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Today, 9 Tammuz, is the 4th yahrtzeit of my sister-in-law, Batsheva Yeres. The shtikle is dedicated le’iluy nishmasah, Batsheva Blima, a”h bas HaRav Moshe Yosef HaLevi, ybl”t. Towards the end of this week's parsha, B'nei Yisrael are confronted by Sichon and his mighty army (21:1-3). B'nei Yisrael made a vow to HaShem. The vow itself is cause for discussion in and of itself. In the end, HaShem delivered them and they defeated the Canaanites and destroyed their cities. They then named the place of their battle Charmah, destruction. Charmah - that should sound familiar. Only two parshios ago, a small group from B'nei Yisrael rose up and charged towards Eretz Yisrael in an attempt to vindicate themselves for the sin of the s...
Parshas Chukas /Baltimore Zmanim / Eruv is UP!   Baltimore, MD – July 12, 2019 Parshas: Chukas 9 Tammuz Chatzos: 1:12 PM Hadlakas Nairos: 8:16 PM Shkiah:                   8:34:26 PM Tzais HaKochavim:  9:25 PM Kiddush Levanah: Friday, July 5, 9:17 Am – Wednesday, July 17, 3:39 AM Kiddush Levanah may only be said at night
The purification process of the Parah Adumah (red heifer) is considered the quintessential “chok” – a mitzvah which seems to defy human logic and which we perform only because Hashem commanded us to do so. The apparently counter-intuitive nature of this mitzvah is based on the fact that the impure person upon whom the ashes of the Parah Adumah are sprinkled becomes pure, yet the pure person who sprinkles them becomes impure in the process. The reasoning behind this mitzvah was even hidden from King Shlomo, the wisest of men. What can possibly be the logic behind this apparent paradox? Furthermore, why did Hashem intentionally give us a mitzvah that is impossible to ever comprehend (as the Torah itself attests)? This is not the only puzzling mitzvah either. The prohibitio...
The New York State Education Department is once again trying to gain the authority to control our Yeshivas’ curriculum, schedule and staffing. We must oppose their efforts.Click here for a printable version of this letter We are all aware of the Guidelines that SED sought to impose last year. There was a public outcry in opposition and in April, to our relief, the State Supreme Court in Albany ruled that the Education Commissioner did not have the authority to impose them. The regulations proposed by SED have the same requirements as the Guidelines that were struck down by the Court. They would require 4.4 hours of secular studies instruction each weekday, the inclusion of subjects that are inconsistent with our values and beliefs and government monitoring of our Rebbeim and teac...
New York - The S&P 500 and Dow indexes hit a record high at the open on Friday, after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s dovish remarks this week boosted bets of an interest rate cut this month. This marks the third time the S&P 500 < .SPX>has hit an all-time high this week, and traded above the 3,000 level. The Dow Jones Industrial Average < .DJI> rose 51.41 points, or 0.19%, at the open to 27,139.49. The S&P 500 < .SPX> opened higher by 3.45 points, or 0.12%, at 3,003.36. The Nasdaq Composite < .IXIC> gained 13.16 points, or 0.16%, to 8,209.20 at the opening bell.
Baltimore, MD - July 12,  2019 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim Baruch on the birth of a Son יה"ר שיזכו לגדל בנם לתורה, לחופה, ולמעשים טובים. אמן
Baltimore, MD - July 12, 2019 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Mr. and Mrs. Tzvi Atkin on the birth of a daughter יה"ר שיזכו לגדל בתם לתורה, לחופה, ולמעשים טובים. אמן
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and issued a report finding no evidence of collusion by President Trump, will testify before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees on July 24 after the hearings were pushed back a week, Fox News has learned.
BALTIMORE — It's official: Diamont'e Brown takes over as the Baltimore Teachers Union president. She's the first new president in 27 years. She plans to talk Thursday afternoon about the election results and her plan for heading the union. Outgoing and longtime President Marietta English had challenged the election results, which were 901 votes for Brown and 839 votes for English. Brown held her very first press conference on Thursday. "Today our national union, the American Federation of Teachers, upheld this election and ruled that the teacher chapter and PSRP chapter executive boards were elected in accordance with the rules and procedures established by the BTU and the AFT.," said Brown. English, who had been BTU president for 21 years, had claimed there ...
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday night said he favored getting rid of the Electoral College. Sanders was pressed on the issue at a presidential town hall hosted by the League of United Latin American Citizens. “It is hard to defend a system in which we have a president who lost the popular vote by 3 million votes, so the answer is yes,” he said. Sanders had previously made similar remarks, but stopped short of calling for abolishing the voting body. “Presidential elections cannot be fought out in just a dozen ‘battleground’ states,” he told The Washington Post. “I believe that we need to reexamine the concept of the Electoral College.” Read more at The Hill.
Sinkhole repairs clog traffic, disrupt businesses BALTIMORE — Traffic in downtown Baltimore remained cut off at a crucial intersection for a fourth day, and while some progress has been made overnight, other problems arose. The heavy rain forecast through Thursday evening threw another wrench into the mess. It meant crews had to set up a workaround to prevent flooding, and it'll keep crews off the job site for some time in the name of safety. "We sent in a crew to look, activated our detection experts, they pinpointed the leak on Howard Street about 100 feet north of Baltimore Street," Baltimore City DPW spokesman Jeffrey Raymond said. Repairs to the new underground issue, which officials said was discovered by CSX crews, are going slower than normal because of another big...
Washington - President Donald Trump unloaded via Twitter on Republican former House Speaker Paul Ryan after Ryan’s comments critical of Trump appeared in excerpts from a new book. Ryan condemns Trump in “American Carnage,” by Tim Alberta of Politico, in excerpts running in various publications. Alberta wrote the former speaker, who retired from Congress in 2018, could not stand the idea of another two years with the Republican president and saw retirement as the “escape hatch,” according to The Washington Post. Ryan is quoted saying: “I’m telling you, he didn’t know anything about government. I wanted to scold him all the time.” Trump blasted Ryan as a “lame duck failure.” “He had the Majority & blew it away wit...
Seattle - The U.S. Geological Survey reports that a 4.6 magnitude earthquake has rattled the Three Lakes area of Washington state. That was followed minutes later by a 3.5 magnitude aftershock near the city of Monroe, some 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Seattle. The initial temblor was recorded at 2:51 a.m. Friday. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
Berlin - “Does Merkel travel too much?” asked mass-selling daily Bild on Friday as Germans fret about the health of their chancellor, who sat rather than stood at a ceremony on Thursday after shaking for the third time in as many weeks when standing a day earlier. The shaking episodes - all while standing at ceremonies - have unnerved many Germans, who look to Angela Merkel as a rock in an unstable world, and have raised questions about her health and whether her punishing schedule is proving too much. “Dear sitting chancellor, it broke my heart when I saw you sitting for the military honors for the Danish prime minister,” Bild columnist Franz Josef Wagner wrote of her decision to break with protocol and sit at Thursday’s welcoming ceremony. “We are s...
The highly-anticipated Amazon Prime Day . is slated for Monday and Tuesday. The volume of deals may be overwhelming, so experts advise consumers to not act on impulse and wait for that good deal to make sure you’re saving the money you want. Another tip is to have a plan and figure out ahead of time what you need before buying. While Amazon has remained mum on specific deals that will take place on the largest shopping event for Prime members, there are some items and deals to avoid, experts advised. Televisions A 2019 model television may be on sale but consider choosing a television set from 2018 in order to score a great deal, Wirecutter’s  analysts advised. The site noted that the best deals for televisions are usually offered on Black...
London - Britain is sending a second warship to the Gulf amid growing tensions with Iran after Royal Marines seized an Iranian tanker off the coast of Gibraltar last week, Sky News reported. Sky said the destroyer HMS Duncan, which had been earmarked for deployment in the region anyway although not so soon, would sail to the Gulf in the next few days to join the frigate HMS Montrose. Britain’s Ministry of Defence had no immediate comment on the report. Iran called on Britain on Friday to immediately release an oil tanker that British Royal Marines seized last week on suspicion it was breaking European sanctions by taking oil to Syria, a foreign ministry spokesman told state news agency IRNA. “This is a dangerous game and has consequences ... the legal pretexts for the captu...
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) moved this week to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials' access to the city's police databases following news of possible raids in Chicago and other major U.S. cities. Lightfoot said Wedneday that the city has taken steps to ensure that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) will not cooperate with ICE ahead of sweeps that are expected to begin Sunday.  "They will not team up with ICE to detain any resident. We have also cut off ICE access from any CPD databases and that will remain permanent," she said, adding that she had spoken with the agency's leadership to object to the planned raids. "Chicago is and will always be a welcoming city that will never tolerate ICE tearing our families apart...
President Donald Trump on Thursday sharply criticized Facebook’s plans to enter the cryptocurrency market, tweeting that the U.S. has “one real currency” and suggesting the social-networking giant may need to submit to heightened banking regulation. In a series of tweets, Trump said Facebook’s plans to help launch the currency, called Libra, would have “little standing or dependability,” warning that if Facebook wanted to become a bank it should seek “new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks, both National and International.” Facebook announced its plans for Libra and Calibra, a subsidiary that shares the name of a virtual wallet service, earlier this month. The social networking giant plans t...
Iran’s underground Fordow uranium-enrichment facility has not followed the 2015 nuclear deal, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Institute for Science and International Security. Apparently, it has “never been repurposed” in that “everything required to enrich uranium to weapons grade could be quickly reconstituted in the underground portion of the facility,” continued the report. The deal stated, “Iran will convert the Fordow facility into a nuclear, physics and technology centre. International collaboration including in the form of scientific joint partnerships will be established in agreed areas of research.” “Fordow is potentially part of Iran’s current threats to progressively go to higher enrichment levels and in...
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