No, I’m not deleting the blog again. (At least, not at the moment. Maybe another time, I’ll share the real details of why I deleted it each of the last three times.) But, I AM going in a different direction here again – or really, returning to things that I was writing a lot about, […]
From where I sit, I see so many of us are running out of steam for all this. I just got an email from a good friend in the US, who was telling me about all the scary ‘pro-Palestinian’ stuff (aka: ‘anti-Jewish) going on there…. And the never-ending traffic jams from ‘construction’ that seem to […]
Yesterday, the Rav was back at the prayers again. He looked good, BH, he sounded strong, he was singing very loudly. Indeed. It’s a good sign. I would even go as far as to say the Rav appeared to be in quite a good mood. Yes, I know they are trying to force the chareidim […]
Those aren’t my words…. they are the description of R Chaim of Sanz. In this post, we’re going to continue investigating the ‘dispute’ that erupted between R CHAIM HALBERSTAM of Sanz and the extended ‘rebbes-with-palaces’ family of ISRAEL of RUZHIN, aka MOSHE TZVI WERTHEIMER of SAVRAN. Before we do that, I just wanted to tell […]
Yesterday, I went to the graduation for my daughter. I thought we’d at least get to see her walk across the stage, to get her diploma, but apparently, that’s not how they do things anymore. At least, not at her university. Instead, we had two hours of interminable speeches from the university ‘big wigs’ (plus […]
So, how did this next chapter of the saga of the EREV RAB-BAIM begin? The story begins with a book called: The Jewish World of Yesterday (1860-1938), which one of my readers dropped in, as he had a hunch I might find something interesting there. Did I ever. On page 70, I found this picture: […]
Twenty-five years ago, when I was a journalist working for a Jewish paper, I lost my job thanks to a ‘celebrity rabbi’ who was embezzling charity funds to buy a massive house, and a lot of airtime and media exposure, in order to sell his books. (Yes, you have almost certainly heard of him.) To […]
I wrote a whole long rant that I just decided to delete. There are so many ‘false beliefs’ and ‘fake information’ circulating, it’s kind of disheartening. But the bottom line is that people are free to believe what they want to believe, and at the end of the day, each person will have to live […]
Another pray gathering is being organised for the health of the Rav, and for the matzav generally. It’s 6.30 pm this Wednesday evening, June 19th, at the Kotel. They will be saying seven Tikkun Haklalis together – but even if you only come for a little, and only say one Tikkun Haklali, or if you only […]
Hopefully, you’ll find this post very interesting and ‘enlightening’, if that word can still be used in a positive sense. Our Sages teach us very clearly: In every generation, there is an individual who has potential to become the ‘Moshiach ben David’ (MBD) of that generation. In every generation, there is a person who is […]