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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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The Three Musketeers at the Kotel

The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember.

The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave.

Belgian Teacher Who Rescued Hundreds of Jewish Children Dead at 100 By David Israel

Andrée Geulen-Herscovici, a Belgian teacher and member of the resistance during the German occupation of Belgium during World War II who rescued close to 400 Jewish children from the Gestapo, died on May 31 in Ixelles, outside Brussels.

According to yad Vashem, Andrée Geulen was a 20-year-old teacher in a Brussels school when one day some of her students came to school with yellow stars on their clothes. She responded by ordering all her students to wear aprons to school, so the Jewish kids could cover the humiliating tags.

Geulen volunteered to accompany Jewish children to hiding places in cooperation with the Gaty de Gamont boarding school that harbored twelve Jewish children on its premises. In May 1943, the school was raided by the Germans in the middle of the night. The date coincided with the Pentecost when all the non-Jewish students had left for home, and the Germans were able to pick out the Jewish children who were arrested, and their teachers, including Geulen, were interrogated. That night, Geulen went to tell all the Jewish students she knew of the raid and warned them not to come back to school.

She rented an apartment under her false name and kept contact with the rescue underground using a post office box in an antique shop. For more than two years, Andrée collected children and moved them to Christian families and monasteries, making sure the families were able to take in the children and visiting them to look after their needs.

After liberation by the allies, Geulen labored to retrieve the children from their Christian hosts and return them to their relatives. She kept in touch with "her" children for many years, sharing with them the details of their childhood in hiding.

Geulen was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1989. She was granted honorary Israeli citizenship at Yad Vashem in 2007, as part of the "Children Hidden in Belgium during the Shoah" International Conference. She said, "What I did was merely my duty. Disobeying the laws of the time was just the normal thing to do."

She also received honorary citizenship from her home town of Ixelles. Her 100th birthday on September 6, 2021, was celebrated by the Belgian media.

The Portion of Balak

A War of Words

Balak ben Tzipor, the king of Moav, sees the devastating defeat of the Amorites at the hand of the Israelites, and realizes that he is in great danger. In order to fight against the Children of Israel he decides to enlist the assistance of Bilam ben Be'or, an expert on curses.

Bilam is convinced to come to Moav and activate his secret weapon.

However, as we know, not only didn't he curse the Children of Israel but he blessed them.

"Who counted the dust of Jacob…" (Numbers 23;10) The upper part of the letter "ayin" in both the word "afar" and "Yaakov" looks like the letter "yud", an allusion to ten commandments which the people of Israel keep even in the dust and therefore it is impossible to curse them.

When they go out to plow: "Do not plow with an ox and a donkey together" (Deuteronomy 22;10).

When they go out to plant: "Do not sow your field with two kinds of seed" (Leviticus 19;19).

When they go to eat, they spread their ten fingers before the Almighty and say: "My Master, these ten fingers do not taste anything until they have fulfilled your ten commandments in the dust". They then spread their two hands and recite the "hamotzi", a blessing which consists of ten words. (Sefer Rokeiach on the Torah, and mentioned by Rashi- with a change- on this verse.)