Belze Rebbe and Gerrer Rebbe, Nosei Ol Chaveiro Share in the pain of Mercaz Hara

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Thank you Batya Meidad of Shiloh for this post!

http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2008/03/signs-of-hope-ii.html

 

Signs of Hope -- II

The Belzer Rebbe [L] and the Gerer Rebbe [R]

Last Thursday night, sometime after the tragedy at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav, the Gerer Rebbe Shlita came to visit the Belzer Rebbe, to wish him Mazel Tov upon the Bar Mitzva of his grandson, which was celebrated last week. A warm, friendly conversation turned to the Beit Yisrael, one of the previous Gerer Rebbes, whose yahrzeit [anniversay of his passing] was upcoming [this past] Motzaei Shabbat. Towards the end of the conversation, the Belzer Rebbe asked the Gerer if he was going to be spending Shabbat in Yerushalayim with his Chassidim, in honor of the special Shabbat [called by Chassidim, "Shabbat yahrzeit"].
"No," he answered. "How can I spend Shabbat as usual, when eight young men were killed while at the Gemara [learning]?" (Another version has it that the Rebbe said, "How can I be responsible for thousands of people, after such an occurrence?")
It turns out that the Belzer Rebbe had not as yet known what had happened, and thus the bitter news was conveyed to him by the Gerer Rebbe.
Their conversation ended right after that.

***

Before we continue on with the Belzer Rebbe, let us consider what happened to the Gerer Rebbe and his Chassidim. The Shabbat following the attack at Mercaz HaRav was a very special one: Shabbat-Rosh Chodesh-Parshat Shekalim-[one of the four special Shabbatot in this Purim-Pesach season]-Chazak [the latter, completion of the Book of Exodus]. In addition, Motzaei Shabbat was the yahrzeit of the Beit Yisrael, as mentioned.
Many young Gerer Chassidim, who learn in yeshivot throughout Israel, had already come to Yerushalayim in anticipation of this special Shabbat. On Thursday afternoon, the Rebbe joined the throngs of his Chassidim for the afternoon Mincha prayers at the Gerer center in Yerushalayim.
But at night, after his meeting with the Belzer Rebbe, the Gerer Rebbe informed his attendant that was returning to Bnei Brak for Shabbat. He also cancelled the traditional visit to the Har HaZeitim [Mount of Olives] gravesite of the Beit Yisrael which was scheduled for Sunday.

***

After hearing the news from the Gerer Rebbe, the Belzer Rebbe stopped taking any visitors, and locked himself in his room for two full hours - to daven [pray] and say Tehillim. Thousands of Belzer Chassidim had been visiting Yerushalayim last week for the Bar Mitzva. Many of them had return flights to chutz la'aretz that night - but the Rebbe did not allow anyone to come in.
On Friday morning, the Rebbe did not attend Shacharit [morning] services with his Chassidim, and his entire schedule was altered. He attended the funeral at Mercaz HaRav, along with a large group of Belzer Chassidim.
For many years, it is a known fact that many talmidim of Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav attended the Belzer Tishes [special Shabbat meals with the Rebbe], which used to be held on Rechov Agrippas near the Yeshiva. But even now that the Tish is held in Kiryat Belz, they still come. At least one of the young men who was killed had attended the Rebbe's Tish within the last two weeks.

***

The Belzer Rebbe Shlita visited Shaarei Tzedek Hospital on Sunday, to visit the young men who remain hospitalized from gunshot wounds. The Rebbe arrived with his son, and first stopped in at the Intensive Care Unit - where one young man remains in grave condition. The Rebbe sat next to the bed, and spoke with the patient's father - giving him much needed Chizuk [encouragement] in these devastating times. The Rebbe said he would pray for the young man's speedy recovery. In the course of the conversation, the father noted that he had learned with the Rebbe when they were boys in Tel-Aviv.


The Rebbe then went to another young man - who is recovering from his wounds - and sat with him for a while. The young man related the entire incident that transpired on that dreadful Thursday night. The Rebbe then also gave this young man words of Chizuk to help him pull through.
These are the only two young men which are still in Shaarei Tzedek Hospital - as some others were discharged that morning.
Additionally, it has been learned that there will be an evening of Hespedim [eulogies] in Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav at the end of the week of Shiva [mourning], and the Rebbe is scheduled to attend.

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Fwd: Bush to push Israel, PA for progress before his May visit

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Please call OU, Agudath Yisroel of America, Chabad headquarters, and all mainstream established Jewish Organizations that have Public Affairs offices in Washington DC that the ROADMAP is a BADMAP!  Let your voice be heard once and for all by CONDELEEZA RICE! 

As Israeli radio show host Tamar Yonah writes in her blog, "Two States = The End of Israel."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/3#2653

 

 

 Thank you rosewalk@concentric.net for forwarding

 

 

Bush to push Israel, PA for progress before his May visit
By Barak Ravid

Haaretz Last update - 07:11 16/03/2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/964680.html

Washington is likely to pressure Israel and the Palestinian Authority to
make significant diplomatic progress before U.S. President George W. Bush
visits the region in May, a senior American official predicted.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to return here in about
10 days, her second visit this month. She will urge both parties to fulfill
their obligations under the road map peace plan and advance on final-status
talks.

"The president's visit in May is intended to take action and achieve
results, and therefore, the administration is interested in seeing some
progress on the Palestinian issue," the U.S. official said. "Bush does not
intend to act like a lame duck, so something has to happen on the ground by
the time of the president's visit."

The State Department is considering various steps that could be taken to
demonstrate progress. In particular, it would like Israel to start
evacuating illegal settlement outposts, which Bush deems very important. The
U.S. has been disappointed by Israel's inaction and its refrain of "we are
still negotiating with the settlers."

Another option is moving parts of the separation fence from the West Bank to
the Green Line.

Yet another is enacting a law to compensate settlers who leave the West Bank
voluntarily. The American official said that while the U.S. is not
intervening in this matter, it believes such a law would demonstrate
Israel's seriousness about a two-state solution.

"The U.S. does want to force any steps on Israel; rather, it wants Israel to
decide for itself what it can do," he said.

Yesterday, Rice lambasted both Israel and the PA.

"Frankly, not nearly enough has happened to demonstrate that the Israelis
and the Palestinians fully understand ... that without following road map
obligations and without improvements on the ground, it's very hard to
sustain this process," she told reporters en route to Chile. "There is a lot
of room for improvement on both sides."

The senior American official said, "The current Israeli approach to daily
Palestinian life strengthens Hamas in Gaza." The administration is working
to address Israel's security concerns, he added, but Israel must also do its
part.

"You can't eat security, you also need an economy," he said. "For this to
happen, Israel has to enable things to happen."

On Friday, a tripartite committee to monitor implementation of the road map
held its first meeting in Jerusalem. The meeting, chaired by U.S. General
William Fraser, was attended by PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Defense
Ministry official Amos Gilad. The PA slammed Defense Minister Ehud Barak for
sending a subordinate in his place.

Fraser said he would work with both sides on a plan to implement their road
map obligations: for the PA, fighting terror; for Israel, freezing
settlements, evacuating outposts and removing roadblocks. He said fulfilling
these obligations would take a year or two.

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Mishmeret Yesha: Yeshivas Need Rapid Response Teams

 

 

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Forwarded Message:

Subj: Mishmeret Yesha: Yeshivas Need Rapid Response Teams  Date: 3/16/2008 10:25:48 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time From: israelkaplan@yahoo.com To: israelkaplan@yahoo.com Sent from the Internet (Details)

 

Dear List

 

For close to the past 12 years we have been raising funds for Misnomered Yesha in order to better equip the Yishuvim against terrorist attacks.  Many of the more than 140 communities covering the expanse of Yehuda V'shomron who accepted training and no charge equipment were successful in reducing the numbers of serious casualties and injuries.   Those that chose not to be concerned with the threat of Arab terrorism have ultimately regretted not paying attention.   Yisrael Danziger has provided to a great service to Eretz Yisrael and we are glad to see that it is finally being recognized.  When he comes to Toronto or New York for help remember this name, Mishmeret Yesha/ Yisrael Danziger.

 

 

'Yeshivas Need Rapid Response Teams'

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420700903&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

by Matthew Wagner

Jerusalem Post March 16, 2008

In the wake of the terrorist shooting at Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva on March 6, a leading rabbi and high-ranking IDF officer called this week on all post-high school educational institutions to train rapid response teams capable of defending against future attacks.

Rabbi Col. (res.) Moshe Hager-Lau, chairman of the Premilitary Religious Academies and Assistant Divisional Commander of Reserve Forces in Judea and Samaria, sent a letter to a list of Torah institutions requesting that they beef up their security. "The attack on Mercaz Harav was proof that terrorists are targeting the 'atomic core' of religious Zionism," Hager-Lau wrote.

"I detect a definite trend," added the rabbi, who goes everywhere with an M-16 rifle slung over his shoulder. "The latest attack was on Mercaz Harav. But there was an attack just two months ago at the Mekor Haim Yeshiva [in Gush Etzion], and before that there were attacks on Atzmona [in Gush Katif] and Otniel [in the South Hebron Hills]."

Hager-Lau, who heads the Premilitary Academy in Yatir, south of Hebron, said that in counterterrorism, the first 10 minutes – the minimum amount of time it takes for the IDF to respond – were critical. "In the Mercaz Harav attack, the whole thing was over after about 10 minutes. The hope is to reduce the time it takes to respond by training an armed group of men who are present at all times on the yeshiva premises."

Part of the proposed security policy would include a limitation on employing Arabs, since both Palestinians and Israeli Arabs could potentially be terrorists or terrorist collaborators.

According to the family of Ala Abu Dhaim, the terrorist who killed eight Mercaz Harav students and wounded nine, the yeshiva had employed Abu Dhaim as a driver. However, yeshiva head Rabbi Ya'acov Shapira denied that Abu Dhaim was a yeshiva employee. Hager-Lau said that while he would prefer a Jewish-only entry policy to religious institutions, banning Arab labor entirely was unfeasible. "If I have to choose between the ideal of Jewish labor only and continuing to build at a quick pace, I'd prefer to keep the building going," he said.

He said that in an attempt to reduce the chances of a worker having ties to a terrorist group, entry to the yeshiva for Palestinians would be limited to people aged 40 or over who were well-known.

A leading haredi spiritual leader and halachic authority ruled this week that due to the potential danger to Jewish life, it was forbidden to hire Arab workers, according to Yom Chadash, a new ultra-orthodox daily. Rabbi Haim Kanyevsky told yeshiva administrators, "We are war with them [Arabs]," therefore "according to Jewish law it is prohibited to hire them," according to Yom Chadash.

Yeshiva administrators, after the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva attack, asked Kanyevsky whether they should fire their Arab employees. Kanyevsky, who expressed surprise that Arab workers were preferred to Jews, asked, "Are there no Jews who can work and earn a living from the same work?" He said that under normal circumstances it was always preferable to hire Jews rather than Arabs, unless there was a significant difference in cost. But in the present situation, due to the danger to Jewish life, there was a prohibition against hiring Arabs, he said.

Kanyevsky's ruling is likely to result in a mass firing of Arab employees at hundreds of haredi yeshivot across the country. Haim Kanyevsky is the son of Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanyevsky ("the Steipler"), the son-in-law of Rabbi Yosef Sholom Eliashiv, a leading rabbinical authority in Jerusalem, and a nephew of Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, a leading Torah scholar known as the "Chazon Ish." Haim Kanyevsky is known to refrain from engaging in politics.

Thousands of people visit him rabbi every year, seeking Torah-oriented advice on various topics. In the West Bank, every male Israeli over the age of 18 is obligated by law to acquiesce to a demand by their home settlement to perform guard duty. Known as "Bar Shmira," the legal obligation permits young men to carry arms before they serve in the army.

The IDF provides M-16 rifles and ammunition to authorized rapid response teams in the West Bank under an understanding that maintaining a local defensive force is the best way to ensure security in Jewish settlements. Inside the Green Line, young men who had completed army service would participate in the rapid response team training, said Hager-Lau. In addition to teams armed with IDF-supplied M-16s, there would also be teams armed with handguns.

Participants would be trained to track, locate and neutralize terrorist infiltrators operating in urban settings where the majority of the population is friendly.

Hager-Lau asked MISHMERET YESHA, an organization that has trained more than 100 rapid response teams throughout Judea and Samaria, to help train the yeshiva students. ISRAEL DANZIGER, head of operations at Mishmeret Yesha, said he had been asked by Hager-Lau to put together a general plan for educational institutions that would improve their preparedness to deal with terrorist infiltrations.

Danziger said the plan included an early-warning system; drills that would teach every settlement resident where to go in case of an attack; coordinating and practicing communications between emergency organizations and residents; and conducting periodic mock attacks.

However, one of Mishmeret Yesha's central security demands is a no-Arab policy. "We don't want to have anything to do with any organization that employs Arabs," said Danziger. "There is no sense in training a rapid response team in a settlement or an institution where you have a bunch of Arabs walking around gathering information."

 

----------------------------------------------------------

IZZY KAPLAN

416 824 2858

416 256 2858

Check out my new blog http://israelonisrael.blogspot.com

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2 States = end of Israel. Y Silence and even endorsement of Roadmap? Tamar Yonah

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Thank you Buddy Macy for forwarding this to me. Robin

 

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/143318

 

Ramon: Destroy Yesha Towns Quickly

(IsraelNN.com) Vice Premier Chaim Ramon said Saturday that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria that lack government approval should be destroyed as quickly as possible.  The government should decide within the next two weeks which towns will be destroyed, he said in a radio interview.

The towns should be destroyed even if the destruction will lead to violent clashes with the residents, he said.  Ramon explained that in his opinion, the communities are worsening Israel's image in the international community, and the sooner they can be destroyed the better.[end]

From what combination of suicidal psychoses is Chaim Ramon suffering?

As Israeli radio show host Tamar Yonah writes in her blog, "Two States = The End of Israel."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/3#2653

 

7 Adar Bet 5768, 3/14/2008

Two States = The End of Israel

by Tamar Yonah

Anyone who supports the idea of two states, Israel AND a Palestinian state carved out from the belly of Israel, essentially supports the end of Israel.

As stated in a previous piece I wrote of what the two-state map would probably look like (see 2nd map below), Israel could not possibly survive another land amputation.  It would be like cutting out Israel's heart and placing inside its body, a time bomb.  Installing a Moslem Terror State inside Israel would be the means to her end. While both a heart ticks and a bomb ticks, one gives life, the other explodes in a rain of death.

Please view the map below and realize that this 'vision' and road map plan that U.S. President Bush wishes to implement before the end of his term, another 9 months, will birth the end of Israel.  This Palestinian State he wishes to see would bring Israeli population centers within rocket range of PA kassams and katyushas.  Every major city (including Haifa) would be in their scope.  This includes Israel's Ben Gurion Airport.

          

  Map below from Israel Unity Coalition.

Every plane that takes off or lands could be targeted.  If just one plane carrying residents and tourists were to explode, it would be the end of tourism and air travel for Israelis.  Import and export business could come to an end, contracts canceled, when products ordered do not arrive in Europe, or when Israelis could not get insurance to cover their products because of the terror threat.  Economically Israel could fall, not to mention the human life lost that could go into the mega-count. Israel would be unable to defend itself, its new tiny borders and it's population.[end]

To Russell Robinson & Ronald Lauder of JNF: Who would want to live in the Negev were Israel to look like this???

Leaders of the OU: Please, Please, leave the JCPA immediately!

Buddy Macy
973-785-0057

 

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Fwd: FWD & RSVP: Rachel's Children Reclamation Fdtn. Taanit Esther at Kever R...

BS’D

As we cry for our victims, as the Jews in Iran go to the Kevers of esther and Mordechai on the Fast of Esther, join RCRf at the source, the Kever of Rachel, mother of Benyamin, the leader of the tribe of Esther and Mordechai.

Rachel’s Children Reclamation Foundation, 60 West End Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11235 054-224-2649 rachelschildren@gmail.com

TORAH TRANSFER CEREMONY

THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2008 7:30AM

TAANIS ESTHER , 5768

Please Join Us as we bring our 2nd RCRF Sefer Torah housed in Kever Rachel since 2005 to the new Aron Kodesh Safe in Beit Bnei Rachel, the only Jewish owned property within the Rachel’s Tomb Walled Complex.

Reservations please

Buses Leaving Arze Habira, Kings Hotel, Tsomet Gilo 7:30 AM

Torah Transfer on Arrival.

Shacharis in Beit Bnei RachelShiur by RABBI AHARON ADLER

“The Rachel Imeinu, Esther Hamalcha Message”

As we fast our bodies, let us nourish our spirit and heart in Ima Rachel’s Place with such holy roots.

I would like to make ____reservations at 40nis per person_____.

I would like to donate ____megillahs to the chayelim guarding Kever Rachel at 25nis each.

______ I would like to contribute to the Sefer Torah Safe and be recognized on the wall plaque _______$260 each

Please Register for Ongoing Women’s Shiurim and help us build Medreshet Chaya Rachel and Ruth

Tuesdays via 9:10 AM Egged #163 bus

“Women in the Gemorrah “ by Devorah Mandel

Wednesdays via 10:10AM Egged #163 Bus

“In Depth Shiurim on Rachel Imeinu” by Atara Gur

Thursdays via 9:10AM Egged @163 Bus

“Duties of the Heart” by Rebbitzen Sheindel Schnitzler

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