OPINION & COMMENT

The Underlying Trend

A huge poll run by Teleseker that asked a sample of 10,000 Jewish adults over the age of 18 (about ten times as many as are asked in a typical weekly political poll) found that 28.3 percent of the youth agedb 1` 18-21 (as opposed to 21.7 percent of the general population) believe that even entertainment businesses should be closed on Shabbat.

Tu Bishvat: Man as a Tree
by HaRav Arye Leib Shapira

Let us now move on to the third quality: "Your shadow is pleasant." The gemora in Eruvin (43b) says, "If someone wishes to ascertain the height of a palm tree, let him measure his own height and the length of his shadow as well as that of the shadow of the tree, and he will thus ascertain the height of the palm tree." We see that the third quality is dependent on the second quality. The tree's powers of absorption are responsible for its great height and its great height creates a big shadow. The higher a tree, the larger is its shadow.

Mitzvos, Miracles and Prayers
Compiled from the lectures of HaRav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, shlita

"You redeemed us from Egypt . . . and liberated us from the house of bondage. In famine you nourished us and in plenty you sustained us . . ." (Pesukei Dezimroh of Shabbos; Nishmas Kol Chai)

Parshas Beshalach: Vayehi -- The Up Side Of Suffering
by Rabbi D. Makover

One. The beginning of the parsha reads: "It was (Vayehi) when Pharaoh sent the people out, Hashem did not lead them through the land of the Philistines because it was near, because Hashem said, "The people might think twice (Rashi) when they see [themselves faced with] war and go back [via the short route] to Egypt" (Shemos 13:17).

Why Pets Don't Go To Heaven
by Rabbi Avi Shafran