יום שישי, כ״ט אלול תשפ״וFriday, September 11, 2026
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Kessler calls what we are all feeling “anticipatory grief,” and explains that it is the “feeling we get about what the future holds when we’re uncertain.”
Enjoying A Hot Dish ‘Really What Was Meant Was Replacing It…’ (Shabbos 37a)
Most home-based landline devices consists of a button, either worn as a pendant or a bracelet, and a base in the home with a speakerphone.
Involved in numerous controversies in the local Jewish community, he was a prolific author and active on behalf of the poor Jewish immigrants who were arriving in droves from Eastern Europe at the time.
What had this soldier experienced? What horrors might he have seen? His future, and the future not just of the Jews, but of the entire planet was at stake.
“They will laugh the first day. The second day there will be less laughter. After a few days, no one will laugh anymore.”
Considering how morally depraved Egypt was, for the Jews to leave this country, rise up to true freedom, and then receive G-d’s holy Torah just seven weeks later required a tremendous “leap” on their part.
G-d willing, next year you may look back at this precious time with your parents where you had their undivided attention for eight days.
By Tzvi Fishman
We know that many people carry the virus without getting overly sick, or without manifesting any symptoms at all. This might have saved economies that are now crumbling under the strain of the minimized work force.
They were taught that a congregation can only pray for relief from one disaster. Which one should they pray for G-d to stop: the plague or the famine?
Question: First, why aren’t we obligated to recite Shema on Pesach night? Second, why doesn’t the Haggadah mention Moses, who was instrumental in rescuing us from Egypt and was the greatest Jew of all time? Zvi Kirschner
Abe and I were a bit surprised that Eliyahu Yeshaya would spend over a $1,000 on a half-week trip to the Ukraine. We didn’t know that he had his own itinerary in mind.
“After 1967, Rabbi Twersky and Rav Soloveitchik ate breakfast, lunch, and supper together three days a week, spent Shabbasos together, and formally had chavrusa time together.”
The word “yashar” (straight) would seem to hold the opposite meaning of “shirah,” but Rabbi Shapiro notes that in rabbinic literature the two are linked.
Many people’s plans for Pesach this year have been completely upended by the coronavirus pandemic. What would you recommend these people think about as they sit down to the Seder to celebrate the holiday of freedom?
How do we defeat a yetzer hara that has the power to make us believe that aveiros are really missions of righteousness?
As of Monday, there were a reported 350,000 coronavirus cases in the United States, which has a population of 325 million. There have been 10,000 deaths so far.
It didn’t seem to matter to anyone that, on top of everything else, China withheld vital information about the spread of the virus across China and purposefully misled the Trump administration and other governments, making it effectively responsible for thousands of deaths.
When the plague struck Vilna in 1848, Rav Israel Salanter directed all his energies toward relief efforts and sent his students out to care for the victims of the disease.
Tthe kids will become creative and inventive and innovative. One teenage sibling I know, with a talent for sewing, is teaching her younger siblings how to use a sewing machine, including the boys.
If it was beyond Moshe Rabbeinu’s comprehension, it is certainly beyond ours. We do know, though, that the passing of a tzadik, lo alenu, sometimes serves as atonement for many other people.
Question: What preparations must one do to have a kosher Pesach amidst this Covid-19 pandemic? Wolf Sender Deerfield Beach, FL
Once you are feeling anxious, it is imperative to try to calm yourself down so you can set yourself up for success.
Our sages who tell us that causing a chassan and kallah to rejoice is like rebuilding one of the ruins of Yerushalayim.
By Risa Rotman
My team leader and quality control checkers lived overseas. They paid little attention to the dramatic events I had just undergone. But they did sense that I was feeling vulnerable, and it was showing in my work.
The lecturer said he understood her message to him – that in her classes the objective was not to demonstrate how much she knew (and she knew a lot), but to teach the public.
“‘Rabbi Jacobson,’ she asked me, ‘did I do the right thing? Was it even a Seder? Because it did not feel like one.’”
By Tzvi Fishman
The anti-Zionist, anti-state community turns a deaf ear to government pronouncements, whether they come from the Health Department of the Chief Rabbinate, which they consider [to be a body] of Reform rabbis.
Sephardic and Near-Eastern communities originally recited the entire 82 stanzas of the poem on Shabbat Zachor in the middle of the final beracha before Shemoneh Esrei.
For Appearances Sake ‘Moving Forward at the Word of G-d’ (Shabbos 31a)
You were happily dating when suddenly Covid-19 changed the game and forced you to prematurely think about timelines and wedding dates.
A true Jewish leader, however, must be aware of and interested in the lives and problems of individuals and communities.
In what is possibly a separate explanation, the Malbim writes that “shirah” is a more general term that can refer to song both in a religious sense and in a secular sense, while “zimrah” refers specifically to a religious song that speaks of G-d’s praises.
There is redemption in experiencing uncertainty. It's an opportunity to embrace our vulnerability and realize there is something much bigger than us.
By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l
Fasting is of no use if at the same time you do not act justly and compassionately to your fellow human beings.
Hysteria is to the left what oxygen is to biological life.
Meanwhile, a Johns Hopkins University study in late 2019 ranked the United States the best-prepared country in the world to handle a pandemic.
Are we really yearning for the geula? Do we daven for it like we daven for other things we feel we need?
Is it appropriate to look for, and publicize, gematrias and Torah codes related to the current coronavirus pandemic?
By Tzvi Fishman
The doctor has precedence. A king does not have precedence over a doctor who can save the lives of many others.
We take the refusal of the media to raise the intern’s case with Biden as confirmation that politics drove the Kavanaugh dispute.
My mother believed in the pinteleh Yid that exists in every Jew. And she would never ever, ever allow herself, or anyone else, to give up hope on any neshamah.
Before King Solomon built the Beit HaMikdash in Jerusalem in the mid-10th century BCE, Jews did have other places where they worshipped.
I go to sleep hoping things will change in the morning and this big nightmare will be over and then the morning comes and all I hear are new restrictions regarding this crazy epidemic.
While the article says the data is stripped of identifying information – like the name of the phone’s owner – privacy advocates are concerned that this could easily change...
Regarding hotel or apartment cancellations: This issue is more complicated.
By Ann Goldberg
At 8:30pm that evening Shmuel and his wife came to see their apartment. They were thrilled. It was more than perfect.
Question: First, why aren’t we obligated to recite Shema on Pesach night? Second, why does the Haggadah not mention Moses, the greatest Jew who ever lived and who was instrumental in our delivery from Egypt? Zvi Kirschner
By dvora
She called the woman over and asked her to wait. Mrs. H. went into a room and returned with a large bag, which she handed to the customer, telling her that she had already paid for it.
By Yaffa Ganz
One young mother I met bemoaned the fact that due to the general shutdown of air travel, she will be forced to stay home and actually make Pesach this year.
Local secret police in Rostov hounded the Rebbe and even arrested him once. They closed his yeshiva and in 1924 forced him to leave his home in Rostov.
Sam Hayim, based on the writings of R. Hayim Palagi (1788-1868), attempts to explain why the earthquake took place;
It appears that our mission this Shabbat is to bring the holiness of the synagogue - now standing empty - into the living room and the kitchen.
Triple Play? ‘If He Didn’t Say, He Must Repeat’ (Shabbos 24a)
By dvora
Although it’s been more than 40 years since we last met, how could my husband and I forget Steve...
As he struggled to continue, the mountain climber feared that he would succumb to the elements and be buried in the snow.
By Tzvi Fishman
If you want to build a skyscraper, then the one-story building can no longer remain. You have to destroy it.
We must have been carefree and crazy to attempt to make Pesach on our own. We were both from close-knit observant families, all of whom were in America in 1961.
By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l
They were not criticizing the institution of sacrifices. They were criticizing something as real now as it was in their time. What distressed them to the core of their being was the idea that you could serve G-d and at the same time act disdainfully, cruelly, unjustly, insensitively or callously toward other people.
By Hillel Fendel and Chaim Silberstein / KeepJerusalem.org
We must ensure that Yerushalayim remains united under Israeli sovereignty with a large Jewish majority. History, ethics, security, and simple logic all indicate that we must stand firm in the face of international Muslim pressure and propaganda.
watching depressing, panic-inducing news about Covid-19 24/7 will only make you jittery, anxious, and depressed. It's good for the news networks' ratings, but it's bad for your mental health. Instead, you can read, talk to friends, watch movies, learn a language, listen to music, start a journal, walk outside, garden, or engage in hobbies. Do that project you've never had time to get to. In short, don't preoccupy yourself with the virus.
We can now have the life we choose. We are encouraged by events to rethink where we put our energies, what are we living for, what are we getting up in the morning for. The world is going to be a much better place as soon as this thing is over.
Fearing criticism from their left flank, Democrats bailed out and said they would come up with a plan of their own.
Proust read the Zohar and frequently made observations and employed language in 'Lost Time' that can only be characterized as Jewish-mystical.
Pesach programs are now taking calls from customers who want a refund, and getting one is not always simple.
Yet the costs of this national shutdown are growing by the hour….
By Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Schiffman
Rashi, quoting the midrash, takes the discussion in another direction by noting that “asher” doubles as an allusion to “ashrei,” meaning happy, praiseworthy, or fortunate.
Surely, we were close. Yet, again we drove and after circling and then circling again, we found ourselves back at-nowhere.
Now is not the time to be talking disparagingly about Torah leaders, roshei yeshiva, and rabbanim.
The Orthodox lists are committed to pushing for increased funding for religious schools and support for the settlement movement.
Although righteous women have been accustomed to devoting all their energy to preparing the house for Passover, this year must be different.
By Tzvi Fishman
Interview with Rabbi Yitzhak Gelbstein, head of the General Chevra Kadisha Society in Jerusalem.
While we are going through some hard times it seems like a lifetime. Once the trauma or bad experience passes it doesn’t seem like it was so long.
Of particular concern, was that they were asking for the power to ask judges for the authority to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies.
News From Across The Pond
By Marc Gronich
Screeeeeeech! That was the sound across New York this past week as the coronavirus ran rampant throughout the state and life as we once knew it came to a halt, the likes of which no has ever experienced. Here are my top 10 observations since Governor Andrew Cuomo took executive actions to slow the […]
By Pnina Baim
The toys, bookcases and drawers in china closet are simple jobs and can be delegated to children. Have them divide the items into keep, throw out and donate.
The secret to being more productive is understanding how to manage your brain better.
Let's not forget that we come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.
By Judy Waldman
It was while serving there that he realized there was a large contingent of worshippers coming for services from the Covered Bridge development, a retirement community comprised of elderly Holocaust survivors and an assortment of mostly Jewish, but religiously diverse, “over 55” residents.
We feel so fragile and minute, as the entire world is sent into literally a total state of panic and frenzy.
September 11, 2026 
