In an open letter Wednesday that blew the lid off of a hushed misconduct accusation involving a prominent spiritual leader in the national religious camp, the chief rabbi of Safed called on the public to stay away from a respected counterpart, accusing him of carrying out several inappropriate relationships with female followers, among them an adherent whom he convinced to divorce her husband.
Three weeks after the national religious Srugim news site broke a story about an unnamed yeshiva head who had been asked to resign due to “personal entanglements,” Safed’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu publicly identified the embroiled individual as Rabbi Shmuel Tal, the head of of the Torat HaChaim yeshiva as well as several other religious institutions in the central town of Yad Binyamin.
In his open letter referring to Tal, Eliyahu wrote: “I do not recommend that anyone learn any halacha (Jewish law) from him, nor seek any guidance from him. I do not recommend studying at his yeshiva or at his seminary for women or at his counseling academy.”
North Korea executed its special envoy to the United States following the collapse of the second summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, a South Korean newspaper reported Friday.
The Chosun Ilbo said Kim Hyok Chol, who laid the groundwork for the Hanoi meeting and accompanied Kim on his private train, was executed by firing squad for “betraying the supreme leader” after he was “won over to the US” during pre-summit negotiations.
“Kim Hyok Chol was executed in March at Mirim Airport along with four senior foreign ministry officials following an investigation,” the newspaper quoted an unidentified source as saying.
“On his way back from the Churva synagogue to the yeshiva, someone jumped him from one of the courtyards,” the victim’s father told Reshet Bet.
“The ridiculous thing is that at the beginning, the police told him to ‘Get out of here’, they didn’t understand that he was wounded. He walked to the synagogue to call for help.”
The victim had been learning overnight at his yeshiva, then went to the Churva synagogue for Shachris .
“At first he didn’t realize that he had been stabbed by a knife,” his father continued, “he thought he had been punched in the back. His brother was with him, and they started to run towards the Churva synagogue, and there they called for help.”
Special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s statement upon the shuttering of his two-year investigation into the Trump campaign was weird even by the standards of the weirdness of the past couple of years.
“Charging the president with a crime was not something we could consider,” he reported. Indeed, even pursuing that question, he added, would have been unconstitutional under long-standing Justice Department guidelines.
But then he said that if his office could have exonerated the president, it would have: “If we had confidence the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”
Granted, he said pretty much the same thing in the report he produced: “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.”
His statement was only 8 minutes long. The report is 400 pages long. It matters what he chose to repeat from it and what he did not. He wanted the American people to hear him speak those words. He wanted to emphasize this point.
A great opportunity for the entire family, to share some thoughts on the daf ... the family feels united by discussing what the head of the house is studying. I try to break it down so that everyone can understand it ....
You can copy and print this without my consent, since Torah belongs to all of us.....
This week's "Daf Yoimie Snippets Sponsored For the Refuah Shliemah of
צארטל בת אסתר מלכה
''דף ל''ב ''מעשר בהמה
Page 32 Mesectas Bechoros
''Tithing Animals"
It is prohibited to sell an animal designated as ma'aser under any circumstances. An animal set aside as ma'aser must be sacrificed as a korban in the Bais Ha'Mikdash and then its meat must be eaten exclusively in Jerusalem ..... same as the law regarding a Korban Shelamim.
The halacha just quoted refers to a behimah temimah... an unblemished animal.
However, if a ma'aser behimah became blemished, it is permissible to eat meat from that animal in any location, since the laws of ma'aser no longer apply to that animal.
Nevertheless, the rabbis decreed that it was prohibited to sell a "ma'aser behimah" animal which has become blemished ... even if the animal was slaughtered ...so no one would mistakingly sell;; a "ma'aser behimah" animal while it was still alive, which was strictly prohibited.
Press"read more"to continue to the rest of the dafim
Grieving mourners turned out this afternoon to pay their final respects to a beloved member of Milwaukee’s Jewish community who died Monday afternoon in a fiery highway crash.
61 year old Todd Miller was heading north on Highway 145 just before noon when his minivan barreled head on into the protective barriers on the side of the roadway, reported the Journal Sentinel (http://bit.ly/2VRwtcM).
The car burst into flames, with well over a dozen good Samaritans trying desperately to free Miller from the vehicle. One told Fox 6 (http://bit.ly/2VTq6pf) that they backed away only as when they started hearing explosions emanating from the minivan, which was incinerated by the blaze.
Miller, the owner of Miller’s Carpet Company, was the only person in the vehicle at the time of the crash. The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department is continuing their investigation into the cause of the accident.
During his 90 minute funeral at the Goodman Bensman Funeral Home, Miller was eulogized as “a connoisseur of tzedaka and maaser,” with one speaker recalling the annual pre-Purim pep talk that he gave yeshiva students who would be engaged in fundraising over the holiday.
Miller would encourage them to promise potential donors that G-d would reward them handsomely for their donations, handing out his personal cell phone number to be given to anyone who wanted further assurances that their financial gifts to the yeshiva would be divinely repaid.
Recalled as a true leader who was involved in all of Milwaukee’s Jewish institutions and organizations, Miller was also remembered for his tremendous love of his family and community. Son in law Chaim Lampert lauded Miller for his tremendous inner strength and a unique ability to help others rise to their full potential.
Moshe Leib Miller compared his father to Nachshon Ben Aminadav, noting that whether it was a fundraising project to be gotten off the ground or a building that needed to be built, his father would be the first to volunteer, jumping in headfirst and fully immersing himself in the project at hand.
Tributes to Miller poured in on Facebook, with the Friendship Circle of Wisconsin describing Miller as one of the pillars of the Milwaukee Jewish community, while the Chicago branch of Yachad called him “a wonderful friend.” A post by Benyamin Blatt read simply “Boruch Dayan HaEmes. To know him was to love him.”
Miller’s funeral was followed by burial at Beth Medrash Hagadol Cemetery. He is survived by his wife Terry, seven children and over a dozen grandchildren.
The New York Times is facing criticism for publishing an editorial Sunday about the resurgence of antisemitism in Europe in which it suggested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump shared the blame.
The editorial, “The Old Scourge of Anti-Semitism Rises Anew in Europe,” responded to what the Times calls the “alarming reality that anti-Semitism is sharply on the rise, often from the sadly familiar direction of the far right, but also from Islamists and the far left.”
The Times acknowledged the contribution of left-wing politicians, such as UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, to the problem.
But it also argued:
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not helped matters by finding common cause with nationalist leaders like the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban or President Trump so long as they do not support a Palestinian state.”
The implication seemed to be that Orban and Trump are antisemites — or that nationalism, by definition, is antisemitic.
Dr. Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. during President Barack Obama’s tenure, was furious, noting on Twitter that the Times had omitted left-wing American politicians such as Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who have actually used antisemitic rhetoric repeatedly. He also referred to the Times‘ recent publication of an antisemitic cartoon in its international edition.
Just one month ago, the Times published a widely-denounced cartoon depicting Netanyahu as a dog with a Star of David collar, leading a yarmulke-clad President Trump.
Ironically, the editorial concluded: “Speak up, now, when you glimpse evidence of anti-Semitism, particularly within your own ranks, or risk enabling the spread of this deadly virus.”
The terrorist responsible for a firebomb attack on an Israeli family in October 2015 was brought before an IDF court near Jerusalem Tuesday for a hearing on a plea bargain agreement.
The attack, which took place near the Israeli town of Beit El, north of Jerusalem on October 23rd, 2015, targeted the Sofer family’s car, as the family made its way from their home in Nitzan in southern Israel to Beit El for the Sabbath.
En route, a group of terrorists waiting on a hill next to the road hurled firebombs at the Sofer family’s car.
One firebomb smashed through a window, landing in the backseat, where the children Tair, 11, Matan, 10, and Tahel, 3, were sitting.
While Tair and Matan were spared injury, the firebomb exploded on three-year-old Tahel, causing serious injuries.
On Tuesday, the Mahane Ofer military court presented a plea bargain deal signed by the terrorist.
Tahel’s mother, Sigal Sofer, took part in the hearing, lashing out at the terrorist.
“How evil you are, you disgusting, violent scum,” Sigal told the terrorist during the hearing. “I wish that all of your children would be burned, one child after another, slowly, from head to toe. All of your offspring and any other descendants. If you dared to burn a three-year-old girl, you are scum.”
Dari Carlebach, accompanied by daughter of Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, visits ruins of her father's home in Mevo Modi'in.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (Keren L’Yedidut) has quickly mobilized to raise more than NIS 1 million in emergency assistance for residents of Mevo Modi’im, a small moshav (agricultural community) located west of Jerusalem and near the Israeli city of Modiin. The moshav sustained a massive fire last Thursday that destroyed at least 40 out of the community’s 50 homes.
From the NIS 1 million, the Fellowship will be providing up to $5,000 in assistance for each family of Mevo Modi’im.
The amount distributed in each case will be determined and prioritized according to a number of factors and criteria provided to The Fellowship by relevant authorities.
At the same time, The Fellowship is in constant communication with the National Emergency Authority, Israel Fire and Rescue Services as well as the Hatzalah emergency response organization to ensure that assistance gets provided as quickly as possible.
The fire, one of many around Israel, which was stricken on Thursday with sweltering temperatures rising above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, was large enough to have damaged some 7,940 dunams of land belonging to Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael - Jewish National Fund. Originally assumed to have been caused by faulty electrical wiring, the fire is now being investigated as a possible incident of arson.
Ukrainian Airlines seems to have intentionally profiled Orthodox Jewish passengers on a flight this week, in what looks like an inside job to rob them blind.
Multiple passengers say that approximately 50 Orthodox Jewish passengers were on Ukrainian Flight number PS778 at 5:30AM Monday morning from Tel Aviv to JFK, with a brief stop in Kiev.
As the passengers were about to board the plane in Tel Aviv, Ukrainian Airlines personnel began making everyone place their hand luggage into a box to measure the size. Strangely, their luggage all fit, but were told they can not take it on the plane with them. Instead, they were given a “green sticker” with no tracking number on it.
The Frum passengers began to realize that something was suspicious, as the rest of the flight (non-Jews) were all able to board the plane without their hand luggage being taken away.
One passenger described it as blatant anti-semitism, as anyone with a Yarmulka, beard and peyos had their luggage taken away.
Because Freilich is pro-Israel, Satmar spend a lot of money to defeat him.... but in their campaign they didn't write anything about Freilich's position on the Jewish State, because that would have turned off anyone who possesses a Jewish Neshama, instead they wrote "pashkivilim" that Freilich shakes hands with women, and that he posed with Shiksas in his campaign...... Satmar totally ignored the fact that this is a great win for Jews living in Europe and in Israel, since Freilich will be an advocate for Jews, Israel, Shechita, bris etc .... But Satmar doesn't give two bits about that; they would rather elect an antisemite as long as the candidate isn't pro-Israel... they don't care that he ran on a platform to change the recent ban on Shecitah. They, instead endorsed a Shiksah that has sympathy for the Palestinian Jew murderers! Freilich won big and this is a smackdown of Satmar and their bizarre irrelevant SHIT'ah! .... The Chareidie Jews living Belgium voted for him overwhelmingly!
Michael Freilich, a member of the center-right party The New Flemish Alliance, the largest party of the Belgiun Parliament, became the first Orthodox Jew to sit in the Belgian government.
Long-time editor of Belgium’s largest Jewish newspaper, Antwerp-based and pro-Israeli, Freilich announced his resignation and candidacy for parliament last January, notably to try to change the recent shechita bans in the country.
Because of his position as fifth on the list, the 38-year-old was sure of winning. Freilich ended up with nearly 13,000 votes.
Immigration authorities in the U.K. have refused to allow R’ Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin to enter the country.
Sources confirm that Rubashkin arrived at the Manchester Airport on Sunday afternoon, where his entry was denied.
Rubashkin has been traveling the world, speaking to audiences about his experience behind bars and giving Chizuk to thousands of Jews. He was scheduled to speak this Monday and Tuesday in Manchester, in events that were advertised throughout the community.
One or two individuals in the community had informed authorities that Rubashkin had a criminal background, and he was reportedly denied entry on that basis. These individuals were upset that the community was hosting Rubashkin, and had allegedly promised to cause problems.
Rubashkin is still being held in the airport, as Askonim are working on helping him gain entry to the country. Should they not be successful, it is expected that Rubashkin will be deported back to Tel Aviv at around noon on Monday.
Who knew that the mitzvah of "Shliach Ha"ken" means beating the hell out of the mother goose? Live and learn!
Township police and the state Division of Fish and Wildlife are investigating reports that children were brought to a goose nest to beat and harass the birds on a daily basis, perhaps to steal the eggs.
The incidents took place over the course of five days earlier this month near a retention pond on Cedar Bridge Avenue, according to a woman who says she saw the attacks and called police several times.
The woman, who asked that her name not be included in the story for fear of retaliation in the community, told New Jersey 101.5 that her office overlooks the pond where the Canada geese are nesting.
The first time the attacks took place was about 2:15 p.m. May 13 when the woman said she heard screaming outside her office. She said she "saw a group of boys (maybe 10 of them) screaming and clapping and walking towards a goose who was flapping his wings and honking."
She said she wanted to scream at them to stop, but "they could not hear me so I went to get my phone and they left."
She said she didn't think anything of the incident at the time and "thought maybe they were walking by the pond and the goose was going after them so they were trying to make it get back."
She saw a group of boys head to the pond the next day around the same time and when she looked from her second-floor office window she saw "a smaller group of boys swinging large sticks around at the goose. Again, by the time I got my phone out they were leaving."
She said that's when she called Lakewood police who "told me that since the boys were no longer there, there wasn't much that could be done but they would send someone out to check the area."
The attacks continues for a third consecutive day, she said.
"This time I saw the big sticks make contact with the goose and noticed a second goose. After I got out of work, I drove over to where the boys were and saw that there was a nest ...
As my husband drove us home, I called the police again. This time I was crying and they asked me to go back and meet an officer there. I showed the officer where the nest was and the sticks that had been used."
Mother goose that has reportedly been abused by local children near a retention pond on Cedarbridge Avenue in Lakewood. (Townsquare Media NJ)
She said she did not see the boys on Thursday but they did return on Friday afternoon.
"This time I saw them stomping near the nest and saw them hit the mother goose so hard that she fell into the water," she said. "The geese were screaming and going towards the kids but when they would get close the kids would hit them.
"I yelled out the window, 'I hope you know what you are doing is illegal!' and the woman hurried the kids into the van. I was too far away to get a plate number."
She called the police again, who arrived a few minutes later.
"They also had animal control with them and said that she (the mother goose) didn't appear to be hurt," she said.
Township police confirmed the investigation on Thursday and urged anyone with information to call
Sgt. Kenneth Burdge at 732-363-0200 or the Division of Fish and Wildlife at 609-292-2965.
Rabbi Berel (Berke) Raskin , the Crown Heights icon who owned a world renowned fish store on Kingston Ave, passed away Shabbos, the 20th of Iyar 5779.
He was 84 years old.
Berel, one of four brothers, was born in Leningrad to his parents, Reb Aaron Leib Laine and Doba Raiza Raskin, who had much mesiras nefesh for Yiddishkeit in Communist Russia.
His father passed away at the young age of 36, leaving the family to be sustained by his mother. She traveled with her family initially to Poland, then Austria, and finally Paris.
From there, Mrs. Raskin wrote to the Frierdiker Rebbe, asking whether they should seek entry to Israel or to America. The Rebbe advised them to travel to America, and in 1953 they arrived in New York.
When Berel looked to start a business, he soon decided on opening a fish store, with the Rebbe’s encouragement. He rented the store on Kingston Avenue, where the business is run from until today.
He is survived by his wife Esther Raskin, and his children Aaron Leib Raskin (Crown Heights), Yossi Raskin (Crown Heights), Shloime Raskin (Crown Heights), Brocha Richler (Los Angeles, CA), Bassie Komar (Crown Heights), Chanie Greene (Rochester, MN), Doba Rimler (Crown Heights) and Shaina Moss (Israel), and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
He is also survived by his brothers Michel Raskin (Crown Heights), Dovid Laine (Crown Heights), and Benzion Raskin (Crown Heights.
The Levaya will be held at shomrei hadas at 12:30pm, and will be passing 770 at 1:30pm.
The following article written by Mohammad al-Sheikh for Al-Jazirah Saudi Arabia...
After reading the article you have to wonder what R'Aron Teitelbaum was thinking when he begged the US Congress to support the Iran Deal.....
You have to wonder what that back stabbing Jew who calls himself Ezra Friedlander was thinking when he tried convincing and justifying Nadler's support for the murderous deal??
The survival of the mullah regime in Tehran will be impossible in the long run, so long as its formal objective remains to use all of its resources to fulfill the will of its founder, Khomeini, and reinstate the ancient Persian Empire.
I am not trying to suggest that the era of empires is completely over. This is a reality that one can hardly argue with, especially given the rise of the caliphate established by Islamic State.
I do, however, believe that [former] US president Barack Obama, for a mysterious reason that goes beyond me, saved the mullah regime from total collapse when he signed the catastrophic nuclear deal with Tehran. In doing so, Obama lifted the siege on Iran and provided its regime, which was very close to falling, with a $100 billion lifeline.
Whatever ideology is guiding the mullahs, their regime simply cannot keep up with the contemporary world. It stands against everything humanity stands up for today.
Even domestically, the people of Iran have realized that they have been led astray by their leaders for several decades. Internal grudges and anger are growing with each passing day.
This enormous Iranian public will eventually reach a boiling point that the regime will be unable to control. No matter how oppressive, cruel or coercive the mullah regime will be, it will eventually be forced to capitulate and collapse.
Needless to say, modern countries derive their political and military power from their economic power. The stronger their economies are, the more they can grow and develop, the more legitimate they are on the international stage, and the more they can withstand crises.
A look at the Soviet Union, which neglected its economic might and relied on socialism for its survival, will suffice to understand how failed economies can lead to political disintegration and collapse.
This is certainly the case in Iran as well. The mullahs can spend money spreading their ideology, ignore economic growth and impose their doctrine on others, without any hesitation to crush dissidents. Ultimately, however, their regime will be a failure.
Therefore, whether the mullahs admit this or not, Iran is on a direct trajectory to becoming a failed state. This tendency will only increase with time. Then, as many experiments in history have already taught us, the mullahs’ regime will collapse. It is simply a matter of time.
by Shaul Magid Via Tablet “It’s a Shlomo Shabbos.” Anyone living in Israel in the 1980s and early 1990s who was part of the religious counterculture, from wayward haredim in Jerusalem to hippies in Pardes Chana, knew what that meant. It meant that Shlomo Carlebach would be on Moshav Me’or Modiim for Shabbat, a frequent event that would attract a plethora of Jews (and some non-Jews) to an impromptu Shabbat retreat. By Friday afternoon people began arriving, in cars, vans, taxis, hitchhiking and on foot, looking for a place to crash, often setting up tents in backyards and the nearby Ben Shemen forest that buttressed the moshav. Later on, guest-houses were established to house the fellow-travelers for a small fee. It was a kind of bi-monthly mini-Woodstock with only one musical performance, Shlomo davening.
It may Have been doctored but experts say that all they did was take out excerpts of a real live press conference .... this is done all the time by Network TV when doing the news ...
