What is really going on here?

Sunday morning in a kindergarten class in Beit Shemesh

Sunday morning in a kindergarten class in Beit Shemesh

It’s a regular morning in gan. Thirty little girls daven, eat breakfast, and bentch. Then, just before ten o’clock, their teacher, Raizy, calls for their attention; “Today, we have a special program, she tells the girls. It’s going to be really exciting! A special guest is coming into our class today and she’ll be here in just a few minutes!”

Thirty little girls wait in anticipation until finally, at the appointed hour, the door to their classroom opens to admit their guest. Noa walks in, full of smiles, and looks around the room, noting the brightly-colored posters, the pictures of tzaddikim, the Shabbos tish in the corner. Looking closely, one might discern the cynical, mocking gaze in her eyes, but nobody is looking that closely.

Raizy breathes a silent sigh of relief as she notes that Noa is basically dressed in a tzniusdig fashion, albeit to minimal standards that are far below those of the families of the girls in her class. It could have been worse, she thinks to herself. And if it had been worse? She prefers not to consider that possibility.

Noa is holding a cardboard box, and now thirty pairs of eyes are fixed on it intently as their guest opens it to reveal... a bunny rabbit! A real, live rabbit! How exciting! Most of the girls are eager to gather round and take a closer look; those who shrink back are encouraged to overcome their fears.

This is a new program planned by the Education Ministry, designed to help children to overcome their fears of animals. Sounds good, no? Raizy also thought so, until she heard that the Ministry didn’t trust her to run the program. Rather, they were demanding that only a qualified teacher introduce her class to the animal world, which meant that someone of the Ministry’s own choosing would appear in her classroom, every single week for a whole semester, and run the program herself.

The school was promised that the Ministry’s representative would be dressed suitably for a Chassidishe girls’ school, and Raizy hoped and davened. Would Noa somehow blend into their classroom, or would she ruin the carefully cultivated, sheltered, and heimishe atmosphere that the teachers labored so hard to create? Only time would tell...

The weeks passed, and each time Noa came equipped with a different animal in a cardboard box. The children were loving the program and Raizy had become more-or-less accustomed to Noa’s regular visits. One week, however, no cardboard box accompanied Noa when she knocked at the classroom door and walked in. Instead, she was holding one end of a leash, and at the other end pranced a lively, frisky dog.

A few girls screamed; some shrank back in horror; others clustered around the teacher in fright. Raizy herself had to hide her feelings of fear and disgust as she hurried to calm her girls.

Noa smirked. “This is a most important part of the program”, she told Raizy. “We got the children used to rabbits, chickens, and even a frog, a dog is just another kind of animal.”

But despite Noa’s reassuring words, the dog wasn’t playing along. Instead of sitting calmly in a corner, ready to be petted, it started sniffing around the room and then running around wildly in circles. It was all Raizy could do to keep the girls from fleeing the classroom; instead, she managed to sit them down in a corner and then tried to reason with Noa.

“Please, you can see that the girls are not ready for this kind of... exposure. They are frightened, and I don’t think that they’re going to get over it in just one short hour. I really hope it won’t be a traumatic experience for them. Perhaps you could cut this week’s session short?” She begged.

Noa’s eyes narrowed, “I am an official representative of the Ministry of Education, you won’t tell me what to do!” She exclaimed. “This week’s session will continue as planned.” She grabbed the dog and put her back on a leash, before turning to the thirty white faces.

“Girls, we have to understand the feelings of the poor little doggie”, she began to lecture...

Finally the session ended, and Noa departed with the dog in tow. Raizy did her best to distract the girls from the events of the previous hour, all the while dreading what the girls would tell their parents when they got home that afternoon.

As soon as the girls had left, Raizy headed to the Menahel’s office. Nervous, yet feeling a sense of responsibility to her girls and their parents, she outlined the events of the morning, expecting to be reassured that matters would be taken into hand.

The Menahel listened, a grave expression on his face. I have to think about this, he said finally. Please do not discuss this with anyone until I decide on a plan of action.

Next morning, a notice was passed around all the classrooms of the kindergarten, summoning the teachers and their assistants to a meeting later that morning. At half-past-eleven, the eight women filed into the room and took their seats.

“I am sure you are all aware of what happened yesterday in Miss Shwartz’s classroom”, the Menahel began. “I am here to tell you that if I hear that anyone, and that means any one of you repeats the events to any of the parents of the girls, that person will find herself that very day without a job to return to.”

Stunned, the teachers returned to their classes, but at the end of that morning, Raizy tendered her resignation. She could not continue to work in such an atmosphere and betray her responsibility to her young charges.

This is a true story, with only the names of Noa and Raizy having been changed. It is known to have happened in one school in Beit Shemesh. Who knows where else other Noas are infiltrating our children’s classrooms and contaminating their pure chinuch?

the Sentry

Trouble without the Torah

"Why was the Torah given to Israel? Because they are impetuous.... The laws of these are like fire, for had not the Law been given to Israel no nation or tongue could withstand them." Talmud, Beitzah, 25b

Do we really know that Coronavirus is serious?

From Oct 1, 2019 to Feb 1, 2020, 12,000 - 30,000 people died from the flu in the US. The flu is a respiratory disease. The CDC estimates that 31 million Americans had the flu and 210,000 to 370,000 flu sufferers were hospitalized because of the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the flu kills 290,000 to 650,000 people per year around the world. The mortality rate of the flu is around .1%, meaning 1 in 1000 people who get it die.

As German pulmonologist Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg explains, there are around 100 types of viruses that virologists track and they are changing every year. Virologists test for the ones they have tests for. Normally, 7-15% of viruses are coronavirus, which is also an acute respiratory disease. Coronavirus is not a new disease. People die from it every year.

So in China in the city of Wuhan, which is a huge city with millions of people, they have resperatory illness sufferers. Doctors ran a few tests on a small group of less than 50 people and found a new variant of coronavirus. All the test shows is that it's a different variant. Normally, you have to be very careful with these kinds of findings, look at them very thoroughly to see what you have, see how severe it is, how damaging, how many recover from it. But Chinese virologists 

The test for this virus is new and its reliability not confirmed. Also, when people die, you have to try to figure out if they died from the virus. Many were in intensive care for other things and died while having the virus but that doesn't mean they died from the virus. All of this takes time to sort out. But in this case, there has been a rush to action and all the proper research has not been done. 

Watch

Eating is a mashal

We spend so much time eating. One hour after a meal we already are thinking about the next meal. Why is the world made this way? We need Hashem for everything. The earth has to spin at this exact speed or we fall down. The sun has to be exactly as far away from the earth as it is or we burn or we freeze. Our ears have to work just right so we keep our balance. Our neighbors have to be civilized. But we take all that for granted. Eating was made obvious so that we learn the lesson that all is from Hashem and apply it to everything else. There are many brochos surrounding eating but there could have been on everything, like breathing. Eating is representative. When we obey Hashem's will that's like making a bracha on everything else.

Israeli virologist urges world leaders to calm public, slams ‘unnecessary panic’

Excerpt:

‘People think this virus is going to attack them all, and then they’re all going to die,’ says Prof. Jihad Bishara. ‘Not at all. In fact, most of those infected won’t even know it’

A leading Israeli virologist on Sunday urged world leaders to calm their citizens about the coronavirus pandemic, saying people were being whipped into unnecessary panic.

Prof. Jihad Bishara, the director of the Infectious Disease Unit at Petah Tikva’s Beilinson Hospital, said that some of the steps being taken in Israel and abroad were very important, but the virus is not airborne, most people who are infected will recover without even knowing they were sick, the at-risk groups are now known, and the global panic is unnecessary and exaggerated.

“I’ve been in this business for 30 years,” Bishara said in a Channel 12 interview. “I’ve been through MERS, SARS, Ebola, the first Gulf war and the second, and I don’t recall anything like this. There’s unnecessary, exaggerated panic. We have to calm people down.

Read

Dr. Shiva on the Coronavirus

Dr. Shiva on the Coronavirus

lo aleinu - A 19-year-old woman is blind after taking Tamiflu (Fox News)

https://www.foxnews.com/story/woman-loses-eyesight-after-taking-tamiflu

A 19-year-old woman is blind after taking Tamiflu — and she didn't even have the H1N1 virus, London's Daily Mail reported.

A National Health Services helpline advised Samantha Millard to take the medication, and within 72 hours Millard was in the hospital on life support.

Millard suffered from Stevens-Johnson syndrome, causing her skin to peel off, and toxic epidermal necrolysis syndrome, which robbed the woman of her sight.

Hospital tests revealed Millard, of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England, never had the H1N1 virus.

Doctors told Millard it could take up to two years for her to recover, and they are not sure if her eyesight will return.

"It's hard," Millard said. "I can't bathe myself, I can't dress myself, I can't watch films and I can't read books."

Gershon Veroba Mimkomcha

Swine flu hysteria

"Then, on the heels of the Reyes decision, came the swine flu faux
epidemic of 1976. There, forty-five million Americans (one-third of the
adult population) subjected themselves to a flu shot at President Gerald
Ford’s stern urging only to learn, later, that the flu was not particularly
dangerous, but the shot itself was—causing in some small proportion of
patients Guillain-Barré syndrome, a usually reversible but occasionally fatal
form of paralysis. A flood of litigation and withering press attention
followed."

Rav Avigdor Miller on Purim

Q: 
The Rav spoke tonight about the lesson of Purim being the internalizing of how much Hashem loves us and our responsibility to love Him and to love the Am Yisroel. But isn’t it possible to say that the Simchas Purim is because of קיימו וקיבלו, that the Jewish Nation accepted the Torah again after the witnessing the neis of Purim?

A:
I want to explain something to you. Ezra Hasofer came along and the gemara says about him that ראוי היה עזרא שתנתן התורה לישראל על ידו – “Ezra was big enough that the Torah could have been given to us through him.” I’ll explain that. Ezra  made a tremendous change in the Klal Yisroel. Before Ezra, you didn’t have to daven shachris, mincha and ma’ariv. You didn’t have to make a bracha either. A בורא פרי העץ or המוציא לחם מין הארץ wasn’t a requirement. Of course, people were mispallel to Hashem. And people thanked Him for the food, absolutely. But there was no chiyuv to daven three times a day or to make brachos. And muktzeh as well. Many types of muktzeh were permitted.

And Ezra came along with the Anshei Knesses Hagedolah and they made a whole list of takanos chachomim. He changed the entire tzura of being a Jew. Ezra changed everything because he saw that with the Jews being in golus, they needed a סייג לתורה, a fence around the Torah; otherwise who knows what’s going to happen to us. And so he made fences around the Torah. So Ezra actually came with a new Torah for Klal Yisroel. Now, it wasn’t actually new. It’s ossur to be mosif, to add on, but he made issurei d’rabanan. He said that it’s all m’dirabanan, but it’s a סייג, a fence, to protect the Torah – to protect the Am Yisroel.

Now, how could he get the Klal Yisroel to accept that? You think it’s easy?! We’re a stubborn nation. And we’re talking now about a tremendous change! How did Ezra succeed? And the answer is that Purim came along! The miracle of Purim came along and there was such a love for Hashem, that קיימו וקיבלו, they accepted the Torah again. Not only did they accept the old Torah again, but they accepted it with such a willingness that they now took upon themselves all the new takanos of Ezra, to be mikayeim them too. So on Purim the takanos of Ezra were finally given the chizuk needed to remain with the Klal Yisroel forever.

So you’re asking if we celebrate that? Absolutely we celebrate that. No question about it. But you have to know, that that’s only agav urcha. That’s not the main idea of Purim. That’s not an open possuk. That idea of קיימו וקיבלו is not the plain pshat. The pshat in that possuk doesn’t mean that they accepted to fulfill the Torah. It’s a good drash and it’s true, but it’s not the original pshat of the possuk. 

And therefore the most important lesson of Purim is something else: that Hakodosh Boruch Hu is oheiv amo Yisroel. That is the lesson of Purim! That Hakodosh Boruch Hu loves the Am Yisroel more than anything else, that’s the main lesson of Purim! Other things, what you hear in other places, it’s true also. Could be. But the main lesson of Purim is that Hakodosh Boruch Hu is oiheiv amo Yisroel. 

Of course, as a result of that we’re more loyal to Him. We’re mikabeil to do everything now, because He saved us. Of course, that was a result of the simcha that we had when we saw how much He loves us. But the great lesson of Purim is just that. That He loves us.

And the lesson that we have to learn is that we have to love the Am Yisroel the same way Hakodosh Boruch Hu does. Hashem made a public demonstration on Purim; He demonstrated His love for us. And He wants us to follow His lesson and love His people like He does. We love the Am Yisroel because Hashem loves the Am Yisroel. It’s a way of us demonstrating our love for Hashem. And on Purim we have to start on our own, to fulfill what Hakodosh Boruch Hu showed us as an example by means of the neis of Purim.
TAPE # E-225 (March 2000)

The Statement of the Day

"Party head Avigdor Liberman vowed Monday he would not join a Likud-led government that includes ultra-Orthodox parties, but he has also refused to join a coalition with the Arab-led Joint List."

https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-almost-95-of-votes-counted-likud-gain-a-seat-to-36-shas-drops-to-9/

If that is not the most incredible statement. He hates Charedim. The former head of defense hates Charedim. He won't join in any coaltion that includes Charedim. It's astonishing. Do Charedim factor so much in his life? Do Charedim have any real power? Who owns the banks, runs the universities, leads the military, manages the corporations, sits on the High Court, publishes the newspapers? It's not Charedim. Charedim are a relatively powerless group, a low income group. There's some control over marriage licensing and public bus schedules on Shabbos. Not much more that. It is relatively minor. But this creature hates Charedim so much that he'll hold up the government formation once again even though Likud is all set to annex half of area C. He'll put a hold on that, even though he wants it too, just because he hates Charedim so much. It's not rational. Reminds us of you know who. 

It's pretty weird. Esav? Amalek? You tell me. 

Rav Avigdor Miller on Amalek’s Brotherly Impudence Q: Why did Amalek attack the Jewish people when they knew that Hashem had just performed remarkable miracles for them? A: Now we have to know who Amalek was. Amalek wasn’t such a wicked nation as we think. The fact is, the children of Yisro all throughout history associated with Amalek; they lived together with them. You remember when Shaul came to battle against Amalek, he had to send a messenger to the Bnei Keini warning them to separate from Amalek because he’s going to war against them now. Now, the Bnei Keini, children of Yisro, they wouldn’t live with Amalek if Amalek was that bad. The answer is this: Amalek was a brother. Amalek was the children of Eisav and nobody is an enemy like a brother who turns sour.  The worst enemies that we have are Jews that turn bad. Who were the ones who battled that the Nazis should be recognized by the Supreme Court as a legitimate organization? Jews! The ACLU, the American Criminal Liberties Union, they got fifty thousand dollars from a Jew named Neier for that purpose. And the United Hebrew Federations of Los Angeles gave their first annual award to Neier.  So the Federation of Charities gave their first annual award to Neier for a special service to the Jewish people. And he was the one who gave fifty thousand dollars to get the Nazis recognized. Throughout history, our worst enemies have been Jews.  You have to know that. In the communist upheaval, when the Bolsheviks took over, we suffered from the Jewish communists more than from anybody else.  They were the ones that sent Reb Dovid Rappaport to his death; a gadol baTorah, the Tzemach Dovid, a rosh yeshiva.  They packed him off to a concentration camp where he died.  They sent off tzaddikim, gedolim to their deaths. They were the worst ones. Trotsky, yimach shmo v’zichro, Leon Trotsky was one of the worst enemies of the Jewish people.   And therefore we have to remember that Amalek was a brother. Amalek was Esav’s grandson – he was a brother of the Jewish people and therefore he had more sinah than anybody else.  So all the nations heard, שמעו עמים ירגזון – The nations heard and they trembled. But Amalek was a brother and therefore he mustered enough impudence to attack the Am Yisroel.  He wanted to show – “It’s nothing.” He wanted to demonstrate to the nations, “Don’t be impressed by these people; they’re frummies. We know them. My grandfather had business with their ancestor, Yaakov. He’s a crook. He’s a ramai.” And that’s why they went out to fight against our people and nobody else did. Because a brother who is no good is the worst enemy. TAPE # 268 (June 1979)