For the sins we have committed ... BY DANIEL GORDIS..Grant us the capacity for unbounded pride coupled with the embrace of self-critique, satisfaction in what we've wrought coupled with a drive to do even better. And this year, in this time of uncertainty, in this region newly ablaze, enable us to keep what was always the primary promise that Zionism made to the Jewish people: Help us keep ourselves, and especially our children, safe.

For the sin we have committed by imagining that Jewish life as we know it could survive without a Jewish state, and for the sin we have committed by being certain that it could not.

For the sin we have committed in believing that every problem has a solution, and for the sin we have committed in failing to try harder to find solutions no matter how elusive.

For the sin we have committed in not loving the Jewish state with sufficient passion, and for the sin we have committed in not being sufficiently ashamed of its shortcomings.

For the sin we have committed in electing consecutive leaders who fail to communicate even a semblance of a vision of how Israel should be both Jewish and democratic, and for the sin we have committed in silencing or ignoring the few brave souls who have sought to share with us their own visions of what a Jewish state can and should be.

For the sin we have committed in believing that only an Israel at peace is worthy of our pride, and for the sin we have committed in failing to engender any semblance of a national conversation about what sort of peace has any genuine chance of taking root.

For the sin we have committed by failing to acknowledge the horrid costs that keeping ourselves safe often exacts from those living under us, and for the sin we have committed by failing to see the costs it exacts from our own children, no less.

For the sin we have committed in failing to recognize our own obligation to speak out in Israel's defense, and for the sin we have committed in allowing that defense to become mean-spirited and hurtful.

For the sin we have committed by forgetting that it is mostly thanks to secular Jews that we built and still have a state, and for the sin we have committed by ignoring the fact that, too often, those same Jews are struggling to pass on to their children a passionate commitment to Israel's future.

For the sin we committed in taking pride in Israel's social and economic equality protests without actually joining them on the streets, and for the sin we have committed by failing to honestly admit there was little Jewish content to those protests and that many of its leaders now live abroad.

For the sin we have committed by failing to work harder to stop Jewish violence against non-Jews in our midst, and for the sin we have committed by failing to remember that among the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria are some of the most decent human beings and passionate Zionists anywhere.

For the sin we have committed by pretending that there's anything innately Jewish about semiconductors, and for the sin we have all committed, wherever we live, by creating one of the most Jewishly illiterate generations of young people that our people has ever known.

For the sin we have committed by teaching our young people that a life lived in conversation with only Jewish sources is sufficient, and for the sin we have committed by teaching others that they could fashion meaningful Jewish lives without that conversation.

For the sin we have committed in electing as Israel's religious leaders men who are not Zionists, who have virtually no secular education and whose vision of Judaism speaks to almost no one in the Jewish state, and for the sin we have committed in picking precisely the wrong places to try to break that monopoly.

For the sin we have committed in creating a state out of the ashes of the Holocaust while allowing its survivors to languish in abject poverty, and for the sin we have committed in letting our state, a haven for those with nowhere else to go, become a haven for those who traffic in powerless women.

For the sin we have committed by the folly of far too porous borders, and for the sin we have committed in our treatment of those to whom we've allowed entry.

For the sin we have committed in refusing to hear the most powerful Jewish critiques of what Israel has become, and for the sin we have committed in denying that it is our enemies' self-destructive and hate-driven choices that consign them to the lives they live.

For the sin we have committed in belittling the Jewish or moral seriousness of those who have crafted Jewish lives different from our own, and for the sin we have committed in pretending that Jewish life without profound Jewish knowledge and a deep-seated sense of obligation pulsing through its core can prevail.

For the sin we have committed by not bewailing the moral corruption too prevalent in our society, and for the sin we have committed by not taking sufficient pride in Israel's deep-seated and abiding decency.

For the sin we have committed in not seeing the redemption of the Jewish people that is unfolding in the Jewish state, and for the sin we have committed by forgetting that we've only just begun.

For these, and for many more, may we find forgiveness, and may we grant forgiveness.

Grant us the capacity for unbounded pride coupled with the embrace of self-critique, satisfaction in what we've wrought coupled with a drive to do even better. And this year, in this time of uncertainty, in this region newly ablaze, enable us to keep what was always the primary promise that Zionism made to the Jewish people: Help us keep ourselves, and especially our children, safe. 

Gmar chatima tovah.

Ten Tips for an Easy Yom Kippur Fast

Fasting doesn’t necessarily mean suffering. There’s quite a bit we can do to alleviate the bodily and mental stress that normally accompanies a fast. The day before the fast, follow the following guidelines:

 

1. Cut down your caffeine intake to minimize headaches. That means stop drinking coffee, tea, and cola at least eight hours before the fast, and preferably twenty-four hours before the fast.

 

2. Avoid salty, spicey, and fried foods on the day before the fast.

 

3. Avoid white sugar, white flour, and white rice. Eat whole-grained foods such as brown rice and whole-wheat bread or challa.

 

4. Drink a lot of water all day long.

 

5. Eat a good breakfast that includes fruits, veggies, eggs or sardines, and whole grains.

 

6. The pre-Yom Kippur meal (se'uda mafseket) should include baked or broiled fish, a veggy salad, consomme, a small portion of chicken or turkey, and a side dish of complex carbohydrates. Substitute sweet deserts with watermelon or other water-retaining fresh fruit, and a cup of herb tea with a whole-grain cookie.

 

On Yom Kippur:

 

7. The more you immerse yourself in prayer, the less you'll think about food.

 

8. Rest between prayers. Don’t run around outside, especially in the hot sun. Save your voice for prayers. Idle talking will make you thirstier, and will detract from the holiness of the day.

 

After the fast:

 

9. Drink two glasses of water, and then eat solids gradually, so as not to shock the digestive system. Begin with fruit, like plums or grapes. The worst thing people do is to consume pastries and soft drinks, or “lekach un bronfan” (cake and liquor) right after the fast (these are unhealthy anytime, all the more so right after the fast when they give your body a shock of glucose).

 

10. Forty-five minutes to an hour afterwards, one can eat a balanced meal with protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables. After eating, relax for an hour with your favorite book (preferably Gemara of the laws of Succoth from Shulchan Oruch) and your favorite beverage, then begin constructing your Succa.

 

Attention diabetics, heart patients, folks with high blood pressure, and people whose health depends on regular medication - you must be especially careful to ask your doctor if you are capable of fasting, and then consult with your local rabbi, giving him the doctor's exact opinion. For many such people, it is a mitzva not to fast on Yom Kippur.

 

The Israel Cancer Association recommends that cancer patients not fast without approval from their physicians. Fasting could cause considerable discomfort in cancer patients, who need a lot of liquids to alleviate side effects of chemotherapy. Again, first consult the doctor and then the rabbi. Give the rabbi all the details that you received from the doctor.

 

This past Tisha B'Av, I policed my synagogue looking for sick people who were fasting without authorization. It's no mitzva to get yourself rushed in an ambulance to the emergency ward because you were fasting without authorization.

 

Don't let children (boys under the age of 12 or girls under the age of 11) be overzealous. Make sure they eat on time.

 

With G-d's blessing and the above guidelines, you'll have an easy fast. May all of us be signed and sealed in the Book of Long and Happy Lives, amen.

Yonah – The Story of Just About Everyone

The Vilna Gaon explains the whole story of Yonah is but a mashal of the neshama of man which is sent into the world to fix others, and not only does it not fix others but it ruins itself and is forced to return as a gilgul again and again. On the boat Yonah realizes he is heading in the wrong direction, but still insists on not completing his mission. Only inside the fish, where he sat helplessly trapped does he realize the futility of running away from Hashem’s word.

Actually, inside the fish Yonah was comfortable. Chazal tell us that he had food, drink, and spiritual revelations that are beyond the scope of ordinary human comprehension. Nevertheless, it was there inside the fish that Yonah fully realized the futility of his actions, not while still on the boat. His life could be in trouble, but he only realized the truth when he was stuck in a situation where he was completely powerless to act.

Everyone suffers from the Yonah syndrome. We go through life with the attitude of life-isn’t-perfect-but-lets-just-get-by. There is a unique G-d given mission to every single person, and that is the reason why we exist on this world. For some of us (a very few), the mission is to sit and learn day and night in kollel plumbing the depths of the holy Torah. For others, their mission is to teach children. Others have a mission to go out and start a business that produces products or services that help other people while making money as they do so, and then turn around and help even more people with the money they earn.

The trouble with today’s kollel system – which is what the essence of this blog is all about – is a mashal as well. Feeling stuck and unfulfilled can be happening equally to someone learning in kollel or to a high powered Wall St. Attorney. How do you know if you are having these feelings? Just look at the story of Yonah. Do you feel that your daily activities are not leading you in the direction you want to go? Are you feeling completely powerless over your own life? These are the telltale signs that you aren’t working on your specific mission in life. When is a good time to start fixing this? On Yom Kippur – yes, the holiest day of the year – make a commitment to change direction.

Don’t be forced to come back again in order to fulfill your purpose. It’s a lot easier to change direction while you still can.

Lipa Schmeltzer gramming in Nikolsburg Motzei Yom Kippur 5773

Ten Tips for an Easy Yom Kippur Fast

Fasting doesn’t necessarily mean suffering. There’s quite a bit we can do to alleviate the bodily and mental stress that normally accompanies a fast. The day before the fast, follow the following guidelines:

 

1. Cut down your caffeine intake to minimize headaches. That means stop drinking coffee, tea, and cola at least eight hours before the fast, and preferably twenty-four hours before the fast.

 

2. Avoid salty, spicey, and fried foods on the day before the fast.

 

3. Avoid white sugar, white flour, and white rice. Eat whole-grained foods such as brown rice and whole-wheat bread or challa.

 

4. Drink a lot of water all day long.

 

5. Eat a good breakfast that includes fruits, veggies, eggs or sardines, and whole grains.

 

6. The pre-Yom Kippur meal (se'uda mafseket) should include baked or broiled fish, a veggy salad, consomme, a small portion of chicken or turkey, and a side dish of complex carbohydrates. Substitute sweet deserts with watermelon or other water-retaining fresh fruit, and a cup of herb tea with a whole-grain cookie.

 

On Yom Kippur:

 

7. The more you immerse yourself in prayer, the less you'll think about food.

 

8. Rest between prayers. Don’t run around outside, especially in the hot sun. Save your voice for prayers. Idle talking will make you thirstier, and will detract from the holiness of the day.

 

After the fast:

 

9. Drink two glasses of water, and then eat solids gradually, so as not to shock the digestive system. Begin with fruit, like plums or grapes. The worst thing people do is to consume pastries and soft drinks, or “lekach un bronfan” (cake and liquor) right after the fast (these are unhealthy anytime, all the more so right after the fast when they give your body a shock of glucose).

 

10. Forty-five minutes to an hour afterwards, one can eat a balanced meal with protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables. After eating, relax for an hour with your favorite book (preferably Gemara of the laws of Succoth from Shulchan Oruch) and your favorite beverage, then begin constructing your Succa.

 

Attention diabetics, heart patients, folks with high blood pressure, and people whose health depends on regular medication - you must be especially careful to ask your doctor if you are capable of fasting, and then consult with your local rabbi, giving him the doctor's exact opinion. For many such people, it is a mitzva not to fast on Yom Kippur.

 

The Israel Cancer Association recommends that cancer patients not fast without approval from their physicians. Fasting could cause considerable discomfort in cancer patients, who need a lot of liquids to alleviate side effects of chemotherapy. Again, first consult the doctor and then the rabbi. Give the rabbi all the details that you received from the doctor.

 

This past Tisha B'Av, I policed my synagogue looking for sick people who were fasting without authorization. It's no mitzva to get yourself rushed in an ambulance to the emergency ward because you were fasting without authorization.

 

Don't let children (boys under the age of 12 or girls under the age of 11) be overzealous. Make sure they eat on time.

 

With G-d's blessing and the above guidelines, you'll have an easy fast. May all of us be signed and sealed in the Book of Long and Happy Lives, amen.

Neil Diamond - Kol Nidre

Carlebach Kol Nidrei

KOL NIDRE - Itzhak Perlman and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot

Jews in the Prussian Army Worshipping on Yom Kippur 140 Years Ago

Jews at the Kotel on Yom Kippur (circa 1904)

Tens of Thousands Gather at Kosel for Final Slichos 5772

Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Kosel for the last night of slichos before Yom Kippur to beseach Hakadosh Brachu Hu by the shaarei shamayim. The chief Rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Yonah Metzger and Rav Shlomo Amar led the tefilos – which drew such a crowd that not only was the whole Jewish Quarter closed to vehicles but at many places it was shut off to pedestrian traffic as well.

Yom Kippur Davening (Praying) Hard

Erev Yom Kippur 5751/1990 at 770 the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters with The Lubavitcher Rebbe.

JLI Fascinating Facts: Yom Kippur Blood Libel in America

Kol Nidrei - The Moroccan Version

Rav Frand’s Teshuvah Drashah 2011: Who is Right? Left Wing or Right Wing?

Untitled from BaltimoreJewishLife.com on Vimeo.


The following teshuvah drashah was delivered last night by Rav Yissocher Frand, senior maggid shiur at Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, Maryland, and renowned speaker. In discussing the proper approach toteshuvah, Rav Frand also touched upon the achdus displayed amongst Klal Yisroeland our reactions to the tragic deaths of Leiby Kletzky z”l and Rav Elazar Abuchatzeira zt”l.

Jews To Mark 'Yom Kippur' May all our readers, advertisers, supporters, tipsters, all of Klall Yisroel have an easy fast, and be inscribed for a happy, healthy and blessed new year.

Ten Tips for an Easy Yom Kippur Fast

Fasting doesn’t necessarily mean suffering. There’s quite a bit we can do to alleviate the bodily and mental stress that normally accompanies a fast. The day before the fast, follow the following guidelines:

 

1. Cut down your caffeine intake to minimize headaches. That means stop drinking coffee, tea, and cola at least eight hours before the fast, and preferably twenty-four hours before the fast.

 

2. Avoid salty, spicey, and fried foods on the day before the fast.

 

3. Avoid white sugar, white flour, and white rice. Eat whole-grained foods such as brown rice and whole-wheat bread or challa.

 

4. Drink a lot of water all day long.

 

5. Eat a good breakfast that includes fruits, veggies, eggs or sardines, and whole grains.

 

6. The pre-Yom Kippur meal (se'uda mafseket) should include baked or broiled fish, a veggy salad, consomme, a small portion of chicken or turkey, and a side dish of complex carbohydrates. Substitute sweet deserts with watermelon or other water-retaining fresh fruit, and a cup of herb tea with a whole-grain cookie.

 

On Yom Kippur:

 

7. The more you immerse yourself in prayer, the less you'll think about food.

 

8. Rest between prayers. Don’t run around outside, especially in the hot sun. Save your voice for prayers. Idle talking will make you thirstier, and will detract from the holiness of the day.

 

After the fast:

 

9. Drink two glasses of water, and then eat solids gradually, so as not to shock the digestive system. Begin with fruit, like plums or grapes. The worst thing people do is to consume pastries and soft drinks, or “lekach un bronfan” (cake and liquor) right after the fast (these are unhealthy anytime, all the more so right after the fast when they give your body a shock of glucose).

 

10. Forty-five minutes to an hour afterwards, one can eat a balanced meal with protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables. After eating, relax for an hour with your favorite book (preferably Gemara of the laws of Succoth from Shulchan Oruch) and your favorite beverage, then begin constructing your Succa.

 

Attention diabetics, heart patients, folks with high blood pressure, and people whose health depends on regular medication - you must be especially careful to ask your doctor if you are capable of fasting, and then consult with your local rabbi, giving him the doctor's exact opinion. For many such people, it is a mitzva not to fast on Yom Kippur.

 

The Israel Cancer Association recommends that cancer patients not fast without approval from their physicians. Fasting could cause considerable discomfort in cancer patients, who need a lot of liquids to alleviate side effects of chemotherapy. Again, first consult the doctor and then the rabbi. Give the rabbi all the details that you received from the doctor.

 

This past Tisha B'Av, I policed my synagogue looking for sick people who were fasting without authorization. It's no mitzva to get yourself rushed in an ambulance to the emergency ward because you were fasting without authorization.

 

Don't let children (boys under the age of 12 or girls under the age of 11) be overzealous. Make sure they eat on time.

 

With G-d's blessing and the above guidelines, you'll have an easy fast. May all of us be signed and sealed in the Book of Long and Happy Lives, amen.

Unesane Tokef 5771

1973, 5734, The "Mother" of All "Yom Kippurs"

The Prayer of the Jewish High Holidays, Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, is certainly ונתנה תוקף Unetanneh Tokef.   I posted a few videos of it on me-ander to give you an impression of how it sounds.  The gist, main theme is the question:

Who will die and who will live in the new year?

"All mankind will pass before You like a flock of sheep. Like a shepherd pasturing his flock, making sheep pass under his staff, so shall You cause to pass, count, calculate, and consider the soul of all the living; and You shall apportion the destinies of all Your creatures and inscribe their verdict.
On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst, who by upheaval, who by plague, who by strangling, and who by stoning. Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquility and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted. But Repentance, Prayer, and Charity avert the severe Decree!"

The Yom Kippur in 1973, or 5734 according to the Jewish Calendar, was a Yom Kippur that brought us closer than ever to that crucial question.

On Yom Kippur, 1973 (5734,) three years after our aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, we were a young family with two little girls living in Bayit V'Gan, Jerusalem.  We were already Israeli citizens, having speeded up the citizenship process in order to vote in the upcoming elections.  In those days there were very few private cars, so even on an ordinary Shabbat it was rare to hear any vehicle, even on nearby main street Herzl Blvd.  Therefore some people in our shul, located at the Mt. Herzl end of Bayit V'Gan, were surprised to hear vehicles as we walked home after Musaf.

A couple of hours later, just before Mincha (the afternoon prayer,) the traditional solemn Yom Kippur
silence was marred by sirens.  Our neighbors ordered us into the building's shelter, which hadn't been used since the 1967 Six Days War.  It had become more a storage room than safe place for a building full of people, from very elderly to infants.

By the time we heard those frightening shofar-like sirens, Israel had already been attacked on two fronts, in the North by Syria and in the South by Egypt.  Our enemies' plan was to meet in Tel Aviv after destroying the country by surprise.  Many of our soldiers were killed in the first hours of that attack, since they weren't prepared at all.

Israel's "wise men" had been insisting that the 1967 Six Days War had made us invincible. The memory of our great victory was the deterrent to keep the Arabs from starting a war against us again.  Nobody would dare mess with the IDF!  Please don't forget that their spiritual/philosophical/ideological heirs are the leaders of Appease aka Peace sic Now.

To make matters even more dangerous for Israel, the post-1967 friendship with the United States meant that Israel kept consulting with the Americans every stage of the war. I have no doubt that it almost lost us the war and the independence of the country. The Nixon-Kissinger aim was to make Israel more a protectorate of the United States.  For some of you the time-line may be vague, like ancient history, but you should now that the modern State of Israel was only nineteen years old in 1967, and the Yom Kippur War was just six years later, making it twenty-five years old.  Israel is now sixty-three years old.  It has existed more than triple the time from Independence to 1967.  That famous "green line" was in effect as a temporary cease-fire line for barely eighteen years, from 1949.  That'sbupkes in world history or the History of the Jewish People, which is thousands of years long.

Post 1967,  5727 in the Jewish Calendar, Israel wasn't emotionally prepared for such a war.  It had been easier to believe the myth that we were invincible and the Arabs were terrified of us.  That's why many/most Israelis consider it the worst war we ever fought, similar to a defeat.  I disagree on that.  I consider the victory, and don't forget that if we had been G-d forbid defeated we would have been massacred and destroyed, Israel's greatest victory.  Rising up from such an attack, a surprise attack, showed more military might than even in 1967 when we prepared.

As we enter this Yom Kippur, and I mourn the friends killed in 1973, I pray that our country's leaders gain wisdom to enable the State of Israel to thrive, rather than live in fear of another attack.