Post Pesach Supermarket Shopping  5776-2016 Edition There is much ado every year as to where one can shop immediately following Pesach, how long the restrictions apply for and to what products. I hope this is found to be enlightening. My goal is not to issue a halachic decision with this article, rather to present the fact on the ground. For a final psak please consult your Rav, who may appreciate you bringing some of these facts to his attention. In order to properly understand the halachic implications we must first elucidate the basic supermarket structure. The general chain supermarket model is as follows: Manufacturer → Distributor → Supermarket Warehouse → Individual Supermarket In terms of Halacha, Chametz that was owned by a Jew on Pesach is forbidde...
Jerusalem -  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sparked a new diplomatic brushfire by declaring that the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war, is and should remain sovereign Israeli territory. But following tough international criticism, Israeli officials have begun to backtrack, saying that a 1981 decision to apply Israeli law to the strategic plateau fell short of annexation and implying that Netanyahu misspoke. The debate offers a window into a more nuanced Israeli perspective that, despite statements from the country’s hard-line political leadership, continues to leave the door open, just barely, to a peace deal when Syria’s civil war finally winds down. For now, the debate is largely academic. Syria has been engulfed in civi...
US site reveals classified report on Elor Azariya, who shot neutralized terrorist. Investigators say was result of 'twisted ideology.' "A 'twisted ideology' drove an Israeli soldier to fatally shoot a Palestinian assailant in the head as he lay subdued in the road," the US news site Vice claims, based on a classified IDF report on the recent incident. "A few seconds before the attack, few seconds before the attack, as came up in the investigation with Sergeant M, (Azariya) told him that 'a terrorist that wounded their friend needs to die," the site reported, adding that "Sergeant M tried to calm the soldier down telling him, 'Relax, our wounded friend will be just fine.'" Despite this, Azariya still shot the terrorist in the...
Burlingame, CA - Protests erupted in California for the second day in a row on Friday against U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is moving closer to winning the Republican nomination after a string of victories this week. The billionaire businessman was forced to halt his motorcade and go through a back entrance to a hotel to give a speech to the California Republican convention and avoid several hundred loud protesters gathered outside. “That was not the easiest entrance I’ve ever made,” Trump told the gathering in Burlingame, south of San Francisco, after weaving around a barrier and clambering across a road to get to the venue. “It felt like I was crossing the border actually.” Demonstrators, some of whom held Mexican national fl...
New York, NY - A group of hackers linked to Islamic State has posted online a list of thousands of New York residents and urged followers of the militant group to target them, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. Federal agents and New York City police officers have been contacting the individuals on the list to inform them of the posting, but the source said law enforcement does not believe there is any credible threat. In a statement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said, “While our standard practice is to decline comment on specific operational and investigative matters, the FBI routinely notifies individuals and organizations of information collected during the course of an investigation that may be perceived as potentially threatening in nature.&r...
Baltimore, MD – Apr. 15, 2016 - Once again, BaltimoreJewishLife.com is pleased to present a handy Pesach Community Guide. The 2016 edition has much more information than in previous years including information so desperately sought after once Pesach has concluded. The guide is available by clicking here or on the graphic below or on any of the Pesach Guide ads on the BaltimoreJewishLife.com website.   
Baltimore, MD – Apr. 21, 2016 – Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation is pleased to invite the men and women of the Baltimore community to its Pesach afternoon  4-part lecture series by Rabbi Moshe Hauer entitled LET MY PEOPLE GO! Revisiting the wrenching stories and dilemma of Entebbe and the Kastner Train.   
The custom of avoiding kitniyos (legumes – and others!) on Pesach survived a rocky start, and the smirks of our Sephardic brothers and sisters. Survive it did, and never have so many been so meticulous in avoiding as many products suspect of bearing the taint of kitniyos-inclusion. Support for the practice (or at least one of the reasons given for the evolution of the practice) comes from an unexpected source. Cheerios was always an oat cereal, and oats have long been identified with שבולת שועל[1], one of the five grains that can become chamtez. Oats are gluten free – which is important to many people, especially those allergic to the substance that glues (hence the word gluten) particles together to form a cohesive dough. Until recently, however, Cheerios d...
רבי נחמן מברסלב גילה: שבתפלת 'ואמונה כל זאת' שבתפלת 'ערבית' של 'ליל שביעי של פסח'הוא הזמןשמחלקים את הפרנסה לכל אחד ואחת לכל ימות השנה... והמבין יבין את גודל העת, ואת גודל השעה...לנצלו בתפלה בכוונה וכראוי! ויהי רצון:שיהיה לכולנו פרנסה ברווח ובנקל ובהיתר, מתוך עושר וכבוד,כמו שהעביר אותנו בנקל בין גזרי ים סוף וקבלנו אז את ביזת הים... א ליכטיגער און א פריילאכער יום טוב 
The scene outside FOX 45 remains unsafe, Baltimore police say, and the suspect was removed after more than hour he spent lying injured and uncooperative before police could neutralize a possible destructive device strapped to him. SkyTeam 11 Capt. Roy Taylor said the man has been taken to Shock Trauma and is still alive. Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said the man voluntarily walked out and down 41st Street, but did not listen to officers' orders and kept his hands in his pockets. That's when a counter-sniper opened fire with lethal force (not rubber bullets or beanbags). As there is still what he claimed to be a bomb attached to his chest, he remains on the median of 41st Street and is conscious. Police are interacting with him and manipulating his body using a bomb-...
BALTIMORE —Baltimore police shot a man who they said made a threat at a Baltimore television station. WBFF-TV was evacuated Thursday afternoon after a suspicious man entered the building and a bomb threat was made. The Baltimore Office of Emergency Management said there is an incident at WBFF-TV, at 2000 W. 41st St. It was reported around 1:30 p.m. Thursday. WBAL-TV 11 News learned that a man dressed in a onesie with a surgical mask and sunglasses covering his face entered the TV station's front entrance. The man tried to give employees a flash drive, saying something about what's going on in the news and saying that he needs his video shown. "The good news is our security guard (kept the man from) getting all the way into the building. We have a vestibule ...
Baltimore, MD - Apr. 28, 2016 - Temporary roadwork completed on I-295 S in DE. Lanes are reopened and traffic moving smoothly
Baltimore, MD - Apr. 28, 2016 - April 26, 2016 was no ordinary day in the 5th Council District of Baltimore City. While for some of the District it was the 4th day of Pesach, for others it was Election Day in Maryland for all the City's residents. There were several very serious decisions to be made by the voters. From picking the primary's candidates for US Senator to Mayor, the voters of Baltimore City were exercising their civic duty at the polls. One political race however, grabbed the imagination of the voters in Northwest Baltimore. Could a young, energetic, community activist take on the establishment? What were the chances of prevailing over a candidate that had the endorsement of unions and seasoned politicians? To the untrained eye probably a long shot at best. B...
We are currently in the midst of our beautiful holiday Pesach, the period of our freedom. Pesach is an eight day holiday whose first and last days have the status of Shabbos in which driving and other forms of creative activities are prohibited. The middle days are somewhat like weekdays on which we may drive and do several other forms of creative activity. The question is what is the function of the eight days. The first days naturally celebrate the freedom from the Egyptian servitude. But what is the significance of the extension of seven more days? Among the things that make Pesach unique is the mitzvah of eating matzah and the prohibition of eating chometz. Pesach’s primary staple, matzah, is the food that represents freedom. There is however a paradox. On one hand matzah is cal...
Lebanon, CT - A fire at a Connecticut egg farm that killed an estimated 80,000 chickens was likely caused by an overheated electric motor. Fire Marshal Scott Schuett said the official cause of the fire Tuesday at Kofkoff Egg Farms in Lebanon will likely remain undetermined, but it appears to have started in a motor that powers conveyor belts that move chicken waste, food, water and eggs in and out of the coops.   No people were reported injured in the blaze, which drew about 125 firefighters from 25 departments across the region. Schuett says the blaze was limited to one of the farm’s 13 roughly 32,000-square foot coops. A blaze at the same farm 27 years ago to the day killed 216,000 chickens. That was also ruled an accident.
Berlin - Germany’s foreign minister says Donald Trump’s foreign policy ideas are unclear and contradictory. The Republican presidential front-runner declared Wednesday that he would put “America first” as part of his foreign policy if elected. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier responded Thursday by saying he hoped “that the election campaign in the United States doesn’t ignore reality.” Steinmeier says Trump’s claims “aren’t entirely free of contradictions,” such as when he pledges to “make America great again” and simultaneously suggests the U.S. should withdraw. Steinmeier said he “couldn’t see a clear line” in Trump’s policies, adding: “It doesn’t seem...
Israel is facing a major environmental crisis as the Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to pollute the country’s main waterways with sewage, despite funding and a commitment to cease the practice, a Knesset member told The Algemeiner in an interview.  MK Sharren Haskel — at 32, the Likud party’s youngest member and the second youngest member of the current Knesset — explained: “The Palestinians agreed under the Oslo Accords to build treatment plants and recycle their sewage water. The PA committed to deal with these issues and has received hundreds of millions of dollars in international funding from Europe and the US to do so,” Haskel said. “However, Palestinian runoff water — both household...
Former Bush administration ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and Jaime Turner, former National Security Council staffer under Bush and Obama both react positively to Donald Trump’s first major foreign policy address, REAL CLEAR POLITICS reports. “I thought it was a very strong and impressive speech,” Bolton said. “It was an impressive first statement of his thoughts –not all of which I agree with. I thought his analysis of the many failings of the Obama adminsitration were right on target,” he concluded.
 Trump: Obama’s Snubbed Israel and Treated Iran With ‘Tender Love and Care’
A rare procedure performed at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem has prevented a 3-year-old Palestinian boy from the Gaza Strip from becoming paralyzed. The boy was released from the hospital walking on his own. Sliman, 3, had developed a benign tumor in his chest, which not only interfered with his respiratory system but also caused a malformation in his spine and limited his range of motion. The tumor posed a risk of causing permanent paralysis in the lower extremities in the future. This tumor is very rare with only a handful of recorded cases in medical history. It was the first such case to be seen in Israel. The doctors at the Hadassah Medical Center agreed to confront the challenge and decided on a two-stage approach. The first stage involved a “stretching&...
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