|
January 27, 2022 at 4:53 pm
Jerusalem, Israel - Jan. 27, 2022 - More fun in Israel's unusual snowfall.
Below, Yoni Schwartz taking advantage of the empty streets in בית חורון
Sruli Misgav and his kids preparing their creation ...
|
January 27, 2022 at 4:17 pm
Mortgage rates, which had been on a steady upward march, took a pause in anticipation of the Federal Reserve’s meeting this week.
According to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average slipped to 3.55% with an average 0.7 points. (A point is a fee paid to a lender equal to 1% of the loan amount. It is in addition to the interest rate.) It was 3.56% a week ago and 2.73% a year ago.
Freddie Mac, the federally chartered mortgage investor, aggregates rates from around 80 lenders across the country to come up with weekly national averages. The survey is based on home purchase mortgages. Rates for refinances may be different. It uses rates for high-quality borrowers with strong credit scores and large down payments. Because of the criteria, these ra...
|
January 27, 2022 at 4:13 pm
Israel’s Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry plans to allocate $3.2 million for the preservation, rehabilitation, and rescue of heritage sites in Judea and Samaria, Yisroel Hayom reports. Dozens of archaeological sites have been targeted by the Palestinian Authority and antiquities robbers in the Palestinian territories. Last month, Israel Hayom reported that antiquities robbers had caused significant damage to an ancient Roman amphitheater in Samaria.
Last year, Palestinian roadwork destroyed portions of a 3,200-year-old wall on the biblical site of Joshua’s altar on Mount Ebal, near Nablus.
Funding will go toward reconstruction work at Sebastia, which served as the capital of the kingdom of Israel during the period of the First Temple, and for efforts to bette...
|
January 27, 2022 at 4:13 pm
Imagine this scenario:
After a long and bitter Senate confirmation process to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, Vice President Kamala Harris ends up casting the tie-breaking 51st vote for President Joe Biden’s nominee: herself.
One expert told Fox News on Wednesday that this is possible, and more importantly, legal under the Constitution.
”The Constitution doesn’t place any conditions on the types of ties the vice president can break as presiding officer,” Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Fox News Digital. ”That would presumably leave the VP free to break a tie on confirming herself to the Supreme Court.”
While s...
|
January 27, 2022 at 4:13 pm
Long COVID-19 has had an air of mystery around it for months. Doctors have struggled to explain or understand why some people who contract COVID-19 end up having lingering symptoms like fatigue, difficulty thinking clearly, or shortness of breath weeks or even months later.
A new study published in the journal Cell helps shed some light on the condition, for the first time identifying four factors that can help predict whether someone will develop long COVID-19.
“Being able to identify the factors that can cause the disease, cause the chronic condition, is the first step towards defining that it actually is a condition that can be treatable,” Jim Heath, president of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and an author of...
|
January 27, 2022 at 4:12 pm
The arrival of the insect could 'put the entire citrus fruit industry in the country in danger of extinction'
An insect that holds deadly diseases to citrus trees was detected in Israel, the country's Agriculture Ministry warned Wednesday.
The Asian citrus psyllid, or Diaphorina citri Kuwayama, is a known carrier for citrus greening disease, which causes green, misshapen, and bitter fruit and kills infected trees.
There is no treatment for trees infected with citrus greening disease.
The bug was found in the Emek Hefer region in the country's center and confirmed by the Plant Protection Services Laboratories at the Agriculture Ministry.
Shlomit Zioni, the director of the Agriculture Ministry's Plant Protection and Inspection Services, said in a statement that ...
|
January 27, 2022 at 4:12 pm
Omicron has almost completely replaced the previously dominant delta variant of Covid-19 in England, a new study has found, with the vast majority of cases being possible reinfections.
Imperial College London’s React study — which has been updated monthly since May 2020 and is funded by the U.K. government — analyzed 100,607 PCR test results from across England. Swabs were collected between Jan. 5 and Jan. 20.
The study found that 99% of sequenced positive swabs came from people infected with the omicron variant, with only 1% of infections being caused by the delta variant.
“We observed unprecedented levels of infection with SARS-CoV-2 in England in January 2022 and almost complete replacement of delta by omicron,” the study’s authors said in th...
|
January 27, 2022 at 4:11 pm
As news broke about Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer retiring, speculation ramped up that President Biden could tap embattled Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him — keeping his promise to appoint a black woman to the High Court while opening possibilities of a less politically tainted running mate for 2024, the NY Post reports.
Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday endorsed the unlikely notion that Harris could get the nomination as a way to end to the controversies surrounding her.
“I think it’s a theory that could be credible,” McEnany said while co-hosting the “Outnumbered” show on Fox News.
The improbable idea was floated by co-host Harris Faulker amid the breaking reports that Breyer plans to retire...
|
January 27, 2022 at 3:11 pm
As we commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we sadly recognize how the scourge of antisemitism continues to affect us. As noted last week in a strikingly candid and disturbing opinion piece in the WSJ:
“… It will be an ever-shrinking percentage (of Jews) who will actually be in harm’s way. The Jews at risk of anti-Semitic attack will include the small but growing number whose clothes make them targets, like many Orthodox, including Hasidim. Then there are the teachers at Jewish schools, the kosher butchers, the nurses in Jewish homes for the aged. And, of course, there will be those eccentric holdouts: Jews who continue to enter places like synagogues, having decided that praying with fellow Jews is worth the risk of dying with them.”
To be sure, t...
|
January 27, 2022 at 1:40 pm
Baltimore, MD- Jan. 27, 2022 - Imagine your car has heated seats, but you only found out about it halfway through the winter? I know how I would feel because it happened to me. There is a lesson here. We have a deep connection with Hashem, but how much of us sometimes simply forget this "little piece" of information. Tune in to this week's Torah Sparks to hear some inspiration on Parshas Mishpatim and the importance of realizing our connection with Hashem and His Torah is 24/7.
Click here to listen
Powered by: TYA of Baltimore
|
January 27, 2022 at 1:11 pm
Mickey Levy recites Mourner's Kaddish during emotional address to German Bundestag
Speaker of Israel's parliament, Mickey Levy, told his German counterparts on Thursday in Berlin that the memory of the Holocaust must be preserved.
"Maintaining the memory of the Holocaust is a heavy task... which stands upon every generation," Levy said in Hebrew.
He was invited to speak at the...
|
January 27, 2022 at 12:11 pm
Up to 9 inches of snow could fall in parts of Maryland by Motzaei Shabbos as a nor-easter moves up the East Coast, according to weather forecasters.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for the Eastern Shore from Friday to Motzaei Shabbos, noting travel could be very difficult.
Heavy snow is possible, with 4 to 9 inches of accumulation possible, the winter storm watch says. Wind gusts as high as 40 mph are also in the forecast. Blowing snow may cause low visibility, officials advised.
"The storm total snow forecast remains very uncertain, so stay tuned to the latest forecasts," the National Weather Service said in a statement Thursday.
Central Maryland Could See Snow, Chill
Thursday should be dry and cool across Maryland.
|
January 27, 2022 at 11:44 am
Ma’ale HaChamisha- On Wednesday night, snowstorm Elpis hit Israel, and stranded hundreds of people in the north of the country and the Jerusalem area as highways were closed due to heavy snowfall. Among those stranded were a newly wedded bride and groom were stuck in the Sequoia wedding hall in Ma’ale HaChamisha, together with hundreds of guests. Due to the snow, many of the roads were either closed or dangerous to drive on, so the couple was unable to return home after the celebration.
The helpless newlyweds tried to find a way home and someone reached out to emergency services to assist. United Hatzalah’s Dispatch Center who received the alert did not hesitate for a moment and sent volunteers with an emergency all-terrain vehicle to assist. In spite of the heav...
|
January 27, 2022 at 11:20 am
Updated as of 9:15AM - Baltimore, MD - Jan. 27, 2022 - Moshe (Miki) Rosenfeld will be concluding shiva in Baltimore from Thursday 12pm through Sunday morning at his home, 6512 Baythorne Road, Baltimore, MD, 21209.Please wear a mask at all times.Minyanim:Thurs.: Mincha/Maariv 5:05pmFriday: Shacharis 7:00amFriday: Mincha 3:00pmSunday: Shacharis 7:30amShiva times:Thursday Noon - 10:30pmFriday 7:45am - 3:00pmMotzaei Shabbos 6:45pm - 10:30pm ***Baltimore, MD – Jan. 23, 2022 - It is with reg...
|
January 27, 2022 at 10:45 am
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yonatan Stavisky, a third grader at the HaBe'er school in Jerusalem, was asked to write something about the weekly Torah portion for his classroom's newsletter. It seems to me that on this particular day, the story he wrote about needs to be heard, and not only by third graders:"These last Torah portions describe leaving Egypt and the command to eat matzot. Each year around the Seder table, our family makes this story personal: It's the story of my great- grandfather, Yosef Zalman Kleinman, z"l, a Holocaust survivor from Auschwitz who was a witness at the Eichmann trial. This is the story he told:'On the 18th of May, 1944, they announced in our ghetto that all the residents of our street had to evacuate. We would be allo...
|
January 27, 2022 at 10:36 am
In Israel, as of this morning, we are waiting for snow. Children as well as adults are looking forward to a blanket of white with much excitement. This is an opportunity to be reminded of and to examine two Biblical verses that are concerned with snow:* "Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow." In this verse, the prophet Isaiah explains that sins are like a fabric dyed in scarlet that can be turned as white as glistening snow. It's possible, life can be changed, transformed, and purified. Even when hopelessness sets in, it's possible to start fresh, with a new story that begins on a page as smooth and white as snow.* "Her household does not fear the snow since they are all dressed in scarlet." This verse is taken from Eshet Chayil (woman of valor), the f...
|
January 27, 2022 at 10:27 am
Parshat Mishpatim is all about us and our relationships with each other. Civil laws, monetary laws, how to behave with compassion, even how we treat our servants, our animals and- a thief!
One of the most fundamental lessons in sensitivity to others can be seen in the מצוה of lending money:
"אִם־כֶּ֣סֶף תַּלְוֶ֣ה אֶת־עַמִּ֗י אֶת־הֶֽעָנִי֙ עִמָּ֔ךְ לֹא־תִהְיֶ֥ה ל֖וֹ כְּנֹשֶׁ֑ה לֹֽא־תְשִׂימ֥וּן עָלָ֖יו נֶֽשֶׁךְ”
“When you lend money to my people, the poor with you, do not be like a creditor, don’t place interest.”
Rashi comments that the word אם, which normally means “if”, means "when" in the case of lending. When one needs a loan, and you...
|
January 27, 2022 at 9:54 am
Video by Jackie Spivack/Efrat
