Entire Kotel Wall a ‘danger zone’, archaeologist says

After a large stone fell from the Western Wall on Monday, an Israeli archaeologist declared the holy site’s entire plaza a “danger zone.”

Other stones “could immediately fall” and hurt people, Zachi Dvira told The Times of Israel. He is completing a Ph.D. on the archaeology of the Temple Mount.

The boulder that fell Monday morning at one of the sight’s areas designated for egalitarian mixed prayer weighed about 220 pounds, according to Israel Radio. It missed all onlookers but landed close to a female worshiper.

“I didn’t hear or feel anything until it landed right at my feet,” Daniella Goldberg, 79, told Hadashot TV news. She said that they “tried not to let the incident distract me from my prayers.”

Israel “doesn’t do proper preservation [of the site] because of politics,” Dvira said, arguing that the controversy surrounding the egalitarian prayer area has prevented the proper upkeep.

While the egalitarian section has been closed after the incident, he believes visitors should stand a few feet back from the wall in all of its sections, for safety reasons. He noted that several rocks from the Temple Mount’s other three supporting walls have fallen in recent years. The rock that fell Monday was broken in two from moisture created by the plants in the wall.

“It’s a matter of life or death,” he said.

In 2004, large pieces of Western Wall stone fell during Yom Kippur, injuring one worshiper.

The Western Wall’s official rabbi weighed in on Monday’s event.

“This is an unusual and most rare incident that has not occurred for decades,” said Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. “The fact that this powerful incident happened a day after the 9th of Av fast, in which we mourned the destruction of our temples, raises questions which the human soul is too small to contain, and requires soul-searching.”

After the fast!

 R' Yoel Teitelbaum at the Kotel Prior to the Establishment of the State

Challenges, difficulties and even tragedies in personal and national life are, to a very great extent, unavoidable and in many cases not even preventable. 

Because of this, the test in life becomes not only how did one deal with the problem but rather how did one recover after the problem proved so devastating. The key to recovery from sad occurrences is therefore resilience – the ability to bounce back even after loss and defeat.

King Solomon in Proverbs defines the righteous person as someone who, even though he or she has fallen seven times, is still capable of rising again. In a sense he is describing evil and bad behavior in terms of an addiction from which one is unable to free one's self and remains hopelessly mired in the pit of one's misery and evil.

Foodborne illnesses have nearly DOUBLED

Longer summers and more imported fruit and veg are driving up the amount of bacteria on our plates

Diagnoses of foodborne illnesses nearly doubled from 2016 to 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's latest report.

Just today, the agency announced that 88 people have been sickened by Salmonella from live chickens they keep in their back yards.

Danger lurks not only in backyards, but in grocery stores, and cafeterias.  

TRUMP’S CURRENT APPROVAL RATING HIGHEST EVER, STUNS MSNBC

President Trump’s approval rating jumped up to 45 percent, the highest it has been throughout his presidency, according to a new poll released by the Wall Street Journal and NBC. The poll left an MSNBC panel shocked Sunday night by the improvement.

“President Trump has shown throughout his campaign and polling what I took away from the 2016 election is the American people authenticity,” said Kevin McLaughlin of Cogent Strategies Principle. “May not like what authenticity is, what he’s saying or how he’s doing it, but he doesn’t back down from it. When he goes out and does these events, I will call them, it actually helps him in fly over country.”

“He defies political gravity,” he continued.

“So is he right when he basically says he ‘can walk down Fifth Avenue and shoot people’ and people would still stand with him?” asked host Kasie Hunt.

According to the poll, President Trump’s approval rating was up one point from the month of June, at 45 percent.

88 percent of the Republicans surveyed approved of the job the president is doing. (RELATED: Poll: A Staggering Number Of Republicans Approve Of Trump’s Helsinki Performance)

“President Donald Trump’s approval rating edged higher during a week in which he faced withering criticism following a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, signaling that he is positioned to weather the latest controversy sparked by his unusual brand of politics,” the Journal said.

The survey was conducted from July 15-19, a day before the president’s highly criticized press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It spanned past the length of the controversy. While the president received heavy backlash for his comments, it clearly was not reflected in his approval rating.

Two scientists From Gaza found dead in Algeria

Both men from Khan Younis, Gaza killed by either electrocution or gas inhalation..

Nothing further at this time.

Gay Black Rabbi Installed in Upper West Side in New York

Din: My mother a"h would always say "az men lebt, derlebt men alles'" if you live long enough, you will live to see everything.'

As a Black Jew , Rabbi Georgette Kennebrae has had her fair share of experiences that have made her feel less than welcome in the Jewish community. People sometimes assume that she is a member of the synagogue janitorial staff rather than the rabbi. Sometimes when visiting a synagogue, she’ll be asked if she’s lost.

In her position as the newly installed rabbi of West End Synagogue, a Reconstructionist congregation on the Upper West Side, Kennebrae aims to challenge notions of what a Jew looks like.

Kennebrae, 42, wants to make people “understand that I’m not rare as a Jew of color, that there are many of us and that it shouldn’t be an automatic assumption that I’m a Jew-by-choice because I’m brown,” she said at a coffee shop near her congregation.

Reform Rabbis Fight For More Space at the Kotel ..... Yet was totally Empty on Tisha Be'Ov

"Lying" CNN Deceives World .... Reports Outright Lies About Murder of IDF Soldier

The Israeli Foreign Ministry chastised the Cable News Network (CNN) over the weekend, after the network released a news brief which appeared to reverse the order of events in the latest clashes between Israel and the Hamas terror organization.

On Friday, terrorists operating out of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip opened fire on Israeli soldiers stationed on the border, killing 20-year-old Givati Brigade Staff Sergeant Aviv Levi.

In response to the terror attack, Israeli fighter jets pounded Hamas positions inside the Gaza Strip, hitting roughly 60 different terror targets in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave. A day later, Gaza-based terrorists breached the Israeli border fence, prompting the IDF to shell a Hamas observation post in the Strip.

But a news brief by CNN International on Saturday presented the events in reverse order, and made no mention that the Israeli airstrikes had been in direct response to the Hamas attack.

“Israel says one of its tanks targeted a Hamas military post in Gaza Saturday in retaliation for a border fence breach, one day after violence that left four Palestinians, including three Hamas militants, and an Israeli soldier dead,” CNN International wrote.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon responded via Twitter to the CNNnews brief, accusing the media outlet of “manipulation”.

“No @cnni !!! You got it wrong and not for the first time - an Israeli soldier was killed by #Hamas and #IDF retaliated, protecting its country and citizens against murderous terrorists. By misrepresenting the facts you manipulate against #Israel! @cnni- STOP YOUR MANIPULATION !”

While CNN made no official response to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Nahshon vowed that the ministry would confront media agencies which “deliberately distort events taking place in Israel,” Nahshon told Yediot Ahronot.

“We will respond to every distorted headline and demand its immediate correction.”

Neighbors Want To Shut Down Koshert Cafe near LA Because Owner is pro-Trump 😳