Ari H. Mendelson "Premier Psychic of Our Day"

If you want a thriller that won't sucker punch you like this, you know exactly which author to read.

@jewishhistoryst yutorah.org/lectures/86211…

The story of Avraham ben Avraham, widely known as the Ger Tzedek (the Righteous Convert) of Vilna, is one of the most powerful and revered accounts of faith and self-sacrifice in Jewish history. Born as Valentin Potocki in the early 18th century, he belonged to one of the wealthiest, most prominent, and most powerful noble families in Poland. While studying at a university in Paris alongside his friend Zaremba, Valentin encountered an elderly Jewish teacher and began studying the Hebrew Bible. This intellectual pursuit eventually blossomed into a deep spiritual awakening, leading him to conclude that the theology of his upbringing was false and that the absolute truth resided in the Torah. Because converting away from Catholicism was a capital offense punishable by death in Poland at the time, Valentin traveled to Amsterdam, which was one of the few European sanctuaries offering religious freedom. There, he formally entered the covenant of Abraham and took the Hebrew name Avraham ben Avraham, which is the traditional name given to Jewish converts. Despite the immense danger of returning to his homeland, his burning desire for deep Torah scholarship drew him back to Eastern Europe, where he settled anonymously in a small village outside Vilna, Lithuania, adopting the dress, long beard, and intense lifestyle of the most devout local scholars. While in Vilna, Avraham ben Avraham formed a close spiritual bond with the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman, who was the preeminent Torah authority of the generation. Recognizing the immense danger the young convert faced from search parties sent by his noble family, the Vilna Gaon advised him to hide in the smaller, more isolated town of Ilya. Avraham followed this advice and spent his days learning in the local synagogue, supported discreetly by righteous women who provided him with food. However, his sanctuary was destroyed after a conflict with a local Jewish tailor whose son routinely misbehaved in the synagogue; when Avraham sharply rebuked the child, the angry father reported the mysterious, aristocratic stranger to the Catholic authorities. Avraham was promptly arrested and thrown into a dungeon in Vilna, where he was subjected to months of intense interrogation and pressure to recant his faith. Because of his family's vast political influence and high status, the Church authorities, local officials, and even his own mother, the countess, begged him to return to Catholicism. They promised him full absolution, the restoration of his vast wealth, and titles of honor if he would simply renounce Judaism publicly. Avraham steadfastly refused all of their advances, openly declaring his loyalty to the God of Israel and choosing the physical agony of martyrdom over an unfaithful life. While he was awaiting execution, the Vilna Gaon visited Avraham in prison and offered to use Kabbalistic secrets and the esoteric Names of God to miraculously break him out of his cell. Avraham declined the offer, explaining that he did not want to cheat his fate or give the public any impression that he had compromised his beliefs. He asserted that his soul had descended to this world specifically to sanctify God's name through absolute self-sacrifice, known in Hebrew as Kiddush Hashem. On the second day of the festival of Shavuot in the year 1749, Avraham ben Avraham was marched to the center of Vilna and burned alive at the stake. He went to his death with joy and composure, loudly reciting the Shema Yisrael prayer as the flames consumed him. Following his execution, a brave Jewish resident of Vilna managed to bribe the guards to collect Avraham’s remaining ashes and bone fragments. These sacred remains were buried with the highest honor in the old Jewish cemetery of Vilna. Centuries later, when the Soviet authorities razed the old cemetery, the Jewish community successfully salvaged the remains of both the Vilna Gaon and the Ger Tzedek, reinterring them beside one another in new cemetery

Antisemitism is good. Its the insurance policy that god gave us when he granted us the Torah. If not for antisemites there will be no jewish nation left.

@DBashIdeas @johnoriley10 Yeah, but only since about 1500. Smoking was new once too.

@johnoriley10 Our ancestors didn’t vape. They smoked.

❤️ when Halacha seforim wade into the culture

@FeiyanXie This video would be so much better if they used real units instead of kilometers.

不借助发动机，人能达到的极限速度是多少？

Jewish family’s reaction to the shooting at the Mosque in San Diego will surprise Muslims.

@AlFromBayShore @grok I used to wait for the school bus in this girl's driveway (she was in early elementary when we were in Jr. High) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H…

@grok, are there any famous people who are either from or lived in North Babylon, Long Island?

Hollywood was full of enormous incandescent black Movie Stars right up until the moment activists decided the movie business was broken and racist and needed to be “fixed” and now we’re stuck hoping for Will Smith’s redemption because we aren’t making movie stars at all anymore

@canedeeman The USA won WWII because the Europeans were stuck using the Metric System.

In your opinion what technology won WWII (or 11 if you're Somali) for the US? I'm going with the proximity fuse.

Talmud is tough. Tosafos makes it tougher. The specific subjects you learn in school are far less important than one thing. And if you do that one thing well, you'll have no trouble learning anything you need for any career. That one thing is this: how to understand simple things deeply. Once you've mastered that, you're most of the way to anywhere you want to go.

One thing I struggle with in Orthodox Judaism is the way that many Chassidic schools educate their children. They generally don’t want kids focused on making money while they’re growing up in Yeshiva. And to be honest, part of me struggles with it. Because I was raised completely differently. I grew up in a secular environment where almost everything revolved around money and success. You want to get into a good elementary school so you can get into a good high school. So you can get into a good college. So you can get a good job. So you can make good money. Every step of the system feels tied to financial success. So when I entered the Torah world later in life, this approach was very hard for me to understand. Part of me wants my kids learning business, sales, money, investing, networking, ambition, all from a young age. But then I look at my children. I see how much they genuinely love learning Torah. I see how happy they are going to school. I see how unburdened they are by the pressure of “what career will this lead to” or “how much money will I make one day.” And then I think about something else. The world never stops talking about how successful Jews are financially. Yet many of these same Jews spent the first 18+ years of their lives barely discussing money at all. So maybe there’s something deeper there. Maybe when a child grows up with faith, identity, discipline, purpose, family, community, and connection to G-d… they become whole people first. And maybe whole people are ultimately more capable of succeeding in business and life with Hashem’s help. I still don’t fully understand it. But I’ve come to deeply appreciate it. And I’ve chosen to raise my children that way. Curious what others think.

Talmud is tough. Tosafos makes it tougher. The specific subjects you learn in school are far less important than one thing. And if you do that one thing well, you'll have no trouble learning anything you need for any career. That one thing is this: how to understand simple things deeply. Once you've mastered that, you're most of the way to anywhere you want to go.

@HopeD81969 @EricLDaugh The "Home" Office.

@EricLDaugh Yep...

🚨 JUST IN: Islamists and leftists are FURIOUS after Tommy Robinson gave the perfect answer Q: What would happen if you become a prime minister tomorrow? ROBINSON: "I would STOP Islam, I'd END foreign funding in this country. All the migrants would be taken out the hotels and sent back tomorrow by the military!" Holy based! "I would have re-migration. It's time for many Muslims to leave this country. You've got your homes to go to. This is our home. We've got nowhere to go to!" "We're not allowing it to change any longer. You've seen today, people have fed up then. People are FED UP!" 🔥 This is the way, western man! h/t Veronika Rogoyska @TRobinsonNewEra

@DisaffectedPod I found this article on Instapundit. When I read it, I thought you might have use for it. huffpost.com/entry/prep-bel…

You lot have a point. Pedro Pascal is probably a pole smoker. Who the hell can tell anymore? People lie about being gay or perverts or superfreaks all the time for attention. Being repellent and antisocial is culturally favored. My gaydar doesn't work anymore. -J

@suzy_redd @RonColeman I used to love Monty Python back in my college days. It occurred to me that the old Britain was destroyed in part because it was mocked to death. So, I'm kind of ambivalent about Monty Python these days.

@kingmakerseries @RonColeman I hate that they are actively destroying their country because nothing will ever top British comedy.

Queen of Denial

@suzy_redd @RonColeman "Git" is up there too.

@kingmakerseries @RonColeman "Gob" is a word I wish we had stolen from the Brits.

@ShitpostRock2 Why complain about books like this when indie authors like me are producing exactly what you want?

''Bro just go read some books'' Meanwhile the newest James Bond book:

@JohnLeFevre He also cheated on his wife with a bunch of sopranos. That's not a road to happiness either.

Everybody should watch this twice. “Mozart was the greatest musical talent that ever lived. And what was his life like? He was bitterly unhappy and died young.” “He did two things that are guaranteed to create misery. He overspent his income, and he was full of jealousy and resentments.”

@feelsdesperate If they acknowledged the fraud, then people wouldn't be able to blame "late stage capitalism" for the rising medical costs.

Makes you wonder how much of ‘rising medical costs’ is just fraud, is just people stealing money.