bennistar

[bennistar]

Who is still around?

Just logged in again after ages to find out I turned bar mitzvah last month!

[bennistar]

So, I've been in Boro Park and am finally flying back. I'm currently at the gate, waiting for boarding to start.

Moments ago a non-Jewish cleaner, with a broken English, approached me:

"Hey"

Me: Hi?

"You[r] people come and leaving a Bible. Please take the Bible. You people leave [left]. Please take the Bible. No one here knows the Bible. But you people yes".

*proceeds to give me this "Bible"*

I look at it and it happens to be a siddur only in Hebrew; which the cleaner thought was a Bible.

What happened is that someone left his siddur before boarding the Elal flight next to our gate. The cleaner found it. And didn't want to throw it, and wanted to give it davka to a frum Jew. "Because only you people (the Yidden) really know the Bible".

A powerful lesson that whenever a Jew behaves, and truly learns, how we're supposed to be; even the goyim will come to recognize and appreciate it.

והיה ה' למלך על כל הארץ ביום ההוא יהיה ה' אחד ושמו אחד

[bennistar]

Haven't been on here for ages...

Life has been crazy, and not always for the better (or, as we obviously know, in the end it is #gamzi)...

It's been the 1st yahrzeit already. Crazy how fast everything passed by...

Also gave out a small halachic sefer only for our family and close friends... that somehow turned out to be very popular. Needs more printing and is going to be included in the next volume of a known shu"t... Have a meeting with certain godol/mashpia this week that also wants a copy. Crazy times.

Anyone still around?

[bennistar]

ונקיתי דמם לא נקיתי וה' שכן בציון In regards to the nations: "Even if I will cleanse the nations of their sins, and of the evils they have done to Me, I will not cleanse them of the blood of My children" - Yoel 4.21

[bennistar]

A shiva call is never a pleasant visit. But this was by far the hardest one ever.

My friend's in-laws that went missing after the oct 7 massacre were found. Identified about 10 days after their murder. Almost two weeks after those beasts broke into their community; butchering them, their friends, neighbors, men, women, girls, children... babies...

I know several ZAKA first responders and volunteers. The eyewitness accounts I've heard from them, and from actual survivors, are simply too terrible to repeat. Whoever knows me knows I am not an overly emotional person. But this... I can't even describe my true feelings. And that is most likely for the better.

Knowing that there are countless of people -and I'm sure especially on Tumblr (I didn't even bother trying to look for it, but I'm sure of it)- that are, and always will, deny what happened, simply makes my blood boil even more. It's neither disbelief, nor is it disappointment, because I never had any hope for these people anyway.

For years that I'm on Tumblr I've always mostly avoided political subjects. But I will make an exception this time: we have been warning for this for so many years. My Jewish brothers and sisters on the political left, we have always been telling you that your 'allies' are no true allies. Look where they stand now! The vast majority of them cheers the murder and rape of your own People. The brutal beheadings of babies, violating, murder and kidnapping of the elderly and Holocaust survivors and children whose parents they just slaughtered.

I don't care if you are a leftist, or if you're against Israel. Of course, Israel -as a State- has many faults that have to be fixed. But just look around you. isn't it interesting that the deniers of atrocities against Jews are always the same people who want those atrocities to happen?

I might not agree with your politics. But you are as Jewish as I am, and as the biggest Rebbe in the world. Ahavas Yisroel means that I love you regardless. But please, next time: choose your friends -your allies- wisely.

As for non-Jews who are against us: I refuse to address them since imo the only response on a site like this to egregious Jew hatred or, double standards, is not to whine and ask for sympathy from anyone. It is to arm up, and to vow to destroy any who try to kill us. I am not concerned for all these brave keyboard warriors.

For 78 years the whole world has been repeating the words “never again”. But when that dreadful day finally came. All of these brave warriors actually supported it. And in the best case, they denied it happened.

It took quite a few years. But I am done. Let fire and brimstone rain down on every cursed person that is responsible. You made your bed, and by G-d, you will sleep in it.

[bennistar]

ה' יקם דמם...

It took 10 days to collect and identify all the remains...

Literally... whatever remained. Hashem Yishmor.

Ribono shel olam, end this once and for all. עד הסוף.

ונקיתי דמם לא נקיתי...

[bennistar]

My brother-in-law and family made it safely back home (2 days after all this started).

But teffilos are badly needed for my neighbors' parents and for my chavrusa's parents-in-law. They were last seen stuck in a house with a bunch of other people. Some of them were murdered, others were wounded and afterwards taken to hospitals; while others were abducted by terrorists and taken to Gaza.

No one knows yet which group they belong to...

- Zev ben Malka

- Zahava bas Regina

אחינו כל בית ישראל הנתונים בצרה ובשביה העומדים בין בים ובין ביבשה, המקום ירחם עליהם ויוציאם מצרה לרווחה ומאפלה לאורה, ומשעבוד לגאולה השתא בעגלה ובזמן קריב ונאמר אמן.

Just to let everyone know that we are fine. Over shabbos/yom tov we heard the tzeva adom (sirens) 9 times here in Jerusalem; accompanied with loud booms from very close.

But we didn't know what exactly happened until after shabbos. Hashem Yerachem. My brother-in-law and his family were stuck in one of the infiltrated (not taken over) cities. They were there to be with family for Yom tov. He was unreachable until late motzei shabbos but they're fine. However, for now they are still stuck in that city and are desperately looking for a safe way back home.

Though, our neighbor's parents -who live in the South- went missing since the attacks.

So, teffilos are badly needed.

May we hear only besuros tovos.

[bennistar]

Just to let everyone know that we are fine. Over shabbos/yom tov we heard the tzeva adom (sirens) 9 times here in Jerusalem; accompanied with loud booms from very close.

But we didn't know what exactly happened until after shabbos. Hashem Yerachem. My brother-in-law and his family were stuck in one of the infiltrated (not taken over) cities. They were there to be with family for Yom tov. He was unreachable until late motzei shabbos but they're fine. However, for now they are still stuck in that city and are desperately looking for a safe way back home.

Though, our neighbor's parents -who live in the South- went missing since the attacks.

So, teffilos are badly needed.

May we hear only besuros tovos.

[bennistar]

I don't have the time to type this up again; so I'm just going to leave this here. It's a screenshot of my reply on a similar discourse over here:

Friendly PSA: when a Jewish person passes away, it's inappropriate to say "Rest in Peace" because that's a Christian phrase. While we have several phrases that are acceptable to say, the most common English phrase to say when a Jewish person dies is "May their memory be a blessing."

[bennistar]

A freilichen Chanuka! Chanuka Sameach!

May we soon merit to light the menorah in the Beis Hamikdash.

[bennistar]

A freilichen Chanuka! Happy Chanuka, jumblr!

Have a meaningful Chanuka. Let's light up the world.

[bennistar]

Mazel tov!

At the start of the new year, at the start of the new cycle of krias haTorah, at the beginning of the first book of the Torah haKedoshah; we were zocheh to have a new beginning of, G-d willing, another beautiful life.

With the greatest gratitude to Hashem Yisborach we are happy to announce the birth of a baby girl.

Everyone is invited to the kiddush if they know where/when it is ;-).

Oyf simchas by all of us!

[bennistar]

Again he didn't want to go to sleep...

Only this time, he took his stuffed puppy, stood up and put the stuffed animal on his shoulders holding it by its legs... saying: "פאפי , גיב אכטונג" (puppy, be careful).

And he started singing "לכבוווווד התנאאא האלוקי" (lechuveeed haTanaaa haEloikai) swinging back and forth, "רבי שמעון בר יוחאי!" (Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai).

🤣

It's 1.30AM: my 3-y/o son just woke up, saying he wants to get out of bed "lekuved Shavuos".

Maybe someone should tell him he's a few days late xD

[bennistar]

I wrote this post a long time ago, but in today's world it's perhaps even more fitting than ever. By then, I spoke about European antisemitism. Today it is worldwide, even in the US.

And the reaction of the world is all the same...

The Lesson Of Zeidy's Glass Jar: The World Doesn't Care

When two Muslim terrorists storm the headquarters of a satire-magazine and kill 12 innocent people the world was -justifiable so- in uproar. But when two days later mere hours before Shabbos a kosher supermarket is being held hostage and four Jews are murdered the world is once again silent. 

All those people on the internet and in the newspapers -but most specifically all the brave social justice warriors- who stood up, decried the barbarous attacks and showed their solidarity with the majority of the Muslim community. All these fearless fighters for justice, equality, harmony, brotherhood and peace. These amazing people who never shoo away from a confrontation to defend what it is right, to “call out” [a word I learned from Tumblr] racists, bigots and anyone else who might disagree with them. All of these people suddenly seemed to have faded away like the current Jerusalem-snow, or perhaps a better comparison would be “the big and scary all devastating snow storm” that we -Jerusalem residents- were warned for. There was some snow. True. But it was far from the doomsday storm that everyone expected. Our Sages taught us everything that happens in the world is “for us”. We can learn from every single thing that happens around us. So what can we learn from the “Jerusalem snow storm”?

What we can learn from it is that the same thing can be said of the world. Yes, there are some goyim who are sincerely upset and are “with us” but, just like the snow, there are only so very few of them. In fact, most of them are just like the reports on the “neverending Jerusalem snowstorm”. The valiant knights of the Order of Social Justice are never silent in their condemnation and threats of anything that’s slightly offensive. But once it comes to the Jews… it’s all nothing. When Jews are being killed by Muslims in the name of Islam, and especially when Zionism is being blamed on Jews not even living in the State of “Israel” and who have no power or whatsoever within Israeli leadership, these normally loud knights are oh so silent; so silent that it’s deafening. 

So silent it made me think of when I was a yingel (little boy) playing in my grandparents’ house somewhere in Europe. I think I was about 8 or 9 years old as I roamed through the house and stumbled upon a large glass jar filled with money. It contained bundles of different currencies, French francs, Belgian Francs, Dutch Guilders, Spanish Pesetas, British Pounds, American Dollars, and probably even more that I don’t remember.

“Zeidy [grandpa], what’s this for?” I asked him when he suddenly stood at my side. His answer?

"You never know how people are. One day they are nice and act like your friends. And the other day they’ll kick you out of the country or throw you in prison. Today everything might seem all nice and quiet but you never know how long this will last. Never trust them. Always remember this. Do not forget it.” With these words my zeidy took the jar and put it somewhere else. 

Throughout the years since then I’ve seen with my own eyes how true this little life-lesson from my zeidy is. Antisemitism is deeply rooted in European society. But at the same time one cannot deny most of the recent violent attacks against Jews in France, or anywhere else in Europe, have been perpetrated by Muslims. I personally have been attacked, spat at in my face, and have seen cheider (Jewish elementary school) children being attacked by stone-throwing youths while playing in the schoolyard. Not to mention all the verbal assaults. All of these “incidents” (as police or the media would like to call them) were not done by native Europeans, rather 100% of the perpetrators were Muslims. And of course, not once did any of the brave Social Justice warriors say even one word about it. 

Am I surprised by all this? No, I’m not. After all, Chazal already said "עשו שונא ליעקב”.

But now I think of it, perhaps that’s not fair to say. They did say something about it. I’ve heard people say how they could “understand” I, my friends, and even our cheider children were being attacked because of “what Israel is doing”. 

The famous goyish saying says, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Like with many other things the goyim say, I would personally also disagree with this statement. I would say, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my enemy but also most definitely not my friend. 

About six years ago after a terror attack close to our house my little brother returned home from cheider and said, “You see, mammy! All the goyim hate us!!!" 

“All the goyim?” she asked him, “what about John Johnson?*” "Oh… yes. That’s true. Not all of them are bad” my brother finally said and went off playing. 

This John Johnson and his wife are most definitely to be considered real Chasidei Umos Ha’Olam. They are a non-Jewish couple who -despite the fact both of them are handicapped and are not very wealthy- do literally anything and everything they can to help the Jewish people -no strings attached, they’re not even Christian. The Haredi communities of both Eretz Yisroel and certain places in Europe are very blessed to have such friends as this hardworking non-Jewish couple whose whole life is that of giving and helping.  So, do I believe all goyim hate us? No I don’t.

But while the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my enemy, unless proven differently, he is also not my friend.

___________________________________ *Name changed for privacy

[bennistar]

בשעה שאמרו ישראל ‎נעשה ונשמע ‎אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא ‎בזכות התורה ולומדיה ‎ינצל העולם ‎ בשביל שושנה זו ‎ינצל הפרדס When Klal Yisroel said na’aseh v’nishma, said the Holy One, Blessed is He: ‘In the merit of the Torah and those who learn her the world will be saved. For the sake of this rose, the orchard (the Jewish People) will be saved.

As my long time followers surely have noticed already, I haven't been here for quite some time. But don't worry, everything is alright.

I still probably won't be back here so often as before... but everything is for a good reason, B"H.

[bennistar]

It's 1.30AM: my 3-y/o son just woke up, saying he wants to get out of bed "lekuved Shavuos".

Maybe someone should tell him he's a few days late xD

[bennistar]

The annual obligatory Menorah-post: A happy and lechtigen Chanuka to you all!