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Blessings, Curses and Opportunities
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Photo: Wiki Commons.
JNS.org – The prominent Yiddish writer B.Z. Goldberg once visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe and, as he entered the Rebbe’s study, he said, “Lubavitcher Rebbe, you look well.”
The Rebbe responded, “Since when is that a Jewish compliment? Usually, Jews ask each other why they look so bad.”
The Rebbe’s sense of humor notwithstanding, it does seem traditional for Jews to complain. God knows, we’ve had ample reason to over the centuries, including right now. Has there ever been a time in our history when there’s been a shortage of Yiddishe Tzorres, problems and persecutions, troubles and torment?
This Shabbat, we read in the final chapters of Vayikra that if we follow the way of God our lives will be blessed, but should we stray from the good path we will experience curses and calamities second to none.
Parshat Bechukotai opens with a wonderful promise: “If you will follow My decrees and observe My commandments … the rains will come in time … and the land will give its produce … and you will dwell securely in your land.”
But is that really true? What about all the righteous who have suffered and the wicked who have prospered? Is life really so simple? And doesn’t the Talmud state that reward and punishment are reserved for the next world?
Rambam, the great Maimonides, explains it this way: These blessings are not the reward for our good behavior. Rather, they are how God provides us with the necessary tools to live a full Jewish life.
You might think, “It’s hard to be a Jew,” but if you have no money, it’s much harder! Living Jewishly can be expensive. Just recently, a congregant who has fallen on hard times confessed that they stopped keeping kosher because it was too expensive. Tuition fees at Jewish day schools are much higher than state schooling. The prices of matzah and an etrog keep going up, and so on.
And yet the Rambam says the blessings at the beginning of our parsha are not our reward, but rather God giving us the material means by which we will be able to afford to live a Godly life.
When do we earn these blessings? When we indicate by our concrete actions that it is our desire and intent to live such a Godly life. When the Almighty sees our sincere and genuine good intentions, He then assists us in fulfilling these righteous desires by providing us with the necessary wherewithal to do so.
Concrete action means more than just “joining the club.” We must indicate our genuine commitment to following the good path in real, tangible terms. It’s more than just standing up to be counted. We need to put these ideals into practice in our daily lives.
Here are two examples: People want to keep Shabbat, but work often gets in the way. I knew a plumber who once confessed that he was trying to observe Shabbat but, somehow, every Saturday he would get an emergency call. It took him a while, but he finally worked out a system with other people on standby. He has now been a serene Sabbath observer for many years. But he made the commitment first.
Too many of our young people are struggling to find their bashert, their life partner in marriage. Sadly, many have succumbed to the “easier” solution and broadened their search beyond the Jewish community. Yet I have seen many who held their ground and never lost focus, as difficult as it was, and eventually did find a wonderful Jewish partner in life. Again, they made the commitment, stuck to it through thick and thin, and in time, they were blessed.
Yes, Shabbat can appear to be a challenge to our seeming prosperity. Having strict shidduch principles can seem like an obstacle to getting married. But in the end, if we stick to our values and principles, God Almighty will come to our assistance, sometimes in ways we would never have imagined.
True stories abound. I see it all the time. Those who exhibited faith and trust in God and closed the shop on Saturdays survived and flourished, even though the numbers didn’t add up. Those who refused to compromise in their courtships are today happily married and raising beautiful Jewish families.
There is a relevant line in this week’s Haftorah from the Prophet Jeremiah: “Baruch hagever, blessed is the man who trusts in Hashem, then Hashem will be his security.”
Some years ago, this line became a popular song. May we sing it and, more importantly, live it.
The post Blessings, Curses and Opportunities first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai
Around 200 people gathered for a pro-Israel demonstration at University of Toronto’s downtown campus at King’s College Circle—which was the site of one of Canada’s largest pro-Palestinian encampments during May […]
The post A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters
A statue of George Washington tied with a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh inside a pro-Hamas encampment is pictured at George Washington University in Washington, DC, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson
The campus group National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is waging a campaign to gut Jewish life in academia, calling for the abolition of Hillel International campus chapters, the largest collegiate organization for Jewish students in the world.
“Over the past several decades, Hillel has monopolized for Jewish campus life into a pipeline for pro-Israel indoctrination, genocide-apologia, and material support to the Zionist project and its crimes,” a social media account operating the campaign, titled #DropHillel, said in a manifesto published last week. “Across the country, Hillel chapters have invited Israeli soldiers to their campuses; promoted propaganda trips such as birthright; and organized charity drives for the Israeli military.”
It continued, “Such actions reveal Hillel’s ideological and material investment in Zionism, despite the organization’s facade as being simply a ‘Jewish cultural space.’”
DropHillel claims to be “Jewish-led,” although only a small minority of Jews oppose Zionism, and the group has been linked to and promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters.
Hillel International has provided Jewish students a home away from home during the academic year. However, NSJP says it wants to “weaken” it and “dismantle oppression.”
The idea has already been picked up by pro-Hamas student groups at one college, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to The Daily Tar Heel, the school’s official student newspaper. On Oct. 9, it reported, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) unveiled the idea for “no more Hillel” during a rally which, among other things, demanded removing Israel from UNC’s study abroad program and adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Addressing the comments to the paper days later, SJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, proclaimed that shuttering Hillel is a coveted goal of the anti-Zionist movement.
“Zionism is a racist supremacist ideology advocating for the creation and sustenance of an ethnostate through the expulsion and annihilation of native people,” the group told the paper. “Therefore, any group that advocates for a supremacist ideology — be it the KKK, the Proud Boys, Hillel, or Heels for Israel — should not be welcome on campus.”
The #DropHillel campaign came amid an unprecedented surge in anti-Israel incidents on college campuses, which, according to a report published last month by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), have reached crisis levels.
Revealing a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena, the report — titled “Anti-Israel Activism on US Campuses, 2023-2024” — painted a bleak picture of America’s higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate.
“As the year progressed, Jewish students and Jewish groups on campus came under unrelenting scrutiny for any association, actual or perceived, with Israel or Zionism,” the report said. “This often led to the harassment of Jewish members of campus communities and vandalism of Jewish institutions. In some cases, it led to assault. These developments were underpinned by a steady stream of rhetoric from anti-Israel activists expressing explicit support for US-designated terrorists organizations, such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others.”
The report added that 10 campuses accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Harvard University, the University of California – Los Angeles, Rutgers University New Brunswick, Stanford University, Cornell University, and others filled out the rest of the top 10. Violence, it continued, was most common at universities in the state of California, where anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza
Former US President Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in South Carolina. Photo: Reuters/Sam Wolfe
The “Muslims for Trump” organization has officially launched initiatives to help elect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the White House, arguing that he would be more likely to end the war in Gaza than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In a statement released on Monday, the group said it will focus on recruiting Muslim voters in key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. The organization both praised Trump for his supposed “peace-focused” approach to ending the war in Gaza and condemned Harris for helping facilitate a so-called “genocide.”
“After meeting with President Trump, it was clear to me he is the right leader for Muslims to get behind,” Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump and former co-chair of the “Abandon Harris Movement,” said in a statement.
Chowdhury added that during his discussions with Trump, the former president vowed to “ending the escalation of wars and bringing peace to war-torn regions.” In contrast to Trump’s promise to stop the “bloodshed” in Gaza, he claimed, Harris has “recklessly pushed us toward World War III.”
Chowdhury, a self-described “peace advocate,” urged the Muslim community not to fall victim to supposed “misinformation” campaigns by the media and Democrats that paint the former president as hostile to immigrants. He claimed that the former president’s focus is on “ending war, not dividing families through false immigration claims.”
Samra Luqman, chair of the Michigan chapter of Muslims for Trump, underscored the need to punish the Biden administration for what he described as supporting a “genocide” in Gaza.
“The goal of this election is to hold the Biden administration accountable for a genocide. No amount of fear mongering or scare tactics will persuade my community into forgiving the mutilation, live-burning, and genocide of over 200,000 people,” he said.
According to data produced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, roughly 40,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began last October. Israel has said that its forces have killed about 20,000 Hamas terrorists during its military campaign.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
On the organization Muslims for Trump’s official website, it claims that the Abraham Accords, a series of historic, Trump administration-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several countries in the Arab world, helped stabilize the Middle East. It also says that had Trump not lost the 2020 presidential race, the so-called “genocide” could have been prevented.
“Under Trump’s leadership, the Abraham Accords were brokered, fostering peaceful relations between Israel and several Arab countries. Supporters might argue that Trump’s diplomacy prioritized peace and stability in the Middle East, reducing the likelihood of large-scale conflicts like genocide,” the group wrote.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly touted his support for the Jewish state during his singular term in office. Trump has boasted about his administration’s work in fostering the Abraham Accords, promising to resume efforts to strengthen them if he were to win November’s US presidential election.
Harsh US sanctions levied on Iran under Trump crippled the Iranian economy and led its foreign exchange reserves to plummet. Trump and his Republican supporters in the US Congress have criticized the Biden administration for renewing billions of dollars in US sanctions waivers, which had the effect of unlocking frozen funds and allowing the country to access previously inaccessible hard currency.
Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
Despite Harris’s repeated efforts to woo Muslim voters, polling data indicates that the demographic has made a dramatic swing away from the Democratic Party. Polling data from the Arab American Institute reveals that Trump slightly edges Harris among Muslim voters by a margin of 42 to 41 percent. A report from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows that Green Party candidate Jill Stein leads Harris and Trump with Muslim voters in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
The post ‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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