By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
This week’s parsha of Devorim opens with Moshe Rabbeinu admonishing the Jewish people for the various sins they committed during the forty years they spent together in the desert on their way to Eretz Yisroel. Rashi famously points out that he began his reprimand by enumerating the various places where they acted improperly. Moshe spoke this way to the Jewish people to show them respect and to not cause them embarrassment.

By Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer
A wild crisis has been thrust upon the Rabbanut – the Israeli Chief Rabbinate – and the Rabbanut is fighting back.
ITIM Jewish Advocacy Center, along with the Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women’s Status and the Kolech Center for Women’s Leadership recently filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of women who seek to take Rabbanut semicha exams. These feminist and pluralistic organizations claim that since the Israeli government recognizes semicha as a degree which entitles musmachim to employment advantages, it is discriminatory to exclude women.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
The period of the Three Weeks, when we mourn the destruction of the Bais Hamikdosh and its implications, has begun. We feel and fear the golus this year more than in several decades.
This country stands on the precipice of tilting towards socialism and worse. Rabid leftists and secularists are in control of the schools, universities and media. With their stooge who is running for the presidency riding a wave in the polls, they are so close to victory that they can already feel it. Nobody knows what this country will look like should they actually win the White House, especially if they will also control the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Dear Editor,
I write this letter as an insider. Not from what I hear from others. But as a bochur experiencing what I write.
I am acting as a whistleblower, exposing what is happening right now to the hundreds of Bocherim who would have been in Eretz Yisroel- to those who do not understand the full extent of the crisis we are in.
You may have been affected terribly by the Corana virus. But if you are like most people, you are probably past the worst of it and moving on with your life.
What exactly does “moving on with your life” mean?
You are slowly getting back to the comfort of day to day living the way it was 4 months ago, and enjoying the normalcy you are used to.

Dear Editor@Matzav.com,
There’s total chaos here in the streets of Yerushalayim. The Israeli police continue to lock down and cordon off chareidi areas without reason, while ignoring what goes on in Tel Aviv and elsewhere.
The fights that break out nightly now are terrible. They’re terrible for the unity of this country and terrible for the chinuch of our children.
The videos below will show you all you need to know.
And yet, there’s no one stepping up to speak out in defense of the residents.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
People struggle with direction on how to act and react when confounding situations arise. New diseases that have never been previously encountered pop up and begin to spread. Unfamiliar with the illness, doctors don’t know how to treat it and people are overcome with fear. A tragedy occurs, everyone frets, and nobody knows how to react. A frightening situation ensues and there are many capable, trained people around who should be able to tackle it, but they become frozen by fright and are unable to respond.
It is not enough to be intelligent, to have been trained, or to be proficient in everything during good times. To be really great, you have to be able to perform in a time of crisis.

Moving On & Up
R’ Chaim Leib Belsky
Ramat Eshkol, Yerushalayim
When we first came to Eretz Yisroel as a young couple, we did not give much thought to whether we “moved” here and to the possibility of “moving back.” We just saw ourselves as “living here.” This didn’t preclude us from moving back, but it did take our focus off the emotional issue of having left our familiar and comfortable place, and it allowed us to focus instead on “living” in the here and now.

By Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel of America
A high res version of the image above is available for download here or by clicking on the image.
The unhappy news arrived late yesterday afternoon that a federal judge had denied a motion to prohibit Governor Andrew Cuomo from closing down overnight camps across New York State, thereby putting the proverbial nail in the coffin on this summer’s overnight camping season in New York.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Chazal (Avos 5:19) teach that if a person has a good eye and a humble spirit and soul, he is a student of Avrohom Avinu. If he has a bad eye, an arrogant spirit and a haughty soul, he is a student of Bilam. What is the difference? The student of Avrohom enjoys this world and reaps the rewards of the next world. The student of Bilam falls into a deep pit and ends up in purgatory.