took about two years to create and train a horseman and chariot. Saddle pads were placed on the back of the horse and a yoke was attached to

give the rider flexibility. The soldier would be able swivel in his chariot using his waist and guide the horse while using both hands for his bow and arrow. There were also spikes on the spokes of the wheels to injure foot soldiers. Since the chariots were constructed of wood, the lack of springs made chariots unusable on certain terrain. Riders could not follow enemy soldiers into mountainous areas and chariots were subject to break down at any given moment.

A great debate rages as to which pharaoh was the one (or more than one) who ruled over the Jews in Mitzrayim. Without going into the details of this discussion and why there is uncertainty as to the particular pharaoh, it is interesting to note that Thutmose II’s mummy depicts him having cysts. As the only pharaoh to have this kind of blemish it could be in reference to the sixth plague of boils.

Archeologists have been able to carbon-date mud bricks going back to the time of the Jews in Mitzrayim.

It was noted, though, that the pyramids that stand in Egypt today were not built by the Jews; the Jews built cities. The pyramids were built after the Jews left Mitzrayim.

There were other powers at the time of Yetziyas Mitzrayim, with the Persians and the Hittites being two of the most notable. The Chitim,

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

the Hittites, are a very interesting subject because until 1834 no one had heard of this ancient kingdom outside of the mentions in Tanach.

Perhaps the most infamous Hittite of all time was Ephron, who sold the Me’aras Hamchapalia in Chevron to Avrohom Avinu for an exuberant price. For about 500 years, the Chittim existed and had two kingdoms.

During the New Kingdom of Egypt under Ramses II and the New Kingdom of the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II, the Battle of Kadesh took place. Located in Syria, the battle saw both sides using a combined 5,000 chariots. There was no clear victor but the battle is famous for being the earliest recorded details of strategies and tactics in history. To be clear, this battle almost certainly took place well after Yetziyas Mitzrayim, although some erroneously attribute Ramses II as the pharaoh who enslaved the Jews (this confusion comes from the fact that the years from the Jewish cal-

and the Persians. Modern day Egypt is not considered a world power but that didn’t stop them from attacking Israel. As with their ancestors using chariots to attack the Jews, during the Yom Kippur War Egypt used the best Russian-built tanks in some of the world’s largest tank battles in history.

All of those nations and their influences also did not stand the test of time. As we say in the Hagaddah, “She’lo echad bilvad amad aleinu lechaloseinu. Ela sheb’chol dor vador omdim aleinu lechaloseinu.

For it is not one (enemy) alone that stood up against us to destroy us, but in each generation there are those standing up against us to destroy us.”

Evidence of cysts was found on King Thutmose II's mummy

endar don’t correspond to the years in the non-Jewish calendar).

Egypt as a world power faded in

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the time of the Melachim (Jewish kings). Other powers rose up, including the Assyrians, Babylonians

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.

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Israel Today

The Greatest Summer Camp You Can't Attend Liat with her father, Denis Elikan

By Rafi Sackville

W

hen 14-year-old Liat Elikan arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in late July 2016, her mother Shuli was noticeably nervous. It was Liat’s first trip overseas by herself, and Shuli was understandably worried. Despite Shuli’s hesitation, she was somewhat relieved to discover that Liat wouldn’t be traveling alone. She was met by another 25 youngsters ranging in ages 8-18.

The cost of the ticket and camp had been paid for in full. In fact, the same was true for all of the youngsters there that day. The camp sponsored all attendees regardless of where they lived in the world.

Liat was not familiar with anyone in the group, at least not by face.

She had known of them, however, since she was a child. Her siblings had been through a similar experience, as had her father, Denis, when he was a boy.

Liat was taking part in a family ritual that has been held every two years since the 1920s.

The camp is fully subsidized and catered; it is run by the Samuel and Rahel Bollag Foundation.

Samuel and Rahel Bollag were visionaries. During the twilight years of their lives they made a decision which still has ramifications one hundred and seventeen years later.

Samuel, a successful doctor, raised twelve children with his wife Rahel.

By the time the accompanying pho-

to was taken, most of their children had married. Two of the Bollag sons followed in their father’s footsteps and went into medicine. The family was financially settled.

Rather than divide their will into 12 parts, they started a foundation instead. They invested 250,000 francs, which at today’s rates is a staggering $1,180,000.

This investment took place in 1901 to commemorate the eighth birthday of Samuel Bollag’s youngest son, Max Bollag. It was originally

rael, France, Argentina and America.

Samuel and Rahel designated their youngest son, Max, to run the Samuel and Rahel Bollag Foundation. Family members still control the fund today. At least three of them are always in charge.

After World War I, the family expanded the basic principles of the foundation and began a summer camp for family members between the ages of 8-18.

Denis, who descends from Sam-

Except for the years 1933-1946, the camp has run uninterrupted since the 1920s.

founded as the Samuel Bollag Foundation. On the occasion of its 25th anniversary in 1926, it was renamed the Samuel and Rahel Bollag Foundation.

The money invested would expand and be readily available when relatives found themselves in need.

This made sense, as the family was growing and moving to different parts of the world. Already at the turn of the century family members had begun to emigrate. Today the Bollag family is spread throughout the world. There are members in Is-

uel and Rahel through his mother’s side of the family, becomes animated when he describes his own experiences growing up in Switzerland. He loved attending the camps. Speaking to him one can see they were the highlight of his youth. So profound an effect did the experience have on him that he remains in contact with his cousins till today.

Liat is Denis and Shuli’s third child to attend the camp. Their two sons also remain in contact with cousins who attended the camp.

They keep in touch via the family

Facebook page, which is only open to family members.

I recently sat with Denis and Liat and watched as they scrolled through the hundreds of photos and postings. On the one hand the photos appeared as mundane as any online family pictures, but to watch father and daughter as they clicked through camp photos, one cannot help but feel being an outsider to a very exclusive club. To someone like me the photos are typical of camp experiences: the many tables beautifully set for Shabbat, the selfies, the photos of the long treks across mountains. Upon closer scrutiny, however, the Swiss Alps in the background supply the perfect backdrop to this titanic operation.

Consider arriving in Switzerland and being introduced to members of your family. Better yet, imagine what your lives would be like if you, too, were in contact with your own family regardless of how remote or distant they were. You would display the same excitement and joy I witnessed on the faces of Denis and Liat.

Over the last few years the Facebook page has become the central tool for keeping the family posted on births, deaths, and simchot. Denis pointed out that, while the camp has become the central focus of the family, the fund still provides for those in need, as well as covering the maintenance costs of the graves of family members. Since 1926 an

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

annual report is published. Over the years, the Foundation’s main activity has expanded to include the support of poor, Orthodox, large family members in Israel.

The family, and through it the fund, was also instrumental in helping family members escape the horrors of the Shoah. Except for one brother who was stranded in France, all original Bollag family members were able to escape the clutches of the Nazis.

Despite being held in Switzerland, the language most widely spoken at the camp is Hebrew, as the majority of members come from Israel. In fact, on the foundation’s 100th anniversary the camp was held in Israel, where many of the Bollag descendants now live. Denis remembers the camp well.

He sent both of his sons. The camp was held near Kiryat Shemona at the agricultural school. The entire group lived side by side in a small zimmer.

Most of the Israeli relatives are religious. This posed an interesting challenge for the more secularly

The Bollag family, circa 1901

minded relatives. And yet, there is a bond that draws family members of all stripes back to the camp. Two years ago Liat’s brothers insisted she attend the camp held in La Fouly, in the Valis District of Switzerland.

When I ask her if she’s going to be returning this summer, she doesn’t hesitate. This year the camp will also be held in Switzerland, in the village of Arosa, not far from Davos.

It is difficult to judge the number of Bollag descendants; the Guggenheims of New York are related.

Today, the family, including all the married couples, number about 550

members.

Except for the years 1933-1946, the camp has run uninterrupted since the 1920s. Generally held at different locations in Switzerland, it is a mixture of activities and hikes.

Kids over the age of 12 go on a two day trek through the Alps. The older children can participate in a more difficult hike, which are similar in their difficulty to Israeli high school trips where kids trek up and down mountains. These kids get to camp out under the stars, while their younger relatives are entertained and otherwise kept busy back at the

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camp site.

One of the highlights for Liat was how on one wall of the dining room a family tree had been posted.

She opened another internet page to show me a copy. The elongated branches spread across the page like the roots of a most robust tree.

Liat remains fascinated at the diversity of the branches and how honored she feels being a part of such a unique family that spans such a diverse mixture of cultures and nationalities.

One hundred and seventeen years ago Samuel and Rahel Bollag began a family fund. Did they have any inkling at what that investment would mean to their descendants generations later? One can only salute their vision and envy at the joy they continue to bring to the members of their extended family throughout the world.

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

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZER WITH REASONABLE RATES. CALL MAURISA 516-503-9606 SHALOM HANDYMAN Plumbing, heating, boiler, installation, sewer, locks, dryer vent cleaning and more…

CALL 917-217-3676 Yoga & Licensed Massage Therapy Peaceful Presence Studio 436 Central Avenue, Cedarhurst Separate men/women Group/private sessions Gift Cards Available www. Peacefulpresence.com 516 -371 -3715

SERVICES

HOUSES FOR SALE

PESACH EXPRESS CAR CLEANING QUICK AND RELIABLE SERVICE. WE COME TO YOU! CALL OR TEXT: (516) 373-8408

Can’t afford your property taxes?

Mortgage? Must sell for any reason?

Call for FREE Consultation.

Call now 212-470-3856 Cash buyers available!

GERBER MOVING FULL SERVICE MOVING Packing Moving Supplies Local Long Distance Licensed Insured 1000’S Of Happy Customers Call Shalom 347-276-7422

HOUSES FOR SALE CEDARHURST: 3 FAMILY HOME, 5BR, 3.5BA 2 Car Garage, Great Investment, Close To All…$699K Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com NORTH WOODMERE: NEW LISTING Beautiful & Spacious 4BR Colonial In Very Desirable Prime Location On CulDe-Sac, Den W/Fplc, Great Basement, Low Taxes, Close To All…$1.260M Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com

Carol Braunstein Call or Text

(516) 592-2206

cbraunstein@pugatch.com

www.pugatch.com

HEWLETT BAY PARK: PRICE REDUCED Spectacular Waterfront Colonial On 2+Acres, Bulkhead & Dock, 6BR, 6.5BA, Grand LR, Den W/Fplc, Eik W/Gas BBQ, Formal DR, IG-Heat Pool, Wood & Marble Floors Throughout, Separate Carriage House, 4 Car Garage & Much More...$1.995M Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com WOODSBURGH: BEST PRICE IN TOWN PRICE REDUCED Sprawling 4BR, 4BA Exp-Ranch, Oversized Rooms, LR W/Fplc, Formal Dining Rm, Large Den, Master Suite, Full Finished Basement, Storage Room & Office, Deck, Fabulous Property… $1.078M Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com

Susan Pugatch (516) 295-3000 spugatch@pugatch.com

LAWRENCE

Brand New Rental Apartments

NO FEE

2 Bedrooms, 1BA, Central A/C, Stainless Steel Appliances, Near All,

From…$2,000/mo.

Beautiful & Spacious 4BR, 2.5BA Colonial, Full Fin Bsmt, Gas Heat, Low Taxes, SD#15...$1.260M

Fabulous 4BR, 3BA Colonial, Magnificent 6BR, 5.5 Bath Fin Bsmt, SD#15..$P.O.R Colonial On 1 Acre..$P.O.R

Legal 3 Family, 5BR, Lovely 3BR Split In SD#15, Great Investment..$699K Hw Flrs, Near All..$799K

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Classifieds HOUSES FOR SALE Don’t Get Stuck With a Two Story House Ya Know, It’s One Story Before You Buy It But a Second Story After You Own It! Call Dov Herman For An Accurate Unbiased Home Inspection Infrared - Termite Inspection Full Report All Included NYC 718-INSPECT Long Island 516-INSPECT www.nyinspect.com

WOODMERE: NEW LISTING Move Right In, Lovely 3BR Split In SD#15, Eik, HW Floors, CAC, Vaulted Ceilings, Close To All, SD#15…$799K Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com WOODMERE: CHOICE PROPERTIES • 316 Longacre Ave. $999,999 Location, Location, Location.

Low Taxes • 1075 Cedar Lane $449,999 Best Value in town. 4BR • 302 Longacre A3 $118,000 Jr. 4, First Floor, Walk all locations C. Slansky BROKER 516-655-3636

COMMERCIAL RE CEDARHURST 500-3,500 +/- SF Beautiful, newly renovated space for rent. Ideal for Retail or Executive offices. Prime location. Convenient Parking.

Sam @516-612-2433 or 718-747-8080 INWOOD OFFICE SPACE LOWEST PRICES IN TOWN! 500-7000 Square feet gorgeous office space with WATERVIEW in Inwood!

Lots of options. Tons of parking.

Will divide and customize space for your needs!

Call 516-567-0100 INWOOD 10,000 sq ft brick building.

Offices and warehouse. High ceilings.

Asking $16/foot.

Owner: 516-206-1100 mark@mbequitygroup.com

WOODMERE

Corner prop w/ oversized yard, super sunny house. 4brs, 3bths, granite Kosher EIK, move-in cond. Call Bryna (516)322-4831 $729K

FAR ROCKAWAY

Updated legal 2 family in the heart of Far Rockaway.

Call Malka (516)967-1967 $649K

LAWRENCE

Oversized Colonial on beautiful street in Lawrence, renovated, 4 levels of living space, all large rooms. Call Riki (516)512-9629

WOODMERE

Mint condition 4br, 3bth split level home in the heart of the Academy area. Priced to sell! Call Bruria (718) 490-7791 $749K

CEDARHURST

Spacious High Ranch w/ 5 Brs And 3 Full Baths, Brand New Kosher EIK, Newly Re-Done Hardwood Floors And Carpet. $4500/month

LAWRENCE

Wide-Line exp ranch in exclusive Sutton Park section of Lawrence w/ room for expansion. Call Chana (516)449-9692 $1.38M

WOODMERE

PRICE REDUCED

New exc! Open layout cape w/ 3brs, renov bths, granite kosher kit.

Beaut yard, deck. A+ location, SD15. Tamar (917)902-0613 $739K

WOODMERE

Brand New Construction On Oversized Lot In The Heart Of SD #15.

Experienced builder. Call Tamar (917)902-0613 $1.495M

7 Family Brownstone + Retail Newly Renovated…$5.5M 8 Family Brownstone Good Upside…$4.2M Pugatch Realty Corp 516-295-3000

www.pugatch.com

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Classifieds COMMERCIAL RE CEDARHURST: COMING SOON Don’t Miss This Opportunity!!! High Tech Executive Suites W/Parking & Storage, Various Sizes Available, All New!!! 24 Hour Access, All Utilities Included Plus Many Amenities, for Lease…Call Ian for More Details (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com CEDARHURST: 3,300 +/- SF Retail Space with Basement, Municipal Parking Lot in Rear & Street Parking, Corner Building, Prime Location, Very High Ceilings & Lots of Windows, For Lease… Call Ian For More Details (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com EAST ROCKAWAY: Retail Stores on Busy Corner, 1000SF& Up Available, Great High Visibility Location, For Lease… Call for More Details Broker (516) 792-6698 FRANKLIN SQUARE: 2,185+/-SF Medical Office Space in Professional Strip W/On-Site Parking in Great Location, For Lease… Call Alan for More Details (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com

classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com text 443-929-4003

COMMERCIAL RE HEWLETT: INVESTOR’S DELIGHT!!!

5 Store Strip - Fully Leased, Great Tenancy, High Traffic Location, Easy to Manage, For Sale… Call Ian for More Details (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com FREEPORT: INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY!!!

12,000SF Multi Tenanted Professional Building with 21 Car On-Site Parking, Good Upside Potential, Lot Size 24,570SF, For Sale …Call For More Details Broker (516) 792-6698 WOODMERE: 1,400 +/- SF Office Space Available, steps from LIRR Station, Close to All, For Lease…

Call Lenny For More Details (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com EAST ROCKAWAY: Retail Stores on Busy Corner, 1000SF& Up Available, Great High Visibility Location, For Lease… Call for More Details Broker (516) 792-6698

CO-OP/CONDO SALE

APT FOR RENT

WOODMERE: BEST BUY Spacious 2BR Apartment, Washer/Dryer In Bldg, Elevator Bldg, Open Floor Plan, 1st Floor, Close To All...$199K Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com

ZTop Of The Line Apartment, 2 Bedrooms, Stainless Steel Appliances, Crown Molding, Close To All…From $2,000/mo Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com

KEW GARDENS HILLS Beautiful, spacious 3BR Co-op Apt .

Steps to shopping, public trans, shuls. $279K, Contact Milllie 917-705-5050 ISLAND PARK-NEW LISTING Spacious 3BR, 2.5BA Condo W/Porch & Terrace In Gated & Exclusive Resort Like Community, 24HR Security, Salt Water Pool & Boat Slips, Deeded Dock Spot & Much More...$625K Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com

APT FOR RENT FAR ROCKAWAY: NEW LISTING Spacious & Updated 2BR, 2 Bathroom Apt on 1st Floor W/Terrace In Elevator Bldg, Parking, Doorman & Laundry Room On Premise...$350K Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com

PROPOFF: RENOVATED 2 BDRM APT IN FAR ROCKAWAY FOR RENT Totally renovated 2 bedroom apartment, Sage St, Far Rockaway.

New appliances, counters, 2 sinks, & much more. 2nd floor, private entrance; washer/dryer; parking available; Near main Shuls & LIRR; $1850/month includes heat & water.

For more information call (718) 327-4386.

LAWRENCE: NO FEE: BRAND NEW Top Of The Line Apartment, 2 Bedrooms, Stainless Steel Appliances, Crown Molding, Close To All…From $2,000/mo Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com CEDARHURST: NEW LISTING 2BR, 2BA In 2 Family House, Eik, LR, DR, Washer/Dryer, Very Close To All, Great Location...$2,500/mo Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com

Life CAPTURE

I M A G E S LTD PHOTOGRAPHY I VIDEO

GABRIEL SOLOMON

GABE@LIFECAPTUREIMAGES.COM 516.499.9620 WWW.LIFECAPTUREIMAGES.COM

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

Classifieds HELP WANTED SPECIAL CARE FOR FAMILIES AND CHILDREN SERVICES • Seeking a motivated and energetic male to work with a fun, charming 12 year old boy with Down syndrome in Far Rockaway, Sundays 4-6:30, Tuesdays 7-8:45.

• Seeking warm and caring male to work with a 19 year old male with autism after 5:00 in Far Rockaway.

Please call Special Care 718-325-3365 ex:102 or email: renay@specialcarefor.com Five Towns Yeshiva High School seeks an energetic, responsible and innovative individual to serve as an EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT IN A BUSY OFFICE AS WELL AS ASSISTING WITH FUNDRAISING AND SCHOOL EVENTS. Must be reliable, detail oriented and able to work with tight deadlines.

Position will be full time. Salary range will depend on skills and experience, excellent computer skills a must, InfoGrasp experience a plus.

E-mail resume and references to mesivta18@yahoo.com

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classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com text 443-929-4003

HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED

HEBREW ACADEMY OF LONG BEACH, Woodmere, NY seeks the following Middle School positions for 2018-2019: Rebbe and Morah with 5+ yrs. experience and Masters in Education, Hebrew Language, Assistant Rebbe.

Resumes to sbotwinick@halb.org

SECRETARY Secretarial position available in a residence in Cedarhurst for individuals with developmental disabilities.

Looking for a very organized person who has ability to multi-task. Excellent English communication, follow up and basic computer skills required.

Morning hours, part time. Call 855OHEL JOB, pply online at www. ohelfamily.org/careers

Seeking JH Social Studies teacher for local Yeshiva in September. Good pay and supportive administration. Fax resume to 347-571-2287.

P/T COOK Plan and prepare kosher meals for men with developmental disabilities in a residential setting Cedarhurst.

Knowledge of kashrus a must. Contact OHEL at 855-OHEL JOB, online at www.ohelfamily.org/careers F/T & P/T POSITIONS: Counselors needed to work with men or women with developmental disabilities or psychiatric disabilities living in group residences in Far Rockaway, the Five Towns, and Queens. Ability to speak and write English required. All shifts available including 8:30am-4:30pm, 3pm-11pm, Overnights and Weekends. Great Salary plus benefits!! Contact OHEL at 855OHEL JOB, online at www.ohelfamily. org/careers

TJH Classifieds Post your Real Estate, Help Wanted, Services, Miscellaneous Ads here.

Weekly Classifed Ads Up to 5 lines and/or 25 words 1 week ................ $20 $10 2 weeks .............. $35 $17.50 4 weeks .............. $60 $30 Email ads to: classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com Include valid credit card info

Deadline Monday 5:00pm

Rabbi Dovid Fleischmann Certified Mohel

WWW.BABYSMOHEL.COM

Baby-Friendly Care

 Personalized Attention

Expert Skill and Dedicated Service you Deserve

516-314-3236 babysmohel@gmail.com

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Classifieds

classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com text 443-929-4003

Patient Intake Coordinator - Full Time – Brooklyn Office

HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED

Looking to hire an ambitious patient intake Coordinator to serve as the front-line person to walk our patients thru our insurance and financial services and assist them throughout the process.

HELP WANTED P/T Ohel Bais Ezra's Community Habilitation and Respite Programs looking for dedicated and responsible male and female staff to work with children or adults with developmental disabilities who live at home in your community. Experience and driving preferred, not required. Good English communication a must. Flex P/T After school hours. Call 718-686-3487, apply online: www.ohelfamily.org/careers

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

Job requirements: 1. Excellent written and verbal communication skills 2. Warm personality 3. Strong advocacy skills 4. Professional computer literacy. Speak fluent English and Yiddish 6. Experience in similar field is a plus Please submit your resume to:

joboffer718@gmail.com or fax to (718)310-6318

BOYS’ MIDDLE SCHOOL IN FAR ROCKAWAY (GRADES 6-8), is hiring secular studies teachers for the Fall semester in all secular subjects; excellent working environment and salary. Interviews are being held now.

Please send resume to mhorowitz@darchei.org NURSE SUPERVISOR needed within our residential programs in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and Manhattan for adults with developmental disabilities. Provide initial training for new nurses and ongoing training and development for staff nurses. Strong health assessment skills and supervisory experience needed. Min. 5 years post-graduate experience required.

Call 855-OHEL-JOB or apply here: www.ohelfamily.org/careers 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…

Call Today (516) 295-3000 x 128.

All calls kept confidential.

P4 TEACHER NEEDED IN YESHIVA KETANA OF QUEENS FOR SEVERAL CASES. 917-742-8909.

BAAL KOREI WANTED FOR SMALL NASSAU COUNTY ORTHODOX SHUL. Generous Salary. Comfortable Accomodations. Shabbos Meals.

Additionally we need a baal korei for Pesach.

Please call the Rabbi at 516 444 2393 SPECIAL EDUCATION SCHOOL IN FIVE TOWNS SEEKS F/T QUALIFIED, PASSIONATE TEACHER WITH EXPERIENCE FOR 18-19 SCHOOL YEAR. Great working environment and competitive salary. Send resume to reiferm.@ou.org Special Education school in Five Towns seeks F/T passionate and responsible assistants for 18-19 school year. Send resume to reiferm@ou.org

SHULAMITH EARLY CHILDHOOD is looking to hire a full time teacher assistant for the current school year.

Please email resume to earlychildhood@shulamith.org 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.

Computer literate a must.

Please email fabadi@egwaste.com CATAPULT LEARNING Teachers, Title I Boro Park, Williamsburg and Flatbush Schools *College/Yeshiva Degree *Teaching experience required *Strong desire to help children learn *Small group instruction *Excellent organization skills Competitive salary Send resume to: Fax: (212) 480-3691 ~ Email: nyteachers@catapultlearning.com

MISC GIFT IT FORWARD MOVED TO 527 CENTRAL AVE, INSIDE PRESTIGIO WIGS. We are a nonprofit gift shop, helping others in need through donations to local charities.

Every purchase benefits the community.

Donations of new gift items appreciated. fb/insta/whatsapp @ giftitforwardcedarhurst info. giftitforward@yahoo.com 516-612-3598 WIG GEMACH Everyone in our community deserves to look great! Donate used wigs and make a world of a difference.

For appointments to see wigs or to donate, call Deena 845-304-6668

Small Ads at Work

Classifieds

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

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Money

Oops!

By Allan Rolnick, CPA

B

ack in 1985, a group of ambitious lawmakers set out to reform the federal income tax code. House Ways & Means Chair Dan Rostenkowski introduced the legislation. (This was before he became inmate 016-25338# at the Oxford Federal Correctional Institution.)

Congress held dozens of hearings, cast 29 roll call votes, and debated 111 amendments on philosophical questions like Dan Quayle’s proposal “to provide that the period during which an individual is in the United States competing in a charitable sporting event shall not be taken into account in determining whether such individual is a resident alien.”

Ten months and 18 days later, President Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 into law. Two years after that, Congress passed a “technical corrections” bill to fix hundreds of drafting errors that made it into the final text.

Fast forward to 2017. Technology and the internet have made everything faster, right? That includes legislation, of course. On November 2, House Ways & Means Chair Kevin Brady introduced the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. There were zero hearings, handwritten amendments in the middle of the night, and a quick “never

mind” when Senators realized they had accidentally killed the Research & Development credit.

On December 22 — just 50 days later — the President signed the bill into law. That’s less time than it usually takes to rename a post office after a local school board member. Now those lawmakers may be rediscov-

give big grain producers like Archer Daniels Midland a big advantage over smaller farmers. So a couple of agriculture-state senators tried to level the playing field by giving producers who sell to co-ops the same 20% “qualified business income” deduction as other pass-through businesses. Unfortunately, they let those farm-

It turns out Congress may have skipped ahead to the bottom of their homework a little too quickly, and made a teensyweensy boo-boo or two along the way.

ering something their grandmothers told them back when they were little: namely, “marry in haste, repent in leisure.” It turns out Congress may have skipped ahead to the bottom of their homework a little too quickly, and made a teensy-weensy boo-boo or two along the way.

• The cut in the top corporate tax rate, from 35% to 21%, happened to

ers deduct 20% of their gross sales when they wanted to let them deduct 20% of their taxable income. Big difference. Can Congress pass a fix?

• Lawmakers wanted to give restaurant owners and retailers a tasty break for renovation expenses by letting them deduct so-called “leasehold improvements” over 15 years. Instead, they made it 39 years.

Restaurant lobbyists understand this was an honest mistake, like overcooking a steak. But, same as you can’t uncook an overdone slab of beef, there’s no easy “do-over” to fix the problem short of amending the actual law.

• Even the giant multinational corporations you would expect to applaud the new lower rates are howling over “base erosion” rules, intended to stop them from playing games by shifting profits offshore to avoid taxes here. (Trust us, you don’t want to know the details.) It’s hyper-technical stuff, but there are big dollars at stake.

Can you even imagine how many lawyers will buy new Jaguars with the money they bill for “taxsplaining” what Congress really meant in court?

Drafting errors and “technical” corrections certainly make tax planning harder. But they don’t make it any less important. We can’t let the “perfect” be the enemy of the good. So call us when you’re tired of wasting money on taxes you don’t have to pay, and let’s see if we can show Congress how to do it right.

Allan J Rolnick is a CPA who has been in practice for over 30 years in Queens, NY. He welcomes your comments and can be reached at 718-896-8715 or at allanjrcpa@aol.com.

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Life C ach

Pass Out or Pass Over?

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., MFT, CLC

S

o, I’m going to share some thoughts I heard about Passover night because trust me this is one night you don’t want to pass over.

First, I’m calling this meeting to order! Correction, this meeting is called order! Question one: why?

Second, one is usually more impressed with the artist over the framer, picture hanger, or touch-up person. Why does G-d want us to remember that He got involved later, and not that He was the Creator of everything?

Third, why is it that on all other nights when the doorbell rings at midnight we tend to lock the door tighter, but on this night, we throw it open even wider?

And lastly. What’s in it for us?

These are the four questions I want to address! They are not exactly the ones from the Haggadah. But, then again, I’m taking my cue from the Master – I’m not creating the idea of four questions; I’m just getting involved later!

So why is this night called order?

Among other reasons, because G-d is sending us a clear message that He runs this world with order. It could all look random, but there is an order at play. G-d has a plan, although we may not always be privy to it. But it’s there unfolding behind the scenes.

So, what’s the reason G-d wants us to know about His involvement somewhere in the middle of the ongoing action? He wants us to know that He didn’t just plop us down here on earth and take off. He gets involved in what happens to us. And He can certainly change what happens to us.

We seemed to be going downhill fast in Egypt. Then G-d swooped in and delivered 10 progressively personal and horrific plagues. After that He made water all over the universe stand on edge. And then He delivered manna from heaven daily – no planting, shopping, schlepping, or prepping. It was just close your eyes, click your heels together, and whatever you wanted it to taste like, you got it!

G-d wants us to know He is in an ongoing relationship with us. He is there for us. And if we just believe He’s got our back, and repeat all Seder night that we saw clearly with the

Finally, what’s in it for us? So, get this, each step of the seder is a chance for us to tap into the ability to up our game. The more we get the order with which G-d runs things, the more we can use that to be effective in our mission of self-elevation and actualization.

Fifteen steps are shared to get us to a better mindset.

So, we start with a mandate: Kadeish “and” urchatz. They are tied together with an “and”! Right from the start the message is that, in order to elevate yourself, you must wash away negative thinking.

Karpos: dipping in salt water.

There is a big, hidden piece of life that we don't see or understand.

Exodus that He is with us, then we are demonstrating we are aware of and appreciative of the ongoing connection.

So that brings up Elijah. One time he turned to G-d and he said, “I don’t know, I just don’t think these Jews are getting you. Maybe You should give up on them.” G-d responded, “They may get sidetracked but they’ll always re-recognize that I’m here for them”. G-d brings Elijah to the seder, year after year, to witness that we do appreciate that G-d is in our lives on a very intimate plane. We “lean” into that fact an entire night!

There is always the opportunity for renewal, rebirth.

Yachatz: the bigger part of the middle matzah is broken and hidden.

We are being told a powerful message. There is a big, hidden piece of life that we don’t see or understand.

If we did, then we would be able to see the whole confusing picture with clarity. Therefore, we should recognize that what we see and experience is just a small part of a whole plan.

Maggid: we tell of leaving Mitzrayim, which can be broken into “m’tzaarim, from limitations.” We should be open in our thinking and

realize there’s more than meets the eye.

Rachatz: wash away your old ideas.

Motzi Matzah: matzah symbolizes that anything can be turned around. In Egypt it was the bread of affliction because they had no time to let bread rise; they were working too hard. Then G-d made it symbolic of freedom, as they had no time to let it rise so they could escape Egypt.

There is always more ways things can be seen and used.

Marror: yes, life has bitterness.

No denying that. But it isn’t the bottom line.

Koreich: this sandwich symbolizes rebuilding. There is always potential for rebuilding.

Shulchan orech: this spread of food symbolizes that many choices get put before us. It is in our hands to decide what we want to do.

Tsafon: we eat the afikomen. We eventually see the big hidden half.

Boraich: and now with this knowledge you have a reason to feel blessed.

Hallel: and to praise!

Nitrza: you can now depart with this knowledge and live a more meaningful life.

Armed with these insights, experience Passover with renewed commitment. Don’t pass out, Passover!

Rivki Rosenwald is a certified relationship counselor, and career and life coach. She can be contacted at 917-7052004 or rivki@rosenwalds.com.

The Jewish Home | MARCH 28, 2018

what 1s your daughter look1ng for 1n a summer camp?

Door to Door Buss1ng Del1c1ous lunches Da1ly 1ndoor and out door sw1m Un1que and spec1al act1v1t1es Extraord1nary tr1ps

We have top rat1ngs for all, we are f1ve stars.

Reg1ster today For a top rated summer Campers ages 3-13 • campatara.com campatara@gma1l.com • 718.471.8444 x234 444 beach 6th street, far Rockaway 11691

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MARCH 28, 2018 | The Jewish Home