(By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5TJT.com) Last week a measure was brought up in the New Jersey legislature to remove personal and religious exemptions regarding vaccination requirements. The measure was quashed, according to the New York Times, due to the efforts of various groups. One of those groups that advocated for the measure to be quashed was Agudath Israel of America. Sometimes, an issue arises where one must choose between two important values. Do we help promote the general welfare of the population? Or do we take steps to avoid any possible future curtailment of religious freedoms? This quandary is complicated, and recently came up in New Jersey where a law was proposed to remove the supposed “religious exemptions” to vaccination requirements. Vaccinations are important.

A year after Operation Northern Shield destroyed six Hezbollah terror attack tunnels, the IDF began laying new technological infrastructure on Sunday morning on the Lebanese border containing sensors to detect any sounds of digging by Hezbollah forces. IDF spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman stressed that the project is a defensive one, to thwart the digging of tunnels from Lebanon into Israel for purposes of terror, and is not based on new intelligence of active or imminent excavations by Hezbollah.

The most serious outbreak of locusts in 25 years is spreading across East Africa and posing an unprecedented threat to food security in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries, authorities say. Unusual climate conditions are partly to blame. The locust swarms hang like shimmering dark clouds on the horizon in some places. Roughly the length of a finger, the insects fly together by the millions and are devouring crops and forcing people in some areas to bodily wade through them. Near the Kenyan town of Isiolo on Thursday, one young camel herder swung a stick at them, with little effect. Others tried to shout them away. An “extremely dangerous increase” in locust swarm activity has been reported in Kenya, the East African regional body reported this week.

As seems to have become the pattern in recent weeks, there was heavy rain and cold temperatures in Israel on Friday and Shabbos after a week of milder weather. However, this week the stormy weather is set to continue and intensify throughout the week. The rainfall continued on Sunday and several roads in Israel were blocked due to flooding, including Halechi Street in Bnei Brak. The rain is expected to continue on Monday and there’s a chance of snow in the Golan Heights on Tuesday and on Israel’s high mountains. On Tuesday, temperatures will drop to below seasonal averages. Towards the end of the week, snow is predicted to fall in Jerusalem and on all mountains higher than 600 meters.

President Donald Trump’s legal team issued a fiery response Saturday ahead of opening arguments in his impeachment trial, while House Democrats laid out their case in forceful fashion, saying the president betrayed public trust with behavior that was the “worst nightmare” of the founding fathers. The dueling filings previewed arguments both sides intend to make once Trump’s impeachment trial begins in earnest Tuesday in the Senate. Their challenge will be to make a case that appeals to the 100 senators who will render the verdict and for an American public bracing for a presidential election in 10 months. “President Donald J.

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Motzei Shabbos ordered the Shin Bet and Israel Police to issue restraining orders against extreme left-wing activists who participate in anti-Zionist provocations in Judea and Samaria. The activists, most of whom are members of the Anarchists Against the Wall organization, come every week to the Arab villages of Bil’in, Nabi Saleh, and Nil’in near Ramallah and Kafr Qaddum near Shechem and provoke IDF soldiers together with Palestinian Arabs. They usually coordinate their actions with Palestinian Authority activists and other extreme left-wing organizations. Bennett also ordered that security forces should act forcefully against the protests and quickly disperse them.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com It can be called the Great “Schnapps vs. Wine” Wars. “Well, my father, and his father, had this minhag from Europe!” “Yes, but the Mishna Brurah, holds that -” “I don’t care what the Mishna Brurah says – that was written for those people without a family minhag!” These […]

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times Rav Ovadiah Yoseph zt”l was once asked whether Bnei Yeshiva are obligated in the Mitzvah of Bikkur Cholim, visiting the sick, or is it preferable for them to remain and study Torah? Before we get to how he responded, it might be worthwhile to review […]

Moshe Greenblatt, a 22-year-old Otzma Yehudit activist who was spending Shabbos in Kiryat Arba, was stabbed by an Arab as he was walking between Kiryat Arba and Me’aras Hamachpela. The terrorist tried to flee the scene but was tackled by a Kiryat Arba resident who bravely struggled to subdue him until IDF soldiers arrived at the scene and apprehended him. The Arab was then transferred to security forces for questioning. MDA paramedics provided emergency treatment to Greenblatt at the scene and evacuated him to Shaare Tzedek in Jerusalem in moderate condition. “When we arrived at the scene we saw the victim walking, fully conscious with a stab wound in his shoulder,” MDA paramedic Chanoch Zelinger said.

A 22-year-old man was moderately injured after in a stabbing attack that took place on the Worshippers’ Road in Hebron. The terrorist fled the scene after the stabbing and IDF personnel chased after and apprehended him. He has been arrested and taken in for interrogation. A 50-year-old Muslim woman was arrested after she waved a knife at security forces near the Damascus Gate in the Old-City of Yerushalayim. A 62-year-old man identified as Slavik Mevashev from Petach Tikvah is suspected of having shot his girlfriend, 57-year-old Vilna Yitzchakbev in her apartment in the  Ein Ganim neighborhood of the city and then taking his own life. According to initial reports, the cause of the alleged murder-suicide was a threat the Vilna was going to leave Slavik.