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September 6, 2019 at 8:20 am
ה׳ באלול תשע״ט (SEPTEMBER 5, 2019) “When you besiege a city for many days to wage war against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them, for you may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Is the tree of the field a man, to go into the siege before you?” (Devorim 20:19)
Wars must be fought, and when the Jewish army fights, it must fight to win. Victory often comes with a heavy price; lives are lost, and resources destroyed. The Torah teaches that even in war, one cannot engage in wanton destruction. If the fruit trees are providing cover for the enemy, if they somehow pose a threat to the Jewish soldiers, they may be destroyed. But to destroy for the sake of punitive destruction is prohibited. God makes this poi...
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September 6, 2019 at 7:42 am
Six of the seven people charged Tuesday in an July killing are members of MS-13, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say.
Of the six, five are Salvadoran and one is Mexican. All of them are in the country illegally, ICE spokeswoman Kate Pote said in an email. All six are identified in ICE gang databases as members of MS-13. After their arrests, ICE placed detainers on them.
Pote said she could not provide further information, citing privacy concerns.
Baltimore County police arrested Jonathan Escobar-Hernandez, Marlon Fabian-Flores, Edwin Garcia-Martir, Hugo Portillo-Chavez, Odaliz Rosas-Yanez and Leonal Velasquez-Hernandez in connection with the July 31 stabbing death of Daniel Cuellar.
Velasquez-Hernandez is 16, but is being charged as an adult in the case. He waiv...
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September 6, 2019 at 7:42 am
A tropical storm watch related to Hurricane Dorian has been upgraded to a warning for Friday. The warning covers parts of Southern Maryland, the lower Eastern Shore and parts of the Maryland and Delaware beaches.
The warning means tropical-storm force winds are expected somewhere within the area within the next 36 hours. A storm front that moved into Maryland Wednesday night is one of several weather systems that will push Dorian away from the mid-Atlantic coast.
Hurricane Dorian was downgraded to a Category 1 storm Friday morning, with a maximum of 90 mph sustained winds. According to the National Weather Service, Dorian's center will likely move "near or over the coast," over the next several hours. Friday will be cloudy Friday and showers can be expected as the outer b...
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September 6, 2019 at 7:41 am
BALTIMORE —
Move it or lose it: Maryland State Police will turn up the heat as troopers try to get parked trucks moved at the Interstate 70 park and ride lot in the Windsor Mill/Woodlawn area.
Tractor-trailers aren't the only issues in the location where the state of Maryland, Baltimore City and Baltimore County jurisdictions converge. At the Baltimore City park and ride lot near where I-70 begins, the 11 News I-Team found some vehicles that haven't moved for a while, including a Honda involved in an accident that has expired license plates. Next to the Honda was a truck that has no license plates. The Baltimore County line is just a few feet away.
Michael Bannan, the owner of a pickup truck and trailer parked at the location, spoke with the I-Team.
"I'm in the cou...
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September 6, 2019 at 5:54 am
There are numerous places in the Torah where Chazal derive significant lessons from the placement of one Mitvzah or historical event directly opposite or next to another Mitzvah. A classic example would be in next weeks Parsha where Rashi points out that the Halacha of Ben Tzorer Umoreh (the rebellious child) follows an Isha S’nuah (the despised wife), which follows Yifas To’ar. (the woman captured in battle) This teaches us that someone who marries a Yifas To’ar will eventually come to hate her and produce a rebellious child. In this week’s Parsha, there is another set of Halachos directly juxtaposed, about which the commentaries seem strangely silent.
Six P’sukim are devoted to some of the particular Halachos of Arei’ Miklat...
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September 5, 2019 at 9:54 pm
Hurricane Dorian is once again a Category 3 storm — with wind gusts roaring at more than 110 mph — after weakening earlier in the week.
The National Hurricane Center provided the update at 11 p.m. Wednesday night, saying “some fluctuations in intensity” were expected in the next 12 hours followed by “slow weakening” Thursday through Friday.
Dorian was moving north at a speed of 7 mph — with meteorologists predicting “a turn toward the northeast” on Thursday. It will likely make a “northeastward motion at a faster forward speed” on Friday, according to NHC officials.
Read more at THE NY POST.
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September 5, 2019 at 9:54 pm
A House panel on Wednesday subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security for all documents pertaining to any suggestion by President Donald Trump that he would pardon immigration officials who broke the law to follow his orders to close the border, the first in a series of investigative moves Democrats are promising on the pardon controversy.
The House Judiciary Committee served the compulsory measure for all communications related to a pair of meetings Trump had earlier this year in which he reportedly floated those pardons. The committee is also asking for documents pertaining to any pardon promises for immigration officials or others engaged in trying to build Trump’s barrier at the U.S.-Mexico.
“The dangling of pardons by the president to encourage government officials t...
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September 5, 2019 at 9:53 pm
While many Israelis might already feel fatigued by the upcoming elections on Sept. 17, former justice minister Ayelet Shaked, who heads the newly formed right-wing Yamina Party, is both making history and surging in the polls.
“I am the first female to head a right-wing political party in Israel’s history,” she told JNS.
Heading a party that is polling consistently at 10 mandates, which would make it the fourth-largest party in the Knesset, Shaked has been very open about her nationalist vision for Israel, including her take on the situation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli judicial reform, and settlements in Judea and Samaria.
On Monday night, Shaked made headlines when she told an overflowing crowd of English speakers at a campaign event...
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September 5, 2019 at 9:53 pm
Jo Johnson, the brother of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, resigned abruptly Thursday, citing “unresolvable tension” between family loyalty and the “national interest” as political turmoil surrounds Britain’s attempt to leave the European Union.
“It’s been an honour to represent Orpington for 9 years & to serve as a minister under three PMs,” Jo Johnson wrote on Twitter. “In recent weeks I’ve been torn between family loyalty and the national interest – it’s an unresolvable tension & time for others to take on my roles as MP & Minister. #overandout”
Johnson – a member of Britain’s Conservative Party, known informally as the Tories – served as a member of Parliament for Orpingt...
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September 5, 2019 at 9:52 pm
President Trump’s special envoy for Middle East peace, Jason Greenblatt, will leave the administration, according to a senior Trump official, raising new questions about a long-delayed plan to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Trump had warm words for Greenblatt on Twitter. “Jason has been a loyal and great friend and fantastic lawyer,” Trump wrote, praising his “dedication to Israel.”
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to have worked in the White House for over two and a half years under the leadership of President Trump,” Greenblatt said in a statement. “I am incredibly grateful to have been part of a team that drafted a vision for peace. This vision has the potential to vastly improve the lives of millions of Israelis, Palestini...
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September 5, 2019 at 9:52 pm
Former Texas representative and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the U.S.-Israel relationship into a partisan issue.
“Certainly the president is trying to [turn Israel into a partisan issue]; I don’t think he’ll be successful in that,” he told Haartez at the LGBTQ synagogue Beit Simchat Torah in Manhattan. “Certainly Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu has tried to do that [with] the lack of respect that he showed to President [Barack] Obama, the partisan politics in which he’s participated here in the United States.”
“But we don’t have to accept that, and I don’t,” he added.
O’Rourke, who in April called Netanyahu “racist&...
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September 5, 2019 at 9:52 pm
Hundreds of Arabs, predominantly women, took to the streets in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas on Wednesday to demand action following the “honor killing” of a 21-year-old-woman near Bethlehem last month.
Israa Ghrayeb, a makeup artist, sustained serious spinal injuries after falling from the balcony of her family home in Beit Sahour as she tried to escape an attack by male relatives, including her father and brothers. P.A. media reports that the assault took place after a video posted on Instagram showed her meeting in public with her fiancé.
Ghrayeb was hospitalized, but the male relatives followed her and continued their assault at the hospital, according to reports in Arab media. Audio recordings of Ghrayeb’s screams were leaked by nurses at the hospit...
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September 5, 2019 at 7:48 pm
Days after a major security escalation erupted between Hezbollah and Israel, and amid Israeli warnings over Hezbollah’s precision-missile program, the Israel Defense Forces exposed on Tuesday a new facility in eastern Lebanon for the production of guided missiles.
The site, located near Nabi Chit in the Bekaa Valley, is designed to “convert and manufacture precision guided missiles,” and “was established a few years ago by Iran and Hezbollah in order to manufacture weapons,” the IDF stated. Aerial photos of the facility, showing structures to create explosive warheads, engines and a “quality assurance” center were released by the IDF.
Arabic-language media outlets said Israel conducted an airstrike in the same area on Aug. 26. The alleged target ...
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September 5, 2019 at 7:48 pm
A private Israeli company on Tuesday inaugurated the largest solar project in the country, reported the Israeli financial daily Globes.
Located in the Negev Desert, the Ashalim solar-energy project is the size of a small town, and is currently producing enough energy to power an estimated 70,000 households, according to the report.
Shikun u’Binui Holdings Ltd. chief shareholder Naty Saidoff announced the start of Ashalim’s commercial operations at ceremony attended by Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz.
“Since I assumed office, I have used every possible means to increase the scope of renewable-energy production, and by doing so, I expect to meet the government goal of 10 percent by the end of 2020,” said Steinitz. “The breakthrough in this field enable...
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September 5, 2019 at 7:47 pm
Ahead of the country’s general election set for September 17, the Israeli government has been boasting lower prices of goods and services, allegedly brought on by actively encouraging competition in the free market. However, while some products — mostly those targeting higher socio-economic classes — did become cheaper in recent years, Israel is still among the most expensive countries in the OECD.
In the past few weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party launched an online ad campaign targeting Israelis that have landed abroad on vacation. In the video ads, Netanyahu greets passengers, claiming the flight was cheap “thanks to the Likud’s Open Skies reform.”
What the ads fail to mention is how expensive day-to-day life in Israel real...
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September 5, 2019 at 4:21 pm
The great Rebbe, Reb Zusha of Anipoli, upon observing one of his disciples tearfully inspired towards repentance, felt suddenly inadequate as he had yet to emote with similar fervor. In anguish he turned his eyes towards heaven expressing, “Oy Gutt, teshuva is such an elevated goal, yet it is so difficult to attain, please Hashem, let me at least offer to You each letter of this noble word תשובה .”
תמים תהיה עם ד' לאלקיך (דברים יח יג), You shall be wholehearted with Hashem, your G-d
שויתי ד' לנגדי תמיד (תהלים טז ח) , I have set Hashem before me; always because He is at my right hand
ואהבת לרעך כמו�...
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September 5, 2019 at 4:18 pm
Mazel Tov Chaya Baer and Dovid Moshe Altman on their engagement!
