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.
Baltimore, MD - Feb. 20, 2020 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Yocheved and Shmuel Gross on the birth of a son.
Mazel Tov grandparents Shifra and Shom Weinstein and Moshe and Pia Gross; to great-grandparents Dr. Mordechai and Elaine Bodenheimer, Mrs. Miriam Gross, Rabbi William and Elaine Millen, and Shlomo Yosef and Chana Weinstein; and to great-great-grandmother, Mrs. Charlotte Levi
יה"ר שיזכו לגדל בנם לתורה, לחופה, ולמעשים טובים. אמן
BROOKLYN (VINnews) — Two suspects are in custody, after they terrorized and mugged a Yeshiva student at knifepoint Thursday afternoon.
The incident occurred on Ave L and E 14th Street in Flatbush.
At approximately 5:00 PM on Thursday, the Yeshiva boy was walking when he was approached by two thugs who brandished a knife and demanded his wallet. The victim complied and the suspects fled with the wallet.
The victim contacted NYPD and Flatbush Shomrim, and a search began immediately.
A short while later, a Shomrim volunteer noticed 3 black males in the park on Avenue K and East 17th Street who appeared on edge.
The NYPD came to the area with the victim, in order to ID the suspects.
At that point the suspects ran away. After a brief pursuit, 2 of the 3 suspects were taken into cust...
Amid a verbal tit-for-tat between Gov. Larry Hogan and leaders in the General Assembly and Baltimore City Hall, Hogan announced he is designating as emergency legislation the violent crime bills he introduced at the start of the legislative session.
"I don't want to hear any more excuses. There can not be any more delays. We need to stop playing politics. Pass these bills," Hogan said. "It's not like we're just trying to be disagreeable. It's not that we're just trying to start a confrontation with the legislature. We're just trying to save lives and take action."
The designation means that, if passed, the bills would take effect immediately rather than months later. It's unclear if Hogan's announcement, made during a Thursday news confer...
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Thursday called on Belgium to scrap this weekend’s annual Carnival parade after last year’s featured a float with anti-Semitic caricatures.
The carnival in the industrial city of Aalst has its roots in the Middle Ages and often features satirical floats that take shots at local politicians and the wealthy.
“Belgium as a Western Democracy should be ashamed to allow such a vitriolic antisemitic display. I call upon the authorities there to condemn and ban this hateful parade in Aalst,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz tweeted.
Last year’s festivities featured one float depicting Jews with exaggerated features and side locks standing over bags of money. The caricatures recalled anti-Semitic tropes of the Middle Ages and Naz...
Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg will win the support of American Jewish voters over his rival Bernie Sanders because of his “long-standing ties to the Jewish community” and reputation as an “ardent supporter of Israel,” one of his campaign aides said this week.
Bloomberg aide Mark Botnick was asked about Bloomberg’s electoral appeal to US Jews in an extensive feature on the 2020 election in the Austin, Texas, news outlet, Austin American-Statesman.
When it was pointed out that Sanders was also Jewish, Botnick — who was in Austin for a “Bagels for Bloomberg” outreach event with local Jewish supporters on Tuesday — said he didn’t have close knowledge of the Vermont senator’s positions on Jewish matters.
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The world is amidst a frightening health crisis. In China, the normal functioning of society and its personal interactions have come nearly to a halt, with people remaining isolated from one another, lest they contract the dreaded virus. The repercussions on global markets have created great tension between corporations and countries. Our ‘global village’, that the different countries and regions comprise, has been fragmented, forcing peoples to retreat in self-preservation, behind barriers that now separate them.
The frustration of the brilliant physicians and researchers in the medical field who can’t seem to stifle the epidemic nor treat the disease effectively, accentuates the seemingly impregnable power of the forces of nature that we often delude ourselves into thi...
Baltimore, MD - Feb. 20, 2020 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Chani and Yaakov Glazer on the birth of a son.
Mazel Tov grandparents Rabbi & Mrs. Paysach Diskind and Mr. & Mrs. Marvin Glazer and great-grandmother Mrs. Rivka Diskind
יה"ר שיזכו לגדל בנם לתורה, לחופה, ולמעשים טובים. אמן!
The all-female tank crews that the Israel Defense Forces will create this coming year will have the mission of defending the Egyptian and Jordanian border against intrusion by terror squads.
The creation of the border-defense tank units announced last month also seems to reflect the IDF’s need to allocate additional numbers of male tank personnel to units that will have a very different task: crossing into enemy territory in the event of a land war.
The IDF’s Border Defense Array specializes in defensive operations, unlike the wartime divisions—dubbed the “spearpoint” divisions in the IDF—that must be able to move deep into the enemy’s territory and destroy numerous targets on the way while providing cover fire for the infantry in built-up areas....
Baltimore, MD - Feb. 20, 2020 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Rabbi And Mrs. Chaim Wolf on the birth of a son.
Mazel Tov grandparents Rabbi and Mrs. Yosef Berger and Mr. and Mrs. Menachem Wolf and great-grandparents Mr. and Mrs. David Wolf and Mr. and Mrs. Reuven Shnidman.
יה"ר שיזכו לגדל בנם לתורה, לחופה, ולמעשים טובים. אמן
[Ed. Note] Out of the respect and recognition of the impact made by longtime BJL friend and contributor, Reb Shaya Gross, z’l, we will maintain a living memoriam to Shaya through the sweet words and thoughtful insights of his Divrei Torah. BJL readers will remember his weekly column on the Parsha and on various Torah ideas and concepts. These meaningful words will help us remember this special young man who will be sorely missed and for those who did not merit to know him, this will be the most appropriate way for them to become familiar with who he was.
Parshas Mishpatim discusses many laws pertaining to the "day in the life of a Jew." What is the connection between this Parsha and last week’s Parsha, in which the Jewish People attained a s...
The morning dawned crisp and cloudy and overflowing with mixed emotions.
Like marathoners nearing the finish line, participants at the Agudah’s 20th annual Yarchei Kallah were filled with anticipation as they readied themselves to soak up every word of every shiur. And yet, amid the exhilaration and excitement was a silent prayer that, somehow, Yehoshuah would miraculously appear to once again utter the phrase “shemesh b’Givon dom, v’yareyach b’emek Ayalon,” holding back the hands of time and extending the Yarchei Kallah, for even just a few more hours.
Armed with the determination to make the most out of their final day and buoyed by the sheer joy of their newly acquired limudim, participants started Thursday morning with a sense of confiden...
Parshas Mishpatim teaches us a great deal of the Mitzvos needed for a functioning society. Included among them are many of the dinei mamanos (laws of money) as well as the Torah principle of an eye for an eye. There are; however, a couple of prohibitions listed which seem either out of order or attached to a particularly harsh punishment. We are told that if a person strikes their parent, they are to be put to death. (21:15) In the next pasuk, we are told that the punishment for kidnapping is also death (21:16) Then, to complete the trifecta, the next pasuk comes back to a person who earns capital punishment for cursing their parent. (21:17) What is special about these seemingly non capital crimes that earn them the harshest of punishments? Why do we interrupt two p...
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday he was pushing ahead with the construction of 5,000 new Jewish homes in key areas of east Jerusalem, where critics say additional building could cut Palestinian residents off from the rest of the West Bank.
On a visit to the Har Homa neighborhood, Netanyahu pledged to build the homes there and in the Givat Hamatos neighborhood. Both lie on some of the last spaces of land linking the Palestinian areas of the West Bank to their hoped-for capital in east Jerusalem.
Netanyahu pledged to turn Har Homa into a “mid-sized city,” and expanding a presence that many believe has already dealt a devastating blow to the Palestinian dream of independence.
Building in the areas has previously sparked interna...
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli prosecutors on Thursday announced the opening of a criminal investigation into the failed start-up of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s challenger, shaking up the final days of what has been a bitter and tumultuous election campaign.
The announcement did not say whether Benny Gantz is a suspect. But it came less than two weeks before the March 2 election and during a campaign in which Gantz’s Blue and White party has painted itself as a clean and scandal-free alternative to Netanyahu, who is to go on trial for corruption next month.
In a statement, the Justice Ministry said that after examining documents and considering other evidence, “the acting state prosecutor has decided to move the subject of the suspicions surrounding the company ...
LOS ANGELES (VINnews) — Visitors to the popular Beverly Connection mall in Los Angeles narrowly escaped serious inury on Thursday.
A vehicle that was on the third floor of the parking garage somehow fell down and landed on top of another vehicle.
Miraculously there were no serious injuries.
The Beverly Connection mall is located at 100 N La Cienega Blvd in Los Angeles.
Israeli diplomats and state employees stationed abroad began on Wednesday to cast their votes in Israel’s third election in fewer than 12 months.
The first vote was cast by Israel’s ambassador in Wellington, New Zealand, on Wednesday morning, with voting also taking place in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, as shown in photos posted on Instagram.
About 5,200 people are eligible to vote in 96 locations around the world, and the last votes abroad will take place at the consulates in San Francisco and Los Angeles on Thursday morning, Israel time, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said. The highest number of eligible voters is in New York, where 812 Israelis can vote.
Voters abroad enter a voting booth and place their ballot in a sealed envelope, which is then placed in a second envelope ...