SEE UPDATE – Double Hurricane Headed to Hawaii – A Meteorological First

UPDATE  HERMINE slams into Florida

• Hermine barrels north: First hurricane to hit Florida in 11-years leaves one dead and more than 200,000 without power as it causes a trail of destruction while it thunders up toward the East Coast
• 'Life-threatening' Hurricane Hermine made landfall in Florida with 80mph winds and 12ft storm surges
• Category 1 storm hit just east of St Marks, south east of Tallahassee, at 1.30am and is heading north east
• Hurricane slammed into rural part of Florida, knocking out power for more than 200,000 people across four states
• Authorities in Ocala, Florida said a man was found dead under a tree in a wooded area early Friday
• Heavy rain, storm surge flooding and high winds are sweeping ashore and the system will then spread up the coast to the Carolinas on Friday and Saturday
• It is the first time a storm of this magnitude has hit Florida since Hurricane Wilma killed five in 2005
• In Florida, there was concern the heavy rainfall and high winds from Hermine could sideline the state's efforts to fight the Zika virus Daily Mail

Double Trouble Headed to Hawaii … and

In what’s being hailed a meteorological first, two back-to-back hurricanes are marching toward Hawaii, both of them threatening torrential rains and rip-roaring winds this week. The closer of the two, hurricane Madeline, could break a 

second as the first hurricane to strike the Big Island since bookkeeping began in 1949.

Hurricanes are rare in Hawaii [. . . ] “Usually the waters [along this storm track] are on the edge of what’s needed to support hurricanes,” . . .“Now, they’re just warm enough, and it’s making a big difference.”

Source: Two Hurricanes Churning to Hawaii

. . . Tropical trouble: Storms head for Florida, North Carolina, Hawaii

Four separate tropical systems are taking aim on western Florida, the Outer Banks and Hawaii this week.

Two tropical depressions will bring rain and churning seas to the East and Gulf Coasts while two hurricanes approach Hawaii.

Both tropical depressions could become tropical storms before reaching land within the next couple of days. A tropical depression becomes a tropical storm when wind speeds reach 39 mph. Storms become hurricanes at 74 mph.

Source: Two Hurricanes to Florida, No Carolina and Hawaii


Are we beginning to see the intensifying effects of Nibiru and the arrival of Moshiach while we are approaching Rosh Chodesh ELUL, the time of intensification of our Avodah during the coming 40 days up to Rosh Hashanah?

TAKE THIS TO HEART AND KEEP THIS IN MIND . . .

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY PREDICT AN EARTHQUAKE SOMETIME IN THE NEAR FUTURE:

Stop building homes in tall buildings, stop copying Manhattan! You are Jews; settle the holy land of Israel in houses, not apartments! You must settle the Negev, Galilee, Samaria, Binyamin and Golan Heights. Dear Jews, stop focusing on the center of Israel, stop building sky scrapers; it is not G-d's will. The holy land must be villages and towns. The land of Israel will grow one centimeter every day in every direction.

THIS IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW, BECAUSE NEFESH B’NEFESH CANNOT HANDLE ALL THESE NEW IMMIGRANTS COMING HOME:

It sounds like the skies will be full of fleets of EL AL PLANES going to the far and near lands to rescue Jews from Redemption Turmoil.

G-d is destroying all of the Arab countries and a large part of the world to bring the Jews to Israel. Thousands are coming; millions more will come.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING BEHIND THE HEADLINES:

The biggest sign of in the world: G-d is destroying the Arab countries around us so that Jews can come safely to the holy land of Israel! This is not like the time of the spies who didn't want to come to Israel for fear of the people there. G-d is cleaning out all of the Arab countries around Israel and telling the Diaspora Jews: "Look at the holy land of Israel, a beautiful and wonderful country! It has everything - Torah, synagogues that are holy and pure, protection, prosperity, joy, peace, gold, silver, diamonds, oil, gas, iron and the most important of all - G-d is here protecting the Holy Land and the Messiah is working in the Holy Land!”

IF MENACHEM OF ABSOLUTETRUTH613 IS CORRECT, THIS COMING ROSH HASHANA, YOM KIPPUR, AND SUCCOT WILL BE GEVALDIG WITH FIREWORKS of GEULA:

The prayers of the holidays in the Holy Land are not like prayers outside of Israel because the Holy Spirit is only in Israel since 1948 when the state of Israel was established.

ONE THING IN THE NEWS IS VERY TELLING, TURKEY HAS A TASTE FOR BLOOD AND WAR, BUT THEIR END IS NEAR:

Due to the thousands he (Erdogan) has killed, others want revenge and want to kill him. Turkey will turn into chaos, Turkey will bleed. Listen and read, there will be a terrible revolution in Turkey. Jews: run away from there like fire!

IF YOU LIVE OUTSIDE ERETZ YISRAEL, RECONSIDER YOUR FUTURE:

Many Jews will come to Israel. It will not stop! Continue building houses and spread out throughout Israel, establish settlements and stop with the skyscrapers and buildings. Real estate in Israel will continue, no one can stop it - it is G-d's doing!

THIS IS A PREDICTION BASED ON THE ZOHAR AND KABBALAH:

The Messiah above held by Leah is judgment, and the Messiah below held by Rachel is mercy. The Messiah above must connect with the Messiah below and turn the Messiah above to mercy; this is "merciful redemption". If there was judgment and redemption, heaven forbid, the Messiah above would come down without the Messiah below and there would only remain the minimum of souls necessary in all of Israel. In a merciful redemption, the Messiah above connects with the Messiah below, it is time!

ABOUT MOSHIACH:

the age of the universe, as based on the Zohar, is 15.34 billion years, and scientists are presently at 13.7 billion years (I think some are up to 14 billion). You are correct that they are catching up, but I just wanted to give a more accurate reading.

Also I believe that time of Moshiach is based on Mincha Gedolah, not candle lighting. It still comes to 5776, but more like 18 Halachic hours and 37 Halachic minutes into the sixth day.

When He (G–D) gives us definite messages, such as Sanhedrin 97, or Bamidbar 24:17, or the end of Malachi, or the end of Daniel, or thousands of other hints, including all the Torah Codes, FC individuals, or Rabbaim, or Mekubalim, or the Star of Jacob being close, or all the prophecies happening, or all world events happening, etc, etc, etc, He is telling us a definite message: 5776 IS THE YEAR OF GEULA AND MOSHIACH.

There has never, I repeat, never been a year where the Star of Jacob was weeks if not days away. There has never been a year that had the coded information in the Torah or the FC individuals, or the Rabbis, or the Mekubalim, or the tremendous number to prophecies fulfilled, or, or, or in such abundance. Please do not compare this year to any before -- there is no comparison whatsoever.


Source: Message from R’ Nir Ben Artzi and Absolute Truth 613: Moshiach, Redemption and Nibiru

An UPDATE on Recent Sightings of the Nibiru System in our Universe

HERE WE HAVE A SELECTION OF REVEALING PHOTOS OF WHAT’S IN OUR UNIVERSE NOW. THE SIGHTINGS ARE MORE EASILY RECOGNIZABLE AND EASIER TO PHOTOGRAPH. 

THESE NEXT TWO PHOTOS ARE OF THE RED ORB

A SERIES OF PHOTOS OF THE SUN IN ITS RISING REVEALING A HUGE ORB 

THIS IS THE FAMILIAR GREEN ORB THAT CHEM TRAILS ARE TRYING TO OBSCURE 

THIS IS A CLOSE-UP OF ONE/TWO ORBS IN THE FOLLOWING TWO PHOTOS 

HERE CAN BE SEEN THE SUN RISING AND SHINING ON SEVERAL ORBS 

THIS IS A PHOTO OF A DOUBLE MOON OR OUR MOON WITH A SHIELD 
(hope you can red the text)

THIS PHOTO SEEMS ESPECIALLY MAGNIFICENT, IN THAT CAN BE SEEN WHAT APPEARS TO BE A HUGE DARK ORB WITH LIGHT (OUR SUN)BEING EMITTED FROM THE LEFT HORIZON

“Stop Having Israeli Jewish Babies: The Land is Too Full"

HE SAYS:  The Land is Too Full*

Who is He?   Alon Tal of Adam Teva V’Din

What is Adam Teva V’Din?

[doesn’t look crowded to me :-) ]

Because the beaches are too full, an environmentalist, Alon Tal, one of the founders of Adam Teva V’Din suggests to stop having so many Israeli Jewish babies!

This guy has been in academia too long, and has developed “progressive oppositism”. [Me: Here I coin a new phrase “oppositism,” meaning “the disease of ‘progressivism’ which infects their minds and thinking that transforms ‘the opposite’ (diametrically different; of a contrary kind), into the preferred, i.e. the oppositism.]

Some of his proposals:

“[A]ccording to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel’s current population is 8.522 million people, having grown 2.2% over the previous year.”

It says “8.5 million people” – Who are these people? These are NOT all Jews. Even some Israelis may not be Jewish. (Really! Gasp … gracious, what am I saying?)

“[S]tabilize the population so the country doesn’t need to keep building new apartments at such a voracious rate”

Tal singles out two populations who are most guilty of perpetuating overpopulation: the ultra-Orthodox Haredim, and the Bedouin

“People shouldn’t be paid for having large families — it’s a bad public policy.”

“Delaying the age of marriage is something that we can really do,”

Does he sound like Al Gore in “An Inconvenient Truth”?

“I know that we came here to bring a blessing to the land, and 50 million people cannot bring a blessing to this land; they can only bring destruction and devastation. That’s a reality,”

“Today, Zionism’s great success is our nimble ability to realize when reality changes, we need to change too. We need to change a country’s objectives and visions. Anyone who is not willing to change is the anti-Zionist, because you are dragging this country off a cliff. We’re on the edgy of the abyss, environmentally and socially.”

“With all due respect to the wonderful work of Nefesh B’Nefesh, [… ] we can stop what has been a self-righteous, almost insufferable Zionist superiority complex, which says to Jews around the world, your quality of life is deficient. You don’t have the Jewish integrity, being a Jew abroad is somehow fake.”

“Israel’s unsustainable population growth is the result of public policies,” […] If we don’t, [demographic dynamics] our descendants will curse us, because we were given a Land of Milk and Honey, and we turned it into an ecological and social disaster.”

A Terrifying Future Indeed . . .

As a country, Israel is simply too full. In his new book, “The Land is Full: Addressing Overpopulation in Israel” the author lays out a terrifying future if Israel does not start to control the meteoric population growth.

All of these outlandish quotes can be found in a quite lengthy article on the ‘progressive news site 

Times of Israel:  Stop Being Fruitful.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I saw this article a couple weeks ago and am just now posting it. However, in this weekend’s JPost paper edition, Seth J. Frantzman has critiqued this same book and its author. His final words are:

Israel is NOT the most crowded . . . 32nd behind Lebanon and others. Tel Aviv isn’t even in the top 40 cities by population density. Israel is perfectly positioned to be similar to . . . UAE. What it needs is a more dynamic economy and solutions to its housing crises. That doesn’t mean less people, it means better policies to plan for them all and to open up the Negev to real development. The Land is not full, the Land has simply been mismanaged.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
Adam Teva V’Din

*Arafatrat is turning over in his grave saying I told you so!


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

The Rebbetzin – An Amazing Opportunity

The following is from The Tablet Magazine, that also featured a tribute to Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis A”H. The fascinating part of this article was the inclusion of  4 Tapes of her 1973 Madison Square Garden appearance for the rescue of Jewish neshomos from a spiritual genocide as she saw it, greater than the European one. You can hear her outstanding and penetrating pleas to young Jews to rediscover and appreciate their heritage. Listen to her passionate pleas . . . a survivor with her family from Buchenwald, the Rebbetzin realized her mission here on earth.

"Esther Jungreis, who died on Tuesday at the age of 80, was an Orthodox Jewish outreach pioneer who famously crusaded against secularism, liberalism, and the assimilation of the American Jewish community, a phenomenon she called 'spiritual genocide.’"

"She led mass revivals across the globe throughout the ’70s and ’80s—spectacles where thousands of young Jews sang and prayed together as she held forth with her message. She published books, pamphlets, and a decades-long weekly column in The Jewish Press in an effort to articulate the purpose of Jewish tradition in modern America. Her softly demanding Hungarian-accented English is already the stuff of legend."




In 1973 she founded Hineni, an organization that brought “fallen Jews back to a fundamental faith.” The New York Times would later dub her the “Jewish Billy Graham.” She stood at the head of the Baal Teshuvah movement, a “return to Judaism” campaign set amid a countercultural moment that witnessed both a larger American religious awakening as well as an ascension of ethnic pride. It is a phenomenon that continues to puzzle observers who have never really figured out what to make of people who reject their autonomy in favor of a relatively unforgiving and wholly totalizing system of obligation (especially, as it were, women). Jungreis called on Jews to testify as Moses did (“Here I am”), and to accept the unpalatable idea that they are unique, special, chosen, and obligated to live a life dedicated to God’s commandments. In her last article for The Jewish Press, published a week before she died, Jungreis wrote that she was afraid of her own people “who have forgotten who we are.”



Our history is constant replay—again and again tragedies befall us, yet we refuse to comprehend. If only we were willing to understand. But no matter how unbearable our pain, how agonizing our suffering, we continue to reject it. Every day a Bas Kol, a Heavenly Voice, calls us, but we choose to remain deaf. We have shed our priestly garments and no longer recognize ourselves. Time and again G-d sends His prophets to remind us that our destiny is different from that of other nations, that our very existence is directly linked to our adherence to G-d’s commandments. Hashem has guaranteed our eternity, for we, the Jewish people, have been chosen to be His witnesses. Tragically, though, we fail to see the glory of our calling, and that is the painful reality of our long, tormented exile.

VOICE OUT OF THE FIRE and an Invitation to a Shiur by Roy Neuberger in Jerusalem

Dear Friends:
We thought that you would want to know about our upcoming program in Jerusalem, which is scheduled to take place, with G-d's help, on Tuesday, August 30 at 8 p.m. at the Israel OU Center, 22 Keren Hayesod. The title of the program is "Working Toward Teshuva.” We hope to see you there!

With blessings from the Holy City and prayers for the speedy advent of the Final Redemption, Roy Neuberger

VOICE OUT OF THE FIRE

By Roy S. Neuberger

As I write, Tisha B’Av has just ended, and I am weak to exhaustion. The words have shattered me. The Kinnos are so devastating that I have no strength left. How can any nation survive what we have survived? And how can it be that the Nation of Israel still remains as a distinct entity after the destruction upon destruction which we have endured?

Compounding the spiritual heaviness was the weather. I cannot recall such heavy weather. During the Nine Days, the northeast United States endured intense heat combined with staggering humidity, which turned a ten-minute outing into a steam-bath from which a person would return drenched. At the same time, the West Coast was devastated by raging fires and the Gulf Coast was drowning. The entire country is in turmoil because of a presidential election which borders on the insane, and the entire world is reeling from violence and instability on every level.

My friends, next Shabbos is Rosh Chodesh Elul. We are five weeks from Rosh Hashanah 5777. What kind of year is coming? Elul is the month of teshuva, and all depends on teshuva.

Kinnah 14 states that both the Churban and the Redemption were foreshadowed from the beginning of history. “[The Torah] alluded to [the Temple’s] destruction [in the verse], ‘And the earth was astonishingly empty.’ (Beraishis 1:2) [Hashem] intimated an omen [symbolizing the Churban] as ‘evening,’ and [the future rebuilding] as ‘morning.’” This theme is expanded by Dovid Hamelech: “In the evening one lies down weeping, but with dawn … a cry of joy!” (Tehillim 30)

Think of the implications of this statement. This means there was never a time in history when we were at complete peace, because, even at the height of our greatness, talmidei chachamim understood that the Churban would come. It is like the days of the week; there is never complete peace except on Shabbos, which is called “menucha shelema … a perfect rest.” (Shabbos Mincha Shemoneh Esreh)

We have never had complete peace! All of history is clearly a prelude to the greatest moment, when Hashem will bring the Final Redemption and we will never again have to worry about a return to Golus with its unending tzouris.

“[The Sages of every] generation desired to know the secret [time of Moshiach’s advent] and pushed [to hasten] it, but then they heard [Hashem cry out] ‘I adjure you [Israel, not to attempt to force Moshiach’s arrival], and they sealed [their mouths].” (Tisha B’Av Kinnah 14)

“Rabbi Chelbo says, there are four oaths [in Shir Hashirim, as follows]: Hashem adjured Israel not to rebel against the kingdoms [that will subjugate them], not to force the end [of the Exile], not to reveal [our] secrets to the nations of the world and not to go up from exile [to the Land of Israel by force prior to the arrival of Moshiach]…. For, if Israel were to do so, why must Moshiach come to gather the exiles of Israel?” (Shir Hashirim Rabbah 2:18)

The Midrash further states, “Rabbi Eliezer says, [Hashem] adjured [the daughters of Yerushalay-im] by the heavens and the earth” Why “heaven and earth?” Artscroll refers to Rashi, who says (on Dvarim 32:1): because heaven and earth are “witnesses that last forever.”

What is the message for today? Our generation has still not learned the simple lesson that Chava failed to understand in Gan Eden. We continue to try to “outsmart” Hashem and bring the Geulah “our way.” No, my friends, it will not work. Our avoda in Chodesh Elul is to understand that our way must be subservience to Hashem and His plan for all of history. We cannot rush the Geula, but we can prepare for it and try to become the kind of people who merit the Geula.

Hashem placed us in Golus for very specific reasons. We rebelled against Him and we are required to do teshuva in order to return to our senses. The nations of the world have apparently been summoned to help us do teshuva. Until that process is complete, until we learn to understand why we are being punished, then we are not ready for Redemption.

Heaven and Earth are speaking to us, witnesses to the oaths through which Hashem adjured us. All our suffering is meant to bring us to the madreiga at which we learn the lesson that we failed to learn in Gan Eden and throughout subsequent history: Hashem Echad Ushmo Echad! His Torah is our life; the slightest deviation is deadly.

I wrote years ago, based on personal experience, “If a Jew deviates by one millimeter from the Rules, in the course of time his deviation will become infinite. Once you are headed in a different direction, you just keep going.” (From Central Park to Sinai) You keep going, that is, until something stops you. The sufferings of Golus are designed to stop our deviation.

The Bais Hamikdosh burned, but “the voice of G-d [is] speaking [to us] from amidst the fire.” (Dvarim 4:33) This was foreshadowed when Moshe Rabbeinu heard Hashem speaking out of the burning bush. “Ma’ase avos siman l’banim … the actions of the Fathers are signs for the children.” Our ancestors heard Hashem speaking from amidst the fire, and we must listen as Hashem speaks to us, even though – or perhaps especially because – the world is burning.

“For behold, a day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the wicked people and all the evildoers will be like straw, and that coming day will burn them up, says Hashem, Master of Legions … but a sun of righteousness will shine for you who fear My Name, with healing in its rays." (Malachi 3:19-20)

Soon, through our teshuva, we will see a new world, pure and perfect, just as Hashem made it during Ymai Beraishis. This time, we will not repeat Chava’s mistake. If we listen to His voice, we will merit to live in that perfect world.

* * * *

Roy Neuberger, 

author and public speaker, 

can be reached at roy@2020vision.co.il.

© Copyright 2016 by Roy S. Neuberger

Tribute to Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis a”h

Total article honoring Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis from the Jewish Press by Naomi Klass Mauer

Originally published on April 6, 2015

How many people realize that one of the largest kiruv organizations in the world was founded by and continues to be run by a woman?

That woman is Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis and the organization she started in 1970, Hineni, is known worldwide and has brought countless people from all walks of life back to Yiddishkeit. In fact, when Rebbetzin Jungreis visited Rebbetzin Batsheva Kanievsky a number of years ago, Rebbetzin Kanievsky told her, “I may be the Rebbetzin of Bnei Brak, but you are the Rebbetzin of the world.”

* * * * *

I can still remember the weekend, over 50 years ago at the Pioneer Country Club in upstate New York, when my parents met Rabbi Meshulem HaLevi and Esther Jungreis. We were sitting together in the lobby and the rabbi turned to my father and said, “The Jewish Press needs an advice column by a woman.”

“It sounds like a good idea, but who would write it?” my dad asked.

“My wife,” Rabbi Jungreis responded instantaneously. “She’s very good at giving advice.”
And so began Rebbetzin’s Viewpoint, the longest running column in the history of The Jewish Press and still going strong. Letters come to the Rebbetzin from readers all over the world who hope to see their questions answered in the paper.

“I wanted the word ‘rebbetzin’ to be part of the column’s title,” [. . .] “because I wanted young women to realize what a noble position it is to be a rabbi’s wife.”

Her connection to the paper, she tells me, is deeply personal:  “Despite many offers from other periodicals, I have only to picture your holy father and your very special mother, whom I loved, to know why I continue to write for The Jewish Press.”

* * * * *


Esther Jungreis’s father, Rav Avraham HaLevi Jungreis, was descended from a long line of rabbanim and the Jungreis name was well known throughout Hungary. Esther was born in Szeged, at the time the second largest city in Hungary and home to that country’s largest Reform community. It was into that milieu that Rav Avraham HaLevi Jungreis had come, with his long black beard and long black coat, to build an Orthodox shul.

“He built that shul and welcomed everyone,” says Rebbetzin Jungreis. “It mattered not who they were or how committed they were to Judaism, everyone felt welcome in his shul.”

During World War II, Szeged was the collection point for slave labor. Young Jewish men were sent out of the country to help the Nazi war effort. Rav Jungreis went to see those boys every day and would sing a song, like a prayer in Yiddish, with messages for them from their parents, and distribute honey cookies his wife, Rebbetzin Miriam, had made. He would take along young Esther, who carried medicine sewn into the hem of her coat to be distributed as needed.

At that time the Jungreis family was hiding a pregnant woman, and when her time came to give birth it was Rebbetzin Miriam who performed the delivery and kept the baby alive.
When deportation came, the Jungreis family was sent to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. But the woman and her baby were sent to a camp in Vienna, where Esther’s maternal grandfather, Rav Tzvi Hirsh HaCohen, was the rav. He protected her, and when the war was nearly over and some people were making it out to Switzerland, he gave up his seat on a transport for her and her baby. Rav Tzvi was eventually murdered but that little boy survived and today is the well-known Tzelemer Rav.nextpage

* * * * *

After liberation the Jungreis family came to the United States and moved into a small basement apartment in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. There were plenty of Jewish children in the neighborhood but they barely knew they were Jews. Rabbi Jungreis bought lollipops and distributed them to the children who eagerly accepted the treats from this man who must have looked like a fairy-tale figure to them.

Rabbi Jungreis encouraged young Esther to invite children into their home. She was reluctant, as it was a small basement apartment without any luxuries. But her father urged her to do her part to save these Jewish souls, assuring her that Hashem would help. She soon discovered that all the children wanted to come. It seems the magic of a Shabbos table was more enticing than fancy furniture or games outside.

Eventually Rabbi Jungreis built a shul and a yeshiva in Canarsie so that American children could learn about their heritage. Rebbetzin Miriam cooked lunch for all the children and baked cookies she would give out every morning as she welcomed each child to school. She would greet the students with a smile and tell them to make a berachah over the cookies.
Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis recalls those days with great pride. “I meet people all over the world,” she says, “who remember the love they received from my parents.”

The years passed and Esther became a bride.

“My husband, Rabbi Meshulem, came to the United States as an orphan who had lost his entire family in the Holocaust,” she says. “He was a third cousin of mine and I was honored to marry him.”

He was a learned man, tall and handsome with a twinkle in his eye. People referred to him as the Gentle Giant, due to his height and gentle nature. His first position was in Paterson, New Jersey, where the family lived in a small apartment above the shul. Some time afterward they moved to Long Island and Rabbi Meshulem built a Torah community in North Woodmere. He was the much-loved rabbi of Congregation Ohr Torah and the chaplain of the local police department.

Esther, who had been in training for the position of rebbetzin all her life, was the perfect helpmate to him. He was very proud of his famous wife, and would refer to himself as “the rebbetzin’s husband.”

Sadly, Rabbi Meshulem died nearly 20 years ago, leaving a great void in the lives of the Rebbetzin, the rest of the family, and his beloved congregants.

Rebbetzin Jungreis described his last days at Memorial Sloan Kettering. True to his considerate nature, he didn’t want to bother the nurses and seldom asked for anything. But when Rebbetzin Jungreis came to visit he would give her lists of people he thought might make a good shidduch for people they knew.

When their friend the police commissioner came to visit him in the hospital, he told the Rebbetzin, “I always wondered what the meaning of G-d was but since I met your husband I know. G-d comes from the word ‘goodness’ and your husband walks with that goodness reflected in his eyes, in his gentle words and in his loving, warm ways. I will be forever grateful for having had the privilege to know him.”

At the rabbi’s funeral the entire police department joined the congregation to honor his memory. “At one point,” recalls Rebbetzin Jungreis, “the procession came to a halt. It seems the ducks and geese my husband had been feeding for years at a nearby pond came out through the locked fence and walked along the road, in silent tribute to the person who had fed them for so long. And then almost as suddenly as they had come they turned around and went back into the pond.”

* * * * *


Rebbetzin Jungreis with Rebbetzin Batsheva Kanievsky, zichrona l’vracha
I ask the Rebbetzin how the idea of starting an organization like Hineni came about.

“The idea of bringing people back to Yiddishkeit was inside me from my childhood days. 

It really started back when my father would encourage me to bring in the neighborhood children. But the older I got the more I realized how great the mission really was. I was asked to speak at a Young Israel collegiate convention. I looked out at the audience and told myself, ‘If I were to have an organization, I would speak to reach people, to wake people up. I would even speak in Madison Square Garden to students and young people. I would call it Rock and Soul, to wake up their souls.’

“From there the idea grew. My father was always encouraging me to reach out and before I officially started Hineni I asked him to take me to all the rabbanim for a berachah. He took me to chassidic rebbes and yeshivish rabbis, to Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Yosef Soloveitchik, among others, and all gave me their blessings.”

Someone suggested that Rebbetzin Jungreis contact a man named Joseph Wohl who had built Long Island Jewish Hospital. If she could convince him of the importance of her cause, he would probably underwrite her grand Madison Square Garden plan. The only problem was, she didn’t know anyone who knew Mr. Wohl. She spoke to her father and he blessed her and told her that if she tried, Hashem would help her succeed.

“With my father’s blessings I looked up Mr. Wohl in the phone book and called him. I asked to meet him about a lifesaving idea. He invited me to his home and I went, keeping my father’s blessing in my heart. I spoke to him and his wife about my idea and I was passionate about it. Joseph Wohl gave me a check to cover the whole Madison Square Garden event. He became the first chairman of Hineni and his daughter Ellie is still the president of the Hineni Women’s League.”

Now that she had the money, she had to figure out how to fill such a large venue.

“I got a van that was outfitted with a stage that could roll out and I went all over college campuses with music playing, to get them to come to the event,” she says. “I went to Queens College to their Yavneh group. I was told that they didn’t have many members but I went anyway. Seven hundred students showed up. The New York Post reported on that event saying the Jews have their Billy Graham. She’s 5 feet tall and she’s blond.”

It took three years to put the Madison Square Garden event together but in November 1973 the Rebbetzin filled the Garden. With the seats sold out, people were sitting on the stage. Rebbetzin Jungreis had invited all the Jewish organizations to have booths in the hall and to give out their literature. It was billed a Night of Unity.

My mother, Irene Klass, covered the event for The Jewish Press.

“I had to carry the whole night by myself,” the Rebbetzin recalls. “I started by saying YOU ARE A JEW. YOU KNEW SUFFERING. YOU ENTERED THE FLAMES. BUT YOU FORGOT YOUR PAST. YOU ONLY KNEW ONE THING…. SHEMA YISRAEL HASHEM ELOKEINU HASHEM ECHAD. 

And I went on from there. 

There was electricity in the air.

“The consul general of Israel was there. The next day he called me and said I had to go to Israel and speak to the soldiers. Shortly afterward I was speaking at the Miami Beach Convention Hall and was approached by a young man who said he wanted to come to Israel with me and that he was a musician. I asked what kind of music he played and he said jazz. I thought about it and decided it was a good idea.

“I told my mother that if I go to Israel I want to take yarmulkes, so we ordered yarmulkes made of jeans material and my mother sewed the Hineni symbol on them. Now I was ready to go to Israel.”

The Rebbetzin’s first stop in Israel was at the country’s largest air force base.

“I started to speak and after each story I told I had the jazz musician playing. The air force men didn’t know what to make of this, but as I continued speaking, these tough men began to cry. Then I spoke in Jerusalem at Binyanei HaUmah, the convention center. A young man from Hashomer Hatzair [the far-left youth organization] was waiting for me at the end. He said, ‘You have to come to Tel Aviv.’ So I went and spoke at the Cinerama in Tel Aviv. Someone in the audience jumped on the stage and said, ‘You have to come to South Africa.’ And so it mushroomed.”

The message was getting out and Rebbetzin Jungreis was reaching people long disenfranchised. And she indeed traveled to South Africa – to Johannesburg and Capetown and Durban – and to other countries all over the world. Wherever she went, young people approached her with tears in their eyes and told her she’d awakened feelings they never knew they had.

* * * * *

During these years the Rebbetzin was also raising her family and she is quick to give her mother credit for taking over the house on days she was traveling. Hineni was really a family project with her husband and her parents standing firmly behind her.

(Today her children also lecture in the Hineni Center.)

In the beginning Hineni met in her father’s shul but in the early 1980s the organization acquired a building in Manhattan at 232 West End Ave., where classes are given every week and shidduchim are frequently made.

Rebbetzin Jungreis teaches every Thursday night at 8:30 and everyone is welcome. After her lessons people wait to talk to her and it is from these discussions that many a successful match has been made.

The Rebbetzin’s stories and adventures are too numerous for these pages, so I will relate just one more and readers will have to go to the Hineni Center and ask the Rebbetzin to tell the rest.

A number of years ago the Rebbetzin was traveling back to New York from Portland, Oregon, where she had been invited to speak. On the plane a young man, noticing the very attractive Rebbetzin, asked her if she had fun in Portland. She replied that she had been in Portland to lecture. He asked, a little incredulously, “Lecture about what?” She then asked if he was Jewish. Very defensively he said, “Yeh, what of it?” and sat down.

Just then the stewardess came by with the meals. She gave two kosher trays to the Rebbetzin and her companion and asked the young man if he wanted a ham and cheese sandwich or some other item. He chose the ham and cheese.

The Rebbetzin quickly said, “No, you can’t have that; you are a Jew and that isn’t kosher.” The fellow said he didn’t keep kosher and ham and cheese was his favorite sandwich. She told him he had made a contract.

“With whom?” he asked.

“With G-d at Mount Sinai thousands of years ago,” . . .

“I saw you there.”

The young man looked at the Rebbetzin and said, “Lady, you’re crazy.” As he ate his sandwich he told her how delicious it was.

A few hours later at the baggage claim he went over to her and said, “Lady, you really should get help because you are really crazy.”

The Rebbetzin gave him her card and said, “Check it out and come see me sometime and I will teach you about it.” He pocketed the card with a laugh.

Seven years later a young man came to the Hineni Center wearing a suit and a black hat and all the other trappings of an Orthodox Jew. He approached the Rebbetzin and asked if she remembered him. Her usual reply is “You look familiar” (she never wants to hurt people’s feelings when she doesn’t recognize them).

He rook out the card she had given him years before. “I didn’t forget what you told me on the plane from Portland and I checked it out. And now I’ve come to ask you if you also remember seeing a girl at Sinai who could be the girl for me.”

Sure enough, the Rebbetzin knew just the right girl. The couple got married and are now part of the Hineni family.

* * * * *

One would think that running a large organization like Hineni, writing a weekly column for The Jewish Press, and raising a beautiful family (all of whom are now actively part of the Hineni adventure) would leave the Rebbetzin very little time for anything else. However, during these years she has also written five books with the sixth, Be a Blessing: The Purpose of Man, due out in the near future.

In addition to all that, she still flies all over the world spreading her own version of outreach. Her father’s blessings have definitely come true, as she has returned so many lost Jews to the fold.

And she doesn’t let anything stop her – not a broken hip and not a torn meniscus. She just keeps going. How, I ask her, does she keep up a pace that would tire a much younger person?

“I take my inspiration from Tehillim,” she replies. 

“The psalm for the Sabbath day – Psalm 92, verses 15-16: 

‘They are vibrant and fresh even in ripe old age and proclaim how our Lord is right, His word inerrant.’”

Divine Justice and Hebrew Letters

The following is an interesting article, Love and Judaism built into … Distinctive Home, from the Jewish Journal. This is an interesting read even tho we are on the other side of Shabbos Nachamu and V’eschanan wherein is the first paragraph of the Shema Prayer is inside our Mezuzah and Tefillin, which brings to mind the carving of the Luchos by HaShem that could be read from either side, just like this house (k’eilu): 

There is divine justice in the fact that the daughter of a survivor of Auschwitz now lives in a beautiful home wrapped in a metal sheath pierced with Hebrew letters and filled with Judaica.

Meyer Wiesel, who died in 1987, survived the Holocaust — the only member of his family to do so. And now, the Jewish heritage of that boy from the Czechoslovakian town of Topolčany — who would later become Michael Morris of Denver — plays out daily in the most public fashion possible in the Cheviot Hills home of his daughter, Maxine Morris, and her husband, Bob Hale.

“It is like a giant mezuzah,”

Morris said with a laugh during a recent afternoon interview at the house.

Indeed, like the V’ahavta prayer of love hidden inside every mezuzah’s decorative casing, this home is a 5,000-square-foot, three-story declaration of ahavah — love — with the word repeated in hundreds of perforations across the corrugated aluminum that encases its structure. 

The design is an expression of gratitude and deep affection between the two people who built the house, with the Hebrew letters inscribed both forward and backward, becoming, as well as an expression of their Judaism, an abstract, decorative pattern allowing light and shadow to seep through into the private spaces inside.

The “Beit Ha-Ahava” — “House of Love,” as it has become known — was, of course, a very personal project. In 2008, Morris, director of research finance operations at the Rand Corp., met Hale, a highly regarded architect and principal at the Los Angeles firm of Rios Clementi Hale Studios. […]  Morris and Hale fell in love and decided to marry. Both lived on the Westside, and when they thought about designing and building a new home for a life together, they found they had very compatible tastes in modern design.

“I was the architect, Max was the client,” Hale said. “She had a lot to say about it.”

They married in 2010, but had bought the property while engaged (the house wasn’t completed until 2012). Hale said he had always envisioned wrapping the exterior with perforated corrugated aluminum, but, at least at first, he’d simply thought of a pattern of holes.

“I said, ‘Just holes?’ ” Morris remembers. “Sounded not so interesting.”

Morris had been collecting images of objects she liked, and one day she came across a lamp in the graceful, turning shape of the Hebrew letter lamed.

“I was staring at it, and it just struck me: Hebrew letters are so beautiful,” she said. “So I said to him, ‘Can we do something with Hebrew letters?’ He said, ‘Sure, why not?’ And then it became, well, what letters?”

Credit: Photo by Trevor Tondro

They quickly settled on an expression of their love. “And it was perfect,” Hale said. “It was concise, and it allowed us to make a pattern, and, as Max said, if you know the letters, you can make it out, and if you don’t, it just reads as a pattern.”

The house is set back enough from the street to allow for privacy, and the metal, while a prominent feature, encases only the top floor of the house. Throughout, large sliding windows open onto terraces that take advantage of the Southern California climate and allow for a fluid openness between inside and out. Upstairs, the metal-enclosed bedrooms and office spaces are lit both day and night by light flowing through the lettering, which marks the rooms with shadows of ahavah across every surface — walls, windows and ceilings.

“It’s really cool in the middle of the night,” Morris said.

“The streetlights and the moon create the light coming through,” Hale explained. “And in the morning, the eastern light comes this way,” he said, pointing to their bedroom window, “and rakes across here, and sometimes it seems like it’s on fire. I have to say, it exceeded my expectations of how nice it could be.

Credit: Photos by Trevor Tondro

“I made it so we can actually open it up and have a completely open view,” Hale added. “But we almost never do.”

The home’s furnishings and décor are colorful, including shelves throughout displaying a host of menorahs, Shabbat candleholders and dreidels, as well as other toys and collectibles. On the walls are many vivid paintings by Hale’s late first wife, Anne Greenwald, an accomplished artist and children’s book author-illustrator. Hale said he converted to Judaism at the time of his first marriage, and the Jewish connection continues with Morris.

Together Morris and Hale traveled to Topolčany, to rediscover Morris’ lost paternal heritage, and today they proudly announce their own Jewish connection for all the world to see.

“This isn’t a very busy street, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people outside pointing and looking,” Hale said. “And sometimes I’ll go out there, and they’ll ask me, ‘What’s it say?’ ”

“People will ask, ‘Is it a word, or just letters?’ ” Morris added. “And some people know it’s Hebrew; some people know ahavah. It’s the whole spectrum.”

It’s not hard to notice that their joyous, public display of their Judaism is the absolute opposite of what young Meyer Wiesel would have experienced when he was carted off to Auschwitz at age 12.

“One of my Jewish architecture friends, Michael Lehrer, when he saw the house, he wrote me an email and called it, ‘The House of an Optimist,’ ” Hale said. “He’s right, I am an optimist. We’re open to the street, and we say who we are.”

Morris stressed that the never-ending commitment to Judaism her father passed on to her is essential to who she is, and to making this architecture possible.

“He kept his love of Judaism. And I hold onto that — it’s a part of him. It’s who he was."

Where is the Nechama?

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WHERE IS THE NECHAMA?

Tisha B’Av has passed

Where is the nechama - the consolation?

The Holy Temple is not built! We are still in exile and our enemies are circling ever closer. “She dwelt among the nations but found no rest” (Lamentations 1:3).

Where is the nechama?

This week we read Moses’s words, “Va’eschanan … I implored G-d … please let me cross and see that good land that is on the other side of the Jordan …” (Deuteronomy 3:23-25). We have been imploring G-d for these thousands of years: “Please let us cross and see the Land as it is supposed to be: Pure, holy, dedicated to You, perfect in righteousness, filled with your loyal children fulfilling the Torah.” And we are still imploring.

Where is the nechama?

There must be nechama! If not, we have no hope, and we are not allowed to live without hope. “In the evening one lies down weeping, but with dawn: a cry of joy! (Psalm 30) In fact, our entire existence depends on eternal hope. Even death does not stop us. “Ani ma’amin b’emunah shelemah … I believe with perfect faith that there will be a resurrection of the dead.”

How do we access nechama?

My friends, I believe that we must be clear about the world situation, because only with clarity can we hope to access nechama. Between now and the redemption there will surely be many challenges, but all our challenges emanate from Heaven, and they are designed to bring us to the level we need to merit Redemption, just as all our challenges in Egypt were designed to bring us to Mount Sinai.

I remember hearing from Rav Matisyahu Salomon Shlita”h the following words in the name of the Chofetz Chaim: There will be three wars before the Messiah. The first was the First World War. The second, predicted by the Chofetz Chaim before his passing in 1933, was the Second World War. And the third (assuming that we do not return to G-d before then) will usher in the Final Redemption.

But here is the huge innovation: the third war will be different from the first two, in that the Angel of Death will in the final war have no power to harm the righteous tzaddikim! What constitutes a tzaddik? One who has adherence to G-d and perceives the emptiness of the surrounding culture! But these simple words require a life-changing shift of perception. Adherence to G-d depends on our perception of the emptiness of the surrounding culture. King David tells us, “It is better to take refuge in G-d than to rely on man” (Psalm 118). That implies separation from the surrounding culture, but in general we are submerged in Esau’s culture!

Most of us do not want to understand that the surrounding culture is Esau. We are so used to living here that we think it is normal. We expect them to be our friends. At the recent Democratic convention, a speech was made reminiscent of Nazi Germany. We are shocked when they are not nice to us, but in fact “Esav soneh es Yaakov … Esau hates Jacob” (Rashi on Genesis 33:4). We have very little trouble understanding that Ishmael is not our culture, but we have a huge amount of trouble understanding that Esau is not our culture.

It seems, from the words of the Chofetz Chaim, that, in order to get through the Birthpangs of the Messiah, we must understand this vital fact and distance ourselves from those who are not only not our friends, but whose essence is to hate us.

The Yated recently carried a fascinating article commemorating the passing of the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe zt”l. The article contained the following quotation: “The Rebbe … warned his followers against becoming too close to the non-Jews of America…. [He said that] the main cause of the destruction of [Judaism] in the previous generation is the fact the Jews suffered [almost] no persecution from the goyim when they came [to America]…. This led them to be taken in by the pleasures of the land and … its non-Jewish inhabitants, and they slowly began to mingle with [them] and learn from their deeds…”

A friend asked me several months ago why many of my articles focus on the theme of the Birthpangs of the Messiah. The answer is that our world is literally turning upside down. If we are not prepared for the earth-shaking events that are right now beginning, then I just don’t know how we are going to survive. For example, I mentioned several times the Zika Virus, whose effects go way beyond the disease itself. I mentioned the amazing fact that the scientific name of the mosquito which transmits this virus is “Aedes Aegypti,” – pronounced “Aidus Egyptai” – which can be understood as “a witness to the events in (ancient) Egypt.” Don’t tell me this is coincidence!

Imagine that you were a Jewish writer before the Flood. Would you have discussed anything else but this man Noah, who was building a huge ark in order to save himself, his family and the entire animal kingdom from the impending world-wide flood? There was one story and one story only! Noah was building the ark in public to alert the world that a deluge was coming!

Imagine that you were a Jewish writer before the exodus from Egypt. Would you have discussed anything else beside the upcoming Redemption? This was to be the most important event in history since the Flood! How could one write about anything else? Everyone had to choose life and follow Moses! Those who didn’t were lost, sadly, in the plague of darkness!

Today our choice is similar. We have free will to cleave to G-d and reject the emptiness which surrounds us. Although it is extremely difficult to disentangle ourselves from the web of sticky threads binding us to the culture of Esau, our lives depend on it.

May we all merit soon in our days to experience the ultimate nechama with the coming of the Messiah! “V’sechezena ainainu b’shuv’cha l’tzion berachamim … May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in compassion!”

© Copyright 2016 by Roy S. Neuberger

In Honor of Tu B’Av: "Now I Can Get Married"

WELCOME HOME ABIGAIL: 

A PORTUGUESE [Young] WOMAN REDISCOVERS HER JUDAISM

Abigail (Marina) Erlich was scheduled to stand before the rabbinical conversion court to formally return to Judaism when, at the last moment, she revealed to Rabbi Elisha Salas, Shavei Israel’s emissary to Portugal and her guide through several years of study, that she believed she was already Jewish.

“I always knew in my heart that I was Jewish but I didn’t have any proof, so I never told anyone,” Abigail says. But just before she was set to depart for the conversion, she shared her story.

When she was a child, Abigail’s grandmother had told her that she was Jewish. But Abigail’s parents were staunch Communists and wanted nothing to do with religion. Abigail grew up completely secular. “Whenever the subject came up, my parents would do their best to suppress their identity,” she says.

But after Abigail had studied Torah and Jewish Law for two years with Rabbi Salas, she understood that if her grandmother was Jewish, she was too.

Abigail’s family had emigrated from Argentina to Portugal. Abigail contacted the chief rabbi’s office in Buenos Aires, which was able to locate Abigail’s grandmother’s grave in one of the city’s Jewish cemeteries.

She had the proof she needed

Abigail had already booked her ticket to Israel where the conversion was due to take place, so she came anyway – as a celebration of her old/new status as a member of the Jewish people. The rabbinical court even gave her the opportunity to speak; to tell her moving story, and to receive their blessing.

Abigail is just one of several students of Rabbi Salas in Portugal who have chosen to convert to Judaism in recent years. Abigail lives in Belmonte, where Rabbi Salas is based.

When we asked Abigail how her life will be different, she was quick to answer. “Now I can get married!” Abigail was already attending services and celebrating the Jewish holidays; now her community in Portugal will be looking out for a suitable Jewish match.

Source:  Shavei Yisrael

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Maybe someone knows of a nice fellow for her? If so, contact the Shavei Office at

Am Veolamo 3
Jerusalem 9546303
Telephone: +972-2-625-6230
Email: office@shavei.org