Politics

We are currently in the middle of “The Seven Weeks of Comfort,” the period after Tish’ah B’Av where we focus on how to rise from the ashes and rebuild our lives. The talk of death, destruction, and tragedy is over, and we have turned our attention to t’shuvah, t’filah, and tz’dakah. However, as we enter the world of Elul, allow me to make one final point about the period we just concluded. If all you did during the last two months was say kinos, and not shave or listen to music, you missed the point!

Three weeks ago, I saw a video that broke my heart. A chareidi mother and father were standing in their apartment, begging for help in finding their 16-year-old son. The boy’s name is Moishe Kleinerman, and he has now been missing for 100 days. His parents, Shmuel and Gitty, are heartbroken (who wouldn’t be?) and they are trying everything possible to publicize his picture and his story.

From an early age, we have been taught to tell the truth. In his sefer S’fas Tamim, the Chofetz Chaim writes that falsehood is the only sin in the Torah where we are explicitly required to keep a distance from, as it says; “Keep away from anything false” (Sh’mos 23:7). When you think about it, it’s truly amazing. We know how serious sins are, especially idol worship, murder, kidnapping, and forbidden sexual relationships (among others). Yet the only time the Torah shows us that big yellow sign – “Caution: Stay away” – is when it comes to lying.

What were the chances that our father, Avraham, would have a son at the age of 100?

We’ve been taught lots of things before, but the goal of this article is to teach you something you have never learned before: how Jews are supposed to cry.

I can live to be 1,000 and will never understand how Memorial Day is commemorated in the United States. According to the website Military.com, “Since the Revolutionary War ended, 646,596 American troops have died in battle.” Many other sources give numbers higher than that, but let’s use that one for this article. This past week was Memorial Day, and the country was being asked to honor the memory of those 646,596 heroes. How was that done? Let’s check it out.