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Steven Spielberg’s film “Jaws,” forever changed how people approach a beach vacation. Nothing like a shark to take the joy out of some long-planned relaxation. People who go to a hotel or program for Passover have been planning for months for their “vacation of the year.” These programs have a high price tag and consumers have high expectations, but every year there are disaster stories that explode across social media. While there hasn’t been a reported Passover shark incident, some of the actual program fiascos can be described as stranger than fiction.

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Beginning of Second Machzor to Coincide with Dirshu World Siyum
at Binyanei Haumah in Yerushalayim

By Chaim Gold

“We are all obligated to learn mussar,” said Rabbi Dovid Meisels, a Dirshu Kinyan Chochma participant, “but unless we have something that compels us to do it, a set program with tests, it often falls by the wayside. Our lives are so busy that unless we really prioritize, mussar learning simply won’t get done. That is what I have found so amazing about the Dirshu Kinyan Chochma program! It forces me to learn mussar and as a result of this learning, I have seen such a dramatic transformation in my personal life, my avoas hamiddos and my general avodas Hashem.”

One Of Israel’s Greatest Rabbis, Renowned For Hundreds Of Phenomenal Miracles

Hardly a year has passed since the Biale Rebbe of Bnei Brak has visited Great Neck, yet hundreds are excitedly anticipating the return of their revered Rebbe. Each year when the Rebbe arrives at the house in Great Neck, where he lodges, the place becomes a public source of attraction as hundreds of people of various standards and types gather. The place becomes a hive of activity as lawyers, doctors, lay leaders, rabbis, educators, ranging from Hassidic to modern orthodox mingle as they flock to the Rebbe’s house. From early morning until the small hours of the night the streets resound with miraculous tales of unnatural miracles seen and experienced firsthand as a result of the Rebbe’s blessing.

Giant Venues to Host Siyumei HaShas in France and England

Forty-five years ago, a yungerman named Rabbi Simcha Bamberger came to Manchester, England as one of the city’s first four kollel yungeleit. Rav Osher Westheim, one of the prominent Rabbonim in Manchester at that time, asked him if he could perhaps say a shiur. When Rabbi Bamberger proposed a Daf HaYomi shiur, Rabbi Westheim discouraged him, saying, “If you will be lucky, you will have one person show up! Do something easier.” Rabbi Bamberger was adamant that he wanted to start a Daf HaYomi shiur and put up signs and other forms of publicity. The day of the first shiur dawned… and one person showed up. That one person eventually brought another and by Masechta Shabbos they had ten people. Just one year later, there were 130 and today some 300 people come to listen to Rav Bamberger’s shiur every day!

A half year after the Shabbos massacre in Pittsburgh, another white supremacist sought to do the same at the Chabad of Poway, charging into the shul as its congregants were reciting Yizkor on the final morning of Pesach. “I was preparing for my sermon, I walked out of the sanctuary and into the lobby, and I saw my dear friend Lori Kaye,” said Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein at a press conference on Sunday. “I walked into the banquet hall to wash my hands, walked two or three footsteps, and I heard a loud bang.”