Zera Shimshon Parshat Vayigash

 

Syrian Jewish Community in Brooklyn Purchases Two Luxury Towers in Central Jerusalem

 The Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn has made a historic real estate move in Jerusalem, purchasing two entire residential towers currently under construction near the Machane Yehuda shuk. The deal, valued at up to NIS 1 billion (approximately $270 million), is believed to be among the largest private real estate transactions ever completed in Israel.

The purchase was made by OP Jerusalem with the goal of creating a central hub in Eretz Yisrael for the Syrian Jewish community, primarily families from Brooklyn and Deal, New Jersey. The apartments will also be marketed to other Sephardic communities, including Moroccan and Persian Jews, as well as Syrian Jews from Panama and Mexico, though sales are open to the broader Jewish public as well.

The project includes 200 luxury apartments across two towers, part of a larger four-building complex adjacent to the shuk. Planned amenities include a shul, mikvah, full-time doorman, gym, children’s play areas, communal halls, and rooftop terraces. Apartment prices range from about $1 million for a one-bedroom to $3.7 million for larger family units.

About 70% of the apartments have already been sold, with completion expected in roughly five years. Many buyers plan to divide their time between Israel and the U.S., with high occupancy anticipated during Yomim Tovim.

The deal comes as Israel’s housing market has cooled, making the successful sale of two full towers particularly notable.

Charedim and the future of Israeli society explained!

 

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Who remembers Shmulka Bernstein on Essex ??

 

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Crazy! Matt Gaetz Blames Israel on his own Pedophilia

 

No, Gaetz, you’re a disgusting pig all on your own. You’re too dumb to shut up about your officially certified perversion. https://t.co/w2MxFtgZgK

— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) December 23, 2025

UN Spends $100M a Year Targeting Israel

 

Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations says the UN spends roughly $100 million annually on reports, committees, and mechanisms that overwhelmingly  single out Israel.

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said the funds support “orchestrated, well-funded propaganda” against Israel and the IDF, often under bodies dedicated exclusively to Palestinian issues.

The analysis highlights entities such as the Division for Palestinian Rights and points to UNRWA, whose budget remains largely untouched despite evidence of Hamas infiltration.

Married Lady's Letter to Her OTD Husband

The Marriage I Was Never Given Guest post from N's wife   You keep saying you are finally living “the truth.” I want to understand that word the way you use it. Truly. Because from where I’m sitting, alone at the Shabbos table, “truth” looks a lot like leaving your wife and children while you head off to drink beer with your friends, flirt with women who don’t know—or don’t care—that you have a family, and eat pepperoni pizza like it’s a philosophical statement instead of indulgence. But please, enlighten me. This is authenticity. This is courage. This is existing. What you never seem to remember is that you were already living your truth when you married me. You just didn’t tell me. You stood under the chuppah knowing you didn’t believe, knowing you didn’t intend to live the life you promised, knowing that if I had the actual facts I might have walked away.

So instead, you made sure I couldn’t. That was your first act of truth. I married a man who was presented as religious, committed, aligned with me in values. I married a vision. A performance. A carefully managed version of you that existed just long enough to secure a wife, a home, children, legitimacy. And now you want applause for ripping off the costume. You write about how lonely you feel, how numb, how trapped by expectations. You write about how I “won’t let you” leave for Shabbos, as if I am a tyrant guarding the gates of pleasure instead of a woman trying to keep her family from dissolving one weekend at a time. You frame it as oppression. I experience it as abandonment. Because when you leave, I’m still here. Lighting candles alone. Explaining to our children why Abba isn’t home. Holding a structure together that you dismantle and then blame me for mourning. But of course, your absence is noble. It’s about truth. About being real. About not pretending anymore. Funny how your truth always seems to involve disappearing into places where no one asks you to be accountable. And yes—I wonder. I wonder what else is happening when you vanish into that world I’m not allowed to question. I wonder what other truths you’re discovering when you’re surrounded by women who don’t carry the weight of your deception, who don’t know the vows you broke before they were even spoken. If that makes me suspicious, so be it. Betrayal rewires the brain. That’s not insecurity—that’s pattern recognition. You talk about my pain like it’s irrational. Like it’s fear of change. Like it’s denial. You even mourn that I won’t form a support group, as if what I need is communal processing rather than a time machine and informed consent. I don’t need a group to help me accept that my husband reinvented himself at my expense. I need you to stop pretending this is a shared tragedy. You want credit for staying. For not walking away entirely. As if staying after lying is a favor. As if partial presence is generosity. But I am not grateful. Because I never had the husband I chose. I never had the loving, religious partner I was promised. I never had the opportunity to decide whether I could live with an atheist husband—because by the time I knew the truth, leaving meant losing everything I was taught to build my life around. You didn’t just change the terms. You waited until escape was nearly impossible. And now you stand in your freedom—beer in hand, truth on your lips—and ask why I’m not more understanding. Here is my truth: Your authenticity costs me every day. Your liberation is built on my confinement. And your self-discovery looks an awful lot like indulgence wrapped in moral language. If you want to live honestly, start by telling the story without making yourself the hero. Stop calling your appetite “authenticity.” Stop calling my boundaries “control.” Stop calling your betrayal “truth”. And stop asking me to disappear quietly so you can feel better about how you got here. This is not a story about courage. It’s a story about what happens when one person decides their truth matters more than another person’s consent—and then demands to be admired for saying it out loud.

6 things to know about pancreatic cancer after former senator’s diagnosis

 Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska announced this week that he has been diagnosed with metastatic stage 4 pancreatic cancer, calling the disease "a death sentence" in a message posted on X.

Sasse, 53, said the cancer has spread and acknowledged that he has "less time than I’d prefer," although he also mentioned recent scientific advances and his intention to pursue treatment.

"I’m not going down without a fight," Sasse said when revealing his diagnosis. "One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jaw-dropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more."

Pancreatic cancer is known to be one of the deadliest forms of cancer, with ongoing research efforts aiming to improve outcomes. 

Below are six key things to know about the disease.

Beit Shemesh Residents Shout Down Rav Feldman who Came from Chutz Le'aaretz to Bad-mouth the Jewish State

Rav Aharon Feldman spoke Monday night during a public asifah in Beit Shemesh that addressed the issue of giyus. 

The asifa, organized by the Ezram U’maginam organization, drew a diverse and mixed crowd and was headlined by Harav Feldman alongside Rav Yehoshua Eichenstein, Rosh Yeshiva of Yad Aharon and a close talmid and confidant of Harav Aharon Leib Shteinman zt”l.

During the event, a man from Beit Shemesh began shouting harsh accusations at Rav Feldman, including calling him a liar. Many in the audience who have children on the front ,supported the individual who made a lot of sense. 

 As tensions rose and members of the audience began yelling at each other, Rav Feldman intervened and asked everyone to calm down! 

This asifa" demonstrated to the Charedie world, that we are not on the same page and those who have sons, siblings and husbands serving in the IDF are no longer taking these Chutz-Leaartz self-righteous leaders seriously and will confront them!

Binyamin Kreif Jailed for Draft Dodging says Prison was basically "A summer camp. Don’t be afraid.”

Half a million people closed their gemaras for an entire day to pray on behalf of individuals who, as Binyamin Kreif — himself a jailed draft evader — described, were essentially in “a summer camp.”

"Gedolim" were dragged from all over Israel to daven for draft dodgers who were receiving three full meals a day, permitted visitors throughout the day, and were in no real danger whatsoever.

These same groups loudly proclaim, “We are ready to die rather than enlist,” yet their leaders clearly do not believe this slogan. If they truly thought prison was a form of martyrdom, they would not be fighting so fiercely to prevent their followers from spending even a moment in this comfortable, low‑risk environment.

 

Yeshiva bochur Binyamin Kreif, who was released after three and a half months in military prison for failing to report to the draft office, spoke Monday night in a wide-ranging interview about his incarceration, including two months spent in solitary confinement, the high-profile escape attempt that drew national attention, and the message he wants fellow yeshiva students to hear: “Prison is a summer camp. Don’t be afraid.”

Kreif spoke with broadcaster Yankele Friedman, who opened the conversation by describing the emotional scenes surrounding Kreif’s release, including a celebratory reception in Modi’in Illit and what he termed a “royal welcome,” complete with a limousine. Friedman said Kreif had been jailed solely because he is a yeshiva student devoted to Torah study, adding that tefillos for his release had come from across the country. “I saw videos today of thousands celebrating together with him. He was welcomed like a king,” Friedman said.

Kreif thanked Friedman for his steady support throughout his imprisonment, calling him a “holy person” whose encouragement helped him endure months behind bars.

During the interview, Kreif described in stark detail the conditions he faced, most notably two months in solitary confinement, in a cell measuring roughly two and a half meters. “I was in solitary for two months—just a cell and a guard watching you all the time,” he said. According to Kreif, security was intentionally stringent, with guards rotating every four hours to prevent any rapport. He said the harsh treatment stemmed from the widely documented escape incident that followed his arrest. “The guards told me, ‘You shamed the IDF,’” Kreif recalled. “I answered them, ‘Fortunate are we.’”

Despite the isolation and physical strain, Kreif said he and other inmates found ways to lift their spirits and even inject humor into daily life. He described harmless antics meant to unsettle guards without being caught, such as ducking into camera-free restrooms and making animal noises. “We turned the place into a summer camp,” he said with a smile. “We’d shout, ‘Zoo—fall in!’ and keep them on edge all night.” Friedman wondered whether such behavior prolonged Kreif’s time in solitary, but Kreif insisted the goal was to retain dignity and feel like “a prince” even in prison.

One of the interview’s most striking moments involved Kreif’s encounter with an atheist inmate who was transferred into his cell just days before his release. Kreif said that over the course of four days, he shared parables and spoke about faith, sparking a profound change. “On the day I was released, he told me, ‘Binyamin, can you leave me your peyos so I can look chareidi too?’” Kreif recounted. Friedman responded that even behind bars, Kreif had merited “bringing a lost brother closer.” Kreif added that many secular inmates expressed deep respect for the chareidi yeshiva students housed alongside them.

As the conversation drew to a close, Kreif addressed yeshiva students anxious about the prospect of arrest. “There’s really nothing to fear about this prison. It truly is a summer camp,” he said confidently. He acknowledged that solitary confinement is difficult, but emphasized that conditions improve significantly once inmates are moved to the regular unit, where the atmosphere is far more social and supportive.