Our community has been mourning the loss of Harav Ezra Neuberger ZT”L, a towering figure whose presence in the halls of Ner Yisroel was both quiet and powerful. Rav Ezra, with his remarkable lineage, could have chosen many paths in life. Yet he chose one: the path of Torah. Not simply learning, but living it, breathing it, and dedicating his days and nights to it. As Rosh Kollel of Kollel Avodas Levi, one of the largest Kollelim in the world, and later as one of the most sought-after Rabbeim in the Beis Medrash, he embodied a life of pure Torah. In the hespedim that followed his petirah, Rabbeim and talmidim alike described his hasmadah, how every thought was deliberate and every word measured. He was not one for small talk, but when he spoke, people listened. Each word carried weight because each word was emes
As a bachur, I once had the opportunity to speak at a Neuberger aufruf. Understandably, I was nervous – the entire Neuberger family was present: Rav Herman ZT”L, his sons, and their extended families. I prepared carefully, gave my speech, and it went over well. Later that day, long after the seudah, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to find Rav Ezra standing there. He looked at me and simply said, “You know, you really spoke beautifully.” Nothing more, nothing less. Just a few words, but from him, those words meant everything. A man who only spoke when it was necessary felt it was necessary to say that to me. It left an impression I’ve carried ever since.
When I heard about his passing, that moment came flooding back. I couldn’t help but think
of how many others must have been recipients of similar words – quiet encouragements, subtle acknowledgments, or gestures that meant the world to them. Rav Ezra didn’t just teach Torah; he shaped people through it. His kindness was deliberate, his influence deeply personal. Every interaction carried purpose, not to impress but to build.
The Torah tells us about Avraham Avinu “v’es hanefesh asher asu b’Charan”—he made souls in Charan. Avraham didn’t just teach ideas; he formed people, shaping their very essence. There’s a beautiful story told of when the Chofetz Chaim met the Alter of Slabodka. The Alter expressed admiration for the Chofetz Chaim’s writings. The Chofetz Chaim humbly replied, “You admire me for writing seforim, but I admire you, for you make people.”
The Alter had indeed produced giants: Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rav Yitzchok Hutner, and many others who became pillars of Torah in America.
Rav Ezra Neuberger was one of those who made people. Through his learning, teaching, and hadrachah, he built bnei Torah with every word, every chiddush, and every act of quiet kindness. He leaves behind not just pages of chiddushim or his shiurim, but generations of talmidim shaped by his emes, his anavah, and his devotion to Torah. May he continue to inspire us to live deliberately, speak truthfully, and strive – as he did – to make people.
Yehi zichro baruch.
Wishing everyone a peaceful Shabbos
Aaron M. Friedman
& photos,
mazal tovs to
featured in coming editions!
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Around the Community
JWV Marches In The Veterans Day Parade
Members of Maryland Free State Post 167 of the Jewish War Veterans of the USA proudly represented the Jewish veteran community of the greater Baltimore area at the Howard County Veterans Day Parade in Columbia, Maryland.
Since the Baltimore City Veterans Day Parade took place on Shabbat — when Post 167 does not participate — the Howard County parade offered an excellent opportunity for the post to take part in honoring all who have served. With several Post 167 members living in Ellicott City, Columbia, and Pikesville, the event was a fitting choice for participation.
In attendance from the Jewish War Veterans were Kate Swedlow (Post 888); Mike Zippert (Post 167, JCC);
Dan Berkovitz (Post 167 Commander); Col. Andy Wolkstein, USAF (Ret.), Commander of American Legion Post 156 and JWV 167 member; Larry Yolken (Army and Navy veteran); Devora Exline (Post 167); Andrew Altman (Post 167); Shimon E.; and Mike Wohl.
Despite forecasts of rain, the turnout was strong, with many community members gathering to honor local veterans. Post 167 was proud to march under the JWV banner, representing Jewish service members past and present to the broader community.
Commander Dan Berkovitz shared, “It’s always meaningful to show that Jewish Americans have stood shoulder to shoulder in defense of our nation throughout its history. We were glad to represent our Baltimore community and share in this day of recognition.”
By: BJLife Newsroom
Maryland Free State Post 167 of the Jewish War Veterans of the USA continues its mission to support vet-
erans, strengthen Jewish identity, and promote patriotism and service across the Baltimore area.
Amid The Cold Winds, Maryland Veterans Gather For The Nation’s Only Jewish Veterans Day Kaddish Service
By: BJLife Newsroom
On Veterans Day, The cold winds swept across Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery as more than twenty veterans and supporters gathered for a ceremony of remembrance. After the main 11 a.m. service, the group made its way to the Jewish Section for a special Kaddish service - the only Veterans Day Kaddish Service in a Jewish section in any state veterans cemetery.
The ceremony began with the reading of the Governor’s Veterans Day proclamation, followed by the
Jewish
Msolemn recitation of names provided from the National Museum of American Jewish Military History - those who fell during Operation Iraqi Freedom and later conflicts. Tehillim was recited, the Kaddish recited, and finally the Kel Malei Rachamim prayer offered for the souls of the fallen.
War Veterans Post
embers of Jewish War Veterans Post 167 are at Market Maven in Pikesville, greeting shoppers and sharing information about Jewish veterans and their proud history of service to our nation. With Veterans Day approaching, their presence helps the community become aware of the contributions of Jewish Americans in uniform.
This evening, the Jewish Uniformed Services Association will host a Veterans Shabbat dinner, and we’re honored to have Chaplain Jacob Goldstein - a Chabad-Lubavitch
167
Among those present were Maryland Delegate Jon Cardin; Jonathan Schwartz, special assistant to Baltimore County Executive Katherine Klausmeier; Rabbi Chesky Tenenbaum of Jewish Uniformed Services Association; and Dan Berkovitz, Commander of Jewish War Veterans Post 167.
Despite the freezing air, the service went on. Each prayer, each name, each gust of wind seemed to carry the same message - that honoring those who served is not an obligation of comfort, but of gratitude.
At Market Maven Ahead Of Veterans Day
Rabbi who served as a U.S. Army and National Guard chaplain - Col. Goldstein is known for decades of service including deployment to September 11 attacks Ground Zero and other major operations.
On Tuesday at 12 p.m., Maryland Free State Post 167 of the Jewish War Veterans of the USA will participate in a Kaddish service at the Jewish section of Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery in Owings Mills, in conjunction with the Jewish Uniformed Services Association, honoring our fallen Jewish service members.
A heartfelt thank-you to Market Maven for welcoming our Post today and helping strengthen the bond be-
tween our veteran community and the broader Baltimore Jewish community.
By: BJLife Newsroom
Around the Community
JCFL By King David Nursing & Rehab Regular Season Wraps Up
The JCFL regular season has officially concluded, and what a finale it was. Seven weeks of grit, strategy, sideline banter, and the occasional “Hey! That was a hold!” all came to a head in one electrifying final weekend.
When the dust settled, the top four teams punched their ticket to the TYH Roofing Postseason — a place where legends are made, hamstrings are tested, and family members are politely asked to please film horizontally
The Final Four
1. Evergreen Benefits Group
2. Tidy Up
3. Yaakov Schmell – Allstate Insurance
4. Tripping Kosher
These squads now move on for a shot at eternal glory — or at least temporary bragging rights and possession of the Premier Financial Trophy, which is rumored to be worth slightly less than a family dinner at Chick’N Dip but infinitely more in pride.
Tripping Kosher 24, Tiger Heating & Air 19
The Playoff Ticket Puncher
Every league needs that one game that defines the season — the one that makes fans’ voices crack, players’ Fitbits explode, and referees question their career choices. In JCFL Week 7, that was this game.
Tripping Kosher came into the matchup needing a win to secure the final playoff spot. Tiger Heating & Air, meanwhile, arrived ready to play spoiler, armed with confidence, matching “blue” jerseys, and what one sideline source described as “too many play calls based on geographical knowledge.”
Tiger QB Dudi May came out firing darts like a man on a mission, hitting Josh Zazlow for the opening touchdown and then, following a key interception by Shimon Kanter, finding Noam Sonnenberg to build an early lead. Things looked bleak early for Tripping Kosher.
But as soon as quarterback Yoyo Strauss checked himself into the game, the offense came alive. Strauss immediately sparked their attack with two big plays before halftime - one to Aaron Koschitzki and another to Jeremy Strauss, who turned a routine catch into a 60-yard sprint that left defenders questioning their life choices.
At halftime, Tiger Heating & Air clung to a narrow 13–12 lead. The only thing separating Tripping Kosher from glory being a series of missed extra points that would haunt them later.
The second half opened with a defensive slugfest until Yoyo once again unleashed his inner Trent Dilfer, finding Koschitzki deep for another touchdown. The chemistry between those two was undeniable — like peanut butter and jelly, or cholent on Shabbos.
But Tiger wasn’t done. Dudi May, scrambled his team back into the red zone and hit Sonnenberg for his second touchdown of the game.
Still, Tripping Kosher wouldn’t fold. Strauss hit Mookie Chamdi for the go-ahead score, then handed things over to a defense anchored by Yisroel Luchansky
With the season on the line, Tiger drove deep into scoring territory. On fourth and goal, Dudi May launched one last laser to Zazlow, who made an incredible grab — but was ruled out of bounds before the catch by inches. The collective groan could be heard all the way to Seven Mile.
That left Tripping Kosher needing just one first down to clinch their playoff ticket. After three tense plays and one
heroic stop by Chaim Baruch Lefkowitz, it came down to a single snap. Yoyo dropped back, dodged two defenders, and hit Koschitzki — again — with a perfect sideline strike to end it.
Tripping Kosher was heading to the playoffs.
Doctor Auto 18, ActualEyes 8
When Defense Becomes Art
While the Tripping Kosher vs Tiger showdown stole the spotlight, the Doctor Auto vs ActualEyes matchup quietly delivered a defensive masterclass.
Doctor Auto came in missing two of their top receivers (who also happen to double as their starting safeties - because in the JCFL, everyone wears multiple hats). Still, they barely missed a beat.
Quarterback Moshe Lichtman threw three touchdown passes - two to actual receivers and one to Chaim Pleeter, who spent most of the afternoon terrorizing the opposing QB with four sacks, a pass deflection, and enough trash talk to power an entire press conference.
Pleeter wasn’t alone in the defensive domination. Baruch “Barry” Dollman outdueled his brother Eli Dollman, snagging an interception and breaking up two passes. But Eli got the last laugh – literally - when he pulled off two circus catches, including a juggling touchdown that had even the ref clapping.
Meanwhile, DY Green racked up catches and a sack, Hillel Stutman caught a touchdown and several key third-down conversions, and Me-
nachem Blackman made multiple clutch flag pulls to seal the win. Avi Safren nearly added a touchdown of his own, coming up just inches short.
Doctor Auto’s 18–8 victory marked their second straight win to close the season, proving that even without their full roster, they could still operate at full throttle.
And Now… The Playoffs
So here we are. Four teams remain. Four fan bases nervously refreshing the weather app to check for rain.
• Will Evergreen Benefits Group continue their season-long dominance?
• Will Tidy Up clean up the competition?
• Can Yaakov Schmell – Allstate Insurance prove that they’re in good hands?
• Or will Tripping Kosher keep tripping… over the competition?
Only time — and perhaps a few contested flag pulls — will tell.
The TYH Roofing Postseason promises drama, dazzling plays, and at least one player yelling “he was out of bounds!” long after the whistle. So grab your hoodies, your thermoses, and maybe a few tissues — because in the JCFL, dreams are made and broken every Sunday morning.
And remember: at the end of the day, it’s not about the trophy. It’s about community, competition, and camaraderie. Come out this Sunday to the YL Waitering fields at Pikesville Middle to watch the first round of the playoffs!
Around the Community
Talmidim Of Mesivta Toras Chaim Elul Chizzuk Program Zocheh To Meet Rav Ahron Lopiansky
By: BJLife Newsroom | Photos: Baruch Taffel
In honor of completing an Elul Chizzuk program Mesivta Toras Chaim bochurim had the incredible zechus to meet with Rav Ahron Lopiansky, Shlita.
The Rosh Yeshiva shared divrei bracha to the bochurim and encour-
aged them to continue their growth in avodas Hashem by tapping into the incredible feeling that stems from their accomplishments.
Motzaei Shabbos Learning at Ohel Moshe
Motzei Shabbos Learning Season Begins at Bais Haknesses Ohr HaTorah of Stevenson
Shomrei Emunah launched its Kol Hanearim program with an exciting game of laser tag, along with pizza and prizes (after learning, of course)
Motzaei Shabbos Learning at Shomrei Emunah
First Winter Avos U’Bonim at Khal Machzekei Torah featuring divrei chizuk from HaRav Nesanel Kostelitz, shlita
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BARNET FAMILY EDITION
A Story Still Being Written: From Pain To Purpose, The Community Builds Miriam’s Library
In just days, the building at 201 Milford Mill Road is set to close for $2.3 million, marking a milestone for Baltimore’s Jewish community - and for a story that continues to unfold.
Miriam’s Library, named for the late Mrs. Miriam Mintz, a”h, will transform the 14,000-square-foot property into a vibrant family and education center featuring a library, tutoring rooms, and after-school programs.
The project was first announced this past August at the first yahrzeit of Mrs. Mintz, a beloved special educator at TA known for her brilliance, creativity, and heart. Miriam passed away suddenly last year at age 30 from complications during an IVF procedure. What began as a couple’s dream to build a place where every child could shine has now become the community’s mission to carry her life’s work forward - a story still being written, by every student, parent, and friend touched by her legacy.
A crowdfunding campaign runs Tuesday–Thursday, November 18–20, at charidy.com/miriam to complete the remaining funds before closing.
A Teacher Who Made Every Child Shine
For Mrs. Loni Goldman, whose two sons learned with Mrs. Mintz, the library represents both memory and momentum.
“Mrs. Mintz was a superstar teacher,” she said. “Every lesson was creative, patient, and full of joy. She pushed our boys to succeed but never let them get frustrated. She taught them to believe in themselves.”
Her sons made tremendous academic progress, but what stayed with them most wasn’t the work - it was the example.
“She showed them that no matter what life gives you, you keep smiling and moving forward,” Mrs. Goldman said. “My son once told me, ‘I’d be doing so much better in school if I could still learn with Mrs. Mintz.’ That’s the kind of impact she had.”
Aunt Miriam’s Touch
Miriam’s devotion extended beyond her classroom. Her nephew, Moshe Zalman Ungar, now seven, remembers,
“Aunt Miriam was so kind to me and helped me learn so I could be successful.”
His mother, Mrs. Devorah Ungar, recalled those early days:
“Even as a toddler, he’d drag over the Little Midrash Says and sit beside
her for hours. She’d retell the Parsha stories so he could understand them. Later she taught him Alef-Beis with funny tricks - ‘the beis has a belly,’ ‘the chof has a cough drop.’ Seeing how she celebrated every child’s progress gave me a whole new appreciation for her students.”
Carrying the Mission Forward
With closing just weeks away, excitement is building. Miriam’s Library will serve as a home for learning,
growth, and connection - a place where children can receive tutoring, do homework, and discover the joy of learning in a warm, supportive environment.
What began in pain has become purpose - and the story is still being written. Every donation, every child who opens a book, every life touched will add another line to Miriam’s enduring legacy.
To take part in writing the next chapter, visit charidy.com/miriam.
Miriam with the Goldman boys – Beloved teacher with two of her students.
Miriam with her nephew Moshe Zalman – With her nephew, Moshe Zalman Ungar, sharing her trademark warmth and joy.
Yahrzeit event and campaign launch – Over 400 attended the tribute with Rabbi Shais Taub, where Miriam’s Library was announced.
BJH: Mendel, thank you for joining us. Let’s begin at the beginning: where did you grow up, and what was your family like?
Mendel Mintz: I grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in a typical Chabad family. I’m the second of eight siblings—lots of family all around the world, thank G-d. My parents run JLI, the Jewish Learning Institute, which creates curriculums and programming for Chabad centers across the globe. It’s a large network, over a thousand centers teaching and sharing the warmth of Yiddishkeit with their communities.
BJH: You were involved in many community projects in Crown Heights. Can you share some highlights?
613 Seconds Mendel Mintz
Building Miriam’s Legacy
and Chabad life. My focus was always getting things done, whatever that took.
BJH: How did these experiences prepare you for your move to Baltimore and your next stages in life?
MM: Honestly, as a Bocher, I never pictured myself living in Baltimore, or outside the Chabad world. But all those experiences—producing events, adapting, solving problems—gave me the tools to adapt and even thrive anywhere. My upbringing taught me that nothing is impossible, that we all have a spark of the infinite within us. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, and his Torah really inspired me to maintain this approach.
BJH: Let’s talk about Miriam. How did you meet, and what stood out to you about her?
she handwrote notes to every student along with their wedding invitation. She went far beyond what was expected to make every kid feel seen and special. She knew firsthand about overcoming challenges, and she wanted all her students to feel that adaptation and care were normal, whatever their needs.
BJH: Did your shared perspective on life contribute to your connection?
MM: Our specific challenges didn’t define us, but our outlook did. Neither of us saw the world as something to just accept passively—we believed in actively finding solutions and transforming the world around us. Every day was a new opportunity, not a problem to endure. That’s the perspective we shared and tried to live by.
BJH: You were married for just over two years. What did those years mean to you?
MM: We met a bit over three and a half years ago through a Shadchan. What really struck me from the first date was her normalcy. Miriam had every reason to lean into being “extraordinary” in the public eye, but she just wanted to live authentically, as herself. Her normality and genuine caring for others were what inspired so many people, myself included.
MM: Chabad emphasizes action, so wherever there was a need, I tried to step up. I helped run the Simchas Beis Hasoeiva in Crown Heights as well as establishing a 300-foot temporary Beis Midrash during the Yomim Tovim annually—those events brought together over 10,000 people at times. I handled elements from fundraising to coordination with city officials, like the NYPD and the mayor’s office. I also did archival work—producing and organizing photos, videos, and media about the Rebbe
BJH: Miriam was known for her dedication to children and education. Can you tell us about her work?
MM: Miriam was incredible with children—her whole reputation was built around her care for each child. She worked in TA and saw her students almost as her own kids. When we got engaged,
MM: Those two years were the best of our lives. It felt as if G-d consolidated a lifetime’s worth of marriage into just two years. We traveled together, accomplished so much, and my world expanded thanks to Miriam. She showed me how much bigger things could be. Just before she passed, we were about to start our own Chabad House in Glen Burnie. Losing her especially so sudden and tragic is obviously challenging and painful, but I’m grateful for every day I merited to be with her. Every day was a Bracha.
BJH: How do you continue to draw inspiration from Miriam?
MM: Every day is a new battle, but
Miriam changed me. Our deep conversations during our marriage prepared me, somehow, to move forward. She taught me that, no matter how difficult, the alternative to getting up and pushing forward simply isn’t an option.
BJH: You’re creating Miriam’s Library in her memory. What is your vision for that?
MM: Miriam’s Library isn’t just a memorial—it’s a living legacy. It will be a resource center in Baltimore offering after-school programming, special-ed tutoring, a resource room for teachers, and more. We want it to be a place where Miriam’s passion for education and individual care lives on, helping every child and educator reach their full potential.
BJH: How can the community get involved?
MM: We’re closing on a building soon—over 14,000 square feet—and we’re launching a capital campaign November 18–20. The community’s support will help make this vision a reality, creating something enduring for Baltimore and beyond.
BJH: Any closing thoughts?
MM: Just gratitude. Baltimore’s community has been so welcoming. This library is our way of saying thank you— and of opening new doors for every child, parent, and teacher who walks in. We don’t just break ground—we cut ribbons and celebrate new beginnings, in Miriam’s spirit.
To donate now to the campaign, please visit charidy.com/miriam.
The Week In News
The Week In News
The end of the story is yet to be written.”
Christophe Ingrain, one of Sarkozy’s lawyers, hailed his client’s release as “a step forward” and said they would now be preparing for the appeal trial expected in March.
Sarkozy Released on Appeal
Three weeks into his five-year prison term, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was released from jail. He will be subject to strict judicial supervision and barred from leaving France ahead of an appeal trial due to be held next year.
On October 21, Sarkozy, 70, was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to fund his 2007 election campaign with money from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
His legal team immediately filed a request seeking his release.
Writing on social media after the release, Sarkozy said his “energy is focused solely on the single goal of proving my innocence.”
He added, “The truth will prevail...
Sarkozy is not allowed to contact any other witnesses in the so-called “Libyan dossier” or any justice ministry employees.
During his incarceration, he was visited by Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin. The visit prompted 30 French lawyers to file a complaint against Darmanin, highlighting what they said was a conflict of interest as Darmanin was a former colleague and friend of Sarkozy’s.
Speaking to a court in Paris via video link on Monday morning, Sarkozy described his time in solitary confinement as “grueling” and “a nightmare.” He said he had never had the “mad idea” of asking Gaddafi for money and stated he would “never admit to something I haven’t done.”
Sarkozy is the first French ex-leader placed behind bars since World War II Nazi collaborationist leader Philippe Pétain was jailed for treason in 1945.
Sarkozy was president of France from 2007 to 2012.
Mosque Explosion in Indonesia
A 17-year-old boy has been fingered as the person behind the attack on a mosque at a high school during Friday prayers in Jakarta, Indonesia. At least 55 people were injured in the attack, most of them students.
Police are saying that they don’t believe that the attack was terror related.
According to police, the suspect –who was undergoing surgery after the attack and was a student at the school – had assembled a toy submachine gun with words inscribed on it including “14 words. For Agartha,” and “Brenton Tarrant: Welcome to [gehenom].”
“14 words” is generally a reference to a white supremacist slogan. Brenton Tarrant is the perpetrator of a 2019 mass shooting at a mosque and Islamic center in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 and injured dozens of others.
“We discovered the weapon was a toy gun with specific markings, which we are
also investigating to understand the motive, including how he assembled it and carried out the attack,” National Police Chief Listyo Sigit said.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. It has had its share of terror attacks. In 2002, al-Qaeda staged bombings on the resort island of Bali in which 202 people were killed. In 2011, a Muslim militant blew himself up in a mosque at a police compound in Cirebon packed with officers during Friday prayers, injuring 30 people.
Since 2023, the Southeast Asia nation has experienced what authorities call a “zero attack phenomenon,” crediting the government for the stable security situation.
Space Snafu
Three astronauts who flew to space in April are now trying to get home.
Wang Jie, Chen Zhongrui and Chen Dong, who were part of the Shenzhou-20 space mission, flew to the Tiangong space station a few months ago. Last week, they were expected to return home after a six-
Greater Washington Weekday Minyanim Guide
6:15 am Young Israel Shomrai Emunah M-F
6:25 am Southeast Hebrew Cong., Knesset Yehoshua M-F
6:30 am Beth Sholom Congregation M-F
Beit Halevi (Sfardi) M, T
Chabad of Silver Spring M-F
Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah OLNEY M-F
Young Israel Shomrai Emunah S YGW M, Th
6:35 am Ohr Hatorah M, Th
6:40 am YGW S, T, W, F
Magen David Sephardic Congregation M-Th
6:45 am Beit Halevi (Sfardi) S, T, W, F
Kemp Mill Synagogue M, Th
Ohr Hatorah T, W, F
Young Israel Shomrai Emunah M, Th
6:50 am Woodside Synagogue/Ahavas Torah M, Th Silver Spring Jewish Center M-F
Chabad of Upper Montgomery County M-F
6:55 am Young Israel Shomrai Emunah T, W, F
7:00 am Kemp Mill Synagogue T, W, F
Southeast Hebrew Cong., Knesset Yehoshua S Silver Spring Jewish Center S
Darnestown Rd, Gaithersburg, MD 20878
OLNEY
Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah (OSTT)
18320 Georgia Ave, Olney, MD 20832
Woodside Synagogue/Ahavas Torah T, W, F
Young Israel Ezras Israel of Potomac T, W, F
7:05 am Kesher Israel M, Th
7:15 am Kemp Mill Synagogue M, Th Kesher Israel T, W, F
Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah/The National Synagogue M-F
Ohr Hatorah S
7:30 am Chabad of DC M-F
Chabad of Potomac M-F JROC M-F
Kemp Mill Synagogue T, W, F
Southeast Hebrew Cong., Knesset Yehoshua M-F
Young Israel Shomrai Emunah S
Young Israel Shomrai Emunah (Sfardi) M-F
7:45 am YGW (Yeshiva Session Only) S-F
8:00 am Beth Sholom Congregation S
Kemp Mill Synagogue S Kesher Israel S
Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah OLNEY S
Southeast Hebrew Cong., Knesset Yehoshua S Chabad of Upper Montgomery County S Woodside Synagogue/Ahavas Torah S
Young Israel Ezras Israel of Potomac S Young Israel Shomrai Emunah (Sfardi) S
8:05 am Ezras Israel Congregation of Rockville M, Th
8:15 am Ohr Hatorah S Ezras Israel Congregation of Rockville S, T, W, F
Kehilat Pardes / Berman Hebrew Academy S-F
Silver Spring Jewish Center M-F
8:30 am Chabad of DC S Chabad of Potomac S JROC S Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah/The National Synagogue S
Silver Spring Jewish Center S YGW (Summer Only) S-F
8:45 am Young Israel Shomrai Emunah S-F
9:00 am Chabad of Silver Spring S Kemp Mill Synagogue S
12:30 pm YGW S
1:00 pm Silver Spring Jewish Center S-F
2:10 pm YGW M, T, W
2:45 pm YGW S-Th
3:00 pm YGW Middle School School Days mincha
mincha/maariv
Before Shkiah (15-18 minutes), S-TH
Beit Halevi (Sfardi)
Beth Sholom Congregation
Chabad of Potomac
Chabad of Silver Spring
Chabad of Upper Montgomery County
Ezras Israel Congregation of Rockville (20 min before, S-F) JROC
Kemp Mill Synagogue
Kesher Israel
Magen David Sephardic Congregation
Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah/The National Synagogue
Ohr Hatorah
Silver Spring Jewish Center
Southeast Hebrew Congregation
Woodside Synagogue/Ahavas Torah
Young Israel Ezras Israel of Potomac
Young Israel Shomrai Emunah (Asheknaz) Young Israel Shomrai Emunah (Sefarhadi) maariv
7:30
8:15
8:45
9:00
9:30
9:45
shacharis
The Week In News
month mission. The Shenzhou-21 crew, who were sent to replace them, had already arrived over the weekend.
According to the China Manned Space Agency, “The Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft is suspected to have been struck by a small piece of orbital debris, and assessment of the impact and associated risks is currently underway.
“To ensure the health and safety of the astronauts and the successful completion of the mission, it has been decided that the originally planned return of Shenzhou-20 on November 5 will be postponed.”
Both crews are now onboard Tiangong, a permanently crewed space station operated by the China Manned Space Agency. It is China’s first long-term space station and has spent 1,652 days in orbit.
Tiangong has capacity for six crew –and is currently occupied by astronauts from the Shenzhou-20 and Shenzhou-21 missions.
On Tuesday, the Shenzhou-20 and Shenzhou-21 crews conducted a handover ceremony.
Yu Jun, a science communicator known online as Steed’s Scarf, said a backup plan may be activated if the spacecraft is deemed unsafe to return.
China has continued to expand its space program. It has so far completed 37 flights and six crewed missions and has plans to land astronauts on the moon by the end of the decade.
Chen Dong, the commander of Shenzhou-20, holds the country’s record for the longest time in space –380 days cumulatively.
Gadhafi’s Son Released
Hannibal Gadhafi, son of infamous Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, was released on Monday after he paid a $900,000 bail, ending his 10-year detention for allegedly withholding information about a missing Lebanese cleric. His lawyer, Charbel Milad al-Khoury, said, “Hannibal is officially free and has the full right to choose the destination that he wants.”
The release came days after Lebanese authorities lifted a travel ban and reduced
the bail for Hannibal Gadhafi, paving the way for his release.
Thursday’s decision by the country’s judicial authorities to lift the travel ban and reduce the bail from $11 million came days after a Libyan delegation visited Lebanon and made progress in talks for the release of Gadhafi.
Last month, a Lebanese judge ordered Gadhafi’s release on $11 million bail but banned him from traveling outside Lebanon. His lawyers said at the time that he didn’t have enough money to pay that amount and sought permission for him to leave the country.
On Thursday, his bail was reduced to 80 billion Lebanese pounds (about $900,000) and the travel ban was lifted, allowing him to leave the country once he pays the bail.
Detained in Lebanon in 2015, Gadhafi was accused of withholding information about the fate of Lebanese Shiite cleric Moussa al-Sadr who disappeared during a trip to Libya in 1978. Hannibal Gadhafi was less than 3 years old at the time.
Gadhafi had been living in exile in Syria with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and children until he was abducted in 2015 and brought to Lebanon by Lebanese militants who were demanding information about al-Sadr.
The case has been a long-standing sore point in Lebanon. The cleric’s family believes he may still be alive in a Libyan prison, though most Lebanese presume he is dead. He would be 96 years old. Al-Sadr, who went missing with companions Abbas Badreddine and Mohammed Yacoub, was the founder of a Shiite political and military group that took part in the long Lebanese Civil War that began in 1975, largely pitting Muslims against Christians.
Moammar Gadhafi was killed in 2011 during Libya’s civil war. He had ruled Libya for four decades. After Moammar was killed, Hannibal fled to Algeria. He later moved to Syria where he was given political asylum and stayed there until he was taken to Lebanon.
Moammar Gadhafi had eight children from two marriages. Most of them had significant roles in his government. His son Muatassim was killed at the same time as the leader was captured and slain. Two other sons, Saif al-Arab and Khamis, were killed in the uprising.
Saif al-Islam, the one-time heir apparent to his father, has been in Libya since his release from detention there in 2017. Gadhafi’s son Mohammed and daughter Aisha live in Oman. Al-Saadi, a
former soccer player, was released from prison in Libya in 2021 after being jailed following repatriation from Niger in 2014 and is believed to be living in Turkey.
12 Killed in Bomb in Islamabad
On Tuesday, a suicide bomber struck outside the gates of a district court in Islamabad, Pakistan. Twelve people were killed when he detonated his explosives near a police car. At least 27 other people were wounded.
The blast was heard for miles away and came at a busy time of day when the area outside the court is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending court hearings.
The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. This is not the first time the group has staged an attack in recent years. This time, though, it demonstrated its power to strike the capital of Pakistan.
The attacker tried to “enter the court premises but, failing to do so, targeted a police vehicle,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi explained. Earlier reports by Pakistani state-run media and two security officials said a car bomb had caused the explosion.
Naqvi alleged that the attack was “carried out by Indian-backed elements and Afghan Taliban proxies” linked to the Pakistani Taliban. Still, he said authorities are “looking into all aspects” of the explosion.
Meanwhile, Pakistani security forces said they foiled an attempt by militants to take cadets hostage at an army-run college overnight, when a suicide car bomber and five other attackers targeted the facility in a northwestern province.
The authorities blamed the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP — a separate militant group allied with the Afghan Taliban. The TTP denied involvement in Monday’s attack, and on Tuesday, its spokesman Mohammad Khurasani also denied involvement in Tuesday’s attack.
The attack on Monday evening started when a bomber tried to storm the school in Wana, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border. The area had until recent years served as a base for the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign militants. Two of the terrorists were killed by troops. Three others were able to enter the compound
before being cornered.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced both the attack in Islamabad and in Wana. “We will ensure the perpetrators are apprehended and held accountable,” he assured.
Sharif described attacks on unarmed civilians as “reprehensible” and added, “We will not allow the blood of innocent Pakistanis to go to waste.”
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said on X that the country is in a state of war and laid the blame with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which Islamabad accuses of sheltering the TTP.
Afghanistan “can act to stop terrorism in Pakistan, but bringing this war to Islamabad is a message from Kabul,” Asif said and warned that Pakistan “has the strength to respond fully.”
Pakistan has outlawed the TTP, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and the United States and the United Nations have designated the group a terrorist organization. The Afghan Taliban takeover in Kabul in 2021 emboldened the TTP, and many of its leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan. Kabul denies that it’s protecting the TTP. Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have risen in recent months. Kabul has blamed Islamabad for drone strikes on Oct. 9 that killed several people in the Afghan capital and vowed retaliation. Cross-border fighting broke out after that incident. A ceasefire was brokered by Qatar on October 19.
Since then, two rounds of peace talks have been held in Istanbul — the latest on Thursday — but ended without agreement after Kabul refused to provide a written assurance that the TTP and other militant groups would not use Afghan territory against Pakistan.
Kazakhstan Joins Abraham Accords
On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that Kazakhstan would join the Abraham Accords, becoming the first country to do so in the president’s second term.
Kazakhstan, a Central Asian former Soviet state with a predominantly Muslim
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population, already has diplomatic relations with Israel, unlike the other Arab and Muslim-majority countries that joined the accords during Trump’s first term. Still, the Trump administration has praised the mostly symbolic move, noting that it would encourage other countries to join.
“This is a major step forward in building bridges across the world. Today, more nations are lining up to embrace peace and prosperity through my Abraham Accords,” the president said following a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Trump met with Tokayev and four other Kazakhstani leaders at the White House on Thursday evening.
“We will soon announce a signing ceremony to make it official, and there are many more countries trying to join this club of STRENGTH,” he added. “So
much more to come in uniting countries for stability and growth — real progress, real results. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”
The government of Kazakhstan later said that the country’s accession to the Abraham Accords was “a natural and logical continuation of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy course — grounded in dialogue, mutual respect, and regional stability.”
When asked by reporters about the deal’s significance, Vice President JD Vance replied, “What the president has done is signal that the momentum of the Abraham Accords is alive and well in the second administration. It’s not just going to be Kazakhstan but also a number of other countries that join in the months to come.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio added that the Abraham Accords isn’t only about normalizing ties between Israel and Muslim countries.
“You’re now creating a partnership that brings special and unique economic development on all sorts of issues… The strength of it is to have majority Muslim countries and the Jewish state able to partner on things to show the world that it is possible,” Rubio said.
The Trump administration hopes to bring other Arab and Muslims countries, including Saudi Arabia and Syria, into the Abraham Accords. When asked whether he would speak with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa about the Abraham Accords, Trump simply stated that he believed Sharaa is doing a “very good job” in a “tough neighborhood.”
Reuters reported in August that the Trump administration hoped to bring Azerbaijan, another country that already has ties with Israel, into the agreement, as well.
During Trump’s first administration, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan joined the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations with the Jewish state. No nations joined the accords during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Hadar Goldin, Hy”d, is Finally Home
After over 11 years in Gaza, the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin — whom Hamas mur-
dered and kidnapped during the 2014 Gaza War — has been returned to Israel.
On Saturday, the Hamas terror group confirmed that it had Goldin’s body in a tunnel in Rafah. A day later, the Red Cross handed the fallen soldier’s remains to the Israel Defense Forces. The body was then brought to the Abu Kabir institute in Tel Aviv and identified.
According to a senior Turkish official, Turkey was heavily involved in recovering Goldin’s body.
“We are pleased to confirm that Turkey has successfully facilitated the return of Hadar Goldin’s remains to Israel after 11 years. This achievement is the outcome of intensive efforts and reflects Hamas’s clear commitment to the ceasefire,” the official told Channel 12 news, adding that Turkey is also trying to help 100 to 200
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trapped Hamas terrorists escape tunnels in parts of southern Gaza that are now under IDF control.
Goldin was murdered and abducted on August 1, 2014, right as the 2014 Gaza War’s 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire began. He and two other soldiers from the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit were killed after being ambushed by terrorists in Rafah.
Goldin’s family, who have been waiting over 11 years for his return, remembered their beloved son and brother and expressed their gratitude to the army.
“How do I feel? I don’t know yet,” his sister Ayelet wrote on social media. “But I do know that what strengthens me is that we remained true to our truth — to our Israeli values. My Hadar — you are my inspiration. And you live in my heart always, and I love you very much. And finally, you’ve come home.”
Goldin’s parents, Leah and Simcha, thanked the IDF for recovering their son’s remains. Simcha credited his son’s return to “the IDF, and no one else,” implying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t responsible for the recovery of Goldin’s body. For years, Goldin’s family has accused Netanyahu of failing to adequately pressure Hamas to release the fallen soldier’s remains.
“It took us 11 years to get him back, with the help of the IDF and the security services,” Goldin’s mother said.
“We went around the world to do the impossible, to demonstrate that we have shared values, no matter the religion or race, that all have the responsibility to bring home a soldier’s body from the battlefield for proper burial,” says Leah Goldin. “These are the values we fought for. We went through so many disappointments.
“October 7 was a call and an alarm clock for everyone in Israel,” she said. “So look at us, and come have a coffee with us, and we’ll explain to you that we must fight for our kids because without our kids, we have no continuity.”
Goldin’s father said that his son would be a symbol of idealism and moral conviction. “We brought back the symbol, and now we have to protect it and fight for it.”
“We took many actions, but naturally, once we entered Gaza, we were able to do much more,” he said. “And with G-d’s help, thanks to the heroism of IDF soldiers and the decisions we made, they came home. Today, Hadar Goldin is coming home.”
President Isaac Herzog praised Herzog as a “hero of Israel,” and noted his family’s “tireless and persistent struggle.” Herzog added that he also had Goldin’s picture on his desk.
Now, the bodies of four hostages remain in Gaza: Meny Godard, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, Dror Or, and Sudthisak Rinthalak, a Thai national. The Prime Minister’s Office pledged to continue fighting for the remaining hostages’ release and said the Jewish state “shares in the deep sorrow of the Goldin family and of all the families of the fallen hostages.”
Goldin’s return “provides some measure of comfort to a family that has lived with agonizing uncertainty and doubt for over 11 years,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said, adding, “We will not rest until the last hostage is brought home.”
Goldin was 23 years old when he was killed. He is survived by his parents, Leah and Simcha, his older siblings Ayelet and Chemi, and his twin brother Tzur, with whom he was very close. Shortly before his tragic death, Goldin and his fiancée, Edna Sarussi, got engaged and had started planning their wedding.
New IDF Legal Chief
On Sunday, Defense Minister Israel Katz ratified Itai Ofir’s appointment as military advocate general. On November 24, Ofir will replace Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who stepped down and confessed to initiating the leaking of a video that allegedly shows IDF soldiers mistreating a Palestinian prisoner.
Katz’s office announced Ofir’s promotion on Monday. Ofir, an attorney who previously worked in Israel and the United States, was the Defense Ministry legal adviser from 2017 to 2024. Before becoming legal chief, he will be promoted from captain to major general. When he was in the army, he was a Givati Brigade combat officer, and in the reserves, he fought in the Negev Brigade. Five-rank
Following the return of Goldin’s body, Netanyahu delivered a video statement in which he said he “always had two pictures in [his] office: of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, of blessed memory.” He added, while holding a picture of Goldin, that he had “vowed that we would bring them home” and “never gave up on that for a moment.”
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promotions of this sort are rare, though others have occasionally seen similar promotions.
According to reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose son Yair opposed the appointee’s candidacy, was unhappy and surprised by Katz’s decision to confirm Ofir.
An investigation by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara found no evidence of wrongdoing on Tomer-Yerushalmi’s part. Around a week ago, after Tomer-Yerushalmi confessed, Justice Minister Yariv Levin appointed Asher Kula, the state ombudsman for judges, to investigate, noting that Baharav-Miara is no longer unbiased. Kula has requested investigation materials from the police, but Israel Police chief Danny Levy has refused to cooperate until the High Court selects the case’s investigator on Tuesday morning. Coalition lawmakers have criticized Levy for his refusal.
On Friday, after Tomer-Yerushalmi posted bail, she was released to house arrest. However, she was promptly taken to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv on Sunday morning after she apparently attempted suicide by digesting a large number of sleeping pills at home.
Authorities have indicted five soldiers who allegedly took part in the mistreatment shown in the videos on charges of causing severe injury and aggravated assault. Officials have condemned the video as a “blood libel.”
Still Not Home
On October 13, the last living hostages finally made it back to Israeli soil. But of the 28 deceased hostages whose bodies were still held by Hamas when the Gaza ceasefire took effect, four families still wait for closure as their loved ones’ bodies remain in the Gaza Strip, leaving them unable to bury their fathers, sons and siblings.
The families of these final four remain in limbo, as Hamas claims it is currently unable to reach some and does not know where others are. Israeli officials have said they do not believe all the terror group’s claims on the matter.
Meny Godard, 73, was murdered in Kibbutz Be’eri by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists alongside his wife, Ayelet, on October 7, 2023. His body was then taken into Gaza.
A joint funeral was held for the couple a few weeks later, but only Ayelet was buried.
Godard was described as a man who loved sports, the ocean and people. He was also a dedicated member of the kibbutz, holding a variety of positions within it.
Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, 24, was killed battling Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Alumim on October 7. His body was taken into Gaza.
Gvili had been at the hospital that morning awaiting surgery but decided to go help when he heard of the Hamas onslaught on southern communities.
In January 2024, the family was notified that he had been killed in the attack.
Dror Or, 48, was murdered by Hamas terrorists and abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7. His wife, Yonat, was also murdered, and his kids, Noam and Alma, were abducted alive and released a month later as part of a hostage deal.
Dror was believed to be alive until his family was notified the following May that he had been murdered on October 7. Sudthisak Rinthalak, 43, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7. His body was then taken into Gaza.
Rinthalak was an agricultural worker from Thailand who sent money home to help his struggling family. On the morning of the attack, he was working on the kibbutz when he was murdered.
His family was notified in May 2024 that he had been murdered.
Rinthalak’s father said he is the “missing pillar of the family.”
Death Penalty for Terrorists
This week, lawmakers voted in favor of the first reading of a bill to impose the death penalty on terrorists who have killed Israelis.
The bill was sponsored by Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech. The vote was 39-16 in favor of the bill.
Two other death penalty bills, sponsored by Likud MK Nissim Vaturi and Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer, also
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passed their first readings 36-15 and 37- The bill states that it applies to those in certain circumstances under martial law that applies within the IDF and in the West Bank, but currently requires a unanimous decision from a panel of three judges and has never been implemented.
“Today, we took a historic step towards true justice and strengthening deterrence against terrorism. The death penalty law for terrorists, which passed its first reading, is a moral and national expression of a people that refuses to accept a reality in which murderers of Jews live in prison and expect deals,” said Son Har-Melech.
“No more mercy, no more hesitation. We choose life, and whoever chooses death will bear the consequences of his actions.”
Watson of DNA Fame Dies
The bill will now be referred to committee to be prepared for the final two readings it needs to pass to become law.
Except for Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party, which voted in favor, the votes were largely boycotted by the opposition, with all of Blue and White and all but one of Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party’s MKs staying away. Lapid had said earlier on Monday that he would not cooperate with Otzma Yehudit’s “political stunts.”
United Torah Judaism’s Degel HaTorah faction had earlier pledged to oppose the bill while all but two of the coalition Shas party’s lawmakers missed the latenight vote. Degel HaTorah spiritual leadthat the bill
Son Har-Melech told lawmakers on Monday evening that standing with her “are thousands of murder victims, but they cannot stand on their feet to point an accusing finger at the loathsome murderers and to cry out against the Palestinian
She said she came to speak on behalf of “all the victims of Palestinian terror,” describing how she was moved to follow her current path following the murder of her husband in a terror attack in 2003.
The terrorist who led the cell that murdered Son Har-Melech’s husband Shalom went on to take part in other attacks, including October 7 — although two others implicated in the attack were released as part of the latest ceasefire deal, she said, asking how many people would have been
“When the message is unequivocal, without loopholes and without equivocation, the death penalty for terrorists law changes perception. It changes the paradigm. No more prisons. No more deals. No more suspended sentences. But a death sentence. Because it’s very simple: when a terrorist dies, he does not return to the circle of terror and will not be re-
James D. Watson, famous for co-discovering the twisted-ladder structure of DNA in 1953, died this week at the age of 97.
Watson made that famous discovery was he was just 24 years old. He shared a 1962 Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for discovering that deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a double helix, consisting of two strands that coil around each other to create what resembles a long, gently twisting ladder. What they discovered was a breakthrough in science. It instantly suggested how hereditary information is stored and how cells duplicate their DNA when they divide. The duplication begins with the two strands of DNA pulling apart like a zipper. They had used Tinker Toy-like models to work out the molecule’s structure.
“Francis Crick and I made the discovery of the century, that was pretty clear,” Watson once said. He later wrote, “There was no way we could have foreseen the explosive impact of the double helix on science and society.”
Prior to the discovery, Watson’s son, Rufus, had been hospitalized with a possible diagnosis of schizophrenia, and Watson figured that knowing the complete makeup of DNA would be crucial for understanding that disease, hopefully to help his son.
Watson never felt the need to say things that were politically correct.
“A goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid,” he wrote in “The Double Helix,” his bestselling 1968 book about the DNA discovery.
For
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For success in science, he wrote: “You have to avoid dumb people. ... Never do anything that bores you. ... If you can’t stand to be with your real peers (including scientific competitors) get out of science. ... To make a huge success, a scientist has to be prepared to get into deep trouble.”
He also was quoted in 2007 as saying that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — where all the testing says not really.” He said that while he hopes everyone is equal, “people who have to deal with Black employees find this is not true.”
He was forced to apologize after that comment and was suspended from his job as chancellor of the prestigious Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. He retired a week later. He had served in various leadership jobs there for nearly 40 years.
In a television documentary that aired in early 2019, Watson was asked if his views had changed. “No, not at all,” he said.
Watson was born in Chicago in 1928 into “a family that believed in books, birds and the Democratic Party,” as he put it. He entered the University of Chicago on a scholarship at 15, graduated at 19 and earned his doctorate in zoology at Indiana University three years later.
He got interested in genetics at age 17 when he read a book that said genes were the essence of life.
“I thought, ‘Well, if the gene is the essence of life, I want to know more about it,’” he later recalled. “And that was fateful because, otherwise, I would have spent my life studying birds and no one would have heard of me.”
Flight Cancellations
To ensure air safety during the government shutdown, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced an up to 10% traffic reduction at 40 major airports, forcing flight cancellations.
As per an emergency order implemented Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Department, air traffic was supposed to be reduced 4% on Friday, 6% on Tuesday, 8% by November 13, and 10% by November 14.
Additionally, the order restricts commercial space launches to nonpeak hours
and limits parachute operations. Though Duffy has said the United States’s air-travel system is safe, flight reductions were necessary, as the shutdown — the longest in U.S. history — took a toll on airport workers, who weren’t getting paid and were overstaffed.
The FAA’s order applies to 40 major airports, including ones in Atlanta, New York, and Chicago.
According to an internal memo by Southwest Airlines, “a 4% reduction in key markets represents approximately 100 flights, a level we routinely manage during standard weather or irregular operational events.”
These cancellations are in line with what airports expect during a winter storm.
By Thursday night, over 520 flights for Friday were canceled by airlines, according to aviation-analytics company Cirium. Around 170 flights, including from regional carriers SkyWest, Republic, and Endeavor Air, were canceled by Delta, a company spokesperson confirmed. On Sunday, over 10,000 flights were delayed or canceled due to the shutdown and bad weather.
On Sunday, the shutdown’s 40th day, the Senate voted to end the shutdown. The bill, which now awaits a House vote, was passed Monday night by the Senate after a group of Democrats sided with Republicans.
Senate Passes Shutdown Bill
On Monday, the 41st day of the government shutdown, the Senate finally voted to fund the government. The bill was then sent to the House, which was scheduled to vote on the funding package on Wednesday, putting the government on track to reopen this week.
For over a month, Democratic lawmakers refused to vote to reopen the government until the Republicans agreed to renew Obamacare subsidies, which are supposed to expire by the end of the year. The Democrats, however, failed to achieve that objective, as eight Senate Democrats conceded and sided with Republicans to end the shutdown. As a compromise, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune has promised that Congress would vote on the subsidies issue by the second week of December.
“We have senators, both Democrat and Republican, who are eager to get to work to address that crisis in a bipartisan
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way,” Thune said. “These senators are not interested in political games; they’re interested in finding real ways to address healthcare costs for American families. We also have a president who is willing to sit down and get to work on this issue.”
Democrats did achieve one of their objectives: the bill reverses the Trump administration’s firing of furloughed federal workers and grants them back pay and future shutdown protections.
The package would fund the government until January 30.
Among those who broke with the Democratic Party to vote for the deal were Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
“This was the only deal on the table,” Shaheen explained. “It was our best chance to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations to extend the [Obamacare] tax credits that tens of millions of Americans rely on to keep costs down.”
“If you wait another week, they’re going to get hurt more, another month or even more,” Kaine said. “So what got me over the line was the pledge that they were able to give the federal employees.”
Speaker Mike Johnson said the House would hopefully vote on the bill on Wednesday.
Congress’ 40-day stalemate ended after the shutdown caused major air traffic delays and cancellations.
Trump Pardons Giuliani and Co.
President Donald Trump issued pardons for over 70 people who were involved in efforts to challenge the 2020 election. Most notably, Trump pardoned Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who served as the president’s personal lawyer.
The pardons were announced Sunday night by Ed Martin, the U.S. government’s pardon attorney.
“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation,” said Martin.
Among those pardoned were Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman,
Jenna Ellis, and Boris Epshteyn. The proclamation, which was signed November 7, specifies that the pardon “does not apply to the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.” Trump’s federal indictment was dropped by special counsel Jack Smith after the president was elected to a second term.
The pardons were mostly symbolic, as they only apply federally and federal courts have never charged those who were pardoned.
Multiple state attorney generals and officials noted that the pardons do not apply to state charges. In Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada, prosecutors have been going after many of the people who Trump just pardoned.
“These great Americans were persecuted … by the Biden Administration for challenging an election, which is the cornerstone of democracy,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, stated. “Getting prosecuted for challenging results is something that happens in communist Venezuela, not the United States of America, and President Trump is putting an end to the Biden Regime’s communist tactics once and for all.”
Great Grapes
We know that wine should be aged –the longer it’s sitting in those barrels, the better the wine may be.
Now, a grapevine found in the mountains of Tibet has been certified by Guinness World Records as the oldest wild living vine in the world. The vintage? It has been proven to be 416 years old.
The vine, located in Zuoba Village, Zogang County, was first discovered during a survey of ancient and notable trees in Changdu city and was later analyzed by scientists from the Wood Science Research Laboratory at Southwest Forestry University in China.
The researchers used ring analysis and physical measurements to determine the vine’s age. Hey, grape minds think alike!
The vine, located at an altitude of nearly 7,900 feet, measures about 26 feet tall and has a diameter of more than 2 feet. What did the grape do when someone stepped on it? Nothing, it just let out a little “whine!”
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Our
Fighting antisemitism
Caring for those in need
Strengthening Jewish identity
Supporting the people of Israel
The Battle Against Antisemitism Takes Center Stage At Dirshu Event
Trump’s Antisemitism Czar Mark Walker Meets With Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch And Attends Major Dirshu Event
By Chaim Gold
“First and foremost, we must call antisemitism by its name! we can’t let antisemites hide behind slogans and political terms. They must be called out. We also must be forceful in how we deal with hatred. It is not enough to just send off a tweet saying you condemn an attack on Jews. Attacks must be met with force. Whenever governments show weakness in combating hate, violence and hatred thrive.”
Those words were said with great passion by Ambassador Mark Walker, President Trump’s nominee for ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, at a special panel discussion and meeting held on the sidelines of Dirshu’s massive cumulative test on Shas and Shulchan Aruch at the Binyanei Haumah Convention Center in Yerushalayim earlier this month. Mr. Walker is a former Republican Congressman from North Carolina.
Ambassador Walker visited Eretz Yisrael last week where he held a lengthy, productive meeting with HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka. In addition, he visited the historic Dirshu testing site where he not only observed the test takers being tested on most of Shas and Shulchan Aruch but also participated in an important panel discussion on antisemitism and what to do about it, with Dirshu members from numerous countries. Dirshu members from Australia, England, Antwerp, Holland and the United States gave the ambassador firsthand reports about the rise of antisemitism in their respective countries and what has changed in recent years. The Ambassador was accompanied by Dirshu’s Nasi, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, to Rav Hirsch’s house and to the Dirshu test. (See box for the opinion piece that appeared on Fox News following Mr. Walker’s visit to Eretz Yisrael.)
When Secularists and Progressives Sideline Religion, They Make a “Religion” Out of Hate
The Ambassador, who is a deeply religious man and understands the integral role that the Jewish nation plays in spreading morality and faith in the world, is deeply dedicated to combatting antisemitism and ensuring that not only should the Jewish nation survive physically and materially, but also spiritually.
His visit to the Dirshu testing site and the time he spent conversing with Dirshu test takers and encouraging the further dedication of the young scholars to studying the Torah and its law, was a testament to the esteem
he has for the Jewish people and the light of scholarship that they bring to the world.
A highlight of his visit to Israel was the time he spent together with the venerated senior Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch in Rav Hirsch’s modest apartment in Bnei Brak.
After greeting each other warmly, Rav Moshe Hillel inquired about Mr. Walker’s background. Mr. Walker told the Rosh Yeshiva that his family were very religious Christians, and he had been raised in a strictly religious environment. Growing up, he was not allowed to watch television, go to the movies, listen to secular music, etc.
Rav Hofstedter then pointed out to the Rosh Yeshiva that Mr. Walker has an interesting theory regarding the current proliferation of antisemitism.
What ensued was a fascinating discussion with Mr. Walker on antisemitism today and what can be done to combat it. The Ambassador maintained that when a society gets taken over by secularists and progressives, they try to sideline religion, thereby creating a void. Instead of being religious, they fill the void by making their “religion” hatred of religion and most prominently hatred of Jews, the Ambassador proposed.
When Rav Moshe Hillel asked Mr. Walker if the increase in antisemitism is because of the war in Gaza and constant headlines about Israel killing “innocent Palestinians,” Mr. Walker answered that the war just revealed what was already percolating beneath the surface. He maintained that this is why universities are such hotbeds of overt antisemitism. Secularism creates a void and the students then channel all their religious fervor into hatred of Jews, violence against Jews and campaigns to get rid of the Jews “From the river to the sea…”
Hearing About Antisemitism the World Over from Jews Who Live All Over the World
Attending the Dirshu test at Binyanei Haumah afforded the Ambassador the opportunity to see the vibrancy of the Torah community in action and its dedication to consistent daily Torah learning. The Ambassador was deeply moved at the sight of so many scholars who dedicate hours each day to learning Torah and maintain that learning through constant review and test taking.
Rav Hofstedter saw the visit of Ambassador Walker as more than just an opportunity to show the Ambassador the global reach of Dirshu. Perhaps just as im-
portantly, he used the test as an opportunity for the Ambassador to hear directly from Dirshu participants who hail from countries across the globe about the antisemitism that they face on the ground in their respective countries as visibly religious Jews.
Indeed, it was a unique opportunity. In his opening remarks introducing Ambassador Walker, Rav Hofstedter told those assembled that the Ambassador has been appointed directly by President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to focus on international religious freedom with antisemitism being a primary focus. He will have a staff of over thirty people working in the State Department to monitor religious freedom and use the power and clout of the United States to encourage governments to actually address antisemitism in a practical way.
It was for that reason that Mr. Walker himself took advantage of the opportunity to hear directly from Dirshu members who live in various countries around the world
The Recent Proliferation of Jew-Hatred and the Fear it Has Aroused
R’ Yumi Rosenbaum, who heads Dirshu’s operations in Australia, told the Ambassador that he was born in Australia and has spent his life there. “In the past forty years, I barely ever experienced any antisemitism until two years ago. In the last two years, there has been a tremendous change! The pro-Palestinian protests have been a catalyst for open Jew hatred. A few months ago, our Shul, Adas Yisrael, was burned down by young people with ties to Iranian agents. Although most Australians were horrified, there is a vocal minority that is violently antisemitic. It has reached a point where many are afraid to leave the Jewish neighborhood wearing our kippas and looking visibly Jewish! I feel a lot safer here in Jerusalem than in Melbourne,” Mr. Rosenbaum concluded.
With great sensitivity, Mr. Walker responded, explaining that part of the problem is that the countries are afraid to deal with the problem head-on. They suffice with mealy mouth declarations against hate, but don’t back up their rhetoric by dealing with those who break the law and punishing them….
Another Dirshu member who spoke about antisemitism was R’ Shmuel Halpern of Manchester. He said that on Yom Kippur of this year a shul in Manchester was attacked and two Jews were killed. “That shul is five houses away from the school that my children attend. It is less than a
fifteen-minute walk from my house. The English government is not doing anything concrete. They hide behind platitudes such as ‘freedom to protest’ thereby allowing the chaos to continue. Everyone knows that the Islamists may be officially protesting about Gaza but they mean all Jews. My children are afraid to go out in the streets. They are afraid of being attacked.
“Recently, the Israeli soccer team played here, and the government did not allow Israeli fans to attend the game ostensibly ‘for their protection’. It is a very weak government,” R’ Shmuel continued, “that is not ready to stand up to its Islamic population and as a result anti-Jewish crimes are being committed all the time.”
A Dirshu representative from Antwerp, R’ Chaim Tursch, explained that the gezeiros made by the Belgian government against shechita and milah, were clearly antisemitic in nature. He also gave examples of how Jews are afraid to leave their neighborhoods in visibly Jewish clothing, and are simply made to feel unwelcome, not just by their neighbors but by the government itself.
Not Just With Words But With Action!
The Ambassador explained that there is a lot of work to do in England and all over Europe. He pointed out that he had just seen how a Jew was arrested and interrogated for hours by the British police for the crime of wearing a magen David. Yes, he was the criminal just because he wore a Jewish symbol. They weren’t the criminals for their antisemitism!
Mr. Walker pointed out that President Trump’s approach is different than most politicians. He is a President who demands results and isn’t afraid to use American power and threats to achieve those results. Mr. Walker gave specific examples of this. He then expressed his confidence that he will have the President’s ear as well as that of Marco Rubio, and that the American Government would undertake renewed efforts at fighting antisemitism and not tolerating it both in America and abroad.
In his concluding remarks, Mr. Walker thanked Rav Hofstedter for enabling him to get acquainted with Dirshu, commenting, “It is amazing what one man can do and how you have succeeded in encouraging the masses to devote time to daily Torah study which is the moral foundation of society!”
He pledged to do everything in his power to fight the scourge of antisemitism that is raging across the globe. Not just with words but with action!
Mark Walker Sound the Alarm Against Rising Antisemitism
Many of us who live in frum enclaves may not realize that we are living through a time of unprecedented overt Jew hatred. Antisemitism and even violent antisemitism have become mainstream. Although there has always been antisemitism, over the past eighty years it was largely contained. It wasn’t socially acceptable to be an antisemite. Today, especially in the aftermath of October 7, antisemitism, both from the far left and the far right, has become acceptable, even normal. In Europe, it is dangerous to walk around in visibly Jewish attire. Jewish buildings are targets. Even in traditionally tolerant America, there is rampant antisemitism on campuses, and in many semi-mainstream media platforms. New York City is even poised to elect an antisemitic Islamist mayor.
A child of Holocaust survivors, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, Nasi of Dirshu, has been observing these developments with mounting alarm. He recently accompanied Mark Walker, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom and a former Republican congressman from North Carolina, on a trip to Eretz Yisrael where he met with Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch and representatives of Jewish communities across the globe. Below are excerpts from an opinion piece that appeared on Fox News following Mr. Walker’s visit to Eretz Yisrael.
Eight decades after the Holocaust, “Never Again” has become a plea rather than a promise. How can it be that within the lifetime of survivors, the same toxic hatred is once again socially acceptable — shouted in the streets, trending online and rationalized by those who should know better?
We are living through one of the most dangerous moral moments in modern history. The world has seen the re-emergence of an ancient hatred that many thought had been buried forever. In America and across the West, antisemitism is not just rising — it is metastasizing. And if history has taught us anything, it’s that when antisemitism
President’s nominee to serve as America’s next Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom. What we witnessed there, and what it revealed about this moment in time, should alarm the conscience of every person who values freedom and faith.
Across the Western world, Jews are once again afraid. In Paris, London, New York and Los Angeles, the scenes are hauntingly familiar. Jewish students conceal their identity on college campuses. Synagogues are guarded like military bases. Businesses are boycotted for having Jewish owners. Families whisper before sending their children to school.
We must confront a hard truth: when hatred of Jews is tolerated, it is not merely a Jewish problem. It is a civilizational crisis. Antisemitism is the world’s oldest hatred precisely because it is the most adaptable. It hides under new slogans, cloaks itself in political rhetoric and finds new justifications — but its essence is always the same: the denial of human dignity.
In Israel, at Yad Vashem, we saw what happens when humanity’s moral compass is lost. For Rabbi Hofstedter, whose parents survived that horror, it was a deeply personal moment — a reminder that evil can flourish when good people stay silent.
That lesson came alive again that evening at a gathering of thousands of Torah scholars who devote their lives to mastering sacred texts. Watching them, we were reminded that light endures — but only when it is protected. The world cannot take for granted that moral light will burn forever. It must be tended, defended and rekindled by each generation. The same is true of freedom.
This is why leadership matters. America’s voice — clear, principled and unapologetic — is needed now more than ever. We are proud to see a president and an administration that have made confronting antisemitism and defending religious liberty a central priority. The fight against hatred cannot be a talking point; it must be a policy imperative. Silence and neutrality are not options. History does not look kindly on those who stood by and watched.
spreads unchecked, it doesn’t stop with the Jewish people. It threatens the very foundations of civilization itself.
We recently traveled together to Israel — one of us the son of Holocaust survivors who rebuilt his life by restoring Torah scholarship to the heights it reached before the war; the other, the
Allowing antisemitism to grow unchecked is not just a threat to Jews; it is a threat to the moral survival of the free world. The hatred that begins with the Jews never ends there.
We know where this road leads. We’ve seen it before. The only question is whether we have the courage to stop it before history repeats itself. Faith demands it. Freedom depends on it. And civilization itself may hinge on it.
Rav Dovid Hofstedter and Ambassador
Ambassador Mark Walker at the Kosel
Ambassador Mark Walker meeting with HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch
Rav Dovid Hofstedter showing the Dirshu Bechina to Ambassador Walker
Ambassador Walker at the Dirshu Panel Discussion on Antisemitism
Torah Thought Senior Citizens
By Rabbi Zvi Teichman
Avraham was old, well on in years, and G-d had blessed Avraham with everything. (דכ א תישארב)
On the surface, this touching portrayal of Avraham would seem to indicate a state of fulfillment, exquisite happiness, and sense of satisfaction of a life well lived.
But wait a second, didn’t Sarah just tragically and suddenly pass away when she heard about the attempted sacrifice of her beloved son Yitzchok, dying from the shock of that news before having the opportunity to hear he was actually saved at the last minute?
Wasn’t Avraham’s entire enterprise, to shower humanity with kindness and bring them to an awareness of benevolent Creator, now in jeopardy with the death of his beloved and most vital partner in this endeavor?
Sarah we are taught was greater in prophecy than Avraham. Can we fathom the loss of that conduit to the Almighty abruptly being taken away from Avraham, not to mention the vacuum created in Avraham’s life by the departure of a soul mate who together endured enormous challenges through great sacrifice and unparalleled devotion?
Have you ever noticed that in many Siddurim, this earlier cited verse appears after the recitation of Hallel, with instructions to recite it on Rosh Chodesh as a segulah — a means to improve one’s good fortune, particularly, in this case, for longevity.
Evidently, the secret elixir for a long-life, is embedded within this depiction of Avraham’s advanced years.
The second half of this verse describes Avraham as being blessed לכב — with everything.
The great Gaon of Vilna revealed that this word לכב , alludes to the first letters of the three references in the Torah directing us to specifically dwell in a Sukkah.
תוכוסב — You shall dwell in booths for a seven-day period... (במ גכ ארקיו)
חרזאה לכ — ...every native in Israel shall dwell in booths. (םש םש)
ועדי ןעמל — So that your generations will know that I caused the Children of Israel to dwell in booths... (גמ םש)
We are taught that in the merit of Avraham sheltering his guests under the tree we merited the protective Clouds of Glory, and the subsequent command to dwell in booths that commemorate these miraculous clouds.
In a fascinating parallel, it is quoted from earlier sources, that sitting in the Sukkah is a segulah for longevity as well!
This is indicated in the dictum of Rava in the Talmud: יערא תרודב בשו עבק תרידמ אצ — emerge from the permanent residence in which you reside year-round and reside in a temporary residence. (.ב הכוס)
One who successfully extracts himself from a sense of ‘permanence’ by leaving his materially comfortable abode to sit in a Sukkah for seven days, will merit to dwell for many long days in this physical world which is merely a ‘temporary’ residence. (י"ד תוא 'ס
Is this merely coincidental or might there be a common message in these two segulos
In one last similarity, the command to dwell in a Sukkah is directed to חרזאה לכ — every ‘native’ of Israel. This unusual term is used to define the very first ‘citizen’ of Israel, Avraham Avinu.
The biblical figure (א טפ םילהת) יחרזאה ןתיא, we are taught is none other than Avraham, who is referred to as ןתיא — strong, and יחרזאה — alluding to a verse in Yeshayah where Avraham is the one ‘who was aroused חרזממ, from the east, whom righteousness accompanied. (ב אמ היעשי)
This might be rooted in חרז, to shine forth, thus יחרזאה — the one who radiated faith and trust in the Creator, in every fiber of his existence and in every aspect of his interactions with the world.
One who lives every moment, facing each circumstance of life, with the mission of infusing it with G-d’s presence, leaves no room for lapsing in enthusiasm. There is no past, nor future, just the present and its opportunity to shine with faith and persistence in emulating G-d’s ways.
The description of Avraham’s old age as a ןקז — elderly, םימיב אב — coming with days, seeks to accentuate his tackling each day, bringing the accumulative strength of that faith, that endures day in, day out, and carries him forward with drive and ambition to promote the Honor of Heaven, regardless the nature of the circumstance he may face.
The dwelling in a Sukkah is our expression of commitment to living a life independent of our aspirations and personal expectations, throwing ourselves into whatever form of ‘loving embrace’ awaits us.
We disregard any notion of entitlement knowing that only when we willingly escape the illusions of ‘permanence’ in this world, may we then be worthy to safely lengthen our stay in this ‘temporary’ residence and
the wealth of opportunities it offers, to intensify our ability to illuminate the world with our faith.
We recite Hallel as we begin each month declaring we are prepared to ‘Give thanks to G-d for He is good; for enduring is His kindness forever.’
Even when ‘distress and grief I would find, the Name of G-d I would invoke.’
In that context we recall the power of that ‘Senior Citizen’, Avraham, recalling his talent in ‘living each day’, whatever challenge he faced, yet knowing that G-d had ‘blessed him with everything’ he needed.
One of the great Chassidic leaders, Reb Shimon of Yaruslov, a disciple of Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk, the Chozeh of Lublin, the Rimanover, and the Holy Ropshitzer, died approaching his hundredth year. He was once asked by his disciple as to what merited him such long days. He responded that it was due to his accepting all the circumstances of life, for better or for worse, with absolute faith it was all for his benefit. When people complain about the difficulties they face, questioning G-d, it is very possible they will be summoned to heaven to reveal the misconception, displaying before one that it was ultimately for one’s own good. One who relies on the One above has no need for proof and will be dispensed extra years to attain greater closeness and clarity.
That is exactly the formula spelled out in this segulah.
‘Avraham was old, well on in years’, precisely because he sensed that ‘G-d had blessed Avraham with everything.’
May we each strive to become a ‘Senior Citizen’, dwelling always in this higher consciousness, so that we may be granted ‘many full and inspired days!
You may reach the author at: Ravzt@ ohelmoshebaltimore.com
PARSHA STATS
OVERVIEW
The first Jewish Matriarch, Sara Imeinu, passes away at the age of 127. Avraham Avinu purchases the Cave of Machpeila as a burial plot, from Ephron. Eliezer, the servant of Avraham Avinu, is sent on a search to find a wife for Yitzchak. His prayers are answered and he finds the perfect candidate, Rivka. Avraham remarries Keturah (Hagar). Avraham passes away at the age of 175. The Parshah ends with the delineation of the descendants of Yishmael.
orah TSparks
Parshas Chayei Sara
ThoughtsChassidus in
-Rabbi Yisrael Salanter zt”l
Quotable Quote “ ” GEMATRIA
“Writing is one of the easiest things; erasing is one of the hardest.”
QUICK VORT
R a v M o s h e S h t e r n b u c h z t ” l s a y s a n a b s o l u t e l
s o n
H e e x p l a i n s t h a t g r e a t e r t h a n d y i n g
w h i c h o c c u r s i n o n l y a m o m e n t , i s T O
w h i c h s p a n s m a n y m o m e n t s !
W h e n S a r a I m e i n u h e a r d t h a t h e r s o n
d i e d , s h e w a s i n p a i n o v e r t h e f a c t
t h a t Y i t z c h a k w o u l d n o l o n g e r b e a b l e
t o L I V E
T h e m o s t i m p o r t a n t t h i n g t h a t w e
c a n d o i s t o d
The Slonimer Rebbe, the Nesivos Shalom, explains that Avraham Avinu connected to the Torah even though the Torah was not yet given yet.
He understood that the Torah wants a person to be a
, “despise gifts,” as such, he offered to pay Efphron in full for the Cave of Machpeila, so as to avoid taking a matanah! As it relates to us, we should value working hard over freebies!
Did You
Know?!
The Parshah spends a whopping 20 pesukim discussing the burial of Sara!
Uriah HaChiti, the man that King David sent to battle, was a descendent of Bnei Ches!
According to one opinion in the Gemarah, לכב was the actual name of Avraham’s daughter!
s w a s A v r a h a m ’ s
m i d d a h H e g a v e e a c h m o m e n t o f h i s
l i f e H I S A L L , H I S E V E R Y T H I N G I t s o
h a p p e n s ,
h a s t h e s a m e g e m a t r i a
( 3 0 0 )
Rabbi Ori Strum is the author of “Ready. Set. Grow.” “Dove Tales,” and “Karpas: The Big Dipper.”
His shiurim and other Jewish content can be found on Torah Anytime and Meaningful Minute. He may be reached at 443-938-0822 or rabbistrumo@gmail.com
PointsPonder to
Chanukah is coming soon! My book on Chanukah, DOVE TALES, is now available on Amazon. I would honestly be so thrilled, humbled, and honored for you to get a copy. If you wouldn’t mind leaving a review too, that would be so appreciated.
As mentioned in the “Did You Know?” section, the Torah spends 20 pesukim discussing the burial story surrounding Sara Imeinu Why is this such a highlight, deserving of so much ink? What lesson can we learn from here?
Shomrei Mishmeres Hakodesh - 2821 W Strathmore Ave
Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras
A New Sports & Wellness Experience Is Waiting At The Weinberg Park Heights JCC On The Goldsmith Campus
Thanks to the leadership and financial backing of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, the Weinberg Park Heights JCC proudly celebrates the opening of its reimagined Sports & Wellness Center. With fresh spaces, modern amenities, and a renewed focus on connection, wellness, and inclusion, the JCC stands ready to serve Baltimore’s Jewish community with warmth, sensitivity, and pride.
Built with Purpose and Partnership
Driven by a commitment to community, the Weinberg JCC project was designed to serve the neighborhood’s predominantly Orthodox population while remaining open and inclusive to all.
“The Associated’s support and vision have been integral to every step of this journey,” said Paul Lurie, Chief Executive Officer of the JCC of Greater Baltimore. “This renovation is about much more than new
equipment or flooring—it’s about supporting our community and creating a space where everyone feels their needs are being met.”
The Transformation: Where Wellness Meets Community
The newly renovated Sports & Wellness Center features a full suite of upgrades designed to make fitness more accessible, enjoyable, and inspiring:
• Two new fitness studios – The ENERGY Studio hosts group classes from JBarre to high-energy cardio, while the RIDE Studio—opening November 9— features brand-new Schwinn Z bikes for cycling enthusiasts. These join the recently added EMPOWER and FLOW studios in the former racquetball courts. A renovated DANCE studio is currently under construction. These five studios are intended to meet the strong demand for Mind/Body, Cardio, and Strength classes in our community.
• A completely refreshed Fitness Center and Fitness Too! – Outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment, new flooring, improved lighting, and a design that promotes both comfort and motivation. Fitness Too!—a dedicated single-gender space—can now be accessed without passing through the coed Fitness Center.
• Beautiful new locker rooms –Both men’s and women’s spaces feature upgraded amenities, and a bright, modern look. They will also include Steam Rooms in the near future.
• Improved access and flow – A new stairwell and ADA-accessible elevator make it easier than ever to reach the lower level, ensuring that all members can move through the building comfortably and confidently.
The Weinberg JCC continues to offer gender-specific fitness hours and classes, ensuring that members can participate in ways that align with their religious observance and personal comfort while preserving the sense of community that defines JCC life.
Celebrate With Us
The JCC invites the community to explore the new spaces and discover what’s next. Join us for our November 23 Open House, featuring tours, family activities, and a special membership offer for new joiners. Details are available at jcc.org/join-ph.
At the Weinberg Park Heights JCC, the future is not just brighter—it’s stronger, more connected, and proudly Jewish at heart.
Common Cents
By Elliot Pepper, CPA, CFP®, MST
Unlocking The Power Of QCDs: Smart Giving For Savvy Retirees
Retirement can present unique challenges and opportunities to your financial life. One topic that frequently arises with clients is the desire to continue supporting, or even increasing, support of charitable causes and organizations they’re connected to - perhaps a synagogue, a local youth program, or the nonprofit tied to their alma mater. The question is: how can you give in a way that’s generous and financially efficient?
That’s where the strategy of a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) comes into play: a smart move that benefits your charity and your tax picture - especially the “big three” financial considerations many retirees face: income tax, required minimum distributions (RMDs), and the Medicare Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA).
Here’s a dive into what QCDs are, why they’re valuable, how older donors can use them to support worthy causes, and how the numbers stack up compared with other charitable deduction methods.
What is a QCD? And why it matters
A QCD is a distribution made directly from your traditional IRA to a qualified charity. You must be at least 70½ years old when the distribution is made, and it must go directly from the IRA custodian to the charity. The annual limit for 2025 is around $108,000 per individual. A QCD counts toward your RMD and is excluded from taxable income thus reducing your Adjusted Gross Income, tax liability, and potential IRMAA surcharge for Medicare coverage. It’s a win-win strategy for retirees who want to give charitably while managing their tax situation.
Why older donors caring about charities should pay attention
1. You may not need the RMD for living expenses, but if your IRA balance is very high, you may be required to distribute more income (and pay taxes) than your living expenses require.
2. You avoid the standard deduction issue and are still using charity to lower your taxable income.
3. You reduce future RMDs, since they are based on both your age and the available balance in your IRAs.
4. You can better manage your IRMAA risk since a QCD lowers not just taxable income, but also Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) and IRMAA cost increases are based on a modified adjusted gross income and not taxable income.
5. You stay connected to the charities you care about, which can continue to provide qualitative and emotional benefits for retirees.
A practical example: QCD vs Straight Charitable Deduction
Assume “Jane” is age 74 and must take an RMD of $20,000.
She also wants to gift $10,000 to a qualified charity. She usually takes the standard deduction and has a 24% tax rate.
Scenario A: Straight withdrawal + cash donation – taxable income
$20,000, tax ~$4,800.
Scenario B: Use QCD for $10,000 of the RMD – taxable income $10,000, tax ~$2,400.
Result: Same charitable gift, same RMD satisfied, but lower taxable income and IRMAA risk. In this case, it is because Jane is taking the standard deduction, where charity is not a deductible item. This has been a very common scenario due to relatively
recent tax law changes.
Why it matters beyond the numbers
- Keep your relationship to the charity strong.
- Timing and documentation matter.
- Check that the charity qualifies.
- Plan across years to manage IRMAA.
- Coordinate with your advisor for optimal tax outcomes.
Common pitfalls & things to watch
- Must transfer funds directly from IRA to charity.
- $108,000 (2025) limit applies. In 2026 the limit increases to $115,000.
- Cannot double dip with Schedule A deduction.
- Ensure the charity receives funds within the same tax year.
- Plan QCDs to manage future RMD growth.
Conclusion
If you’re nearing or past RMD age and care about charitable giving, QCDs can align philanthropy with thoughtful retirement tax planning. Talk with your advisor, confirm eligibility, and give purposefully - doing good for the world and well for your finances!
Subscribe to Common Cents digitally on LinkedIn.
The decision to start saving and investing is yours, but the “how” can be hard. Email commoncents@ northbrookfinancial.com to schedule a financial planning consultation with our team. Elliot Pepper, CPA, CFP®, MST is Co-Founder of Northbrook Financial, a Financial Planning, Tax, and Investment Management Firm. He has developed and continues to teach a popular Financial Literacy course for high school students.
National Retail Solutions (NRS) Launches Grubhub Integration
Integration brings seamless digital ordering and delivery capabilities to NRS convenience stores, bodegas, and neighborhood retailers nationwide
Newark, NJ -- November 2025 -National Retail Solutions (NRS) announced today that independent retailers in its nationwide point-of-sale (POS) network can now offer their customers remote ordering for delivery or in-store pick-up via the Grubhub app.
“We are tremendously excited to announce our integration with Grubhub,” said Elie Y. Katz, President and CEO of NRS. “This partnership empowers our NRS retailers, which are predominantly neighborhood convenience stores and bodegas, to compete effectively and efficiently in the rapidly expanding digital channel.”
For NRS retailers, the key advantages and features of the integration with Grubhub include:
● Streamlined operations: Grubhub orders flow directly into the NRS POS system, eliminating counter clutter and simplifying workflows;
● Real-time menu and inventory syncing: Price updates and inventory changes that are recorded in the retailer’s NRS POS are automatically reflected on the retailer’s Grubhub menu, ensuring accurate orders while preventing out-of-stock cancellations;
● Reduced training: Retailers receive and process orders through their familiar NRS POS, minimizing errors and training time;
● Centralized management: Retailers can manage Grubhub menus, store hours, and analytics directly from their NRS POS; and,
● Actionable analytics: Centralized analytics enable NRS retailers to gain insights into both in-store and delivery sales performance.
“Local businesses are essential to the fabric of their communities, and this integration is about helping them thrive in a digital-first world,” said Stephanie Grammel, Director of Integrations & Solutions at Grubhub. “By embedding Grubhub directly into the NRS pointof-sale system, we are making it easier for independent retailers to expand their reach, serve customers on their terms, and unlock new revenue streams—without adding operational complexity.”
“We are eliminating the friction points that make it harder for small businesses to compete successfully in the delivery marketplace,” said Ari B. Korman, SVP of Ecommerce at NRS. “Based on our results to date, on average, our retailers with the Grubhub integration are achieving significantly increased profitability with very strong ROIs.”
NRS retailers interested in learning more about the Grubhub integration can contact their NRS representative or visit nrsplus.com for more information about activation and setup.
About National Retail Solutions (NRS):
National Retail Solutions operates a leading point-of-sale (POS) terminal-based platform and digital payment processing service for independent retailers nationwide. Retailers utilize NRS offerings to process transactions and effectively manage their businesses. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) suppliers, brokers, analytics firms, and advertisers access the NRS POS terminal’s digital display network to reach these retailers’ predominantly urban, multi-cultural shopper base, and to harness transaction data-based learnings to identify growth opportunities and measure execution and returns on marketing investment. NRS is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT).
About Grubhub:
Grubhub is a leading U.S. ordering and delivery marketplace connecting customers with over 415,000 local restaurants, merchants, and retailers in 4,000+ U.S. cities. Part of Wonder, it focuses on innovative technology and an easy-to-use platform.
Board with what’s being served?
(NOT ANYMORE)
Yatar Israel IDF Sol DI er S on ATV S
By TJH Staff
TJH recently sat down with Capt. (Res.) Zoe Marks to discuss Yatar, a groundbreaking volunteer-run IDF reservist unit that uses ATVs — high-speed vehicles capable of traversing all kinds of terrain — for rapid response missions in Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip, and along all of Israel’s borders. Thanks to its ATVs, the Yatar unit has been able to access areas that were previously inaccessible due to rough terrain, thus preventing terrorist attacks and saving wounded soldiers. Zoe, the unit’s director of overseas operations, shares why the unit was formed, how Yatar’s soldiers save lives, and what it takes to join the team. She also discusses Yatar’s impact and mission and how its role has shifted since its induction into the IDF and October 7.
Yatar has been around for just a few years now. How did the Yatar unit get started?
The idea of the unit came to be in 2016. The reason why it started in 2016 is because, that year, Israel saw a surge in terror attacks across Judea and Samaria. At the time, the founder of the unit, Tzuriel Raviv — who is still a commander today — realized that the terrain in Judea and Samaria is so difficult to traverse that many of our army and medical vehicles are unable to or have difficulty accessing certain areas. For example, an ambulance can’t reach the forest because it can’t drive between all those trails and trees; it can’t go through the desert easily because of the sand. There were a couple of attacks that really struck Tzuriel and made him want to make a difference. He heard of these ATVs that had been used elsewhere for security by security guards in different places in the U.S. and he felt that the IDF could benefit from using them to our advantage.
At the time, Tzuriel was a civilian and reservist in Miluim, but he was very much aware of the situation. He grew up around Jerusalem, so he also knows the difficulties over there. After he heard about ATVs being used for security, he said, ‘Why not bring these ATVs into combat, into the IDF, into Israel?’ That’s really where the idea came to be.
Very quickly, a few months later – this was 2017 – our first ATV was purchased. We started going on operations
with the police and IDF. The results very quickly spoke for themselves: we were very quickly able to apprehend terrorists, to prevent attacks before they happen, to stop any infiltrators, and to provide first response when needed in places where a typical vehicle cannot reach.
Is the unit officially part of the police or army?
Now, we are officially part of the army. We became an official reservist unit two years ago, just before the October 7 war started.
Beforehand, we were completely volunteer-based, and we still are, even though we are a reservist unit. What that means is that each one of our soldiers is highly trained from combat units in the army or selected specifically to be a part of our unit. We are active every single day. Since the day we started the unit, we’ve always had ATVs spread across all the borders of Israel. Becoming an official reservist unit gives us the coverage of the insurance of the soldiers going into operations and allows us to expand more and more.
How do you know where you’re needed?
In the beginning, we started off with one location with one ATV. From there, it grew, largely through word of mouth from officers on the ground. These officers on the ground very quickly realized that the ATV, such a small
vehicle, has so much power and so many capabilities. Word spread between the different locations, and then we had requests from officers from different locations, asking us if we could bring an ATV to them.
Every time we acquired more ATVs, we were able to spread them out more. Now that we have a sufficient amount of ATVs — we have 52 right now — we have them spread across the borders and in permanent positions. For example, we have a couple of permanent stations inside Gaza – this was also before the war. The commander of that region gives us instructions on what’s needed and what needs to be done. That’s what we do with every single one of the locations that we operate in.
How many volunteers do you have in total? And how many people are involved in your operations?
In total, we have 85 volunteers. Compare that to a regular reservist unit — which usually has around 500 — and you’ll notice that the difference is large. But again, it’s because we specifically choose our people. You have to be a very specific type of person to want and be able to ride these ATVs in such critical circumstances. So, we really hand-select our people. At any given moment, we have teams spread out. So now, throughout the war, we have around four people per location. And every single one of our ATVs can only be ridden by our soldiers. If a soldier
isn’t part of the unit, he can’t ride these ATVs. In an operation, we always have two of our drivers on each vehicle: one is the driver, of course, and the person next to him is there for backup. There are usually two other soldiers in the back with them that could be from different IDF units collaborating with us.
What special responsibilities do your soldiers have?
Generally speaking, we take all the qualities of all the other soldiers and are able to place them in one soldier on this ATV. We’re able to get there first: we act first, we respond first to any situation. If we’re apprehending a terrorist, we are the ones riding there and responding, apprehending, and completing all the necessary steps. Rather than waiting for teams from different places to come and collaborate, we do everything with just one or two soldiers, basically. And we do have backup, and we do have people who obviously know what they’re doing, but that’s why our soldiers are so highly trained — because they singlehandedly do tasks that would usually be spread out to different roles between different units and teams. We kind of consolidated all these roles into one small team.
We have people who are always active, patrolling the areas. At the same time, we always receive requests for us to go on specific operations. We’re always on call in case something happens, but we also always have planned operations coming up, as well.
Can you share a situation the unit has been involved with?
Since the beginning of the war, since it erupted on October 7, we have experienced a shift in our operations. And this was the first time in Israel’s history that ATVs were used on a battlefield, in a war zone — inside Gaza. When October 7 happened, there was a huge shift, and the army realized how great these ATVs can be in these circumstances. One of those shifts was us being able to adapt these ATVs with platforms to provide stretchers to be able to evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield.
Now, you don’t have to be a medical doctor to know that if a soldier’s wounded in the middle of a battlefield, the sooner you rescue and treat him, the higher the chance he’ll survive. So, that’s been a huge shift in what we’ve been doing since the war started. And since then, we’ve evacuated over 260 soldiers, and each one of those lives was saved. It’s an unfortunate reality we’re living in, but we’re very proud to be able to bring those soldiers to safety and to give them the chances they deserve to live.
One of the soldiers we saved was Aaron, a soldier from the Netzach Yehudah Battalion. They were operating in Gaza, and they were attacked and targeted by a Hamas sniper who had been moving from location to location, targeting IDF soldiers and escaping without anyone being able to catch him. In Beit Hanoun, in Gaza, this terrorist shot towards a group of eight soldiers. Two of them were tragically killed on the spot, and the six others around them were injured.
Aaron, the soldier, was one of the wounded, and we participated in the operation to evacuate all six of those soldiers and bring back the bodies of those two who were killed. What happened with Aaron was that our team was deployed right away. From outside Gaza, our team went in and, while under fire — under threat from the Hamas sniper still out there — were able to evacuate Aaron, as well
as the other soldiers around them, in participation with the other units and take him outside of Gaza to meet a helicopter and an ambulance to take him for further medical treatment. They were so fast — it took the team less than four minutes to get into Gaza from outside the Strip and then get back out to the helicopter. It was so quick that the helicopter hadn’t even had a chance to land yet, which they were completely surprised by because they expected to have to wait for our teams. Just for comparison, tanks were also in helping us evacuate those six wounded soldiers. And a tank is a great vehicle — everyone knows that, it’s large, it’s scary, it’s very armored and safe — but it’s also very slow, so it can also act pretty much as a slow-moving target. With our ATVs, with the speed that we get to, we can basically zoom through so many threats; it’s very hard to shoot toward you if you’re moving at 85 miles per hour in these kinds of terrain.
So, in Aaron’s case, he got injured; the bullet ricocheted off his friend, who was killed, went through the back of his shoulder, and down towards his lung. By the time Aaron got to the helicopter, he was intubated, and he was sedated in a hospital afterwards for several weeks.
The beautiful part of the story is that after a few weeks of him being intubated and sedated, he woke up, and he
“theY were so fast — It took the team less than four mInutes to get Into gaza from outsIde the strIp and then get back out to the helIcopter.”
was able to recover miraculously. It was really beautiful because one of the soldiers who evacuated him was able to go meet him and speak to him. Not too long after he recovered, Aaron proposed to his girlfriend. The same soldier who saved him came to his wedding to celebrate his life and marriage.
Aaron is not the only one we’ve saved, but it’s a beautiful full-circle story.
How do the Yatar soldiers protect themselves and the wounded soldiers they’re transporting?
Since the ATV is basically completely open, our soldiers wear everything from helmets to vests to anything you can think of. But also, we can’t just keep adding attachments because we don’t want to weigh down the speed of the vehicle too much. So, to be honest, the key to the safety of the soldiers is actually the speed.
Wounded soldiers get strapped on very safely. Stretchers are behind the ATV’s four seats. The soldiers who are in the back for backup protect the wounded soldiers from attack.
What is the difference between the threats in Judea and Samaria versus the Gaza Strip?
Not many people are aware of it, but Judea and Samaria
is under constant threat. Right now, in Gaza, we are at war, and we’ve always been under threat from now. But in Judea and Samaria, the number of attacks from lone wolf terrorists is huge. That’s why the majority of our ATVs are actually in Judea and Samaria: it’s such a large part of our country, and it’s such a sensitive part because the borders between us are basically non-existent, and we have to always be there to protect every town, village, and family.
On the other hand, right now in Gaza, we also have ATVs there. On October 7, three of our Yatar soldiers who were stationed in their ATVs on the border of Gaza were killed in the Hamas attack. We’ve always had teams protecting there, but right now, it’s definitely changed since it’s a war, and going with these ATVs has really changed the game of how to fight and respond in a war under these circumstances.
We don’t know what the future might hold in that part of the country, but we know we always had ATVs over there, we always will, and, at the end of the day, it’s another border that we’re trying to protect.
Can you identify the characteristics that are needed to be part of the unit?
There is an interviewing process with the unit commander, Tzuriel, before becoming part of the unit. At the end of the day, you have to be someone who likes to ride these ATVs — it might sound funny, but many of our soldiers are people who have their own ATVs at home and, before the war, would travel around on them for fun. It’s also someone who’s willing to understand how to function under these crazy circumstances with a vehicle that’s not typical for others to use. For example, we also operate on the Egyptian and Jordanian borders. A lot of the incidents that happen on those borders involve the smuggling of weapons and ammunition. The enemy would copy us by using ATVs to try and deceive us from our ATVs. So, you have to be someone very specific and very quick to understand what you’re facing and who the enemy is and how to adapt to many different situations. We have a variety of things that we deal with. So, every one of our soldiers has to be equipped to handle any situation that might come our way.
It’s very important for us that people know that we are a group of people who want to take care of Israel in the best way possible by being the first ones to respond and the fastest ones to get there and by doing everything in our power to protect the citizens of Israel for as long as we’re needed.
Aaron being rescued on a stretcher at the back of an ATV
Tech Triumphs
to Rebbetzin Sara Gross
My sixth-grade teacher made a lasting impression on me in many ways. One of the most shocking things she taught me was that just because someone calls on the phone doesn’t mean you have to pick it up. I remember marveling at that concept.
The sound of the phone ringing always caused a rush of reaching, running, and grabbing the receiver, no matter what was going on at the time. I can be covered in challah dough, bathing a baby, or driving a carpool, but when the phone rings, I feel a magnetic pull to answer it.
Then I think back to my days in sixth grade. Mrs. Shapiro taught me that it was my choice whether to answer the phone. I was in charge of when I was available to speak and when I wasn’t. It’s not always a good time for me, even if someone wants to reach me.
Putting my needs and my family’s needs before the incoming caller gives me a sense of calm and a push to focus on the present.
TECH TIPS:
It can be overwhelming to raise children today, with technology changing faster than we can keep up. We don’t always know what to be careful about, and we keep discovering new dangers in the most unexpected places. This includes MP3 players, flip phones, gaming devices, and now even household appliances. Even the apps and games that seem harmless may contain inappropriate material, hidden chat features, predators, or harmful ads. How can any parent keep track of it all?
We can’t assume that just because something is made for children, it’s
safe. Companies often market their products as secure, but in reality many are not. A curious child, or a friend who’s a little more tech-savvy, can quickly find ways around built-in safeguards. You might think your child is playing on an innocent Xbox, and then walk in to find YouTube streaming right on the screen.
If it has Wi-Fi, or if it’s an app, be cautious—there could be a loophole somewhere. If you’re not sure, ask someone who knows, and check the app yourself before giving it to your children. You don’t want them to be the ones to discover the problems, because by then it’s often too late.
Many new apps and devices now come with AI built in, including smartphones, smart speakers, and even productivity tools. Learn what that
means and what the risks are. Anything connected to the internet or powered by AI can be used to research any topic, including those that are harmful. And now, parents even have to be cautious about who their children are calling, even on a “kosher” phone. AI voice companions are available by phone, free of charge, for unlimited and uncensored conversations.
Technology is advancing quickly, but it’s our job to stay a step ahead— to learn, ask questions, and uncover the risks before our children do. Be vigilant, stay informed, and of course, pray for help from Above. With G-d’s guidance, we can protect our children and ourselves from exposure and influence that go against our values.
To Raise a Laugh
Dropping The Five-Second Rule
Drop everything! Unless it’s food, because scientists have recently discovered that the “five-second rule” is not backed by science.
Thanks a lot. We already knew that.
In case you have standards, I should explain that the five-second rule is a mesorah handed down through the generations – not from parent to child, obviously, but from older brother to younger brother to younger brother’s friend to friend’s younger brother –that if you drop food on the floor, it’s okay to eat, provided that:
1. It’s been on the floor for fewer than five seconds.
2. Sometimes these five seconds are counted from the time you realized it fell.
3. The food has to be really good. Bacteria wait five seconds before attacking good food, but if the food isn’t great, they come right away.
Also, if you claim you don’t know what the five-second rule is, you’re lying. According to a 2003 survey, 70% of women and 56% of men are familiar with the rule. And before all my male readers say that we’re better than women, they should realize that unfamiliarity with the rule doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t eat any food that touches the floor, it means that you don’t care about limiting it to five seconds.
But according to a recent study, the five-second rule is too generous. It’s more like a second, like before anyone sees. Once someone else sees that you dropped food, it’s too late. At that point, it devolves into an argument between the person who made it and accidentally dropped it, and the person who did no work at all and just happened to see it fall. The underlying
idea is, “I made the food; you don’t know how hard I worked. We’re eating this. If you would know what’s on my hands, the floor wouldn’t bother you so much. Also, I accidentally dipped my oven mitt into it when I pulled it out. I sweep the floor every day, but I haven’t washed my oven mitts in 15 years, ever since I shrunk a pair. So keep telling me that the floor is a problem.”
No one really believed the rule anyway. There’s no logic to it. There’s no reason that bacteria should be any different from any other dirt on the floor, meaning that if you drop the food directly onto the bacteria, you can assume it’s automatically stuck on, and if you don’t, five seconds shouldn’t be enough for the bacteria to sprint across the room and leap onto it. Those things are tiny, and they don’t even have legs.
And how come it only works for food? If you drop your tefillin, chas v’shalom, can you yell, “Five-second rule!” and you don’t have to fast? If you drop your small electronic device in the toilet, can you yell, “Five-second rule!” and then you don’t have to slowly rebuild your life?
Actually now, come to think of it, maybe you’re supposed to yell “Five-second rule!” for food, so the bacteria know that they have to give you a chance to pick it up. Otherwise it doesn’t work.
The truth is that before this study, most people never actually believed the rule anyway. It’s more about being a social fiction that we all have to believe is true in order to eat food that we were really looking forward to without it, say, affecting shidduchim. We all know it doesn’t work, but the second we admit that it doesn’t work, the whole thing falls apart. So thanks a lot, scientists.
But according to the researchers, their experiment was not a total waste of time. “If we do get sick from a food, we tend to think about what we ate that may have made us
By Mordechai Schmutter
sick, not the place we ate it FROM.” No one realizes the danger, because no one’s ever died while still eating the floor food.
So if the rule doesn’t work, where did it come from? It’s not in the Torah.
So I looked it up, and near as I can tell, it can be traced back to the time of the Barbarians. And you know what they say: If the Barbarians came up with a rule about dropped food being okay to eat, it must be true.
Though maybe the rule IS in the Torah. Maybe it dates back to manna in the Midbar, which had a 24-hour rule. Of course, you can’t really compare the divine protection that Hashem provided in the desert with the normal things that go on every day. We don’t really understand the manna, and we have a lot of questions about it, like why is it spelled manna? Is it because man is a person? Why is there no good way to spell manna in English without making you look like you can’t read Hebrew?
But even if the rule has a source, where did the five-seconds come from? Did they just make that up, or did they experiment with various times? Like maybe in the 13th century, it was a 12-hour rule, and people were still dying, so they decided to shorten it to ten hours, and so on.
So my guess is that the entire rule has more to do with making sure that the person picking it up is the one who saw it fall and knows for a fact that no one stepped on it. If polite society gave you longer than five seconds, you’d probably run to get a knife and fork, and while you’re gone, a herd of elephants will come through your kitchen.
Mordechai Schmutter is a freelance writer and a humor columnist for Hamodia and other magazines. He has also published eight books and does stand-up comedy. You can contact him at MSchmutter@gmail.com.
Living Kiddush Hashem
The Rabbi Leibowitz Honesty Test
By Rabbi Shraga Freedman
In 2009, an official from Albany called Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim in Queens asking to speak with its rosh yeshiva, Rav Henoch Leibowitz. The executive director, Rabbi Chaim Schwartz, explained that Rav Henoch had passed away the previous year.
The caller sounded disappointed. “I just came from a government meeting,” he said. “A questionable bill was proposed, and Governor David Paterson rejected it, saying it didn’t pass the ‘Rabbi Leibowitz smell test.’ None of us knew what that meant until he told us the story.”
Intrigued, Rabbi Schwartz contacted the former executive director, Rabbi Avrohom Ginsburg, to learn the background.
In the 1980s, the state had offered a grant for schools to install energy-efficient lighting. Rabbi Ginsburg applied and received $75,000 for the project. Later, he found a contractor who could complete the work for only $60,000. The yeshiva, struggling financially, could surely use the extra $15,000—but when he told Rav Henoch, the rosh yeshiva was firm:
“We cannot keep this money. It was given only for light fixtures. It must be returned.”
Rabbi Ginsburg tried to reason with him: “The state already approved the amount. The savings came from my own research.”
Rav Henoch didn’t waver. “If necessary, I’ll make the call myself.”
He phoned the government office and explained that the yeshiva had leftover grant money to return. The young clerk on the line was baffled. “I don’t think anyone’s ever done that before. There’s no procedure for returning funds.”
A week later, the clerk called back: “No one knows how to process this. You can just keep the money.”
But Rav Henoch refused. “I cannot keep money that isn’t rightfully mine,” he said. “I’ll send you a check back.”
Word of this extraordinary honesty spread. Decades later, Governor Paterson recalled the story at that 2009 meeting:
“Rabbi Leibowitz was the most honest person in New York State. He is my gold standard of integrity. I measure every decision by whether it would pass his test.”
By reflecting Hashem’s middah of absolute truth, Rabbi Leibowitz influenced people in the highest places. His honesty became a moral compass—the Rabbi
Leibowitz Test—reminding us how one act of integrity can elevate the entire world.
(You can watch this story brought to life in a beautiful video at LivingKiddushHashem.org, under the Videos tab.)
Rabbi Shraga Freedman is the author of Sefer Mekadshei Shemecha, Living Kiddush Hashem, and A Life Worth Living.
Email LivingKiddushHashem@ gmail.com for a free sefer. Visit LivingKiddushHashem.org for more resources
Living Kiddush Hashem was founded with the goal of imbuing every Jew with a powerful sense of mission — the mission to be mekadeish Sheim Shamayim in his or her own unique way. We strive to accomplish this by raising awareness of the paramount importance of the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem and its centrality in everything we do.
Want to see your simcha here? Email mazeltov@baltimorejewishhome.com or text 443-675-6507 to submit your simcha!
Michael & Ashira Mirsky on the birth of a son
Dave & Adina Ishakis on the birth of a son
Ezra & Yummy Strum on the birth of a daughter
Moshe & Leah Pruzansky on the birth of a daughter
Yoni & Hindy Gugenheim on on the birth of a daughter
Want to see your simcha here? Email mazeltov@baltimorejewishhome.com or text 443-675-6507 to submit your simcha!
TJH Centerfold
Blowing Hot and Cold
The Arctic Intern: “Keeping it at keeping it at 55° builds character” (says the person who cries for three days when he gets a splinter).
The 2:17 A.M. Ninja: Raises it 4 degrees in total darkness, then sprints back to bed like a guilty cat.
The Temperature Judge: Hands on hips, staring at the thermostat like it just committed a Class A felony.
The Passive-Aggressive Thermostat Operator: Looks at the thermostat and sighs loudly enough for the whole house to hear that he thinks that nobody but him knows how to use the thermostat.
The Diplomat: ”Let’s compromise…72.5.” (Hmm…we really needed Jared Kushner and Steve Witckoff for that one!)
The Walking Weather Channel: “It feels like 64.2. This morning it felt much warmer in here, and yesterday was perfect.” (In other news…it is slightly cloudy in Oklahoma today.)
The Thermostat Historian: “Back in my day, we didn’t even have heat… We all sat around the stove.” (Uh, you were born in 1982!)
The CFO of Warmth: Begins every adjustment with, “Let me explain energy bills to you.”
The Layer Enthusiast: “Just put on another sweater!” (I already look like I’m wearing all the sweaters from the shul’s lost-and-found, plus three from Costco.)
The HVAC Mixmaster: Hangs out at the thermostat, constantly adjusting it. (When you are DJ-ing the thermostat, you are really the most boring person in the world.)
The Weather Denialist: “It’s not cold.” (Yeah, for Siberia, but around here, 12 degrees Fahrenheit is not exactly Miami Beach.)
The Stealth Raiser: Moves it one degree every hour until everyone is fainting from heat exhaustion.
The False Accuser: Changes it. Forgets. Accuses everyone else of treason.
The Thermostat Dramatizer: If the temp changes 1°, they act like the Titanic is sinking.
The Shower Hypocrite: Takes 40-minute hot showers but insists 63° is “perfectly warm.”
The Contrarian: If you are hot, he is cold; if you are cold, he is hot. (How do you spell c-o-n-t-r-o-l f-r-e-a-k?)
The Human Thermostat: Can detect a one-degree change from three rooms away.
The Draft Detective: Patrols the house for “rogue breezes” like a mall cop.
The Winter Denier: “It’s not winter until after Thanksgiving.” (Uh, there’s a howlin’ blizzard outside!)
The Heat Traitor: Turns on the AC in November. Should be tried at The Hague.
Feel The Heat Trivia
1. What part of the body loses heat the fastest?
a. Hands
b. Feet
c. Head
d. Knees
2. What U.S. city experiences the largest difference between summer and winter temperatures?
a. Minneapolis, MN
b. Fairbanks, AL
c. Detroit, MN
d. Jackson Hole, WY
3. What everyday household item was originally invented to keep houses warm in winter?
a. Carpets
b. Window blinds
c. Stoves
d. LED lights
4. Which material traps heat the best?
a. Cotton
b. Linen
c. Wool
d. Polyester
5. Before modern-day heating, what did families sleep with for warmth?
a. Warm rocks
b. Heated spoons
c. Fireplace ash
d. Bed warmers filled with hot coals
c. 31 degrees
d. 49 degrees
Answers:
6. The fastest temperature drop ever recorded was in South Dakota on January 22, 1943. How many degrees did it drop in 2 minutes?
a. 16 degrees
b. 23 degrees
Wisdom Key:
5-6 correct: You are the ultimate HVAC guy… F150 MAGA pickup truck that runs on Guns, Fuel and G-d!
2-4 correct: You are average… which means that if you were a heating bill, you’d be around $2,500 a month!
0-1 correct: Brain freeze?
You Gotta Be Kidding Me! Riddle Me This
Sadie texts her husband Yankel, “Windows frozen, won’t open.”
Yankel texts back, “Gently pour some lukewarm water over it and then gently tap edges with hammer.”
Sadie texts him back 10 minutes later, “Wow, the computer seems really messed up now.”
Which is faster, heat or cold?
Heat, because you can catch a cold!
Answer:
Notable Quotes “Say What?!”
Louvre
- The alleged password to the Louvre’s surveillance system at the time of the $100 million jewel heist last month
I just remember praying to G-d, begging Him, saying, “Save me, I’m in your hands now.” It was a sentence I often said in captivity.
- Released Israeli hostage Bar Kuperstein, talking about how he survived his two years of captivity
My son is not in your hands. He is in the hands of G-d, and you are also in the hands of G-d.
- What Bar Kuperstein’s mother said to a Hamas monster who called her to taunt her and said that he was about to kill her son
Three years ago, I was in the depths of depression. Now, I am a U.S. senator.
– Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), in a recent interview
If anyone feels lost or in the throes of depression, I beg people, please, please stay in this game, because I promise you will get better.
- ibid.
A lot of this stuff isn’t going to work. With socialism, what you do is you blame someone else. They will blame Donald Trump. There will be a hundred reasons why socialism doesn’t work in New York—and none of them will have to do with socialism itself.
- Andrew Walworth, co-host of the RealClearPolitics podcast
As women of color, the way our hair naturally grows out of our head, it’s beautiful, but if we struggle to make it look like the standard, that means we are spending thousands of hours and lots of money straightening out what is naturally curly hair and that takes hours out of your life.
– Former First Lady Michelle Obama
[Michelle] kicked off her book tour last week with an interview with Robin Roberts for an ABC News special, “Michelle Obama: The Style, The Power, The Look,” which featured her longtime stylist Meredith Koop, makeup artist Carl Ray, hairstylists Yene Damtew and Njeri Radway, and top designers Diane von Furstenberg, Jason Wu, Tracy Reese and Narciso Rodriguez. You might think it would be hard to complain about getting dressed up with such a battalion of helpers. But Michelle finds a way.
- Miranda Devine
Isaac, we have established a great relationship, one that I am very thankful for and honored by, and we agreed as soon as I was inaugurated in January that the focus had to be centered on finally bringing the hostages home and getting the peace agreement done. Now that we have achieved these unprecedented successes, and are keeping Hamas in check, it is time to let Bibi unite Israel by pardoning him, and ending that lawfare once and for all.
- From a personal letter sent this week by President Trump to Israeli President Isaac Herzog
The president holds great respect for President Trump and repeatedly expresses his appreciation for Trump’s unwavering support of Israel and his tremendous contribution to the return of the hostages, the reshaping of the Middle East and Gaza, and the safeguarding of Israel’s security. Without detracting from the above, as the president has made clear on multiple occasions, anyone seeking a pardon must submit a formal request in accordance with the established procedures.
- President Herzog’s statement in response
To be very honest with you, I was never conscious of G-d until the war. But I came so close to dying that I learned how to thank G-d and use the simple phrase, “But for the grace of G-d go I.”
- Irving Locker, 101, a World War II veteran who landed at Utah Beach on D-Day
Turkey Seeks Safe Passage For 200 Civilians Trapped in Gaza Tunnels.
- Reuters headline about the 200 Hamas terrorists that were trapped in a terror tunnel under Israel’s control
I think the average Ivy League grad voting for this mayor is highly annoyed that their education is not that valuable.
- Palantir CEO Alex Karp explaining to Axios why college-educated people in New York City voted for Mamdani
I think what’s happened is Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi thought it was cute to go left, and they begot Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who begot the Squad, who finally the logical culmination they begot this Mamdani… They are like Dr. Frankenstein and he’s their monster and now they are going to be terrified of him.
– Victor Davis Hanson
G-d, please give me patience, because if, if You give me strength, I’m going to need bail money.
- Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), on Fox News when asked about the Schumer Government Shutdown
From Warren Buffett’s shareholder letter, released this week, announcing his retirement
One perhaps self-serving observation. I’m happy to say I feel better about the second half of my life than the first. My advice: Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes – learn at least a little from them and move on. It is never too late to improve. Get the right heroes and copy them. You can start with Tom Murphy; he was the best.
Remember Alfred Nobel, later of Nobel Prize fame, who – reportedly – read his own obituary that was mistakenly printed when his brother died and a newspaper got mixed up. He was horrified at what he read and realized he should change his behavior.
Don’t count on a newsroom mix-up: Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it.
Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.
I write this as one who has been thoughtless countless times and made many mistakes but also became very lucky in learning from some wonderful friends how to behave better (still a long way from perfect, however). Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman.
I wish all who read this a very happy Thanksgiving. Yes, even the jerks; it’s never too late to change.
President Trump is promising a $2,000 tariff dividend to every single American, which will bring Don Lemon’s earnings to $2,000.
- Greg Gutfeld
Dating Dialogue What Would You Do If…
Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters
Dear Navidaters,
I’m twenty-three years old, a preschool teacher, and I’ve been dating without much luck for four years. I finally met a guy who said he was learning seriously in a local yeshiva, which was something I really admired. My parents, though, were skeptical about him being a “learner.” I ignored their concerns because I truly believed in him.
Without telling me, my mother put an AirTag in his coat to see if he actually goes to shul, and according to the tracking, he doesn’t. He also leaves kollel for hours at a time. I’m shocked, because honesty and integrity matter so much to me. At the same time, I feel guilty that this information came from such an invasion of privacy.
How do I confront him without sounding like a stalker? And if he was lying about something this basic, how can I trust anything else?
Please advise.
Nechama*
Disclaimer: This column is not intended to diagnose or otherwise conclude resolutions to any questions. Our intention is not to offer any definitive conclusions to any particular question, rather offer areas of exploration for the author and reader. Due to the nature of the column receiving only a short snapshot of an issue, without the benefit of an actual discussion, the panel’s role is to offer a range of possibilities. We hope to open up meaningful dialogue and individual exploration.
The Panel
Dear Readers,
We want to offer YOU an opportunity to be part of the discussion! Please email us at MichelleMondShadchan@gmail.com, subject line “reader’s response,” if you would like to participate in the new “A Reader’s Response” columnist spot. We will send you a question and publish your answer in an upcoming Navidaters edition.
If you have a question you would like the Navidaters to answer, please reach out to this email as well.
Looking forward!
Michelle, the “Shadchan”
The Rebbetzin
Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz, M.S.
Nechama, you have two issues to deal with. One is your relationship with the young man. Two is how to handle your parents going ahead.
You do not have to confront the young man. Carefully plan a conversation that will lead to discussing your and his daily schedules and favorite parts of the day. Ask follow-up questions with affirmations and openers (such as, “That sounds like a heavy afternoon to manage”). Ask what he does for fun and recreation and see where that leads. If he hedges or is super smooth, you will see for yourself and know that the suspicions your parents had were substantiated. Obviously, you will drop him because he is pretending and not being honest.
Second, dealing with your parents is something you may need help with. The fact that they picked up on things and you didn’t means that you need to learn about red and orange flags in a relationship. That is a third issue.
Find a good local professional and get some guidance on how to move forward with your relationship with your parents (with appropriate roles for each) and become a wiser dater.
Thank Hashem for His looking out for you even if it was not the way you would have wanted.
The Shadchan
Michelle Mond
This is a very complicated situation.
Your mother should never have put a tracking device in this young man’s coat. That is not just inappropriate but disturbingly stalkerish behavior. I can imagine the answers of our panelists if a question came in regarding a guy dating a girl and later found out that his mother dropped a tracker in her pocket. Can you imagine the letters to the editor about such a question? I am more concerned about your mother’s psychological wellness and ability to have a normal relationship with her adult children and in-law children than I am worried if this guy is “really learning all day.” But alas, now you are left with questions, and you want answers.
Before giving any advice, I do want to entertain the idea that guys sometimes borrow each other’s items for dating. It is a possibility that the guy your mother is tracking is not even the guy you’re dating.
At this point, it is your job to communicate openly with the guy you’re dating. Talk about his seder hayom (daily schedule) to get a good idea what his days look like. Without coming from a place of judgment, ask him general questions surrounding learning. Is it hard for him to sit and learn all day? Does he feel like he needs lots of breaks?
Give him the opportunity to open up on his own. You can also call his references listed that are within his yeshiva.
If you are still skeptical about whether he is telling the truth, it will be very hard for you to move forward. You will not be able to build a truly healthy relationship with someone you don’t trust.
I hope you also recognize that what your mother did was not normal and came out of a place of paranoia. I’m not sure if she purposely did this to sabotage you, but keep your eye on this. If she continuously doubts the guys you’re dating, talks negatively about them, and/or uses sly tactics to “figure them out,” you may want to consider moving out and navigating your shidduchim without her involvement. I have seen parents like this hold their kids hostage for many years, making it impossible for them to truly feel comfortable moving forward with any prospect.
What your mother did was terribly misguided, very wrong, and possibly illegal. Can you imagine the repercussions if this invasion of privacy ever became public? The negative consequences would be catastrophic! Who would ever want to date someone, or trust anyone, in your family?
Imagine what might happen when the guy finds the AirTag in his coat pocket. It won’t take a genius to figure out where he had recently taken off his coat and who could possibly have tagged it.
Yes, we can all understand that a mother hen will do anything to protect her chicks. But your date could have been carefully investigated utilizing normal channels: checking with his yeshiva rav, shul rabbi, folks listed as
You will not be able to build a truly healthy relationship with someone you don’t trust.
references, neighbors, friends, shadchan, etc.
Frightening fact #2 – Acting like an adult
You are a preschool teacher, not a preschooler. It is time for you to use your own grown-up judgment.
On a daily basis, you deal with children, their parents, other teachers, and supervisors. At this point in your life, you should be developing the ability to judge, evaluate, and understand people that you meet.
Please learn to develop and finetune your G-d-given instincts and intuition. When something doesn’t feel right, you need to be able to trust your perceptions.
In this case, because his yeshiva learning was so important on your dating checklist, you were lulled into blind acceptance. Here, your mother’s intuition was better than yours.
Frightening fact #3 – Brainwashing our singles
I hope that my opinion doesn’t offend, but far too many of our young singles have been convinced that the only road to true marital happiness is for a young man to spend years studying full-time in yeshiva.
But please consider the George Gershwin lyrics in Porgy and Bess: “It ain’t necessarily so.” Excuse the mixed metaphors, but not every size fits all, and you shouldn’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole.
There are perfectly wonderful young
men, who will be terrific husbands, fathers, and invaluable assets in our Orthodox world, who are spectacularly unsuited to this yeshiva-life choice. Forcing perfectly honest young men into an unhappy lifestyle can cause them to fake it and act or behave dishonestly.
Likewise, there are wonderful young women who will never consider dating guys who don’t fit the full-time yeshiva mold that they were convinced is essential. Perhaps they should broaden their horizons; perhaps their true bashert lies outside those strict parameters.
So, what do you do now?
There is a very remote possibility that your AirTag sleuthing is misleading. Perhaps he goes to a different shul. Perhaps he leaves Kollel for a few hours in order to tutor or feed disadvantaged children.
If you want to be absolutely certain, you may wish to innocently ask him, “ I’ve been wondering what your typical day in yeshiva looks like. Where do you daven? When do usually learn with your chavrusa?”
But understand that this relationship is probably doomed. Always remember that honesty and integrity are absolute values. Dishonesty and lack of integrity can never be accepted under any circumstances.
You do not need to give reasons for breaking off the relationship. Of course, never disclose that you dishonestly discovered his dishonesty. A simple, “He’s not for me. I don’t wish to discuss it further,” is sufficient.
Good luck. And next time, trust your instincts, not an AirTag.
Reader’s Response
Ari Bennett
This situation highlights two serious breaches of trust: his possible dishonesty and your mother’s invasion of privacy. It’s understandable that you
Pulling It All Together
The Navidaters
Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists
D
ear Nechama,
My heart went out to you reading this. You wanted to believe in someone, and now you are stuck with information you never wanted, gathered in a way that doesn’t feel right.
Let’s start here: your mother’s choice to track him without consent was inappropriate. It crossed a line and undermined your ability to build trust in your
own way. I understand her instinct to protect you, but this was not the way.
That said, the in- formation is out. You can’t un-know it. And honesty, for you, is a core value. So rather than pretending you don’t know, I would lean into gentle transparency. You might say something like:
feel torn, because both sides raise red flags.
If it’s true that he isn’t where he says he is, that speaks to integrity. But before jumping to conclusions, keep in mind that AirTags aren’t proof of deception; people leave coats behind, lend them, or go elsewhere for valid reasons. The bigger concern here may actually be how this information was obtained. Tracking someone without their knowledge — even for “good” reasons — crosses a major boundary.
If honesty and respect are important to you (and they should be), that has to go both ways. The more menschlech path would have been to verify his learning through normal channels — asking his rabbi or roshei yeshiva, or even having your father stop in the beis medrash once or twice to see him learning.
So, what now? First, own what happened. If you choose to confront him, be transparent: “I recently learned information that made me question whether you’re being honest about your learning.
Tracking someone without their knowledge — even for “good” reasons — crosses a major boundary.
It was found in a way I’m not proud of, but I do think we need to clear the air.” His reaction to that conversation will tell you a lot about who he is — and who you are becoming through this process. If it turns out he was dishonest, that’s reason enough to end things. But if this experience teaches you that relationships built on suspicion — from either side — can’t grow, that’s an even more valuable lesson.
“I want to be upfront about something uncomfortable. My mom did something I don’t agree with. She put an AirTag in your coat because she was worried. I didn’t know until after the fact, but I now realize she saw things that don’t match what you’ve told me about your learning schedule. I feel awful about how this happened, but I also need to understand what’s true.”
Say it calmly, with grace. You are not accusing; you are seeking truth. And then pause. See how he responds.
If he owns it and explains himself with maturity, that tells you something important. If he deflects, blames, or
becomes defensive, that tells you something else.
This is really about character. Not whether he learns full time, but whether he is capable of being honest when things get uncomfortable.
And you, Nechama, are already showing your character because you are trying to handle this with integrity even after being pulled into something messy. That says everything about the kind of person, and partner, you are.
Whatever happens, remember: truth and trust can survive a lot of things, but they cannot survive secrecy.
Warmly, Jennifer
Jennifer Mann, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist and certified trauma healing life coach, as well as a dating and relationship coach working with individuals, couples, and families in private practice at 123 Maple Avenue in Cedarhurst, NY. To set up a consultation or to ask questions, please call 718-908-0512. Visit www.thenavidaters.com for more information. If you would like to submit a dating or relationship question to the panel anonymously, please email JenniferMannLCSW@gmail.com. You can follow The Navidaters on FB and Instagram for dating and relationship advice.
Mental Health Corner
Nisht Ahin Nisht Aher
By Rabbi Azriel Hauptman
Adolescence is the period between childhood and adulthood that can be difficult both for the teen and for his or her parents. One of the common features of
adolescence is anger directed at the teen’s parents. These angry outbursts may be very alarming for parents and can sometimes lead to parents responding with anger of
their own. Angry outbursts directed from parents to their teenage child is ineffective at best and destructive at worst.
Some parents know how to manage their teen’s outbursts by acknowledging that they are “just being a teenager” and exercising patience until their child grows up and learns how to manage their expectations and their emotions. However, other parents will be so alarmed by their child’s outbursts that they may overreact and make the matter worse. Understanding the underpinnings of a teen’s psyche may help parents develop calm strategies for dealing with their teen. The basic idea is that teenagers are “nisht ahin nisht aher” (neither here nor there).
Children are by their very nature dependent on their parents and will, more or less, be accepting of their lack of independence. Parents will also know mostly everything about their child. They will know who they talk to, whose house they visit for a playdate, and the child will not have any ability to purchase anything on their own. On the opposite extreme, you have a fully grown and independent adult child. The parents in that case know relatively very little about their child. The parents do not know where they are at any given time, they do not know the identity of most of their child’s friends, etc. In between these two polar opposites, you have teenagers.
happen in an instant. It takes years for a teenager to develop the skills to be fully independent. This has been backed up by scientific research that has demonstrated that the part of the brain that controls decision making, the prefrontal cortex, is not fully developed until age twenty-five.
This delayed maturity is mirrored in Halacha as well. Although a thirteenyear-old boy or a twelve-year-old girl is expected to be mature enough to be obligated in Mitzvos and avoid Aveiros, nevertheless if they own inherited property, they are not allowed to sell it until they reach twenty years of age (Bava Basra 155a). The level of decision making that is required for selling real estate is just not something that should be entrusted to a teenager, even if the teenager is the legal owner of the property.
The rate at which a teen will transition from a fully dependent child to a fully independent adult is the tug-of-war that parents and teens will grapple with during these pivotal years. This is where anger may occur.
Teenagers will slowly start having certain small parts of their lives that their parents are not involved in. Teenagers who have their own cell phone will have the ability to have conversations with friends that the parents might not know who they are. This is true even if the phone is a Kosher phone. Teenagers might have earned some of their own money and may purchase items that the parents are not aware of. They also might go bike riding that gives them some level of freedom of movement. Even if the child is doing nothing inappropriate with their little nuggets of independence, they are still tasting for the first time what it feels like to exist as a distinct individual.
This budding sense of independence comes from the teen’s greater ability to function independently and also from an internal desire to be independent. However, this ability to be independent does not
This is because anger is an emotion that is triggered when there is a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A teenager who is yearning for their independence will naturally feel anger towards their parents who are a threat to their individuality and differentiation. Thus, the child’s anger is not reflective of some inner defect. Rather, it is an expression of the difficulty of this interim period between childhood and adulthood.
The news is full of stories about conflicts between countries when there is a border dispute. This part of your child’s life is in essence the same thing. How much of their life do you control and how much do they control? No wonder that it is fraught with stress. The good news is that hopefully the war will end one day with your child as the victor and being a fully independent adult who can be in total control of themselves! Ken Yehi Ratzon!
This is a service of Relief Resources. Relief is an organization that provides mental health referrals, education, and support
the frum community. Rabbi Yisrael Slansky is director of the Baltimore branch of Relief. He can be contacted at 410-448-8356 or at yslansky@reliefhelp.org
It starts innocently enough. You are scrolling through Instagram after putting the kids to bed. A wellness influencer appears on your screen, her home serene, her kitchen lined with glass jars and organic snacks, her children in matching neutral pajamas, laughing softly under a caption about creating a non toxic sanctuary. You save the post for inspiration. But a few scrolls later, you start to feel tense. Maybe you should be switching out your cleaning products. Maybe your child’s lunchbox is not safe enough. Maybe, despite your best efforts, you are somehow not doing enough.
As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I have seen how the non toxic movement, originally meant to promote mindful, health conscious living, has quietly evolved into a new form of pressure. What started as a wellness trend has, for many, become a source of anxiety, guilt, and even obsession. Beneath the language of purity and safety often lies something far more toxic: the unrelenting belief that if we just do enough, research enough, and buy the right things, we can control every outcome for our families.
The truth is, a healthy home is not just about what we remove, it is about the emotional environment we create. The goal is not perfection. It is balance. And balance, in both psychology and faith, is what keeps us well.
Health & F tness The Non-Toxic Trap
By Rivka Kramer, PMHNP-BC
The Rise of the Non Toxic Ideal
The non toxic lifestyle has become its own micro economy. Once a niche corner of the wellness world, it is now a full blown industry driven by social media influence and a desire for control in an unpredictable world.
We live in an era where health information, often unfiltered and fear based, is available 24 hours a day. Influencers with beautiful homes and glowing skin promise a cleaner life through the right supplements, air purifiers, and household swaps. Every post subtly reinforces a message: if you truly care about your health and your children’s future, you must do this too.
And people listen. Because who does not want to keep their family safe? The problem is not that we care too much, it is that caring becomes intertwined with fear. The more we consume this content, the more we start to believe that danger is everywhere. And the more anxious we feel, the more we scroll, searching for the next product or answer that might finally make us feel at peace.
The cycle feeds itself, and influencers, often unintentionally, profit from it. Fear is good for business. Non toxic is no longer just a lifestyle, it is a brand.
The Psychology of Fear and Control
At its core, this anxiety stems from a
very human instinct: the desire for control. Anxiety thrives in uncertainty, and modern motherhood is full of it. From environmental toxins to school safety to food allergies, there is no shortage of things to worry about.
The brain’s natural response is to look for patterns and rules that promise safety. “If I avoid all plastics… if I only buy organic… if I use the cleanest detergent…” It becomes a ritual of reassurance. Psychologically, this can resemble what we call wellness perfectionism, a belief that emotional calm will come once we finally reach perfect purity.
But that calm never fully arrives. Because every time we think we have figured it out, new fears appear: a new list of toxic ingredients, a new expert warning, a new influencer insisting we are doing it wrong.
In my practice, I have seen this pattern mirror the cognitive cycle of anxiety disorders: vigilance, doubt, reassurance seeking, temporary relief, renewed anxiety. It is not intentional, and it does not mean someone is unstable. It is simply how the anxious brain tries to self soothe, through control. Unfortunately, social media amplifies that loop until it becomes relentless.
When Healthy Becomes Harmful
The emotional cost of living this
way can be high, especially for mothers. What starts as protective care often turns into chronic worry. Many describe feeling on edge, unable to relax at family gatherings, hyperfocused on ingredients, or panicked when others do not share their same standards.
I have spoken with mothers who feel guilty for buying a non organic snack when they are tired, or who spend hours online researching every item that enters their home. They may start to view others, spouses, grandparents, even teachers, as careless or uninformed. The home, once meant to feel safe, becomes a battleground of vigilance.
Over time, this can erode emotional connection. Children pick up on their parents’ anxiety. Partners feel criticized or excluded. The family’s sense of warmth and spontaneity fades. Ironically, in trying to protect their loved ones from physical harm, many mothers end up suffocating the very peace and joy that make a home healthy.
One client once said to me, “I wanted to raise my kids in a clean world, but I have made them afraid of it instead.” That, to me, captures the essence of this cultural moment.
Hishtadlus: Finding the Middle Path
There is a concept rooted in our belief
that beautifully captures what is missing from modern wellness culture: hishtadlus, the idea of doing our part within human limits while trusting that ultimate outcomes are not in our control.
It is an antidote to perfectionism, both spiritual and psychological. In mental health terms, hishtadlus reflects the practice of radical acceptance, acknowledging that we can take wise, intentional action but we cannot guarantee results.
Applied to the wellness world, this means we can care about our health without making it our identity. We can choose non toxic products where it makes sense and let go when it becomes obsessive. We can strive for better, but not at the cost of our inner peace.
A hishtadlus mindset might sound like this:
• “I will use cleaner products when I can, but I will not panic if I cannot.”
• “I will research what is reasonable, not what is endless.”
• “I will do my best, and then I will live my life.”
That balance does not just lower anxiety, it models resilience for our children. When kids see us practicing flexibility, they learn that safety and control are not the same thing, that calm does not come
from eliminating every risk but from learning to tolerate uncertainty.
So how can we step out of the non toxic spiral and back into grounded living? Here are a few practical strategies I share with patients and parents:
1. Audit your inputs. Pay attention to how certain influencers or accounts make you feel. If you notice guilt, shame, or anxiety after scrolling, that is your cue to unfollow or mute. Your nervous system deserves protection too.
2. Shift from fear to values. Instead of asking, “What is the safest choice?” ask, “What choice aligns with my family’s values?” Maybe that is connection, gratitude, or moderation. Let values, not fear, guide your decisions.
3. Limit wellness comparison. Remember, influencers are often selling a brand, not a lifestyle. You are seeing their highlight reel, not their chaos. Health does not have to look like minimalist perfection.
4. Practice good enough health. Borrowing from psychologist Donald Winnicott’s idea of the good enough mother, aim for good enough wellness.
That means doing what is supportive, not obsessive.
5. Ground in the body. When anxiety flares, pause and breathe. Feel your feet on the ground, notice your surroundings, and remind yourself: I am safe right now.
6. Seek support if it is taking over. If health anxiety is disrupting your relationships or peace of mind, therapy can help. Cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness based approaches are highly effective for anxiety rooted in control.
7. Reframe toxic. The most toxic thing in any home is chronic fear. Peace, laughter, and flexibility are far more protective than any product label.
The Real Meaning of Healthy
True health is not about purifying our homes to sterile perfection. It is about creating environments, both physical and emotional, where people can thrive. That includes space for imperfection, spontaneity, and joy.
When I think about the mothers and families I work with, I am struck by how often the desire to do better for our children morphs into a fear of not doing enough. But children do not need perfect parents. They need calm ones. They need
parents who can sit with them on the couch without worrying about what is in the upholstery.
A non toxic home is valuable. But a peaceful one is vital.
The non toxic movement has opened our eyes to important truths: what we consume matters, what we expose our families to matters, and awareness can empower us. But awareness without balance becomes anxiety.
The path forward is not to reject wellness, it is to reclaim it from the grip of fear. To remember that mental and emotional health are part of health too. To practice hishtadlus, doing our part with intention and then letting go.
Because the healthiest environment for any family is not one scrubbed clean of all risk, it is one filled with love, laughter, and the peace that comes from knowing: I am doing enough.
Rivka Kramer is a Board Certified Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. She has a psychiatric private practice based in Cedarhurst, NY. She serves as a member of the board of JANPPA, the Jewish American Nurse Practitioner Psychiatric Association. She can be reached at 516-945-9443.
Parenting Pearls Keeping Up With Change
By Sara Rayvych, MSEd
Reading this article will make me sound old. Writing this article will make me feel even older. But the truth is I only need to be hovering just over thirty for much of what is written here. Even some of our readers in their older twenties will smile along, recognizing the different examples.
It’s no secret that our world has changed dramatically over the past (very) few decades. Technology has always been making strides but has exploded in recent decades. The parenting repercussions of technology could be a parenting book all its own.
While most articles – particularly those for the frum community – will focus on tzinius and other similar issues, there are other areas where we don’t recognize the subtle changes that occur from hi-tech. The changes of technology impact every area of our daily life, and we don’t always realize it. Sometimes, it’s because it happens so slowly. Perhaps it’s because we don’t even notice it.
Today’s topic isn’t about bemoaning the loss of a simpler life, the potential evils out there or the concerns over staring at a screen. In this article, I’d like to focus on some of the simple social and emotional skills that have slowly withered with the current technology. My hope is that awareness will help parents in bridg-
ing the gap, permitting our community’s children to thrive in the new, ever-changing world we live in.
Times are Changing Technology – especially phones, internet and computers – have dramatically changed our lives. The ease and convenience we currently take for granted was once unthought of. Online shopping can save hours of driving around to find a store with the required item. We avoid the hassle of parking and waiting on lines.
Our sanity can only be grateful. The convenience of quick delivery means we can still get in last minute necessities. Preparing for yom tov, a simcha or any other occasion has become faster and simpler. The opening of packages also provides an exciting activity for my preschooler.
Kids may not appreciate the ease of payment, but in-person shopping didn’t always go as smoothly as a quick tap. Most payments were made by fumbling with change, writing out a check or frequently sliding the card till the machine was happy. Before credit card machines, payment by plastic was made by sliding a special paper over the card, getting an imprint and inputting the data later. Online banking affords us ease of transactions, quick and accurate financial details and even check cashing at home or direct
deposit for paychecks. I can digitally reimburse my neighbor for the quick item they picked up for me.
Maps are outdated, all information just a keyboard away and spell check to make a writer’s life easier. Every area of our life has been similarly changed, often made better and more convenient.
Social Skill
I picked up the ringing cell phone and said, “Hi.” I was shocked to be greeted back with a rude, “Who is this?” No “hello.”. No introducing themselves – after all, they had called me. I decided to exercise good middos and respond politely.
It’s not the first time I’ve received a call from a child who was not trained in phone etiquette. They didn’t say hi, introduce themselves or respond politely. As kids, we were trained on how to respectfully speak on the phone. We knew to introduce ourselves when calling someone else, “Hi, this is Reuven. Can I please speak with Shimon?” We also understood how to pick up the phone and receive a call.
Children rarely use landlines, and many homes don’t own a family phone. Kids are used to cell phones with caller ID and probably are unfamiliar with the idea of introducing yourself. Much communication is through texts that are
abrupt and emails that are quickly sent. This not only encourages atrocious spelling and grammar (“how R u,” “gr8, u?,” “lol”), it lacks the formality of normal communication, and this can carry over into their daily speech or day-to-day life. While the phone is one common example, there are many areas where social skills are allowed to slide, and children are not being given this important life tool. As parents, we need to be mindful and ensure our children are acquiring the crucial skills of interpersonal communications.
When is It Coming?
“When are we going to be there?” said in a whiny voice is a classic memory from road trips. Parents know to be prepared for a very long-feeling trip when this question is asked just five minutes after exiting the driveway. Kids lack the same concept of time that adults have. Combined with their inability to recognize the highways and other landmarks, this results in some very impatient passengers. This is normal and should decrease with maturity.
It is normal for young children to be less patient and unable to delay gratification. They want it now, and they can’t understand why it’s not here. Some skills come with maturity, and these can’t be
rushed. Sadly, this normal childhood frustration isn’t going away so naturally anymore. With everything so instantaneous, today’s child finds it hard to learn that not everything happens right away.
It wasn’t that long ago that mailed packages took weeks to arrive, and you never knew where it was until it landed at your door. It could get lost in the great postal beyond, and you wouldn’t know until you waited the requisite time – plus a week, or two. We knew we had to wait, and there was nothing else to do. Today’s child can ask incessantly, “When is it coming?” and “Why isn’t it here yet?” All it takes is a click on the app, and they can find exactly where their package is, the driver’s name and how many stops are before yours. Soon, we’ll know what the driver ate for breakfast, too.
Technology is incredible and allows us to access so much in virtually no time at all. Blood and medical tests come back faster than ever. GPS can get us quickly out of the craziest of traffic. Important documents can be transmitted instantaneously. Our readers can readily appreciate how much our daily lives are
growing up with the expectation of immediate results. They can’t understand that we can’t do something, know everything or fix their problem immediately. This inability to delay gratification is not to their advantage, and parents should try to find
one needs them? It’s an unhealthy stress on all of us. There is a lot of pressure to always be in contact, and the person we’re speaking to right next to us may get pushed aside for the continuous need to check the phone or text.
fun things that build their skills and encourage healthy development.
Digital versions cannot fully replace the old-fashioned ones. Digitally, kids can color pictures, build with fake tools and play basketball with a tap on the screen. This is not the same as the original. For example, real-life jigsaw puzzles require hand-eye coordination. Kids can learn so much just from the trial-and-error of turning the pieces and seeing what does and doesn’t work.
ways to encourage a little more patience into their child’s day.
But
I Couldn’t Reach You
Along with this expectation of immediate results is the assumption that everyone will be available at all times, whenever called or “summoned.” The idea that someone could be unavailable is beyond the understanding of many children. This results in a number of issues for families.
It also takes away from children learning independence. We had to learn to do some things on our own, and we couldn’t always expect someone else to bail us out. We had to work things out, and we learned to function on our own.
Keeping Busy
We often don’t realize how much we depend on technology for entertainment. Kids are losing time from playing outdoors, creative play, building forts and just acting plain silly. Children are meant to run around, color and do all kinds of
Like many areas of life, technology has the potential for much good but needs to be used with mindfulness. We’re the first generation of parents dealing with this specific issue, and we’re learning as we go how to address each new concern that arises. With awareness, thoughtfulness and lots of siyata dishmaya we can successfully raise this generation to safely use the technology around them while maintaining their social and emotional health.
Sara Rayvych, MSEd, has her master’s in general and special education. She has been homeschooling for over 10 years in Far Rockaway. She can be contacted at RayvychHomeschool@gmail.com.
Naomi K., 6
Meira Robinson, 6
Note: Not
Esther Turk, 4
Elisheva, 10
Yehoshua Horowitz, 5
Benny Radparvar, 6
Gili Jakobi, 8
Dovid Feldman, 5
Ruchama, 6 & Rachelli, 5
Yonah Rabenstein
Goldie Katz, 8
Adiel Shemuel Souri, 7
Note: Not all submission have been published. Keep sending in your artwork for another chance to be featured!
Shua Rosenstein, 5
Yael Fakheri, 7
Nochum Wolosow, 5
Ruth Lasker, 9
Shifra Brody, 7
Zev Rosenstein, 8
Ruti Tuchman, 5
Hudis Gross, 6
Mordechai Gluck, 5
Goldie Tenenbaum, 6
Azi Sperling, 5
Chava Brikman, 5
Alex Lencz, 3
Talia Kohengadol, 6
Yehuda Katibian, 5
Meir Loewy, 3
Esti Soskil, 5
Bella Gluck, 4
Kayla Kovacs, 4
Ariella, 5
Binyamin Tzvi HaKohen, 7
Chava Malka Forgy, 6
Talya, 6
Aliza Ezzatpour, 4
Tzion, 10 & Chananel, 6 Maron
dinner done 2
Now, the Between Carpools team — the women who understand real life in the kitchen — are back with Dinner Done 2, the sequel fans have been waiting for. The beauty of Dinner Done 2 lies in its simplicity. Every recipe uses ingredients you already have, such as chicken cutlets, pasta, vegetables, pantry staples, and turns them into dinners your family will actually love. No complicated steps. No specialty shopping. Just smart, practical recipes that work every single time. These are dishes that come together easily, taste incredible, and look beautiful because great food doesn’t have to be hard.
Herby Mustardy Salmon & Potatoes
This might be the new salmon recipe that we’ll end up making the most often. One, it’s a complete meal. Two, it’s so wholesome, and we appreciate that there’s no added sugar. Three, it looks so pretty and that makes it even more enjoyable to eat (and super company worthy)! And four, we enjoy the leftovers straight from the fridge because it’s good even when it’s cold. Do we need more reasons?
YIELD: 4 servings
IngredI ent S
>> 1 (1½ lb.) salmon fillet (not sliced)
>> ½ red onion, thinly sliced
Potatoes
>> 1½ lb. Yukon gold potatoes, cubed
>> 2 Tbsp olive oil
>> 1 tsp salt
>> Dash black pepper
Dijon Sauce
>> 1/3 cup country-style Dijon mustard
>> ¼ cup lemon juice
>> 2 Tbsp olive oil
>> 1½ tsp salt
>> ½ tsp black pepper
>> 2 Tbsp sesame seeds
Herb Mixture
>> 3 scallions, diced
>> ½ cup dill leaves, coarsely chopped
>> ½ cup fresh parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
dI rect Ion S
1. Preheat oven to 400⁰F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. On one side of prepared baking sheet, toss potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper; bake for 25 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. In a small bowl, combine all Dijon sauce ingredients.
4. Add salmon to the other side of the baking sheet; top with red onion. Toss potatoes with ¼ cup sauce. Spread remaining sauce over salmon, reserving 1-2 tablespoons. Return baking sheet to oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on the size of the salmon fillet.
5. Prepare the herb mixture. In a bowl, combine herbs; dress with reserved sauce.
6. Top fish with herbs and serve.
PREP: Double this recipe if preparing a whole side of salmon.
