Neil Danzger, CFA, ACC

*No Missing Links* *The Omission of a Blank Space in the Torah Captures the Story of a People* ✍️ *Vayeitzei Essay by Rabbi YY Jacobson* This essay will not dissect a portion of the Torah, nor a chapter, verse, sentence, or word. We will not even focus on a letter or a syllable in the Torah. We will explore a glaring omission in this week’s portion. Any person who has been called up to the Torah, or those who had an opportunity to gaze at a Sefer Torah (Torah scroll) will note that it does not contain the familiar kind of punctuation used in books. There are no periods, exclamation points, or question marks; no commas, colons, semi-colons, or hyphens. 👓 *Read full article at:* https://lnkd.in/eGsWgcgq -------------- Share link with friends so they can receive Rabbi YY’s content 🔗 https://lnkd.in/etUQctFa ❤️ Dedicated by Dina Dornbusch for a refuah shleima for Yaacov ben Farida

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Election Day Battles (A BeEzrat HaShem Inc. Film) https://lnkd.in/es2Vcgnn Rabbi Yaron Reuven discusses the importance of participating in battles for G-d's sake. He explains that the Book of Judges tells of righteous Barak cursing those who failed to aid the nation of G-d in a war. Rabbi Reuven emphasizes that even if the outcome of a battle is in G-d's hands, it is crucial to actively fight for G-d's sake. Those who have the ability to do so and choose not to are cursed, as it shows they have chosen to stay silent in the face of G-d's desecration.

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This is so important

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CHAYEI SARAH: Real Estate Business - STUMP THE RABBI (220) https://lnkd.in/eC5wK8id Rebbi Tzadok of Lublin says that if you want to learn anything, look into the first place it is mentioned in the Torah, and there you will learn its essence. The first time Real Estate Business dealings are mentioned in the Torah is in Parashat Chayei Sarah, and today we will learn more words from the sages about it and much more information than can change the course of your business and eternal life. Learn, Share, Enjoy and Be Holy.

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I have never denied the uniqueness of Jewish people's relationship to Israel/Palestine. I take issue with two things: first, the colonial notion that this land is just for Jews and, second, the notion that Jewish self-determination must come at the expense of Palestinian self-determination. For those who aren’t Jewish or who don’t have ties to the region, it's difficult to explain how deeply personal this conflict is to me--and not just because I have family in Israel. I stand in solidarity with both Palestinian and Israeli people because a commitment to human dignity, equality, mutual recognition, and freedom is at the core of my Jewish values. ---- 🪬 Hate has no home here. My page is a safe place for respectful dialogue and dissent. Bigoted, bullying, and trolling comments will be deleted. I will not respond to whataboutery. Violations of LinkedIn’s community policies will be reported. 👋🏽 I'm a DEIB consultant, speaker, and educator passionate about building communities where everyone can thrive. 🗣 I talk about courageous conversations, connecting across difference, navigating conflict, and inclusive leadership. 💭 If you found this post insightful, please share to expand the conversation. 🔔 Follow me and tap the bell on my profile to subscribe to my content.

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Below article is a balanced sage perspective. Prior to our unconditional support of Israel and zionism, the US was much liked and respected across the ME. Things turned when we allowed Israel to act with impunity and gave it unconditional support...zionism ideology teleports us back 3,000 years and has no basis in modern laws. As an example we have supplied over 14,000 x 2,000 pounds for use in Gaza. We all know that you don't use these munitions in densely populated areas. It is akin to dropping a bomb on a school to take out a shooter....we wouldn't do it in the US...we shouldn't allow our allies to do it either. We forget our Constitutional values of freedom, equality, human dignity, justice, rule of law...when it comes to our foreign policy. By some estimates over 80 percent of Congress gets money from organizations linked to Israel. We need to clean this up and restore balance and Independence. www.trackaipac.com We need to decide will America be zionist or a republic democracy...it can't be both. https://lnkd.in/dzeA3zi8

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By Rabbi Belinda Silbert. The KaBaD tree diagram: This is a map of the Sefirot that stands for Keter, an abbreviation of the next three Sefirot. It was created in the early 17th century by Isaac Luria, the father of contemporary Kabbalah. Kabbalists meditate on the Omer while focusing on this map. This is a very intricate and advanced practice but can provide the inspired learner with much insight into the workings of the Sefirot and the Omer. The day is seen as a meditation where one considers what aspects of one's personality or emotional state need to be corrected or improved. The Omer, in this system, becomes a spiritual voyage through the human experience and a process for the tikkun (healing or rectification) of the soul. Scholars and mystics throughout the ages have paired each day with traits based on their association with the Sefirot. For a comprehensive understanding of the pairs for each day, one may search for a chart outlining these traits. The most prominent form of spiritual practice based on the association of the Omer with the Sefirot is the examination of each day in relation to the corresponding pair of Sefirot.

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There is a news article and an Op-ed today about the conundrum of how Israel can achieve peace with people who want them dead. You can cut the Arab-Israeli conflict any way you like, but in the end that is where you end up. Israel is the only liberal democracy in the middle east. It has endeavored to grant rights to those living within its borders that are unavailable anywhere else in the middle east. It has tried to reach peace with its neighbors and use its advanced technology to help anyone wishing to collaborate with it. For its efforts, all it gets is sand kicked in its face. It's proverbially the smart fat kid who tries to help the dumb kids with their homework, only to be mercilessly picked on for their trouble. Of course, that isn't how Israel's enemies see it. They see Israel as a foreign occupier in a land of powerless Arabs whose lands were stolen from them and who have lived a stateless existence ever since Israel's founding. Of course, to accept this premise you have to ignore the fact that neither Israel's Arab neighbors or the Palestinian people have done much to help themselves find a peaceful solution. The only option Israel seems to be offered is to dissolve itself and have its people emigrate to countries where they would be welcomed back. These presumably would the same countries that refused them entry when they were fleeing Hitler. By comparison, look at how Hamas is proceeding. Its leadership is vowing to fight to the last Palestinian. In fact, Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's leader increased his demands for a ceasefire after Israel successfully rescued four hostages. This was, of course, on top demands Israel has already rejected. In fact, Sinwar's cavalier attitude toward civilian suffering has finally led to Gazan's losing faith in Hamas. In a recent poll only 46% of Gazan's now have a positive view of Hamas. Yet, away from the fighting, on the West Bank, Hamas's popularity has actually increased with Palestinians. What this tells me is that the further you are away from Hamas's rule, the better they look. In an Op-ed by Ruth Wisse, she looks at how Israel has tried to win peace with its sworn enemies through good works and compassion. She writes, "Israel is learning that the wicked must be stopped before they kill the good and the pure." In other words, kindness to those who despitefully use you and wish you ill does not buy you anything but contempt. Those who are constantly urging the Israelis to make more concessions to Palestinian demands, merely are rewarding bad behavior. Wisse explains "When a peace-loving civilization indulges its would-be destroyers, it creates a moral imbalance that must end in its destruction." This seems to be a lesson Western democracies have to repeatedly learn. The costs of which are very high. That is "compassion with evildoers ends up doing evil to the merciful and the good." Thus, blaming Israel for the barbarity of its enemies is self-defeating for the West.

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Want to land a U.S. publisher for your book? Maybe if you are a “good Jew,” one who ticks the virtue boxes on Israeli ‘apartheid and genocide’ and Western colonialism. Other Jews get put on a growing black list. I am not Jewish but I write sometimes about Jewish themed books - Mengele, Hitler’s Children, and my exposé of Vatican investments in the Third Reich in God’s Bankers. Publishers are unequivocal in telling me they no longer want such subjects. As one prominent New York editor told my wife, Trisha Posner - whose last book was the bestselling The Pharmacist of Auschwitz - “the Holocaust isn’t trending.” That is an understatement. Or as publisher Adam Bellow says in this article, "There's no question that Jews are being excluded from the publishing industry at every level and rank – from editors at publishing houses unwilling to publish Jewish books, to literary media outlets refusing to cover Israeli or Jewish books and authors, major festivals no longer inviting Jews, and down to bookstores now boycotting Jews." So many of my colleagues, Jews and non-Jews, are quiet for fear of hurting their own careers. Why isn’t there more outrage? If we don’t stand together in opposition to this modern day blacklisting we will pay the consequences for generations to come. https://lnkd.in/eFGKc4zh

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is not bad to listen to this report.

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What the US is funding is not the defence of Israel. It is funding an extremist Netanyahu government whos goal is to push out all Palestinians and Arabs out of the Gaza strip, the West bank and Lebanon, dead or alive, and annect these lands into the state of Israel. It does not want peace, it does not want a two-state solution -that is a Palestininian state, and it does not care about the Israeli hostages taken by the terror group Hamas. It focuses on killing as many Palestinians as possible under the pretext that they are all Hamas terrorists, and making Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon uninhabitable. The problem is that they are also making Israel uninhabitable and Jews in the diaspora are increasingly taking their hands off Israel. An ancestral land and a state that was supposed to be a safe-haven for Jews the Bibi regime has turned into a place to avoid. To save Israel we have to remove the Netanyahu government. But how can this be done? The Israelis has given it a majority in Knesset to execute its policies. I think there has never been more pessimism for the future of Israel. "Although the world is crying out for the horrors to stop, Joe Biden and the US Congress continue to send weapons and money, totaling more than a staggering $18bn since last October. Everyone has the same question: why is the US – and a Democratic administration at that, which is trying to win an election – still arming Israel when it’s carrying out what the international court of justice (ICJ) has deemed plausible genocide, while violating the US’s own laws? The Biden administration wants you to believe that the reason they are funding the Israeli military is out of a commitment to Jewish safety. This is the moral cover they use, a cloak for their collaboration in heinous war crimes. As Jews, we reject this myth with every fiber of our beings. Together, with tens of thousands of American Jews who have spent the last year protesting for an end to the slaughter, we refuse to let our histories, identities and traditions be used as the justification to massacre Palestinians."

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Breaking Free from Modern-Day Labans Not all villains are obvious. Some don’t wear crowns or wave swords—they shake hands, smile (sometimes constantly), and claim to be on your side. In this week’s Torah portion, Vayetze, Laban embodies deception in its most insidious form. Unlike Pharaoh, who enslaved the Israelites through brute force, Laban manipulated the narrative, trapping Jacob in a web of lies and control. He didn’t steal Jacob’s freedom outright—he made Jacob believe he was free while exploiting him for years. This story feels all too familiar to us at Lionsgate Network. In the world of financial fraud and crypto scams, today’s “Labans” aren’t distant oppressors; they’re often those who gain our trust—pretending to be mentors, partners, or even romantic interests. Whether online or offline, these “friends” use charm and fake manners to pull victims into their traps. Then, when the victim begins to wake up from the cloud of deception, the switch happens—blame, guilt, and relentless pressure take over. But there is a way out. Just like Jacob eventually reclaimed his independence, victims of financial scams can reclaim their power. At Lionsgate Network, we help shine a light on hidden truths, trace stolen funds, and build airtight cases for recovery. The first step is recognizing the deception. The next is fighting back—with the right partners by your side. To every Jacob facing a modern-day Laban: You’re not alone. We’re here to help you reclaim what’s yours—your money, your trust, and your freedom. Dedicated to my father, Yaakov, son of Zina. Rest in peace. Painting: Jacob's Ladder by Marc Chagall (1973) #Truth #Justice

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What October 7th Revealed Yesterday, we marked a year since the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7th and a year of war that has upended the lives of all Israelis and Palestinians. In their sheer barbarism, the Hamas atrocities reminded us of what humanity is capable of at its worst. But, in the year since, we have also seen humanity at its best through countless acts of heroism and kindness—from first responders and ordinary citizens, both Jewish and Arab, who risked their own lives to save others, to people of goodwill around the world who have rallied to bring humanitarian relief to Palestinians displaced by the war and to advocate for the Israelis still being held hostage in Gaza. For many Israelis like myself, the sheer surprise of the October 7th attacks evoked the memory of the Yom Kippur War that began exactly 50 years and one day earlier. And yet, other events over the past year have revealed how much the geopolitical landscape of our region has changed over those five decades—be it Jordanian cooperation in downing Iranian missiles, mediation efforts by Egypt and Qatar to secure the release of hostages and a durable ceasefire, the remarkable endurance of Israel’s recent accords with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco, and the continued efforts of Saudi Arabia to expand that circle of peace in a way that also advances the legitimate Palestinian quest for self-determination. We are still far from the post-conflict Middle East we all yearn for, but there are reasons to remain hopeful. As we mourn all innocent lives lost on October 7th and in the year since, may we all find the strength to continue fighting for a future in which Israelis and Palestinians are good neighbors rather than sworn enemies. Yesterday, we mourned. Today, let us act. More at https://lnkd.in/eyv9WAju

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BREAKING: UN General Assembly passes resolution calling for Jerusalem Old City to be Jew-free The Palestinian-fronted resolution passed by wide margin, demanding that the Israeli army and Jewish residents evacuate to pre-1949 line within a year. Jerusalem’s Old City, in addition to Judea and Samaria, must be Judenrein within a year, according to a Palestinian-drafted resolution, which the U.N. General Assembly passed on Wednesday. The resolution, which passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions, is meant to give force to a July advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, which declared Israeli presence to be illegal in any area over the 1949 armistice line. More than 40 countries sponsored the resolution, which was the first that Palestinians filed after being granted unprecedented privileges, for a non-U.N. member, earlier this year. The resolution calls on the Israel Defense Forces to withdraw completely from Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip within 12 months, which means evacuating all Jewish communities beyond the armistice line, including Jerusalem’s Old City. It also bans arms sales to the IDF of any equipment that would be expected reasonably to be used in the territory over the 1949 lines and calls for a boycott of all products produced by Jews in those areas. The resolution text lacks any mention of Israeli security concerns, historic ties to the lands or Hamas’s terror attacks in Israel on Oct. 7. The vote came after a day of debate on Tuesday. Argentina, Czechia, Fiji, Hungary, Malawi, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, Tuvalu and the United States joined Israel in opposing the resolution. Notably, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Ukraine and Australia were among those who abstained. General Assembly resolutions have no legal force, but the resolution’s passage on Wednesday is expected to be used in international courts and other fora to seek additional action against the Jewish state. It is widely expected that the Palestinians will request that the U.N. Security Council take up the issue. Security Council resolutions are binding, but the United States would be expected to thwart such an effort, including with its veto power. https://lnkd.in/exmG5ZNv * Note the UK abstained.

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Excellent and accurate analysis - I encourage everyone to read and share this, as it intelligently resonates with truth, facts, and an impetus and relevant moral perspective. "The Western left’s blaming of Israel for everything, and its implicit absolution of Iran, is grimly revealing. These people seem to view Israel as the only true actor in the Middle East, and everyone else as mere respondents to Israel’s actions. Israel is the author of the Middle East’s fate, while the rest of them – Hamas, the Houthis, even Iran – are mere bit-part players with the misfortune to be caught up in Israel’s vast and terrifying web. This is identitarianism, not anti-imperialism. A new generation of radicals educated into the regressive ideology that says ‘white’ people are powerful and ‘brown’ people are oppressed can only understand the Middle East in these terms, too. The end result is that they demonise Israel and infantilise Iran. The Jewish State comes to be seen as uniquely malevolent while Iran is treated as a kind of wide-eyed child who cannot help but lash out at its ‘Zionist’ oppressor. Israel is damned as a criminal state, while Iran’s crimes against humanity are downplayed, even memory-holed. This is where wokeness leads, then: to sympathy for one of the most backward and repressive states on Earth on the deranged basis that its criminal strikes against Israel represent a blow against the arrogant West itself. In encouraging our young to hate their own societies, we’ve made them moral fodder for a far worse society." #antisemitism #standwithisrael #neveragain #noceasefire #hamasisisis #destroyhamas #bringthemhome #bringthemhomenow #goodvsevil #terror #israel #campusantisemitism #sjpiskkk #israelnowandforever #metoounlessurajew #Metoo_unless_UR_A_Jew

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