Zera Shimshon Parshas Ve'Eschanan

 

Ben Gvir Goes Up to the Har Habyis accompanied by some Chassidim on Tisha Be'ov

 

The Healthy Jew’s Guide for Journeying in Israel (Part 1)

 

By Shmuel Chaim Naiman 

Welcome to The Healthy Jew’s Guide for Israel Journeys, a region-based manual about where to best experience life’s voyage in the Chosen Land. This guide is geared toward the genuine journeyer – it’s not another list of tourist attractions! - and builds on what we’ve learned about navigating life’s journey from here to there.

Today I’ll discuss where not to journey in Natural Israel using three rules that, in my experience, help determine where to freely and openly explore the country. Next week I’ll finish this guide by sharing the best regions for Israel voyages.

Before beginning your journey through this article (afterwards is also fine!), make sure to check out the new Events and Programs section on the THJ website for guided foraging walks, The Healthy Jew Course, and personalized health coaching. It’s worth it!

Are We Still in Galus because we refuse to leave?

 

Imagine you are living at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. You see amazing miracles: the ten plagues, the splitting of the sea, the revelation at Mount Sinai. Now imagine that in the middle of it all, there are people all around you who are simply uninterested, who want nothing to do with this redemption.

What would you think of such people? What would you say to them? I am sure that some of these sentiments would pass through your mind: “What is wrong with them? Do they not see what G-d is doing for us? How can they pass up such an opportunity?”

But more importantly, how do you think G-d would react?

 Well, at least regarding this question, we know the answer. You see, this is not just a theoretical scenario. It actually happened, at least twice, and our Father in Heaven was not very happy.

We all know the famous statement of Chazal that only one-fifth of the Jewish people left Egypt, while the vast majority, 80%, died during the plague of darkness. But why? What was their sin? Midrash Tanchuma (Vaera 14) states, “There were wicked Jews who had Egyptian friends and who enjoyed honor and fortune in Egypt. They did not want to leave.” Yes, even though they were enslaved, many Jews became comfortable in exile, to the point where they did not want to leave, even though they already witnessed eight fearsome plagues and numerous other miracles!

Ben Gvir Joins Yeshivishe Guys At the Gate of the Har Habayit ..Listen to Ani Maamin at the Kotel Last Night

 

Shloimie Daskal Gives powerful Message to his fellow Chassidim in Yiddish

 

Little Children Explain the "Churban Habayis" to their Non--Jewish Nanny

 

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Rare Great Revolt-Era "Machtzis HaShekel "Coin Found in Judean Desert

 

A 2,000-year-old silver half-shekel bearing the Hebrew inscription “Holy Jerusalem” has been discovered in the Judean desert, the Israel Antiquities Authority revealed on Tuesday.

The rare coin, dated to 66/67 C.E., the days of the first Jewish revolt against the Romans, was discovered at the entrance to a cave near Ein Gedi. The find was part of a cave survey operation, now in its sixth year, that the IAA is managing in cooperation with the Israeli Heritage Ministry and an archaeology staff officer at the Civil Administration.

Recently, as part of the survey, IAA inspectors had reached a section of a cliff along one of the streams in the Ein Gedi area, and noticed the coin sticking out of the ground at the entrance to one of the cliffside caves.

Rabbi Begging Jews To Go Up on the Har Habyit on Tisha Be'Ov

 The Gemarrah states that the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash took place on the 7th day of Av. 

The Gemarrah asks, "but we know that the Bais Hamikdash was destroyed on the 10th of Av?"

So which is it? The 7th or the 10th?

The Gemarrah answers that the goyim entered the Har Habayis on the 7th. 

The Gemarrah is stating something very dramatic! 

That Goyim occupying the Har Habyis is a "churban" in itself, its as if they physically destroyed it! 

American Orthodoxy’s Response to the Establishment of the Jewish State

 

by Rabbi Berel Wein

During the Second World War, American Jewry, at least the Jews in Chicago where I lived, knew that the situation in Europe was bad, but I don’t think any of us knew how bad it was. The Jewish community back then had no real political power and not much wealth. There was a general malaise. American Orthodox Jews felt there was little they could do. 

On top of that, the religious structure of the American Jewish community was very weak. The younger generation of Jews in America was basically non-observant. The majority of American Jews had inherited their family traditions, but were not Jewishly educated or observant.  

In 1950, Look, a popular magazine in those days, dedicated an issue to the topic of 300 years of Jews in America, 1650-1950. In the article, the author stated that the Conservative movement would become mainstream Judaism—the Orthodox would disappear completely and the Reform would assimilate.  

There were dozens of boys on my block on the West Side of Chicago, all of them Jewish. We all went to public school. I was the only one of the group who was shomer Shabbos. Once I got older, I decided to go to law school even though I had always wanted to be a rabbi; there were no positions in the Orthodox rabbinate.  

Soon after World War II, refugees started to drift in. Some of the refugees, especially the rabbinic refugees, were people of immense strength and vision who said, “We’re going to build [Torah Judaism] all over again. We’re not satisfied with [American Jews saying], ‘This is America and this is how we’re going to do it.’” It was unacceptable to them. These were the teachers I had in Beis HaMidrash LaTorah, the Hebrew Theological College in Chicago. They were all European rabbis and great talmidei chachamim, tremendous people, all of whom had had very difficult lives. 

It was an all-Yiddish-speaking yeshivah. It was not so much that these rabbanim communicated to us the knowledge of Torah as much as the geshmak of Torah—how pleasant, how wonderful Torah is. The message they conveyed to us was how fortunate we were to be able to be in a place where we could study Torah. How fortunate we were that we could perform mitzvos. They never spoke about what  happened to them. They always spoke about what was going to be, and what we were supposed to be, and that it was our task to rebuild the Jewish people. Over time, dozens and dozens of Jewish leaders came from the yeshivah and, in fact, even entire communities in Israel. (The aliyah rate from Chicago was enormous.) 

But what really inspired us was the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. The birth of Israel was so unlikely, so unnatural. The years preceding it were so devastating: the British blockade, the Holocaust, the thousands of refugees, the internal strife. But G-d has His ways—which is basically the story of the Jewish people. 

I remember the day the State of Israel was declared; it was on a Friday afternoon. I walked to shul with my father, of blessed memory, who was not an especially outwardly emotional person; he had the stoicism of the Lithuanian Jews. But as we walked to shul, I saw that he was weeping. It made an enormous impression upon me.