Israeli PM Bennett Exposed to COVID Carrier on Flight home From UAE and At UN, 129 Countries Erase Jewish Ties to Jerusalem and UN resolution denies Jewish connection to Temple Mount and The Sound Of Silence by Wuauquikuna and The Exodus – The Novel, The Film, And The Reality By Rabbi Hanoch Teller and never too late for a few Chanukah jokes and good news if you can remember-People who take Viagra have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s, study says

View in browser 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. Love Yehuda Lave Join my blog by sending me an email to YehudaLave@gmail.com RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TERRIBLE DREIDEL GAMBLING JOKES OF THE WEEK What did the father dreidel say to his daughter when he came home from work and found her still in the shower? What! You're still not dry and ready? What did the dreidel tell the doctor? I've been having these dizzy spells Q: What do you call Hanukkah gelt that you gamble with? A: Chocolate chips. Q: Did you hear about the two dreidels that fell in love? A: They met at a spin class. Q: How did the dreidel feel about calling in sick? A: He felt a little gelty. "My son is something else," Mrs. Finkelstein told her friend. "He traveled to Las Vegas last week in a $25,000 car and returned a few days later in a $100,000 vehicle." "Wow! He won that much money?" her friend replied. "He must really know how to gamble." "Well, not really," said the mother. "He went in our car, but had to return by bus." When Rivkah was called up for jury service, she asked the judge whether she could be excused. "I don't believe in capital punishment," she said, "and I wouldn't want my views to prevent the trial from running its proper course". The judge liked her thoughtfulness but had to tell her that she was perfectly suitable to serve on the jury. "Madam," he explained, "This is not a murder trial, it's just a simple civil lawsuit. Mrs F is bringing this case against her husband because he gambled away the entire $25,000 he had promised her for her birthday so that she could carry out a make-over on her kitchen." "OK," said Rivkah, "I'll join your jury - I could be wrong about capital punishment after all." A rabbi, a minister, and a priest were playing poker when the police raided the game. Turning to the priest, the lead police officer said, "Father Murphy, were you gambling?" Turning his eyes to heaven, the priest whispered, "L*rd, forgive me for what I am about to do." To the police officer, he then said, "No, officer; I was not gambling." The officer then asked the minister, "Pastor Johnson, were you gambling?" Again, after an appeal to heaven, the minister replied, "No, officer; I was not gambling." Turning to the rabbi, the officer again asked, "Rabbi Goldstein, were you gambling?" Shrugging his shoulders, the rabbi replied, "With whom? Moishe meets Arnold at their social club and asks how Abe's funeral went the other day. "It went OK, Moishe," replied Arnold, "but at the end of the Rabbi's eulogy, I had to try and stop myself from laughing aloud." "Why was that?" asks Moishe. "Well," says Arnold, "throughout his marriage to Miriam, she was always telling me what a mean man he was. He never had a steady job and the money he brought home to her wasn't enough for food and clothing, let alone holidays. Yet he drank heavily and often stayed out all night gambling. Altogether, a good husband he was not. But at the funeral, the Rabbi spoke of how wonderful the deceased was - so considerate, so beloved, so thoughtful to others. Then, when the Rabbi had finished, I heard Miriam say to one of her children, "Do me a favor, David, go see whether it's your father in the coffin." Rabbi Bloom gets on the train and as soon as the doors close, a priest gets up, goes over to the rabbi, and says, "Good morning rabbi. I have a question to ask you. Why is it that everybody thinks Jews are smarter than Gentiles?" Rabbi Bloom, who is not up for an argument, says, "I'm sorry, but I am just a simple rabbi and I'm not really able to participate in such a discussion." But the priest insists. "Look, no harm meant rabbi, but I have a theory and I need to test it out in the form of a bet. I'll pay you $100 if you can ask me a question that I can't answer. But if I can ask you a question that you can't answer, you must pay me $100." Rabbi Bloom replies, "But I'm a poor rabbi - I only have $10 on me." The priest hesitates then says, "OK, rabbi, it's my $100 against your $10." Rabbi Bloom realizes he can't get out of this so he agrees, but on condition that he asks the first question. The priest agrees. "OK," says Rabbi Bloom, "what animal has scaly skin, the body of a cat, the face of a squirrel, the ears of a mouse, webbed toes and swims underwater?" Surprised, the priest admits that he doesn't know and asks the rabbi for a few more minutes to think about it. The rabbi agrees. 2 minutes later, the priest takes $100 from his wallet and gives it to the rabbi. The priest then asks the rabbi, "So what animal was it?" Rabbi Bloom replies, "How should I know?" and gives the priest $10. Israeli PM Bennett Exposed to COVID Carrier on Flight From UAE Meanwhile, the Health Ministry is planning to considerably expand the list of countries to which Israelis are barred from traveling, amid the ongoing spread of the omicron variant A passenger, who traveled back to Israel from the United Arab Emirates with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, was identified as a coronavirus carrier on Tuesday. The Prime Minister's Office said all those on the flight will enter quarantine and undergo PCR testing, in line with Health Ministry guidelines. Bennett was returning from a two-day visit to the UAE – the first formal visit by an Israeli prime minister to the United Arab Emirates – which Israeli leaders have dubbed a resounding success. 744 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed on Monday, with 90 patients in serious condition including 65 on respirators. Amid the ongoing spread of the omicron variant, a panel headed by Prime Minister Bennett will convene to discuss the expansion of the list of countries to which Israelis are barred from travelling. Israel has already confirmed at least 67 cases of the omicron variant, which experts warn spreads much more rapidly than previous variants of the coronavirus. Health Ministry sources said that the list of "red" countries is expected to substantially grow. The ministry expects more European countries to be added to the list of banned destinations, likely to enter into force this weekend. Israel's "traffic light" system of classification designates a country as "red" if it has detected a dangerous variant that is not yet common in Israel, the morbidity rate among returnees from the country is over 2%, or the country has a recent outbreak. On Sunday, the ministry labeled the list of "red" countries to include the UK and Denmark, swelling the total number of banned destinations to 49. Despite a CDC decision in October to begin administering a fourth booster shot to high-risk individuals, the Health Ministry's vaccination committee recommended against rolling out a fourth booster shot on Monday. Instead, Israel's home front strategy will prioritize vaccinating the 42 percent of Israelis who are not fully protected against the coronavirus. Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash has said that there is a "high probability" that a fourth vaccine will be recommended, "but we will have to see when." "We still do not see the possibility of administering a fourth vaccine to the general population, but first and foremost to high-risk populations," said Ash. Five- to 11-year-olds in particular pose a major vector for the spread of the virus as the vaccination drive lags. Since Israel authorized the vaccine for five- to 11-year-olds three weeks ago, just 110,000 have received the jab out of a possible 1.2 million. According to the ministry's online data dashboard, 99.95 percent of children in this age cohort are currently unvaccinated. From Sunday morning, Israel also permitted the administration of vaccines in schools. Addressing the cabinet in November, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has previously dubbed the current spread of COVID in the country a "children's wave," called on parents to vaccinate their children, stating that people need to "go out and take advantage of these precious days" because "we will not succeed in forever delaying omicron." The Three Musketeers at the Kotel At UN, 129 Countries Erase Jewish Ties to Jerusalem The only thing the text didn't throw at Israel was the kitchen sink. By Pesach Benson, United With Israel The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution erasing Jewish ties to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount on Wednesday. It was the most controversial of a set three resolutions that were passed together by a vote of 129-11 with 31 abstentions. The other resolutions blamed only Israel for the impasse in peace efforts and denounced Israel's "occupation" of the "Syrian Golan." The text of the UNGA's "Jerusalem resolution," however, threw the most mud at Israel. The text made no mention of the holy city's ties to Judaism or Christianity. It referred to the Temple Mount only by its Arabic name, al-Haram al-Sharif. It "deplored" Israeli settlement activity in and around Jerusalem, and Israeli "acts of provocation and incitement" at the city's holy site. The resolution also accused Israel of displacing Palestinians from homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan and conducting illegal excavations in the Old City. The only thing the text didn't throw at Israel was the kitchen sink. The vote's passage was a foregone conclusion. With 193 countries and no protective US veto power, the Palestinians enjoy what Israelis refer to as "an automatic majority." The US voted against the resolution, saying it was "morally, historically and politically wrong" for the UN to deny Jewish and Christian ties to the city. Britain abstained. The resolution prompted UN Watch's Hillel Neuer to tweet, "On the 4th night of Chanukah, as we celebrate the Maccabees' 167 BCE rededication of the Jewish Temple & victorious resistance over Greek Seleucid tyrant Antiochus who outlawed Judaism in ancient Israel, the U.N. wants to pretend this Temple never existed." The second resolution, titled "The peaceful resolution of the question of Palestine," put the sole blame for the lack of peace on Israel. The text reiterated previous resolutions labelling settlements as illegal and made no mention of Palestinian terror. In remarks to the UN before the vote, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan castigated the UN and the Palestinian Authority for not denouncing Palestinian terror, including the recent murder of Eli Kay by a Palestinian terrorist in the Old City. Three others were injured in that attack, one seriously. "Spurring a culture of hate and incitement against Israel is more important to Palestinian leaders than improving the quality of life of their own citizens. The Jewish blood has barely dried, and you have the audacity to single out Israel for violence in Jerusalem? Today, you will vote on three resolutions. Three resolutions that have one purpose and one purpose only: to demonize Israel," Erdan said. The votes came on the heels of the UN's annual "Day of Solidarity With the Palestinians" on Nov. 29. That was the day in 1947 when the UN General Assembly endorsed the Partition Plan, a recommendation to divide British Mandate Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Jewish establishment accepted the proposal but the Arab world rejected it. In other words, the UN was celebrating Arab rejectionism of the two-state solution. The Partition Plan prompted Arab states to begin taking the earliest discriminatory measures against their Jewish citizens. That's why Israel marks Nov. 29 as a day to recall the expulsion of more than 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands. The third resolution denouncing Israel's refusal to return the "Syrian Golan" is barely worthy of comment. Israel captured the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967 after the Syrian army shelled villages throughout the Galilee. Returning the Golan to Syria would simply put Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps rocket and drone squads across the Kinneret. On the day after the vote, two Israelis were nearly lynched after driving into Ramallah. The two were extricated by PA security forces, but their car was torched by a mob. Initial unconfirmed reports suggest they were given wrong directions by an Arab at a gas station. Had the lynching taken place before the UN vote, no doubt Israel would have been blamed for that too. The Sound Of Silence by Wuauquikuna | Panflute | Toyos | Harp cover good news if you can remember-People who take Viagra have a lower risk of Alzheimer's, study says Jami Ganz New York Daily News (TNS) Viagra might help treat Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers who have been using the impotence drug to study the effects it has on the brain. Though more studies are needed, researchers in Cleveland found that men who were taking the blue pill, also known as sildenafil, had a lower risk of Alzheimer's, following analysis of a database of over 7.2 million patients spanning six years, BBC News reported Monday. The team also found in lab studies that those who took higher than usual doses of the pill — best known for erectile dysfunction — displayed an increase in brain cell growth and reduced protein accumulation, according to the outlet. "Because our findings only establish an association between sildenafil use and reduced incidence of Alzheimer's disease, we are now planning a mechanistic trial and a phase II randomized clinical trial to test causality and confirm sildenafil's clinical benefits for Alzheimer's patients," research leader Dr. Feixiong Cheng reportedly told the Nature Aging journal. Until that research is completed, University of Edinburgh Professor Tara Spires-Jones, an expert on brain research, advises people "not rush out to start taking sildenafil as a prevention for Alzheimer's disease." Dr. Jack Auty, a Medical Sciences lecturer at the University of Tasmania, similarly said this is hardly the first indication of a drug that could help with Alzheimer's, though that has yet to pan out, according to the BBC. To repurpose an already existing drug would be both a cheaper and overall more efficient path than developing an entirely new treatment for the disease. Originally meant to treat the heart, Viagra's ability to relax blood vessels and subsequently improve blood flow in other parts of the body led to its use for ED as well as pulmonary hypertension — for men and women alike — which affects the lungs, according to the outlet. Though the exact causes of Alzheimer's, a type of dementia, are still being probed, it's known that those who have it have abnormal protein deposits in their brains, BBC reports. ——— ©2021 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The Exodus – The Novel, The Film, And The Reality By Rabbi Hanoch Teller photo Credit: YouTube Through the pages of The Jewish Press, we have told the story of the Haganah ship Exodus 1947. As there are aspects of the drama that are not well known, I indeed have a story to tell you. The actual events of the ship and its failed yet ultimately triumphal role in assisting in the creation of the State of Israel bear no correlation to Leon Uris' novel or Otto Preminger's film. Yet both artistic works' departure from the truth is not only what novels (and their films) are made of, but has a redeeming factor that surpasses the blockbuster sales and box office success. We shall start with the book, then move on to the movie, and ultimately, to the reality. The two most catalytic enzymes for Russian Jewry's desire and sacrifice to emigrate to Israel came about in the late 1960s. The most significant factor was the Six-Day War, which not only caught the world by surprise, but made a laughingstock out of Russia. Leading up to the war, Pravda (the official Communist Party newspaper of the Soviet Union) would feature tables portraying the uneven match-up between Israel and her adversaries. Israel, with her ragtag, meager armaments, was up against modern Arab armies featuring the latest of Soviet know-how and staffed by Russian advisors. The way matters were featured, it was as pathetic as putting a 90-pound weakling in the ring against a 250-pound heavyweight champion. But after all that hype, Israel executed a stunning victory. Russia did its best to downplay the loss – if not, like the Arabs, to deny it – but the Russian Jewish underground clandestinely listened to the VOA and the BBC. What they heard surpassed their wildest dreams. Not only had Israel been spared a massacre, but the tormentors of Russian Jewry had been humiliated and defeated by their own brethren in Israel. The morale of Russian Jewry was elevated, and with their backs upright they applied to emigrate to Israel, with all of the inherent risks. But there was yet another factor that strengthened the resolve of Soviet Jewry at about the same time, and that was Leon Uris' novel, Exodus. A digest of the book had been translated into Russian and then mimeographed in Israel. Tourists visiting Russia on behalf of the Jewish Underground smuggled in copies. Through this clandestine network, by the end of the 1970s the digest had been widely read, further propelling Russian Jews' desire to emigrate to Israel. The film released in 1960, like the Haganah ship by same name, was about Holocaust survivors who fled DP camps in order to illegally immigrate to Palestine. But that is where the parallels end. The American epic film features an ensemble cast and is regarded as having been remarkably influential in stimulating Zionism and sympathy for Israel in the United States. I saw the film when I was nine years old, and for all of its heart-thumping action and pathos, the only scene that I remember is when the anti-Semitic British officer, Major Caldwell (Peter Lawford), informs the Haganah officer (Paul Newman) disguised as an American Army Captain, "Half of them [the Jews] are Communists. They look funny too. I can spot one a mile away." At this point, in what my recall has substantiated was a truly memorable scene, Newman, initially startled, turns to his comrade and requests, "Would you mind looking into my eye? There may be a cinder." As Major Caldwell conducts his visual examination of Paul Newman's fetching blue eye, he comments, "A lot of them try to hide under gentile names, but when you look at their face, you just know." Caldwell pronounces his colleague to be cinder-free, and Newman gives the camera a knowing look. It is probably worthy of some analysis as to why only that scene stayed with me. Regardless, my qualifications as a movie critic are, admittedly nil, if for no other reason than the paucity of films that I have seen. But watching this movie again after so many decades, I was struck by how 1960-ish it is (and how Newman, who seems to have a cigarette in his mouth in a way that would do Humphrey Bogart proud throughout the beginning of the film, seems to have kicked the habit by the second half). But undeniably, the movie compellingly conveys the struggle and the drama leading up to Israel's independence. Having discussed the novel and the film, let us analyze what actually occurred because of the Exodus. When the commandeered boat docked in Haifa, its passengers were removed and placed on three prison ships. At that time the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was conducting their interviews regarding Palestine's future, and Aubrey (later Abba) Eban persuaded four of the eleven committee members, including the chairman, to go to Haifa to see for themselves what was happening. British soldiers wielding clubs and hoses whipped the forlorn Holocaust survivors back onto the prison ships returning to Europe. Eban wrote in his autobiography that the four members watched a "gruesome operation." Witnessing the British brutality was an exclamation point for UNSCOP. Wherever the delegates went in Palestine they saw elaborate military precautions, barbed wire, armored patrol cars, searchlight beams at night – all compelling evidence of a doomed political entity. If they needed any more evidence of Jewish desperation, they were informed of how the Exodus' passengers fought hand-to-hand with the British all night on the high seas, and only surrendered when the ramming of His Majesty's Navy threatened to sink the ship. The Exodus tragedy, prolonged over three months, was extensively reported upon in newspapers around the world. The UNSCOP members were definitely affected by this episode, and the Yugoslav delegate commented, "This is the best evidence that we can have." Evidence from a boatload of passengers who, like a refugee community of 250,000 Jews, measured their very existence against their hour of departure for Palestine. See you tomorrow bli neder We need Moshiach now! Love Yehuda Lave Yehuda Lave, Spirtual Advisor and Counselor Jerusalem, Jerusalem  Israel 972-585043210 YehudaLave@gmail.com You received this email because you signed up on our website or made a purchase from us. Unsubscribe