Time to cross “putting tefillin on in the middle of a crowded Nordic bookshop” off my bucket list.
The Torah is central to Judaism. The text, consisting of the Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, provides the basis for the 3,000-year-old religion, serving as a legal guide as well as a history of the Jewish people. The Torah contains 613 commandments, with the final one, to write your own Torah, appearing in Deuteronomy 31:19: “Now therefore write this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel.”
Rosh Hashanah is here which means Yom Kipur is around the corner and you know what that means? Time for the annual protests of the annual chicken swinging ritual known as kapparot. The generally fatal chicken “swinging” and slaughtering most often performed on the day before Yom Kippur (but can be held anytime between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur) and has some very vocal adversaries. Opponents, who this year advertised briefly in Times Square, aren’t against the ritual so much as they’re against the chicken killing.
Shamai and Sara Leah (nee Lando) Weinberger (Antwerp, Belgium)
Srulie Estrin (Pittsburgh, PA) and Leiba Herman (Raleigh, NC)
Mendel and Chaya Leah Sandhaus (Crown Heights)
Rabbi Jacob Goldstein will lead Yom Kippur services this year dressed not in the black fedora of his Lubavitch Hasidic sect, but in full battle gear at a Combat Operating Base in eastern Afghanistan.
The euphoria of yomtov was shattered in Uman on Rosh Hashanah as the news spread of the death of a 19-year-old bachur who drowned toveling in a local river.
It was a Rosh Hashana from hell for one Jew after he spent its first night in the custody of the NYPD, following a stupid altercation. Disturbing video footage, captured by an equally disturbed reader with a cell phone camera, shows a large number police officers manhandling the Jew who was trying to defend himself, constantly asking why he was being arrested.
As we are all making our final preparations to usher in the new year, we – the staff at CrownHeights.info – would like to wish our loyal readers and fans a happy and healthy sweet new year, K’siva Vachasima Tova, Leshono Tova Tikosaivu V’Tichosemu and a Gut Gebentched Yohr. May this year be a safe, successful and prosperous year to all, and may we achive our ultimate goal and report the coming of Moshiach speedily in our days!
Tzvi Bogomilsky, 36, a resident of Florida, is the man behind what some would call the largest hachnasas orchim operation in the world, playing a major role in Uman’s Rosh Hashanah event hosted by Breslov.
When he was 18 and still living in his hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Beryl Epstein received a call from his older brother, Mordechai, who was about to join the Israel Defense Forces.
It looked, this week, like there might be progress for women in Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah granted women the right to vote, and to run for election to municipal councils and be appointed full voting members of the Majlis Al-Shura, a government advisory group. According to a New York Times editorial this week, however, women will still need the approval of a male family member.
Fulfilling the dream of having a child is something not all of us are fortunate enough to experience. Not many people give much thought to the subject of infertility. To most people it comes natural but that is not always the case.
CROWN HEIGHTS [CHI] — A man was shot eight times and killed late Thursday night last week and the police have not been able to identify him. The victim has been listed as a John Doe in the Kings County morgue and police have no leads on who killed him.
Just before sundown on Monday, dozens of children on the back patio of the Altman Family Chabad Community Center were carrying around ram’s horns, working sandpaper across the rough shell or trying to blow a note, any note, through their new shofars.
The sputtering economy is fueling changes in synagogues’ ticketing policies and marketing strategies for their annual High Holy Days services.
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