"When good is done," by a religious Jew, he exclaimed, "it is 'just an individual'" who has done it, in the eyes of cynics. "But when bad is done" by one, he is immediately regarded as representing the entire community.
-Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff, Rov, Agudas Yisroel Bais Binyomin
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
Bar mitzvah land
Bar mitzvah land
For some Americans Israel seen as a banquet hall, not a place to live in
Hagai Segal Published: 11.13.09, 14:10 / Israel Opinion
Rahm Emanuel, possibly the most important Jew of this generation, smiled at us this past week. In a speech delivered at the conference of the Jewish Federations of North America, Emanuel portrayed himself as a great Israeli patriot.
A significant part of his address focused on spirited denial of the claims that he is the driving force behind the Obama Administration’s hostile acts vis-à-vis Israel. Emanuel also denied that there is any hostility to begin with. For a moment, it appeared as though President Obama is the current day version of Zionist forefather Theodor Herzl.
In the framework of his persuasion efforts in the face of a suspicious audience, the White House chief of staff declared that at the end of May 2010 he will be arriving in Israel with his family in order to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of his eldest son, Zach.
We were told that one of the possibilities being looked into is holding the ceremony at the Western Wall. Jerusalem’s photographers and the Western Wall beggars are already preparing for the occasion.
Once upon a time, Jews would arrive in Israel in order to be buried here; today, they drop by for a visit in order to celebrate a bar mitzvah. This lovely yet problematic custom is particularly prevalent among wealthy Jews from the United States who can afford to live there and celebrate here.
Israel an insurance policy
When their sons reach the age of 13, they head to Jerusalem to celebrate in an effort to remind their children where their roots lie. Immediately after the bar mitzvah, however, the family returns home, to the Diaspora.
In the eyes of the young child, who barely understands a few words from the Haftarah he reads, Israel is a banquet hall, rather than a place to live in. In his parents’ view, Israel is an insurance policy, in case of some kind of future trouble. When he gets married, the son’s chuppah will be held by the Hudson River.
By the time he turns 40 or 50, he will become a Woody Allan or a Bernard Madoff, or possibly a senior presidential aide on the issue of the settlements. His son too will be flown to Israel for his bar mitzvah, and so on and so forth.
Should Jerusalem be divided meantime, in line with the Emanuel-Obama plan, the ceremony will be held near the miniature Western Wall model at the Mini-Israel amusement park near Jerusalem
For some Americans Israel seen as a banquet hall, not a place to live in
Hagai Segal Published: 11.13.09, 14:10 / Israel Opinion
Rahm Emanuel, possibly the most important Jew of this generation, smiled at us this past week. In a speech delivered at the conference of the Jewish Federations of North America, Emanuel portrayed himself as a great Israeli patriot.
A significant part of his address focused on spirited denial of the claims that he is the driving force behind the Obama Administration’s hostile acts vis-à-vis Israel. Emanuel also denied that there is any hostility to begin with. For a moment, it appeared as though President Obama is the current day version of Zionist forefather Theodor Herzl.
In the framework of his persuasion efforts in the face of a suspicious audience, the White House chief of staff declared that at the end of May 2010 he will be arriving in Israel with his family in order to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of his eldest son, Zach.
We were told that one of the possibilities being looked into is holding the ceremony at the Western Wall. Jerusalem’s photographers and the Western Wall beggars are already preparing for the occasion.
Once upon a time, Jews would arrive in Israel in order to be buried here; today, they drop by for a visit in order to celebrate a bar mitzvah. This lovely yet problematic custom is particularly prevalent among wealthy Jews from the United States who can afford to live there and celebrate here.
Israel an insurance policy
When their sons reach the age of 13, they head to Jerusalem to celebrate in an effort to remind their children where their roots lie. Immediately after the bar mitzvah, however, the family returns home, to the Diaspora.
In the eyes of the young child, who barely understands a few words from the Haftarah he reads, Israel is a banquet hall, rather than a place to live in. In his parents’ view, Israel is an insurance policy, in case of some kind of future trouble. When he gets married, the son’s chuppah will be held by the Hudson River.
By the time he turns 40 or 50, he will become a Woody Allan or a Bernard Madoff, or possibly a senior presidential aide on the issue of the settlements. His son too will be flown to Israel for his bar mitzvah, and so on and so forth.
Should Jerusalem be divided meantime, in line with the Emanuel-Obama plan, the ceremony will be held near the miniature Western Wall model at the Mini-Israel amusement park near Jerusalem
Thursday, November 12, 2009
“The lawyer and the drowning girl”
“The lawyer and the drowning girl”
A True Story told over by HaRav Fishel Schachter, Parshas Va’era, 2008
There was a chareidi family that took a vacation to Teveria. The wife and 2 daughters went down to the kineret to go swimming. The husband went to daven by Reb Meir Baal HaNeis. The girls start to wade in the water, and the older daughter steps too far in and is swept into a current, but she couldn’t swim, and begins to go under. The mother is watching as the daughter is pleading for her life, but the mother couldn’t swim. The mother runs onto the highway and is desperately trying to flag down cars for help. They are swerving around her, honking at her, screaming to get out of the road. Finally an elegant car stops and a well dressed man asks what’s happening. The mother screams my daughter is drowning. He throws off his coat and runs and dives into the water. The man’s wife is screaming to him saying, “Remember you just had a heart attack.” He dives into the water and comes up with the little girl. The mother breathes a sigh of relief for a moment, until she realizes that this was the younger daughter who must have jumped in to save the older daughter. She screams “I have another daughter there!” He jumps back in and screams “Where is she? Where is she?” The mother is pointing to him, “Over there, over there.” He dives to the bottom and begins to drag her limpless body to the shore, but now there are people on the shore, who are screaming “Her head is still in the water! Her head is still in the water. Lift it out!!!” He lifts her head and puts it on his shoulder and brings her ashore. There was an arab man was on the beach, who started doing CPR on the girl. They called the ambulance and the ambulance crew said they took a pulse, but her head was in the water too long, there’s nothing they can do. They go off to the hospital, and the doctors say there’s no hope. The family began davening for a miracle. They’re waiting and waiting, davening. The Doctor took an MRI, and when he saw the results, runs back in and said, “I can’t believe it, regular brain activity resumed”. The daughter finally wakes up and leaves the hospital two days later. The doctors said they never saw anything like it, she was deprived of oxygen for so long, it was impossible to have this outcome.
A few days later, the family makes a Seudas Hod’ah (meal of thanks) to thank H” for the miracle, and wanted to invite the man who jumped into the water to save their daughter. They couldn’t find him, so thought maybe he called into the hospital to see how she was, and they were right. They found him. He was an attorney from a non observant kibbutz, with no connection to yiddishkeit his whole life. They invited him to the seudah and he told them this story. He was recovering from a heart attack before this incident, and he and his wife were headed up North for a vacation, when he saw this chareidi woman in the street. His wife said keep driving, she’s a meshuganah, but he said she looks desperate, so decided to help. He told the family that he had been sick for awhile, and used to be an Olympic swimmer, but hadn’t swam in YEARS. But just last week, as part of his therapy for the heart attack, he was in a hotel that had a pool, and he started to swim laps during the week. His wife was yelling at him that it was dangerous, and he told her that for some reason, he felt that he had to do this for some reason. He felt that he just loved it. He told them that If he hadn’t done this he wouldn’t have been in shape enough to rescue their daughters. “So I jumped in and saved your first daughter, but then you told me there’s another daughter. I went back in, and as I was pulling your 2nd daughter to shore, and realized that I didn’t bring her head above the water, I was going out of my mind – during those crucial last few moments, I didn’t bring her head above the water, I was going out of my mind.” Afterwards, I came home and cried to my wife, “I killed that girl.” My wife said what are you talking about, you saved her, you risked your life. “But I’m so stupid, I didn’t take her head out of the water.” No, she said, you just didn’t realize. “NO, She died because of my stupidity” I said, “It was my fault, she would have lived!”. So I ran back to that place, and climbed to the top of a mountain, and I said, “Ribbono Shel Olam, never in my life did I pray to you. I was raised on a kibbutz, and laughed at prayer. I wouldn’t be caught dead praying, I would have been so embarrassed. G-d, this is the first time in my life I’m praying to you. I’ll never be able to live this down. I won’t be able to go on. PLEASE, H”, consider it as if I prayed to you my whole life, and combine all those prayers that I could have said, and use them to save this girl. Please G-d” He continued to tell the family, that “I went back home and called the hospital, and they told me that an hour ago (as I was saying this prayer) she woke up!”
Think about this story, was he a hero b/c he took off his jacket and jumped in? Was it that he jumped in twice? Where was the gift of life? It was at the moment that he said “I blew it, I tried and I tried and blew it.” Instead of falling to despair, he took that broken heart, and instead of letting it turn into depression and sadness, he converted it into Tefillah. A tefillah that he never had before in his life. And miracles came from it. There are moments in life that we think we blew it. We have to realize that those very moments, if used correctly, are the seeds for redemption, Moshiach, refuah and yeshuah for everyone.
-Transcribed from a shiur by Rav Fishel Schachter, shlita
A True Story told over by HaRav Fishel Schachter, Parshas Va’era, 2008
There was a chareidi family that took a vacation to Teveria. The wife and 2 daughters went down to the kineret to go swimming. The husband went to daven by Reb Meir Baal HaNeis. The girls start to wade in the water, and the older daughter steps too far in and is swept into a current, but she couldn’t swim, and begins to go under. The mother is watching as the daughter is pleading for her life, but the mother couldn’t swim. The mother runs onto the highway and is desperately trying to flag down cars for help. They are swerving around her, honking at her, screaming to get out of the road. Finally an elegant car stops and a well dressed man asks what’s happening. The mother screams my daughter is drowning. He throws off his coat and runs and dives into the water. The man’s wife is screaming to him saying, “Remember you just had a heart attack.” He dives into the water and comes up with the little girl. The mother breathes a sigh of relief for a moment, until she realizes that this was the younger daughter who must have jumped in to save the older daughter. She screams “I have another daughter there!” He jumps back in and screams “Where is she? Where is she?” The mother is pointing to him, “Over there, over there.” He dives to the bottom and begins to drag her limpless body to the shore, but now there are people on the shore, who are screaming “Her head is still in the water! Her head is still in the water. Lift it out!!!” He lifts her head and puts it on his shoulder and brings her ashore. There was an arab man was on the beach, who started doing CPR on the girl. They called the ambulance and the ambulance crew said they took a pulse, but her head was in the water too long, there’s nothing they can do. They go off to the hospital, and the doctors say there’s no hope. The family began davening for a miracle. They’re waiting and waiting, davening. The Doctor took an MRI, and when he saw the results, runs back in and said, “I can’t believe it, regular brain activity resumed”. The daughter finally wakes up and leaves the hospital two days later. The doctors said they never saw anything like it, she was deprived of oxygen for so long, it was impossible to have this outcome.
A few days later, the family makes a Seudas Hod’ah (meal of thanks) to thank H” for the miracle, and wanted to invite the man who jumped into the water to save their daughter. They couldn’t find him, so thought maybe he called into the hospital to see how she was, and they were right. They found him. He was an attorney from a non observant kibbutz, with no connection to yiddishkeit his whole life. They invited him to the seudah and he told them this story. He was recovering from a heart attack before this incident, and he and his wife were headed up North for a vacation, when he saw this chareidi woman in the street. His wife said keep driving, she’s a meshuganah, but he said she looks desperate, so decided to help. He told the family that he had been sick for awhile, and used to be an Olympic swimmer, but hadn’t swam in YEARS. But just last week, as part of his therapy for the heart attack, he was in a hotel that had a pool, and he started to swim laps during the week. His wife was yelling at him that it was dangerous, and he told her that for some reason, he felt that he had to do this for some reason. He felt that he just loved it. He told them that If he hadn’t done this he wouldn’t have been in shape enough to rescue their daughters. “So I jumped in and saved your first daughter, but then you told me there’s another daughter. I went back in, and as I was pulling your 2nd daughter to shore, and realized that I didn’t bring her head above the water, I was going out of my mind – during those crucial last few moments, I didn’t bring her head above the water, I was going out of my mind.” Afterwards, I came home and cried to my wife, “I killed that girl.” My wife said what are you talking about, you saved her, you risked your life. “But I’m so stupid, I didn’t take her head out of the water.” No, she said, you just didn’t realize. “NO, She died because of my stupidity” I said, “It was my fault, she would have lived!”. So I ran back to that place, and climbed to the top of a mountain, and I said, “Ribbono Shel Olam, never in my life did I pray to you. I was raised on a kibbutz, and laughed at prayer. I wouldn’t be caught dead praying, I would have been so embarrassed. G-d, this is the first time in my life I’m praying to you. I’ll never be able to live this down. I won’t be able to go on. PLEASE, H”, consider it as if I prayed to you my whole life, and combine all those prayers that I could have said, and use them to save this girl. Please G-d” He continued to tell the family, that “I went back home and called the hospital, and they told me that an hour ago (as I was saying this prayer) she woke up!”
Think about this story, was he a hero b/c he took off his jacket and jumped in? Was it that he jumped in twice? Where was the gift of life? It was at the moment that he said “I blew it, I tried and I tried and blew it.” Instead of falling to despair, he took that broken heart, and instead of letting it turn into depression and sadness, he converted it into Tefillah. A tefillah that he never had before in his life. And miracles came from it. There are moments in life that we think we blew it. We have to realize that those very moments, if used correctly, are the seeds for redemption, Moshiach, refuah and yeshuah for everyone.
-Transcribed from a shiur by Rav Fishel Schachter, shlita
Thursday, November 5, 2009
DIVORCE AGREEMENT
American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:
We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course.
Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.
Here is a model separation agreement:
Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.
We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.
You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).
We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood.
You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.
We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, MSNBC and Shirley McClean. You can also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the bill.
We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.
You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right. We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.
We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.
Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you about which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.
Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American
P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda & The View with you.
P. S. S. And we won't have to press 1 for English.
We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course.
Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.
Here is a model separation agreement:
Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.
We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.
You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).
We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood.
You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.
We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, MSNBC and Shirley McClean. You can also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the bill.
We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.
You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right. We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.
We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.
Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you about which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.
Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American
P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda & The View with you.
P. S. S. And we won't have to press 1 for English.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
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