Israeli Scientists Say That Plants May Actually Be Able to HEAR GardenersTalking to Them and the Buzz of Approaching Bees

Gardeners who talk to their plants are often dismissed as being a little potty, but now there is evidence that the plants may actually be listening.

Flowers not only hear the buzz of approaching bees, but respond by producing sweeter nectar, biologists at Tel Aviv University have found.

This entices the bees to visit more often, increasing the chance of the plant’s pollen being distributed.

When the scientists played recordings of flying bees to evening primrose flowers, the sugar concentration in the nectar rose by an average 20 per cent within three minutes.

The study, published on the website BioRxiv, said it was the first evidence that plants can respond to sounds in ‘an ecologically relevant way’.

Birds fly in perfect rabbit-shaped formation

Pope Congratulates Cuba for 60 Years of Communism!

Pope Francis twirls a soccer ball he was presented by a member of the Circus of Cuba, during his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019

The Vatican News website recently paid tribute to Cuba on the 60th anniversary of the Communist revolution in a post that was quickly deleted.

The Communist island nation marked the occasion with celebrations on News Year's Day, while several leftist Latin American leaders tweeted their best wishes.

The socialist despot president of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro tweeted: "We commemorate the anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution led by Commander Fidel Castro. 60 years of sacrifices, struggles and blockade; There is the heroic Cuban people, an example of resistance and dignity to the world. Long Live Cuba!"

In a pinned tweet, another socialist leader, Bolivia's Evo Morales, stated: "We salute the victory of Bro. Commandant. Fidel Castro and the valiant Cuban people on the proimperialist dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista."

Not to be outdone, the Vatican News Service offered its own tribute of sorts to commemorate the festive occasion: Cuba Celebrates 60 Years of the Revolution. The post reportedly read:

The historic anniversary was celebrated with an official ceremony in which the former head of state and leader of the Cuban Communist Party, Raúl Castro, and the current president of the nation, Miguel Díaz-Canel, participated.

The post was apparently deleted, but not before some appalled readers captured it:

Satmar Not Waiting For Moshiach .... Establishes First official Chareidie Town in Chutz Le'aaretz Since the Destruction of the Bais Ha'Mikdash!

Part of Satmar's  philosophy or SHIT'ah vis a vis the State of Israel, is that the State is guilty of what they call "Hisgaaris Be'Umois" which means that the State,just  by being a State is antagonizing the goyim ... which is prohibited ...

The "prohibition" of "Hisgaaris Be'Umois" may or may not apply in Eretz Yisroel ... but it applies certainly in Chutz Le'Aaretz. 

At least in Israel, we know that G-d gave us this land and is waiting for the Jews to come back and populate it so that G-d (so to speak)  can once again reside amongst us in the land bequeathed to us ....
And the State of Israel needs to do things even if it antagonizes its neighbors because it has an obligation to protect its citizens .....
Just last night the Gazan murderers shot a missile towards Ashkelon and the State of Israel not only intercepted it but bombed the Gazan military base.... 

But what excuse is there for Jews in diaspora to antagonize the goyim???
(the towns established like New Square or Kaser and even Kiryas Yoel were part of the Major Towns, for example .. New Square is part of Spring Valley, Kaser Village in Monsey is part of Spring Valley, and even Kiryas Yoel was part of Monroe. This Town has separated from Monroe and is a separate entity)

Is the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia?

And all this time I though it was in Monroe!!

by Melissa Twigg

Ethiopia throbs with religious fervor. On Sundays in Lalibela, Aksum and Gondar, I was alone in thousand-strong crowds of monks and nuns, hermits and business owners, energetic children and bent-double grandmothers. They wrapped themselves in white or burnt orange and poured into the churches that dot the landscape.

It is a society with a more profound spirituality than anywhere else I have been to—one where worship is woven into nearly every aspect of life. And during my trip, it became clear that this veneration of the church was born from a belief that Ethiopia has been chosen by God as the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

There is only one man alive who has seen the alleged Ark in all its biblical glory. It is, according to Ethiopian lore, hidden in a church in Aksum—a small city in the northern highlands—and guarded by a single monk. Nobody else enters the room and only after his death will the monk leave the grounds.

Chareidie Idiot with Measles Exposes Dozens of Premature Babies in Bnei Brak .....

This potential murderer not only endangered others but endangered his very own child...

I'll bet he is always in front protesting the IDF ... but thinks nothing of killing others with a deadly painful disease. 

A measles patient insisted on visiting his premature son at the Mayanei Hayeshua hospital in Bnei Brak, last Thursday without informing anyone that he had been diagnosed with measles. 

When the medical team found out that he was ill, they rushed to vaccinate more than 80 premature babies and infants,

According to Ran Reznik and Meital Yassour Beit-Or in Israel Hayom, the hospital decided to vaccinate all 24 of the demonstrators who were in the NICU and to vaccinate 60 babies who were in the adjacent babies.

The concern was that infants and children were immunized against the disease only from the age of one year, so that immediately after birth they were not immunized against the disease, they were vaccinated with a regular vaccine rather than preventive treatment.

Prof. Motti Ravid, director of the hospital, told Israel Hayom that "this is a wild and inconsiderate act, not to mention that the same man endangered his son, along with the risk of the other babies. From now on, we will also guard the entry of adults and also hang signs around the hospital that ask visitors with fever or bloating not to enter the hospital. "

According to the Ministry of Health, as of last week, 3,030 Israelis contracted measles, with 502 patients in December.

Auschwitz: Drone video of Nazi concentration camp

Drone video shows the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as it is today - 70 years after it was liberated by Soviet troops.

The camp in Poland is now maintained as a World Heritage Site and is visited by thousands of tourists and survivors every year. Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans during World War II. More than a million people - the vast majority of them Jews - died there between 1940, when it was built, and 1945, when it was liberated by the Soviet army. Railway tracks into Auschwitz-Birkenau - Trains filled with victims from throughout occupied Europe arrived at the camp almost every day between 1942 and the summer of 1944. Ruins of wooden huts at Birkenau - Birkenau (or Auschwitz II) was erected in 1941 solely as a death camp, the wooden huts are now in ruins with only brick fireplaces and chimneys remaining. Entrance to Auschwitz I -The wrought-iron sign over the entrance bears the words Arbeit Macht Frei - "Work sets you free". Auschwitz I - The brick-built buildings were the former cavalry barracks of the Polish Army. Courtyard between blocks 10 and 11 at Auschwitz I - Block 11 was called "the Block of Death" by prisoners. Executions took place between Block 10 and Block 11 and posts in the yard were used to string up prisoners by their wrists. Auschwitz Birkenau is now a museum run by the Polish Culture Ministry, and a Unesco world heritage site.

19 Year Old Ben Zion Brandwein Completes Shas & Commentaries Gets a Bottle of Wine From The Boyaner Rebbe

 

Wow!! That will surely encourage others....

I'm not saying that he studied Shas for a reward .... but come on.....

Anyway, Great accomplishment! 

A 19-year-old boy, Ben Zion Brandwein, student of the Bayan Yeshiva in Modi'in Illit, studied Shas and all its commentators by heart, and at the end of the Talmud, he was examined by the Admor of Boyan  who gave him a bottle of wine! 

As a child, Ben Zion,  studied in the Talmud Torah from Kanovka Belz and was a tremendous masmid. Presently, he studies at the Bayan Yeshiva in Modi'in Illit.

Despite his youth, he was able to finish the entire Talmud - , with commentators by heart.

Ben Zion Brandwein lives in Bnei Brak, and his father serves as a bookshop manager in the city.

When the Admor of Bayan heard that the outstanding young man knew the entire Talmud, he tested him asking him questions  from several places in Shas, then blessing him and giving him a bottle of wine in appreciation.

The graduation ceremony of the outstanding 19-year-old boy will take place at the Bayan Yeshiva in Modi'in Illit, with the participation of the yeshiva rabbis and accompanied by an orchestra and a Seudat Mitzvah.

Day Yoimie Snippets ... Chullin 33, 34, 35,36, 37, 38, & 39

Hey ladies ... here is an opportunity to test your husbands and see if he really goes to the daf....

Also it is a good opportunity for the entire family to share thoughts on the daf ... so that the family feels united by discussing what the head of the house is studying.   

You can copy and print this without my consent, since Torah belongs to all of us..... 

See  previous Daf Yoimie Snippets 

"דף ל''ג "טמאת ידים      

Page33  Mesectas Chullin  

"Contamination (Tumah) of the Hands" 

*This "snippet" is a bit longer than usual because of its complexity ... 

When we talk about "tumah" "contamination" in the Talmud and Shulchan Aruch " "we speak about a "spiritual contamination." 

 From here on in, I will use the word that the Torah & Talmud use .. "tumah" ....instead of the English word "contamination" because the english translation doesn't do the meaning of "tumah" justice.

Before I explain this particular daf, I must introduce some concepts in "tumah," and so that's the reason this  particular "snippet" will be a bit longer than my usual "snippets".

Introduction:

When a Jewish person touches a corpse with his hand, his entire body contracts "tumah" 

There are many levels or degrees of "tumah."  I will attempt to summarize them briefly..

The strictest level of tumah, is אבי אבות הטמאה ... which if translated literally, means "father of fathers" of tumah. 

and that level of tumah can only be the corpse itself ....

The level below that, is far more common, and that is called 

אב הטמאה, which means literally "father of tumah."

In order to contract this level of tumah a person would have to touch a human corpse or the carcass of one of the 8 species of creeping creatures listed in the Torah and these creatures are referred to as Sheratzim ...

Included in this tumah are kosher animals that died not by "ritually slaughter" but were killed for example by a bullet etc. and that animal is now a "נבילה"

Also included are the following humans :

Zav, Zavah, Niddah or Metzora .. 

Now ......

Any object that comes in contact with an אב הטמאה,

becomes a ראשון לטמאה a tumah in the "first degree" 

Under Biblical law ... people or vessels that came in contact with this mentioned tumah can no longer convey tumah to some other item.... it stops...

The exception: 

Food items that came in contact with an אב הטמאה can acquire what is called : שני לטמאה ..."second degree" of tumah.

But in the case of "chullin" which is ordinary food, (not consecrated,) tumah can go no further than a שני לטמאה

so if a שני לטמאה touches "chullin" it conveys no degree of tumah.

However food items that are Terumah or Kodesh, due to greater degrees of stringency associated with them, can go beyond שני לטמאה

and can become שלישי לטמאה  a third degree level and in the case of Kodesh food even a  רביעי לטמאה a fourth level of tumah!

Back to our daf:

We discussed above that if one touches a corpse his entire body becomes tumah.....and he becomes a אב הטמאה

Now, 

if this person who is now a אב הטמאה, touches another person, that person is as we mentioned above, becomes a 

ראשון לטמאה ...

so, it would follow our logic that if this ראשון לטמאה,   now touches  another person, this "touched" person or object would not contract any tumah .....it would stop (except if he touched food.)

But the rabbis enacted a rule (תקנה) that the hands of this person who is a ראשון לטמאה becomes a שני לטמאה as well ...

his hands not his entire body..

So now he can still covey tumah to Teruma & Kodesh foods with his hands.

 The rabbis enacted this rule so that people be careful what  with their hands at all times and that is the novelty of this rule.

Therefore the Kohanim had to wash their hands before they ate terumah .. because of its greater sanctity.

The rabbis instituted that all of us should wash their hands before eating bread to be in the habit of being careful with our hands...... and now you know why we wash to bread ...

Press "read more" immediately below to continue to the rest of the dafim!

"Osher Ad" Charedi supermarket chain Selling Olive Oil For 16.90 NIS After Winning Bid to Sell 550 Tons of Olive Oil!!

Charedi supermarket chain Osher Ad won a tender from the Finance Ministry to sell the majority of 550 tons of olive oil to consumers at a significantly discounted price. The Finance Ministry said that they hope the deal will bring down prices throughout the country.

The 750 ml bottles will be sold for 16.90 NIS in Osher Ad’s 17 stores. Osher Ad will be selling 80 percent of all 550 tons of the oil to its customers. However, Osher Ad doesn’t have store locations across the country, something that will cause many residents to miss out on the heavily discounted prices.

The Finance Ministry held a bid that allowed stores to win a tender wherein they would receive the olive oil without paying taxes on it, in order to allow consumers to purchase the highly used product for very low prices. The competing stores had to agree to the final sale price of the product ahead of time.