| 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 | | | | | Social Security's Cost-of-Living Increase: Everything You Need to KnowInflation dictates the annual benefit adjustment, known as the COLA, for retired Americans. The latest boost of 8.7 percent for 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/explai... | | | | | | | 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. | | | | | | | Visits to Joseph's Tomb suspended as Israeli-Palestinian tensions rise | | | | | Feeze on visits to the holy site is indefinite. By David Hellerman, World Israel News Israel has indefinitely suspended all visits to Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus) with officials citing rising security tensions in Samaria, Israel's Kan News reported on Thursday. According to the report, the IDF wants to scale back its activities in the city and give Palestinian Authority security forces more leeway to operate. A military source stressed to Kan, however, that the IDF will continue to operate in all Palestinian cities on an as-needed basis. Joseph's Tomb is located inside Area A of Samaria, meaning it is under both the administrative and security jurisdiction of the PA. Israeli citizens are barred from entering Area without prior permission. Jewish worshippers make monthly visits to the tomb of the Biblical Joseph in coordination with the IDF. Palestinians frequently attack the convoys of worshippers. Israeli security forces have arrested more than 2,000 terror suspects and have prevented hundreds of terror attacks since launching Operation Wave Breaker in May. The nearly-nightly counterterrorism raids began following a number of Palestinian terror attacks in the spring which killed 19 Israelis. | | | | Is Israel Solely For The Jews? By Rabbi Uri Pilichowski Theodore Herzl began the modern Zionist movement with a practical goal of creating a Jewish state through political means. Early Zionists aimed to return the Jewish people to their homeland, the land of Israel. Herzl travelled from country to country, speaking to world leaders, influential Jews, and the Jewish community. Herzl spoke about the imperative for a Jewish state and tried to convince everyone they should give their support to his vision. When Herzl died, Chaim Weizmann took over and travelled the world trying to drum up support for a Jewish state. Weizmann, along with others succeeded in their goals. With the dual goal of providing the Jewish people with a place of refuge to flee persecution and exercising the Jewish people's right to self-determination of their historic homeland, the Jewish State was declared by Zionist leaders in Tel Aviv in May 1948. The founders of the Jewish State declared, "The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the ingathering of the Exiles." The Jewish people are a nation, not just a religion. The State was now the open home of all members of the Jewish people. Advertisement
In 1950, Israel passed the "Law of Return," which stated, "Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an immigrant. An immigrant's visa shall be granted to every Jew who has expressed his desire to settle in Israel." The right of Jews to return to Israel extends to relatives as well, "The rights of a Jew under this Law and the rights of an immigrant…as well as the rights of an immigrant under any other enactment, are also vested in a child and a grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew." Members of the Jewish nation, wherever they live, have the right to immigrate to Israel because the State of Israel was founded to provide all members of the Jewish people access to their historic homeland, the land of Israel. In its Declaration of Independence, Zionists avowed, "The State of Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions." Immediately after the founding of the State in 1948 all Arabs were granted Israeli citizenship but were still ruled by martial law. In 1966, martial law was completely lifted and Arab citizens of Israel began enjoying the same civil rights as their Jewish neighbors. Granting Israeli citizenship to Arabs is troubling to some Zionists. Arab Israelis are fully integrated into the Jewish State. They are Knesset members, judges, police officers, doctors and lawyers. There is no position denied to Arab citizens and Arab parties feature prominently in the Israeli Knesset. No longer regulated to the opposition, Arab Knesset parties have sat in the government. Why would a Jewish State, built by Zionists to be a place of refuge and home to the Jewish people, allow Arabs, members of a different nation, become citizens of its State? If Israel is a State for Jews, what role do Arabs play in it? A legitimate argument can be made that Israel should be a state solely for the Jewish people. Jews should be accepted into the country almost immediately according to their rights under the "Law of Return." Anyone else who wants to live in Israel can be accepted as residents but not citizens. Countries around the world, from the United State to the United Arab Emirates have similar laws. Zionists and Israelis don't see the Jewish State as a state like all other states. The Jewish people aren't a people like all other people, and the Jewish State isn't a state like all other states. Israel is meant to be a light unto the nations where a moral baseline is modeled for the rest of the world. Israel's acceptance of over two million members of other nations as its own citizens (in a country of barely ten million) demonstrates Israel's commitment to human rights, equality, and democracy. Israel's acceptance of others should be a guiding light for other nations as they develop policies towards prospective immigrants. Zionism was a movement that worked primarily to establish a home and refuge for the Jewish people. It also aimed to establish a nation among the international community that would make the world a better place through various means, including technological innovation and medical research. Morality, kindness and charity start at home, and before Israel could reach out and help foreign nations, it had a responsibility to help those within its own borders. In offering citizenship to a Jewish State, the Zionist leaders of Israel demonstrated the moral policies it hopes other nations will adapt to make the world a better place. | | | | Marc Chagall's Catskills house is for sale — for $240,000 By Andrew Silow-Carroll September 29, 2022 4:36 pmA house in High Falls, New York where Marc Chagall lived from 1946-1948 is on sale for $240,000. (New York Jewish Week) — Jewish artist Marc Chagall's home can be yours. Not the brick house where the artist grew up in Vitebsk, in what is now Belarus. Not his heavy stone villa in the south of occupied France, nor his New York apartment on East 74th Street, nor the studio where he worked in Sag Harbor, Long Island. A real estate agent in upstate New York is listing the two-bedroom, one-bath "hillside cottage" in Ulster County where Chagall lived and worked between 1946 and 1948. The light gray shingled house on a half-acre in High Falls is on the market for $240,000. Chagall shared the house with his much-younger lover, Virginia Haggard McNeil, an artist and British diplomat's daughter who had been his housekeeper when he lived in New York City. It was a time of sadness and rejuvenation for the artist, who had lost his wife Bella to an infection just a few years before. Haggard, who was married at the time to another man, was pregnant with Chagall's son, David, when they moved to High Falls. According to the local Poughkeepsie Journal, Chagall's stay in the house was a productive one: Working out of a smaller bungalow that served as his studio (which does not seem to be included in the asking price), he "created more than 100 paintings, lithographs and sketches."
Marc Chagall and Virginia Haggard at High Falls, New York, 1948. From "Marc Chagall, An Intimate Biography," by Sidney Alexander. (Wikipedia) Chagall himself said the small house reminded him of his hometown, where he grew up in a Hasidic family before leaving for St. Petersburg to study art. He eventually moved to Paris to make his living with the color-soaked, gravity-defying images of rural Jewish life that became his signature. Chagall, who spoke French with Haggard but never mastered English, was able to chat with Yiddish-speaking neighbors in his new Catskill Mountains home. Haggard also wrote about their time in the house on Mohonk Road, a close drive to the college town of New Paltz. "Marc felt at peace in High Falls," she wrote in her memoir. "Life had been simplified, and Marc had no need to worry over money matters." Still, the couple left for France two years later and never returned, in part because the U.S. government denied him visas owing to his leftist politics. Chagall died in France in 1985. The town has paid tribute to their famous former resident over the years, with a nearby museum exhibit that featured reproductions of the work he created at High Falls and a show by women artists dedicated to Haggard. At one point there had been talk of the local historical society buying the house, which last sold in 2004 for $200,000. "It now has the aesthetic of a hillside cottage and a rich history," according to the listing. "The land stretches back to a forested area that can be used as one's private oasis." | | | | Going to religious services will make you live longer - study Whether it be church, synagogue, mosque or a different house of worship, scientists agree that going to services is good for your health. By MAYA ZANGER-NADISODESSA WALKS) For many, religious observance is very beneficial to social life and mental health. A recent study, however, suggests that regular religious service attendance can extend longevity. "Synagogue attendance is seen to promote survival mainly through its function as a source of communal attachment and, perhaps, as a reflection of spirituality as well." Litwin, H. What really matters in the social network–mortality association? A multivariate examination among older Jewish-Israelis. Eur J Ageing4, 71–82 (2007). A September 2022 study focused on Black American men over the age of 50 and their church attendance. Researchers found that those who attended church regularly had a lower general mortality rate than the rest. These findings are significant in the larger context of the Black experience in America, which, from a health and wellness perspective, can be less than ideal. Rada lékaře: "Za velké břicho nemohou kalorie." (Dělejte toto jednou denně)Sponsored by gogoldentree.czWhy people over 45 love this toothbrushSponsored by Teeth CareMan Who Made $95 million in 2008 Reveals New PredictionSponsored by Visionary Profit[Pics] Royal Family Confirms Unfortunate NewsSponsored by xfreehub The study, published earlier this month in the peer-reviewed publication PLOS ONE, points out that although scientific and medical advances allow individuals in the United States to live long, healthy lives, "the life expectancy for Black men remains significantly shorter than for other groups of women and men." This is supported by the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) statistics which state that the general mortality rate for Black Americans is consistently higher than other racial and ethnic groups across the board. "Black men have been oppressed, commodified, surveilled and criminalized like no other group in US history and they often experience disproportionately high levels of social and psychological stress from structural racism, institutional discrimination and unfair treatment from early childhood through late adulthood," study author Marino Bruce of the University of Houston and his collaborators reported in the article. The Mar Thomas Church in Mosul, Iraq (Illustrative). (credit: Wikimedia Commons) "There is something powerful about the communal religious experience. These are systems of thought and practice shaped over millennia, and they are powerful." Tyler VanderWeele, Harvard University "Churches and similar institutions represent a safe space," Bruce continued. "They receive affirmation, and the messages delivered are intended specifically for them." [Pics] School expels teen over outfit, regrets it when they see who dad isSponsored by React ShareUnsold Cruise Cabins (Take a Look at the Prices)Sponsored by Cruise Offers | Search Ads The study acknowledged, too, that its findings were in line with previous studies of a similar nature, which examined the effects of religious service attendance on wider populations. Does this apply to Jews? Most publicly available articles on US religious service statistics are specific to Christians and church services, but not all. A 2007 study published in the European Journal of Aging used data specific to Israeli Jewish men and women over the age of 70, and found that "Synagogue attendance is seen to promote survival mainly through its function as a source of communal attachment and, perhaps, as a reflection of spirituality as well." More recently, a 2016 Harvard study in the Journal of the American Medical Association: Internal Medicine, evaluated data from over 75,000 American women of varying faiths - although most were Christian- and came to the same conclusion. Specifically, it stated that "religion and spirituality may be an underappreciated resource that physicians could explore with their patients, as appropriate." Researchers at Harvard also ruled out the possibility of reverse causation- that healthy people go to services more than those at higher mortality risk. The Harvard study's senior author, Tyler VanderWeele, summarized his findings in an interview with the New York Times in 2016, saying: "This suggests that there is something powerful about the communal religious experience. These are systems of thought and practice shaped over millennia, and they are powerful." | | | | | See you tomorrow bli neder We need Mashiach now! Love Yehuda Lave | | | | |
