News

Do we ever stop and think about who we are, as Klal Yisrael? How precious we are to Hashem?

We have an amazing revelation in parshas Balak. Bilam wanted to curse klal Yisrael, and instead was forced to bless us. The Medrash says that when Bilam said the brachos, they were heard by the entire world. (Yalkut Shimoni)

NEW YORK NEWS

 Daniel Christopher Hyden, a 44-year-old substance abuse counselor and author of The Sober Addict, was ordered held without bail after allegedly driving drunk with a suspended license and killing three people while injuring eight others at a Fourth of July celebration on the Lower East Side. Hyden, whose license had been suspended four times, attempted to evade sobriety tests by closing his eyes after the crash. He faces multiple counts of vehicular homicide and a potential 25-year prison sentence. The crash, which occurred after Hyden was refused entry to a bar for being too drunk, has sparked outrage, particularly from relatives of the victims, who include a disabled woman, her son, and another woman.

Recap: Zevi and Jordie are hiding in a room in Buckingham Palace because they were being followed. They open up Nana’s journal. The last thing they read in the journal was that Akiva and Estee were trapped in the house during the earthquake and it caught on fire.

In this week’s parshah, we are looking at the end of the 40 years of Klal Yisrael being in the desert. Klal Yisrael is now approaching Eretz Canaan (Yisrael) from the south.  The land of Edom was between them and Eretz Canaan. Hashem instructed Moshe Rabbeinu not to attack Edom, Klal Yisrael’s cousins, Eisav’s descendants. Moshe sends messengers to the king of Edom, requesting permission to take a shortcut through their land to reach Eretz Canaan faster. They would stay on the highway and even pay for food and drink. Edom refuses and threatens to attack. Klal Yisrael is forced to take the long route around, heading towards the east. 

Lone gunmen aren’t necessarily motivated by extreme rhetoric, but the shooting in Pennsylvania should put an end to the “anyone I don’t like is Hitler” discourse.

(July 15, 2024 / JNS) At what point does angry political discourse cross the line between legitimate impassioned advocacy and direct incitement to violence? It’s a question that’s been all too common in both the United States and Israel for the past generation.

Recap: Jordie and Zevi have to leave the plane, since they recognize the known terrorist. Jordie tells the flight attendant that his friend is having a recurrence of Covid. Zevi keeps coughing. They get permission to leave the plane. Then they are told that they will be flying to England instead.