New Video from Rabbi Alon Anava: Message of Meron

 "Stop Stepping on Others"

After the devastating disaster in Meron on Lag Ba'Omer, Rabbi Anava points out the sources in the Torah referring to the disaster and the message G-d is sending us that we need to address.

Total Lunar Eclipse

Tonight in Australia we will be able to see the full lunar eclipse: for full details of how to see it in your country click here.

The last time the moon turned red, I saw it with my own eyes, although the moon was quite far away and just a small red dot in the sky.  This time the moon will be much closer to us, and as the weather is fine here I'm hoping for an amazing sight.

Mysticism: Manna for All

But the multitude among them began to have strong cravings. Then even the children of Israel once again began to cry, and they said, "Who will feed us meat?  [Beha'alotecha 11:4]

Ordinary bread [''bread from the earth''] which is the product of hard physical labor, is a metaphor for the ''revealed'' interpretations of the Torah [nigleh] found in the Talmud, which require arduous analysis, questioning etc.

On the other hand, manna [''bread from Heaven''] represents the mystical teachings of the Torah, which are of such a ''heavenly'' nature that there is no disagreement or argument.

Logically speaking, a person might think that it is necessary to have a firm grounding in classic texts, and achieve a certain degree of spiritual greatness before one can progress to the study of mysticism.  However, the Torah teaches here that even the wicked individuals who complained to Moshe ate manna.

From this we can learn that it is appropriate for people from all walks of life to study the mystical teachings of the Torah - particularly as they are formulated clearly and methodically in the teachings of Chassidus.

Based on Likutei Sichos Lubavitcher Rebbe

War of Words

It seems that the more we try to defend ourselves, the worse it gets for us.  [These are just my thoughts, you are welcome to disagree with me.]

In that vein, I refer to an ad in the NYTimes by the World Values Network which is headed by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach - an ad which seems to have only inflamed the situation.  If you go looking for that ad on Google, all you will find is a mass of links to sites condemning the NYTimes and the World Values Network for publishing such a thing.   

This is the ad:

For those who may not be aware, Bella and Gigi Hadid are top models, and Dua Lipa is not only a mega pop star, but also dating Anwar Hadid, brother of Bella and Gigi.  Between them all, they have over 100 million followers.  

In response to the ad in the NY Times, all three women have unanimously rejected the notion that they are in any way anti-semitic: Lipa said "I utterly reject the false and appalling accusations that were published today in the NY Times ad.... this is the price you pay for defending Palestinian human rights....  I take this stance because I believe that everyone - Jews, Muslims and Christians - have the right to live in peace as equal citizens... the World Values Network are shamelessly using my name to advance their ugly campaign with falsehoods and blatant misrepresentation....." [see full text here]

I believe everything Dua Lipa says about her beliefs. She, along with Bella and Gigi, see Israel as a ruthless entity intent on wiping out her people.  In her young mind, she does not equate her anti-Israel sentiments with an anti-Jewish feeling.  

They are not alone in these thoughts.  A former close friend of mine also feels the same way, and she is definitely not an anti Semite I can promise you that.

Why can these people not see what is really happening here?  

It is not for lack of intelligence, they have plenty of that.  

Another question I have is why Hashem saw fit to bless these three women with good looks, talent, fame and fortune [and millions of followers].  Why?  Obviously Hashem knew that they would use their platforms to defend the Palestinians, considering that Bella and Gigi's father is Mohamed Hadid, a well known personality, lately most famous for building an impossible mega-mansion  and losing a great deal of money in the process.   Make no mistake, the opinion of these three women is having a major detrimental impact upon the Jewish people, and increasing anti-Semitism around the globe.

The only conclusion I can come to is that Hashem wants this to occur.  And there can be only one reason why Hashem wants this to be so.....

....it is to unite the Jews.

If we cannot unite in good times, then we must be forced to unite in bad times.  And famous faces such as the three women above, are being utilized for this purpose.

Bread of Shame

 Rabbi Mendel Kessin's latest shiur [audio]: Nahama d'Kesufa

A transcript of this shiur can be found here

Living under Rocket Fire

 

Voices From Israel: Bruria Efune, a Mother of Four From Be’er Sheva 

‘Your heart is racing, but you need to show your kids that you’re calm. . . ’ 

A lot of people are asking me what it’s like to live in the south of Israel, under fire. 

Before I jump in, I want to point out that we live in Be’er Sheva, which means we don’t have it nearly as bad as those in Ashkelon and Ashdod, who don’t have it nearly as bad as those in Ofakim, Netivot, Sderot and the small communities within 3 kilometers of the border with the Gaza Strip. Some of those communities get rockets year-round, but you’ll never hear about it in the news because no one cares. A huge percentage of those kids suffer from severe PTSD. When we get rocket rain in Be’er Sheva, it means they’re getting a non-stop rocket storm. 

Also: We absolutely LOVE living in Be’er Sheva, and never regret it for a second. It’s an amazing city. The Jewish people have been refugees for long enough; we’re finally home, and no amount of rockets will chase us away. 

So what’s it like to live under rocket fire? 

Imagine it’s been a pretty normal week, you finally got all your kids to sleep and just sat down on the couch to relax … when a siren goes off. It has a surreal sound, maybe because of all the echo, maybe because it doesn’t sound like 2021. 

You jump up, shove your phone in your pocket (because you never know), and run to grab the baby and wake up your oldest daughter, while your spouse grabs the toddler and next child up—your prearranged plan. You bring them to your shelter or “safest room” faster than you know how to move, and shut the door. If you’re in Be’er Sheva, you have 60 seconds. Sderot has 15, while a few communities only have seven seconds. 

Now your heart is racing, but you need to show your kids that you’re calm and confident that everything will be OK. So you smile and with your best, cheerful, non-shaky voice say, “Good job! We did it! Now let’s thank Hashem (G‑d) for protecting us, and giving us such an amazing army and Iron Dome!” 

The kids are in a weird state of sleepy/wide-awake. The siren keeps wailing over and over because usually if there’s one rocket, there’s 10. You hear the booms, your kids hear the booms, you try to distract them by talking about happy things, and you hug them tight. If you’re more experienced, you can differentiate the booms—Iron Dome booms have more of an echo, while hits fall loud and flat; sometimes, you can even feel the shake. If you hear a hit, your job of keeping the kids calm just got 20 times harder. 

After 10 minutes, you put the kids back to bed, sit back on the couch and adjust your mindset for the new reality. 

Were there any hits? How long is this round going to last? Why now? Should we move the kids into the bomb shelter for the night? 

Now you’re glued to your phone, checking if everyone is OK, responding to worried family members and obsessively reading the news. 

If you live in an apartment with a shared shelter, you prepare comfortable clothing to sleep in. You debate taking a shower; if you’re willing to take the risk, night is better because there’s less noise pollution, but you still shower with the water on a trickle so that you can hear the next siren. You have a robe ready to throw on and you move fast. 

The sirens get your adrenaline pumping, which is good for being ready to react but bad for falling asleep. Even when you do fall asleep, you try not to fall into a deep sleep—you need to hear the sirens.

The terrorists like to fire at night, and especially at early dawn, because it’s easier for them to hide. In Be’er Sheva, we’ve been woken up as many as five times a night, but the average is probably three for the more intense “escalations” during the past two weeks. 

Morning comes, and between 6 and 7, you’ll get the official notice: no school, no non-essential work, everyone must stay near shelters at all times and review Home Front Command instructions. 

Staying trapped in the house with your children, and hopefully spouse, for days on end—not knowing when it’ll end—you need to keep the kids entertained and calm, despite the constant noise of aircraft above, booms and siren runs, and despite the fact that you know homes are being destroyed and people are being hurt, and these siren runs are no joke at all. 

Every time a kid moves, you need to recalculate your 60-second dash to safety, often moving furniture and toys so that there’s nothing in the way. 

Mundane things become a big challenge. Getting dressed needs to be done strategically. Cooking must be with a timer on the oven, or something that can be turned off at any moment and still turn out fine. Bath time with the kids needs to be fast, so that you reduce the likelihood of slippery towel-wrapped kids in the shelter. Speeding motorcycles become your new worst enemy. Every time you hear one, your heart stops, and for a second, you wonder if it’s a siren. 

Despite work being cancelled, many people still go out or work from home, so that the business doesn’t go down with the rockets. Working from home with kids and sirens interrupting is a special kind of challenge. You might decide to spend your day with the kids so you can keep them calm and then work through the night; it’s not like you’re getting any sleep anyway. 

If you’re lucky, you have a clean public bomb shelter near you, meaning you can dash over with your kids so that they can play in the underground safety with their neighborhood friends, while you catch up with the other parents, and most importantly, let your guard down. Everyone becomes extra helpful and supportive of each other, with strangers going out of their way to help and provide comfort. 

You might start checking the news or social media obsessively, even though you know you shouldn’t. You’ll have just been huddling with your kids in a bomb shelter and then go online to see someone condemning Israel, and your blood will boil. Either that, or you’ll just hit the block button because you are so done with it. 

On the flip side, you’ll see someone on the other side of the world write all about what Israel should do, and you’ll just get so annoyed because no, we just want to get the kids back in school. If you want to have an opinion, try living here first. 

Then there’s the people commenting on the bravery of the Israelis and how strong the people in the south are, and you’ll just want to scream that you’re not strong, you’re falling apart, this isn’t normal, not even for the most seasoned, tough Israelis, and especially not for the parents of young children. 

But you also get encouragement—from the people around the world showing support and standing with you, from the people donating to important organizations in the south, and from those wonderful organizations and people who drop everything to help. 

You learn to joke about things and find the odd humor in it all because it’s a great classic Israeli survival tactic. You might stock up your shelter with great snacks, and if you’re sharing a shelter with neighbors, you have fun sharing them, turning things into a festive-like atmosphere. You also laugh at each other when someone shows up wrapped in a towel with bubbly hair or in funky pajamas. 

There’s only so many adrenaline rushes your heart can handle. If the sirens keep up for long enough, your heart starts to physically hurt. But also, you oddly start to hope for another siren just to end the suspense of when the next one will be, so that you make it to safety and can stop all the planning.

Eventually, you start hearing rumors of a ceasefire. You’re mad, relieved and suspicious. You’re mad that they’re not solving the problem for once and for all, but you’re also relieved that it’s over for now, and yet still suspicious that it’s not going to last. The more operations you’ve lived through, the more strongly you feel these emotions.

Once the ceasefire is announced, you wait for further instructions. If you live in one of the closer communities, you’ll probably be waiting another few days. If you live in Be’er Sheva, you might have a late school day, and you’ll need to decide if you trust the ceasefire enough to send your kids off. Only half the kids will be in school on the first day back. 

Suddenly, you’re expected to continue on as normal. Get back to work, catch up on everything and walk around like nothing happened. You’re still waiting for it all to start again, but for the rest of the world, it’s old news. 

Bruria Efune is a mother of four living in Be’er Sheva in southern Israel. She is currently raising funds to buy a bomb shelter for neighbors who are in a very unsafe situation. To assist in the effort, visit the donation page here. 

Source

Priestly Blessings by non-Cohanim

 

Cartoon: Mordechai Becher, David Podbere

Text by Rabbi Benjy Simons

For those that live in the Diaspora, Birchas Cohanim on the festivals is one of the highlights, as we draw down the blessings as given by Hashem through the Kohanim. The text of their blessing comes from this week’s Parsha, which seems as one would imagine, specifically limited to Aharon and his sons (see Bamidbar 6:23). Surprisingly though, this passage has been adapted as the standard blessing that many parents have the custom to give their sons each Friday night, or a Rabbi of a community towards a Bar Mitzvah boy, irrespective of the father or Rabbi being a Kohen! 

In truth, the concept of the Priestly Blessing being given by a non-Kohen is already found in the Talmud (Shabbat 118a), where Rabbi Yose despite not being a Kohen, when asked by his colleagues to ascend the platform to give the Priestly Blessing, he acquiesced. While the Magen Avraham rules from this story that a non-Kohen can Duchan, virtually all the other commentators struggle to understand this story in light of the Gemara (Kesubos 24b) that rules that a non-Kohen is forbidden to give such a blessing and thus seek alternative understandings as to why this was allowed. 

Tosfos defends Rabbi Yose, as aside from being unable to recite the blessing prior the benediction, seemingly no violation takes place. Alternatively, Rav Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz suggested that in the case of Rabbi Yose, there were not any Kohanim present at the time, and thus to avoid missing out entirely on the blessing, they requested that Rabbi Yose give it in lieu of the Kohanim. The Rema (O.C 128:1) though seems to take issue with these interpretations, for a non-Kohen may never ascend to give the Priestly Blessing regardless of the blessing being omitted or if there are no other Kohanim present.

Rabbi Yoel Sirkes and the Maharsha suggest that perhaps a distinction can be made when the one giving the blessing does not raise both his hands, which as explained by Rabbi Yechezkel Halevi Landau is an intrinsic part of the procedure (Sotah 38a). They argue that when Rabbi Yose gave his blessing, he never raised both his hands, essentially differentiating his blessing from that which was done by the Priests in the Temple and observed today by the Kohanim. 

The story is recorded by Rabbi Boruch Epstein in his Magnum Opus Torah Temima, that the Vilna Gaon (who was not a Kohen) gave over the Priestly Blessing to Rabbi Yechezkel Landau at his wedding but was careful to only raise one hand to make a clear distinction that he was not following the procedure normally done by the Kohanim. 

A further leniency as cited by the Mishna Berura (128:3) regarding this issue, is that perhaps one can avoid the prohibition by having in mind that one is NOT fulfilling the Mitzvah (i.e., using a negative intention) of the Priestly Blessing, and furthermore this may even be implicit as it is being done not in the context of the Amidah where it is normally recited. 

While we are told that Hashem desires the bestowal of this blessing (Sotah 38b), may we merit to always give each other blessings in the correct Halachic manner.

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Know What to Answer

In the face of the world's animosity towards Israel, here are the answers you need to know:

[I don't know who wrote this, but it's worth sharing]

Here are a few accusations and brief explanations. 

“Israel forcibly removed residents of Sheikh Jarrah”: 

This is a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, with a population predominantly of Palestinians. No one has been evicted. There has been an ongoing court case (over 30 years!) between homeowners and tenants over rent evasion. To date, the final judgment of the Israeli High Court has been postponed. Also see Israel's Critics are Right:Sheikh Jarrah Exemplifies the Arab-Israeli Conflict

“Israel has commandeered the Al-Aqsa Mosque”: 

Not true. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is built on the holiest site in Judaism – the Temple Mount. Despite this, Israel gave administrative control of it to the Islamic Waqf, while Israel maintains security control. The Waqf doesn’t permit Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. Israel did not take over here, nor did it threaten to. The IDF does bear the responsibility to ensure the safety of all citizens and broke up violent demonstrations in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa. As for that burning tree a few metres from the mosque, that was ignited by Palestinian fireworks aimed at Israelis. Media footage spliced the burning as a backdrop to Yom Yerushalayim celebrations, hence confusion. 

“Israel’s response is disproportionate”: 

Israel is doing its utmost to protect innocent lives on both sides. For example, it sends out advance warnings and uses "Roof Knocking" to allow civilians to evacuate before it takes out military targets. This courtesy, or anything remotely similar, is not reciprocated. Israel is under attack and its first obligation is the safety of its citizens. 

“Israel maintains an illegal occupation of Gaza”: 

In 1967, Israel was simultaneously attacked by Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon. Miraculously, Israel emerged victorious and opted to return most of the land, via brokered peace deals. In 2005 Israel evacuated from Gaza, forcibly removing 8,000 Jews from their homes. The hope was that Gaza would become a peaceful Palestinian state. There is no Israeli presence in Gaza. 

“Disturbing photos of the dead flood my newsfeed”: 

Death of the innocent is tragic. Yet view images critically - there is a regular use of fake or doctored photos beamed out about those from Gaza. Do a reverse google search, more often than not, those pictures are actually from Syria. 

“Jewish mobs have done terrible things to Palestinians”: 

There have been a small number of instances over the past week involving unlawful actions by a small number of Jews. The Israeli government does not condone this, the justice system is robust and those perpetrators have been arrested. 

Remember: Knowledge is power. Remain proud and informed Jews who stand strong! The above reflections have merely scratched the surface. Israel is not culpable. This is your homeland; your people. In the past, we have seen the darkest of days. Israel has a right to defend itself. 

Finally there are things we can do, no matter how distant we are geographically. The Torah teaches us (and history has repeatedly demonstrated to us) that the physical protection of each one of us – and, indeed, our very collective destiny! – is intrinsically connected to our spiritual activism. When we pray or dedicate a good deed to our brothers and sisters in Israel, we create a spiritual defence shield for them that will help them through difficult and dangerous times.