Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community Last week, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a draconian ruling that those who are eligible to...
Last Thursday, a group of protesters outside the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills gathered to protest the Israeli real estate exhibition taking place in the shul. About a hundred protesters shouted things like “Bleep the Zionists” or “Zionists get the bleep out of here,” and “There is only one solution: the Intifada revolution.” All part of the usual discourse.
The horrific events of Bondi Beach a week ago bring with them a look into Jewish reaction to tragedy, as well as to that of some Palestinians. Following the awful events of that Sunday, Jews came out the next day to celebrate the Chanukah holiday. We fight evil with good.
In case anyone had any doubts as to where Zohran Mamdani stood with the Jewish community, he quickly dispelled them on the night of his inauguration.
One of the brachos we recite nightly during Chanukah is the Al HaNisim, thanking Hashem for the miracles He bestowed upon us and declaring that these miracles happened “in those days, as well as in our own times” – ba’yamim haheim ba’zman hazeh.
The Torah in D’varim 31:17 warns that the day will come when Hashem will hide His face from us, and we will find ourselves living under “raos rabbos v’tzaros” – many afflictions and travails. The Daas Z’keinim explains that we will experience conflicting sufferings. For example, the remedy for a bee sting is cold water, while the remedy for a scorpion sting is warm water. Warm water is bad for a bee sting, and cold water is bad for a scorpion sting. We will find ourselves bitten by both, and we are thus caught in a dilemma.
How many times have you heard that we are going through 1939 once again? Pundits, podcasters, promoters of aliyah, and even Holocaust survivors have all weighed in to depict the current times as 1939 pre-war Europe.
