Snow in Kiryat Arba & Hebron

B"H 

 Friday afternoon, the strom started and Tel Aviv's beach area as well as the surroundings looked like a hurricane is taking apart the city. No people in the streets of Tel Aviv on a Friday afternoon ? Stormy weather and rain were taking over for the next two days. Broken windows, uprooted trees and huge waves at the beach. 

Temperature dropped and it was supposed to snow in Jerusalem. Where is was snowing was in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. Here are photos from Kiryat Arba and Hebron next door: 

 

The Ma'arat HaMachpela in Hebron

All Photos HERE !

Starting tomorrow: The sun will be out again !

Purim advertising cuts out girl's faces

B"H 

No doubt. Purim is definitely right ahead. How do I know this ? Not only by looking at the Jewish calendar but by paying attention to my environment. Just a few days ago, I noticed the first Hamantaschen at a bakery in Tel Aviv. Moreover, the local Carmel Market is full of Purim merchandise. Purim costumes for children everywhere. 

If you don't live in Israel, you probably won't know the local toy and stationary chain "Kfar HaShashu'im". This chain is extremely popular among all kinds of Israelis. Especially because of its low prices. 

"Kfar Shashashu'im" also has a Facebook page and for its frum customers, the chain published special Purim advertising where the girl's faces are cut out. Secular customers keep on protesting about the advertising poster and "Kfar Hashashu'im" obviously didn't expect such resistance.

However, I remember seeing the same advertising with the girl's faces cut out last year. In haredi newspapers and it may have been in a national religious weekly paper as well. Meaning, the poster is nothing new at all but I am surprised that the company published it on its Facebook page.

In case anyone is asking: I am very much against such kind of advertising where even girl's faces are considered a modesty threat. 

The Seven Wonders of the World

B"H 

Found on the Internet:

A group of students were asked to list what they thought were the present "Seven Wonders of the World." Though there were some disagreements, the following received the most votes: 

1. Egypt's Great Pyramids 

2. Taj Mahal 

3. Grand Canyon 

4. Panama Canal 

5. Empire State Building 

6. St. Peter's Basilica 

7. China's Great Wall 

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one student had not finished her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The girl replied, "Yes, a little. I couldn't quite make up my mind because there were so many " The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help." 

The girl hesitated, then read, "I think the 'Seven Wonders of the World' are: 

1. to see 

2. to hear 

3. to touch 

4. to taste 

5. to feel 

6. to laugh 

7. and to love." 

The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. The things we overlook as simple and ordinary and that we take for granted are truly wondrous! A gentle reminder -- that the most precious things in life cannot be built by hand or bought by man.

Mormons apologize for "baptizing" parents of Simon Wiesenthal

B”H

About a month ago, a rather strange ceremony took place in the Mormon world: The parents of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal were "baptized". 
Wait a minute ? Baptized ? 
Yes, that's right. 

Although Wiesenthal's mother Rosa was killed at the German Belzec death camp in 1942, the Mormon Church baptized her. The same with Simon Wiesenthal's father Asher who had died as a soldier in action during the First World War in 1917. Simon Wiesenthal himself passed away in 2005. 

Apparently the Mormons follow quite strange ideologies and customs. For them, a soul of a non - Mormon can still be elevated after the death of the person. But only by a Mormon, of course. The whole procedure has something to do with the ideology of the "second coming". In other words: Idol - worship. 

For quite some time, the Mormon Church has been following the strange practise baptizing people from religions outside the Mormon world. In particular Holocaust victims who cannot complain anymore. However, the "Wiesenthal Center" did complain immediatley and the Mormon Church sent its apologies. 

But not only Simon Wiesenthal became a victim of the Mormons. The same happened to Elie Wiesel when some of his dead relatives were due to undergo "baptism". 

First, Hitler comes along in order to kill the Jews and now the Mormons appear on stage and try stealing Jewish souls. 

Link:

"Jehovas Witnesses" and their anti - Semitism

Shabbat Shalom - Gut Schabbes

Tel Aviv, February 2012

Photo: Miriam Woelke

A chassidic Dream

January 2012: At the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem

Photo: Miriam Woelke

B"H

Only chassidic teaching. The entire day Chassidut. 

Isn't that the greatest desire of anyone interested in Chassidut ?

"Interested" in a sense that a Jew is becoming chassidic and wants to study. 

At the beginning of my chassidic "career", I really thought that this would be true. Studying and diving into any chassidic concepts possible. Not that we don't need the Torah, the Talmud or Halachot anymore but getting up in the morning and already thinking about chassidic concepts. Wow.

For beginners / Ba'ale'i Teshuva, especially Chabad may give the impression that everything should be chassidic. One's lifestyle, thoughts, personal life, anything. I sometimes doubt whether it is right bombarding Jews who don't know too much about their own religion with TANYA. Of course, it all depends on the Jew himself, as each of us has a different way of learning. One is able to get to Halachot and Torah by studying TANYA and others simply seemed to be confused by all kinds of kabbalistic concepts mentioned in TANYA. "What ZADDIK and BENONI (Intermediate) ? What do I have to do with that ?"

When I spoke to someone from Mea Shearim I asked if the Chassidim really study Chassidut the whole day ? The answer I got was a bit disappointing: "Not even in the old chassidic Polishe days, the Rabbis only taught Chassidut but mainly Torah and Talmud. The same today although chassidic concepts always find their ways into Torah as well as halachic teachings". 

So, the Vilna Gaon was definitely wrong claiming that Chassidim neglect Torah and Talmudic studies and replace it by praying and dancing wildly.

Matan Torah

"The Three Riders" - A Baal Shem Tov Story

B"H


This Shabbat is "Shabbat Mishpatim" and one of the topics of this Parasha is giving the laws regarding a slave. A slave has to work for six years and in the seventh year, he can walk away as a free man. Kabbalistic and chassidic literature, however, see a much deeper meaning in the here mentioned number six. The six years are seen as a metaphor for the six transformations a soul has to undergo.


The Baal Shem Tov told the following story in his comment on Parashat Mishpatim:

The three Riders

Once the Maggid von Mezritch asked the Baal Shem Tov to explain him the verse "And these are the verdicts I am giving you" from the kabbalistic "Zohar". The Baal Shem Tov told the Maggid to go to the nearby forest where he should sit down under a tree for a few hours. After the Maggid would be coming back, he should tell the Baal Shem Tov what he had seen.

The Maggid went into the forest, sat down under a tree and started asking himself what this has to do with an answer to his question. Suddenly a rider came on his horse, stopped right in front of the Maggid but didn't see him. The rider drank some water out of the river right across and also his horse drank. While the rider was drinking, he lost his purse but didn't notice it. Instead, he went back to his horse and continued his way.

A few minutes later, a second rider came along. He also got off his horse and he also walked over to the river in order to drink. He found the purse, looked inside, was happy and rode away.

Then a third rider came along who, again, stopped and drank from the river. In the meantime, the first rider had noticed the disappearance of his purse and came back. He found the third rider at the very place where he had lost the purse and accused him that he must have taken it. The rider denied and said that there was nothing. No purse.

The first rider got really upset and killed the third rider believing that he had stolen his money.

Meaning: In this life, the first rider paid his debt, the judge was punished for making the wrong decision and the second rider received his money back.

And this is what the "Zohar" means by "And these are the verdicts I am giving you !"

_________________________

The Baal Shem Tov on Parashat Mishpatim

What did Adam HaRishon drink ?

B"H

"Sefer Seder HaDorot" teaches that from the time of Adam HaRishon (Adam) until the Generation of Noach (before the Flood), people were drinking water. However, the MAHARAL, Rabbi Yehudah Loew ben Bezalel from Prague (1520 - 1609) adds that the people of those generations were also drinking milk.

Ancient Beer from the Middle East

B"H 

Some time ago, I wrote about the ancient Babylonian food "Kutach". This kind of food is also mentioned in the Talmud. Moreover, the Talmud Tractate Pesachim 42a teaches us how people in the Middle East region were brewing beer in ancient days. The standard beer was made out of dates. Dates only and without any further additions or ingredients. 

At a different place, the Talmud tells us that there actually existed a certain kind of dates causing people to get drunk. The Talmud states that if a Cohen ate a certain kind of date, he was not allowed carrying out his Temple service. Drunk Cohanim are forbidden to work in the Temple. 

The Midianites were brewing their beer from water and barley whereas the Egyptians made their beer out of barley or wheat, salt and safflower.

Haredi World "Parashat Mishpatim"

Plenty of weddings: Toldot Aharon, Satmar, Vishnitz, Sadigura ...

Satmarer wearing old Yerushalmi Clothes ?

B"H

A week ago, the youngest daughter of the Toldot Aharon Rebbe David Kahn got married to the grandson of the Satmarer Rosh Beit Din, Rabbi Israel Chaim Menashe Friedman. The name of the groom is Natan but, unfortunately, I don't know the name of the bride. 

While looking at the wedding photos, I started wondering why the groom, as a Satmarer, was wearing the old Yerushalmi clothes. If outsiders didn't know that Natan Friedman is from Satmar, one could have got the impression that he is Toldot Aharon. 

Is there a tradition getting married in old Yerushalmi clothes or why did a Satmarer wore such clothing ?

All photos from the Mitzve Tanz HERE !