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14 Teves 5773 - December 27, 2012 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Changes in the Draft Exemption Procedure of Yeshiva Students

As a result of the active intervention and meetings of the Finance Committee Chairman, MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni, and Health Minister MK Rabbi Yaakov Litzman with military personnel, a new arrangement has been achieved regarding the entire process of the call up of yeshiva students to the army draft board. Instructions issued by the army to the draft office state that yeshiva students will not be forced to undergo physical examinations, which have aroused much rancor of late. The draft board will suffice with medical reports from the students' family physicians.

Disallow Kadima Campaign for Incitement Against Avreichim

MK Rabbi Yisroel Eichler urgently appealed to the chairman of the Central Election Committee for the 19th Knesset, Judge Elyakim Rubinstein, to stop the election campaign of the Kadima party on the grounds that it is an anti-Semitic, inciteful and falsified platform against the avreichim community.

Kinneret Level Continuing to Rise

The blessed rains falling last week have already stopped but the steady flow from northern streams into the Kinneret is continuing to swell it nonetheless.

HaRav Sholom Shachne Zohn Zt"l

Mourning and pained, throngs of people accompanied HaRav Sholom Shachne Zohn to his eternal rest. HaRav Zohn was a rosh yeshiva in Torah Vodaas for many years in Williamsburg, author of "Ateres Yaakov" chiddushim on many tractates of Shas, Zohar and others, also shu"t Ateres Yaakov, and one of the great elders of our generation, a pillar of pure avoda and hashkofoh. He was also a link between the past generation of Mussar giants who was privileged to meet the Chofetz Chaim, was a devoted disciple of HaRav Yeruchom of Yeshivas Mir and studied with HaRav Boruch Ber Leibowitz of Kamenitz. He absorbed the ways and teachings of these latter generation giants both in knowledge and spirit, becoming a living example of yiras Shomayim and self sacrifice for all Jewish values.


The Dubno Maggid - Rabbi Yaakov Krantz
In honor of his yahrtzeit, 17 Teves

A fascinating tapestry of stories and parables is woven by the classic maggid and then wrapped around the rebuke and message he wishes to convey. Warmly receptive to the beauty of the masterful creation it has received, his audience eagerly imbibes the mussar too.

From Our Archives


Opinion and Comment
Jew Hatred

by Rav Alexander Zusha Friedman, Hy'd

Introduction

Again it's happening -- blood, fire and smoke rising heavenward. Jews burning alive in the city streets Rachmono litzlan, al kiddush Hashem. Nobody has any solution. Nobody knows what the morrow will bring. The leaders of the State have nothing left to say, except to deliver the same old cliche responses about our power and strength. As believing Jews, we must once again go in search of the roots of the hatred that the whole world bears towards our ancient nation.

The following article was written by Rav Alexander Zusha Friedman, Hy'd, one of the foremost chareidi writers before and during World War Two, in the course of which he perished. Rav Friedman was an Agudas Yisroel leader and author of Ma'ayono Shel Torah. He analyzes the scourge of antisemitism through the ages, with sharpness and clarity, down to his own day. Sadly, his ideas are just as relevant today as when he wrote them.

Opinion and Comment

Right That Is Left


by R' Yerachmiel Kram

"He crossed his hands because Menashe was the firstborn" (Bereishis 48:4).

Yosef brings his two sons, Menashe and Efraim, to be blessed by Yisroel, their grandfather. Before Yaakov begins to bless them, Yosef places them in readiness: Menashe, the firstborn, at Yaakov's right hand and Efraim, the younger, to Yaakov's left. Now the three await Yaakov's benediction, but Yaakov is not satisfied with the position of his grandsons. For reasons of his own, he chooses to place his right hand upon Efraim's head and his left, upon the firstborn.




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