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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Baltimore, MD - Jan. 17, 2019 - Moshe Gross and Nossi Gross will be returning to Baltimore for the remainder of shiva beginning Sunday morning January 20 thru Monday morning.
Shiva will be observed at the home of Moshe and Pia Gross 6817 Williamson Avenue., Baltimore, MD, 21215
Minyanim:
Shacharis, Sunday morning: 8am; Monday morning 7:30am
Mincha/Maariv Sunday: 4:55pm
Visiting hours: 10am-1pm; 2pm-mincha; 7-10pm
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says President Donald Trump's proposal for ending the 29-day partial federal shutdown is simply "more hostage taking."
The New York Democrat says Trump's plan offers "one-sided and ineffective remedies."
Trump on Saturday proposed granting temporary protections against deportation for many young immigrants and others fleeing violent or disaster-battered countries. In exchange, Trump wants $5.7 billion to construct 230 miles of his proposed Southwest border wall.
Schumer says once Trump signs bills reopening government, negotiations would then be possible.
Schumer says the protections for immigrants that Trump is offering to temporarily revive are legal shields that Trump took away in the first place. He says offering to renew those protect...
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 19, 2019 - On erev Shabbos, Parshas B'Shalach, The Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Montreal visited with HaRav Hershel Rosenfeld, Rosh Kollel of Baltimore's Khal Chasidim and Kollel L'Hora'ah, in his home
House Democrats will offer $1 billion in funding for border security measures in a bill to reopen the government next week, a Democratic source told CNN on Saturday.
CNN reports that none of the money will be eligible for use in construction of President Trump’s signature border wall as Democrats view other border security measures as more effective.
The bill would be the 10th Democratic bill to reopen the government since Democrats took control of the House this month, though none of the plans have made headway in the Senate due to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) refusal to bring up any bill for a vote without the support of Trump.Read more at The Hill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused President Donald Trump on Friday of putting her and fellow lawmakers in danger by publicizing their travel plans to Afghanistan, forcing them to abandon the trip, a breathtaking allegation against the commander in chief as their feud escalated and the government shutdown dragged on.
Pelosi said the State Department had determined that the trip could no longer be made without endangering the safety of lawmakers, as well as of troops and support personnel. The accusation came a day after Trump had denied Pelosi the use of military aircraft, forcing her to make plans to fly commercial to Afghanistan – before she abandoned that plan, too, accusing the administration of leaking word of it.
“You never give advance notice of going into a battle are...
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.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has decided to file an indictment for bribery against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu within the context of the Case 4000 investigation, according to Hadashot 2.
According to the report, a senior judicial official said that Mandelit’s decision had been made.
The prime minister’s lawyers responded: “On the eve of a meeting between the prime minister’s attorneys and the attorney general, there is no room for leaks aimed at sabotaging the meeting and damaging Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s right to be heard in a matter-of-fact and fair manner.”
“It is ridiculous that neither money nor envelopes but a handful of unhostile articles in a sea of hostile articles against the prime minister on an internet ...
The violent riots along the Gaza border continued on Friday, with the Hamas-run “health ministry” in Gaza saying that 14 Palestinian Arabs were wounded by Israeli fire.
The ministry said the 14 were shot, including two medics, but did not report that any were in life-threatening condition.
Around 14,000 demonstrators gathered in multiple locations along the border, though clashes were less intense than in previous weeks, according to AFP.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
Baltimore County may see snow and rain Saturday, followed by bitter cold Sunday. Here is the forecast from the National Weather Service.
BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — The National Weather Service canceled the winter weather advisory for much of Baltimore County on Saturday, Jan. 19. Originally, a wintry mix was expected to make travel difficult.
But on Saturday afternoon, forecasters tweaked the projections. A light snow may fall after 5 p.m., with rain arriving after 8 p.m., weather officials said.
The concern over travel conditions for Saturday had evaporated for much of Baltimore County, except northern and western areas.
Carroll County and parts of Baltimore County — Cockeysville, Lutherville-Timonium and Owings Mills — are under a winter weather advisory until...
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office on Friday issued an extraordinary statement disputing a bombshell news report that claimed President Trump directed Michael Cohento lie about the timing of discussions over a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow.
“BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate,” Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller’s office, said.
The statement is remarkable in that Mueller's team rarely issues statements in response to news stories. But BuzzFeed's story sparked immense interest from Democrats, who called for renewed in...
DETROIT (AP) — A 15-vehicle crash has blocked a section of Interstate 55 in southeastern Missouri as snow from a massive winter storm swept through the area and slicked roads.
The Missouri Department of Transportation issued the news of the pileup near Ste. Genevieve on its Twitter page around 4 p.m. Saturday. The department says the interstate was blocked because of the crash, which included a responding firetruck. Motorists were urged to find an alternate route. There was no immediate word on injuries.
Transportation officials said crews hoped to clear the interstate’s lanes within a few hours, but said snowfall was slowing that work.
Officials say many roads in Missouri have been slicked over with ice from rain earlier in the day before conditions turned to snow and plumm...
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — A solemn procession. A long salute. A chaplain's prayer.
President Donald Trump traveled to Delaware's Dover Air Force Base on Saturday to pay his respects to the returning remains of four Americans who were killed this week in a suicide bomb attack in Syria.
The bombing, which was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces moved into the country in 2015, came as Trump prepares to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.
The president stood solemnly and saluted the remains of civilian Scott A. Wirtz of St. Louis, Missouri, as his body was carried from a C-17 military aircraft into a waiting van.
Wirtz and the three other Americans were killed in a suicide bombing Wednesday in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. He had bee...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid internal controversies and a capital city deeply distracted by the partial government shutdown, the third Women’s March returned to Washington on Saturday with an enduring message of anger and defiance aimed directly at President Donald Trump’s White House.
The original march in 2017, the day after Trump’s inauguration, flooded the city with pink-hatted protesters. The exact size of the turnout remains subject to a politically charged debate, but it’s generally regarded as the largest Washington protest since the Vietnam era.
This year was a more modest affair for multiple reasons. An estimated 100,000 protesters packed several blocks around Freedom Plaza, just east of the White House, holding a daylong rally. The march itself took abo...
TLAHUELILPAN, Mexico (AP) — Forensic experts attempted to separate and count charred heaps of corpses in central Mexico on Saturday after a massive fireball erupted at an illegal pipeline tap, killing at least 66 people.
More than 85 other people on Saturday were listed as missing as relatives of the deceased and onlookers gathered around the scene of carnage.
Just a few feet from where the pipeline passed through an alfalfa field, the dead seem to have fallen in heaps, perhaps as they stumbled over each other or tried to help one another in the moments after a geyser of gasoline shot into the air Friday.
The leak was caused by an illegal pipeline tap in the small town of Tlahuelilpan, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) north of Mexico City, according to state oil company Petroleos M...
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a bid to break the shutdown impasse and fund his long-promised border wall, President Donald Trump on Saturday offered to extend temporary protection for young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. But while Trump cast the move as a “common-sense compromise,” Democrats were quick to dismiss it at a “non-starter.”
Trump declared from the White House that “both sides in Washington must simply come together,” adding that he was there “to break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward to end the government shutdown and solve the crisis on the southern border.”
Hoping to put pressure on Democrats, the White House billed the announcement as a major step forward. But Trump did not budge on his $5.7...
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 ...