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13 Shvat 5773 - January 24, 2013 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Israeli Elections 5773 - Observations and Lessons

The elections are over. Israeli parliamentary elections do not have a winner and a loser like personal elections in many other countries. Voters choose a party, not a person, in Israel, making the entire process less personal. The chareidi community faces some very difficult political issues.

Why Some Non-Religious People Voted for United Torah Judaism

Hundreds of both traditional and completely secular Jews stated their readiness during the recent campaign to vote for the United Torah Jewry party for the first time.

Rain and Kinneret Watch

As of January 23 (12 Shvat) 387 millimeters of rain had fallen in the Jerusalem area during the current season (August 1 to date). This represents 147% of the average rainfall for this period and 72% of the average rainfall for the entire season in the Jerusalem area which is 537 mm.

Bringing the Yemenite Remnant to Israel

A report from Iran in which Israelis were interviewed by Palestinian newspaper Al Manari claims that the organized immigration of the rest of Yemenite Jewry to Israel has taken its first steps through the cooperation between the Israeli and the Qatar Emirate governments. The first group, a family of six, has already landed at Ben Gurion airport in a special Emirate plane via Doha. Other groups are expected to arrive in the coming months. The report added that ministers and high ranking Knesset Members, partly from Shas, are involved in the project.


The Maharshag - HaRav Shimon Greenfeld, zt"l
In honor of his yahrtzeit, 19 Shevat

As a young bar mitzva boy, R' Shimon was taken to Zanz by his father, R' Yehuda, zt"l, to spend the yom tov Shavuos in the elevated atmosphere prevalent in the court of the Divrei Chaim of Zanz.

From Our Archives


Opinion and 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. Some 50.8 percent of them (compared to 41.7 in the general public) observe the kashrus laws concerning meat and dairy products. Almost two thirds (62.1 percent) -- compared to 51.2 percent of the general population -- say they "always" fast on Yom Kippur.

Opinion and Comment

Tu Bishvat: Man as a Tree


by HaRav Arye Leib Shapira

Part III

In the first part, HaRav Shapira quoted the Chidushei HaRim and others who say that the essence of Tu Bishvat is chidushei Torah. They also note that the trees grow on Tu Bishvat based on the rain that falls earlier. The Maharal says that the cycle of crops that is referred to in the Regolim of the year parallels the cycle of man's development, from the beginning at Pesach to the final ingathering on Succos. Why this parallel? Because Hashem wants to tell us that all the material world has a spiritual parallel; when we are showered with rain down here, there is a corresponding spiritual blessing being showered upon us Above. That also underlies the entire expression of the Torah which is written referring to material blessings but alluding to the parallel spiritual blessings.




POPULAR EDITORIALS

Av, 5765 - Kislev 5766 (August-December 2005)

May-July, 2005


EARLIER EDITORIALS

The Message of an Earthquake

A Mission to Spread Daas Torah

Looking for the Best in Yiddishkeit

C an I - Should I?

The Immorality of Palestinian Combatants and Noncombatants

More Editorials . . .


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