NASO' 5784
06/14/2024 12:59:10 PM
My dear friends,
As we said a couple of weeks ago, when we concluded VaYiqra’, there was a time when breaking the rules in school had consequences. Not any more! [I would probably have lost points from my English teacher for that last sentence, without a verb or subject!] I saw in the news this week that McGill is granting amnesty to the protesters, will discuss their demand for...Read more...
BAMIDBAR 5784
06/07/2024 11:18:52 AM
We begin this Shabbat shabbat Sefer BaMidbar.
My dear friends,
Mr. Manfred Erdstein observes yahrzeit for his mother Julie on Sunday 3 Sivan. May her neshama have aliya.
*******
This past Tuesday was the marriage of my granddaughter Aliza Novogroder to Daniel Kirstein of Monsey....Read more...
BEHUQOTAI 5784
05/31/2024 12:08:14 PM
My dear friends,
We have to begin with sad news. Last Shabbos, our dear friend Malcolm Moscowitz passed away. The funeral was held Monday morning. Malcolm lived near the Shomrim LaBoker, and was a long-standing member there. However, whenever possible, he would come to our Chevra Shaas.
A ba`al teshuvah, he was meticulous in his observance...Read more...
BEHAR 5784
05/24/2024 12:23:25 PM
This week’s parasha is very brief: 57 verses. Yet It contains one of the most famous verses in the Torah: “Proclaim liberty in the land for all of its inhabitants.” This is the inscription on the famous Liberty Bell in Pennsylvania. Due to the crack, it does not ring anymore. However, in 1944, to mark D-Day, it was struck 7 times. [A recording can be heard on the internet.] In 1999, students at Penn State, by...Read more...
EMOR 5784
05/17/2024 12:24:16 PM
My dear friends,
YOM HA`ATSMA’UT AND THE SOLAR ECLIPSE
We all remember the eclipse of Monday, April 8. As I wrote on the Shabbat bulletin after the eclipse, I am aware that up in Montreal you merited to see the totality. Yet even here in NJ, where we had just 94%, I found it to be a spectacular sight as the sun went from being a golden banana...Read more...
QEDOSHIM 5784
05/10/2024 10:41:47 AM
My dear friends,
In this coming week we mark Yom Ha`atsma’ut, Independence Day.
It is certainly a day of Hallel. I know there is a technical debate as to whether hallel should be said with or without a beracha. However, all should agree on the religious significance of the day, and with or without a beracha, hallel should be said.
Read more...
AHAREI MOT 5784
05/03/2024 01:19:23 PM
Dear congregants,
I trust that you all had a meaningful Pesach (although I saw that the campus protests have reached McGill!)
“leshanah ha-ba’ah biyrushalayim.”
******
AN ANCIENT MIDRASH WITH CONTEMPORARY MEANING
As we all know, there is...Read more...
METSORA' 5784
04/19/2024 12:49:46 PM
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...
TAZRI'A 5784
04/12/2024 02:45:16 PM
thoughts on the eclipse:
You were better off than we were in Teaneck, as we had only about 90% totality, which did not give us the same feeling as you had in Montreal. I came out of doors four times to look. The first time, the sun looked like an orange banana. The second time, it had diminished to a smiley face, the third time it diminished to a dot, the 4th time it was gone!...Read more...
SHEMINI/HA-CHODESH 5784
04/05/2024 01:27:25 PM
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...
TZAV/PARAH 5784
03/29/2024 11:04:31 AM
Dear congregants,
As I sit down to write these lines, we have learned of the passing of former Senator Joe Lieberman. An Orthodox Jew, he was a model of integrity, and reached high office while remaining a shomer mitsvot. His memory will surely be for a blessing. “chaval `al de’avdin.”
*****
This week...Read more...
VAYIQRA' 5784 - PARASHAT ZACHOR
03/22/2024 11:18:45 AM
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...
PEQUDEI 5784
03/15/2024 11:18:36 AM
This Shabbat, Simcha and Shulamit Foxman are sponsoring the kiddush in memory of her father, Rabbi Mordecai Singer. May his memory be for a blessing.
SADNA' DE'AR`A HAD HU'
The above quotation, in Talmudic Aramaic, literally means that pieces of land (alternatively: tree trunks) are the same throughout the world. The phrase is used to mean...Read more...
VAYAQHEL/SHEQALIM 5784
03/08/2024 10:56:52 AM
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...
KI TISSA 5784
03/01/2024 12:01:21 PM
Dear mitpallelim,
Rabbi Yitschak Zilberman is one of the leading rabbinic authorities in Bnai Berak, and a prolific author of rabbinic isssues. To the best of my recollection, I saw the following in one of his “seforim.” A man made a kiddush one shabbat in shul, because the man had been spared from serious injury while crossing the street. This kiddush is called a “se’udat...Read more...
TETSAVVEH 5784
02/23/2024 11:18:44 AM
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...
TERUMAH 5784
02/16/2024 10:50:54 AM
Mazal tov to Michael and Maggy Rubin on the marriage of Benjy to Maya Arussi, an Israeli/American who represented Israel internationally in Taekwondo.
A big yish’ar koach to Bob Kraft, for sponsoring the ad against antisemitism on the Super bowl. His father Harry a”h was the beloved leader of the “Children’s Congregation” which I attended in my pre-Bar mitsvah years on...Read more...
MISHPATIM 5784
02/09/2024 10:40:47 AM
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...
YITRO 5784
02/02/2024 11:26:24 AM
TUNES AND VERSES THAT WENT THROUGH MY HEAD The “mission” to Israel was so amazing, that I must write about it this week again. Why did I join it? I felt that I had to participate. The verse that Moshe said to the tribes of Gad and Reuven “your brothers are going out to war but you will stay here [on the eastern side of the Jordan]??” kept resonating in my mind. Now, it’s true that Gad and Reuven responded...Read more...
BESHALACH 6784
01/26/2024 12:08:43 PM
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...
BO' 5784
01/18/2024 05:29:50 PM
Dear Chevra Shaas, Shearith Israel, et al
* First of all. mazal tov to the Haimovici family on the engagement of Yehonatan to a young lady from Teaneck (!), Chaiy Bodek.
I have returned from a wonderful week in Israel: amazing people and eye-opening experiences, and yet, the constant threat of danger in the background.
Read more...
SHEMOT 5784
01/05/2024 12:22:49 PM
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...
VAYECHI 5784
12/29/2023 12:34:38 PM
Dear mitpallelim,
Let’s begin with some good news from Jerusalem. Some of you probably remember my grandson Shmuel who came to Montreal for several weeks to help with my recuperation after my knee surgery back in ‘16. A couple of years ago, he made aliya, and a few days ago became engaged to a lovely young lady, Sarah Kusnitz, originally from North Carolina, who had made...Read more...
VA-YIGGASH 5784
12/22/2023 10:22:41 AM
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...
MIQQETS 5784
12/15/2023 11:25:48 AM
Dear Mitpallelim,
AS I WRITE THESE WORDS ON WEDNESDAY MORNING, THE MOST PRESSING THOUGHT ON EVERYONE’S MIND IS THE FATE OF THE HOSTAGES.
This week’s parasha opens with the fate of our first hostage: Yoseph.
Last week’s parasha ended with Yoseph in prison but counting on the “sar ha-mashqim” to put in a...Read more...
VA-YEISHEV 5784 - Shabbat Hanukkah
12/08/2023 01:01:14 PM
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...
VAYISHLAH 5784
12/01/2023 11:50:43 AM
Dear mitpallelim
Mazal tov to Shulamit and Simcha Foxman. With all of the stressful news we hear coming from Israel, we rejoice to learn of the wedding this past week in Israel of Simcha’s granddaughter Kaila to Yehoshua Werblowsky, grandson of the well known teacher and author Hanoch Teller - Mazal tov
Read more...
VAYEITSEI 5784
11/24/2023 12:12:07 PM
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...
HAYYEI SARA 5784 cs
11/10/2023 10:44:23 AM
Dear mitpallelim,
As we hear how our enemies wish to eradicate the Jews of Erets Yisrael chas ve-shalom, we should remind ourselves of the words of Israel’s Declaration of Independence: “The State will be diligent for the development of the Land for the benefit of all of its inhabitants. It will be grounded on the foundations of freedom, tsedek, and shalom in light of the...Read more...
VA-YEIRA' 5784
11/03/2023 02:37:13 PM
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...