By Shloime Dachs
As many of you know, I’ve been singing and playing at weddings for the past 25 years. In life, we often take for granted what we have and at times lose sight of the gifts Hashem gives us day in and day out. In the music business too, its easy to sing “another” wedding and not open our eyes and see the Simcha behind the Simcha.
When I meet a Chosson & Kallah before the wedding to go over the Chuppah procession and songs for the wedding, I make a point in telling the young couple to not only appreciate the fact that you have grandparents (sometimes a great-grandparent) alive to witness their grandchildren walking down the aisle but to appreciate their parents as well, who have brought you to this day from the moment you were born.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5TJT.com
There is an Exxon Gas Station store located in Lakewood, New Jersey with a kosher food section.  The store carries kosher nosh, sandwiches, and even all the Jewish magazines.  There is also a foreign worker behind the counter who secretly films single girls and married women shopping and paying for their food and posts the videos on the internet.  Specifically, he posts the filming that he takes on Tik Tok – a controversial video app that some experts suspect is a spy app by the communist government in China.  Apparently, the worker pretends he is texting on his phone while he does the filming.
THE MACHLOKES REGARDING PHOTOS

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Put aside politics, religion and your personal thoughts about the State of Israel. Something monumental took place last week in Yerushalayim. Over fifty heads of state gathered in Yerushalayim to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Haaretz Hatovah
Real Life Stories and Experiences of Yidden Settling in Eretz Yisroel.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Va’eira, which we lain this week, is the second parsha in the seder of geulah. Although Shemos, Va’eira and Bo are separately named parshiyos, together they tell the remarkable story leading to our nation’s redemption from slavery.
Moshe Rabbeinu appears before the Bnei Yisroel and attempts to shine rays of hope about the future upon them. He promises that after hundreds of years of servitude, the Jewish nation would be redeemed. And guess what happened? Nobody cared to listen to him. The posuk (6:9) reports, sadly and hauntingly, “Velo shomu el Moshe mikotzer ruach umei’avodah kashah.”

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5TJT.com
This past month, a Kashrus alert has been issued in regard to Quinoa by a number of Kashrus agencies, including the Star-K.  It seems that Quinoa sold in the Northeastern USA has been found to be infested due to issues in the distribution chain and storage. The Star K reports that the issue is more widespread than previously thought, and that affected batches were found in markets from NY to Maryland. Booklice and mites seem to be the most common insects being found in quinoa, according to the alert.
Our question is, does Halacha require that Quinoa be checked with the lightbox method as the alert recommends?  If someone is serving you Quinoa – are you required to avoid it – if you think it was not checked properly?

Yes, it is here.  The Ateres Sara wedding hall has hosted numerous weddings since its opening in September.  For years, people have been dreaming of a venue in which to make a wedding of 400 people or more – conveniently located to the Five Towns, Queens, and Brooklyn.
Ateres Sara/Fountain Manor, located in Beth Gavriel’s new Kehilah at 322 North Corona Avenue, is a new 550 person capacity venue that is conveniently located 40 minutes from Brooklyn and within 20 minutes Queens and within 15 minutes of the Five Towns.
It is two minutes off exit 15 of the Southern State Parkway.  For now, there are three catering options – the house catering, Meisners, and Catering by Michael Schick.

LISTEN:

https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/What-Is-The-Foundation-Of-Klal-Yisroel-PazCast-178-Shemos-Parsha-51.mp3

For more info, email pazgold87@gmail.com.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
For some reason, in the wake of the Siyum Hashas, we have been inundated with feel-good stories about Yiddishkeit, many involving gentile policemen and the like. The storylines are basically the same: We behaved so well at the Siyum Hashas that troopers and stadium staff are commending us.
We are supposed to feel better about ourselves because people who man a stadium for sports events and concerts said that the Jews who came together for the serious and elevated purpose of celebrating the Daf Yomi cycle’s completion of Shas were better behaved than those who come to revel in Hellenistic entertainment, often ingesting spirits to induce the desired revelry.

Dear Editor,
It looks like we’ve lost all sense of appropriateness and hashkafah when it comes to Jewish music and the marketing of it. As long as we say it’s Jewish and we talk about people becoming closer to G-d, it’s okay?
Since when do Jewish singers and marketers talk about marketing their music to the masses? When did it become mainstream to talk publicly about music recorded by Jewish music artists in connection with the Grammys and the Oscars? Where do we draw the line?
Maybe once people started calling Jewish music jobs “gigs,” I should have realized that we’ve lost any sense of Yiddishe taam in what’s being done in Jewish music today.