by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com One girl needs to get to seminary.  A boy needs money for clothing.  A Yeshivah needs money.  The Mikbah!  A Kiruv organization.  Our shul needs money! Who do we give to first?  Are there halachos? The answer is yes, but first, more questions. There are many organizations in Eretz […]

The condition of the Pittsburger Rebbe, HaRav Mordechai Mottel Yissachar Leifer, 64, who was hospitalized on Shabbos morning due to the coronavirus, has deteriorated further, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported. The Rebbe is currently hospitalized in critical condition in the ICU of Laniado Hospital in Netanya, sedated and ventilated. The Rabbanim of Ashdod, where the Rebbe lives, called to the public to hold a public tefillah on Wednesday, Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul, and the Belzer Beis Din Kehal Machzikei HaDas also published a notice to daven for the Rebbe. The Rebbe’s sons and sons-in-law delivered words of chizuk on the Pittsburgher phone hotline encouraging the public to continue davening and accept personal kabbalos for the zechus of the Rebbe’s refuah sheleimah.

HaRav Yaakov Ben Shimel, the head of the group of shochtim who traveled from Israel to Paraguay is seriously ill with the coronavirus, Kikar H’Shabbos reported. Despite the fact that South America has been seriously affected by the coronavirus, the mashgichim traveled there to ensure the public has an adequate supply of mehudar meat. But HaRav Yaakov is now hospitalized in a local hospital, sedated and ventilated. According to the Kikar report, all the mashgichim returned to Israel after HaRav Yaakov was diagnosed due to fear of an internal outbreak of the coronavirus among the staff. HaRav Yaakov’s family has requested that the public daven for Yaakov ben Esther l’refuah sheleimah b’toch shaar cholei Yisrael. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Chezy Levy said on Monday that Israel is working on a plan to allow tourists into Israel beginning in September. Levy said at a meeting of the Knesset State Control Committee that the Health Ministry will present a plan to reopen Israel’s skies to tourists by the end of August. The plan will allow tourists from “green countries” to enter Israel in “controlled groups” as well as enable Israelis to travel for business even to “red countries.” On Sunday, the Health Ministry signed an order retroactively exempting Israelis returning from 20 countries from the requirement to quarantine upon arrival back in Israel.

Hagaon Rav Yechiel Disseldorf, a Rosh Mesivta in Yeshivas Be’er HaTorah, contracted the coronavirus about a month ago during an outbreak in the yeshiva and unfortunately, his condition has deteriorated in recent days, according to a Kikar H’Shabbos report. Shortly before the end of the summer zeman, there was a coronavirus outbreak in Be’er HaTorah, with several staff members contracting the virus as well as dozens of bochurim. HaRav Disseldorf was one of the Rabbanim who contracted the virus. He was already on the way to completely recovering from the virus when he unfortunately developed a serious infection. His condition subsequently deteriorated and he is currently hospitalized in serious condition in Shaarei Tzedek hospital, sedated and ventilated in the ICU.

Israel and Ukraine issued a joint statement on Tuesday discouraging visitors from coming to Uman for Rosh Hashanah due to fears of sparking a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. “The epidemiological situation in Ukraine and Israel, as well as throughout the world, unfortunately, does not allow us to mark [Rosh Hashanah] per the usual customs,” the joint statement said.

Following the historic peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and amid reports that other Gulf State countries such as Oman and Bahrain will soon follow in the UAE’s footsteps, Kuwait firmly announced that it will not be normalizing relations with the Jewish state, Yisrael Hayom reported. “Our position toward Israel hasn’t changed as a result of the agreement to normalize ties with the UAE,” senior Kuwaiti officials stated in an official announcement on Sunday, according to the Al-Qabas newspaper. “We will be the last to normalize ties.” According to what Dr. Michael Barak, a Middle East researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC), told Yisrael Hayom, Kuwait’s stance is at least partially due to the Muslim Brotherhood’s foothold in Kuwait.

Michelle Obama assailed President Donald Trump on Monday for ripping migrant children from their parents and throwing them into cages, picking up on a frequent and distorted point made widely by Democrats. She’s right that Trump’s now-suspended policy at the U.S.-Mexico border separated thousands of children from their families in ways that had not been done before. But what she did not say is that the very same “cages” were built and used in her husband’s administration, for the same purpose of holding migrant kids temporarily.

The Trump campaign’s interactions with Russian intelligence services during the 2016 presidential election posed a “grave” counterintelligence threat, a Senate panel concluded Tuesday as it detailed in a report how associates of the Republican candidate had regular contact with Russians and expected to benefit from the Kremlin’s help. The report, the fifth and final one from the Republican-led Senate intelligence committee on the Russia investigation, describes how Russia launched an aggressive, wide-ranging effort to interfere in the election on Donald Trump’s behalf. It says Trump associates were eager to exploit the Kremlin’s aid, particularly by maximizing the impact of the disclosure of Democratic emails that were hacked by Russian military intelligence officers.

A young Jewish girl was abducted in Bensonhurst while waiting for her day camp bus on Tuesday morning, and after a frantic search, was found inside the home of her abductor. Highly credible sources tell YWN that the 11-year-old child left her home as she did every day all summer, and walked a half a block to her corner to wait for her bus to day camp. While waiting at the corner, a Jewish man approached her, grabbed her arm and then forcibly took her into his apartment. The mother soon learned that the child was not in day camp, and immediately contacted the Boro Park Shomrim Emergency Hotline, who called the NYPD and a search was launched in minutes. Dozens of Shomrim volunteers began searching every street in the area.