Fox spotted along walls of Temple Mount sparks talk of prophecy

 

A fox was spotted along the southern wall of the Temple Mount on Wednesday night, as Tisha Be'Av, the day when the two Temples of Jerusalem were destroyed, was marked.

The sighting of the fox went viral, with social media users saying the sighting was a sign of a prophecy coming true.

The social media users were referencing a story related in Tractate Makkot (24b) in which Rabbi Akiva, Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, and Rabbi Yehoshua visited the site of the destroyed Second Temple.

When the rabbis arrived at the site, they saw a fox emerge from the site of the Holy of Holies and began weeping, although Rabbi Akiva began laughing. The rabbis asked Rabbi Akiva why he was laughing as a fox walked in a site about which the Torah wrote "And the non-priest who approaches shall die."

Rabbi Akiva responded that the appearance of the fox coincided with a prophecy given by the prophet Uriah in which he stated “Therefore, for your sake Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become rubble, and the Temple Mount as the high places of a forest (where foxes are found).” (Although the prophecy appears in Micah 3:12, there is a rabbinic tradition that it was prophesied by Uriah and not Micah.)

Rabbi Akiva noted that the prophet Isaiah linked the prophecy to Uriah to the prophecy of Zecharia (a prophet during the Second Temple period) which reads "There shall yet be elderly men and elderly women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem.” (Zechariah 8:4)

"Until the prophecy of Uriah was fulfilled I was afraid that the prophecy of Zechariah would not be fulfilled. Now that the prophecy of Uriah was fulfilled, it is evident that the prophecy of Zechariah remains valid," said Rabbi Akiva.

"[The Sages] said to him, employing this formulation: Akiva, you have comforted us; Akiva, you have comforted us," concludes the story in the Gemara.

This isn't the first time in recent years that foxes have been spotted near the walls of the Temple Mount.

In 2019, foxes were spotted near the Western Wall.

At the time, the rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Places Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz stated that "It was impossible not to cry at the sight of the fulfillment of the prophecy of 'Foxes walked in it' on the evening of Tisha Be'Av."

"We, who were Rabbi Akiva's students, remember how he consoled his friends when they saw the same image, immediately after the destruction of the Temple. May it be that just as we were privileged to see with our own eyes what Rabbi Akiva and his friends saw, so we will be privileged to witness what Rabbi Akiva promised his friends, soon in our time, Amen."

It Is Biden Not the Saudis That is Setting Conditions for Israeli-Saudi Rapprochement on 2-State Solution

 

NY Times pundit Thomas Friedman revealed on Thursday that neither Saudi Arabia nor Israel cares a hoot about the future of a Palestinian State, and the only one pushing for the 2-state solution as a condition for peace between Riyad and Jerusalem is President Joe Biden.

“When I interviewed President Biden in the Oval Office last week,” Friedman wrote on Thursday, it turned out that in addition to meddling in Israel’s internal affairs and judicial reform legislation, “The president is wrestling with whether to pursue the possibility of a US-Saudi mutual security pact that would involve Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel, provided that Israel make concessions to the Palestinians that would preserve the possibility of a two-state solution.”

According to Friedman, “the president still has not made up his mind whether to proceed, but he gave a green light for his team to probe with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia to see if some kind of deal is possible and at what price.”

Arab News confirmed on Thursday that Crown Prince bin Salman met with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Jeddah, and “they also discussed regional and international developments of common interest.”

Nothing whatsoever about a deal with Israel, but that’s to be expected given the nature of the kingdom.

Zera Shimshon Parshas Ve'Eschanan

 

Ben Gvir Goes Up to the Har Habyis accompanied by some Chassidim on Tisha Be'ov

 

The Healthy Jew’s Guide for Journeying in Israel (Part 1)

 

By Shmuel Chaim Naiman 

Welcome to The Healthy Jew’s Guide for Israel Journeys, a region-based manual about where to best experience life’s voyage in the Chosen Land. This guide is geared toward the genuine journeyer – it’s not another list of tourist attractions! - and builds on what we’ve learned about navigating life’s journey from here to there.

Today I’ll discuss where not to journey in Natural Israel using three rules that, in my experience, help determine where to freely and openly explore the country. Next week I’ll finish this guide by sharing the best regions for Israel voyages.

Before beginning your journey through this article (afterwards is also fine!), make sure to check out the new Events and Programs section on the THJ website for guided foraging walks, The Healthy Jew Course, and personalized health coaching. It’s worth it!

Are We Still in Galus because we refuse to leave?

 

Imagine you are living at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. You see amazing miracles: the ten plagues, the splitting of the sea, the revelation at Mount Sinai. Now imagine that in the middle of it all, there are people all around you who are simply uninterested, who want nothing to do with this redemption.

What would you think of such people? What would you say to them? I am sure that some of these sentiments would pass through your mind: “What is wrong with them? Do they not see what G-d is doing for us? How can they pass up such an opportunity?”

But more importantly, how do you think G-d would react?

 Well, at least regarding this question, we know the answer. You see, this is not just a theoretical scenario. It actually happened, at least twice, and our Father in Heaven was not very happy.

We all know the famous statement of Chazal that only one-fifth of the Jewish people left Egypt, while the vast majority, 80%, died during the plague of darkness. But why? What was their sin? Midrash Tanchuma (Vaera 14) states, “There were wicked Jews who had Egyptian friends and who enjoyed honor and fortune in Egypt. They did not want to leave.” Yes, even though they were enslaved, many Jews became comfortable in exile, to the point where they did not want to leave, even though they already witnessed eight fearsome plagues and numerous other miracles!

Ben Gvir Joins Yeshivishe Guys At the Gate of the Har Habayit ..Listen to Ani Maamin at the Kotel Last Night

 

Shloimie Daskal Gives powerful Message to his fellow Chassidim in Yiddish

 

Little Children Explain the "Churban Habayis" to their Non--Jewish Nanny

 

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Rare Great Revolt-Era "Machtzis HaShekel "Coin Found in Judean Desert

 

A 2,000-year-old silver half-shekel bearing the Hebrew inscription “Holy Jerusalem” has been discovered in the Judean desert, the Israel Antiquities Authority revealed on Tuesday.

The rare coin, dated to 66/67 C.E., the days of the first Jewish revolt against the Romans, was discovered at the entrance to a cave near Ein Gedi. The find was part of a cave survey operation, now in its sixth year, that the IAA is managing in cooperation with the Israeli Heritage Ministry and an archaeology staff officer at the Civil Administration.

Recently, as part of the survey, IAA inspectors had reached a section of a cliff along one of the streams in the Ein Gedi area, and noticed the coin sticking out of the ground at the entrance to one of the cliffside caves.

Rabbi Begging Jews To Go Up on the Har Habyit on Tisha Be'Ov

 The Gemarrah states that the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash took place on the 7th day of Av. 

The Gemarrah asks, "but we know that the Bais Hamikdash was destroyed on the 10th of Av?"

So which is it? The 7th or the 10th?

The Gemarrah answers that the goyim entered the Har Habayis on the 7th. 

The Gemarrah is stating something very dramatic! 

That Goyim occupying the Har Habyis is a "churban" in itself, its as if they physically destroyed it! 

American Orthodoxy’s Response to the Establishment of the Jewish State

 

by Rabbi Berel Wein

During the Second World War, American Jewry, at least the Jews in Chicago where I lived, knew that the situation in Europe was bad, but I don’t think any of us knew how bad it was. The Jewish community back then had no real political power and not much wealth. There was a general malaise. American Orthodox Jews felt there was little they could do. 

On top of that, the religious structure of the American Jewish community was very weak. The younger generation of Jews in America was basically non-observant. The majority of American Jews had inherited their family traditions, but were not Jewishly educated or observant.  

In 1950, Look, a popular magazine in those days, dedicated an issue to the topic of 300 years of Jews in America, 1650-1950. In the article, the author stated that the Conservative movement would become mainstream Judaism—the Orthodox would disappear completely and the Reform would assimilate.  

There were dozens of boys on my block on the West Side of Chicago, all of them Jewish. We all went to public school. I was the only one of the group who was shomer Shabbos. Once I got older, I decided to go to law school even though I had always wanted to be a rabbi; there were no positions in the Orthodox rabbinate.  

Soon after World War II, refugees started to drift in. Some of the refugees, especially the rabbinic refugees, were people of immense strength and vision who said, “We’re going to build [Torah Judaism] all over again. We’re not satisfied with [American Jews saying], ‘This is America and this is how we’re going to do it.’” It was unacceptable to them. These were the teachers I had in Beis HaMidrash LaTorah, the Hebrew Theological College in Chicago. They were all European rabbis and great talmidei chachamim, tremendous people, all of whom had had very difficult lives. 

It was an all-Yiddish-speaking yeshivah. It was not so much that these rabbanim communicated to us the knowledge of Torah as much as the geshmak of Torah—how pleasant, how wonderful Torah is. The message they conveyed to us was how fortunate we were to be able to be in a place where we could study Torah. How fortunate we were that we could perform mitzvos. They never spoke about what  happened to them. They always spoke about what was going to be, and what we were supposed to be, and that it was our task to rebuild the Jewish people. Over time, dozens and dozens of Jewish leaders came from the yeshivah and, in fact, even entire communities in Israel. (The aliyah rate from Chicago was enormous.) 

But what really inspired us was the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. The birth of Israel was so unlikely, so unnatural. The years preceding it were so devastating: the British blockade, the Holocaust, the thousands of refugees, the internal strife. But G-d has His ways—which is basically the story of the Jewish people. 

I remember the day the State of Israel was declared; it was on a Friday afternoon. I walked to shul with my father, of blessed memory, who was not an especially outwardly emotional person; he had the stoicism of the Lithuanian Jews. But as we walked to shul, I saw that he was weeping. It made an enormous impression upon me. 

Remembering the 1929 Hebron Massacre

 

The communal gravesite dug in the shade of olive trees for the victims of the Hebron Massacre. 

In 1929, the Hebron Massacre claimed sixty-seven lives. During the two days of rioting, which started on August 23, 1929, Arab mobs, armed with axes and knives, went from house to house in the “Jewish ghetto” in Hebron. Scores of Jews were maimed, in addition to the murdered. Of the victims, twenty-four were young yeshivah students.

In 1924, Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael, the famed Slabodka Yeshiva, known as the “mother of yeshivas,” had relocated to Hebron from the Lithuanian town of Slabodka. Founded by Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, one of the most important leaders of the Musar movement, the yeshivah attracted students from all over the world. By 1929 there were close to 200 students, making it the largest yeshivah in Eretz Yisrael at the time.

The Massacre in Hebron, which was then under British rule, brought the centuries-old Jewish presence in the city to an abrupt end. Below are accounts from survivors of the Massacre, as told by their descendants.

'Don't get into arguments with secular Jews' .....Rabbi Dov Lando to students ahead of their summer break

 

Ahead of the summer break, the dean of the Slabodka Yeshiva and one of the leaders of the Lithuanian (non-hassidic) haredi community Rabbi Dov Lando, sent a strong message to yeshiva students and called on them to "remain Torah students."

"There's something that's important to remember: there is a time called 'vacation,' during vacation you remain Torah students," he said, and added: "You don't change, you don't become different. Always be a Torah student, act like a Torah student."

Amid the advance of judicial reform legislation in the Knesset and the protests surrounding it, the rabbi asked the students not to confront the secular population and not to argue.

"Don't get into arguments, don't get into confrontations with secular people over anything. Just be respectful, Torah students are respectable themselves.

This is important for all the yeshivas: remain the same Torah students during the break, Yeshiva deans schedule the study sessions, but remember, in general, that they are Torah students. Halacha still applies during the break."

Endless Curruption as Biden Appoints Jewish Yenta that Bought Hunter's Childish Art to Prominent Position

 

As President Joe Biden campaigned for the presidency, he promised to maintain an “absolute wall” between his official duties and his family’s private business interests. This pledge came into focus when Hunter Biden’s artwork debut in a New York art gallery in 2021 garnered attention with prices soaring up to $500,000. At the time, the White House asserted that Hunter Biden’s team employed a stringent vetting process for art buyers to ensure no political ties influenced the transactions.

However, an explosive expose by Business Insider indicates that Hunter Biden did, in fact, learn the identity of two buyers, contrary to previous claims. One of these buyers is Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a Los Angeles-based real estate investor and philanthropist, well-known for her influence in California Democratic circles and significant donations to the Biden campaign and Democratic National Campaign Committee.

On Tisha Be'Ov Let's Remember that Chaim Weiss a 15 year-old Got Murdered And NOBODY has Been Held Accountable

 

Torah Bill Law submitted by Agudat Yisrael will not be promoted by the coalition.

 

MK Moshe Roth (United Torah Judaism) and members of the Agudat Yisrael faction on Tuesday submitted a bill to pass, "Basic Law: Torah Study."

The United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party is comprised of two factions: the Lithuanian-haredi Degel Hatorah, and the hasidic Agudat Yisrael.

The proposed bill would recognize Torah study as significant service to the State of Israel and the people.

According to the bill, "The State of Israel as a Jewish state sees great importance in encouraging Torah study and those who study Torah." In accordance with this, the bill proposes "to anchor appropriately in a Basic Law the great importance and enormous value which the State sees in Torah learning, and its desire to encourage Torah study."

"Those who take upon themselves to devote themselves to the study of Torah, for a significant period of time, will be considered as those who serve, in a significant capacity, the State of Israel and the Jewish nation, and this will influence their rights and obligations."

Roth said, "In the coalition agreement it was agreed that this bill would be a government bill, but this was not done in the agreed-upon timetable. Therefore we have decided to submit this law as a private bill on behalf of the entire party, so that we will be able to advance the law immediately at the beginning of the winter [Knesset] session."

Sources close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fumed, with the Likud publishing an announcement that said, "The bill on Torah study is not on the agenda and will not be advanced." The Sephardic-haredi Shas party and the Degel Hatorah faction expressed amazement at the bill's submission, saying that this was a step which was not taken in coordination with them.

Degel Hatorah also emphasized that from their perspective, there is no need for such a law: "This bill was signed around a month ago. If it is advanced, it will be in coordination with the coalition parties."

Several Likud MKs also expressed dissatisfaction with the bill.

The United Torah Judaism party responded, "As was agreed in the coalition agreements, we will find a solution for the draft issue which is agreed upon by all of the coalition parties. We prepared the bill, at the time, as part of a comprehensive solution. The time that the bill was placed on the Knesset's table is coincidental, and the entire issue will be handled in agreements between the coalition parties. We are sorry for anyone who tries to blame this bill for what it does not have."

Bobov, Lelov, Sanz, Nadvorna, Erlau, Shomrei Emunim, Seret Vizhnitz, and 7 other Hasidic groups order: Young boys should wear flat caps only

Several Chasidic sects in Israel have instructed parents to buy young teenagers flat caps instead of fedoras.

In a letter sent to parents of students in 15 haredi schools, the institutions' management instructed that beginning at the start of the next school year, young teens must come to school wearing flat caps only.

Among the hasidic sects to make the change are Bobov, Lelov, Sanz, Nadvorna, Erlau, Shomrei Emunim, Seret Vizhnitz, and others.

"Preserving the Jewish dress which has been accepted for generations was one of the foundations of the ways of behavior in hasidic communities for generations," the official letter to the parents read. "As part of this, it was customary among hasidim in previous generations that the young married men and the boys would wear a wide hat on their heads, or a small hat called a 'kasket' (flat cap - ed.)."

"The common denominator between these two types of hats is that they showed that the wearer was one of the hasidic community and one who fears G-d. It is true that since the Second World War, since this has become more common, the custom is to wear a wide hat, and the number of those who wear the flat cap has diminished."

"As those who merit to stand at the head of the educational systems, we have learned from experience that while older teens know how to take care of their hats for several years, the boys who are still in their bar mitzvah year, within the walls of the school, have a hard time taking proper care of their hats. And so in many cases, just a few months after the bar mitzvah, the hat is no longer usable, and the parents are forced to buy a new hat for a high sum of money."

 

A Journey from Hispanic Upbringing to Hassidic Judaism

 

Gerer Bullies Prevent 3-4 year-olds from Entering Elevator because they belong to R' Shaul Alter's Kehilla

Guys it's sick, and getting sicker out there every day. By them the Rebbe is God and therefore it is a mitzva to harass  toddlers in the three weeks! I think worshipping Rebbes should be banned! 

Young followers of the Gerer Rebbe, physically harass 3-4 y/o children of Rav Shaul Alter's kehilla, block them from entering elevator to arrive home safely. https://t.co/RUf1oaki3I

— ira sorry (@SorryIra) July 24, 2023