Yesterday a missile fell on Bnei Braq. There is actually some dispute as to whether it was Bnei Braq or Ramat Gan as it fell right around the border. Bnei Braq people will never admit to anything falling in Bnei Braq because that contradicts a supposed promise of the Chazon Ish, a promise that was strengthened by Rav Chaim Kanievsky, that bad things wont happen in Bnei Braq (and it has been used to say that rockets will never fall in Bnei Braq).

The disturbances on Har Habayit began just two hours before the Leftist government signed their coalition agreements. We must admit, it is a miracle. Saar and Bennett are on the Right. We hope that they will overcome their personal hatred..

We sometimes think that only the Hassidic rebbes of old, of previous generations, could perform outright miracles, but today's rebbes are savvy and can work things behind the scenes, and maybe they are righteous and their tefillos might help in some situations, but not actually perform an outright miracle, today.

Well, Kikar brings us a modern-day Kiddush Levana miracle performed by a modern-day rebbe!

We here in Israel all know that this past weekend, including Shabbos, was pretty rainy, baruch hashem. With kiddush levana meant to be said on Motzei Shabbos, for those who did not already say it, a rainy and cloudy sky could be worrying, especially near the end of the kiddush levana period.

Rabbi Akiva Rabinowitz, the Admor of Porisov, told his hassidim out after the melave malka to go out and say the kiddush levana. Of course they went out, but found no visible moon due to the clouds. The hassidim went back in and told the rebbe they cannot say it because of the wintry weather causing the moon to not be visible. The rebbe repeated his instructions and told them to go out anyway.

With the hassidim chuckling at his attempts, the gabbai took a towel and started to make a wiping motion towards the sky, as if wiping away the clouds. The rebbe encouraged him to continue. The clouds then began to move and moments later the moon was visible! The hassidim said kiddush levana, and all was right again.

I actually witnessed this from afar. In my minyan for Motzei Shabbos maariv, some people had not said kiddush levana the previous week so they wanted to say it then. I stayed to help with the minyan, but unfortunately the moon was covered by clouds. The clouds looked like they were moving quickly, and every few moments we'd get a peek at the moon, but not enough to say kiddush levana. Sure enough, moments later, the clouds continued to move and there was a big gap in the cloud cover exposing the moon for a nice period of time, long enough to say kiddush levana, and the guys were able to happily say it! We were not in Jerusalem at the time, but the Porisov miracle helped my friends as well!

this is amazing and frightening... the bus hit and destroyed by a Hamas anti-tank missile had been transporting 50 IDF soldiers and just moments before had left them off at their destination. Moments  after letting the soldiers off, Hamas destroyed the nearly empty bus - the driver who was off the bus  was injured and one soldier standing next to the bus was wounded badly.
All the injured soldiers and civilians should have a refuah shleima and quiet should be brought back to the border towns and to all of Israel.

The BBC is reporting about a miracle that happened to save a life in the explosion during he terrorist attack in Manchester last week.

Surprisingly enough, perhaps, the miracle happened via a smartphone.

According to the BBC, Lisa Bridgett was using her smartphone when the attack happened. A nut from the bomb would have hit her and killed her if not for the smartphone she was using at the time. The nut went into the phone and its path was diverted or slowed down and only injured her.

While I am skeptical the smartphone was the source of the miracle, as a kosher phone could have done the same, as could have a book or  many other objects, and it was probably more something in her personal life that made her worthy of the miracle and the phone she was using was just the medium through which the miracle manifested itself, one cannot but appreciate and smile at the humor in the BBC headline, at least from an Orthodox Jewish perspective in which smartphones are not exactly considered worthy of meriting a miracle.

this ad is funny..

Piece of Afikoman Matzah Saves Child On Flight from Israel

  -- Matzav

I like how they know and are sure it was the afikomen matza that saved the sick boy and not the doctors that were working on him...

another war miracle:

as reported on the Radio Kol Hai program, by the people involved.

The article was already translated by JewishMom.com so I am just ripping it from there, instead of translating it myself..


when you eat your matza next Pesach, think about how the matza might just be bigger than just a piece of matza, and how thigns we do have effects on so many other things, even without us necessarily knowing about it

This commander of Givati, Ofer Vinter, who got criticized for his pre-battle letter to his soldiers in which he said they will be fighting God's battle and should say Shema Yisrael when going out to battle, is something special.

NRG excerpts part of an interview Vinter has given to Mishpacha magazine (I assume the Hebrew edition - you probably should go out and buy this week's edition to see the whole thing). As well, Ynet has some video talking to Vinter and more of his comments on the battle.

Vinter said that now, during this time of war, when the desire to join the armed forces is strong, now it must be stressed that what is really needed for the nation is that the yeshiva students should be learning Torah even more and with more force. It is the Torah that protects the nation of Israel more than anything else. Whoever can sit and learn - must do so now.

Vinter also describes how his forces have seen miracles in their battles. One story he relates is when they were fighting in Hirbat Hizaah, Vniter says he saw something he had not seen during his entire career in the army to date. Vinter describes that they had decided to attack the area in the week hours of the morning, before daybreak, so the enemy would not notice them. The extraction team arrived at the location on time, but the fighters arrived late. Vinter says they did not know what to do, as the sky was already starting to light up and the soldiers were becomign visible, yet they needed to attack. Suddenly, Vinter says, a cloud cover came over them and protected them. Clouds of glory (ananei kavod). Suddenly it covered us, the fighters, a heavy fog, that stayed there throughout the attack.Nobody saw us. Only after the houses targeted were destroyed and there was no longer any danger to the soldiers did the fog disperse. Exactly as it says "For Hashem will go with you to save you".

There is more on NRG, and I assume there will be more in the full interview in Mishpacha.

It is with the increasing number of people like Ofer Vinter in command positions in the Israeli army that they IDF will become not just Israeli but more Jewish in nature.

Yes, that is a picture of a bullet stuck in a hand grenade.

An IDF soldier was shot at from a terrorist with a Kalshnikov rifle. The bullet lodged itself in the grenade that was in the vest on the soldier.

The soldier was not killed by either the bullet, or by the expected explosion of the hand grenade that you would expect to happen in such a situation...
source: Mako news

Here is a story with two take-aways:
1. Bnei Braq miracles are the best!
2. until recently it was very rare for a yeshiva student to grow a beard. After a bochur got married and joined a kollel, growing a beard was always common - but as a bochur it was rare (not including in Hassidic yeshivas). Now it is not only common to see yeshiva bochurim sporting beards, but it has almost become a "must".
3. it looks like Litvish boys now date like Hassidic boys
4. perhaps we have a new solution for the shidduch crisis in America...

Here is the story, as reported by Kikar:
During the week before Pesach, the mayor of Bnei Braq, Chanoch Zeibert, went with a group of people to pay a visit to Rav Chaim Kanievsky. Included in the group was Deputy Mayor Avraham Rubinstein and sons. Rubinstein asked for a bracha for one of his sons to find his bashert.

According to the story, Rav Kanievsky looked at the relevant son and asked him why he was not growing a beard. The young man replied that he is, but his hair is very light so it is barely noticeable.

Rav Kanievsky took a closer look and then gave him the bracha that if so, then Hashem should help him get engaged very soon.

Sure enough, within the week he was engaged!

Kikar continues with another story of a French businessman whowent to Rav Chaim Kanievsky for a bracha to find his bashert. Rav Kanievsky looked at his smooth-shaven face and asked if in France they don't grow beards. After he promised to grow a beard, Rav Kanievsky gave him a bracha to get engaged very soon.

No word on whether or not this fellow got engaged yet...

Early this morning I read in the most recent edition of Zman magazine the story of the siddur that accompanied the Navy SEALs team that killed Osama Bin Laden.

I have no idea if it is really true or not. I mean, why would they turn a religious book that they dont understand and simply found (rather than having been given it by a rabbi or a mystic) of a different religion into an amulet for good luck rather than something of their own religion, or getting an amulet that was blessed and granted?

But, ok. I guess it is possible. And that they would shlep this siddur around the world, even in a helicopter that they had to take out the seats in order to conserve fuel, sounds strange, but it is possible.

My real question is why did they have such a difficult time finding the owner. First of all the name "Sorotzkin"  is a fairly well known name in the frum world. It would not have been a big deal to go to any kollel or yeshiva and get some direction as to where to locate a Sorotzkin, and probably most Sorotzkins could at least point them in the right direction of the specific one that owned the siddur.

And to require the use of CIA resources and travel across the world to figure out who the owner was? Did they never hear of Google? I did a search for "Chaim Dov Sorotzkin" on Google and came up with the exact information within seconds. Did the CIA and the Navy SEALs really have such a difficult time finding otu who the owner was and where he lived? It seems they had an easier time locating Bin Laden himself than locating the owner of the siddur!

Did you read the story? Do you think it is true or not?

With the new always filled with controversy, argument, fear, and violence, a story like this is a breath of fresh air - a welcome respite and an uplifting item.

A couple from Maaleh Adumim just had triplets. That alone is not newsworthy. What is newsworthy about this miracle is that the triplets were naturally conceived, itself unusual, and all three shared the same placenta making all three identical - a point which makes their successful birth an even rarer occurrence.

When the pregnancy was first discovered and it was realized that the mother was bearing triplets connected to one placenta, the doctors encouraged her to abort or at least do some pruning - trim the baby count and get rid of one or two. They said that the chances are very high that none will survive, and if they do there could be very serious birth defects.

The parents decided not to heed the doctors' advice and decided to go ahead with the pregnancy as usual.  "As usual" is an understatement. With such a high risk pregnancy she was constantly monitored and examined. Last Thursday, in week 34 of her pregnancy, after the doctors saw one of the fetuss (feti?) in distress, she gave birth via Cesarean Section to all three healthy, albeit small, babies. Each kid weighs 1.5kg. The boys are going by the names a, b and c until they reach an appropriate weight to get their circumcisions. The parents, married just under two years, now have 4 children younger than the age of 1. (source: Ynet)

I wish the parents mazal tov and much luck and success. they are going to have a tough year, let alone 18 years, ahead of them...

There is a famous story with Rav Chaim Kaniesky about how he never really knew what the "chagav" looked like - how to identify the kosher grasshopper described in the Torah. One time when he was learning the related gemara, suddenly a chagav showed up in his room. Rav Chaim inspected it, decided it met the criteria of the gemara and therefore is obviously the elusive chagav and the miraculous story of how the chagav appeared so Rav Chaim Kanievsky could understand the gemara that much better was retold.. I might have some the few details not 100% accurate, but that is the gist of the story of Rav Chaim Kanievsky's grasshopper miracle..

According to Kikar, Rav Chaim Kanievsky's apartment has been undergoing some renovations. According to the story, it seems unclear but it looks to me like this happened before the renovations began, Rav Chaim woke up from his sleep on a Friday night and looked at one of the walls. He told his family that he is worried that the wall, that wall was where the grasshopper miracle had occurred, would be knocked down.

And what's wrong with knocking down the wall?

Rav Chaim explained that a story had happened with the Chida that a miracle had happened on stairs near his house. A short while later the Chida wanted to cover the stairs with gold as a sign. Marking the place of the miracle in such a fashion would strengthen other Jews in their faith. Therefore, Rav Chaim said, it is very important that the wall upon which the grasshopper miracle had occurred should remain intact.

Interesting story.

The latest miracle story to stir the pot in Bnei Braq is a miracle from rav Chaim Kanievsky that helped somebody get a shidduch.

The story, as reported by Kikar, goes that 2 months ago a 30 year old, "older bochur" went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky and asked for a bracha for finding his soul-mate.

Rav Chaim asked him about himself and then said "Your zivug has not yet been born, you should have bracha v'hatzlacha."

The guy was disturbed by hearing that. Is he going to have to wait 20 or so more years for her to be born and grow up?

Sure enough, he returned a few days ago saying he was engaged. he explained that he got engaged to a convert, who only completed her conversion a month ago. A convert is like a newborn, so when Rav Chaim had given him the bracha, she had not yet been born.

A miracle!

A story that seems a little bit blown out of proportion to me, is reportedly getting the people of Bnei Braq very excited. The story points to the miracle workings of Rebbetzin Kanievsky.

The Story
The story was related this past Shabbos by Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein, brother in law of Rav Chaim Kanievsky and rav of the Ramat Elchonon neighborhood of Bnei Braq.

A young woman named Riva from Bnei Braq went a few weeks ago to Rebbetzin Kanievsky for a bracha before her wedding. The only thing strange about the request was that she was going to be marrying an Arab fellow.

When Rebbetzin Kanievsky heard that she is marrying an Arab, she was shaken. She tried to convince the bride to call it off, to cancel the wedding. Alas, it was to no avail, and the girl insisted she would not back out of the wedding.

Rebbetzin Kanievsky made one more request before the bride left. She asked the bride to at least recite one chapter of Tehillim every day.

A week later the bride comes back to Rebbetzin Kanievsky and informs the rebbetzin that she has decided to cancel the wedding, and she is breaking up with her Arab fiancée.

When asked what had changed, why now she was willing to break up, she responded pointing to the Tehillim she had said. Riva said that she opened up her tehillim to a random place and read the chapter that it had opened to.

The chapter she read was perek 43, and the passuk that caught her attention was: (Hebrew and English courtesy of Machon Mamre)

א  שָׁפְטֵנִי אֱלֹהִים, וְרִיבָה רִיבִי--    מִגּוֹי לֹא-חָסִיד; מֵאִישׁ מִרְמָה וְעַוְלָה    תְפַלְּטֵנִי.

1 Be Thou my judge, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; {N} O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

The fact that she saw her name in the passuk, and with the request to "deliver me form the deceitful and unjust man" was too much for her. She saw this as a sign and knew she had to break it off. (source: Kikar)

I actually laughed out loud, seriously, when I read this article. The article is about the success of a ridiculous new segulah that "has become popular in the haredi sector in recent years".

The story reported is that two yeshiva bochurim who have been having an unsuccessful time in the shidduch market went a while back to Rav Chaim Kanievsky to get his bracha for their success in finding their respective soul mates.

So far so good. No problem.

Then they decided to perform a segulah that "has become popular in the haredi sector in recent years". The segulah being that removing the schach from the sukka of the gedolei ha'dor is a segulah for finding your zivug.

That is the point of the article at which I laughed out loud. Ridiculous. They just make these things up and turn them into radition.

Anyways, they asked Rav Chaim Kanievsky for his permission to allow them to remove the schach from his sukka. He agreed to their request and they got to work. I hope he was just playing along and snickering at them, since he needed the schach removed anyway, rather than actually encouraging the stupidity.

After the schach was removed, they went in, Rav Kanievsky gave them his bracha.

Last week one of the two boys came back to Rav Kanievsky in tears informing him that he had found his zivug. Now they are waiting for word from the second boy.

It's a miracle! They are calling it a "mofes", an amazing wondrous occurrence by Rav Kanievsky. I am not sure what they are referring to - if it is the bracha he gave, he does that all the time and I am sure there are plenty of people who have gone to  him for brachas and feel his bracha helped them see success. If it is the "segulah" they performed, he did not do any mofes, but the segulah was successful. Anybody able to explain?

A sad story was just reported in the newspapers, of a young woman, a 25 year old Haredi woman, who was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in her uterus.

For months the doctors have been trying to convince her to agree to undergo the only procedure they say will save her, as her situation has been continually deteriorating, which is to remove her uterus. She has been refusing because she has not yet had children and sees no point in living if she cannot have kids. She continues to refuse any treatment, and will not give up on her uterus, until she has a kid.

Without receiving any treatment, her situation has deteriorated even more and she has recently been hospitalized as a result of her illness.

The doctors, with no other choice available to them, have decided to fight her wishes. They are convening the ethics board of the insurance fund she is part of, to see if they can find a way to get her the treatment she needs.

The ethics board has decided to contact her rabbi, a hassidic rebbe, to ask him to persuade her to accept the treatment, as her life is in danger if she does not.

The rebbe is being consulted and no decision has yet been arrived at. She continues to prefer to wait for a miracle, while the doctors continue to look for ways to convince her to undergo the treatment.

One can be critical of her and say she is doing the wrong thing, and she clearly is from an objective point of view, and should immediately undergo the treatment. Adoption is always an option, surrogacy is an option, and other options are available. Life does not have to end at the uterus. Who inculcated in her the idea that without bearing a child life is not worth living?

One can be critical, but who knows what is going through the head of a terminally ill patient. She has so much on her head, such heavy decisions to make. I hope she comes to her senses, or someone brings her to them, and she accepts the treatment she requires.

She should have a refuah shleimah.

Bnei Braq doesn't use the regular water source most of Israel uses, the National Water Carrier, Mekorot. The reason is because of a takana established by Rav Kanievsky in which he said one cannot use Mekorot as a water source becuse they are mechalel shabbos in their activities to keep the water running. Instead, Bnei Braq gets their water from an alternate company named "Mei Baraq" who uses a special generator for shabbos connected to the water pumps.

I guess it is a miracle, but...