Thursday, July 31, 2025

Worldwide diplomatic isolation is better than more dead Jews & Gaza annexation ‘not really on the table,’ minister reportedly says & Bringing Jerusalem to the wedding: The story behind breaking the glass & Treasure Trove looks at the history of the Maccabiah Games, and the hopes for next year’s event & Shak'a Chama by Shlomo Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz & with those we have lost


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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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Gaza annexation 'not really on the table,' minister reportedly says

Reported Israeli plans to annex parts of Gaza are extremely unlikely to materialize and are only being leaked to the press in order to threaten Hamas into softening its demands regarding a hostage and ceasefire deal, according to a government minister and a senior coalition member quoted by Haaretz.

"It's not really on the table," the unnamed minister is quoted as saying by the outlet.

The similarly unnamed coalition member adds: "I find it very unlikely to happen. Right now, [we are] trying to threaten Hamas where it would be pained the most — losing land."

Gaza annexation 'not really on the table,' minister reportedly says | The Times of Israel

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.

Worldwide diplomatic isolation is better than more dead Jews

Israel's foes seem surprised that the Jewish state's people prefer the defeat of existential threats over applause from antisemites and an indifferent world.

Jonathan S. Tobin

Worldwide diplomatic isolation is better than more dead Jews - JNS.org

A member of a volunteer response unit participate in a training drill in the Golan Heights, in northern Israel, on July 8, 2025. Photo by Michael Giladi/Flash90.

Bringing Jerusalem to the wedding: The story behind breaking the glass

It doesn't easily fit with the concept of being a fully acculturated American; in fact, it evokes separatism and attachment to a foreign land.

Bringing Jerusalem to the wedding: The story behind breaking the glass - JNS.org

Breaking the glass at a Jewish wedding. Photo by Flash90

Treasure Trove looks at the history of the Maccabiah Games, and the hopes for next year's event

This year's games, slated to open July 8, have been postponed for a year.

The Maccabiah Games are the second largest sports event in the world in terms of number of athletes participating, after the Olympics.

In 1894, the first Jewish sports organization was founded in Kushta, Turkey under the name Maccabi, the heroes of the Hanukkah story. At the Second Zionist Congress in 1898, Max Nordau called for the development of the "muscular Jew", one who is fit and strong in contrast to the notion of the frightened Jew of the ghetto. During the 12th Zionist Congress held in Karlsbad, Czechoslovakia in 1921, the first international convention of Jewish Sports Clubs was held and the Maccabi World Union was formed.

In 1929, the suggestion to hold a Jewish Olympic Games in Palestine under the name "Maccabiah" was adopted. It was then decided to hold the first and second Maccabiah games in 1932 and 1935 to commemorate the 1,800th anniversary of the start and end of the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans (132-135 CE). The first two games were known as the Aliyah Maccabiot as hundreds of athletes decided to stay in Palestine rather than returning to Europe.