Number of Jews in Judea and Samaria nears 450,000

Maalei Adumim

The number of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria rose to nearly 450,000 during 2018 settler leaders reported Tuesday morning.

According to a report released by the Yesha Council – the umbrella group representing Israeli municipalities across Judea and Samaria – the Israeli population in the area reached 448,672 in 2018.

That marks a significant decline in the annual growth rate of the total settlement population, which grew by just 12,964 people in 2018, equaling 3.0% annual growth, compared to 14,299 in 2017 (3.4%), 15,765 in 2016 (3.9%), 15,617 in 2015 (4.0%), and 15,558 in 2014 (4.2%).

Chuck Schumer Will Block Pro-Israel Bill

Efforts are underway in the US Senate to block a pro-Israel bill in response to the ongoing government shutdown.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and other Senate Democratic leaders are behind the effort, according to a report by the Washington Examiner on Monday.

The bill is aimed at “allowing state and local governments to divest from entities that boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel because of its occupation of the West Bank.”

Paintings That You Will Swear Are Photographs

Israeli Scientists Say That Plants May Actually Be Able to HEAR GardenersTalking to Them and the Buzz of Approaching Bees

Gardeners who talk to their plants are often dismissed as being a little potty, but now there is evidence that the plants may actually be listening.

Flowers not only hear the buzz of approaching bees, but respond by producing sweeter nectar, biologists at Tel Aviv University have found.

This entices the bees to visit more often, increasing the chance of the plant’s pollen being distributed.

When the scientists played recordings of flying bees to evening primrose flowers, the sugar concentration in the nectar rose by an average 20 per cent within three minutes.

The study, published on the website BioRxiv, said it was the first evidence that plants can respond to sounds in ‘an ecologically relevant way’.

Birds fly in perfect rabbit-shaped formation

Pope Congratulates Cuba for 60 Years of Communism!

Pope Francis twirls a soccer ball he was presented by a member of the Circus of Cuba, during his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019

The Vatican News website recently paid tribute to Cuba on the 60th anniversary of the Communist revolution in a post that was quickly deleted.

The Communist island nation marked the occasion with celebrations on News Year's Day, while several leftist Latin American leaders tweeted their best wishes.

The socialist despot president of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro tweeted: "We commemorate the anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution led by Commander Fidel Castro. 60 years of sacrifices, struggles and blockade; There is the heroic Cuban people, an example of resistance and dignity to the world. Long Live Cuba!"

In a pinned tweet, another socialist leader, Bolivia's Evo Morales, stated: "We salute the victory of Bro. Commandant. Fidel Castro and the valiant Cuban people on the proimperialist dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista."

Not to be outdone, the Vatican News Service offered its own tribute of sorts to commemorate the festive occasion: Cuba Celebrates 60 Years of the Revolution. The post reportedly read:

The historic anniversary was celebrated with an official ceremony in which the former head of state and leader of the Cuban Communist Party, Raúl Castro, and the current president of the nation, Miguel Díaz-Canel, participated.

The post was apparently deleted, but not before some appalled readers captured it:

Satmar Not Waiting For Moshiach .... Establishes First official Chareidie Town in Chutz Le'aaretz Since the Destruction of the Bais Ha'Mikdash!

Part of Satmar's  philosophy or SHIT'ah vis a vis the State of Israel, is that the State is guilty of what they call "Hisgaaris Be'Umois" which means that the State,just  by being a State is antagonizing the goyim ... which is prohibited ...

The "prohibition" of "Hisgaaris Be'Umois" may or may not apply in Eretz Yisroel ... but it applies certainly in Chutz Le'Aaretz. 

At least in Israel, we know that G-d gave us this land and is waiting for the Jews to come back and populate it so that G-d (so to speak)  can once again reside amongst us in the land bequeathed to us ....
And the State of Israel needs to do things even if it antagonizes its neighbors because it has an obligation to protect its citizens .....
Just last night the Gazan murderers shot a missile towards Ashkelon and the State of Israel not only intercepted it but bombed the Gazan military base.... 

But what excuse is there for Jews in diaspora to antagonize the goyim???
(the towns established like New Square or Kaser and even Kiryas Yoel were part of the Major Towns, for example .. New Square is part of Spring Valley, Kaser Village in Monsey is part of Spring Valley, and even Kiryas Yoel was part of Monroe. This Town has separated from Monroe and is a separate entity)

Is the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia?

And all this time I though it was in Monroe!!

by Melissa Twigg

Ethiopia throbs with religious fervor. On Sundays in Lalibela, Aksum and Gondar, I was alone in thousand-strong crowds of monks and nuns, hermits and business owners, energetic children and bent-double grandmothers. They wrapped themselves in white or burnt orange and poured into the churches that dot the landscape.

It is a society with a more profound spirituality than anywhere else I have been to—one where worship is woven into nearly every aspect of life. And during my trip, it became clear that this veneration of the church was born from a belief that Ethiopia has been chosen by God as the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

There is only one man alive who has seen the alleged Ark in all its biblical glory. It is, according to Ethiopian lore, hidden in a church in Aksum—a small city in the northern highlands—and guarded by a single monk. Nobody else enters the room and only after his death will the monk leave the grounds.

Chareidie Idiot with Measles Exposes Dozens of Premature Babies in Bnei Brak .....

This potential murderer not only endangered others but endangered his very own child...

I'll bet he is always in front protesting the IDF ... but thinks nothing of killing others with a deadly painful disease. 

A measles patient insisted on visiting his premature son at the Mayanei Hayeshua hospital in Bnei Brak, last Thursday without informing anyone that he had been diagnosed with measles. 

When the medical team found out that he was ill, they rushed to vaccinate more than 80 premature babies and infants,

According to Ran Reznik and Meital Yassour Beit-Or in Israel Hayom, the hospital decided to vaccinate all 24 of the demonstrators who were in the NICU and to vaccinate 60 babies who were in the adjacent babies.

The concern was that infants and children were immunized against the disease only from the age of one year, so that immediately after birth they were not immunized against the disease, they were vaccinated with a regular vaccine rather than preventive treatment.

Prof. Motti Ravid, director of the hospital, told Israel Hayom that "this is a wild and inconsiderate act, not to mention that the same man endangered his son, along with the risk of the other babies. From now on, we will also guard the entry of adults and also hang signs around the hospital that ask visitors with fever or bloating not to enter the hospital. "

According to the Ministry of Health, as of last week, 3,030 Israelis contracted measles, with 502 patients in December.

Auschwitz: Drone video of Nazi concentration camp

Drone video shows the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as it is today - 70 years after it was liberated by Soviet troops.

The camp in Poland is now maintained as a World Heritage Site and is visited by thousands of tourists and survivors every year. Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans during World War II. More than a million people - the vast majority of them Jews - died there between 1940, when it was built, and 1945, when it was liberated by the Soviet army. Railway tracks into Auschwitz-Birkenau - Trains filled with victims from throughout occupied Europe arrived at the camp almost every day between 1942 and the summer of 1944. Ruins of wooden huts at Birkenau - Birkenau (or Auschwitz II) was erected in 1941 solely as a death camp, the wooden huts are now in ruins with only brick fireplaces and chimneys remaining. Entrance to Auschwitz I -The wrought-iron sign over the entrance bears the words Arbeit Macht Frei - "Work sets you free". Auschwitz I - The brick-built buildings were the former cavalry barracks of the Polish Army. Courtyard between blocks 10 and 11 at Auschwitz I - Block 11 was called "the Block of Death" by prisoners. Executions took place between Block 10 and Block 11 and posts in the yard were used to string up prisoners by their wrists. Auschwitz Birkenau is now a museum run by the Polish Culture Ministry, and a Unesco world heritage site.

19 Year Old Ben Zion Brandwein Completes Shas & Commentaries Gets a Bottle of Wine From The Boyaner Rebbe

 

Wow!! That will surely encourage others....

I'm not saying that he studied Shas for a reward .... but come on.....

Anyway, Great accomplishment! 

A 19-year-old boy, Ben Zion Brandwein, student of the Bayan Yeshiva in Modi'in Illit, studied Shas and all its commentators by heart, and at the end of the Talmud, he was examined by the Admor of Boyan  who gave him a bottle of wine! 

As a child, Ben Zion,  studied in the Talmud Torah from Kanovka Belz and was a tremendous masmid. Presently, he studies at the Bayan Yeshiva in Modi'in Illit.

Despite his youth, he was able to finish the entire Talmud - , with commentators by heart.

Ben Zion Brandwein lives in Bnei Brak, and his father serves as a bookshop manager in the city.

When the Admor of Bayan heard that the outstanding young man knew the entire Talmud, he tested him asking him questions  from several places in Shas, then blessing him and giving him a bottle of wine in appreciation.

The graduation ceremony of the outstanding 19-year-old boy will take place at the Bayan Yeshiva in Modi'in Illit, with the participation of the yeshiva rabbis and accompanied by an orchestra and a Seudat Mitzvah.

Day Yoimie Snippets ... Chullin 33, 34, 35,36, 37, 38, & 39

Hey ladies ... here is an opportunity to test your husbands and see if he really goes to the daf....

Also it is a good opportunity for the entire family to share thoughts on the daf ... so that the family feels united by discussing what the head of the house is studying.   

You can copy and print this without my consent, since Torah belongs to all of us..... 

See  previous Daf Yoimie Snippets 

"דף ל''ג "טמאת ידים      

Page33  Mesectas Chullin  

"Contamination (Tumah) of the Hands" 

*This "snippet" is a bit longer than usual because of its complexity ... 

When we talk about "tumah" "contamination" in the Talmud and Shulchan Aruch " "we speak about a "spiritual contamination." 

 From here on in, I will use the word that the Torah & Talmud use .. "tumah" ....instead of the English word "contamination" because the english translation doesn't do the meaning of "tumah" justice.

Before I explain this particular daf, I must introduce some concepts in "tumah," and so that's the reason this  particular "snippet" will be a bit longer than my usual "snippets".

Introduction:

When a Jewish person touches a corpse with his hand, his entire body contracts "tumah" 

There are many levels or degrees of "tumah."  I will attempt to summarize them briefly..

The strictest level of tumah, is אבי אבות הטמאה ... which if translated literally, means "father of fathers" of tumah. 

and that level of tumah can only be the corpse itself ....

The level below that, is far more common, and that is called 

אב הטמאה, which means literally "father of tumah."

In order to contract this level of tumah a person would have to touch a human corpse or the carcass of one of the 8 species of creeping creatures listed in the Torah and these creatures are referred to as Sheratzim ...

Included in this tumah are kosher animals that died not by "ritually slaughter" but were killed for example by a bullet etc. and that animal is now a "נבילה"

Also included are the following humans :

Zav, Zavah, Niddah or Metzora .. 

Now ......

Any object that comes in contact with an אב הטמאה,

becomes a ראשון לטמאה a tumah in the "first degree" 

Under Biblical law ... people or vessels that came in contact with this mentioned tumah can no longer convey tumah to some other item.... it stops...

The exception: 

Food items that came in contact with an אב הטמאה can acquire what is called : שני לטמאה ..."second degree" of tumah.

But in the case of "chullin" which is ordinary food, (not consecrated,) tumah can go no further than a שני לטמאה

so if a שני לטמאה touches "chullin" it conveys no degree of tumah.

However food items that are Terumah or Kodesh, due to greater degrees of stringency associated with them, can go beyond שני לטמאה

and can become שלישי לטמאה  a third degree level and in the case of Kodesh food even a  רביעי לטמאה a fourth level of tumah!

Back to our daf:

We discussed above that if one touches a corpse his entire body becomes tumah.....and he becomes a אב הטמאה

Now, 

if this person who is now a אב הטמאה, touches another person, that person is as we mentioned above, becomes a 

ראשון לטמאה ...

so, it would follow our logic that if this ראשון לטמאה,   now touches  another person, this "touched" person or object would not contract any tumah .....it would stop (except if he touched food.)

But the rabbis enacted a rule (תקנה) that the hands of this person who is a ראשון לטמאה becomes a שני לטמאה as well ...

his hands not his entire body..

So now he can still covey tumah to Teruma & Kodesh foods with his hands.

 The rabbis enacted this rule so that people be careful what  with their hands at all times and that is the novelty of this rule.

Therefore the Kohanim had to wash their hands before they ate terumah .. because of its greater sanctity.

The rabbis instituted that all of us should wash their hands before eating bread to be in the habit of being careful with our hands...... and now you know why we wash to bread ...

Press "read more" immediately below to continue to the rest of the dafim!

"Osher Ad" Charedi supermarket chain Selling Olive Oil For 16.90 NIS After Winning Bid to Sell 550 Tons of Olive Oil!!

Charedi supermarket chain Osher Ad won a tender from the Finance Ministry to sell the majority of 550 tons of olive oil to consumers at a significantly discounted price. The Finance Ministry said that they hope the deal will bring down prices throughout the country.

The 750 ml bottles will be sold for 16.90 NIS in Osher Ad’s 17 stores. Osher Ad will be selling 80 percent of all 550 tons of the oil to its customers. However, Osher Ad doesn’t have store locations across the country, something that will cause many residents to miss out on the heavily discounted prices.

The Finance Ministry held a bid that allowed stores to win a tender wherein they would receive the olive oil without paying taxes on it, in order to allow consumers to purchase the highly used product for very low prices. The competing stores had to agree to the final sale price of the product ahead of time.

150 haredi soldiers sworn in at Western Wall plaza

150 fighters from the Charedi Netzach Yehuda Battalion swore allegiance to the IDF at the Western Wall plaza on Thursday.

This is the first swearing-in ceremony that has taken place since the two soldiers from the battalion were murdered in a shooting attackin Givat Assaf.

The fighters proved that despite the loss, many young haredim wanted to enlist in the battalion.

During the swearing-in ceremony, the soldiers said "I declare" instead of "I swear" as is customary in the swearing-in ceremonies. The ceremony concluded with the soldiers singing “Am Hanetzach”.

The condition of another battalion fighter who was wounded in the attack at Givat Assaf, Netanel Felber, remains serious and doctors are fighting for his life.

Last week, a prayer vigil for Felber was held at the Western Wall plaza at the initiative of the battalion's graduates.

Two "Rashaim" Friedlander & Nadler ... learning "Hilchos Krias Shma"

Ezra Friedlander, the Jew "Capo" with his buddy Rep Jerry Nadler

On the return trip from NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s re-innauguration on Ellis Island, Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) explained the Talmudic reasoning behind the timing of Krias Shema Shel Shachris, to his Tuchis-Lekker back stabbing buddy Ezra "Ill Stab Any Jew In The Back" Friedlander!

Nadler is the incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and has promised to investigate possible ties between the Trump administration and Russia.

Jerry Nadler was the only Jewish Democrat from New York that voted for the Iran deal.

At the time, Nadler released the following lying statement to his Holocaust Survivors constituents. Ezra then went to justify this criminal vote to the naive Boro-Parkers...

“I bring to my analysis the full weight of my responsibilities as a member of Congress, and my perspective as an American Jew who is both a Democrat and a strong supporter of Israel,” Nadler said in a statement. He said that the agreement “gives us the best chance of stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.”

Now he is explaining Mesechta Brachos.

Jeremy Reichberg Convicted of Bribery but Cop Who Took Bribe Walks! Rechnitz Squealed on his buddy!!!

The latest shock came yesterday, when a Manhattan federal court jury acquitted former NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant on charges he took bribes in return for special police favors for businessman Jeremy Reichberg.

The same jury convicted Reichberg, a major donor to Mayor Bill de Blasio, of paying bribes to other police officials — but not to Grant.

Post-trial interviews suggest that jurors accepted the same argument used successfully by other indicted officials, including New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez: This was just two old friends helping each other out — and what are friends for?

Michael Savage, facing death threats, heads to secret location

City, state and federal agencies are taking a look at a vicious, hateful email sent a restaurant frequented by talk radio icon Michael Savage that threatens to shoot up the restaurant establishment if he’s not denied future service.

Remember back in November when Fox News host Tucker Carlson and his family were targeted and threatened by protesters? This is worse.

Portions of the email sent to the restaurant state, in all caps, “I DEMAND THAT YOU REFUSE TO ALLOW MICHAEL SAVAGE … IN YOUR F-ING RESTAURANT AGAIN. HE IS A RACIST WHITE SUPREMACIST PIECE OF SH— … DONT WANT TO LISTEN TO ME? WELL I GUESS YOURE ALL GONNA F—ING DIE THEN CUZ I AM WAITING FOR THE MOTHAF— AND I WILL WAIT AND WATCH YOUR F—ING BUSINESS AND WHEN I SEE HIM GO IN THERE IM GOING TO START SHOOTING EVERY BODY I CAN FIND.”

The suspect then gets very specific.

“I OWN 3 GUNS AND I CAN DO SOME SERIOUS F—ING DAMAGE,” the email went on. “I WILL KILL AS MANY OF YOU RACIST-SUPPORTING/ENABLING WHITE SUPREMACISTS AS I F—ING CAN.”

Savage, in a telephone interview, said he has “changed location,” but he didn’t elaborate.

Doctor, 27, who tweeted that she would 'purposely give Jews the wrong medications' still has her medical license

A doctor who tweeted that she would 'purposely give all the Jews the wrong meds' has been found to have been posting anti-Semitic messages on social media for years.

Dr Lara Kollab, 27, a former resident at The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, wrote in now-deleted posts that she hoped 'Allah will kill the Jews' and referred to Jewish people as 'dogs'.

The Cleveland Clinic has since condemned Dr Kollab, who retains her medical license, and confirmed that she is no longer working at the hospital.

Dr Kollab, who is of Palestinian heritage, was awarded her medical degree by a Jewish-affiliated college in New York last year.

Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine has since expressed their shock at hearing of Dr Kollab's anti-Semitic views. 

'Touro College is appalled by the anti-Semitic comments reportedly made by Lara Kollab, a graduate of the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine,' the medical school said in a statement.

Baal Ha"Tanye's Yurzeit Brings Thousands of Jews from around the world To Haditch, Ukraine

The 24th of Teves brought this week thousands of Jews from around the world to the Ukrainian village of Haditch where they davened and joined Chassidic farbrengens. 

The date marked the yartzeit of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi,the Alter Rebbe who founded the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and authored the Tanya and Shulchan Aruch Harav. 

Visitors were welcomed at the tziyun holy gravesite and the Heichal Admur Hazaken building by Rabbi Shneur Zalman Deitsch, the local Shliach who oversees the activities and accommodations. 

“We began preparing for this date about 6 months ago,” he said. “Already 2 months before the yartzeit, all sleeping accommodations have been reserved. We see the number of visitors growing on the yartzeit and around the year.”

With the yartzeit coinciding with the secular new year, he said flights were not cheap this year. Another challenge has been the cold weather which brought heavy snow fall onto the town and the path down the hill to the kever. 

Former Federal Prosecutor Says Mueller "A Rogue Prosecutor and Made up a crime to fit the facts" Challenging Him Now in Court!

A former federal prosecutor has emerged as special counsel Robert Mueller’s most persistent courtroom critic.

It’s not Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney and now President Trump’s ubiquitous defender, or any of cable TV’s prosecutors-turned-pundits.

He is Eric A. Dubelier, a litigator for the Reed Smith law firm who knows international law and the D.C. playing field. He served eight years prosecuting cases as a Justice Department assistant U.S. attorney in Washington. He refers to his former employer as “the real Justice Department,” implying that Mr. Mueller’s team is something less.

His biting remarks have come in months of court filings and oral arguments. Mr. Dubelier has depicted Mr. Mueller as a rogue prosecutor willfully ignoring Justice Department guidelines.

He has accused Mr. Mueller of creating a “make-believe crime” against his Russian client, Concord Management and Consulting, which is accused of funding a troll farm that interfered in the 2016 election.

So far, the federal judge presiding over the case has sided with Mr. Mueller.