President Donald Trump has remained publicly silent on whether the United States is preparing for a direct strike on Iran, even as Washington concentrates a significant naval force near the region, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Reports suggest that the buildup may be intended less as a prelude to immediate military action and more as leverage for intensified economic pressure.
Despite dramatic reports in recent days describing severe internal violence against Iranian civilians, the U.S. has not launched any overt attack on Tehran. Instead, Trump told Israeli journalist Barak Ravid on Sunday evening that “Iran wants to talk,” a remark that has added uncertainty about the administration’s intentions.
According to a senior American official cited by Ynet, Washington has conveyed a message to Tehran indicating it is open to negotiations.
Trump later elaborated on that stance, saying, “We are ‘open for business,’ as they say. If they want to reach out to us and they know the conditions, we’ll have talks. The Iranians know the conditions. They are very well aware of our terms.”
A new report aired by i24 News, and echoed by the Iranian opposition outlet Iran International, suggests that the White House may be weighing a strategy short of full-scale war: a naval blockade and economic chokehold on Iran, modeled on measures previously taken against Venezuela.
According to the report, the concept is actively being discussed within the White House, though no final decision has been made.
Despite extensive international sanctions and the recent reactivation of the “snapback” mechanism, Iran remains a major oil supplier to countries such as Russia and China. U.S. officials are said to be examining ways to disrupt those exports through maritime pressure rather than airstrikes.
The approach would mirror actions taken against Venezuela in recent years, aimed at weakening the regime of Nicolás Maduro by targeting its economic lifelines. Some analysts have dubbed the possible Iran strategy “Maduro 2.0.”
Still, observers caution against taking the administration’s conciliatory rhetoric at face value. Trump’s statements have fueled speculation that Washington may again be employing misdirection — similar to tactics used ahead of past operations.
Analysts point to a previous episode in which the White House announced that Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, would begin talks with Iran “the following week,” even as U.S. B-2 Spirit bombers were already preparing for a historic strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
For now, the presence of the USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group signals that, regardless of public diplomacy, the military option — or at least the threat of it — remains firmly on the table.
{Matzav.com}
[Links below.] Today, Tuesday of Parshas Beshalach, is a special day. Seforim tell us that it is extremely prudent to utilize this day to pray for parnassah, livelihood, for the next 12 months.
It is a widespread and accepted custom to recite “Parshas Hamonn,” the portion in the Torah that describes the way Hashem provided monn (i.e., parnassah from heaven) for the Yidden in the Midbar. This can be found in Sefer Shemos, Perek 16: 4-36. It is customary to read the pesukim twice and the Targum once, and also to recite a short tefillah for sustenance beforehand. (Click here for the tefillah as well as for the ArtScroll English translation of these pesukim. Click here for the parsha, including the Targum Onkelos.)
Reciting this parsha reminds us that just as Hashem sustained the Jews then, so too, He – and He alone – provides for each and every one of us now.
With Hashgacha Pratis, Divine Providence, Hashem looks after our every need down to the most minute and seemingly mundane detail.
The following is a short yet powerful essay by Rav Yissocher Frand, which teaches us an important lesson:
One Who Cheats In His Business Doesn’t Believe in G-d
By Rav Yissocher Frand
Parshas Mishpatim begins “And these are the statutes that you shall place before them.” There is a very famous Rashi on the words “And these”. Normally “these” would mean “to the exclusion of others”. But Rashi says that the conjunction “and” adds to what came before (vov mosif), in Parshas Yisro.
In Parshas Yisro, G-d gave us the Ten Commandments. Rashi here says that just as the Ten Commandments were given at Sinai, so too the laws that are recorded in Parshas Mishpatim were also given at Sinai.
The truth of the matter is that this Rashi requires understanding. There is another famous Rashi [Vayikra 25:1] on the words “On Mount Sinai” (mentioned in connection with Shmita) which asks, “What is the connection between Shmitah and Mount Sinai?” Rashi there answers that just like the laws of Shmita were given with all their rules and intricate details at Sinai, so too all other commands were given with their rules and intricate details at Sinai.
If that is the case, what is Rashi adding here, by telling us that the laws of Parshas Mishpatim were given at Sinai? We know that — the whole Torah was given at Sinai!
The Ramba”n says a very interesting thing. According to the Ramba”n, Parshas Mishpatim and the Parsha of the Ten Commandments were said together at the initial meeting of G-d with Moshe on Sinai (prior to the 40 day period when Moshe learned the rest of the Torah). Subsequent to that, Moshe Rabbeinu came down, taught the Jewish people what he had learned from G-d and then went back up to Mount Sinai to learn more.
What emerges from this Ramba”n is that the laws of one ox goring another ox, of digging a hole in the public domain, or paying workers on time, all the mundane intricacies of life have the same status and were given at the same time as the Ten Commandments. Therefore, Rashi is stating something significant.
But, is it not peculiar that almost in the same breath as G-d spoke “I am the L-rd your G-d who took you out from Egypt…”, the foundation of Judaism, He also told us about our responsibilities when we borrow our neighbor’s car?
Why does Parshas Mishpatim rate the same session as “I am the L-rd your G-d”?
Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, said that this comes to teach us that if a person does not keep Parshas Mishpatim (monetary laws), he doesn’t believe in “I am the L-rd your G-d” either.
“I am the L-rd your G-d” is the theory — I believe. But the other side of the coin, the practice, is do you cheat in your business? If you cheat in your business, you do not believe in “I am the L-rd your G-d”.
Rav Moshe continues, if a person believes in G-d with more than lip service, then the person believes that G-d provides him with a livelihood. If a person believes that G-d provides the livelihood, then what reason is there to cheat? “A person’s livelihood is fixed for him from Rosh HaShannah” [Beitzah 16a]. If one believes that, there is no need to cheat. Anyone who cheats, does not believe it.
That is why “I am the L-rd your G-d” is in the same session as the law of how to pay one’s workers.
There was recently a meeting in New York of the Association of Jewish Certified Public Accountants; an organization appropriately called Cheshbon. Rav Schwab told this group that a person who is dishonest in business is a Kofer b’Ikkar (He denies G-d). For the same reason that we just mentioned — that if a person really believed, he would not need to cheat. One cheats because he thinks — “this will get me the parnossah”. Cheating indicates that he does not believe that G-d will take care of him.
Then Rav Schwab continued by saying the following. “You will ask that we see people who cheat a tremendous amount and are nonetheless, successful. Now if parnossah comes from G-d, how can that be?”
Rav Schwab explained that such people’s money comes from the ‘Sitra Achra’, from the forces of impurity in the world, not from G-d. No good will ever come out of the money that comes from the powers of impurity (Kochos HaTumah) in the world. He or his children or someone down the line will never see satisfaction (nachas) from that money.
The ‘test’ of earning a livelihood is not only a test of telling the truth, of not stealing, etc. It is a test of ‘I am the L-rd your G-d’. Daily, we are put to the ‘test’ of whether or not we really believe. If we really, really believe, then there is never a reason to be less than 100% honest in our dealings with other people and with ourselves.
{halachafortoday@yahoo.com/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
LISTEN:
https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Bitachon4Life-Shiur-1691-Chikuy-Part-91-Greatness.mp3For more info, email bitachon4life@gmail.com.
By Rabbi Berach Steinfeld
Kriyas Yam Suf was the completion of Yetzias Mitzrayim. We learn a very interesting halacha from Kriyas Yam Suf.
A person once came to the Netziv with the following question. He had a massive fight with another person and swore that he would never see the other person again. That person later died, and now he wanted to stand in front of the niftar and ask mechilah. Does the shvua of never seeing him again apply after the person has died?
The Torah Temimah brings a raya from the posuk in Shmos 14:13, which says that the Yidden will not see Mitzrayim/Mitzriyim ever again. Later, the posuk states that the Yidden saw Mitzriyim dead by the seashore. The Medrash says that every Yid recognized the Mitzri who had made him work. From here we see that seeing someone after death is not considered a violation of a shvua never to see that person again.
However, the Targum Yonasan says that the Yidden did not see the Mitzriyim dead, but rather in the final throes of life (gossessin), which would seem to contradict what we said earlier. How were the Yidden able to see them if Hashem had told Moshe that they would never see them again?
We can answer that this is similar to the halacha of returning a stolen object. The Torah states that one must return the stolen item and then adds the words “asher gozal.” The Gemara learns from this that one must return the stolen object in the same condition it was in at the time it was stolen; that is what the word “asher” teaches us. Here too, the Torah says “asher” regarding the way Mitzrayim was seen today—in that manner they would not be seen again. The Yidden were not going to see them in the same way as they had seen them that day, but rather while they were taking their final breaths.
We see the importance of Kriyas Yam Suf being the completion of Yetzias Mitzrayim from the first of the Aseres Hadibros, where Hashem said the word “anochi.” During Kriyas Yam Suf, Hashem appeared as a warrior ready to do battle, whereas during Mattan Torah, Hashem appeared as an elderly person full of rachamim. Hashem was conveying that even though He appears differently in different situations, He is the same Hashem.
In Tosafos in Brachos 13b, it is paskened that if one is in a place during Kriyas Shema where he would be permitted to respond Shalom Aleichem to a person to whom he must show respect, then it stands to reason that he may also answer amein and Kedusha. However, if one is in the middle of Shemone Esrei, it would be forbidden. It is a kal vachomer that since between Go’al Yisrael and Shemone Esrei one is forbidden to be mafsik, then certainly in the middle of Shemone Esrei one would be forbidden to be mafsik.
Rabbeinu Tam would stop between Mi Kamocha and Shira Chadasha and answer all the ameins. Only afterward would he begin Shemone Esrei. He did this because Shira Chadasha discusses Kriyas Yam Suf, and that is what Rabbeinu Tam was somech his Shemone Esrei to—not something directly related to Yetzias Mitzrayim. From here we see that Kriyas Yam Suf was the culmination of Yetzias Mitzrayim. It is therefore considered the geulah that must immediately precede Shemone Esrei without any hefsek.
May we be zocheh to be like the people in Mitzrayim who were redeemed with great miracles, including Kriyas Yam Suf.
{Matzav.com}
A Holocaust museum based in Washington, D.C., sharply criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after he drew a comparison between federal immigration enforcement and Nazi Germany, calling the remarks an offensive misuse of Holocaust history.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum responded on X by underscoring that Anne Frank had been “targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish.” The statement was issued a day after Walz held a press conference urging President Donald Trump to withdraw ICE and Border Patrol agents from Minnesota.
Speaking at the Sunday press conference, Walz said: “Allow our children to go back to school. We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.”
The museum pushed back forcefully, writing: “Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish. Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable. Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges.”
Walz’s remarks invoking Anne Frank followed a Border Patrol agent-involved shooting on Saturday that resulted in the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti.
According to reporting by Breitbart News’s AWR Hawkins, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that agents were “conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.”
That incident occurred after another fatal encounter involving federal immigration authorities, in which 37-year-old Renee Good was shot by an ICE agent. Authorities said Good had “weaponized her vehicle” against ICE officers.
The DHS statement explained that agents were “conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault” when, during the operation, a man approached “U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.”
Reacting on social media, Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, described as “Trump’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism at the State Department,” said Anne Frank’s experience has no connection to the state’s immigration issues, Fox News reported.
“Ignorance like this cheapens the horror of the Holocaust,” Kaploun stated. “Anne Frank was in Amsterdam legally and abided by Dutch law. She was hauled off to a death camp because of her race and religion.”
{Matzav.com}
The powerful winter storm that battered the Tri-State area cleared out of New York and Mew Jersey by Monday morning, but forecasters warned that the region is now facing an extended stretch of dangerously cold weather.
Snowfall totals from the system ranged between 8 and 12 inches across New York City. Central Park recorded 11.4 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
Air travel remained heavily disrupted as the city began recovery efforts. More than 1,200 flights were canceled at local airports on Monday, following over 3,000 cancellations the day before.
City officials said cleanup operations were continuing around the clock. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said thousands of sanitation workers were still clearing roadways, with the administration aiming to restore regular city operations by Tuesday.
“Our goal is for all services to be fully restored by tomorrow, with all streets cleared, students back at school in person, and our city back to normal, albeit with a lot of snow piled up,” he said during a morning briefing at City Hall.
Later in the day, the mayor confirmed that New York City public schools would reopen Tuesday for in-person instruction, with all classes, programs, and activities proceeding as scheduled.
Even as snow removal continued, bitter cold had already settled over the region. Gov. Kathy Hochul warned that the frigid conditions would persist for more than a week.
“This Arctic siege on our state is unrelenting and will continue for the next nine days,” the governor said in an interview with 1010 WINS.
“There will not be a single part of New York that goes above freezing temperature for nine days,” the governor said. “And that’s what we have to anticipate, prepare for.”
Temperatures on Monday reached a high of 28 degrees, with RealFeel readings in the teens. Overnight lows are forecast around 12 degrees, with wind chills near zero.
The deep freeze is expected to intensify through the rest of the week, with daytime highs hovering near 20 degrees from Tuesday through Friday and continuing into the weekend.
{Matzav.com}
The main beis medrash of the Gerer Chassidus in Yerushalayim was formally sold this week for the symbolic sum of just 10 shekels, sparking widespread discussion within the chassidus on the eve of a major family wedding.
The sale took place at an official ceremony in which the rights to the beis medrash were transferred for full payment of 10 new shekels. While the price raised eyebrows, those familiar with the inner workings of Ger explained that the transaction follows a long-standing practice rooted in the court’s approach to kedushas beis hamedrash.
According to the tradition observed by the Gerer rebbes, the beis medrash is deliberately not registered in the name of the Rebbe himself. The concern, chassidim explain, is that activities occasionally take place in the building that are not fully in keeping with the desired level of sanctity, such as idle conversation or insufficient decorum. To avoid any association of such conduct with the Rebbe, the property is instead placed in the legal ownership of a respected senior chossid.
This custom dates back to the era of the Beis Yisrael, and was continued by subsequent Gerer Rebbes. Following the construction of the current beis medrash and world center of Ger, the Rebbe at the time instructed that ownership be transferred via a formal deed to the late Reb Chaim Yisrael Weinstein, a revered elder chossid, Holocaust survivor, and the father of baal tokeia Reb Moshe Aryeh Weinstein.
After Rabbi Weinstein’s passing several years ago, the legal rights to the beis medrash had not yet been reassigned—until now.
On Monday, acting on the Rebbe’s directive, Reb Yitzchak Meir Tauman of the beis medrash administration completed the sale, transferring ownership for 10 shekels to Reb Yitzchak Meir Spernovitz. Rabbi Spernovitz, a distinguished elder among Gerer chassidim in Yerushalayim, previously served as mashgiach ruchani at the Gerer Yeshiva L’tzeirim and is among the leaders of the Tohar HaMachaneh initiative. He is the son of the late Gerer baal tokeia, Reb Simcha Bunim Spernovitz.
The timing of the sale added to the attention it drew. This evening, the beis medrash hosted the wedding of a granddaughter of the Gerer Rebbe, a daughter of his son-in-law Reb Chaim Yehoshua Shor, who married a grandson of philanthropist Reb Yitzchak Shapira. The chuppah took place on the roof of the beis medrash.
What might appear at first glance to be a curious real-estate deal is, in truth, a reflection of a deeply ingrained Gerer tradition, one that highlights the care taken to preserve the kedusha of the beis medrash while maintaining a clear separation between the institution and the personal standing of the Rebbe himself.
{Matzav.com}
A practical and sensitive halachic question—whether it is permissible to publicize the name of a resident who has failed to pay vaad bayis (building maintenance) fees—was addressed during a chizuk gathering held at the home of Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein.
The gathering took place as the avreichim of Kollel Chafetz Chaim B’Iyun, part of the nationwide kollel network under the nesius of Rav Mordechai Shmuel Edelstein, marked the completion of their joint study of Sefer Chafetz Chaim.
The event was attended by senior rabbanim of the kollel network, including Rav Moshe Zakai and Rav Akiva Zaritzky, as well as the noted mezakeh harabbim Rav Aharon Margalit, author of Eshaleich.
Opening the gathering, Rav Zilberstein delivered a central address in which he spoke at length about the stature of the Chafetz Chaim, sharing striking insights and accounts of his conduct.
“If I were not afraid, I would say that the Chafetz Chaim was akin to the Rambam in his generation,” Rav Zilberstein said. “In his time, the Rambam was the rav of all of Klal Yisroel, and today it is similar with the Chafetz Chaim. His seforim are accepted everywhere, without dispute. Fortunate are you for immersing yourselves in the words of this giant of Torah.”
Following his remarks, Rav Zilberstein presented a contemporary halachic question to the assembled avreichim, as well as to philanthropist Rami Feller, who studies regularly b’chavrusa with the rav every Friday night: Is it permissible to post a notice on a building bulletin board stating that a particular family has not paid its vaad bayis dues?
Rav Zilberstein then cited the ruling he heard from his father-in-law, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, that after proper warning, such publication is permitted.
“After giving prior notice, it is allowed,” Rav Zilberstein stated. “There is no prohibition of embarrassing someone or of lashon hara. The proof is from the Gemara in Kesubos, which states that one who refused to support his minor children was publicly proclaimed in the marketplace: ‘The cruel raven feeds its young, while So-and-so does not feed his children.’ We see that it is permitted to shame a person who fails to meet his obligations. All the more so in the case of a resident who benefits from the investments of his neighbors while refusing to repay them, which constitutes gezel.”
Rav Zilberstein added an additional proof from halacha, noting that Beis Din is permitted to seize a borrower’s assets in public, even though doing so may cause embarrassment, while entering the borrower’s home is prohibited. “Clearly,” he said, “the public nature of such an action is not forbidden, despite the resulting shame.”
The gathering concluded with a powerful song of tefillah, ‘Tehei hasha’ah hazos sha’as rachamim v’eis ratzon’. Rav Zilberstein himself joined in the dancing together with Rav Edelstein and the assembled participants. As the event drew to a close, Rav Zilberstein urged those present to return immediately to learning the Chafetz Chaim, emphasizing the importance of the daily practice of studying two halachos from the sefer. “It is truly extraordinary,” he said, “and it is a segulah for everything one may need.”
{Matzav.com}
