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Straightening the Road to the Temple…

HUGE: New Entrance to Jerusalem Open

This game changing highway is expected to massively reduce traffic into Israel’s capital

By Nosson Shulman: Licensed Tour Guide of VIP Israel Tours & Authentic Virtual Tours (click here to check out his free trailer videos)

Aerial view of the new highway, which for the first time will allow people travelling on Route 1 to directly enter Jerusalem to the South and West of the city. This new addition is expected to significantly reduce congestion where it matters most.

Photo Credit: Jerusalem Municipality

Representing a major transportation revolution to anyone driving into Jerusalem from the center of the country (including Tel Aviv) Highway 16 has opened to the public!

The new 6 Km (3.7 mile) road was built with 4 tunnels (dug deep into the mountains), 7 bridges and exits into the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Givat Shaul, Har Nof, and Givat Mordechai. The road connects Highway 1 (Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Route) with Highway 50 (Begin Boulevard) which is the ultra-important highway connecting Jerusalem’s northern and southern neighborhoods. Previously, one wishing to visit these neighborhoods had to enter from the heavily congested city entrance. It is expected to help 40% of all commuters to the city, who until now had to enter from the same roads as all other drivers.

The project, started in 2019, cost an estimated 450 million dollars and has been completed more than a year in advance of its due date. To further reduce traffic into the city a large parking lot will be built, allowing drivers to park for free, rather than enter the city with their cars. The parking lot will be connected to the (currently under construction) green Line of the Jerusalem light rail (so far, only the red line is in use). Besides the hugely impactful advantages of reducing heavy traffic, much effort was put into the surrounding aesthetics, including 50,000 acres of newly landscaped territory such as walking and bike paths, picnic areas, and observation points overlooking the enchanting forests of the Jerusalem hills.

In recent years, many major infrastructure projects have taken place in and around the Holy City with the goal to reduce traffic. In 2011, the first (electric) light rail line opened (currently two other massive lines are being constructed within the city, while the current line is being extended). In 2017, a third lane in each direction was added to Highway one, which significantly cut travel time. In 2018, the high-speed train between Jerusalem to Tel Aviv was completed, cutting the journey down to only 31 minutes between the cities, including a stop at the airport on the way (as of 2022, the route from Jerusalem now connects to all the Tel Aviv train stations and even beyond to Herzliya, Israeli’s high-tech capital). For those who live south of Jerusalem, for example Gush Etzion in Judah and Samaria, a new lane is being added in each direction.

While Israelis will clearly benefit, tourists wanting to maximize their experience in Israel’s eternal capital will now be able to see much more, while traveling much less!

Nosson Shulman is a journalist and Licensed Tour Guide in Israel specializing in Biblical tours. To allow tourists to experience Israel during the Corona era, he created the new hit Israel tour video series which brings Israel to the home of viewers by simulating actual tours. To check out his free sneak preview tour videos, click here. To view sample tour itineraries or to inquire about private tour opportunities with a personalized itinerary on your next trip to Israel, click here.

From Guided Tours of Israel, here.

שיר מיוחד עבור היהודי שחושב שהוא ירודי

אברהם פריד – כי המצווה avraham fried – ki amitzva

Aug 17, 2016
“וידבר משה, משה האט זאגט, אזוי געזאגט:
בן מאה ועשרים אנוכי היום, איך גיי באלד ארויף אין עולם העליון,
הערט וואס איך זאגט אייך אצינד
דאס זאג איך פאר ייעדן איד.
כי המצווה הזאת אשר אנוכי מצווך היום לא נפלאת היא ממך ולא רחוקה היא, לא בשמים היא לאמר:
מי יעלה לנו השמימה
ויקחה לנו וישמיענו אותה ונעשנה
ולא מעבר לים היא לאמור:
מי יעבור לנו אל עבר הים
ויקחה לנו וישמיענו אותה ונעשנה
כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאוד בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו”
מאתר יוטיוב, כאן.

Chabad: Don’t Trust but Verify

When Will Moshiach Come? The Backstory of a Chabad-Lubavitch Myth & Anthem

Thursday, September 15, 2022

When Will Moshiach Come, According to Chabad-Lubavitch?

A prominent song associated with Chabad-Lubavitch Chasidim is set to words proclaiming that Moshiach will come when “wellsprings of Chasidus” (a vague and undefined term) spread outward (אימתי קאתי מר? לכשיפוצו מעינותיך חוצה). This song has been associated with Chabad-Lubavitch in particular, as opposed to Chasidism in general, although the Neo-Chasidus movement, led by people like Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, R. Yussie Zakutinsky, and others, who are heavily influenced by Lubavitch has also incorporated it into their repertoire. More recently, the Neo-Chasidic TYH nation group has released a different version of it. Given the increased likelihood of non-Chasidim coming in contact with it, and perhaps mistakenly singing it, in view of the above, it is important that its acceptability or lack thereof be examined and addressed. With the help of הקב”ה, we will attempt to do that here.

 The Real Story – What Chabad-Lubavitch Doesn’t Tell You

Although purportedly sourced from a letter of ר’ ישראל בעש”ט, considered the founder of the modern Chasidic movement, to his brother-in-law, over two hundred and fifty years ago, in actuality, the lyrics of the song represent only a partial, amputated version of it, which omits important context, leading to misunderstanding.

                                     In actuality, the letter goes on to explain what it means, beyond those few words. And that is, not when people learn and print Tanyas all over, but rather when they have/make yichudim and aliyos neshama like you (the בעש”ט). This is in accord with the kabbalistic doctrines discussed in his circle. As the plain, kabbalistic meaning is quite remote from people in our generation generally, Chabad-Lubavitch, excising the additional words from the story, promote(d) a different, new meaning to it, as referring to the spread of Chasidism of the type of modern Chabad-Lubavitch, that they were promoting (similar to that expressed in another well-known Lubavitch song from around the same time, ופרצת). Other Chasidim, however, did not go along with this new, abridged, changed version and meaning of it, so the song remained Chabad-Lubavitch, not adopted by other Hasidic groups.

Continue reading…

From Musings of a Litvishe Yid, here.

Just in Case: Don’t Leave ‘Too Much’ Savings in the Bank…

People are ‘robbing’ banks in Lebanon – to take their own money

Lebanon is suffering from a worsening economic crisis since 2019, plunging three-quarters of its population below poverty.

Published On 15 Sep 2022

Bank heists in Lebanon have become a growing trend – but these armed “robbers” storming into banks are not stealing anyone else’s money. They are just demanding access to their own savings.

And instead of being prosecuted, the perpetrators have largely been allowed to remain free and have become folk heroes.

The incidents have become increasingly common as Lebanon’s economic crisis continues. The local currency, the Lebanese pound, has depreciated by more than 90 percent against the United States dollar on the black market, while the government’s restrictions on how much money people can withdraw from their own bank accounts have also exacerbated the situation.

So what is behind these bank heists?

  • Lebanon has been reeling from a worsening economic meltdown since 2019, plunging 80 percent of its population – about three million people – below the poverty line, according to the United Nations.
  • Poverty and unemployment have soared, and savings-account values have evaporated, along with the country’s middle class.
  • Since 2019, Lebanese banks gradually imposed draconian controls on deposits, effectively locking millions of customers out of their foreign currency savings.
  • “Every time you want to withdraw money, it would be at a rate much lower than the market value,” said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr. “For example, if you want to withdraw $700, they gave you $200. So that’s a de facto haircut.”
  • A haircut in economic terms means a reduction applied to the value of an asset. In this case, it refers to the banks’ absurdly unfavourable exchange rate in Lebanese pound when people try to withdraw cash.

How many ‘bank robberies’ have there been so far?

  • The first-known case of someone forcibly getting their funds back was reported in January when a man held dozens of people hostage in eastern Lebanon after he was told he could not withdraw his foreign currency savings.
  • Local media reported that the customer was eventually given some of his savings and surrendered to security forces.
  • In August, an armed man also held employees and customers hostage at a Beirut bank after he was told he could not withdraw $200,000 from his account for his sick father’s treatment. The man was cheered on by a crowd outside the bank.

Continue reading…

From English Al Jazeera, here.