EL AL: Don't want to sit next to women? Don't fly

El Al, Israel’s national airline, has adopted a new policy regarding the handling of male passengers who refuse to sit next to women, following criticism of a series of incidents on a recent flight.

Last Thursday night, four male passengers, all members of the haredi community, refused to take seats assigned to them after they discovered that they had been seated next to female passengers.

Mazal Tov Schumer announces his daughter is marrying another woman

Sen. Chuck Schumer used the occasion of Sunday’s NYC Pride March to announce that his daughter, Alison, will be marrying her fiancée, Elizabeth Weiland. The women plan to walk down the aisle on Nov. 18.

“Marching in the #NYCPride Parade has special meaning this year as I am marching with my daughter Alison and her wonderful fiancée Biz! #HappyPride,” tweeted the politician, who wore a lavender shirt to the pride parade.

Alison, 29, is an executive at Facebook, while Weiland’s LinkedIn page says she is in her second year of an MBA program at Columbia University.

Wonder who will be the Mesader Kiddushin!

One tablespoon of olive oil a day is all you need to slash stroke and cancer risk

Eating one tablespoon of olive oil a day could help you live longer, according to experts.

Olive oil, a key component of the health-giving Mediterranean diet, has long been said to be beneficial to health.

Now, medical consultant Dr Sarah Brewer and dietitian Juliette Kellow claim in their new book 'Eat Better Live Longer' that the oil could add years to your life.

A VOICE FROM THE WARSAW GHETTO: THE LIFE OF CANTOR GERSHON SIROTA

In the summer of 1939, on the eve of World War II, the world-famous cantor Gershon Sirota could look back on a glittering career spanning nearly four decades. He had sung before audiences of thousands all over the world, earning huge fees for his concert appearances and even for his synagogue services. But in December 1942, a few months before he perished during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Ringelblum ghetto archives tell us that he had to turn to a self-help committee for a hand-out, and was given 200 zlotys to buy food for his family.

Costco is selling an avocado that won't spoil before you make guac

Avocados are notorious for spoiling almost immediately after you buy them, and there's nothing more disappointing than cutting into one just to find a shell full of mush. Thankfully it's 2018 and, while we still don't have flying cars, scientists in California have gifted us with avocados that stay ripe for twice as long - and shoppers can find them right at Costco.

Prior to hitting store shelves, each avocado — sold by the Del Rey Avocado Company and treated by Apeel Sciences — is sprayed with a special solution made from fats found in the skins and peels of fruits and vegetables, such as apples and raspberries. This natural substance helps trap moisture inside the fruit and keep it from oxidizing until you cut into it.

Regular avocados stay fresh for three to four days on the shelf and seven to 10 days in the fridge. This new variety reportedly lasts twice as long. Most importantly, they don't come with a hefty price tag. One five-count bag only costs $5 at Costco! Guacamole for days!

Apeel has tested its product on tons of different fruits and vegetables, but decided to roll out avocados first, because, "People have a more visceral reaction to throwing away an avocado than lettuce," CEO James Rogers told BuzzFeed News. The company is hoping their invention will promote more sustainable growing practices, better quality of food, and less food waste.

Reb Reuven Chaim Biller, Z”l, Niftar in Tragic Car Crash

Reb Reuven Chaim was born and raised in Boro Park. His father, ybl”c, Reb Dovid, was one of the original members of Hatzolah.

Sadly, this is not the first time that tragedy has struck the Biller family, as Reb Reuven’s sister, then a young mother, passed away 12 years ago from an illness. During this difficult period, he focused great attention on his grieving parents, helping them to cope with the loss. Those that knew Reb Reuven praised his tremendous kibbud av va’eim.

As a bachur, he studied in the Slonimer Yeshivah in Bnei Brak and formed a close bond to the Slonimer Rebbe and his Chassidus.

He married Shiffy (nee Mayer) tbl”c, and began a career in chinuch. He taught fourth grade for 14 years before becoming a principal in Mosdos Kehilas Yaakov, Pupa in Boro Park.

For the past eight years, Reb Reuven Chaim served as head counselor at Pupa’s summer camp in Swan Lake. Prior to that, he has been a beloved member of the staff of Skverer-Boro Park’s camp. Reb Reuven Chaim was especially well liked by his talmidim and campers who enjoyed his palpable sense of simchas hachaim. To his own children as well, he was remembered as an especially dedicated father who invested great effort in their chinuch.    

Reb Reuven Chaim leaves, ybl”c, his wife and eight children, six of whom are yet unmarried, and the youngest of whom is 4 years old.

Yehi zichro baruch.

Influential Jewish-Conservative Columnist Charles Krauthammer Dead at 68

Parshat Chukat - Shake Yourself Free ... Rise from the Dust ...

by Rabbi Shmuel Knopfler

One of the most profound mysteries of the Bible is the rite of the red heifer, called a Chok (statute) because it belongs to the group of divine decrees which human logic cannot penetrate.

We must be mindful of the fact that all other impurities other than a death impurity find their purification by the defiled individual’s immersing himself or herself in a mikveh, a gathering of freshly running spring water or specially collected life-giving rainwater; in
effect, in all these instances, the defiled individual actually purifies him- or herself!

Only in this rite of the red heifer does the Kohen, representing Hashem Himself, effectuate the purification. It is as though the Torah is teaching that we can save ourselves from many of our weaknesses, we can rise above many of our temptations, but only Hashem can ultimately redeem us from death.

And from this perspective, the symbolism of the red heifer ritual begins to make sense. A heifer is the consummate symbol of life, the cow’s mother-milk serving as the universal expression of maternal nurturing of her young; red is likewise the color of blood, and blood
is the life-force, the very nefesh of the living organism.

However, although human beings come in various shapes, sizes, personalities, and powers – they can be as tall and proud as the cedar tree and as mean and humble as the hyssop plant – the angel of death ultimately conquers them all, because the scarlet thread of human sin condemns each of us to the common destiny of mortality.

Following the sacrifice, the personage of purity gathers the ashes of the remains, mixes them with the life-giving waters of the divine and, born-again, purified life emerges even from the surrealistic specter of death itself. Inherent in this symbolism is that historic Israel –
mother nurturer of the continuity of humanity by means of the Abrahamic “compassionate rightness and moral justice” which Israel taught and must continue to teach – is destined to be slaughtered, but will always rise again to life and to the fulfillment of her mission and destiny.

During the Holocaust, Hitler succeeded in destroying six million of us, but as he records in Mein Kampf, he wasn’t waging a war just against six million Jews. He was waging a war against the last Jew, against Judaism itself, against what he called a slave morality of compassionate righteousness and moral justice, of sensitive concern for the weaker vessels, of an Almighty of ultimate power who insists  upon human protection of the powerless. And in that war, Hitler failed!

Yes, we won that war. Alas, the brilliantly alive “red heifer,” a metaphor for the Jewish people, a people who nurture the world with the milk of morality of the Ten Commandments and the milk of human kindness of “You shall love the stranger” and “You shall love your
neighbor like yourself” was, to a large extent, tragically and  inexplicably slaughtered beyond the “human encampment” in Auschwitz and Treblinka.

But Hashem, the “Personage of Purity” Himself, gathered the ashes, Himself mixed them with living waters of rebirth, and Himself transformed those ashes into the fertile soil of the recreated sovereign State of Israel - "Medinat Yisrael."

And the “Personage of Purity” Himself mixed the ashes with the life-giving wellsprings of Torah, our tree of eternal life, and in addition to our national physical being, likewise revived our spiritual being, and Torah centers to an unprecedented and unparalleled degree all over the world!

B'Ahavat HaTorah V'Haaretz

Shabbat Shalom

Shmuel Knopfler

Parshat Korach - The Need for Leadership

by Rabbi Shmuel Knopfler

The thrust of Korach-and-his-men’s dispute with Moshe and Aaron was a challenge for the leadership of the fledgling Jewish nation. While Moshe’s position itself was perhaps beyond debate – the entire nation having witnessed his unique relationship with Hashem during the Revelation at Sinai – his choice of his brother Aaron as Kohen Gadol was, it seems, open to dispute. Was the selection of Aaron truly the will of G-d, or was it a case of proteksia and brotherly-bias?

A test was devised: Korach and his 250 confederates would each bring a pan-full of Ketores as would Aaron. To bring Ketores unbidden, Moshe explained, is punishable by death. Only the true “chosen one” would survive the test. Yet, and Rashi raises this question, weren’t the Korach group inexcusably foolish to accept such a test? After all, even if they were right, only one of them would survive! Why agree to a test which was sure to bring calamity to the vast majority of their assembly?

Parshas Yisro begins (Shemot 18:1), “And Yisro heard…” Rashi asks: What exactly did Yisro, father-in-law of Moshe, hear that caused him to decide to leave the comforts of home and come to join the Jews in the desert? He heard, says Rashi, about the splitting of the Red Sea, and about the war the Jews had fought with Amalek in the desert. The victory over Amalek, while amazing and perhaps even miraculous, was nonetheless a military accomplishment, dwarfed in comparison to the many miracles the Jews experienced during the Exodus and in the desert. What was it about the war with Amalek that ultimately
stimulated Yisro to journey into the desert?

Commentators explain that in fact, Yisro had already come to his own understanding and recognition of Hashem before he came to join Moshe. He had experimented with other forms of religion and pagan worship, and found them empty. Indeed, Yisro was so convinced of his belief in the concept of one G-d that he felt his faith was unshakable. Hearing of the great miracles of the Exodus, especially the splitting of the sea, during which our Sages say “all the waters of the world also split” only served to further strengthen and reinforce his faith. He felt no need for the formality of religion – he would serve G-d on his own.

After hearing, however, of Amalek’s attack on Israel, Yisro’s was shaken. How is it possible, he asked himself, that Amalek could be so foolish as to start up with a nation that had witnessed such miracles?
That he did so forced Yisro to realize and acknowledge that even the most self-evident truths can be disputed and discarded. Perhaps, he wondered, my belief too will one day begin to waver. Whereas he had once been convinced that his faith was immune to corruption, Yisro now concluded that in order to remain strong in one’s convictions one must have a leader – someone who could guide him to the path of truth, and alert him if he began to stray. This prompted Yisro’s journey into the desert to join Moshe.

Upon closer examination, it seems that perhaps Korach’s challenge was not simply a lobby for leadership – it was a challenge of the very concept of authority. “For this entire assembly – all of them are holy – so why do you presume to elevate yourselves above the congregation of Hashem?!” We, the Children of Israel, are not an unsophisticated bunch of simpletons, who will blindly follow your dictatorial leadership like sheep to the slaughter. Each of us is more than capable of making our own decisions, and forging our own paths, thank-you very much. To them, Moshe’s contention that only one of
their offerings would be accepted was just further proof of his short-sighted authoritarian viewpoint. Who’s to say that only one person could offer Ketores before G-d? Why couldn’t everyone offer his very own, personalized Ketores? Needless to say, they were wrong, and suffered the consequences.

The unwillingness to accept leadership and authority is a major reason for the state of decay in which we find ourselves today. The open-minded hyper-cynical value system that permeates democratic society has presented us with a generation that no longer respects its elders, teachers, or parents. Little wonder. While it would be nice to delude ourselves into believing that the pinnacle of moral decency and enlightenment will be reached when each person is free to make his own choices and formulate his own value system, the state of chaos and corruption in which we find ourselves today belies such a notion. While in our schools and yeshivot students do not yet come equipped with the latest weaponry, and in our homes children do not yet threaten to turn their parents over to the police for a well deserved spanking, the lack of acceptance of authority and leadership is nonetheless pronounced and undebatable. May the Almighty protect us.

The Talmud says (Avot 1:6), “Make for yourselves a teacher.” The attack of Amalek and the uprising of Korach are proof enough that a generation without accepted leadership is destined to turn into a de-generation.

Shabbat Shalom

Dus Iz Nies On Vacation Until Further Notice

The DIN blogger has decided to take a break ....
it's all good.....
May the Ribono Shel Olam protect us all and bring peace in Israel and amongst us all