יום חמישי, ג׳ תמוז תשפ״וThursday, June 18, 2026
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"And you shall Love the Lord your G-d."
Listen to Soul Talk with Rabbi David Aaron and Leora Mandel to learn Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About G-d But Were Afraid To Ask.
On today’s show we speak about the world the light and getting connected More the blessing and the prayer to God to keep us all safe and bring us all to a new world for a better tomorrow for all our children.
By JNi.Media
Other than that one Jordanian Waqf agent, the Temple Mount was almost empty of Muslims Sunday.
It’s never too late to find Hashem. Eve Harow speaks with journalist Dale Debber about his family’s personal journey to Judaism via the Jesuits and how a trip to Israel that changed their lives on today's Rejuvenation.
Parshat Yitro contains the most important piece in the narrative of the Jewish people, the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, when the nation and God are 'married.
In this week's video, Rabbi Fohrman explores the 7th, the transitional, plague and argues that God played off of Pharaoh's ego to show Pharaoh, Egypt and the people of Israel only God is all-powerful
According to the simple meaning of the text, it seems God took Pharaoh's free will. Rabbi Fohrman argues that the precise language-- kaved/chazek--shows that God DID allow Pharaoh to pursue his vision
Stick with your New Year’s resolutions!
I couldn’t believe poverty was so bad that people had to lick the road just to get a little bit of food.
By JNi.Media
Hundreds of letters are mailed to Israel annually addressed to "God," "Jesus," "Our Dear Father in Heaven" and "the Western Wall."
Bitachon is trust in God – a trust that He will make things end up all right. It is more than faith and belief that God is able to extricate an individual or a community from a difficult situation.
In this week's parsha, Moses speaks, a lot - but it all seems so boring, and disconnected. The Torah is a book - and every sentence of that book fits together, like pieces in a puzzle. But how does that work, in this parsha? What is this parsha actually about? Video: This video is from […]
By JNi.Media
Between the release of this issue of Dabiq and the next slaughter to be executed against them by the hidden soldiers of the Caliphate... the Crusaders can read into why Muslims hate and fight them.
I’m not arguing against common ancestry or some form of descent with modification. What I’m saying is that accidental processes cannot possibly have invented these things.
By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l
Pagan prophets like Bilam had not yet learned the lesson we must all one day learn: What matters is not that God does what we want, but that we do what He wants.
This week, we get even more complaining from Israel - this time, about the lack of water. How can they continue to complain after everything God had done for them? Join us as we explore the baffling story of Israel’s complaints. Video: This video is from Rabbi David Block and Immanuel Shalev.
For me the question that I was about to ask had value and I was always taught by my parents that one must ask questions to gain knowledge.
How could the spies have doubted God? How could they have sinned so egregiously?
By JNi.Media
“The mask, and now the gate in which it was embedded, are continuing to fire our imaginations."
How can we understand, and relate, to the Children of Israel, a seemingly ungrateful, chutzpadik nation as it crosses the desert?
By JNi.Media
66% of Israelis believe in God. An additional 20% believe in a higher power, but prefer not to use the G word.
A life changing paradigm shift as to how we understand and relate to God!
Less than two-thirds of Americans are "absolutely certain" that God exists. Millennials point to a godless future.
The foreign and local media are telling the world that a few lunatic Jews tried to burn a church but are silent on wholesale Palestinian Authority hate.
Israel finally has a Foreign Minister who is not ashamed to say the word "God."
The Ravens' Ray Lewis screamed that violence is never the answer." Unfortunately, he is wrong.
Dr. Ben Carson is waiting for God to tell him if he should run for president.
Israel gets a mensch for Chief of Staff along with a Yiddishe Mama.
And we can already hear Obama and Kerry telling him not to upset Allah and thank God on the Temple Mount.
By JTA
“God is trying to wake us up,” said the grandfather.
During the First Lebanon War, the IDF forced the PLO terrorists all the way to the Beirut port and then to Tunisia. The PLO, which had lost its stronghold in Lebanon, was shattered. Salach Taamri, the most senior and admired terrorist captured by the IDF, was imprisoned in the Ansar detention camp. He was a broken man.
Just to make the score even, police also arrested a Jew
The God of Global Warming is the embodiment of liberalism and holds all the politically correct beliefs while carrying out brutal atrocities in the name of the left's favorite political causes.
By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l
The purchase of the Cave of Machpelah is evidently a highly significant event because it is recorded in great detail.
Very few middle aged and older people consider themselves ultra-orthodox. It’s a youth movement.
By Dov Shurin
Hashem simply goes beyond the letter of the law in His love for us.
Historians currently assume the Bible was written between 720 BCE and 587 BCE, between the destruction of the Northern Kingdom and the destruction of Jerusalem.
Can you recall any time you hurt someone, perhaps a friend, neighbor, family member, fellow congregant or business associate?
Seeing the sight of Jesus on a cross must have made them feel like they were seeing Avodah Zara in the Beis HaMikdash.
By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l
On the face of it, the test is simple: if what the prophet predicts comes to pass, he is a true prophet; if not, not. Clearly, though, it was not that simple.
Rabbi Avigdor Miller did not want to publish this work during his lifetime. He felt that so soon after the Holocaust it would upset survivors
By Paula Stern
Hirsi Ali was handed the microphone and, 16 months later, her words remain imprinted on my brain: "Even if you give them Jerusalem, there will be no peace."
By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l
These stories all have to do with the mitzvah of tzedakah whose source is in this week’s parshah.
The collective subconscious that pulls the young people of Tel Aviv’s trendy Shenkin Street to alternative lamentations on the city rooftops discovers something in Tisha B’Av.
By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l
For the first and only time, Moses invokes a miracle to prove the authenticity of his mission
Today he might be terrorist, a peace-loving Arab. Or maybe he is a dead suicide bomber. In 1990, he was 8 years old when he hurled rocks at the bus I was guarding.
Do we really need to be biometrically marked like animals just to counter the plague of forged identity cards?
What does it mean when we say that man was created in the image of God?
Is it appropriate for players like Tim Tebow to make grand gestures of prayer to a Master of the World Who has His Hands full dealing with much more important things?
Challenging God in the face of suffering is not blasphemous.
By Tzvi Fishman
Our Sages teach that when Chanukah comes around, we are to thank Hashem, not only for the miracles that He performed for us in Israel long ago, but also for the miracles which He performs for us today. So, with your permission, I want to take this opportunity to thank Hashem for all of the […]
By Tzvi Fishman
Recognizing the terrible danger of unsupervised Internet viewing has extra significance now, at the time of Hanukah.
Hamas terror chief Khaled Mashaal openly arrived in Gaza on Friday, crossing through via Egypt. Mashaal was met by representatives of both Hamas and Fatah. Mashaal will be staying in Gaza for 3 days. In 1997, Netanyahu nearly succeeded in killing Mashaal in retaliation for all the Hamas suicide bombings, but the Mossad operation in […]
Muslim Turks' attitude for centuries has demonstrated that Turks and Jews have continued to help each other in times of great crises.
By Tzvi Fishman
Emunah, the very heart of the Torah, teaches us what God and the Nation of Israel are all about.
By Tzvi Fishman
Pure Judaism? Without the Land of Israel? Sorry, but that isn’t Judaism. It’s a new religion.
I quit my full-time job eight months ago without another one to fall back on. In hindsight, it wasn’t one of my better decisions, but it was time for me to move forward. I was in a position that never quite suited me – like an ill-fitting pair of shoes that’s one size too small and rubs across the toes. Sure, a nagging thought called a recession cropped up from time-to-time before I resigned, but I was confident I would only be on the market for a few weeks, max. Armed with a new LinkedIn profile and a heaping dose of faith, I bid farewell to my boss and colleagues of six years to embark on my new journey.
An initiative of some members of the Jerusalem Likud branch could help keep soon-to-be-former MK Dan Meridor gainfully employed: The Begin Heritage Group, led by Avi Moyal, Yoram Gamish and Jerusalem city council member Meir Turgeman, yesterday proposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would throw his support behind Meridor, who had been rejected […]
By Tzvi Fishman
Just so the jolly little elves and white-bearded Santas don’t fool you, it pays to recall the truth about Christianity.
When Jacob is fooled into marrying Leah, he accepts her as a partner and eventually the mother of his children. But his yearning is for Rachel.
When my daughter first made aliyah she was a student at Hebrew University. After a year she called me and told me she was enlisting.
I see nothing wrong with our participating with all American citizens in observing Thanksgiving.
So, each year, most years, we made a Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family. When we moved to Israel, we made a few dinners with American friends, but for the most part, the tradition fell away.
By Tzvi Fishman
This past year, the government of Syria has slaughtered 50,000 truly innocent civilians. Does the world give a damn? No.
By Tzvi Fishman
Strolling around Tel Aviv and seeing how the words of our Prophets have come to pass in our generation, is as much of a spiritual experience as spending a day in the holy city of Tzfat.
By Tzvi Fishman
As part of our effort to attract our beloved, Diaspora readers with honey, rather than to smash them repeatedly over their heads - in the next few blogs, we will travel the length and breadth of Eretz Yisrael, just like our forefather Avraham did in obeying God’s command, “Arise, walk about the Land through its length and breadth! For to you I will give it!”
As has been noted in a previous column, Reb Elimelech – like the Baal Shem Tov before him – asserted that pessimism and depression cause sin and spiritual apathy. Repentance (yes, even repentance!) that causes depression and sadness distances the Holy Presence.
"And the servant said to him…" (Genesis 24:5). The biblical portion of Chayei Sarah comprises two chapters in the Book of Genesis. The first (chapter 23) deals with the death and burial of Sarah and the second (chapter 24) deals with the selection of a suitable wife for Isaac.
It didn’t take very long for some holy rollers to pop up and tell us why God punished the East Coast with a devastating storm. Not only didn’t it take long, there seemed to be a rush to see who could come up with a reason first. I don’t know who actually won that race. But I do know that there are a lot of people who think they have a direct line to God and know exactly what He was trying to tell us. Well, I’m glad I now know. Or do I?
By Tzvi Fishman
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook said it was like a girl who was set up on a shidduch with a guy whom she knew wasn’t for her. But she didn’t want to embarrass him. So she dressed up in dirty, smelly garments so that he would feel turned off. While he thought that he was rejecting her, in truth, she was rejecting him... Surely, aliyah is the most difficult and challenging mitzvah – the true test of a Jew’s faith in God. But hundreds of thousands of new olim have made it, and so can you.
By Tzvi Fishman
This Shabbat marks the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Meir Kahane, may Hashem avenge his murder. To honor his memory, our next two blogs will feature essays he wrote for The Jewish Press, which appear in the incomparably thought-provoking collection of his articles, “Beyond Words.” May his memory be for a blessing.
What was G-d thinking when he sent Hurricane Sandy and what could have been its purpose? In truth, I don’t much care, because our role as humans is not to understand G-d’s plan in the face of horror and tragedy, but to challenge God and demand that human life always be protected and preserved. Did I say demand? Yes, humanity has rights before God. We are His children. He commanded us to preserve and promote life always. “Choose life,” Moses orders the Israelite nation in God’s name, on the last day of His life. And the Creator must abide by the same dictates He expects His creatures to.
Just yesterday I was fully engaged in my campaign for the United States Congress. Winning, elections, and victory were on my mind. Boy, what a difference a day can make. Today, I just want my family and the 50 million people in the storm’s path to be safe.
By Tzvi Fishman
Two Torah scholars were sent from Israel to Babylon. Upon their arrival, they took part in official ceremonies and didn’t reveal the purpose of their visit. They were received with great honor. Gradually, they started to vent their opposition. Finally, they entered a crowded assembly and said to the Jews of Babylon, “Behold, you are a great congregation. You can be independent. You don’t need Eretz Yisrael. You don’t need Mount Moriah.” Their sarcasm was purposely stinging in order to shock the Babylonian Jews. “And you’ve also got Rabbi Ahia here. Let Ahia build an altar, and let Haninah play on a harp. But know that if you detach yourselves from the centrality of Eretz Yisrael, you have no portion in the God of Israel!”
By Orat@Muqata
A year after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem, they turned to conquer Israel's coastal cities. Haifa's Jewish community is mentioned in the Genizah documents. The city was one of three forts (מבצר) that we know of - Haifa, Dan (Banias) and Rafah (Rafiah). Each had a major Jewish community. Haifa was probably mostly Jewish, if not exclusively so, with a small Muslim military presence. The story of Haifa's conquest, in the summer of 1100, is reported by Christian chroniclers.
By Tzvi Fishman
The emergency bell clanged throughout the valley of the Shoshana kibbutz. Workers who were building the first stone edifice on the settlement put down their chisels and masonry tools. Field hands set aside their scythes and their sickles and started back toward the compound of mud and wood dwellings. Within minutes, all of the settlers sat crowded together on the benches in the dining hall. With great indignation, Ben Zion related how the Arabs had ambushed them at the well and stolen his horse and two rifles. He demanded that a small force be organized immediately and set off in retaliation.
By Tzvi Fishman
It seems that the fad at The Jewish Press these days is for contributing writers to declare that Sarah Silverman’s trashy routine is a Chillul Hashem. That may be true, but there’s a bigger Chillul Hashem than Sarah’s. The biggest Chillul Hashem is when Jews choose to live in Chicago, and Dallas, and Los Angeles, and Lakewood, and Brooklyn, when they could live in the Land of the Jews instead. But why listen to me? Let an old writer for the Jewish Press explain it to you – Rabbi Meir Kahane. I turn this blog over to him. Let’s hear what he had to say about Jewish life in the Diaspora.
How does a mild mannered CPA from Far Rockaway, Queens grow a set of vocal cords of such power and presence that a once meek and put-upon bean counter is now a vital part of the burgeoning Jerusalem acapella scene? And what causes an environmental lawyer from Marin County to discard all her eco-friendly (or at least carbon neutral) possessions to hop a fume-belching El Al Boeing 747 flight with the goal of thoroughly amending her life’s trajectory? Perhaps it’s the pale-pink light bouncing off the Old City’s ancient walls on a typical Jerusalem summer’s evening that somehow catalyzes a reaction, diffusing all reason and refracting all rational thought.
By Tzvi Fishman
Give this week’s Torah portion, “Lech Lecha,” to an eight-year old to read, ask him where God wants the Jewish People to live and he will answer “the Land of Israel” right away. Give it to a gentile to read and ask him the same question. “The Land of Israel” he will answer without batting an eye. Give it to a Jew in the Diaspora and ask him the same question, and you’ll get a dozen different answers.
I never liked comedienne Sarah Silverman. I never thought she was all that funny. Her humor is mostly vulgar and designed to shock people into laughing. Most comedians will tell you that if the only way you can make people laugh is with vulgar jokes, then you’re not really much of a comedian. But I digress. What upsets me the most about her is her very open self-identification as a Jew. Normally when successful people tout their Judaism, it makes me proud. But when she does it – it is an embarrassment. In fact I wish she would just change her name… or go away altogether.
By Tzvi Fishman
We live a short walk from the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem. Over the holidays, the hotel was packed with Diaspora Jews from all over the world, but now that the holidays are over, the lobby is pretty deserted. I can’t understand how a self-respecting Jew can leave the Land of Israel and go back to the Lilliputian Jewish life of Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Melbourne, or Brooklyn after being in the Land of our Forefathers.
By Paula Stern
As the men danced around below us, I had a lot of time to notice the people who were there - many are friends and neighbors of mine; children and grandchildren of people I know. The rabbi that is so loved in this community; a woman who regularly collects food for needy people. This one has a child who is ill; a boy with Down Syndrome who is so loved and cherished. This family has more boys than I can count; this one just had a daughter who got married. She's a grandmother now. Her son just got engaged. That one there is married to her over there. And on and on - a community of people.
By Tzvi Fishman
Browsing through a news website, I noticed that the World Series is just two weeks away. I haven’t followed baseball for 30 years, ever since making aliyah. When I lived in America, and thought I was an American, I loved baseball, like everyone else. But baseball doesn’t interest me anymore. I don’t even know what teams are in the running this year. The World Series has absolutely nothing to do with the Redemption of Am Yisrael, so who cares? But maybe we can borrow a few metaphors from baseball to help America Jews understand that Judaism in the Diaspora is the Little Leagues.
By Anav Silverman, Tazpit News Agency
There was love in the air of Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon.
“Your father is finished, we’ve done all that we can,” they would say, adding, “Johnny. Talk to Johnny.”
Team Israel lost in the finals of the World Baseball Classic qualifiers, but the experience should teach an important lesson to Jewish people throughout the world. The fact that Jewish players and players with Jewish roots who don't actually live in Israel played for Team Israel should send a critical message to Diaspora Jewry: Israel is the homeland for all Jews.
By Orat@Muqata
The main holiday events took place on the last day of Sukkot, Hoshana Raba. The Gaon would lead the people around the Temple Mount, and then the crowd made its way to the Mount of Olives. After they climbed the mountain, they circled it seven times. A monumental stone marked the spot where God looked over the Temple Mount. The Gaon would sit on this stone as he spoke to the assembled crowd.
The U.S. covenant with the Jewish State dates back to Columbus Day, which is celebrated around Sukkot (October 8). According to "Columbus Then and Now" (Miles Davidson, 1997, p. 268), Columbus arrived in America on Friday afternoon, October 12, 1492, the 21st day of the Jewish month of Tishrey, the Jewish year 5235, the 7th day of Sukkot, Hoshaa'na' Rabbah, which is a day of universal deliverance and miracles. Hosha (הושע) is the Hebrew word for “deliverance” and Na’ (נא) is the Hebrew word for "please." The numerical value of Na’ is 51, which corresponds to the celebration of Hoshaa'na' Rabbah on the 51st day following Moses' ascension to Mt. Sinai.
By Tzvi Fishman
To rectify the blemish caused by galut, the Diaspora Jew has to stop being in exile and join the ingathered. He has to actualize the words of his daily prayers, “And gather us together from the four corners of the earth” by getting on a plane.
While fear used to motivate, even inspire, mine is a generation that views threats as challenges and raises a skeptical brow at austere ultimatums. Reverence often seems a throwback to old times, and absolute authority, whether in classroom or in the synagogue, is a concept increasingly more difficult to swallow. As a counselor at an Orthodox Jewish sleep-away camp this past summer, I witnessed this phenomenon first hand. I worked with forty teenage girls, ages 15 and 16, and quickly discovered the most dependable way to get nothing done: threats.
By Tzvi Fishman
L eading up to the holiday of Sukkot, we’ll wrap up our condensed look at Rabbi Kook’s teachings on t’shuva with a few blogs on two of the holidays most important themes – Eretz Yisrael and Torah.
“This is the day of the beginning of your creation,” we read in our Yom Tov prayer books. According to Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah marks the day of the creation of Adam and Eve, and on that very day they proclaim God as King of the Universe.
During the First Lebanon War, the IDF forced the PLO terrorists all the way to the Beirut port and then to Tunisia. The PLO, which had lost its stronghold in Lebanon, was shattered. Salach Taamri, the most senior and admired terrorist captured by the IDF, was imprisoned in the Ansar detention camp. He was a broken man.
By Tzvi Fishman
Inspired by the Holy Nation of Israel, mankind will abandon its vain and misguided paths, and a mighty spirit of t’shuva will be ignited throughout the world.
By Tzvi Fishman
Rabbi Kook’s advice is to set out correcting the transgressions of the past which are within the person’s reach to correct. This will set into motion a snowball of t’shuva whose inner force will lead him to correct matters more and more difficult, until he succeeds in redressing all wrongs.
By Shulamis S.
They called the colt Unbridled Song. His father's name was Unbridled, his mother's Trolley Song. The colt loved to run, with an energy and spirit that stretched into an endless melody of wind and pounding hooves and the freedom of the open track. They hoped he would become a champion.
By Tzvi Fishman
The more you learn Torah, the more t’shuva you will be inspired to do — and the more t’shuva you do, the more Torah you are able to learn.
