Jewish Life – Page 6 – Jewish Life Magazine

In search of happiness

September 12, 2016September 9, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Brandon Blumenau We are commanded to rejoice on Pesach, Shavuos, and Sukkos. We refer to these festivals as yomim tovim, or “good days”, on which we dress well, eat well, and daven well. These are times we celebrate with family, friends, and even Hashem Himself. Pesach and Shavuos are undoubtedly happy times for the Jewish People, but only Sukkos is described by our Rabbis as zman simchaseinu, the time of our happiness. The obvious question is what’s there to be so happy about on Sukkos? We have a very…

Something to celebrate on the birthday of the world

September 12, 2016September 9, 2016 Jewish Life

By Professor Nathan Aviezer Creation and Science Where did the universe come from? A person of faith would probably answer that the universe was created out of nothing, as stated in the first verse of the Torah. Such an answer was long considered a scientific impossibility, because it contradicted the law of the conservation of matter and energy. According to this law of science, which was established in the middle of the nineteenth century, matter and energy can be changed from one form to another, but something cannot come from…

Making mitzvos possible

September 12, 2016September 9, 2016 Jewish Life

By Ilan Preskovsky So important is the establishment of a mikvah (a ritual bath) in Judaism that our great Sage, the Chofetz Chaim, said, “The building of a mikvah takes precedence over the building of a shul, the buying of a sefer Torah, and all other commandments” in any Jewish community. The laws of family purity, for which the mikvah plays a essential role, are rather complicated, but so elemental is the building of a mikvah that any Jewish community without one can be said to be lacking its very…

Remembering Mr Fitz

September 12, 2016September 9, 2016 Jewish Life

By David Sommer Fredy Sommer, a”h, was born in 1910 in Langenselbold, a small town close to Frankfurt, Germany. As the oldest of four children, he shared in the responsibility of taking care of the family. His parents were too poor to afford to send him to high school so he began working in the family bakery at the tender age of twelve. Initially, the “bakery” involved renting an oven in one of the four corners of the town where bread and rolls were baked. Fredy’s job was to deliver…

So that you shall know

September 12, 2016September 9, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Dovid Samuels “For seven days you shall dwell in sukkahs…so that your generations shall know that I made the Jewish people live in sukkahs when I took them out of Egypt.” [1] Apparently we build sukkahs to remind us of how Hashem gave us huts to live in as we became a newly formed nation from the furnace of Mitzrayim (Egypt). Homeless and wandering, Hashem provided housing for us, and we need to remember this miracle for all generations, so we should never think that our safety and protection…

Think before you click

September 12, 2016September 9, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Sara Gila Margulies As the High Holy Days draw upon us, we begin to take stock of all our deeds this past year. We each hope to be signed in the Book of Life and thus to be granted a new year of health, peace, and prosperity. Every one of us has surely earned much merit for the many mitzvos we have performed, and all our positive actions will hopefully outweigh any misdeeds on our slate. Yet, if we wish to be granted a sweet judgment, it would only…

Swimming against the tide

September 12, 2016September 9, 2016 Jewish Life

By Chandrea Serebro I had the chance to chat recently to a prominent businessman and member of the religious community the other day, and I told him I was doing an article on the challenges of being religiously observant in the corporate world. How hard it must be, at times, but how it must also bear amazing rewards to be that beacon of light. A great responsibility, which I am sure, can be very tough at times. A chozer b’teshuva (someone who was not raised religiously), he told me the…

Paving a new path

September 12, 2016September 9, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Robert Sussman It is well known that Moshe Rabbeinu spent forty days and forty nights on Har Sinai (Mount Sinai) receiving the Torah from Hashem, only to descend from the mountain after all that time, tablets in hand, to find the nation committing the terrible Cheit HaEigel (the sin of the golden calf), at which point he made the decision to throw down the tablets that were in his hands, smashing them to pieces. What followed was another forty day and forty night period on Har Sinai during which…

A love affair with the machzor

September 12, 2016September 9, 2016 Jewish Life

By Richard Shavei-Tzion Those were days of awe. The Shul in Cape Town was packed to the brim with generations of families in their finery. The men, many topped with formal hats, wore dark suits and solid ties while the women, resplendent in variations of the season’s fashionable colours, glittered with a sense of the occasion. The elders appeared stern faced, some leaning on carved walking sticks while the little boys and girls, shoes unusually polished and ties slightly askew, strained on tip toes to get a glimpse of…

Real teshuva

September 12, 2016September 9, 2016 Jewish Life

By Eliezer Ohr* Teshuva (lit: return), aka repentance, is an incredibly powerful concept, requiring us to look at the effect of our negative actions and calling us to return and make things right. From my experience, the concept of return applies not only within the context of our relationship with Hashem, but also within the constellation of all the relationships in our lives. Every relationship is affected by our actions, both positive and negative, and all of those relationship requiring repair when we choose the wrong path. This is what…

Seemingly harmless words

August 14, 2016 Jewish Life

By Sara Gila Margulies Imagine if someone claimed that he had discovered the secret to attaining unspeakable wealth and that he was willing to share his discovery with the world. Who would be foolish enough not to jump at such an opportunity? Well, in Sefer Tehillim (Psalms), Dovid HaMelech (King David) already revealed to us just such a secret: “Who is the man who desires [eternal] life…Guard your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from speaking deceit.” It’s guaranteed. When we work on protecting our mouths from speaking hurtful,…

The miracle at Entebbe

August 14, 2016 Jewish Life

By Rabbi Yossy Goldman Much of what I write in these columns reflects what I have learned from people and my experiences over the years, whether in congregational life as a rabbi, or in my engagement with the the wider community on a variety of levels. But this month I learned a lot about life, people, and Jews from a historical event. The 4th of July 2016 was not only American Independence Day. It was the 40th Anniversary of the incredible and miraculously successful rescue at Entebbe. Arab terrorists…

The critic within us

August 14, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Leonard Carr As human beings we often make the mistake of using faculties that Hashem gave us for self-perfection and growth to avoid facing ourselves by applying those qualities to others. A good example of this is the ability to judge between right and wrong. Judgment is based on comparison. In judgment you make a distinction between what you encounter compared to a principle or belief about how things should preferably or necessarily be. In order to be able to choose appropriate responses from their opposites, or to…

Passing on the sugar

August 14, 2016 Jewish Life

By Richard Sutton Our bodies are a gift from G-d and it’s actually a mitzvah to make every effort to ensure that we keep them healthy and vital. Maimonides cautions us that “maintaining a healthy and whole body is an integral part of Divine service,”[1] as, without a healthy body, a person cannot serve Hashem to his fullest. Like many things that add value to our lives, looking after our health is not easy. It’s hard work, time consuming, and, with so much information available, it can be somewhat…

An exercise in coming together

August 14, 2016 Jewish Life

By Chandrea Serebro It is an utterly moving experience to watch a group of grade eleven learners from Torah Academy, along with Moletsane High and Pace College in Soweto, and from two schools in Beit Shemesh, Israel, ride into Durban on their bikes after traveling 500 km. The celebration marking the end of the journey is particularly rousing – a goose-bump moment – not because they push themselves physically, making the trip in five days, but because these boys are all heroes. They have all gone beyond themselves, on…

Leading the way in kindness

August 14, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Chandrea Serebro What Jew doesn’t feel immense pride when he sees Israel standing at the forefront of the global community, frequently even arriving first on the scene, when it comes to offering aid to disaster zones like Nepal after their 2015 earthquake, Haiti after their 2010 earthquake, and Thailand after their 2004 Tsunami, often without even a remote vested interest in the country in question? Showing kindness to non-Jews – a mitzvah in its own right – falls under the category of what our Rabbis called darchei shalom, lit:…

Leaders to us, parents to them

August 14, 2016 Jewish Life

Chief Rabbi Moshe Dov Casper, z”l, by his daughter, Batya I have been asked to write about my father, Moshe Dov (Bernard Moses) Casper, z”l, which means ignoring the soft, nurturing love of my mother’s influence. So that is what I will do. My dad was the uber nurturer in our home. It was he who checked that the front door was locked at night, who read bedtime stories to my brother and me before lights out (when he was home), who said our nightly shema with us (again, when…

The plus side of life

July 15, 2016July 17, 2016 Jewish Life

By Ilan Preskovsky In these financially difficult times, charitable institutions have their work cut out for them – not just in the sheer volume of what they’re dealing with, but in trying to figure out the best way to help their communities. Be it conventional charity donations, interest-free loans, or sending out food or clothing parcels, there are many ways to help the less fortunate, but, as the Rambam (Maimonides) put it, the highest level of charity is building up a person so he can make a living on…

Feeling the pinch

July 15, 2016July 17, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Robert Sussman As the value of the Rand spirals downward, while inflation and the cost of living spike upward, families are struggling to keep their heads above water, as debt, and along with it stress, begins to mount. Our grandparents and great-grandparents worked hard – six days a week and sometimes even seven – without any break. Many were forced to start working from very tender ages out of sheer necessity. Annual holiday vacations to exotic locales? Unheard of – it wasn’t even on their radar. Such a…

Gut Instinct

July 15, 2016July 17, 2016 Jewish Life

By Richard Sutton The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, once said, “All disease begins in the gut.” Clinical and research-based evidence strongly supporting this wisdom is accumulating. To fully appreciate the digestive system’s role in health and wellbeing, it is valuable to understand a little more about its anatomy and physiology. The gut spans 9 meters in length in most adults and is our single largest body surface, measuring 200m2. Within its walls there are thousands of specialised cells called ‘enteroendocrine cells’ that secrete 20 different hormones. These hormones…

Lending without any gain

July 15, 2016July 17, 2016 Jewish Life

By Ilan Preskovsky With the weak rand, an endlessly increasing cost of living, and a world economy that is still struggling to get over the near-disastrous events of the 2008 financial crash, South Africans in 2016 are feeling the pinch and feeling it hard. Of course, the true tragedy of such capitalism gone wrong is that it’s seldom the super-rich who feel the soaring costs and financial hardships, but the middle class struggling to maintain their status as such and, most especially, the poor struggling more and more just…

More is…more

July 15, 2016July 17, 2016 Jewish Life

By Chandrea Serebro Modest fashion is no longer just housedresses and shapeless hair coverings. A look around the streets of religious neighbourhoods in New York and London will quickly dispel the notion that it’s not all drab and no fab. It’s a worldwide phenomenon that more ‘modest’ fashion is hitting the street in a big way, from the runways of New York to the cat walks of Milan, with internationally renowned designers unknowingly embracing the Jewish tenets of modesty, and through Jewish fashionistas who, using the trends as inspiration,…

The buddy system

July 15, 2016July 17, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Sara Gila Margulies The Hebrew word for partnership is shutfut, from the root “to share”. “Two is better than one” is an oft-repeated phrase[1] in the world at large. When two individuals join together to perform a task, their combined energies, talents, and efforts can help bring the project to fruition more effectively and efficiently. What is the significance of this? The Torah testifies to the fact that man was not created to remain alone. G-d Himself says, “It is not good for man to be alone; I…

Coming to terms with what we have lost

July 15, 2016July 17, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Robert Sussman The Second Temple was destroyed nearly 2000 years ago and we have been in exile ever since. How would we feel if our exile ended tomorrow, if we were all suddenly gathered into the land of Israel and witnessed the inauguration of the Third Temple? It is admittedly a bit hard to imagine, so to get an idea let’s consider what took place at the inaugurations of the First and Second Temples. The Talmud[1] teaches that the celebration for the inauguration of the First Temple was…

A Children’s Zoo That Specialises In Chesed

June 19, 2016June 19, 2016 Jewish Life

By Ilan Preskovsky Built from the ashes of a terrible tragedy, Havat Ephraim, a children’s petting zoo in Beit El, Israel, has been a constant source of chesed for nearly twenty years now. Between providing work opportunities for struggling adults and therapy for troubled children, the zoo stands as a testament not only to the young boy in whose memory it is named but for the Jewish and, indeed, deeply human ability to create meaning out of even the most seemingly meaningless darkness. As its founder, Tuvia Victor, tells…

Q & A With The Headmasters – Principals Reflect On Learning In Today’s Brave New World

June 19, 2016 Jewish Life

By Chandrea Serebro …on the role of the parents “In order for a school to be successful in the education of a student, there needs to be a conscious partnership between the parents and the school. When a parent chooses a school, they choose to follow the ethos that the school runs by. Parents are pivotal in the success of good learning. If one wants his child to thrive, he needs to be actively involved in his child’s schooling. That said, as educators we are not the child’s parents,…

Teaching the ABC’s of proper speech

June 19, 2016June 19, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Robert Sussman Say Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation (CCHF) and what comes to mind? If you answered: the annual videos that are shown each Tisha B’av, enjoyed by thousands around the Jewish world, you wouldn’t be alone, but the CCHF does so much more than that. And it was on a trip last year to Eastern Europe that was arranged by the CCHF that Shelley and Jaron Tobias and Dr Avron Urison began to learn all about the multi-faceted work of the CCHF. “On one of the bus rides,”…

Genuine Encouragement – Placing Our Faith And Trust In Our Children

June 19, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Aviva Porush Few, if any, are the parents and educators who don’t consider encouragement as one of the important “ingredients” in child rearing. Among the possible answers I get when surveying the meaning of the word ‘encouragement’ is: compliments, rewards, prize; in short, positive reinforcement. If you finish everything on your plate, you’ll get dessert. If you behave with the babysitter, I’ll take you out for pizza. If you tidy your room, you can have extra time on the computer. Many are the parents who are so “hooked…

Teaching old dogs new tricks

June 19, 2016June 19, 2016 Jewish Life

By Chandrea Serebro The Academy of Jewish Thought and Learning If you want serious thinking and some thought-provoking learning, then The Academy of Jewish Thought and Learning is the place, with over 1000 adult students throughout South Africa and courses every week in Johannesburg at six different venues, and in Cape Town as well. “The Academy provides an empowering, text-based learning experience in a variety of areas, a place where students gain a no-holds barred knowledge combining traditional Torah approaches as well as Academic views – spanning the history…

In The Service Of A Teacher

June 19, 2016 Jewish Life

By: David Levin For centuries, the Jewish people have been known as the “People of the Book”. And who could argue with such an appellation? One need only enter a yeshiva to see dozens of people engaged in passionate discussion and debate over a Talmud, a Rambam, or a Shulchan Aruch. Visitors to Jewish homes have grown accustomed to see walls of shelves laden with well-worn tomes and piles of books on tables that are in current study. The studiousness of the Jews is legendary throughout the world and…

The Seamstress Who Sowed The Seeds Of Our Redemption

June 19, 2016June 19, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Rabbi Eliyahu Sussman The Talmud[1] teaches that it was in the merit of the righteous Jewish women who persevered during the many hardships that we suffered in Egypt that we were eventually redeemed from there. In my humble opinion, allow me to say that, so too today, it is in the merit of our righteous Jewish women that the Jewish people are receiving abundant blessing. We are privileged to live in an era of Jewish rebirth and exceptional growth in Torah observance and Torah study. One could attribute…

Full Issues

May 23, 2016May 23, 2016 Jewish Life

To read all of the great features and columns from this issue, please either download the complete issue (in pdf format) from our archives on this website or click on one of the links on this page to download our free app (and select this issue in the app to read it in its entirety). Click Here to download the iOS App: Click Here to download the Android App:

Getting on the bandwagon – Yisro, the first convert leads the way

May 19, 2016 Jewish Life

By Aron Ziegler Aron Ziegler has learned for over 15 years at the Yeshivah Gedolah of Johannesburg, including five years full-time. He was among the first students of Hirsch Lyons School. For the past 10 years he has been the spiritual leader of the Kensington Hebrew Congregation. He also leads a learning group weekday mornings at Cyrildene Shul. He strives, in the words of his beloved Rosh Yeshivah’s rebbe, to be a ‘Torah Jew’. Yisro was an advisor to Pharaoh, but had to flee Egypt after voicing his…

Defining Moments

May 19, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

The unwavering support of a father By Ilan Preskovsky It’s not just any artist who can boast to having their work featured in the illustrious Guggenheim Museum in New York City, displayed in dozens of exhibitions throughout the world, and sought after by major art collectors, but it’s even rarer still when that artist is the daughter of a highly respected, very much Orthodox rabbi. With all this in mind, you would be correct in assuming that Naama Nothmann has had more than her share of defining moments. Narrowing it…

Counting The Days – Building A Bridge Between Pesach And Shavuos

May 19, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Robert Sussman Beyond the obvious physical liberation from the bondage of slavery, the primary purpose of our being redeemed from Egypt was to receive and fulfil the Torah, the very essence and definition of the Jewish people. Each year, we busy ourselves with the mitzvah of counting the 49 days between the anniversary of our going out from Egypt, which took place on Pesach, and the anniversary of the giving of the Torah, which took place on Shavuos, building a bridge connecting these two events. By counting these…

Here’s To Your Health

May 19, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

Too much of a good thing By Richard Sutton One of the most prolific and prominent Torah scholars, Maimonides, once said, “As long as a person exercises and exerts himself, sickness does not befall him and his strength increases. But one who is idle and does not exercise, even if he eats healthy foods and maintains healthy habits, all his days will be of ailment and his strength will diminish.” More than 800 years later, science is echoing these insightful words. In 2012, the Journal of Aging Research published an…

The Kosher Gourmet

May 19, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

Inspiration From My Garden And My Bobba’s Recipe Book By: Lauren Boolkin Almost every aspect of Jewish observance is inseparable from the world outdoors. The festival of Shavuot illustrates this relationship. On the one hand, Shavuot celebrates the first fruits of the harvest, while on the other hand it celebrates the giving of the Torah. This reminds us that agriculture and Torah are thoroughly entwined, enough that they share a festival. For me, the Jewish mother that I am, my biggest joy is to feed people. This is closely followed…

The Changing State Of Our Nation

May 19, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

By Chandrea Serebro I’ll never forget the day I received a phone call from Joe. “Howzit? It’s Joe here. How are you?” Quickly racking my brain to figure out which Joe it was, I chatted normally and as laissez faire as I would with any of my pals, until he asked me if I would like to come to the Shabbaton he was organising the next Shabbos. It turned out, it was Rabbi Joe. I was embarrassed that I had addressed him so casually. We laugh about it today, but…

All It Takes Is A Smile

May 19, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

By: Sara Gila Margulies Words have power. In every utterance, there is real opportunity to build up another person and affect him positively forever. Wishing a simple ‘good morning’ to a neighbour, giving a sincere compliment to a friend, or asking about a co-worker’s wellbeing with genuine interest can impact the recipient in ways that we could never imagine. The person will feel cared for, respected, and valued. And this, in turn, can bring joy to his day and give him a feeling of self-worth that can be cherished for…

Going Crazy Over Israel

April 26, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

The Astounding True Case Of Jerusalem Syndrome By Ilan Preskovsky In Neil Gaiman’s latest short story collection, Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances, among the master fantasist’s usual assortment of tales of werewolves, hellhounds, and Time Lords, there is a singularly disturbing story about a middle-aged British couple who, on their first visit to Jerusalem, come face-to-face with a particularly strange kind of insanity; an intensely religious, messianic delusional state that is caused by nothing less than the city itself. Unlike the rest of the stories around it, though, the…

Man As The Pinnacle Of Creation

April 26, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

The Explanation Behind A Mysterious Revolution In Human Behaviour By: Professor Nathan Aviezer One of the most interesting subjects in our Holy Torah is the creation of Man. We read in Genesis 1:27: Elokim created man in His image; in the image of Elokim, He created him; male and female, He created them. However, the origin of Man is described again in the second chapter of Genesis (2:7): HaShem Elokim formed man from the dust of the earth, and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and man…

Disagreements Between Torah And Science

April 26, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

Can we learn to live with questions? By: David Levin Throughout history, the wisdom of Torah has often come into conflict with the wisdom of the secular, natural sciences. The fact is these two spheres of study appear to contradict each other in many, many ways. These contradictions are not new and neither are the approaches people have taken when confronted by these contradictions. Rather than discuss ways to approach specific contradictions, I’d like to discuss in general terms how to deal with these contradictions. Almost all people can…

Mimouna

April 26, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

A Post-Pesach Moroccan Celebration Of Freedom, Faith, And Fortune By Chandrea Serebro Sephardi Jews have an incredibly rich heritage, liberally peppered with all things spicy and spiritual. And Pesach is no exception, where you’ll find a Moroccan tradition to lovingly prepare the first chometz that is eaten after the end of Pesach into traditional breads and sweet cakes, rather than just waiting in line to get the first piece of pizza you can get your hands on. It’s a night of feasting filled with all things anti-banting: baked goods as…

Exodus

April 26, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

Taking a fresh look at Aliyah By Chandrea Serebro Exodus. The very word inspires images of an epic journey across deserts and through seas, of a liberated people on the cusp of nationhood. And it resonates particularly for us South Africans, who relive it each year at the Pesach seder along with Jews everywhere, but who perhaps toy with the idea a bit more often than most others who reside outside that most holy of places. Making Aliyah obviously comes with great sacrifice, giving up the great South African legacy…

Learning To See Difficult Times As For Our Own Good

April 26, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

Arriving At An Answer To The Question: Why? By: Dovid Samuels One of the most powerful and famous events in Jewish history has to be the grand finale of the exodus from Egypt. After 10 terrifying plagues that broke a nation, the fury of their hatred led the Egyptians to wage one final attack against us. The battleground was perhaps the most perilous for the Jewish people; deep waters in front of us, desert and beasts to our sides, and a raging army striding towards us with unbridled animosity. With…

A Month We Can Count On

April 5, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

Why Hashem Chose To Redeem Us In Nisan By: Robert Sussman The Hebrew month of Nisan is, without a doubt, a very special month. After all, it’s the month that Hashem chose to take us out from Egypt and openly reveal to the world, for the first time in history, that He was its Creator and demonstrate His total and utter control over every aspect of Creation via the many miracles that He did for us. In fact, Moshe’s father-in-law, Yisro, who was known for having studied all of…

Making The Perfect Simcha

March 6, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

Advice from the professionals so you can sit-back, relax, and enjoy your big day By Chandrea Serebro CHUPAS Weddings are beautiful, yet no one can deny that they can also be stressful af-fairs. Too often, many wedding parties get so stuck in the details of the look and feel of the wedding that they lose sight of the end goal: the happiness of the chosson and kallah standing under the chupa, get-ting married! One of the essentials is choosing a nice chupa within your budget to help add to the visual…

Leaving Things To Chance

March 6, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

How Purim Got Its Name By: Robert Sussman Megilas Esther, the book from the Hebrew Bible which we read twice on Purim, tells us in its text that Purim was so called because of the pur – the lot – that was thrown by the wicked Haman in order to determine the date on which he would destroy the Jewish people.[1] Rather than just choose a date on which to kill the Jews, Haman instead held a lottery to decide, a seemingly insignificant detail among all of his considerable planning…

Scaling Things Down A Bit

March 5, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

Putting The Simcha Back Where It Belongs By Chandrea Serebro The other day I was helping out a friend who was due to be the master of ceremonies at an upcoming wedding. We decided he should start his speech with a joke. Have you heard the one about the guy who wanted to make his daughter the best wedding ever? One couple he knew hosted their daughter’s wedding on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean and other friends booked out an entire island in the Indian Ocean. Desperate not to…

Getting Drunk

March 5, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

Until You Don’t Know What? By Dovid Samuels One of the most anticipated but strange parts of our Purim celebrations (besides for dressing up) is the obligation to get drunk. The source for this obligation is in the Talmud where we are instructed to become drunk [with wine] until we no longer can differentiate between ‘accursed be Haman’ and ‘blessed be Mordechai’. Apparently, understanding simply, we must get drunk…and very drunk, it seems. The point where you don’t know the difference between Aror Haman and Boruch Mordechai is really quite far;…

Turning A Holiday On Its Head

March 5, 2016May 26, 2016 Jewish Life

Turning a holiday on its head By: Isaac Ansell Forsyth On a sunny Thursday morning in the holy city of Jerusalem, Yeshivat Shapell’s -Darche Noam embarked on a unique chesed mission. The yeshiva boys journeyed to a humble building in the city’s Ramat Rachel neighbourhood, where they were suited-up with labourer’s apparel, and introduced to some heavy machinery. Ninety minutes later, several kilos of rice had been packaged for distribution to hungry families all around Israel. Pantry Packers is a food-distribution initiative of Colel Chabad. Founded by Rabbi Shneur Zalman…