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The Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

The Week In News

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The Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

The Week In News

CONTENTS

COMMUNITY

Community Happenings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

JEWISH THOUGHT Rav Moshe Schapiro, zt”l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Delayed Gratification Makes us Happier. . . . . . . . . 18

FEATURE Are We Seeing the Beginning of Cold War 2.0? . . 19 Witness to History: A Judaica Exhibition Brings History Alive. . . . . . . . 33

LIFESTYLES Notable Quotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Dr. T.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

NEWS Israel News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 That’s Odd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

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JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Dear Readers,

This past Sunday the Palestinian people marked Asara B’tevet, an annual fast mourning the encircling of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. A terrible day, which ultimately led to their Temple being destroyed on the Ninth of Av. Although subsequently dispersed to the four corners of the world, Jerusalem was always close to their heart. A deep yearning for her was passed from parents to their children. Their most cherished wish: Next year in Jerusalem! Whether facing Roman, Christian, or Jewish persecution, they always held on to the firm belief that one day they would return. One day they would be back home. They knew they would, for G-d himself had promised the land to their forefather Abraham, the first Palestinian. This knowledge gave them the strength to keep as many of the commandments possible even in the face of unimaginable suffering. Although the Romans changed the name of Palestine to Judea, and brought the Christians and subsequently the Jews arrived, for the Palestinians it was always the holy land of Palestine. (Indeed all the nations referred to it as the Holy Land and wanted to have some type of ownership of it.) There are still thousands of Palestinians in this very day whose families can be traced back to its original inhabitants. After many years of wandering, first a trickle and then multitudes began returning once again to Palestine’s holy soil. Home at last, to a land where they can finally live in free of any pogroms or persecution. Though desolate and bare, the new nation bloomed like a literal garden in middle of the desert, becoming a shining example for all surrounding lands. At first the surrounding Jewish armies attacked, promising to throw them into the ocean, but G-d showed great miracles and they were victorious. After the miracles of the 1967

war the Palestinians decided that the only way to survive amongst the Syrian, Egyptian, and Jordanian Jewish armies was to hold on to land they had won, and settle its uninhabited areas with descendants of the original owners of the land. In addition to the tens of thousands of newly arrived Palestinian refugees who had been evicted from the surrounding Jewish countries. Finally, a few weeks ago the record was set straight once and for all by the Honorable John Kerry and previously the United Nations: 1) Palestinians have always had a connection to Palestine and indeed it should be recognized as a democratic Palestinian state. 2) The settled lands were won in a defensive war and are vital for security in the land of Palestine. 3) If the Jewish people really wanted peace they wouldn’t be teaching their children indiscriminate, primal hate for another nation and would’ve accepted the extremely generous offers of land given them in the past. Finally (many Jews want to live in peace, it’s their leaders who are corrupt.) 4) The eternal city of Jerusalem would rightfully be the capital of rebuilt Palestine. History will forever be indebted to the great men who bravely stood up and remedied a historic injustice. A song of ascents. When the Lord returns the returnees to Zion, we shall be like dreamers. (Tehillim 127.) In the dream of Exile everything goes. Night is day, day is night, I am you and you are me. May we “awaken” from this dream and see how this was all for a purpose; the ultimate G-dly revelations of the Messianic era. Wishing you a wonderful Shabbos,

Shalom

T H E P R E M I E R J E W I S H N E W S PA P E R H I G H L I G H T I N G L A’ S O R T H O D OX C O M M U N I T Y The Jewish Home is an independent bi-weekly newspaper. Opinions expressed by writers are not necessarily the opinions of the publisher or editor. The Jewish Home is not responsible for typographical errors, or for the kashrus of any product or business advertised within. The Jewish Home contains words of Torah. Please treat accordingly. FOR HOME DELIVERY, OR TO HAVE THE LATEST ISSUE EMAILED TO YOU FREE OF CHARGE, SEND A MESSAGE TO EDITOR@JEWISHHOMELA.COM

TheHappenings Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Em Habanim’s Avot Ubanim and Teen Chanukah Chagigah Motzei Shabbat Parshat Mikeitz, on the eighth and final night of Chanukah, Congregation Em Habanim opened up their Motzei Shabbat learning programs to the entire Valley Village community. This Chanukah chagigah was an amazing success, with over 60 boys and over 100 adult participants in attendance, including family members and special guests Sarita Bouadanaha, Henry Benharosh, Albert Abergel, and Mr. and Mrs. Michael Rebibo.

“What an amazing night of community spirit!” Leibel Winegard exclaimed as he thanked everyone for their support of Em Habanim’s Avot Ubanim (Father and Son) and Teen Havruta program. Winegard explained that the celebration of the light of Torah and the simchah couldn’t have been possible without the sponsorship from Jason Rimokh, who so generously supported the event, as well as Lionel Levy who contributed in memory of his father Meir Levy, z”l. The evening began with an hour of learning with fathers of three- or four-yearolds reading stories to their sons. Rabbi Bittan taught Noam Ohayon and Yosef Bittan Psukei Dezimra the Shabbat prayers with true Moroccan melodies. Other boys worked on the week’s parshah questions with their fathers. Still others practiced their bar mitzvah portions. A number of boys learned Gemarah or reviewed Rashi’s commentary on the parshah. Several boys from Yeshiva Ner Aryeh, Valley Torah, Shalhevet, and YULA joined the Teen Havruta learning as they do each week. Rabbi Bittan commented that the event was a true kiddush Hashem, bringing many synagogues and schools together to celebrate this wonderful holiday. “Learning Torah is the best way to celebrate the holiday of Chanukah, symbolically represented by the lighting of Chanukah candles.” With the learning complete, and the lighting of the final candle on the chanukiyah by Mr. Winegard, who coordinates

the program, the festivities began. Several boys offered divrei Torah. Those assembled were further honored by a special story given over by Rabbi Yochanan Weiner, the Rosh Hayeshiva/Menahel of Yeshiva Ner Aryeh. Rabbi Weiner also drew the

winning ticket for a complete set of Shas, which was won by Yaakov Benarrous. After the raffles, everyone danced to the live music provided by Brad Shachter and dined on hot dogs, french fries, sufganiot, and chocolate Chanukah coins! It

was beautiful to see 100 boys and fathers dancing just like the Maccabees must have celebrated after their astonishing victory and joy of seeing the light of the menorah burn miraculously in the beis hamikdash.

TheHappenings Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Gala of Lights Honors Founders and Parents of KMD Spivak Kehillat Mogen David Spivak Educational Center hosted its first Gala of Lights event on December 29th, 2016, honoring its founders, Mr. & Mrs. Al & Betty Spivak, as well as prominent board member and contributor, Michael Wolf. Additionally, members of the PTA were honored with the Hakarat Hatov Award: PTA President Roneet Aviv, and Active Board member, Ilaina Davidson. KMD Spivak Educational Center is a Jewish day school for Pre-Nursery through third grade. The school is inspired by a Reggio Emilia Philosophy of Education and provides a strong academic curriculum for both secular and Judaic studies. Childled learning and collaborative experiences are born in this experiential environment. The Gala was held at The Mark on Pico Boulevard. Beautiful hues of blue light graced the walls throughout as guests were greeted at the entry with a large poster of the children of KMD Spivak. Delicious hors d’oeuvres, catered by California Catering, a company owned and run by a parent of KMD Spivak, Dudu Zrihen, were passed during cocktail hour. A Chinese auction table featured items from Clippers and Kings tickets, to a signed poster of The Simpsons TV show, to gift cards for kosher restaurants all over Los Angeles. As the Gala opened with a parent of the school as the Master of Ceremonies, Ami Kozak of the band Distant Cousins,

Photos: Naomi Solomon

the evening began with the lighting of the chanukiyah for the seventh night of Chanukah by the Dean and Headmaster, Rabbi Gabriel Elias. The evening progressed with entertainment by two renowned comedians, Wendy Hammers and Marvin Silbermintz. Wendy is an actress and comedian that appeared on Mad About You, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Sopranos, while Marvin was a full-time staff writer for the Tonight Show with Jay Leno for over eighteen years. Following the entertainment portion of the evening, the MC introduced the Director of the school, Cecelie Wizenfeld, who spoke about the beginnings of KMD and introduced a short film, entitled, “What Is Light?” directed and produced by KMD parent Arnon Shorr, an independent film producer, as well as KMD Faculty mem-

Cecelie Wizenfeld, Director of KMDSEC, Betty & Al Spivak, honorees,

ber Dustin Young, an and Rabbi Gabriel Elias, Dean and Headmaster of KMDSEC aspiring actor and indeident Roneet Aviv. Mrs. Aviv took the pendent film producer himself. lead as PTA President, serving for the past After the film – which featured short two years, while playing an active role at one-liners from KMD students, ages two KMD Spivak. Ilaina Davidson has been a through eight years old, in response the very supportive and active parent at KMD the questions “What is Light? and “Where Spivak since its humble beginning. Mrs. do we find light in the holidays?” – Rabbi Davidson now serves on the board of the Elias presented the awards to the honorschool as parent representative alongside ees. Mr. & Mrs. Spivak were honored with Mrs. Aviv. Both received the Hakarat Hathe Founders Award. Mr. Spivak was the tov Award for their service to the school. founder and owner of the Eastern MortStarting with 15 students a mere seven gage Company, which has operated in Los years ago, KMD Spivak has successfulAngeles for over six decades. Al & Betty ly grown to over 100 students, ages two Spivak are notable philanthropists, supthrough eight. With plans to add a grade porting the Yeshiva of Flatbush, Yeshiva each year until they reach eighth grade, University, as well as various Jewish day KMD Spivak continues to grow and thrive. schools across the Los Angeles commuWith the tremendous success of their first nity. Michael Wolf was honored with the Gala, KMD Spivak is a rising star as the Chesed Award. Mr. Wolf is founder of the new up and coming Jewish Day School in Wolf, Rifkin, Shapiro, Schulman, & RabLos Angeles. kin, LLP Law Firm, which employs 50 To find out more and schedule a tour lawyers and 200 employees to date. Mr. for the upcoming 2017-2018 School Year, Wolf provides legal guidance and philanplease call: (310)-553-9900. Call now, as thropic contributions for KMD Spivak as spaces are filling up! KMD Spivak Educawell as synagogues and schools in the Los tional Center is located at 9717 West Pico Angeles area. Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90035. Parent honorees included PTA Pres-

YION Chanukah Bowling Event 5777 On Motzei Shabbos, the first night of Chanukah, Young Israel of Northridge hosted their fifth annual Bowl-A-Thon at Corbin Bowl in Tarzana. It was a beautiful way to usher in the unity of Chanukah. Over 200 attended the event, bringing many Jews together for a night of family fun. The night featured a great variety of food, including pizza, pasta, a salad bar, desserts, and more. With Jewish music playing over the loudspeakers, raffles for adults, a free kids raffle where every child won a prize, and an opportunity to participate in a $10K prize game, the night was enjoyable for all ages. The best and worst bowlers walked away with trophies for their accomplishments – or lack thereof. As is the custom every year, Rabbi Nachi Klein of Young Israel of Northridge challenged attendees to sponsor his final

bowling score. With his final score of 180, funds were raised for both the shul and Jewish outreach to college students in the North Valley.

In the end, it didn’t really matter if you were an avid bowler or not – the event was a hit for all walks of life, a fun and kosher event for singles and families. Young Israel of Northridge would like to thank everyone who participated and contributed to this event.

TheHappenings Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

LINK Kollel Celebrates Dedication Of Its First Newly-Written Sefer Torah Eli Stern and debilitating illness that would eventually claim his life, he persevered to learn about two-thirds of Shas with his son Natan until nearly his last day on this earth. His almanah, Mrs. Davoodi, together with her children Sarah, Natan, and Yaffa (Bernstein), decided to commission a new sefer

Consulate and Chabad Israel Center Honor Bereaved IDF Families During Chanukah The Israeli Consulate joined Chabad Israel Center on the fourth night of Chanukah to honor bereaved IDF families living in Los Angeles. The participants varied in age and background, but they had one common thread: the loss of a loved one who died while defending Jewish lives in Israel. It was humbling and inspiring to hear their personal stories of bravery and sacrifice. Mr. Stuart Steinberg, father of Max Steinberg, “the lone soldier” who passed away in 2014, expressed his gratitude for events such as this that honor the memory of soldiers and bring together their fami-

streets and into the beis medrash. As is customary, all the “resident” sifrei Torah were taken out of the aron hakodesh to welcome the newest arrival. Spirited Simchas Torah-style dancing lasted for nearly an hour. As the sefer Torah was finally placed in its new home in the aron, Rabbi Amar and Mr. Natan Davoodi offered remarks on the incredible mesirus nefesh of Mr. David Davoodi and how the LINK beis medresh is truly a fitting place for a sefer Torah written in memory of such a heroic man. Eli Stern is the Director of Outreach at LINK.

Photos: Yosef Ober

After more than 14 years of existence, the LINK Kollel in Los Angeles finally has a newly-written sefer Torah that it can truly call its own. Under a brilliant December California sun, hundreds of kollel attendees, neighbors, and supporters joyously marched behind the chuppah-covered Torah to celebrate this milestone. The sefer Torah campaign had its origins in the untimely passing of Mr. David (Siamek) Davoodi, z”l, the father of Mrs. Sarah Amar, LINK’s very capable administrator, and the father-in-law of Rabbi Daniel Amar, a veteran avreich at the kollel. Mr. Davoodi had fled with his family from Iran over 25 years ago to escape the religious persecution of the Iranian regime and settled in Los Angeles, where he renewed his career as a pharmacist. He embarked on a process of greatly strengthening his Torah observance and learning, even at the risk of ostracism from some of his non-observant family and associates. Despite the anguish of a devastating

Torah and donate it to the kollel in his everlasting memory. After nearly 18 months of tireless fundraising, the beautiful sefer Torah was ready for its dedication. The final letters of Sefer Devarim were auctioned off at the home of Mrs. and Mrs. Ephraim Shraga (major supporters of LINK), and then the lively musical procession began its joyous journey of three blocks to the Kollel. It was an event that truly epitomized the inclusive spirit of the LINK beis medrash, as Ashkenazim, Sefardim, children and adults of all ages, black hats, knitted yarmulkes, and even bare heads danced alongside the chuppah as the sefer Torah was carried through the

lies. Sam Grundwerg, the Consul General, spoke about the significance of Chanukah. He then lit a 12-foot menorah and led everyone in singing “Maoz Tzur.” Words of chizzuk & encouragement were given by Shaliach Rabbi Amitai Yemini. “In the face of darkness, we go forth with light and joy…” Attendees included Mr. Yuval Lipkind, Executive Director of IDF Widows and Orphans Organization; Consul of Consular Affairs Mr. Avner Saban; Carolyn Ben Natan, Director of Public Affairs; and many consulate staffers.

TheHappenings Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Press Release: West Coast Kosher Food and Wine to Converge on February 15 Kosher Food & Wine Experience Los Angeles to be held at the Petersen Automotive Museum The ninth-annual Kosher Food & Wine Experience (KFWE) Los Angeles, the largest public kosher food and wine event in California, is to be held at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wednesday, February 15, at 6 p.m. KFWE Los Angeles is the sister event to KFWE London, New York, and Miami – bringing world-acclaimed kosher wine

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Before the event opens to the public, there will be an exclusive, invitation-only trade portion of KFWE Los Angeles extended to guests of Herzog Wine Cellars and its parent company, Royal Wine Corporation. The trade portion includes a media lounge for interviews with winemakers from around the globe, such as Herzog’s head winemaker, Joe Hurliman; celebrated chefs; the organizers of KFWE, including the Herzog family; and industry experts like Joshua Greenstein, an authority on Israeli wines, and Ira Norof, a certified wine educator and director of education for Southern Glazer’s Wine And Spirits. For more information on KFWE Los Angeles, please visit www.kfwela.com. ABOUT HERZOG WINE CELLARS California-based Herzog Wine Cellars is a division of Royal Wine Corporation, a family-owned company and one of the largest producers of kosher wines in North America. Specializing in sustainable viniculture, Herzog offers more than 25 grape varieties in its award-winning wines, including brands like Baron Herzog and Jeunesse. The craftsmanship of Herzog wines is attributed to a 150-year legacy of wine making, passed down for nine generations from Czechoslovakia to the United States and now led by Herzog’s head winemaker, Joe Hurliman. To learn more about Herzog, connect on social media or visit herzogwinecellars.com.

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

The Week In News

Living with In theNews Times The Week

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz Publisher of the Yated Ne’eman

If someone were to ask: How does a talmid chacham look? How does he walk? How does he talk? How does he sound? How does he present himself? I would think of Rav Moshe Shapiro and paint a picture of him. Everything about him spoke of greatness molded by Torah and gedolei Torah. He personified and represented the immaculate, impeccable, flawless tzuras ha’adam. He carried himself with perfect dignity, yet spoke to people with fabulous humility. He embodied the gadlus ha’adam of Slabodka and the atzilus and discipline of Kelm. His knowledge was prodigious. He seemed to know and remember everything. How do you describe Rav Moshe to someone who never met him or heard him speak? You open Pirkei Avos and you study it. Mishnah after mishnah describes Rav Moshe. Our Rav Moshe. The one who walked among us. The one who just left us. And we are bereft without the huge light that exposed and opened the Torah for so many. Rav Moshe gave hundreds, if not thousands, of shiurim on Pirkei Avos and understood it on so many levels you never thought fathomable until you heard his shiurim and studied them. And studied him. He opened the da’as of his talmidim to the sefarim and teachings of the Vilna Gaon and Rav Chaim Volozhiner; Rav Tzadok Hakohein and the Izhbitzer; the Maharal and the Ramchal; the Rambam and the Ramban; Abaye and Rava. In his shiur room, they came alive. Their words were alive. Their teachings were alive. As Rav Moshe’s thoughts meshed with theirs, you were wowed and overcome. Once, while delivering a shiur to us at Yeshiva Bais Binyomin of Stamford, Connecticut, on a complicated calculation in Maseches Yevamos, Rav Moshe suddenly stopped speaking. The silence hung in the room as the talmidim waited for their rebbi to continue. Rav Moshe appeared lost in

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Rav Moshe Schapiro, zt”l thought, concentrating on the cheshbon he was in the middle of working out. Suddenly, he spoke. “Rabbosai!” he exclaimed. “You should know that un Torah, without Torah, iz gornit, there is nothing!” Then he returned to explaining the sugya. That was Rav Moshe. Torah was everything to him. It was his world. It was the entire world. He was so enraptured by Torah that it took over his entire being, transformed him and left him in a state of ecstasy. With one sentence, he invested a roomful of bochurim with a lifelong sense of

missing the bus was not the deciding factor in how he would walk. Though humble enough to travel by bus, the significance of his role and what he represented defined his actions, not the smaller issue of the inconvenience of missing a bus. The embodiment of Kelm, Slabodka and the Torah itself. Rav Moshe was an ish emes. He was all about the truth. Suffused with Toras emes, his measure was truth. A kiruv activist once asked him how to sugarcoat something for people new to religion. He told the person that the only way to succeed is with the truth. Fiction

For the first time in hundreds of years,

Torah pulsates in Teveria. appreciation for the power and meaning of every line of Gemarah and each diyuk in Rashi, lifting the curtain and allowing them to see reality. A friend was at a bus stop in Yerushalayim when he saw Rav Moshe off in the distance walking to the stop for his ride home to Bayit Vegan. The 21 bus that he needed pulled up at the stop, while Rav Moshe was still some distance away. Rav Moshe saw the bus and knew that his chances of making it were slim if he didn’t hurry. My friend watched as Rav Moshe continued walking at the pace at which he always walked. Like he was a prince. He walked like a prince. He carried himself like a prince. The bus driver noticed the respectable person headed for the stop and waited for him, but that is beside the point. Rav Moshe carried himself with an awareness of who he was and what he represented. With that bigger image in front of him,

won’t accomplish anything lasting. Nor will stupidity, he hastened to add, lovingly and with his famous twinkle. To him, sheker and shtus were closely related. He didn’t get sucked in by the sheker of this world, and neither should we. His search for the truth, combined with his genius, brought him to unique heights in limud and harbotzas Torah. Rav Moshe taught that there are two levels of knowledge. Human intelligence occupies a defined spectrum and is governed by certain parameters that limit thought. A person whose thinking is in the physical realm of this world has a choice: either think the way humans do or be a fool. As much as an intelligent person thinks, he is confined and can never rise above the here and now of olam hazeh. The real choice is whether to remain within the limited realm and knowledge a person can attain using human abilities, or to raise himself to a higher level of da’as,

knowledge achieved through Torah (and nevuah). A person can raise himself above the boundaries that govern human thought. It is through bechirah that a person can choose to accept upon himself a much higher level of thought and knowledge, achievable through attaching oneself to the Torah, which is min hashamayim and thus limitless. One who attaches himself to Torah min hashamayim is the freest person. As the mishnah in Pirkei Avos (6:2) says, there is no person freer than he who studies Torah. Although Rav Moshe didn’t say this, perhaps we can. The mishnah (ibid.) concludes, “Vechol mi she’oseik b’talmud Torah misaleh,” the person who studies Torah is raised. The person who connects himself to Torah raises himself to a different level and a different plane. Rav Moshe was that person. He was on a different level. His seichel was on a different level. His knowledge seemed boundless, for it was not contained by the normative human parameters. His feet were planted in this world, but his da’as was heavenly. Rav Moshe would relate the teaching of Rav Tzadok Hakohein that the Torah pays a unique compliment to Yosef Hatzaddik. The posuk says, “Vayehi Yosef yefeh to’ar v’yefeh mareh (Bereishis 39:6).” Yosef is the only man the Torah describes as a person with “yofi,” beauty. Why? Rav Moshe would present a point like this, let it hang in the air, and then say, “Mah katuv kan?” When he said, “Mah katuv kan?” you knew that you were about to be brought into a new world. You were assured that the topic would be examined from every angle, the depths plumbed, the clear waters underneath exposed, and all the talmidim would find themselves refreshed. And that was what he did here. He quoted Rav Tzadok and proceeded to explain “Mah katuv kan?” He began by saying that to understand “yofi,” beauty, you must first analyze its opposite, “ki’ur,” ugliness. He said that ki’ur is a word that denotes a lack of clarity. As he was wont to do, Rav Moshe quoted a posuk and a comment of Rashi’s. Yaakov Avinu told his sons, Shimon and Levi, “Achartem osi lehavisheini (Bereishis 34:30).” Rashi (ibid.) explains the word achartem as “mayim achurim,” dirty, muddied waters. Yaakov was telling his sons, “My mind was clear and you sullied it [by what you did to Shechem].”

Living with In theNews Times The Week

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Rav Moshe continued plumbing the clear waters of Torah. He said that in discussing the laws of cooking on Shabbos, Chazal use the term “mitztameik veyofeh lo” to describe a food that has been fully cooked yet improves as it remains close to a heat source. He analyzed that the word “yofeh” refers to the precision of two different forces coming together to create a reality that had been concealed. Raw food and fire worked together to create an edible dish. The process is “yofeh.” Ki’ur, ugliness, is brought about when the truth cannot be seen, when differing forces create ruin, and when concealed depths are obscured. Yosef took his strengths and unified them, so that they were all working towards one goal: namely, to bring together the twelve brothers and unite them harmoniously around Yaakov Avinu. The Maharal states that the fact that Yosef looked like Yaakov, and his life was patterned after his father’s and they shared similarities, indicates that the semblance went beyond the superficial and facial. Chazal say, “Shufra deYaakov keshufra shel Adam Harishon.” Yaakov was blessed with the “shufra,” the perfect beauty, of Adam Harishon, who possessed the ultimate tzuras ha’odom. When Chazal teach that Yosef “looked” like Yaakov, they were revealing that not only was there a clear physical resemblance between the two, but also that Yosef shared this spiritual quality with Yaakov. It went far beyond the physical realm. This, Rav Moshe concluded, is the yofi of Yosef Hatzaddik, a beauty that allows the truth to come together. This is why the medrash (Tanchuma, Vayigash 10) compares Yosef to Tzion, the holiest city. The gematria of Tzion is Yosef. They are both the meeting point between physical and spiritual, where heaven and earth cross. (See also Afikei Mayim, Bais Hamikdosh, Chapter 15.) And both are beautiful. They are both embodiments of what is meant by yofi. True yofi. And this yofi, the splendor and majesty of man, of a soul that circulated among us, a figure familiar in Yerushalayim of today, was the middah of a man who was a rebbi to many. Rav Moshe showed us the dimensions of man. He demonstrated how a person can be elevated, regal and great. He was one with the Torah, showing us its expanse and breadth. We saw him and we understood greatness. We listened to his shiurim and realized the heights man can reach. Through him, we understood the virtue of the Alter of Kelm, the precision of the Brisker Rov, the depth of Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler. He was a keili, a vehicle carrying the lessons of the greatest rabbeim and distilling them for a superficial generation. I learned by him in Stamford, when he spent a few years in America. We talmi-

Rav Moshe at the authors vurt

dim had a zechus. We were enthralled by his shiurim, the vastness of his Torah, the prestige and chashivus he radiated. As young as we were, we grasped the truth of the statement, “Man malki rabbonon (Gittin 62a).” His magnificence extended even to the way he spoke, his sweetness and warmth, his perfect diction, expression and vocabulary, and the way he articulated each word. Even the way he paused and let silence grab hold of the room was significant. I’ll never forget how he said one particular posuk, and how much heart and sensitivity went into it. It was at my vort, a simchah that took place a few years after my mother passed away at a young age. Our family would never be the same. Our mother took so much blessing, joy and love with her. A child without a mother, no matter the age, has a void in his heart that cannot be easily filled. Rav Moshe got up to speak. He looked at me, he looked around, and then he quoted, in his distinct way of speaking, the words of the posuk, “Vayinachem Yitzchok acharei imo (Bereishis 24:67).” When Rivka entered Yitzchok Avinu’s tent, he was at last comforted from the loss of his mother. With Rivka’s arrival, the brachos of Sarah Imeinu – the candles that remained illuminated all week, the challah that warmed and nourished, and the cloud that hovered protectively – returned. Rav Moshe didn’t elaborate, because he didn’t have to. He was bentching me that with the return of brachah, my life would once again be complete. I never forgot his warm words and generous wishes. Every year, when this parshah returns, I contemplate the moment referred to by the posuk.

He knew what was in my heart. He gave expression to the subtle thoughts running through my soul. He understood. That was a moment that encapsulates Rav Moshe – so much heart, so much empathy, so much friendship, through Torah. He only had to recite the words and we were able to appreciate the sweetness that lies underneath each one. He had the ability to open vistas. His shiurim were deep, clear, and beautiful, and when he was done, it all made perfect sense and left you enriched. He always left you in awe and wanting more. You looked at him and imagined the greatness of those whose Torah he shared – the Gaon and the Maharal and the Alter of Kelm – and you opened your mouth wide, as he laid out their concepts before you, k’shulchan aruch, and then fed to you these lofty ideas with a silver spoon. Vezos haTorah asher som Moshe lifnei Bnei Yisroel. He was so elevated, so refined, yet so approachable. He didn’t only know how to talk to us. He also knew how to listen. At the levaya, Rav Moshe’s son spoke not of gaonus or tzidkus, but of his father’s ability to listen to and identify with the downtrodden. “Abba,” he cried out, “you were the lowest of all, the biggest shafel. You got down to feel with every broken person you met.” Because he was able to make himself appear to be the lowest, because he was able to bring himself to that level to impart Torah wisdom and life lessons to others, he was, in reality, the highest. He was the greatest. He could make himself appear low, but his brain and soul flew in the heavens. He seemed regular, but he wasn’t. He was the embodiment of yofi, combining heaven and earth.

Just as Rav Moshe perceived the depth of a Rambam or a Ramban where others only saw black letters, so was he with people. He would look at me with his gentle, wise eyes and ask, “Peeny...vos machst du?” And by the way he asked, I knew that there was no reason to answer, because he already knew. Throughout the years, whenever I had the pleasure to meet him, it was always the same greeting, the same drawn-out “Peeeeeny,” the same ability to load that one word with so much empathy and understanding. When he took my hand and held it an extra moment, and looked at me with a penetrating and meaningful look, I felt that there was at least one person in the world who understood me. Someone once asked me if I minded that he still called me Pinny, as if I was still the young bochur he had taught in Stamford. “No,” I replied. “He still sees me as that wide-eyed, eager bochur whose mind and heart he filled. He still views me the same way.” I know that I’ll never hear that “Peeeeeny” again and it saddens me. It is so much harder to hold on to who we really are if those who reminded us are gone. Before he would deliver a shiur, he would look around. His expression would shift as he seemed to rise higher before our eyes, entering a sacred world. You walked out of Rav Moshe’s shiur with a new appreciation of the vastness, depth and expanse of Torah. And you walked out of his shiur and felt like shouting out Birchos Hatorah all over again, because it was a new Torah, and it embraced you and you embraced it. Once, during a Shavuos shmuess, Rav Moshe began to describe how Torah ought to cause not just man’s soul to rejoice, but even his body. He described the pleasure and delight of Torah and the ideal of being able to feel that enjoyment as if enjoying a good meal. He then cried out, “Men darf es untappen mit di hent. You have to be able to touch it.” He moved his hands up and down, as if grasping it. His audience of American yeshiva bochurim felt themselves being transported to a world where they, too, could touch the timeless truth of Torah and experience it as he did. He had that ability. Rav Moshe Mordechai Chodosh, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon in Yerushalayim, was in Monsey one year on Shabbos Chazon. As I walked with him, he told me of the time that Rav Moshe visited the Ohr Elchonon branch in the city of Teveria. Rav Moshe spoke to the bochurim in the yeshiva and was in a state of ecstasy. He quoted the Gemarah in Rosh Hashanah (3a-b) which states that the last sitting of the Great Sanhedrin comprised of 71 members was in Teveria. Rav Yochanan adds that the geulah will begin from Teveria. Rav Moshe explained that the Gemar-

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F R O M

Living with the Times

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

#26

O U R

VOICEMAILS …When he woke up from the complicated brain surgery, he was completely back to his old self. In fact, one day later, he was already up and out of bed. The doctors were amazed and perplexed, but we were not. We knew that we were carried on the heilige koach of Chatzos HaLayla limud haTorah. C.M.H., London

‫להצלחת גבריאל‬ '‫בן אליזה חי‬ '‫וכל משפ‬

ah (ibid.) states that Teveria was “amukah mikulom.” Rashi says that the people of Teveria were on the lowest level of the ten places the Sanhedrin exiled to. When the Sanhedrin ended up there, the Jews of the Holy Land had hit rock-bottom. When the time of the geulah will arrive, the rebuilding process will begin there. The redemption will start at the lowest point in Eretz Yisroel and infuse it with kedushah as the land is prepared for the ultimate salvation. Rav Moshe told the bochurim that by returning Torah to the forsaken city of Tiverya, they were contributing to the geulah of Klal Yisroel. For the first time in hundreds of years, Torah pulsates in Teveria. Witnessing such a rebirth of Torah in the forsaken city brought Rav Moshe to a state of elation. The Rambam in Hilchos Taanis writes: “A great city by the name of Beitar was captured. Inside it were many tens of thousands of Jewish people. They had a great king whom all of Yisroel and the rabbis believed was the king Moshiach. He fell into the hands of the gentiles and they were all killed. It was a great tragedy, as great as the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash.” Rav Moshe explained that the tragedy was that their king, Bar Kochva, who could have been Moshiach, was killed. What could have been a period of redemption instead became one of destruction. Through their sins, an era that could have returned the Jews to the state they awaited since the chet hameraglim turned into tragedy. We are so close to the redemption that we can hear the footsteps of Moshiach. We suffer from the chevlei moshiach. Before Moshiach’s arrival, the tumah of the world increases, as the Satan fights to prevent his arrival. When the world will assume the state that Hashem intended, the koach hatumah will wilt. Amalek will cease to exist after the geulah. So, in the period leading up to Moshiach, tumah rises and becomes strengthened, as the forces of darkness endeavor to prevent the Jewish nation from reaching the levels that Hashem intended. Rav Moshe was niftar in the days of yarda choshech le’olam, on Asarah B’Teves. Rav Moshe was the one who could lift the veil to allow us a glimpse of reality, beyond the murkiness and shadows. And now it’s dark. He is gone. He taught that the period leading to the redemption is referred to as ikvesa demeshicha because just as the heel of the foot, the “ukeiv,” is largely deadened and cannot feel much, so too, in this time peri-

od, our souls feel numb. Rav Moshe would quote the Yerushalmi (quoted in Tosafos, Shabbos 31a) which states that a farmer is “maamin bechayei olamim vezoreia.” He “believes in the Sustainer of world and plants a seed in the hard, dry ground.” Rav Moshe would explain that when a seed is planted, it must first decompose and break down, unseen and nearly forgotten, before it is able to bring forth a living tree able to bear fruit. The same is with our nation. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is matzmiach yeshua, allowing Am Yisroel to grow from a broken seed. Yarda choshech le’olam. Nistemu eineihem shel Yisrael. Let us hope that this is the darkness before dawn and that the seed that is our people is about to burst forth. We must strengthen ourselves and seek to raise the levels of kedushah in this world so that it can overcome the kochos hatumah and permit Moshiach to reveal himself. It is plainly evident to anyone that tumah is spreading rapidly. It has a foothold everywhere. Many are entrapped in its clutches. The only way to fight back is through ameilus in Torah and maasim tovim. As the posuk states, “Tzion bemishpat tipodeh veshoveha betzedakah.” If we engage in righteousness and charity, we strengthen kedushah in the world and weaken the koach hatumah. When tumah is in its death throes, Moshiach can reveal himself and bring about the geulah. If we remember the Torah Rav Moshe taught us, if we study the Torah of the leading masters and study their sefarim, if we learn as if there is nothing else of any importance in this world, if we carry ourselves the way Rav Moshe did, if we treat others the way he did, if we raise our level and the level of those around us, we help bring light to the world. Light that chases away the darkness. Light that blinds the kochos hatumah and helps lead to the day when the world will be filled with that great light. We will then merit “Ohr chodosh al Tzion to’ir,” the day when Moshiach ben Yosef is empowered with the strength and “yofi” of Yosef and allows Tzion to once again excel with its “yofi.” Moshiach ben Yosef will bring the world to a state of “yofi,” allowing the revelation of Moshiach ben Dovid. His arrival will bring with it the bais hamikdosh hashlishi that will return Tzion to its state of “Tzion hametzuyenes” and “yofi,” as it connects elyonim and tachtonim. May we merit that day speedily.

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Torah Musings The Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Delayed Gratification Makes us Happier Sarah Pachter

After a recent Friday night dinner, my husband and I plopped down on the couch, ready to relax after a hard week. At the time, my parents were in town, and we started talking about how everything seems to be changing at such a rapid pace, and the challenges it creates for raising happy children. I asked them if they shared the same sentiments. My parents expressed their bewilderment at how raising happy children has changed in the last thirty years. Their impression was that most youngsters today feel entitled. Part of the reason they feel this is because of the rapid speed at which technology is changing. I agreed with their feelings, especially those regarding entitlement. It seems as though everywhere I turn, my friends are complaining: My kids constantly want more. They tell me, “No matter what I buy them, nothing satiates. And G-d forbid I should bring them to the grocery store! I

end up spending so much more just because they are there with me. Honestly, the stores know exactly what they are doing putting candy at the bottom of the checkout aisle.” I asked my mother if she had any words of wisdom regarding how to teach my children to be satisfied with what they have rather than constantly “needing” more. She began with a story that, at first, seemed unrelated. “When I was in high school I played the flute…In fact, I loved it so much that I played in the marching band.” Marching band?! This was too much for me. Images of the nerdy girl from the famous American Pie movie entered into my mind as she was talking. It didn’t make sense. In high school, my mother was a popular blonde, blue-eyed bombshell. She was not only captain of her cheerleading squad, but also the salutatorian. Upon greater reflection, I guess it made sense

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that this overachiever tackled the flute as well. “After playing as part of the school’s marching band for some time, I saved up for over a year to buy my own flute. It wasn’t anything fancy or elaborate, but it was mine. I didn’t have a lot of money, and I worked hard and set aside little by little and earned it. “And then, one day, years later,” she continued. “It was gone. I think I lost it during the move to our new house.” I looked at her as she was telling the story. She was tearing up! Why did this flute mean so much to her? I wondered. I had never heard this story before. “When I think about the fact that I don’t have that flute any longer it stings. Not because of the flute itself – obviously, I could just purchase another one at this stage of my life. It stings because of how long it took me to painstakingly earn it. Then – poof! – it was gone in one second. It meant so much to me because I earned it, probably more than anything else I’ve ever bought in my life.” She wiped her eyes. “I guess I got a little sidetracked, but what I’m trying to say is that the best way for kids to feel satisfied with what they have, is for them to earn it themselves.” We have to give our kids opportunities to earn, by waiting, at the very least. Two things happen when a child has to work and save for something. First, because they earn it themselves, they actually enjoy it on a deeper level. More often than not, children are on to their next “want” shortly after ripping open the box which holds their new found toy. (Sometimes, the kids play with the box longer than the toy itself.) Parents are left bewildered as to why their kids don’t get more enjoyment out of what they worked hard to buy for them. And that’s exactly it: the parents paid. When a child pays for something, there is a sense of pride and accomplishment that accompanies the item. The item becomes a symbolic representation of what the child was able to accomplish. When we work hard and pay for the item ourselves, we rob our children of that experience. Secondly, because they have to wait for it, it enhances the enjoyment of the item. Studies show the longer you wait for something, the longer you enjoy that item. Consider the following anecdote a friend shared with me: “I told my son that I ordered him a book he wanted. He excitedly responded, ‘That’s great! When is it coming?’ “I thought about when I ordered it and

said, ‘I ordered it yesterday so I guess it will come tomorrow.’ “With deep genuine disappointment, he responded, ‘Oh man… I wanted it to come today!’” She then proceeded to tell me about her father. When he made his first online purchase through Amazon Prime last year, “he called me with such excitement in his voice. He could not contain himself over the sheer joy that the shipment would come in only two days time!” According to studies conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, the number one indicator of success in college students is not IQ, or even aptitude. It is a strong work ethic and the ability to delay immediate gratification. In 1969, Stanford University conducted the famous Marshmallow Study. They handed young children a marshmallow, telling them they had two choices: They could wait five minutes, and then they would be given a second marshmallow, or they could eat it now without receiving a second one. Some children used different tactics to refrain themselves, such as turning and facing the other direction or stroking the marshmallow like it was a pet, while others could not wait and impulsively ate it. They found that the kids who refrained from eating the marshmallow had longer marriages, more financial stability, and less depression across the board. One great thing about Judaism is that we are given plenty opportunities throughout our day to practice delayed gratification. If we eat meat or chicken, we must wait to eat dairy products. On fast days, we must wait to eat altogether. If it is Shabbos, and we receive mail that we are curious about, we must wait to open the envelope or box. All these small moments build up and allow us to become capable of waiting and practicing self control – thereby rendering us happier people. Just as importantly, it prevents hedonic adaption and that sense of entitlement we are trying to avoid. My mom waited a long time for that replacement flute. 47 years later, for my mother’s 65th birthday party (today) all of her children and grandchildren pitched in to buy her another flute. This time, we had it monogrammed…because she earned it. Happiness is in the journey, not the destination. The greatest gift you can give to your kids is giving them the chance to create that journey for themselves instead of jumping from destination to destination or from one toy to the next.

OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Feature The Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Are We Seeing the Beginning of the Cold War 2.0? How U.S.-Russia Relations have Deteriorated under Obama’s Watch BY NACHUM SOROKA

resident Obama’s expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and the U.S. government’s closure of two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland may be the beginnings of the Cold War 2.0 if not for the fact that in less than two weeks the new U.S. president will have much warmer feelings towards the former Soviet Union than the current administration. Throughout the Obama presidency, and even during the Bush administration, Russia under Vladimir

Putin has been the United States’ foreign policy wildcard, the country that keeps policymakers looking over their shoulders, never certain of its intentions. Over the course of the second half of the twentieth century, even in the last twenty years after the Cold War, the U.S. has learned to deal with the Russians in the cautious, Reaganesque fashion of doveryai, no proveryai: trust, but verify. Indeed, while Obama imposed sanctions on Russian intelligence agencies

and technology companies thought to be behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee over the summer, namely the powerful foreign intelligence agency, the GRU, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on Russian interests four times since 2014. And although the most recent hacks on U.S. government officials stole the most headlines, the Pentagon tagged hackers from Russia as early as 1996, a mere five years after the fall of the Soviet Union, including one breach

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

Feature The Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Even Ronald Reagan knew to “trust, but verify” when it came to the Russians

in 1998 which allowed Russian intelligence access to military information in the amount of “a stack of printed copier paper three times the height of the Washington Monument.” So sanctions aren’t new when it comes to Russia.

A Necessary Evil It should be obvious to anyone who follows the news headlines on a regular basis that the Russians, particularly under Putin, are a conniving bunch of deceitful, self-interested players. They grant asylum to enemies of democracy, provide funding and military aid to terrorist organizations and despotic leaders, and blatantly annex lands which do not belong to them. President Putin has been known to throw his political rivals in prison, wrongfully seize internationally owned businesses, and poison those who speak out against him. But all this has not stopped world leaders, including American ones, from reaching out to Russia in order to harbor warm relations with the country. Having a working relationship with Russia can be considered a necessary evil. As the world’s two largest owners of nuclear weapons, a conflict between the U.S. and Russia can wipe humankind off the face of the earth in short time. Additionally, Russia’s massive size – its borders span across Europe, Central and East Asia, and the Arctic – allow it influence on many countries which are vital to the maintenance of democracy and Western interest in the world. And, in truth, Russia has been a vital ally in the effort to quell the influence of Islamist movements in some of the world’s most volatile regions such as in the successful

Obama famously told Romney during a debate that the “1980s called” and they wanted their foreign policy back

defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan. On the other hand, the country maintains strong ties with Tehran and Pyonyang, the two most dangerous regimes in the world today. And as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia’s vote is necessary in order for key global security measures to pass. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States

John Kerry accused Romney of getting his facts about Russia straight from Rocky IV. and Russia have shared a functioning relationship. During the Bush presidency, the two nations did have some serious disagreements – most notably one regarding the U.S. installing a missile defense system in Poland – but the countries and their leaders remained cordial with one another. And by the time Barack Obama took office, the U.S. struck a reconciliatory tone in order to mend whatever strain was placed between the two powers, with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton clumsily offering up a “reset” button (which actually spelled “overload” in Russian) to Sergey Lavrov, her Russian counterpart. Both the U.S. and Russia then set out on

a campaign to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weaponry.

1980s Foreign Policy? President Obama seemed to have been relishing the generally complacent dealings between the U.S. and Russia, and during his 2012 reelection campaign, he and his camp repeatedly mocked Mitt Romney’s assertion that Russia was the United States “number one geopolitical foe.” Obama famously threw his “the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years” zinger at Romney during the third presidential debate that year. And John Kerry accused Romney of getting his facts about Russia straight from Rocky IV. In hindsight, looking back over the last term of Obama’s presidency, his team’s bluster about Russia is on the level of his comparing ISIS to a JV team. The past four years have showcased how far Vladimir Putin will go up against U.S. interests and how deceitful Russia can be. It seems that there is not a global crisis occurring these days without Russia and Putin somehow in the mix. As much as Obama’s dismissal of the Russian threat was campaign puffery, U.S.-Russia relations have deteriorated so much recently that the president needed to enact law and order on Russian diplomats a mere three weeks before he leaves office.

Russia Stirs the Pot How did things get to be this bad? The beginning of this new round of enmity may be linked back to the blatant annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea by the Russians in 2014 after its

OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Feature The Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

The disdain the two world leaders have for each other is apparent in their policies and sentiments

straw man, Victor Yanukovich, was deposed as Ukrainian president. The U.S. responded by revoking Russia’s acceptance to the G8 political forum, a move whose severity was downplayed by Putin, who continued to stir unrest in the region. Eventually, the U.S. and its allies were forced to impose a number of sanctions on Russian firms and individuals with close ties to Putin. Russia had officially become a pariah to the West. There is also the ongoing civil war in Syria. The world is currently aghast at the massive civilian casualties brought about by Russian airstrikes on the city of Aleppo as the Syrian Army attempted to regain control of the city from rebel forces. Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, Putin’s government has backed its longtime ally Bashar Assad’s forces without regard to any potential collateral damage. Back in 2012, President Obama warned President Assad that the use of chemical weapons on his country’s civilian population would trigger a U.S. military response. But Obama’s promise was a hollow threat, and Assad got away with murdering his own people. Many experts believe that Putin was emboldened to take a more confrontational role in Syria when President Obama failed to make good on his vow not to allow Assad to cross the “red line” of using chemical weapons on helpless civilians. The latest bout of Russian-induced heartburn for the U.S. and the Obama administration has to do with hacking, or to put it in classic terms, espionage. The Russian attitude towards U.S. cyber-security has always been dismissive, and there may be no better exam-

ple of this than their asylum of Edward Snowden, who provided the press with thousands of classified government documents in 2013. The U.S. government is of the opinion that Snowden compromised national security and emboldened terrorists worldwide. Obama elected to cancel a planned meeting with Putin in 2013 after Russia extended its offer of asylum to the traitor. This past June, the Washington Post reported that Russian hackers infiltrated the servers of the Democratic National Committee. The hackers were only assumed to be Russian: they went by names like guccifer 2.0 and DC Leaks, but a cybersecurity firm called CrowdStrike was able to confirm that the hackers were indeed not lone individuals, but were a group of Russian agents working for groups such as the Russian GRU. Leaked emails from Guccifer led to the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz and may have caused the disaffection of many erstwhile Bernie Sanders supporters from the Hillary Clinton camp. The most disturbing revelation of all was that the Russian hacking campaign, using the alias “Shadow Brokers,” succeeded in gaining access to some NSA servers.

What Will the Future Bring? The U.S. has found itself outmaneuvered by Putin and his gang for the past four years. Relations with Russia have reached their lowest point since the 1980s. Indeed, ties with many of the U.S.’s allies have worn thin under Obama’s watch, including Egypt, Israel, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Tur-

Putin always has his ally Assad’s back

key, while former foes like Cuba and Iran have been brought near. In contrast with President Obama’s diplomatic doctrine, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to make good on reclaiming many of these relationships. During his campaign, Trump insinuated he would allow Russia to remain in Crimea and lift the sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its actions there. Most recently, he called into question the U.S. government’s assertion that it was indeed Russia which hacked into the DNC’s server accounts and indirectly influenced the U.S. election. “It could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don’t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation,” he said on December 31. Echoing this sentiment, this week, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity and insisted, “We can say, we have said, repeatedly that over the last two months that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party,” Assange said. He added that the claim of Russia being behind the release of 50,000 emails during the presidential campaign was made as an effort to “delegitimize” Donald Trump. Trump has continually waxed pro-Putin, calling him a “real leader” and a “really smart man.” Clearly, Putin welcomes Trump’s isolationist policies which would allow him more leeway to influence world affairs. The question remains if Trump’s presidency will succeed in hitting the reset button on U.S.-Kremlin ties or lead everyone back into the cold 1980s.

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HaGaon HaRav Berel Povarsky, Shlita to Grace Dirshu Convention

Numerous Other Gedolim to Attend and Address Lomdei Dirshu Chaim Gold

HaGaon HaRav Berel Povarsky, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, will be coming especially from Eretz Yisroel to attend the Dirshu Convention where he will deliver a shiur klali after davening on Shabbos morning and then, on Motzei Shabbos, will make the Hadran and give a keynote address at the melaveh malkah siyum on Masechta Bava Metziah. The Convention, to be held this coming Shabbos Parshas Shemos, 22-24 Teves/ January 20-22, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Stamford, Connecticut, is entitled Shabbos Chizuk L’lomedei Torah. In truth, its name truly encapsulates and defines what the Shabbos is all about. The Shabbos is to pay tribute and give chizzuk to the myriad lomdei Torah and their wives who, day in, day out, week after week, month after month, throughout the year, shabbosim, yomim tovim, easy times, hard times…are dedicated to learning Torah and taking regular tests to ensure retention. Climax Will Be Keynote Motzei Shabbos Melaveh Malkah Siyum Numerous gedolei yisrael will grace the convention and deliver addresses paying tribute to the lomdei Torah comprising the worldwide mishpachas Dirshu. The climax of the Shabbos will be motzei Shabbos’s keynote session where a siyum on Masechta Bava Metzia will be made. At the siyum, addresses will be given by HaGaon HaRav Berel Povarsky, shlita, Dayan Yonasan Abraham, shlita, a member of the London Beis Din and Rav of the Toras Chaim Shul in Hendon, North West London, HaGaon HaRav Binyomin Eisenberger, shlita, Rav of Kehal Heichal Hatefillah in Boro Park, and Rav Dovid Hofstedter, Nasi Dirshu. Even though the hotel is completely sold out for Shabbos, the Motzei Shabbos siyum and keynote session melaveh malkah will be open to the general public. Bus transportation will be provided but RSVP is required by calling 1-888-5 Dirshu, ext. 153 or RSVP@dirshunj.org. Throughout the Shabbos, other gedolim will give addresses, among them, HaGaon HaRav Reuven Feinstein, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva of Staten Island, HaGaon HaRav Aharon Feldman, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisrael, Baltimore,

HaGaon HaRav Yechiel Michel Steinmetz, shlita, Skverer Dayan of Boro Park, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Sorotzkin, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Mesivta of Lakewood, HaGaon HaRav Dovid Schustal, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, and HaGaon HaRav Dovid Olewski, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Ger. Hailing a Joint Effort There will also be a comprehensive women’s program catered especially to the wives of the lomdei Dirshu. Indeed, every person present at the convention is a person who has shown deep dedication to limud haTorah. The men show that dedication by learning, chazering every day, day in and day out, and taking monthly tests over a protracted amount of time. Similarly, every Dirshu wife has displayed mesiras nefesh for her husband’s learning and spiritual ascent by enabling him to devote tremendous amounts of time to learning the daily material and then repeatedly reviewing so that he will know the material sufficiently to earn an exemplary mark on the test. This often does not come easily. It frequently means sacrificing the help of a husband in the most hectic of times, such as the morning rush to school or the evening bedtime crunch. That is why Dirshu siyumim and Shabbos conventions always

have an important place for Dirshu wives, true partners in the Torah success of their husbands. “Earning Olam Habah with Phenomenal Olam Hazeh!” One of the highlights of previous conventions has been the unique shailos and teshuvos session held on Friday night after the seudah with the Skverer Dayan, Rav Yechiel Michel Steinmetz, shlita. Questions that span literally the entire gamut of halachah are moderated and posed by Rav Eliezer Ralbag, shlita, to the dayan who, with his encyclopedic knowledge and good cheer, answers them all comprehensively, and often with a good dose of added humor as well. At the previous Dirshu Shabbos Chizuk L’lomdei Torah, it was Rav Steinmetz who encapsulated what he saw as the uniqueness of the Dirshu convention saying, “A unique koach of Dirshu is that it not only gives a person Olam Habah, it also gives a person phenomenal Olam Hazeh! Where else can you have a convention where after a moving oneg Shabbos, followed by going to sleep at 1:00 a.m., the next morning at 5:00 a.m., one hears a resounding kol Torah in the beis medrash? Where do you have a convention where after the seudah on Shabbos

afternoon, the “taanug” of sleeping on Shabbos is replaced by the even greater pleasure of learning and chazering another blatt Gemarah and another seif in Shulchan Aruch?!” Rav Steinmetz will be introduced by another distinguished international guest, HaGaon Dayan Binyomin Eckstein, shlita, Dayan in the London kehillah and the yoshev rosh of Dirshu in Europe. Inasmuch as the Convention is a sold out event and in order to ensure the proper kavod for davening and learning, Dirshu plans to erect a massive tent on the premises. The tent will also serve to accommodate the burgeoning crowds so that they can hear the shiurim of Rav Povarsky, Rav Steinmentz and numerous other Gedolim in a dignified manner as befitting a maamad of kavod haTorah. “The Shabbos When Totty and Mommy Went to Learn How to Learn More Torah!” After the last Dirshu convention, Dirshu received numerous letters from lomdei Torah and their wives, expressing their feelings about how limud haTorah with a plan has transformed their lives. One woman wrote, “…I would like to share what Dirshu and the Shabbos mean to us. There is no way we can ever express the depth of our gratitude. While my husband, a kollel yungerman, always admired his father who is a great masmid, he didn’t think he was capable of doing the same. At the first Dirshu Shabbos when my husband saw yungeleit just like him becoming Shas yidden and being tested on the entire Shas, he came home determined to do the same! Since that Shabbos every moment in our life has become a treasure, life is a rush of excitement! “Another amud, another daf… Baruch Hashem, my husband makes a siyum so often that my two-year old confuses the word siyum and Shabbos seudah. A seudah with a siyum is such a thrill as the children march into the dining room with a special dish while singing a niggun in honor of the siyum…. Although I never imagined I would leave my children behind for a Shabbos, this Shabbos is different. My children treasure the memory of ‘The Shabbos that Totty and Mommy went to learn how to learn more Torah!’”

OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

Quotes The Week In News

Notable Quotes “Say What?!”

I’ll look into it. - White House spokesman Josh Earnest when asked about the statistic that President Obama is the first president since Herbert Hoover in the 1930s not to see more than 3% economic growth in at least one year of his presidency

Later this month, Google will be testing its new self-driving minivans. The vehicles can do all the functions of a human driver, except wonder, “[Gee], how did I end up driving a minivan?” – Conan O’Brien

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the iPhone. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 even celebrated with a fireworks display. – James Corden

The viral video of a beating and knife attack in Chicago suggests the assault had racial overtones. CBS’s Dean Reynolds tells us the victim is described as a mentally-challenged teenager. In the video he is choked and repeatedly called the n-word. His clothes are slashed and he is terrorized with a knife. His alleged captors repeatedly reference Donald Trump. Police are holding four people in connection with the attack. – The distorted “fake news-ish” way CBS 880 News reported last week’s incident when four African-American perpetrators tortured a disabled white man while screaming anti-Trump slogans at him and saying the n-word

I just want to remind folks that we cannot sit here and ignore that — at least for the last year on very public display — the worst parts of America have been brought from the fringe into the mainstream. That affects people on both sides. - Symone Sanders, Bernie Sanders’ former spokesman, on CNN, excusing the vicious Chicago hate crime

I don’t think it’s evil…I think these are young people and they have bad home training. - CNN’s Don Lemon regarding the four Chicago monsters’ actions

Are you going to send me or anybody I know to a camp? - MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who suffers from chronic Trump Derangement Syndrome, on what she would ask Trump in an interview

But though the term hasn’t been around long, its meaning already is lost…the label has been co-opted to mean any number of completely different things: Liberal claptrap. Or opinion from left-of-center. Or simply anything in the realm of news that the observer doesn’t like to hear. The speed with which the term became polarized and in fact a rhetorical weapon illustrates how efficient the conservative media machine has become. – Op-ed in the Washington Post by Margaret Sullivan explaining why the liberal media, which recently invented the term “fake news,” should stop using it

MORE QUOTES

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

Quotes The Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

A man in Vietnam was hospitalized after doctors realized that he had a pair of scissors in his digestive system that had been left there by a previous surgery that he had 18 years ago… The sad part is after they sewed him up the second time the doctor was like, “Wait, where’s my watch?”. – James Corden

She clearly was delivering a thoughtful, carefully considered message that she believes in deeply. - White House press secretary Josh Earnest when asked about a Trump-bashing speech by an aging actress at an awards ceremony

Presidential Tweets How did NBC get ‘an exclusive look’ into the top secret report he (Obama) was presented? Who gave them this report and why? Politics! The Democrats, led by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in. Instead of working to ﬁx it, they ... do the typical political thing and BLAME. The fact is ObamaCare was a lie from the beginning. “Keep you doctor, keep your plan!” It is.... ...time for Republicans & Democrats to get together and come up with a healthcare plan that really works – much less expensive & FAR BETTER Only reason the hacking of the poorly defended DNC is discussed is that the loss by the Dems was so big that they are totally embarrassed. Jackie Evancho’s album sales have skyrocketed after announcing her inauguration performance. Some people just don’t understand the “Movement!”

Joe Biden and I know that women are as least as strong as men. - President Obama in his last speech to the military

Schumer and Trump have known each other for many, many years and I think that the president frankly wants to shrink him and I would say to Sen. Schumer, if you look what happened to Jeb Bush, if you look what happened to Hillary Clinton, you should be very worried if Donald Trump decides to focus on you because so far the track record is pretty good. He can deﬁne you a lot better than you can deﬁne him. – Newt Gingrich on Fox News, warning Sen. Schumer to proceed with caution in taking on Trump

Yesterday Donald Trump tweeted at North Korea after they announced plans to test an intercontinental nuclear weapon. Trump tweeted, “It won’t happen.” I’d like to believe he’s right, but “it won’t happen” is exactly what everyone said about Trump becoming president. – James Corden

I am humbled to be able to participate here in paying tribute to some of the extraordinary Americans whose footsteps paved the way for me and my generation. I feel blessed and honored to have partnered with Sen. Sessions in being the Senate sponsors of this important award. - Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (D- N.J.) thanking Sen. Jeff Sessions (R- Ala.) last year at the Capitol for his help celebrating the 1965 “Foot Soldiers,” those who marched from Selma to Montgomery. (This past Wednesday, though, Booker testified against Sessions’ conformation as attorney general, essentially claiming that he is a racist)

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JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

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TheAdvertorial Week In News

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The Parenting Week In News

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

ADHD Sara Teichman, Psy D

Dear Dr T., My ten-year-old son has always been a real chevra-man. He is very impulsive and will do anything on a dare. He also has no sitz-fleish, so though he is very bright, he doesn’t do well in school. The worst part, though, is that he gets frustrated very easily and lashes out at his friends. Needless to say, he isn’t very popular. I am writing to you now because this year’s rebbe is hocking us to put our Leizer on medication for ADHD. The rebbe says he is very experienced and knows ADHD when he sees it. As you can imagine, my husband and I are both very opposed to giving our child medication at age ten. Don’t think that we have been neglectful parents. We have tried literally everything from when Leizer was three years old. We have consulted a nutritionist who took him off all red dyes and sugar. We went to a homeopathic doctor who gave us drops. We consulted with many different chosheve people to get their input and brochos. My wife even pays for a monthly phone conference with a rebbetzin/ coach. Unfortunately, none of these strategies have worked; if anything, Leizer does worse every year. We are at the end of our rope and could use some guidance. But, one thing I know for sure: no child of mine is going on meds at age ten. Yehuda Aryeh Dear Yehuda Aryeh, How frustrating for you to have worked so hard with such poor results! But, here is something to think about: It’s not about working hard; it’s about working smart. Let me explain. There are many, many children like Leizer who are impulsive, hyperactive, and easily frustrated. There is also a protocol for working with them. By following best practices, you can begin to get a handle on Leizer’s behavior. When a child has trouble functioning in school for no known reason (i.e. no physical illness, death in family, or family dysfunction), he should be evaluated by a licensed mental health professional.

Though Leizer’s symptoms are typical for a child with ADHD, he may have another issue entirely. He may have severe learning disabilities, anxiety, or even be the victim of bullying, neglect, and/or abuse. Only a trained professional is competent to determine the nature of Leizer’s difficulty. The first step is to find the appropriate mental health professional and get a diagnosis. The course of treatment depends on the nature of the problem. The recommendations may include: • Psychotherapy for you and/or your child • Behavior management • Social skills training

• Medication. When warranted, medication (for anxiety, depression, and/or ADHD) is prescribed. However, only a licensed medical professional – such as your pediatrician, neurologist, or psychiatrist – can make that determination. What I have described here is the gold standard in treatment. Some of the less orthodox methods you have employed – like diet, homeopathic remedies, and consultation with wise but untrained individuals – may be a fine addition to treatment, but do not replace conventional methods. It would have been so much more effective – and probably much less of a headache – to go for the basic evaluation first. Though I am not a medical doctor and cannot say whether your child would benefit from medication, I do want to address both the rebbe’s suggestion and your hesitation.

However, while it may seem that the parent is protecting his child from the potential negative side effects of medication, actually the parent may be denying his child the opportunity to function and succeed. Mental, emotional, and attentional issues are real – as real as physical ones – and the child may suffer needlessly from a parent’s refusal to follow the doctor’s advice. Conversely, many a parent has reported that their child benefits greatly from taking medication. Having a child with school issues is never pleasant. But, dancing around the issue and distracting yourself from the issue at hand by searching out alternate methods of treatment solves nothing. Facing the challenge squarely and dealing with it by using the conventional wisdom of the day is the shortest route to success.

It has become quite common for educators to insist that a child be medicated in order to come to school. However, as educators, psychologists, counselors, and social workers have no license to prescribe, the suggestion to medicate is inappropriate, to say the least. What is appropriate is a request to have the child evaluated by a qualified professional who has a medical license and can make that call. Because no amount of hands-on experience is equal to formal training and licensure, it is not for a rebbe or teacher to decide. I would also like to speak to your reluctance to consider medicating your child if that is what is needed. Unfortunately, many a parent shares your view: Under no conditions will their child take psychotropic medication!

The Book Nook: Taking charge of ADHD by Russell A. Barkley is the go-to book on the subject. This treasured parent resource gives you the science-based information you need about attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its treatment. It also presents a proven eightstep behavior management plan specifically designed for 6 to 18 year-olds with ADHD. Dr. Barkley offers encouragement, guidance, and loads of practical tips for parents struggling with their child’s ADHD. Sara Teichman, Psy D. is a psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles and Clinical Director of ETTA, L.A.’s largest Jewish agency for adults with special needs. To submit a question or comment, email DrT@jewishhomela.com.

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Witness to History: A Judaica Exhibition Brings History Alive Yehudis Litvak

In honor of Hey Teves a unique Judaica collection was exhibited last week in Los Angeles, at Congregation Levi Yitzchok and at Cheder Menachem. The owner and curator of the collection, Rabbi Reuven Goldstein, is a Chabad shaliach in Cupertino, California. He has been collecting antique Jewish manuscripts, books, maps, and coins for the past five years for the purpose of showcasing them in a museum-style exhibit. Rabbi Goldstein has always been fascinated by Jewish history. On a visit to the Morgan Museum in New York City, he saw a complete perek of the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah in the Rambam’s original handwriting. “I felt connected to history,” says Rabbi Goldstein. “A thousand years of history melted away right there.” This experience inspired Rabbi Goldstein to begin his own collection, which eventually turned into a non-profit organization Witness to History. Its mission is, “Preserve, connect, and inspire.” Rabbi Goldstein explains that the exhibitions connect Jewish visitors to their history in a unique fashion. “The collection talks to every type of Jew, no matter what age or level of observance,” says Rabbi Goldstein. The Witness to History collection consists of five parts. The Dawn of Jewish Printing collection includes rare 15th century printed books, such as the initial print of Josephus Flavius from 1470 and The Book of Prophets from 1494, printed by Don Samuel De Ortas, printer of Christopher Columbus’s astronomical tables. The Jewish Life Through the Ages collection includes antique tefillin and tzitzis, illustrated haggados, and the influential Book of Customs from 18th Century Amsterdam. The Talmud Takes Shape Collection demonstrates the five-hundredyear evolution of the Talmud from Soncino and Bomberg to the famed Vilna Shas of modern day. The Triumph of Survival collection contains censored books and ghetto documents of the Middle Ages and surviving remnants of the Holocaust. The Charting the Holy Land collection contains maps of Eretz Yisrael from the Renaissance era. Each item in the collections has its own story. Rabbi Goldstein acquired most of the items from antique book dealers throughout the world, often through the internet. Sometimes the sellers are not aware of the Jewish significance of their merchandise. For example, an item was

advertised as a picture of Constantinople, Turkey, but Rabbi Goldstein noticed a picture of a Jewish family being burned at the stake on the flip side of the page. It turned out that this was a page from the Nuremberg Chronicle, one of the earliest illus-

trated history books printed in Germany. Like audiences elsewhere, the Los Angeles Jewish community was very receptive to the exhibition. “Every class in Cheder Menachem attended, and the kids were fascinated,” says Rabbi Goldstein.

The adults who attended the exhibition at Congregation Levi Yitzchok also found it powerful. More information about the collection is available at http://www.witnesshistory. org.

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Terra Sancta, Map of the Holy Land, Willem Blaeu, 1629 Map includes markings of the significant events of the journey by the Children of Israel to the Promised Land.

Tabernacle of Moses, 1675 Wood cut engraving by August C. Fleishmann, “The Tabernacle of Moses” featuring Israel camped at the foot of Mount Sinai.

Soncino Talmud Tractate Moed Katan Pesaro, Italy 1515 The Soncino Hebrew printing press was established in Soncino, Italy in the year 1483. Members of the Soncino family were the first to begin printing the Babylonian Talmud and the first tractate, Berachot, was printed in 1484. Due to the difficulties that befell them, they were forced to leave their city and travelled to various cities throughout Italy. One of their stops was in the city of Pesaro in Northeast Italy where Gershom ben Moshe Soncino resided for several years and printed a few tractates on the Talmud. This printing, today called the Pesaro print, was a cornerstone in the history of the printing of the Babylonian Talmud. It is also the first to incorporate selected Tosafot as an integral part of the Talmud Daf. Previously the Spanish printings of the Talmud only included Rashi’s commentary on the Daf (it’s interesting to note that the Soncino family descends from some of the ba’alei Tosafot.) He ended up a printing a total of 23 tractates.

Mikraot Gedolot, Venice 1525 Printed by Daniel Bomberg, edited by Jacob Ben Chaim. The Rabbinical Bible became the determinative Biblical text, first for Jews and subsequently for the scholarly world as well.

Sefer H’aruch Venice, 1553 Printed by Bragadin, Sefer H’aruch is a comprehensive lexicography by R. Nathan ben Yechiel of Rome. This copy printed in 1553, the very year the Pope issued the decree to burn the Talmud and related works, makes its survival and existence extraordinary. It was discovered in Aleppo, Syria and smuggled out in the 20th century.

The Vilna Shas [Babylonian Talmud], 1881 In 1880 the first volumes of an extraordinary edition of the Babylonian Talmud were published in Vilna. Known colloquially as the ‘Vilna Shas,’ this edition, published by ‘the Widow and Brothers Romm’ and completed in 1886, has been the authoritative, traditional edition of the Talmud and its commentaries. The Vilna Shas follows the classic Bomberg layout of the printed Talmud, with the text of the Talmud -both the Mishnah and the Gemara- in the center of the page, and with commentaries running down the length of both margins. Through turbulent times in Jewish history, as the Romm Talmud’s templates were transferred both to the land of Israel and to the United States, the Vilna Shas retained its centrality throughout the Jewish world, still referred to and honored by its original site of publication, The ‘Vilna Shas’.

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Handwritten Manuscript from 13th century Commentary on Mishnah Tractate Keilim (author unknown) Upon the discovery of the Cairo Genizah at the end of the 19th century, scholars hoped to discover a similar European Genizah. Given the humid European climate and the widespread Jewish custom of burying old manuscripts in the moist of cemeteries, this hope seemed utopian. Most of the thousands of Hebrew manuscripts belonging to the Jews who had settled in European countries had decomposed over the years. By a twist of fate, the dream of discovering a European Genizah came true in the last two decades. The phenomenon of reusing manuscript materials was well known during the entire period of the Middle Ages. A material such as parchment was commonly re-employed for book binding. Some 1,700 Jewish parchment fragments have been found to date in European countries, the majority from Italy. Many of these “fragments” are from parchment folia to be re-employed as covers. The period in which the phenomenon of re-employment is most wide-spread, was the 16th and 17th centuries, when printing flourished. Print caused the slump in the price of manuscripts, which quickly became obsolete. Often, manuscripts were confiscated by the Inquisition’s authorities, and then sold to bookbinders at a low price instead of being burnt.

Bomberg Talmud Tractate Meilah/Tamid 1523, Venice Daniel Bomberg, a non-jew, was the first to print the complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud. The project took four years, from 1519-1523. In addition to being one of the most significant texts in the history of Hebrew printing, it is universally recofgnized as one of the greatest books of the Western world. A native of Antwerp, Daniel Bomberg established his own printing shop in Venice in 1516. He was the first Christian printer of Hebraica. Bomberg produced a corpus of nearly two hundred basic texts of Judaism, many of which had never before been printed. He became known for texts that were scrupulously accurate and beautifully produced. Bomberg’s fonts were so esteemed that they continued to be used by other printers (typically identified as “Bomberg type”) long after his own printing career ceased in 1549. It was completed in 1523 and the final page of this volume concludes with the thoughts of the printing supervisor, Cornelius Adelkind. “Praise and thanksgiving to He who is the creator… He aroused the spirit of our lord Daniel Bomberg to print the Babylonian Talmud with rashi’s commentary, Tosafot and Maimonides’ commentary on the Mishnah. And he gathered and assembled the entire Talmud and these commentaries, which had been scattered in every land both distant and near and joined to them many other books. And [so] he accomplished more than his predecessors. He expended his fortune and his wealth and sent couriers, riding swift steeds, to call the finest craftsman that could be found in all these regions to do this awesome work.”

Ella The Young Typesetter We meet Ella in 1699, as a typesetter working on the famous Berman Shas of Frankfurt when she was twelve-years-old. Her father, Moshe ben Avraham Avinu worked for years setting type and printing important Jewish books in various places in Northern Europe. He employed his children to help him in the arduous task of typesetting. We know a bit about his daughter Ella from some tidbits that she left us as she signed her name to the books she helped bring to print. She and her brother worked on the setting type of the Siddur Drash that Moshe printed in Dessau in 1696. After recording that the book was set to type by Yisroel ben Moshe, a poem was written which tells us that a nine-year-old girl named Ella helped Yisroel in this project: “The Yiddish letters I set with my own hand, I am Ella, the daughter of Moses from Holland, a mere nine years old the sole girl among six children. So when an error you should find remember, this was set by one who is but a child.” Pictured here is the end of tractate Nidah, printed in 1699, where Ella signs her work “By the hand of the faithful typesetter in this holy work, Yisroel the son of Reb Moshe, and by the hand of his maiden sister Ella, daughter of Rav Moshe.”

Censorship continued into 1852. Under Czarist rule, the Russian government printed a ‘propaganda Chumash/Bible’ with their own commentary and ideological agenda. In the introduction of this Bible, the Government forged names of prominent Jewish leaders to mislead the public. (Endorsements include HaRav Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch and HaRav Yitzchok Volozhin.)

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The Jewish War by Josephus Flavius, 1470 One of the earliest printed incunabula on Jewish subjects. In 1475, five years after its printing, the first dated Hebrew book was published in Reggio De Calabria, Italy: Rashi’s commentary on Chumash. The Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493 Written in Latin by Hartmann Schedel, the Nuremberg Chronicle is one of the best documented early printed books –an incunabulum- and one of the first to successfully integrate illustrations and text. It is an illustrated book of world history dating back to creation. This page describes the burning of a Jewish family at the stake in the city of Sternberg Germany in 1492. Text reads as follows “On the 22nd day of October 1492, in the city of Sternberg, then under the Dukes of the principality of Mecklenberg, Eleazar, a Jew and his relatives; through a priest named Peter, were accused of blasphemy. When the matter was reported to the two brothers, the Dukes Balthasar and Mangen, they inquired into the matter and ordered the Jews seized and burned as scorners of the faith.”

Navi Isaiah, Soncino 1486 Joshua Solomon Soncino was distinguished for being the first Jewish printer to publish the entire Tanach in Hebrew. The Soncino prints excelled in their perfection of type and accuracy.

Rabeinu Bachaye Riva De Trento, 1559 Censorship of Hebrew books was first decreed by the Church in the middle ages. Manuscripts and printed books were examined for the purpose of ascertaining whether they contained “heretical” or other “objectionable” passages. In the event a book was fully rejected, it was banned and all copies were destroyed or burned. If a book was authorized conditionally, words and passages found objectionable were blotted over by the hand of the censor.

Ferrara Italy The Expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 brought Jewish refugees seeking safe haven to Italy. The Duke of Family Este allowed some of the Jewish refugees to settle in the province of Ferrara. He promised their own leaders and judges, allowed them to practice commerce and medicine, and granted them tax reductions. This was the beginning of the Spanish community in Ferrara. Although the ruling powers protected the Jews from Church oppression, they allowed the Talmud to be burned in 1553. A year later, a meeting of prominent Jewish leaders of Italy was held in Ferrara to decide on precautionary measures to prevent further destruction of Hebrew books. In 1598 the oppression of Jews grew much worse. The Church issued a ruling that all Jews were required to wear an identifying badge. In the following year all Jewish owned real estate had to be sold, Synagogues were limited and Jewish owned loan banks were closed. In 1624 the construction of a ghetto in Ferrara was decreed and two years later the Jews were confined to it. The Jewish people were forced to be present at conversionist sermons and Jewish physicians were forbidden to attend to Christians. In spite of this, the life of Jews in Ferrara was far more tolerable than in Rome. In 1859, when Ferrara became part of the Italian Kingdom, the Jewish people finally obtained their freedom. Pictured here is one of the original documents relating to the opening of the Ferrara Ghetto in 1624 dictating the rules, regulations and costs for Jews to lease homes and do commerce.

US Army “The Survivors’ Talmud”, Munich 1946 In the aftermath of WW2, the Jewish Holocaust survivors were by far the most desperate of Europe’s refugees. In the midst of mass trauma, a ray of hope emerged with the publication of “The Survivors Talmud” by the United States Army for survivors of the Holocaust in the Displaced Persons Camps. In 1946, a delegation of DP Rabbis approached General Joseph McNarney, from the US army with an urgent request to publish a Talmud since most copies across Europe had been destroyed by the Nazis. This copy, tractate Kedushin was the first of the set to be published.

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Terror Attack Kills Four Soldiers

Lieutenant Yael Yekutiel, 20, Cadet Shir Hajaj, 22, Cadet Shira Tzur, 20, and Cadet Erez Orbach, 20, were the four IDF soldiers tragically murdered by an Arab terrorist this week. Fadi al-Qanbar, a resident of the capital’s Jabel Mukaber neighborhood, viciously rammed a flatbed truck into a group of soldiers on Sunday afternoon. The soldiers were participating in a group tour in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in Jerusalem. As they unloaded off the tour bus the truck came charging at full speed into them, killing four and injuring another 16 people, two very seriously. According to police, the terrorist accelerated as he approached the group. He then reversed the vehicle and struck the group a second time. Within seconds the driver was fatally shot by a civilian guide and soldiers. The truck, with Israeli license plates, was purchased by the terrorist last year. It approached from the direction of the Arab neighborhood Jabel Mukaber, which is adjacent to the promenade. Al-Qanbar was in his late 20s, was married with four children, and had previously served time in an Israeli jail. “In a fraction of a second during which I was speaking with one of the officers, I saw the truck plowing into us. After a few rolls on the grass I saw the truck start to reverse and then I already understood that this was not an accident. I felt that my pistol was still on me, so I ran up to him and started emptying my clip. He went in reverse and again drove over the injured,” the group’s guide, Eitan Rund, said. Since the incident, Rund has expressed his concern that the soldiers did not react fast enough. “I have to ask why it took a 30-year-old civilian to fire first,” he said, “when there were well-armed officers [present].” He blames the conviction of manslaughter handed out last week to soldier Elor Azaria, who shot dead a disarmed, injured Palestinian assailant. The IDF, though, claims that two to three soldiers opened fire from close range, perhaps after Rund, and are thought to be the ones who killed the terrorist. Within an hour after the

attack, a Jerusalem court imposed a gag order on the investigation, so the exact details have not yet been revealed. Leah Schreiber, one of the guides for the group of soldiers, shared her harrowing experience, “I was explaining about the view of Jerusalem. I saw soldiers shouting and screaming. Some of the soldiers started shooting. It took some time to kill [the driver] so he was able to reverse. The whole thing took maybe a minute and a half,” she said. The tour was a field trip as part of the army’s “Culture Sundays,” in which troops visit historical and national sites at the start of the week. According to the Ben Zvi Institute, which organized the tour for the IDF, the soldiers were cadets from the officer’s training course and were from non-combat units. Following the attack, the Hamas terror group praised the attack as “heroic.” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem wrote on his Facebook page: “These operations demonstrate that all attempts to bypass the resistance or to thwart it will fail every time.” Israel Hayom reported on Monday that a relative of al-Qanbar said that al-Qanbar became incensed after hearing a sermon at his mosque on Friday excoriating U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. According to Israel Radio, the expected embassy relocation was the chief subject of religious sermons throughout the West Bank on Friday, with PA leadership instructing the mosques under its control to focus on the matter. In response to this revelation Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman noted that “the worrisome thing is that terrorism and incidents in the field are the result of orders from on high — direct orders from Abbas to imams in mosques to incite [to violence].” “Anyone who thinks that instead of sitting down and talking, he will change the situation through pressure, intimidation or international conferences is wrong,” Liberman added. “We have no intention to waver from the decisions we’re made and I hope that we’ll exact a toll on the other party for all this incitement.” On Tuesday, Netanyahu criticized Abbas’s Fatah party for not only “fail[ing] to condemn the latest terrorist attack, but that there were even those in Fatah who praised it.” Both Netanyahu and Liberman have previously blamed incitement from the PA for fueling terrorism against Israelis, although the prime minister said on Sunday regarding the attacker that “according

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to all the signs he is a supporter of the Islamic State” terror group, without elaborating.

On Monday, four people were arrested in the Old City were graffiti which praised the attack and called it “resistance.” “We will not despair until you give up” and “There is no place for you [Jews] in Jerusalem” was written in Hebrew. Another piece of graffiti proclaimed, “Yesterday’s attack is the beginning of 2017.”

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Ben Gurion – Busier Than Ever An 11 percent rise in visitors at Ben Gurion International Airport has led to record numbers in 2016. Counting only international travel, 17,387,971 people passed through the award-winning airport last year. The number is well over 18 million when domestic travelers are taken into account.

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ny, and another million each ended up in Russia and France. The top airlines to fly out of Ben Gurion in 2016 were El Al, with 5.5 million passengers; Turkish Airlines (932,000); easyJet (719,000); Aeroflot (704,000); Arkia (650,000); and Israir (548,000). The airport is currently working on security and infrastructure expansions which will allow Ben Gurion to accommodate even more passengers and airlines in the coming years.

Is Sunday the New “Off” Day?

Over 100 airlines fly out of Israel to 135 international destinations. Broken down by country of destination, Turkey saw the most people at 1.6 million, though most of these travelers were in transit to somewhere else. 1.5 million people who traveled through Ben Gurion went to Italy, 1.45 million went to the U.S., 1.2 million to Germa-

Get ready for some longer weekends in

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Israel. The country has spent many years debating the addition of Sunday to its weekend leisure time. After years of debates between lawmakers and industry leaders, it looks as if the country is poised to begin counting the first day of the week as a day off from work – some of the time. Many proposals have been sent up for debate in the Knesset over the years concerning the five-and-a-half day work week of most Israelis. Typically, Israelis work Sunday-Thursday and half of the day on Friday. Religious Members of Knesset have always stood behind Sunday-as-aday-off proposals because it would provide an alternative off day which would lead to less Shabbos desecration. Others have suggested that more weekend time would increase quality of life over all, while others feel the added spending on Sunday would boost the country’s economy. The latest draft of the bill, which was drawn up in May 2016, only proposes one Sunday a month to be converted into an offday. But even that was too much for some people. Concerns over the 12 days of lost production throughout the year have led to a modification that the bill only include six free Sundays a year. The bill is to go before the Knesset for a vote this coming week.

Too Many Cigars and Champagne for Bibi?

from Packer’s generosity. Packer bestowed many gifts upon him including extended stays at luxury hotels in Tel Aviv, New York, and Aspen, Colorado, and the use of his private jet. Packer, a neighbor of Netanyahu in the affluent coastal community of Caesarea, is reportedly seeking Israeli residency status for tax purposes. It is unusual for a nonJew not born in Israel to get permanent resident status. A report claimed that a lawyer for Packer, Yaakov Weinroth, another personal friend of Netanyahu, had unsuccessfully leaned on Interior Minister Aryeh Deri to grant the businessman permanent resident status. Previously, the media reported that Israeli Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan also gave the Netanyahus lavish gifts. Allegedly, Milchan presented Netanyahu with expensive cigars and his wife with champagne over the last several years. His motives were supposedly to get the help of Netanyahu in securing a long-term visa for Milchan to reside in the U.S. Netanyahu had asked U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry three times in 2014 to intervene on behalf of Milchan, and visa was eventually granted. Netanyahu is fully participating with the ongoing probe and was questioned by police under caution last Thursday evening. He was interviewed for more than five hours over the illegal gifts he received – it was his second questioning for the week. The Israeli leader has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Israel Pulls UN Funding

There are certain perks to being the prime minister of Israel, as there should be – it might be one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Recently, there have been allegations against Benjamin Netanyahu for excessive spending and corruption within his cabinet and household and many fingers have been pointed at Netanyahu’s wife, Sara. According to a new report released on Sunday, the Netanyahu family was wined and dined by an Australian businessman, a personal friend and business partner of the prime minister. The meal, served at the Netanyahu’s Caesarea residence, was worth tens of thousands of shekels, and was paid for and was sponsored by James Packer, an Aussie billionaire. There were also accusations that Netanyahu’s college-aged son, Yair, benefited

In response to the passing of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemns Israel’s presence in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, Israel will be suspending significant amounts of its annual UN contributions in 2017. The Israeli Mission informed the UN that it will be cutting approximately 6 million dollars in protest. The 6 million represents the amount of money the UN allocated to anti-Israel bodies. These groups include the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), the Division for Palestinian Rights (DPR), the Work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human

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Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories (SCIIHRP), and the Special Information Program on the Question of Palestine of the UN Department of Public Information. Danny Danon, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, said that “it is unreasonable for Israel to fund bodies that operate against us at the UN. The UN must end the absurd reality in which it supports bodies whose sole intent is to spread incitement and anti-Israel propaganda.” Danon added, “Now is the time to implement real change at the UN. We seek to stop the practice where the UN is used solely as a forum for unending attacks against Israel.” The Israeli Mission also plans to implement more initiatives to change the structure of the UN, hoping to end anti-Israel activities within the international body. These initiatives are to be put into place after the Trump administration is in the White House later this month. The U.S. House of Representative voted overwhelmingly for a resolution that rebuked the United Nations for passing its most recent anti-Israel resolution. The bipartisan House resolution demands that the UN repeal or fundamentally alter Resolution 2334. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has said that he will propose pulling UN funding if the Security Council does not repeal its resolution.

Israeli Jews: Obama not our Friend President Obama had eight years to serve as leader of the free world. During those years, he fostered certain relationships – think Cuba, Iran. But he also pushed away some of the United States’ allies. According to a recent poll published by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University Peace Index, 57 percent of Jewish Israelis think that Obama has been “moderately unfriendly” or “not friendly at all” to the State of Israel. Only 22 percent of the Jewish public said the outgoing president had been friendly; 64% of Arab Israelis said the same.

Israelis have a different view of incoming President-elect Donald Trump. 69 percent of Jewish Israelis believe that he will be “very friendly” or “moderately friendly”

towards Israel 74% of Israeli Arabs echo that sentiment. One of the questions in the poll highlighted the issue of the recent UN Security Council resolution. “In the wake of the Security Council’s resolution, in your opinion, should or should not Israel cease construction in the territories?” Some 62% of the Jewish public replied that building should continue and 71% of Jewish respondents said that under the Trump administration Israel will be able to keep building in the settlements. In the Arab public that rate was even higher, at 81%. The latest poll of 600 respondents — 500 Jewish and 100 Arab — also looked into the public’s position on the attitude toward Israel of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The prevailing opinion (41%) is that his attitude to Israel is neutral, with 26% of respondents saying his attitude toward Israel is unfriendly and 19% describing it as friendly. Among the Arab Israeli respondents, however, 55% said they regard Putin as a friend of Israel.

FBI Reopens Cold Case It’s been 44 years and the answers could be finally here.

On July 1, 1973, after coming home from a dinner party, Colonel Yosef Alon, an Israeli diplomat serving as a military attaché, was shot and killed while exiting his car in the driveway of his home. It was never clear who actually killed the Israeli. Just a few months later the Yom Kippur War broke out and Israel needed to focus on other things.

But now, the FBI – not Israel – is reopening the case due to information that was obtained by investigative reporter Adam Goldman. Goldman made contact with Ilich Ramírez Sánchez — known as Carlos the Jackal — who replaced Mohamed Boudia as head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, The New York Times reported this week. On the day of the attack, the Cairo-based Voice of Palestine claimed that Alon was targeted in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Boudia two days earlier. The FBI suspected Arab terrorists killed Alon but

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closed the investigation in 1976. The Jackal’s testimony now points to another culprit: American assassins with connections to the Palestinian terror movement. Based on Goldman’s material and an earlier article of his on the subject, FBI agent Eugene Casey interviewed Ramírez, who is currently serving a life sentence in French prison. The Jackal claimed that it was not Palestinian terrorists but rather U.S. Vietnam vets who assassinated Alon at the behest of a Syrian member of Black September — the group responsible for the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Alon was shot five times as he was getting out of his car, returning home from a dinner party at about 1 a.m. He had served almost three years in his diplomatic role and was due to return to Israel the following month. As a pilot and founder of the Israel Air Force, his mission as naval and air attaché was to ensure Israel received the best planes and the latest aircraft technology from the U.S. In Chasing Shadows, a book about the assassination, Fred Burton wrote that Alon was murdered by a terrorist from the Black

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September group who was ultimately killed by the Mossad in 2011, though Casey has said that was never verified.

Elor Azaria Convicted

The IDF’s military prosecutors are reportedly going to offer Elor Azaria a lower jail sentence in exchange for him dropping his appeal. Azaria was convicted of manslaughter for killing an incapacitated Palestinian 15 minutes after the terrorist had been captured for stabbing an IDF soldier in March of 2016. The high-profile trial that concluded last

Wednesday with a guilty verdict has deeply divided the country. The court was accused of bias by Azaria’s attorneys minutes after the verdict was handed down. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed calls for pardoning the young soldier. Many politicians and army top-brass had called for a guilty verdict in the trial. Former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon also joined in the rally against Azaria’s shooting of Abdel Fattah al-Sharif. When reading the verdict, the judge made clear that Azaria’s testimony was “not credible” and concluded that he had acted out of desire for revenge and was “not justified.” Azaria’s actions were deemed, in the eyes of the court, to explicitly disobey the IDF’s rules of engagement which state that deadly force cannot be used once the assailant no longer poses an immediate threat. As it stands, the young soldier’s verdict carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. According to Israeli news, the term he will actually receive if he chooses not to appeal will be far shorter than that.

Israel’s Solar Future

Israel will soon be home to the world’s tallest solar tower. The proposed project is part of Israel’s recently renewed commitment to renewable energy production. Currently, the sundrenched nation utilizes very little solar energy – only about 2.5% – but that is about to change. A major project has begun to help reach Israel’s goal of 10 percent renewable energy by 2020. The Ashalim project, deep in the Negev desert, has four plots of land each with a different type of solar energy harvesting system. When completed in 2018, the fields will be powerful enough to supply 5 percent of Israel’s population – about 130,000 households – with their energy requirements. “It’s the most significant single building block in Israel’s commitment to CO2 reduction and renewable energy,” said Eran Gartner, chief executive of Megalim Solar Power Ltd., which is building one part of the project. The main attraction of the project is a 820-foot solar tower, which will be the world’s largest. The tower will not directly turn the sun’s energy into power. The tower will be surrounded by 50,000 mirrors which will reflect and focus the sun’s rays onto the tower which will contain a boil-

er that will produce steam to turn turbines which will produce electricity. Another one of the fields will be used to store the energy, and another will use classic solar panels to create electricity directly from the sun’s rays. For a long time, Israel has lagged behind much of the developed world in renewable energy. Now, with new incentives and less bureaucracy standing in the way, the future of solar is looking sunnier. Leehee Goldenberg, director of the department of economy and environment at the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, pointed out, “Israel has a potential to be a sunshine superpower.”

Hey Dude, Where’s My Car? Ever lose your car on Central Avenue on Friday afternoon? You know you parked it right in front of this store and then when you come back, it’s not there. No, the meter maids didn’t tow it away; the car simply was parked a few cars back. Phew. A man in the UK experienced this sort of panic – just a billion times over. Back in June, he borrowed a friend’s BMW in Scotland and then drove it to Manchester for a concert. He parked his car in one of the parking garages – and then forgot which one.

Turns out, looking for a car in myriad parking garages is like, well, looking for a needle in a haystack. Impossible to find. After searching for five days, he gave up. His friend, the owner of the vehicle, emailed parking garages and officials in search of the car as well but to no avail. Finally, the owner reported the vehicle lost or stolen. Well, we know it was lost. Now, seven months later, it seems that the BMW has finally been found! Police officers say that they happened upon an abandoned car in one of the area lots just before midnight on Friday and, after seeing

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JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

it had been reported lost or stolen, tweeted that they’d found the car that had been lost since June. “We can’t imagine what the ticket machine is going to say when they finally put the ticket in,” posted Manchester City Centre officers in a follow-up tweet. The officers’ best guess? Around $6,150. And I sure hope the guy finally buys his own car. His friend is never going to lend him anything again.

It Suits You First impressions are everything. But in a society where Casual Fridays have become Casual Every-Day-of-the Week, suits are becoming a costume just for funerals. Enter a sweet young man about to be an

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A Ticket of the Past

We know that people return library books late – even years late. But this week, Renae Thornton reached out to police to pay a ticket that was a bit past the due date – 57 years old. The ticket was issued to Thornton’s “Paw Paw,” Delbert Kyle, for driving with one headlight and without a driver’s license. The fine? $10. Through Facebook Thornton connected with Police Chief Darryl Barton of West, Texas, telling him she wasn’t sure if the ticket had been paid. Barton replied to Thornton: “Well now, let me see… late fees, court cost, failure to appear charges…this could get expensive. Sure, come on over. Let’s talk about this… JUST KIDDING.” He added, “No worries, but I would be very interested in seeing this piece of history.” Thornton retrieved the ticket, snapped a photo and sent it to Barton. The ticket was dated April 27, 1960. According to the back of the ticket, the ticket was paid and was signed by Mayor George Kacir. Mystery solved. Her “Paw Paw” can now drive again.

uncle. When heading to the hospital to see his niece for the first time, he donned a suit. According to his sister, “My sister is about to have a baby and my brother showed up to the hospital in a suit because ‘first impressions matter,’” she tweeted. The blazer and slacks were worn with a tie, tie clip, pocket square and watch. His hair was freshly combed.

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When a photo of the gentlemen hit the internet, it went viral. After all, don’t we all wish our dates came that nattily dressed?

DUIC Joseph Schwab, 36, was driving home from work in August of 2015 when he was pulled over by a cop. The officer said that Schwab was driving erratically and said that she believed he was under the influence of drugs. She observed that he was “amped up” and had dilated pupils. She also noticed workout supplements in the car.

JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home

When a blood test was taken to determine what was in Schwab’s system, the only evidence found was caffeine. Could be he downed too many cups of coffee that day. But is coffee a drug? Schwab was then charged with a misdemeanor DUI charge for driving under the influence. Interestingly, despite the blood test results that indicate only the presence of caffeine, the prosecutors were initially moving forward with the charge against Schwab. “This is a case without a blood result, right, so it makes it a very difficult challenge to prove in court to not have the blood result,” Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams admitted. Schwab says that more than a year later, this whole ordeal has hurt him financially and damaged his reputation. “Looks like I’m undependable,” Schwab said. “And when you tell this type of story to somebody, they are naturally not going to believe you.” Ultimately, the DUI charge against Schwab was dropped. He is still facing a charge of reckless driving.

When Silence isn’t Golden It’s been 20 years since she heard her husband speak to her. Otou and Katayama Yumi have been married for over two decades. Together, they have three children. But all three children – who are 25-, 21- and 18-yearsold – say they have never heard their father speak to their mother. Instead, their mother speaks with him, and he only nods or grunts in return. He speaks with his children normally. The reason for his rudeness? Apparently, he has been “jealous” of the attention his wife has been focusing on the children. The bizarre situation came to light recently when their 18-year-old son, Yoshiki, came to a TV show in Japan asking for help in reuniting his parents. “My father doesn’t talk to my mother but my mother talks normally to him,” he explained on the show. “It’s a one way chat.” On the show Otou attempted to justify his insolence. “When the kids were born my wife was very involved and busy in

raising the kids. I was kind of ... jealous. I was sulking about it. There’s no going back now I guess,” he added. The show then helped the children reunite their parents by arranging a meeting between them at the same park where they had their first date.

At the park, finally, after struggling for a few minutes, Otou spoke the first words to his wife in twenty years: “Somehow it’s been a while since we talked,” he said. “You were so concerned about the kids. Yumi, up until now, you have endured a lot of hardship. I want you to know I’m grateful for everything.” Their children, watching from afar, were pleased, one even bursting into tears. The pair promised their future together won’t be so quiet. Sure hope so. They have 20-years of things to talk about.

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