Rabbi Mike Moskowitz, Scholar In Residence For Trans And Queer Jewish Studies At CBST

Rabbi Moskowitz studied at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem where he received smicha. He then continued his studies at BMG in Lakewood where he received an advanced degree in Talmud. 

For the last 15 years, he has been engaged in Jewish outreach and education as the Dean of Students of the Yeshivah of Virgina. Most recently he has served as a rabbi at Columbia University (Lipa Schmeltzer's Alma Mater) and of the Old Broadway Synagogue in Harlem. 

Rabbi Moskowitz is a vocal advocate for inclusivity, LGBT rights, and social justice. He writes frequently at the intersection of transgender issues and Jewish thought. He is currently working on a doctorate in Talmud at The Jewish Theological Seminary – JTS. He is the Scholar in Residence for Trans and Queer Jewish Studies at CBST.

Jewish Dentist Takes Internet By Storm With Viral Video

By Sandy Eller for VIN News

An Orthodox Jewish dentist from Passaic, New Jersey has found himself in the media spotlight after a video he posted of himself doing a magic trick for a two year old patient went viral over the weekend.

The minute and a half long video, which has 16 million views and 410,000 shares on Facebook and has also made the rounds on Twitter, shows Dr. Eyal Simchi of Riverfront Pediatric Dentistry in Elmwood Park charming a two year old patient with small glow balls that seem to appear and disappear into thin air. 

The 39 year old father of six said that the video was originally posted to a Facebook group which has 26,000 dentists last week, and then posted to Riverfront’s Facebook page just before Shavuos.

“Motzei Shavuos I turned on my phone and there were notifications from all over,” Dr. Simchi told VIN News.  “I don’t really know how it happened.”

Dr. Simchi said he has been contacted by virtually every news organization over the last few days, including one from Taiwan, as well as companies that sell viral videos.

“Right now I am speaking to a lawyer,” said Dr. Simchi. “I wasn’t really planning on any of this.”

A graduate of University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, Dr. Simchi did his residency at Maimonides Medical Center before going on to become board certified. 

The magic component of his dental practice, which focuses on children and special needs patients, came about quite by accident.

“I was walking around in the mall with my wife and I saw the light trick and I was kind of amazed,” said Dr. Simchi.  “My wife suggested that it would be great for the kids in the office and I bought the trick because I realized that kids who come in terrified and are stressed out and crying would really like this.”

Over time Dr. Simchi’s collection of magic tricks has grown to well over a dozen, giving him the opportunity to work on children without having to resort to sedation. 

His Instagram page is filled with pictures of young patients who are gently cajoled into having their dental work done, some sitting in the dental chair while others are perched on regular chairs, standing, sitting on the floor or, in one instance, checking out Dr. Simchi’s teeth as a way to ease into treatment.

“As a kid, I hated going to the dentist and I still do,” noted Dr. Simchi.  “But if you can buy a kid’s trust and you can distract them with tricks, you can do a lot more, especially once they realize that the dentist’s office isn’t a scary environment.”

Dr. Simchi prides himself on working with children and was featured in a 2016 New York Times video (https://nyti.ms/2IJz17d) on the use of silver diamine fluoride, a cavity fighting liquid that is now being used in place of conventional drilling.

“I like to do things differently,” said Dr. Simchi.  “In my office we don’t hold kids down and they rarely cry.  We don’t sedate or use general anesthesia and so far have been able to keep most cases out of the operating room.”

Listed for three consecutive years in New Jersey Family magazine’s Favorite Kids’ Docs issue, Dr. Simchi’s techniques have made him popular with patients, including a five year old girl whose parents make the eight hour round trip from Syracuse to Elmwood Park for their daughter’s dental work. 

In another instance, Dr. Simchi had one patient who said that she stopped brushing her teeth hoping for more cavities so that she could come back to Riverfront more often.

Ironically, Dr. Simchi had originally aspired to a career in medicine and even after choosing to become a dentist, his intent was to specialize in cosmetic dentistry.

An internship at a pediatric dental clinic in addition to growing up as the second of ten children ultimately pushed him into pediatrics, where his now two year old practice continues to attract patients from all over.

“Baruch Hashem, we have grown pretty quickly, and for now we are just going with the flow,” said Dr. Simchi.

Hirsch YM"S From Neturei Karta Encourages Arabs to Murder Jews but Satmar Rebbe Does Not Call For "tearing clothes"

Satmar Rebbe Says "Tear your garment " over Netanyahu

This is the foolish guy who blamed the murders of three Yeshiva Boys  on the parents. This is the same clueless nutcase who wrote letters to US Congressman urging them to boycott Netanyahu's Iran speech to Congress.....
Now the foolish blabbermouth barks :"Tear your garment" over a speech that Netanyahu made at the US Embassy inauguration.

I don't remember him ever "tearing" his flowery bekeshe when Jewish children were being murdered in Israel and in France.

I don't remember this  fake, fraud and phoney shedding any tears for any Yiddish blood ever shed by the bloody Jew hating murderers! 

He is great at waiting for Jews to get sick so he can feed them chicken soup, but for  healthy Jews he has only contempt!
Shame on him!!!!!!!!!!

The Satmar Rebbe sharply criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his speech on Shavuot, calling the PM "the head of the heretics.”

"My uncle, the author of ‘Vayoel Moshe,’ said that whoever enjoys the success of the Zionists is a true heretic and will not merit to see the joy of the coming of the Messiah and, as idolatry is annulled by calling it a disparaging name, so too here we must speak disparagingly of Zionism,” the Rebbe said, according to Kikar Hashabbat.

The Rebbe addressed Netanyahu’s speech during the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. "Whoever heard the speech of the head of the heretics, who spoke in heresy about the coming of the Messiah, should have torn his garment, and especially when he blessed, with head uncovered, a ‘Shehecheyanu’ blessing in vain," he said.

In his remarks, he berated haredi representatives present at Netanyahu’s speech, including the Chief Rabbi of Israel and Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman. "Did those who sat there protest?"

"Today there are various technological tools that people used to see his speech, but with these you can also see the weekly sermons of the Pope. You have to know that this is the same idolatry."

He later protested the "Zionist Haredim," as he put it. "They showed me that in the Zionist haredi newspapers, the month of Iyar is a month of miracles for the Zionist state. They write, 'That was the case in 1948, and in 1967, and so today.' Everyone remembers what my holy uncle did then when he was alive. I’m not coming to repair the world, but I want our students to find out what he said.”

"It is a shame that in the synagogues that are named after his pure name, they speak with joy and pleasure about what happened, and therefore I ask everyone to come to the great gathering on the 20th of Sivan to learn and absorb what my uncle the Rebbe, of blessed memory, passed onto us Satmar Hasidim.”

The Amazing Speech that Made Trump President and Frightened the Swamp

Police rescue soldier whose car was stoned in Meah Shearim

I live in country surrounded by Muslim wolves who are trying to destroy us. You would think that Frum Jews would appreciate that they can at least live in a community protected by their own fellow Jews.

No!!!! 

They see a Jewish Soldier and throw rocks at him just like the Arab animals. 

Last week, I was in Meah Shearim and visited the stores and told them that I will not spend a shekel in their stores until these atrocities stop.

And I'll let you guys into a big secret, the stores are tourist traps, very expensive.

You can buy anything you need in other parts of Yerusalayim for 30% less. 

Stop buying by these merchants, tell them that you cannot support terrorism, I'm sure they will get the message and pass it on to their neighbors .. 

A soldier was  rescued by cops on Monday after he drove his car into the predominantly ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim and was pelted with stones and garbage, police said.

The uniformed man was driving through the neighborhood when several dozen ultra-Orthodox extremists began pelting his car with rocks and other objects.

Police were able to help him escape without injury and began searching for those involved in the incident.

Some members of the ultra-Orthodox community are violently opposed to army service and the military in general.

Over the years, there have been frequent demonstrations by Haredi Jews against the draft. There have also been cases of soldiers getting harassed and even assaulted when entering ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem.

In January, a man was arrested on suspicion that he was part of a group of ultra-Orthodox men who threw rocks at a car driven by a soldier in the town of Beit Shemesh, causing him to crash. The 21-year-old soldier was driving through the Ramat Beit Shemesh neighborhood of the city when a group of ultra-Orthodox men started throwing rocks and bags of trash at his car. Police said the soldier lost control of the vehicle and drove into a lamppost.

Last June a former Knesset member’s soldier son was attacked in the capital’s Mea Shearim neighborhood.

Stopping Robert Mueller to protect us all

The “deep state” is in a deep state of desperation. With little time left before the Justice Department inspector general’s report becomes public, and with special counsel Robert Mueller having failed to bring down Donald Trump after a year of trying, they know a reckoning is coming.

When a Hug is more Meaningful than a Kiss

Every time we read the story of Rus we are once again inspired by the extraordinary loyalty and noble spirit of this former Moabite princess. 

Naomi, a Jewish woman living in Moab, decides to return to Eretz Yisrael after losing her husband, her two sons and all her wealth. Her two widowed daughters-in-law, Arpah and Rus, both of them Moabite princesses, want to accompany her, but Naomi insists that they return. Arpah accedes to her mother-in-law’s wishes, but Rus is steadfast in her loyalty. Together, Naomi and Ruth return to Eretz Yisrael, where Rus ultimately marries Boaz and becomes the ancestress of the Davidic dynasty. Arpah returns to Moab and becomes the ancestress of Goliath.

How and when was Rus’s loyalty expressed? 

Her famous words immediately come to mind: 

“Do not press me to abandon you, to turn back and leave you behind. Wherever you go I shall go. Wherever you sleep I shall sleep. Your people are my people, your Lord is my Lord.” 

But if we look into the Megillas Rus we find that Rus's loyalty had already become evident even before she spoke these famous words. 

We read: “And Arpah kissed her mother-in-law, and Rus embraced her. And [Naomi] said, ‘Behold, your sister-in-law is returning to her people and her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.’ And Rus said, ‘Do not press me to abandon you . . .’”

How did Naomi know Arpah had decided to return but not Rus? 

The clue seems to have been in their different reactions to Naomi’s appeal that they return home. Arpah kissed her, but Rus embraced her. 

The Talmud (Sotah 42b) tells us that Goliath was vanquished by David because the Holy Blessed One said, ‘Let the child of the one who kissed be vanquished by the one who embraced!’ Clearly, there was a great difference between Arpah’s kiss and Rus’s embrace, a difference with important ramifications for the future.

How can we define this difference between a kiss and an embrace, which instantly told Naomi that Arpah had decided to return but Rus was determined to remain?

Perhaps we can answer this question with another question. The Talmud tells us that when the Jewish people assembled at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, Hashem uprooted the mountain and held it over their heads. “If you accept the Torah, all is well,” He said, “but if you don’t, this will be your burial place.” 

The question immediately arises: Why did He find it necessary to do this? The Jewish people had just accepted the Torah unconditionally with the immortal declaration of “Naaseh venishma! We will do, and we will hear!” Why was it necessary to force them to do something they had already agreed to do?

The commentators explain that Hashem was teaching the Jewish people a critical lesson that would carry them through all future generations. 

If the Torah had been accepted only because of an emotional impulse, there would always have been a danger that, at some future time, the emotion would dissipate - and the commitment along with it. 

Therefore, Hashem wanted to impress upon the Jewish people that Torah was the very breath of life, that without it they were as good as in a “burial place.” The tremendous inspiration of the moment was to their everlasting credit, of course, but the perpetual bond to the Torah could only be forged by a strong fundamental attachment based on need in addition to emotion.

This is where a kiss differs from a hug. A kiss is a glancing touch, an incomplete physical contact which expresses strong inner emotion but from a slight distance; a kiss does not show the fusion of two souls. 

An embrace, however, is an expression of total attachment, of two hearts that beat as one, that cannot live without each other. 

When Arpah kissed Naomi, she showed that her feelings for her mother-in-law were purely emotional, and Naomi immediately understood that these tender emotions would not lead her to accept the sacrifices that lay ahead. But Rus hugged her mother-in-law, showing a close attachment, a dependency, and Naomi understood she would not be so easily persuaded to return home. Nevertheless, she tried to send her away, and Rus responded with her celebrated declaration of undying loyalty.

In our own lives, we sometimes find our observances lacking in zeal and enthusiasm. But if we reflect on the awesome power of the Torah to transform, elevate and give meaning to our lives, we can recapture that enthusiasm. 

As we prepare to receive the Torah this Shavuos, let us do more than pay lip service to the Torah. Let us recognize that our lives have lasting, eternal value only through the Torah. And if we embrace the Torah with all the devotion and dedication in our hearts, we will surely be rewarded with a feeling of total connection and fulfillment.

Rabbi N. Reich

Tracing the History of Shavuos Night Learning

By Eliezer Brodt

This article will trace some of the earliest sources for the Minhag observed by many to stay up learning Torah throughout the entire night of Shavuos.[1] At the outset I would like to note that the focus of this article will be not be about the exact seder that was learned i.e. Tikun Lel Shavuos.[2]

Different versions of this article originally appeared in the Kulmos Supplement of Mishpacha in 2014 and then in English in 2015. I returned to all this in my doctorate Halachic Commentaries to the Shulchan Aruch on Orach Chayim from Ashkenaz and Poland in the Seventeenth Century.[3] This post contains important additions to some of the earlier versions. One day I hope to update it properly.

That the minhag of staying up on Shavuos night to learn was observed widely in recent history is very clear. For example, the author of a nineteenth-century Lithuanian memoir describes how her brothers would stay up the entire night.[4]

In a memoir about Yeshivas Lomza, the author writes in passing "after staying up the whole night, the whole yeshiva would take part in a milchig kiddush at the Rosh Yeshiva’s house".[5]

Posters in Monsey Compare New Square to Gaza

The administration of New Square have decided that it is a bad idea for Skverer children to find out that there are Frum Jews in Monsey that are not Skverer Chassidim, so they came up with a bizarre but dangerous scheme to buy up property all around New Square so that other Frum Jews wouldn't G-D forbid move near their town, who are exposing their little sheep to Satmar, Belz, Viznitz and other non-Skver Frum Jews!

I know this sounds crazy .... but it isn't only crazy it's dangerous, because they are renting out these one family houses to Latino families. 

These Latinos are by in large illegal emigrants with criminal backgrounds who move in with many of their criminal cronies, causing  entire neighborhoods around New Square to be crime infested.

These Latinos are also by nature transient, so they never establish families with roots in the community. 

Just two years ago, two Satmar Families that I personally know, managed to buy houses within walking distance to New Square. New Square bullies bought houses on both sides of these houses, filled them up with criminals whose teenage daughters paraded around on Shabbos with skimpy outfits, making life miserable to these Satmar families who were trying to bring up children in a country atmosphere, out of the city, only to be bombarded with these degenerates.

What the above poster is pointing out is that New Square Chassidim by in large live in poverty, and yet the administrators manage to find huge amounts of money just to make their Chassidishe neighbors who are not Skverer Chassidim, miserable!