Tzefas Is Not Just for Visiting…

No Reason to Go Back

Eli Mendel, Tzefas

I grew up in Manchester, attended school in Yeshiva Ketana Chayei Olam in London, and then the Yeshiva of Gateshead. Afterwards, I went to Eretz Yisroel to learn by R’ Tzvi Kushelevsky for two years, just because that’s what people were doing.

A shidduch was suggested for me with an American Israeli from Tzefas, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to live here or in Manchester because of the extremely different mentalities. Because I wanted to leave the door open to go back to Manchester, the shidduch was finalized without my commitment to living here in Eretz Yisroel. My wife suggested we first try living here for a year, and I felt secure doing so as I had “pas besalo“—that if I ever wanted, we could move back to Manchester. We have been here for nine years already and are very happy here. I see no reason to go back. In fact, we can’t even see ourselves living in chutz la’Aretz anymore.

We started out in Yerushalayim. It was quite ridiculous to pay a whole month’s salary for renting a basement, so we moved to Tzefas where the housing is much more affordable. You can even buy a private villa here—including a small unit to rent out to others—for less than a small apartment in Yerushalayim.

We came to Tzefas several years ago as part of the first major wave of young Chareidi families to move in. Back then there were four dogs in my building, which is not a common sight in your typical Chareidi neighborhood. Today there are none, and instead, you get to see lots of frum kids crossing the street to cheider or to school, just like in any other Chareidi city. If your impression of Tzefas is based on what you saw when you came here for vacation—even if it was only a few short years ago—I suggest you come to check it out again.

Here in Tzefas there is an atmosphere of peace and simplicity—you can be your real self here, as there is no need to show off. People here are friendly. In a way it’s like a shtetl [little village], but it’s also like a city. Besides for being beautiful and peaceful, Tzefas has everything we need. There are all kinds of mosdos and shuls here. Though I send my kids to a good Chassidish school, I am learning in a Litvish kollel. There are good Litvish and Chassidish chadorim and schools through high school. The Chassidish are united here and not sectored. We feel we all need each other, so there can be a kana’i, a Belzer chossid and a Rachmastrivka chossid all joined, putting their personal yichus aside to make things happen in the community.

There are shops of every kind here and none of them are open on Shabbos. Though there are many Jews here who are traditional, they are nonetheless connected to and have respect for Yiddishkeit. Neighborhoods are becoming more Chareidi as the non-religious are not really moving in. There aren’t any churches or mosques here either.

There are also interesting job opportunities here. I get paid by someone to drive down every day to nearby Amuka to daven by the kever of the holy Tanna, Rabbi Yonasan Ben Uziel. I am also an agent for vacation apartments up north, for groups, yeshivos, and families. There are jobs specifically suitable for English speakers to engage in because of so many English-speaking tourists, including in the field of tourism and kiruv.

Tzefas has a very large English-speaking community, though they mostly are those who have come here to Eretz Yisroel at a young age and are therefore completely integrated with the Israelis. There are many Jews from France as well.

The calm atmosphere and the comfortable weather here have an appeal no less than places in chutz la’Aretz like where I grew up, while there is also the additional kedushas Eretz Yisroel. Being the highest city in Eretz Yisroel at nine-hundred meters above sea level, the breeze makes it comfortable even in the summer heat. The cold of the winter is something I’m used to from back in England. Being so elevated it often snows here. Magnificent views include the close-by Kinneret to the southeast and the snow-capped Hermon mountain to the north. On a clear day you can see all the way to Haifa on the west coast.

From here I can also easily and quickly get to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meiron whenever I want to. Some people from chutz la’Aretz pay thousands of dollars to come just for Lag Ba’omer, and for me it’s almost free.

After all is said, I don’t know where people get the notion that Tzefas is all about old mekubalim and broken-down houses. With such misconceptions, many people would not dare to live here. If they’d come for just a few weeks they’d be shocked to find it’s such a beautiful and livable place, modern, yet with a lot of “character.” If they would know how it really is here, they would wish they would have the opportunity to join us. Though maybe not for people who would really miss hectic city life, those who are looking for quiet would really enjoy it here, living in “vacation land” the whole year round.

It’s All in the Mind

Among the countless great Tzaddikim buried in Tzefas there is one known as R’ Leib Ba’al Yissurim [the afflicted one]. According to legend, he promised that he would help anyone who needed a yeshua who would come to his kever and say the whole Tehillim on Erev Shabbos after chatzos.

He was one of the first Ashkenazim to settle in Chevron, moving in his later years to Tzefas. Although it is not known what yissurim he went through to acquire this title, all of the early pioneers here in Eretz Yisroel went through substantial yissurim to be zoche to live here.

In these times, the yissurim for us to be zoche to live in Eretz Yisroel sometimes just amounts to changing our mindset.

Reprinted with permission from Avira D’Eretz Yisroel.

‘Chizuk Emunah’ – The Antimissionary Work

EXTRACT FROM DUST COVER OF “FAITH STRENGTHENED”

BY ISAAC TROKI

Note: The copyright owner of the reprint of this Public Domain work has protected this work, and unauthorized reproduction thereof is prohibited.

INTRODUCTION

None of the many polemic responses to the relentless missionary activities of the church over the last four hundred years achieved as wide recognition from Jew or Christian as did Faith Strengthened (commonly known to Jews as “Chizzuk Emunah”).

Written in 1593, one year before his death, by Isaac Troki; a Lithuanian Jew notorious for refuting important Christian clergymen of his day; during the next two and a half centuries publication and dissemination was suppressed by the Jewish world in response to Christian persecution. (The English translation by Moses Mocatta bears the striking message: “Printed But Not Published. 1851.”) But even the threat of persecution was not able to prevent truth from undermining the “holy edifice” of lies erected to entrap the ignorant. In 1665, Johann Christoph Wagenseil covertly translated the manuscript into Latin under the title, “Satan’s Fiery Arrows.” Released with the fermenting of the French Revolution onto a public desperate to free itself from the intimidating shackles of the “Dark Ages” and the church’s suppression of any challenge to her authority, eminent intellectuals such as Voltaire immediately recognized the power of the work’s incontrovertible logic.

Today no less than before, Chizzuk Emunah presents readers with the most solid and comprehensive defense of the Jewish faith against the challenge of Christian dogma. Written primarily for Jews (not Christians), the object of this hallmark work is to equip them for encounters with Christian missionaries by revealing the lies and distortions used to entice Jews to convert. Under the light of a systematic analysis of the Hebrew scriptures – which Christians call the “Old Testament,” and the Christian scriptures – which Christians call the “New Testament,” all manner of falsifications are torn to shreds, one by one.

This publication includes an original and comprehensive Table of Contents. The book is divided into two parts. In Part I, the author examines the most common objections raised against the Jewish tradition by so-called “fundamentalist” missionaries, and explains from the plain and simple interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures how God’s covenants with His people have not been abrogated since the creation of the world. The erroneous use of these sacred scriptures to justify Christian doctrine is indisputably refuted. Part II highlights internal contradictions within the New Testament (including glaring inconsistencies between New Testament books) and the multiple-occurring texts of the Hebrew Scriptures (from the Greek Septuagint) endlessly and arrogantly misquoted in the “New Testament.”

Often time the unwary has been trapped by missionaries who quote intricate and difficult texts from the Jewish scriptures using biased Christian translations. (In our modern day and age, reliable translations by Jewish scholars are available which reveal the true context and nuance of even the most obscure passages.) The scriptures quoted are often called “proof-texts,” as though to suggest that Jesus can be “proven” to be the “Son of God” and the Jewish messiah from the Jews’ own scriptures. The author quotes from a version of the Bible by Simon Bundi, whose edition he considered to be most authentic at the time. Under the helpful guide of the author’s painstaking analysis of each scripture text, even the reader who lacks knowledge of the Hebrew mother tongue is able to discriminate between the clandestine devices of the Christian translators – designed to turn the Jewish scriptures against their own progenitors – and the true context.

Jews see conversion to Christianity as a subtle and spiritual form of the destruction of the Jewish People – a human chain, the transfer of which has continued unbroken from generation to generation in fulfilment of all the Bible prophecies – much to the amazement of the rest of the world.

“Faith Strengthened” is an eloquent declaration of title by the Jew against all false contenders to the eternal and irrevocable inheritance he acquired through Abraham, the father of faith in the One and True God.

Abraham – together with Sarah – taught that all human beings can have a direct relationship with their Maker. In this spirit, “Faith Strengthened” reminds us of the ancient Jewish tradition that the righteous of all nations have a part in the World to Come.

Now let the One and True God have the final word: “Any weapon sharpened against you will not succeed, and any tongue that will rise against you in judgment, you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness from Me – the word of the Lord.” (Isaiah 54:17)

Reprinted with permission.

Zeev Breier
Ph. 02-9919974, 0533119974
Email: zeevbreier@gmail.com

חתם סופר: סבלנות אחת עושה יותר מכמה תפילות

ויקרע יעקב שמלותיו וישם שק במתניו. (לז, לד)

אמרו במדרש (ב”ר פד, יט) לפי שתפס יעקב אבינו את השק לפיכך אינו זז לא ממנו ולא מבניו ולא מבני בניו עד סוף כל הדורות מרדכי (אסתר ד) וילבש שק ואפר. ולכאורה קשה איזו מתנה יש בזה, ואם זהו עונש על מה נענש? אלא, יעקב אבינו כל ימי חייו קיבל הרבה צרות מתוך שמחה, כמ”ש “קטנתי מכל החסדים”, שתמיד היה ירא שמא יגרום החטא. לא מצינו שתפס שק להתאבל, רק במכירת יוסף נכשל בזה, לפי שסבר שזה סימן שאבד עולם הבא כמו שפרש”י, עי”ז נגזר לבניו שלא יוכלו לעמוד בייסורים, אלא ילבשו שק ויתאבלו על צרותיהם. אבל באמת הוי קבל וקיים (נכנע ושפל ותתקיים), וסבלנות אחת עושה יותר מכמה תפילות, לכן לבסוף זמנה אסתר את המן ועשתה משתה, להורות ששמחה בה’ ובטחה בישועתו כי קרובה לבוא, אז הגיעה הישועה.

זה הפירוש (תהלים כב, כ) “רחוק מישועתי דברי שאגתי”, כל עוד שאני שואג, אני רחוק יותר מישועתי, (שם ד) “ואתה קדוש יושב תהלות ישראל” השי”ת יושב ומצפה לאותה מדה שהיה ישראל רגיל, להלל ולשבח בעת צרותיו

(דרשות חת”ם סופר)

Yonasan Rosenblum AGAINST Coercing the HPV Vaccine

Excerpt from Mishpacha Magazine:

LAST WEEK I FAITHFULLY WENT FOR MY ANNUAL FLU SHOT, and I have 20 grandchildren who have all completed their vaccine schedules, so I trust that I will not be accused of being an “anti-vaxxer.” But I find the bills currently on the legislative docket in New York mandating vaccinations against HPV concerning, and I believe that mainstream proponents of vaccinations should find them concerning as well.

I’m convinced that not a single Orthodox parent would willingly consent to the vaccination against HPV for their child. The bills have nothing to do with issue of vaccines against contagious childhood diseases. HPV is neither airborne nor contagious through casual contact.

Most important, there is no upside. There are far cheaper, less invasive, and safer ways to prevent cervical cancer than vaccination. The first is following a chaste and monogamous Torah life. That alone dramatically reduces the chances of being infected with any strains of HPV.

The second is going for regular exams and undergoing the appropriate screening tests. Cervical cancer does not develop quickly, and such a regime would identify pre-cancerous conditions and facilitate their treatment. In the developed world, where such exams are the norm, rates of cervical cancer are far lower than in the undeveloped world. Even proponents of the protective effect of the HPV vaccine admit that it should not be relied upon to the exclusion of the physician’s exams described above.

There is even preliminary evidence that HPV vaccines may lead to increased cervical cancer — at least in the developed world. Population cohorts with high rates of HPV vaccination when the vaccine first came on the market in 2006 show higher, not lower, rates of cervical cancer. That could be for one of two reasons or some combination thereof. The first is that those who have been vaccinated may feel that they are protected, and therefore forgo regularly scheduled physician’s exams. The second is that the vaccine may have an amplifying effect on those who have already been infected with one or more of the strains of HPV in the vaccine.

Ultimately, not all vaccines are equal. Most vaccines have been developed to combat highly contagious diseases that can be fatal and have few treatment options. Gardasil, however, targets a disease that is not highly contagious and its results are not backed by long-term data. Most importantly for our community, even mainstream defenders of vaccination cannot defend it as remotely necessary for the average Torah-observant patient.

See the rest here.

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