Yeda‘yah son of Asayahu's Seal Found lived 2,647 years ago

As part of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, a rare seal impression (bula) from the First Temple period bearing an inscription in ancient Hebrew script was discovered about three weeks ago, on the evening of the 17th of Tammuz. The seal impression was found by archaeologist Mordechai Erlich, a member of the Temple Mount Sifting Project.

Made of clay, the bulla was found intact, and after research by project scholars Dr. Anat Mendel-Geberovich and Zachi Dvira, all the letters were deciphered except one, which was suggested to be the letter Ayin.

The full inscription proposed by the researchers is: “Yeda‘yah (son of) Asayahu”. Based on markings on the back of the object, it appears to have been used to seal a sack or another storage vessel. A fingerprint, likely of the seal’s owner, is also visible on the side of the artifact. Based on the script style, the seal impression is dated to the late First Temple period (second half of the 7th century BCE to the early 6th century BCE).

The Lying New York Times adds editors’ note to front-page image of emaciated Gaza toddler after backlash

A haunting photo of an emaciated toddler cradled by his mother dominated the front page of Friday’s Lying New York Times, quickly becoming a symbol of the hunger crisis in Gaza. Now, the newspaper has amended some aspects of his story amid criticism.

“Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, about 18 months, with his mother, Hedaya al-Mutawaq, who said he was born healthy but was recently diagnosed with severe malnutrition,” the original caption said.

But over the weekend, skeptics about the scope of the hunger crisis in Gaza — and especially about whether Israel is to blame — cried foul over the image and its use. They charged the newspaper with perpetrating a “blood libel” against Israel

On Tuesday night, the newspaper announced that it had revised the story, saying that it had learned that the child had underlying medical issues that affected his muscle development. The revision removed the mother’s quote from the story saying that Mohammed had been born healthy and added context from his doctor, though it did not back away from the other reporting in the story, “Gazans Are Dying of Starvation,” including its claim that the child was suffering from malnutrition due to food shortages.

“This additional detail gives readers a greater understanding of his condition,” the newspaper said in a statement about an editor’s note appended to the story.

The editors’ note followed days of criticism of the newspaper and other outlets for running photographs that the critics said exaggerate the extent of hunger in Gaza and lay blame for any crisis solely at Israel’s feet.

“Muhammad is not simply a victim of starvation. His condition stems from a health disorder, not from a lack of food caused by Israel,” the pro-Israel media watchdog Honest Reporting wrote in a report issued Sunday titled “Another Photo. Another Lie.”

While Honest Reporting acknowledged that there is “suffering in Gaza,” it claimed that the blame lies with Hamas, which it accused of looting aid intended for civilians and disrupting Gaza’s medical system with its attack on Israel and continued hostage-holding.

“He is a sick child in need of medical care and specialized nutrition. Care that was once available, and could be again,” its report said.

Honest Reporting and other pro-Israel voices, including the Israeli government, have long accused various media organizations of distorting their presentation of the Israel-Hamas war to paint Israel in the harshest light possible. 

Julia Hyman, Jewish graduate of Cornell, killed in Manhattan shooting

Julia Hyman, a Jewish graduate of Cornell University, was identified on Tuesday as one of the four victims of Monday night’s shooting attack in Manhattan.

Hyman, 27, was murdered after the shooter, Shane Tamura, accidentally took the wrong elevator to her employer’s floor and encountered her, according to the New York Post.

Hyman had worked for Rudin Management, the company that owns the skyscraper where Tamura launched his rampage.

She graduated from Cornell in 2020 and had worked as a Rudin associate for less than a year, according to her LinkedIn page.

Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff issued a statement in her memory on Tuesday in which he said, “Today, I join you in mourning the loss of Julia Hyman, a 2020 graduate of the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration, who has been identified by news reports as one of the victims in Monday’s horrific shooting attack in New York City.”

“Julia, a native of Manhattan and an associate at Rudin Management, graduated summa cum laude with a major in hotel and restaurant administration and a minor in real estate. Her first job after graduating was with Sagehall Partners, founded by a fellow Cornellian. Julia was on campus earlier this summer for her five-year reunion,” he added.

“We are devastated for Julia’s friends and family, including her parents and sister Ali, a 2017 graduate of the College of Human Ecology. We also extend our sympathy to the loved ones of the three other victims, including New York Police Officer Didarul Islam. We extend our deepest condolences to all the families whose loved ones were lost in this senseless act,” said Kotlikoff.

Hyman is the second Jewish victim of Monday’s shooting. Wesley LePatner had been named earlier as one of the victims.

The UJA Federation of New York issued an announcement on LePatner’s death, saying, "We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Wesley LePatner, a cherished member of the UJA community and a dedicated member of our board of directors, who was killed in yesterday’s mass shooting in Midtown."

Wesley was described as "exceptional in every aspect of her life — personally, professionally, and philanthropically. She was extremely engaged as a member of the Jewish community. She was a board member of the Heschel Jewish Day School on the Upper West Side. As a leader of rare talent and integrity in the financial world, she brought vision, intelligence, and deep compassion to all that she pursued."

After October 7th, she led a UJA solidarity mission to Israel, exemplifying her deep dedication to the Jewish people in times of heartbreak and need. She lived with courage and purpose, nurturing in her two children a profound love for Judaism and the Jewish community.

 

The UN refuses to feed Gaza civilians unless it feeds Hamas leaders first

 

The starvation blood libel gained new traction last week at the exact same time Hamas blew up the latest ceasefire talks, ensuring that the international media would dutifully report on alleged Israeli evils rather than Hamas guaranteeing the war would continue.

As if by magic, somehow the 90 million free meals, two million a day, delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in recent weeks left Gazans hungrier than ever, according to the propaganda. Meanwhile, the United Nations continues to let its own aid rot in Gaza rather than attempt to feed the very people it claims are starving.

The starvation myth is as much a lie now as it was when OCHA head Tom Fletcher claimed without evidence or a shred of truth that 14,000 babies would die of starvation in Gaza in 48 hours. After 48 hours had passed, the number of babies who reportedly died of starvation was zero. But the truth did not matter, only the lie Fletcher spread on behalf of the UN and on behalf of Hamas.

The Netherlands Banning Entry To Jews Again ..Now Banning Ben Gvir And Smotrich; Threatens Sanctions

 

The Dutch government on Monday evening announced that it has imposed an entry ban on Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, along with a series of other anti-Israel measures.

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp wrote in a letter to Dutch lawmakers that the cabinet has decided to “declare Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir persona non grata and will register them as undesirable aliens in the Schengen registration system.”

“This is because they have repeatedly incited settler violence against the Palestinian population, continuously advocated the expansion of illegal settlements, and called for ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip.”

Frum Lady Wesley LePatner Blackstone Executive, Identified as Manhattan Shooting Victim

 Wesley LePatner (Michal Ziva bas Aryeh Leib a”h), a senior managing director at Blackstone and a respected figure in New York’s Modern Orthodox Jewish community, was tragically killed in the mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan on Monday. She was 43.

LePatner, a longtime member of The Altneu shul, also served on the boards of the UJA-Federation of New York and The Heschel School. Her sudden death has left friends and colleagues reeling.

“Broken. The unspeakable has happened,” wrote a friend. “Our dear friend, mentor, community member & builder Wesley LePatner was killed in yesterday’s shooting… the kindest and sharpest human being.”

“Just a few weeks ago, we sat for lunch and spoke about the future, our children, women’s leadership, Torah, our love for Israel,” her friend wrote. “I looked up to her so deeply.”

In addition to her role at Blackstone, where she served as Global Chief Operating Officer of the firm’s Real Estate group, LePatner was widely respected in the business world for her sharp intellect and steady leadership.

She leaves behind her husband, Evan, and their children.

Levaya arrangements have not yet been announced.

Yehi Zichra Baruch.

To end food shortages in Gaza, the world should unite to end . . . Hamas

 

The plight of Gazan civilians lacking enough food has made headlines, but make no mistake: Whatever hunger exists in Gaza is Hamas’ fault — and the way to address it is to end Hamas. And thus, the war.

Claims of “mass starvation,” of course, are utter baloney. They’re based by all sorts of falsehoods, including, most recently, lurid, upsetting photos of supposedly sick, malnourished kids, whose protruding bones make them look like Nazi concentration-camp prisoners.

Numerous publications published one particularly disturbing photo, of a boy named Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, to show the effects of “widespread hunger.”

Only it turns out the boy is not malnourished but has a genetic disease; uncropped pictures show his well-fed brother nearby. 

It’s likely many Gazans have trouble getting enough food for their families day-to-day. But relying on any information out of Gaza about food supplies is a dangerous business.

Reports of “mass starvation” there have been circulating from early in the war. In May the BBC reported that “14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours,” yet that turned out to be a willful misreading of a projection by the United Nations (itself an unreliable source).  

Meanwhile, Israel is permitting truckloads of aid into Gaza, and facilitating air drops. This week it even paused military action for 10 hours a day to allow for humanitarian aid.

Remember, though, that food shortages in Gaza have largely been orchestrated by Hamas, which steals international aid for its own members and to resell to finance its war efforts.

And this morally perverse group actually wants its people to starve, so the world will blame Israel and pressure it to halt its attacks on . . . Hamas.

That strategy has been succeeding, which is why Hamas has refused to surrender or even agree to a cease-fire.

Just this weekend, for example, French premier Macron fecklessly “recognized” Palestine as a state.

That just rewards Hamas further, and encourages it to keep the war going. Expect only more suffering for Gazans. 

At least President Donald Trump is wise to the game: Last week, he pulled US negotiators back from cease-fire talks, saying Hamas “didn’t want to make a deal,” but rather “wanted to die.”

Spot on: The group is nothing more than a power-hungry death cult that gloats over the “martyrdom” of innocent people it hides behind. It built hundreds of miles of tunnels for its soldiers but not one shelter for its people. 

If the world wants to improve the lives of suffering Gazans, it needs to unify against Hamas, not Israel.

Once Hamas is defeated, the war can end and Gazans will be free of their true oppressors.

That will also bring about the best chances yet for long-term peace.

Rashi was an ardent Zionist

 

by Tzvi Fishman

This past Friday marked the yahrzeit of the great Torah commentator, Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki. Almost everyone is familiar with the famous first Rashi on the Torah. He asks - since the Torah is the Book of Law which Hashem gave to the Jewish People, why does it begin with the account of Creation and not with the commandments? 

Rashi answers the question by quoting a Midrash of Rabbi Yitzhak which explains that if the nations of the world claim that we stole the Land of Israel from them, we can answer that since the Holy One Blessed Be He created the world, He can give the Land of Israel to whomever He chooses.

Did Rashi have political savvy? 

Did he foresee the day when the Arabs, the European Union, the BDS, the United Nations, Hague, and the U.S. State Department would call Israel thieves, claiming that we stole Eretz Yisrael from the Palestinian Arabs? 

Maybe, but I don’t think he was stockpiling ammunition for Bibi to convey to the UN. Rashi didn’t write his commentary for the Gentiles - he wrote it to teach the Jews.

Rashi wants to teach us that without Eretz Yisrael there is no Torah, no Am Yisrael, nor Sanctification of Hashem in the world. 

Eretz Yisrael is the foundation of the entire Torah. The Torah was given to be kept in Eretz Yisrael. The Jewish People can only be a Nation in Eretz Yisrael. And the establishment of the Kingdom of Hashem - the goal of the Torah - can only be established in the world when the Nation of Israel dwells in its Land, all of the Jews in all of the Land.

Without Eretz Yisrael we are scattered Jews, not a Nation. We struggle to survive but assimilation eats away at us, threatening Diaspora Jews with extinction. Without Eretz Yisrael, the Jews are defenseless minorities in other peoples’ lands, dependent on the non-Jew for everything.

Rashi teaches that Torah is meant to be kept in the Land of Israel, the only place it can be observed in all of its fullness, with its many laws relating to the Land of Israel, the Kingship of Israel, the army of Israel, the justice system of Israel, and the Beit HaMikdash which you can’t build in Moscow, Berlin, of Brooklyn. 

He reminds us that we perform mitzvot in the Diaspora only so that we remember how to do them, for the commandments were given to be performed in the Holy Land (Devarim, 11:18).

 In several places in his Torah commentary, Rashi cites the Gemara which states that a Jew who lives in Israel is like someone who has a God, and a Jew who dwells outside the Land of Israel is like someone who worships idols (Vayikra 25:38).

If anyone still clinging to the Diaspora doubts that Hashem wants His children to dwell in the Chosen Land, he or she only glance at the upcoming Torah portion as we begin the Book of Devarim:

“‘Moshe began to explain the Torah, saying, ‘The Lord our God spoke to us in Horev, saying, You have dwelt long enough in this mountain - TURN AND TAKE UP YOUR JOURNEY - go to the Land of Israel! BEHOLD, I HAVE SET THE LAND BEFORE YOU, GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND THAT THE LORD SWORE TO YOUR FATHERS, AVRAHAM, YITZHAK, AND YAACOV TO GIVE THEM, AND TO THEIR SEED AFTER THEM” (Devarim, 1:6-8).

Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook explained to his students at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem: 

“The Torah wasn’t given to be kept in Sinai, nor in Russia or America. The Torah isn’t a ‘religion’ like Buddhism or Christianity, God forbid. The Torah isn’t some abstract spirituality floating like a cloud in the sky. The Torah has an EARTHLY BASE. Not Sinai. Not Europe. Not the United States. The Torah is the DIVINE CONSTITUTION of the NATION OF ISRAEL, and every NATION needs its own LAND. And the holy CHILDREN OF ISRAEL have their own unique HOLY LAND.

“What is the first and fundamental message that Moshe explains when he teaches the Torah to Am Yisrael? Not Shabbos. Not kashrus. ‘Do you want to know what Torah is?’ Moshe asks them. ‘If you really want to keep it, GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND! That’s the basis of Torah. Only in the Holy Land will you be able to understand what the Torah is all about and only there can all of the Torah be kept.’”

That’s what Rashi is coming to tell us at the very start of the Torah. Hashem created the world and gave the Land of Israel to the Jews. Hashem wants His Children to live in the Holy Land and not scattered around the world.

May Rashi’s memory be for a blessing.

UN 'mobsters' barred NGOs from French-Saudi 2-State conference

 

The French and Saudi-led UN conference calling for the creation of a Palestinian State began today (Monday). The three-day conference is being held following French President Emmanuel Macron's controversial announcement last week that France would recognize a Palestinian State in September.

Professor Anne Bayefsky, President of Human Rights Voices and Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Arutz Sheva - Israel National News that all NGOs were prohibited from attending the conference despite assurances that the event would be open.

"Today, the UN mob, led now by France and Saudi Arabia, went on a manic anti-Israel blitz. The closest analogy is the speed of October 7th itself. Nothing tells you more about how this international gang works than the manner in which this conference is being conducted," Prof. Bayefsky stated.

Qatar behind Hamas 'starvation' propaganda campaign

 

Israeli officials believe that Qatar is leading Hamas’ propaganda campaign about a "famine in Gaza," which is gaining widespread international traction, according to a report on Channel 12 News this evening (Monday).

The campaign portrays Israel as the direct cause of a "famine crisis in Gaza" and is being amplified by major media outlets around the world. Some Israeli media outlets are also echoing Hamas’ narrative, amid the circulation of disturbing images of severely underweight children in Gaza.

Just today, Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) exposed the falsehoods behind Hamas’ "starvation" campaign and responded to accusations that Israel is responsible for the "starvation" of a 5-year-old boy from Gaza, Osama al-Rakab.

The photo, which went viral and was widely shared internationally, including by media outlets, showed the child in poor health, with claims that his condition was due to "starvation in Gaza caused by Israeli actions."

However, al-Rakab has not been starved by Israel, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) reported. In reality, al-Rakab suffers from a genetic illness unrelated to the war, which is responsible for his condition. And left Gaza with his mother and brother, and is now being treated in Italy.

"The Facts: Osama suffers from a serious genetic illness unrelated to the war," COGAT tweeted. "On June 12, we actively coordinated Osama's exit from Gaza with his mother and brother through the Ramon airport."

"He is now receiving treatment in Italy."

COGAT stressed: "Tragic images rightfully stir strong emotions, but when they’re misused to fuel hatred and lies, they do more harm than good. Don’t let compassion be exploited for propaganda. Check the facts before parroting blame."