Rabbi Joe in Jerusalem

News, views and shmooze with Rabbi Joe & Yael

All Blog Posts (19)

Rav Yossie Bloch Eastern Promises

But Zion said, “LORD has forsaken me, and Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms; your walls are continually before… Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on July 2, 2008 at 2:33pm — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch Barack and the Prophetess

Then Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go." She said, "I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take…" (Shofetim 4:8-9) These verses have been e… Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on June 11, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch Immemorial Day

It's been a while since I spent "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney." 60 Minutes isn't a big draw in Israel (a lot of us are still bitter about Bob Simon's Middle East coverage), and we barely get one station on our TV. But now that it's available in podcast form, I have renewed my… Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on May 26, 2008 at 4:17pm — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch The Cyrus Proclamation

"It wasn't in a skanky way… I mean I had a blanket on. And I thought, 'This looks pretty, and really natural.' I think it's really artsy." That was Miley “Hannah Montana” Cyrus’s original view of her provocative photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. Eventually, she ba… Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on April 30, 2008 at 9:00am — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch “The Month Which was Turned for Them…”

“…from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday”—that’s the famous line from Ester (9:22), but last night it was the reverse. On Rosh Chodesh Adar Sheni 5768, our gladness turned to sorrow and our holiday into mourning with the horrific news of the massacre at Yes… Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on March 11, 2008 at 8:30am — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch Process and Progress

While Rabbi Alan Haber rightly points out that egalitarian minyanim may sometimes circumvent the halakhic process, I think his criticism steps over the line. Jewish legal authorities are certainly "duty-bound to objectively and honestly assess the sources," but halakhic lite… Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on February 29, 2008 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch AirBaal

Last week, archaeologists excavating 2,500-year-old ruins at the City of David unearthed another great find from the early Second Temple era: a coin with the family name “Temekh” on it. This family is described, in the seventh chapter of Nehemiah (Nechemya

Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on January 23, 2008 at 10:23am — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch Men in Brown

Did the Jewish elite draw a bull's-eye on the wrong Man in Black? Last week, the Jewish Defense League (now with Menorah Man!), pilloried Will Smith for a point he made to the Scottish Daily Record:

"Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'let me do the most evil thing I can do today.' I
Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on January 3, 2008 at 10:54am — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch The Six-Billion Shabbat

Well, Chanukka is over, and with all due respect to Asara Be-Tevet, Tu Bi-Shvat and Purim Katan, the only real holy days coming up throughout this long winter are the weekly Shabbatot. Shabbat, of course, is described in Midrashic sources as the mate of the Jewish people, and ultimately even Yom Kippur's holiness is surpassed by that of our Sabbath.… Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on December 13, 2007 at 8:45pm — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch Chanukka Goy

"We do not adhere to all these goyish nationalistic ideals of fighting for the motherland.” So opined MK Moshe Gafni of Degel Ha-Torah last week, just in time for Chanukka. I assume the irony was lost on him, but the paragraph we repeat dozens of times over the cou

Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on December 10, 2007 at 8:06pm — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch The First Chanukka

November 29th, or as it's known here, "Kaf Tet b'November," is an odd day. The State of Israel, generally speaking, schedules its national holidays according to the Hebrew calendar, not the civil one; nevertheless, this date remains stubbornly lo'azi, foreign.

There is a c

Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on November 29, 2007 at 12:02pm — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch 40 Days and 40 Nights

Here we are. Day 40 of the teachers' strike. A day just like any other, except that since this is the Jewish State, this is a milestone you can't ignore. Moshe (Moses) spends forty days on Mt. Sinai learning the entire Torah; then after the Sin of the Golden Calf, he has do it all over again. Centuries later, Eliy

Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on November 18, 2007 at 11:00am — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch Hard Rain

Today, Nadia Matar, head of the right-wing activist group Women in Green, wrote a letter decrying the recent shift among the national-religious leadership to focus on kiruv, bringing secular Israelis closer to Jewish tradition:
"I would expect the national-religious public, and the Jewish people as a whole, with its rabbis and educators, to engage in the schools, the yeshivot, the ulpanot, the youth movements, the synagogues, and the community center… Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on October 31, 2007 at 10:55pm — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch Who Will Win and Who Will Lose?

Here we are, the night before Yom Kippur, and you can feel the anticipation throughout the nation. No, not for Kol Nidrei or Kapparot—for Kolnoa! The Ophir Awards just started, and Israel's top films are fighting for best picture, actor, actress. Why tonight? I don't know, maybe it's because so many Israelis make the fast pass more quickly by watching DVD's at home; there are, after all, no televis

Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on September 20, 2007 at 11:17pm — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch 7 Years of Bad Press

Rosh Hashana's official liturgical name is "Yom Hazikaron," Remembrance Day, so it's quite appropriate to reflect on our recent history this week. The last time we celebrated Rosh Hashana of a sh'mita year, it wasn't a particularly good time for the Jewish people. Yasser Arafat launched a new and much deadlier intifada while most of us were reciting Untaneh Tokef, and we entered 5761 truly wondering "Who will live and who will die?" This was especially tr… Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on September 17, 2007 at 11:09am — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch The Human Stain

The headline is shocking: “Neo-Nazis in Israel!” Eight immigrants from the former Soviet Union, none of whom is halachically Jewish, have been arrested in Petah Tikva for spreading Nazi propaganda and are suspected of vicious attacks on haredim and gays. Trade Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) offered this pearl of wisdom: “These people aren't fit to be called humans.” The problem is that Yishai got it precisely wrong: only humans could do this.
Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on September 10, 2007 at 3:53pm — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch "Who turns wise men backward, and makes their wisdom foolish"

The above quote, from Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 44:25, tells us that Jews have no concept of infallibility; even sages make mistakes. How else can we explain the words of Rav Ovadya Yosef, this past Motzaei Shabbat (Sat. night)?
"Is this a wonder, God forbid, that in war certain soldiers die--those who are not Shabbat observant, who are not Torah observant, who do not pray every day, who do not lay tefillin every day--is it a wonder that they are killed? It is no wonder, may God hav
Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on August 27, 2007 at 8:23pm — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch Eating Your Words

OK, it finally happened. Sh'mita is less than three weeks away, and the Jerusalem Post has been running a lot of stories about the preparations. The problem is that they invariably print a lie about the sabbatical year, which really upsets me. When Yael saw it this morning, she said, "You have to write a letter to the editor!" So I did, and here it is:

To Whom It May Concern,
I was shocked to learn that the Jerusalem Post has ruled, repeatedly, that all sh'mita produce from Jewish… Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on August 27, 2007 at 9:41am — No Comments

Rav Yossie Bloch Rabbi 3,000

Thank you, thank you, toda raba to all our listeners. We have reached a milestone. The week ending this past Sunday at 10 AM (Israel time), we had 3,047 feed views. Not only that, we've already had over 700 in the 48 hours since then. We couldn't have done it without you. So, pat yourselves on the back, and keep spreading the news.
Continue

Added by Rav Yossie Bloch on August 14, 2007 at 12:09pm — No Comments

About

Badge

Loading…

© 2009   Created by Rav Yossie Bloch on Ning.   Create a Ning Network!

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Privacy  |  Terms of Service