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Developing The Lakewood of Israel’s South
Rabbi Aharon Asayag shlit”a at the Beit Halevi site
In response to the growing need for affordable housing among young haredi families who live by the ethos of ‘Torato Omanuto,’ a new initiative has been launched in Netivot. Kiryat Beit Halevi, a community of 10,000 housing units slated to be built over the next few years, surrounded by multiple Talmud Torahs, Kollelim, Yeshivas Hanegev, shopping centers, and playgrounds – approximately the size of the entirety of Kiryat Sefer (Modiin Ilit) today. This, in addition to another 10,000 units to be built in the city in the near future. These homes will be priced significantly lower than similar properties in established haredi communities like Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, and Beit Shemesh, with a starting price around $200,000 less. The goal is to make Netivot an appealing and practical option for families seeking to continue their Torah learning and living as their families grow.
The project’s driving force includes prominent Torah supporters from the United States. This initiative, with endorsements from leading rabbanim in Eretz Yisrael, led by Rabbi Aharon Asayag Shlit”a, aims to create a thriving Torah community in Netivot, having coordinated the city’s education, Torah, and chessed initiatives for the past 20 years. By providing affordable housing and a supportive environment, the initiative seeks to place Netivot on the map of haredi real estate, transforming it into the next Lakewood of the South.
Putting Netivot on the Haredi Housing Map
Map of Netivot. In red, the existing haredi community. In blue and green, areas under construction. In yellow, Yeshivas Hanegev
To encourage families to make the move, several strategies have been put in place. A partnership with generous donors from the U.S. has resulted in a $10 million fund, offering grants of $50,000 to each family that relocates. Additionally, agreements with contractors ensure that the project’s first 300 units are reserved exclusively for families recruited through this initiative. Furthermore, leading yeshivas such as Ponevezh and Tifrach have already committed to sending some of their avreichim to Netivot, with 25% of the project’s units already sold to alumni of these esteemed institutions.
Netivot was chosen after careful consideration of several factors. These included the availability of 3,000 new housing units within five years, the city’s proximity to major haredi centers like Bnei Brak and Jerusalem (just an hour’s drive), and its existing infrastructure to support a haredi community with diverse, existing employment opportunities. Netivot scored the highest in these areas, making it the ideal location for this ambitious project.
The short-term goal is to attract 300 quality families from prominent yeshivot to establish a strong initial community. Over the next four years, the project aims to settle 1,500 families in Netivot, firmly establishing it on the haredi housing map.
Modern Apartments Designed With the Haredi Family in Mind
Apartments in the Beit Halevi project. For illustrative purposes only
This effort to strengthen the Torah community in Netivot is a collaborative endeavor, guided and coordinated with community leaders like Rabbi Aryeh Levy, a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, and Rabbi Shmuel Montag, the community’s spiritual leader. Their involvement ensures that the project stays true to the values and needs of the haredi community.
Rabbi Aharon Asayag shlit”a and Rabbi Yissachar Meir zt”l
As such, the apartments being built in Netivot as part of the Kiryat Beit Halevi project promise modern living and are designed to meet the needs of young haredi families. The apartments feature spacious layouts kitchens with upgraded cabinetry and a double sink, and sukkah balconies. Common areas include luxurious lobbies, and each apartment has a designated private parking space.
These specifications ensure that families moving to Netivot will enjoy a high standard of living, with all the conveniences needed for a comfortable and fulfilling Torah lifestyle.
A Growing Kehilla, Week After Week
There are many apartments to choose from within the Beit Halevi project
Since its founding by Rabbi Yissachar Meir zt”l, the Netivot haredi community has grown into a diverse and vibrant kehillah. Yet, until now, it has remained in the shadow of other peripheral cities where haredi communities have developed more recently. The parallel growth of the haredi community alongside the city as a whole is necessary to preserve the unique character of the kehillah, following the spiritual foundations laid by great rabbis like Rabbi Yissachar Meir zt”l, Rabbi Reuven Yosef Gershonowitz zt”l, and Rabbi Chaim Friedlander zt”l.
Netivot is experiencing unprecedented growth, poised to become a city of 100,000 residents. The city’s expansion will include the construction of 1,500 new housing units around the haredi community, an upcoming agreement to add another 12,000 units city-wide, and the inclusion of 3,000 units designated for haredi families. Hundreds of young haredi couples have already purchased homes, and more families join the Beit Halevi project every week.
This accelerated development in Netivot presents a unique opportunity for new haredi families to join and live Torah lives comfortably and surrounded by a growing and invested community. Additionally, the city offers developed transportation channels, shopping areas, employment opportunities, and quality educational institutions, making it an ideal location for a life of Torah and bracha.
Gedolei Hador Issue Urgent Call to All World Jewry
House Democrat Proposes Constitutional Amendment To Reverse Supreme Court’s Immunity Decision
“IF HE’S AWAKE”: White House Press Secretary Scolds Journo for ‘Inappropriate’ Biden Remark
A reporter was reprimanded by a colleague and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday for quipping that President Joe Biden might be able to address the media “if he’s awake.”
The journalist’s crack came after Kelly O’Donnell, a political reporter for NBC News who also serves as the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, asked Jean-Pierre about Biden’s intention to remain in the race. “You’re saying he’s absolutely running?” O’Donnell asked.
After Jean-Pierre confirmed it, O’Donnell said she “would invite the president to come here and tell us that directly”—only for an off-camera voice to interject, “If he’s awake.”
Pointing over her shoulder without turning around, O’Donnell said, “That’s inappropriate.”
Jean-Pierre then jumped in: “As you heard from your colleague, the president of the WHCA, that’s inappropriate.”
The journalist was identified by RNC Research, an X account run by Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee, as James Rosen, the right-wing channel Newsmax’s chief White House correspondent.
Bob Menendez Says He Didn’t Testify Because Prosecution Failed To Prove Its Bribery Case Against Him
Leadership Lessons
By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
To those who follow the news and have been following politics since the 2020 election, President Biden’s performance at last week’s debate came as no surprise. The confused man who wasn’t able to formulate coherent thoughts and seemed lost at times is the same man who was plucked from his fifth place finish in the New Hampshire Democrat primary and declared the official party candidate for president. He barely campaigned or left his Delaware home. While his campaign attributed the basement strategy to Covid, many suspected that the people who selected him as their candidate feared that if voters would be exposed to Joe Biden, they wouldn’t be able to vote for him. The gambit worked and Biden was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2021.
As president, he basically remained detached from the people. He has held very few press conferences, and when he does, they are rehearsed and scripted, down to him calling on pre-selected reporters, whose names and photographs are clearly printed out for him on cards. There haven’t been interviews with national or local publications that may ask serious questions. He rarely, if ever, speaks off the cuff. Everything he says is either on a teleprompter or a card, and should he ever go off script, he gets in trouble for saying incorrect and silly things.
Every cabinet secretary and every government official who has come into contact with Joe Biden knows that he doesn’t have the mind necessary to make decisions and lead the country and the free world. Every time one of his emissaries went to Israel and said that the president said this or the president said that, it was a lie, because the president was plainly shown on Thursday night to be unable to think through an issue or present a coherent plan or statement unless it is placed in front of him by assistants.
The president’s performance in the debate was so bad that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men feared that they would never again be able to portray Joe Biden as an effective, strong, and respected leader. They panicked that the truth was out and the jig was up. The people had seen the truth about Biden’s abilities and would never vote for him again. The marionettes would have to pull Biden from the race and find someone who could defeat former President Trump in the November election.
Twenty-four hours later, they had thought it through, and word came down from on high that “we are sticking with Biden and doing what we have done until now. If everyone sticks together, we will be able to pull this off and get Joe Biden reelected. We will project Joe as a resolute, strong leader who had one bad debate performance, and we’ll get the leading Democrats to line up behind him with expressions of support and portray Trump as a liar and convicted felon. We can make it work.”
The question is: How can the leaders of a major political party, which represents fewer than half of Americans, support keeping an ineffective president in office? How could people who saw the same thing as everyone else who was watching deny the obvious fact and work to keep a weak and feeble person in the most important position in the world?
An examination of this week’s parsha will help us understand their mindset. We study the archetypical machlokes, which Chazal point to when describing a machlokes shelo lesheim Shomayim. We learn how Korach, a cousin of Moshe Rabbeinu, led a revolution against his leadership. Although he had been considered a righteous person, Korach acted as a politician, using cunning to spin the people against Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon Hakohein. Using demagoguery, he portrayed Moshe as heartless and cruel to the poor, forcing people to do silly things, such as putting tzitzis and techeiles on a tallis shekulo techeiles. With deceit and sleight of mouth, he was able to gather around him serious leaders of the Jewish people and present a serious challenge to Moshe’s leadership.
That Doson and Avirom rallied to Korach’s side should have given away that something had happened to Korach that affected his judgment. Still, the 250 nesi’ei ha’eidah were convinced to go against everything they had stood for until then and join the revolution to topple Moshe.
How can people be so foolish? How can people who saw how the Jewish people were Divinely freed from Mitzri servitude through Moshe forget what they had seen and experienced? How could people who stood at the foot of Har Sinai as Moshe went up to Heaven and returned with the Luchos turn their back on him?
Rav Moshe Mordechai Shulsinger, in his sefer Peninei Avi Ezri, quotes a letter that the Steipler Gaon wrote him. In it, he says, “Because Korach was insulted that he wasn’t chosen to be a nosi, he became angry at Moshe, and to get even with Moshe and topple him, he became a kofer, a scoffer, and began to find things to complain about.”
How did this happen? Because, explains the Steipler, when the bad middos of a person are in control, his intelligence and ability to think clearly are compromised, and then negios set in.
Korach was blinded and hindered by his negios. His desire for personal advancement grew out of his jealousy of Moshe and Aharon. He was able to convince the great men of Klal Yisroel to join him in his rebellion, for it wasn’t only Korach who was subsumed by jealousy; the others were as well. They all wanted the “big job.” Their jealousy of Moshe and Aharon so clouded their understanding that they forgot what they had just been through with the meraglim, as well as everything that Moshe had done for them and the many times Hashem addressed the Bnei Yisroel through Moshe and Aharon. Their mental acuity was compromised, overtaken by their lust for power.
When people don’t learn mussar, they lose their hold on their middos, which become progressively worse. Bad middos lead a person to think highly of himself and pursue kavod, honor. He becomes overwhelmed by his desire for kavod and his jealousy of others who people honor and respect. His desire becomes a need, and his jealousy becomes outright hatred of others. His bad middos take him over and destroy him. That is what happened to Korach.
Motivated by his desire for honor, prestige, and power, Korach was able to mislead his many followers by peddling empty, disingenuous arguments. His follower, Ohn Ben Peles, was saved from the fate of Adas Korach by his wife. When he informed his wife that he had joined Korach’s revolution against Moshe, she did not engage in a debate with him. As he told her of Korach’s arguments against Moshe, she sat silently and did not respond to anything he said. She quickly understood Korach’s motivation for his revolution and why her husband joined with him. She promptly got to work to save her husband from the mess that she knew would result from battling Moshe.
She said to Ohn, “What will you gain by getting involved in this machlokes and following Korach? You won’t gain anything! You’ll be the same simple person with the same job and low position in life whether Moshe wins or Korach wins. Why are you jeopardizing your life and everything else for Korach?” She won the day and saved her husband’s life.
Now, if the dispute was over the issues that Korach had presented, of what use was her argument? Ohn should have responded to his wife and admonished her for what she told him. “How could you tell me to drop out of the campaign for Korach? Moshe is corrupt. He did so many things wrong. The laws he presents don’t make any sense. We are engaged in a serious battle over ideology. You are undermining the revolution.”
But Oin’s wife was a wise woman. She knew that the root of Korach’s insurgency was neither halacha nor hashkofah. Nor was it about fairness and integrity. It was about his negia, about jealousy. Everyone in Korach’s eidah, including her husband, was motivated by their negia, their jealousy over other people’s attainments and their desire to achieve power. Therefore, she addressed his negia and not his intellectual arguments.
Rav Elozor Menachem Man Shach would explain that the power of daas Torah is that those who possess it are free of negios. They have no personal investment in what they are called to rule upon. Their only negia is to the truth. They study Torah, and Torah overtakes them and transforms them. All their decisions and actions are guided by Torah, not by their middos. They are possessed by a love of Torah and Am Yisroel.
The appetite for leadership positions is an outgrowth of insufficient humility coupled with a lack of belief in Hashem. One who is immersed in Torah and maasim tovim, and reinforces himself with mussar study, doesn’t crave attention and praise from the masses, for he knows that mortal praise and adulation are fleeting and meaningless. The eternal accolades are those that he aims for. Hashem has the ability to reward him for his actions and to properly respect him and his actions.
So many of our gedolim shunned recognition and publicity until Hashem thrust them into leadership positions.
The Chazon Ish studied alone and interacted with few people. When he settled in Bnei Brak, there were few Torah Jews living there. As the post-Holocaust Olam HaTorah grew, the Chazon Ish would have to assume a leadership role, which he did, becoming a prime mover behind the establishment of the Israeli Torah community as we now know it.
Rav Elozor Menachem Man Shach was known as a person with no interest outside of learning and teaching Torah, and the welfare of his talmidim. When the passing of numerous Torah leaders left a leadership void, the man who knew only Torah stepped out of his zone of comfort and, in his older years, led the generation to unprecedented heights.
When Rav Shach felt his strength ebbing, he turned to another person with no outside interests, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, whose life revolved strictly around his learning, and literally forced upon him the mantle of leadership.
Lehavdil, the Democrats are the exact opposite. They knew that President Biden was diminished and incapable of leading the country, but he was their ticket to power, so they lied about him to the people and pushed him over the finish line. They hid him from the people and manipulated the strings of power. All of them, from Dr. Jill on down, don’t care about the people, or the country, or the world. They care only about themselves.
They say that their campaign is about democracy, but instead of going after him the democratic way, they have been doing everything in their considerable power to make sure that Donald Trump doesn’t return to the White House. Not because they care about democracy, but because they are motivated by their need for power, and if he returns, they will all lose their power.
Their negia for power causes them to perceive everything in a twisted fashion, and they collude with the media to convince more than half the country that they represent leadership and decency and honor, and that their opponent is just the opposite.
Their desire for honor and power led them to attempt to destroy Trump through many different ways, from alleging that he colluded with Russia to impeaching him twice, and lately seeking to tie him up in court with charges never previously brought against a former president. Their negios prevent them from seeing the incongruity.
They selected Biden to be their man and propped him up as a leader. They hid him from the people and have had the media portray him as forceful and precise when he is anything but.
It’s easy to learn the parsha and then look at the hapless Democrats and mock them, but it is a lot more important and a lot harder to learn the parsha and then look at ourselves and examine how we act and what motivates us.
Each week, when we learn the parsha, we should seek out the lessons it contains for us in our day. When we learn Parshas Korach, it should prompt us to keep our middos in check and ensure that our motivations for what we do are proper. We should be reminded that humility is the most important middah. The more humble we are and the less we seek power, attention, and recognition, the safer we will be and the more we will accomplish.
By following the Torah and Moshe, without getting involved with the arguments and attacks of people who have strayed from the truth, we will earn benefit for ourselves and the world, helping prepare us all for the coming of Moshiach.
{Matzav.com}
Captain Roy Miller Killed in Battle in Northern Gaza
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced that IDF Captain Roy Miller, age 21, from Herzliya, was killed in action in the northern Gaza Strip.
Miller held the position of Platoon Commander in the Rotem Battalion within the Givati Brigade.
In the same incident, two additional soldiers from the Givati Brigade sustained serious injuries. They were promptly transported to a hospital for medical treatment, and their families have been informed.
On Wednesday evening, it was reported that Captain Elay Elisha Lugasi lost his life in combat in the Gaza Strip. During the same confrontation where Lugasi was killed, three soldiers from the 75th Battalion, 7th Brigade were gravely injured. These soldiers were evacuated to a hospital for medical care, and their families have been notified.
Earlier on Wednesday, it was disclosed that Sergeant Aleksandr Iakiminskyi, 19, from Nahariya, was fatally attacked in a stabbing incident at a mall in Karmiel. Another soldier from his battalion was also seriously wounded in this assault. Iakiminskyi managed to neutralize the terrorist, Joad Rabia’, an Israeli Arab approximately 20 years old, from the Nahef Local Council, which is located near Karmiel.
{Matzav.com Israel}
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TRAGEDY STRIKES LAKEWOOD: R’ Shloimy Lonner Z”L Murdered In South Jersey
TRAGEDY IN LAKEWOOD: Beloved Baal Chesed R’ Shloimy Lonner z”l Stabbed to Death in Horrific Incident
It is with profound sadness that Matzav.com reports the tragic petirah of R’ Shloimy Lonner z”l. He was in his upper forties.
R’ Shloimy, a beloved resident of Primrose Drive in the New Central Avenue neighborhood of Lakewood, NJ, was a noted baal chesed and a true ben Torah. He was an outstanding individual, known for his unwavering kindness and dedication to helping others.
R’ Shloimy’s life was tragically cut short when he was stabbed to death today by an unstable inmate at a mental health facility that he operated in Atlantic City.
This tragedy has plunged Lakewood into deep mourning once more after a spate of tzaros has stricken the community.
He is survived by his devoted wife, Shani, and their three children.
Details of the levayah will be posted once finalized.
Yehi zichro boruch.
Umacha Hashem dimah me’al kol ponim.
{Matzav.com}
Pro-Israel McGuire Beats Rep. Good In Razor-Thin Virginia Primary
The Virginia State Board of Elections certified on Tuesday that State Sen. John McGuire defeated incumbent Rep. Bob Good in the Republican primary for the commonwealth’s 5th District.
McGuire eked out a win by a margin of just 374 votes out of more than 63,000 votes cast in a race closely watched by pro-Israel groups after Good voted against a foreign aid package in April that included billions of dollars for Israel.
The Republican Jewish Coalition, a group that backs pro-Israel Republicans, took the unusual step of endorsing McGuire in April after Good took several votes against Israel aid. The group celebrated McGuire’s win on Tuesday.
“Across VA-05, Republican primary voters rejected extremist Rep. Bob Good and supported reliably pro-Israel RJC-endorsed conservative John McGuire to represent them in Congress,” stated RJC national chairman Norm Coleman and CEO Matt Brooks. “This is a major victory for the RJC, the Jewish community, and for all pro-Israel Americans.”
The United Democracy Project, which is one of AIPAC’s Super PACs and that also backed McGuire, likewise cheered on his narrow victory in the primary.
“John McGuire has a proven track record of working to advance America’s strategic alliance with Israel,” the group stated. “He has also led efforts to fight the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.”
Good, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, has had a target on his back over controversial votes against Israel aid and for his part in ousting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in October. The Virginia congressman was one of eight Republicans who voted to oust the speaker, and McCarthy and his allies backed McGuire heavily.
He defended his pro-Israel record at the time, saying that his vote against the bills was because they included aid for Gaza and did not include provisions to have Israel repay the money or offset it with cuts elsewhere.
“Israel does not have nearly $35 trillion in national debt as we do, and the habit of unpaid supplementals must end,” he wrote.
Good announced on Tuesday that he would pursue a recount, which Virginia law permits in any race where the margin is less than 1% of votes cast. Good and his campaign will have to pay for the recount as the .6% margin in the 5th District primary just misses the mark for a state-financed recount at .5%
‘We need a do-over in Lynchburg’
The congressman also raised questions about election integrity, insinuating that fire alarms that went off on Election Day at polling places were suspicious and that a small batch of potentially mishandled ballots in the city of Lynchburg required the election to be re-run.
“We had 3 ‘fires’ on election day in 3 precincts, all requiring the precincts to be evacuated for 20 minutes. Albemarle County, Hanover County, and Lynchburg City. What is the probability? Does anyone recall even 1 fire at a precinct on election day?” Good wrote. “AI estimates the probability being 0.0000000318% chance.”
“We need a do-over in Lynchburg, the biggest city in Virginia’s 5th District!” he added.
Denver Riggleman, who Good defeated in a bitter 2020 party convention battle for the Republican nomination to represent the 5th District, had some fun at Good’s expense on social media when Decision Desk called the race for McGuire on Tuesday.
“Interesting. Maybe it was space lasers? Broken algorithms? Fires in the polling locations set by the deep state?” Riggleman wrote.
Good has 10 days to file his recount petition. His campaign has said they intend to mount other legal challenges against the result.
{Matzav.com}
NAPTIME FOR JOEY: Brutal NYT Report Reveals Biden Debate Prep Included Afternoon Naps
According to a brutal New York Times report, President Biden’s Camp David debate prep never started before 11am and involved afternoon naps each day. The report will do little to quell concerns from a panicked Democrat Party.
Biden’s debate prep regiment was revealed in an article posted Tuesday titled: Biden’s Lapses Are Said to Be Increasingly Common and Worrisome.
“In the weeks and months before President Biden’s politically devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta, several current and former officials and others who encountered him behind closed doors noticed that he increasingly appeared confused or listless, or would lose the thread of conversations,” reported the New York Times on Tuesday.
This week, Biden claimed his trips overseas affected his debate performance, despite a week’s worth of rest and preparation at Camp David.
“Mr. Biden was drained enough from the back-to-back trips to Europe that his team cut his planned debate preparation by two days so he could rest at his house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., before joining advisers at Camp David for rehearsals,” the Times reported. “The preparations, which took place over six days, never started before 11 a.m. and Mr. Biden was given time for an afternoon nap each day, according to a person familiar with the process.”
Biden’s poll numbers have taken a beating in the days following the debate as he faces a growing number of Democrats who no longer want Joe at the top of the ticket.
More over at The New York Times:
{Matzav.com}
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