שיר: כי נחם ד’ ציון נחם כל חרבתיה וישם מדברה כעדן

Ki Nicham – Single – Yosef Zev Braver & Yanki Cohen • יוסף זאב בראווער ויענקי כהן – כי נחם – סינגל

Published on Jul 26, 2018

כִּי נִחַם ה׳ צִיּוֹן נִחַם כָּל חָרְבֹתֶיהָ וַיָּשֶׂם מִדְבָּרָהּ כְּעֵדֶן וְעַרְבָתָהּ כְּגַן ה׳ שָׂשׂוֹן וְשִׂמְחָה יִמָּצֵא בָהּ תּוֹדָה וְקוֹל זִמְרָה
(ישעיהו כג, ה)
לחן: יענקי כהן
עיבוד, הפקה, ומיקס: יענקי כהן
שירה: יוסף זאב בראווער

From YouTube, here.

Uncovering the Truth in the Land of Lies

Opinion: It’s Important To Hear Blatant Lies From Both Sides Before Forming Your Opinion On Any Political Issue

June 22nd, 2018

It’s time to talk about a troubling trend in how we handle our national discourse: the current political landscape is full of lies, half-truths, and fake news, but the average person only ever consumes half of that. Thanks to people being ever more partisan in their news consumption, most people are only exposed to one distorted version of reality, completely missing out on an equally ludicrous alternative version of events.

This is a crisis. Voters are going to the polls having been manipulated by only one side, scared into voting by one set of myopic irrational fears and not hearing the alternative nonsense that could have resulted in an equally uninformed vote in another direction. Everyone is increasingly comfortable with “their” hyperbolic trolls, seeing only one side as basically Hitler instead of recognizing the Hitler in everyone.

This has to end. People need to broaden the propaganda they listen to and be exposed to all the incorrect ways of looking at an issue. Listening to only one set of lies is part of what leads to all the destructive anger in our politics, but if people only opened up and really listened to all falsehoods, they could replace that anger with much healthier confusion.

And maybe, just maybe, people might stumble onto something real. Two half-truths added together equals a whole truth. That’s just math.

From The Babylon Bee, here.

Minimalism, the Jewish Way

Quoting Rabbi Avigdor Miller:

That’s what the gemara (Nedarim 81a) says: שלחו מתם, they sent a message from Eretz Yisroel, הזהרו בבני עניים, be careful with the children of the poor. When poor boys come to the Yeshiva, welcome them. Their fathers might not contribute much, but welcome them with open arms,  שמהם תצא תורה, Torah comes from poor boys. Why from the poor boys? So the Ran says:  שאין להם עסק אחר, they have nothing else to do but learn. The wealthy boys are busy with their cars, their fancy bikes, their new watches, – but the poor boy has none of this “baggage” on his mind. He has nothing to waste time with. So he sits in the yeshiva all day long. When I was a boy, my friends had bikes. But I didn’t; I didn’t have a bike. And so while my friends rode the streets, I stayed in the beis knesses and learned. And I’m none the worse for it! The one who has nothing else on his head, that’s the only one who will succeed at filling his mind with the thoughts of Hakodosh Boruch Hu.

Now, as much as we can, we have to follow the model of the בני עניים, the poor boys. As much as possible, even if you’re a wealthy man, the בני עניים are to be our model. It doesn’t mean you must be poor. Hakodosh Boruch may bless you with a great amount of money in your life. But nevertheless, in your house, and more importantly, in your mind, you should attempt to live like a poor man, with the least amount of superfluities. You should get along with the minimum amount of baggage of the mind as you can.

See the rest here.