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Baltimore, MD - Dec. 2023  - Our hearts go out to Acheinu Bnei Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael and to anyone suffering, wherever they may be. Each of us, in our own capacity are doing the best we can to come together to help and support each other, during this challenging time.  Our dear friend Goli, is a local Choleh, who has been suffering profoundly for many years due to her severely compromised state. Her physical pain and limitations are exacerbated by unfathomable levels of profound isolation. We appeal to you, our caring Baltimore community, to please do whatever you can, to provid...
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Baltimore, MD – Nov. 28, 2023 - It is with regret that Baltimore Jewish Life (BJL) informs the community of the petira of Mrs. Helen Broder, a’h, mother of Mrs. Robin (Jay) Schwarz, Mr. Glenn Broder and Mrs. Joy (Steven) Graber. The levayah will be held at Levinson's on Wednesday, November 29th, 10:30 am. Shiva will be observed through Tuesday morning at 2600 Steele Road Baltimore MD 21209.Visiting Motzaei Shabbos: 6:30PM-10:00PMNo visitors please: 12:30 -1:30, 6 -7 and after 10 Shacharis at 7:00 AM,(Sunday:7:30AM)Mincha/Maariv 4:25 PM. [Erev Shabbos: 2:00PM]The family is asking for any stories of Mrs. Bubby Broder to be sent to mrsbrodermemories@gmail.com Bila Hamaves LaNetzach...  
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GRAND WIG SALE U DONT WANT TO MISS, Sun., Dec. 3!!!!! FIRST TIME EVER RAIZY KLEIN COMING TO BALTIMORE $500 OFF ALL WIGS SARYS STARTING AT $1450 RINAS AT $2050 IRENE LACE TOPS AT $2050 WE WILL BE ACCEPTING CASH, CC, AND ZELLE!! CUT AT STYLE INCLUDED!! 718-232-1212
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Baltimore, MD – Nov. 29, 2023 - It is with regret that Baltimore Jewish Life (BJL) informs the community of the petira of Robert Birnbaum, z’l, father of Zvi Birnbaum The levaya will take place tomorrow, Thursday, 11AM November 30 at 11:00 in Montreal. Zvi Birnbaum (443.683.9387 )will sit shiva in Montreal through Wednesday morning and can be reached at 443-683-9387. Bila Hamaves LaNetzach...  
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Register here Rabbi Zvi Goldberg and Rabbi Dovid Heber will discuss the halachic ramifications of keeping kosher on a gluten-free diet. The discussion will cover a range of topics, including: How do you eat meals without bread? (e.g., Shabbos meals, kiddushim, Purim seuda, seudah hamafsekes, first two nights of Sukkos) Continuing shalosh seudos past shkiya if you didn't wash Status of oat flour challah and gluten-free wheat Matza on Pesach Minimum shiurim How to decide if you are "allergic" enough to avoid grains? YOUR questions! We will also have a timely discussion about why this year we begin Tal U'Matar on December 5 and not on the 4th, as is usually the case. Rabbi Dovid Heber is a Kashrus Administrator at STAR-K and Rav of Khal Ahavas Yisroel...
IDF Chief of Staff LTG Herzi Halevi toured the Gaza Division and held a discussion with the reservists in the sector. "We are looking at this operational pause, up until which in northern Gaza we dismantled two Hamas brigades, not completely yet, the 162nd Division is still working inside to secure our accomplishments and to strike more battalions," Halevi stated. "Yesterday and today, we eliminated brigade commanders, company commanders, and many operatives, and yesterday morning, we started the same process in the southern Gaza Strip. It will be with no less strength than that, it will be with no less results than that, and Hamas commanders will meet the IDF everywhere in a very, very strong way. I know that part of this is your capabilities, and a very large part of this is the fighti...
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Sunday, 3 December 2023), at the IDF induction center at Tel Hashomer, met with IDF recruits slated for combat positions in the Armored Corps and the Givati Brigade, and with recruits from the ultra-orthodox sector. At the start of his visit, the Prime Minister met with the recruits as they received their gear just before they put on their uniforms. Afterwards, Prime Minister Netanyahu was briefed by the Head of IDF Personnel, Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asur, Planning and Personnel Administration Brigade Commander Brig.-Gen. Shai Taib, Chief Armored Officer Brig.-Gen. Hisham Ibrahim and Meitav Unit Commander Col. Alon Matzliach on the impressive wartime enlistment data, including extensive reporting for reserve duty, the largest since the Yom Kippur War, an...
The Pentagon said Sunday a U.S. warship and multiple commercial vessels are under attack in the Red Sea.  The development signifies a serious escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Middle East linked to the Israel-Hamas war. "We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available, later," Pentagon spokesman told Fox News, confirming reports of an attack on a U.S. warship in the Red Sea.  The Pentagon initially told the Associated Press, "We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available."  USS Carney is a Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile ...
Baltimore, MD – Dec. 3, 2023 - It is with regret that Baltimore Jewish Life (BJL) informs the community of the petira of Adina Speedone, a’h, mother of Asher Wollner and Yardena Wollner and sister of Miriam Goliger, Gilah Speedone, Amalia Goodfriend, Chana Speedone, and Daniel Speedone. The levayah will be held at Levinson’s on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023 at 9:00AM. Kevurah will take place at Beth Jacob Anshe Veshear Cemetery, 6700 Hamiltoin Ave, rosedale, MD, 21237 Shiva will be observed at  6011 Greenspring Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21209Shiva hours:M, Tue, Wed, Thu:9-12:302-5:307pm to 9pmFriday:9-12:30Motzaei Shabbos: 6pm-9pm Bila Hamaves LaNetzach...  
Parsha Hashavua
Chanukah, Hellenism, and Hamas

Jewish history isn't random. Selected to represent Hashem and inspire moral and religious spirit, our battles aren’t local and aren’t purely geopolitical. We stand against toxic cultures which threaten both moral spirit and religious consciousness.  In defeating the dangerous ideas posed by these wicked cultures, we protect the world from its own darkness. So it was, and so it always will be.


Obviously, our current war with Hamas isn’t purely military and isn’t merely a local skirmish. We face sub-human barbarians who committed horrific atrocities in the name of God. Our eventual defeat of their culture of death, rape, and torture will protect this world from moral and intellectual collapse. The ferocious international opposition which our just war has aroused affirms that, in our battle, there is more at stake than merely the future of Gaza.


Thousands of years ago, our Chanukah battles were also ideological. The Maharal, claimed that the four notorious empires or the "arba malchiyot" which visited our planet weren’t just mighty kingdoms which persecuted us and banned our religious freedom. Each empire posed a religious threat to humanity and each of these four dominant cultures introduced hazardous religious ideas, which, if left unchecked, would have infiltrated the human imagination and corrupted moral and religious experience. As the religious guardians of humanity, we battled these four empires and defended humanity from moral and religious collapse. Greece was the third of the four empires, and much was at stake for humanity at large in this epic battle between Athens and Yerushalayim.


Greece was the first civilization to both organize and dramatically improve our world. The word “cosmos” is a Greek term which translates into ‘order’, reflecting their newfound ability to organize and rationalize a previously vast and disorderly universe. Greek advances in science and mathematics lent predictability to a world, which for the ancients, had seemed chaotic and intimidating.


Greece also developed a rudimentary form of democracy, which offered a degree of fair and equitable government. Furthermore, major advances in art and culture enriched the aesthetic quality of human experience. Greece was brimming with confidence as it sought to relandscape a new enlightened pan-Greek society, centered in Athens, which would unify man in pursuit of a more civilized and elegant lifestyle. Greece offered great hope for the human future.


Yet, despite these possibilities, Greek Hellenism was based upon flawed religious concepts which threatened the evolution of religion. Our defeat of Hellenism dismissed these erroneous notions, preserving moral spirit.




Hellenism and Hamas


On the surface, there is nothing in common between our ideological war with Hellenism and our cultural war with Islamic fundamentalism. These struggles are separated by thousands of years and are being waged against very different cultures. However, each of these battles is centered upon the same city of Yerushalayim, and evidently, as different as they seem, they share a common feature. Nothing in Jewish history is random, everything repeats itself.


Divine image?


In its rejection of ancient paganism, Greece renounced molten idols and no longer imagined gods to be grotesque, heavenly monsters. Yet, for all their religious progress Greece was utterly incapable of discovering a One Hashem responsible for all creation. Instead, Heaven was occupied by a noisy pantheon of gods and goddesses each with specific domains and responsibilities. The Greek gods who inhabited Mt. Olympus, weren’t very much different from us, but were merely larger and stronger versions of Man.


Within this cavalcade of gods, the details of Man's creation remained murky. Greek mythology provides differing accounts as to how Man originated. In one famous myth Prometheus fashions man and delivers him creativity, only to anger a different god, named Zeus. The creation of Man is tangled in the rivalries between warring gods. Even amongst classical Greek philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, who studied virtue, knowledge, and the nature of the human soul, the description of Man's creation is either absent or vague.


Though Greece broke with crude paganism and introduced philosophical inquiry, it could not imagine a one Hashem Who both created Man and endowed him with Divine image. Instead believing in God creating Man in His image, Greece continued to craft gods in human image.


Being that Man wasn’t fashioned with any surpassing divine image, he didn’t possess any distinctive or lofty features to distinguish him from the rest of the cosmos. Man didn’t possess autonomous free will because there was no all-powerful Hashem to grant it to him. Without free will, Man was left entirely to the whims of fate. In a famous mythological tale, Oedipus is prophetically informed that he will murder his father and marry his mother, yet his efforts to reverse this tragic fate are futile. Fate, not free will, determines human experience.


Our defeat of Hellenism reinforced the belief in an all-powerful Hashem who crafted Man as the masterpiece of His creation. Moreover, Hashem gifted us with divine image including traits such as speech, creativity, consciousness and free will. Reverence for Hashem demands respect for every human being gifted with divine image. Belief in Hashem demands respect for Man.


Though Greece took dramatic leaps, without belief in divine image, its ability to spur human progress was severely limited. Without belief in divine image Greek influence on the human development was capped.  By the 3rd century the Roman empire, the cultural descendants of Greece, had begun its rapid decline and the prospects for further human development were handed off to other cultures. By denying tzelem elokim or divine image, Greece could not glorify Man and was limited in its ability to advance the human condition.


What went wrong?


In 2002, Bernard Lewis, a mid-Eastern historian authored a book entitled "What Went Wrong?", which probed the historical factors contributing to the decline of the Islamic world, in comparison to the West. Factors such as resistance to technology, a decrease in scientific inquiry and intellectual openness, an absence of political pluralism, and the presence of stifling social structures, all led to the stagnation of Islamic culture, while the West was racing ahead.


In addition to these socio-political influences there is a religious root for the relative lack of progress in the Islamic world. We believe that God is compassionate and desires welfare for the creatures He crafted in His image. When human beings suffer, or even when human experience is limited, we sense a religious calling to discover, innovate and transform our world. For a Jew progress, science, and discovery are driven by a religious impulse: Hashem is compassionate, fair, and just and wants human prosperity. We are His agents in delivering that prosperity.


To Islamic Fundamentalists, God is angry and vengeful. There is great joy in Heaven when innocents suffer or lose their lives. If God is angry and capricious, there is little religious motivation to alleviate human suffering or to ameliorate the human condition. In the West, religious-based humanism drove the evolution of modern society. While the West believed in a kind and just God, and labored to relandscape the world in His image, the East was bereft of any religious motivations for change and progress. A dysfunctional world of suffering and misery was in perfect concert with an impulsive and irate God.


Hellenism could not imagine divine image, while Islamic Fundamentalism scoffs at it. You cannot believe in Man's divine image, while also wantonly murdering, raping, mutilating, and burning human beings. If you believe in an angry and enraged God, these abhorrent acts can be committed in His name.


Just as the Hellenists before them, Islamic Fundamentalists threaten the cardinal belief in the divine image of human beings. Just as then, it is our historical responsibility to defeat these ungodly ideas and restore belief in a One, all-powerful and merciful Hashem who crafted us in His image and desires our well-being.


The Chanukah battle continues. We are modern day Hasmoneans waging a battle on behalf of tzelem elokim. The battle between good and evil wages on. There is only one ending to this battle. It just takes unwavering conviction and patience.




The writer is a rabbi at Yeshivat Har Etzion/Gush, a hesder yeshiva. He has smicha and a BA in computer science from Yeshiva University as well as a masters degree in English literature from the City University of New York.

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Baltimore, MD – Dec. 3, 2023 - It is with regret that Baltimore Jewish Life (BJL) informs the community of the petira of Nachum Khulin, z'l, father of Aharon Khulin, Avi Khulin, and Judy Saulkin. The levayah will be held today, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023 at 1:00PM at Levinson’s.Kevurah will take palce at Beth Jacob Anshe Veshear Cemetery 6700 Hamilton Ave, Baltimore, MD, 21237Shiva will be observed at 3904 Bancroft Road, Baltimore, MD, 21215Details to follow Bila Hamaves LaNetzach...  
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A senior White House official says he believes Israel is “making an effort” to minimize civilian deaths in Gaza. Speaking on the US Sunday talk shows, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also insists that US intelligence was unaware of any secret, advanced Hamas blueprint for its brutal October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the conflict. “We believe they have been receptive to our messages here of trying to minimalize civilian casualties,” Kirby says, including by publishing online a map of places where Gazans could go to find safety. “There’s not a whole lot of modern militaries that would do that… to telegraph their punches in that way. So they are making an effort.”
Jewish history isn't random. Selected to represent Hashem and inspire moral and religious spirit, our battles aren’t local and aren’t purely geopolitical. We stand against toxic cultures which threaten both moral spirit and religious consciousness.  In defeating the dangerous ideas posed by these wicked cultures, we protect the world from its own darkness. So it was, and so it always will be. Obviously, our current war with Hamas isn’t purely military and isn’t merely a local skirmish. We face sub-human barbarians who committed horrific atrocities in the name of God. Our eventual defeat of their culture of death, rape, and torture will protect this world from moral and intellectual collapse. The ferocious international opposition which our just war has ar...
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As we approach the festival of Chanuka and amid the "Iron Swords" war, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation is organizing the official Chanukah candle-lighting events that will take place this year in the Western Wall Plaza. During Chanukah, starting Thursday, the 24th of Kislev 07/12/23, until Thursday, the 2nd of Tevet 14/12/23, a central candle lighting ceremony will be held every evening in the Western Wall Plaza under the theme "The Western Wall - the Light in All Our Hearts," featuring rabbis, public figures, families, and volunteers. Schedule of the Chanuka candle lighting events: First candle, Thursday, 24th Kislev, 07/12, 16:30 Second candle, Friday, 25th Kislev, 08/12, 15:30 Third candle, Saturday evening, 26th Kislev, 09/12, 19:30 Fourth candle, Sunday, 27th Kislev, 10/12,...
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On Friday night, students from the Nehora Yeshiva in Mevo Horon joined many other places in the world in adding an empty table to their dining hall, to raise awareness for the hostages and hope for their return. Next to the table, which included a place for each hostage, the students held a prayer for the return of the hostages and the safety of IDF soldiers, and read chapters from Psalms. Following similar displays in the Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, Times Square in New York, and in Copenhagen, Milano, and Rome, this is the first time that such a display has been created in a haredi yeshiva. Each chair had the name of a hostage on it. The prayers were ended with the song, "Acheinu Kol Beit Yisrael," which states, "Our brothers from the whole house of Israel, who are in trouble or capti...
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