Rebuke of the infamous NYT article by Isaac Bardos

I struggled in the ultra-orthodox school system.

My experience pushed me to leave religious Judaism.

I switched to public school and graduated with honors from a school ranked in the top 4 public high schools in my home state.

From 9-12th grade in public school, I got to see the values, the culture, the "education," the lifestyle, everything it had to offer.

I attended two public (state) universities, in NY and Maryland, and two private universities in two different states.

Spending years in both settings allowed me a very unique perspective comparing the two systems and all that came with it.

One of the main reasons I chose to return to religious Judaism is BECAUSE of the shockingly large amounts missing in the secular education.

-The lack of values

-The focus on ego-driven outcomes

-95% of everything I learned in secular curricula is available for FREE on google, YouTube, Lynda, etc

I have never met a single Hasidic or ultra orthodox person struggling in life because they didn’t get a full year of 5th grade grammar or they missed out on “history” which is the absolute greatest waste of time, and instead they learned about how to manage their emotions, how to communicate with others, and be accountable to a higher power.

If your "perfect" curriculum was that "perfect," you wouldn’t need billions of dollars to pay back loans.

And if any Hasidic graduate wanted better grammar and math, thanks to Grammarly and free math resources, the school curriculum isn’t the answer.

And neither is the obviously hate-driven articles you’re writing about a people that started the largest volunteer, self funded life saving organization in America. Maybe write an article about how that happened?

Maybe write an article about how, per capita, among the Hasidic communities, there are more non profits than any other population in North America.

One of the reasons I left the public school world is BECAUSE of the hate, judgmentalism, anti-semitism, and we’re-going-to-tell-you how-to-think-about-others, from the very same educational systems that preach “tolerance, acceptance, respect, and inclusion.”

At 17 years old, it was blatantly obvious that was total PR B.S.

For you, the NYT (New York Talebearers) and CNN (Constant Negativity Network), every other headline and article is about “how dare those people be intolerant” which is ironically 100% intolerant of every other person who has a different perspective than you.

Well done seeding hate in our beloved country.

Well done doing it on September 11th.

Hasidic clients are among my favorite to work with in business. Instead of wasting years of educating kids to be about "who is better than who," who has more followers, and who’s going to outdo the next person at prom, Hasidic schools focus being valued for who they are.

What would the suicide rates among high schoolers be if that was the focus?

Looking forward to a front page sincere apology for the hurt you caused.

Israel Prisons Service weighs early release for terrorist mass-murderer who murdered Rabbi Benyamin & Talia Kahana

 

22 years after the murders of Rabbi Binyamin Kahane and his wife Talia, the Israel Prisons Service early release board is considering granting an early release to the murderer, Naji Abu Khamid, after Abu Khamid requested a hearing claiming ill health.

The terrorist was convicted not only of the murders of the Kahanes but also of a string of other offenses including the murder of Gadi Rejuan, who was killed in the Atarot industrial zone. Abu Khamid was sentenced to seven life sentences and a further 50 years behind bars.

The families of the victims were only very recently informed of the date of the hearing and both the son of Rabbi Kahane and the daughter of Gadi Rejuan have appealed to have the hearing postponed. Kahane and Rejuan are being represented by attorneys Ofir Steiner and Haim Bleicher of the Honenu organization, who are also demanding that their clients be permitted to make statements at the hearing against the early release of the man who murdered their parents.

Following their request, the Prisons Service agreed to postpone the hearing which would otherwise have taken place next Sunday and will set a new date for the convenience of the families.

Rabbi: Don't eat apples in honey on Rosh Hashanah

 

Rabbi Ben Zion Mutzafi, a leading Sephardic rabbi, told a student not to eat the traditional apple dipped in honey on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), Kikar Hashabbat reported.

On Wednesday night, one of Rabbi Mutzafi's students asked him, "Dear honored rabbi, do Sephardic Jews have a custom to eat an apple in honey on Rosh Hashanah? Because my grandfather said no."

In his response, Rabbi Mutzafi wrote, "'Ask your father, and he will tell you; your elders, and they will inform you.' (Deuteronomy 32:7) The grandfather is absolutely right. To this day, we the sons of the communities of the east do not have a custom to eat honey on Rosh Hashanah. Rather, we cook some type of fruits or vegetables in sugar, and eat it."

He explained, "According to the Kabbalah, honey represents the trait of justice, which should not be aroused on Rosh Hashanah, because its color is yellowish gold. Its numerical value is also reminiscent [of this], with the letters shin and vav (equaling 306) from the letters of [the word] shofar, which are sweetened by the shofar blasts, and with 14 knuckles of the fingers which hold the shofar, which [together with shin and vav] are the numerical equivalent of shin and kaf (320), which are judgements as mentioned in Edera Rabba in the Holy Zohar. And [this is] as our teachers the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzhak Luria - ed.) and the Rashshash (Rabbi Shalom Sharabi - ed.) wrote, and you can look this up in Shofar Betzion."

Each of the Hebrew letters has a numerical value, called gematriya. The first ten letters represent the numbers 1-10, with the next letters representing 20, 30, 40, and so on, until the letter kuf, which has a value of 100. The three final letters, reish, shin, and taf, have numerical values of 200, 300, and 400, respectively.

Trump Offered Jordan Control Over Judea, Samaria

 

US President Donald Trump offered Jordan’s King Abdullah II control over Judea and Samaria in January 2018, according to a bombshell report published Wednesday by The Washington Post.

The previously unreported offer was reported in a new book on the Trump residency due to be published next week, written by the husband-and-wife journalist team of Peter Baker and Susan Glasser.

The Jordanian monarch apparently didn’t react well to the offer.

“I thought I was having a heart attack,” Abdullah told an American friend in 2018, according to the report. “I couldn’t breathe. I was bent doubled-over.”

Abdullah has had endless problems with his majority-Palestinian Authority Arab population, the newspaper noted.

According to the book, Trump thought he would be doing Abdullah a favor, “not realizing that it would destabilize his country.”

Iran to execute 2 homosexual women

 

Mazal Tov Jonathan Pollard Engaged

 

Former spy Jonathan Pollard is set to remarry, with the couple poised to make a formal announcement on their engagement.

Pollard, 68, got engaged to Rivka, a Jerusalemite and mother of seven, last week, but made no public statement regarding the event.

The couple are slated to make a public announcement sometime after the funeral of IDF Major Bar Falah, who was shot and killed during a gun battle with Arab terrorists in Samaria overnight.

On Tuesday, Pollard attended the Bar Mitzvah of Shahar Dagan, son of Samaria Regional Council chief Yossi Dagan.

In January, Pollard’s late wife Esther passed away, following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Pollard and his first wife, Anne, divorced in the late 1980s.

The official announcement reads:

How can I repay the Lord for all of his bountiful deals towards me? (Psalm 116 12).

With praise and thanks to G-d, we are excited to announce our engagement

We are full of gratitude to you, our friends and family members and our dear children for your love and hugs and first and foremost to Esther, may she rest in peace,. who in her infinite love even recognized us and allowed this miracle to happen. Her memory will always be with us.

The wedding will take place, G-d willing, in two months, after the High Holidays.

Jewish Baron Gives Queen Elizabeth a Brilliant Hesped in Parliament

 

Queen Elizabeth has been eulogized by countless politicians and other leading figures across the globe. But in his tribute to the late monarch in the House of Lords, Baron David Wolfson used a new method of talking about the significance of her death: explaining a pillar of Jewish mysticism.

In a six-minute speech on Friday, Wolfson, a Conservative who served as a justice minister under Boris Johnson, walked his peers through several aspects of Jewish tradition — including gematria, the Jewish practice of finding meaning through the numerical value of words.

Gov DeSantis in a brilliant move Flies “Illegal Immigrants” To Martha’s Vineyard

 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday flew two planes of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, escalating a tactic by Republican governors to draw attention to what they consider to be the Biden administration’s failed border policies.

Flights to the upscale island enclave in Massachusetts were part of an effort to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” said Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director.

While DeSantis’ office didn’t elaborate on their legal status, many migrants who cross the border illegally from Mexico are temporarily shielded from deportation after being freed by U.S. authorities to pursue asylum in immigration court — as allowed under U.S law and international treaty — or released on humanitarian parole.

Massachusetts’ Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, said he was in touch with local officials and that short-term shelter was being provided.

State Rep. Dylan Fernandes, who represents Martha’s Vineyard, tweeted: “Our island jumped into action putting together 50 beds, giving everyone a good meal, providing a play area for the children, making sure people have the healthcare and support they need. We are a community that comes together to support immigrants.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing thousands of migrants to Washington in April and recently added New York and Chicago as destinations. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has been busing migrants to Washington since May. Passengers must sign waivers that the free trips are voluntary.

DeSantis, who is mentioned as potential presidential candidate, appears to be taking the strategy to a new level by using planes and choosing Martha’s Vineyard, whose harbor towns that are home to about 15,000 people are far less prepared than New York or Washington for large influxes of migrants.

The move is likely to delight DeSantis’ supporters who deride Democrat-led, immigrant-friendly “sanctuary” cities and anger critics who say he is weaponizing migrants as pawns for political gain.

The Florida Legislature appropriated $12 million to transport “illegal immigrants” from the state consistent with federal law, Fenske said.

“States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden Administration’s open border policies,” Fenske said.

How the "Oiz Vehdar" Edition of the Ohr Hachyim twists and corrupts the words of the Or Hachayim Hakodosh

 

The Ohr Hachayim Hakadosh, R' Chaim ben Moshe ibn Attar, born in Sale Morocco in 1696 was niftar in 1743. He is known as the Or Hachaim after his popular commentary on the Torah.

He was considered the most prominent Rabbi of Morocco. He made aliyah in 1742 with his two wives and 30 talmidim. On July 7, 1743, less than a year after his arrival in Yerushalayim he suddenly died and was buried on Har Hazeisim.

Chassidim decided that the Ohr Hachayim Hakodosh was really a Chasid and adopted him, but this happened only after his demise.

The story is that the Baal Shem Tov was sitting at Shalosh Seudis Seudah and before anyone in the area could have found out about the Ohr Hachayim's passing, he exclaimed,

 "The light from the West has been extinguished!"

At any rate, Chassidim made it an obligation to learn Ohr Hachayim's commentary. And there isn't a Chassidishe Shul that doesn't have a shiur in the Ohr Hachayim. 

The Ohr Hachayim is not an easy read, as he writes very poetically and embeds pesukim from Tanach and sayings from all over the Talmud and Midrash in his commentary. One must be familiar with Tanach and the Talmud to decipher most of his commentary.

It was only natural that Chassidim would undertake the difficult task of writing a commentary to decipher and explain every line of the Ohr Hachayim's commentary to make it easier on those who were eager to learn this beautiful "peirish".

On or abouts 2007, Oiz Vehadar under the leadership of R' Yeshua Leifer of New Square, did just that and did a magnificent job and now any lay person wanting to enjoy the Ohr Hachayim's commentary and is fluent in Lashon Hakodesh can do so. Artscroll in 2017 translated it into English, but of course for those fluent in Loshon Hakodesh  using the Oiz Vehadar edition is a no brainer; and no comparison!

How Dan Goldman Kicked Chassidim in the "tuchis"

 

.@danielsgoldman SHAME ON YOU!
If it weren't for Yeshiva Graduates you'd lose

Gratitude isn't a virtue, it's the utmost important trait.

You were elected for the sole purpose of defending your constituents when needed most. Instead, you chose to speak out and humiliate us. pic.twitter.com/wwKzoLq4Jx

— Yeshiva Graduate Yossi Schlussel (@YossiSchlussel) September 13, 2022