During the Second Temple, the Greek empire reigned (over Israel),1 and they (the Greeks) passed decrees against the Jews and (tried) to erase their religion, and did not allow them to carry out Torah (study) or the commandments. They put their hands on their property and their daughters. They entered the Temple, destroyed and made the pure unclean. The Jews were in great distress because of them and were much oppressed, until the G-d of their fathers had mercy on them, delivering them from their hands and saving them. Then overcame, the sons of the Hasmonean High Priest, (the Greeks) and killed them and saved the Jews from their hands. They appointed a king from the Priests, and the kingdom of Israel was restored for more than 200 years until the destruction of (the) second (Temple). When the Jews overcame their enemies and destroyed them, it was the 25th of Kislev2 when they entered the Sanctuary (inner room) and did not find pure (olive) oil in the Temple, except one jar sealed with seal of the High Priest, and it did not contain enough to light except for one day only. But they lit from it the lamps of the Menorah3 for eight days, until they could crush olives and produce a (new quantity) of pure oil. For these reasons, decreed the Sages of that generation that these eight days that begin on the 25th Kislev, will be days of joy and praise. One lights on them lamps at evening at the entrance to the houses, every evening of the eight nights to show off and demonstrate the miracle. These days are called ''Hanukah'' that is to say ''they rested'' (chanu) on the ''25'' ('th of the month) because on the 25th they rested from their enemies. and also because of those days they (re)-dedicated the house (Temple) which their foes had defiled. Also some say that it is a commandment to increase slightly the festive meals on Hanukah. Another reason is because the work of (building) the Sanctuary (in the desert) was completed in these days. One should tell one's children the story of the miracles that were done for our fore-fathers in those days, (see Josephus) However, these meals are not considered as part of the commandment unless one says at the meal songs of praise. One should increase charity in these Hanukah days, for this can help mend any defects in our souls. This charity, should be given particularly to poor Torah scholars. (KSA 139:1)
1) 352 BCE until 70 CE
2) 139 BCE
3) The Menorah was made of gold and had seven branches.
The Israel Defense Forces and the U.S. military are strengthening their coordination and partnership in the area of cyber defenses.
Lt. Col. O (full name withheld), an officer in the IDF’s J6 and Cyber Defense Directorate, told JNS in recent days that a joint and relatively large exercise held with the U.S. military’s Cyber Command was highly successful.
Tens of Israeli cyber defenders from the Joint Cyber Defense Division, along with cyber defenders from the Intelligence Directorate, Israeli Air Force, Israeli Navy and its ground forces, flew to the United States in November for the drill—the fourth of its kind.
All of the Israeli personnel taking part have been trained by the IDF’s Joint Cyber Defense Division, irrespective of where in the military they are cur...
2020 Democrat hopeful Rep. Tulsi Gabbard speaks out on ‘Fox & Friends’ on her $50 million defamation lawsuit against Hillary Clinton for being called a ‘Russian asset.’
MILAN (AP) — Anti-Semitic writing was scrawled overnight on the door of a now-deceased member of the Italian anti-Fascist resistance who survived a Nazi concentration camp, a family friend and historian wrote Friday on Facebook.
‘’Juden Hier,’’ German for ‘’Jew Here,’’ with a Star of David was written in black paint on the door of the house in the Piedmont town of Mondovi, where Lidia Beccaria Rolfi lived until her death in 1996.
Her son Aldo Rolfi, who lives there now, reported the offensive graffiti to police, the news agency LaPresse reported.
University of Turin historian Bruno Maida noted on Facebook that the writing appeared after a local newspaper printed an article by Aldo Rolfi remembering his mother. It was titled: ‘&...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The company that controls the dot-org online universe is putting the registry of domain names up for sale, and the nonprofits that often use the suffix in their websites are raising concerns about the move.
Nonprofit organizations and some tech activists plan to protest Friday outside the Los Angeles headquarters of the regulatory body for domain names where its board is meeting to discuss plans by private-equity firm Ethos Capital to buy the Public Interest Registry for $1.1 billion.
Opponents are concerned the cost of registering a dot-org website will skyrocket, and they worry about the potential loss of freedoms of speech and expression if the registry is in the wrong hands.
“It’s easy to put two and two together and see the concern that economic...
The Lithuanian Ambassador to Israel Lina Antanavičienė met with Jewish Rabbis representing the Lithuanian yeshivos and a White House journalist on Wednesday regarding the desecration of the Old Jewish Cemetery of Vilna known as Snipiskes cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Those present at this meeting include Rabbi Avraham Shmuelevitz, Senior Rosh Yeshiva Mir Yeshiva Jerusalem. Rabbi Eliezer Kahaneman, Dean of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, Rabbi Shneur Kotler, son of Rabbi Malkiel Kotler, Rosh Yeshiva Beth Medrash Govoha Yeshiva in Lakewood, N.J.
Those who attended the meeting:
1. Rabbi Avraham Shmuelevitz, Senior Rosh Yeshiva (Assistant Dean), Mir Yeshiva Jerusalem.Mir Yeshiva is the largest Yeshiva (Talmudic College) in the world with approx. 9,000 students in sev...
BaltimoreJewishLife.com (BJL) is proud to partner with STAR-K CERTIFICATION that realizes that there is no substitute for a person’s own Rav. In an effort to offer a possible solution, it has launched its Institute of Halachah as a public service. Over the years, the agency’s Kashrus Hotline has answered generic halachic questions from kosher consumers the world over, including inquiries regarding the kosher status of foods and certified Sabbath mode appliances. The formation of a separate official division within STAR-K testifies to the need for addressing these issues.
The Institute of Halachah is directed by HaRav Mordechai Frankel, under the guidance of HaRav Moshe Heinemann, STAR-K’s Rabbinic Administrator. It is an invaluable resource for a diverse array of rabbis to discuss general halachic matters, as well as gain access to source materials for shiurim and answers to congregants’ questions.
Shailos for regular or Kashrus shailos may emailed or discussed using this widget.
Global health officials have almost as many questions as answers about the mysterious, pneumonia-like virus that originated in China last month and has spread to at least five other countries, including the United States. How exactly is it transmitted? How infectious is it and, most critically, how deadly?
They do know that the new virus is believed to have come from animals sold in a Wuhan market and that it shares many similarities with SARS, the coronavirus that also originated in an animal-to-human transmission in China in 2002, though it does not appear to be as deadly.
Similar to SARS – or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which infected more than 8,000 people and killed nearly 800 before it was mostly contained in 2003 – the new virus spreads through close person-to-p...
“BLACKS NEED TO RESPECT JEWISH AUTHORITY,” reads the stark, all-caps message on Telegram, an instant messaging service. The word “JEWISH” is reverse-color emphasized.
The message came from a fake account, like similar racist sentiments from similarly nonexistent “Jewish” users that flooded the social media giant Twitter a few months back.
A tweet, for example, from the fictional “Elaine Goldschmidt” who, “frightened by the string of anti-Semitic attacks,” bemoaned the fact that blacks (the tweet uses a much-reviled slur) “were supposed to be on our side. Now we have lost control of them.” The photo used in the profile was lifted from the account of a Scottish woman, Janey Godley, who, when she found out, was not plea...
Baila* had everything going for her: a wonderful home, beautiful children, and a great job. She and Yoni* had been married for six years when Baila started noticing her husband acting a little...different. He became more secretive with his comings and goings, was staying out late, dressing differently, and often talked on the phone in hushed tones. When Baila brought up the strange changes in his behavior and asked Yoni about what was going on, he dismissed her concerns as "paranoid" and "naive" and told her to "mind her own business."
The problem was, Yoni was her husband; and this was her business, whether he was ready to share with her or not. After some digging, Baila finally found out what Yoni had fallen into: he had a serious gambling addiction.
Feeling lost and like she had nowhe...
Parshas Va’eira / Shabbos Mevarchim Shvat / Baltimore Zmanim / Eruv is UP!
Baltimore, MD – Jan. 24, 2020
Parshas: Va’eira
Today: 27 Teves
Chatzos today: 12:19 PM
Hadlakas Nairos Shabbos: 4:59 PM
Shkiah: 5:17:17 PM
Tzais HaKochavim: 6:08 PM
Rosh Chodesh Shvat: Monday, Jan. 27
Kiddush Levanah: Tuesday, Jan. 28 @1:25 AM – Motzaei Shabbos, Feb. 8, @ 7:47 PM
Kiddush Levanah may only be said at night
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 24, 2020 - Ohr Chadash Academy (OCA) is excited to announce that the Board of Directors has unanimously approved the hiring of Mrs. Deborah Rapoport as permanent Head of School. In an email sent to the OCA parent body Board President Mel Pachnio shared:
“Since Mrs. Rapoport’s hire as Interim Head of School last July, her level of professionalism, expertise as an educational leader, and unwavering commitment to the vision, mission, and values of OCA have been abundantly apparent. In modeling the growth mindset and strength-based approach to education which is one of the hallmarks of OCA, she has demonstrated a commitment to bringing out the best in our students and faculty members alike. She has led the administrative team through a collaborative process to...
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 24, 2020 - A water line has burst on Olympia and Bonnie with the water rushing out on to the street. Residents are being advised that their water will be turned off now until right before Shabbos.
Baltimore County — Baltimore officials are reporting that a sixteen inch diameter water main has broken at 7100 Old North Point Road in Baltimore County.
There are twenty five customers, ten hydrants and twenty five businesses without water.
DPW says repair crews have responded to the area. Read more at WMAR
WhatsApp Video 2020-01-24 at 75004 AM from BaltimoreJewishLife.com on Vimeo.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police said Friday they are investigating after a “room was ignited” in a mosque on the outskirts of Jerusalem and Hebrew graffiti was found on an outside wall.
The graffiti was hard to make out but appears to have been left by ultranationalist Israelis. One part read, “Demolishing (for) Jews? Demolishing enemies!” an apparent reference to the dismantling of settler outposts in the West Bank.
The mosque is in the Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa, in annexed east Jerusalem. Israel captured east Jerusalem along with the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians want both areas as part of their future state.
Hard-line Israeli nationalists have been implicated in past attacks on Palestinians and their property in the West ...
JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Sheindi Miller-Ehrenwald, a 90-year-old resident of Jerusalem, is a Holocaust survivor like some 200,000 other Israelis ,but she has just revealed a unique diary which she kept while in the ghetto and in Auschwitz. Sheindi’s diary, which may be almost the only written testimony from within the camp of the horrors people underwent there, has made the nonagenarian a celebrity and the subject of a documentary entitled “Sheindi’s Diary.”
Miller-Ehrenwald hid her diary for seventy five years. What made her publish it only now? Miller-Ehrenwald told German magazine Bild, which published her story exclusively and initiated the documentary, that “Only now am I ready to tell the story of my diary to the world. I will soon die, and I don&rsq...
Jerusalem, Israel - Jan. 24, 2020 - The 5th World Holocaust Forum was held in Jerusalem, Israel at Yad Vashem on Har Herzl on Thursday, January 23, 2020. World Holocaust Forum Foundation Chairman Dr. Moshe Kantor initiated and hosted gatherings four times in the past, but for the 75th year after the liberation of Auschwitz wanted a special event in Jerusalem. With the assistance of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and of Yad Vashem and its Chairman Avner Shalev, the response to this World Holocaust Forum was am overwhelming surprise.
Invitations from the Israeli President to world leaders resulted in close to 50 presidents, royals and international government leaders converging on Jerusalem. With unusually wet and wintry weather the number of delegations and accompanying media r...
The head of the one of the world’s largest Muslim organizations paid an unprecedented visit to the site of the Auschwitz extermination camp on Thursday, where he participated in remembrance prayers for the Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust.
Dr. Muhammad al-Issa — the secretary-general of the Mecca-based Muslim World League (MWL) — joined with survivors of the Holocaust in paying his respects at the camp as the world prepares for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on Jan. 27.
“To be here, among the children of Holocaust survivors and members of the Jewish and Islamic communities, is both a sacred duty and a profound honor,” al-Issa said. “The unconscionable crimes to which we bear witness today are truly crimes against humanity. That...
Following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Jerusalem on Thursday, the mother of a young Israeli-American woman jailed in Russia said, “I came out smiling.”
Yafa Issachar, the mother of 26-year-old Naama Issachar, who is serving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence in Russia after a negligible amount of cannabis was found in her luggage at a Moscow airport last April, sat down with Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday morning to discuss her daughter’s release.
Putin, who is in Israel for ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, did not announce Naama’s release after the meeting, but did turn to Yafa and say, “Everything will be okay.”
Yafa expressed happiness after the meeting, sayi...
The World Health Organization (WHO) held an emergency meeting in Geneva on Wednesday about whether to designate the outbreak of a mysterious, pneumonia-like virus that originated in China as a global health emergency. By Thursday, WHO announced that it would hold off, saying that it’s too early to make such a decision.
WHO designating the outbreak a global health emergency would help countries coordinate their responses. In the meantime, it remains a scary time for people in China and beyond as the virus and fears of contamination spread. On Tuesday, the United States confirmed its first case: A man who flew from China to Washington state is in stable condition.
As the news continues to develop, keep calm and catch up on what is known so far.
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What is coron...