[COMMUNICATED]
by Rabbi Eliezer Sandler
The concept of the Yissachar-Zevulun Torah Learning Pact goes back well over 3,500 years, to the time of Yaakov Avinu and his sons. It is named for the Torah pact between two of his sons – Yissachar the scholar and Zevulun the merchant. Not only was it an equal pact but, Chazal explained, the deed of Zevulun/the Sponsor is considered even greater than that of Yissachar, because without the support of Zevulun, Yissachar would not have had the wherewithal to study Torah undisturbed.”
It is well-known that when it comes to learning Torah, people who sponsor the learning, often do so, not just as a donation. By financially supporting specific Torah scholars, they enter into a binding, written, signed and sealed learning partnership pact whereby the Sponsor (the Zevulun) is deemed by Halacha as if he personally studied the Torah completed by the Scholar (the Yissachar). (See below.)
Thus, those who support the Talmidei Chachomim at Shas Yiden via a Yissachar-Zevulun Pact merit a portion in every daf of the entire Talmud Bavli and associated texts that they study, and complete the entire cycle in the space of ONE year. Some of the Sponsors opt to continue sponsoring repeat cycles of Shas which accrue to them.
Sar Hatorah, Maran Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, Nasi Shas Yiden, emphasized: The most mehudar Yissachar-Zevulun pact to support in our times is that offered by Shas Yiden – it comprises the entire Shas, Rashi and Tosfos – all in just one year!
Rav Chaim explained why this pact with Shas Yiden is the most mehudar. Chazal say that the highest level of learning is when one understands what he is learning b’iyun u’ve’amkus. However, even higher than that is when one remembers b’al peh all what he has learned. I have farhered the Shas Yiden avreichim geonim many times and can attest ZEI KENNEN SHAS (they know Shas)!
YES! YOU CAN MAKE
your OWN SIYUM on the ENTIRE Shas, Rashi & Tosfos IN JUST ONE YEAR!
The Yissachar-Zevulun Pact in Halacha
The Shulchan Aruch in Yoreh De’ah Chapter 246 regarding the efficacy of the Yissachar-Zevulun Sponsorship Pact for the Zevulun (the Sponsor) states clearly: It is deemed as if he (the one sponsoring the learning) himself learned all the Torah studied under the pact.
All the learning under the Shas Yiden Yissachar-Zevulun Pact is yours בעוה”ז ובעוה”ב (in both This World and the World to Come)! Concerning this, the Netziv of Volozhin comments that in Olam Habah, the Zevulun sponsor will sit together with the Gedolei Torah of the past and merit to participate in their discussions and pilpulim on all the Torah learned.
Achieve Almost 7 million Mitzvos in One Year
The Vilna Gaon in Shnos Eliyahu Pe’ah 41 states that one should hold precious every word of Torah that he learns because each word is considered a mitzvah of its own.
Thus, since in Talmud Bavli, Rashi and Tosfos there are 6,608,891 words, that translates into almost 7 million mitzvos accruing through Yissachar-Zevulun at Shas Yiden.
Official Shtar from Shas Yiden
Each Yissachar-Zevulun pact is confirmed by an official contract (shtar) from Shas Yiden specifying the learning of the entire Shas, and is witnessed by talmidei chachomim.
All who wish to enter into a Yissachar-Zevulun Pact for the entire Shas during ONE year should contact Shas Yiden to make arrangements: 718-702-1528.
The opportunity to complete the entire Shas has been a cherished way to honor family members and others as a prized achievement. It has also proven to be a source of comfort for mourners to obtain such a zechus for their dear ones during the year of mourning – a siyum of the entire Shas can be completed on the yahrzeit!
Yissachar-Zevulun Pact –
Beyond the Grave
The legendary visionary and “Father of Yeshivos”, Reb Chaim of Volozhin, was the founder of the famous yeshiva in the town of Volozhin and the beloved talmid of the Vilna Gaon.
Reb Chaim had an ongoing Yissachar-Zevulun pact with a local shoemaker – a man who was not learned but who dearly valued Torah learning. They had a ‘deal’ whereby the shoemaker would pay the monthly financial support needed for Reb Chaim and his family. For this financial support, the shoemaker would have an equal share in all Reb Chaim’s daily Torah study – both in the mitzvah of Torah study בעוה”ז and that the knowledge of the Torah learned would continue to be his בעוה”ב (in the World to Come).
One day the shoemaker passed away suddenly. During the shiva period, Reb Chaim was facing a perplexing halachic question and researched high and low for a solution. That night the shoemaker appeared to him in a dream and gave him the full solution that he sought. Reb Chaim was amazed and commented, “Azoi gich, Azoi Gich – So quickly, so quickly has he acquired the zchus and knowledge of the Torah that I have studied!”
In the words of Gedolei Torah:
Maran Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, Nasi Shas Yiden:
“In just ONE year, through Yissachar-Zevulun at Shas Yiden, you can be zoche to the entire Shas forever – בעוה”ז ובעוה”ב (in olam hazeh and olam habah).
“Moreover, whoever supports Shas Yiden is zocheh to fulfill both Yissachar-Zevulun and support of aniyei (the poor of) Eretz Yisroel in the fullest sense of the word.
“Those who support Shas Yiden will be saved from chevlei (the travails of) Moshiach – spiritually and materially, and will be zoche to have ehrlicher bonim u’vanos yir’eishomayim ”
Maran Hagaon Harav Dov Lando, shlit”a, Rosh Yeshiva, Slabodka:
“Who compares to the Shas Yiden? Incredible talmidei chachomim geonim who raised the bar in limud Hashas b’iyun u’v’amkus. Blessed are those who enter a Yissachar-Zevulun pact with them.”
Hamashpia Hagadol Reb Meilech Biederman, shlit”a:
“Yissachar-Zevulun at Shas Yiden – best possible deal, and in just 1 year! 100% partnership! 100% Shas x 5 times! 100% Shisha Sidrei Mishna – בעוה”ז ובעוה”ב”
Sanzer Rebbe, shlit”a:
“A first in 2000 years of Jewish history! Until Shas Yiden, never a Torah institution where ALL the avreichim metzuyonim v’geonim know the entire Shas by heart”
Harav Yaakov Hillel, shlit”a:
“Therefore, the great mitzvah to support the efforts [of the Talmidei Chachomim] with generous donations in order that they should continue diligently with their studies to enhance the greatness of the Torah and its glory.
Russia is exploiting negotiations to end the war in Ukraine as a “tool for manipulation” as it aims to restore relations with the US, but has no intention of ending the invasion, according to an assessment by Estonian foreign intelligence.
“Russia is setting long-term operational objectives in its war against Ukraine. This confirms that the recent uptick in peace-talk rhetoric is merely a tactic to buy time,” according to the annual report of the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service published on Tuesday.
The assessment casts a shadow over US President Donald Trump’s effort to end the four-year war, as his envoys seek to bring together Russian and Ukrainian negotiators. While Kyiv has secured commitments for guarantees designed to prevent a further Russian attack, talks have stalled over other issues including territory.
The Kremlin has instructed Russia’s state institutions to “project openness” to cooperate with the US, the Estonian report said. The main objective is to restore full relations with Washington, a path that would open the possibility of direct flights and visas for the business elite – as well as easing the path for espionage, influence operations and sanctioned goods, it said.
Sanctions relief is essential for sustaining President Vladimir Putin’s power system as a deteriorating economy stemming from falling oil production sows division among the ruling elite.
“The Kremlin merely feigns interest in peace talks, hoping to restore its bilateral relations with the United States to their previous level and formalize Ukraine’s defeat,” the spy agency said.
Russia is also seeking to collaborate with the US on nuclear arms safety – a process that helps the country retain its great power status. “Presenting itself as a responsible nuclear power” is part of a strategy to open broader security talks, aimed at potentially imposing restrictions on NATO activity, the report said.
According to the Baltic nation’s spy agency, one option for Moscow is to establish a postwar reconstruction fund financed by Russian assets frozen in the West, enabling Moscow to effectively impose its will on Ukraine and pay for propaganda campaigns.
The report from Estonia, a European Union and NATO member state that borders Russia, said that Moscow’s military-industrial complex will continue to be a danger to its neighbors even after a peace deal might be agreed. Moscow still hopes to restrict NATO activity along its border – and “Russia is highly likely preparing for future conflict even as its war against Ukraine continues,” it said.
Military production is expected to stagnate this year as an increasingly dire economic outlook sows division among the ruling elite, the report said, citing higher borrowing costs and low investment as factors driving the economy into recession.
Oil production, a major source of Russian government funding, has steadily declined and is unlikely to rebound in coming years, the report said. Higher taxes and spending cuts to cover the cost of war – combined with Ukrainian drones strikes reaching deeper into Russia – have dampened consumer sentiment. But total economic collapse is unlikely, according to the spy agency.
“Divisions within the ruling elite over economic policy have also sharpened, resulting in disagreements spilling into the public domain over the state of the economy and the central bank’s monetary policy,” the report said.
(c) 2026, Bloomberg
Staten Island stands apart from the rest of New York City in more ways than one. But its status as a Republican redoubt in a Democratic stronghold is under threat.
In January, a state court judge ruled that New York’s 11th Congressional District, which encompasses Staten Island and a wedge of southwestern Brooklyn, violates the voting rights of minorities who live within it, and must be redrawn.
The judge had given a state panel, the Independent Redistricting Commission, until Feb. 6 to come up with a new map. But the process was paused after Representative Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican who’s held the seat since 2021, launched an effort to overturn the judge’s order. A new deadline of Feb. 23 has been set for the judge to finalize the lines.
“If the people of this district don’t want me to represent them, they can vote me out in the election,” Malliotakis said in an interview with Bloomberg News. She blamed the effort to revise her district’s borders on political operatives in Washington.
“In no way will we allow a Washington law firm to come along and dictate how this community is going to be represented,” she said.
The battle on Staten Island is playing out amid a nationwide campaign to redraw political borders and gain a leg up in the 2026 midterm elections. So far, the parties have largely dueled to a draw. With Congress narrowly divided, control of the House could turn on a small number of skirmishes over district lines.
Some Staten Islanders say the fight reflects deeper anxiety about how the borough is changing. Over the past 25 years, an influx of Latino and Asian residents have moved to the northern section of the island, drawn by the prospect of cheaper housing and a more suburban lifestyle. Meanwhile, its South Shore, with its more spacious homes and strong schools, has remained a Republican bastion.
Paul Alexander Shali-Ogli, an activist and campaign consultant who resides on the island, said the shifting demographics have unsettled parts of its electorate. “There are a lot of people who are hopeful for the future,” said Shali-Ogli. “But then there seem to be a minority who can’t accept that the island has changed since the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s.”
Yet Joseph Pidoriano, a local entrepreneur, said reshaping the district would betray Staten Island’s conservative character.
“They’re going to redraw the lines and make this district a destination where our values aren’t represented,” said Pidoriano. “Our values are faith, family, freedom, leadership, and the ability to be successful.”
Malliotakis’s district has been New York City’s most durable Republican perch since the early 1980s, when the Staten Island-anchored seat, then numbered differently and once extending into Lower Manhattan, was redrawn to include a conservative-leaning sliver of Brooklyn. Only two Democrats – Michael McMahon in 2008 and Max Rose in 2018 – have won there since. Neither served more than one term.
Malliotakis, whose mother left Cuba following the rise of Fidel Castro, said that hers is “the only competitive seat” in New York City, and serves as a counterweight to Democratic dominance of local politics. Many Staten Island Republicans reject the idea that the district’s Black and Latino voters have been disenfranchised.
“It’s absurd that a district that elects a Latina would somehow empower minorities by removing the more diverse portion of NY-11 in Brooklyn and replacing it with a lily white district in Lower Manhattan,” said Joe Borelli, a former Republican city and state lawmaker for Staten Island who testified in the January court hearing.
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Conservative Culture
On the Staten Island Ferry, during the free, nearly 30-minute ride across New York Harbor, the Manhattan skyline recedes gradually. At the St. George Ferry Terminal, passengers step off the boat into a borough where most trips continue by car rather than subway, and where the pace and scale feel far removed from the rest of New York City.
Staten Island’s landscape looks less like Midtown than New Jersey, to which it is linked by three bridges. The island’s quiet streets are lined by single-family homes in car-dependent, hilly neighborhoods, where a plethora of American flags snapped in gusting wind on a frigid February morning.
Much of the borough’s commercial activity runs along Hylan Boulevard, a stretch of set-back strip malls and residential areas running from Tottenville at the island’s southern tip toward Fort Wadsworth, just across the water from Brooklyn on the island’s northeast.
For many commuters, getting to the city’s major employment hubs means a drive on the Staten Island Expressway and over the towering Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, through traffic that island residents routinely rank among the worst in the city. Others rely on express buses that charge $7.25 each way.
Staten Island’s physical isolation from the rest of New York City and its status as a haven for blue-collar workers and city employees including police officers and firefighters has long defined its proudly conservative political culture.
Democrats argue that their party would better represent the island’s changing makeup. Assemblymember Charles Fall, chair of Staten Island Democrats, sees it as a question of how effectively the district’s interests are represented in Congress.
“If we had a Democrat in this seat, I think we would see a representative that was much more reflective of what hardworking people need in this area,” Fall said.
With half a million residents, Staten Island is the least populous New York City borough. Its median annual household income of nearly $100,000 is around $20,000 higher than the citywide average. It is majority White, according to the US Census, but its Asian American and Hispanic populations have surged in the past 25 years.
Many of those new residents have clustered on the island’s North Shore, where denser housing, lower incomes and higher shares of Black, Latino and immigrant residents contrast with the predominantly white South Shore. The island is bisected by the Staten Island Expressway, a six-lane artery that residents and planners have long described as a social and economic boundary.
Staten Island Republicans fear that if Democrats prevail in their redistricting push, they would be losing representation, and that has renewed talk of seceding from the city to get out from under Democratic domination.
“It’s a serious conversation, and I feel it’s percolating again,” Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said.
Secession efforts have surfaced before at times when borough leaders felt Staten Island’s needs weren’t being addressed. In 1993, nearly two-thirds of voters approved a referendum to secede from the city, but the movement stalled in the New York State Assembly.
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National Redistricting Push
The legal dispute over the district’s shape will likely turn on the question of whether it is being redrawn to benefit one party or another.
New York passed an amendment to its state constitution in 2014 that prohibits the redrawing of congressional districts to favor candidates or parties.
“Political gerrymandering sets up a system where it’s more like an incumbent protection program,” Malliotakis said. “You eliminate competitive seats like mine, and you make them lopsided where only one party can win, and therefore the voters can’t hold that individual accountable.”
On a national level, the pressure to revise electoral boundaries is likely to persist. The unusual middecade scramble to design new districts – previously, most states only altered their maps after the decennial US census – could become a new norm amid increased polarization and closely divided government. But some onlookers have recoiled at leaving much of the process in the hands of courts.
“You don’t want to see lines drawn by judicial decree,” said Richard Flanagan, a political science professor at the College of Staten Island. “You’d rather have a good state legislative process draw the lines.”
GOP officials have signaled their willingness to take their case to the US Supreme Court, if necessary. In the meantime, Republicans on Staten Island fear that they could lose one their few remaining avenues for exerting national influence.
“One of the few ways in which Republican voters can have a voice, at least on the national stage, is through this seat,” Fossella said. “And to silence it in this way, in this form, just reaffirms people’s cynicism.”
(c) 2026, Bloomberg
US Attorney General Pam Bondi asked an appeals court to resurrect the scuttled indictments of two of President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies, former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Bondi, joined by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, said in a 56-page court filing Monday that a lower court erred in November when it disqualified the prosecutor who handled the indictments and tossed them out.
The prosecutor was Lindsey Halligan, one of Trump’s former personal attorneys, who he brought in to serve as interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after his first pick for the office declined to bring charges against Comey and James, citing a lack of evidence.
Halligan quickly secured indictments against the two, accusing Comey of lying to Congress and James of committing mortgage fraud – charges they each denied.
US District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie threw out the indictments, ruling that Halligan’s appointment was unlawful because she was the second lawyer in a row to hold the office on an interim basis. Federal law allows presidents to appoint US attorneys for 120 days on an interim basis before they are approved by the US Senate.
In her filing, Bondi accused the judge of infringing on the president’s power to appoint US attorneys. The judge’s ruling, “mistakenly aggrandizes the district court’s appointment authority at the expense of the Executive Branch’s, which is where the Constitution assigns authority to prosecute crime,” the attorney general argued.
Bondi said that even if there was a “paperwork mistake” in the appointment of Halligan, it hasn’t “prejudiced” the rights of Comey and James and has since been “cured several times over” by the attorney general signing onto the indictments.
Bondi is asking the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the lower court orders.
The case is United States v. Comey, 25-4674, 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
(c) 2026, Bloomberg
President Donald Trump has threatened to block the opening of a bridge between Michigan and Ontario, claiming Canada is trying to “take advantage of America” and calling for compensation in the latest flash point in the simmering tensions between the United States and its northern neighbor.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge – a six-lane bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, that has cost about $4.7 billion to build – has been under construction since 2018 and is due to open early this year, according to the organization behind it.
On Monday, Trump said he “will not allow” it to open in a post on Truth Social, saying Canada had treated the U.S. “very unfairly for decades” and that the U.S. would not benefit from the project.
“I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve,” he said. It was unclear how Trump would be able to delay or block the project from opening.
“We will start negotiations, IMMEDIATELY. With all that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset,” he said, adding that the revenue generated from the project “will be astronomical.”
The bridge, named after Canadian ice hockey legend Gordie Howe, who played for the Detroit Red Wings, has been labeled a “once-in-a-generation undertaking” by the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, the Canadian government entity responsible for delivering it. It is set to have U.S. and Canadian entry ports and an interchange connecting to Michigan’s road network.
The bridge is financed by the Canadian government but is publicly owned by the governments of Canada and Michigan, with terms outlined in a 2012 Crossing Agreement. The agreement stated all iron and steel used in the project must be produced in the U.S. or Canada.
Canada will recoup the costs of funding the bridge from toll revenue, the Canadian government said in 2022.
Candace Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said regardless of whether Trump’s threat is real or an attempt at creating uncertainty, “blocking or barricading bridges is a self-defeating move.”
“The path forward isn’t deconstructing established trade corridors, it’s actually building bridges,” she said in an emailed statement.
The complaint is the latest in a string of blows he has leveled at Canada and Prime Minister Mark Carney, rupturing the traditionally close relationship between the two allies.
Last month, Trump threatened to decertify and impose tariffs on Canadian-built aircraft in a move that sparked fears of wide ramifications for U.S. air travel. He also traded barbs with the Carney on the world stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and later revoked his invitation for Canada to join the Board of Peace, an entity that Trump has claimed will resolve global conflicts.
The latest comments mark a sharp contrast to Trump’s previous support for the project. In a February 2017 statement with then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump highlighted the closeness of the two countries and praised the bridge as a “vital economic link.”
The Gordie Howe International Bridge is set to absorb traffic from the nearby Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, which is owned by Detroit’s Moroun family and responsible for about a quarter of all trade between the U.S. and Canada. The owners have appealed to Trump to stop construction of the new bridge and sued the Canadian government for approving it, claiming it will infringe on their right to collect revenue.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that Trump’s post was “insane,” noting that U.S. steel was used in construction on the Michigan side of the bridge.
“I really can’t believe what I’m reading,” Dilkens said. “The faster we can get to the midterms and hopefully see a change, the better for all of us.”
He also mocked Trump’s suggestion – made in the social media post without any supporting evidence – that if Canada makes a trade deal with China, China would “terminate” Canadian ice hockey and eliminate the Stanley Cup.
“Thankfully the bridge was named after Gordie Howe before China terminates hockey and eliminates the Stanley Cup!” Dilkens quipped on X.
U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) said Trump’s threats to tank the bridge project meant he was “punishing Michiganders for a trade war he started.”
“The only reason Canada is on the verge of a trade deal with China is because President Trump has kicked them in the teeth for a year,” she wrote in a post on X.
“The President’s agenda for personal retribution should not come before what’s best for us. Canada is our friend – not our enemy. And I will do everything in my power to get this critical project back on track.”
(c) 2026, The Washington Post
