Saturday, December 27, 2025
Stoliner Rebbe " Rebbe: 'We can't live without a smartphone these days - but be careful'"
The Karlin Rebbe surprised attendees at the traditional celebration of the end of Hanukkah held this week at the synagogue in Givat Ze'ev when he acknowledged that it is difficult today to manage without a smartphone.
The Rebbe opened by addressing extreme voices recently heard in the Haredi community opposing the possession of any smart device, and said, "You can't say today that one should manage without devices. You need to use them, but with caution and good filtering. If you use them properly - it's not forbidden." His statement was broadcast on Kol Chai radio.
The Rebbe explicitly rejected the claim that there is an inherent danger in using a smartphone, and offered a surprising parable: "It's like a car. Driving on the road is also a danger. Just as no one says you mustn't drive a car because of the danger, so you can't say you mustn't use a smartphone because of the danger."
Nevertheless, the Rebbe stressed that this is not an obligation, and said, "These are things you can use when necessary, but it's not obligatory for someone who does not need it. A newly married yeshiva scholar does not need to immediately buy such a device. If there is a need - use it; if not - then don't. It's not obligatory to rush into it."
The Rebbe concluded with a call for a balanced approach, "Everything should be simple, normal, composed, as it should be for a God-fearing Jew."
Friday, December 26, 2025
Syrian Jewish Community in Brooklyn Purchases Two Luxury Towers in Central Jerusalem
The Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn has made a historic real estate move in Jerusalem, purchasing two entire residential towers currently under construction near the Machane Yehuda shuk. The deal, valued at up to NIS 1 billion (approximately $270 million), is believed to be among the largest private real estate transactions ever completed in Israel.
The purchase was made by OP Jerusalem with the goal of creating a central hub in Eretz Yisrael for the Syrian Jewish community, primarily families from Brooklyn and Deal, New Jersey. The apartments will also be marketed to other Sephardic communities, including Moroccan and Persian Jews, as well as Syrian Jews from Panama and Mexico, though sales are open to the broader Jewish public as well.
The project includes 200 luxury apartments across two towers, part of a larger four-building complex adjacent to the shuk. Planned amenities include a shul, mikvah, full-time doorman, gym, children’s play areas, communal halls, and rooftop terraces. Apartment prices range from about $1 million for a one-bedroom to $3.7 million for larger family units.
About 70% of the apartments have already been sold, with completion expected in roughly five years. Many buyers plan to divide their time between Israel and the U.S., with high occupancy anticipated during Yomim Tovim.
The deal comes as Israel’s housing market has cooled, making the successful sale of two full towers particularly notable.
Thursday, December 25, 2025
Crazy! Matt Gaetz Blames Israel on his own Pedophilia
No, Gaetz, you’re a disgusting pig all on your own. You’re too dumb to shut up about your officially certified perversion. https://t.co/w2MxFtgZgK
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) December 23, 2025
UN Spends $100M a Year Targeting Israel
Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations says the UN spends roughly $100 million annually on reports, committees, and mechanisms that overwhelmingly single out Israel.
Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said the funds support “orchestrated, well-funded propaganda” against Israel and the IDF, often under bodies dedicated exclusively to Palestinian issues.
The analysis highlights entities such as the Division for Palestinian Rights and points to UNRWA, whose budget remains largely untouched despite evidence of Hamas infiltration.
Married Lady's Letter to Her OTD Husband
The Marriage I Was Never Given
Guest post from N's wife
You keep saying you are finally living “the truth.”
I want to understand that word the way you use it. Truly.
Because from where I’m sitting, alone at the Shabbos table, “truth” looks a lot like leaving your wife and children while you head off to drink beer with your friends, flirt with women who don’t know—or don’t care—that you have a family, and eat pepperoni pizza like it’s a philosophical statement instead of indulgence.
But please, enlighten me.
This is authenticity.
This is courage.
This is existing.What you never seem to remember is that you were already living your truth when you married me. You just didn’t tell me. You stood under the chuppah knowing you didn’t believe, knowing you didn’t intend to live the life you promised, knowing that if I had the actual facts I might have walked away.
So instead, you made sure I couldn’t.
That was your first act of truth.
I married a man who was presented as religious, committed, aligned with me in values. I married a vision. A performance. A carefully managed version of you that existed just long enough to secure a wife, a home, children, legitimacy.
And now you want applause for ripping off the costume.
You write about how lonely you feel, how numb, how trapped by expectations. You write about how I “won’t let you” leave for Shabbos, as if I am a tyrant guarding the gates of pleasure instead of a woman trying to keep her family from dissolving one weekend at a time.
You frame it as oppression.
I experience it as abandonment.Because when you leave, I’m still here. Lighting candles alone. Explaining to our children why Abba isn’t home. Holding a structure together that you dismantle and then blame me for mourning.
But of course, your absence is noble. It’s about truth. About being real. About not pretending anymore.
Funny how your truth always seems to involve disappearing into places where no one asks you to be accountable.
And yes—I wonder. I wonder what else is happening when you vanish into that world I’m not allowed to question. I wonder what other truths you’re discovering when you’re surrounded by women who don’t carry the weight of your deception, who don’t know the vows you broke before they were even spoken.
If that makes me suspicious, so be it. Betrayal rewires the brain. That’s not insecurity—that’s pattern recognition.
You talk about my pain like it’s irrational. Like it’s fear of change. Like it’s denial. You even mourn that I won’t form a support group, as if what I need is communal processing rather than a time machine and informed consent.
I don’t need a group to help me accept that my husband reinvented himself at my expense.
I need you to stop pretending this is a shared tragedy.
You want credit for staying. For not walking away entirely. As if staying after lying is a favor. As if partial presence is generosity.
But I am not grateful.
Because I never had the husband I chose. I never had the loving, religious partner I was promised. I never had the opportunity to decide whether I could live with an atheist husband—because by the time I knew the truth, leaving meant losing everything I was taught to build my life around.
You didn’t just change the terms.
You waited until escape was nearly impossible.And now you stand in your freedom—beer in hand, truth on your lips—and ask why I’m not more understanding.
Here is my truth:
Your authenticity costs me every day.
Your liberation is built on my confinement.
And your self-discovery looks an awful lot like indulgence wrapped in moral language.If you want to live honestly, start by telling the story without making yourself the hero.
Stop calling your appetite “authenticity.”
Stop calling my boundaries “control.” Stop calling your betrayal “truth”.And stop asking me to disappear quietly so you can feel better about how you got here.
This is not a story about courage.
It’s a story about what happens when one person decides their truth matters more than another person’s consent—and then demands to be admired for saying it out loud.
6 things to know about pancreatic cancer after former senator’s diagnosis
Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska announced this week that he has been diagnosed with metastatic stage 4 pancreatic cancer, calling the disease "a death sentence" in a message posted on X.
Sasse, 53, said the cancer has spread and acknowledged that he has "less time than I’d prefer," although he also mentioned recent scientific advances and his intention to pursue treatment.
"I’m not going down without a fight," Sasse said when revealing his diagnosis. "One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jaw-dropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more."
Pancreatic cancer is known to be one of the deadliest forms of cancer, with ongoing research efforts aiming to improve outcomes.
Below are six key things to know about the disease.
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