This Sunday evening the Miami Beach Community Kollel will be offering a powerful and inspiring Zoom lecture by the Rabbi Eytan Feiner, Rav of Congregation Kneseth Israel -The White Shul – Far Rockaway, New York.  As the unfolding crisis of the COVID 19 pandemic continues to affect so much of our daily lives and as we look back at the havoc of the past four months it is time for us to take stock of what have we learned and ask ourselves: How have we changed? What have we learned? and how has the pandemic made us better?The Miami Beach Community Kollel has been serving the residents and visitors to Miami Beach, Florida for the past 25 years with its beautiful Bais Medrash, it’s sincere davening and its many Torah shiurim and programs.

The Health Ministry recorded 1,360 new cases of the coronavirus on Motzei Shabbos in the previous 24 hours, raising the number of active virus patients to 18,296, with 134 patients in serious condition. There’s been a significant increase in the number of ventilated patients to 49, an almost 17% rise since Friday at midnight. The death toll has risen to 354. Four Knesset members entered quarantine on Friday after it was discovered that they had been in contact with confirmed coronavirus carriers. MK Nir Barkat (Likud), MK Tehila Friedman (Blue & White), MK Orna Barbivai (Blue & White), and Aida Touma-Sliman (Joint List) will be in quarantine until July 14.

President Trump visited the Walter Reed Military Hospital Saturday where he was spotted wearing a face mask in public for the first time amid surging cases of coronavirus in the U.S. Trump flew by helicopter to the military hospital to meet with wounded soldiers and medical staff, telling reporters at the White House prior to his departure that he would “probably wear a mask.” “When you’re in a hospital, especially… I think it’s expected to wear a mask,” the president said after months of refusing to wear one in public. As the coronavirus pandemic has surged in the U.S. — with over 3.2 million confirmed cases and more than 134,000 deaths — several GOP members have come out urging people to wear masks, adding that it should be an issue of health, not politics. (AP)

Israelis throughout Judea and Samaria as well as Yerushalayim were woken up to the sound of fireworks going off. The loud noises, which sound very close to gunshots, began just before 8:00 a.m. on Shabbos morning and continued throughout the day until just before 11:00 p.m. in many areas. Residents in many Jewish communities complained about the noise and municipalities and regional council hurried to alert their citizens that the noise were indeed just fireworks. The fireworks were launched by Palestinian Muslims in celebration of the end of the school year. The firing of the explosives worried many residents as it is highly unusual for such celebrations to begin that early in the morning and continue on for the entire day.

Residents of Jerusalem were alarmed and then puzzled as the quiet of Shabbos morning was disturbed by what sounded like a prolonged gun battle. Israeli residents are used to hearing gunshots at night at times since Arabs shoot guns in the air at weddings but weddings don’t normally take place at 8 a.m. in the morning. Some residents spotted glimpses of fireworks in the distance, an odd sight in broad daylight. It wasn’t until Shabbos was over that Yerushalmim found out what was going on. Residents of East Jerusalem neighborhoods were setting off fireworks in celebration of high school students receiving their matriculation exam results, which thousands of students received at 8 a.m. by text.

Justice Clarence Thomas spoke and Chief Justice John Roberts ruled. The Supreme Court’s most unusual term featured victories for immigrants, abortion rights, LGBTQ workers and religious freedoms. The usually quiet Thomas’ baritone was heard by the whole world when the coronavirus outbreak upended the court’s traditional way of doing business. When the biggest decisions were handed down, the chief justice was almost always in the majority and dictated the reach of the court’s most controversial cases, whether they were won by the left or the right.

U.S. wholesale prices fell 0.2% in June as food costs dropped sharply, offsetting a big increase in energy prices. The drop in the Producer Price Index, which measures inflation pressures before they reach consumers, followed a 0.4% gain in May, the Labor Department reported Friday. Wholesale prices have fallen in four of the past five months. The country has been pushed into a deep recession that is expected to lead to an unprecedented contraction of the economy in the April-June quarter. It is likely the downturn, triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, will keep inflation muted. “The June decline in producer prices underscores that price pressures in the broader economy remain extremely tame,” said Lydia Boussour, senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.

Protesters who have clashed with authorities in the Pacific Northwest are not just confronting local police. Some are also facing off against federal officers whose presence reflects President Donald Trump’s decision to make cracking down on “violent mayhem” a federal priority. The Department of Homeland Security has deployed officers in tactical gear from around the country, and from more than a half-dozen federal law enforcement agencies and departments, to Portland, Oregon, as part of a surge aimed at what a senior official said were people taking advantage of demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd to engage in violence and vandalism.

President Trump is expected to announce that he will commute Roger Stone’s sentence, just days before the longtime political operative is slated to report to prison to serve more than three years. Sources told Fox News Friday that the president could announce a commutation of Stone’s sentence as early as Friday evening. The president, as recently as Friday morning, has said he was “looking at” offering Stone clemency, saying he was “very unfairly treated.”
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The World Health Organization is acknowledging the possibility that COVID-19 might be spread in the air under certain conditions — after more than 200 scientists urged the agency to do so. In an open letter published this week in a journal, two scientists from Australia and the U.S. wrote that studies have shown “beyond any reasonable doubt that viruses are released during exhalation, talking and coughing in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in the air.” The researchers, along with more than 200 others, appealed for national and international authorities, including WHO, to adopt more stringent protective measures.