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.
Chicago's new mayor, Lori E. Lightfoot, walked the streets of West Rogers Park neighborhood over Shabbos in a visit coordinated by Agudath Israel of Illinois (AIOI). The mayor engaged hundreds of Orthodox Jewish families on a nearly mile-long tour of the neighborhood led by Rabbi Shlomo Soroka, AIOI's director of government affairs, and Rabbi Yaakov Robinson, who in addition to serving as the executive director of AIOI's Midwest Council of Synagogue Rabbis, is the rabbi of Beis Medrash Mikor Hachaim and a fourth generation Chicagoan.
After the deadly shooting attack in Poway on the last day of Passover, then Mayor-elect Lightfoot reached out to Agudah to discuss what the City of Chicago could do to address concerns over public safety. The ensuing conversation included addre...
Update as of 9:28 PM, June 17 - Due to further flight delays there will be no Minyan tonight in Baltimore.###Baltimore, MD – June 17, 2019 - It is with sadness that BaltimoreJewishLife.com informs the community of the petirah of Mrs. Sara Schwartz, a’h, mother of Eddie Schwartz.Shiva will be observed at 2502 Farringdon Road, Baltimore, MD, 21209, beginning Tuesday morning, June 18 through Friday afternoon, June 21.Davening Schedule:
Shacharis: Tuesday-Friday, 7:00 am Mincha/Maariv: Tuesday - Thursday, 8:20 pm Early Mincha: Friday, 5:00 pmBila Hamaves LaNetzach…
THE FOLLOWING IS VIA YWN
The Jerusalem Municipality will permit naming streets in the Arab neighborhood of Silwan after rabbonim.
The Jerusalem Street Names Committee is expected to approve the naming of a number of streets in memory of rabbonim from Yemen in the eastern area of the city to commemorate the settlement of Jews from this area in the previous century.
The committee was set to convene on Monday to approve the names of the streets in the Arab neighborhood of Silwan in the eastern capital, Yediot Yerushalayim reports. The names include Rabbi Avraham Elandaf, Rabbi Yichya Yitzchak Halevi, Rabbi Shalom Elsheikh Halevi and Rabbi Yosef and Saadia Madmoni.
Councilman Yonatan Yosef, who backs the move, insists it is not a provocative one but to the contrary. “One who speaks o...
Is the US going to attack Iran soon?Diplomatic sources at the UN headquarters in New York revealed to Maariv that they are assessing the United States' plans to carry out a tactical assault on Iran in response to the tanker attack in the Persian Gulf on Thursday.
According to the officials, since Friday, the White House has been holding incessant discussions involving senior military commanders, Pentagon representatives and advisers to President Donald Trump.The military action under consideration would be an aerial bombardment of an Iranian facility linked to its nuclear program, the officials further claimed. "The bombing will be massive but will be limited to a specific target," said a Western diplomat.The decision to carry out military action against Iran was discu...
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The Trump administration is sending an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East as tensions between the U.S. and Iran grow.
The decision was announced in a statement by acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, who said troops would be used for defensive purposes.
"The United States does not seek conflict with Iran," Shanahan said. "The action today is being taken to ensure the safety and welfare of our military personnel working throughout the region and to protect our national interests."
"We will continue to monitor the situation diligently and make adjustments to force levels as necessary given intelligence reporting and credible threats," he added.
The announcement comes amid increasing friction between the U.S. and Iran following an attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Om...
President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort will reportedly not be transferred to the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City after Justice Department officials intervened to stop the move.
The New York Times reports Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen sent a letter to Manhattan prosecutors last week and on Monday federal prison officials formally told the Manhattan district attorney's office that Manafort would no longer be moved to Rikers. Previous reports had indicated Manafort would be transferred and kept in solitary confinement.
Instead of the transfer, The Times reports Manafort is expected to remain in prison in Pennsylvania, where he is serving a 7 1/2-year sentence, or he could be held at the Metropolitan Cor...
Following a covert investigation, police arrested seven suspects allegedly involved in two instances of cemetery fraud.
In one case, three chevrah kaddisha workers and two contractors are suspected of removing or covering children’s graves dating from the 70’s in Yerushalayim’s Har Hamenuchos cemetery in order to create new burial plots. Some of these were sold for up to $28,000 apiece to overseas Jews.
The other case involved two senior officials of the Beit Shemesh Religious Council who illegally sold graves plots wholesale to foreign citizens for $250,000.
Fatah booted the council chief of the West Bank village of Deir Kadis Friday after four Israelis showed up at his son’s wedding celebration.
Radi Nasser was also removed from his job at the Palestinian Authority education ministry after videos emerged showing the Jewish men at the Thursday event, Haaretz reported. Nassar denies inviting the Jewish guests and says he threw them out when he learned of their presence.
Some of the Palestinians at the wedding filmed the Jews, and the video clips quickly spread on Palestinian social media, sparking outrage, Haaretz reported.
Read more at Times of Israel.
Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan on Sunday urged the international community to take immediate action to oust Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, saying this was the only way to ensure the diplomatic process with the Palestinians moves forward.
Speaking at The Jerusalem Post conference in New York, Erdan lambasted Abbas over recent remarks in which the Palestinian leader said that even if Ramallah was on the verge of bankruptcy, the P.A. would continue paying the salaries of terrorists and their families.
“This is the number one priority for the Palestinians: encouraging and rewarding attacks against us,” said Erdan.
“Rewarding terror is so important to the Palestinian leadership that it’s cutting salaries and harming thousands of Pal...
Buenos Aires - The huge blackout that left tens of millions of people in the dark in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay over the weekend raised serious questions about the vulnerability of the power grid in South America and brought criticism down on Argentina’s leader.
President Mauricio Macri promised a thorough investigation into the cause of what he called an unprecedented outage. Energy officials said the findings would not be available for 10 to 15 days, and they had no immediate estimate of the economic damage from Sunday’s 14-hour power failure.
“This is an extraordinary event that should have never happened,” said Argentine Energy Secretary Gustavo Lopetegui. “It’s very serious. We can’t leave the whole country all of a sudden without...
United Nations - The world’s population is getting older and growing at a slower pace but is still expected to increase from 7.7 billion currently to 9.7 billion in 2050, the United Nations said Monday.
The U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Population Division said in a new report that world population could reach its peak of nearly 11 billion around the end of the century.
But Population Division Director John Wilmoth cautioned that because 2100 is many decades away this outcome “is not certain, and in the end the peak could come earlier or later, at a lower or higher level of total population.”
The new population projections indicate that nine countries will be responsible for more than half the projected population growth between now and 2050. In...
Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that he’s committed to campaigning in the deep south and that if he’s the Democratic nominee he will defeat President Trump in Texas, Georgia and South Carolina, among other traditionally red states.
Speaking Monday at the Poor People’s Moral Action Congress at Trinity Washington University, a predominantly black and Hispanic school on the northeast side of the city, Biden was asked if he would fight to win the support from poor whites, blacks and Latinos in the South.
“I plan on campaigning in the South,” Biden said. “If I’m your nominee I’m winning Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, believe it or not, and I believe we can win Texas and Florida. Look at the polling there...
The Supreme Court has ruled against the Virginia House of Delegates in a racial gerrymandering case that represents a victory for Democrats in the state.
In the 5-4 ruling, the justices found that the House didn't have the standing to appeal a lower court ruling that found that the new district maps must be used ahead of statewide elections later this year. Those new maps are already in use.
Democrats had claimed that previous districts were unlawful because they featured too many black voters, diminishing their power across the state and in other districts.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion and was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch.
Justices Samuel Alito, John Roberts...
Former Egyptian President and Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi died in court today and members of the Brotherhood are claiming the government is negligent in his death.
Mohammed Sudan, leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in London, described Morsi’s death as “premeditated murder,” saying that the former president was banned from receiving medicine or visits, and there was little information about his health condition.
“He has been placed behind glass cage (during trials). No one can hear him or know what is happening to him. He hasn’t received any visits for a months or nearly a year. He complained before that he doesn’t get his medicine. This is premediated murder. This is slow death.”
Read more at Times of Israel.
Kansas City - A 15-year-old Kansas boy got a large knife to the face, and doctors say he’s extremely lucky.
Jimmy Russell said her son, Eli Gregg, was playing Thursday evening outside of their home in Redfield, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Kansas City, when she heard him scream. She found him with a 10-inch knife jutting from just below his eye and called 911.
“It looked pretty grim, it was scary,” Russell said in a video released by the University of Kansas Health System, where he was treated.
The knife was embedded in his skull and extended to just under his brain. The blade’s tip, meanwhile, was pushing against his carotid artery, which supplies the brain with blood.
“It could not have had a pound more force on it and him survive that event,...
Washington - The Pentagon is releasing new photos that officials say show that members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were responsible for attacks last week on two oil tankers near the Persian Gulf.
The military says the photos taken from a Navy helicopter show Iranian forces removing an unexploded mine from the side of the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman.
Other photos show a large hole on the side of the Courageous, above the water line, that officials say appears to have been caused by another mine.
The Pentagon released the photos Monday to bolster its claim that Iran was responsible for the attacks. Iran has denied involvement.
The attacks on the tanker occurred as relations between the U.S. and Iran have deteriorated in recent months.
The State Department revealed Monday that it has identified "multiple security incidents" involving current or former employees' handling of Hillary Clinton's emails, and that 23 "violations" and 7 "infractions" have been issued as part of the department's ongoing investigation.
The information came in a letter to Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is responsible for overseeing the security review.
"To this point, the Department has assessed culpability to 15 individuals, some of whom were culpable in multiple security incidents," Mary Elizabeth Taylor, the State Department's Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, wrote to Grassley. "DS has issued 23 violations and 7 infractions incidents. ... This number will likely change as the re...
In a concurring opinion in a Supreme Court case announced Monday, Justice Clarence Thomas issued a lengthy call for his colleagues to overturn "demonstrably erroneous decisions" even if they have been upheld for decades -- prompting legal observers to say Thomas was laying the groundwork to overturn the seminal 1973 case Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion.
Thomas' blunt opinion came in a case concerning the so-called "double-jeopardy" doctrine, which generally prohibits an individual from being charged twice for the same crime. But both pro-life and pro-choice advocates quickly noted the implications of his reasoning for a slew of other future cases, including a potential revisiting of Roe.
"When faced with a demonstrably ...