The new Florida? Record number of US retirees relocate to Israel in 2021 and The Portion of Tetzaveh read tomorrow and China's longest underwater highway tunnel opens and Wannsee Conference: The most shameful document of modern history and MY ORCHID PLANT by Rabbi Berel Wein
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.
Among my many failings is the fact that I do not have a green thumb. Plants and I do not agree and, in fact, many times I feel that the plants that I have in my home are just downright hostile to me. The care of these plants and the reason that they have survived so long has always been due to the distaff side of my home. I very much enjoy flowers and plants and I see in them some of the bountiful goodness of the pleasures that the Lord has arranged for humans in this world.
So I persist in watering and caring for the plants in my house in spite of my bumbling efforts to keep them sprightly or at least alive. The only exception to this seemingly endless tale of frustration is the orchid plants that I have in my house. They require very little care and that is what they receive. Their flowers are absolutely magnificent and their presence has a soothing effect on my rabbinic nerves that sometimes become frustrated and jangled.
And the greatest thing about orchid plants is the fact that after they shed their flowers after a month or two they do not die but remain dormant, sometimes for more than a year, and then suddenly revive themselves and begin to produce the bulbs that will then produce their beautiful flowers.
I love to watch this process for it gives me a sense of revival and resilience. There is a great human lesson to be learned from the orchid plant and I am grateful to have that opportunity. The Torah itself indicates that humans have much to learn from nature – both the animal and plant kingdoms – and that only a fool would ignore these lessons built into God's creation.
I have had an orchid plant in my home that has been dormant for well over a year. About a month ago, the person that helps clean and keep my house orderly proposed that I dispose of this plant since it obviously was no longer going to revive itself and produce flowers. I told her that this plant had done so previously and that I would hang onto it, if for no other reason than a sentimental one.
The plant must've heard the warning that it was on a very short leash and, beginning two weeks ago, it began to wake up. It now has suddenly sprouted bulbs and just before Shabbat it gave birth to the first beautiful orchid flower. I was deeply touched by the event for it highlighted to me the continuity of life, which is one of the basic values of Judaism and of its Torah.
We all pass through difficult and sad times. We all, in the words of Proverbs, "fall seven times." But we are commanded to rise again to continue, for the challenges and difficulties of life are inescapable. The strength and resilience that the Lord built into human beings must be exploited by continuing to do acts of kindness, mercy and justice. Watching my orchid plant bloom again brought home to me this attitude… a mere flower served as both a great challenge but also a comfort.
I realize that even orchid plants do not bloom forever. All things in this world are finite and that applies to work with plants as it does to humans and other creatures. This realization however does not dampen my enthusiasm at seeing my orchid plant once again blossom and give forth flowers. The plant does not seem to be overly concerned about its ultimate future and demise. Meanwhile it does what it is supposed to do – produce beautiful flowers so that the human beings can have enjoyment.
That is also a great lesson to humans who are haunted by our sense of mortality and finiteness. In Proverbs again, King Solomon in describing the great woman of valor, states that "she is able to laugh even to the last day." We do not see anything humorous about the last day. But the deeper meaning is that while we have not yet arrived at the last day, we have to pursue our mission and task in life with enthusiasm and joy and not with a sense of doom and foreboding.
The gift of life and resilience that the Lord has planted within us is what makes life magical and gives it a whiff of eternity. I am very grateful to my orchid plant for having taught me so many important lessons.
Shabbat shalom
Berel Wein
The Portion of Tetzaveh
After we read in the portion of Terumah of the command given to the Children of Israel to build the mishkan (tabernacle) and its vessels and ornaments, the portion of Tetzaveh deals with the preparation of the kohanim (priests) for their service in the mishkan and eventually in the Holy Temple. We read of the lighting of the eternal flame, the priestly garments, the special garments of the high priest and those of his sons and their preparation to begin their priestly service.
The portion concludes with the sin offering brought on Yom Kippur.
"And Aaron atoned on the corners of the altar one day in the year…(Exodus 30;10)".
The curved and rounded letter "pei" in the word "vecheipair" (and he atoned expresses the great significance of this day.
And in the words of the Remazei Yoel: "And Aaron atoned on the corners- the double and enlarged "pei" alludes to the fact that the atonement of Yom Kippur was important and great- and that is why it is written in this manner."
The comment of the Remazei Yoel are written in regards to the explanation of "And Aaron atoned", but one can possibly expand his comment to the significance of the entire event as the whole area contains the double "pei".
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Wannsee Conference: The most shameful document of modern history - opinion
The Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942, was not about consumer trends, projected profits or shareholder value, it was about life and death. Specifically, systematic death.
By SARA J. BLOOMFIELD
Published:
JANUARY 19, 2022
A view of the Wannsee villa. The Wannsee Conference was about systematic death.
(photo credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum/Gedenkstätte Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz)
The CEO of a major corporation once told me he had visited several Holocaust memorials, but most troubling was a site that resonated with his own life. It involved a group of leaders meeting around a conference table to solve a problem and coordinate the solutions required to achieve their goals.But the Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942, was not about consumer trends, projected profits or shareholder value, it was about life and death. Specifically, systematic death: The bureaucratically organized annihilation of European Jewry. The meeting minutes, marked top secret, describe the scope of the problem: A list of 34 European countries with estimates of their Jewish populations totaling over 11 million. The CEO could identify with the business-like approach but could not reconcile that with the monstrous purpose: to plan genocide on a continental scale.The minutes of that meeting, which took place 80 years ago today, are part of the massive documentation that survived, despite German efforts to destroy the evidence of their crimes. In postwar trials, American prosecutors called these minutes perhaps the most shameful document of modern history
Although the idea of calmly discussing mass murder at a conference is chilling, what happened before and after are equally important to recognize the warning signs of mass atrocities and genocide. As noted scholar, MarkRoseman points out in The Wannsee Conference a nd the Final Solution: A
Reconsideration, the path from social and economic isolation, and forced emigration of Germany's Jews to the extermination of Europe's Jews was a twisted one. There were many warning signs, but no one single straight line from Hitler's 1925 Mein Kampf, filled with hateful diatribes against Jews, to his 1933 rise to power, to the 1935 Nuremberg (citizenship) Laws, to the 1938 nationwide attacks on Jews (Kristallnacht), and to the wartime mass murders that began in 1939 and escalated in 1941 to the most radical step of all, systematic genocide, resulting in the murder of six million Jews.Along the way, there was an antisemitic, ethno-nationalist ideology underpinning the Nazi state that was relentlessly promoted by massive propaganda, a complete stranglehold on German Jews' participation in society, unimpeded German expansion into neighboring lands, military conquest and brutal occupation. These factors help explain the interplay of ideas, events and decisions over those 18 years, but there were critical developments well before 1925.
A PORTRAIT of Reinhard Heydrich is displayed as part of the exhibition at The House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin. (credit: ARND WIEGMANN / REUTERS)The ideas and political currents that shaped Nazism first emerged in the late 19th century within a Europe undergoing enormous economic and social changes. Industrialization, urbanization and the growth of science and technology served as both constructive and disruptive forces. Darwinian and Marxist ideas were part of an increasing secularization. The rise in education and mass communications enabled the growth of mass political parties and movements.Popular grievances are always in search of solutions – and scapegoats. Jews had always been used as scapegoats, subjected to persecution for centuries in Christian Europe. But modern times called for modern Judeophobia. Th late 19th century saw the rise of ethno-nationalism and eugenics, which led to a toxic brew of scientific racism and new questions: What is our national identity? Who belongs to our nation? Who is worthy of our protection?Amid two upheavals – World War I, which ended with the collapse of four empires, the creation of new nations, and the Russian Revolution – these questions resonated more powerfully. New ideas for organizing societies emerged: Socialism, communism, fascism, and ethno-nationalism linked to racial antisemitism. Democracy, liberalism, and capitalism were challenged from all sides. As Germany suffered a humiliating defeat, the Weimar Republic was born in 1918. Germany, unified as a country for only 47 years, suddenly became a democracy. Yet, most of the civil service, military and big business did not support it. While many Germans cautiously embraced democracy, others gravitated to the far ight and far Left.
The 1923 coup attempt by a fringe Nazi arty was only one evncluded threats of a communist coup and crippling inflation. Although these and other crises stabilized somewhat in the latter half of the 1920s, resentments simmered. The 1929 Great Depression put them into sharper focus: Who was the internal enemy that caused our defeat in World War I and created the hated Weimar Republic? Who was behind the communist revolution in Russia? Who controls global capitalism and our livelihoods? What does it mean to be German?Skillfully weaving a tapestry of late 19th century ideas and early 20th century events, the Nazis offered answers and promised pride, unity , hope and renewal. They would create a racial utopia for pure Germans while removing their racial enemies, the Jews, who posed what they considered an existential threat, and whom they linked to both plutocratic capitalism and communism.German elites did not necessarily agree with all these answers, which many found extreme, but they believed they could use Hitler to achieve their shared goals of destroying democracy, crushing organized labor, fighting communism and restoring Germany as a great power. They brought him into power believing they had hired him to do their bidding. Although Hitler quickly ended democracy, they had grossly underestimated him: Within his first months, he co-opted military and business leaders, and put Germany on a path to its imperialistic destiny as a racially pure nation that would dominate Europe.The idea of annihilating European Jewry was not Nazi policy in the 1930s.
Then, the goal was the complete isolation and deprivation of Jews, hoping they would emigrate. Although Kristallnacht was an alarming sign of intensifying persecution, it was after German military conquests that Nazi policy evolved toward systematic mass murder. Following the June 22, 1941, German invasion of the Soviet Union, the SS and police, helped by local collaborators, began mass shootings of Jewish men and, a month later, women and children as well. As knowledge of the shootings spread to Nazi officials in Germany and across occupied Europe, "their perception of what was possible also began to change," notes Rosen. "A psychological threshold was irrevocably crossed."The precise date Hitler authorized Nazi leaders to plan the annihilation of Europe's Jews is not known. What is known is that the purpose of the Wannsee Conference was not to make a decision about what had long been called the final solution of the Jewish question, but to coordinate how it would be done. The conference, called by the deputy of SS leader
Heinrich Himmler, aimed to secure the support needed to implement the Final Solution. Participants were from the ministry of Justice, the Four Year Plan (economy), the Interior, Propaganda, and the Foreign Office; others represented the Nazi Party and SS agencies, and focused on racial matters. Almost half the participants held a PhD or an advanced law
degree.As Roseman writes, "Here, in the refined atmosphere of an elegant villa, in a cultivated suburb, in one of Europe's most sophisticated capitals, fifteen educated, civilized bureaucrats from an educated, civilized society sat about, observing all due decorum. And here they gave the nod
to genocide."As I discussed with the CEO, the critical point is not just that the Wannsee Conference happened, but what led up to it. When and how could things have been different? In hindsight, there were warning signs along the way. Back at the beginnings of the twisted path, who could have imagined where it would lead? We live in a post-Holocaust world that should have learned the unthinkable is possible. By the time those officials met in their mundane, business-like way, it was too late.
The writer is director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The new Florida? Record number of US retirees relocate to Israel in 2021
Of the 4,478 new immigrants who arrived in Israel from North America last year, 762 — just over 17% of the total — were 55 or older, a 23% rise from the 580 who came in 2020.
By LARRY LUXNER/JTA
Joel Tenenbaum, 81, and Marilyn Berkowitz, 84, enjoy the beach just north of Tel Aviv.(photo credit: Courtesy
A few weeks ago, Joel Tenenbaum, 81, and Marilyn Berkowitz, 84, arrived in Tel Aviv on an El Alflight from New York ready to start their new lives in Israel. They had met through JDate five years earlier. Each was widowed; Tenebaum had been married for 47 years, Berkowitz, known as Lyn, for 49. A retired New York trial lawyer raised in Brooklyn, Tenenbaum always had felt an affinity for Israel — fueled since childhood by Hebrew school and the movie "Exodus." Berkowitz, a former university dean's assistant in New Jersey, had been a frequent visitor to Israel ever since her son moved here in 1991.
Both are longtime volunteers for the Israeli nonprofit organization Sar-El. They now share a rental apartment in Tel Aviv's trendy Florentin neighborhood, close to the ulpan where they will soon enroll in an intensive Hebrew language program."A lot of our contemporaries have gone to Florida," Berkowitz said. "But I think they should become sandbirds, not snowbirds."In fact, more and more older American Jews are opting to spend their golden years in the Jewish state. Of the 4,478 new immigrants who arrived in Israel from North America last year, 762 — just over 17% of the total — were 55 or older. That's up nearly 23% from the 580 who came in 2020, according to Nefesh B'Nefesh, the nonprofit agency that coordinates the aliyah process for U.S. and Canadian citizens."Israel is becoming a more attractive place, specifically for people at the age of retirement," said Marc Rosenberg, vice president of Diaspora partnerships at Nefesh B'Nefesh. "With increasing technology, cellphones and internet use, Israel is much more international now, especially with apps that allow people to get around, navigate and do their banking online.
"The pandemic, Rosenberg said, has prompted people of all ages to recalibrate what's important to them. "The pandemic really shifted how many people connect and stay close to family without being in close physical proximity," said Rosenberg, whose organization works in partnership with Israel's Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and the Jewish National Fund-USA. "And they know the healthcare system in Israel is excellent. Israel handled the pandemic pretty well, and that's been a significant factor."The pandemic was a big factor in the aliyah decision of New York natives Howard and Mina Millendorf, who moved to Israel last July. The couple in their 70s settled in Jerusalem's Katamon district, moving into the same building where their daughter, Sharon, lives with her husband, Shlomo, and their three sons
The pandemic was a big factor in the aliyah decision of New York natives Howard and Mina Millendorf, who moved to Israel in July 2021. "I think the pandemic kind of pushed us into making a decision," said Mina, a retired elementary school teacher who had lived in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale since she and Howard were married 41 years ago. "Normally, we'd come to Israel several times a year and rent an apartment here. But with COVID, we were missing all the birthdays and anniversaries. It was not easy for us."Six months after their arrival, Howard lists his main goals as "finding ways to do good, playing daily with our grandsons, cultivating new friends, restaurants and wines, and enjoying Mina's special cooking and baking with family." But he also aims to give back to Israel through his work with the telecom company IDT and the Howard Jonas Foundation. Projects include the construction of a new cancer center at Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center as well as initiatives for severely disabled youngsters, autistic and hearing-impaired children, and people with terminal illnesses. In addition, Howard is involved in a long-term networking program, choosing his 27,000 LinkedIn connections to open doors and help secure job opportunities in Israel and elsewhere. Yossie and Joanie Ziff of Los Angeles arrived in Israel as new immigrants on Dec. 27, 2021. Both retired elementary school teachers, Yossie, 71, and Joanie, 67, had lived in Venice Beach in California for years, and then the heavily Jewish L.A. neighborhood of Pico-Robertson, but they decided recently it was time to make the move to Israel.
"The situation in America really made us feel we wanted to come to Israel and be with the Jewish people," Joanie said. Between the two of them, they have five children and 15 grandchildren. The couple already has bought an apartment in Modi'in, which is a 25-minute drive from the beach at Rishon Le'Zion, where Yossie likes to surf. "We'll probably go back and forth to America, but this will be our primary home," Joanie said. "Modiin has such a beautiful Anglo community here. When we got here, there was a sign on our door from our neighbors welcoming us. We've been smothered by love wherever we go."
China's longest underwater highway tunnel opens
(CNN) — After nearly four years of construction, China's longest underwater highway tunnel is now open to vehicle traffic. At a length of 10.79 kilometers (6.65 miles), the Taihu tunnel stretches under Lake Taihu in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, about 50 kilometers east of Shanghai. According to government officials in Jiangsu, the tunnel was built at a cost 9.9 billion yuan (about $1.56 billion). Construction began on January 9, 2018
Over 2 million cubic meters of concrete were used to build the two-way tunnel, which has six lanes and is 17.45 meters wide, reports China's official news agency, Xinhua. The ceiling of the tunnel has been outfitted with colorful LED lights, designed to prevent driver fatigue. A view of the LED ceiling installed in the 10.79-kilometer tunnel under Lake Taihu.FeatureChina/APThe tunnel is part of the 43.9-kilometer Changzhou-Wuxi Highway, which opened to the public on December 30, 2021. It provides an alternative expressway for travelers journeying between Shanghai and Nanjing, Jiangsu's capital. Connecting the expressways of Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, it was built to alleviate traffic pressure on the cities next to Lake Taihu while promoting the economic development of the cities in Yangtze River Delta area.
So how does the Taihu tunnel stack up against its global counterparts? The world's longest underway highway tunnel is Norway's 14.3-kilometer twin-road Ryfast tunnel, which runs between the city of Stavanger and the municipality of Strand. The underwater tunnel portion of the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, a vehicle highway that travels under Tokyo Bay, is 9.6 kilometers. In terms of underwater tunnels in general, though, the top honor goes to the Channel Tunnel, which connects England and France by rail. Its submerged portion runs for 37.9 kilometers, the longest of any underwater tunnel in the world. Top image: An aerial photo taken on September 5, 2021 of the Nanquan section of the just-opened Taihu tunnel in east China's Jiangsu Province. Credit: Li Bo/Xinhua via Getty Images
