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 - Jan. 18, 2019 - The Viznitzer Rebbe of Montreal continued his "tour" of Baltimore and spent time with the growing, K'ah, Cheder At Khal Chasidim D'Baltimore.
WhatsApp Video 2019-01-18 at 3.26.35 PM from BaltimoreJewishLife.com on Vimeo.
A Weekly Shtikle mazal tov to my niece and nephew, Kayla (née Levy) and Yosef Marx of Eretz Yisrael on the birth of their daughter, Tzirel Nechama, earlier this week. Mazal Tov to the extended Bulka, Levy and Marx mishpachos and to the great great grandmother, Oma Jakobovits.
As the Egyptians realized they were doomed when their chariots began to collapse in the middle of Yam Suf, they proclaimed (14:25) "Let us flee from the Israelites for HaShem is fighting for them in Egypt!" At least, this is the simple literal understanding of what they said. But the last phrase is very puzzling. They were not in Egypt. HaShem wasn't fighting their battle in Egypt. Rashi starts by interpreting the word beMitzrayim as really meaning baMitzriyim, not in Egypt b...
New York - A Duke University team expects to have a product available for election year that will allow television networks to offer real-time fact checks onscreen when a politician makes a questionable claim during a speech or debate.
The mystery is whether any network will choose to use it.
The response to President Donald Trump’s Jan. 8 speech on border security illustrated how fact-checking is likely to be an issue over the next two years. Networks briefly considered not airing Trump live and several analysts contested some of his statements afterward, but nobody questioned him while he was speaking.
Duke already offers an app, developed by professor and Politifact founder Bill Adair, that directs users to online fact checks during political events. A similar product has been ...
Baltimore, Md – Jan. 18, 2019 – This morning on his very first visit to Baltimore, The Vizhnitzer Rebbe, shlita, accompanied by Harav Yissochor Dov Eichenstein, shlit”a, met with the Rosh HaYeshiva Harav Aharon Feldman, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Ner Yisroel. The Rebbe repeatedly mentioned how impressed he was how sincere and caring the Yidden of Baltimore are.
(Photo credit: Reb Eli Greengart)
Palo Alto, CA - Tesla will cut 7 percent of its workforce as it tries to lower prices and break out of the niche-car market to produce an electric vehicle that more people can afford.
Tesla’s cheapest model right now is the $44,000 Model 3, and it needs to broaden its customer base to survive.
“Looking ahead at our mission of accelerating the advent of sustainable transport and energy, which is important for all life on Earth, we face an extremely difficult challenge: making our cars, batteries and solar products cost-competitive with fossil fuels,” CEO Elon Musk said in a letter to staff. “While we have made great progress, our products are still too expensive for most people.”
Tesla had boosted its payroll significantly to meet production goals, but then ...
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Hezbollah began digging cross-border attack tunnels before the 2006 Second Lebanon War, as opposed to three or four years ago, as the Israel Defense Forces has said, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
The IDF declined to comment on the report.
According to Channel 13 news, the then-head of the army’s Northern Command, Benny Gantz, was told in 2005 by Col. Yossi Langotsky, adviser to the IDF chief of staff, that Hezbollah tunnels were being constructed into Israel. The threat was apparently ignored.
The IDF launched “Operation Northern Shield” in December 2018 to destroy the terror tunnels.
“With the discovery of this terror tunnel, the effort to locate the passages dug by Hezbollah that crossed the border into Israeli territory has been completed,” the a...
Aeromexico is trying to stimulate travel with a provocative campaign that offers Americans flight discounts south of the border based on their percentage of Mexican blood.
The slogan for the “DNA Discounts” campaign, “There are no borders within us,” can be read as a swipe at Trump, whose disagreement with Congressional Democrats over money for a wall has led to a protracted partial-government shutdown.
To try to boost tourism from the U.S., the companyis offering DNA tests to Americans and accompanying flight discounts based on their percentage of Mexican descent: “The more Mexican they are, the more discount they get.”
The ad says the tests were offered in a few southwestern states and 54 percent of the people tested had some Mexican heritage.
Read...
President Donald Trump personally directed his longtime former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project, two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter told BuzzFeed.
The law enforcement officials told BuzzFeed that Trump directed Cohen to claim negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow ended months earlier than they actually did. The law enforcement sources told BuzzFeed that Cohen confirmed to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team that Trump issued the order to lie to Congress.
When asked for comment, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani told CNN, “If you believe Cohen I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge.”
Read more at CNN.
At the conclusion of last week's Parshah, the Egyptians finally allowed the Jews to leave Egypt. After 10 miraculous plagues, the promise that Hashem made to Avraham Avinu to rescue the Jewish nation with miracles, an outstretched arm and laden with riches had finally been fulfilled. Additionally, the Jewish nation was about to receive the Torah and was headed to Eretz Yisroel. The Exodus looked poised for the perfect ending with the Jewish nation riding into the proverbial sunset. However, in this week's parshah, the Jews are faced with yet another terrifying drama. Hashem hardened the Egyptians' hearts and brought them to not only regret their decision of freeing the Jewish nation, but to also chase the Jews. Why was it for Hashem to orchestrate this final challenge? Wasn&...
Gloversville, NY - A good Samaritan who found $8,000 on the side of the road has returned it to a woman whose husband died in a stretch limousine crash in upstate New York.
Terry Brubaker says she was driving through Gloversville Monday when she saw money floating through the air.
Brubaker stopped to collect it, and then turned it in at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office just as Kim Steenburg was filing a report about the missing money.
Steenburg says she accidentally left the money in an envelope on top of her car. She says part of the money was for a honeymoon cruise she had originally planned with her late husband.
Steenburg’s husband, Rich, was one of 20 who died in the Oct. 6 crash in Schoharie County.
This week marks the much-anticipated and highly-celebrated time on the Jewish calendar – Yeshiva Week, when many Jewish day schools and yeshivos give vacation and it feels like a significant percentage of the Jewish world goes on pilgrimage to Florida. There are many beautiful aspects to welcoming so many fellow Jews to our community. For me, I look forward to meeting and greeting guests, and learning about new people and the places they are visiting from. Nevertheless, for some visitors and local residents, yeshiva week can be challenging and frustrating when waiting on lines, looking for parking or struggling to get a table.
In general, whether we see the beauty and blessing or instead focus on the frustration and aggravation is really all up to us. In our ...
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 17, 2019:
Agudath Israel of Baltimore Gemach
In memory of Singer and Blatt Families
c/o Tzvi Hefter
3110 Shelburne Road
Baltimore, Md. 21208
Tel # (410) 764-3913
11th of Shvat 5779/Jan. 17th, 2019
Re: Federal Furloughed Employees
It has come to our attention that some federal employees are facing extreme short term financial difficulties as a result of being furloughed.
A special fund has been set up within the Agudah Gemach, sponsored by Seven Mile Market to provide short term loans to qualified Federal employees. The loan will be handled in an expedited way.
A loan of up to $2500 will be made to those Federal workers who sign a loan agreement with one guarantor. Repayment will start after the shutdown has ended over a period of three paychecks.
...
New York - Conflicts over control, inclusivity and alleged anti-Semitism will mean that women protesting on the second anniversary of the Women’s March on Washington are faced with competing demonstrations this weekend in New York City.
One procession, around the edge of Central Park and down Sixth Avenue, is being organized by the Women’s March Alliance, a nonprofit group whose leaders are putting on their version of the demonstration for the third straight year.
Another event, a downtown rally held at roughly the same time Saturday, is being organized by the New York City chapter of Women’s March Inc., the group formed to help organize the 2017 demonstration in Washington, D.C., the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Talks between organizers aimed...
As if New Yorkers don’t face enough challenges — insane traffic, bumbling bureaucracies, surly servicepeople and parking spaces as rare as hairy-nosed wombats — some city residents felt forced to create elaborate transportation plans, and others even to relocate their residences, in the shadow of the looming L-pocalypse.
The looming what, you ask? Why, the planned 15-month closure of the L subway line, of course.
The line runs from Canarsie, Brooklyn to Eighth Avenue in Manhattan and is a commuter lifeline for thousands. The tunnels through which the trains run are in dire need of extensive repairs, due to both their age and damage to their corroded cables, part of the legacy of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently, and suddenly, announ...
Washington - One of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s guiding principles is: “There’s no education in the second kick of a mule.”
Now, deep into a government shutdown he cautioned President Donald Trump against, McConnell is not about to let himself be kicked again.
The Republican leader has been conspicuously deferential to Trump since the shutdown began. He’s waiting on the president and Democrats to make a deal to end it. The result is an unusually inactive profile for the GOP leader who’s often the behind-the-scenes architect of intricate legislative maneuvers to resolve bitter partisan stalemates.
Democrats complain publicly — and some Republicans grumble privately — that the Senate is not fulfilling its role as a co-equal bran...
Washington - President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is staffing up to fend off any potential primary challenger.
The Virginia-based campaign is announcing Friday that former White House official Nick Trainer will lead its delegate and party organization efforts ahead of the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
No party challenger has emerged within the GOP to face Trump, who is broadly popular among the party’s base and has enormous institutional advantages as a sitting president. The announcement is an indication that Trump isn’t resting easy.
The campaign says Trainer will lead a team of three regional directors in organizing state-by-state delegate selection and the convention whip operation. Both would be crucial to Trump beating...
New Jersey lawmakers reached an agreement Thursday to raise its minimum wage to $15 by 2024.
The new plan would raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour on July 1, $11 an hour in 2020, $12 an hour in 2021, $13 in 2022, $14 in 2023 and $15 in 2024. Those in the state legislature called for exceptions to be made for some employers, including small businesses and farmers.
The state Senate and state Assembly still need to pass a bill that needs to signed into law by Murphy.
Read more at The Hill.
Washington - Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (puh-LOH’-see) is canceling a congressional fact-finding trip to Afghanistan and claiming the White House leaked her plans to fly commercial.
Friday’s announcement by Pelosi’s office came a day after President Donald Trump nixed Pelosi’s plans to take a military aircraft to Afghanistan.
Spokesman Drew Hammill says Pelosi and accompanying lawmakers were prepared to take a commercial flight but canceled after the State Department warned that publicity over the visit had “significantly increased the danger to the delegation and to the troops, security, and other officials supporting the trip.”
Trump’s move to cancel the military plane traditionally used to fly to war zones came a day after Pelosi i...
A group of Republicans says President Trump should give the State of the Union , going around House Democrats who a day earlier had told the president to postpone or cancel the annual address, currently slated for Jan. 29.
“Speaker Pelosi’s attempt to muffle President Trump and appease her radical, socialist, open borders base using the false claim of security concerns is shameful,” said Rep. Mo Brooks, a Republican who was gathering signatures on a letter proposing the Senate chamber location.
“While traditionally these addresses have been held in the House chamber due to its larger size, inasmuch as House Democrats apparently do not want to hear from the president anyway, overcrowding of the Senate chamber should not be an issue,” he said.
Read more at&nb...