Words From Rabbi White

Dear mitpallelim/llelot,

It was a great pleasure for me to attend the wedding of Yehonatan and Chayii, conveniently held in the nearby town of Passaic. The chuppah concluded with a most inspirational prayer for the hayyalim, recited by our hazzanim uncle Yaakov and father Dr. Yehoshua Haimovici. 

To the chatan and kalla: may you merit to see...Read more...

To my dear friends in Montreal,

A couple of nights ago, we witnessed here in Teaneck another disgusting, noisy protest of the “River to Sea” crowd. This was I believe the 4th such attempt at intimidation here since October 7. This time, their motive was really despicable, as they came to interrupt a presentation in a local shul, given by members of Zaka. How could any decent...Read more...

To get into the Purim spirit, here are some thoughts.  I was cleaning up my email, and found these from about 20 years ago.

1. One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.....

2. Atheism is a non-prophet organization..

3. If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?

Read more...

Dear mitpallelim,

Oh no, say it ain’t so! Look how pervasive “wokism” has become. I saw this week that the authorities at Merriam-Webster have “paskened” that a preposition is something that you can end a sentence with! (sic) [I know that we all have been careless in our everyday speech with the old rule of not ending with a preposition, but still it is important to know...Read more...

Shalom to all!

Mr. Erdstein observes yahrzeit for his wife Molly/Malka bat Yehuda HaKohen, on 21 Adar,

Stanley Goldstein and Mariam Mintz observe for their grandmother Sarah Miriam on 22 Adar.

******

Sadly, anti-Israelism and its corollary anti-semitism are alive and well....Read more...

Shalom rav!

As you have probably heard, the OU has been encouraging people to follow the Nach yomi, that is, studying every day a chapter of Nach. [which stands for nevi’im =prophets and Ketuvim = the poetic books of the Bible] They start with the Book of Yehoshua [=Joshua] and continue with a chapter a day until the last chapter of the...Read more...

Dear readers of the bulletin,

The yahrzeit of the patriarch of the Haimovici family, Yeshu`a ben Hayyim, is 21 Shevat.

The yahrzeit for my mother, Chana bat Tsvi Hirsch, is 20 Shevat.

May the neshamot have `aliya, and may they be melitsot yosher for the people of Israel.

******Read more...

Dear all,

Last week, we concluded the Book of Bereishis, Genesis. This Shabbat, we begin Sefer Shemot.

The reading of Bereishis this year has been a difficult time for Am Yisrael.  We began reading Bereishis on Simchat Torah, or, as the whole world refers to that date, October 7, the day of the massacre by Hamas.

Shemot, in English,...Read more...

Shalom to all,

First of all, a big yish’ar koach to Michael and Maggie Rubin, who sponsored last week’s kiddush in honour of their anniversary and in honour of the Israeli soldiers, and this week’s, in memory of Michael’s grandmother Lillian; and to Irwin Miller who sponsored last week in memory of his brother Monroe ben Yosef (Meir).

*********Read more...

Shalom to all!

First of all, a big “yish’ar koach” to all of you who braved the major snowstorm and bitter cold temperature to travel to Ottawa for the meaningful gathering at Parliament hill. “hizqu u-veruchim tiheyu!” [And shame on the 17 Toronto buses that, despite having been paid in advance, demonstrated their antisemitism by not showing up.]

Read more...

The parasha begins "And Jacob left Beer Sheva and went "harana." Literally, that last word means "to (the place) Haran." But midrashically, there is a chasidic tradition that it is connected to the word "haran," which means "anger." We can understand that Yaakov must have been very upset. His brother wanted to kill him, he knows that Uncle Laban had a history of being a trickster, and not a nice guy, and his GPS had not yet been invented, so...Read more...

I have written the following briefly in previous years. However, in light of recent events, it seems so relevant that I felt that I had to expand upon it now.

The 6th aliya, end of chapter 21, describes a meeting between Avraham and Avimelech, the leader of the Philistines (located in the Gaza area!) A peace treaty is established between the two of them. Avraham states “I will...Read more...

Interesting tidbit: At the beginning of this week’s parasha, we read that the world was filled with “hamas.” That word is usually translated as “theft,” but the ancient Aramaic Targum has “hatofin,” which in modern Hebrew means kidnapping!

***

I am writing this on Tuesday morning. Probably, by the time you read this on Shabbat, the...Read more...

Here are some more reflections on my recent trip to Israel (part I appeared in last week’s bulletin.)

I prayed three times at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue: (a) My first Shabbat morning, I went with my son and grandson for davening. They were hoping to hear a world-famous hazzan and rabbi. However, since it was a couple of weeks before RH, I guess the rabbi and hazzan had a...Read more...

Mazal tov to the Foxmans, on the engagement of their granddaughter Kaila.

in the Land of Israel,

Hmmm… What’s the name of this week’s parasha? The 2nd word of the name begins with a “t.”  But, wait a second! Didn’t I learn it as “ki Seitsei,” with an “s,” when I was young? And if I look at the websites of certain shuls, it will also be spelled with...Read more...