Jerusalem Rabbi Says that Chazal Clearly Stated that Torah Study must also come with a Trade !

Rabbi Chaim Amsalem 

Finally a Rav with guts and fearless to say whats clearly on every normal persons mind! That Torah and learning a trade must come hand in hand! 
Hear read a Ravs reading of our holy Chazal!

Hundreds of thousands of students begin a new school year today. Some will learn basic Judaism and Torah along with general studies. Some will study Torah in the mornings and general studies in the afternoons, and some will learn Torah exclusively. While the minimal degree of Jewish content in the more secular schools saddens me, I am even more troubled by the third category described above. The haredi world in which I live does not educate children in accordance with Jewish tradition.

Haredi schools not following Jewish tradition!? Aren’t they the ones who do uphold tradition? Haven’t the more modern movements veered from the path?

The answer is simply that any movement which teaches its children only Torah is a modern aberration.

Wisdom of our Fathers Chapter 2 states emphatically that “any Torah not accompanied by work will end up being nullified, and will lead to sin.”A glance through the Mishna and Talmud reveals that along with being great Torah sages, the leaders of their generations earned a living as doctors, tailors, launderers, plowers, carpenters, land measurers, shoe makers and repairmen, wood choppers, beer makers, bakers, smiths, trap makers, engravers, skin tanners, mill workers, scribes, pit diggers, bundle and beam transporters, wool merchants and weavers.

Traditional Torah sources teach in the clearest of terms that learning a trade to support one’s family with dignity – alongside Torah study and living a Torah-observant lifestyle – is the highest of ideals. For example, in the Jerusalem Talmud, Peiah, Chapter 1 interprets the Torah’s instruction to “choose life” as a command to have a trade. The Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin, 29a teaches that “a father must teach his son a trade. Anyone who does not teach his son a trade is as if he taught his son robbery.” The Midrash on Ecclesiastes Chapter 9 instructs: “Acquire for yourself a trade together with Torah.” The Babylonian Talmud, Brachot 8a goes as far as saying that “a person who earns a living from his own handiwork is greater than one who fears heaven.” Finally, 

All the above sources no doubt served as the basis for the teaching from Maimonides, himself a world-class Torah scholar and physician (Laws of Torah Study 3:10-11): “Any person who makes the decision to study Torah without a livelihood and to sustain himself from charity – such a person desecrates God, disgraces Torah, extinguishes the light of religion, causes bad for himself, and removes himself from the World to Come… and our sages also commanded that a person should not earn a living from Torah… It is a high level for a person to earn a living from his own toil and a trait of the saintly. Through this, a person earns all the honor and good in this world and the next.”

This approach continued until the past few hundred years. For example, the 15th century Orchot Tzadikim (309), teaches that “A person must find middle ground with two responsibilities and set aside hours for Torah study and for work in this world, and must strengthen himself to do both… neither should take away from the other.” The famed Maharal of 16th century Prague relates in Netivot Olam that “when a person is busy with two pursuits – work to provide for what his body needs and Torah for completion of his soul – he will not find any sin.”

So it is clear that Jewish tradition advocates intensive Torah study together with learning a trade. In our times, this means teaching students whatever they need to earn a university degree – the primary path for earning a livelihood in today’s world. (I also advocate joint yeshiva and university programs – a topic for a future column).

Lest one think it is impossible to provide an intensive yeshiva education while studying language, mathematics, science or history, a glance at the yeshiva world in the US proves that highschool students attending the most haredi institutions – Lakewood, Torah Va’daas, Philadelpia, Chaim Berlin, Telshe, and more study all these subjects as mandated by US law. This provides students with the option of university study, which many pursue, and produces well-balanced and worldly Torah scholars who bring sanctity to God’s name in the workplace and earn great respect for their communities.

I must make two important clarifications. Maimonides, at the end of the Laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, elaborates on the benefits of doing nothing but studying Torah. The Ohr HaChayim, one of the greatest biblical commentators of the early 18th century, explains that this teaching refers to a person or group who wants to support a full-time Torah scholar in a partnership. Maimonides, in the Laws of Torah Study quoted above, is referring to a person who places a burden on the nation through his learning, and essentially forces others to support him. If someone has a private arrangement by which he does nothing but study Torah while receiving the support of a private individual, this is a blessing.

I personally love nothing more than quiet moments alone with the Talmud, or studying the Parsha with my children, and cannot imagine a more beautiful lifestyle. However, as Maimonides states, no person can choose to place the burden of supporting him on the community. This is exactly what the haredi school system does.

Clarification number two relates to our need as a community to produce elite Torah scholars. It has always been part of our tradition to identify a select group of young men who have the potential and drive needer to spend their entire lives studying Torah and we, as a community, should not only support them but should feel blessed to have that opportunity. The number in each generation who fit these criteria is quite small, but even today we should find those elite scholars and spare them any worry about having to earn a living.

I have extensive plans to establish a system of government-funded schools to provide haredi boys with the opportunity to reconnect to authentic Jewish study of Torah and general studies, enabling them to sustain their families with dignity. I bless all our students with a successful and fruitful school year, but will not cease to work toward rehabilitating the haredi system as an MK and through the Am Shalem movement. It is time for the haredim who claim to fight for authentic Judaism to truly live by that lofty ideal.

The writer is an MK, and the founder and chairman of the Am Shalem political movement.
Read full Op-Ed in The Jerusalem Post By Rabbi Chaim Amsalem 

Moshe Yosef Reichenberg "A Real Hero" Video

Akiva Reichenberg, son of the heroic Reb Moshe Yosef Reichenberg z”l, spoke to Channel 2 about his father, bravely describing his feelings at this tragic time.

Reb Moshe Yosef, 50, was on a flooded street in Spring Valley on Sunday when he saw a father and his 6-year-old child entangled with a live, downed electrical wire from the storm. Both of them were shocked and burned. Reb Moshe Yosef rushed to save them, pulling them away from the power line, but it cost him his life.

“He saved two people’s lives without thinking,” Akiva Reichenberg said. “It seems like a dream. A bad dream. Like it’s not possible that it’s happening.

“I am proud of him. He was born a hero,” Akiva said of his father, “and he died a hero.”

Michelle Bachman Jewish?

Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann may not be Jewish -- despite a misperception among some political donors -- but that didn't stop her from making a campaign stop in the Big Apple yesterday to talk up her pro-Israel positions.

The same day The Post reported that some Jewish donors are holding back their contributions to GOP front-runner Mitt Romney under the mistaken impression that Bachmann is one of their own, the Minnesota congresswoman was addressing a Jewish group here.

Bachmann spent about an hour at a private office discussing issues ranging from same-sex marriage to security for the Jewish state. She reminded the group she worked on a kibbutz in Israel 40 years ago.

"We're meeting with people all across New York who are interested in my candidacy," Bachmann said as she ducked into a Broadway office building for a small, private sit-down with Orthodox Jewish leaders.

"She introduced herself," said Rabbi David Zwiebel, executive vice president of the Orthodox Jewish organization Agudath Israel. "A similar group has gotten together with Governor Romney and will get together with other candidates as well."

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/michele_kibitzes_with_key_ny_jews_Ks5Rm6JnZBxW9OY78pwwoK#ixzz1We5L5iF
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Agudah Rabbis Continue to Cover Up for Known Molesters

Op Ed

Agudah Rabbis: “Do as we say not as we do.”
Asher Lipner, Ph.D

After forbidding Jewish parents from reporting sex crimes against their children to the authorities, Agudath Israel has been backtracking and “clarifying” their position, saying that they never meant to protect all child molesters, only to protect against false accusations.  Agudah’s policy now requires that a rabbi be consulted on what is called “Raglyaim Ladavar”- reasonable suspicion - before reporting allegations.  Many parents and professionals strongly disagree with this approach and feel that since rabbis have no training in forensics or in evaluating sex offenders, parents should either call state child abuse hotlines or use their common sense to decide what is suspicious and report it immediately to the police for children to best be protected. 


However, the real confusion that Agudah has created for parents and for victims of abuse has nothing to do with an unclear and unwise policy; it is a problem of actions, not of words. While paying lip service to the Mitzvah to protect children’s safety, what perplexes survivors of abuse and frightens parents is why are the Agudah rabbis continuing to personally cover up for known molesters? 


1. Rabbi Moshe Eisemann, the former Mashgiach Ruchani of the Ner Yisroel Yeshiva in Baltimore was exposed to the Baltimore Rabbis as a child molester in 2006. After confessing his crimes Eisemann was quietly “retired”. Rabbi Ahron Feldman, not only failed to report Eisemann’s crimes to the police, but he refused to warn the public - including the hundreds of boys who live on the campus of the Yeshiva. Rabbi Feldman also writes approbations for Eisemann’s “seforim” as does Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky. 


Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, Rabbi Yitzchok Feigelstock, Rabbi Malkiel Kotler, Rabbi Kamenetsky, Rabbi Ahron Shechter and Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon sit together with Eisemann on Agudah’s “Vaad L’hatzalas Nidchei Yisroel” (Committee to Rescue Jewish Refugees from the former Soviet Union), through which Eisemann runs his own boys’ school in Kishinev. Artscroll continues to promote Eisemann’s books, and the Yated Ne’eman, mouthpiece of the Agudah Gedolim, continues to write about his righteousness.


When the Baltimore Jewish Times exposed Eisemann and other rabbinic molesters, Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, of the local branch of Agudah attacked it for being anti-Jewish.

2. Rabbi Aaron Tendler has now been forced out of his rabbinic and teaching jobs in Los Angeles after serious allegations of sexual contact with underage girls. The local rabbis have not contacted the police or warned the community. His uncles, Rabbis Dovid and Reuven Feinstein, are fully aware of his [alleged] crimes but have protected his reputation, and he is living under the radar, a threat to Jewish girls everywhere. 


3. Rabbi Yehudah Kolko of New York, where Gedolim Rabbis Perlow, Dovid Feinstein and Schechter preside, molested boys at both Yeshiva Torah Temima and camp Agudah for decades. He plead guilty to a lesser charge of child endangerment and is a free man. Kolko would certainly be in jail if the Gedolim would report what they know to the police and call on all victims to co-operate with the investigation.


4. In Monsey, the Yeshiva of Spring Valley, under the careful guidance of Rabbi Kamenetsky, fired Rabbi Chaim Abrahamson after hearing credible allegations of molestation going back decades. But Rabbi Kamenetsky told the Yeshiva they could cover up the danger and not contact the police. 


5. In Lakewood, Rabbis Kotler and Salomon have a Beis Din that covers up cases of sexual abuse. The rabbis have worked closely over the years with Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, sending the predators for “treatment,” but not a single case has been reported to the police by either the rabbis or by Ohel. One Lakewood family courageously did report their child’s abuse to the police and are currently pressing charges, but they have been forced to move out of town for their safety. When a mother of a boy who died from a drug overdose publicized that he had been molested, her house was burned down and police investigators cannot get cooperation from the rabbis. This intimidation is carried out with rabbinic complicity or at least passive acquiescence; not a single rabbi condemns it or shows support for the victims.  


6. In Chicago, Rabbi Avraham Chaim Levine and his “Special Bais Din” is in charge of covering up cases of child sexual abuse. He has not reported a single child molester to the authorities. Rabbi Levine can be heard on tape decrying those who would publicize the names of known child sexual predators.


The current actions of the Agudah Gedolim, shockingly more in line with the behavior the world has come to expect from the Catholic Church, are not only in contradiction of their stated policy, they are also in violation of the law. In Maryland and New Jersey, for example, all adults are mandated to report sex crimes against children to the authorities. The Ocean County prosecutor publicly warned the Lakewood rabbis that their Bais Din is illegal, and that they risk prosecution for failure to report sex crimes to the police. One Lakewood Kollel rabbi was arrested for witness tampering, and a prominent Brooklyn Rabbi, Yisroel Belsky, was warned that he too would be arrested if he published his letter threatening the family of the raped boy.    


So why in the world do the rabbis cover up for molesters? Some Gedolim, like Rabbi Pinchas Sheinberg, have said that without sexual penetration it isn’t really abuse. Other rabbis feel that prominent (choshuv) molesters should be allowed to get away with it, like Rabbi Hopfer who told me not to expose Eisemann because “he made many people frum.” Agudah has also said that Orthodox molesters should not have to go to jail because they are needed as breadwinners. Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel wrote to me that it is not Agudah’s job to protect children from molesters known to the Gedolim. Rabbi Perlow, the Nasi of Agudah, still refuses to speak out against Kolko’s crimes, because they happened in Flatbush, and Perlow is a Rebbe in Borough Park. When the Gedolim opposed the Child Victims Act that would extend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse, they publicly admitted that they are afraid that if their cover-ups are uncovered, lawsuits could jeopardize the “financial integrity” of their organizations. 


To clarify that they are on the right side of the issue of child abuse, the Gedolim need to stand with those victims who have come forward, and to call upon all others to go to the police. They also must reveal to the police the identities of the dozens of molesters that they are still covering up for.  


The Talmud says that while non-Jews do not have Torah, they do have wisdom. The rabbis would do well to recall the wisdom of a great non-Jew who said “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”


And, in this time of the year closing in on Rosh Hashana, the Day of Judgment, they should also remember what the Torah says: You can’t fool G-d. Ever.

Asher Lipner, Ph.D is a psychologist and a well known activist working to stop child sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox communities.

19 Year Old Beauty Executes 10 Libyan Rebels

She has a fashion model's looks and an executioner's trigger finger.

A 19-year-old member of Moammar Khadafy's "gun girl" militia has admitted to executing at least 10 rebel prisoners -- because she said she would have been killed if she didn't pull the trigger of her AK-47.

Nisreen Mansour al Forgani said she was terrorized by her superiors, even raped by her commanding officer, after being recruited last year into the elite all-female unit of the Popular Guards.

When the Khadafy regime began to collapse, she was ordered to become a serial executioner -- apparently because Khadafy's thuggish officers regarded being shot by a woman to be the ultimate humiliation.

Nisreen said last Tuesday that she was given an assault rifle, taken to a building in Tripoli's Bosleem district and placed under heavy guard.

Rebel prisoners, tied up and gathered under a tree outside, were brought to her room one by one.

"They told me that if I didn't kill the prisoners, then they would kill me," she tearfully told Britain's Daily Mail.

"I killed the first one, then they would bring another one up to the room. He would see the body on the floor and look shocked. Then I would shoot him, too."

She said she "turned away and shot without looking" from a distance of about three feet.

"If I hesitated, one of the soldiers would flick the safety catch of his own rifle and point it at me," she said.

Nisreen said most of her victims were about the same age as she.

"I killed 10, perhaps 11, over three days," she said.

Her killing spree stopped after she escaped by jumping from a second-story window of the execution room. She was found by rebels, who are holding her, shackled to a bed, at the Matiga hospital in Tripoli.

"They are angry. I do not know what will happen to me now," she said of her rebel captors.

Nisreen said that her family didn't support Khadafy but that she was recruited by a friend of her mother's, Fatma al Dreby, who headed the female branch of the Popular Guards.

"She told me that if my mother said anything against Khadafy that I should immediately kill her," Nisreen recalled.

She said she trained at a camp in Tripoli with 1,000 other girls from all over the country and was then sent to a headquarters, near Khadafy's compound, under the command of an officer named Mansour Dau.

She said Dreby sent her one day to Dau's office, where he raped her.

"After it was over, Fatma told me not to tell anyone, not even my parents," 

BLOOD ON HER HANDS: Innocent-looking Nisreen Mansour al Forgani, 19, who admits to executing at least 10 rebel prisoners, lies in a Tripoli hospital bed after her capture.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/beauty_khadafy_made_me_killer_bnkbjVry6I2UZTWo2U2Y9O#ixzz1WXu2tFIL

6 year old Monsey boy electrocuted! EXLUSIVE UPDATE AUG 29

A six year old boy is in critical condition after touching a live wire that was dangling near his house.The boy's father was also hurt trying to save his son. Initial reports are that the child was flown to Westchester. Will updated as soon as we get more info. The child's name is Reuvein Dovid Herbst.There was also one fatality from this incident but reports are still sketchy, reports are that the fatality was a neighbor, his name Reichenberg z"l.

EXCLUSIVE TO DIN!

This is the story as related to us by a close family member.
Rabbi Herbst went out AFTER the storm to Shmooze with his neighbor R' Reichenberg Z"L. Little Reuvein Dovid Herbst followed his father and touched the gate. The gate was electrified by a loose live wire that touched the gate that nobody noticed.  When Reuvein Dovid touched the gate he got electrocuted. Rabbi Herbst who was wearing rubber boots, because he was repairing something in the yard, grabbed his son's hand to remove him from the gate. By touching his son, Rabbi Herbst got electrocuted and burned his hand, he was immediately thrown to the ground; his life was saved by his rubber boots. R' Reichenberg z"l attempting to push the child further from the gate, was immediately electrocuted and killed. R' Reichenberg's funeral was last night and was buried in the Monsey Bais Hachyim. The child has 65% burns on his body and is now breathing on his own b"h.

Irene cancels Sunday weddings in Monsey, Tarrytown and Connecticut

This crazy and dangerous lady, Irene, caused the cancellation and postponement of  weddings scheduled for Sunday.
In fact, Irene also caused the cancellation of 9,000 flights, and all airports in New York, New Jersey are closed.

Wonder of G-D:Black Hole Eats Star: Researchers Detail Astounding Cosmic Occurrence (VIDEO)

Black Hole Eats Star, Beams Signal to Earth

On March 28, 2011, NASA's Swift detected intense X-ray flares thought to be caused by a black hole devouring a star. In one model, illustrated here, a sun-like star on an eccentric orbit plunges too close to its galaxy's central black hole. About half of the star's mass feeds an accretion disk around the black hole, which in turn powers a particle jet that beams radiation toward Earth.
Awesome, one of natures amazing phenomenons

Lakewood Residents: Keep Your Radio On For Shabbos

Rav Yaakov Forscheimer To Lakewood Officials: Residents May Keep Radio On During Shabbos
Posek Harav Yaakov Forscheimer Shlita was contacted in regards to keeping a radio on for this Shabbos. It was Paskened, that Lakewood residents may keep a radio on, on station 107.9 for the duration of Shabbos, out of the reach of family members.
The station 107.9 will remain silent from Licht Benchen (Candle Lighting) until 72 minutes after Shkiah on Shabbos, and will only be active should there be any emergency alerts to announce.
Officials say they do not expect the Hurricane to hit on Shabbos.

Five Towns Residents Urged to Leave....

Nochum Dusowitz boards up his windows at Rockaway Beach in New York, August 26, 2011. REUTERS

The Village of Lawrence is urging residents, especially those in low-lying areas, to leave the area and go to a friend’s up north or in the city, its mayor said.

Since it will soon be the Sabbath, village officials are prepared to go around with a loudspeaker to make the latest announcements about Hurricane Irene and what people should do, Mayor Martin Oliner said. Village hall will remain open throughout the weekend. There is a coordinated effort with members of the police and fire departments as well as Hatzolah to prepare residents.

“Those people who have been flooded in the past, take action now,” Oliner said. “Once it begins to rain, you pretty much will be stuck here. This isn’t a question. You can’t leave when there are 50 MPH winds. There may be a time where you’re stuck in your home with no phone — in one of the worst-case scenarios.”

Village officials will be waiting to hear the latest information, and will convene again at village hall at 9 a.m. or noon tomorrow, Oliner said.

“Based on predictions right now, people should make plans to leave,” he said. “If it wasn’t Shabbos, it’d be easy. All the rabbis agree that if it’s life threatening, they will tell people to leave.”

Read more :fivetowns.patch.com