There is another aspect to the "with us" syndrome: Give us what we want. "We want spirituality," so we give them spirituality. "We want meditation," so we respond with lectures on meditation. "We want Kabbala,"and we deliver Kabbala. This, it can he argued, is only used as a means of attracting them. But then we have to "bait and switch." And"bait and switch" does not always work. A person coming into Judaism searching for mysticism and Kabbala may not be so happy to be sold the halachos of Shulchan Aruch. And when he's not satisfied with ourbrand of mysticism, he may explore other forms of mysticism. Our goal is not to produce Mitzva Machines, but to make bnei Torah, andto spread Torah, which is the lifeblood of the Jewish People. "Spirituality"seekers are in reality "hungry to hear the words of Hashem." When people are hungry and thirsty, you do not feed them potato chips and diet cola with cotton candy for dessert. And when they really want to hear the word ofHashem, you do not feed them puffand platitudes and pop Kabba/a before you teach them the basics of Torah'. Otherwise, the result can be a hybridization of Judaism - "feel good,'' and do-it-yourself religion, and in the worst scenario, introduction into messianic cults. Not all outreach is kiruv.
Saturday, November 27, 2021
Out to Save the World
https://mishpacha.com/out-to-save-the-world/
Warmly eulogized by the entire Torah world after his passing, in his lifetime he was both ridiculed as “Noach the meshugener” and subject to sharp criticism. Despite being the seminal figure in the modern baal teshuvah movement, he was rarely invited to address the general chareidi public, and a major rosh yeshivah once took to the pages of the Jewish Observer to attack the “religion of kiruv.”
No one who had such a vast list of things he wished to change could have failed to arouse critics. The Novominsker Rebbe, Rav Yaakov Perlow, in his eulogy for Rav Noach — a boyhood friend — hinted at the source of some of that opposition: “Often, those who burn with passion to right every wrong make others nervous.” The Rebbe confessed that in later years he would often cross to the other side of the street when he saw Rav Noach coming to avoid being confronted with questions about what he was doing to solve the problems of Klal Yisrael.
Friday, November 26, 2021
Heard from the Shomer Emunim Rebbe
About 15 years ago I had the opportunity to spend a number of hours with the Shomer Emunim Rebbe. The following are samples of our conversations.
I asked him what it was like being a rebbe? He replied, "In the old days when the chassidim needed the rebbe it was good. But now the rebbe needs the chassidim and it is not so good."
He mentioned a well known rebbe in Europe who had one daughter but many sons. The rebbe made all his son's rebbes but not his son-in-law. His daughter was hurt by this and asked her father why he didn't make her husband a rebbe also. The father replied, "Your husband is a tremendous talmid chacom. A talented leader - he will have no trouble with parnosa. Unfortunately your brothers are not so smart or talented - at least they can be rebbes.
I have a son who at that time was a strong kanoi. I asked the Rebbe what I should do about it. He told me to bring my son to him. The Rebbe talked with him - and my son criticized one group after another as not being "proper Jews". The Rebbe pulled out a sefer - Derech Mitzvosecha" and pointed out a paragraph. It said, "You can not be a kanoi if you enjoy it. Being a zealot is only for those who find it distasteful." My son lost all interest in criticizing other Jews at that meeting and totally changed his perspective for the good.
Rabbi Kanievsky says children 5 and up should be vaccinated
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/rabbi-kanievsky-says-children-5-and-up-should-be-vaccinated-686971
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the most senior haredi (ultra-Orthodox) rabbis in the world, said that children over the age of five should be vaccinated against corona, a ruling that should bolster the vaccination drive among young children in the haredi sector.
The
rabbi, 93, met at his Bnei Brak home on Thursday with senior medical
officials and doctors, who informed him of new developments regarding
the vaccine, rising case numbers, and the recent approval by the US Food
and Drug Administration for administering the Pfizer vaccine to
children from the age of five.
Of
the haredi population, 678,000 are age 0-19 of whom 200,000 are five to
11, so the vaccination drive for this cohort is of high importance for
the national child vaccination drive in general.
Thursday, November 25, 2021
A prison commander says female IDF soldiers were ‘pimped’ for terrorist prisoners
Gilboa Prison commander Freddy Ben Shitrit appears to confirm reports from 2018 that female IDF soldiers who were doing their military service in the prison as guards were “pimped” and forced to have sex with Palestinian terrorists.
Ben Shitrit says the prison “pimped soldiers” and “they handed over female soldiers… to terrorists for sexual purposes.” The incident allegedly happened before Ben Shitrit served as commander in the prison.
The allegations were first reported in 2018 by Channel 20 and firmly denied by the prison services.
Shocking allegations regarding female soldiers in security prisons
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317578
Coalition chair MK Idit Silman has asked the Minister of Internal Security, Omer Bar-Lev, to establish a government review committee to examine the Israel Prison Service’s conduct with regard to conditions for female IDF soldiers working in prisons where security prisoners are held.
“In view of the shocking and serious allegations made by a senior Prisons Service official, a government review committee is required to conduct a thorough and in-depth examination of conditions,” Silman wrote, “even though the events described did not occur during the term of office of the current government.”
The allegations date back to 2018 but regained prominence this week
when Gilboa Prison commander Ben Shitrit gave testimony regarding the
prison break-out that occurred there earlier this year. Ben Shitrit had
noted that female soldiers were allowed to be used by security prisoners
being held in the Gilboa Prison, “in order to keep them happy.”
Top Israeli Expert: Vaccinating Children Is 'Important for the Kids, Not to Control the Pandemic'
“It’s not the booster waning, it’s the fact we still have unimmunized individuals,” she said. The public health expert explained that three-quarters of newly infected individuals have not been inoculated at all, while a further 15 percent are more than six months past their second dose and have yet to get a booster.
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky: 'Vaccinate your children against COVID-19'
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317568
Following approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in children ages 5-11 and the Israeli Health Ministry's subsequent approval and rollout, a leading Lithuanian-haredi rabbi has called on parents to vaccinate their children against coronavirus.
The announcement follows Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky's meeting with three senior Israeli doctors who are continuously working to manage the coronavirus pandemic in Israel.
The meeting, held in Rabbi Kanievsky's home, was attended by Professor Ran Balicer, who heads the Israel Shield staff of experts and the Clalit Research Institute; coronavirus czar Professor Salman Zarka; and Rabbi Kanievsky's personal doctor, Dr. Meshulam Hart.
3 Men Found Guilty of Felony Murder Charges in Trial Over Killing of Ahmaud Arbery
https://time.com/6123299/ahmaud-arbery-trial-guilty-verdict/
The defense teams for the McMichaels argued that their clients behaved in self-defense, alleging that Arbery tried to take Travis’ gun away from him during the ensuing confrontation and that Arbery was responsible for his own death. “You are allowed to defend yourself. You are allowed to use force that is likely to cause death or serious bodily injury if you believe it’s necessary,” Jason Sheffield, who represents Travis McMichael, said during closing arguments. “At that moment Travis believed it was necessary. This is a law that is for a person in Travis’s situation.”
The defendants claim to have believed they were acting under stand-your-ground and now-repealed
citizens arrest laws in Georgia—but since they had no proof that Arbery
was committing a crime, the law would likely not have applied.
Coronavirus commissioner: We may be on our way to 5th wave
Concern in Israel is mounting that the country might soon experience a fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, coronavirus commissioner Prof. Salman Zarka warned during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday night.
As of Wednesday, Israel had 6,500 active cases. They had dropped as low as 5,000 in previous days.
Men Found Guilty of Killing Arbery Head to Federal Court in 10 Weeks on Hate Crime Charges
After a Georgia jury found Travis and Greg McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery on Wednesday, the three men are set to head to federal court in less than three months to stand another trial on federal hate crime charges.
After roughly ten and a half hours of deliberation, jurors in Glynn County found all three men guilty of felony murder. Travis McMichael was convicted on nine charges, Greg McMichael was convicted on eight charges and Bryan was convicted on six charges.
Arbery was fatally shot by Travis McMichael on February 23, 2020 after McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and Bryan chased the 25-year-old Black jogger down with their pickup trucks while conducting what they claimed to be a citizen's arrest in the Satilla Shores neighborhood.
Wednesday, November 24, 2021
COVID in Israel: Cases highest in month, immunity declining, expert warns
Over 50% of new virus carriers are younger than 12. PM Bennett called on parents to get kids vaccinated and ordered antigen tests for students before they return to school after the Hanukkah break.
The immunity against the coronavirus among the Israeli population appears to be declining, an expert warned the coronavirus cabinet on Tuesday, as the country registered the highest number of cases in a month.Talking to
the ministers, Prof. Eran Segal, a computational biologist for the
Weizmann Institute, said that since the beginning of November, numbers
have been pointing to a fall in the immunity of the population, similar
to what happened in May.
According
to Segal, the decline is caused by the fact that more time has passed
for people who were only vaccinated with the first two shots since they
were inoculated and therefore their immunity is dropping – and a similar
scenario is occurring for those who recovered but did not get
vaccinated.
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
Jury finds Unite the Right organizers liable for millions in damages
The
jury in the civil case involving White nationalists who organized a
two-day rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, asked for
clarification Tuesday on a part of the verdict form that pertains to the
lawsuit's conspiracy claims.
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