Last year in Jerusalem

by Penny Cagan 

Last year I spent Yom Kippur in Israel. It was my first time in Israel, and I had neglected to check the calendar. When I booked my Jerusalem hotel and flight, I had failed to realize that coming at a time when everything was shut down for two days was not optimal.

I have never considered myself a religious person and was raised essentially as a “Yom Kippur Jew.” My family went to synagogue only on the High Holidays to mostly appease my grandparents who came to the United States from Lithuania. My paternal grandfather was deeply religious, and I never remember seeing him without a prayer book by his side. He terrified me because he had a deep stillness within him that was unknowable.

What does a non-religious Jew do on Yom Kippur in Jerusalem when there are no tours, or open restaurants or shops? I walked through the Old City of Jerusalem until I reached the Western Wall and I spent Yom Kippur afternoon there just sitting with all the women dressed in white. There was the same stillness in the air that I remember emanating from grandfather. It was one the quietest and most moving experiences of my life.

The moment I came home to New York, I started planning to return to Israel the following year. Unfortunately, with the pandemic, that will not happen this year. But I also started seeking a place in the Jewish community that I felt so disconnected from. I spent last Autumn visiting synagogues in the city each Friday night. New York City is blessed with so many diverse and inclusive synagogues. I visited the large, grand synagogues that are deeply established in the city’s Jewish roots and the small upstarts that hold services in church community rooms.  I finally found my place in the Romemu synagogue on the Upper West Side and became a member a week before the coronavirus shut down.

In early January I read about the Daf Yomi cycle where people from around the world read one portion of the Talmud each day. I jumped into the cycle with the hope I would discover the secrets of my religion and heritage, and everything that I found unknowable in my grandfather’s quietness. The journey has been difficult and at times I have been convinced that I cannot carry on and am not sure how much more of eruv concentric circles of 2,000 cubit feet I can bear. But I have come to connect with wonderful, dedicated, kind-hearted friends from around the world who are on the same journey. We have found each other in our common struggle to decipher the text and live our lives during the time of a pandemic. And through this all, I have found my Jewish center. I have traveled very far to come home.

Best wishes for an easy fast on Yom Kippur and your own coming home this year, wherever that will take you.

Visit my website at: https://brokentabletsfrompennycagan.me

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Rabbanit Miriam Levinger passes away

 Rabbanit Miriam Levinger, the wife of the late Rabbi Moshe Levinger, passed away overnight Monday, at 83.

She had been evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital on Yom Kippur night in serious condition.

A spokesman for the Jewish community in Hebron, Noam Arnon, said, "The Jewish community in Hebron and all lovers of Hebron and the Land of Israel mourn the passing of Rabbanit Miriam Levinger, who passed away on the night of Yom Kippur. She was a symbol and role model of devotion and pioneering, and with her own hands brought about the redemption of the city.”

“Rabbanit Levinger's leadership and power led the settlement in the heart of Hebron and the historical return of the Jewish people to their first hometown. Her pioneering deeds will be written forever in the history of the Land of Israel and the Jewish people. Our condolences to her entire family.”Rabbanit Levinger led the return to the historic Beit Hadassah building in Hebron and the reestablishment of the Jewish community of Hebron in 1979. Residents of Hebron are currently praying for her recovery at the Cave of the Patriarchs while adhering to Health Ministry guidelines.

Rabbanit Levinger and her husband Rabbi Moshe Levinger, who passed away in 2015, have 11 children and dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In 2019, Miriam won the Jerusalem Prize "for her blessed work over the decades with great dedication for the Jewish settlement in the city of Hebron."

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R’ Moshe Harari 46, Niftar From COVID-19, Twenty Others Hospitalized in Lakewood

 R’ Moshe Harari Z”L of Lakewood. He was 46.

Sourcess ay that he was Niftar from complications from COVID-19. He was taken to the hospital on Erev Yom Tov, and was Niftar on Yom Kippur.

R’ Moshe Z”L is the son of Chacham Eliezer, a prominent Rav in Flatbush.

He leaves behind his wife and two children.

Meanwhile, there were around twenty Lakewood residents hospitalized in the past few days, it what is clearly a “second wave”.

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Biden Predicted that He would be "Dead and Gone in 2020"

 

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Nadler "Craps" On Live TV

 

 I’m not kidding. I mean, look at the footage. 

It sure looks like something bad happened and he tried to scurry off as quickly as possible. 

There’s no way no one noticed obviously. First, he’s right there next to Nancy Pelosi. Second, he’s a top Democrat, chair of the House Judiciary Committee. And third, he’s front and center at the speaker's presser. That shuffle is not going to fool anyone. There’s no covert slide away from the Speaker of the House in any situation. Also, we all know that’s not how you walk, sir.

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Police pull infected worshiper from Jerusalem synagogue

 

Police removed a man who was infected with the coronavirus from a Jerusalem synagogue on Sunday, shortly before the start of the Yom Kippur holiday.

The man was apparently aware that he had the virus and was supposed to be in quarantine.

“A short time ago, police received a report of the presence of a diagnosed coronavirus carrier in one of the synagogues in the Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood in Jerusalem,” police said in a statement.

“Police officers arrived on the scene, located him, wrote him a fine of NIS 5,000 and escorted him back to his home where he is required to stay in isolation,” police said in a statement.

Prayer services have become a bone of contention in Israel’s coronavirus policy, as cases surge during the Jewish High Holiday season.

Authorities fear group prayer services during the holidays could further spread the virus, but lawmakers were unable to agree on prayer and protest restrictions in lockdown measures approved by the cabinet last week.

Officials are reportedly worried about students in ultra-Orthodox yeshivas returning home to their families and infecting them with the virus after Yom Kippur, which ends on Monday evening.

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Kapporis on Zoom

 

Before you "shlug" kapporis with the above zoom ...

you need to ask a "shaaleh" from your local rav ...

I suggest you don't go to your frum orthodox rav ...

Why don't you google and search for a "Chickie poo" rabbi ...?

This kapparos on zoom is free .... but if you "dafka" want to give some money in leu of kapparos ... you can click on our ads ....

Gmar Chasimah Tova!

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Kol Nidrei .......

 If we could have those emotions by davening like this cello player ....how great would that be?

 

Shlomo Carlebach .........

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Seriously considering the “A” word?

 With Yom Kippur just around the corner, it seems as if the time has arrived to do an honest Chesbon Nefesh (self-searching) concerning the “A” word; Aliyah. In a recent report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released earlier this year before the outbreak of the Corona virus pandemic in the United States, about two-thirds of American Jews said they feel less safe than at any other time in the past decade.

The ADL survey also found that more than half of American Jews (54%) have either experienced or witnessed an incident they believe was motivated by antisemitism.

Wherever you look; broadcasters, sports celebrities, local politicians associated with the Democratic Party, social media activists, Black Lives Matter’s leaders, street anarchists, are all expressing with immunity and zero remorse, a common and seemingly coordinated message of hatred towards Jews, that Jews are somehow responsible for the Corona pandemic, and that Jews are financially behind much of the anti-government violence sweeping the streets of America.

The time tested and natural response by most Jews, albeit unconsciously has been to modify their’ daily routine and avoid public displays of Judaism so as to minimize the risk of being targeted. This pretty much sums up the reaction of most American Jews, even if they continue to deny or refuse to admit it. The natural inclination to move on as if nothing has changed is a time tested response by Jews that seems to no longer be relevant or effective in dealing the wide-spread anti-Semitism that has mushroomed everywhere.

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The Day that the Kloizenberger Rebbe z"l Arrived to Settle In the State of Israel

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