Parshat Ki Tavo ...

by Rabbi Shmuel Knopfler

The Parsha begins when you come to The Land which Hashem gives you ...

The Ohr HaChayim starts off saying that there is a special innate Simcha in settling the Land of Eretz Yisrael.

The Mishna in Bikkurim magnificently describes the drama of the bringing of these first fruits, the massive march to Jerusalem of farmers from all over Israel with the choicest fruit and grain of their labors in their hands, the decorated marketplaces of our Holy City crowned by the magnificent fruits, and the speech-song of each individual farmer as he stood in front of the Temple altar with the offering he handed to the priest. What an impressive demonstration of fealty to the Master of the Universe, who is hereby recognized as the Provider of all produce and the Sustainer of all sustenance.

But Hashem's bounty was not the purpose of bringing the first fruits. The clear emphasis here is the arrival of the Israelites to the Land of Israel – after having been enslaved and afflicted by the Egyptians, and after the Almighty heard their prayers and took them from Egypt to Israel with great miracles and wonders. Eating the fruits of our own land emphasizes the evils of slavery when we could not produce our own food and the inalienable rights of Jews (as well as all humans) to freedom and the independence to provide for their own needs.

Levi Aron, slayer of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, attacked female prison officer

A Brooklyn man who butchered an 8-year-old boy attacked a female prison officer in an upstate prison over the weekend.

Levi Aron, 42, tried to yank the jailer into his cell inside the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg on Saturday at around 8:45 a.m., according to the union representing prison officers.

In 2012, Aron pleaded guilty to kidnapping and cutting up Leiby Kletzky after the boy got lost as he wandered on 18^th Ave. in Borough Park.

Before the murder, Aron kept the boy in his nearby apartment and brought the youngster to a wedding in Rockland County.

The hardware clerk freaked out when the community launched a major manhunt to find the youngster. So he drugged him, smothered him with a towel and then chopped up his body. The majority of his remains were found in dumpster about a mile away from the apartment.

Leiby’s feet were discovered in Aron’s freezer.

As for the prison assault, the union representing prison officers says Aron suddenly snapped after the officer asked him to clean up his cell. Aron yanked her arm but she was able to escape.

The officer suffered a cut to her left eye and bruising on her arm and knees. She was taken to a local hospital.

Aron, who is serving 37 years to life in prison, may be hit with added criminal charges.

He was moved out of the general population “to undergo the internal disciplinary process while the state police conducts an investigation for possible criminal charges,” said Patrick Bailey, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

Michael Mazzella, president of the New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association, urged Fallsburg authorities to take action against Aron.

“We need our local district attorneys to prosecute inmates that attack and injure staff so a firm message is sent that if you attack staff, you will be held accountable,” he said in a statement.

Eating Black Peas For Rosh Hashana .... I don't think so

Man allegedly beheaded girlfriend ‘because she didn't’ Do Teshuvah"!

A man from Washington state beheaded his girlfriend in front of their 3-year-old daughter — later telling cops he “had spoken with God” and been ordered to “strike down” the woman “because she did not repent,” reports say.

Moments after the gruesome killing, Timothy Hernandez, 32, allegedly instructed his little one to “go say goodbye to mommy.”

He quoted two different Bible verses while speaking to cops about what happened on Sunday, and insisted he was carrying out God’s will.

“Each of the verses that were quoted had passages in them that spoke about women who did not follow God’s word, so God stuck them down,” investigators wrote in charging documents, which were obtained by local outlets.

Hernandez allegedly gave his girlfriend, Vanessa Cons, a chance “to repent,” but he claimed she refused.

Israeli Travel Agent Defrauds Thousands Out Of Tickets To Uman For Rosh Hashanah

Thousands of Breslov Chassidim will nebech have to spend time this Yom Tov with families, after they purchased  airline tickets to Uman for Rosh Hashanah and left out in the cold following the closure of travel agency Europanim. 

The closure resulted in the money paid for the tickets being completely lost by the customers. The travel agent who had been supposedly arranging the flights with various airlines, disappeared with all of the money that was supposed to pay for tickets that never existed.

Europanim, provides travel service to various destinations in Europe, one of which is Uman. The travel agency announced a series of subsidized flights to Uman ahead of the Rosh Hashanah holiday and pilgrimage. The travel agency announced today that the agent they dealt with as a middle-man between their agency and the airlines had disappeared with all of their money and hence, the travel agency would be ceasing its operations.

According to Kikar Shabbat news service, sme 2,000 travelers purchased their tickets through the travel agency and currently are now left without a ticket or their money refunded.

Now for some good advice.....

Next time use the internet ...... yes the internet...

Ponivetz Bochrim Beat the Hell Out of Each Other Le'Koveid the New Zman

Happy New Year!

Students hurled tables and book holders on Wednesday at Bnei Brak's flagship Lithuanian-haredi Ponevezh Yeshiva as part of a long-running feud between two rival factions.

The brawl raged on throughout the morning and only ended when police detained the main instigators after being called to the scene. Three students were injured after being sprayed by tear gas

The quarrel was part of a longstanding dispute between the two factions over control of the yeshiva and the division of its territory. The supporters of Rabbi Shmuel Markovitz on the one hand, nicknamed the "haters," and Rabbi Eliezer Kahaneman's rival camp, called the "terrorists" have long been at loggerheads and tensions frequently lead to violence.

The flagship Yeshiva of Lithuanian haredi Judaism has been roiled by the power struggle between the two for over twenty years, and both sides observe an uneasy status quo, in which campus space in Bnei Brak is evenly divided between the two factions.

Ponovezh head Rabbi Berel Povarsky pleaded for calm after the violence and said that the students should concentrate on studying Torah. "The evil inclination wants to interrupt our learning of Torah during the month of Elul in the most important yeshiva in the world, our yeshiva," he said.

A similar brawl took place a year ago after one faction 

appropriated a new classroom for themselves, upsetting the delicate status quo. Students from the other faction subsequently defaced the classroom with derogatory graffiti.

The brawl broke out in the Yeshiva dining hall soon after, when a student from the "haters" faction shoved a supporter of the "terrorist" faction. The fight quickly spread to other parts of the campus, as students hurled furniture, deployed tear gas, and set off fire extinguishers.

Ponovezh is one of the top institutions in the haredi world, and the ongoing internal strife has been a black eye for the community.

Uman Drunks Cause 3 Hour Delay After Blowing Shofar and Guzzlng Arak on Plane

A flight from Israel to Ukraine was delayed on Tuesday, 17 Elul, as a group of eight people heading to Uman were removed from the flight after creating a significant disturbance before boarding.

The Ukraine International Airlines flight to was scheduled to take off from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv at 3:00PM, enroute to Kiev, but was delayed for three hours.

The group of eight arrived at the entrance to the plane, and two of them were apparently drunk. According to reports, one of them complained of feeling ill, prompting the flight crew to refuse to permit them to board. Another member of the group began cursing and confronting the crew.

According to reports, the group had created a scene at the airport; playing, singing, shouting wildly and blowing shofars, while holding a bottle of Arak whiskey.

An airport manager summoned police, and the disorderly bunch physically assaulted police too. The plane’s crew, including the pilots who left their positions when they heard the uproar, asked the police to take the passenger and his friends off the plane.

Compounding the problem, due to the fact that these passengers were removed from the plane, their suitcases also needed to be be removed. The unloading process took a long time, causing the flight to take off about three hours later.

“Every year there are many incidents with passengers traveling to Uman,” a senior official at Ben-Gurion Airport told Ynet. He said there are many people who want to go to Uman for Rosh Hashana and come to the airport without tickets, asking for ‘handouts’ from other passengers. Quite a few of them arrive at the flight at the last minute as if “they were on the bus.”

The official added “there are passengers who arrive to the plane drunk, or even drugged; and there are those who arrive with plastic bags instead of suitcases.”

It is important to note that for Rosh Hashana, tens of thousands of people arrive at Uman, most of whom behave in a proper manner, but naturally the few cases attract attention and cause an unfortunate Chilul Hashem.

Yeshivois in Israel Will not Admit Rapper's children becauae the are "black"

Chasidic rap singer Nissim Black visited HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky on Monday.

In an interview with Menachem Toker on Radio Kol Chai, Black explained the cause of his visit is because his children have not yet been accepted to schools due to the dark color of his skin.

“It was an amazing opportunity,” says the rapper. “I went to Rav Chaim and asked him for advice on what to do, they do not accept us to school because of the color of my children, they tell me that explicitly.”

Black declined to elaborate on the full conversation, and only said Rav Chaim’s eyes said everything, and that the first sentence Rav Chaim told him is “being ‘Black’ is your Mayla (Virtue) not a Chesaron (Lacking)”- “להיות כהה עור זה יתרון ומעלה, ולא חיסרון”.

Black added that “for a second it felt like the whole world stood still”.

An eyewitness reported that Rav Chaim gave Black a warm bracha.

“People know me as a rapper, but I’m on the road all the time for Klal Yisrael,” said Black. “I heard from many people before that it would be a problem because I was dark, but I responded that I was strengthening people precisely because of my skin color.”

Black’s said his children do not know that their skin color is the reason why they have not yet started school.

“My children were at home and not at school because there was no school that received them … We tried to get our 10-year-old into a school that fits our Hashkafa and they rejected us because of our skin color. They can ask my Rav about me, or even say it’s because of my profession. But to reject us for our skin color, is unacceptable.”

“God forbid, the children will know,” adds the rapper. “We do not tell our children and in the meantime they think we are still looking for the best school for them.”

Just before Rosh Hashanah and at the end of the month of Elul, the rapper said that he is not angry at the school principals and those who do not accept his children, and he promises that he will continue to look for the best school in terms of Hashkafa and those who will not see him and his children only in their color, but rather as human beings.

3 American Yeshivah bochurim are among the injured in a tragic accident in the Jordan valley earlier this week

Eight people were injured in a horrific car accident in the Jordan valley earlier this week . 

The incident took place on highway 1, right after the turn off from Kvish Habikah, between the Almog and Arava junctions. 

Three American yeshivah bochurim where among the injured, two of them critically and one moderately. The driver of the car was rescued from the crushed vehicle, and was transported by helicopter to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Yerushalayim. 

The other 2 bochurim were also transported to Hadassah Ein Karem, one in critical and one in moderate condition. 

The three bochurim from New York are learning in Yeshivas Mir, and where heading up north for a tour. 

The parents of the 3 boys departed from New York to Israel a short time ago.

Before boarding the plane, the parents spoke with the head of the 'ICU' in Hadassah Ein Karem, Professor Charlie Wiseman, who calmed the parents and told them that their children are not in a life-threatening situation. 

Relatives of the bochurim who spoke with "Bechadrei Chareidim", shared that one of the bouchrim, Asher Zelig Chaim Ben Rachel is conscious and recovering. While the other two, Yitzchok Izack ben Sarah Ester, and Ze'ev ben Sima are sedated and on a respirator, but B "H there is no immediate danger to their lives. 

New Report Sees McCain as not so Pro-Israel and How Trump Was Furious When He Heard That The UN Schools in Palestinian Schools Teaches Anti-Israel Propaganda

David Bedein, the head of the Center for Near East Policy Research, spoke to Arutz Sheva about the late Arizona Senator John McCain, who passed away on Saturday after a year-long battle with brain cancer, and of the US administration's rejection of the so-called 'Palestinian right of return.'

"Ten years ago, exactly, I had the opportunity to meet Senator McCain when Noam Bedein (Bedein's son and the head of the Sderot Media Center) organized a briefing for Senator McCain in Sderot when he was running for president. And he brought him to a house which had been destroyed by missiles," Bedein said.

"I came down there as the correspondent for the Philadelphia Bulletin and covered the event. A few months before Senator McCain had given over an interview to Amir Oren from Haaretzwhere he talked about his commitment to push Israel for unilateral withdrawals from Judea and Samaria," he added.

"We're sitting in the living room which had been destroyed by missiles. I asked Senator McCain, 'well, how do you react?

 Will you change your position now that you've seen what happens when Israel hands over territory to the other side?'

"He got very angry at me and said: 'No. You have to understand: Israel has a peace partner. Israel had better withdraw as soon as possible from the West Bank and give it to Abbas. Abbas is a man of peace.' He was very angry and he said 'I don't like your question,'" Bedein recalled.

"My conclusion is that while McCain was, as he saw it, very favorable to Israel, it would have been very difficult to deal with a McCain Administration where we had someone who loved Israel so much, but was at the same time demanding withdrawals.

"It was easier to deal with Obama, who simply didn't like Israel so much and demanded withdrawals," Bedein said.