"Everything that the Holy One, Blessed be He, created in His world, He did not create anything for naught. He created a snail as a remedy for a sore; He created a fly to be crushed and spread as a remedy on a wasp sting; He created a mosquito as a remedy for a snake bite; and He created the snake itself as a remedy for a skin rash; and He created a gecko as a remedy for a scorpion bite.
The Gemara explains: How does one implement the remedy?
He brings two geckos, one black and one white, cooks them, and spreads the resulting ointment on the affected area.
With regard to these creatures, the Gemara cites that which our Sages taught: There are five dreads:
Dread that the weak cast over the mighty: The dread of the mafgia, a small creature, over the lion; the dread of the mosquito over the elephant; the dread of the gecko over the scorpion; the dread of the swallow over the eagle; the dread of the kilbit, a small fish, over a whale. Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: What is the verse that alludes to these matters? As it is written: “He that causes destruction [shod] to flash upon the mighty, so that destruction comes upon the fortress” (Amos 5:9), which is interpreted as: He who lifts the downtrodden [shadud] over the mighty."
-Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 77b 6-7.
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12 people arrested after dispute over secret tunnel in Brooklyn synagogue NYC
Twelve Hasidic worshippers were arrested Monday after breaking into the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Crown Heights, New York, and allegedly damaging the synagogue beneath it, The Guardian reports.
Chaos reigned at Chabad-Lubavitch’s world headquarters in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighbourhood of New York on Tuesday as Jewish leaders and police confronted what Rabbi Motti Seligson, a Chabad spokesman, called “a group of extremist students”.
The building was once home to the leader of the Orthodox Jewish movement, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and attracts thousands of visitors each year. Schneerson led Chabad-Lubavitch for more than four decades until his death in 1994, reviving a Hasidic religious community devastated by the Holocaust.
Seligson said rioting students from within the movement “secretly breached the walls of a vacant building behind the headquarters, creating an underground passage beneath a series of office buildings and lecture halls that eventually connected to the synagogue.”
Read more HERE
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2022 in antisemitic hate crimes.
Jan. 2nd: a 26 year-old Hasid was chased and beaten in Williamsburg. He required several staples in his head.
Jan. 14: in front of a Haredi Orthodox shul in Midwood, a white woman wearing Uggs and an orange hoodie spat on an 8 year-old Jewish boy and made anti-Semitic remarks. The woman allegedly yelled — at a 2, 7, and 8 year-old child playing outside of a synagogue, mind you: “Hitler should have killed you all.” “I’ll kill you and know where you live.”
Jan 22: On Shabbat in Crown Heights around 1 AM, a Hasidic man told the NYPD that he was approached and punched in the face. It's being investigated as a hate crime.
Feb. 4: On Shabbat in Bedstuy, a man ran up to two Hasidic men and punched one of them in the head.
Another assault involving a Jewish victim was also reported that same night
Feb. 11: At least one religious Jew was attacked on Shabbat evening in Flatbush by a person in a hoodie. NYPD are investigating as a hate crime. "Video shows the attacker trying to intimidate the victim, then slapping him in the face, knocking off his yarmulke."
April 1: A group of assailants repeatedly punched and kicked a Hasidic man in Williamsburg. a blurry video appears to show the group striking the victim and shoving him against the side of the truck, where he collapsed, and the beating continued.
April 2: Three teens armed with a crowbar, a knife and a machete allegedly threatened six boys, ranging in age from 12 to 16, on the Upper West Side.
May 6: Two men punched and kicked a rabbi in Crown Heights while making anti-Semitic remarks.
May 10: A man in a hoodie ran up to and punched a Jewish man walking in Flatbush. The man allegedly said, "Free Palestine."
July 13: 3 men assault a Jewish father in front of his 5 year old child
Aug. 9: A 44 year-old Jewish woman at a subway station on the Upper East Side "was choked by an unidentified male suspect, who made antisemitic remarks to her while she waited on the subway platform of the No. 6 train at around 11:20 a.m." according to NYPD.
Aug. 20: Two ultra-Orthodox men were chased down the street in Williamsburg, and at least one was sprayed with a fire extinguisher (which contains major skin and eye irritants)
Aug. 22: A 27-year-old Hasid was slapped by a stranger on Lynch St. near Marcy Ave in Williamsburg at about 4:30 p.m., per NYPD.
Aug. 22: Two teenage boys and a teen girl harassed and then chased a 13-year-old Jewish boy off of a Staten Island bus, took the boy's yarmulke from of his head, and fled.
Sep. 13: A 58 year-old man in Far Rockaway was allegedly punched in the face by a man hurling antisemitic epithets. NYPD has arrested a 34 year-old suspect, per Hamodia.
Sep. 17: Female suspect verbally assaults a Hassidic man before slapping the hat (and Kippah) off his head
Oct. 23: A suspect on a bike road up behind an 18 year old Jewish man and knocked him down
Oct. 24: Three students standing outside their Yeshivah on Avenue L & East 18th Street, were pelted by eggs. The perpetrators screamed “Free Palestine" and forced the students to say it as well.
Nov. 3: an elderly Jewish man walking on Kingston Ave had water and garbage thrown at him.
Nov. 8: Three men fired a gel-based pellet gun at a Hasidic woman and her son. They have been charged with assault as a hate crime, assault, aggravated harassment, and criminal possession of a weapon.
Nov. 9: A group of 4 assaulted a Jewish man in Brooklyn, knocking off his streimel
Dec. 5: A father and his 7 year-old son were shot with a BB gun outside of a Staten Island kosher grocery store
I want to be clear that A) this is ONLY! inside of New York City B) is only assaults and not any other kind of hate crimes like harassment or threats or property crimes and finally C) this is one reporter's informal attempt to track this problem, she admits she thinks she missed some crimes, so this list should not be seen as an authoritative list.
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“The life and vitality which the teachings of Chasidus infuse into all aspects of the world (the “miniature world” of man, and the “real,” literal world) issue from the vitality that Chasidus infuses into all the elements of Torah, and are generated from that life-force—for all the elements of Creation are drawn from and are derived through the Torah.
In the Torah itself there are four levels of interpretation: peshat, remez, drush and sod, and the teachings of Chasidus imbue each one with life and vitality.
That is, in addition to the explanations which Chasidus gives to various subjects within all four parts of Torah (which negates the common misconception that Chasidus arose in order to explain only the “esoteric” part of Torah) the learning of Chasidus also infuses life into every subject (in all the parts of Pardes [the acronym for peshat, remez, drush, sod]) which we learn in Torah. And the subject then “lives” in an entirely different manner, with an Essential life-force. This vitality strikingly illuminates and profoundly deepens one’s understanding of the idea.
An analogy to this concept of additional illumination and vitality in the Revealed part of Torah, and in a practical law, is as follows:
“The entire service of Yom Kippur is only acceptable when done by him” (the High Priest). In the same manner that the holiness of Yom Kippur is effective for the special services of Yom Kippur, it also affects the daily and extra (Shabbat) sacrifices that are in themselves connected to all the regular days of the year; they, too, become sanctified through the sanctity of Yom Kippur.
The same is true of Chasidus, the “Shabbat Shabbaton” of Torah: it likewise affects and influences all the parts of Torah. For the four parts of Pardes are the four levels of the Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah and Chaya of Torah, and Chasidus is the Torah’s Yechidah ; and the manifestation and revelation of the Yechidah elevates all the other four levels of NaRaNaCh, as explained above.”
-Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.
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