I just heard about a new "segula" I never before heard of. I am wondering if anyone here is familiar with it and is it real, is there a source for it, is it made up - any info you might have..

This is interesting. There might be different ways to ensure yourself some protection from CoronaVirus, even if other methods did not necessarily work..

If you ever needed a reason to join the IDF and serve and protect Israel, this segula from Dr Ruth Westheimer might just be the best reason possible...

According to the JPost:

Sex-therapist and Holocaust survivor Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer joined the webinar of Friends of the IDF, titled Engage web series, on Thursday, telling viewers that anyone who serves in the IDF "will have good sex for the rest of their life."

I never before noticed Rav Yuval Cherlo get involved much in segulas, though it is possible that I just did not notice as I am not an avid follower or student of his.

Rav Cherlo has announced an important new segulah. A segulah that is surely one of the most needed and necessary segulahs in Israel. One that might save many a home and family from distress and misfortune. Rav Cherlo announced a segulah to be saved form being involved in traffic accidents.

Rav Cherlo says that the best and most proper segulah for avoiding traffic accidents, what some call the plague of the country, is to drive safely, to stay focused when driving. Not to do anything else, at all, while driving. To pay attention on the road, to consider what other drivers might do and to be prepared for eventualities, to pull over to rest when tired. We should at least minimize the incidents that are caused by human error.

A person should also daven to be safe on the roads, and say tefillas haderech and do chessed and give people rides and drive them to their destinations when possible, but most important is to drive safely.
source: Kipa

It is hard. It is difficult. We are all so easily distracted nowadays, and we have so many distractions. Do what you can, figure out a way, to minimize the distractions.

Drive safe.

you don't have to be religious to be superstitious...you can even be anti-haredi and still be superstitious..

In Israel it is very rare for rain to fall after Pesach. The Gemara calls it a siman klala, though I heard in a drasha recently (though I dont remember what the source was) that this does not apply within the first 50 days after Pesach (I think it was 50, maybe 30), and if the farmers say they need the rain, it is not considered a bad omen even after that.

However, it is still very rare. In past years when it rained in the month of Iyyar, we learned of a segula of the chida that drinking from the rainfall is a segula for good health, or a refuah, based on an acronym and a passuk.

Today it has rained across Israel, and might rain some more tomorrow, though it is not yet Iyyar - it is still the month of Nissan. So, what segula do we associate with this?

It turns out that this too is a segula for health matters, even though it is not yet Iyyar. The sites are quoting Rav Pinchas of Koritz who wrote that when it rains between pesach and Shvuos it is good for healing all the ailments, unlike any other medical treatment, and that is to stand out in the rain, reveal one's head partially in order to allow it to rain on your head, and to open your mouth and let some rain fall into your mouth from the right side. After Shvuos, some rains are still good for healing.
sources: Behadrei and Kol Hai News

If you want to try this sgula out, it seems at least harmless and is free to try, so go for it while you still have a chance!

Want to have a baby? If yes, then you need to be living in Bnei Braq. Actually, in a specific apartment in Bnei Braq.

According to an advertisement placed in the Bnei Braq ad-book "Merkaz HaInyanim" somebody is offering his apartment for rent with the qualification that living in this apartment is a segulah for having a baby.

The magical apartment is located on Rav Shach St.

Behadrei spoke to the owner and the story is that a number of tenants living there all had babies while living there, even people who had been childless until they moved into this apartment. The owner seems to not be sure how his apartment became a segulah, but he suggests that perhaps it is because of a specific woman, a tzadekes, who lived there at some point.

The biggest question might be how much higher rent one has to pay because of the segula..

Kikar has a story about how Rav Shach used to have boys from the yeshiva build his sukka with him and often the boys who helped build the sukka would get engaged and married during that same year.

Rav Asher Deitsch, one of the rosh yeshivas of Ponevezh today, seems to have adopted the segula. Every year some boys help him build hsi sukka. Last year, it seems, two brother helped him build the sukka and during the year they both got engaged!

Now, this year, more boys have joined in the building of the sukka, including some of the older bachurim who have not had mazel in finding their zivvug until now, and even some boys from the Mir Yeshiva went to help to take advantage of the segula...

And that is how segulas are born..

How do these things start?

JTA and Yediot are reporting about a statue, a piece of art, located, on loan, in Ramat Gan that has become a focal point of women looking for divine assistance in conceiving a child and giving birth.

The piece of art in question is a piece entitled "Birth" and is a statue in the shape of a woman laying down with a smiley face on her tummy. The artist, Menashe Kadishman, died last year at the age of 83.

The report says that women gather around the statue and take turns laying down on the statue and reciting chapters of tehillim and other things.

How do these things begin? How did women think, and how did word spread, that this statue has mystical powers and the ability to somehow help them conceive?

When a rabbi is involved in creating the story, like the story of the chair of Rav Kaduri in a shop in Ashdod,  at least it is somewhat understandable why some people ascribe spiritual power to it. In this instance, nothing is mentioned as to why people believe this or how it began.

At what point does it become avoda zara, and at what point does it become cheating on one's husband?

weird segula. I can't tell if he is serious or joking..

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...

This is the silliest/strangest story I have heard about a Rav Kanievsky "miracle" in a while... the article actually has a few, but I am pointing to one of them in particular..

Kikar is relating the following story as a miracle performed that occurred as a result of a bracha by Rav Chaim Kanievsky..

A yeshiva bochur in a top yeshiva was having difficulty finding a spouse. He went to Rav Kanievsky for a bracha and even told the rav that he had been there previously and has done everything recommended by the rav yet is still having difficulty and has not yet merited to get engaged and married.

Rav Kanievsky, instead of giving him another bracha or set of instructions, wondered aloud increduously " what do you expect me to do - tell you to go to the roof and jump  up and down a thousand times"?

This bochur actually went up to the roof, jumped up and down a thousand times. Lo and behold, a week later he got engaged!

I do not know if this is an amazing story of emunas chachomim, a silly story or just a weird piece of fiction...

Usually you hear around "Shlissel Shabbos", which is considered a segula for parnassa, or when seeing the fundraising flyers that play up every never-before-heard-of segula possible, that the best segula for parnassa is to get a job.

Now it is official. Rabbonim are using it.

Kikar is reporting that a woman went to Rav Mutzafi for a bracha for parnassa, and also for advice regarding a segula she could do for parnassa. She had stopped working three months prior, and her husband learns in kollel,, and money has gotten very tight. They have three children, and she is also pregnant now with the fourth. So she went for her bracha and segula.

Rav Mutzafi responded that her husband should go to work for at least half the day.

A practical answer. Who would have expected such a thing!!??

I need some help here...

A yeshiva bochur who has bad health conditions went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky asking for a bracha.

Rav Kanievsky told him that if he would take his peyos out from behind his ears and keep them in front, he would be healed.

This yeshiva bochur later went to Rav Shteinman and asked the same - a bracha for his health, and mentioned that Rav Kanievsky had told him to wear his peyos out front, though he said he is embarrassed to do so.

Rav Shteinman said he should not be embarrassed but should wear his peyos out front, as instructed by Rav Chaim Kanievsky, the "Minister of Torah", and he will have good health because of it.

Rav Chaim's opinion seems to be known that peyos should be worn in front of the ears, and people should not be embarrassed by their Jewish appearance.
(source: Kikar and Bechadrei - though Bechadrei relates the story slightly differently)

So, I need help in understanding this.

It seems that peyos in front or behind the ears is more than just a matter of style, but I do not know why. The Torah says to not cut your peyos, but it does not talk about wearing them front or back, and I do not remember such a topic of discussion in the Gemara or Shulchan Aruch. So, where does this come from? And why should wearing them in front or back affect someone's health for good or for bad?

There is an entire industry through which people pay a lot of money to touch or hold, or even just see, items that had been touched or used by someone famous. Holding such an item - a sword of Napoleon, or one of Ben Gurion's books, Michael Jackson's jacket, Marilyn Monroe's dress, or Queen Victoria's bloomers - makes one feel connected to history, connected to greatness. Even just being somewhere knowing that someone famous had been there - walking on a trail in Israel where we know the forefathers walked, being on Har Habayit knowing some of the figures in history who had been there before, standing where Abraham Lincoln was shot, etc.

So I understand the need, or desire, of some to take dirt from the previously uncovered grave of Rav Ovadiah Yosef, as was reportedly being done, and to sit on his chair or daven in his shul. It gives you the sense of being connected to history, being connected to a great man.

And then it turns into a segulah.

The craftsman who built one of the chairs used by Rav Ovadia Yosef zt"l has opened his doors to people who wish to sit upon the chair as a segulah.

Shlomi Dadon from Kiryat Motzkin specializes in designing and building furniture for shuls. About 8 years ago Dadon designed a chair that was to be used by Rav Ovadia. Rav Ovadia liked the chair so much, he decided to use it for a special shiur to a large crowd and it was moved to locations across the country for shiurim given by Rav Ovadia. For whatever reason, Rav Ovadia told Dadon to keep the chair and to just bring it for the shiurim when needed.

A few months ago, that would be even before the death of Rav Ovadia, a woman came asking to allow her thirty-something daughter to sit on the chair to help her find a shidduch. Sure enough, she found her soul-mate shortly after.

Dadon also relates the story of a young woman who was unable to give birth for 7 years, but two months after sitting on the chair she succeeded in getting pregnant.

Now, Dadon says, every day tens of people, both men and women, come to his shop to sit on the chair. Dadon does not charge money and does not claim the chair contains any powers. he says he just makes it available to the public as a chair that was sat upon by a holy man, and people can believe whatever they want.
(source: NRG)

(This reminded me of another segulah chair I read about a long time ago. I cannot find the information now, but I remember reading about a chair that had been used by the Baba Sali (I think) that was being used as a segulah for women to sit on to help them with getting pregnant and having an easy childbirth.)

Before our very eyes, a piece of history, a connection to a great man, becoming a segulah.






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Donate to the Schneider Hospital so I can run the Schneider benefit marathon..

I went to the funeral of Rav Ovadia Yosef, zt"l. Rav Ovadia was one of the gedolim and a great leader to his followers, and the massive crowds that attended the funeral, wherever the actual figure is in the range of 600k to 1 million people, attested to that.

Despite my being present, I really had no idea what was going on. I could not hear the hespedim or the proceedings, and my impressions and observations were only about the massive crowds in attendance.

Some views from my vantage point:







and then there is this crazy one being shown on various media... of people davening in and around the grave prior to the burial. It seems to be some sort of segulah for long life.





Yehi Zichro Baruch

Reports coming out of the hospital indicate that there has been a slight improvement in the condition of Rav Ovadia Yosef, though he still remains in critical condition. One can pray for Rav Ovadia's improved health - his name being Chaim Ovadia Yosef ben Georgia (the Chaim was recently added to his name).

Besides for prayer, some other methods have been initiated to do for the merit of Rav Ovadia. For your consideration:

1.
A year and a half ago, when Rav Elyashiv fell ill, someone donated a year of his life to Rav Elyashiv. We have no way of knowing if it helped or not, but Rav Elyashiv did not live for a full year after that donation (he only lived an additional 5 months or so). Maybe it is pro-rated, and a year of an average fellow's life is maybe not worth the same number of days as a year of Rav Elyashiv's life... Another idea, as a follow-up to the original, for those unwilling to part with a full year was to just donate 2 minutes. Whether it works or not, his sentiment is admirable.

That same fellow has now donated a year of his life to Rav Ovadia. He also calls on other people to donate 2 minutes each. He says that Rav Ovadia supported his initiative to donate a year to Rav Elyashiv,and he says hundreds of people have already donated from their lives for Rav Ovadia.

Again, it raises the question how long can a person possibly live on donated time. Can he get past the supposed limit of 120 years if enough people donate?

Aharon, the donor, says that the way he made his donation is by saying during davening: Ribono shel Olam, I [state your name ben mothers name] donate a year of my life for the merit and recovery of Rabbi Chaim Ovadia Yosef ben Georgia. It is as simple as that.
(source: Ynet)

2.
The next option is to break your iPhone for the merit of Rav Ovadia. And if you do not have one to break, go buy one and then break it. Or maybe break someone else's iPhone. So, far, supposedly, tens of thousands of iPhones have been destroyed for the merit of Rav Ovadia.

I wonder if they destroyed iPhones in current use or had already upgraded to newer versions and destroyed their old and unused iPhones... I also wonder how much health each iPhone is worth. With each additional iPhone destroyed, how much better does Rav Ovadia get? Maybe this is a very efficient method, or maybe it is not efficient at all.

Shas leaders actually do not know who is behind this campaign and reportedly have criticized it for its cynicism and its abuse of the situation for ulterior motives - on behalf of the anti-iPhone campaign.
(source: Mako News, NRG)

3.
one can always turn to prayer and learning Torah for the merit of Rav Ovadia. It might be old-fashioned, but this method has survived the tests of time.

I recommend method #3...

it's especially funny that they have now turned the smashing of the iPhone into a segula for having children...

Davening by the grave of Rav Yonasan ben Uziel in Amuka has been considered a segula to find one's zivvug for a long time. The latest segula twist on that is that giving money to the Vaad HaRabbonim to daven for you on the night of the 7th day of Pesach, the night of the splitting of the Sea, at midnight, in Amuka will help a person find his or her own zivvug.




They say they have 90% success rate with the last of names from last year. Can you imagine that - 90% of the names on last years list for davening have gotten engaged! That is an astounding number! Why not mention the percentage from 2 years ago or from 10 years ago? Because it is a new segula that did not exist 2 years ago or 10 years ago. 90% success rate for a new segula is amazing!