On Tuesday, November 14, 2023, I was on a bus returning from Washington, D.C. where close to 300,000 of our brethren and supporters of Israel gathered on the National Mall in front of the White House to rally in support of the hostages who have been held captive in the murderous hands of Hamas for […]
The story is told of the time the students of the Arizal gathered in the mystical hills of Safed to welcome the Shabbos, when their teacher suggested that they make the trip to Jerusalem to receive Shabbos there. It wasn’t too difficult of a calculation for them to realize immediately that there was no natural […]
By Yochanan Gordon It is 12:22 a.m. Monday morning and I am aboard Lot Airlines en route to Budapest with 38 other members of the Khal Mevakshei Hashem chevra. The flight was scheduled to take off at 10:20 p.m. but was delayed until about 12:00 a.m. There is a common term amongst people who associate […]
By Yochanan Gordon Lag B’Omer wasn’t that long ago. Similarly, in bein ha’metzarim, we aren’t allowed to take haircuts or listen to music. The period of mourning the loss of Rebbe Akiva’s students, including Lag B’Omer, is a seven-week period, whereas the period known as bein ha’metzarim, which we just endured, is only a three-week […]