By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
This week is one of the Shivah D’nechemta, the weeks of consolation following the annual period of mourning and Tisha B’Av. Where do we find consolation in Moshe’s admonitions that fill this week’s parsha?
As we continue our study of Seder Devorim, we find this week in Parshas Eikev that Moshe Rabbeinu continues his rebuking of the Jewish people for their waywardness. He warns them not to delude themselves as to why Hashem has been kind to them and why they have experienced success. He reminds them that all Hashem asks for in return is that they have yiras Shomayim.

Various Perspectives and Experiences of Anglo-Chareidim Living in Eretz Yisroel
Great and Simple Environment
I grew up in L.A., studied in Waterbury after high school, and then came to learn in the Mir in Eretz Yisroel. I returned to America and learnt by Rav Asher Weiss in Monsey, NY. I met my wife that year and we settled there. She was finishing her college degree and I was happy learning in kollel. My wife had told me how she always imagined raising a family in Eretz Yisroel and it was something really important to her. In 2013, after our first son was born, we finally made the move.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Last week, Mrs. Shoshana Ovitz celebrated her 104th birthday at the Kosel. She asked that all her offspring join her there and they would jointly recite Nishmas. The picture of the gathering melted Jewish hearts around the world. Hundreds of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren of a woman who faced down the evil Eichmann in Auschwitz gathered in her honor. She survived some of the worst torture known to man and with faith and trust, she married and moved to Haifa.

By Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Parshas Devorim is always read prior to Tisha B’Av, for it recounts Moshe’s lecturing of the Bnei Yisroel for the sins they committed in the midbar.
Rashi (1:1) writes that all of the Jewish people were gathered together when Moshe addressed them. This miraculous occurrence that they should all be in one place and able to hear Moshe speak was brought on so that no person would be able to say later on that he missed the speech, but had he been there, he would have responded to Moshe. Therefore, everyone was there when he spoke, and Moshe said to them, “If you have anything to say, if you have a response to my castigation of you and what you did, speak up now.”

By Rabbi Dov Fischer
It is a question that Orthodoxy laity often ask: “Why can’t Young Israel and OU just merge? Why the double overhead?”  I even am asked this by people who miraculously comprehend the electoral landscape of a country that has at least nine different Orthodox-associated political parties (Bayit Yehudi, Ichud Leumi, Otzma Yehudit, New Right, Zehut, United Torah Judaism, Shas, Yachad (Rav Eli Yishai), and the Rabbi Nachman Party) running for Knesset and competing against each other.

By Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss
Let us continue our crash course on the art of prayer.  The posuk says, “Va’ani sifilasi lacha Hashem eis ratzon – And I let my prayer come before You at a time of favor.”  This posuk clues us in on a great secret:  That we can carve out for ourselves a favorable time for our supplications.  The key to success in this area is to preface our prayers with the performance of a mitzvah.  When doing so, Hashem is happy with us because of our mitzvah and therefore He looks more favorably at the request which follows it.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Back in the day when we were fighting for the life and freedom of Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, there were those who castigated us for our crusade. They said that he is a criminal, and he was indeed eventually found guilty in a court of law. “He is a felon,” they wrote. “How can you defend him? He’s a crook. Shame on you.”
We are not into conspiracy theories, but as we were following the story from the beginning, we saw that the hand of justice can at times be crooked. It can be used by people with an agenda to destroy someone who crossed them in one way or another.

By Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss
Last week, we introduced the theme that the national Jewish profession is prayer. As Rashi puts it, it’s our umnos, our craft. As such, we will now embark on a crash course on many of the skills necessary to become a professional davener to Hashem.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
At the conclusion of Parshas Balak, we learn that following his failed bid to curse the Jewish people, as Bilam departed, he connived for Moav’s young women to entice the Bnei Yisroel to sin. A leader of shevet Shimon was sinning with the daughter of a leading Midyanite in front of the Jewish people. Nobody knew what to do.
Hashem announced that He would send a plague as punishment for the ongoing decadence, when Pinchos arose from the crowd.