Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Yoel Says that There Was Never a Minhag of Lighting Bon-fires on Lag Be'omer "

We are old enough to remember when R' Aron Teitelbaum, Satmar Rebbe of KJ made a 20 minute speech making "choizik" of the bon-fire minhag ..... and calling those Rabbonim who light the "hadlaka" ... the "yetzer harah" ...!
He says in the video above ..just because "the guy lighting the fire wears a gartel that doesn't make him holy, he is the "yetzer hara"..

Mocking the Lag Be'omer ceremonies he continues .."even if the fire is one story tall , or even two stories or even if it reaches the heavens, this is not a custom that we ever saw by our parents, grandparents.... or great great grandparents"
"soon they will come out with sefarim instructing us how big the hadlaka has to be, what material must be gotten to make the fire etc etc"

So what changed? 
 The holy rebbe himself has made hadlakas the last few years?
What changed????

Ha ha ...lol .... he he ... ha ha .... 
wait I'm laughing so hard I can't catch my breath ... 
Water .... bring water ........ please ...some water ....
oh ok ....thanks ...
This is too funny for words....

What happened was .... 
since there wasn't any official bon fires on Lag Be'omer, Satmar boys who needed some outlet  and wanted to have some fun ... booked tickets to Israel by the thousands .....

One nice morning on a bright sunny day in Kiryas Yoel, the rebbe came into shul to daven shachris on Lag Be'omer and found the shul deserted....he ran to the mikvah to check if maybe they found a dead body there and that's why no one was in shul...but the mikvah was deserted and so was the kaveh room..

The holy rebbe went into conniptions, became very angry and decided that he will have to make a HUGE 3 STORY bon fire to keep the sheep in town and prevent them from running to the Zionists ...
So now the very same rebbe that made choizek of the "rebbe with the gartel" and who called that rebbe the  "yetzer hara" ....... 
now  dons a 1 foot wide gartel and makes the hadlaka with no apologies!

 That's how the Lag Be'Omer bon fires started in Satmar ....
By the way this is exactly what happened in New Square as well ..
the rebbe had refused to celebrate Lag Be'omer with the traditional hadlaka... so his chassidim flocked to Israel by the thousands and left the rebbe with a couple of alte kockers who didn't want to make the trip ... and so he too started the new minhag ...

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES!

Young Israel of Deerfield Park Florida Posts Letter to the "Alteh Kockers" who Make Minyanim in their Homes

The guys living in Deerfield Park are by in large "alteh kockers." This is a retirement community for 55 and over... 

Statistics show that the majority of the people that contract the virus and die, are those over the age of 60....

Statistics also show that the virus hit the heimishe community the hardest...

You would think they would stay the hell home..... no they know better ...... they are smarter than statistics ..... 

I don't know if that letter above going viral on social media, is real could be its a forgery... I don't know..

but what is real is that alteh kockers gathered in Upminister J in Deerfield Park to make a minyan after being told not to....

How old do you have to be not to give a damn about anything?

I wonder because I'm an "alteh kocker" myself! 

Obamagate’ to become ‘ObamaBidengate’?

One of Joe Biden’s strengths among Democrats is his eight-year stint as Barack Obama’s vice president. It was, the former veep often says proudly, the Obama-Biden administration.

Suddenly, Republicans are happy to agree as they probe the previous administration’s role in the false Russia-collusion charges and the phony Michael Flynn prosecution. Already, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley has included Biden in his version of the infamous question, asking: “What did Obama and Biden know and when did they know it?”

President Trump calls it “Obamagate.” Any day now, I expect to see that changed to “ObamaBidengate.”

The 2020 race doesn’t lack for the sharp contrasts that usually decide elections. Trump’s personality and policies are one set, his response to the pandemic and the economic fallout another.

But the world’s greatest counterpuncher won’t play defense only and the entry of the Russia-Flynn scandal into the mix gives the president a big new hammer. Count on him to use it.

Biden got his first taste of the ­potential problems in an ABC interview Tuesday. Let’s just say his ­answer needs work. Lots of work.

George Stephanopoulos, who generally gives Dems the kid-glove treatment, cited Grassley’s question and asked Biden what he knew about the Flynn probe.

“I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn,” Biden quickly answered before saying the issue was a Trump diversion from the pandemic.

Uncharacteristically, Stephan­opoulos pressed him, noting that Biden attended the Oval Office meeting on Jan. 5, 2017, where the FBI’s plan to question Flynn was discussed.

Biden appeared confused, saying he thought the initial question was about Flynn’s prosecution, before giving a new, tangled answer. “I was aware that there was — that they asked for an investigation, but that’s all I know about it, and I don’t think anything else,” he said before again complaining it was all a diversion.

Hmmm. So he was at the meeting but doesn’t know anything about the shocking and most important thing discussed.

That’s not gonna fly.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES!

WATCH RABBI'S EULOGY OF IDF SOLDIER KILLED ...WHO WAS AN ONLY CHILD!

The Israeli army has launched an investigation into the killing of an IDF soldier early Tuesday morning during an arrest operation in the Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Yabad in northwestern Samaria.

Early Tuesday morning, 21-year-old Golani Brigade Staff Sergeant Amit Ben Yigal of Ramat Gan was killed by Arab terrorists operating out of the Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Yabad, west of Jenin.

Ben Yigal was murdered when a block was thrown from a home in Yabad towards the end of an arrest operation his unit was helping to secure. Ben Yigal was struck by the block, which crushed his helmet, and left with a massive, and ultimately fatal, head injury.

According to the preliminary IDF investigation into the incident, the terrorist responsible for the attack threw the block from the third story of a home on the outskirts of Yabad after he spotted Amit while the Israeli force was leaving the town.

It is believed that the terrorist fled the building where the attack was carried out shortly after he threw the block.

Israeli security forces, including the IDF and the Shin Bet internal security agency, have arrested several suspects from the town of Yabad.

The funeral for Amit Ben Yigal, who was posthumously promoted to the rank of Chief Sergeant, has been set for 6:00 p.m. at the Be’er Yaakov cemetery.

Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett (Yamina) responded to the attack Tuesday morning, saying “Staff Sergeant Amit Ben Yigal was killed overnight while he was ensuring Israel’s security. The IDF and security forces will apprehend the lowly terrorists responsible for this, and we will bring them to justice. In the name of the defense establishment, I want to send condolences to the Ben Yigal family. May his memory be blessed.”

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES!

American Jews faced more anti-Semitic incidents in 2019 than in any other year over the past four decades

Jews in the United States suffered the largest number of anti-Semitic incidents last year since the Anti-Defamation League began collecting records 40 years ago, the racism watchdog said on Tuesday.

The 2,107 anti-Semitic incidents recorded in 2019 in the United States included deadly attacks by gunmen at a California Synagogue and a New Jersey kosher grocery store, and a fatal stabbing at a rabbi's home in New York.

It marked a 12% rise from 1,879 incidents in 2018. Previously, the highest number was recorded in 1994, when the ADL reported multiple unsolved arsons, cross burnings and a drive-by shooting.

The group's audit of anti-Semitic incidents from 2019 counted 1,127 cases of harassment, 61 cases of physical assaults and 919 instances of vandalism. More than half of the assaults took place in New York City.

"This was a year of unprecedented anti-Semitic activity, a time when many Jewish communities across the country had direct encounters with hate," ADL Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Greenblatt said.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES!

Two Chareidie areas account for 37% of Israel’s virus deaths

This report is frightening on so many levels ...

 I think that the Chareidie community has to take a good look at who is reporting current events to our Gedolim and clean house ASAP.... 

All children and grandchildren of the Chareidie Gedoilim that are feeding off the fame of the Gadol should be shipped off to Afulah or some other far fetched place 

In one video early on ....  when the government had already ordered all Yeshivois, koillim shut, and people were dying like flies in the US, one can see and hear one of  R' Chaim Kanievsky's grandchildren asking him "is there is a mageifah?  Should we shut the Yeshivois?"

He answers "no there is no magifah, and of course the Yeshivois should remain open"

Then you see the brainless grandchild, (he is in his late 30's) scream out like a banshee .."the Rav said there is no mageifah, so there isn't any mageifah," all the while smiling like a chulent bean...

How insane is this? 

But it's not only insane we now see that it is in fact dangerous?

How many people died because of this statement? Who is taking responsibility for this insanity?

Of course, the very next day the Chief of the police went to speak to R' Chaim and R' Chaim immediately ordered all schools shut!

We need to set up a board of responsible "sane" askonim who will have the trust of both the Chareidie public and the Gedoilim who will inform all gedoilim of what is going on ...

In a case such as we just had, their function would be to travel to all the Chareidie leaders, be it in Yerushalyim be it in Bnei-Brak, Beit Shemesh and inform the Gedoilim exactly what is going on and then let each leader make their decision based on the true information...

Asking an old Gadol whose only satisfaction in life is to immerse himself in the ancient text of the gemmarah, if there is a "mageifah" and expecting him to know something that no one ever told him, is insane.... and who knows what damage this did to those who had unquestionable faith in their gedoilim?

Who knows how many who had absolute faith in these tzaddikim, but lost loved ones, will now lose all their faith not only of their gadol but of our Creator?

Let me give you an example...The Israeli government prohibited everyone from burning their chametz... and Gedoiim came up with halachic ways to rid the homes of chametz erev Pesach and yet be able to fullfill the mitzvah of "beeir chamatz".... these posters were all over ...

Every normal year, the Zionists government provides special bins equipped with firefighters every few blocks where frum people live ...this year they prohibited the burning because of the virus..

Yet in Beit Shemesh Bet, where the extremists live and who have an entire different Torah.... they ignored all the warnings and openly defied the government and were burning the chametz in their homes...

Well one guy went and burned his chamatz and burned himself to death; some of his children barely survived ..all the Frum blogs now have ads collecting for his poor widow and orphaned children ...

Well one former neighbor of mine who lives across the street where this tragedy occured cried to me that many teenagers living on that block were now going off the derech as their whole faith was shattered that such a tzaddik who while performing a mitzvah suffered such a horrible death ...

Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, two strongholds of Israel’s Chareidie population, account for 37 percent of the country’s coronavirus deaths, according to official figures.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES!

Is Dancing Around a Bon-Fire Worshipping Idols?

First I would like to address all those defying regulations and running and making minyanim during this virus ....

Keep in mind that the great Tanna, Reb Shimon ben Yochai davened 12 years without a minyan ...
he didn't daven in a minyan for 624 Shabbasim ....and missed a minyan 12,672 times....
he davened beyechidus 12 Rosh Hashanas, 12 Yom Kippurs , 12 Pesachs, 12 Succos .... 
....and yet ..... and yet ... he remained a tzaddik and continued being a Tannah ...

he was hiding in a cave, because the Romans were hunting him down to kill him.

The virus is hunting us down ..... STAY THE HELL HOME!!

Now for those insisting to burn down the country with your stupid bonfires...and choking us all with that putrid smoke ....
let me let you all into a secret .....this may very well be "darkai Amoirie" customs of  pagan worshippers ...

This from EMAILIM BATORAH


The תוספתא (Shabbos 7:1) says clapping hands or dancing in front of a fire is אסור because of דרכי אמורי.

Harav Hagaon R.S.Wosner zt"l (Shevet Halevi 7: 136) was asked if dancing in camp around a bonfire is permissible or there is an איסור of דרכי אמורי.

One of the reasons to consider why it might be מותר is because perhaps the תוספתא is referring only when the dancing is done for the honor of the fire.
(eg: A holy fire lit by a Rebbe who said לשם יחוד  & seven times ויהי נועם etc.) Then it has traces & elements of עבודה זרה.

Whereas in camp it's just done for warmth, light,& fun. Perhaps there it is not considered מנהג עבודה זרה.

Rav Wosner answered that even in a camp bonfire there is reason to be מחמיר and refrain from dancing around all fires so as not imitate עבודה זרה festivals.

Those who have such a מסורה from their Zaidas and Elter Zaidas to dance in front of a fire is אסור להרהר אחריהם. We must assume they found a היתר why there is
no דרכי אמורי - מנהג עבודה זרה and it doesn't even look like a חינגא של עכו"ם. (Festival)

However, those Yidden whose family originate from Chutz Laaretz especially from Europe since they have no מסורה of  dancing in front of a fire, for them it might
be commendable  to ask from their Rav if one may do so and if yes, then what's the היתר.

 Now a post from the Times of Israel!

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES!

Jerry Stiller, actor and comedian, dead at 92

Actor and comic Jerry Stiller passed away Monday morning at the age of 92.

Stiller, the father of actor and filmmaker Ben Stiller, died of natural causes, his son said.

He is survived by his son Ben, his daughter Amy, and his two grandchildren. Stiller was preceded in death by his wife of 61 years, Anne Meara.

“I’m sad to say that my father, Jerry Stiller, passed away from natural causes,” Ben Stiller tweeted Monday.

“He was a great dad and grandfather, and the most dedicated husband to Anne for about 62 years. He will be greatly missed. Love you dad.”

Stiller was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York in 1927, and served in the US Army during World War II.

He appeared in forty movies and dozens of television shows during an acting career which spanned over six decades.

Stiller is perhaps best known for his role on the 1990s sitcom “Seinfeld”, in which he played Frank Costanza, as well as his role in the show “The King of Queens”, in which he played Arthur Spooner.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES!

Palestinian Authority paves over Hasmonean fortress, destroying remains of ancient wall

The Palestinian Authority, taking advantage of the absence of Civil Administration inspectors during the coronavirus shutdown, is consolidating its takeover of "Tel Aroma," a Hasmonean fortress in Samaria. 

The PA’s most recent project has caused unspeakable damage to the antiquities at this unique site: Yesterday (Sunday) a fleet of heavy engineering tools from the Palestinian Authority and the Beta Village Council arrived at Tel Aroma, and paved a road leading toward the remains of the fortress.

Nearly three months ago, Regavim’s “Preserving the Eternal” Project documented and reported on an access path that had been steamrolled at the site, and the massive flagpole and Palestinian Authority flag, visible for miles, that had been erected on top of the ancient ruins of Tel Aromah, near the Jewish community of Itamar.

The Tel Aroma Fortress is the northernmost of eight fortresses established by the Hasmonean Kingdom to protect Israel’s eastern border. It is situated on a commanding ridge that controls the passage between the Jordan Valley and the heart of Samaria.

In recent months, the Palestinian Authority has been making concerted efforts and investing considerable resources to take over the site, installing generators and perimeter lighting, erecting tents alongside the huge flagpost platform, and manning them 24/7. 

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES!

Rare coin from Bar-Kokhba revolt unearthed near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

In honor of Lag B’Omer, the Israel Antiquities Authority on Monday revealed a rare bronze coin from the period of the Bar Kokhba revolt (circa 132 CE), which was discovered in archaeological excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority in the William Davidson Archaeological Park

The excavations are conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and funded by the Ir David Foundation (Elad), which operates the site.

The obverse of the coin is decorated with a cluster of grapes and the inscription “Year Two of the Freedom of Israel” and the reverse side features a palm tree and the inscription “Jerusalem.”

Coins from the period of the Bar Kokhba revolt, which declared the rebels’ purpose - to liberate Jerusalem from Roman occupation after the destruction of the city - are well-known in archeology. Discovering such coins helps researchers map out the revolt, which took place approximately 1,900 years ago.

It is interesting to note that the rebels minted these revolt coins on Roman regime coins with stripped or damaged faces, possibly out of defiance of the Roman occupation.

The revolt coins featured the Temple facade, trumpets, a harp/violin, as well as the inscriptions: “Redemption of Israel” and “Freedom of Israel.”

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES!