Chutz Le'aartz Rabbis, where are you?

 

by Tzvi Fishman

Day after day, we read about anti-Semitic attacks throughout Europe. 

Fox example, today, Arutz 7 reported about three Jewish teenagers in London who were assaulted while riding on a bus . Also we read about the fear of Jewish hospital patients in England due to threats and expressions of anti-Semitism in hospitals across the country

These are merely two examples out of thousands. So I ask, shouldn't the Rabbis of Europe be calling for Jews to make Aliyah now?

Truthfully, the question could have been asked over a hundred-and fifty years ago when Jews began immigrating to Eretz Yisrael in greater numbers. After all, the Jewish People had been praying for almost two-thousand years to return to Jerusalem. Certainly the question could have been asked after the Balfour Declaration when Jews were awarded the right to rebuild their national homeland. Understanding the greatness of the hour, Rabbi Kook urgently called upon them to come home in widespread public announcements.

Again, the question could have been asked some eight decades ago after the Holocaust and upon the creation of Medinat Yisrael.

To be fair, there was a Rabbi in Paris who did call for the Aliyah of French Jews about a year ago and was met with stiff opposition prompting him to take back his words - and The Netherland's Chief Rabbi told Dutch Jews to come on Aliyah before that.

And while the Jews in America have not yet encountered anti-Semitism on the level it has reached in Europe, there is certainly cause for deep worry and the same question can be asked - shouldn't Rabbis in America be calling on their congregations to make Aliyah? We know that entire synagogue congregations are buying apartments in the Givat Hamatos neighborhood of Jerusalem, but do they really intend to live in them?

Any answer from me can be easily dismissed. After all, what does a baal t’shuva from Hollywood know about crucial issues of Torah and Jewish History? How can someone who isn’t a Rabbi speak about Torah Scholars immersed in Jewish scholarship and law, Rabbis in Europe and America who are dedicated to upholding the foundations of Torah? That is a fair question.

So let’s hear the answer of the holy Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal, a onetime leader of the Haredi community in Hungary and author of the book, “Eim HaBanim Semeichah."

Historic peace deal ends five-year Gur Chasidic feud

 

Five years after a bitter dispute split the Gur Hasidic community and divided families, an unprecedented settlement has been reached between the leadership of the official Gur Hasidut and the breakaway community led by Rabbi Shaul Alter. 

The agreement, signed at the courthouse, includes a first-of-its-kind commitment by the official Gur leadership to refrain from harming members of the rival community and to avoid any form of violence.

The surprise development was revealed on the eve of Rosh Hashanah by attorney Shlomo Elboim, a member of the Bnei Brak municipal council and chairman of one of the factions who has managed the legal campaign in recent years on behalf of those who were harmed.

In a special letter to members of the Hasidut titled "A Letter of Peace and Truth," Alboims announced the conclusion of the dramatic legal proceedings stemming from the events of "Shabbat Bechukotai", the night when large groups of Hasidim attacked members of Rabbi Shaul Alter's community in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Beit Shemesh and Ashdod.

The lawsuit was filed against members of Gur's leadershp committee." Alboims and attorney Asher Ohayon represented plaintiffs who suffered serious violence, including Jerusalem developer Hezekiah Lev.

After dozens of hearings in the district and magistrates' courts, and with the case reaching the testimony stage, an unexpected development took place in the judge's chamber. 

The president of the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court, recognized the potential for a serious public desecration of God's name, and decided to intervene. He summoned the parties to his chambers and formulated an unusual settlement proposal under which the defendants representing Gur would accept responsibility for their actions and commit not to repeat them.

Although the conduct constituted an offense under Section 216 of the Penal Law, the court ultimately decided not to convict the defendants. Instead, each signed a financial undertaking of 1,260 shekels pledging to refrain from committing any offense for one year.

The settlement agreement, which was granted legal force, includes quotations from Jewish sources and the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov concerning Ahavat Yisrael, or love of one's fellow Jew, and the value of every Jew. Judge Harbest wrote that, particularly in the period leading up to Yom HaDin, the appropriate outcome was to reach Rosh Hashanah "when the events of the past have been forgiven and erased."

In his letter, Elboim called on members of the Hasidic community to leave past grievances behind, forgive one another and extend a hand in peace, echoing Rabbi Shaul Alter's instruction .

Two Rebbes, One name, One Dynasty. Two Versions of the same story

 

From a Satmar Chassidisteh

Two men are called the Satmar Rebbe. If you're in our community
you already know that. What's worth saying out loud is how little
actually separates them.

The same position on Zionism. The same VaYoel Moshe, the sefer,
the book, that defines our hashkafa, our worldview. The same
Yiddish, the same minhagim, the customs, the same levush, the
dress. Ask an Aroni and a Zaloni what they hold and you hear the
same answer. No point of doctrine divides us.

I'm not judging a machlokes, a dispute, between talmidei
chachomim, Torah scholars, and I'm not taking a side. That isn't
mine to do.

But with Yom Kippur five days away, there's something each of us
has to check honestly, and only we can check it for ourselves.

The machlokes between the rabbonim, the rabbis, is one thing.
What lives in our own hearts is another. When we cross to the
other side of the street. When we hear which shul someone davens
in and something tightens. When a shidduch, a match, gets turned
down over a label and everyone knows that's what it was.

That isn't the succession. That's sinas chinam, baseless hatred,
and it belongs to us, not to them.

Yoma teaches that the second Beis Hamikdash, the Temple, was
destroyed through sinas chinam. Not avodah zarah, idolatry. Not
shefichas domim, bloodshed. Yidden, Jews, who held the same Torah
and couldn't be in the same room.

And the Mishnah there says plainly that Yom Kippur is not
mechaper, does not atone, for what stands between a person and
his fellow until he goes to him and makes it right. Not davening
harder. Going.

So before Monday night: the cousin you stopped calling. The
neighbor. The chavrusa, the study partner, you fell out with and
can't remember why. And if there's someone you've kept at a
distance over which side they're on — that one especially.

Four minutes on the phone. Worth more than every machzor, every
prayer book, on the shelf.

A gmar chasima tova, may you be sealed for good, to all of us, on
both side#forgiveness

IDF Soldier coming back from Uman beats the crap out of an Antisemite that yelled"Heil Hitler" in Bucharest Airport

 

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The Pinto Kissing fest

 

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Former hostage Sasha Troufanov recalls reaching a turning point in Hamas captivity, when faith helped him overcome fear and accept that his fate was in G-d’s hands.

 

Survivor of Hamas captivity Sasha Troufanov appeared alongside his wife and fellow survivor Sapir Cohen in Idan Harel's documentary film "Thirsty Souls," which aired on Channel 14. Troufanov recounted how his faith intensified in captivity, and how it gave him strength.

"When I got to the situation of October 7th," Troufanov related, "I didn't have the tools to contend with this challenge." When everything was taken from him, he had to face questions he couldn't run from.

He recalled the difficult times when he needed that faith. "I got to captivity with gunshot wounds on my legs, a bleeding head, and a torn shoulder, a terrible physical condition. That state is actually what led me to think better mentally. This realisation that I can't choose my fate. After the hellfire in Khan Yunis, where I nearly died, they took me and put me in some cage. Before that, I was with the terrorists, and they let me walk around in a small space, and suddenly I'm in a small cage; it is an unpleasant situation. You say to yourself: 'How did this happen?'"

At that moment, Troufanov decided to change his mindset. "I said: 'You know not to look at things simply. Try to dissociate from what's happening now and understand that it's a way to make you better.' In half an hour of sitting by myself, I had a switch in my head. The terrorists no longer scared me so much, and the worry about what would happen didn't bother me. I just thought that 'if G-d will give you this life, you won, and if not, you had 27 good years and a few bad months. Everything is okay."

Fearing a loss of Likud voters to Otzma Yehudit, the Prime Minister held clarification talks with Itamar Ben Gvir and MK Tally Gotliv.

 

Secret messages have been exchanged in recent days between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Otzma Yehudit chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, as well as the party's No. 2, MK Tally Gotliv, ynet reported.

The exchanges come against the backdrop of an extensive campaign being waged by Ben Gvir among right-wing voters, in which he claims that Netanyahu intends to form the next government without him.

Otzma Yehudit's campaign is aimed at drawing votes from Likud's electoral base. Initially, Likud sent reassuring messages to Ben Gvir, urging him to stop the attacks.

When the campaign continued, Netanyahu held a direct conversation with Ben Gvir and made clear that if he forms the next government, it will be based on the current coalition's composition and its guiding principles.

As part of the effort to ease tensions, Netanyahu also met with MK Gotliv in an attempt to outline a framework for understandings. However, Gotliv made clear that she was not persuaded by his explanations. “At the meeting with the Prime Minister, he tried to convince me that Itamar was wrong and that he would not sit with Eisenkot," Gotliv wrote immediately after the meeting. “I told him that Ben Gvir was right, and that the Prime Minister has always preferred to rely on left-wing and centrist parties. The Prime Minister pushed me down to 20th place so that I would not prevent a government with Eisenkot instead of Ben Gvir. Fortunately, the people decide. You, the right-wing voters, should vote for Otzma Yehudit, which will keep Netanyahu on the right."

Meanwhile, Likud's leadership is closely monitoring the independence Otzma Yehudit is demonstrating and the possibility that Ben Gvir's party could finish the election with a significant number of seats.

Ben Gvir's party denied the report. “This is completely fake news. There has been no conversation between Minister Ben Gvir and the Prime Minister in recent weeks, nor were any such messages sent. The opposite is true. There are growing reports of concern, including over the past weekend, that the Prime Minister's Office conveyed messages to several countries around the world that Otzma Yehudit will not be part of the next government."

$6 billion deal between Anthropic — the American AI company — and Israeli startup Decart has fallen apart, because they will not relocate to the USA

 

A reported $6 billion deal between Anthropic — the American AI company behind Claude — and Israeli startup Decart has fallen apart.

According to Globes, one of the major sticking points was Anthropic’s reported demand that Decart’s three founders — brothers Dean and Orian Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev — along with much of the company’s Israeli team, relocate from Tel Aviv to San Francisco.

They refused.

Instead, the founders reportedly chose to keep building Decart in Israel and keep its core team there — even with a deal on the table that could have made each of them extraordinarily wealthy.

Bloomberg confirmed that Anthropic walked away from the acquisition talks after due diligence, although neither company has publicly confirmed the exact reason the deal collapsed.

So for now, the $6 billion deal may be gone.

But Decart remains independent.

#decart #startupnation #anthropic #telaviv

Its team remains in Israel.

And so does the technology they’re building.

These Jewish Children you will see never blocking traffic

 

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"Pervert" Berland is in Uman watch how his crazed Chassidim make a big deal about him

 

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