A week ago, when a private letter from Rabbi Ezra Schochet, addressed to the Beis Din of Johannesburg and Chabad Representative Rabbi Yossi Goldman, was leaked to CrownHeights.info, calling it “prohibited and unacceptable” for any Chabad Rabbi to allow Rabbi Shmuley Boteach to speak in their synagogues, I didn’t give it much thought.
It was early 1948 and Jewish united forces in the British Mandate of Palestine mobilized against enemy armies trying to wash them from the region. The Jewish community worldwide took note. Among them was a young Rabbinical Student in Brooklyn, NY, Tzvi Hirsh Gansbourg. He had arrived in the States less than a year earlier – from the British Mandate of Palestine — to study alongside his Rabbi, the then leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Rabbi Yosef Y. Schneerson.
Fact: Divorce happens. Fact: There is never a good Divorce. Fact: Divorce affects all segments of society. Fact: Frum people are not immune. Fact: Chabad has its fair statistical share as well. Fact: Even Shluchim get divorced sometimes. Ugly Fact: Withholding a Get is a uniquely horrid tool in a husband’s psychological war on his wife during a divorce.
I was listening to the radio recently when I heard the President express his opinion that marijuana is not that bad – “no worse than alcohol”. Add to that the fact that some States have legalized marijuana use, although to varying degrees, and we have a budding recipe for disaster.
A growing number of countries have restricted ritual slaughter under the guise of animal welfare.
I would like to point out the hypocrisy of our school administrations. On dangerous snow days, our school administrators demonstrate caring and devotion for our children’s ongoing education by going on “Mesiras Nefesh” and keeping the schools open.
After announcing the closure of the hyper-controversial website Crown Heights Watch, founder Meyer Seewald released the following statement in response to critics who suggested that the costs of maintaining a website are minimal, and that lack of funding couldn’t be the reason for the website’s shuttering.
There is something objectionable to the hard line reactions to news of Yair Netanyahu’s out-of-faith romance. It isn’t that the critics are wrong; only, they are going about it all wrong.
“I want to write Schvartze on your face and then take a picture.”
I was stunned and not stunned. This is what I was here for. It had to come down to this. I was sitting with photographer Steve Rosenfield, creator of the What I be Project. Steve offers people the opportunity to express their insecurities, by writing them on their faces. After a discussion about myself, Steve and I decided we would write Shvartze (yiddish/german for black) on my face.
I honestly wanted to step away from the computer and forget that I ever had strong feelings on this subject. That way, I wouldn’t have to do anything about it. The thought, however, of possibly reaching one person out there and removing the false tune of failure playing in their heart compelled me to continue.
It seems that there has been much written about Tznius over the years and, in most cases, it has to do with skirt length, head covering and various rabbis professing to know the thoughts of G-d. And yet, with all that has been written, so few seem to fully “get” what Tznius is.
The road to National Hockey League fame and glory is often pock-marked by a myriad of stories among prospects and players alike in the manner for how each reached the summit of the ice sport, sprinkled in with a few interesting tidbits along the way.
Texas Shliach Rabbi Chaim Lazaroff explains why he refuses to babysit his children, this with his wife Chanie attending the International Kinus Hashluchos this week.
“I have seen a true Ohev Yisroel!” is the title of a letter we received from one of our readers, who wishes to share with the community the kindness he experienced from a modern-day Baal Shem Tov in our community.
They say that educating a child properly takes 50% skill, 50% prayers and 50% tears. This equation expresses two things: Firstly, my life-long frustration with all things math-related. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the difficulty and struggles that go along with trying to mold a living being into a mentsch.
Character assassination is a misuse of freedom of the press. Especially when the assassination is based on speculation.
I have watched my daughters struggle to breathe. I stood by as they were wheeled into emergency rooms attached to oxygen masks and IV fluids. It doesn’t get easier; on the contrary, the fear deepens every time.
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