Rabbi Weissman: Cancelled......

 Canceled by the Unholy Press
Their loss is everyone's gain — an exciting announcement

In July, 2025 I contacted the publisher of three of my books, asking why my author’s page showed this:

After five days and a follow-up email, they finally replied:

“I need to review with my developer. I had some glitches with the site a while back.”

Six months later this mysterious glitch, which seemed to affect only my books, had apparently still not been solved.

I emailed them again, stating that it was unacceptable that my books were still no longer available on the site, and asked if this was deliberate. I saw no reason to be confrontational, but the truth was already self-evident:

I was being shadow-banned by my own publisher.

Once again I had to send several follow-ups and wait nearly a week before finally receiving a carefully crafted response. Here’s the essential paragraph with which it began:

Rabbi Weissman,

Thank you for the email. After reviewing my publishing catalog and capacity, I’ve decided that I’m no longer able to continue publishing or distributing your books. This is a business decision and not a commentary on the content itself.

Just like that my publisher of more than 12 years terminated their relationship with me. They no longer even list me as one of their authors; it’s as if it never happened.

They returned the publication rights and I agreed not to use their name in my books or any promotional materials. (That request, while logical, is amusing, considering they had long ceased promoting my books anyway, and I probably sent a lot more traffic their way over the years than I received from them.)

I asked them what their publishing catalog and capacity have to do specifically with my books, and if this might have more do with some of the opinions I've expressed in recent years. Not surprisingly, they did not respond. The truth is obvious, but there’s no chance they would explicitly confirm it.

I do not believe my publisher received external pressure to remove my books or terminate their relationship with me. Maybe someone made a comment to them, but, despite being a crazy conspiracy theorist, I find it hard to believe that it was much more than that. The entire time my books were removed from their site they were available for sale on Amazon, the publisher’s primary marketplace.

It seems most likely that the publisher has a strong personal aversion to my outspoken views on the State of Israel, October 7, and the IDF, and felt that was reason enough to cease publishing my work on entirely unrelated topics, and completely disassociate his company from me.

Had I been writing kefirah all this time, I don’t think this would have happened. Writing kefirah, if somewhat subtle, is acceptable, even respectable; doubting God is intellectual, and looking down on Chazal is enlightened. But if you express anything other than unconditional love for the State of Israel and the IDF, and if you refuse to fall into line even when they commit atrocities against your people, you will not get a job as a rabbi, you will be blackballed by Jewish publishers and media, and getting a shidduch with a Jewish girl without an airport full of baggage will require a far greater miracle than splitting the sea.

Like the unwritten rules of baseball, no one will officially admit they exist, but everyone implicitly respects them. If they want to advance in their personal life and professional career, they fall into line and censor themselves.

Had I not pressed my ex-publisher after six months to explain why my books were still missing from their site, the status quo would likely have continued. They would have continued to profit from any sales I generated and send me a percentage in royalties, while shadowbanning me and hoping I never noticed. I was bad for business, but not bad enough for them to be up front with me and stop profiting from my books before I noticed the farce.

I have no problem with a publisher deciding they no longer want to continue working with a particular author for business or other legitimate reasons — we didn’t sign a lifetime contract — but this was the most weaselly way possible of handling the situation. I hope they realize that and do teshuva.

(Please don’t send them angry messages or boycott their other books. I’m glad to be moving on, and I don’t want their parnassa to be harmed over this.)

While this episode is very revealing about the state of affairs within the “Orthodox” Jewish world, my cancellation is not a setback in any way. First of all, I have been censored and canceled many times over the years, and, while unpleasant in the moment, it’s not the end of the world. On the contrary, it has often led to much better things, and having one door close was necessary for me to step through a better one. In any case, Hashem runs the world, not small people who get in your way, and you can’t achieve greatness in any capacity without overcoming adversity. This is nothing.

Not only isn’t this a setback, it’s an exciting development for me and for you. For me, because I’m no longer bound to a publisher that was doing nothing to market my books, and I don’t have to give them the lion’s share of earnings. Win-win!

But what excites me even more is that I am now going to do something I was thinking about for years. I am going to give away my best-selling book, my magnum opus on the shidduch world, EndtheMadness: Guide to the Shidduch World.

Not at all at once, though. A chapter every week or so, over the next seven months or so. I am doing it this way for a couple of reasons:

1. I still want people to buy the book. If you enjoy my work in general, think the book is important, and can afford 20 bucks, you should support my work in one of the few ways you actually can, since I monetize practically nothing. (I didn’t give away the book from the beginning mainly because I was advised that people would respect my books more if they had to pay for them. I don’t know how true that is, but it was worth a try.)
   
2. It can potentially have a great impact if many people are reading, sharing, and discussing the same chapter, like Daf Yomi. We desperately need for the shidduch world to change (for the better, for once). Making the book available for free, and releasing it chapter by chapter, can be a real catalyst for that — though whether or not that happens is up to you.
   

God willing, I will release the first installment of EndtheMadness: Guide to the Shidduch World on Thursday, and I’m very excited about it.

The book is currently out of print on Amazon, but I still have a small stock of personal copies in Israel for 70 shekels each. You can also buy the eBook for only $9.99 here.

At some point I hope to republish the print version, but it might take a while. Amazon’s CreateSpace publishing platform is giving me strange issues as well, which started the same time Google locked me out of my account of a quarter-century last year, pretended it was a security issue and they couldn’t verify me, gave me no recourse, and then deactivated it.

They can annoy me, but they cannot prevent me from continuing my mission, even if I have to reach one person at a time in the most low-tech ways.

It would make me happy if you buy a copy of the book (and my other books), because it is gratifying for a creative person when people appreciate their work enough to pay for it.

But even if you don’t, it would make me extremely happy if you share it with lots of people, discuss the ideas, and do something meaningful in the real world. That’s far more important to me than making a few bucks. If we want things to change, we have to put our money where our mouth is and do something, even if means being moser nefesh in the short term.

I devoted myself to making a real difference in the shidduch world, and I have been moser nefesh for that sake like very few people, including making myself virtually un-dateable from the time I first started dating. You don’t have to make extreme sacrifices, but you do have to do something if you want things to change. Sharing my magnus opus on the shidduch world with many people is one of the best things you can do, and now it will be easier than ever — and free.

The Story of Seven Commanders - Rav Weinberger Speaking at Melave Malka in the Old City, Yerushalyim

 

Eliezer Meir Saidel: From Up or Down – Beshalach JP

 

We know who built the Mishkan, the first and second Batei Mikdash – Moshe, Shlomo and Ezra. The million-dollar question is “Who will build the third and everlasting Beit HaMikdash?”

The answer (or at least part of it) appears in our parsha, “A dwelling place for You, G-d has wrought – Your hands will prepare a Mikdash” (Shemot 15:17). From the literal meaning of the pasuk, it appears that the third Beit HaMikdash will be built by HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself. “Your” hands, HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s hands and not “our” hands.

In fact, this is a “dispute” in Chazal. The Zohar (Bereishit 28) and the Tanchuma (Ki Tisa 13) say that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will build the third Beit HaMikdash, while the Yerushalmi (Megillah 1:11) says that Am Yisrael will build it. This continues with an epic dispute between Rashi and the Rambam, with Rashi holding according to opinion of the Zohar and the Tanchuma, and the Rambam holding according to the Yerushalmi.

Rashi’s method is detailed in the Gemara (Sukkah 41a). The discussion there relates to the time of offering the Omer on the morning of the second day of Pesach and possible delays that could prevent offering it in the allotted time (we will not get into the details as the discussion is long and intricate). Rashi (ibid.) states that the third Beit HaMikdash will be built by HaKadosh Baruch Hu and will descend ready-made from Heaven, and Rashi’s source is our pasuk above – “Your hands” (not our hands).

The Rambam, on the other hand, in Mishna Torah (Hilchot Beit Habechira 1:1) says that the third Beit HaMikdash will be built by human hands and he bases this on the pasuk “You (Am Yisrael) build me a Mikdash, etc.” (Shemot 25:8).

There are numerous Mefarshim that try to reconcile the two opinions of Rashi and the Rambam.

The above is a well-known machloket. The reason I brought it here is firstly because it is all based on a pasuk from our parsha, but also for a much more important reason.

There are different streams in the Torah world today regarding the Beit HaMikdash. The common denominator between them all is that they all want the third Beit HaMikdash to be rebuilt. The only question is how and when.

The first stream believes that we should not be actively doing anything to rebuild the third Beit HaMikdash. When Mashiach comes, it will descend ready-made from Heaven with everything in it and any attempt on our part to research, experiment, rebuild, etc. is a total waste of time, better spent on other, more important things such as studying the parts of the Torah that have practical application today, doing teshuvah, working on our middot and raising our spiritual level so that we will be worthy of Redemption.

The second stream believes that we should be active in rebuilding the Beit HaMikdash, but not right now. The time is not yet right for it. It is important to fervently sing Leshana Habah BiYerushalayim Habenuya after the Pesach Seder and dance around the Bima after Yom Kippur, and keep the idea of the Beit HaMikdash alive, but on the “back burner.” Reality has many more pressing matters to deal with first that take precedence over the Beit HaMikdash.

For the third stream, the Beit HaMikdash is their entire life. Every waking (and sleeping) moment they feel the deficiency in their existence because the Beit HaMikdash is not a reality and they are actively doing everything in their power to work towards changing that reality. The Beit HaMikdash for them is the focus around which everything else revolves – every thought, every action, every interaction.

The truth is that we should all be part of the third stream and the fact that we are not is not out of laziness, or maliciousness, or any other deliberate reason. It is predominantly because of – ignorance! It is because the vast majority of us do not really understand what the Beit HaMikdash is. We perhaps think we do, but we don’t really. If we did, we would switch overnight to the third stream.

Most of us think of the Beit HaMikdash as some romantic, nostalgic concept from way back when, or some starry-eyed, utopian vision of the future that appears to be nowhere in sight, something with no practical implications right here and now. How wrong we are.

The Beit HaMikdash is part and parcel of each and every one of us – right now, every second of every day. The Beit HaMikdash is the blueprint of our anatomy and physiology, the way our cells divide, the way they produce energy, the way our brain works, the hormonal balance in our bodies, how we utilize energy from photosynthesis of plants, how we speak, think, act, react. It is the blueprint of everything in our natural world, atoms, electrons, gravity, waves, simple harmonic motion, radiation, light. The Beit HaMikdash is the blueprint of our world and everything in it. If we truly want to understand how our world works, we first need to understand the blueprint – the Beit HaMikdash.

But it is more than that. The Beit HaMikdash is not only a blueprint for the structure and methodology, but also for the morality of our world.

The ultimate reason we observe the 613 mitzvot is simply because HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded us to. Understanding the reasoning behind them is not mandatory but if we obtain a deeper understanding of the reasoning behind the mitzvot, it enables us to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu out of love. Since the Beit HaMikdash is the blueprint, it is the gateway to understanding the reasoning behind the mitzvot.

Yes, in order to hasten the Geulah, we need to all study more Torah, do teshuvah, give more tzedakah, do more chesed, improve our middot, etc. But the only true and effective way of understanding these concepts and how to observe them the correct way, is to study them using the blueprint, the Beit HaMikdash. Unless we understand the components of the Beit HaMikdash, what each is for, how each is used and why, we will never truly understand the true avodah HaKadosh Baruch Hu requires of us. The Beit HaMikdash is the model of how we should be living our lives and serving HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

It is time to start devoting more of our time to studying the Beit HaMikdash and understanding what true Avodat Hashem really is.

 

Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: Why did Moshe have to raise his arm to split the Red Sea and not his staff?

Answer to Last Shiur’s Trivia Question: What reward did the dogs receive for not barking during the slaying of the firstborns? They get to eat all the treif meat forever more (Shemot Rabbah 31:9).

#TeamMoshiach - Tu B'Shevat, Moshiach renews the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden

What is the Secret of the holiday of Tu'Beshevat? How does the New Year of the Trees begin the Geulah (Redemption) in the months of Adar (Purim) and Nissan (Pesach, Passover)? How will Moshiach regrow the Garden of Eden?

You Can Taste Redemption: The Tu B’Shvat Prophecy Happening NOW

 

Loving Others in Word and in Heart

 

Some thoughts......

 Remember the incident in Romema with the babysitting nursery?

They (whoever they are) still do not know what caused the deaths of the two toddlers. Various causes were mentioned but then dismissed.

Well, I have a thought or two about this. 'Thinking'....... just like AI likes to say:

Remember the "air conditioners" were set very high and created a very warm atmosphere; so some thought maybe they were victims of dehydration? Testing for that is not yet available.

Remember not too long ago, an "air conditioner" malady called Legionaires Disease?

Maybe someone should examine those air conditioners. Check for mold spores and TOXINS that filtered in from the outside air.

Remember the "toxic spraying of our skies that poisoned trees, greenery, bees, insects, farmlands and their produce..........(that we consume) ?

Include in that 'testing' the actual dust on the floors and furniture in the DayCare Facility, if it hasn't been 'cleaned' yet.

Maybe someone needs to test for toxins? Since this is the first time (assuming) that any child became sick or exhibited excessive sleeping in that DayCare Facility?

Anyone have any ideas?
Please leave them in the comments section.

Just One Shabbos | Rabbi Nosson Muller

 

BD”E…..

 

BARUCH DAYAN HA’EMES: The Lelover Rebbe, Harav Yissochor Dov Biderman Zt”l, Niftar After Collapsing In The Mikveh…..

The Lelover Rebbe, Harav Yissachar Dov Biderman zt”l, was niftar suddenly on Sunday at the age of 84.

Earlier on Sunday, he was being toivel in the private mikveh at the Lelov Beis Medrash on Rechov Tzefania in Yerushalayim when he collapsed.

Emergency personnel who arrived at the scene carried out prolonged resuscitation efforts, but to everyone’s great sorrow, they were forced to pronounce his death at the scene.

The Rebbe was born in Jerusalem on the 10th of Kislev, 5702 (1941), to his father, Rebbe Rabbi Moshe Mordechai of Lelov zt”l.

In 5703 (1943), his father moved to Tel Aviv. He studied in the local Belzer cheder as a youngster, and learned at the Lelov yeshiva in the Bais Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem.

After his marriage, he continued to devote himself to limud Torah and earned his parnassah by writing Sifrei Torah. The Rebbe lived a life withdrawn from worldly matters, entirely devoted to avodas hakodesh.

In later years, he was crowned Rebbe and led his beis midrash, Kedushas Mordechai Lelov, on Bar-Ilan Street in Yerushalayim.

The Rebbe is survived by his family and children, and by his brothers—the Rebbes of Lelov–Nikolsburg and Lelov Ezrat Torah.

וכל בית ישראל יבכו את השריפה אשר שרף ה’.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

What is Going on?………

 

Unprecedented Arrest: For The First Time, Ben Torah Detained In Heart of Chareidi Neighborhood

A yeshivah bochur from Ohel Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem was arrested on Sunday afternoon in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem, Kikar H’Shabbat reported.

The arrest took place near the bochur’s home, in the heart of the Chareidi neighborhood in Jerusalem. A police vehicle stopped near the bochur’s house while he was outside after coming home for Shabbos home.

Officers got out of the vehicle and arrested him on the spot.

According to the family, the arrest was carried out by the Military Police, on the grounds that he failed to report to the enlistment office, in accordance with the instructions of Gedolei Yisrael.

As in previous cases, the bochur is Sephardi.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Vengeance against Minister Deri!?

Comments:

*I wonder whether most of the arrested bochrim have a smart phone or one that can be tracked?Perhaps, if they stop keeping those devices in their pockets, the Gestapo won’t know whether they are at home or in Yeshivah.

*only draft dodgers who are chareidi will be arrested but the majority of draft dodgers, who happen to be non chareidi and non religious will not be touched. there will not be a single arrest in the tel Aviv area

*Anyone else notice these new hats the military police are wearing? This picture is giving off SS vibes

End Times Unfolding Before Our Very Own Eyes!! Tu B'shvat Redemption Connection | Rabbi Richter

 Given 11 months ago! Is this Prophecy?

Haven’t heard this yet…..so leave your comments below.

However, I declare that the “Pilgrims PathOpening” is definitely Prophecy and a siman tov!

Tu B”Shevat Order of Brachos:

According to *Chazal, priority in the Torah:

Wheat

Barley

olives

Dates

Grapes

Figs

Pomegranates

Halachos of Brochos, p 168, by Rabbi Yisroel Pinchos Bodner

Tu B'Shvat - The Secret Life of Trees

 

 

Is anyone familiar with this Rabbi? Leave comment please.

Comment:

was fantastic… thank you for making this video and sharing with me!! Trees… well plants always die when I’m the care taker. I love them and i speak to them outside… but I don’t bring them inside because they all die on me… no plant lives around me it feels. I have or used to have tree cut outs all over my home… I really love trees… have you seen the lungs and the nervous system… we are all connected. I really appreciate this video. So the moment the sap starts rising and the climbing and heaven is reaching down… CONCEPTION… do you see it? I don’t under stand why this is called mysticism? Makes complete sense to me!!!! I really enjoyed this… thank you… I made a video short about this holiday… I wish I had seen this first… amazing video. I’m sharing on my channel.

The roots and branches of a tree, look like the veigns in our bodies. The tree gets food from the soil through its roots. Humans also get their food from the ground wich have to be prepared before consuption. The nutrients for life get carried through the veigns of both trees and humans

[me: mysticism is Yad Hashem, and of course it’s “complete sense”!!]

Eat Fruits on Tu B'shevat! An Astounding Original Approach Based on Meshech Chochmah

 

The Revolutionary Objective of Tu B'shevat Taught by Rav David Zacutto of Modena

 

When On Tu B'shevat Should You Eat Fruits

RAbbi Glatstein: Tu B'shevat Tish 5786 - The Eternal Hope of Being a Tree

AISH KODESH: Tu B'Shvat Tish 2026 / 5786

 

2,000-year-old Pilgrimage Road to Temple Mount opens to public ……..Millennia after being buried, street once traversed by millions of faithful

 this gives me shivers of awesome realization…..to be able to walk on the stones that our ancestors walked on is truly awesome! Does this not give one the internal excitement of what we are longing for??

……from southern end of ancient Jerusalem to Western Wall can once again be walked by visitors Yidden!

[…] On January 20, the Ganeles family was among a group of roughly 30 people to take an inaugural walk up the road. Starting from an area where the archaeologists believe the ancient Siloam pool stood at the entrance of the ancient city, in what is today the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, the largely subterranean road runs underneath modern infrastructure for several hundred meters to the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden adjacent to the Western Wall.

Occupying a slope just to the south of the Old City, the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan sits on what archaeologists understand to be the most ancient part of the 3,000-year-old city, much of which is today part of the City of David archaeological park. 

Over the years, excavations across different areas of the site have uncovered extraordinary finds spanning the history of Jerusalem, including the First Temple Period (1000-586 BCE), when a significant portion of the biblical narratives took place, and the Second Temple Period, which lasted until 70 CE.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/2000-year-old-pilgrimage-road-to-temple-mount-opens-to-public-after-years-of-digging/

[…] In some places, the remains of the stores lining the street are still visible. Among other things, the archaeologists uncovered a small mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath, and a podium that might have been used for announcements or ceremonies, such as the reading of a Torah scroll.

Jewish and historical sources describe how, toward the end of the Second Temple Period, millions of pilgrims would flock to Jerusalem for the annual festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, as the city and the Temple reached the apex of their splendor after Herod renovated and expanded them. [and maybe Tu B’Shevat!

[…] Leah Cohn, a resident of the settlement of Efrat, was pleasantly surprised to learn that the tour, which she joined to celebrate her 52nd birthday, was the first to be open to the public.

“It’s my first time at the City of David, even though I have been wanting to come for a long time. It’s a miracle,” she said.

Journey to Chevron: …… City of Royalty and Prophecy (4)

Overlooking the City of Royalty and Prophecy  

 Live From the Shul of Avraham Avinu: The Chida Explicates the Legend Based on Sefer Chasidim  

 Rav Etrog From Yeshiva Shavei Chevron, the Home of Avraham Avinu {Hebrew}  

 The Tzion For Eisavs Head - The Meoras Hamachpeila The Matzeiva of the Ramban - The Meoras Hamachpeila

Journey to Chevron: Live Shiur From the Meoras Hamachpeila -

Marriage, Burial & Our Relationship With Hashem

Rebbetzen Tziporah: To Step Foward

 Received after Shabbos

Dear friends,

I find that Yam Suf continues to reveal new depths. Each year the sea splits open differently, showing us something we weren't ready to see before.

I want to share some thoughts about shirah, about Miriam HaNeviah, and about the ways the sea still splits in our own lives.

What is Shirah?

Shirah is what happens when ordinary words are insufficient and the soul must speak.

Ramban explains that when Bnei Yisrael witnessed the sea split and their enemies destroyed, regular speech could not contain what they experienced. They needed shirah – a heightened form of expression that transcends ordinary language. It's the difference between saying "thank you" and bursting into song because gratitude itself demands more.

Maharal teaches that shirah represents the moment when we perceive God's hand so clearly that silence becomes impossible. There’s more to it: Sfas Emes adds something profound: the shirah at the sea wasn't merely a response to miracles witnessed – it revealed that we ourselves had been transformed.

The Gemara in Sanhedrin (91b) counts ten great songs in Jewish history, with Shirat HaYam as the first sung in this world. Even the way the shirah appears in the Torah scroll is unique – written in a brick-like pattern. The Baal HaTurim explains that just as bricks interlock to build something solid, our individual voices of praise combine to create something greater than any one of us could express alone.In Battle Plans, I wrote about how we often feel we're fighting alone, but we're actually part of a larger army.

Miriam HaNeviah: Carrying Drums Through the Desert

"Vatikach Miriam hanevi'ah achot Aharon et hatof b'yadah" – Miriam the prophetess, sister of Aharon, took a drum in her hand.

Why "sister of Aharon" and not "sister of Moshe"? Her greatest moment arguably took place before she was Moshe’s sister - before he was even born. Consider what this means: a child living under Pharaoh's brutal decree, having the courage to predict redemption. When baby Moshe was placed in the Nile, she stood "mirachok" – from afar. Rashi explains she wasn't merely watching her baby brother; she was watching to see what would become of her prophecy. This is audacious faith.

Miriam led the women with drums and dance because the women had such faith in God's salvation that they brought musical instruments out of Egypt. Consider what this means: when fleeing slavery, what do you pack? The women brought tambourines – not from naiveté, but from certainty. They knew that every Yam Suf is meant to split.

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch notes that while Moshe led the men in shirah, Miriam led the women, ensuring the song would echo not just in that generation but in all generations to come. The women sang "shirah laHashem" – they directed their song to God Himself. Authentic joy is always a dialogue with the Divine.

This is what I wrote about in Infinite Love – that God's love for us is so vast, so patient, that He waits for us to pick up our drums even when we can barely lift them. Miriam understood this deeply.

Let me share my own Yam Suf moment.

I was a young mother when a note arrived from Rabbi Refson, head of newborn Neve Yerushalayim, in response to my having heard about his dream school when I was looking for a place for my innocent young neighbor to learn. She was a boarder across from my apartment in Givat Shaul. Tehillah (not her name) was from New Jersey. She had drawn closer to observance through her local rabbi, and following her hearts longing for more, enrolled in a Judaic Studies program in Hebrew University. It took no time for her to realize that they were teaching many things – modern Hebrew, the history of Zionism and more, but Judaism just wasn’t on their agenda. 

We heard of Neve (which was actually only a small apartment in Bayit Vegan with 6 girls living together and learning from volunteer teachers under Rabbi Refson’s direction). I had been learning with Tehillah and when Rabbi Refson heard about it, he asked if I would come teach. The seminary was only in its second year. I had small children. My only teaching experience was with teaching English for a chabad school. Why would anyone want me to teach?

 That was over fifty years ago.

What looked like an impassable obstacle became a path I've walked ever since.  The greatest privilege of my life after my being able to marry and raise a family – all because I was willing to step forward when I couldn't yet see the dry land beneath my feet.

Another Sea That Split

And let me share one more story, because seas are still splitting every day. This one was shared by a family with Rabbi Frand:

A young couple in their early thirties had been married for several years without children. After many heartbreaking disappointments and failed treatments, they finally – miraculously – conceived. The pregnancy was difficult, but they were overjoyed. At eight months, during a routine checkup, the doctors discovered the baby had no heartbeat.

The mother had to deliver, knowing her child was gone. It was unbearable. They asked their rav: should they try again? Could they emotionally survive another loss? With his blessing, they decided to try once more, though their hearts were shattered.

Several months later, the wife felt unwell and took a pregnancy test. Positive. But this time, the joy was muted by terror. Every checkup, every ultrasound was Yam Suf – the waters standing on either side, the fear of collapse, the desperate hope for passage.

Week by week, the pregnancy progressed normally. But the couple couldn't breathe. Then one day, in the seventh month, the wife went for an ultrasound. The technician grew quiet, called the doctor, whispered in the corner. The couple's hearts stopped.

The doctor turned to them with tears in her eyes. "I need to tell you something. We went back and reviewed all the imaging from your previous pregnancy. Your baby – the one you lost – had a condition incompatible with life. Had the baby lived to term, there would have been maybe hours, days of suffering, and then..." She paused. "But this baby? This baby is perfectly healthy. A completely different story."

"I'm telling you," said the doctor, "that sometimes God answers our prayers in ways we can't understand until much later."

They named their daughter Sigal – סגולה – because she was their precious treasure, born from the place where the waters split and they walked through on dry land.

Shabbat Shalom

As we sing Az Yashir this Shabbat, remember: the sea is always splitting for someone. Parnassah, shidduchim, refuah, children – whatever stands before us like an impassable sea can part when the moment is right.

Like Miriam, may we have the courage to hold onto our drums even in Mitzrayim, the faith to believe the song is coming, and the wisdom to know that sometimes we stand "mirachok" – watching from afar, not understanding the full prophecy, but trusting it will unfold as it should. 

The best way to relate to what you have inside you is being able to speak out your shirah to Hashem in your own words and in the words of those who songs will always inspire us, the songs that had melodies and the songs that didn’t. 

I am enclosing information about a new shiur on tefillah on zoom, that can open the doors and take you to a time for telling Hashem how you felt when the sea  split for you, and how you will feel the next time and the next time till moshiach. The siddur is the way we have to make it happen.  

To my students: thank you for the privilege of learning together. To my readers: thank you for your trust. To my children and grandchildren: you are my shirah.

Shabbat shalom,

Love, 

Tziporah

Rabbi Weissman: ......Forbidden Questions

 Unacceptable Views and Forbidden Questions

How did Israel run short on ammunition, but not Hamas?

Last week’s Torah class, Seeing Is Believing, is available on Rumble here.

The most unworthy face of Judaism to the world, King Netanyahu, made a remarkable statement a few days ago: Israeli soldiers lost their lives in Gaza because they didn’t have enough ammunition. He blamed this on a United States embargo during the previous administration.

If you want to amuse yourself, you can see plenty of headlines and media reports about his statement here.

If you want to further amuse yourself, you can take one of the approved sides and duke it out with the other approved sides. If you need help, here they are:

1. Bibi should express nothing but gratitude to the United States for protecting Israel. He should certainly not criticize them in any way.
2. Israel should wean itself off American support to ensure this sort of thing never happens again.
3. Thank God for Trump.
4. [Expletive] The Jews.
   

(The last reaction is not officially approved [yet] but it is increasingly widespread and respectable, an inevitable consequence of remarks such as these. If you still believe this is an unintended consequence, you have a lot to learn about Amalek and the Erev Rav, but that is not the point of this article.)

If I were one of the highly select group of people who are allowed to interview the protected class, I would have asked the following questions:

1. Mr. Prime Minister, how can it be that your government taxes its citizens into the ground for “defense”, while state-owned weapons manufacturing companies are earning record billions in profits, yet Israeli soldiers still didn’t have enough ammunition?
2. Israel controls the entry of all supplies into the tiny strip of land known as Gaza. Even allowing for a bit of smuggling, how is it that Hamas didn’t run short on ammunition over two years of fighting in little Gaza, and never does — but Israel did and does? What’s really going on?
3. How could you allow soldiers to be sent into death traps knowing they didn’t have enough ammunition? Why has no one been held responsible for this?
4. Who are you really, who do you answer to, and who is actually calling the shots?
   

These questions should be obvious, yet somehow no one in the media or the government — including those who supposedly oppose Netanyahu — thought to ask them.

Why do you think that is? A coincidence? Great minds all thinking alike?

Or is there an understanding?

You are allowed to criticize the Israeli government. You are allowed to be dismayed by the “failures” of the IDF. You are allowed to believe October 7 and the debacle of a war that followed — in which approximately 20,000 Jewish soldiers were maimed and killed under false pretenses, with much more collateral damage, for no justifiable reason — were caused by incompetence, the “conceptzia”, or foreign pressure.

You are not allowed to believe it was deliberate.

You are not allowed to believe there was collusion at the highest levels to advance a larger globalist agenda, and the welfare of ordinary people means nothing to them.

After two years, no one in the media has found this possibility worthy of serious consideration. What are the odds of that?

If someone in the media started probing and investigating this perfectly reasonable possibility, would they be published, or canceled?

If they persisted, would they be more likely to win a journalism prize, or suffer a tragic accident?

Even those who speak condescendingly about “conspiracy theorists” know what would more likely happen. But they won’t let it bother them, and they certainly won’t discuss it, because maintaining the delusion is more important to them, no matter the cost.

So they take everything at face value, latch on to one of the approved positions, and play pretend.

They are complicit in this farce, and share responsibility for it.

There is a reason why certain reasonable questions and viewpoints during Covid were openly declared unacceptable and squelched. It isn’t because it was necessary to save the world from anti-vaxxers.

orig video here here: 

There is reason why not a single rabbi or leader who pushed the Covid agenda (including Bibi and Mr. Warp Speed) expressed deep remorse in the years that followed, and no one has been held accountable. It isn’t because they critically examined the information that has come to light in spite of everything, and their honest assessment remains the same.

There is a reason why people who supposedly want to bring down Bibi and his phony “right wing government” promote a farcical prosecution over cigars, but ignore potential crimes related to Covid and October 7.

There is a reason why the media directs your attention away from the questions and discussions that really matter, every single time.

There is a reason why the most powerful man in Israel said soldiers died for lack of ammunition, yet no one who wishes that didn’t happen asked the right questions.

Will you?

More good points from David Sidman that the influencers with huge followings won’t bring up: