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2 The Week In News JANUARY 7, 2016 | The Jewish Home

3The Week In NewsJANUARY 7, 2016 | The Jewish Home

“Re’im” in Hebrew means friends; Benny Rosenbaum and Yisrael Gottesdiener have been singing partners and friends since the day they met in the IDF in 1967. They performed in the rabbinical army choir and went on to become one of

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CONTENTS

The Jewish Home is an independent bi-weekly newspaper. Opinions expressed by writers are not neces sarily 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.

Dear Readers,

In last week’s Parsha we read how Moshe Rabeinu told the Yidden, pakod pakaditi. In-deed, Hashem had remembered their plight and had sent Moshe to lead them out of Egypt. They believed him, anticipating their long awaited redemption.

What follows is a mixture of, “Why do bad things happen? Can’t we just have it all now?”

Although the Yidden were told they were leaving, their situation actually worsened and was then followed by the ten plagues. The process of redemption might have start-ed but it was multi-faceted. They were sent to Egypt for a purpose. This included the specif-ics of how they would ultimately leave.

The Arizal Hakadosh writes that the gen-eration preceding the coming of Moshiach have the same souls as our ancestors in Mitz-rayim. And today, we are experiencing the above emotions.

Jews throughout the generations impart-ed to their children that, although scattered throughout the world, the creator would gather us m’arba kanfos ha’aretz, from across the globe, ushering in a time of world peace. No more wars, hunger or jealousy. Forever. We’ve been told that our generation is that generation. We will be the ones to experience it.

Yet much of what we see doesn’t match up. The security situation in Israel seems to be worse than ever, we now have a suicidal en-emy without and within. And although mir-acles abound, they seem to be superfluous. Who needs Russia to be reigning in Hezbol-lah, rebels to weaken the Assad regime, Saudi

Arabia to tame Iran… when we are expecting no less than the complete redemption!

But there’s a process, a G-dly plan, and ev-erything we see is happening for a purpose.

Perhaps, like Moshe, we need to question Hashem, stating that we would gladly fore-go the great miracles, let’s just get out now. Regardless, we need to recognize the hand of G-d in all that we’re experiencing, this is in-deed the lead up to the Messianic times.

This might be the only belief still needing pure faith. Belief in a creator, afterlife and spirituality have become part of a rational belief system, not necessarily requiring us to tap into our old fashioned yidishe emunah. But, the belief in Moshiach combines physi-cal reality with spiritual revelation. The pres-ent and the future. And for this we need faith.

The prophets of old have prophesied such a time will come and we believe in their words. It’s that simple.

May we have a liberating Shabbos,

ShalomP.S. A big thank you to our readers and adver-

tisers for your support in helping us constantly improve the paper. This issue celebrates the third anniversary of the Jewish Home. While we are very proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far, there are still endless possibilities! Becoming a weekly, doubling/tripling the content etc. If you are one of our many readers who enjoy the paper, please consider supporting our work by listing your business, service or organization. Together we can bring the Jewish Home to places we never thought possible. Thank you!

COMMUNITYCommunity Happenings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

JEWISH THOUGHTThe Fruit Peel Syndrome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Proactive Parenting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

FEATUREA Centuries-Old Schism Deepens -Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia Clash . . . . . . . . . . 20

HUMOR & ENTERTAINMENTCoffee Trivia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Quotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

LIFESTYLESAmulets, Accusations & Controversy: The Devastating Polemic Between Rabbi YaakovEmden And Rabbi Yonason Eybeschutz . . . . . . . . . 24

Travel Guide: Winnipeg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Ask the Attorney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Recipe Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

NEWSNational . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

That’s Odd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

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6 The Week In News JANUARY 7, 2016 | The Jewish HomeHappenings

It felt like I had tried every segulah out there. I recited Shir Hashirim, davened at the kever of Reb Yonosan ben Uziel several times, promised tzedakah and even traveled to a kever in a dangerous Arab neighborhood that was said to be propitious for shidduchim, but I was still not engaged.

I was ready to give up, but decided to give it one last try. This last time, I wanted to do something different– something so powerful that would bring my yeshuah a�er so many years of fruitless trying.

I spent some days thinking until I hit it: Torah! Torah is one of the three forces that uphold the world, and I hoped that it would be the key to my shidduch too. I partnered with Kollel Chatzos, an institu-tion I always respected for their dedication to Torah at the most difficult hours of the day, and started a daily seder of Tehillim for the duration of my partnership.

No ma�er how many times I repeat my story, it still seems surreal: 5 weeks a�er I started my partnership, I became a chosson! A�er years of trying, I finally tapped into the force that brought about my yeshuah: The power of Torah.

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The LINK Kollel in Los Angeles host-ed a very successful three day Yarchei Kallah on the subject of “Commerce on Shabbos” with Rabbi Yosef Kushner of Lakewood, New Jersey. Rabbi Kushner wrote the ground-breaking book on the subject and is a member of Lakewood’s Bais Vaad and Bais Hora’ah (the latter headed by his esteemed father-in-law, the renowned Posek, HaRav Shlomo Miller.) Rabbi Kushner was flush off a very pop-ular Yarchei Kallah that he had conducted in New Jersey, sponsored by BMG. The LINK Yarchei Kallah took place over the Legal Holiday of January 1st and contin-ued through Shabbos and Sunday.

Both the Friday and Sunday sessions were proceeded by a complimentary breakfast and directed chavrusa learning of the relevant sugyos, staffed by the Avre-ichim of the Kollel. This was followed by one shiur on Friday morning and two shi-urim on Sunday by Rabbi Kushner, which in turn were followed by lengthy question and answer sessions which energized his audience further. Nearly 50 people attend-ed each of the days. Rabbi Kushner’s af-fable manner and his quick wit buttressed

his obvious mastery of the subject. All the shiurim were delivered with lucidity and clarity.

The Friday shiur dealt with the issues involving employing Gentiles on Shab-bos. He differentiated between a per diem (hourly) worker versus a contractor who get paid to get the job done regardless of the time spent. The former cannot do any melachah for a Jew even if they wish to do it on their own time or at their home (e.g. a secretary who wants to take home work to do on Shabbos). Even a clean-ing lady who is doing permissible work in a Jewish home on Shabbos could not be asked to do a melachah if it’s related to her normal weekday tasks (or even if she does it on her own volition). A contractor, by contrast (such as a dry cleaner, a car repair shop, the post office) , can do melachah for a Jew on Shabbos if the Jew doesn’t spe-cifically request that it be done on Shab-bos (e.g. there was enough time for it to be done before or after Shabbos).

He also spoke about a Jew who owns an apartment or commercial office build-ing or a nursing home, and employs a Gen-tile manager or superintendent. When the

tenants or residents need repairs or other melachos done for them on Shabbos, this can create problems since the manager is employed by the Jewish owner. Rabbi Kushner advised that the tenants and res-idents specifically be empowered in their rental agreements to give orders to the manager directly so that the manager is re-ally working for them as well.

Over Shabbos, Rabbi Kushner gave two Halacha shiurim, where he spoke about how to pay a Gentile on Shabbos for permissible work and how to “hire” a worker in a permissible fashion. He also discussed the leniency to ask a Gentile to do a permissible task that inevitably entails a Shabbos violation (p’sik raisha) and the leniency to ask a Gentile to do an act of hachanah (preparation for after Shabbos) for a Jew as long as it is not clearly evident that it is so (e.g. washing dishes after Shab-bos lunch). He also gave a shiur on some of the deeper hashkafic aspects of menu-chah on Shabbos (spiritual rest), including one’s inner-peace (menuchas hanefesh).

On Sunday, the first shiur centered on earning money on Shabbos (such as a caterer, chazzan, Baal Korei, youth group leader in shul, babysitter). He cautioned that it was not so simple to lump this to-

gether with their weekday work (havla’ah) or to say they were being paid for their preparation time before Shabbos (s’char batalah) and one must consult with a Rav to do this in a permissible manner (if that is indeed possible). He also discussed con-tracts that first take effect on Shabbos (e.g. rental agreements) and the halachic issues involved.

In the second shiur on profiting from Shabbos sales, he weighed in on gaining from “passive” business such as vending machines and internet websites (including E-bay auctions that conclude on Shabbos.) He generally permitted these as long as the target audience was primarily Gentile. He did stress that ideally, a Jew should not operate such platforms on Shabbos if it would entail thinking on Shabbos about his business.

In a final shiur delivered later that day to the community Rabbonim, organized by the Rabbinical Council of California, he spoke on the many halachic issues that arise when a Jew owns a nursing home that obviously employs many workers on Shabbos.

Recordings of all the shiurim are avail-able by e-mailing the LINK office, [email protected].

Rabbi Yosef Kushner Leads Yarchei Kallah at LINK Kollel in LA

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7The Week In NewsJANUARY 7, 2016 | The Jewish Home Happenings

On December 1st, the Israeli-Ameri-can Council (IAC) announced the launch of a new service called Talk Israel. Talk Israel is an app which will speed the way that news and events is shared. The mo-bile application will aggregate news from dozens of online sources and share them with users.

Registered users can note their inter-ests and Talk Israel will match their in-terests with relevant bulletins. Israelis, Jews and other Israeli advocates can now broaden their knowledge base and this will impact the ease of blogging and sharing information. More than a dozen pro-Israel organizations have already begun partner-ing with Talk Israel to include their content on the Talk Israel app and more are expect-

ed to sign on in the coming months. “Talk Israel is a platform for collabora-

tion designed to bring the entire pro-Isra-el community together,” explained Adam Milstein, President of the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, and the Na-tional Chairman of the IAC, which pro-vided the funding and staff support for bringing Talk Israel to the market. “To put it simply, this tool will allow the pro-Isra-el community to advocate on social media faster and smarter.”

Created as a non-profit initiative by the Israeli-American Council, Talk Israel was developed by Dr. Amir Give’on, a former NASA-JPL scientist, Daphna Wegner, a former DreamWorks Animation program-mer, and Gadi Rouache, an award-winning creative director.

“Talk Israel harnesses the extraordi-nary power of technology to determine

over time what type of pro-Israel content appeals to each individual user, using that understanding to deliver the stories that they are most likely to share,” said Dr. Give’on.

Talk Israel aggregates news releases from dozens of sources using Rich Site

Summary (RSS) feeds and pro-Israel orga-nizations’ social media channels. Content is analyzed and broken down into approx-imately 50 components, including its sub-ject matter, tone, and form.

The system measures users’ level of engagement with each piece of content –

for instance, whether they shared an article or read it in its entirety. The application’s unique analytics system will empower or-ganizations to understand what content is most popular and whether their message has reached new audiences.

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On December 21st, hundreds of men and women attended the evening of inspi-ration held at Moshe Ganz Hall, sponsored in memory of Erika Klein. The theme of the evening was Thriving in Uncertain Times. After the recitation of Tehillim, Rabbi Gershon Bess spoke about the im-portance of sharing in the suffering of our fellow Jews and introduced the guest speaker, Rabbi Ephraim Eliyahu Shapiro, Rav of Shaaray Tefilah of North Miami Beach, Florida.

Rabbi Shapiro began with a brief summary of the tragedies that took place in Eretz Yisrael over the past 18 months. He mentioned that the kidnapping of the three teenagers in June 2014, led to the largest display of unity since creation of the world. He spoke about the day when “the world was forever changed in seven minutes” by the Har Nof massacre last No-vember, which began the pattern of terror-ists using knives in a brutal manner.

Quoting Rabbi Efraim Waxman, Rabbi Shapiro gave an interpretation of Chazal’s statement that no one knows where Moshe Rabbeinu is buried. In every generation there are nations that want to destroy das Moshe, some through assimilation and intermarriage, while others attempt to de-stroy the Jewish people physically. But das Moshe can never be buried. Throughout history, the Jewish people displayed tre-mendous resilience. Our enemies will nev-er get rid of us.

Haman is called “tzorer hayehudim.” The word “tzorer,” enemy, is related to the Hebrew word for “bundle.” The purpose of persecution is to bundle us together, to

unite us. “Hashem wants our unity,” said Rabbi Shapiro.

Rabbi Shapiro asked what we can learn from the fact that it is specifically knives that are used as weapons in the latest terror attacks. He explained that the first time the Torah uses the Hebrew word for “knife,” Targum Onkelos translates this word as “prayer.” “I don’t know why something happens,” said Rabbi Shapiro, “but every time we hear of another stabbing we can ask ourselves, how is our tefillah?” He

emphasized that women’s prayers are es-pecially powerful.

There are two types of prayer: sched-uled prayers, when we use a siddur, and

prayer the rest of the time which is “the way we walk, talk, interact in business,” noted Rabbi Shapiro. No matter where we are and what we do, other nations are watching us, trying to find our faults. The kedoshim in Eretz Yisrael died al kiddush Hashem. Rabbi Shapiro asked his audi-ence, “Are we living al kiddush Hashem?” He told a number of stories about gedolim who went out of their way to treat others with kindness and care and encouraged everyone to live their lives in a way that

would make a positive impression on ev-eryone around us. “This is a goal attainable for everybody,” Rabbi Shapiro said.

In conclusion, Rabbi Shapiro quot-

ed the Rizhiner Rebbe who interpreted a statement from the Zohar to mean, “Yes, I can be like Hashem.” Rabbi Shapiro emphasized that there is something each and every one of us can do in response to the difficult situation in Eretz Yisrael – to improve our tefillos and to create kiddush Hashem wherever we are, and G-d willing, our sincere efforts could bring an end to all suffering.

Thriving in Uncertain Times: Evening of Inspiration Yehudis Litvak

It is early morning in Los Angeles. The sun has not risen yet and there is a chill in the air. A dedicated and determined group move about getting dressed and preparing to start a new day in the same manner they have done over the last 16 years. It is hard to imagine that it is already 16 years!

Michael Kest, Founder of the Kollel, enthusiastically described how the Kollel came about. “I had recently returned from Yisroel and was looking to formalize a learning schedule for myself. I had stopped at Shaar Yoshuv and met with a friend of mine, Benny Stein z”l, and he told me of the Kollel Boker he had started. I liked the idea, so when I returned to Los Angeles I met with Rabbi Krause, he connected me with Rabbi Altusky and so it began.”

All it takes is desire and fortitude and one can initiate a world of learning. And Rabbi Altusky? A marbitz torah for many years as a Rebbe in the Yeshiva Gedolah of Los Angeles, he took excitedly to the task

of this early morning learning as an addi-tion to a full and busy schedule, without a moment’s hesitation.

Jerry Cohen, a prominent Los Ange-les attorney and longtime member of the Kollel, wanted me to know about the Rosh

Kollel. “Rabbi Altusky is always there be-fore any of us. We never have to wait for him. His behavior inspires us to emulate him and be there on time. And his teach-ing. He has clarity of thought, tremendous patience, and an uncanny ability to make it all understandable. He is the fuel that keeps us going.”

As for the members of the Kollel bo-ker, ask Rabbi Altusky and he will tell you. ”They are a dedicated and sincere group and among them are those looking to ad-vance their level of Torah learning while others are reconnecting to their yeshiva learning days. It is a privilege and pleasure to part of this endeavor. ”

So on the second night of Chanukah 5776, the Kollel Boker gathered to cele-brate another year of learning. Words of Torah, inspiration, camaraderie and achdus were expressed by Rabbi Altusky, Hymie Barber, Dr. Arnie Ross and Rabbi Krause.

YIHP Kollel Boker: 16 Years and Going StrongRabbi Arye D. Gordon

Clockwise from Left, Jerry Cohen, Shalom Katz, Rosh Kollel, Rabbi Yitzchok Altusky, Michael Boldt, David Shadowicz, Itzhak Panitz, Greg Meyer, Yaakov Schuster, Gershon Spiegel and Kollel Founder Michael Kest

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On December 16th, the West Valley Eruv was finally completed. Attendees at the opening included Rabbi Shlomo Lalezarian, Rabbi Meyer May of the Simon Weisenthal Center and Councilmember Paul Koretz. MC Ira Leibowitz introduced Rabbi Moshe Heinemann who flew into town from Baltimore to give his blessing on the project. An eruvin specialist, Rabbi Heinemann carefully examined the eruv and confirmed it was kosher and ready for use saying, “Mazel Tov on your very own Eruv which is built according to halacha and the minhag Yisroel dating back to the days of Europe.” The ceremony was also attended by a vibrant gathering of more than 200 who came to the Eretz Cultural Center where they acknowledged the gen-erosity and support for the Eruv campaign that came from Mr. Alon and Mrs. Rosana Miller.

The completion of the eruv involved many community leaders who worked to-

gether for the last six years, including Rab-bi Dovid Horwitz Rav of Makor HaChaim. Rabbi Horwitz reminisced that it was back in 2012 that a key issue was solved when the Millers graciously agreed to cover the cost of the eruv, saying their support was all encompassing, “Whatever it costs, we’ll be there. And we’ll take the mitzvah as well!” They were as good as their word and Mrs. Miller became the secretary and treasurer of the West Valley Eruv Society. Rabbi Horwitz explained that, “She was undoubtedly the steam engine that drove all the efforts, from plans, to city lobbying, to permits and then with legal issues.

Rabbi Horwitz acknowledged the ded-ication of so many participants in the cre-ation of the eruv and said that Rabbi Ei-dlitz, the Rav HaMacshir of the East Valley Eruv, was tangential in recreating the eruv map that was smaller than the original plan and far more realistic. He explained that,

“Rabbi Eidlitz is a master of practicality and halacha and was already instrumental in the building of the East Valley Eruv so he had an understanding of the process and was able to work productively with Rabbi Shlomo Lalezarian who had conceived the original layout for the eruv. Still, it wasn’t so easy. Every city has unique needs when erecting an eruv and costs and complica-tions are part of the process.”

For 25 years the eruv had been in the works, yet the original layout was for the eruv to spread across a vast area. Given the proliferation of trees and foliage in the neighborhoods to the west of the 405, add to this windy streets that are endemic to the area but are treacherous to a reliable eruv structure, add the high cost of securing permits and approvals and it is clear why the plans were stalled for so long.

The complexity of running an eruv was complicated by other elements including Cal Trans and government and city offi-cials who required a laborious process in their journey to approve permits. Attor-neys were required and that led to a higher

cost. Ultimately, as with the best plans in life, the effort paid off and Encino and Tar-zana now have a kosher eruv that covers more than 15 square miles and includes the homes of hundreds of families and approx-imately 15 shuls.

This is timely as Tarzana and Encino neighborhoods are growing with a young-er generation of shomer Shabbat families who are shaping the communities. Now, many streets have become alive on Shab-bat. Rabbi Horwitz admitted he has been receiving an increasing number of calls from families in the city and even from out of state, who are considering a move to the West Valley where they can afford a larger home and can enjoy the easier life-style with lower cost schooling, a variety of kosher stores and butchers, more green-ery and less of the city hubbub. There is something relaxing about raising children in this countrified space.

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Rabbis Eidlitz, Lalezarian and Heinemann in the field


The Los Angeles Region of Emunah of America held its Gala Benefit Dinner at the Sephardic Temple on December 19th, drawing a large crowd who came in support of the honorees and to recog-nize of the accomplishments of the Emu-nah organization. The evening served as an opportunity to pay tribute to Maureen and Dr. Larry Eisenberg, Guests of Honor, and Caroline Weiss and Ariela Weintraub, Young Leadership Awardees.

Mareen and Dr. Larry Eisenberg have staunchly supported the award-winning Emunah Torah and Arts High School in Je-rusalem, a unique high school which com-bines a Jewish curriculum with studies in the creative arts. The Eisenbergs dedicated the Lillian Grossman Science Laboratory in the high school and are now establishing

a new performing arts center to enrich the creative and learning experience for the students. Rabbi Elazar Muskin, Rabbi of the Young Israel of Century City, present-ed the couple with the award.

Caroline Weiss and Ariel Weintraub were recognized for their dedication to the children who live at Bet Elazraki chil-dren’s home, having spent their summers volunteering with the children.

A special guest speaker, Mali, Z., in-spired the guests with her personal story. She shared how she came to live at Bet Elazraki Children’s Home with her sister and her experience growing up there. “I graduated the children’s home strong and resilient, with a high school diploma and with a full toolbox for my future,” she said. “Today I have a big family – the Emunah

family.”Emunah maintains a network of over

250 social welfare and educational pro-grams throughout Israel, caring for the whole circle of life, from infants to se-niors. According to Karen Spitalnick, Emunah National President, “All Emunah projects share a common theme: instilling Jewish values with the utmost compassion and an excellent level of care, run by a first

rate staff of professionals. The dinner cele-brates a year of accomplishments for Emu-nah, with a sense of gratification that thou-sands of children have been given a new chance for a better life; families who have relied on Emunah’s social services have been helped; and lonely seniors have been comforted. These efforts are particularly important during last few months which have been very difficult for the Israeli peo-ple,” she added.

Emunah Los Angeles Holds Circle of Life Benefit Dinner

Boaz & Rebeca Kohn, Maureen & Dr. Larry Eisenberg, Harry Grossman, Shlomo Eisenberg, Elisheva Eisenberg

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om


In many ways Danny and Leah Hill are a typical middle-aged couple. Mar-ried with three daughters and four young grandchildren, they live in the Pico/Rob-ertson neighborhood and are active mem-bers of the LINK Kollel and Shul. In other ways, both Mr. and Mrs. Hill are extraor-dinary, both in the way they have parent-ed their special needs daughter who was born prematurely, and in the way they have raised funds for schools and organizations that help families like themselves. Over the years, and despite numerous challeng-es, the vitality of the Hills has increased rather than decreased.

In late September, during the yom-tovim, Danny learned of a hiking chal-lenge unlike any other. An international group was set to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. Climbing Kilimanja-ro had been an elusive goal for Danny for more than 15 years. The mountain is the highest in Africa, the highest free-stand-ing mountain in the world, and the largest dormant volcano in the world. The climb involves more vertical gain than any other mountain, “Kili” is only 200 miles from the equator yet topped with glaciers, and the climber passes through six ecosystems from base to summit, including rainforest, alpine desert and arctic terrain.

The trek was a fundraiser for Shalva, the Israeli Association for Mentally and Physically Challenged Children. The or-ganization provides highly-needed free services in Israel for more than 600 kids each year, from infancy to young adult-hood. They provide respite care, therapies, social programming and more. Their need for funds is especially acute as they move from a 20,000 foot facility to one that is ten times the size. They will go from serving hundreds to thousands. This was a cause very close to the heart for Danny, and he realized the climb would truly represent a once in a lifetime opportunity: a kosher and shomer Shabbos group of like-minded Jews, the Shabbos Project at 13,000 feet, and an Israeli institution devoted to special needs.

Most astonishing of all, Danny’s wife opted to accompany him. “The fact that my wife would commit to this climb made it so much richer and more meaningful. She had always responded to my talk of Kilimanjaro with a teasing comment: you’ll go with your next wife. Leah has vertigo, a fear of heights, had never been in a sleeping bag or tent or at high altitude in her life, and doesn’t exercise. And yet, upon hearing me on the phone registering, she said, “‘Me, too!’”

In October the Hills flew to Israel, then Ethiopia and then into Arusha, Tanzania. There they joined 25 other Jewish climb-ers, 4 trek leaders, a Scottish Doctor and 103 Tanzanian guides, porters and cooks. The goal? The glaciers and crater that crown 19,341 foot Uhuru Peak, the highest point on Kilimanjaro.

Now back home, the Hills reminisced about the trip in its entirety. “It was in-tensely physically and mentally challeng-ing. It was both a spiritual and an emo-tional experience. It was definitely more difficult – and steeper! – than we’d ex-pected.” Although Danny has experience climbing and used to exercise frequently, this was without doubt the hardest thing he’d ever done.

“We signed up unbelievably late; in fact, registration was closed. Many of the participants had spent 6-12 months prepar-ing: fundraising, training and getting their equipment. Unfortunately, we had just three weeks which included lots of yom-tovim. It was a lot of pressure to try to pull things together, but I didn’t know if I’d ever have another opportunity like this and I wasn’t about to pass it up. We got in

a few long practice hikes, did some fund-raising, and borrowed or rented much of the equipment.”

“This trip came a week before my fa-ther’s 29th yahrzeit. I’m 57, the same age as my father when he was hit with an ag-gressive cancer that had him in the hospital for lengthy stays for years. I thought about his fight through such a terrible disease without any support network. He was both stoic and heroic. When I felt worn out, I’d think about how mine was an ex-citing, goal-oriented journey I’d voluntari-ly undertaken, in contrast to his which was forced upon him.

The trip was over the weekend of The Shabbos Project and this was another ex-citing dimension. There was a daily min-yan, and each afternoon we had a shiur in Chumash with Rashi. One of the climbers, a rabbi from London, took charge of eruv construction (at 13,000 feet!) and kashrut. A London lawyer was a professional chaz-zan. Between the two of them and the en-thusiastic participation of everyone else, the Shabbos Project became a successful and deeply memorable experience, full of song, spirit and ruchnius. For some of the

climbers this was their first ever kosher Shabbos. They’ll undoubtedly remember it for a long time, and hopefully incorpo-rate some of what they experienced into their own lives.

After days of hiking an average of 8 hours each, the group set out at midnight on the 8th day, bundled up in multiple lay-ers of clothing to protect against expected temperatures as low as -20 degrees, for the final seven hour trek to summit, Uhuru Peak. Following a gorgeous sunrise, the participants summited in staggered knots of climbers in the early morning. The weather was surprisingly good, and a clear blue sky permitted magnificent views of the mountaintop glaciers, the volcanic cra-ter, and the vast countryside far, far below. “We were all a bit loopy from the altitude, and so elated that even the appearance at the summit of some hostile and aggressive Palestinians did nothing to dampen our spirits. The chances of such an encounter on a mountain that takes days to climb and is twice the size of London at its base are infinitesimally small. Why Hashem chooses to orchestrate things as he does is such a mystery, although I’m pretty sure meeting these antagonistic Palestinians this divine location was intended as some kind of learning experience.”

“After the trip we visited Shalva in Israel. What a great place. It was grati-fying to see how the $300,000 that we’d raised was going to be put to use. Shalva has numerous wonderful programs, in-cluded extensive respite care for families. We thought about what our lives would’ve been like if there’d been a Shalva in Los Angeles when our daughter was younger.”

Danny concluded with speculation about the future: “I’ve climbed Mount Whitney to raise money for Yeshivat Ohr Eliyahu and I participated in a five day trek though the Grand Canyon to support The Friendship Circle. This was the most am-bitious undertaking yet. What’s next? If Hashem gives me the strength and my wife approves or better yet, joins me again, per-haps an extensive kayaking trip on one of the world’s great rivers for another Jewish cause. There are so many that are worth-while.”

To contribute to climb4Shalva please visit http://www.climb4shalva.org/view_profile.php?id=1440. Donations can be made at American Friends of Shalva, PO Box 7008 Beverly Hills CA 90212-7008. You can also make a contribution over the phone at: 212-725-0900.

Jewish Couple Successfully Climbs Mount Kilimanjaro for Israeli Charity, Shalva

12 The Week In News JANUARY 7, 2016 | The Jewish HomeHappeningsAdvertorial

Professionalism, medical expertise and timeliness were all in high gear this past weekend as VitalOne defied the odds and executed a politically and logistically complicated emergency Medevac from Havana, Cuba to Miami.

It is safe to say that when Mrs. X left Israel for her much anticipated family getaway in Cuba she never envisioned returning by way of an elaborate air-borne ICU taking up the entire first class cabin of El Al airlines.

The 70 year old woman’s vacation took an unexpected and potentially deadly turn when she collapsed Thurs-day morning in the lobby of her Cuban hotel. The victim of a stroke, she was rushed to Cuba’s severely substandard hospital where it was determined that she had suffered an intracranial hemor-rhage.

“I got the call Friday morning,” explained Isaac Leider, dubbed Rabbi 911™ for his world-renowned success in dealing with air medical transports.” The logistics for the 60 minute flight from Havana to Miami are always com-plicated. This time the complications were tenfold.”

Due to the holiday weekend, there was no one available to sign off on the necessary permits which would allow VitalOne to land an ICU jet in Cuba. Furthermore, assuming the Cuban air-port handler could be reached and the permits secured, there were no beds available at any tertiary care (top med-ical) facility in Miami. Without an ICU bed assignment, the medical parole visa would not be approved.

No challenge is too great for the Vi-talOne team. They began reaching out to their high level contacts, amongst them a ‘black card carrying’ philanthropist, who requested anonymity. With just one call to the CEO of Baptist Hospital in Miami, a bed was procured.

But the challenges kept coming. For inexplicable reasons, Cuban immi-gration officials put a 24 hour hold on granting permission for the VitalOne jet to land and pick up the patient. Isaac contacted the Israeli Foreign Ministry Situation Room but needed someone in the United States with the ability to se-cure the permit to land. Enter Michael Wildes, Esq.; a well-known immigration attorney and former federal prosecutor.

“I’ve worked with Isaac Leider on

many occasions. When I see Rabbi 911™ on my caller ID, I know it is a matter of life or death,” explained Wil-des. “VitalOne was facing a bureaucratic glitch and with no one available to coun-termand this order, there was a good chance the patient would not live.”

Wildes, former mayor of Engle-wood, New Jersey and a 23 year veteran of Hatzalah, spent the next several hours working the phones, along with Isaac, to save the life of this Jewish woman. A board member of NORPAC (a political action committee working to improve Unites States and Israel relations) he

reached out to Dr. Ben Chouake, the President of the organization, who in turn contacted Senator Menendez’ Chief of Staff.

Wildes credits Leider, who he dubs ‘an angel’, with doing a great job of smoothing the way, arranging for an available bed, collecting the proof need-ed for a medical parole visa, verifying that the patient would not become a medical charge in the Unites States and a burden to the taxpayers (traveler’s in-surance is covering 100%), and securing the written assurances that there was no other medically mandated option to save

this woman’s life.The situations was further compli-

cated since the patient is Israeli, and Is-rael has no diplomatic relationship with Cuba. Wildes reached out to United States Congressman Ed Royce of Cal-ifornia who serves as the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Congressman Royce jumped into action; personally making calls to various State Department officials to help secure the permits.

“This was a truly heartwarming in-stance of partisan efforts. These are busy politicians who stepped in and used their time and contacts to affect a positive out-come. Everyone appreciated the fact that we were Observant Jews, nonetheless on the phones on Shabbos, committed to saving a life. VitalOne leads by example and I tip my hat to everyone who helped make this Medevac possible.”

By Shabbos morning, permission was granted and the ICU jet landed in Cuba with a medical team and all the equipment necessary to safely fly the patient, at sea level, to Miami. Seven-ty-two hours later, thanks to life-saving surgical intervention, VitalOne was once again on the scene, flying the patient via air ambulance to Newark Airport where they had turned the entire first class cab-in of an El Al flight into a completely retrofitted airborne ICU.

VitalOne was able to repatriate the patient where she will receive fur-ther care from Professor Zvi Ram at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center. Thanks to VitalOne’s experience, they were able, with G-d’s help and the dedi-cated assistance of the various people in-volved, to get this patient the emergency medical care she needed, all at no cost to the family; VitalOne procured insurance coverage for everything.

Surely this proves, once again, how fitting is the name VitalOne. The orga-nization is considered the number one choice of doctors around the world, when vital air transport is needed to save a life.

Author’s note: VitalOne maintains the importance of choosing your vaca-tion spot with a potential medical crisis in mind. At the very least, make sure your insurance provides for medical transport and/or purchase additional in-surance when you book your flight. You never know what could happen.

VitalOne Defies the Odds, Saving Vacationer’s life with Emergency Medevac Shoshana Bernstein

13The Week In NewsJANUARY 7, 2016 | The Jewish Home HappeningsHappenings

The conversation has begun.On Shabbos Parshas Vayechi, December

26th, more than 300 shuls and communities in 135 cities nationwide joined the Tradi-tional End-of-life Awareness Movement (TEAM). A project of the National Associ-ation of Chevra Kadisha (NASCK), under the leadership of Rabbi Elchonon Zohn, this initiative helped raise awareness throughout our community about the Torah’s perspective on end-of-life matters.

In shuls around the country, beginning the preceding week and throughout the Shab-bos, Rabbis dedicated their sermons, lectures and programs to the discussion. Some of the topics that were addressed included the inherent sanctity of life, the importance of making proper medical decisions, choosing traditional Jewish burial practices and mak-ing wills in accordance with Halacha.

The Torah perspective on life is not easy to talk about. As such, many of these over-riding obligations and far-reaching issues are infrequently mentioned.

“Due to a lack of awareness about the inherent sanctity of every moment of life,” said Rabbi Elchonon Zohn, “many people make end-of-life decisions that are contrary to Torah values. The goal of TEAM Shabbos was to open the discussion about ‘Respect-ing Life - Here and Hereafter’ in a unified national movement to facilitate the necessary awareness about these issues.”

The idea to dedicate Parshas Vayechi to the discussion of k’vurah k’Halacha began with the Vaad Harabonim of Queens during the 1980’s. Through initiating the TEAM Shabbos program, NASCK was able to ex-pand this mission into a thriving national movement that includes more than 300 shuls.

“The tzibbur welcomed the opportunity to learn about the importance of end-of-life directives and Halachic wills, as well as hear an overview of the Halachos of end-of-life situations and issues related to a bais hak-varos,” explained Rabbi Dovid Heber, Rav of K’hal Ahavas Yisroel Tzemach Tzedek in Baltimore, Maryland. “Thanks to the efforts

of NASCK, these sensitive topics were ad-dressed ‘l’maaseh uv’rov am’ in our shul, to-gether with many other kehillos in our com-munity and nationwide.”

Many Torah-observant people do not fully understand the modern-day practical applications of end-of-life concepts such as pikuach nefesh and mes mitzvah. These im-portant concepts require us to make proper medical decisions and assist our less-obser-vant friends, relatives, acquaintances and co-workers in choosing traditional Jewish burial practices.

In fact, a Rabbi from Maryland noted, “Given the level of knowledge of the people in my shul, I was very surprised how unfa-miliar they were with the many important hashkafos and halachos that pertain to end-of-life matters. I’m so grateful to TEAM Shabbos and NASCK for giving me the push and the opportunity to speak about it.”

“The TEAM Shabbos movement was a national success with overwhelming positive feedback. Many of the rabbonim that pre-

sented shiurim on end-of-life matters were surprised at the positive and accepting atti-tude that their communities responded with,” Rabbi Zohn explained. “The ‘It’s about time’ sentiment was an oft-repeated phrase this Shabbos.”

So, what’s the next step for NASCK and TEAM Shabbos?

“We will continue to keep the discussion open and to generate awareness surrounding the importance of the inherent sanctity of life and choosing traditional burial choices. We look forward to expanding the TEAM b’ez-ras Hashem next Parshas Vayechi,” explained Rabbi Zohn. “We encourage communities to join NASCK’s many ongoing programs ded-icated to support, inform, educate and inspire all those involved with and all those seeking information about traditional Jewish burial, including programs promoting halachic liv-ing wills and EMES (Emergency Medical Education and Sign-up) cards.”

For more information about the National Association of the Chevra Kadisha (NASCK) and the TEAM Shabbos, please visit nasck.org or call 718 847 6280.

TEAM Shabbos Unites Shuls and Communities to Increase Understanding of End-of-Life Decisions

Avi and Dorit Rodan have been the emissaries of Bnei Akiva, based in Tarzana, since August 2013, when they arrived from Israel to establish a first-time presence in the San Fernando Valley. Now, two years later, Avi Rodan considers the changes he has seen in his neighborhoods. “When my wife and I came to Tarzana we knew it would be completely different from our work in Israel. The Tarzana community was so new when we came. It was just a small group of friends but the community has defined itself and there is new leadership and this is why more people have moved here. The Eruv has just opened and this helps the community grow in observance. New shuls have opened and we encourage this and we help whereever possible.

“There is a unique flavor to the Israeli community in this neighborhood as well. We soon noticed that the adults spoke to us in Hebrew but their kids only used English. That was a shock. The kids are very different from Israeli kids. The cultural gap between parents and kids is great. I can relate as I had the same experience with my father. I lost my English which was my first language, because I was not using it. Language is a certain boundary.”

Bnei Akiva has now created an entire program in the Valley. Rodan explained,

“We have opened several new programs and activities for kids and adults, and they take place at a variety of locations. In some ways, I feel a connection to Avraham Aveinu who dug wells in the desert. We have a spread of new programs and people are trusting us to bring a quality of Jewish activity that is interesting and supportive of Jewish values. California culture is different to Israeli culture. Here, you are very spontaneous and there is an open minded cultural identity which lends itself to new things.

“I see that Israel has become a major

theme of American Jewish identity and people connect to Israel as part of their Jewishness. We want to strengthen two values with the events we hold; we want to know there are strong Jewish values and strong Zionists values. The two values crossover, more for some people than for others. When we train the madrichim, our counselors, we enthuse them with a connection to Israel.

“Shabbat activities are necessary. The city has events in Hancock Park and Beverly Hills and we now have afternoon games and activities for elementary school

kids at Shaarey Zedek shul in Valley Village and in Tarzana. We focus on bringing neighbors together. Last year, we held a 300 people event at Eretz Cultural Center where we had a group davening and we read tehillim for Israel, during the height of the recent terrorist attacks. That event was really meaningful. After Sukkot we held another event at Emek Hebrew Academy and community members came from all over the Valley. We also hold Erev Shira evenings which are sing-a-longs with Jewish and Israeli music. These take place at people’s home on a weekday and during the holidays. We also have a summer camp at Camp Moshava in Running Springs that is a big success.

“Our style is to do something good for orthodox Jewish identity. We deal with a lot of community members who all have a different take and connection to their Jewishness. The students are from grades 1 – 8 and they come from a broad variety of schools but we enjoy firing them up to connect to the Jewish value system.

“I was blessed to enjoy the birth of our youngest son last week. Here was a presentation of the difference in culture between Israel and America. At the birth of my eldest two children we were at an Israeli shomer Shabbat hospital, Shaarey Zedek, which was hectic but wonderful. Now, in Tarzana, we enjoyed a hospital that seemed to function more like a hotel. It was very calm and organized and there was room service. Tarzana has a lot to offer!”

B’nei Akiva of the Valley Celebrates Their Growing Community

Tu B’shvat event


We learn in this week’s parsha that Moshe Rabbeinu could not turn the Yam Suf into blood during makkas dam, for, as Rashi explains, “The Yam Suf protect-ed Moshe when he was cast into it [as a baby]. For this reason, he did not bring about the makkos of dam or tzefardei’a, in-stead, they were done by Aharon” (Rashi, Shemos 7:19).

Moshe was saved by those waters as an infant, when he was placed there in a bas-ket. Out of gratitude to the water, he would not hit the water to set off the makkos of dam and tzefardei’a. The Gemara derives from this that a person should not cast stones into a well from which he drank.

Likewise, Moshe Rabbeinu did not strike the ground to bring forth lice during the plague of kinnim, because, as Rashi explains, the dirt “protected him when he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand” (Rashi, Shemos 8:12).

Although dirt and water have no feel-ings or bechirah, Moshe showed appre-ciation for the benefits he received from them. Because hakoras hatov is not about the benefactor, it’s about you, the recipi-ent. Do you appreciate the daily goodness out there? Do you appreciate everyone who has helped you get where you are, or do you ignore the little people and the things from which you benefit?

Our heart rates quicken as we learn with excitement of the punishments Hash-em rained upon the evil Mitzrim, but, at the same time, there are lessons right un-der the surface for us to study and lead our lives by.

Our world is plagued by people who treat others like peels. As long as they need them, they keep them well-protected and refrigerated. Once done with them, they throw them into the nearest garbage pail and seek out another fruit to peel and ben-efit from.

We must recognize that people are not objects that you use to the maximum and then, when you think you have received everything you can, you trash them, for-get about them, ignore their calls, don’t

say good Shabbos to them, and move on to the next person you can squeeze dry be-fore eventually dumping them as well. It doesn’t matter if you are a rabbi or a baal habayis, a fundraiser or a person who just got engaged. Never think you’re finished with someone or don’t need them any-more. Always remember what they did for you when you needed them.

If we are cognizant and notice every-thing that goes on around us, we are bet-ter people. Moshe Rabbeinu didn’t refrain from hitting the water and sand out of con-cern that he would, in some way, be hurt-ing the water, an innate, inanimate object, but, rather, because he would be hurting himself. Though water has no feelings, Moshe knew that he does, so how could he possibly act disrespectfully to something that helped him?

Bilam had no problem doing so when he hit his loyal donkey. At the time of

creation, the animal was given the gift of speech so that it could berate Bilam for smiting the beast of burden. And what did the animal say? It gave Bilam mussar: “After all I’ve done for you, how dare you hit me!”

An animal is a creature whose entire being was created to serve man, yet it has a right to complain when a person beats it. A person who presents himself as intelli-gent and close to G-d must behave with kindness and compassion to others, and to do so, he must be the type of person whose refined character is fashioned through ap-preciation of what others do for him. Not doing so earned Bilam the ire of his don-key and eternal derision.

Last week, an all-too-rare instance oc-curred when a good man was exonerated.

After much Justice Department and media hype, the jail sentence of Uri Lupoliansky, former mayor of Yerushalayim, was com-muted. The founder of Yad Sarah, Israel’s largest medical equipment gemach, Lupo-liansky is a hero to many. His selfless acts on behalf of all the residents of Israel had been called into question thanks to an al-leged association with a corrupt land deal begun by his predecessor, Ehud Olmert. With the successful appeal, friends shared tales of the former mayor in his good old days.

A friend of mine, Shlomo Kook, shared an article he wrote recalling the time Lupo-liansky went to invite Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l to his son’s bar mitzvah. It was more out of a sense of courtesy and re-spect, for the senior posek was recuperat-ing from serious surgery and was extreme-ly weak. He had not left his home for some time and missed many family simchos.

When Lupoliansky departed, Rav El-yashiv informed his family and attendants that he would be going to the bar mitzvah celebration. “But how can you?” they ar-gued. “The rebbe doesn’t go anywhere, and besides, Uri is not even expecting the rebbe to come.”

Rav Elyashiv pointed to various de-vices in the room. “The bed is from Yad Sarah. The walker is from Yad Sarah. That monitor is from Yad Sarah. I have bene-fitted so much from them. I’m mechuyov in hakoras hatov to Reb Uri. How can I not go?”

“But he benefited from you much more than you benefitted from him,” Rav El-yashiv’s relatives responded. “After all, because of your support, he became the mayor of Yerushalayim.”

Rav Elyashiv taught them a lesson. He said, “You’ll argue that he doesn’t need me to come. I agree that he’s mevater. But hakoras hatov isn’t remuneration, tashlu-min, that you pay someone for a favor they did for you. Hakoras hatov is a never-end-ing obligation, because the Ribbono Shel Olam wants us to be people who always remember that everything is a gift. Hako-ras hatov is an opportunity and a means of keeping our value system intact. It is not about him. It is about me.”

Developing the middah of hakoras ha-tov is essential to our growth. It is so easy to take others for granted. Great people remember the little things. We are placed in this world to achieve greatness. It starts with the little things. Appreciate even what simple people do for you. Always be cour-teous and you will grow. It is not for noth-ing that if you look up the word appreciate in a thesaurus, you will see that included in its synonyms are gain, grow and rise.

The posuk in Mishlei (27:21) speaks of the gauges used for precious metals. A refining pot is for silver and a furnace is for gold. And what of man? The posuk concludes, “And a man according to his praise.”

Rav Elya Lopian zt”l explained that when a silversmith appraises the value of silver, he uses a refiner to see how pure it is. The measure of a man’s purity is seen in “mehalelo,” which literally means praise. The best indicator of a refined nature is a person’s ability to give thanks and praise.

Rav Dardak, a Bnei Brak resident, was close with the Steipler Gaon zt”l. His son, Rav Yaakov lived in America and was helpful to the Steipler in various ways.

One day, the son wrote a letter with a question pertaining to a shtickel Torah in the Steipler’s sefer, Kehillos Yaakov. Al-though the Steipler was old and no longer responding to letters, he toiled over his response to the young man, reviewing the questions and answering each one, adding another chiddush. When he was done, he gave the letter to the senior Rav Dardak to send to his son in America.

A few days later, there was a knock at Rav Dardak’s door. It was the Steipler himself.

“Did you already send the letter?” the Steipler asked breathlessly.

“No, not yet,” the father answered.“Boruch Hashem. I rewrote it. Please

use this one,” said the Steipler.The father accepted the paper and went

to replace it in the envelope he had pre-pared to send to his son when he would find someone traveling to America. He compared the two letters and noted that they were the same length and appeared similar.

Bewildered, he hurried to the Steipler’s home. “Yelamdeinu rabbeinu. Why was a new letter necessary if there were no

SEE HOW MUCH CHESSED THE RIBBONO SHEL OLAM FILLS HIS WORLD WITH WHEREVER YOU ARE.

Living with the Times:

The Fruit Peel Syndrome

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Publisher of the Yated Ne’eman

Living with the Times


changes?”The Steipler explained, “I don’t write

letters anymore, as you know. I no longer have the strength or energy to respond to people in writing, but when your son wrote, I knew that I would make an ex-ception. After all, I reasoned, how can I ignore someone who helped me so much? Where’s the yosher in that? So I sat down and wrote a letter, which I gave to you.

“Then,” the Steipler continued, “a few days passed and I reconsidered. Should I have written out of a sense of duty? Out of obligation? No! The correct attitude should have been hakoras hatov, appreciation to-wards a person who helped me. So I felt like I had to rewrite the letter, allowing feelings of hakoras hatov to guide me. The content of the two letters is the same, but the second one is totally different from the first!”

The recipient would likely not have discerned the difference between the two letters, but the Steipler was teaching that hakoras hatov is about us, our internal avo-das hamiddos and spiritual balance.

Perhaps we can understand why this lesson is taught in Parshas Va’eira, at the formative stage in which the family of Av-rohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov becomes the Am Hashem. Rav Chaim Vital in Shaarei Kedushah (perek 1) famously writes that there is no Biblical mandate to have good middos, but proper middos are a prereq-uisite to receiving the Torah. It’s the hak-domah to the Torah. These parshiyos at the beginning of Sefer Shemos lead up to the parshiyos of kabbolas haTorah; A nation destined to receive the gift of Torah had to first develop proper middos.

Throughout the story of the servitude in Mitzrayim, we see chapters that indicate this, including the nobility of spirit of the wives who endured oppressive days, but would lift the spirits of their husbands at night. We note the selflessness and sacri-fice of the shotrim, who accepted beat-ings on behalf of other Jews. We study the chesed performed by the mother and sister of Moshe Rabbeinu, spiting Paroh to help newborns and their mothers. And as the makkos come, Moshe teaches another lesson.

There was no one better to teach that lesson than he, the onov mikol odom, the most humble of all men, who understood that everything is a gift. It’s the ba’al ga’avah who refuses to recognize how be-holden he is to those around him, for his arrogance precludes him from seeing the truth.

A rosh yeshiva once noticed a mar-ried talmid waiting on a street-corner outside his yeshiva, clearly agitated. “Let me guess,” the rosh yeshiva said. “You’re waiting here for your wife to pick you up and she’s late.”

The fellow nodded. “Exactly.”“You’re cold and hungry and just

learned a full first seder and you don’t want to wait. You’re wondering why she can’t just be on time, right?”

The yungerman blushed and admitted that, yes, those were his thoughts.

“Now, here is what I want you to do,” the rosh yeshiva said. “Until your wife comes, contemplate how much you owe her, how much hakoras hatov she de-serves, how she married you and takes care of you, and how she raises your chil-dren and encourages you and respects you. Don’t think about anything else and you’ll see that when she comes, you will feel it - and she will feel that you feel it!”

Rav Avigdor Miller zt”l said many years ago that along with everything else, thankfulness is a segulah for good health and long life. Life is too short to be spent angry, insulted or resentful about per-ceived wrongs. Training yourself to see the chassodim all around opens one up to new avenues of happiness.

Science is catching up to Rabbi Miller. This week, The New York Times reported: “Robert Emmons, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, who studies the ‘science of gratitude,’ argues that it leads to a stronger immune system and lower blood pressure, as well as ‘more joy and pleasure.’”

But don’t depend on scientists to arrive at proper hakoras hatov.

The article continues: “Consider this, from a yoga instructor on CNN.com: ‘Cultivate your sense of gratitude by in-corporating giving thanks into a personal morning ritual such as writing in a grati-tude journal, repeating an affirmation or practicing a meditation. It could even be as simple as writing what you give thanks for on a sticky note and posting it on your mirror or computer. To help you establish a daily routine, create a ‘thankfulness’ re-minder on your phone or computer to pop up every morning and prompt you.

“The Harvard Mental Health Letter be-gins its list of gratitude interventions with the advice that you should send a thank-you letter as often as once a month, but all the other suggested exercises can be undertaken without human contact: ‘thank someone mentally,’ ‘keep a gratitude jour-nal,’ ‘count your blessings,’ ‘meditate,’ and, for those who are so inclined, ‘pray.’”

The columnist makes the point that it is “possible to achieve the recommended lev-els of gratitude without spending a penny or uttering a word. All you have to do is to generate, within yourself, the good feelings associated with gratitude, and then bask in its warm, comforting glow. If there is any loving involved in this, it is self-love.”

Perhaps chochmah bagoyim taamin, but not middos. Even when they preach and teach about basic human values, it is not to enhance others, or the world at large, but rather to make yourself feel bet-ter. Hey, you want to feel good? You want to live long? The solution is simple: Have gratitude. Keep a journal. Write an entry and, voila, you become a grateful person and bask in the glow of gratitude. You can be a kofui tov and be grateful. Gratitude is merely something cuddly that selfish peo-ple can use to feel good about themselves.

Gratefulness has nothing at all to do with hakoras hatov.

Moshe Rabbeinu was engaged in a bat-

tle with Paroh, the ultimate kofui tov. The savior of Mitzrayim and its economy was Yosef, but the king claimed that he didn’t know who Yosef was, lest the memory ob-ligate him to something (Shemos 1:8).

The awareness that we give ourselves through being makir tov is to enable us to learn to see, recognize and perceive the truth. It is the secret to having emu-nah. Paroh was a kofer and Moshe was a ma’amin.

We are still living in difficult times. There are painful reports from all over, so many suffering families and individuals, so many victims of all sorts.

It’s easy to fall into the rut of negativi-ty, to complain and whine.

Life is rough. Parnassah doesn’t come easy. Chinuch has never been harder.

Moshe Rabbeinu teaches us how to achieve geulah and how to develop emu-nah.

Look deeper. See the people around you. See how everyone is trying their best. See how much chessed the Ribbono Shel Olam fills His world with wherever you are.

There is a new awareness of the need to show hakoras hatov to rabbeim, which began with a duet of speeches delivered by Rabbi David Ozeri. This past Motzoei Shabbos, Rabbi Yaakov Mandelbaum an-nounced at the dinner of his school, Yeshi-va Orchos Chaim in Lakewood, NJ, that the rabbeim of his mosad would be receiv-

ing a $10,000 raise.This is commendable. Rabbeim and

moros are the foundation of our chinuch system. For too long, they have been taken for granted. The time arrived a long time ago for mechanchim to be paid a living wage. Their work needs to be appreciated. Besides, if we want our children to be ed-ucated well, we have to ensure that their teachers are motivated and not barely float-ing along on the poverty level. Why should anyone capable go into a field in which they cannot properly feed and clothe their children?

When we finish establishing a sys-tem to help the rabbeim, we must work to ensure that parents, who are already overtaxed with all the expenses of living in today’s age, including paying tuition, should not be driven further to despair. Our society is beset by many problems, and the root of them is very often financial. People who work for a living simply cannot make ends meet. Between tuition, taxes, food, insurance, clothing and mortgage or rent, many are forced to resort to a never-ending cycle of loans in order to live with a drop of dignity.

We can’t solve all the world’s prob-lems, and certainly not in one shot, but we need to acknowledge them and seek realis-tic solutions while being aware of the laws of unintended consequences. For ourselves and for our society, remember that people aren’t fruit peels.

Living with the Times


Dear Confused Parent,Proactive means having a plan in

place, knowing what you are going to do even before something goes down. Before you make any move, you give it careful consideration and thought, and only then decide it’s the best move for you and/or your family.

Being reactive is a gut-level response that is triggered by what happens at the time. It’s when we don’t have a clue and just have an emotional, but not considered response.

Consider this: The Reactive ParentMiri, age five, is coloring on the table

and walls and with non-washable markers, no less. You love how she is creative, but she does know better! You are just beside yourself, and start yelling. You angrily take away her markers and say she won’t have a Shabbos party this week. Miri starts cry-ing hysterically and won’t calm down. You feel bad about “losing it,” so you relent, give her back the markers, and make her promise not to color on the walls again. You sigh in resignation when she colors on the walls two days later.

Or this: The Proactive ParentMiri, age five, is coloring on the table

and walls — with non-washable markers, no less. You love how creative she is, and she keeps really busy when coloring, but she does know better! You quietly walk over to her and ask, “Miri, what is the rule about coloring?” Miri claims not to remember, so you remind her about the rule you have discussed before. “We color on paper, not on tables or walls.” Then, you calmly take away her markers, despite Miri’s protests that she will stop. You confi-dently walk away, feeling comfortable with this interchange because you know it is fair; Miri has been forewarned. You make a mental note to have another discussion about the “marker rule” before allowing Miri to color again.

Here is the difference between the two scenarios. In the first, Mom is reactive and in that moment unsure about how to react.

Because she has not thought this through, she strikes out wildly and impulsively, con-fusing the child, who learns nothing other than tears and loud protestation work!

In the second case, Mom has been pro-active and has armed herself with natural consequences. She feels equipped to deal with the situation and does so in a mat-ter-of-fact manner. And what has Miri learned? Not to color on the walls or table.

Parents who yell or threaten their chil-dren are acting reactively, and are usually disciplining their children when they have “had enough.” Though at first, this style of parenting seems low maintenance, it will eventually backfire. You will always be fed up, so, you will always be disciplining in an unpleasant manner. When your child sees that you handle your frustration by yelling and screaming, she learns to han-dle her frustration in the same way — with siblings, friends, and you.

Reactive parenting encourages manip-ulative behavior. Your child will not learn right from wrong, but rather how much she can get away with before you’ve had enough. This is probably not the kind of person you want your child to become.

Proactive parenting is based on con-sistency. As a proactive parent, you must decide what the rules are and what the consequences are for breaking those rules. You must then share this information so that your children know what is expected of them and can act accordingly. The key to making this work is your level of con-sistency and self-control.

You can’t wait until you’ve had enough bad behavior before you implement conse-quences, nor can you yell or threaten. Ini-tially, this kind of parenting is intense and time-consuming and it will stay this way until your child gets the message. But with constant repetition, she will develop pos-itive behavior. She will know right from wrong, and choose the right thing out of the force of habit.

Another strength of proactive parent-ing lies in its power to prevent tantrums

or power struggles. As any wise parent knows, once a tantrum starts, it is diffi-cult to stop. And, once you are in a power struggle with your child, you are in a lose-lose position. If he wins, you lose, but if you win, you have a defeated child. How-ever, by establishing the rules beforehand, you are far less likely to even begin having a standoff with your child.

Try this: The Reactive ParentSixteen-year-old Yossi has been beg-

ging to get his driver’s license — just like his eighteen-year-old sister Laya did two years before. However, while Laya is very mature for her age, well, Yossi is what we might call a very young sixteen. But Mom does not feel she can say that to Yossi and compare him negatively to his sister, so she gives in. On the first trip out, Yossi returns the car late — so late that Mom misses her dentist appointment. Mom delivers her “responsibility lecture,” and Yossi does well for the next two weeks. Then, he leaves the lights on overnight, and after calling AAA, Mom is late for work. By now, Mom is pretty annoyed and lets Yossi know it. He becomes all angry and defensive, and everyone feels bad that day. Three weeks later, he gets into the most minor of fender benders, but he totally loses it and starts yelling at the other driver. By now, Mom has had it — and she loses no time in letting Yossi know it. Yossi is restricted from driving for the next month, but, even more important, he alternates between feeling like a loser or that his Mom is out to get him.

Or this: The Proactive Parent Sixteen-year-old Yossi has been beg-

ging to get his driver’s license — just like his eighteen-year- old sister Laya did two years before. However, while Laya is very

mature for her age, well, Yossi is what we might call a very young sixteen. Mom has a discussion with Yossi where she ex-plains her view that different people are ready for different steps at different times. She tells Yossi that she does not feel he is ready to drive yet, but would reconsider in six months if he meets certain conditions that indicate that he is ready for this grave responsibility. Yossi does not like this, but he knows that his Mom has a history of keeping her word. Whenever he does bring up the topic, Mom asks him to repeat the steps he needs to take that show readiness and reminds him that they will renegoti-ate at the end of six months. Though Yossi tries to argue his case, he knows that his Mom does not change her mind about such things, so he eventually gives up.

The point is that you cannot afford to simply react to your child’s behavior. You must teach him how to behave by provid-ing consistent structure in a calm manner. No matter how hard this is at first, it will make discipline that much easier and will help develop your child into the kind of person who will do the right thing calmly, even in the face of frustration.

Recommended Reading: The Discipline Book by Dr. William

Sears and Martha Sears, R.N. This book focuses on not only managing behavior, but also preventing it as well. Check out the other books written by these two re-nowned parenting experts.

Sara Teichman, Psy D. is a psychother-apist in private practice in Los Angeles and Clinical Director of ETTA, LA’s larg-est Jewish agency for adults with special needs. To submit a question or comment, email [email protected].

Proactive Parenting Sara Teichman, Psy D

Parenting

Dear Dr. T.,I see that you call your new column ‘Proactive

Parenting’, but I am not exactly sure what you mean. I am familiar with the word proactive from Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, but I don’t know how it applies here. All I know is that I have a hard time managing my children and would like any help I can get.

From A Confused Parent

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20 The Week In News JANUARY 7, 2016 | The Jewish HomeFeatureOCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home 59The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 201558

There is no doubting the causes of the new-est round of enmity in

the Middle East when Iran and Saudi Arabia faced off this past week over the exe-cution of a Shiite cleric in the Sunni led Saudi Kingdom. While much of the unrest which plagues the Middle East may appear to be of a somewhat novel nature – the Arab Spring which created the ongoing civil war in Syr-ia and the dangerous tug-of-war in Egypt was a so-called cry for democracy which was backed by the U.S. State De-partment as a “new begin-ning” – the roots of the cur-rent Saudi-Iranian exchange of diplomatic blows spread back to the year 632.

This new clash, which for the most part has remained diplomatic, was the result of the Saudi’s execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a pop-ular – albeit outspoken –

Shiite leader in the country. Nimr had been the leader of the Shiite minority in Saudi Arabia and had at times pub-licly called for the ousting of the Kingdom’s ruling family.

“From the day I was born and to this day, I’ve never felt safe or secure in this country,” Nimr said in a speech in 2011. “We are not loyal to other countries or authorities, nor are we loyal to this country. What is this country? The regime that oppresses me? The regime that steals my money, sheds my blood, and violates my honor?”

He was summarily ex-ecuted on January 2 on charges of inciting violence along with 46 other people, most of them members of al Qaeda.

Iran is 83% Shia and since the founding of the Islamic Republic after the 1979 revolution has been one

of the few Shiite countries in the world. While Aya-tollah Khomeini promised strong Sunni-Shia unity in the country at the time, the regime has been overtly dis-criminatory to Sunni Mus-lims. After Nimr’s killing, Iranians took to the streets in Iran, and while the police did try to quiet the protest-ers there, within hours the Saudi Embassy in Tehran was ransacked. “G-d’s hand of retaliation will grip the neck of Saudi politicians,” Iran’s supreme leader, Aya-tollah Ali Khamenei, vowed in comments reported on his official website.

A CENTURIES-OLD CONFLICT

Shia-Sunni sectarianism dates back over 1,400 years to the time of the founding of Islam and is based on wheth-er the leader, or caliph, of Is-lam should be chosen based

on bloodline (the Shiite view – literally “Shiat Ali,” or the “party of Ali,” Mohammed’s son-in-law) or merit (the Sunni view). As with any conflict, the two sides even-tually developed unique cul-tures and ideologies. Today, nearly 40% of Sunnis do not consider those of the Shiite persuasion to even be adher-ents of Islam. While it may be true that certain factions of Sunni Muslims are heav-ily extremist, such as the Wahhabis and its adherents, namely the anti-Shia Tali-ban, there exist extremist strains of Shia Islam, most notably ISIS and Hezbollah.

The 20th century imperi-alist Europeans, having no use in intra-religious con-flict, carved up the Middle East and created disparate Shiite and Sunni regions. What is today referred to as Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Syr-ia was designated as the Shia

area, and the Sunnis were given the rest of the Middle East. Recent political victo-ries across the Middle East for Shia interests, particu-larly the Iranian Revolution in the 1970s and ouster of Saddam Hussein’s anti-Shia Ba’ath party in Iraq, have created a hostile atmosphere between the two groups in the region. It is said that the only country where both groups feel safe worshipping together is Azerbaijan.

The tense relations be-tween Iran and Saudi Ara-bia are rooted in ideology, but the two countries have a strained past. Shia adher-ents in Saudi Arabia rioted for three days in 1979 follow-ing the Iranian Revolution and 17 Shiites were killed. Saudi Arabia was one of the major backers of Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War which lasted close to eight years, and was a major sponsor of anti-Shia

A Centuries-Old Schism Deepens

Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia ClashBy Nachum Soroka

21The Week In NewsJANUARY 7, 2016 | The Jewish Home FeatureFeatureOCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home 59The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 201558

Muslim militants in Afghan-istan at that time. Indeed, the Wahhabi House of Saud has adopted an ideology termed by Western Scholars as “Petro Islam,” which be-lieves that its vast oil-driv-en wealth is G-d given for the purpose of bringing its brand of religion to the in-ternational forefront.

BATTLES BY PROXYSaudi Arabia’s swift jus-

tice this week took much of the world by surprise, in-cluding the United Nations and the U.S., although many western officials were forced to comment in anonymi-ty because of the sensitive diplomatic nature of the cir-cumstances. But it is doubt-ful that the two countries were aware of how quickly the skirmish would escalate, with the Saudi Kingdom forcefully cutting ties with Iran and banishing all Irani-an personnel from the coun-try after Iranians set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Iran. Bahrain, Sudan, and the UAE have also downgraded ties with Iran.

The two states are the two most influential Muslim countries in the volatile Mid-dle East: While Shia Islam is by far the minority sect of the religion, with just 15% of Muslims worldwide adher-ing to the group, Shia Iran has a population of 78 mil-lion people, more than twice the population of Saudi Ara-bia. Moreover, Iran has ben-efitted from the clout held by Shia Hezbollah in Lebanon and the recent dominance of

Shia politicians in Iraq fol-lowing the removal of Sadd-am Hussein. On the other hand, Sunni Saudi Arabia is more than twice the geo-graphic area of Iran.

Until now the states have chosen to wage battle only by proxy: Iran is the stron-gest supporter of the em-battled Shia-Alawite Bashar Al-Assad in Syria while the Saudis have been strength-ening the rebel groups there. In Yemen, the Saudi govern-ment has provided support to the Sunni government which is facing opposition from Houthi rebels. And for the past fifteen years the two countries have aided oppo-site interests in the morass that is Iraq.

A new row between the states is only more reason for them to increase their com-mitments to the proxy wars they are fighting throughout the region. This month, Sec-retary of State John Kerry is set to begin the first round of peace talks aimed at ending the civil war in Syria involv-ing the Syrian government, Syrian rebels and a host of other countries, includ-ing Iran and Saudi Arabia. “We’re obviously concerned this could blow up the pro-cess,” one senior Obama ad-ministration official admit-ted to the New York Times. “But it’s too early to say what the impact could be.”

The Syrian peace talks may not be the only diplo-matic nightmare for John Kerry to come out from this. The Obama administration is looking to release many

of the sanctions placed on Iran and is in the middle of cementing its signature nuclear deal with Iran, of which Saudi Arabia was one of its most vocal opponents. Iran already has been caught toeing the line of the nuclear deal by staging ballistic mis-sile tests, and a recommitted Saudi Arabia opposing Iran will be another force to deal with in getting Kerry’s deal completed. Indeed, many in Iran believe that the execu-tion was staged by the Saudis in order to derail the lifting of the sanctions. “Saudi Ara-bia killed Mr. al-Nimr at this sensitive juncture in time to widen the gap between Sunni and Shiite Muslims,” railed Fazel Meybodi, an Ira-nian cleric in Qum. “Unfor-tunately they had predicted our overreaction, and now they are using it against us to try to isolate Iran once again.”

SHOULD THE U.S. TAKE SIDES?

Both countries are heavy-weights in the region’s num-ber one resource: oil. Many predict that the Middle East may now be heading toward an oil pricing war, with Iran selling its product at ab-surdly low prices to spite its Sunni counterpart. But glob-al oil prices are low enough already and the likelihood that Iran would hurt its own economic interests in order to hurt Saudi Arabia is un-likely, particularly because Saudi Arabia is the more financially sound country and would suffer less from

an Iranian pricing offensive than Iran itself would.

Saudi Arabia has coasts on the Red Sea and the Per-sian Gulf. That, along with its massive oil reserves, has made it a strategic ally for the U.S. since the founding of the Kingdom in 1932. The di-visive Wahhabism preached in Saudi Arabia had been something the U.S. chose to ignore. But the 9/11 attacks, which were caused by Sunni terrorists who were cultivat-ed in Saudi Arabia, added wrinkles to the relation-ship. Then, about ten years ago, after large Shia gains in post-Saddam Iraq, the Bush administration shifted back to its unwavering support of Sunni countries and created a strategy which was aimed at containing Iranian – and by extension, all Shia inter-ests – in the Middle East, fearing that a powerful Iran and Shia coalition would fuel anti-Western sentiment in the region.

It may be argued that this new strategy posed by the Bush administration of openly backing Sunnis while opposing Shiite govern-ments has led to the awful state of relations among the Muslim groups. At the time, Martin Indyk, a senior State Department official in the Clinton Administration who also served as Ambassador to Israel, said that because the U.S. was picking sides, “the Middle East is heading into a serious Sunni-Shiite Cold War.” If the U.S. learned anything from its debacle in Iraq, it should have been that

order is preferential to chaos in the Middle East, regard-less of whether the order comes from governments which are hostile to West-ern interests. Perhaps this is the reasoning behind the Obama administration’s em-brace of the more-than-im-perfect Rouhani government in Iran.

Still, the relationship between the Saudis and the U.S. continues to gain com-plexity. The Saudis have been strong supporters of groups opposing the U.S.-backed Arab Spring. In Egypt, fear-ing that a successful Muslim Brotherhood there would threaten the royal family’s leadership in Saudi Ara-bia, the Saudis successfully backed the military coup which overthrew the Isla-mists installed by the U.S. The two countries have man-aged to find common ground with each other in the battle against ISIS, which is Shia and is quickly filling the void left by the Saudi-backed coup on the Muslim Brother-hood in Egypt.

All this seems to be lead-ing up to the perfect storm in 2016. The situation in the Middle East continues to be-come more convoluted from within and without. There are civil wars, battling ter-rorist groups and nuclear arms races all intricately connected to one another. The specific issues are 2016 problems, but they all began some 1,400 years ago over an issue that will forever withstand the test of time: power.

U.S. and Israeli flags are burned in front of the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran

Protests after the execution The Ayatollah vowed divine revenge

22 The Week In News JANUARY 7, 2016 | The Jewish HomeJewish History

The atmosphere in the room was som-ber and tense. The elderly rabbi lay on a rickety bed, surrounded by family and a handful of close friends, his breathing la-bored, his wrinkled face sunken and pale. This wasn’t just any elderly rabbi; this was one of Europe’s most influential rab-binic figures, Rabbi Yaakov Emden, and these were his final moments. At seven-ty-eight years old he had reached a ripe old age. He had outlived two of his three wives, and most of his twenty children. Once a wealthy and successful business-man, his fortunes had reversed and just a year earlier he was compelled to seek assistance from the community fund. His health had been in decline for some time, and waning eyesight had ultimately resulted in total blindness, denying him his one remaining pleasure - reading and studying the numerous books in his pri-vate library.

It was April 19, and the year was 1776. For more than a quarter of a century all of R. Yaakov Emden’s energy had been devot-ed and dedicated to just one thing – ensur-ing that every G-d-fearing Jew was aware of the fact that the Chief Rabbi of Hamburg and revered rabbinic leader, Rabbi Yonason Eybeschutz, was not the devout Jew he pur-ported himself to be, but was in fact a se-cret believer in the false messiah, Shabbetai Tzvi, and that he had cunningly insinuated Sabbatian heresy into mainstream Jewish life.

R. Yonason Eybeschutz had already been dead for twelve years. But his demise had not halted R. Yaakov’s campaign. In fact, it seemed only to have increased its ferocity. R. Yaakov was absolutely deter-mined that the man he considered the epit-ome of evil would never be lionized nor adulated. Even as R. Yonason was being buried twelve years earlier R. Yaakov de-livered a ‘eulogy’ in which he accused him of religious deviancy and worse, astound-ing his audience with the vehemence of his denouncements. But now, as the small group of relatives and friends stood silently, watching the aged rabbi as his life ebbed away, the last thing on their minds was R. Yonason Eybeshutz. All they were con-cerned with was the imminent final breath of this titan of Jewish leadership, who had been at the center of European Jewish life for well over fifty years. The bitter dispute between him and his archrival was utterly remote at that moment and if anyone in the room gave the saga any thought, it would only have been to reflect on the fact that the controversy was finally coming to an end.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, R. Yaakov opened his unseeing eyes. He grabbed the hand of the person closest to him, a member of the Chevra Kadisha at his bedside, and began to speak in a whisper. It sounded as if he was greeting someone; a long lost rela-tive or friend. His voice was barely audible, and the man whose hand he had clutched leaned towards him, trying to make out what he was saying. He put his ear next to R. Yaakov’s mouth and listened intently, then gasped and went pale.

“What is he saying? What is he say-ing?”

The young man seemed unable to re-spond. He leaned back down and listened again, and then shook his head in bewilder-ment.

‘The rabbi is saying over and over again, “baruch haba, my father; baruch haba, Rabbi Yonason”, that is what he is saying!’ There was a sharp intake of breath from everyone in the crowded room. What could this mean? How was it possible that in his final moments R. Yaakov was men-tioning his beloved father in the same breath as the name of his hated nemesis? What did he mean by “baruch haba”, a phrase usually said as a welcome? The family muttered to each other quietly, try-ing to figure out some explanation for what was going on. One of them suggested they ask R. Yaakov, but he had gone quiet again, and closed his eyes. His breathing began to slow down, and within a matter of minutes he was gone. The Chevra Kadisha cleared the room, and - in keeping with tradition - they lifted the rabbi’s fragile body off the bed and onto the floor.

Outside the family began discussing the funeral and burial arrangements with community officials. Obviously R. Yaakov would be buried in the most distinguished portion of the cemetery, where only com-munity leaders and distinguished rabbis were buried. After all, besides for being one of Europe’s preeminent rabbis, he had lived in Hamburg for most of his life, and his fa-ther, Chacham Tzvi Ashkenazi, had served as chief rabbi. No one would dare to deny him his rightful place in the cemetery.

But the community representatives were shifting from foot to foot, looking down at the floor. There was a problem. A big problem. Who was going to break the news to the family? The only available gravesite in the cemetery was a few feet away from where R. Yonason was buried, and on the same row. There was no way the family would agree for R. Yaakov to be buried there, and nor would the Hamburg community leadership, whose loyalty to R.

Yonason had been absolute over the years, be willing to see the man who had caused so much strife buried near the object of his relentless crusade. One of the communi-ty’s representatives blurted out the news to the family. There was dead silence. You could have heard a pin drop. The head of the Chevra Kadisha spoke up. He wanted to suggest a solution.

“I hear that R. Yechezkel Landau, Chief Rabbi of Prague, is in town, presiding over a court case. Perhaps let us ask him to rule whether R. Yaakov can be buried near R. Yonason. He knows the history between them very well. For my part, I can speak on behalf of the community. We will follow the Rav of Prague’s direction – as long as the family also agrees to do so.”

The family members looked at each other and nodded their agreement. What choice did they have? Every minute they delayed the funeral was disrespectful to R. Yaakov. A meeting was hastily set up with R. Landau. His relationship with both R. Yaakov and R. Yonason had been fraught and difficult over the years, which at the very least meant that both sides would treat his ruling as objective. A senior member of the Emden family and a representative of the Chevra Kadisha were shown into R. Landau’s room, and he listened intently as they explained the problem at hand. He pondered for a moment, and asked how R. Yaakov had spoken of R. Yonason over the last few months of his life. Had there been any change of attitude? Had he softened his stance? Not really, the family member responded - his harsh criticism had been unceasing. Except, he added, in the mo-ments just before he died, and he related the strange episode that had taken place just minutes before R. Yaakov had drawn his last breath.

R. Landau smiled. “I think we can an-nounce the funeral,” he said, “and it is ab-solutely fine for R. Yaakov’s final resting place be so close to R. Yonason. Clearly, as his soul was departing from this world, R. Yaakov finally reconciled with R. Yona-son, and none other than the great Chacham Tzvi was there to witness it. Baruch Dayan Ha’emess!”

And with that the worst rabbinic battle in modern Jewish history appeared to have reached its natural conclusion. A controver-sy that had embroiled multiple communi-ties, ruined careers, split families, involved the gentile authorities of more than one country, and devastated lives, seemed - fi-nally - to be at an end. With the death of the second of the two protagonists whose names were synonymous with this epic

fight, on what possible grounds would it continue?

But had anyone breathed a sigh of re-lief as they buried R. Yaakov Emden on that spring day in Hamburg, they would have been completely mistaken to do so. The root causes of the controversy, the two principal combatants, the impact of the controversy on Jewish life and on the development of Judaism, would fascinate and polarize scholars and rabbis of every subsequent generation, as well as captivate aficionados of Jewish history, and they con-tinue to do so to this day.

Jewish HistoryBy Rabbi Pini Dunner

Amulets, Accusations & Controversy: The Devastating Polemic Between Rabbi Yaakov Emden And Rabbi Yonason Eybeschutz

Rav of Young Israel North Beverly Hills

R. Yonason Eybeschutz’s tombstone in Hamburg. He was the the Chief Rabbi of the “triple community”, Hamburg-

Altona-Wansbeck, from 1750 until his death in 1764

Chacham Tzvi Ashkenazi, revered father of R. Yaakov Emden, who was involved in a bitter campaign against the Sabbatian Nehemiah Hayyoun during his son’s formative years

R. Yaakov Emden’s tombstone in Hamburg cemetery. He died in 1776, twelve years after R. Yonason Eybeschutz

23The Week In NewsJANUARY 7, 2016 | The Jewish Home Jewish History

So how did it all begin?In 1666, the pretender messiah, Shabbe-

tai Tzvi, converted to Islam. His conversion was all it took for most of the Jewish world to realize he was a fraud. The vast majority of those who had publicly declared their al-legiance to him shamefacedly admitted their folly and went back to normative Judaism, wounded and wiser. But there was a signifi-cant group who simply refused to accept that his apostasy negated his messianic identity. They were too emotionally and religiously invested in Shabbetai Tzvi, and remained fiercely loyal to him. Nathan “the prophet” of Gaza, Shabbetai Tzvi’s lead publicist, came up with convoluted kabbalistic con-cepts to explain away his hero’s conversion, and to rationalize his failure to materialize the messianic mission.

In 1676 Shabbetai Tzvi died in obscu-rity, having never recanted. Devotees con-sidered even his death a temporary setback, and there were Jews within every commu-nity who continued clandestinely to believe he was the true messiah. What was more, it was their fervent view that they had to in-sinuate warped kabbalistic ideas into main-stream Judaism so that the abortive messi-anic mission could be fulfilled. Surprisingly, although Sabbatians - as they came to be known - were very much a minority group, their number included many rabbis and dis-tinguished leaders, and they were almost impossible to detect, behaving in every way like fully observant Jews, indistinguishable from any other Jew. Time after time during the decades after Shabbetai Tzvi’s death, crypto-Sabbatian activists were exposed and banished from their communities. Seemingly ordinary and faithful Jews, they had fallen under the spell of some Sabbatian propagandist but continued outwardly to be-have completely normally.

One particularly notorious propagandist was an insidious Bosnian-born scoundrel called Nehemiah Hiya Hayyun, who wan-dered from community to community during the early years of the eighteenth century. A scholar who was also a gifted teacher and writer, he authored a number of books that interspersed Sabbatian heresies with regular Torah interpretations. In 1711 he arrived in Prague, where he inveigled himself into the circle of the local kabbalist rabbi, R. Naph-tali Katz, esteemed author of Semichut Cha-chamim, a widely admired book on Mish-nayot. R. Katz was very taken by Hayyun and agreed to write an approbation letter for his new book. So did the local Chief Rab-bi, R. David Oppenheim. In Berlin, Hayyun gained the approval of the Chief Rabbi, R. Aron Binyamin Wolf. With these endorse-ments in hand he arrived in Amsterdam in 1713, where he requested permission from the leaders of the prestigious Sephardic community to sell his books. The rabbi, R. Shlomo Ayllon, was not considered a world-class scholar, so the community lead-ers submitted Hayyun’s book to the rabbi of the German congregation, Chacham Tzvi Ashkenazi, who was widely acclaimed and respected, and asked for his opinion.

Chacham Tzvi looked through the book with his friend and colleague, R. Moshe Hagiz of Jerusalem, who also lived in Am-sterdam. They both quickly came to the de-

finitive conclusion that Hayyun was a clos-et Sabbatian masquerading as a normative practicing Jew. Chacham Tzvi reported this information back to the Sephardic commit-tee, and warned them that Hayyun posed a grave danger to the Amsterdam community. For a variety of reasons, mainly unrelated to Hayyun himself, the issue degenerated into an ugly communal battle, with Cha-cham Tzvi and R. Hagiz on one side, and the Sephardic community on the other. Fist-fights broke out between the supporters of both camps, and Chacham Tzvi was even-tually put under house arrest by the gentile authorities, possibly for his own protection. Hayyun, emboldened by the support he was receiving from R. Ayllon - who was himself suspected of Sabbatianism - published a number of vicious attacks against Chacham Tzvi and R. Hagiz, and actively generated animosity towards his detractors.

With the saga spiraling out of control, Chacham Tzvi fled Holland for England in early 1714, and never returned. He was offered post of Chief Rabbi in London, but declined, and returned to mainland Europe, where he was eventually offered the rabbin-ate of Lemberg (Lvov) in 1717. He died in 1718, at the age of 58.

Throughout the period of the Hayyun af-fair, Chacham Tzvi’s family, and especially his teenage son Yaakov, were caught in the eye of a ferocious storm. Yaakov was just 15 years old at the time - an impressionable teenager – and the saga was an eye-opener for him on multiple fronts. He watched as his innocent and distinguished father was dragged into the foul politics generated by the controversy, and how he was targeted for his honestly held views and his unshake-able integrity. Additionally, he was exposed to the tenacity of Sabbatian activism, and to the vicious tactics Sabbatians were willing to use to gain a foothold in Jewish affairs, which in Chacham Tzvi’s case resulted in the loss of his rabbinic position and being subjected to incredible abuse at the hands of Hayyun’s supporters. It was a lesson the young Yaakov clearly never forgot.

Shortly after Chacham Tzvi’s escape from Amsterdam, community leaders asked Hayyun to leave the city so the controversy could die down. As he traveled through Eu-rope, Hayyun discovered that although his opponents had failed to win over the rabbi and leadership of the Amsterdam commu-nity, his widely publicized association with Sabbatianism had resulted in a general re-vulsion towards him. Wherever he went he found doors closed. He moved to Tzfat, in Eretz Yisrael under Ottoman rule, and opened up a Sabbatian ‘yeshiva’. This en-terprise failed so he moved to Constantino-ple where he desperately tried to rehabilitate himself. In 1725 he resurfaced in Western Europe claiming that the rabbis in Turkey had readmitted him into the fold, but every-where he was refused entry. Even his former defender in Amsterdam, R. Ayllon, refused to meet him. In Vienna he was forced to stay in an enclosure reserved for Turkish Muslims. In Glogau and Berlin he found no refuge whatsoever, so in Hanover he tried to hide his identity. But he was recognized and quickly expelled. He made his way to Prague, but there, too, was prevented from entering the city. Soon afterwards he disap-peared from sight, and was reported to have died in 1730.

Hayyun’s final abortive attempt to gain prominence was very significant in terms of the Emden-Eybeschutz battle 25 years later, as not only did it coincide with a new and even fiercer battle against the Sabbatians than the one of 1713-14, but it also gener-ated evidence of a link between him and a brilliant Talmudic scholar and rising rabbin-ic superstar – a young man living in Prague called Yonason Eybeschutz. According to R. Moshe Hagiz, Chacham Tzvi’s erst-while co-campaigner in Amsterdam, just before Hayyun was ejected from Hanover in 1726, community officials searched his possessions and found correspondence that were ‘Sabbatian in nature, including letters from Yonason Eybeschutz.’ When Hayyun arrived in Prague shortly afterwards, on the last leg of what was his pathetic final jour-ney, no Jew was willing to house or feed him, except for the wife and daughter of R. Yonason, who brought him food and took care of him until he left.

In order to understand the magnitude of this unlikely association, not only is it important to know that Nehemiah Hayyun was a devious rogue, it is also imperative to realize just how illustrious and mainstream R. Yonason was. The son of the rabbi of Ey-beschutz (Ivančice, Moravia), he became the star student of R. Meir Eisenstadt of Prossnitz, author of Panim Me’irot, who was undoubtedly the most influential Tal-mudic teacher of his generation. R. Yonason outshone all his peers, and in 1715, at the age of 25, he moved to Prague and quickly gained prominence as a remarkable speak-er and an energetic communal activist. He engaged with local Christian leaders, and during the many absences of Prague’s Chief Rabbi, R. David Oppenheim - who was often called away to take care of his vast business interests - R. Yonason would fill in for him. There was considerable friction between the older and younger rabbi, but R. Yonason had a captivating personality that

won him numerous allies, enabling him to withstand the senior rabbi’s hostility.

One cannot possibly overstate R. Yo-nason’s qualities. His intellect was unpar-alleled, he was charismatic, exceptionally warm, a gifted communicator, versed in every aspect of Torah knowledge, remark-ably good looking, and possessed of an in-exhaustible energy. Besides for R. Yaakov Emden, no one would ever question his su-perior rabbinic qualities, nor cast any doubt on his abilities as a teacher and scholar. If anything it was these sterling credentials that precipitated the widespread astonish-ment when rumors began to emerge in 1725 – long before the polemic with R. Yaakov Emden - that R. Yonason was a leading crypto-Sabbatian, engaged in the most sor-did attempts to penetrate Sabbatian beliefs into the Jewish mainstream.

In the early summer of 1725 an itiner-ant preacher called Moshe Meir of Zolk-iew arrived in Frankfurt where he fell un-der suspicion for being a crypto-Sabbatian. While he was preaching at a local school, a group of rabbis raided his room and dis-covered a manuscript work in his luggage that began with the verse from Bereishit (24:42): ‘va’avo hayom el ha’ayin’ (‘when I came today to the spring’). The manu-script contained a detailed heretical kab-balistic description of G-d that both denied His oneness and posited that His power was diminishing. The investigative rabbis in Frankfurt were horrorstruck. Such ideas were utterly reprehensible to Judaism. They found Moshe Meir and forcefully interro-gated him to find out who the author of this deviant material was. Under phenomenal pressure he finally revealed that he had re-ceived the manuscript from none other than R. Yonason Eybeschutz of Prague, who, he claimed, was also its author.

The rabbis were aghast. Everyone had heard of R. Yonason. He was an “A-lister”, acclaimed by anyone who had ever met him. How was it possible that this bright rabbinic light, the rising star of the European rabbin-ic fraternity, could have written, or was even associated with, such a disgusting and evil composition? It was completely and utterly incomprehensible. The rabbis of Frankfurt felt that this was a bigger deal than anything they could deal with, and decided to call in the big guns. The next phase of the war against Shabbetai Tzvi’s legacy was about to begin.

In Part Two we will hear of the turmoil gen-erated by the discovery of the ‘va’avo hayom el ha’ayin’ manuscript, and how the anti-Sab-batian veteran R. Moshe Hagiz led the new campaign to root out Sabbatianism, targeting R. Yonason Eybeschutz and countless others whom he accused of heresy and other heinous activities. We will also see how R. Yonason re-acted to these accusations and R. Hagiz’s cam-paign, and how he was able to so dissociate himself from the accusations that he became a senior rabbinic figure in Prague, and was later appointed rabbi of Metz and Hamburg, two of Europe’s most prestigious communities. And finally we will discover where Rabbi Yaakov Emden was and how he reacted as his future nemesis found himself at the epicenter of this nasty battle against crypto-Sabbatians.

Questions, comments welcome – [email protected]

The title page of ‘Sefer Hatzad Tzvi’ (Amsterdam, 1714), the vicious published attack against Chacham

Tzvi Ashkenazi by the Sabbatian publicist and fraudster, Nehemiah Hayyoun. The controversy

generated by Hayyoun left a lasting impression on Chacham Tzvi’s eldest son, R. Yaakov Emden. This pamphlet, and many others relating to this affair, can be found in Rabbi Dunner’s book collection.


OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home 23The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 201522 OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home 23The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 201522

TJH Centerfold

Yesterday I went for coffee with the butcher, the baker and the grocer. I sat

to the left of Yossi. David sat to the right of the butcher. If Eli, who sat across

from Yossi, isn’t the baker, then who sells groceries?

See answer on next page

Yankel walks into a coffee shop in Miami and asks the waiter, “How much is a coffee?”

The waiter replies, “Four dollars.” “And how much is a refill?” inquires Yankel.“Refills are free,” says the waiter. Yankel looks at the waiter and says, “OK then, I’ll

take a refill!”

Signs That You are Addicted to Coffee

! You gotta be kidding ? Riddle me this?

Answer to riddle: Eli. From the second statement, we know that “I” (you) sat to the left of Yossi.The fourth statement states that Eli sat across from Yossi. This leaves David sitting across from you, and therefore to the right of Yossi. Yossi is therefore the butcher, from statement three. If Eli isn’t the baker (statement four), then David must be the baker, leaving Eli to be the grocer. Hope you enjoyed your coffee.

Coffee Trivia*

You think instant coffee takes too long to make.

You go to sleep, just so you can wake up and smell the coffee.

You’re the employee of the month at Starbucks and you don’t even work there.

You go to the morning Kollel just for the free coffee.

You have a picture of your coffee mug, on your coffee mug!

You spend every vacation visiting “Maxwell House.”

All your kids are named “Joe.”

You walk twenty miles on your treadmill before you realize it’s not plugged in.

You were the inspiration for “Crazy Eddy is going insane.”

Jim Kramer thinks you need to calm down.

The Taster’s Choice couple wants to adopt you.

When someone says, “How are you?” you say, “Good to the last drop.”

You soak your dentures in coffee overnight.

You introduce your spouse as your coffee-mate.

Your first aid kit contains two pints of coffee with an I.V. hookup.

You use coffee-flavored toothpaste.

You have perfected the annoying “ah” sound after each sip of coffee (hat tip to Elaine).

You have a cat just so you can make your own cheap version of Kopi Luwak coffee. (See trivia for more details)

You changed your last name from Krieger to Keurig.

Even when you buy coffee at the drive-thru, you buy an extra one because you need “one more cup of coffee for the road.”

You know what “caff up” means and can say it without laughing.

You sometimes color coordinate your coffee thermos with what you are wearing that day.

Your eyes stay open when you sneeze.

When introducing your children by their ages, you say, “This is my tall, this is my venti and this is my grande.”

You are a vegetarian not because you are a PETA sympathizer but because you can never be fleishigs as you might need a coffee (and no, non-dairy creamer is not an option).

1. Which country is the largest coffee producer in the world today (producing over 44 million bags of coffee each year)?a. Brazilb. Colombiac. Costa Ricad. Indonesia

2. What’s the origin of “mocha” coffee:a. Arabic word for chocolateb. Yemeni port cityc. Island off South Americad. It was a Starbucks creation for

coffee with a shot of chocolate and meant to connote “more chocolate”

3. How is Kopi Luwak coffee made?a. Special coffee beans are spiced

with oregano for 6 monthsb. Coffee beans are eaten and

excreted by Sumatran wild catsc. It is made the same way as any

other instant coffee (Kopi Luwak is Indonesia’s brand of Taster’s Choice)

d. It is made from an Arabica bean that is chopped up and replanted

4. Most of the coffee in the world is grown in the area between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. What is this area known as?a. Starbucks Zoneb. Java Linec. Coffee Circle d. Bean Belt

5. Approximately how many calories are there in an 8 ounce cup of coffee?a. 0b. 20c. 40d. 60e. 100

6. In which country it is law that a woman can divorce her husband if he fails to provide her with her daily quota of coffee?a. Italyb. Turkeyc. Franced. Brazil

7. Who invented instant coffee?a. Constance Palonzob. Earnest Illyc. George Washingtond. Perculatious Darkbean

8. According to a survey by Accounting Principals, a leading finance and accounting staffing firm, how much does the average American worker spend annually on coffee?a. $564b. $732c. $891d. $1,092

Answers:1. A2. B- One the largest misconcep-

tions in the U.S. today about coffee is

that mocha coffee is a chocolaty beverage. In

fact, there is no choco-late in the mocha bean at all.

Mocha is the name of the largest port in Yemen, where all of the African cof-fee beans are traded and transported.

3. C- Kopi luwak is the world’s most expensive coffee. The main fac-tor of its high price is the uncommon method of producing such a coffee. It is produced from coffee beans which have been eaten by a cat which is unable to digest coffee beans. In the process of eating the beans, they are fermented in the stomach. When the beans are excreted, they produce a smooth, chocolaty coffee.

4. D5. A6. B7. C- What? George Washington

did that too? Yes. But it was a differ-ent George Washington, not our be-loved first president. In 1906, English chemist George Constant Washing-ton invented the first mass-produced instant coffee.

8. D- Ahh…money well spent!

Wisdom key:6-8 correct: You win some Kopi

Luwak coffee which I am going to personally make for you. (“Hey Mit-tens, come here and eat these beans”)

3-5 correct: You are not bad and not great … like Starbucks.

0-2 correct: If you lived in Turkey, your wife would have grounds for di-vorce.

OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home 23The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 201522 OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home 23The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 201522

TJH Centerfold

Yesterday I went for coffee with the butcher, the baker and the grocer. I sat

to the left of Yossi. David sat to the right of the butcher. If Eli, who sat across

from Yossi, isn’t the baker, then who sells groceries?

See answer on next page

Yankel walks into a coffee shop in Miami and asks the waiter, “How much is a coffee?”

The waiter replies, “Four dollars.” “And how much is a refill?” inquires Yankel.“Refills are free,” says the waiter. Yankel looks at the waiter and says, “OK then, I’ll

take a refill!”

Signs That You are Addicted to Coffee

! You gotta be kidding ? Riddle me this?

Answer to riddle: Eli. From the second statement, we know that “I” (you) sat to the left of Yossi.The fourth statement states that Eli sat across from Yossi. This leaves David sitting across from you, and therefore to the right of Yossi. Yossi is therefore the butcher, from statement three. If Eli isn’t the baker (statement four), then David must be the baker, leaving Eli to be the grocer. Hope you enjoyed your coffee.

Coffee Trivia*

You think instant coffee takes too long to make.

You go to sleep, just so you can wake up and smell the coffee.

You’re the employee of the month at Starbucks and you don’t even work there.

You go to the morning Kollel just for the free coffee.

You have a picture of your coffee mug, on your coffee mug!

You spend every vacation visiting “Maxwell House.”

All your kids are named “Joe.”

You walk twenty miles on your treadmill before you realize it’s not plugged in.

You were the inspiration for “Crazy Eddy is going insane.”

Jim Kramer thinks you need to calm down.

The Taster’s Choice couple wants to adopt you.

When someone says, “How are you?” you say, “Good to the last drop.”

You soak your dentures in coffee overnight.

You introduce your spouse as your coffee-mate.

Your first aid kit contains two pints of coffee with an I.V. hookup.

You use coffee-flavored toothpaste.

You have perfected the annoying “ah” sound after each sip of coffee (hat tip to Elaine).

You have a cat just so you can make your own cheap version of Kopi Luwak coffee. (See trivia for more details)

You changed your last name from Krieger to Keurig.

Even when you buy coffee at the drive-thru, you buy an extra one because you need “one more cup of coffee for the road.”

You know what “caff up” means and can say it without laughing.

You sometimes color coordinate your coffee thermos with what you are wearing that day.

Your eyes stay open when you sneeze.

When introducing your children by their ages, you say, “This is my tall, this is my venti and this is my grande.”

You are a vegetarian not because you are a PETA sympathizer but because you can never be fleishigs as you might need a coffee (and no, non-dairy creamer is not an option).

1. Which country is the largest coffee producer in the world today (producing over 44 million bags of coffee each year)?a. Brazilb. Colombiac. Costa Ricad. Indonesia

2. What’s the origin of “mocha” coffee:a. Arabic word for chocolateb. Yemeni port cityc. Island off South Americad. It was a Starbucks creation for

coffee with a shot of chocolate and meant to connote “more chocolate”

3. How is Kopi Luwak coffee made?a. Special coffee beans are spiced

with oregano for 6 monthsb. Coffee beans are eaten and

excreted by Sumatran wild catsc. It is made the same way as any

other instant coffee (Kopi Luwak is Indonesia’s brand of Taster’s Choice)

d. It is made from an Arabica bean that is chopped up and replanted

4. Most of the coffee in the world is grown in the area between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. What is this area known as?a. Starbucks Zoneb. Java Linec. Coffee Circle d. Bean Belt

5. Approximately how many calories are there in an 8 ounce cup of coffee?a. 0b. 20c. 40d. 60e. 100

6. In which country it is law that a woman can divorce her husband if he fails to provide her with her daily quota of coffee?a. Italyb. Turkeyc. Franced. Brazil

7. Who invented instant coffee?a. Constance Palonzob. Earnest Illyc. George Washingtond. Perculatious Darkbean

8. According to a survey by Accounting Principals, a leading finance and accounting staffing firm, how much does the average American worker spend annually on coffee?a. $564b. $732c. $891d. $1,092

Answers:1. A2. B- One the largest misconcep-

tions in the U.S. today about coffee is

that mocha coffee is a chocolaty beverage. In

fact, there is no choco-late in the mocha bean at all.

Mocha is the name of the largest port in Yemen, where all of the African cof-fee beans are traded and transported.

3. C- Kopi luwak is the world’s most expensive coffee. The main fac-tor of its high price is the uncommon method of producing such a coffee. It is produced from coffee beans which have been eaten by a cat which is unable to digest coffee beans. In the process of eating the beans, they are fermented in the stomach. When the beans are excreted, they produce a smooth, chocolaty coffee.

4. D5. A6. B7. C- What? George Washington

did that too? Yes. But it was a differ-ent George Washington, not our be-loved first president. In 1906, English chemist George Constant Washing-ton invented the first mass-produced instant coffee.

8. D- Ahh…money well spent!

Wisdom key:6-8 correct: You win some Kopi

Luwak coffee which I am going to personally make for you. (“Hey Mit-tens, come here and eat these beans”)

3-5 correct: You are not bad and not great … like Starbucks.

0-2 correct: If you lived in Turkey, your wife would have grounds for di-vorce.


Ruth Judah

OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home 19The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 201518

Notable Quotes “Say What?!”

After being courted by several candidates, conservative billionaire Paul Singer has decided to endorse Marco Rubio. Now instead of having a button that says, “Donate,” Rubio’s website just says, “We Good.” - Jimmy Fallon

While we condemn Palestinian violence, we must recognize this painful truth: that Israeli policy has encouraged it. Israel has encouraged it by penalizing Palestinian nonviolence, by responding to that nonviolence by deportations, teargas, imprisonment, and the confiscation of Palestinian lands. Hard as it is to say, the Israeli government is reaping what it has sowed.- Liberal American-Jewish journalist Peter Beinart, who claims to be “pro-Israel,” in a speech at a Beth Chayim Chadashim Progressive synagogue in Los Angeles

I used to hate Darth Vader, but now I kind of feel a little bit sorry for him knowing what he went through to get to that point.- Sen. Marco Rubio, when asked a question related to the upcoming “Star Wars” movie during a campaign stop in New Hampshire

The book’s pretense of scholarship involves 151 footnotes, only one of which is even remotely pertinent to the book’s lurid assertions. Almost all contain irrelevant tidbits (“Reagan’s hair was actually brown”). At the Reagan Library, where researchers must register, records show that neither O’Reilly nor Dugard, who churn out a book a year, used its resources. The book’s two and a half pages of “sources” unspecifically and implausibly refer to “FBI and CIA files,” “presidential libraries” and travel “around the world” … The book’s perfunctory pieties about Reagan’s greatness are inundated by its flood of regurgitated slanders about his supposed lassitude and manipulability. This book is nonsensical history and execrable citizenship, and should come with a warning: “Caution — you are about to enter a no-facts zone.”-George Will’s review of Bill O’Reilly’s new book, Killing Reagan

You’re a hack! - Bill O’Reilly, when George Will came on his show, “The No Spin Zone,” to defend his criticism of O’Reilly’s book

A new survey found that three out of four children under the age of four have their own smartphone. You can tell it’s bad; last night I told my daughter it was time for bed and she tried to swipe left on me.- Jimmy Fallon

“Crippled America” outlines Donald Trump’s plan to make America great again. Though the book doesn’t say specifically when he’s leaving.- Seth Myers

“For quite some time, there has been an effort at the United Nations to delegitimize the Jewish State of Israel, and to try to whitewash the Jewish peoples’ historical and Biblical connection to Israel. Denying the historic connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem is false. Amazing archeological discoveries are frequently made that prove the roots of the Jewish people are in Israel.”– Excerpt from comments made by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), on the floor of the US House of

Representatives.

Taking the number 1 spot on the list of the top 10 viral Facebook posts of the year is a video about an Israeli device that helps people rappel down the side of buildings in case of a fire or other emergency. The product, called SkySaver, was inspired by the 9/11 terrorist attack, and those who died while trapped on the top floors of the World Trade Center with no way to escape. The Facebook post about the Israeli device reached 27 million social media users and attracted 10.1 million video views. - Press Release from The Israel Project, a US-based Israel advocacy group.

What’s something Jewish that everyone loves? CHALLAH! Make challah without getting your hands sticky. Mix it, braid it, bake it, decorate it, bless it and eat it - it’s the whole challah experience for your mobile device.– G-dcast App called Let’s Bake Challah, now available in itunes, aimed at kids aged 5 and under.

“With the blessing and encouragement of Torah Sages, Hassidic rabbis, yeshiva heads, Rabbis and Sages, I accept upon myself the yoke of the Chief Rabbinate of Vienna, the city of great sages of Israel, great rabbinic geniuses, Hassidic leaders and rabbis. I will do all it takes to inspire loyalty to the Torah and enhance its glory, increase Jewish education and enhance religious institutions, unify the community and belabor to continue the holy work of my esteemed predecessor, Chief Rabbi Chaim Eisenberg.”– Rabbi Arie Folger on his election as Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Austria.

“I represent much more than I am as an individual” – Rabbi Ronnie Fine, in amazement that he was chosen as one of the top three Montrealers of 2015. He went on to express appreciation for his wife, his 10 children, his staff and his congregants. Rabbi Fine established Chabad Queen Mary, Chai Lifeline and runs online classes.

“He brought the vision of an institute for higher Torah learning for women from religious families to life. A place where Torah studies and the fear of Heaven joined together with academic studies of the highest caliber, in the pursuit of a teaching certificate.” – Professor Yaacov Katz, the president of Jerusalem College for religious women, known in Hebrew as Michlalah, describing Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Cooperman, the founder of the college who passed away at age 87.

“I was totally dumbfounded. I’m a musician. I play the fiddle. So I was so totally taken aback and I was obviously so incredibly honored they would even consider me. It was very exciting.” – Itzhak Perlman, the Israeli-born violin virtuoso, after being selected as the 2015 winner of the $1 million Genesis Prize, dubbed the “Jewish Nobel.”

“There was no congestion on the road [leading up the mountain], and the lines were short. Everything went as planned and everyone seemed to be having a good time” – Liron Mills, the CEO of Mount Hermon Ski resort, after a storm dropped almost 2 feet of snow on Israel’s only ski resort.


Winnipeg, the capital of the Canadi-an province of Manitoba, is a burgeoning city sitting along the Assiniboine and Red Rivers. Winnipeg had a humble start as a working-class, industrial manufacturing base but has evolved into a vibrant cultur-al hub for Midwestern Canada. Winnipeg prides itself on its world-class music, film and art festivals, its diverse architecture, its fascinating museums and its hearty, welcoming people. Among these welcom-ing people is the city’s small but culturally and politically important Jewish commu-nity (the most famous member of which is Israeli-born Sam Katz, who served as the city’s mayor from 2004-2014). While Winnipeg isn’t at the top of most people’s Canadian travel itineraries just yet, the fact that this city was awarded Cultural Capital of Canada in 2010 and boasts almost 30 National Historic Sites attests to its rising status as a major Canadian tourism desti-nation.

HistoryBefore European settlement, the area

now known as Winnipeg was used by vari-ous indigenous tribes such as the Cree and Nakota for the purposes of camping, hunt-ing and fishing. The first European to ar-rive in the area was French explorer Pierre Gaultier La Verendrye in 1738. He ordered the building of Fort Rouge to be built on

the Assiniboine River; it is now a National Historic Site.

The French lost this area of Canada to the British in the Seven Years War. In their stead came the North West Compa-ny, which established a fur trading post in 1810 called Fort Gibraltar.

The real seed of modern Winnipeg was sewn in 1862 when Henry McKenney built his general store at the confluence of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers, now at the corner of Portage and Main. Winnipeg was incorporated as a city in 1874 although it was little more than a collection of shacks and a couple thousand inhabitants.

However, with the arrival of the Cana-dian Pacific Railway in 1885, Winnipeg experienced a major economic boom. As the city transformed into one of Canada’s premier manufacturing powerhouses, a flood of new immigrants and new farming techniques helped sustain Winnipeg’s in-credible growth.

Like virtually everywhere else, Win-nipeg was hit by the Great Depression and its man-ufacturing base slowed significantly, only to be re-vived by the entry of Cana-da into WWII.

Winnipeg today is still a leader in manufacturing and developing key re-

sources such as oil, coal and natural gas. However, it has greatly diversified its economy and culture to include finance, aerospace, technology and numerous cul-tural institutions. The city is visited by mil-lions of people every year with the sum-mer of 2015 being one of Winnipeg’s best seasons on record.

AttractionsThe Forks National Historic Site: The

Forks features prominently in Winnipeg’s history as a place of meeting and trading. Today it is the city’s focal point for culture, history and tourism. There are interpretive exhibits, bronze sculptures, live entertain-ment, a prairie garden, great shopping, riv-er cruises and a delightfully fun Children’s Museum. Also be sure to take your kids to the historically-themed Variety Heritage Adventure Playground, where kids can not only climb on creatively designed model trains and take a dip in the splash park but also learn about Winnipeg’s history in a hands-on way.

Also located in the park is the Winni-peg Railway Museum, which is dedicated to preserving the history of the railcar in Western Canada. Some of the most fasci-nating displays there are the Countess of Dufferin (the first steam train in Canada’s prairielands,) other vintage railcars and historical artifacts from the building of the Hudson Bay Railway.

Another key attraction at the park is

the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Founded by Jewish lawyer and politician Izzy Asper, the Museum is intended to make people remember the horrors of the past and to foster dialogue between differ-ent religions, nationalities and cultures. The museum’s modernist architecture and sleekly designed interior reinforce this message by creating a modern take on his-toric injustices. Much like L.A.’s Museum of Tolerance, there is a large section dedi-cated to the Holocaust with a movie show-ing the impact of anti-Semitism in Cana-da. Other topics covered in the museum’s genocide section include Rwanda, Arme-nia, Bosnia and the Ukrainian Holodomor. The museum has many other sections in-cluding the Western and indigenous views on human rights, how human rights are protected in Canada and a gallery whose goal is to inspire people to take a stand and demand change. Current special exhibits at the museum include Indian residential schools, inspiring stories of athletes who have overcome discrimination and recon-ciliation in war-torn countries.

Manitoba Museum: One of Canada’s best natural history and science muse-ums, the Manitoba Museum offers hours of wonder and entertainment to people of all ages. In the galleries section you’ll wit-ness Manitoba’s history come alive as you see polar bears hunting under the Northern Lights, rock painting and the hunter-gath-erer lifestyle of the Cree. There is bison hunting, a recreation of a 17th century En-glish trading ship and much more. Take a stroll through the science section and see a full-scale rocket, build a model race car, learn about humanity’s achievements in space and watch live science demonstra-tions. The museum is currently hosting National Geographic’s Earth Explorers exhibit, which takes visitors on a journey through Earth’s most exotic environments: dive in a 3D deep-sea submersible, climb the Himalayas, fly in a hot air balloon over the African savannah and come up close and personal with a great white shark! Last but not least, check out the Planetarium

Travel

Travel Guide:

Winnipeg Aaron Feigenbaum

Assiniboine Park and Zoo

The Forks Market, Winnipeg

Canadian Mint, Winnipeg


where you can watch a movie about the experience of being an astronaut as well as catch a live, curated tour of the night sky.

Assiniboine Park: One of Winnipeg’s most popular attractions, the Assiniboine Park has a huge variety of fun activities. The Conservatory botanical garden has thousands of plants, trees and flowers to see while the outdoor English Garden has beautiful, traditional floral displays. The park’s zoo has some of Manitoba’s best-known animals such as polar bears, bison, and arctic foxes as well as lions, tigers and much more. There is also an outdoor performance theater and sculpture garden. The wintertime is perfect for skiing, to-bogganing and skating.

Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada: One of Canada’s largest aviation museums, it is housed in the Winnipeg air-port and includes a flight deck from which to watch air traffic come and go. On dis-play are a wide variety of aircraft such as Canada’s first helicopter, a 1930’s airliner, 1950s-era jet fighters and the truly bizarre Avrocar, which was a saucer-shaped Amer-ican Cold War spy plane built in Canada.

Manitoba Legislative Building: This beautifully designed seat of Manitoba’s government is known for its marble stair-wells, an elaborate rotunda and legislative chamber as well as the Golden Boy statue adorning its cupola. Tours are free to the public, and visitors are encouraged to view legislative sessions in action.

Royal Canadian Mint: The Winnipeg branch of the mint is open for guided tours at low cost. See the high-tech science re-sponsible for printing billions of coins for over 75 countries each year, as well as hold a gold bar worth $600,000. Check out the gift shop, where you can purchase unique Canadian coins.

Churchill: If you have several days to spare on your Winnipeg and are eager to see the Northern Lights from Janu-ary-March, there are few better places than Churchill (in fact rated as one of the top three viewing sites in the world.) Acces-sible by the semiweekly Via Rail train, this 36 hour voyage takes you through the heart of northern Manitoba with gorgeous winter scenery along the way. Consider staying in a clear, heated plexiglass Au-rora Dome in order to view the Lights in safety and comfort. Besides being a prime viewing spot for the Northern Lights, the town’s other claim to fame is its polar bears and beluga whales. Several compa-nies offer guided nature tours to see these incredible animals along with other arctic fauna such as snowy owls, caribou, arctic foxes and more. Kids and adults alike will love the thrill of dog sledding whether in winter or summer. Summertime in Chur-chill is the perfect opportunity to see the region’s exotic wildflowers.

Daven and EatWinnipeg has a decent number of Or-

thodox shuls including Chabad (1845 Ma-thers Ave./chabadwinnipeg.org) and Ash-kenazi Synagogue (297 Burrows Ave.)

Winnipeg’s first kosher restaurant in decades, BerMax Caffe + Bistro, opened just last year and serves excellent, gourmet Italian food. Other kosher options include Schmoozer’s Cafe (vegetarian/vegan) and lunches at the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre. Of course, there are also a number of markets and supermarkets selling kosher items, as well as catering options from Chabad. Check Chabad of Winnipeg’s site and jewishwinnipeg.org for more information.

Getting ThereFlights from LAX to Winnipeg current-

ly start at around $330 per person round trip. Driving there is an almost 2,000 mile

trip that takes around 30 hours.

Travel

Polar Bear sightseeing, Churchill Manitoba


New Laws for the New Year

The New Year swept in some new laws across the country.

In California, a controversial law was passed giving judges the authority to seize weapons of people ruled a danger to them-selves or others. California’s “gun violence restraining order” gives judges the author-ity to seize guns from someone deemed a risk. Proponents say it will reduce suicides and other shootings by empowering fami-ly members to remove guns from someone they believe poses a danger. The National Rifle Association, though, called it “one of the most egregious violations of civil liberties ever introduced” in the state. Cal-ifornia law already allows police officers to

seize any weapons found during a domes-tic violence incident and hold them for 48 hours; the new law gives officers the power to search someone’s property if a gun vio-lence restraining order has been issued by a judge.

California isn’t the only state where new gun laws took effect the first day of 2016. In Oregon, a person subject to a re-straining order or convicted of certain do-mestic abuse offenses cannot possess guns or ammunition. On the other hand, in a vic-tory for proponents of right-to-carry laws, in Texas, licensed owners will be allowed to visibly carry holstered handguns. Tex-as joins 44 other states that currently allow open carrying of guns. Private properties are allowed to enforce their own rules. Three grocery store chains in Texas have publicly said they will bar open carrying of weapons on their premises, and the push-back against the law has gathered attention under the Twitter hashtag #GroceriesNot-Guns.

In North Carolina, a new law allows parents to create a credit report for their children, then immediately freeze it. The idea is that it will make it more difficult for identity thieves to steal information of mi-nors. Lawmakers said kids’ credit proves to be an easy and attractive target for crooks because it’s a blank slate that likely won’t get checked for more than a decade until they get their first credit card or bank ac-

count.In Oregon, a new law requires employ-

ers with more than 10 employees to pro-vide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year to each worker. Oregon is the fourth state to pass a mandatory sick leave law. Full-time, part-time, temporary and sea-sonal workers are covered under the law. Only federal employees are excluded.

In Michigan, all schools legally must now keep at least two EpiPen injectors on hand, along with staff trained to use them. The injectors contain epinephrine and are used to combat severe allergic re-actions. Supporters say the pens can be lit-eral lifesavers for kids who have allergies.

Puerto Rico Defaults on Debt Payment

After months of speculation, Puerto Rico defaulted on about $174 million of debt payments this week. The U.S. terri-tory has been struggling with more than $72 billion of debt, mostly in the form of municipal bonds. Government financial of-ficials have been shuffling cash from one agency to another in recent months, in des-perate triage efforts to pay only the most urgent bills while letting others languish. The bankruptcy stripped cash away from its lower-ranked creditors so that high-er-ranked creditors could be paid in full.

Alejandro García Padilla, Puerto Rico’s governor, defended the default as best he could by saying, “It’s very simple. We don’t have money to pay.” The payment default does not change Puerto Rico’s underlying economic troubles, although it could spur efforts in Congress to find ways to help the island.

With big bond payments looming, Mr. García Padilla announced last week that he had ordered a “clawback,” or recovery, of cash that would have normally been used to pay certain bonds. Since November 30, he said, that cash had instead been diverted to help make a $328 million payment to the island’s general obligation bondholders, who are entitled to be paid first, according to the Puerto Rican constitution.

Standard & Poor’s, the ratings agency, said in a statement on Monday that it was going to downgrade the infrastructure au-

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Minimum Wage Increases for 2016

For many of us, January 1, 2016 came and went and not much changed aside from the date on our checks. But for many work-ers and employers the new year brought a welcomed or not-so-welcomed change.

In 13 states, the minimum wage in-creased on January 1st. Leading up to 2016, the federal minimum wage was $7.25 an hour; as of this year, the highest state min-imum wage was $9.32 an hour. But now California and Massachusetts have a min-imum wage of $10 an hour and some cities have raised the bar even higher with a $13 hour minimum.

Alaska, California, Massachusetts, and Nebraska all had an increase of $1 to the salaries of their minimum wage workers. New York increased from $8.75 to $9.00. Wages in Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Rhode Island, Ver-mont, and West Virginia all increased as well.

There are some increases in specific cities or fields. For example, Seattle’s new minimum wage is $13 up from $10.50 for some large size companies. The city ex-pects to achieve a $15 minimum wage by 2021. In New York, fast food workers and government employees celebrated a min-imum wage jump to $10.50 in New York City and $9.75 in the rest of the state.

The federal government estimates that about 3 million workers are paid minimum wage around the country. A 2014 study by the Congressional Budget Office found that a national minimum wage of $10.10 an hour would benefit some 16.5 million people, while leading to the elimination of 500,000 jobs due to cost-cutting offsets. The ultimate effect is still a $5 billion in-crease in total income for people below the poverty line, pulling some 900,000 of them over the threshold.

Don’t be surprised if you notice the im-pacts of the increases affecting things like your restaurant bill or full service gas sta-tion receipt.

RAID ON בס”ד

ENTEBBE

On June 27, 1976 an Air France aircraft was hijacked by PLO and German terrorists. The hijack-ers landed the plane at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, where over 100 Jewish passengers were taken hostage.

Six days later, Israel launched “Operation Thunderbolt” to rescue the hostages. Four Hercules C130 aircraft took off, carrying a force of IDF elite commandos. In a lightning raid, 102 hostages were freed and trtransported safely back to Israel.

Sassy Reuven, the second IDF soldier off the plane in the hostage rescue, will share his first-hand account of this mirac-ulous and historic event.

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Meet Shlomo Anapolle of Edison, New Jersey. When it comes to

a love of Israel, few college students can match the Sabra passion

of this Yeshiva University junior. A pre-med, biology major with

plans to attend an Israeli medical school, Shlomo balances his time

between neo-natal diagnostic research, intensive shiurim and a

commitment to Israel advocacy.

Whether it’s planning lobbying missions to Washington, D.C.

with YUPAC or teaching English to teens in the Negev through

Counterpoint Israel, Shlomo brings to bear his leadership skills for

the sake of the Jewish people and homeland. He is proud to invite

Israeli diplomats to YU to help his peers contextualize current

events. Shlomo chose YU because, to him, Torah Umadda isn’t

merely the convergence of science and our mesorah¬at Yeshiva

University, it is the formula for a values-driven preparation for life.

This is the essence of Torah Umadda and what sets YU apart.

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And the Band Played On

He’s 95-years-old and is still playing the piano. Sadly, though, he has no one to play with.

Edward Hardy played in a jazz quartet for almost 40 years but is lonely after mov-ing to a residential care home when he was diagnosed with dementia.

In a bid to share his passion for music again, the war veteran posted an advertise-ment online (with the help of his caretaker)

asking for musicians to “jam with” him. The response to his plea was huge – more than 80 people from around the UK reached out to Mr. Hardy. Even more exciting, he heard from three former bandmates – with whom he formed an original jazz band – after a staggering 35 years apart.

The four-piece band are now rehears-ing for a reunion show at Mellifont Abbey home next year.

Mr. Hardy, who has loved music since childhood, marveled, “It is amazing so many volunteers have come forward to help me make music and it is marvelous that I have also been reunited with my old band.

“I have missed playing and when I do play now it makes me feel better and young again.”

He set up his first band upon returning from serving in the armed forces in Japan in World War II.

Following the appeal, saxophonist Jezz Jackson and double bassist Greg Cordezz visited the facility and jammed with Mr. Hardy, who despite his condition, played along without any problems.

Jezz felt privileged to play with Hardy at the home. “Ed was born in the 1920s and has lived through all the major eras of mu-sic so this was also a special opportunity to perform with him.”

He Became the Story

He was reporting on a story and then became the story when he blurted out, “I have to go. I have to call 911.”

Adam Sallet ended the broadcast while in middle of reporting on a robbery live on the air when he spotted the suspect, who just hit the bank for the second time. He was standing outside of Sterling State Bank in Rochester, Minnesota, when the robber made his second appearance.

Later in the day, Minnesota State Patrol police said a 36-year-old man from Roch-ester was pulled over and arrested.

“We always strive to get live breaking news as it happens, but I tell you what – we never thought we’d be a part of the story kind of like this,” Sallet mused.

Thankfully, the suspect didn’t ask him for money.

The Lottery in the Lift

A mystery benefactor left about 2,000 lottery tickets in an elevator and asked that flood victims get the proceeds from any winning stub, Japanese police reported.

An elderly woman found the tick-ets – which would have cost about 600,000 yen ($4,980) to buy – and notes from the anonymous donor stuffed in

a paper bag at the city hall car park el-evator in Tochigi, north of Tokyo.

This summer the area was devastat-ed by massive rain-sparked floods, which killed seven people and destroyed thou-sands of homes.

“Please give the money to people suf-fering from the rain disaster if any of these tickets win,” one of the notes read. The bag was addressed to Tochigi’s city office and its mayor.

The top prize in this year’s annual New Year’s Eve lottery was around 1.0 billion yen ($8.3 million).

Talk about giving them a lift.

Hear her Cries

She’s crying. She’s wailing. She’s screaming. Why?

A new app helps translate babies’ cries for their parents. The Infant Cries Transla-tor was developed at the National Taiwan University Hospital Yunlin and can differ-entiate between four separate crying sounds by recording the sounds of babies and com-


As a member of the Orthodox community, I am pleased to have joined the Mount Sinai family

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Meet Shlomo Anapolle of Edison, New Jersey. When it comes to

a love of Israel, few college students can match the Sabra passion

of this Yeshiva University junior. A pre-med, biology major with

plans to attend an Israeli medical school, Shlomo balances his time

between neo-natal diagnostic research, intensive shiurim and a

commitment to Israel advocacy.

Whether it’s planning lobbying missions to Washington, D.C.

with YUPAC or teaching English to teens in the Negev through

Counterpoint Israel, Shlomo brings to bear his leadership skills for

the sake of the Jewish people and homeland. He is proud to invite

Israeli diplomats to YU to help his peers contextualize current

events. Shlomo chose YU because, to him, Torah Umadda isn’t

merely the convergence of science and our mesorah¬at Yeshiva

University, it is the formula for a values-driven preparation for life.

This is the essence of Torah Umadda and what sets YU apart.


The future is in your hands.


paring them against a vast database.Over a two year period researchers col-

lected around 200,000 crying sounds from approximately 100 newborn babies and up-loaded them to an online database. Analy-sis of the frequency of individual screams among these helped researchers, led by Chang Chuan-yu and Dr Chen Si-da, dis-tinguish subtle differences in acoustics.

The resulting app shows analysis of a baby’s cries on the user’s phone within 15 seconds. Researchers say the app has an ac-curacy of 92 percent for infants under two weeks old, helping inform parents when their child is hungry, sleepy, in pain, or has a wet diaper. The analysis becomes less ac-curate the older the baby is.

“The Infant Cries Translator can differ-entiate four different statuses of sounds of baby crying, including hunger, the diaper getting wet, sleepy and pain,” said Ch-uan-yu. “So far, according to the feedback from users, the accuracy of the app we’ve tested can reach 92 percent for babies un-der two weeks old. As for the babies under one or two months, the accuracy of the app can also reach up to 84 or 85 percent. Even for the four month old baby, the accuracy can reach 77 percent.”

Its creators say there is little point using the app past the age of six months because

the baby has become more affected by its environment, but they believe it will be a useful tool for parents, especially those with their first child.

“After downloading this app, we only need to set the birth of date and nationality for the newborn baby,” said Chang. “Once the baby cries, we only need to press the recording button for 10 seconds, and the sound will be uploaded to the Cloud Drive. After the differentiating process, the analy-sis result of the sound would be transferred to Mum’s mobile phone. So Mum can de-pend on the actual situation to determine whether the analysis result is correct or not, to make a revision for the app.”

New father Guo Young-ming, 41, be-gan using the app on December 21, four days after his baby daughter was born.

“For the new parent like us, we are most afraid of seeing the baby crying and then not knowing what we should do. When we don’t know what we should do, this app can make some simple judgments for us, so we are able to know what our next step is,” he said.

Sometimes, you know, a baby just wants to be held. Is there an app for that?

Eat all that You can Eat in the U.S. Army

Uncle Sam wants YOU to eat his MREs. In fact, if you’re willing to eat “Meals

Ready to Eat” for three straight week for a military study, the Army will pay you $200. But not everyone will qualify to eat these gourmet dinners. Participants must be between 18-62 years of age and without digestive health issues. Perhaps – and we hope this is not the case – be-cause eating the MREs for three weeks straight may just cause digestive issues.

If you’re planning on joining this study, though, you may gain some weight. A full

MRE meal contains around 1,250 calo-ries, as they’re designed to sustain soldiers during field missions.

The packaged MREs are precision en-gineered to deliver calories and nutrition, but they miss out on some of the inedible but necessary compounds natural foods contain. These compounds are vital to what Dr. J. Philip Karl calls “gut health.”

“There’s a lot of interesting and new research looking at gut bacteria, and how those gut bacteria interact with the hu-man body,” Karl told Army Times. “We think we can manipulate the bacteria in a way that helps the bacteria fight foreign pathogens – things that could cause food-borne illness, for example,” Karl said.

“Oftentimes, war fighters are over-seas and they eat something off the local economy that can cause [gastrointestinal] distress. Potentially, what we could do by increasing the amount of beneficial gut bacteria is to help prevent some of that.”

Participants in the study will even get an MRE cookbook that features dish-es like ”Bunker Hill Burritos” and ”Fort Bliss-ful Pudding Cake.”

As it is a true scientific study, there will be a control group among the 60 partici-pants that will maintain their regular diet.

Hua!

http://www.goarmy.com/soldier-life/fitness-and-nutrition/components-of-nutrition/meals-ready-to-eat.html

http://www.goarmy.com/soldier-life/fitness-and-nutrition/components-of-nutrition/meals-ready-to-eat.html

http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/2015/12/30/army-needs-volunteers-eat-only-mres-21-days-straight/78011512/


Ask the Attorney:

Thrilling Indeed, But Are They Legal? New Hoverboard Laws Take Effect in CaliforniaMichael Rubinstein Esq.

Hoverboards are the newest consumer craze! Whether it’s the IO Hawk or the PhunkeeDuck, hoverboards have become a must-have for technology enthusiasts.

Demand for hoverboards, also known as self-balancing scooters, continues to increase, despite their steep price. But according to a recent New York Times ar-ticle, governments on the state and local level are passing conflicting laws, creating a maze of confusion for consumers wish-ing to ride their hoverboards in public.

New York is one such place. The state classifies hoverboards as motorized vehi-cles that cannot be registered. As such, they are illegal to ride in New York, even though they are a common sight through-out New York City. Across the Atlantic, the City of London has also banned the use of hoverboards due to safety concerns. And here in the United States, most major airlines prohibit transporting the rideable gadgets both in carry-on and checked lug-gage because they can catch fire.

With this in mind, the question is: Are hoverboards legal in California? Can they be ridden in public without restrictions?

The good news is that, effective Janu-ary 1, 2016, California law governing hov-erboards just became much clearer.

The California Vehicle Code now of-fers a definition for hoverboards. The legal term is an “electrically motorized board”, which is a wheeled device that has a floor-board designed to be stood upon when rid-ing, that is not greater than 60 inches deep and 18 inches wide, can transport one per-son, and is powered solely by a propulsion system on a paved, level surface that does not exceed 20 miles per hour.

Hoverboards in California now have similar laws to bicycles. Some key com-ponents of the new laws are:

• Hoverboards must be equipped with proper lights and reflectors for night-time riding;

• Hoverboards can be ridden in bi-cycle lanes but only where the speed limit for the street does not exceed 35 miles per hour;

• Hoverboards cannot exceed 15 miles per hour, whether on the street or the sidewalk;

• Local governments may restrict the use of hoverboards within their juris-dictions.

Some important laws governing hover-board riders include:

• A hoverboard may only be oper-ated by a person who is 16 years of age or older;

• A person riding a hoverboard must wear a bicycle helmet;

• A person riding a hoverboard shall not do so while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Riders should keep in mind that private property owners may restrict hoverboard use on their property. Some schools and universities have restricted hoverboard use on their campuses. Homeowner policies may also contain language restricting use on the premises, so be sure to check with your homeowner’s insurance for clarifica-tion.

Hoverboard riding may look fun and easy, but it does take some effort for the rider to develop balancing skills. Riders should use caution when first learning to avoid injuries.

And here’s another friendly remind-er. Many Los Angeles area sidewalks are cracked, uneven, and in serious disrepair. Damaged sidewalks can pose safety risks to pedestrians and even more so for hov-erboard riders who are required to bal-ance and shift their body-weight to propel forwards. This can amplify the risks of tripping and serious injuries, G-d forbid. Keep this in mind when riding your hover-board in the neighborhood.

Michael Rubinstein is a Los Angeles based personal injury and accident attor-ney. He can be reached at 213 293 6075 and at www.rabbilawyer.com. www.yu.edu/apply


At Yeshiva University, growing your understanding of,

and commitment to, Jewish values is not a club or an

extracurricular activity, it is YU.

From Talmud to mathematics, and Tanakh to biology,

combining Torah study and Jewish values with a

rigorous academic curriculum is the hallmark of YU. With

student programs across our campuses and around the

world, YU takes a global approach to learning, education

and values, creating a full college experience. This is the

essence of Torah Umadda and what sets YU apart.


The future is now. Apply today.



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