Two Decades Later, the Enduring Legacy of 9/11 and Israel Bans Visitors from Bringing Their Own Lulavs for Sukkot and RABBI YOSSY GOLDMAN ‘Life is like a matzah ball!’ and why lawyers have to think logically and not emotionally and Ziegfeld Follies: Number Please featuring Keenan Wynn and Judging Jokes and King Charles III Was Circumcised by Jewish Mohel, Cherishes UK JewsBy David Israel
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.
Israel Bans Visitors from Bringing Their Own Lulavs for Sukkot
The Ministry of Agriculture, in a step that it says is intended to protect Israeli agriculture, has prohibited forbidden the bringing into Israel sets of the "Arba Minim" (the four species on which Jews make a blessing on the days of the upcoming holiday of Sukkot) from foreign countries.
However, visitors may bring with them one Etrog per person – the citron which looks like a lemon and has both a scent and a taste. The remaining 3 species have 1 with no taste or smell, 1 with just taste, and 1 with a scent but no taste. These species cannot be brought into Israel for fear that they are infected with pests that could harm local agriculture and will therefore be confiscated upon entering the country.
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If visitors to Israel do bring their own Arba Minim, the Ministry of Agriculture will provide them with a set of the 3 not allowed for import that were grown in Israel, free of charge.
Israel, as do most countries, prohibits individuals from bringing fresh produce into the country to prevent the possible spread of foreign pests. These pests may damage the local crops and thus cause irreversible damage to agriculture and even lead to the extinction of entire branches of agriculture.
The Three Musketeers at the Kotel
The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember.
The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave.
Two Decades Later, the Enduring Legacy of 9/11
Americans watched in horror as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left nearly 3,000 people dead in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 20 years later, they watched in sorrow as the nation's military mission in Afghanistan – which began less than a month after 9/11 – came to a bloody and chaotic conclusion.
The enduring power of the Sept. 11 attacks is clear: An overwhelming share of Americans who are old enough to recall the day remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Yet an ever-growing number of Americans have no personal memory of that day, either because they were too young or not yet born.
A review of U.S. public opinion in the two decades since 9/11 reveals how a badly shaken nation came together, briefly, in a spirit of sadness and patriotism; how the public initially rallied behind the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, though support waned over time; and how Americans viewed the threat of terrorism at home and the steps the government took to combat it.
As the country comes to grips with the tumultuous exit of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, the departure has raised long-term questions about U.S. foreign policy and America's place in the world. Yet the public's initial judgments on that mission are clear: A majority endorses the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, even as it criticizes the Biden administration's handling of the situation. And after a war that cost thousands of lives – including more than 2,000 American service members – and trillions of dollars in military spending, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that 69% of U.S. adults say the United States has mostly failed to achieve its goals in Afghanistan.
How we did this
A devastating emotional toll, a lasting historical legacy
Shock, sadness, fear, anger: The 9/11 attacks inflicted a devastating emotional toll on Americans. But as horrible as the events of that day were, a 63% majority of Americans said they couldn't stop watching news coverage of the attacks.
Our first survey following the attacks went into the field just days after 9/11, from Sept. 13-17, 2001. A sizable majority of adults (71%) said they felt depressed, nearly half (49%) had difficulty concentrating and a third said they had trouble sleeping.
It was an era in which television was still the public's dominant news source – 90% said they got most of their news about the attacks from television, compared with just 5% who got news online – and the televised images of death and destruction had a powerful impact. Around nine-in-ten Americans (92%) agreed with the statement, "I feel sad when watching TV coverage of the terrorist attacks." A sizable majority (77%) also found it frightening to watch – but most did so anyway.
Americans were enraged by the attacks, too. Three weeks after 9/11, even as the psychological stress began to ease somewhat, 87% said they felt angry about the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Fear was widespread, not just in the days immediately after the attacks, but throughout the fall of 2001. Most Americans said they were very (28%) or somewhat (45%) worried about another attack. When asked a year later to describe how their lives changed in a major way, about half of adults said they felt more afraid, more careful, more distrustful or more vulnerable as a result of the attacks.
Even after the immediate shock of 9/11 had subsided, concerns over terrorism remained at higher levels in major cities – especially New York and Washington – than in small towns and rural areas. The personal impact of the attacks also was felt more keenly in the cities directly targeted: Nearly a year after 9/11, about six-in-ten adults in the New York (61%) and Washington (63%) areas said the attacks had changed their lives at least a little, compared with 49% nationwide. This sentiment was shared by residents of other large cities. A quarter of people who lived in large cities nationwide said their lives had changed in a major way – twice the rate found in small towns and rural areas.
The impacts of the Sept. 11 attacks were deeply felt and slow to dissipate. By the following August, half of U.S. adults said the country "had changed in a major way" – a number that actually increased, to 61%, 10 years after the event.
A year after the attacks, in an open-ended question, most Americans – 80% – cited 9/11 as the most important event that had occurred in the country during the previous year. Strikingly, a larger share also volunteered it as the most important thing that happened to them personally in the prior year (38%) than mentioned other typical life events, such as births or deaths. Again, the personal impact was much greater in New York and Washington, where 51% and 44%, respectively, pointed to the attacks as the most significant personal event over the prior year.
Just as memories of 9/11 are firmly embedded in the minds of most Americans old enough to recall the attacks, their historical importance far surpasses other events in people's lifetimes. In a survey conducted by Pew Research Center in association with A+E Networks' HISTORY in 2016 – 15 years after 9/11 – 76% of adults named the Sept. 11 attacks as one of the 10 historical events of their lifetime that had the greatest impact on the country. The election of Barack Obama as the first Black president was a distant second, at 40%.
The importance of 9/11 transcended age, gender, geographic and even political differences. The 2016 study noted that while partisans agreed on little else that election cycle, more than seven-in-ten Republicans and Democrats named the attacks as one of their top 10 historic events.
King Charles III Was Circumcised by Jewish Mohel, Cherishes UK Jews
On January 23, 2020, King Charles III visited President Reuven Rivlin on an official visit to Jerusalem.
When Philip Arthur George, the first child of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, was born, on November 14, 1948, his mother hired Rabbi Jacob Snowman, a well-known London physician and mohel in December 1948 to circumcise her son. Snowman circumcised other members of the British nobility and Royal Family, and the princess was reportedly highly satisfied with the Rabbi's work. The royal family tradition of hiring Jewish mohels to circumcise their sons goes back to Queen Victoria. However, it was reported that this fine tradition was interrupted in 1982 after the birth of Prince William, because his mother Diana, the Princess of Wales, did not approve.
Rabbi Snowman's brother, Emanuel Snowman, married into the Wartski family of jewelers and for generations provided the royals with jewelry, including the Welsh gold wedding bands for Charles and the former Camilla Parker-Bowles, and the bands worn by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and the former Kate Middleton.
Prince Charles became King Charles III the moment his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, passed away on Thursday, September 8. There will be a coronation in a few weeks, but its purpose will only be to ratify his rule – he already has the title and Camilla is already Queen Camilla, which the late Queen specified in her Accession Day message of February 5, 2022.
Meanwhile, the uncircumcised Prince William does not automatically become the Prince of Wales, and it will be up to the new king to give him the title.
King Charles III's grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, who lived in Greece was one of the Righteous Among the Nations. In 1943, the German Army occupied Athens and rounded up the small group of Greek Jews that hadn't been deported to Auschwitz yet. The princess hid the Jewish widow Rachel Cohen and two of her five children, who were hiding from the Gestapo.
Prince Charles, who visited her tomb in Jerusalem in January 2020, said she was a source of "immense pride" for him and the royal family.
The visit to his grandmother's tomb was part of Prince Charles's official visit to Israel, to join many other world leaders at the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Prince Charles' office issued a statement saying January's trip "will be the first time that the prince has undertaken a program of engagements in Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories."
Ah, well.
Prince Charles also visited Israel for Yitzhak Rabin's funeral in 1995, and Shimon Peres's in 2016.
On December 6, 2019, Prince Charles delivered a speech he titled, The special and precious connection between Jewish community and the Crown, at a reception in Buckingham Palace. He said, among other things: "In every walk of life, in every field of endeavor, our nation could have had no more generous citizens, and no more faithful friends."
He also said:
"The connection between the Crown and our Jewish Community is something special and precious. I say this from a particular and personal perspective because I have grown up being deeply touched by the fact that British synagogues have, for centuries, remembered my Family in your weekly prayers. And as you remember my Family, so we too remember and celebrate you."
And:
"Benjamin Disraeli, of course, the great Prime Minister, although baptized as a child, never denied his Jewish heritage, describing himself to my great-great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria, as: 'The blank page between the Old and the New Testaments!' When taunted by a Member of Parliament, he answered: 'Yes, I am a Jew, but when the ancestors of The Right Honorable Gentleman were living as savages on an unknown island, mine were priests in the Temple of Solomon!'"
On April 28 this year, Prince Charles visited the headquarters of the World Jewish Relief agency in Golders Green, London, and praised its charity work in Ukraine, saying: "What a difference has been made." The prince told one refugee from Odessa that was praying for the end of the war, and she described him as "a righteous gentile."
Good job, Rabbi Snowman!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TERRIBLE JUDGING JOKES OF THE WEEK
Benjy had been arrested and was now up before the judge.
The judge asks, "Do you admit you broke into the same clothes shop 3 times?"
"Yes," replies Benjy.
"Could you please tell the court what you stole." asks the judge.
"I stole a dress, your honour," replies Benjy.
"Just one dress? But you admitted to breaking in 3 times," says the judge.
"Yes I did, your honour," says Benjy, "but on two of those occasions, I broke in to return the dress I took before."
"Return the dress? Why? I don't understand," says the judge.
"Because my wife Bette didn't like the design, your honor."
Having a $100,000 court case which would decide the fate of Chaim's economic situation he suggested to the lawyer that perhaps it would be wise to bribe the judge.
"Absolutely not, this judge is very straight. He would surely decide against the party who sends a bribe."
A couple of month later Chaim won the court case. "You see" said the lawyer "it's good you followed my advice and didn't bribe the judge."
"No, I didn't listen to you I actually did bribe the judge, just I sent it in the name of the other party."
Shmuel had a bad car accident involving a large truck. Weeks later, in court, the trucking company's fancy lawyer was questioning Shmuel.
"Didn't you say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine,'?" asked the lawyer. Shmuel responded, "Vell, I'll tell you vat happened. I just put my dog Moishele, into the..."
"I didn't ask for any details", the lawyer interrupted. "Just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine!'?"
Shmuel said, "Vell, I just got Moishele into the car and vas driving down the road...."
The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."
By this time, the Judge was fairly interested in Shmuel's answer and said to the lawyer, "I'd like to hear what he has to say about his dog Moishele".
Shmuel thanked the Judge and proceeded. "Vell, like I vas saying, I just loaded Moishele, my lovely hundteleh (dog), into the car and vas driving him down the highway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I vas thrown into one ditch and Moishele vas thrown into the other. I vas hurting, real bad and didn't want to move.
However, I heard Moishele moaning and groaning. I knew he vas in terrible shape just by his groans. Den a Highway Patrolman came along. He could hear Moishele moaning and groaning so he vent over to him. After he looked at him, and saw vat terrible condition Moishele was in, he took out his gun and shoots him between the eyes.
Den the Patrolman comes across the road, gun still in hand, looks at me and says, "How you feeling?" "Nu, Judge, vat vould you say?
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 £15,000 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."
An observant Jew who lived on Park Avenue, built a Sukkah on his balcony. Some of his 'high society' non-Jewish neighbors brought him to court They claimed that the Sukkah on his balcony was an eyesore and was having negative impact on the value of their homes in this posh neighborhood. In court, the man was very worried about the outcome. It was the eve of the eight-day holiday, leaving him no time to make alternative arrangements, in case the judge ordered him to take down the Sukkah. He prayed for help. And Hashem listened. Judge Ginsburg, who was Jewish himself, had a reputation of being a very wise man. After hearing both sides, he turned around to the observant Jew and scolded him: "Don't you realize that you live on Park Avenue, and not in Brooklyn? There is a certain decorum which is expected on Park Avenue. You have no right to be putting up an ugly hut on this lovely street without a building permit authorizing it. I hereby rule that either you remove the hut, or I will fine you one thousand dollars. You have exactly eight days to do so! Next case!"
In Florida, an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter and Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews and observances of their holy days. The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized days. The case was brought before a judge.
After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring,"Case dismissed!"
The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays."
The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant."
The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists."
The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day. Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no G-d..' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no G-d, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned!
Herman Goering was interviewed shortly before the Nuremberg trials. Goering was asked what he believed the outcome of the trial would be. He immediately told the interviewer that he was sure he would be found guilty and executed a short while later. The interviewer, shocked that such a seemingly confident man would be so sure of his demise asked him why he believed this. Goering looking puzzled by the question responds with. "What do you mean. You can't find a half decent lawyer in this country anymore!
A trial for murder is being held and all the evidence indicate that the defendant is guilty But the body has never been found Just before the sentence is concluded his astute lawyer stands up and says: "ladies and gentlement, the deceased will enter the room in a few minutes".
There is a sudden commotion after these things were said. A few minutes pass then some more and no one has entered the room. After another couple of minutes the juries leave the room in order to make a decision. When they return the judge asks if they have come to a decision.
"Yes your honour, we have found the defendant- guilty of murder".
The defendant's lawyer immediately rises up and shouts towards them: "how dare you convict my client? Just a couple of minutes earlier, I told you that the deceased would enter the room and you all looked towards the door! That proves that you had a reasonable doubt!".
"We would have bought into it if your client had ever look towards the door".
Little old Yentl had gotten arrested for stealing a can of peaches from a grocery store. She stood there on trial with her husband Berel at her side. At the trial, the judge asks her why she stole a can of peaches. She replies, "Your Honor, my husband and I don't have much, and we are very poor. I was simply trying to do something about my hunger."
The judge, feeling sorry for the old lady, asked, "How many peaches were in the can?"
"6," Sadie responded.
"Then," the judge said, "you will spend one day in jail for each peach, for a total of 6 days."
"Your Honor," Berel piped up, "she also stole a can of peas!"
RABBI YOSSY GOLDMAN'Life is like a matzah ball!'
Our attitude always determines our altitude. Whether we will fly or flounder will depend more on how we deal with our own particular circumstances than with the situation itself.
Come seder night, how many millions of Jews will be looking much more forward to the matzah ball than to the matzah itself? Frankly, I don't blame them. Matzah tastes like cardboard and a kneidel in a hot chicken soup is undeniably delicious.
I'll come back to our friendly matzah ball in a moment, but first let me ask another Passover question. At the seder, we first hold up the matzah and declare: "This is the Bread of Affliction that our ancestors ate back in Egypt." We recall the harsh slavery and broken morsels the Egyptians fed their Jewish slaves. Later in the Haggadah, though, we raise the matzah and explain that we eat it "because the dough of our fathers had no time to rise before the Holy One redeemed them."
So what is it? Is matzah a symbol of slavery or of freedom? Does matzah represent bondage or redemption?
Well, the simple answer is both. First, we were slaves and then we became free.
But it speaks to us personally, too. One fellow will eat matzah on Passover and complain about how hard and tasteless it is. He is re-experiencing the bondage of old. But another will taste the freedom. Believe it or not, some people love matzah, especially with a little avocado smeared on top.
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There's a simple but powerful message here. Life is what you make of it.
How many times do we see two people with the exact same set of circumstances, and one enjoys success while the other fails miserably? King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that "there is no bread for the wise," meaning that clever people do not necessarily always succeed in life. Ironically, we have all seen many ordinary, simple individuals who have achieved great success.
Today, we know very well that EQ is more important than IQ. Our attitude always determines our altitude. Whether we will fly or flounder will depend more on how we deal with our own particular circumstances than with the situation itself.
And this leads me to my profound philosophical discovery. "Life is like a matzah ball!" We've all tasted a variety of kneidels over the years. Some were a big hit at the seder table while others were a disaster. One woman's kneidel is big, soft and fluffy—great on the plate and delicious to the palate—while another's is small, hard and as tasteless as the matzah itself. Both chefs used the identical ingredients, but some rise, and some sink; some are delicious, and some are downright dangerous.
So is matzah the bread of affliction or the food of freedom? The choice is ours.
We have seen Holocaust survivors who rebuilt their lives and families, while others wallowed in misery and bitterness for the rest of their lives. They had ample justification, and it's not for us to condemn or even criticize. But the observation is enlightening for all of us, regardless of our own circumstances.
My own father of blessed memory was the sole survivor of his entire family from Poland. Thank G-d, he rebuilt his family, leaving more than 80 great-grandchildren when he passed away.
Life is what we make of it. And the choice is ours.
May we all use our opportunities wisely. May we see the positive in every circumstance. May we choose to live constructive lives, choosing freedom over bondage and redemption over exile.
I wish you Chag Kosher v'Sameach—a joyous and kosher Passover!
Rabbi Yossy Goldman is Life Rabbi Emeritus of Sydenham Shul, Johannesburg, and president of the South African Rabbinical Association.
Maybe this is common knowledge and I've just been doing this too long to think normally, but the people I represent or mediate for rarely recognize that they have the inability to think logically or rationally when they are emotional. I've always heard that some people are emotional thinkers and some are logical thinkers. Men, especially, believe that they are more logical by nature than women. This is absolutely not true, based on my experience.
Generally speaking, people do not visit lawyers when things are going well for them. Usually, they need a lawyer but they certainly don't want to need one. So, keep that in mind as you read this response. My job is never warm and fuzzy. You also have to remember that every area of law is different. In family law, every case I have is controlled by the parties' emotions. ALL of them. Not just women. As their attorney and as a mediator, I see just how ugly human nature can truly be. People that are normally rational and decent human beings are anything but that when they are fighting for everything in their life that matters- kids, financial security, and sometimes their freedom. And their opponent has a painfully familiar face- that person was once their best friend, their partner, someone they trusted enough with their vulnerability. With very few exceptions, the parties are simply unable to see anything but their own pain. They want revenge, and they want their opponent to hurt worse than they do. I know they love their children. They would die for them. But throw those parents in the ring and what they insist "is best for the kids", usually is not. They are too wrapped up in their own pain to truly put that child first. And try convincing them that the other parent wants the best for the kids. Ain't gonna happen.
From an objective point of view (from the perspective of the judge, the lawyers, the mediator … the law), the best result is usually pretty clear. I can't tell you how many times opposing counsel and I agree about what the outcome should be. We see the solution pretty quickly. But our clients do not. Consequently, they spend a ridiculous amount of money fighting, rather than solving the problem to the best of their abilities. I honestly spend WAY more time arguing with my client than I do opposing. I'm constantly trying to get them to see reason. So, people think attorneys are heartless and cold. But that's simply us applying logic, while our clients are reacting emotionally. Someone has to be rational, reasonable, and solution-oriented. My client can't be, so I have to. The result is usually that I get blamed for being the asshole. But because I DO care, I'll take the hit if that means their life and family (especially their kids) don't have to.
By my estimation, 95% of human beings are emotional thinkers by nature. Their immediate response to stimuli is based in emotion. Not logic. It is literally impossible to apply logic when you're emotional. And, what is the single most controlling of your five senses? A fetus kicks and reacts when mom is upset or excited, right? The baby cannot see, hear, taste or smell anything. Yet, they can feel something when their mother is emotional. Humans experience emotion before any sense. So, of course we are going to rely on that strong sense way more than any other. It's normal.
Applying logic is not in our nature when faced with a traumatic event. It's okay. That makes us human. So, please, please listen to the person or people that are not driven by pain or concern for your feelings. We care about you, but we cannot be emotionally vested in the outcome. If your attorney fights like they would for their own family (I get asked to fight as if this were my son/ life in just about every case), they cannot advocate for you successfully in a court of law. We spent three years in law school learning one thing- to think with logic. It screws us up. Thus, we are the sickest (addiction, depression, anxiety, suicide, divorce) professionals on the planet. So, please do not take anything I've said here as criticism. You don't want to see the world as I do.
Thanks for the request! Man, you made me think on this one. Happy holidays!
Ziegfeld Follies: Number Please featuring Keenan Wynn
