During the Second Temple, the Greek empire reigned (over Israel),1 and they (the Greeks) passed decrees against the Jews and (tried) to erase their religion, and did not allow them to carry out Torah (study) or the commandments. They put their hands on their property and their daughters. They entered the Temple, destroyed and made the pure unclean. The Jews were in great distress because of them and were much oppressed, until the G-d of their fathers had mercy on them, delivering them from their hands and saving them. Then overcame, the sons of the Hasmonean High Priest, (the Greeks) and killed them and saved the Jews from their hands. They appointed a king from the Priests, and the kingdom of Israel was restored for more than 200 years until the destruction of (the) second (Temple). When the Jews overcame their enemies and destroyed them, it was the 25th of Kislev2 when they entered the Sanctuary (inner room) and did not find pure (olive) oil in the Temple, except one jar sealed with seal of the High Priest, and it did not contain enough to light except for one day only. But they lit from it the lamps of the Menorah3 for eight days, until they could crush olives and produce a (new quantity) of pure oil. For these reasons, decreed the Sages of that generation that these eight days that begin on the 25th Kislev, will be days of joy and praise. One lights on them lamps at evening at the entrance to the houses, every evening of the eight nights to show off and demonstrate the miracle. These days are called ''Hanukah'' that is to say ''they rested'' (chanu) on the ''25'' ('th of the month) because on the 25th they rested from their enemies. and also because of those days they (re)-dedicated the house (Temple) which their foes had defiled. Also some say that it is a commandment to increase slightly the festive meals on Hanukah. Another reason is because the work of (building) the Sanctuary (in the desert) was completed in these days. One should tell one's children the story of the miracles that were done for our fore-fathers in those days, (see Josephus) However, these meals are not considered as part of the commandment unless one says at the meal songs of praise. One should increase charity in these Hanukah days, for this can help mend any defects in our souls. This charity, should be given particularly to poor Torah scholars. (KSA 139:1)
1) 352 BCE until 70 CE
2) 139 BCE
3) The Menorah was made of gold and had seven branches.
New York - Many companies are purging artificial colors from their foods, but don’t expect your burgers or cereal to look much different.
Colors send important signals about food, and companies aren’t going to stop playing into those perceptions.
What’s accepted as normal can change, too, and vary by region. Up until the 1980s, Americans expected pistachios to be red because they were mostly imported from places where the nuts were dyed to cover imperfections.
“People used to get all the coloring all over their fingers. We now kind of laugh at that,” said Richard Matoian, executive director of the American Pistachio Growers, a trade association.
Now most pistachios sold in the U.S. are grown domestically and come in their naturally pale shells.
Americans,...
Cairo - Egyptian authorities have quietly introduced restrictions on the sale of yellow reflective vests, fearing opponents might attempt to copy French protesters during next month’s anniversary of the 2011 popular uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, security officials and retailers said Monday.
They said industrial safety equipment dealers have been instructed not to sell yellow vests to walk-in buyers and to restrict business to wholesale sales to verified companies, but only after securing police permission. They were told offenders would be punished, the officials said without elaborating.
Six retailers in a Cairo downtown area where industrial safety stores are concentrated said they were no longer selling yellow vests. Two declined to sell them, giving no explanati...
Jerusalem - Israel says it has been accepted as a member in a global money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog group.
The Financial Action Task Force is an intergovernmental group of some 35 countries based in Paris that sets international standards on terror financing and money laundering.
Israel says Monday that its acceptance into the group will allow it to take an active role in global policy-making on the issues.
In a statement, the FATF said Israel’s “experience and perspective will make a valuable contribution to our work to prevent the misuse of the financial system.”
The group has in the past given Israel’s archenemy Iran ultimatums over terrorism funding, warning of deeper economic isolation if it doesn’t comply.
Washington - U.S. gasoline prices at the pump fell to the cheapest in about a year-and-a-half on Monday, driven lower by sagging crude oil prices and excess supply of the fuel, market participants said.
Nationally, gas prices averaged just under $2.42 a gallon on Monday, the lowest since late August 2017, according to data from the American Automobile Association (AAA). Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange were the lowest seasonally since 2015.
Prices have changed course from earlier this year, when they hit seasonal four-year highs.
(For a graphic on gasoline prices, see: https://tmsnrt.rs/2QH3OZA)
Plummeting oil futures have helped deflate gas prices. Crude has plunged about 30 percent since October as global supply has surged and demand growth has weakened.
Further...
New York - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are searching the electronic devices of travelers more often, and did not always follow proper protocol, a new watchdog report has found.
The report made public Monday found there were 29,000 devices searched at a port of entry out of 397 million travelers to the U.S. in budget year 2017, up from 18,400 the year before from 390 million travelers.
Customs and Border Protection officials note it is less than 1 percent of all travelers.
Officers are allowed under law to look through devices of travelers who are referred for a secondary inspection. During the primary inspection, travel documents and passports are reviewed. If a secondary inspection is needed, officers may search devices like phones, thumb drives and computers to determi...
BaltimoreJewishLife.com (BJL) is proud to partner with STAR-K CERTIFICATION that realizes that there is no substitute for a person’s own Rav. In an effort to offer a possible solution, it has launched its Institute of Halachah as a public service. Over the years, the agency’s Kashrus Hotline has answered generic halachic questions from kosher consumers the world over, including inquiries regarding the kosher status of foods and certified Sabbath mode appliances. The formation of a separate official division within STAR-K testifies to the need for addressing these issues.
The Institute of Halachah is directed by HaRav Mordechai Frankel, under the guidance of HaRav Moshe Heinemann, STAR-K’s Rabbinic Administrator. It is an invaluable resource for a diverse array of rabbis to discuss general halachic matters, as well as gain access to source materials for shiurim and answers to congregants’ questions.
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Baltimore, MD - Dec. 10, 2018 - On the 4th night of Chanukah, Khal Chassidim of Baltimore hosted a well-attended Seuda for the Mispallelim of the Beis Medrash. In attendance were many Baalei Batim, Kollel Yungeleit and their families. Music was played by Bentzion Bluming and the attendees were enraptured by the Divrei Torah said over by Rabbi Yisroel Meir Halper and by Rabbi Shmuel Zanvil Friedman, Rav of Beis Nosson of Baltimore.
Lively dancing was punctuated by the circle dance of Tinokos Shel Beis Rabbon. The Seuda was preceded on the second night of Chanukah by a mesiba and was followed by a Shabbos Hisvaadus for the shul. At the Shabbaton, many Baalei Batim, the Rov and Yungeleit spoke about Chanukah and Parsha related themes. Khal Chassidim has become ...
Brussels - More than one in three European Jews have considered emigrating over the past five years because they no longer feel safe amid a surge in anti-Semitism, a European Union study showed on Monday.
The survey in 12 countries that are home to 96 percent of European Jews showed widespread malaise at a rise in hate crimes which Jewish communities blame in part on anti-Semitic comments by politicians that stoke a climate of impunity.
Feelings of insecurity were particularly acute among Jews in France, followed by Poland, Belgium and Germany, the study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) found.
Facing hostility online and at work or in graffiti scrawled on walls near synagogues, nine out of ten Jews living in nations which have been their home for centuries feel ...
Rome - Rome’s mayor, Catholic groups and politicians of every stripe joined Italy’s Jewish community on Monday in denouncing the theft of 20 small bronze plaques honoring a Jewish family deported during the Holocaust.
The plaques, affixed to the cobblestones in front of the Di Consiglio family home in the Monti neighborhood of downtown Rome, were taken overnight. A gaping hole in the cobblestones was all that remained Monday.
The organization responsible for laying the plaques, “Art in Memory,” reported the theft. In July, the same group reported receiving a threatening letter featuring a photo of Adolf Hitler.
“The association denounces this vile act of fascism and anti-Semitism, and invites all Romans to be vigilant and keep memory alive to prevent these ...
Somers Point, NJ - A New Jersey woman has her wedding ring back, nine years after she accidentally flushed it down her toilet.
Paula Stanton was sure the diamond-encrusted gold ring was lost forever after she noticed it wasn’t on her finger while she was cleaning her bathroom nearly a decade ago.
Luckily, a member of Somers Point’s public works department remembered Stanton mentioning the ring about three years ago.
Last month, Ted Gogol was doing maintenance work near a manhole about 400 feet from Stanton’s house. He tells the Press of Atlantic City he saw a shiny object sitting the mud.
It turned out to be Stanton’s ring, and after boiling it in peroxide and lemon juice, she is wearing it again.
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Information from: The Press of Atlantic City (N.J.), http:/...
Jerusalem, December 10, 2018 – Just a few days after a festive Chanukah ceremony to inaugurate a new ZAKA Search and Rescue sonar device for use in underwater missing person searches, the sonar device was already operational. It was used by the ZAKA Divers Unit volunteers in an underwater search of the Alexander River in central Israel for a 35 year old man who was reported missing in the area, after heavy flooding. Following a methodical search by ZAKA divers, in cooperation with the emergency rescue services, the man’s body was located in the area.
The sonar device, which cost over $60,000, is a significant addition to the diving unit’s operational capabilities, shortening the time required to locate and identify missing people in murky waters. The sonar can des...
In his famous 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill said, “From what I have seen of our Russian friends … I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than weakness.”
For Israel and Ukraine, countries both dealing with Russian-supported proxy wars in their backyards, Churchill’s maxim has never been more relevant or insightful. Russia can be negotiated with only from a position of strength. All other negotiations are destined to fail — often with loss of human life.
Russia recently closed naval traffic through the Kerch Straits; it also wounded six Ukrainian sailors and captured a Ukrainian navy vessel. The next day, Ukraine’s parliam...
Rep. Adam Schiff on Sunday said that President Trump might “face the real prospect of jail time” after prosecutors indicated last week that he directed illegal payments during his 2016 presidential campaign.
“There’s a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office, the Justice Department may indict him. That he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Schiff’s comments come after federal prosecutors said in a legal filing Friday that referred to Trump as “Individual-1” that Trump during the 2016 campaign directed his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to make illegal payments to two women claiming they had affairs with T...
Conservative author and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi on Sunday filed a lawsuit against special counsel Robert Mueller, alleging that Mueller illegally surveilled him as part of the investigation.
Corsi, in the document filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia, also claims that Mueller’s office leaked confidential information surrounding Corsi’s testimony before the special counsel’s grand jury.
“Defendant Mueller and his prosecutorial and media staff, acting in their official capacity and personally, also illegally released grand jury information to harm Plaintiff Corsi by attempting to destroy his reputation and personal and professional well-being and livelihood, thus also attempting to drive him into bankruptcy,” the document reads in ...
President Trump is reportedly calling for the Pentagon to raise its budget request for next year to $750 billion, significantly more than he previously wanted and $12 billion more than top military officials have been pushing for.
Trump in a tweet last week appeared to call the Department of Defense’s (DOD) current budget of $716 billion “crazy,” and he has been pushing for a 5-percent cut to its budget as he seeks to trim spending across the federal agencies.
But Trump reportedly changed his mind after a Tuesday meeting at the White House involving Defense Secretary James Mattis and the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Ok.), Politico first reported.
“It’s 750 [billion],&rdquo...
Former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) on Sunday said he believes the Democratic Party could win in 2020 if they pick someone “unexpected” as their party’s presidential nominee.
Santorum, asked if there were any potential Democratic candidates he was afraid of, pointed to previous presidential contests, saying all of the Democratic candidates who won were “not the favorite” at the time.
“When the Democrats win, they pick someone unexpected or someone who’s not the favorite,” Santorum, a CNN analyst, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“[Former Presidents] Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter,” he listed. “When they pick [failed Democratic presidential nominees] John Kerry or Al Gore or Hillary Clinton, ...
President Trump has privately been floating the idea of replacing chief of staff John Kelly with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), The Hill reports.
Trump has recently been asking many people about who he should name as his chief of staff when Kelly officially departs. He’s asked many of them what they think of Meadows, a North Carolina congressman who is currently the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. He’s also reportedly mentioned three other people as other possible candidates.
Bloomberg News reported that Trump is considering Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and budget director Mick Mulvaney potentially filling the role.
Read more at The Hill.
Former FBI Director James Comey said Sunday that President Trump is “certainly close” to being an unindicted co-conspirator in an ongoing investigation into campaign finance violations.
Comey said during a discussion with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace during an event that Trump does not fit the description in the “formal sense” because he hasn’t been named in an indictment.
“But if he’s not there, he’s certainly close given the language in the filing that the crimes were committed at his direction,” Comey said, referring to a filing from federal prosecutors last Friday that said Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, “acted in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump in steering illegal payments during the 2016 p...
American ambassador David Friedmann responds harshly Monday to the terrorist attack in Ofra and calls it “a lowly act.”
“The US stands by Israel against the terrorists, even if others do not,” he wrote in a tweet on Twitter.
“Another vile act of #Palestinian terrorism last night included the shooting of a pregnant woman. Hamas calls the shooters “heroic” — yes, the same #Hamas that the @UN could not resolve to condemn last week. The #US stands with #Israel against terrorists even if others won’t.”
“We pray for the safety of a young mother who is fighting for her life and wish a speedy recovery for all the wounded,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an official statement.