by Rabbi Yair Hoffman “In the choice of the land we shall bury your dead” [Bereishisis 23:6] The Midrashic Teaching The Midrash Tanchuma  [Behar 1] writes: “Be not alarmed by a man of evil eye” [Mishlei 28:22] – this refers to Ephron the Hittite. When Sarah died, Abraham went to Ephron to purchase the cave from him.

Reworded by Rabbi Yair Hoffman from a Vaad given and printed in 5784.  Klal Yisroel is blessed that we have Gedolei Torah such as Moreinu HaGaon HaRav Olshin shlita.  This thought on the parsha has been adapted for easier comprehension. At the beginning of Parshas Chayei Sarah, the Torah tells us “Sarah died in Kiryas Arba, which is Hebron, in Canaan, and Avrohom Avinu came to eulogize Sarah and weep for her.” The pasuk makes it clear that Avrohom Avinu wasn’t at home in Hebron with Sarah at the time of her death. The Ramban explains that after the Akeidah, Avrohom didn’t return to his home in Hebron. Instead, he traveled to his Eshel in Be’er Sheva to give thanks for the miracle he had just experienced.

US Senate Majority Leader-elect Senator John Thune (R-SD) said that the Senate will sanction the International Criminal Court at the Hague if it doesn’t halt its twisted pursuit of arrest warrants against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, which ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan filed at the same time as those of Hamas leaders, equating the war crimes of murderous terror leaders with the democratically elected leader of the only democracy in the Middle East.

Donald Trump Jr. said Sunday that the team now around the president-elect knows how to choose a Cabinet and build out an administration, unlike the time before his father first took office. Any pushback that Donald Trump’s unconventional choices face from the Washington establishment proves that they are just the kind of disruptors the new administration and voters are demanding, the younger Trump said. “The reality this time is, we actually know what we’re doing. We actually know who the good guys and the bad guys are,” he told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures. “And it’s about surrounding my father with people who are both competent and loyal. They will deliver on his promises. They will deliver on his message.

Rupert Nathan, 63, was arrested by British police and detained for 12 hours after making inflammatory remarks about a Reform rabbi in a private Facebook post. Nathan referred to Gabriel Kanter-Webber as a “creep,” a “fake rabbi,” and a “kapo boy,” sparking allegations of hate speech and antisemitism. For those that don’t know, the term “kapo” refers to Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps who cooperated with their captors, often at the expense of fellow prisoners. Nathan, while acknowledging that his comments were offensive, argued they were neither illegal nor antisemitic. “I admit that calling someone a ‘kapo’ is not a nice thing to do, but it is not a crime,” he told the Daily Mail.

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) made headlines on Saturday after comparing President-elect Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler during an interview with Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto. Clyburn’s remarks, in which he drew parallels between the current political climate in the United States and Germany in the 1930s, have ignited debate over the appropriateness of such historical comparisons. During the interview on Cavuto Live, Clyburn expressed concern that the nation is veering sharply to the right following Trump’s election victory. “I hope it’s not going as far right as that which happened in Germany in the 1930s,” he said, referencing the rise of Hitler.

A new poll by the non-partisan Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI) reveals that President-elect Donald Trump garnered modest gains among Jewish voters in the 2024 presidential election compared to his performance in 2020. The survey, conducted between October 30 and November 8, showed Vice President Kamala Harris receiving 71% of the Jewish vote to Trump’s 26%. “Jewish voters continue to support Democratic candidates by a substantial margin, while Republicans have made modest gains in recent cycles,” JEI stated. The Democratic Party’s performance among Jewish voters in 2024 marked its weakest showing since 2012, with declines ranging from 4 to 11 percentage points over the last decade, depending on the survey.

Joe Biden toured the drought-shrunken waters of the Amazon River’s greatest tributary Sunday as the first sitting American president to set foot in the legendary rainforest, while the incoming Trump administration seems poised to scale back the U.S. commitment to combating climate change. The massive Amazon region, which is about the size of Australia, stores huge amounts of the world’s carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that drives climate change when it’s released into the atmosphere. But development is rapidly depleting the world’s largest tropical rainforest, and rivers are drying up. Flying over a stretch of the Amazon in a helicopter, Biden saw severe erosion, ships grounded in the Negro River tributary, and fire damage.

New details have emerged about a significant security breach within the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, involving the alleged leak of highly sensitive documents to the German newspaper Bild. The documents, reportedly aimed at influencing public opinion on hostage negotiations in Gaza, were allegedly leaked by Eli Feldstein, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Feldstein has been in detention since October 27, and the case is under investigation by the IDF and Israeli authorities. The scandal traces back to June 2024, when a noncommissioned IDF officer in the reserves allegedly transferred classified intelligence documents to Feldstein.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s office issued a statement on Motzei Shabbos that his scheduled trip to COP29, the climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, was canceled due to “security reasons.” Herzog was scheduled to fly to Baku on Israel’s Wings of Zion plane on Tuesday for a visit of only several hours. However, Ynet reported on Sunday that a report on an Azeri news site that is considered the government’s mouthpiece claims that the real reason for Herzog’s cancellation is Turkey’s refusal to allow Wings of Zion to fly in its airspace en route to the meeting. Azeri officials were not pleased by Israel’s statement blaming Herzog’s canceled trip on “security reasons” and tried to have it changed via diplomatic channels. Azeri officials confirmed the veracity of the report to Ynet.