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God in a Box
A menorah.
JNS.org – Martha Goldberg was a middle-aged Jewish woman from the Bronx, N.Y., on her visit to the Far East. After the long trip from New York, she was exhausted but insisted on continuing her journey to the mountains of Tibet. She was so eager to have her long-awaited audience with the great guru Maharishi that she refused to delay it any further.
Martha arrived at the spiritual teacher’s sanctuary and was told by his assistant that the holy guru was very busy with prayers and meditations, and her audience must be very short. She would be allowed to say only three words. Martha was disappointed, but she couldn’t wait any longer, so she agreed. Ushered into the holy man’s private chamber, she shouted three words: “Sheldon, come home!”
I don’t know if this story really happened, but it certainly could have.
For years, far too many young Jews in search of spirituality ended up in the Far East with Eastern religions. Some never bothered to look in their own Jewish backyard, while many others did go to shul but couldn’t find what they were looking for. It is tragic that so many young Jews did not find spiritual satisfaction in the synagogue because Judaism is the primary source of spirituality.
Perhaps, it wasn’t always that accessible.
This week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel, tells the story of how the Jewish people fulfilled the instructions of God to build the very first house of God in history. The Mishkan—“tabernacle” or “sanctuary”—was constructed in the wilderness. It was a portable building that was erected and dismantled many times during the Jewish people’s decades-long sojourn in the wilderness. It was the precursor to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which would be our permanent sanctuary.
In an earlier chapter, Moses was told by God which materials would be needed and how to build it. But this week, we read that the Israelites actually did build it. The Torah reading is punctuated by the words Vaya’as (“And he made it”) and Vaya’asu (“And they made it”). They made the Ark. They made the Menorah. And they made all the sacred utensils. Everything was constructed and put together with the Divine instructions carried out to the letter.
Many commentaries question why there is so much seemingly superfluous duplication in these chapters. Previously, we read how God told Moses to make the sanctuary. And now, we read how Moses told the Israelites to make it. Many of the verses are almost verbatim. As the Torah is always concise, why is there so much repetition here?
Some suggest that since “the longest distance in the world is from speech to action,” the fact that they made it happen deserves repetition. Others argue that the building of a “House of God” on earth by finite human beings is itself so remarkable that it deserves to be said again and again.
Interestingly, the entire story of creation in Genesis takes all of one chapter in the Bible. The revelation at Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments take up three chapters. The whole long story of the Exodus from Egypt fills 10 biblical chapters. But the building of the sanctuary takes up no less than 13 chapters of the Torah. Why? Because making a home for God on earth, in this material world, is the entire reason for which the world was created in the first place.
Can an infinite God be housed in a box? Can mere mortals of flesh and blood draw down the Divine spirit from heaven to earth? How is this even possible?
The answer is that we were empowered by God to do just that. He instructed Moses, who, in turn, instructed us exactly how to do it. And when we followed those instructions precisely, it happened. Because He made it happen, and God’s presence filled the sanctuary.
The mystics teach that God wasn’t satisfied with having angels sing His praises up in heaven. Angels are spiritual beings who have no bodies and no physical desires or distractions. It’s easy to be angelic up in heaven. But God wanted human beings, with all our moral frailties and terrestrial temptations, to live a godly life here in the physical realm. When we overcome our creature comforts and material constraints and live with faith and spirituality according to God’s will, that is a huge achievement, one worthy of creation itself!
So whether it is building a physical house for God or taking the most materialistic object—money—and giving it to charity instead of spoiling ourselves, we are doing nothing less than transforming the physical to the spiritual and the earthly to the heavenly. Taking a piece of leather that could have become a pair of Gucci boots and using it for a Torah scroll, tefillin or a mezuzah is transformative, too. Angels singing God’s praises in heaven is quite natural, but human beings praising God in our manmade synagogues here on earth is not to be taken for granted.
When we come to shul and study Torah in-depth, including the mystical sources, we discover how spiritual Judaism is. There’s no need to run to Tibet. We can bring God down to earth and raise ourselves up to heaven, wherever we live. That is earth-shattering stuff.
The post God in a Box first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UN Data: Nearly 90 Percent of Gaza Aid ‘Intercepted’ Before Reaching Intended Recipients
Palestinians collect aid supplies from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
The vast majority of humanitarian aid entering Gaza is intercepted before reaching its intended civilian recipients, newly released data from the United Nations shows, fueling growing concerns among Israeli officials and international observers about systemic aid diversion by armed groups in the enclave.
According to figures tracking humanitarian assistance for Gaza from May 19 to Aug. 1 of this year, out of the 2,010 UN trucks (carrying 27,434 tons of aid) collected from any of the crossings along Gaza’s perimeter, only 260 trucks (4,111 tons) reached their intended destination. That equates to a staggering 87 percent of all trucks and 85 percent of all tonnage of aid being stolen and not getting into the hands of civilians at the intended destination.
The UN’s own data, posted on the website of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) as part of the “UN2720 Monitoring & Tracking Dashboard,” reveals that almost all the aid — 1,753 trucks (23,353 tons) — has been “intercepted, either peacefully by hungry people or forcefully by armed actors” while being transported inside Gaza over the past few months.
No breakdown is provided of how much aid has been seized by armed groups versus civilians.
The data also shows that much of the UN aid offloaded at any of the crossings along Gaza’s perimeter has not been collected to enter the war-torn enclave during this period. Out of 40,012 tons of aid (2,134 trucks) being delivered to the crossings, just 27,434 tons (2010 trucks) have been picked up. It’s unclear what exactly led to this discrepancy, with issues such as poor internal coordination and security concerns potentially delaying aid shipments.
The UN2720 mechanism, created earlier this year, was intended to boost transparency by verifying and tracking aid shipments via QR codes at key checkpoints. The system monitors each pallet from offloading to delivery and flags any discrepancies in a centralized database.
Israel has facilitated the entry of thousands of aid trucks into Gaza, with Israeli officials condemning the UN and other international aid agencies for their alleged failure to distribute supplies, noting much of the humanitarian assistance has been stalled at border crossings or stolen by the ruling Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
On Sunday, Israel announced a halt in military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and new aid corridors as Arab and European countries began airdropping supplies into the enclave.
However, the UN and several Western governments have increased pressure on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, blaming the Jewish state for what they described as a hunger crisis and insufficient amounts of aid reaching civilians.
Israeli officials have said that claims of mass starvation in Gaza are false and being amplified by not only Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, but also international humanitarian organizations and media organizations to manipulate global opinion.
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Dutch Nurse Under Police Investigation for Alleged Threats Against Israeli Patients
Pro-Hamas demonstrators march in the Dutch city of Nijmegen. Photo: Reuters/Romy Arroyo Fernandez
A Muslim nurse in the Netherlands is under police investigation after allegedly threatening to administer lethal injections to Israeli patients — an incident that has sparked public outrage and intensified fears over rising antisemitism and patient safety in Europe’s health-care systems.
The comments were widely circulated by Israeli influencer Max Veifer, who also exposed a recent case in Australia where two nurses were suspended for two years over antisemitic threats and remarks.
In a video shared on social media, Veifer denounced Dutch-Muslim nurse Batisma Chayat Sa’id’s remarks as a serious violation of medical ethics.
“Someone like that should be prosecuted and barred from treating patients. Imagine your grandparents being cared for by someone so hateful,” the Israeli influencer said.
Zorgwekkende dreiging op Instagram: Nederlandse verpleegkundige is bereid om “zionisten een extra spuitje te geven” en bereid “zionisten te laten sterven binnen de gezondheidszorg.” pic.twitter.com/xTnXNi1wH5
— CIDI
(@CIDI_nieuws) July 29, 2025
The incident was sparked when an Israeli-Dutch woman living in the Netherlands commented on a social media post by far-right politician Geert Wilders, who cautioned about what he called the country’s looming radical Islamization by 2050.
A social media account belonging to the Muslim nurse also commented on the post, claiming it would happen by 2027, to which the Israeli woman responded, “Your dream is our nightmare. But people wake up from nightmares. Our Netherlands, our Israel.”
“Nothing belongs to you! My grandparents built the Netherlands. I was born and raised here, and I will do everything in my power to help this country get rid of the Zionist cancer,” the nurse further replied.
“You know what I’m doing with Zionists — giving an extra injection as a nurse specialist. Letting them go to heaven!” Sa’id continued.
When the Israeli woman threatened to report her, Sa’id replied: “Haha, try your best! I don’t have a boss — I’m the boss! All Zionists can die, inside healthcare and beyond, and I’m happy to help with that!”
Shortly after her posts gained widespread attention, Sa’id deleted all her social media accounts, insisting that her identity had been stolen and that she was not responsible for such comments.
On Wednesday, local police detained Sa’id for questioning, but she denied the allegations, asserting that someone had impersonated her online.
“It seems someone is pretending to be me, posting false and defamatory statements,” the nurse said. “I want to make it clear — I hold no hatred toward Jews or any people, race, religion, or identity.”
Even after announcing plans to file an identity theft complaint, she faces skepticism from authorities, who have assigned a digital forensics expert to scrutinize her online accounts.
Last year, an account under her name also posted threatening messages aimed at Jewish people, including “Your time will come — don’t spare anyone,” and another in which she described the burial of Israelis in Gaza as “a dream come true.”
Earlier this year, two Australian nurses — Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh — gained international attention after they were seen in an online video posing as doctors and making inflammatory statements during a night-shift conversation with Veifer.
The widely circulated footage, which sparked international outrage and condemnation, showed Abu Lebdeh declaring she would refuse to treat Israeli patients and instead kill them, while Nadir made a throat-slitting gesture and claimed he had already killed many.
Following the incident, New South Wales authorities in Australia suspended their nursing registrations and banned them from working as nurses nationwide.
They were also charged with federal offenses, including threatening violence against a group and using a carriage service to threaten, menace, and harass. If convicted, they face up to 22 years in prison.
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French Authorities Halt Gaza Evacuations After Palestinian Student Expelled Over Viral Antisemitic Posts
Anti-Israel demonstration supporting the BDS movement, Paris France, June 8, 2024. Photo: Claire Serie / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect
French authorities have halted evacuations from Gaza after a Palestinian student was expelled from the prestigious Sciences Po Lille and placed under investigation, following the viral circulation of hundreds of antisemitic posts praising Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and calling for the murder of Jews.
The incident drew widespread condemnation and public outrage, prompting French ministers to demand answers and call for an investigation into how the Gazan student was allowed into the country in the first place.
On Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced that all further evacuations from Gaza would be suspended pending the completion of the investigation into the student’s background.
After receiving a scholarship, 25-year-old Nour Atalla, a Palestinian from Gaza, arrived in the country in early July to begin her master’s degree in law and communications this fall at the Institute of Political Science in Lille, northern France.
Barrot confirmed that discussions are ongoing about the student’s possible return to Gaza, making clear that she must leave the country pending the investigation’s outcome.
“She has no place at Sciences Po, nor in France,” the top French diplomat said.
On Thursday, local authorities reported that a criminal investigation is underway into Atalla, with the public prosecutor in Lille confirming the case was opened for “apology of terrorism, apology of crimes against humanity using an online public communication service.”
Barrot admitted lapses in the screening process that allowed her entry and has mandated a comprehensive review of everyone evacuated from Gaza to France.
“The security checks, carried out by the French services and Israeli authorities, did not detect the antisemitic content,” the French diplomat said.
Atalla is one of 292 Gazans admitted to the country following a court ruling that opened the door for Gazans to seek refugee status based on their nationality.
She was offered a place at Sciences Po Lille University based on “academic excellence” and following a recommendation by the French consulate in Jerusalem.
On Wednesday, the university announced it had revoked Atalla’s enrollment after hundreds of her past antisemitic and violent social media posts went viral, sparking widespread condemnation from political leaders and members of the local Jewish community.
In several of these posts, she glorified Hitler, praised Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, called for the execution of Israeli hostages and the killing of Jews, and expressed support for terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
In one post, Atalla shared a video of Hitler giving a speech about Jews, writing, “Kill their young and their old. Show them no mercy … And kill them everywhere.”
In another post shared on Oct. 7, 2023, the day of the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, she wrote, “We must do everything we can to match the bloodshed — as much as possible.”