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.
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This Tu B’Shevat marks the 88th anniversary of the very first, Global Siyum HaShas of Daf Yomi, which took place in Lublin, Poland, on Tu B’Shevat 5691- February 2, 1931.
Torah learning thrived in pre-war Europe. However, the early 1930s were also a difficult time for many Jews. Jewish communities struggled with financial burdens, and the challenges of living far from each other. The announcement of the siyum by Rav Meir Shapiro was therefore met with tremendous enthusiasm. The idea of achdus - the bringing together of many mekomos haTorah as they all celebrate learning the same Daf - day in and day out - for the previous 7 and a half years, was a thrilling, and history-altering event.
1st Siyum Anniversary from Agudath Israel on Vimeo.
A VISION FOR GREATNESS
After...
New York - After escaping a Mexican prison in 2001, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman recruited a former security chief from the same lockup as a fixer for his Sinaloa cartel, a jury was told Tuesday at a U.S. trial where the kingpin and his wife made a fashion statement.
The former official, Damaso Lopez Nunez, described how he first met Guzman when the kingpin asked for contraband in exchange for cash bribes at the prison in the state of Jalisco, Lopez testified, adding that the drug lord also gave him a house. Lopez quit his job before Guzman famously escaped in 2001 by hiding in a laundry bin, he said.
The defendant’s wife listened to the testimony while wearing a burgundy-colored, velvet blazer that matched one sported by her husband, leading to speculation that it was a s...
Caracas, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered a close review of the country’s relationship with the United States in answer to stinging condemnation from the Trump administration.
Vice President Mike Pence sent a videotaped message to Venezuelans calling Maduro a dictator who maintains power by jailing dissident voices. The video was released Tuesday, a day before the opposition holds nationwide demonstrations calling for the removal of Maduro.
Maduro spoke hours later on state TV, saying Pence hit a 200-year low in relations between the two countries by authorizing a coup.
The U.S. maintains an embassy in Caracas, but the two countries haven’t exchanged ambassadors in nearly a decade.
A once-wealthy oil nation, Venezuela is in a deepening crisis afte...
Jerusalem - Israel saw a record number of organ transplants in 2018 and 592 lives were saved this year, data presented by Israel’s National Transplant Center shows.
A total of 592 transplants were performed in Israel in 2018 using organs from live and deceased donors, representing a 13 percent increase over 2017.
A bit over half of the organ donations, 334, came from deceased donors. Of those, 100 involved liver transplants, and 25 were heart transplants, a 44 percent increase over heart transplants in 2017.
The National Transplant Center issues the Adi card, named after Ehud Ben Dror, who died while waiting for a kidney donation. Holders of an Adi donor card testify to their willingness to donate their organs after death, for the sake of saving the lives of patients waiting for a...
Washington - Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the White House has reached out to students at a Kentucky high school who became embroiled in an encounter with a Native American activist and a black religious sect that was captured on video.
Videos posted of the confrontation drew wide criticism on social media, but it’s not entirely clear what happened. The various sides say they were misunderstood.
Sanders says, “we’ve reached out and voiced our support.” She says no one understands better than President Donald Trump when the media jumps to conclusions and “attacks you for something you may or may not have done.”
She says if the president does invite the students from Covington Catholic High School to the White House, it will be sometime af...
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Washington - Confused about the business proposal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow? Join the club.
A disputed BuzzFeed News report and more misstatements from President Donald Trump’s attorney have muddied the waters on what did and did not happen with the business deal in Russia. The deal has surfaced as a key episode in the Russia investigation with court records revealing that Trump pursued it during the 2016 campaign while the Kremlin was directing a large-scale influence operation aimed at swaying the election his way.
Here’s what we know so far:
— September and October 2015: As a Trump Organization lawyer, Michael Cohen receives a proposal for a hotel, office and residential building in Russia that comes to be known as the Trump Tower Moscow project. One of Trump...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will take up its first gun rights case in nine years, a challenge to New York City's prohibition on carrying a licensed, locked and unloaded handgun outside the city limits.
The court's decision to hear the appeal filed by three New York residents and New York's National Rifle Association affiliate could signal a revived interest in gun rights by a more conservative court. The case won't be argued until October.
The challengers are represented by prominent lawyer Paul Clement, who has been urging the justices to elaborate on the extent of constitutional gun rights the Supreme Court declared in decisions in 2008 and 2010. The court had previously rejected several appeals.
The court may be more willing to take o...
Newark, NJ - Newark Airport says flight arrivals were briefly suspended because of reports of drone activity, but normal operations have resumed.
The airport said on Twitter Tuesday that the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the flights held.
The administration said in a statement that it received reports from incoming flights on Tuesday evening that a drone was spotted about 3,500 feet (1,000 meters) over nearby Teterboro Airport. It said arriving flights were held. Even after they resumed, some incoming flights were delayed while the backlog was cleared.
Newark and federal authorities only mentioned that arrivals were affected, but The New York Times reported takeoffs were halted.
United Airlines spokesman Robert Einhorn said the impact on its operations “has been minimal...
Parkland, FL - “Parkland Speaks: Survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Share Their Stories” needed to be written, its authors believe, but wish desperately it hadn’t.
The book by 43 students and teachers who lived through February’s high school massacre gives a poignant, raw, and sometimes graphic look into the six-minute shooting spree where 17 died and its aftermath as a well-off Fort Lauderdale suburb suddenly found itself mourning in a global spotlight that has dimmed but will never reach black.
“I lost my sense of innocence. I lost my sense of security. I lost my ability to see the world as I had only hours earlier. I would give anything to go back,” wrote journalism teacher Sarah Lerner, who edited the 192-page paperback of essays, poems, photo...
Cites "Human Toll" of Obama-Era Changes
Baltimore, MD, Jan. 22, 2019 — In a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) today requested the reversal of regulatory changes "that demand religious organizations act contrary to their faith principles if they wish to aid America's most vulnerable children." The letter highlighted the "direct human toll" resulting from the new regulations: "dozens of children waiting in group homes rather than placed with foster parents able to care for them as individuals."
In the waning days of the Obama Administration, new regulations at the Department of Health and Human Services added to nondiscriminatory requirements on the basis of "race, color or national origin," to include b...
President Trump on Tuesday said he directed White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to stop holding regular briefings, citing unfair treatment by the news media.
“The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the ‘podium’ much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press,” Trump tweeted. “I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway!”
The White House has come under fire from media organizations for the lack of regular press briefings. Sanders has yet to hold a formal briefing in 2019; the last one took place on Dec. 18, the longest stretch without a briefing during the Trump presidency.
Read more at The Hill.
VID-20190122-WA0014 from BaltimoreJewishLife.com on Vimeo.
Sunday’s Iranian rocket attack on the Golan Heights and the resulting massive Israeli retaliatory strike in Syria against targets connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force marked the opening of a new battle in the ongoing secret war between the Jewish state and the Tehran regime, experts said on Monday.
According to the Hebrew news site Mako, the rocket attack was planned in advance by Tehran in a bid to impede Israel’s ongoing air campaign against Iranian entrenchment in Syria. The IDF had identified preparations for such an attack for several weeks and readied a response plan.
The purpose of the Israeli operation was to restore deterrence against Iran and destroy high-value sites, such as ammunition dumps and intelligence installations. According...
Israeli scientists have seen encouraging results in their study of the anti-cancer properties of a desert plant that grows wild in the Jewish state.
According to Hebrew news site Walla, the plant is the “fragrant star” or kochav reichani in Hebrew. It is a desert bush plant that grows throughout the south and east of Israel, in the Arava, Negev and Judean Deserts, and close to the Dead Sea. Also known by the scientific name Nauplius graveolens, it is known for its medicinal properties, being long used to treat pain, digestive problems and birth complications.
Following up on previous studies, scientists at the Arava branch of the Dead Sea and Arava Science Center used an extract of the plant to treat mice with lymphoma. After 24 to 48 hours, 50 percent of the cancer cells die...
Rep. Ilhan Omar expressed regret for saying in a 2012 tweet that “Israel has hypnotized the world” while doing “evil,” saying she had not realized her words would be offensive to Jewish people.
Omar responded in a series of tweets early Tuesday to New York Times opinion writer Bari Weiss, who had written a column criticizing the freshman lawmaker after Omar defended her remarks in an interview, saying, “Those unfortunate words were the only ones I could think about expressing at that moment.”
Hi @bariweiss,
You are correct when you say,
“Perhaps Ms. Omar is sincerely befuddled and not simply deflecting”
“In all sincerity, it was after my CNN interview that I heard from Jewish orgs. that my use of the word ‘Hypnotize’ an...
כ"ק אדמו"ר מבאבוב-45 שליט"א אויף איין טאג באזוך אין ארץ ישראל
Bobov-45 Rebbe visits Israel
צילום: שלומי טריכטער
כסלו תשע"ט
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 22, 2019 - As the number of dual-income households are growing across America, Cheder Chabad has always acknowledged the need for an extended care program for students who have parents that are still at work at 2.30, the first pick up time. As Cheder believes in providing the best quality care for all their students, regardless of which time of day it is, this year, they launched a new initiative to take their “After-Care Program” from babysitting to a project-based creative curriculum. More parents than ever are requesting that their children join the program, unfortunately restricted due to staffing limitations.
This initiative has a new coordinator, Judith Levitan, who has been involved in early childcare education for over a decade. She is passionate a...
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 22, 2019 - Click here to view a list banks willing to help people who are affected by the govt shutdown