By Rabbi Berach Steinfeld  
                In Gemara Brachos 8b and Menachos 99b we learn from the fact the broken pieces of the first luchos were kept inside the Aron in the mishkan that we have to be careful with a zaken who forgot his learning because of an illness. Rashi clarifies that this refers to a talmid chacham who forgot his learning via illness or because he did not have parnassa and had to go to work.

Rav Avraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1164). He was born in Tudela during the height of Spain’s Golden Age. There, he established a close friendship with Rav Yehuda Halevi. Three of his uncles were ministers in the royal palace. He moved to Toledo during the benevolent rule of King Alfonso VI. After the king died, however, the anti-semitic masses began to harass the Jews, so he headed south to Muslim Spain – to Granada, Cordova, and Lucena. In 1148, the barbaric Almohades overran Morocco and continued into Spain. He was forced to flee to Rome, Provence, and Rhodes (where he befriended Rabbeinu Tam and other grandsons of Rashi, as well as the Rosh). He traveled to Egypt and learned with the Rambam. He wrote a commentary on the Torah and Navi, based in large part on Hebrew grammar.

Originally established to help new immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union adjust to their new lives in Israel, the Ogen Group, formerly known as the Israel Free Loan Association (IFLA), is working to become Israel’s first “social bank.”
These days, Ogen works as a nonprofit loan fund that provides affordable credit to disadvantaged segments of the Israeli public, aiming to increase upward economic mobility for low- and middle-income families, as well as small-business owners. Founded by the late Professor Eliezer Jaffe, Ogen has provided more than 60,000 interest-free loans since 1990 totaling more than $330 million.

Outbreak has spread from Wuhan, China throughout Europe.
WATCH:

Israel’s largest independent, non-profit, fully volunteer Emergency Medical Service organization is expected to raise thousands to support lifesaving of people of Israel regardless of race, religion, or national origin

Were Israel’s elections to be held today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party would secure 33 Knesset seats, giving the ruling party a slight edge over challenger Blue and White, projected to win 32 seats, a Channel 13 News poll found Monday. The poll also projected a tie between the blocs headed by each party, giving each one 56 mandates.

President Donald Trump went after Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a pair of tweets and at a news conference in India on Tuesday, days after Sotomayor issued a dissent critical of both the Trump administration’s legal strategy and the court’s majority for enabling it.
Tweeting just before appearing in a welcome ceremony at the Indian ceremonial president’s residence in New Delhi, Trump cited a Laura Ingraham segment on Fox News titled, “Sotomayor accuses GOP-appointed justices of being biased in favor of Trump.” He then called on Sotomayor and also Ginsburg to recuse themselves in “all Trump, or Trump-related, matters!”

The Dow Jones industrial average sank 879 points Tuesday as investors absorbed increasingly worrisome forecasts about the coronavirus, which is spreading faster and more broadly than thought and is renewing recession anxiety. Tuesday brought the Dow’s two-day swoon to more than 1,900 points – the worst two-day percentage loss in two years.

A man tried to kill himself by attempting to ignite a parked vehicle’s gas tank in the Pentagon parking lot Monday, according to federal prosecutors.
Matthew Richardson, 19, of Arkansas has his first appearance in Alexandria, Virginia, federal court Tuesday afternoon on a charge of trying to set a vehicle on fire. If convicted, he faces at least five years in prison.
At about 10:45 Monday morning, a Pentagon police officer came upon Richardson in the Pentagon’s northern parking lot, according to court records, where he was attempting to use a cigarette lighter to ignite a piece of fabric that was inserted into the gas tank of a gray Land Rover.
The officer reported that when he approached, Richardson said he was going to “blow this vehicle up” and “himself.”

White House hopeful Mike Bloomberg will speak at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference next week in a rebuke of calls from progressives for 2020 contenders to avoid the event.
AIPAC announced Tuesday that the former New York City mayor, one of two Jewish candidates running in the Democratic primary, will speak live at its annual confab.
Bloomberg’s attendance at the pro-Israel group’s conference draws a contrast with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the other Jewish candidate who is now the primary field’s frontrunner, who said this week he would skip the conference over AIPAC’s connection to “leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights.”