העורך Editor

Excerpt from a master shiur on Aliyah by Rabbi Zev Leff:

We must refrain from feeling settled and fulfilled as long as we are outside the Land. This attitude need not lead to melancholy but should instead actually enhance one’s spiritual life. It affords direction in aspiring towards the proper values and lifestyle. Interestingly, it may also provide physical protection for the community in which one resides now, as illustrated by the following account from the Shearis Yisroel, in the name of Rav Yehoshua Falk, the author of the SMA.

The city of Worms was devastated twice during the Crusades. Why did a city blessed with pious Torah scholars merit such a fate? When Ezra hasofer returned to Eretz Yisroel to begin his work on the second Beis HaMikdash, he sent letters to all the major kehillos of the time inviting them to return with him. The kehilla of Worms, which had been established since the destruction of the first Temple, responded: “Peace unto you, Ezra hasofer! May you be successful in establishing the grand Beis HaMikdash in the grand Yerushalayim. We, however, will remain here in our `small Yerushalayim’ and with our mikdash meat, our small Temple.” This attitude, tragically common even in our own day, spiritually blemished the city to such an extent that it was especially vulnerable to the attacks of the Crusaders many years later.

And if in fact your personal circumstances do not exempt you from fulfilling this magnificent mitzva, then do not delay. If you keep in mind the benefits which will accrue to you personally, as well as the tremendous advantage to the klal, you will surely act with alacrity. Preparations need not be elaborate. The most important preparation that one can make is learning and teaching his family the importance of Eretz Yisroel in the total picture of avodas HaShem – for each Jew, and for the Jewish nation.

Here is the abovementioned story in Seder Hadoros:

ר’ יוזפ שמש בבחרותו למד בישיבת הגאון מורינו פנחס סג”ל כשהיה אב”ד בק”ק פולדא, והיה זה שנת ש”פ, ואמר בשם רבו הג”מ ואלק בעל מחבר סמ”ע, מה ששכיחין גזרות בק”ק ווירמשא יותר משאר קהלות ומדינות כי בחורבן בית ראשון באו ונתישבו בק”ק ווירמז ואחר כלות שבעים שנים גלות בבל חזרו הגולים לירושלים ולארץ ישראל ואלו אשר היו בווירמז לא חזרו לארץ ישראל, וכתבו יושבי ירושלים לאנשי ק”ק ווירמז שיבאו גם הם לישב בארץ ישראל כדי שיהיו יכולין לעלות בשלש רגלים לירושלים שהוא רחוק מאד מהם, ולא השגיחו על זה וכתבו תשובה שבו אתם בירושלים הגדולה ואנחנו נדור פה ירושלים קטנה, כי באותו הפעם היו חשובים מאד בעיני השר והנכרים והיו עשירים גדולים, ובענין זה נתחדש עליהם גזירות יותר משאר קהלות ומדינות, והג”מ פנחס הנ”ל סוף ימיו חזר לפראג והיה אפלנט וגאון גדול, היה בקי בכל הש”ס ואשר”י בעל פה, לא נשמע כמוהו. ומנוחתו כבוד בק”ק פראג, וספדו אותו שלשים יום כמו על משה רבינו. ספר מעשה נסים בלשון אשכנז דף נ”ז א’ סימן א’.

Read the rest of Rabbi Leff here…

Jews who came here to escape Hitler were called “Hitler Zionists“.

We asked our dear readers what the Johnny-Come-Lately Olim, those who only come to escape the downfall of the American Empire, should be called.

Here were some of the responses received:

• Antifa Zionists
• Clinton Zionists
• Democrat Zionists
• Biden Zionists
• BLM Zionists
• White nationalist uprising Zionists
• (For the UK:) Labour party Zionists
• Coronavirus Zionists
• Cuomo Zionists

P.S.,

Avigdor Peretz comments: Back then they were escaping for their lives; today’s Jews may also be leaving because of an assault on their values (the liberal leftist “Jews” have the same “values” being imposed now).

האם היהודים מקריבים קורבנות?

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Reprinted with permission.

“הַעֵ֤ת לָכֶם֙ אַתֶּ֔ם לָשֶׁ֖בֶת בְּבָתֵּיכֶ֣ם סְפוּנִ֑ים וְהַבַּ֥יִת הַזֶּ֖ה חָרֵֽב׃” (חגי א ד)

“עֲל֥וּ הָהָ֛ר וַהֲבֵאתֶ֥ם עֵ֖ץ וּבְנ֣וּ הַבָּ֑יִת וְאֶרְצֶה־בּ֥וֹ ואכבד [וְאֶכָּבְדָ֖ה] אָמַ֥ר יְהוָֽה׃” (חגי א ח)

Excerpt from Yonoson Rosenblum’s Mishpacha editorial (thanks to Avigdor Peretz!):

BLM’s “SYSTEMIC RACISM” rhetoric, which neatly divides the world into immutable categories of white oppressors, irremediably tainted with racism, and black victims, offers nothing in terms of addressing the real problems of the black community. As Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institution writes, the greatest problem facing the black community is not victimhood, it is too many black boys growing up without fathers.

At least two-thirds of black children fall into that category. The absence of fathers is the best predictor of trouble ahead whether for blacks or whites. Children without fathers are 20 times more likely to end up in prison, 20 times more likely to drop out of high school, 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders, and nine times more likely to be institutionalized. And the list goes on.

The single motherhood rate in the black community was 22 percent in the 1960s and approximately 73 percent today. Economist Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution has written, “Centuries of slavery, generations of Jim Crow did not destroy the black family. One generation of the welfare state did.” A collateral effect of the Great Society programs was to render fathers extraneous to financial support, and to create incentives for their absence.

See the rest here…