Paying a Shadchan Up Front is a "Ripoff"

 

by Baila Sebrow

When I became a shadchan at age 18, I joined a society of people who considered shadchanus to be a holy endeavor. I was so very young, and there was so much I wanted to learn. At that time the only people who considered themselves shadchanim were people known to be truly G-d fearing individuals who practiced shadchanus only lsheim mitzvah.

Wanting to do shadchanus the correct way, I chose mentors whom I could learn from and reach out to when there was a challenging shidduch situation. One such holy mentor, Z”L, was so pious that when she encountered an issue, she would run to the kevarim of Rabbonim and daven that the shidduch should come to fruition. Such were the only people I associated with in this field. Never in a million years would those holy neshamas dare to ask for even one cent from a person they were helping find a shidduch, even if they were in dire financial straits.

So, WHY, WHY, WHY has it suddenly become fashionable to pay a shadchan to talk to you? WHY has it become fashionable to pay a shadchan an exorbitant fee with no strings attached?

Who is to blame? YOU!!!

YOU ARE ENABLING THEM!

Uman Will have to Wait! Bennett, Lapid call on Israelis to leave Ukraine immediately

 

Prime Minister Bennett and Foreign Minister Lapid decided during a situational assessment Saturday night to strengthen the travel warning to Ukraine and called on Israelis to leave the country immediately ahead of a possible invasion by the Russian army.

The meeting was also attended by the Defense Minister, the Chief of Staff, the head of the Shabak, the head of the National Security Council and the National Security Adviser, the director general of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, and other professionals.

The conversation discussed preparations for the evacuation of Israelis from Ukraine. It was agreed to strengthen the travel warning to the area, along with a call for Israeli citizens to leave the area immediately. In addition, an increase in civilian flights on the Israel-Ukraine route will be considered. A dialogue will be held with all civilian airlines on the issue.

Foreign Minister Lapid spoke with the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine and other embassy staff today. Tomorrow, the families of the representatives will land in Israel and a team will set out to reinforce the consulate staff and assist in handling, if necessary, the evacuation of Israelis and Jews from Ukraine.

Julia Haart was an ‘entitled’ nightmare who made us cry Ex-Staffer

 “My Unorthodox Life” star Julia Haart made no secret that she wanted to be the “Jewish Kris Jenner.”

She made it known that she wanted to create an empire, signing up for Netflix cameras to follow her five-star life as CEO of Elite World Group. Those cameras caught her in all her finery — she is believed to be one of LVMH’s top global spenders annually — and followed her to luxury hotels as well as her $65 million Tribeca penthouse.

But the walls came tumbling down this week as Haart, 51, was fired from her job at Elite World Group, the company she co-owns with her husband, Italian mogul Silvio Scaglia. Hours after her exit on Tuesday, she filed for divorce from her husband of two years, later applying for a restraining order against him and accusing him of threatening to kill her, hating her kids and making anti-semitic slurs.

Scaglia, 63, retorted by suing her for $850,000 he claimed that she had “illegally taken” out of a company bank account they shared after she was sacked. A letter attached to a legal filing also claimed that Haart had abused her office as CEO and overspent.

To those who worked with Haart, none of this, they claim, comes as any surprise.

Goyim beating the crap out of Jews in Williamsburg

 At least two incidents have been reported over the weekend involving unprovoked attacks on Jews in Williamsburg.

The first incident, caught on film involved a Chassidic couple walking down the street on Friday night, in the area of Marcy Ave. and Stockton St.

As they walk, minding their own business, an unidentified individual runs up behind them and knocks off the man’s Streimel. He then turns and runs away, along with another individual who stood back to watch the attack unfold.

A second incident was also reported, in which another two men had their Streimels knocked off their heads by two suspects.

The NYPD is investigating these incidents as possible hate crimes.

Hispanic Lakewooder Refuses Treatment Because EMTs Were Jewish

 Shocking video from Lakewood, NJ shows a non-Jewish resident refusing to accept medical treatment because the responding EMTs were Jewish, who were volunteers ffrom Lakewood EMS, dispatched by 911.

Paramedics were called in to help with the women, but sadly for her, they too were Jewish!

Eventually, the anti-Semite was treated and transported to the hospital by the Jewish first responders, but not before she threw a fit.

"It appears to me from this video that the sick/injured woman was sick/injured while working at the residence of a frum person and that she was looking to develop a claim against the frum homeowner. she was scared that a frum first-responder will look to protect the frum homeowner from a potential claim that the sick/injured woman was contemplating and will not record the bubamayses she wanted to tell. This looks like fraud to me, not anti-semitism."

Some want to learn pshat that she was probably afraid of being abducted and forced to clean for Pesach.

Zera Shimshon Parshas Tezaveh

 

Julia Haart seeks restraining order from ‘abusive and unhinged’ Goyishe Husband who wants to kill her and fired her

 

“My Unorthodox Life” star Julia Haart has accused her estranged husband Silvio Scaglia of threatening to kill her in a petition for a restraining order.

Haart, 51, petitioned a court Thursday to prohibit Scaglia, 63, from coming near or contacting her, accusing him of hostility towards her son’s Judaism — and claiming he told her “I will kill you in the public eye.”

She filed for the order a day after she was fired from Elite World Group, the company she co-owns with Scaglia.

The document, seen by Page Six, alleges: “Respondent has become increasingly
volatile, abusive and unhinged.”

Haart claimed in the petition that she is “scared for my safety and the safety of my children, some of whom reside with me,” adding, “Over the past several weeks, Respondent has become increasingly volatile, abusive and unhinged.”

Baltimore Jewish Community Experiences Carjacking And Mugging On The Same Day

 

The Baltimore Jewish community was witness to a disturbing string of crime as of late. On Wednesday, a carjacking incident, and later a mugging incident, occurred just hours apart.

In the first incident, a Jewish man was in the parking lot of Adugah of Park Heights, when he was approached from behind by two black males. The thugs struck him over the head, demanded his keys, and stole his car. Thankfully, the victim was not badly injured and did not require medical care.

Later that day at approximately 8:00 PM, a Jewish man was walking up to his home on the 3700 block of Bancroft, when three black males held a gun to his chest and demanded his keys and wallet. The victim complied and the suspects ran off on foot.

Baltimore Shomrim is requesting camera footage from both areas from anyone who may possess it.

Anyone with any further information may call 911 and Baltimore Shomrim at 410-358-9999.

ANOTHER HOAX: No Records Found of Calls to or From Trump During Jan. 6 Capitol Riot

 

The House committee has seen no evidence of calls to or from Trump during the January 6th, 2020 riot at the US Capitol, despite mounds of media reports that he supposedly was talking to lawmakers and other figures during the incident.

The House select committee has received hundreds of records from the White House relating to the Jan. 6 riot after the Supreme Court refused to block the committee’s access to them. Yet not a single record they now have shows any information about Trump being in contact with people outside the White House at the time.

Some are now scrambling for an explanation, with anonymous officials saying maybe Trump used cellphones to contact people outside the White House, or that maybe the National Archives has more records that haven’t yet been given to the committee.

Amid this revelation, CNN asked an official to explain a report that House Minority Leader McCarthy had a heated phone call with Trump as the riot was unfolding, and if that did occur, why there are no phone records of it.

The source’s response was vague.

“There are a lot of things like that, that I’ll say we’re having to learn from them about them from a lot of different sources to piece all of the data together,” the source said.

“Whether it is the absence of data or phone logs or willing testimony, inevitably, we have different sources to get that information because these are conversations that require more than one participant,” committee member Rep. Stephanie Murphy said. “So even if there is one node that isn’t forthcoming, there are inevitably other points of information that we can use to build a more fulsome picture of what happened on January 6.”

Good luck to them. But until then, perhaps an apology to Trump and his supporters is in order.

British Jewish Org. taking their cue from Anti-Semites Tell Smotrich To “Go Home” “You’re Not Wanted;”

 

When you are in galut long enough  and live in a country that didn't let Jews that were escaping the hell brought by Hitler ym"s into their country, when you live in a country that turned boats loaded with Jewish families back to Germany, a country that hung Jewish teenagers in the streets of Yerushlayim, living in a country that murdered Rishonim, living in a country that expelled the Jews in 1290, 202 years before the expulsion of  Jews from Spain,  then of course, you start talking like the rest of the goyim! But don't you worry, England that is being overrun by the Arabs will send you guys home too!

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the UK’s Jewish community’s umbrella organization, expressed a less than welcome greeting to Religious Zionism chairman Betzalel Smotrich, who flew to London on Wednesday. 

Smotrich is on a trip to meet with Jewish communities in the UK and France to discuss matters of Jewish identity, especially their concerns about the giyur reform currently being advanced in Israel.

“Get back on the plane Betzalel and be remembered as a disgrace forever,” the organization’s spokesperson wrote on Twitter, writing in Hebrew: “We reject his abhorrent views and hateful ideology and call on all members of the British Jewish community to show him the door. You’re not wanted here.”

In response, Smotrich tweeted: “UK Jews: I love you. All of you.”

He later told Reshet Bet: “I was received with great love. According to the number of invitations I received, I can stay here another week and even two.”

Regarding the hateful tweet, he said: “There are internal political issues here, organizations that are controlled by the progressive left.”

On Thursday, Smotrich responded to the organization on Twitter, writing: “I very much thank you for the publication of my visit and on the many connections I forged in the UK thanks to it. I received dozens of phone calls and invitations from Rabbanim and leaders who were embarrassed by you and apologized, telling me that you don’t represent them and requested to meet me. Unfortunately I won’t manage to meet all of them this time so I’ll need to return for another visit.”

The attack was widely condemned by right-wing Knesset members and at least one coalition member also slammed the organization for treating an Israeli Knesset member who traveled to meet Jewish communities in such a manner.

The Likud party stated: “We completely reject the shameful tweet issued by the umbrella organization of British Jewry against MK Betzalel Smotrich. In doing so, they are disqualifying a large public who love Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael whom MK Smotrich and Religious Zionism faithfully represent. It’s clear that this organization wouldn’t treat left-wing post-Zionist Knesset members who deny the existence of Israel as a national state for the Jews like this. Shameful.

Has the yeshivish world lost sight of the importance that the Vilna Gaon and Baal Shem Tov placed on living in the Holy Land?

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Most yeshiva students have things somewhat mapped out. Spend a year or two learning in yeshiva in Israel, return to the states, often to a place like Lakewood or Monsey, spend 6 months in the "freezer" focusing on only learning and then start shidduchim, dating for marriage.

However, sometimes these guys end up staying in Israel for another year, and another year etc. And sometimes they settle in Israel and build their lives here in the holy land. Other times they set their sights on returning sometime in the not so distant future…which seems to ebb further and further away with each year that passes. Every so often, there are those who ask the question, "Why aren’t more people staying here after yeshiva?"

Its never easy being an immigrant. Everyone knows Israel has changed over the decades. We hear how difficult it was for the immigrants of political Zionism in the mid 1900’s. We can’t imagine what the Vilna Gaon, the father of the yeshiva movement had to endure in the late 1700’s during his failed attempt at making aliyah to the Holy Land. He made it as far as Odessa and then literally missed the boat. It was the students and children that eventually actualized his vision and moved to Israel to build what became known as the Hayishuv Hayashan, the old settlement. However, this is often forgotten or buried deep within the collective consciousness of today's yeshiva world.

The students of the Vilna Gaon and the students of the Baal Shem Tov should be our role models. They experienced unthinkable hardships and were happy. This is what G-d intended: for the Jewish people - to live here, keep his Torah and flourish.

The idea that before Zionism, Jews had lived in peace in Arab lands is an absolute myth!

 

One idea that Satmar and other Anti-Zionists push to further their hate of the Zionists is the idea that before Zionism Jews in Arab lands lived peacefully side by side. Its interesting to note that this is what the Arab murderers and Satmar have in common. Both of these groups use this for their propaganda in the exact same way. 

But this has been proven on this blog time and again to be a fabrication and an outright lie! 

Read the facts below! 

What really happened to the million Jews who lived in Arab lands? Unfortunately, so many people spread lies about what happened to those Jews – chiefly as a way of propping up a false Palestinian narrative – that most people have no idea of the truth or the scale of the disaster. They see the lies spreading online, but simply do not have the material they need to counter the disinformation campaign.

The ‘Jewish problem’ in the Arab lands

A simple fact: in the 20th century almost a million Jews resided in ancient Jewish communities spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Another simple fact: at the end of the 20th century, there was almost nothing left.

So what happened?

Rabbanim Get Together to Issue "Kol Korah" Against the Gerer Kidnappings

I know what you are thinking. Why is it necessary to issue a "Kol Korah" against kidnappings when it's explicit in the 10 Commandments "Lo Tignov" You shall not steal another human being?

The reason is that Chassidim by in large have their own interpretation of the entire Torah and therefore need their Rabbis to tell them that here with this particular commandment we all agree!

The Gerer Gestapo Commander Avraham Binyamin Silverberg Who Orders the Kidnappings!

Yiddish Explanation Why We Have Corona

 

Israeli Truckers Are Next

 

Song of Moed Katan

 

Ger now kidnapping Children from the Opposition ... as 2 Girls are now missing

 

 Two sisters, ages 17 and 14, have been missing from their homes for the past week.

According to the girls’ family, the disappearance occurred after the parents, Tzvi Arie and Leah Sandik, decided to move out of the Gerrer community in Ashdod. They say community leaders suspected that they were planning to join the community of Rav Shaul Alter.

The parents say that Gerrer authorities were in close contact with the girls, persuaded them to oppose their parents’ decision and flee from home, and arranged special living accommodations. They say the girls, 17-year-old Esti and 14-year-old Ricky underwent brainwashing for months by mentors with senior positions in Ger, including women from their educational staff at their seminary, who instructed them to flee the home as soon as their parents tried to leave the community.

According to Israeli media reports, the family recently has felt disconnected from Chassidus, and they apparently considered the possibility of joining the “breakaway” community led by Rav Shaul Alter, however they did not take any real steps to join.

The family reportedly decreased contact and involvement with the Gerrer community in general, and decided to move from Ashdod to Bnei Brak and send their children to Chassidishe yeshivos there.

The parents say that community leaders and yeshiva faculty urged the children to defy their parents. The family’s 12-year-old boy said that one of his teachers told him: “You have no father or mother, you have to do what the Vaad says.” In addition, the girls’ older married siblings who remain connected with the Gerrer Chassidus helped persuade them to abscond from home.

According to the report, the parents even assured the 17 year old that she could continue to study in the Gerrer seminary in Ashdod, and offered to arrange transportation.

About two weeks ago, both daughters did not return home one evening. Late that night the younger one called from a blocked number, said “I am fine”, and hung up.

The next day the two girls returned home.

Then to their horror, a week ago the parents woke up and saw that the two girls were gone, and they saw a ladder placed near the girls’ bedroom window.

The parents have gone to court, and the court is involved in the matter, however the details have not been disclosed.

One follower of the Gerrer Chassidus denied any involvement in the disappearance, and claimed that it is an internal family matter.

The police confirmed that an investigation is ongoing, and that the parties accused have denied any involvement.

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to assist the family.

Andy Levin the Jewish congressman wants Israel to be narrower than his district

 

A Michigan congressman is complaining that he is being subjected to “ad hominem attacks” because his pro-Palestinian positions have been criticized. But there’s nothing ad hominem about pointing out that this congressman wants to reduce Israel to a size that will be barely one-third the width of his own congressional district.

The congressman in question is Democrat Andy Levin of Michigan, who is closely associated with J Street and advocates forcing Israel back to the nine-miles-wide pre-1967 armistice lines.

In fact, Levin is so deeply devoted to making Israel just nine miles wide, that he is the lead sponsor on a bill called the “Two-State Solution Act.” The bill demands the creation of a Palestinian Arab state next to Israel, in what he calls “the occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Sec.5 (a) of the Levin bill defines those territories as “the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.”

Those are the areas that Israel captured in the 1967 war. Which means that if the state of “Palestine” is established, Israel will return to being nine miles wide at a point a few miles above Tel Aviv, as it was prior to 1967.

The centrality of marital intimacy In the Jewish home ... Rabbi Eliezer Melamed Answers His Critics.

 

Before you read the article, I would like to point out that R' Yaakov Yaavetz Me'Emden in his siddur is far more explicit than Rav Melamed. I don't recall anyone criticizing his work.

Q: Rabbi, with your permission and out of great respect for you, I wanted to write about something that perplexed me after studying the book ‘Simḥat Ha-bayit U-virkhato‘. I have found instructions that seem to me to be suitable for chozrim b’teshuva (returnees to Orthodox Judaism), or for specific cases, but not for the vast majority of observant couples who want to build their homes in holiness and purity, and without all the various damaging notions that the corrupt Western culture introduces into other societies. Rabbi, why did you write them as a general guide?

In addition, there is an overemphasis in the book on the importance of the mitzvah of ona (marital intimacy). In contrast, however, I learned from my rabbis that it is better for marital intimacy to be limited (Torah scholars should have marital relations on Shabbat evening, and that Torah scholars should not be intimate with their wives like roosters) and not joyfully, as explained in a number of sections in the book (Chapter 1, Halakhot 1-2, Chapter 2, Halakhot 1 and 3). Perhaps this guidance is suitable for baalei teshuva, but not for yeshiva students, and why is it not explicitly written that these are bedi’avad (ex post facto) instructions for situations where it is necessary to be maykel (rule leniently), and not for a normal situation?

The Background for Writing the Book

You think this beating by a student in Public School was bad? Wait till you read this!

 

Violent classroom attack prompts calls for accountability in Public Schools across the country! Begs the question why some in NYC even have the #Chutspah to even say that Orthodox Jewish Yeshivas should be “equivalent to Public Schools??? Don’t they see the difference In values? https://t.co/aVogz1nK68

— UJCARE (@UJCARE) February 7, 2022

Gather round and pull up a chair, it’s time for a story on violence & silent bystanders inside a Yeshiva.

It’s a story of cruelty, and of compliance, and of indoctrination.

🧵/x https://t.co/tuMvxDTHSV

— Shulim Leifer (@ShulimLeifer) February 7, 2022

Getting slapped in the face for the most minor infraction went without saying. (One of his favorite ways to hurt those he hated most was to hold us up on our tippy-toes by the soft skin under our chins until we got used to it & then WHACK us in the face w/o warning)

3/x https://t.co/tuMvxDTHSV

— Shulim Leifer (@ShulimLeifer) February 7, 2022

A classmate that year who was left back (possibly 2 grades) into our class due to severe learning disabilities, happened to have been the grandson of the Bobover himself. He very much seen as a ‘failson’.

Well Nuta won’t let the Ruv’s grandson fail HIS class, no way Jose!

4/x https://t.co/tuMvxDTHSV

— Shulim Leifer (@ShulimLeifer) February 7, 2022

Nuta Landau, scary as he was, was particularly hard on this kid. He really tortured him on a regular basis. Gave him zero breaks and rode him hard. The boy had no chance to succeed, thus acted out in disruptive ways in response to the pressure. I mean, he was 9, 10 MAX.

5/x https://t.co/tuMvxDTHSV

— Shulim Leifer (@ShulimLeifer) February 7, 2022

Finally the day came that he did something which REALLY annoyed Nuta. Nuta plotzed. He took that boy out of the class and around to the hallway beside our class wall.

But before they left he gave us all an icy stare and said “palms on desks. Nobody move or make a sound”

6/x https://t.co/tuMvxDTHSV

— Shulim Leifer (@ShulimLeifer) February 7, 2022

We sat there stalk-still. Nobody moved.

The aforementioned hallway was an annex we called ‘The Subway’ which had a sealed-off door into our class, making it less soundproof than a typical wall.

We heard him throw the kid on the floor and whip him with a belt.

7/x https://t.co/tuMvxDTHSV

— Shulim Leifer (@ShulimLeifer) February 7, 2022

Inside the class we were frozen in place.

You could hear a pin-drop.

The only sounds were Nuta grunting, the ‘whoosh’ of the belt swinging, the ‘WHACK’ of it connecting to body, and the boy shrieking at the top of his lungs after each lash.

I mean bloodcurdling yells.

8/x https://t.co/tuMvxDTHSV

— Shulim Leifer (@ShulimLeifer) February 7, 2022

I don’t know who else heard what, but inside that classroom we heard each & every sound.

Not one boy moved or made a peep.

Nobody from another class went and rescued the kid.

It was a perfectly normal scene to have a rebbe whip a disabled boy with a belt in the hallway. 9/9 https://t.co/tuMvxDTHSV

— Shulim Leifer (@ShulimLeifer) February 7, 2022