By Rabbi Yair Hoffman Chanukah is coming!   What is the story with the Book of Maccabees I and II?

The top uniformed police officer in the New York Police Department has resigned amid allegations he demanded inappropriate favors from a subordinate in exchange for opportunities to earn extra pay. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch accepted the resignation of Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey Friday night, effective immediately, according to an emailed statement from the department Saturday. John Chell, the department’s chief of patrol, will take over as interim chief of department and Philip Rivera will assume Chell’s duties as the head of the patrol division, the department said.

President Joe Biden signed a bill into law Saturday that averts a government shutdown, bringing a final close to days of upheaval after Congress approved a temporary funding plan just past the deadline and refused President-elect Donald Trump’s core debt demands in the package. The deal funds the government at current levels through March 14 and provides $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers. “This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted,” Biden said in a statement, adding that “it ensures the government can continue to operate at full capacity.

Germans on Saturday mourned the victims of a terror attack in which authorities say a doctor drove into a busy outdoor X-Mas market, killing five people, injuring 200 others. The attack Friday evening in Magdeburg, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, killed a 9-year-old and four adults and injured 41 people badly enough that authorities warned the death toll could rise. The driver, a 50-year-old doctor who immigrated from Saudi Arabia in 2006, surrendered to police at the scene. He’s being investigated for five counts of suspected murder and 205 counts of suspected attempted murder, prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said at a news conference.

The Chief Rabbanim of Israel, HaGaon HaRav Kalman Bar and HaGaon HaRav Dovid Yosef, appealed to President Isaac Herzog to grant a pardon to Sgt. A., the reserve officer who was charged with leaking classified comments from the Prime Minister’s Office. In their letter, published this evening, the Chief Rabbanim wrote that “from our meetings with many people, we feel that the issue is causing a deep and difficult rift between sectors. Of course, we’re not expressing our opinion regarding the judicial decision since it’s not within our authority…but from the reactions we are experiencing from the public, we can express our position.” “We see the institution of the presidency in general, and you in particular, as a factor whose sole concern is to be a symbol of peace and unity.

A resident of East Jerusalem, approximately 60 years old, was arrested on Thursday night on suspicion of assaulting a 74-year-old woman in her apartment in central Jerusalem. Kan News reported that the suspect was arrested in the Shomron by the Shin Bet and the IDF. Security officials believe that the assault was a terror attack with nationalistic motives. The woman, around 74 years old, was found on Thursday morning in her home with stab wounds on Koresh Street in central Jerusalem. The woman’s daughter called the rescue forces, who administered emergency medical aid and evacuated her in serious condition to Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem. Her condition improved in the hospital and she is now in moderate condition.

The Guatemalan police carried out a massive raid of the Lev Tahor cult at the border between Guatemala and El Salvador on Friday, rescuing 160 children and teens and 40 women after testimonies of severe abuse at the cult’s compound. The raid, involving over 400 police officers, soldiers, and psychologists, took place following testimonies from four minors who escaped from the cult last month and provided shocking details to the police about serious offenses. A formal complaint was filed to the Guatemalan state prosecutor’s office, which decided to launch an operation to rescue the minors in the cult.

Two days after Israel’s attack on Houthi targets in Yemen, the terror group launched a ballistic missile at central Israel in the pre-dawn hours of Shabbos morning, causing sirens to wail in numerous cities in central Israel and sending millions of Israelis to their bomb shelters. The missile caused sirens to wail in numerous cities in central Israel. Several minutes later, the missile exploded in South Tel Aviv-Yaffo, leaving a crater in a playground between two residential buildings. Sixteen people were lightly injured by shattered glass, 14 people were injured while running to bomb shelters, and seven people suffered from shock. The victims were treated at the scene and evacuated to Woflson Hospital in Holon and Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Toronto police have launched a hate crime investigation after Bais Chaya Mushka Girls Elementary School in North York was targeted by gunfire for the third time. Police responded to reports of gunfire at the Jewish elementary school at approximately 2:33 a.m. on Friday. Officers discovered evidence of a firearm discharge, but no injuries were reported as the school was empty at the time. This is the third such incident at the school this year. Gunfire was also reported in October during Yom Kippur and in May, both occurring in the early morning hours. In connection with the October shooting, a 17-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man were arrested and charged with multiple firearms offences. Authorities at the time were investigating potential links between the earlier shootings.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) released harrowing bodycam footage on Thursday of the dramatic confrontation between Chicago Police officers and a the illegal Muslim terrorist who shot a Jewish man on his way to shul on a Shabbos morning in West Rogers Park. The incident began on the morning of October 26, one day after Simchas Torah, when 22-year-old Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi shot a 39-year-old Jewish man in the shoulder as the victim walked to shul along the 2600 block of West Farwell Avenue. First responders arriving at the scene were met with gunfire, as Abdallahi allegedly opened fire on them, striking an ambulance but miraculously injuring no officers or paramedics. Police returned fire, hitting Abdallahi multiple times.