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16 August 2026

Shiva for Lone Soldier

My Dear Friends,

It is with deep pain that I share with you the tragic passing of our student, Sergeant William Shakin Z"L. Will brought joy to all who knew him, and after October 7th felt the call to serve his people. He left his studies in America to go to Israel and enlist as a lone soldier in Golani’s 13th Battalion. He valiantly fought for Israel in Gaza and Lebanon and tragically lost friends and fellow soldiers who served with him in the war.

When he returned home, he struggled with PTSD and the profound challenges that so many soldiers carry with them after war.

As an expression of his courage and commitment to others, even as he was confronting his own pain, Will enrolled at Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work with the goal of helping fellow soldiers facing similar struggles. His heroism in going to Israel to fight for his people, and his determination upon returning home to help others heal, spoke volumes about his character.

Our hearts are with Will’s parents, Karen and Eric, his brother, Jacob (SSSB ‘26), sister, Ella, and the entire Shakin family during this time.

Shiva information:

Location: Jerusalem, Waldorf Astoria Hotel

Sunday / Monday : 10:00AM - 1:00PM and Afternoon 4:00PM - 8:00PM

Tuesday 10-11am

פרטי השבעה עבור סמל זאב שאקין ז"ל

מיקום: ירושלים, מלון וולדורף אסטוריה

ימים ראשון ושני: 10:00–13:00 וכן אחר הצהריים 16:00–20:00

יום שלישי: 10:00–11:00

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Yeshiva University Israel Alumni | 40 Duvdevani Street Bayit Vegan | Jerusalem, 96428 IL

SOURCE:  Har Nof Community 

The State of Israel, Rav Moshe Feinstein, the Neviim, Meir Kahane and More

 


In this video, we dive into the comments and questions from some of our previous videos—and we don't hold back. We're responding directly to our viewers and commentators, addressing your questions, challenging assumptions, and getting down to the nitty-gritty, politically incorrect, and sometimes uncomfortable truths, facts, and opinions surrounding some of the holiest and most controversial issues facing the Jewish people today. What does the Torah really say about living in Eretz Yisrael? Is it still a mitzvah today? Who are we supposed to listen to? Can anyone reinterpret the Torah or make certain mitzvot seem less important? And who am I to even raise these questions? These aren't always comfortable conversations—but they're conversations worth having. Check out or new MERCH! https://homeboundmerch-shop.fourthwal... For questions or comments, you can reach us at Homeboundisrael@gmail.com Check out our website at Homeboundisrael.com If you want to help spread the truth of the Torah and make a tremendous kiddush Hashem, please partner with us and help support this amazing cause and help us get our Holy nation to return home to Eretz Yisrael so that we can finally bring Moshiach! https://homeboundisrael.com/donate For more information and inspiration, check out our website at https://homeboundisrael.com/ Homebound To Eretz Yisrael is an organization built to spread truth and Torah to Jews searching for the unfiltered truth about the Holiness of Eretz Yisrael, the land that Hashem designed specifically for the spiritual needs of Klal Yisrael, and how it plays a major role in our nation's destiny. We inspire and help Jews to return home, the Land promised to us by the creator of the universe. And we teach the Torah's perspective on the Holy Land, and why it is in every Jews best interest to live in Eretz Yisrael To sponsor a HomeBound episode or other motivational videos, or for any questions or comments on this video, send us an email at: Homeboundisrael@gmail.com

Hamodia Editorial: Selective Equality

click on image to enlarge (reminder)


 

Rebbetzen Tziporah: Find the Tzaddik

Dear friends,

How many times have you heard someone say to you indignantly, “You have no right to judge me!” The implication is that by judging them, you are asserting your superiority and leaving them to occupy that unhappy place called “less.” The truth is far more complex. Not all actions are equal, and actions are often done by humans. To make things even more opaque, the Torah tells us to appoint judges, which certainly implies that there is a sacred place for judging.

ASUR – MUTAR, TAMEI – TAHOR, CHAYAV – ZAKAI
FORBIDDEN – PERMITTED, DEFILED – PURE, GUILTY – INNOCENT

These six words describe the way halachah creates boundaries that are there to make it possible to make choices that give order and meaning to a world in which confusion is the norm. When Adam ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the two were mixed as he ingested the fruit, and this mixture is the source of confusion within us till today.

CONFUSED? WHO, US?

As you know, there are sincere people who make disastrous choices. One of my most moral former students, Cara (not her name), ran an abortion clinic. It was only when she saw a late-term abortion that she recognized the horror in which she was involved. Murder (killing someone who is of no threat to you) is asur. Choosing what color sweater to wear is mutar. The same holds for tamei – spiritual defilement – and tahor, pure. This gives human beings, with all of our subjectivity, the ability to live lives of truth.

With halachah, you know how to judge deeds. The question is whether you will ever really know how to judge another person. Cara recognized that the road she was walking was not taking her to where she wanted to go. Can we judge her? Cara grew up in a society in which the spotlight was always on the mother. She began to question whether the image of the teenage victim was real when she read the Guttmacher survey that revealed that 2/3 of the abortions done were for women in their 20s and the reasons they gave were financial. It was years before she knew that the baby is human and that the mother makes choices.  

This is why the same Torah that tells you where the lines have to be drawn tells you to judge your neighbor justly. We know what deeds are wrong and irretrievable. We don’t know the inner workings of people who make choices. The Torah demands that we judge favorably.

IS JUDGING FAVORABLY NAÏVE?

The words, “Don’t be a fool,” resonate. I know that I can’t judge people, but does that not leave me in the position of being the eternal doormat and what Israelis call a “fraier” (sucker)? What does halachah actually say? It demands some level of social discernment. You have to look before you leap.

TZADIKIM

When you see a person who has earned the title tzadik, and what you see is not what fits your sense of rectitude, open your mind to three possibilities:

1 – YOU MAY NOT KNOW THE HALACHAH
2 – YOU MAY NOT KNOW THE WHOLE PICTURE
3 – HE MAY HAVE MADE A ONE TIME ERROR

YOU MAY NOT KNOW THE HALACHA

The tzadik with his foot on the pedal as he heads down Ocean Parkway Shabbos morning may be driving to the hospital, not to the beach, with someone in the back having a heart attack. He is not only allowed to drive; halachah demands that he drive. No, he should not wait for a non-Jew. No, he should not ask a non-observant Jew who, in any case, doesn’t keep Shabbos. He should move as quickly as possible and set the example of breaking Shabbos to save a life.

YOU MAY NOT KNOW THE WHOLE PICTURE

You see the tzadik run after a teenager who is screaming, “Let me go!” You didn’t see the teenager break into the elderly woman’s home and throw her down a flight of stairs moments before the tzadik appeared on the scene.

HE MAY BE WRONG

You can assume that the best of us make mistakes, sometimes serious ones. Moshe wasn’t perfect, and neither is anyone else. You can assume that a one-time failure isn’t a total definition of the person you “caught”.

Moshe split the sea, gave the Torah and, yes, failed when he struck the rock. You can also safely assume that it is likely for him to do teshuvah.

RESHAIM – EVILDOERS

It ain’t easy to be a rasha. If you have ambition for evil-doing, here are some criteria.

1 – YOU DO THINGS THAT THE TORAH ACTUALLY FORBIDS

In today’s society, people are very generous with their words. Calling someone “toxic” can mean that they don’t give you what you need emotionally.

How much are they actually obligated to give you? A question rarely asked. A listening ear and open heart whenever you want one? Validation? Unconditional love? None of this makes a person a rasha. It doesn’t make them righteous or perfect, but that is far from being a rasha.

2 – YOU DO THE FORBIDDEN ACT KNOWINGLY, PUBLICLY, AND WITH PRIDE
3 – EVEN IN YOUR TIME AND PLACE, THE ACT IS DESPISED

Don’t give a genuine rasha the benefit of the doubt. When you do, you are participating in his making victim after victim.

ORDINARY PEOPLE – THE OTHER 80% OF US

You are obligated to question the way you interpret the interactions between you and the other person.

Someone is late. It may be that they really don’t value your time. It also may be that he has a touch of ADHD and being prompt is just not his thing. It also may be that unanticipated delays – traffic, demonstrations, something going wrong in the car – may be the real villain.

You have to choose a positive interpretation as long as it makes sense. You don’t have to assume that the circus came to town, the elephant escaped, and the roads are all closed.

Be generous. Remember how many times you felt trapped because your reasons for failing to meet someone’s expectations were real, but beyond your capacity to change.

FIND THE TZADIK

When you have someone in your life who is “toxic” or “narcissistic” – at least, that’s how you feel – step back.

YOU MAY BE RIGHT!

I know that isn’t what you expected me to say.

You can’t recreate people, but you can choose what to look at. Even if the screen is 90 percent black, you can find a white spot if you look honestly enough. This doesn’t mean falling into the trap of talking to yourself in clichés (“everyone is basically good”). Find something that they actually did that you recognize as good. Perhaps they did you a favor at one time. Focus on that favor. Force yourself to see it when you look at the person. What will happen is that he will intuit the way you are relating. At times, this is the moment in which real change begins. Even if it doesn’t, it makes our judgment far more honest than it would be when you reduce him to a one-dimensional block of psycho-jargon.

FIND THE TZADIK IN YOU!!!!

You did good things. Definable ones. See yourself as the bit of tzadik that you are. Find the part of you that longs for Hashem; it is inside your heart. Turn to Him.

Soon (it will be) Elul. The (words) letters stand for “I am for my Beloved.” The tzadik in you is genuinely there. Hashem will be there for you. He sees the tzadik in you better than you do.

Love,

Tziporah

Shalom Pollack: SINGLES TOUR

Shalom friends,


I would like to hear your thoughts.

I have received requests from "seniors" asking me to keep an eye out for a nice gentleman or lady on my tours.

Making a shidduch is apparently a real need in our community.

My thought now is that the audience would be from fifty.

I am making a list of those who want to meet someone.

Suggestions and thoughts are welcome.

Chodesh tov.
Shalom




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The World Is Converging on Jerusalem! 🕊️ | The Tamar Yonah Show 🎙️✡️

 Noahides. They are awakening. They are organizing. And for the first time in history, they have an address: Jerusalem.


Yes, the people of Israel have returned home. "The State of Israel was built. Israeli society developed. And now, quietly, tens of thousands of non-Jews on multiple continents are choosing to live by the universal moral laws given at Sinai to all humanity. They are called Noahides. They are awakening. They are organizing. And for the first time in history, they have an address: Jerusalem. This November, the most committed Noahide leaders from around the globe will gather in Jerusalem — to formally establish the World Noahide Movement. The question is not whether or not this will happen. It's happening. The question is who will be there when it does." Tamar Yonah speaks with Rabbi Yehuda HaKohen on the Noahide For details on the conference in November 2026, visit: https://brit-olam.org/congress/ Visit Rav HaKohen's websites: https://visionmovement.org/ and https://visionmag.org/ “The Tamar Yonah Show" www.IsraelNewsTalkRadio.com
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Rav Avigdor Miller z"l ......From Parshas Shoftim

 The following is from Rabbi Avigdor Miller z”l in Parshas Shoftim, entitled “Joining In”. [one should NOT join in with the evil-doers but only with 


TWO important facts to understand in our Geulah. First, that it was ONLY SHEIM that picked up the blanket to cover his father; and that Persia comes from Yefes!


This makes a big difference in explaining what is going on now in the Geulah process between Eisav and Yefes (Persia, Iran). Also, that it wasn’t “bad” that Noach planted grapes, in order to make wine, in order to give Todah to HKB”H.


An interesting perspective on Noach after leaving the Teiva:


Now this is such an important principle, such a valuable lesson, 

that Hakodosh Boruch Hu didn’t wait until Parshas Shoftim to 

teach it to us; it was taught to us way back in the beginning 

of the history of the world.


An episode took place in the span of only a minute or two and yet it

caused a tremendous change in the course of the history of nations. 

So let’s study that story for a few minutes in order to make this

idea more convincing.


Everyone remembers what happened with Noach and his children

when they finally exited the teivah. After being saved from the mabul,

Noach understood that it was appropriate to give thanksgiving to

Hakodosh Boruch Hu. And so he did it over a little mashkeh. That’s 

the way to do it.


When you say praise to Hakodosh Boruch Hu, you do it by means 

of drinking wine (Brachos 35a). We drink a little bit to give some 

fuel to the gratitude, so that you’ll open your heart and open your 

mouth a little wider and sing to Hashem.


That’s why we make kiddush over a cup of wine. At a wedding, under

the chuppah, we drink wine. At all important occasions, at a bris too,

you make a borei pri hagofen; in order to thank Hakodosh Boruch Hu,

we utilize wine. And so Noach drank wine as a means of igniting his

gratitude to Hashem.


AND ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ON:


What does the Torah tell us about what Sheim and Yefes did when

Cham came to them and opened his big mouth? – 

Sheim and Yefes took hold of a blanket and they went in to cover up

their father (Bereishis 9:23). But we have to pay close attention to the

first word in that possuk: is written in the singular and that’s the

wrong word – it should say …., plural, they took. ……means 

he took it.


And the answer is, Sheim picked up the blanket — that’s the

way to read the possuk. Who took it? Sheim. That’s it. Sheim 

picked it up by himself and was walking with a blanket to 

cover up his father. And he didn’t need his brother. 

How much does a blanket weigh already? 


What happened next? – and Yefes saw Sheim doing the mitzvah 

and he said, “Me too!” And he grabbed on to the end of the

blanket. That’s why it says, singular; because Sheim is the one who

took it. Only that Yefes saw what was going on and he grabbed the

corner — he joined in to do a good thing.


Now, what happened at that moment was an earth-shattering event;

at that moment Sheim and Yefes changed the fate of their descendants

forever. Because later when Noach discovered what had happened, he

said the following prophecy. …– Where will Hashem dwell?

– only in the tents of Sheim. 


The generosity of the soul of Sheim came forth at that moment 

and that’s why he was zocheh forever and ever.


The Am Yisroel would come forth from Sheim and when they made

the Mishkan,. Hashem put His residence only in Sheim — nowhere 

else. The die was cast; nothing will help –  Forever and ever 

Hashem dwells among the seed of Sheim, on the Am Yisroel.


And what about Yefes? What did he get for tagging along? About

Yefes, Noach foretold the following: – “Hashem will give wide 

dominion to Yefes.” Yaft is from the word paso, which means

to open up wide, like a pesach, a doorway.


Because Yefes joined in to take part in a good thing, Noach said,

“You’ll be blessed with great power that will spread to the ends of the

earth.” 


From Yefes came Persia who ruled the whole world at one time;

Greece too ruled the world at one time. Yefes was Rome and all the

nations of Europe that conquered all the continents. 


If you want to know why the white race has covered the face of 

the earth; if you want to know why civilization — literature, 

culture, dominion — has been only in the hands of the Caucasian 

races, then you don’t have to look any further than this word, 

Va’Yefes – And Yefes also grabbed onto the blanket.


Now he didn’t do anything; Sheim didn’t need him. But that didn’t

matter to Yefes; when he saw something worthwhile being done, he

said, “Me too.” And because of that, history was changed. Because of

that little bit – at least that’s what it seems like to us – Yefes blessed

himself and his children for many generations


JOINING IN YOUR GENERATION


THE ATTITUDE OF “Me Too”, JOINING IN WITH ….


Thank you Hashem for placing my lot with the frummeh. 

Boruch Hashem, my lot is with the frummeh, the tzadikim 

of Klal Yisroel”


You’re joining in with frum Jews, with all people who learn

in yeshivos, all the kollel people, all the baalei batim who learn 

Torah intheir free time and you’re identifying with the whole 

nation of ovdei Hashem. Who is the frum community? 

All the shomrei mitzvos. 


There are all kinds of shomrei mitzvos. There are Sefardim; 

and Sefardim include the Lebanese and the Syrian and the 

Egyptians – others too. And there are Ashkenazim; 

chassidim and misnagdim and German Jews and others.


As much as possible we try to be, to those who are doing 

good things; we seek to sympathize with their ideals and their

attitudes. And even though we perhaps may not be so busy 

with mitzvos, we ourselves sometimes might be far away 

from their perfection, nevertheless, we approve of them, 

our heart is with them and by means of our minds we 

become one with the ovdei Hashem in our generation.


I want to tell you a little scene from our history. Josephus describes

at the churban Beis Hamikdash when the masses of Jews, plain Jews

were captured by the Romans and were taken for torture in public

hippodromes. And Titus HaRasha was traveling home, he took along

tens of thousands of captives. And he marched from town to town.


Now in each town, he made a demonstration in hippodromes, big

theaters, stadiums where people came and watched and the Jews were

put there to torture and they were supposed to say, “We don’t believe in

our Torah anymore.” Otherwise, they would be tortured. And the Jews

refused to say that, plain Jews. They refused to say, “We don’t believe in

our Torah.” And they were tortured to death with every kind of cruel

death and they all refused!


Josephus writes that. He said, “The nations were amazed at what

they saw.” That’s how great the hamon was, ordinary people. Not to

become apikorsim and bow down to idols. No! Just to say something

against the Torah. Even one word against their Torah they wouldn’t say.

And for that they were willing to suffer terrible tortures. That’s how

great our nation was in the days of old.

Shiva for Lone Soldier

My Dear Friends, It is with deep pain that I share with you the tragic passing of our student, Sergeant William Shakin Z"L . Will broug...