Purim passed with no phone call "allowed" and of course no photo of my boys in costume. No response from the Bidermans either.
I have written the post below as a somber lesson to hopefully prevent anyone else suffering as we have.
Friday, March 18, 2022
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Javelin anti-tank missiles become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance
https://www.timesofisrael.com/javelin-anti-tank-missiles-become-a-symbol-of-ukrainian-resistance/
Images of Ukrainian troops carrying Javelin missile launchers on their shoulders have flashed around the world, making the anti-tank weapon — capable of piercing the most sophisticated armor, and particularly useful in guerrilla warfare — a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s invasion.But it is the US-made Javelin that has become the weapon of choice, to the point that a meme circulating on social media has transformed it into a religious icon borne by Mary Magdalene, an emblematic saint of the Orthodox church.
When Rabbi Kook spent Purim in the Yeshiva of Volozhin
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/324084
In 1885, the year that Rav Kook studied in the famed yeshivah of Volozhin, he was unanimously chosen to lead the Purim revelry as Purim gabbai. The most important students in the yeshivah lit the streetlights along the road from Rav Kook’s lodgings to the yeshivah. This created a festive atmosphere, as Rav Kook was led to the yeshivah and to the home of the Rosh Yeshivah, Rabbi Naftali Tvi Yehudah Berlin, known as the Netziv.
Before age 60, 4th vaccine slightly cuts infection rates, moderately thwarts illness
People who received a fourth shot of Pfizer vaccine were 30 percent less likely to be infected than people who got three doses. Among the Moderna recipients, people were 18% less likely to get infected after a fourth shot.
But Regev-Yochay said that there is a stronger effect against symptomatic illness. Pfizer recipients were 43% less likely to develop symptomatic illness after a fourth shot, and among Moderna participants the figure was 31%.
She emphasized that her research was conducted on health workers under the retirement age, and therefore doesn’t give a picture of the fourth dose’s effectiveness for the elderly, which its main target in Israel and in some other countries, including the UK.
Putin: Russian Troops Killing Ukrainian Kids Are Heroes
https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-russian-troops-killing-ukrainian-kids-are-heroes
In a speech that sounded both disconnected from reality and paranoid, the Russian leader accused the West of a plot to cancel “Russia” and insisted the country would not be hurt by U.S. sanctions. He said Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine—in which countless civilians have been killed by Russian troops firing at residential buildings—was going “strictly according to plan.” “All the goals of the special operation will unconditionally be met,” he said in a video address aired by Russian media. Sanctions against Russia will only bolster Russian businesses, he said, telling citizens not to believe the West’s claim that Russian citizens are struggling because of “acts of hostility” by Moscow.
Purim versus Putin
https://yated.com/purim-versus-putin/
We are watching and hearing about another madman who is shaking up the entire world to feed his own irrational ego. Yidden have already been displaced and many are suffering. At this point, we don’t know why and all we can do is daven. But perhaps with Purim looming ahead, the yeshuah is not far behind. We are now in the midst of an event and, as the Chasam Sofer taught us, we can’t understand. But we must know that everything happens for Klal Yisroel and Hashem is watching, albeit through the cracks in the wall, not through the windows.
Teaching child a trade
Sefer HaBris (2:12:10): I find the widespread practice of our generation - which is based on pride and arrogance - to be very disturbing. The issue is that the majority of our people have no interest in teaching a trade to their children. They say - with their hearts full of conceit - that a trade is debasing. They only want to be involved in commerce or being a peddler which they view as honorable and appropriate for them. However eventually when they are not successful in commerce because of their bad mazel … they end up lacking bread. Consequently they are involved in various sins just in order to obtain food. Thus our sages say that whoever doesn’t teach his son a trade is as if he teaches him to be a thief… Some are involved in fraud of various types, some actually become thieves and robbers. Some steal from Jews and other peoples and some profane G‑d’s name amongst the nations of the world by their contemptible activities. Consequently the reputation of the Jewish people is destroyed…The blame for this situation is on the parents who don’t teach their children a trade when they are young. Why should it be that the nations say that Jews are cheats and a debased people. Why should G‑d’s Torah be degraded because the Jews despise all forms of physical labor? I am even more angry with the talmidei chachomim who don’t want to teach their children a trade - but only Torah. They assume that their children will become rabbis and rabbinic judges. However most people never acquire the learning necessary to be a rabbinic leader and thus their children are destroyed from two directions. They end up becoming only teachers of children. However eventually there are more teachers than needed for the number of students. Therefore even as teachers they are not able to obtain an adequate living. Their families lack bread and clothing and they are not even able to teach adequately because of the pressure. Some end up in commerce and some travel far and wide giving private lessons. The result of all this is that they neglect their own families. Their children become bums because they grow up without a father and their mother is under constant stress. Some even travel to foreign countries where they fail to find students and therefore their wives and children die from hunger. Some travel to distant lands to become preachers or to collect money. Others write books which they collect money to publish. They travel far and wide and yet they don’t find the positions they seek nor the success they desire. Their families starve and they become public burdens. The blame for this situation is on the fathers who don’t want to teach their children a trade when they are young. I recognize, however, that the fathers do this for the sake of Heaven. They justify their stance by Kiddushin (82a): R’ Nehorai said that I will only teach my son Torah. The problem is they misunderstand this gemora because their evil inclination has clothed itself in the garb of piety. The Maharshal explains that the view of R’ Nehorai is not to avoid teaching one’s son anything other than Torah. This gemora can’t be taken literally since there are too many other explicit statements of our sages that say that a person should work and teach his son a trade. All R’ Nehorai is saying is that one should only make Torah the fixed structure of life while earning a living should always be viewed as secondary in importance.
Ramban and Rambam disagree whether stars are conscious beings?
Rav Yaakov (Emes L’Yaakov Bereishis 15): When I watched the astronauts descending by ladder from their spaceship on the moon, I was thinking, “How could the Rambam explain this since he has written that the moon is a spiritual entity?” I thought that this indicates that the kabalistic view that the moon is a material object has been shown to be victorious over the philosophical view that the moon is a spiritual entity. Thus, the Ramban’s view had been vindicated and the Rambam’s view disproved. …
Mishna Torah (Yesodei hatorah 3:3) All of the stars and
spheres are beings, endowed with a soul, intelligence and understanding; they
continue a purposeful life and are conscious of the existence of Him Who spoke
and the universe sprang forth. Each and every one, according to his greatness
and degree, extol and glorify the Creator as do the angels; and to the extent
that they recognize the Holy One, blessed is He! they also know their own
selves and the angels above them. But the intelligence of the stars and spheres
is lesser than the intelligence of the angels, but greater than the intelligence
of man.
Ramban (Devarim 18:9)
THOU SHALT NOT LEARN TO DO AFTER THE ABOMINATIONS OF THOSE NATIONS. Over the stars and constellations He further
appointed guides, angels, and “lords” which are the soul of the stars and
constellations. Now, their behavior from the time they come into existence for
eternal duration, is according to the pattern the Most High decreed for them.
However, it was one of His mighty wonders that within the power of these higher
forces, He put configurations and capacities to alter
the behavior of those under them. Thus if the direction of the stars towards
the earth be good or bad to a certain country, people, or individual, the
higher dominions can reverse it of their own volition,
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
A Fox News correspondent is seriously injured in Ukraine — while Russian memos praise Tucker Carlson
“It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson.” That was a reported memo titled “For Media and Commentators (recommendations for coverage of events as of 03.03)”, from the Russian Department of Information and Telecommunications Support, also in March 2022.
PA slams Biden administration over ‘unfulfilled promises’
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-701366
The US administration has not yet fulfilled any of the promises made by President Joe Biden to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, PA presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudaineh said on Tuesday.
His remarks came one day after he and other senior PA officials, including PLO Executive Committee member Hussein al-Sheikh, held talks in Ramallah with US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr.
Abu Rudaineh said the “unfulfilled promises” included a pledge to reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem, maintain the status quo in the city and oppose unilateral Israeli measures, such as the “seizure” of Palestinian money, a reference to tax revenues withheld by Israel in response to payments made by the PA to families of prisoners and “martyrs.”
Torah is medicine for soul not body
Rambam (Avodas Kochavim 11:12) He who delivers a prayer of charm upon a wound and reads also a verse of the Torah thereon, likewise one who reads a Verse so that a babe shall suffer no fear, or who puts a Sepher Torah or phylacteries upon a child so that he might fall asleep, such are not alone included among the enchanters and charmers but are even included among those who deny the Torah, for they are employing the words of the Torah as a cure for the body, whereas they are not so but only remedies for the soul even as it is said: "And they will (shall) be life for thy soul" (Pro. 3.22). But a normally healthy person who reads Verses of the Torah or chapters of the Psalms, so that the righteousness of reading it shield him to escape suffering and accidents, lo, this is permitted.15
Gafni: Rift has formed between haredim and Arabs
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/323966
The chairman of United Torah Judaism (UTJ), MK Moshe Gafni, protested yesterday in the Knesset Finance Committee what he called the "dispossession" of exempt haredi institutions from the budget allocated to the unofficial but recognized institutions of the haredi community and Arabs.
In his remarks, he claimed that there was still a rift between the haredi sector and Arab public. "I say here in an unambiguous way - today a rift was formed between the haredi public and the Arab public in the State of Israel. Mansour Abbas's apology in the Knesset plenum was not accepted."
Gafni said that when he served as chairman of the committee, he refused to discriminate against the Arab sector.
“I sat on the chair of the Finance Committee for many years. I could have done what you are doing now, but I never thought not to transfer an education budget to the Arab sector as well.
"A transfer now of only NIS 53 million to the unofficial but recognized institutions, and not the entire 84 million to the exempt institutions as well, which is the bread and milk of these children, is a forbidden deed and will not be forgiven."
Monday, March 14, 2022
With Haredi volunteers, an Israeli entrepreneur, 28, rescues Jewish refugees in Lviv
Outside, a variety of Ukrainian charities and aid organizations have opened tents to provide food and medical care to the refugees fleeing the Russian invasion.
As I walked through the chaos outside the station last Tuesday, I was astounded to stumble across an Israeli flag banner stretching across a fence, and Haredi men in orange vests with Hebrew writing standing next to steaming pots and talking amicably with passersby.
The men were from the ZAKA rescue organization, a major element of Israel’s emergency response services at home and abroad.
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