By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
As a Jewish newspaper, our focus this week is totally on the Siyum Hashas. Everything else pales compared to that magnificent event. What is more important than tens of thousands of Jews marking their completion of studying Shas? The celebrations taking place around the country and across the world are at the center of everyone’s attention, even as we are in the grips of a series of anti-Semitic attacks.

Haaretz Hatovah
Real Life Stories and Experiences of Yidden Settling in Eretz Yisroel.
One theme that I have kept to throughout my life is to keep moving, always growing. I grew up in Passaic, NJ and as I grew older I moved toward the chassidishe groups; on Shabbos I wear a shtreimel. I am comfortable with all kinds – modern Young Israel, Yeshivish and of course with Chassidishe. I learned in a mesivta in Lakewood for high school, summers found me in Camp Dora Golding, then I went to Eretz Yisroel for some more serious learning… wherever I was, I was involved with the Klal and Yiddishkeit – and I always wanted to keep growing, reaching for the next level.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
 Kislev is a month when we fortify ourselves with faith. Just as a single light can illuminate the darkness of winter, so can a spark of faith during the month of Kislev brighten what appears to be a bleak situation.
Those who believe are able to see beyond the immediate and perceive what lies in the distance.

By Rabbi Elchanan Poupko
Most of what I learned in Yeshiva did not come from my rabbeim. Make no mistake, I was blessed with the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest Talmidei Chachamim and Maggidei shiurim out there. The learning I did in the beis medrash, learning myself or with a chavrusa, for me, far outweighed what I heard in shiurim and shmuzen. What lessons remain with me to this day more than anything? What I learned from rabbeim’s Shabbos tables and hospitality. Those lessons guide  me to this day, as an individual, when hosting others, and when working on communal issues. Here are some examples:

Haaretz Hatovah
Real Life Stories and Experiences of Yidden Settling in Eretz Yisroel.
For Growing In Ruchniyus, There’s No Place Like Eretz Yisroel
Rabbi Yosef Younger’s story

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
 Anti-Semitism is a thing of the past. When the Jews were poor and the Christians were needy back in Europe, the Jews were convenient scapegoats for everything.
When the Jews in the shtetlach were destitute, their neighbors looked down upon them. When the Jews were defenseless and the Christians were illiterate, pogroms would regularly erupt. Jews would be killed, pillaged, beaten and robbed.

Haaretz Hatovah
Real Life Stories and Experiences of Yidden Settling in Eretz Yisroel.
Rebecca Lefkowitz – Waiting for Moshiach here
Reflecting upon my life, I am not certain why or when it started, but in my heart was always a desire to live in Eretz Yisroel. Perhaps its root was in an early trauma of mine – when I was 7 and my brother 4. At that time my father was stationed in Turkey for an extended stay, and my mother left us with relatives to rendezvous with him in Israel! How I wanted to go with her! But all is gam zu l’tova and perhaps those feelings planted the seed…

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
We live in historic times. Our period will be studied by history students for many years to come. They will study the rebirth of Torah and its proliferation on these shores and around the world, in numbers and ways never known to mankind. In less than a month, masses of people will gather to celebrate the Siyum Hashas of Daf Yomi, proving that netzach Yisroel lo yishaker.
Historians will study the phenomena of Binyomin Netanyahu, the longest serving prime minister in Israel’s brief history, along with the allegations of corruption, his coalition deals with the religious parties, and the upcoming second do-over election.
These are historic things. They don’t happen too often.

Haaretz Hatovah
Real Life Stories and Experiences of Yidden Settling in Eretz Yisroel.
Until 2006, at the great pleading of good friends of ours, who had made Aliyah a few years back, my husband Dovid had never been to Eretz Yisroel and I had only come once before as a teenager on a sponsored trip. The entire trip was a total of three weeks. But those three weeks were our turning point.  We went home knowing we were coming back, for good. We just didn’t know when.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
The more we hear people talk about the lack of truth in our world and the need to pursue it, the more it seems to be lacking. So much of what we see and hear is fake, superficial and patently untrue. Yet, to be accepted as with-it and relevant, we all, to different degrees, play along with the lies and don’t dare openly dispute them.