It started with a tick bite. How I lost my husband to undiagnosed Lyme disease

 

Raboisai... I am posting this article because of a funeral that took place last week in Beit Shemesh! A 34 year-old young man from Monsey died after a long illness. 

The family went from one doctor to another and no one could diagnose his illness except that all doctors agreed that he was deteriorating at a rapid rate. 

Finally he was diagnosed with Lyme disease, and before they started  treatment, Zev Saloff died at the young age of 34!

If anyone in your family is not well, first check for Lyme disease! 

Here is a heartbreaking post from his mother:

For those of you who have not heard, my youngest son Nathaniel Zev (Zevy)  passed away last Shabbos. We brought him for burial to Israel, and we are sitting shiva in Ramat Beit Shemesh until Monday morning (Israel time). He has been suffering from long term, chronic neurological Lyme disease, which had not been discovered until recent testing, but he passed away before treatment could begin. We are struggling with this loss. Be aware and vigilant that such vector borne infections can imitate and/or cause serious autoimmune diseases such as ALS, Lupus, MS, fibromyalgia, et al. Please do deeds of goodness and kindness, and learn Torah in the merit of the spiritual elevation of נתנאל זאב בן ר׳ בן ציון

Natanel Zev ben Ben-Tzion. 💔😓😞Gd has a plan

It was 2016 when I got a call at work. It was the house alarm company. My husband, Russ, who picked up the kids from school each day, had arrived home and wasn’t able to turn the blaring alarm off. 

I got home later that day and everything was fine. But I noticed Russ asking repetitive questions. Forgetting what time to pick up the kids. And he couldn’t remember the alarm code — the same one we had used for years. 

In the time leading up to the alarm company incident, things between Russ and me had not been good. He was moody and irritable. He was angry. I thought we were headed toward divorce. But now I know those were the very first signs of tick-borne illness.

Because Russ was very outdoorsy, and because I knew he had ticks on him over the years, Lyme disease was actually one of the first things that came to mind when I started looking into the symptoms of my husband’s cognitive decline. The thing was, though, that Russ had never had a fever or a rash associated with ticks that we knew of, and when tested with the standard Lyme screener had come up negative. 

We also got bloodwork from an integrative medicine doctor to take a deeper look at what was happening with Russ. It showed nothing out of the ordinary. Tick-borne illnesses, like Lyme, fell off my radar. Russ went to a neurologist for cognitive testing and his decline was far worse than I even suspected. He wasn’t able to do simple math patterns that my 6-year-old could easily do at the time. He was a computer scientist and electrical engineer. I was flabbergasted. The neurologist said he either had a stroke event or Alzheimer’s.  

Guy Who Is Accused of Ripping People off in His "Pesach Program Scam" Cleverly Links His Failed Website to "Loshon Hara" Site

This has to be the funniest story yet about failed Pesach Programs!

 

People that spent thousands of hard earned dollars, some of whom lost all their life's savings on his "Pesach Program," that took in money but never delivered, are outraged that he links his failed Pesach Ad links to a "Loshon Hara" site that he himself created!

What utter chutzpah!

Years ago a known rabbi in Monsey, for years gave a shiur every shabbos on Shmiras Haloshon, subsequently we found out that he was having sexual relationships with multiple married women and this shiur was to make sure that if the story got out, people wouldn't talk about it! 

We posted about this program last year ....

See 

 DUS IZ NIES !! Rare View...: Major Pesach Program Goes Belly Up right Before Pesach but it Was "Non-Gebroktz"& Offered Hand "Shmurah Matzos"

DUS IZ NIES !! Rare View...: Heshy Goldstein Host of "Failed Pesach" Struggles to Answer to What Happened in an Interview with Zev Brenner

DUS IZ NIES !! Rare View...: Heshy Goldstein Host of "Failed Pesach" Struggles to Answer to What Happened in an Interview with Zev Brenner

What a clever fellow... Got to give him credit where credit is due! 

Chilonim Rally To Draft Chareidim in Meah Shearim ... All Hell Breaks loose

 

Instead of "fressing chulent" on Shabbos Chareidim Join Hamas Rally in London

House Democrats endorse the vicious antisemite Jamaal Bowman

 

 Democrats in the US House of Representatives endorsed Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who has spoken out against Israel, days after the party’s leading Jewish group endorsed his primary challenger.

The endorsement is not unusual — House leaders in both parties routinely favor incumbents facing tough primary races — but it comes as the New York lawmaker is facing a challenge from a popular local elected official, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, who has blasted Bowman’s Israel rhetoric and recently gained the backing of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.

The endorsement Friday, distributed by Bowman’s campaign, emphasized his local bona fides and did not touch on his condemnations of Israel, which he has accused of “genocide” in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

“Congressman Bowman’s life experiences — raised by a single mom in public housing and founding a public school serving low-income children in the Bronx — have shaped him into a public servant who fights for economic justice and in defense of historically underrepresented communities,” said the statement by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California.

Bowman was first elected in 2020 and is part of the Squad, the group of progressive Democratic representatives who are broadly critical of Israel. He represents a district that spans Westchester and part of the Bronx in New York City, and is home to a sizable Jewish community.

The Israel-Hamas war has become a focus of the campaign. Latimer has been firmly supportive of Israel since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. In addition to the “genocide” charge, Bowman recently walked back a statement last year casting doubt on claims that Hamas committed rape in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which launched the war. He has also lost the endorsement of J Street, the liberal Israel lobby.

The Chareidie Argument that Shevet Levi Didn't Serve in the Army Totally Debunked!

by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed

The Role of the Tribe of Levi

Q: Some say that yeshiva students who do not enlist in the army are like the members of the tribe of Levi who studied in yeshivas and kollelim, and did not participate in the wars of Israel. According to them, the Rambam wrote this as well. Are their words correct according to the Torah?

A: There is no basis for their words. On the contrary, the members of the tribe of Levi were dedicated to public affairs, and were committed to this. In times of peace, their role was to go out to the nation and teach Torah, instruct in Jewish law, and serve as police officers for all matters of law and order regarding interpersonal matters, and matters between man and God.

And in times of war, their role was to strengthen the spirit of the fighters, like the Military Rabbinate and the Education Corps, and to serve as military police enforcing the draft laws on the entire nation, severely punishing deserters and those fleeing from the battlefield.

They also guarded the Holy Ark that went out with the fighters and the senior command that was close to it, in the capacity of the “king’s legion” (like a Special Forces Unit). And anyone who remained without a specific role was among the first to go out to battle with the other soldiers, as befits public servants of the highest echelons.

After defining all their roles, I will briefly explain each detail.

New York Times Terminates Freelance Reporter for Pro-Israel Social Media Posts

 

The New York Times has ended the employment of freelance Israeli reporter Anat Schwartz due to her liking pro-Israel posts on social media platform X. Schwartz, who began writing for the Times in November, was part of the paper’s coverage of the Israeli response to the Hamas massacre and kidnappings in October.

An investigation was launched in February after the Times became aware of Schwartz’s social media activity, which included liking posts that Israel and its war against Hamas. A spokesperson for the Times stated that the “likes” were “unacceptable violations of our company policy” and that the matter was being reviewed.

Schwartz was one of several writers involved in the Times’ investigation into the Hamas violence and assaults against women on October 7.

Rebbe In Telzstone: State Should Fund 2000 Yeshiva Students, The Rest Must Serve Community

 An unusual position regarding funding yeshiva students and the contentious issue of army exemptions was presented by Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Gottlieb, a Chasidic rabbi who serves as the leader of the Ashlag community in Telzstone.

Rabbi Gottlieb described the demonstrations by secularists, demanding that charedim help them and “get under the stretcher” for military service.

He wrote that “In a time of war, even a groom must leave his chuppah and go to help. Although other rabbis insist that we must not stop Torah study, this is not the issue. Nobody wants to stop Torah study, but it is “a time to do for Hashem and to ‘transgress’ the Torah.”

Rabbi Gottlieb suggests that yeshivos be established on the borders in the north south and where required and study half day while spending the other half on patrols and guard duty , in order to “take away from the terrible burden on the general community in Israel.” He warns that “The Israeli public will not forget if the yeshiva students won’t join the war effort.”

He also admits that the yeshiva students are not all sitting and studying day and night. “Not everyone has the strength for this, only a small amount. Near my house there are all kinds of bakeries with food, restaurants and eateries. I see the whole day long that there are quite a few yeshiva students eating with great relish baked foods and other items.” Rabbi Gottlieb concludes: “Do they have no shame?”

In another post Rabbi Gottlieb decries the funding of yeshiva students, stating that it is a “custom whose time has passed”. From the age of 18, he claims that “everyone must contribute their part for the people of Israel and study in their “free time”. He adds that this was the view of the Baal Hasulam, that people should work, should enlist and take part of the burden on themselves. He was even against kollelim, believing that Toraso U’Manuso is meant for a person’s free time, and should not be for remuneration.

Rabbi Gottlieb concedes that the state should fund “some 2000 people every year” as it is in the interest of the Jewish nation to have Dayanim, Poskim, rabbis and Talmidei Chachamim. He believes this number is enough to produce the requisite number of Torah leaders.

‘Zionist pigs!’ and ‘End Israel!’ at Berkeley City Council Meeting

 

WATCH: Susanne DeWitt, an 89 year-old Holocaust survivor who was arrested and sent to Dachau Concentration Camp at age 4, was repeatedly heckled by demonstrators as she spoke in favor of the City of Berkeley's Holocaust Remembrance Day proclamation. pic.twitter.com/B3mx5mjjSo

— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) March 28, 2024

 A Berkeley City Council meeting last Tuesday spiraled into disorder as a group of pro-Hamas protesters targeted council members and supporters of Israel, hurling derogatory slurs such as “Zionist pigs,” “Genocide enablers,” “Murderers,” and “money suckers,” and calls to “End Israel.”

The meeting included a vote on marking Holocaust Remembrance Day in Berkeley.

The Jewish Community Relations Council shared excerpts from Tuesday’s meeting on social media, one of which quickly went viral, capturing the instance when the proceedings had to be halted when Susanne DeWitt, an 89-years-old Holocaust survivor, was being drowned out by the shouting antisemites.

They repeated the cry of “Lies!” when DeWitt urged the City Council to adopt the Holocaust Remembrance Day proclamation because of what she described as a “horrendous surge in antisemitism.” This was a second opportunity for DeWitt to be attacked by Nazis after she had been hurled at age four into the Dachau concentration camp outside Munich.

The shouting increased when the elderly survivor told the council about the 1,200 Israelis who were tortured, raped and killed by Hamas.

A bereaved father responds to the violent Tel Aviv protesters

 

Message from Chaggai Luber whose son Jonathan was killed in Gaza to the parents of the hostages who called for intensifying the struggle against the Government (the message can also be seen on Facebook here.) Chaggai is the founder of the religious theater company Aspaklaria.

Response:

Nobody will burn my country.

We are tired o f the threats of extremists.

Yes, even if these extremists have relatives in Gaza.

You will not burn the country.

That's out of the question.

And if I have to fight you, I will fight.

Millions of people look at you in disbelief, disapproval, shock,

And only out of respect to you, they are silent.

I will not be silent.

My son was killed in Gaza.

He went to protect and free your children, and was killed

Left everything, left behind a pregnant wife and a nine-month-old child, and was killed

He won't come back again. Not in any deal.

And so I am allowed to tell you:

You must not break up the country.

You must not go wild.

You are not allowed to block roads.

You must not confront the police.

You must not call for people to refuse to serve.

You are not allowed to shake police cars.

You must not try to break into the Prime Minister's house.

The fact that your children are captives in Gaza,

It hurts, it's unfortunate, it tears us all to pieces inside,

This will make me send again the three sons I have left, to fight, and to risk their lives for them.

But this does not give you any special rights:

You have no right to 'take your gloves off'.

You have no right to curse the elected officials.

You have no right to scream “shame”.

You have no right to violate public order.

You have no right to block Ben Gurion Airport.

You have no right to declare a strike in the economy.

You have no such right.

Restrain yourselves - Do you hear?

R E S T R A I N