The Mask-The loss of our smiles! and a humor article on surviving Passover and Coronavirus News Through the Eyes of Holocaust Survivors and a friend of mine, Arieh King to be Appointed Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Forgoes Salary and Ministry says it can do 15,000 virus tests daily, but nobody’s showing up

Can't see images? Click here... Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money,  and spiritual engagement. Now also a Blogger on the Times of Israel. Look for my column Love Yehuda Lave The Mask: The loss of our smiles! Human beings need social interaction to exist on many levels: personal relationships, including family and friends and professional, including business and academic interactions, and so forth. A lack of physical affection can actually kill babies. But touch is even more vital than this: Babies who are not held, nuzzled, and hugged enough can stop growing, and if the situation lasts long enough, even die We are now bearing witness to the difficulties and challenges related to Covid-19 that have struck people throughout the world. The world of ZOOM and other meeting/teaching platforms have exploded to meet the needs of social interaction, a continuation of business meetings, and teaching from pre-school to graduate programs. As is true regarding everything in life, nothing is perfect, and ZOOM, which is great, gives each individual participant options to mute oneself and to turn off the video, leaving a black screen with just a name identifying the person. There are many advantages to this for the participant. He/she can take phone calls, eat and drink without disturbing others, and play games instead of focus on the Zoom class. The shutting down of the video camera decreases and almost eliminates the connection that we so desire and cherish. The ability to see a person's face allows for a meaningful 'connection' to each participant. Without, Zoom becomes just a taped Youtube class. Jewish tradition teaches that there is no comparison between hearing and seeing the face of a person. The Kabbalists explain the Hebrew word for face is panim which can also be translated as inward. A person's face reflects what is inside of that individual's being; by looking at someone's face we are able to view the essence of that person. Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to see Hashem panim el panim, face to face. The desire was not to see what God looks like (because Hashem is not a physical being) but rather to see the essence of What Hashem is. This gift that Hashem has instilled within human beings, the gift of seeing/reading the face of those with whom we are communicating, is now minimized by our situation to make do with something that compromises the natural way. The law in Israel is we now wear masks to avoid potential transmission of Covid-19 from person to person. The expression a person has on his/her face and particularly the expressions emitted by the mouth speaks volumes. If you do not believe me, just take a look at how many emoji faces there are on your phone. While the expression the eyes are the entranceway to the soul and the eyes definitely give a direction as to an individual's point-of-view, it is the mouth that gives support to the entire face. The mouth controls the description of the face, shaping the message to transmit happiness, sorrow, anger, excitement, etc. We communicate not only by speaking, or through the use of sign language, but also through facial and mouthing expressions. I, and I'm sure many of you, know how to communicate with one's mouth without emitting a single sound. How does one give Zdeka (charity) when you have nothing to give. You give a smile, and the other reciprocates and smiles back. The acknowledgment and recognition a person gives to someone else makes the other feel good, as if he or she were receiving something warm, something to be cherished. A smile is contagious; an outgoing smile is reflected upon the recipient's face, shining back to the person who sent it. In short, the smiles given are reflections of the sender. Nowadays, when I venture out, I am only able to see another's eyes and eyes alone cannot be read. It is the combination of eyes with the mouth which sends the messages, but when the mouth is covered, we are prevented from adequately being able to convey or receive such nonverbal messages. I try to show courtesy and pleasantness to those around me, Jew and gentile alike. Wearing a mask, I find it very difficult to transmit a friendly feeling to another human being. Additionally, I tend to use the ability to read someone's mouth to connect to the person. In the book of Leviticus, the Rabbis teach ten different reasons or sins why a person would develop Tzoraas and end up being quarantined outside the camp of the Jewish people. The number one or most famous reason was the speaking of Loshon Hora (something we call evil speech). This is a direct result of someone's wrongful speech and the misuse of the gift of the mouth, forcing a person to 'cover' that mouth and face by being sent away and not being a part of the nation of Israel. So often, we read sections of the Torah that we think are outdated and do not apply to us in our time. One obvious example is Tzoraas, the spiritual leprosy that we do not see and therefore cannot check today. Nevertheless, this message and the relevance of Tzoraas are alive and well today in our midst, particularly as we 'protect' ourselves by wearing a mask. Perhaps the wearing of a mask today or using a ZOOM screen when interacting is not just hiding or preventing the spreading of a virus. I would say it's the message that we may be guilty as well of the sins that lead to Tzoraas; the result of wearing a mask and observing social distancing is to give us time to reflect that just maybe we may have something like Tzoraas. The actual physical affliction does not appear, but the effect of it may be making its way inside through a hidden, masked cover-up preventing us from truly 'seeing' and smiling at each other. How We Survived Passover in Quarantine Apr 19, 2020  |  by David Kilimnick   The coronavirus kept us from shul, but it did not keep us from the Seder. Many celebrated with their immediate families, and many celebrated alone. But we all found a way to celebrate. This is how I celebrated, as well as the people in my neighborhood – in quarantine. We Cleaned a Lot More We had too much time to clean before the holiday this year. We found stuff to clean that didn't need cleaning and we cleaned it. I spent two hours on the kitchen sink. I don't know if enamel absorbs chametz but if it does, I got it out. I hope it's a Mitzvah to ruin kitchen appliances before Pesach. I cleaned way beyond the requirement. I know this because I found garlic powder that expired in 2003. To note, garlic can be used around 17 years past expiration date. As long as you are willing to eat kugel that tastes a little off. Bought a Lot of Matzah Meal When we heard that they were running out of toilet paper and eggs in Israel, we bought more Matzah meal. For some reason we mistook a worldwide food staple with crushed up Matzah. Actually, it's tradition to overstock on Pesach food. That's how the tradition of eating Matzah balls started. People stocked up on matzah meal and then realized that they needed to do something with it. Didn't Have to Come Up with Excuses for Not Accepting the Invite Passover is a time when we are extremely stringent about kosher laws, and many have a tradition of not eating out on Pesach at all. This year, not breaking Matzah with your fellow Jews was the neighborly thing to do. From now on, when I don't want to spend time with people, I am going to tell them it's for their health. Still Rushed We had a month at home to prepare for Pesach, and we cleaned for ten hours a day. We still had more to clean on Tuesday morning before the holiday. The most important Jewish lesson of every family: No matter how much you prepare for the holiday, you will have to rush and scream at the kids. Why the shower was still cold when you started showering the night before, will never make sense. It's all part of tradition. Cooked More You thought it was going to be less cooking, without having any guests, but you have kids. Over Pesach the kids started complaining. They're angry you didn't make them pizza. Ungrateful little… OK so you start making the Matzah meal pizza and it takes you three hours. Now you're regretting that you ever bought the Hadassah Pesach Cook Book. Stood in the Street Jews love standing and talking. We do it at the shul Kiddush, we do it at the Bar Mitzvah party. Why not do it at home? Quarantine won't keep us from this. So we stand on our porches talking to our neighbors, while eating. We don't care that our neighbors don't want to talk to us. Where are they going to go? Ate Like Royalty at the Seder We finally had room at the seder table, and people could sit at a distance, like royalty. It's a tradition that we eat like kings on Passover and lean while we drink the wine. And like a king, there was a lot more room for me this year to stain my shirt. For the first time, I didn't ruin anybody else's suit. Vegetables Were Cleaned More at the Seder This is the first year the vegetables were cleaned well. The cleaning and disinfecting message got out. I could definitely taste the Clorox in my parsley. Seder Ended with Crying What makes the Seder is the focus on the children. And that means crying. Like any good game, the Seder ends with the find the Afikomen game and kids crying. That's why we force the kids to play a game of hide and go seek with the Matzah at midnight, where there is only one winner who can get the prize, three hours after their bedtime. Less Questions at Seder As I was alone I had to ask myself the questions. My answers were not that good. Hid the Afikomen from Myself I couldn't find it. I felt like a fool. Now I can't get myself the bike I wanted. Inhouse Games Our neighbors were influenced by the videos you saw on social media. Playing the games in the home is a staple of the quarantine.   They took the treadmill M&M game and did it kosher for Pesach style with macaroons. If you could catch more than one macaroon in your mouth and chew it before the next one comes you get five points. Nobody was able to chew and swallow a macaroon in less than three minutes. Nobody got past the first macaroon before choking. Video of Your Kid Crying You took away the Matzah pizza and told the kid it was casserole and they cried, and you videotaped it. Now you're a Jewish Youtube sensation and your friends think you are funny as anything for exploiting your child. Mazal tov. To end the holiday, we cleaned. We put away the dishes and cleaned up the house of unleavened bread. I am still cleaning. I can't think of any other activity to do during quarantine. God willing we'll be able to celebrate together next year, so that I can stop cleaning, and I will have somebody who can answer my questions and find the Afikomen. Right now, I just need to find somebody to eat my Matzah balls and fake pizza. Coronavirus Through the Eyes of Holocaust Survivors For some hidden children of the Holocaust, being isolated at home is a throwback to wartime traumas, while others see no similarities  by Judy Maltz  In the summer of 1943, thousands of Jews from the town of Brzezany in Nazi-occupied Galicia (now in western Ukraine) were herded to a nearby cemetery and shot dead. Among the few survivors was 8-year-old Shimon Redlich. He spent the next six months hidden with his mother and grandparents in an attic in the empty Jewish ghetto. When their living conditions became unbearable, they moved to another hideout at a nearby village in the home of a Ukrainian woman, where they spend the next six months. For someone who loves being out and about, Redlich, a professor emeritus of Jewish history at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, finds it difficult being cooped up at home these days because of the coronavirus lockdown. It throws me back into my childhood in hiding," he says in a Skype conversation from his home in the central Israeli city of Modi'in. Redlich, now 85, attributes this sense of déjà vu to the unpredictability of his situation. "Back then, we didn't know whether the Germans would discover our hiding place, and that would spell the end for us," he says. "Now, I can't say whether I'll get sick, in which case, given my age category, that might be the end of me too." The absence of a daily routine, he says, is also reminiscent of those days. "In normal times, the day is broken up into clear segments," he explains. "That doesn't happen now. It's as if time becomes fluid – and that was very much my feeling then, too." Then, as now, he was constantly surrounded by the same faces. And then, as now, any foray into the world beyond his confined quarters required planning and preparation. "Today, that means putting on a mask and gloves," Redlich notes His train of thought is momentarily disrupted by a knock at the door. It is his wife, requesting help bringing in the groceries that have just been delivered to their doorstep. Redlich is instantly reminded of another similarity. "Of course we have all the food we need right now, but there is still this obsession with it," he says. "You're constantly worrying about whether you'll have enough to last until the next delivery. And what I remember from our days in hiding was this constant preoccupation with the food and whether it would last us." Many struggling with the stay-at-home rules mandated by the pandemic are turning for inspiration these days to Anne Frank – the Holocaust diarist who spent more than two years in a hideout in Amsterdam before being discovered and sent to various concentration camps, eventually dying in Bergen-Belsen in early 1945. As someone who lived under similar conditions, Redlich understands why her story resonates so much these days. "Such comparisons are not relevant when it comes to the more extreme situations, like the death camps," he says. "But for those of us who were in hiding, there are definitely parallels to be drawn." Dolly Chinitz, another hidden child, is not so sure. "You can't compare," says the 90-year-old in a phone conversation from her retirement home in Jerusalem. "We were like hunted prey, we were being targeted for death, and we had to lay low if we wanted to survive. It's just not the same thing. This is a sickness. You either get it or you don't, you either get well or you don't – but everybody is in the same boat." One similarity Finding a viable hideout was often the only way for Jewish children to survive the Holocaust. Some were lucky enough to find Christian families who took them in. Others escaped death by hiding in underground bunkers or caves. Sometimes they hid with other family members, but not always. Chinitz and her twin sister Mari were 14 when the Nazis invaded their hometown of Budapest. Their mother, who had been arrested, sent the two girls into hiding with a Christian woman and her son. They spent six weeks in this home, during which time the two girls suffered physical abuse. Because they could not leave the house, Chinitz recounts, they had no way to protect themselves during air raids. "It was such a terrible time," she says. "How can I compare that to today where I have a beautiful large apartment, a balcony and all the food I need?" Naomi Waldman, 90, hid for two years in an abandoned house in Antwerp, along with her parents. She has vivid memories of the day Nazi troops broke into the building while she and her parents, having been forewarned, hid in the attic. "My aunt came in and let us know that the Nazis were gone, but we thought it was a trick and refused to come down from the attic," she recalls, in a phone conversation from her Jerusalem home. Six months later, the Nazis returned, but this time Waldman and her parents were caught unawares. They were loaded onto a truck and taken to a transit camp, where they were separated. But miraculously, she relays, they all survived, including her five older siblings. "I've been asked whether there is anything similar between my experience today and my experiences then. For me, the only similarity is the hoarding of food," she says. "We're all sitting in our beautiful apartments with all the conveniences," she adds. "Nobody is chasing us. Nobody is tormenting us. So even if these are very difficult times – especially if you're all alone, as I am – there's really no comparison." Sharon Kangisser Cohen, the editor of Yad Vashem Studies, a scholarly journal published by Israel's national Holocaust commemoration institute, recently co-edited a large study of child survivors. "I would say that, on a theoretical level, we know that certain situations trigger memories of the past, and one would think intuitively that isolation would trigger some of these wartime memories," she says, noting that many Israeli Holocaust survivors were traumatized during the first Gulf War when they were ordered to wear gas masks to protect themselves from the possibility of chemical warfare. But based on recent conversations with a group of Holocaust survivors, she continues, the coronavirus crisis does not seem to be awakening the same old fears and anxieties. "I did speak to one woman, who tends to be very emotional and was very upset that she had to spend the [Passover] seder alone this year for the first time since the war. But most of the others I spoke with did not seem to think this was a comparable situation. Perhaps the only thing that resonated for them was not knowing when it would end." Most of the concerns they raised, Kangisser Cohen notes, had little to do with their own personal situation. "They were more worried about the political crisis in the country and about how their children were going to manage financially," she relays. "My impression was that there's no real sense of immediate danger because of the coronavirus." 'Anxious and frightened' Andy Griffel was whisked out of the Jewish ghetto in Radom in October 1942, right after his mother gave birth to him. He spent the first three years of his life hidden by a Christian family in the Polish town. He remembers little, if anything, about his experiences in hiding. "From everything I was told, those were actually very good years," says the 77-year-old lawyer, who splits his life between the United States and Israel. But Griffel considers himself unique among Holocaust survivors in Israel – even among the hidden children, who tend to be younger. "I'm not in an old age home and not really living alone," he says. "I go out with my dog four to five times a day, and because he's friendly I get to interact with lots of kids – of course, with the 2-meter distance rule. The experience of hiding seems to affect different people differently, so I wouldn't want to make any generalizations." Neither does Shoshana Sprecher, 79, remember much about the three-month period she spent hiding under the roof of a coffee shop with her mother in a small town in southwestern France. She believes the experience has scarred her nonetheless. "What happens to you in your childhood, you take it with you all your life, and I guess that's why being inside and alone today makes me feel anxious and frightened," she says. Although she understands that these are different times, Sprecher says that seeing the police out in large numbers on the streets to enforce the lockdown makes her nervous. "I know they are good people, but this is something that goes back to my childhood and it is difficult for me," she says. Although Chinitz, the survivor from Hungary, rejects comparisons between now and then, that doesn't make being alone any easier. "I'm a people person," she says. "I like to have people around me – I touch people, I kiss people – and so I'm climbing the walls." Her longtime partner lives in the same retirement facility, but they haven't been allowed to see one other. "I've never felt this alone in my life," she says. "Even in my mother's womb I had my sister, so I'm taking this very badly. I believe that many of us will pay a big emotional price for all this isolation." a friend of mine, Arieh King to be Appointed Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Forgoes Salary Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion will be promoting City Councilman Arieh King to be a Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem as part of the coalition agreement with King's party. King has decided that during the Coronavirus crisis he will not be taking a salary for the new position, according to a report in JDN. The appointment will be voted on at the next council meeting. Knesset Allows Courts to Issue Arrest Warrants in Cases Involving Coronavirus Health Risks By a vote of 27-7, the Knesset plenum in the early hours of Friday morning passed a government-sponsored bill which enshrines in primary legislation the arrangement according to which a civilian court, as well as a military court, will be authorized to order the arrest of a suspect or extend his or her detention, even if the investigation of their case cannot be advanced in light of the health risks involved in interrogating someone who has contracted the coronavirus, or is in quarantine due to the corona disease. The arrangement relates to a crucial suspect or witness. The bill, an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law, states that a judge may order an arrest under these circumstances only after he/she has been convinced of its justification and has carefully considered the severity of the offense, the expected delay in the progress of the investigation and the harm caused to the suspect. The explanatory notes attached to the bill state that the emergency regulations issued by the Health Ministry regarding social distancing and quarantine make it virtually impossible to "carry out investigative activities that demand the participation of people who are required to be in isolation without endangering those who come in close contact with them – such as holding confrontations and transporting (suspects or witnesses)." In some cases, according to the bill, mainly when severe offenses or security offenses are involved, effective frontal interrogation cannot be conducted when the person who is required to be in quarantine and the interrogator, or interrogators, are wearing protective face masks, "this due to the need to carry out the interrogation for an extended period of time and due to the need to see facial expressions and physical reactions, and create direct communication." Ministry says it can do 15,000 virus tests daily, but nobody's showing up Without enough people showing symptoms of COVID-19 to get tested, authorities plan to roll out randomized sampling in high-risk areas to get a clearer picture of the spread of the virus Israel now has the lab capacity to test up to 15,000 people for COVID-19 daily but demand has gone down as fewer suspected cases show up to have swabs taken, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. Israel has been struggling, along with many other countries, to raise the number of tests it performs per day, and in recent days that number has dropped below 10,000 coincidings with a marked decrease in the number of confirmed cases reported since the start of the week. Due to a downturn in coronavirus test referrals and "a decrease in the number of people with corona symptoms who want to be tested," the ministry said that the number of people being tested has gone down, with only 9,031 tests performed on Saturday, of which 160 were found to be  COVID-19 positive. On Sunday, 8,393 tests were performed and 88 people were found to be positive. On Monday, 9,546 tests were performed and 110 people were found positive. The ministry announced that it plans to launch random testing initiatives in areas with high infection rates to make up for the lack of sick patients seeking tests. It said a recently signed deal with the China-based Beijing Genomics Institute will soon allow Israel to conduct up to 20,000 daily tests. A previous plan to perform randomized tests in Bnei Brak, the country's hardest-hit virus hotspot, was nixed earlier this month, reportedly after the Health Ministry and local officials raised objections. Most carriers of COVID-19 are thought to have only mild symptoms or none at all, and experts fear that asymptomatic patients can transfer the contagion to others, making massive testing a critical element in getting a grip on the true spread of the virus. In recent days, Israel's infection rate has appeared to fall off significantly, with only a few dozen new cases being reported every 12 hours, and the government has announced steps to ease restrictions on businesses and travel. On Monday morning, the ministry reported just 68 new cases since Sunday morning, the lowest number since mid-March, when cases first began to ramp up. On Tuesday, the ministry announced another 123 new cases since the day before. In the two weeks prior, Israel had seen over 200 cases daily, with the ministry reporting daily testing numbers above 10,000. Magen David Adom medical team members, wearing protective gear, handle a coronavirus test from patients in Jerusalem, April 17, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90) Israel has long struggled to provide sufficient tests amid a global scramble for supplies. In mid-April, the Defense Ministry announced that a plane carrying enough chemical reagents to conduct some 100,000 PCR coronavirus tests had landed in Israel. Researchers at Hebrew University in Jerusalem claimed last week that Israel will soon have the technology to boost daily coronavirus testing to hundreds of thousands of people. See you Sunday bli neder Shabbat Shalom We need Moshiach Now!   Love Yehuda Lave Rabbi Yehuda Lave PO Box 7335, Rehavia Jerusalem 9107202 LIKE TWEET FORWARD You received this email because you signed up on our website or made purchase from us. Unsubscribe

Must Causeless Hatred continue to haunt Jewish history? By Victor Sharpe and Yom Hashoah in Halacha & History and Shalom Pollack Father's Obituary and Tribute to children of Holocaust features previously unreleased Shlomo Carlebach recording and Ripped from Today’s headlines-The Torah predicts Inheriting the Land of Israel

Can't see images? Click here... Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money,  and spiritual engagement. Now also a Blogger on the Times of Israel. Look for my column Love Yehuda Lave A Hollow Leg Old Morty Mandelbaum went to the doctor complaining of a terrible pain in his leg. "I am afraid it's just old age," replied the doctor, "there is nothing we can do about it." "That can't be," fumed old Morty, "You don't know what you are doing." "How can you possibly know I am wrong?" countered the doctor. "Well it's quite obvious," the old man replied, "my other leg is fine, and it's the exact same age!" Ripped from Today's headlines-The Torah predicts Inheriting the Land of Israel Ripped from Today's headlines-The Torah predicts Inheriting the Land of Israel Parsha Kedoshim -one of the two Torah Parshat that will be read this Saturday in the Synagogue (or privately if you are not in Synagogue.) In Chapter 20 of the book of Leviticus, verse 24, it states: I promised you: You will inherit their land, since I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God who set you apart from the peoples." This verse will be read from the Torah. What a coincidence we just had the Independence Day of the State yesterday  Yom Ha'atzmaut 2020 in Israel began in the evening of Tuesday, 28 April, and ends in the evening of  Wednesday, 29 April 2020. Now in the year that the Independence day actually happened, 1948, the parsha of the week was Emor, the following Parsha, but as they say, it was close enough for government work. Independence Day (Hebrew: יום העצמאות‎ Yom Ha'atzmaut, lit. "Day of Independence") is the national Day of Israel, commemorating the Israel Declaration of Independence in 1948. The day is marked by official and unofficial ceremonies and observances. Because Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948, which corresponded with the Hebrew date of Iyar 5 in that year in that year, Yom Ha'atzmaut was originally celebrated on that date. However, to avoid Sabbath desecration, it may be commemorated one or two days before or after the 5th of Iyar if it falls too close to the Jewish Sabbath Yom Hazikaron, the Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day is always scheduled for the day preceding Independence Day. In the Hebrew calendar, days begin in the evening. The next occurrence of Yom Haatzmaut took place yesterday on 28–29 April 2020. Now that should be the end of the story. The bible predicted our return, we returned, all the Jews should be here and we would have a sweet ending with the Moshiach. Unfortunately, life isn't that simple. We have a dispute among the Jews as to the religious significance of the State of Israel     Two basic attitudes towards the religious significance of the State of Israel are prevalent within the contemporary Orthodox community.  The non-Orthodox community thinks about Israel from a secular viewpoint. It appreciates the miracles of the State but doesn't justify it based on the Torah. The "charedi" (ultra-Orthodox) position contends that we can grant no religious significance to the State, and some even view the State as a negative phenomenon. The second position is the "messianic" approach, which applies to the Jewish State all the words with which Rav Kook zt"l described the State well before its establishment: "The foundation of God's Throne in the world, whose entire desire is that God shall be One and His Name shall be One."      Rav Kook lived in extraordinary times and witnessed the striking phenomenon of the Jewish People's national renewal in their ancestral homeland. This amazing turn of events was a complex reality that demanded a complex perspective. Rav Kook's greatness lay in the fact that he did not settle on just one viewpoint regarding the return of the people to Zion; rather, he saw the entire process with all its inherent difficulties and complexities, both the rays of light and the dark shadows. And, indeed, there were plenty of dark shadows.     Throughout the unfolding process of the Return to Zion, a difficult and painful problem presented itself: those who brought about the process were not Torah observant. It would have been far simpler were the return to the land to have been accompanied by a return to the Torah. Unfortunately, though, this is not what happened. The major personalities of the Zionist movement abandoned, for the most part, the religious lifestyle, and thus the return to Israel involved a rebellion against Jewish tradition and a rejection of Torah and mitzvot.     Rav Kook's struggle with this dilemma is well-known: he consistently defended the secularists who built the country, insisting that one cannot judge them superficially, according to their actions alone. One must rather probe the general spiritual processes underlying the entire historical development, and thereby arrive at a deeper understanding of the specific spiritual phenomena occurring in those who live during this period.  Indeed, observance of the general, national Torah is especially difficult, far more difficult than observing the Torah of the individual. For Torah and mitzvot come to purify mankind, and the process of purifying the entire people, as a society that requires national-governmental matters, is much more complicated than the purification of each individual as a specific person. For our obligation is not merely to be holy as individuals, but additionally and especially to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation".     Pure spirituality returned to its previous level once it had been severed from active national existence. Rav Kook then allows us to share his uncertainty: how do we know when the process of recovery has been completed, when the time to renew our national existence in our land has arrived? To whom has been revealed the divine secret, to know when the nation and the land have been totally purified from their contamination? ... No one among us knows. Therefore, our eyes look to find the hidden secrets where they can be found - in the vision of the revealed time of redemption, of which our sages said: There is no time when redemption is more revealed [than when the Land of Israel is fruitful], as is stated, "But you, O mountains of Israel, shall yield your produce and bear your fruit for My people Israel, for their return is near."  Rav Kook was convinced that the corrupt Western culture would collapse after the First World War. The end has finally arrived, he presumed, to the culture of falsehood that was based on trickery and corruption (Orot Ha-milchama, p.15):     Did Rav Kook ever imagine - was he capable of imagining - that World War I would not be the most horrible of wars? Did it ever occur to him that the culture of bloodshed would not crumble, but would rather continue to thrive? Rav Kook's optimism is the optimism before Auschwitz and Hiroshima. As "dwarves on the shoulders of a giant," we know that the culture of murderers has yet to be eliminated. The time has not yet arrived when a government can be conducted according to the principles of righteousness and honesty. The bloodshed has not spared us even now, in the aftermath of the Holocaust: to this very day, we find ourselves caught in a frightening web of military confrontation, and our enemies continue to wage a bloody battle against us.     Rav Kook's optimistic vision predicted that as Jewish autonomy develops, so will its moral image. And specifically this development, as we saw earlier, affords the Jewish State its exalted stature and guarantees the correction of past misdeeds. Let us now take an honest look at the society before us today. Does contemporary Israeli society live up to Rav Kook's vision? Can we say about the State of Israel that "theft, robbery, murder and the like are not even heard of?!" The violence, corruption and growing tensions among the various segments of society prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have not reached the ideal state of which Rav Kook dreamt long before the establishment of our State of Israel.     How can we not thank the Almighty for all the kindness that He has showered upon us? First and foremost, the State of Israel serves as a safe haven for eight million Jews today.. After the nightmare of the Holocaust, hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees wandered around the globe, finding a home and refuge only in Israel. The State has contributed an incalculable amount to the restoration of Jewish pride after the devastating chillul Hashem (desecration of God's Name) caused by the Holocaust. Today, too, the State plays an enormous role in the Jewish identity of our brethren throughout the world. For so many of them, the emotional attachment to the State Are we not obligated to thank the Almighty for His kindness towards us? Unquestionably! And not just on Yom Ha-atzma'ut; each day we must recite Hallel seven times for the wonders and miracles He has performed on our behalf: "I praise you seven times each day!"     Furthermore, our very existence in Israel comprises the fulfillment of the prophets' visions: There shall yet be old men and women in the squares of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age. And the squares of the city shall be crowded with boys and girls playing in the squares.  Zechariah 8:4-5 Regarding this vision, the prophet declares, Just as it will seem impossible to the remnant of these people in those days, so shall it also seem impossible to Me, declares the Lord of Hosts. (8:6) What is it that seems impossible in the eyes of God? What we see with our own eyes each day: elderly people in the streets of Jerusalem! (at least before the Corona when they are stuck inside!) The complete redemption has yet to unfold, and we have yet to be privileged to live in a state that represents "the foundation of the Divine Throne in the world." But we have been privileged to witness the gathering of a large portion of the Jewish People to our homeland, and this phenomenon itself is to be considered the "atchalta de-ge'ula" ("beginning of the redemption").     Certain characterizing features of the time of redemption have, indeed, appeared. We must sing praises to the Almighty for even this partial redemption, which still lacks the completion of the promise and hope in this time of Corona we deserve full redemption Must Causeless Hatred continue to haunt Jewish history? By Victor Sharpe Must Causeless Hatred continue to haunt Jewish history? By Victor Sharpe History repeats itself, often catastrophically, when it comes to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. In ancient times, the foreign enemies, whether the armies of Assyria, Babylon or Rome, destroyed Jewish sovereignty and imposed near genocide and expulsion. The mercenary armies of Seleucid Syria nearly destroyed Jewish sovereignty but were defeated by the heroic Maccabees. The Babylonians destroyed the First Temple in 586 BCE and the Romans, the Second Temple in 70 CE, but these were external causes of cataclysmic events, so often caused by internal Jewish diviseness..  Now we are seeing "Causeless Hatred" among the Jews themselves, once again ushering in the past national and religious tragedies that are now imperiling modern Israel's very survival.    The Enemy within: If we scrutinize the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple, we may well question whether a wound of such hideous proportions was truly Rome's action or, in part, a self-inflicted devastation.  We know that the Jewish population of Judea chafed under a succession of brutal Roman governors and procurators whose sole concern was their own self-enrichment.  They knew nothing of the spirit and religion of the Jewish people. Therefore, it is no wonder that Jewish discontent and outrage increased under the extravagances and brutality of the Roman procurators, such as – Cumanus, Antonius Felix, Porcius Festus, Lucceius Albinus.  The breaking point came with Gestius Florus, whose horrific excesses against the Jews triggered the Great War against Rome. An earlier procurator was Pontius Pilate of the Gospel story, as described by Philo of Alexandria.  "Pontius Pilate was a man characterized as corruptible, rapacious, violently abusive and one without judgement, who executed Jews constantly with boundless cruelty. It was as though he had come to Judea with the deliberate intention of provoking the people." He was hardly the fair-minded governor falsely portrayed in the Gospels. Thus, over the span of some decades, there was growing animosity between the unjust Roman power structure and the ordinary Jews who were also at odds within the community.  This was the first century of the Common Era, when the Jews were bitterly divided into power elites, the peace party and the Zealots, political parties that opposed each other.   Today in modern Israel, individual politicians ruined the last three general elections with their divisiveness. Even now as the Wuhan virus casts its deadly pall over Israel and the world, the bickering continues.  Many of these politicians have relentlessly imperiled Israel's survival even while the irrational mullahs and ayatollahs of Iran continue ratcheting up their genocidal threats against the Jewish state. A story in the Talmud tells us that the Second Temple was destroyed over an offense between a grudge-holding socialite and a vindictive curmudgeon named Bar Kamza. Their mutual hate was so intense that one informed on the other to the Romans, thus bringing the wrath of the Empire down upon Jerusalem.  Whether true or a simple, allegorical theme, it explains the catastrophe that followed because of Jewish internecine strife as a violent feud between the Jewish factions.  Vengefully, they each burned the other's food stores even as the Roman legions were at the gates of Jerusalem, making themselves vulnerable to Rome's destruction.  The Rabbis call this Sinat Chinam – "Causeless Hatred" – and they credit it with bringing down the ancient Jewish state. It is a stinging indictment of ancient Jews for their infighting and mutual delegitimization that we see being repeated today in modern Israeli politics.  Civil war between Jews: Written for both Roman and Jewish audiences, the ancient Jewish historian, Josephus, recorded the horrors of Rome's siege of Jerusalem in his book, "The Jewish War." "The shouts of those (Jews) who were fighting one another were incessant both by day and night, but the continual lamentations of those who mourned were even more dreadful. Nor was any regard paid by relatives for those who were still alive. Nor was any care taken for the burial of those who were dead. The reason was that everyone despaired about himself." Consequently God's own sanctuary and symbol of the unbroken Covenant between Israel and God, which had been restored after the return to Zion in the sixth century B.C.E., was needlessly and tragically destroyed. This cast doubt on the very relationship of the people and their Lord. Had God rejected the Covenant with Israel or had the Jews themselves broken the Holy Covenant - by their domestic strife - thus condemning the Jewish people to two thousand dark and terrible years of statelessness in the blood-soaked Diaspora? Responses to the Destruction:   After the catastrophe of 70 CE, and despite the slaughter of a million or so Jewish men, women and children, the majority of Jewish survivors refused to surrender to the pitiless occupation. With Rome still the dreaded occupying power and the persecutions continuing, they harnessed despair into a force for action to make an all-out effort to restore the Temple. Only, they believed, by rebuilding the sanctuary could they reduce the terrible torment they were enduring and restore life to normal.   The ordinary people were now driven to drastic action. In the years 115 to 117 C.E, there were also widespread rebellions by Diaspora Jewry, especially in Cyprus and Alexandria, which were bloodily suppressed. Then in 132 C.E., the remaining population of Judea rose up under the leadership of the charismatic Shimon Bar Kochba. But again, the overwhelming might of Rome was brought to bear. After three years of relative freedom, Bar Kochba and his warriors were eventually defeated.  The remaining population of Judea was mostly deported, leaving the Jewish people with the loss of national sovereignty, stateless, displaced, and vulnerable to persecution for centuries. But as always, a remnant survived over the centuries as best they could in their land while under a succession of alien occupiers. Israel: Causeless Hatred yet again? The wonderful Caroline Glick wrote in her blog of March 22, 2020 what so many of us are still fearing:     "Amid a global pandemic, the threat of war with Iran and economic collapse, Israel's Blue and White Party is dead set on bringing Netanyahu down—even if it means taking Israel down with him."         Benny Gantz and the pyromaniacs   The same Causeless Hatred that afflicted the ancient Jews has been evidenced yet again by the Blue and White Party's hatred towards Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, endangering Israel's very survival.   So we had Gantz and his Blue and White Party, with its singular goal of destroying Bibi Netanyahu, willing at one time to form a minority government with Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beiteinu Party and the Labor-Meretz Party, based on the outside support of the Joint Arab List, whose members are virulently anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist, wanting only the total and absolute destruction of the Jewish state.   That the Joint Arab List is allowed to remain spewing their hatred in the Knesset is a testament to Israel's democracy and diversity, albeit a suicidal one. Sadly, America would also allow such freedom to genocidal ingrates. Look at the two Muslim women in Congress… they are willing to destroy the United States.   Had Gantz been successful in forming an Israeli government of the insane, it would torpedo Israel's relations with the United States and likely create a constitutional crisis. It would have also betrayed the Holy Covenant.   It became tragically apparent that Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, Moshe Ya'alon, Avigdor Lieberman, Ehud Barak and so many other Bibi haters - including now Israel's leftist Supreme Court - were acting as the vindictive curmudgeons whose behavior, like the Bar Kamza character, was responsible for the destruction of the Temple and the Jewish state in 70 CE. Indeed, arguably one of the saddest spectacles in Israel's political theater today was the unravelling of former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Moshe Ya'alon, who was so consumed with causeless hatred that he would have allowed the nation to be destroyed or, as Caroline Glick penned, "burn the house down."  As Martin Sherman wrote in an Arutz Sheva Op-Ed, "Ya'alon was so infused with a desire to inflict vengeance on Netanyahu, that he would rather have collaborated with the anti-Zionist Red-Green Joint Arab List than support a unity government headed by Netanyahu - including a rotation arrangement with his hitherto colleague, Benny Gantz.  "The Joint List is a faction openly committed to dismantling Israel as a Jewish state. Moreover, some of the Joint List members, such as Mansour Abbas, are publicly calling for introducing Sharia law in Israel, permitting polygamy for its Muslim citizens and lifting the quarantine on the Hamas-ruled Gaza." History repeats itself and calamity follows. At this writing, the bickering continues and even the long and prayerfully awaited burning desire for Jewish Sovereignty throughout all of our ancestral and Biblical heartland in Judea and Samaria - not just 30% - must wait while Gantz and Bibi endlessly argue back and forth.   As a fervent supporter of the Sovereignty Movement, let me echo the words of their leaders, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar:   "The Sovereignty Movement reacts to reports about the fundamental principles of the coalition that are being negotiated between the Prime Minister and the chairman of the Blue and White party, MK Benny Gantz, regarding the sovereignty issue.   "The outline of application of sovereignty must correspond exclusively to Israeli interests and the Zionist vision and not to the Trump plan that ultimately leads to a Palestinian terrorist state in the heart of our homeland.   "The government of Israel must preserve the historic Land of Israel and not make the Jewish Zionist vision contingent on the position of the European countries regarding which history has proven that their morality does not withstand the challenges of truth. This is the time to be a free sovereign people in our land."   Therefore, will Israel's politicians and the leftist Israeli judiciary yet come to their senses or are we condemned again to ask the question: Must Causeless Hatred continue to haunt Jewish history?   Victor Sharpe is a prolific freelance writer and author of several published books, including a collection of thirteen short stories, titled, The Blue Hour. He is the author of the acclaimed four volumes of Politicide: The attempted murder of the Jewish state. Ramat Shlomo, Jerusalem and Joe Biden By Paul Gherkin In March 2010, Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel with the hope of pushing the Palestinians and Israelis towards a peace agreement. A 10-month settlement freeze which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in November 2009 was just drawing to an end with no engagement by the Palestinian Authority over the duration, but Biden was trying to move the parties forward. Not long after he arrived, Israel announced the advancement of 1,600 homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo which is located north of the 1949 Armistice Lines. In response, Biden scolded Israel, saying "I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem." The statement using "condemn" was shocking, as it is normally only used regarding terrorism. Netanyahu's 10-month freeze also never included any construction in any part of Jerusalem, so the Israeli activity was not surprising. Further, it is important to understand Ramat Shlomo.   Ramat Shlomo, Jerusalem Ramat Shlomo is not a vacant plot of land, it is not privately owned by Arabs and it is not located in the middle of Judea and Samara / the West Bank. It is an established Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem. This "East Jerusalem" neighborhood is located northWEST of Hebrew University which was built in 1925. It is located southWEST of Pisgat Ze'ev, the second largest neighborhood in Jerusalem and just next to Ramat Alon, the largest neighborhood it is located northWEST of the Jewish Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest location It is located just on the other side of Highway 1 from Mobileye, a company which Intel bought for over $15 billion The population in Ramat Shlomo is mostly ultra-Orthodox, and include Chabad and Litvish communities. The neighborhood has a median age among the youngest in Jerusalem and highest birth rates. Yet from 2006 to 2017, the population of Ramat Shlomo was flat at around 14,700 people. The lack of new homes and flat population growth despite the high birth rates meant that families actually had to leave their neighborhood. The Jerusalem Institute noted "The highest negative migration balance in relation to the size of the neighborhood's population was recorded in Ramat Shlomo." Things finally turned around in 2018 with 500 new apartments commencing construction, the most in Jerusalem according to the Jerusalem Institute. The neighborhood also had the largest voter turnout for municipal elections in 2018, with 83% of eligible voters, indicating a highly engaged populace. As the U.S. presidential election season moves into high gear, people will consider Biden's relationship with Israel and the 2010 Ramat Shlomo incident will surely be discussed. It is therefore worth reviewing how Biden's highly critical comments slowed the natural growth of that residential Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem for many years until just recently. Related First One Through articles: Time to Define Banning Jews From Living Somewhere as Antisemitic Joe Biden Stabs a Finger at Israel "Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem" The New York Times All Out Assault on Jewish Jerusalem The Jews of Jerusalem In Situ Ending Apartheid in Jerusalem Arabs in Jerusalem The Arguments over Jerusalem The Subtle Discoloration of History: Shuafat Related First One Through videos: Judea and Samaria (music by Foo Fighters) The Anthem of Israel is JERUSALEM E1: The Battle for Jerusalem (music by The Who) The 1967 "Borders" (music by The Kinks) Trump Cites Executive Order Addressing Anti-Semitism in Yom Hashoah Proclamation U.S. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on Friday ahead of Yom Hashoah, or Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Tuesday in which the president cited an executive order he signed in December to address current hatred toward Jews. "Our Nation's annual observance of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, calls on all Americans to pause and reflect on the horrific atrocities committed by the Nazi regime against minority groups and other 'undesirables' in the years leading up to and during World War II," states the proclamation. "Among those murdered in the Holocaust were 6 million Jewish men, women and children who became victims of the Third Reich's unthinkably evil 'Final Solution.' " Tribute to children of Holocaust features previously unreleased Shlomo Carlebach recording Poignant tribute to 1.5 million children killed during World War II. As we honor the memory of those brutally murdered by the Nazis on Yom Hashoah, Sparks Next presents Mira, featuring previously unreleased audio of the legendary Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. A poignant tribute to the 1.5 million children killed during World War II, Mira was composed by musician and songwriter Cecelia Margules in memory of her maternal aunt Mira who was a beautiful child who loved to sing and dance and brought great joy to her family. She was taken as a child from the Lodz ghetto together with her family and sent to her death in the gas chambers. The song was originally performed at a 1984 concert by Carlebach at the Brown's Hotel in the Catskills, with Reb Shlomo calling Margules's young niece onto the stage as he sang Mira in memory of the aunt whose name she carried. Directed and produced by Daniel Finkelman, written and produced by Chaya Greenberg and co-directed by Aharon Orian, Mira spans the decades, weaving an exquisite duet between Reb Shlomo and the incomparable talent of Dudu Fisher. Vintage cinematography by David Orian takes viewers back in time to 1984 with a reenactment of the concert and shows both war-torn and contemporary Lodz through Fisher's eyes. Cast in the role of a witness to history, Fisher sees Mira and her family rounded up by the Gestapo and herded onto a cattle car as they are sent to their untimely deaths at Auschwitz. "When Shlomo heard Mira's story he wanted to tell it very much and when he did you felt it," said Margules. "The fact that you could still hear him speaking and singing when so much of the tape had been destroyed was an amazing thing." The number of remaining Holocaust survivors continues to dwindle with every passing year and the coronavirus outbreak has further chipped away at their numbers, making it more important than ever to pass the torch to the next generation. "More than ever, during these stressful days," said Margules. "We need Shlomo Carlebach's inspiration, his heart and soul as he did in his lifetime, and his innate ability to lift and help a broken spirit" Shalom Pollack's Father Obiturary Klal Yisroel has lost one of its most experienced Rebbeim. Rabbi Baruch Pollack was niftar Motzei Shabbos HaGadol at the age of 92 in Yerushalayim. Rabbi Pollack had been a 1st grade Rebbe for over 60 years. He started in Yeshiva of Lubovitch in the Bronx and then taught in Yeshiva of Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn and Yeshiva Mercaz HaTorah (RJJ) in Staten Island. Rabbi Pollack was extremely beloved by 3 generations of students and their parents. They appreciated his tremendous devotion and tireless dedication to his "boyalach" as he called them. His excitement for the chumosh and other Torah subjects he taught was contagious. It's no wonder that so many of his students remember him as being the best Rebbe/teacher they ever had. He had a profound influence on thousands of students and gave the boys a solid basis to love their learning and yiddishkeit. Rabbi Pollack was born in 1927 in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He was an orphan from birth(his father died when his mother was yet pregnant with him). He was called to the Torah as Baruch ben Baruch and used to quip to the gabbai he got the name backward! After receiving semicha from Rav Hutner in Yeshiva Chaim Berlin, he and his family moved to East Flatbush where he helped found and was very active in Rav Asher Zimmerman's Young Israel of Remsen. He was an expert Baal Tokea and on Rosh Hoshana would go to nearby Brookdale Hospital to blow shofar for the patients. Later, the family moved to Flatbush where he continued to use his talents as gabbai in Rav Poupko's shul. Anyone who came in contact with him appreciated his sharp wit and "vertlach" that he enjoyed sharing. In addition, he was the executive director of Y.I. of Bedford Bay where he ran a Talmud Torah and summer camp. There too, he influenced many children to come closer to Torah. Many of his talmidim, from both the yeshivos and Talmud Torah, are today great mechanchim themselves who have continued in Rabbi Pollack's footsteps. He lived his final year in the Ramot neighborhood of Yerushalayim and merited burial in Eretz Yisroel. He is survived by his devoted wife of 71 years as well as 3 sons, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. יהא זכרו ברוך Yom Hashoah in Halacha & History by Shimshon HaKohen Nadel The 27th of Nisan is observed in Israel as Yom Hashoah, a memorial day for the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. It also commemorates the strength and resistance shown during that period. But the very establishment of Yom Hashoah was the subject of much discussion and debate, and was historically met with great opposition by some leading rabbinic authorities. By 1942, the gravity of the tragedy taking place in Europe reached the shores of pre-State Palestine. In response, Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Herzog enlisted the support of leading rabbis to establish a day of mourning, fasting and prayer. Among those he approached was Rabbi Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveichik, the 'Brisker Rav' also known as 'Rav Velvel,' who had himself only recently escaped from Europe, settling in Jerusalem. Rav Velvel was vehemently opposed to adding a new day of mourning and fasting to the Jewish calendar. He reasoned that it is inappropriate – even prohibited – to create a new day of mourning as we already have a national day of mourning, the 9th of Av, which commemorates the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and other national calamities and tragedies throughout Jewish history. In his Teshuvot V'hanhagot (2:721), Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch records the fateful meeting between rabbis Herzog and Soloveitchik: Rav Velvel pointed to Would that my Head Were Water, one of the lamentations traditionally recited on the 9th of Av, which describes the destruction of the German communities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz during the First Crusades of 1096. In his lamentation, the author, Kalonymous ben Yehudah of Speyer, writes, "…One may not add a time to [commemorate] destruction and inferno… therefore today [the 9th of Av] I will arouse my grief and lament and wail and cry with bitter soul…" The author singles out the 9th of Av as the day to remember a tragedy that took place in the Rhineland, over 1,000 years after the destruction of the Holy Temple! According to Rav Velvel, "it is explicit that even though holy congregations suffered and met cruel deaths, nevertheless they did not institute days of mourning, rather they pushed them off to the 9th of Av, since it is prohibited to establish new days of mourning." Other rabbis too would voice similar objections. When asked about Yom Hashoah, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein responded that it is not permissible to create a new day of mourning (Igrot Moshe, YD 4:57:11), as did Rav Velvel's nephew, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (See Nefesh Harav, p. 197-198). In an interesting footnote to Israeli history, Prime Minister Menachem Begin would seek to move Yom Hashoah to the 9th of Av following his meeting with Rabbi Soloveitchik in 1977. Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, the revered Chazon Ish, opposed establishing a fast day to commemorate the Shoah. He explained that we do not have the authority to establish fast days today, as fasts may only be established by the Prophets (Kovetz Igrot 1:97). But establishing a day of mourning and fasting – in addition to the 9th of Av – is not without precedent. The Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim 580:1) lists days "on which tragedies befell our forefathers, and it is proper to fast on them." Among those listed are tragic events which occurred after the destruction of the Holy Temple. In response to all of the opposition, Chief Rabbi Herzog pointed to specific communities that had established days of fasting and mourning and even received rabbinic approval (Teshuvot Heichal Yitzchak, Orach Chayim 61). In fact, the communities of Worms and Mainz – the very source for much of the opposition – observed a fast day to commemorate the destruction of their communities during the Crusades! And later, fasts would be established to commemorate the burning of the Talmud in France in 1242 and the Chmielnicki Massacres, which decimated Polish Jewry in the 17th Century (See Magen Avraham, Orach Chayim 580:8). Some argued that while the 9th of Av is indeed our national day of mourning, some tragedies are so devastating – so monumental – they require their own day of commemoration. That would certainly be the case with the Holocaust. The Slonimer Rebbe, Rabbi Shalom Noach Berezovsky, for example, was deeply pained that a special day was not established to mourn the tragedies of the Shoah (See his Kuntres Haharugah Alecha). In the early days of Statehood it was proposed that two(!) days be created to commemorate the Holocaust: One day to commemorate the heroism and bravery, which would coincide with the day the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began, and one day to mourn the tragic events, to be observed on 9th of Av. But in an attempt to reach a compromise between the secular government and religious community – and in hopes of appeasing some of the opposing rabbis – the Chief Rabbinate established the fast of the 10th of Tevet as Yom Hakaddish Haklali, a day for the recital of Kaddish, the memorial prayer, for those martyrs whose date of death is unknown and those who left no family behind to mourn them. In addition to Kaddish, they decided the day should be observed like a Yahrtzeit, with the lighting of a memorial candle, the recitation of Kel Maleh Rachamim, and the study of Mishna. Choosing a day to recite Kaddish is also not without precedent. The Magen Avraham (Orach Chayim 568:20, citing the Maharshal), rules that one who does not know the anniversary of his father's death may choose any day on which to observe the Yahrtzeit. The choice of the 10th of Tevet was not accidental. By choosing the 10th of Tevet – which commemorates the siege of Jerusalem in 589 BCE by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, one of 'Four Fasts' established by the sages to mourn the destruction of the Holy Temple – the Chief Rabbinate sought to imbue the day with a religious character and quiet those voices who opposed the creation of a 'new' memorial day. During the first Yom Hakaddish Haklali in December of 1949, the remains of thousands of Jews from the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp near Munich were buried together with desecrated Torah scrolls in Jerusalem, and special prayers were recited for the martyrs. Following much debate, on September 1, 1951, the Knesset passed a resolution establishing the 27th of Nisan as Yom Hashoah U'mered Haghettot. Later, on April 8, 1959, the Knesset passed a law officially establishing Yom Hazikaron La'shoah Ve'lag'vurah, Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day, as an annual "commemoration of the disaster which the Nazis and their collaborators brought upon the Jewish people and the acts of heroism and revolt performed." The law stipulates that the day be observed by a two-minute silence bringing the entire country to a halt, along with memorial gatherings and commemorative events. Some rabbinic authorities objected to the choice of the month of Nisan, as some customs of mourning are prohibited the entire month because of the holiday of Passover. In addition, some opposed 'secular' commemorations like sirens and moments of silence – practices they deemed not be 'Jewish.' But with time, Yom Hashoah was accepted by most of Israeli society as a day of reflection and mourning, and today is widely observed. Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, who himself had survived the horrors of the Holocaust, defended the establishment of Yom Hashoah. In a preface to one of his responsa, he provides a compelling argument for the observance of such a day: "In my opinion it is proper to establish a special day of mourning and remembrance to remember the rabbis and holy Jews who were murdered, butchered, and burned in the sanctification of God's Holy Name, and to remember on this day the souls of these martyrs. We must do so not just because of the honor due these martyrs alone, but because of future generations that they not forgot what our people lost when the evil, murderous darkness covered over Europe" (Seridei Eish, new edition 1:31). Watch: IDF soldiers sing 'Ani Maamin' while preparing packages for the elderly Soldiers from the Sderot yeshiva, Karnei Shomron, and Gush Etzion hold their own Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/278973?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl See you tomorrow bli neder We need Moshiach Now Love Yehuda Lave Rabbi Yehuda Lave PO Box 7335, Rehavia Jerusalem 9107202 LIKE TWEET FORWARD You received this email because you signed up on our website or made purchase from us. Unsubscribe