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Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.

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The Portion of Matot

The Tribes of Gad and Reuven

At the end of the portion of Matot we come to the story of the tribes of Gad and Reuven. As a result of the vast amount of cattle owned by these two tribes, they ask Moses for permission to remain on the eastern bank of the Jordan River and not to cross the Jordan with the other tribes. In response, Moses reminds them of the sin of the spies which angered G-d "the anger of the Lord flared that day" (Numbers 32;10), anger which caused the entire generation of those who had left Egypt to perish in the wilderness without entering the Promised Land.

Two verses later Moses repeats this event: "And the anger of the Lord flared against Israel and He made them wander in the desert for forty years (Numbers 32;13).

G-d's anger is mentioned twice. The letter "chet" in the second word "vayeechar" (flared) has additions to each of its legs, teaching us how

G-d's anger was expressed in eight manners, symbolic of the eight methods of punishments that are part of the Torah's penal code: stoning, burning, decapitation, strangulation, death by heavenly decree, flagellation, excommunication and lashing for rebelliousness. (The Rokeiach on the Torah)

For the benefit of our readers I have circled other unusual letters which appear in the photograph of this section.

The Three Musketeers at the Kotel

Mammoth Cyber Attack on Israel's Banking System Fails By Hana Levi Julian

The Israeli banking system was attacked this weekend by hundreds of Malaysian hackers in an attempt to damage the state's financial apparatus.

The anti-Israel group of hackers called "DragonForce" who carried out the attack claimed they had damaged the entire system; the hackers posted screenshots that appeared to show the collapse of the computers on Israeli banking sites. However, it is estimated that in many cases, these were fake shots.

The attack, carried out in three waves, was aimed at harming the services from the banks' websites, and "even to try and film them through a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack."

The final wave of attacks, launched in the late hours of Friday night, was the most intense and difficult of them all, according to the Hebrew-language Ynet site.

"This is an urgent call for all hackers around the world to unite again and start a campaign against Israel," the group's Telegram group said. Hundreds of thousands of members joined via Twitter, Telegram, Facebook and a forum.

Against the background of Israel's activities in Gaza, the group launched the current attack a few days before its planned date, distributing the Internet addresses of Israeli banks and inviting hackers who hated Israel from all over the world to participate in the attack.

In Israel, cyber defense personnel prepared for the attack and reportedly prevented most of the attempts.

A source at one of the banks told Ynet that when the bank's cyber defense personnel managed to block the Internet addresses of the attackers, they saw a message on the screen as if the bank's website had crashed.

"Some of the time they posted all kinds of 'successes' [but] it was 'Photoshop'" the source said.

During a DDOS attack, the attackers launch thousands of calls simultaneously with the aim of causing the targeted site to crash.

According to estimates by experts who participated in the defense of the banks, the scope of the attack reached approximately 200 megabytes per second — a considerable volume.

An Israeli cyber expert told Ynet the purpose of this type of attack is to exploit the high number of attackers to collapse the computer systems, rather than to infiltrate to obtain information.

A source in the Israeli banking system quoted by Ynet said the targeted load of inquiries led to a brief slowdown and denial of service at all banks' sites.

One of the attacks was aimed at the Bank of Israel.

"From time to time attempts are made to carry out DDOS attacks on the Bank of Israel's external website and on websites of government ministries," the Bank of Israel said in a statement. "Such attempts are routinely blocked without damage to the website; thus in any case such attempts do not affect the bank's systems."

According to Bank Leumi, browsing was "available as usual" for its customers nationwide.

Other banks issued similar statements, saying the attempted attack was "unsuccessful and no damage to any service or process was identified."

DragonForce recently published one file that allegedly contained the names and addresses of hundreds of thousands of Israeli students and another that contained a list of Israelis' passports as well as other personal data.

In this case, however, experts in Israel's cyber defense system said such attempts as those on the banks' websites are "routinely recognized and stopped. In this case too, the banks were prepared and all attempts were stopped without harming the service or any process."

What's My Line? - Art Carney (May 16, 1954)

MYSTERY GUEST: Art Carney PANEL: Dorothy Kilgallen, Steve Allen, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf

Did state err in not immediately inoculating teens?

The Jerusalem Post
29 Jun 2021
ANALYSIS • By ROSSELLA TERCATIN

Israel is currently grappling with a new surge in COVID cases following outbreaks in schools, with a third of the 1,200 active cases being among children aged 12-15.

The high number of infected youth makes one wonder: What would have happened if the country had started vaccinating children as soon as it could have instead of delaying its decision and then avoiding a clear recommendation on the matter?

When the US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to children of that cohort on May 11, Israel had just launched a massive operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Barrages of rockets were pounding the country and ethnic riots had broken out across mixed Arab-Jewish cities. With COVID cases – including serious patients and deaths – dramatically dropping for months, the authorities did not feel a need to prioritize an inoculation campaign among these youth.

Instead, the Health Ministry announced at the time that it would hold consultations with relevant experts to formulate a policy. As the war went on, meetings were postponed and a decision was slow in coming.

In spite of the fact that the vast majority of experts – including the Israeli Pediatric Society – had come out strongly in favor of vaccinating children, another problem loomed.

In April, a preliminary report by the Health Ministry, and leaked to the media, suggested a possible link between the vaccine and myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle. The condition was reported to be especially frequent among young men ages 16-19.

At the time, the ministry confirmed that such a report existed and that it wanted to have a more complete picture before making the information available to the public. It did so on June 1, releasing a short statement saying that indeed, some myocarditis cases were likely connected to the vaccine – even though in over 95% of the cases, they were mild and without long-lasting side effects.

The following day, the ministry announced that children ages 12-15 could be vaccinated starting from the following week (June 6) but if they did not present a specific risk factor or were planning on traveling abroad, the recommendation was not to rush to vaccinate.

This meant that no SMS or phone call was made to parents, no post were published on Facebook

and no public address was made to get parents to go and get their children vaccinated.

IN THE FIRST days after the move, some 2,000-2,500 shots were administered per day, but the number soon dropped to below 2,000 and even below 1,500, out of a total population of about 550,000 children in that age range.

Then, at the end of last week, news began to emerge about some outbreaks in three Israeli schools: one in Modi'in and two in Binyamina. Daily cases identified in the country rapidly climbed from less than 20 to over 30, 40 and then 100.

Among these new cases, the 12-15 cohort is much more prevalent than any other age group.

Of the current 1,200 new cases, over a third – more than 400 – are 12-to-15 year olds.

At the beginning of the outbreak, the rate was even higher. On June 19, some 68% of the 47 new identified cases belonged to that age group; on the following two days they constituted 47% of the 48 and 124 new cases. In the following days, they would remain between 30% and 40%.

What would have happened if the government had lobbied parents to have their children vaccinated? Would they have avoided contracting the virus themselves, and spare the contagion from others? Most likely the answer to this question is yes.

Meanwhile, the government has changed. One of the first measures to counter the rise in cases promoted by the new Israeli leadership was an active campaign to get children vaccinated. Since then, the number of daily shots has quadrupled, with some 8,000 children jabbed on Thursday.

On Sunday, Clalit – Israel's biggest health fund, which provides healthcare services to about half of the population – announced that some 25,000 children had been vaccinated and another 30,000 had booked an appointment to do so in the coming days.

While the numbers have been increasing, they are still much lower than the goal set by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett last week of 30,000 teens jabbed every day.

Bennett also warned that while Israel has enough doses to cover all eligible people, its vaccines will expire on July 31, so all those who wish to be certain to get fully immunized according to the normal schedule – three weeks between the first and second shot – should make sure to get their first appointment before July 9.

Also on Sunday, the Israeli Pediatric Society published a new position paper reiterating its support for the vaccine, and addressing the issue of possible side effects.

IPS HEAD Prof. Tzachi Grossman, along with the organization's colleagues, wrote that the risk for a child to develop a severe form of COVID if infected – which stands at 1:3,000 – outweighs that of developing a myocarditis – which according to US data for ages 12-17 is more than five times less likely at 1:16,000 (according to Israeli data for the age group 16-19, the occurrence was half as likely at 1:6,000).

Their recommendation was therefore to continue promoting vaccinating children, with the exception of those who have suffered from myocarditis in the past.

However, both Grossman and Dr. Galia Barkai, director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit at Sheba Medical Center, said that the decision of the ministry to take a conservative approach was the correct one, just as now it is right to encourage children to get vaccinated.

"We made the decision together, in consultation," said Grossman.

"We were gathering information regarding myocarditis, we were waiting for more children to get vaccinated in other countries such as in the United States," Barkai added. "There were days with no COVID-19 cases in Israel. I tend to think that being more conservative was the right decision, and now things have changed."

By now, millions of children have been vaccinated around the world.

"With more than 50% of the population vaccinated, we had the privilege to be able to wait and see what was happening," Barkai said.

The caution was a way to show the public that the authorities were not rushing but were taking into consideration all factors, she said.

Asked if Israel will be able to reach 30,000 shots a day, Barkai said it is going to be difficult.

But at the same time, she is not excessively worried about the current outbreak.

"I do not see that we are going to witness a catastrophe here," she concluded. "The vaccine is effective against the Delta variant and I do not believe the outbreak is going to be uncontrollable."

Elvis Presley was Jewish? A grave marker locked away for 4 decades could confirm it.

The singer designed the grave marker for his mother, Gladys Presley

By Dan Fellner

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (JTA) – The large crate sat unopened in a 20,000-square-foot warehouse here for more than four decades, concealing a little-known fact about one of America's cultural icons.

Inside was the headstone of Elvis Presley's mother, Gladys, which had been stored in the Graceland archives along with 1.5 million other items since 1977. And on the upper left side of the long-unseen marker — designed by Elvis himself — is a Star of David.

Yes, the King of Rock and Roll had Jewish roots.

The headstone, which was taken from storage only in 2018, is now on display at the sprawling complex in Memphis where Elvis lived from 1957 until his untimely death 20 years later at the age of 42. It sits in Graceland's Meditation Garden, just outside the mansion and a few feet from Elvis' own grave.

Stories of Elvis' Jewish heritage have long been in circulation, but when it comes to a legend like Presley — whose death is not even considered settled fact in some quarters — it's not always easy to separate fact from fiction. With the headstone now on public display and an accompanying sign proclaiming "Gladys' Jewish heritage," any lingering doubts can finally be erased.

"There was a lot of mystery surrounding it," said Angie Marchese, Graceland's vice president of archives and exhibits, and the one who came up with the idea of unveiling Gladys' headstone on the 60th anniversary of her death, partly to dispel doubts about Elvis' Jewish lineage. "The star is on it, so it answered a lot of questions that were out there."

Marchese says Elvis' maternal great-great-grandmother was a Jewish woman named Nancy Burdine. Little is known about Burdine, but it's believed her family immigrated to America from what is now Lithuania around the time of the American Revolution. According to Ancestry.com, Burdine was born in Mississippi in 1826 and died in 1887.

Burdine's great-granddaughter was Gladys Love Smith, who married Vernon Presley in 1933. Two years later, Gladys gave birth to Elvis in Tupelo, Mississippi. The family moved to Memphis when Elvis was 13.

The Presleys once lived in an apartment directly below the family of Rabbi Alfred Fruchter, the first principal of the Memphis Hebrew Academy. The rabbi's son, Harold, who now lives in Maryland, said that Elvis actually served as the Fruchters' "Shabbos goy," a non-Jew who performs household tasks for observant Jews that are normally forbidden on the Jewish Sabbath. Fruchter said his parents "never had even an inkling" that Elvis had Jewish roots.

"If they had, they would never have considered asking him to be a Shabbos goy," Fruchter said.

Elvis was especially close to his mother, who died of heart failure in 1958 at the age of 46. Initially Elvis had her buried in a public cemetery in Memphis. Her headstone was marked with a cross.

But Marchese says that six years later, Elvis replaced the headstone with one designed to his specifications. The new marker featured a Star of David on one side and a cross on the other along with the words "Sunshine Of Our Home" engraved between.

What prompted Elvis to include the Star of David on his mother's headstone? Marchese isn't exactly sure, or even when Elvis learned of his mother's Jewish heritage. But she says "the Jewish faith gave him comfort when he was seeking answers" to help him deal with her passing.

Following an attempt to steal Elvis' body from a Memphis cemetery, Vernon Presley had the remains of his son and wife moved to Graceland for security reasons. Gladys' grave marker with the Star of David went into storage. And there it remained until Marchese suggested it be put on public display.

"We thought it would be a great way of honoring her Jewish heritage as well as honoring her," said Marchese, who has worked at Graceland for 32 years and is one of the world's preeminent experts on the Presley family. "We think it's what Elvis would have wanted."

There is evidence that Elvis' Jewish lineage meant more to him than just a symbol on a headstone. He gave generously over the years to a variety of Jewish organizations, including the Memphis Jewish Community Center, a donation honored with a plaque that hangs in Graceland today. Elvis' personal library included several books on Judaism and Jewish history.

During the final years of his life, Elvis was frequently photographed wearing necklaces with the Star of David and the Hebrew word "chai," which means life. The chai necklace is kept in a cabinet at Graceland next to the keys to the singer's famed 1955 pink Cadillac. Never one to be accused of subtlety, Elvis had the necklace designed with 17 diamonds. He purchased the jewelry in 1976, one year before he died.

"He would often make a joke, 'I don't want to get left out of heaven on a technicality,'" Marchese said. "So he would wear a Star of David, a chai and he would also wear a cross. He wanted to keep all his bases covered."

Gladys' heritage notwithstanding, Presley was raised in the Assembly of God Church, but he explored other religions as he got older and began to struggle with physical and mental issues.

"He was always searching for answers as to why he was chosen to be who he was," Marchese said. "I think he found some of those answers through different religions."

There have been suggestions that Elvis' handlers didn't want his Jewish heritage known to the public, fearing it might prompt some of his Southern fans to abandon him. But Marchese says there is no evidence of that.

"It was not something he was shying away from," she said. "He would be photographed in these [necklaces] and he would make donations to Jewish community centers throughout his entire life."