Pink Moon

How could I resist a pink moon.....

Photos by Glick Photography
Moon rising over Bondi Beach Sydney - May 29 and May 30

That Moon ....

The moon on Friday night was absolutely incredible, did anyone else see such a huge moon?

Here's a photo of what we saw in Sydney [obviously not taken by me] - it was the biggest looking moon I've seen for a very long time. 

I hope you're enjoying Succot, I'll be back after the Chag iy""H.

Photo: Bondi Harvest - Moon rising over Bondi

The Pink Before The Storm

''Red sky in the morning, shepherds' warning....''

This morning we had a stunning pink sky, the calm before the supercell storm, which is currently hitting eastern parts of Australia.

Netanyahu at the Central Synagogue, Sydney

Yesterday's visit by Benjamin Netanyahu to Sydney's Central Synagogue reminded me of a family reunion.  There is an obviously mutual admiration between Netanyahu and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull, and the audience at the shul yesterday was enraptured by the presence of both of them. There were standing ovations, yiddish words being tossed about by Mr Turnbull and jokes made about the Central Synagogue being Turnbull's ''local shul''.  See video below.

Rabbi Levi Wolff presented a photo of Bibi with the Lubavitcher Rebbe dating from 1984 when he was Israel's Ambassador at the United Nations. Netanyahu then explained the photo to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull - "This is the Grand Rebbe of Chabad and He told me "you are going to a place of deep darkness and lies, and if you will light one candle of truth, you will dispel the darkness.''

A Tzaddik Sees both the Past and the Future

Story source: COLLive

Do you believe in coincidences? Do you think the world is run by random forces, without any meaning or purpose? Then please read this.

Exactly 28 years ago, in the Hebrew month of Kislev, of the year 5749 (1988), R’ Aron Amzalak of Sydney Australia was in New York. He had come for the engagement of his daughter Miriam to a young man from Venezuela, Moshe Moskowitz.

On the day they got engaged, Thursday 22 November, Amzalak went to inform the Rebbe of the good news. Thousands of people of all walks of life would line up to see the Rebbe, receive a blessing and a dollar to distribute to charity. In the brief moment that each person had with the Rebbe they could ask a quick question or make a short request, and the Rebbe would respond, as the line of people moved forward and the next person would have their turn.

As Amzalak comes before the Rebbe he tells him with a beaming smile, “My daughter became a Kallah (a bride) today.” The Rebbe gives him a dollar and blesses him that the wedding should take place at an auspicious time.

Amzalak continues walking and the next person in line, R’ Mendel Itkin of Los Angeles, comes before the Rebbe. But the Rebbe calls Amzalak to come back to him. He is holding another dollar that he wishes to give Amzalak in honour of his daughter’s engagement. But Amzalak does not hear this, and so there is a moment of confusion: the Rebbe is standing with dollar in hand, the line has stopped, Mendel Itkin is waiting in limbo, watching the Rebbe and trying to call Amzalak back.

In the commotion, the dollar that was going to be for Amzalak is given to Itkin instead. A moment later Amzalak returns to the Rebbe, who gives him another dollar, saying “This is for the bride.” Then the Rebbe takes another dollar and says to Amzalak, “For the groom.” But before giving the dollar to Amzalak, the Rebbe takes yet another dollar and gives both to Amzalak, asking him, “Kest?” a Yiddish word that means “dowry,” financial support that a father-in-law provides his son-in-law.

Amzalak smiles and receives these additional two dollars, then moves on. At this point the Rebbe seems to laugh and say, “He doesn't know what kest means!”

What is going on here? The Rebbe gave Amzalak four dollars, one for himself, one for his daughter, and two for his son-in-law. And a fifth dollar that the Rebbe had intended to give to Amzalak instead went to some guy from Los Angeles.

This mysterious exchange makes sense when we fast-forward 13 years. In 2001 that guy from Los Angeles, Mendel Itkin married Amzalak’s other daughter Aviva.

So the dollar that was meant for Amzalak’s daughter went to his other daughter’s future husband, who out of the thousands of people there that day just happened to be next in line. And the extra dollar “for the groom” was because another groom was being arranged for the Amzalak family that day.

And the Rebbe can’t help laughing, because indeed, at the time nobody knew what this all meant.

But there’s more. This is all captured on video but the characters in the story knew nothing about it until two weeks ago.

In yet another one of those accidents, someone stumbled upon the video on You Tube, recognized Amzalak and sent it to him. The family was amazed to see that future father-in-law and son-in-law had stood next to each other without knowing it, and the Rebbe had made the match so many years in advance.

And the timing of this discovery couldn't have been better. Because Mendel Itkin is right now battling for his life with a terrible illness. He needs our urgent prayers. But he just received that dollar and blessing from the Rebbe all over again. And we have all received a reminder that there are no accidents.

Update: Minutes after I blogged this, I heard of the passing of Mendel Itkin BDE

Storm Season

According to the weather reports, we are expecting some massive storms this summer.... here is a photo of yesterday's storm as it blew in over Bondi Beach - I'm not complaining, storms are my favourite thing... and yesterday's thunder was just incredible.

Photo BobBBaker

The Miraculous Torah Scroll

Danny Avidan, Rabbi Levi Wolff, Susan Avidan
Central Synagogue Sydney

Text by John Lyons, The Australian - 

After being buried in a Jewish cemetery in Nazi-occupied Hungary, a family Torah is about to complete a remarkable journey to Sydney.

The Central Synagogue, at Bondi Junction, in Sydney’s east, will soon receive its first pre-­Holocaust Torah, the final leg of a journey managed by property ­developer Danny Avidan.

The Torah will be flown from Israel to Sydney by his sister, Dorit Avidan Eldar, and her husband, leading Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar.

Before it is taken on to the plane it will have been carefully wrapped under the guidance of a rabbi.

In 1934 in Budapest, Mr ­Avidan’s grandfather, Haim Yacov Meir Bialazurker, was given a Torah by his 10 children to mark his 60th birthday.

But in 1944, amid the chaos of the Nazi invasion of Hungary, someone, without the family’s knowledge, buried the Torah in a Jewish cemetery in the hope it would survive.

As the war was ending, a man disguised as a Nazi soldier knocked on the family’s door — he had brought back the Torah, hidden in a potato sack.

Today, Yacov’s youngest daughter Susan lives in Sydney and is about to turn 90.

To mark her birthday, Mr Avidan — her son — will present the Torah to her at the synagogue on November 7.

Asked if she thought the Torah would survive the war, Mrs Avidan said: “We didn’t even think that we would survive.”

After the war, the Torah was taken to Israel, but it deteriorated to the point where it was no longer considered Kosher — which meant it could not be read from in a synagogue.

With the aim of presenting it to his mother, Mr Avidan had it ­restored, letter by letter, over many months. The Torah, which contains the five Books of Moses, is considered the central document of Judaism.

Mr Avidan began the project after reading a book by Susan Gordon, called Finding Eva, about his grandfather and the Torah.

“I had to find out more and I had to see that Torah,” Mr Avidan said. “I followed my feelings, went to Israel and found it.

He said that for his family, who came to Australia in the 1960s with little family and money, bringing the Torah was “a way of bringing and planting our heritage in our country, Australia”.

“Having my mother still with us to be able to embrace that, and feel the satisfaction of knowing that for me, my children and great-grandchildren in years to come will always know the story of where we came from — and the Torah will be our family root, our family tree, and hopefully keep us practising Judaism in the manner that my grandfather did and the manner that we try to do, and hopefully future generations in our family will do,” he said.

“In 1944 people were worried about surviving, eating, and my grandfather was very active with the Wallenberg movement and the whole Swedish movement in saving his family’s lives and as many people’s lives as possible by handing out Swedish papers.

“I don’t think the Torah was a concern. As the war was ending in Hungary, a person disguised as a Nazi brought him the Torah and, as far as I understood it, my grandfather was overwhelmed that the horror, the dark night of the last couple of years, had come to an end.

“He died a couple of days later.”

The Chief Rabbi of the Central Synagogue, Levi Wolff, said even if one letter of a Torah was cracked it was deemed not to be Kosher.

Asked how he saw this story at a human level, Rabbi Wolff said: “At first glance, it may seem like a stretch to find common ground between Danny’s Hungarian grandfather, his mother who resided in Israel and his Aussie children,” he said.

“Different language, different culinary tastes and vastly different recreational activities and sporting teams.

“Yet it is a microcosm of the Jewish experience ... Often, by necessity, we’ve been scattered and nomadic. At its core, our unity is based on one truth: the Torah. The values and moral compass found within teach us life lessons that are lovingly passed down from generation to generation.”

Click on the source to see video: The Australian

Sunrise over Bondi

If you are a sunrise watcher, have you noticed the extra red glow lately?  

Photo by Bondi Harvest 09/09/16 

Peace

The month of Elul when the King is in the field. I was also in the fields yesterday: in Picton, on a farm, about an hour's drive from Sydney.

Aftermath

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

''My Country'' - Dorothea Mackeller c. 1904

Australia is used to floods.  ''Droughts and flooding rains'' are nothing new to Australians. But this time, the entire east coast was deluged, from the northern tip of Queensland down to the southern island of Tasmania - that's about 3860 kilometres.  As you can see from the picture, the United Kingdom has been inserted to give you some idea of the size of Australia.

The deluge of rain, combined with the king tides [Rosh Chodesh inspired king tides, I believe] have destroyed many beach-side properties, including the 106 year old Coogee Surf Club.  

Part of the famous beach walk from Bondi to Bronte has collapsed.

Beach walk: Bondi to Bronte; June 6 2016

The giant king tides washed away people's backyards as well as an entire apartment block.  

Rivers and creeks have burst their banks, and dams are overflowing.  Aerial footage shows flooding in Sydney's south-west.

Now the rain has stopped, the clean up begins.  Australians are very good at cleaning up, they are used to it.   But.....   this time it seems different, it's the entire east coast, and properties worth millions of dollars are now worthless.  

Blue Skies and The Sun

We are having amazing weather right now.  It's the hottest autumn ever in Sydney, and we are loving the blue skies and sunshine.

Sod1820 has an article about the sun before Moshiach - I used Google translate and could establish that it was talking about the study of kabbalah being the ''screen'' necessary to shield yourself from the sun.  This blog is full of kabbalah and chassidus [which is kabbalah brought down to the level of the people].  Click on the labels at the end of this post to access a wealth of knowledge.

 “The day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the wicked people and the evildoers will be like straw and Hashem will burn them up and totally consume them. But a sun of righteousness and healing will shine for those who fear my name, with healing in its rays…” [Malachi 3:19-20]

The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted. [Isaiah 30:26]

See Daf Yomi Review for more on this.

''Pleasure Gardens'' Vaucluse House Sydney

Shana Tova on the New Year

Photo: Daily Mail

A story is told, about the Lubavitcher Rebbe, how one year on the 1st of January he wished someone a "Happy New Year". Seeing the surprised reaction to this open acknowledgment of this secular juncture, the Rebbe went on and quoted a verse in Tehillim [Psalms 87], where King David writes how "G-d takes into account the demarcations of time of all the nations of the world".

As Jews we don't ignore New Year, we acknowledge the world around us.

The Apta Ruv – The Oheiv Yisrael - used to bless people on the secular New Year’s “From now on, there should be a good year for Klal Yisrael” 

It is said that The Ropshitzer Ruv, used to wish people a happy new year’s in Polish “Szczęśliwego nowego roku” on the secular new year.

See more at : The Rare Minhag of Wishing ''Shana Tova'' on New Years

Hail !

We had some weather here today: check out the size of the hail !  Tornado and freak storm

Stormy

Storms over the weekend here. Photo shows Bondi Beach one hour ago.  Shabbat Shalom to all.

Shofar by the Sea

This September 14, is Rosh Hashanah-the birth of humanity! Stand united together with millions of people around the globe to hear the blast of the Shofar.

Video: The Shofar comes to Bondi Beach, Sydney Australia - enjoy the view !

 

Shofar by the Sea

Sydney's Double Rainbow

This  double rainbow could be seen all over the city:

More photos:  here

Cyclone Sydney

Bondi Beach: closed !

We're in the middle of some pre-Moshiach weather right now.

It's not a cyclone but it sure felt like one

Storm Sandblasts Sydney's Eastern Beaches

House floats down street

Sydney: Hottest Day on Record

As fires burn around the country, Sydney reached 45.8 degrees [that's 114.4 Fahrenheit] - thankfully a cool change is expected this evening. Read more: Sydney's hottest day on record as mercury hits 45.8 degrees

Sydney Australia: Blood Red Ocean

Several popular Sydney beaches, including the iconic Bondi, have been closed after patches of red algae were spotted in the water. 

Patches of the red algae, a natural phenomenon that can be exacerbated by certain weather conditions, have been sighted between Bondi Beach and Maroubra Beach this morning. 

Both Bondi Beach and Clovelly Beach are closed while authorities conduct tests in the water. 

Gordon's Bay was also closed due to the algal bloom, with Beachwatch posting a photograph on Twitter showing water the colour of tomato juice. 

Read more: News.com and Herald Sun

Sunday

Bronte Beach, Sydney
[photo : Keren]