תורה ותעודה וכלי החמדה – בשובי לירושלים

הסדר הרצוי לעומת המצוי | יציאת מצרים ואנחנו

למה ארבע לשונות של גאולה ולא חמש? • מה קודם – תורה או ארץ ישראל • הסדר ההפוך ביציאת מצרים • הסדר הנכון בגאולה שלנו • הרב יצחק ברנד בהר הבית

י”ג ניסן ה’תשפ”ה, 11/04/2025

הרב יצחק ברנד

יש מצווה לשתות ארבע כוסות בליל הסדר כנגד ארבע לשונות של גאולה: “והוצאתי”, “והצלתי”, “וגאלתי”, “ולקחתי”.

שמעתי מי שאומר שהסיבה שלא מזכירים את הלשון החמישית: “והבאתי”, היא שארץ ישראל היא עניין משני בסיפור יציאת מצרים, אך הדברים מופרכים.

בתורה כתוב: “וְהֵבֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נָשָׂאתִי אֶת יָדִי לָתֵת אֹתָהּ לְאַבְרָהָם לְיִצְחָק וּלְיַעֲקֹב וְנָתַתִּי אֹתָהּ לָכֶם מוֹרָשָׁה אֲנִי ה’ “.

כלומר, הצלת בני ישראל מעבדות מצרים ויציאת מצרים היתה בזכות השבועה לאבותינו. בלי הכניסה לארץ ישראל לא היתה יציאת מצרים.

בני ישראל היו אמורים לצאת ממצרים ולהיכנס מיד לארץ ישראל, אבל הם לא זכו.

לדברי החזון איש, אם עם ישראך היה נכנס מיד לארץ, הם היו מקבלים את התורה בארץ ישראל או, שהיו מגיעים לארץ ולאחר כיבושה היו הוכים לסיני לקבל את התורה.

הדור שלא זכה להיכנס לארץ ישראל זכה לקבל את התורה ולהנחילה לבניהם שנכנסו לארץ ישראל.

הסדר ביציאת מצרים היה הפוך – מתוך אילוץ.

כיום אנחנו זוכים לסדר הנכון.

להמשך השיעור…

TRUMP OBLITERATES AMERICA — Get out of there now!

Liberation or Obliteration?

by  | Apr 7, 2025

President Trump was elected in part because he promised to reduce prices and not drag the country into foreign wars. Sadly, President Trump has adopted a tariff policy that will raise prices and abandoned his “America First” foreign policy in favor of a return to Bush-era neoconservatism.

Despite criticizing President Biden for bombing Yemen, President Trump has authorized bombing that country under the false pretense that Yemen’s Houthis are threatening international shipping. President Trump has also threatened to bomb Iran. A false justification for this threat is that Iran is controlling the Houthis. If President Trump follows through on this threat against Iran, it could lead to another “forever war.” He has also continued US support for Israel and Ukraine’s wars.

President Trump started a trade war by imposing a ten percent universal tariff on imported products and other tariff expansions. Chinese imports will face a tariff of 54 percent, while goods imported from the European Union will “only” be assessed a 20 percent tariff.

The day following President Trump’s tariffs announcement, US stocks lost 3.1 trillion dollars in value, while the dollar fell to its weakest level since October.

China responded to the tariffs by imposing a 34 percent tariff on US imports along with other measures increasing the costs of US products in China. Canada imposed a 25 percent tariff on cars imported from the US. France President Emmanuel Macron called on European businesses to refrain from investing in American businesses, saying it makes little sense to invest in America when the US is punishing Europe.

President Trump’s actions are setting off a global trade war that means US consumers will suffer from increased prices for many products both foreign and domestic. Manufacturing and other American businesses that rely on imported raw materials and other inputs from abroad will have to pay more for these inputs, assuming they are able to get them at all. US exporters will suffer from decreased demand for US products in overseas markets.

According to estimates by the Budget Lab at Yale University, President Trump’s tariffs will cost the average American household a 3,800 dollars loss of purchasing power. The Tax Foundation estimates the tariffs will reduce US GDP by at least 0.7 percent and decrease the average American’s after-tax income by about two percent. Middle- and lower-income Americans will obviously be hardest hit. The decrease in income, combined with the increase in prices and increase in the unemployment rate, will raise demand for government welfare programs and thus put pressure on Congress to reject attempts to cut spending.

Thus far, Trump’s response to the economic chaos he has unleashed is to say everything will work out as other countries will negotiate “beautiful” trade deals with the US. President Trump, on the same day he announced the new tariffs, called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, saying it was a “perfect time” to do so. The interest rate cut, though, would only further degrade the dollar and further burden Americans with increasing prices.

President Trump called the day he announced his tariff plan “Liberation Day.” This may be the most misleading name since the Affordable Care Act. Renaissance Macro Research head of US economic research Neil Dutta more appropriately labeled it “Obliteration Day.” President Trump’s tariffs, along with his support for war, could obliterate what is left of America’s peace and prosperity.

From RPI, here.

Hyehudi Editor REPUBLISHED On American Thinker – Economic Satire!

Rockets to Roses: Israel’s bizarre trade cycle with Aza

In a striking twist of economic irony, “Israel” proper finds itself caught in a peculiar recycling cycle-of-trade with Aza (“Gaza” is the Arab name, but Aza is part of the Land of Israel).  Israel offers (and allows in) steel, food, gas, and free electricity to the Jew-haters in the client state of Aza, which in turn uses these resources to manufacture rockets.  Those rockets are then fired back at Israeli residents, where their fragments (if safe) are repurposed into… Judaica. Yes, really.

Israeli artist Bob Yaron collects the leftover fragments of Azan rockets, and welds them into roses, Judaic jewelry, and other tokens of Jewish heritage. (Don’t support him; take away his material!)

So that’s what the Israeli government means by saying the supplies are for “civilian use”.  If this were a fiction novel plot, it would be rejected by the publisher.

Job creation, huh?

It’s as though a surreal plan was conceived in a boardroom meeting (hmm, maybe it was).

“Alright, team, we need more fancy Chanukiyot (or: Menorahs) for Chanuka.  Any ideas?”

Mr. Nimrod Wertfreiheit pipes up: “How about we let our Aza Peace Partners make rockets to fire at us, and then we’ll collect the fragments, and…”

“Perfect (invoking the Keynesian ‘Broken Window Fallacy’)!  Avoda Aravit (Arab Labor), then Avoda Ivrit (Jewish Labor)!”

That’s why they call the tragicomic war “Operation Swords of Irony”.

Instead of eliminating the middleman, let’s cut out the rocket outsourcing entirely (though leftists would bewail the reduction in recycling).  In the free and democratic republic of (Communist) China, it is widely believed that the family of the condemned person must pay 27 cents for the bullet, too… Stop bankrolling our own bombardment!

Imagine the savings.  No more rocketing high rocket interceptions, no more rebuilding infrastructure (for us and for the murderous squatters), no more sleepless nights in bomb shelters.

No more Jewish soldiers dying in sports wars for art, jewelry, and Judaica.

A Shekel Saved Is a Shekel Earned, minus all the innocent victims.  Cut off the Invisible Hand guiding the rockets.  Better yet, cut off the hands that fire them.

We have quite enough metallurgical metaphors for a “Jewish National Museum of Suicidal Absurdity” by now, thank you very much.

In conclusion, my plan is eco-friendly, cost-effective, and significantly less explosive.

Excuse me, I need to go duck.  Another economic boom incoming!

Yehuda Israel is a pseudonym.  

He lives with the daily noise of rockets and is the Editor of Hyehudi.org, featuring aggregated articles about Judaism, with daily articles on Emuna, The Holy Temple, Jewish Clericalism, Libertarian Anarchy, Austrian Economics, and much more…

From American Thinker, here.

Yehuda Epstein: The Sun Sets on English Jewry — But Rises Over Zion!

Jews of England: The wings of history are stirring – It’s time to come home

As England tightens its grip on Torah education, a divine call echoes louder—Jewry’s future lies not in exile, but in the Land of Israel

Rabbi Epstein

The struggle of English Jewry against the decrees imposed on Torah education is reaching a critical stage, as the British Parliament prepares for the third reading of the “Law of Jewish destruction” before it is sent for approval by the House of Lords. While here in the Holy Land, concerns are raised about teachers’ salaries, the Ofek Hadash program, overcrowded classrooms in certain areas, and various incentives offered to institutions to subtly alter their adherence to tradition—matters that are certainly important to fight for—across the sea in England, an unprecedented legal initiative threatens to mandate the most extreme forms of heretical and immoral content as compulsory studies in all schools, without exception.

Reports from Britain inform us of the dramatic and stirring address delivered by the distinguished activist, Rabbi Shmuel Gershon Grad, one of the leading public figures in England, who spoke at a historic gathering outside the British Parliament on Tuesday of Parashat Yitro, in front of a massive assembly of English Jewry who had come to plead and cry out for their very survival—for their Judaism and their faith.

We also hear of a heartfelt letter from the Rosh Yeshiva of Gateshead, the great Rabbi Avraham Gurwicz, who has declared that if the law passes, English Jewry will be forced to uproot themselves and move to “another land.”

Alongside reports of widespread lobbying efforts by Jewish leaders in England to overturn the decree, we also hear of prayer gatherings and mass protests, led by England’s greatest rabbis, outside the British Parliament, proclaiming that the House of Israel will never, under any circumstances, surrender its Judaism—but will give its very soul and being to uphold it.

Well, I have a rather practical suggestion for English Jewry—one that may be far more effective than protests outside the British Parliament, which could be seen as provoking the nations.

In the State of Israel, as is well known, hundreds of thousands of Jewish children are raised in Torah and mitzvot, some in institutions entirely dedicated to holiness, others with some level of secular studies, depending on the views of the various factions that form the broad spectrum of the Haredi community in our land.

Yes, there are challenges here as well—but they can be managed.

And as time passes, the number of Torah institutions grows, and the pendulum is swinging ever more toward a majority of religious Jews in the Holy Land.

In fact, the day is not far off—closer than many think—when the official education system of our country will be based on the foundations of Torah and Y’irat Shmaim.

There is a concept known as “the wings of history.” There is a divine process unfolding before us. The world has a purpose, at the center of which stands the kingdom of G-d, where “the Lord alone shall be exalted on that day.” And this will happen in Jerusalem—not in London, not in New York, not in Paris, nor in Antwerp. This process has been unfolding for over two hundred years, and despite the efforts of its opponents to halt it, not only have they failed, but the movement is now gaining unprecedented momentum.

English Jewry has been given a message from Heaven: The time has come to pack your bags—and not merely for “another country,” but for the Land chosen by God as His dwelling place. And for those worried about housing shortages, the shores of Gaza could very well serve as an ideal location for building cities and communities dedicated to the study of Torah—without the imposition of heretical studies forced by foreign governments.

As Rabbi Gurwicz stated, the House of Israel will never, under any circumstances, surrender its Judaism—but will give its very soul and being to uphold it. Let us hope that after so many years in exile, English Jewry will finally come to understand that preserving Judaism requires a true recognition of our divine mission, the purpose of creation, and an understanding of our rightful place and destiny. This includes recognizing that their future does not lie on the British Isles.

The sun is setting on English Jewry. The time has come to return home—to the land chosen by G-d, where His eyes watch over it from the beginning of the year to its end. It is time to connect to the wings of history and join the struggle of Haredi Jewry to transform the Land of God into a land where Torah is the law of the nation.

Welcome, English Jewry—welcome home to the Land of G-d!

The author is Rabbi Yehuda Epstein, Chairman of Kedushat Tzion, the association of Haredim advocating for Zion with purity and holiness.

Kedushat Tzion is a group of right-wing Haredi Torah scholars dedicated to the redemption of Israel and the Land of Israel.

From Jfeed, here.

Feel-Good Chasidic Vertel Exposed as Baseless

From Musings of a Litvishe Yid:

Feel-Good Chasidic Vertel Exposed as Baseless

Saturday, March 22, 2025

 There is a Chasidic vertel (small vort) that goes like this –

It says in the beginning of parshas Noach,נח איש צדיק (בראשית ו:ט). Rashi there comments from Chazal, יש מרבותינו דורשים לשבח, ויש שדורשים לגנאי (some of our Rabbis interpret this in a positive way, that Noach was a tzadik in his weak generation, all the more so would he have been in a stronger one, while others interpret it negatively, that in his spiritually meager generation he was considered righteous, but in a better generation he would not have been).

So the Hasidic comment notes that Rashi only uses the term מרבותינו (of our rabbis) when mentioning the positive interpretation, and not with the negative one. Why, it continues? To show us that someone who interprets negatively is not worthy of being called one of our rabbis.

                                       Litvish analysis and Fact check

 Though Hasidim and neo-Hasidim like the TYH folk may like that, it doesn’t hold water. As seen in the beginning of פרשת ויקהל, which we just read, in שמות לה:ג, where Rashi cites a different machlokes, about fire on Shabbos. He also cites a first opinion with the expression מרבותינו there, while omitting it when afterward citing a second one, even though this not a case where one side is a positive interpretation and the other a negative one. Showing us that that just is the way of Rashi (perhaps, or should I say likely, to economize on verbiage and letters in the days before printing, when things were written by hand).

Continue reading…