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.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in a Dec. 6 speech that U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to cut funding to countries that voted against a United Nations that condemned Hamas as a terror group.
The resolution received 87 votes in favor, 57 against and 33 abstentions on Dec. 6, falling short of the two-thirds threshold needed for it to pass.
According to The Times of Israel, Haley said at the Israel U.N. mission’s Chanukah menorah-lighting that Trump called her after the vote and said, “Who do we need to get upset at? Who do you want me to yell at? Who do we take their money away?”
“I’m not gonna tell you what I told him,” Haley added.
Haley praised the 87 countries that voted for the resolution as a sign of “a new day at...
PINNED
Scroll for more news
EARLY-BIRD DISCOUNT EXPIRING!
Sign up now and save $250!
HOW DO I APPLY?
Simple! Click here
CAMP MOVIE!
Watch our incredible 5-minute Camp Movie!
The Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Wednesday voted in favor of imposing a life sentence on men convicted of murdering their wives.
The decision was made during a discussion on an amendment to the Israeli penal code, stating that the murder of a woman by her spouse would be considered a crime to which aggravating circumstance apply and which carries an automatic life sentence.
The amendment is slated to be presented for a Knesset vote in the next few days.
The session was called against the backdrop of growing protests by women over authorities’ incompetence in dealing with domestic-violence cases.
Twenty-five women have been murdered by their spouses or relatives so far in...
The home of Islam Abu Hamid, who killed Staff Sergeant Ronen Lubarsky by dropping a marble slab on his head in the al-Ama’ari neighborhood near Ramallah in May, was destroyed by IDF troops on Thursday night.
The IDF initially prepared to destroy just the third and fourth stories of the building, but the lower two floors ended up collapsing due to the explosion.
The move was made in compliance with standard Israeli policy regarding the homes of terrorists who commit murder, in an effort to deter future terrorists from committing acts of violence.
However, Hamid’s mother said the demolition would not deter her and called her house “a sacrifice for the Palestinian people,” saying she would rebuild it and continue to support terror activities. “As long as there...
Following months of having to focus on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and its subsequent fallout, the White House is now ready to move its attention in the Middle East back to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We’re focused now on the broader region, which is figuring out how to hopefully bring a [peace] deal together between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, his father-in-law, told Fox News on Monday.
Kushner also said the administration was hopeful that its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan would be released “in the next couple of months,” but cautioned that “not every side is going to love” the proposed agreement.
“There’s enough in it and enough ...
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.
Shailos for regular or Kashrus shailos may emailed or discussed using this widget.
Britain’s Guardian news site sparked on Israeli social media on Thursday with the biased headline and sub-head it used on a story about the lethal terrorist shooting near the Givat Asaf outpost, which killed two IDF soldiers and wounded two civilians, one of whom was still in critical condition on Friday morning.
The headline about the shooting read, “Two Israelis and two Palestinians killed in West Bank violence,” wording that fails to mention that the Israelis were intentionally targeted by Palestinian gunmen.
The subhead took the bias a step further: “Man shoots two Israelis dead at bus stop hours after Israeli forces kill two Palestinians,” neglecting to mention that in both cases the Palestinians were guilty of terrorist acts.
Foreign media outlets fre...
A bipartisan delegation of incoming members of Congress returned to the United States on Friday following a five-day visit to Israel.
Reps.-elect Denver Riggleman, R-Va., Elaine Luria, D-Va., David Trone, D-Md., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. and Susie Lee, D-Nev., came on a trip organized by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s American Israel Education Fund to learn about the U.S.-Israel relationship.
The incoming Congressmen met with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and Saeb Erekat, the lead negotiator of the Palestinian Authority.
I had a great visit with @USAmbIsrael. We were supposed to have a very brief meeting and he took an incredible amount of time with us. pic.twitter.com/qcLAZjZ9M0
— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) De...
The website went live last Monday, taking aim at so-called “problem Germans.”
“Wanted: Where do these idiots work?” asked the prompt. It directed visitors to images of some of the 7,000 people that the website’s sponsor, the German art collective called the Center for Political Beauty, or “ZPS” in German, said took part in a right-wing mob that seized the streets of Chemnitz this summer.
The Web page asked members of the public to identify neo-Nazis at the protests, which turned the former industrial hub of prewar eastern Germany into a cauldron of xenophobic anger in the heart of Saxony, where the nationalist, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won more than a quarter of votes in 2017, making it the strongest party in the state on G...
During a conference held in Gaza on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, a Palestinian girl recited a poem that referred to the Jews as wild apes, miserable pigs and evil creatures destined for humiliation.
She said that they are like herds of stupid cattle, and that Jerusalem “spits out [their] filth” because it is a pure virgin.
She also said: “I do not fear the rifle … As long as I have my arm and my stones … I will not sell out the Palestinian cause.”
The conference was held on Nov. 29 and aired on Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar). Nov. 29 was declared by the U.N. General Assembly as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Palestinian Girl: “I do not fear the rifle. Your multitudes constitute an i...
In a Dec. 9 article on Al-Arabiya titled “Details of calls to attack Trump by U.S. ‘Muslim Sisters’ allied to [Muslim] Brotherhood,” by Hudah Al-Saleh, criticized Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, “with roots in Muslim Brotherhood and a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations known as CAIR,” and reviewed her activity over the years.
MEMRI has released two clips of Ms. Sarsour; in one, dated June 30, 2017, she says that ISIS is the product of a politicized foreign policy of war on our people, and in the other, dated September 8, 2018, she calls for voting against Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in the upcoming midterm elections, questions the faith of Muslims who defend the police, and says she doesn’t care “what [any] young bla...
Delaware - As he considers running for president, Joe Biden is talking with friends and longtime supporters about whether, at 76, he’s too old to seek the White House, according to several sources who have spoken with the former Democratic vice president.
The discussions suggest Biden is aware that his age may be the biggest hurdle to launching another bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, especially in an era when many in the party yearn for a new generation of leadership. He would be the oldest person to ever be elected president.
Past and current advisers to Biden have held frequent conversations about options to alleviate concerns about age, including teaming him with a younger running mate. One option that has been floated, according to a source with knowledge of the...
Washington - Investigations now entangle Donald Trump’s White House, campaign, transition, inauguration, charity and business. For Trump, the political, the personal and the deeply personal are all under examination.
Less than two years into Trump’s presidency, his business associates, political advisers and family members are being probed, along with the practices of his late father. On Friday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke became the fourth Cabinet member to leave under an ethical cloud, having sparked 17 investigations into his actions on the job, by one watchdog’s count.
All of this with the first special counsel investigation against a president in 20 years hanging over Trump’s head, spinning out charges and strong-arming guilty pleas from underlings while ke...
Jerusalem - Israel is struggling to recruit enough workers to its technology sector, a report showed on Sunday, creating a challenge for an industry seen as the country’s main potential driver of economic growth over the next decade.
Start-Up Nation Central, which published the report with the Israel Innovation Authority, said that while the number of high-tech workers in Israel had grown over the past five years, their percentage of the labor force remained unchanged.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the required growth will not be possible if the country’s supply of tech workers is inadequate,” said Eugene Kandel, head of Start-Up Nation Central
“Tech companies are struggling to find tech professionals, with many already finding (them) overse...
London - Recent sharp selloffs across global financial markets are probably the first of many, as investors adjust to a world of tighter monetary conditions and the threat of economic downturn, the Bank of International Settlements said on Sunday.
The year has been a tough one, with big drops in European and Asian stocks and even U.S. equities recently slipping into the red for 2018 after a decade-long bull-run. The last quarter saw increasing fears for world and U.S. economic growth as trade war noise escalated and central banks tightened policy or prepared to withdraw extraordinary crisis-era stimulus.
The “market tensions we saw during this quarter were not an isolated event,” Claudio Borio, head of the monetary and economic department at the BIS said.
Monetary &ldq...
Denver - After months of delays, the U.S. Air Force is about to launch the first of a new generation of GPS satellites, designed to be more accurate, secure and versatile.
But some of their most highly touted features will not be fully available until 2022 or later because of problems in a companion program to develop a new ground control system for the satellites, government auditors said.
The satellite is scheduled to lift off Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It’s the first of 32 planned GPS III satellites that will replace older ones now in orbit. Lockheed Martin is building the new satellites outside Denver.
GPS is best-known for its widespread civilian applications, from navigation to time-stamping bank transactions. The Air Force estimat...
Baltimore, MD – Dec. 11, 2018 - It is with sadness that BaltimoreJewishLife.com informs the community of the petirah of Reb Dovid Ely, Z’L, husband of Mrs. Sima Ely, father of Rabbi Hillel Ely, Mrs. Michal Katz, Mrs. Ahuva Samber, Mrs. Tanya Cohen, Mrs. Tova Friedman, brother of Hilda Gershbaum, and Reb Shachne Ely.
Shiva will be observed at 3829 Menlo Drive, Baltimore, MD, 21215Please note: Mrs. Michal Katz will be sitting in Baltimore from Friday thru Tuesday. Rabbi Hillel Ely will be sitting in Baltimore from Friday thru Monday Shacharis and in Brooklyn at 215 Ave I from Monday 1PM until Tuesday morning when he gets up after Shacharis. NY minyan times are: Shacharis 8:00 and Mincha 3:55.The family respectfully requests no visitors in Baltimore: 1230pm-200pm ...
Wow! Research concerning how we should take care of our health and well-being has really evolved. I have to admit that some of advice that health professionals such as myself were giving out a decade or two ago was faulty. Research is ever evolving and some of what we have discovered in the last few years really sheds new light on what is good for us and what isn’t. I honestly think that given some recent research and discoveries we have every reason to be optimistic about the future of health care and how we, as individuals, can really take care of ourselves and prevent and even reverse disease. What I am talking about is related to what is known as our microbiome or gut bacteria. It really controls much of what goes on in our bodies. And now that we ar...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Sunday pushed the federal government closer to the brink of a partial shutdown later this week, digging in on its demand for $5 billion to build a border wall as congressional Democrats stood firm against it.
“We will do whatever is necessary to build the border wall to stop this ongoing crisis of immigration,” said White House senior adviser Stephen Miller.
Asked if that meant having a government shutdown, he said: “If it comes to it, absolutely.”
Trump said last week he would be “proud” to have a shutdown to get Congress to approve a $5 billion down payment to fulfill his campaign promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. But the president doesn’t have the votes from the Republican-controlled...
Washington - Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says it’s up to President Donald Trump whether the federal government partially shuts down at midnight Friday over his border wall.
Trump has said he’d be “proud” to have a shutdown over the $5 billion he wants for the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Asked Sunday if there was room for compromise, Schumer told NBC: “He’s not going to get the wall in any form.”
Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have proposed no more than $1.6 billion. The money would not go for the wall but for fencing upgrades and other border security. Democrats also offered to keep funding at its current level, $1.3 billion.
Schumer says Trump doesn’t have the votes from the Republican-controlled Congress to ...