Wednesday, December 10, 2025
In Time For Chanuka Archaeologists Uncover Intact Section of Ancient Jerusalem Wall From Chanukkah Era
Archaeologists have finished uncovering the longest continuous remains of an ancient wall that encircled Jerusalem, including possible evidence of a 2,100-year-old ceasefire between warring kingdoms.
Last week, archaeologists finished excavating the most complete part ever discovered of the foundations of the walls, which surrounded Jerusalem during the time of the Hasmonean Kingdom, when the story of Hanukkah took place.
In Hebrew, Hanukkah means “dedication,” and the holiday marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C., after a small group of Jewish fighters liberated it from occupying foreign forces, and the Hasmonean Kingdom that followed.
Jews celebrate the eight-day holiday, which this year begins on Dec. 14, with the ritual of lighting a nightly candle, in honor of the tiny supply of ritually pure oil that they found in the temple that lasted for eight nights instead of just one. Many also eat fried foods such as potato pancakes, called latkes, to memorialize this miraculously long-lasting oil.
The Hasmonean wall foundation, whose excavation was finished last week in Jerusalem, was likely built a few decades after the story of Hanukkah by the same rulers. It’s almost 50 meters (164 feet) long, around half the length of a football field, and around 5 meters (16 feet) wide. It held walls, which according to estimations and some historical writings, were taller than the current walls surrounding Jerusalem’s Old City.
Much of the current walls surrounding Jerusalem’s Old City date back hundreds of years to the Ottoman Era.
Leading Religious Zionist Rabbis Urge Early Marriage
Senior rabbis in the Religious Zionist community, organized under the association of “Torat HaAretz HaTova,” published an official letter this week calling for urgent action regarding the phenomenon of late marriage, according to an Arutz Sheva report.
According to them, young men and women should receive significant emotional, halachic, and practical guidance already in their formative years within religious and educational training frameworks.
The rabbis emphasize that establishing families is a supreme value in the Jewish people, and they call to encourage and empower anyone who can contribute to advancing matchmaking efforts. The letter is directed to heads of yeshivot, seminaries, and pre-military academies, recommending that they introduce content on relationship education and personal guidance at early stages.
The rabbis also propose appointing matchmakers within educational institutions who will devote time and resources to accompany the young men and women. At the same time, they call on graduates of these systems to approach matchmakers or professional counselors for personal guidance in building healthy relationships.
In addition, the rabbis note that matchmakers who successfully help create a match should be given respectable compensation, stressing that this is a profession requiring experience and sensitivity.
In the final part of the letter, the rabbis state that young people should be encouraged to marry as early as possible: “Ideally, one should marry even before combat military service and before beginning academic studies.”
According to them, encouraging early marriage may significantly reduce the scope of late singleness within the Religious Zionist community.
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Newly surfaced footage shows Mossad chief Roman Gofman battling Hamas on October 7
Around the 35-second mark, he is seen engaging the terrorists before they open fire and shoot him in the leg.
The video then shows Hamas terrorists just yards from his position moments earlier, followed by Israeli forces evacuating him to an ambulance.
Monday, December 8, 2025
Rallying Call to Eretz Yisrael
The celebrated Torah luminary and first Chief Rabbi of pre-state Israel, Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook (1865-1935) is recognized as being among the most important Jewish thinkers of all time. His writings reflect the mystic's search for underlying unity in all aspects of life and the world, and his unique personality similarly united a rare combination of talents and gifts.He was the undisputed leader of Religious Zionism, defining the Jewish People and the Land of Israel as entities with specific commandments in the Torah of Israel, a construct known as Torat Eretz Yisrael.
Rav Kook was a prominent rabbinical authority and active public leader, but at the same time a deeply religious mystic. He was both Talmudic scholar and poet, original thinker and saintly tzaddik.
Read his prescient words, a heartfelt call to today's Diaspora Jews - written a century ago:
The Land of Israel, Come to the Land of Israel, everyone.
Let us sound this rallying cry clearly, without pause.
Come to Eretz Yisrael. Beloved brethren, save your souls. The souls of your future generations, of our entire nation. Save it from desolation and waste, from decay and humiliation. Save it from evil and impurity, from the sorrow and distress to which it is subject in all the countries of other nations, without distinction.
Come to Eretz Yisrael. Let us call out in a resounding, thunderous voice, in a voice that sets off a storm and enflames the heaven and earth, a voice that penetrates all chambers of the heart.
Escape for your lives and come to the Land of Israel. It is the voice of God that is calling us. His hand is outstretched to us; His spirit, which we have in our hearts, is gathering us together, He is encouraging us, and He is compelling all of us to sound this great rallying cry:
Draft Dodger who got 500,000 to stop learning for an entire day, Gets Engaged to Adler from Beit Shemesh
לאחר שגרם לקיום "עצרת המיליון" ▪︎ העריק המפורסם אריאל שמאי מישיבת 'סורוצקין' התארס עם בת למשפחת אדלר מבית שמש
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What's Mike Johnson, Speaker of the United States House visiting the Skverer Rebbe ??
Heavy security at the Sequeira housing complex: Mike Johnson, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Tucker Carlson "buying" a home in Qatar
@TuckerCarlson criticized @benshapiro for traveling to Israel because that's not "America First."
— Joel M. Petlin (@Joelmpetlin) December 7, 2025
Now he's buying a home in Qatar because "I'm an American and can go wherever I want."
Someone should tell Tucker that Ben also has an American passport. https://t.co/Hkaq4OHFzU
Ireland has no "Hakoras Hatoiv" !!!
Ireland starves in a horrific famine in 1847: Jewish communities around the world mobilize donations to help feed the people of Ireland. From New York to London, from Montefiore to Rothschild, Jews help feed to the people of Ireland.
— Rabbi Poupko (@RabbiPoupko) December 7, 2025
The Jewish state is attacked in the worst… pic.twitter.com/cCFMWyb4x6
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