For the unaware, there is a wig store across the street from Yeshiva Chaim Berlin in Flatbush. The owner decided to place pictures of women wearing the wigs in his window. Since looking at women can cause impure thoughts, a few of Rav Aharon Schecter’s (RAS) talmidim asked the store owner to remove the pictures […]
Thousands of Hasidic women recited psalms and prayed Sunday at the Queens gravesite of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, wife of the last Lubavitcher rebbe.The rebbetzin, who died 20 years ago, was known for her loyalty to her husband, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, whom she pushed to become the seventh rebbe - or spiritual leader - in […]
“Where God & Glory Touch Gloves”
“The greatest Jewish fighter since Samson,” proclaims a handmade sign held aloft in the crowd as junior welterweight boxer Dmitriy Salita enters the ring for a climactic bout in Jason Hutt’s new documentary film “Orthodox Stance.” NYsun
Munich is to hold a carnival parade on Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Jewish groups have protested what they feel is a lack of sensitivity, but organizers insist they didn’t know the date’s significance and refuse to postpone the festivities. Spiegel.de
A year has passed since that unforgettable evening when Avrohom Fried
celebrated 25 years of music in the Heichal Hatarbut auditorium in Tel Aviv.
The enthusiastic response has led to another invitation for Fried to return
this year for round two again at Heichal Hatarbut, Tuesday 20th of Adar I.
He will be accompanied by 20 of the best […]
IMDB Rating: 8.7/10
Announcement:Question & Answer Session
With ORTHODOX STANCE director Jason Hutt and prize fighter D. Salita.
Saturday January 26 after the 7:00 pm show
Sunday January 27th after the 3:20pm show.
cinemavillage.com
Between Mincha and Maariv at the F.R.E.E. shul for Russian speakers, several shul-goers were seen contemplating a a huge painting of the Rebbe. The painting was purchased over 10 years ago from Yechiel Goldstein when Eli Kahan was a 770 bochur. COL photographer took a picture of the shliach and the F.R.E.E. director, Rabbi […]
THE Israeli director Joseph Cedar wrote the first scenes of “Beaufort,” a war movie, while in a military jail. He was incarcerated for a couple of weeks, he said, because he had refused to join his combat unit for a stint of reserve duty. “Not for moral or ideological reasons,” he said. “I just felt […]
photo:”A group of rabbis places stones on top of the memorial monument in Jedwabne.”
By Siobhán Dowling in Berlin
Prosecutors in Poland are considering charging the US historian Jan Tomasz Gross with slandering the Polish nation following the publication of his book on anti-Semitism in the country after World War II. The book has provoked a storm […]
Israel’s former ambassador to Poland, Mr. Shevach Weiss, who accompanied former president of Poland, Lech Walesa in his tour of Kfar Chabad, described in a former COL update, was interviewed on a Galei Tzahal radio program and expressed his impressions of this visit. “It was moving to tears to watch the site of this […]
THE MEANING OF TU B’SHVAT.
Rabbi Nathan Schapira From Tuv HaAretz
The 15th day of the Jewish month of Shvat is the official “birthday” for trees in Israel. Calculating the years of a tree is necessary for several mitzvot of the Torah: ma’asorottithing [of each year’s fruit]; orlah-forbidden fruit of tree’s first three years; reva’i-[redemption of] fruit of tree’s fourth year; shmittah-the Sabbatical year. Tu b’Shvat is considered the beginning of the year for trees because it is the mid-point of winter: the strength of the cold becomes less, the majority of the year’s rains (in Israel) have fallen, and the sap of the trees starts to rise.
As a result, fruit begins to form. Fruit already ripe is known to have been nurtured by the previous year’s rain.)Know that everything G-d created, He created male and female. This was in order for them multiply. Even water was created with both aspects. G-d created the firmament to separate [i.e. distinguish] between the two types of waters.
[”Male waters” are considered those which descend from above, i.e. rain, while “female waters” are considered those which originate terrestrially, such as lake water and various forms of man-made irrigation techniques.]
Know that all the vegetables do not require the “male” waters to grow for they can even thrive with the “female” waters. That is true due to their humility. The one exception is wheat, as will be explained shortly. Whereas fruit trees, which are tall, i.e. arrogant, they will not produce fruits unless they receive “male” waters.
The exception to this is the etrog (citron). The reason for its exception is that it is the choicest of fruit, for it can be consumed entirely, as well as its status of not being arrogant as the rest of the trees. Therefore as our sages have said: “the etrog grows on all waters” (Sukka 35a), meaning, “whether ‘male’ or ‘female’”.
Wheat is elevated above all other vegetables (in that G-d has created it as the staple of nutrition) and can be considered as a fruit of the tree. [There are opinions in the Talmud that the very Tree of Knowledge was a wheat tree.] Therefore it will not produce fruit with out “male” waters. That is why you might observe that some years, despite abundant rainfall, the land doesn’t produce abundant crops, while in some years there might be a minimal rainfall, yet the crops abound. This is because the wheat harvest depends upon “male” waters. Likewise in the future, the wheat plant will produce kernels the size of ‘hot-dog’ buns.
We see that 29 of the 30 types of fruits can grow only with a particular type of “male” water. Yet the etrog can grow even by means of drawn water. This is what is meant when the sages say, “Etrogs grow on all waters” (Sukka 38a). This is why etrogs share certain laws (like those of tithing) with vegetables (which also grow with water of an earthly origin). Yet this is why it is called a “fruit of the beautiful tree” [in Hebrew, “pri etz hadar“]. It’s humility is its beauty. This is because the most significant and beautiful trait in G-d’s eyes is humility.
Know that everything physical in this corporeal world originates from a spiritual example of it in the heavens. In other words, the physical is a mere shadow of the spiritual.
In this fashion, all 30 types of fruits can be found above in their spiritual form, hue, and shape. It is only that up in heaven they are in their spiritual form and down below they are in their physical form - as a shadow of their spirit.
Rabbi Nathan Schapira, an honored member of an eminent Polish rabbinical family, moved to Israel from Cracow during the 17th century, where he became part of a consortium of kabbala scholars. It is reported that he wrote the volume Tuv Haaretz during a trip to Italy, where he was encouraged to print it by R. Moshe Zaccuto, as an effort to ease the emotional and financial hardships of the people at that time, caused by terrible pogroms.
CLASSIC THOUGHTS
We have a tradition from our fathers to pray on Tu b’Shvat that G-d should make available for us a kosher and especially beautiful esrog in time for Sukkot. -Benei Yisasschar
After Sukkot we fry the esrog that we used for the Four Species, and on Tu b’Shvat we eat it. –Likutei Maharich
Rabbi Nathan Schapira From Tuv HaAretz
AS usual, Mendy Pellin wore the traditional black coat and hat of a Hasid and sat on a high stool facing the camera. He read quickly through a page of notes, shook his head vigorously in the way of preparation, and signaled his readiness with a nod to his cameraman, Dovi Trappler. As the camera […]
