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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.

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Lockdown Extended Until Oct. 14: No Sukkah Visits, No Protests, No Shuls

Israel's cabinet ministers on Wednesday night approved the extension of the country's lockdown until October 14, three days later than originally planned and four days after the end of the holidays.

Speaking of holidays, the cabinet issued one new rule prohibiting a person from staying in the sukkah of others, punishable by a fine of NIS 500 ($146). Now that is the law, I was suggested by someone that you should partner with your host on his succah. Now that you have a partnership in the succah, it is not someone else's succah, it is yours as well. No law says the succah has to be by your house, it could be where your host is staying. This works pretty well if you have only six people or so in the succah. The reason they put the law in was to stop 100's of people gathering at succahs, so they needed a law. By partnering with your host you are still in your own succah!

The vote was held among the ministers over the phone after they had been told that "in view of the morbidity and the number of serious patients, which is increasing daily, it is necessary to continue to take significant steps to reduce the morbidity data for a period of at least two weeks."

Blue&White ministers Assaf Zamir, Yizhar Shai, and Orit Farkash-Hacohen voted against the decision.

The same phone poll also approved a restriction on leaving the house up to a distance of 1,000 meters for the purpose of participating in a demonstration, prayer service, or any similar purpose.

guests (uzpizian) coming to the Succah!

The Three Musketeers at the Kotel

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Leftists Blame America, Decent People Blame Themselves

By Dennis Prager

As long ago as the 1970s, I came to a major realization. While watching fellow students at Columbia University demonstrate not just against the war in Vietnam but against America – "Amerika," as many spelled it, the "imperialist," "colonialist," "mass-murdering" country – I kept wondering what made these people so hostile to the freest country in human history.

Then, one day, as a result of my having attended a yeshiva through high school, the reason became clear. Half of each school day was devoted to religious studies in Hebrew, and the other half was devoted to secular studies in English. This meant that I had been immersed in a religious worldview until college.

Though it was Jewish, this worldview could also be called "Judeo-Christian." Students at traditionally Christian schools were immersed in essentially the same worldview. We were all taught that the most important battle we need to wage in life was with our own nature. Jews and Christians learned from the same Scripture that "the will of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8:21).

Therefore, being a good person involves a constant battle with our flawed human nature: our urges, appetites, and innate weaknesses. This battle was also the only real route to a better world. Every individual has to work on him or herself to be decent, strong, courageous, and self-controlled, and every parent had to work, first and foremost, on raising such people.

One day, I came to realize that this was not how the vast majority of my fellow students were raised. They were raised to believe that the great battle in life was not with one's nature but with outside forces – with parents, in many cases, but most of all with society, i.e., America.

All of us, whatever our political outlook, have to confront personal failure, loss, disappointment, and unhappiness. When confronted with these challenges, religious Jews and Christians are taught to look inward for both the primary source of their problems and the primary solutions to those problems: What have I done wrong? What can I change in my life to solve my problems?

Of course, some non-religious liberals and conservatives also have this attitude. But most of them likely inherited it from religious parents or, at the very least, from parents who were raised in a religious home or a home that retained the remnants of such an upbringing, which was common in pre-1960s America. (It is therefore questionable how many secular parents will succeed in passing this attitude on to their children.)

The left, which proudly rejects Judeo-Christian values, has adopted the opposite of the Judeo-Christian view regarding pain in life. Leftists (as opposed to liberals) hold outside forces responsible for their pain. That's the reason for the litany of left-wing enemies: capitalism, patriarchy, misogyny, systemic racism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, sexism, xenophobia.

So, if you are an unhappy American woman, you can work on yourself and your nature, or you can blame sexism and patriarchy – i.e., men, for your pained state. If you are an unhappy black American, you can work on yourself and your life, or you can blame systemic racism and whites for your anger and unfulfilled life.

All this explains why the left encourages every group except for white Christian males to regard themselves as oppressed. The more oppressed women, blacks, etc., see themselves, the more they are alienated from America and its values, and the more they gravitate left. In light of this, I came up with a riddle:

Q: What do you call a happy black person?

A: A Republican.

Without an exception I can recall, over the course of decades, I have guessed the political affiliation of every black caller to my radio show within a minute of talking to them. If the caller sounded happy, I knew he or she was a Republican; if the caller was angry, I knew he or she was a Democrat.

America has been a great country because it was built on the belief that we must all fight against our natures (and fight for our country). It is difficult to overstate the damage the left is doing to this country by abandoning the fundamental Judeo-Christian teaching that we must fight our natures in order to lead a more decent and happy life and replacing it with the belief that we must battle America instead.

This replacement inevitably leads to a population of unhappy, ungrateful and mean-spirited human beings – precisely the type of individuals you see rioting and looting, the type of elected officials who do nothing to stop rioters and looters, the columnists and academics who devote their lives to spewing hate-filled lies about America, and the Twitter mobs who comprise the toxic cancel culture.

It will lead to what the left acknowledges it seeks: the end of America as we have known it.

On Sept 15th, we had the highlight of our Rabbi Yehuda Glick adventures.
We were at the Southern wall and blew the shofar at the Hulda Gate and the Southern Wall. We climbed to the top of the scaffolding at the Southern wall which is fixing the Southern Wall stone. Robert the Greatest Shofar blower and I were the left and right-hand men.
The Huldah Gates are the two sets (western part- double gates, eastern - triple gates) of blocked gates in the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount - 2,000 years old - The time of the second temple

This is Natalie Blackman's video of our trip up and down the scaffolding next to the Southern Wall--what an adventure!

'Mental illness more dangerous than COVID-19'

Suicide among the elderly population has seen a drastic uptick during CV-19 lockdowns.

As the international community marked World Suicide Prevention Day, 2020, Motti Zelikovich, CEO of Yad Tamar, an organization that assists cancer patients in Israel, discussed the increasingly high suicide rate among the elderly population, a phenomenon that has intensified in recent months due to the additional hardships caused by the coronavirus crisis.

"The suicide rates are high in general, and among the elderly, it's much more pronounced," he said during an interview with Arutz Sheva News. "Many older aged individuals feel like they're being locked up in cages during lockdowns, without the ability to leave the house or see family members. They say they're in despair, beneath everyone else in social standing, that they're being locked up now like they were during the Holocaust. It's important to protect yourself from the virus, but many amongst the elderly population who can still manage on their own are finding themselves locked up at home," he notes.

"Mental illness is killing more of them than the virus. Yes, both the old and young need to be protected [from contact with CV-19 carriers] but don't automatically close down the country," he says and adds, "Why should the Rosh Hashannah meal be any different from last Shabbat as long as I'm in a 'green' city?"

Zelikovich discussed the numerous threats facing Israel's elderly as well as training of volunteers around the country to help communities better deal with crisis scenarios. "I call on local authorities to have us train teams for dealing with crisis situations, including suicide prevention, as well as helping the elderly deal with their loneliness and not allowing them to degenerate into horrible mental conditions."

"I ask the state to think twice before imposing a general closure. I am not against precautionary measures and closing certain areas here and there, but wide-ranging measures tend to cause a lot of mental distress for the elderly population, many of whom are Holocaust survivors. That loneliness, combined with inspectors on the streets remind them of difficult images from the past. I am convinced that creative solutions can be found for individuals in need of quarantine or ones facing mental distress."

Today is the first day of chol hamoed Sukkot

Sukkot, considered one of the happiest times in the Jewish calendar, comes out 15 days after the Jewish new year and five days after Yom Kippur. It is the first harvest festival of the year, and it also commemorates the 40 years of wandering the Israelites underwent in the desert on their way to Canaan, the promised land. During the time of the temples in Jerusalem, people came to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage (called an aliyah leregel – ascending by foot) for this festival with fruits and other gifts to offer as sacrifices in the temple.

Within an hour or two of the fast of Yom Kippur ending, you can hear hammering and drilling around town. Many of Jerusalem's residents seize the opportunity to prepare for Sukkot, the Feast of Booths, by building their sukkot, the temporary structures in which Jews dwell for the seven days of the holiday.

To be exact, the last day, although attached to Sukkot, is a different holiday, namely Simchat Torah, the day that celebrates the completion of the annual cycle, the reading of the Torah. It is commemorated with much singing and dancing at synagogues – and even on the streets – with Torah scrolls, throughout Jerusalem, Israel, and the entire Jewish world.

This year Sukkot begins before sundown October 2, and it ends after sundown on October 9. Sukkot is one of the most vibrant times of the year in Jerusalem.

See you tomorrow bli neder

We need Moshiach now!

Love Yehuda Lave