One alert reader wrote in to point out the correlation between the earthquakes Israel received yesterday and this ridiculous tamei event that is occurring at the same time in Eretz HaKodesh.

To make matters worse, there is the usual absurdity of well-intended yet misguided Jews welcoming a performer who led the way in forging the social acceptance of brazenness, rampant pritzut, gender-morphing, and same-gender-attraction.

​In fact, remembering the performer's influence on the society of my youth (and this performer had a MASSIVE influence on American teens and pre-teens), I firmly believe she shares responsibility for the downward spiral of American society and mores today.

Yet she comes off as heroic because she ignores BDS and comes to shmutz up our Land despite their opposition.

This is when I am SO GRATEFUL for a Torah hashkafah and for all the frum Jews who give shiurim and write articles promoting the authentic Torah view.

Simply put: There are some people who make you just want to beg them to boycott you.

"PLEASE capitulate to BDS!" you want to cry out. "Don't have ANYTHING to do with us! PLEASE boycott us! PLEEEEESE!"

We know that this is a Land that vomits out her inhabitants when they get too far from their Torah roots.

We also know that Hashem brings earthquakes for certain sins.

But seeing as no one here is an Israeli government official, what can we do?

​So based on different shiurim I've heard & sources I've read, the following is good advice:

• Let Hashem hear your protest.

​You don't need to take to the streets. Just standing in your kitchen or waiting at the stoplight in your car, you can say:

"Hashem, I protest this tamei event in Your Precious Land! I totally oppose such tumah shmutzing up the beautiful Inherintance You have so generously bequeathed to us! You don't like it, so I don't like it either!"

(I don't mean you should frighten children or other drivers, but it's very beneficial to find the time to offer up your protest.)

This is especially good because while we need to give the benefit of the doubt (i.e., "They don't know this event is wrong and an awful chilul Hashem"), that never means that the forbidden is permitted or okay. We can say, "These people don't understand, but I do understand. And therefore, I protest on Your Behalf, Hashem. I'm on Your Side."

• Say Tehillim.

Any Tehillim. It always sweetens din. The 10 psalms comprising the Tikkun Haklali are wonderful because a tikkun fixes and rectifies things:
Tikkun Haklali in Hebrew

(For an English translation or an English transliteration, press the "abc" at the center-bottom or the "ת-A" at the bottom right.)

• Do teshuvah.

Ask yourself how you might have possibly contributed to this chilul Hashem. Do you need to strengthen yourself in tsniut? Shemirat einayim? Separating yourself from non-Jewish values, beliefs, or entertainment?

Any step you take toward cleansing out your own spiritual gunk is really, really powerful and good.

You can even take on a kabalah of not doing something beneath your Torah-infused dignity for the duration of this event.

Everything helps. Don't think that you or your actions are too small or insignificant to matter.

You matter.

• Learn more Torah.

This is one of the three pillars of the world, along with prayer and acts of loving-kindness.

And again, even a baby-step in this direction is huge.

Even one more word of Torah is significant.

​You and your Torah-learning matter.

• Tzedakah

Giving money to the poor or to causes that actually help people (i.e., not the local art museum) sweetens din and because one of the words for money is "damim," which means "blood" in plural form, giving tzedakah is like giving of your life - a wonderful atonement that doesn't harm you and benefits the other.
​

• Say Pitum Haketoret

Found in any Orthodox prayerbook, reciting the procedure of the Pitum Haketoret (The Incense Offering) is a wonderful segulah.

Back in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, this procedure carried out by the Cohen protected Yerushalayim from very bad things.

It was a primary counter-agent against spiritual tumah/contamination. It literally cleansed the environment, both physically and spiritually.

Nowadays, reciting this with as much kavanah as you can releases its original protection. 

It also has the power to improve marital harmony, health, and livelihood.

Ideally, it's recited at the beginning of Shacharit (Morning Prayer), at the end of Shacharit, and at the beginning of Mincha (Afternoon Prayer).

If you're not saying it at all, try saying it once in the morning. 

If you're already saying it once or twice a day, then for this duration, try saying it 2 or 3 times a day.

If you are already saying it 3 times a day (and if you're a minyan man, then you probably already are), then try adding extra kavanah to it.

For more information (and there is a lot more to know about this), please read:
http://www.jewishmag.co.il/11mag/mystic/mystic.htm

And here you can see a list of the Kli Yakar's symbolism for various aspects & vessels of the Ketoret ceremony (at the beginning of the post):
Parshat Titzaveh

​There are other things I'm forgetting, but this is what I've remembered for now.

May Hashem have mercy on us all & may we all return to Him with teshuvah from love.

Despite my best efforts to ignore it, Israeli election time is upon us again.

And yet again, despite the wide choice of political parties, I feel there is no one to vote for.

Too bad about Eli Yishai, who is really cut from a different (and much better) cloth of politician.

Anyway, I have one son who makes a decent living and has been offering 200-300 shekels to anyone of us that votes for Likud. 

(Not a snowball's chance on Venus of that happening, my son.)

My other kids are in institutions and belong to a society that all benefits from Shas.

The majority of the Sefardi Gedolei Hador say to vote for Shas.

So I considered going with a minority daas Torah which says, don't participate in anything run by this Erev Rav government -- meaning, don't vote at all.

The truth is that whether you vote or not, it doesn't matter. Hashem runs everything and the heart of the ruler is in His Hands. So I don't really sweat elections too much.

Yet when I mistakenly blurted this out to my family, I was met with scandalized faces.

Then my offspring rose up against me (not in a bad way) using their best lomdus-attack skills (though not in a chutzpadik way), awakening me to the realization that I might be setting a bad example by not voting at all when the Gedolim they listen to have said to vote.

My Moroccan-Israeli husband was more good-humored and gentler about encouraging me to vote for Shas. But like me, he also believes in Hashem too solidly to get really worked up about politics.

Then a man who once tutored one of my sons in Gemara called up and made a special plea for us to vote for Shas because Shas pays for him to tutor and all the help he's able to grant struggling 8th-grade boys comes from Shas.

That kind of pre-election plea never happened to us before, so I took it as personal direction from Shamayim.

So if you see a frum lady with sagging shoulders and a grim face dragging herself to the polls on Tuesday, that's me. (Or at least, someone who maybe feels like me...)

But if you want to know what's REALLY in my heart, you can read this Q&A from Toras Avigdor:

Political parties aside, just as one example: Are you a frum housewife?

​And even if you're not a frum housewife ;-), do any of the following apply to you?:

Do you do your best to love the Am that Hashem loves?

Are you sincerely trying to internalize wholehearted Jewish emuna?

Then you're doing more for Am Yisrael & Eretz Yisrael than any politician or political party.

You'll be written up in Eliyahu Hanavi's book and affirmed with Hashem's Stamp.

​Why? Because you are the only real "party" there is.

But the other point I wanted to make is about the bumbling, fumbling awkwardness that sometimes accompanies ruchniut (spirituality).
 
For example, being fruitful and multiplying is a very spiritual activity.

Yet mothers of small children know that you can’t always be polished no matter how hard you try. Maybe you’ve got baby spit-up on your navy skirt and you don’t even notice.
 
Maybe you didn’t even see the person who just said hi to you because you’re trying to cross the street while pushing a double stroller with two other kids holding onto the sides and all your frantic head-twisting to keep track of everyone—plus the wind—just nudged your hair-covering over one of your eyes. 
 
Sometimes, before you know Hebrew or understand how a frum prayer service works, you get lost in the davening. You’re on the wrong page, you don’t stand up with everyone on time or else you stand at the wrong times, and so on.
 
And this is all SO NORMAL.
 
Sure, I could’ve described the above story as follows:
One morning, the young woman sitting next to me on the bus held up her siddur and invited me to say Amen to her brachot. Of course, I gladly complied—and so did the woman sitting behind us.
 
It felt so good to be in this warm nest of brachot and to bond with perfect strangers because after all, we really are one family.
 
Only in Israel!
 
And there would be nothing wrong with writing the above.

In fact, writers edit out the "static" all the time—not to deceive the reader (the warm fuzzy familial feelings are totally real)—but to make smoother reading for the reader. Otherwise, it’s like reading something transcribed from a stutterer.
 
But I decided to write it up exactly how it played out, with all the fumbles and bumbles, because that’s all part of authentic ruchnius.

You can be clumsy and awkward in mitzvot, yet feel really good all at the same time.

And that's because you ARE doing something really good—even if you're fumbling with it.
 
Those two women on the bus put me in such a good mood, despite all the awkward bits of it.
 
It felt really good, we all accomplished something spiritual we wouldn’t have otherwise, we bonded, and…
 
…it was good in Hashem's Eyes.

While I don't know the whole spiritual message behind the bus-overturn tragedy that happened on the Modiin-Jerusalem 443 route, I do want to point out something else.

While we need to pray for and assist the survivors and mourn those who died, it's also important to realize something revealed by my son:

Many people meant to be on that bus ended up missing it.

​And it wasn't their fault.

Two boys who learn in my son's yeshivah intended to take that bus. Familiar with that bus's timetable, they stopped in at a nearby grocery store to pick up some nosh when the bus suddenly sped by. 

In fact, several other potential passengers were in that same store and also shocked that the bus came early and didn't stop.

(In routes between cities, buses don't come as often and a missed bus is a huge inconvenience to the potential passengers -- something the drivers are aware of, making them more likely to wait for a person running after them and yelling, "Wait!")

This missed bus was their salvation, as they found out later.

It reminds me of similar incident that happened around the time of suicide-bombings on the buses in Tel Aviv & Yerushalayim.

An American girl was attending Tel Aviv University's one-year program for English-speakers.

When the crowded bus pulled up at the stop where she waited, she tried to get on, but the driver started yelling at her, "There's no room! Get off! Wait for the next bus!"

Startled, she protested that there was room as she was already inside the bus.

But the driver kept yelling at her and with a final shout of "There's no place for you here!", he shoved her off the bus.

Living in Eretz Yisrael for 25 years, I've never seen a bus driver do that.

Then the bus continued along its route and...

...exploded.

That's why, indeed, there was no place for her on the bus.

It wasn't her time yet and it wasn't her way to go either.

(BTW, she didn't leave her dorm for a month after that.)

So while we need to remember & be sensitive to the pain of the victims of this tragedy and the pain of their families, and to help them and daven for them any way we can, we should also remember that nothing is truly an accident.

And we should ask Hashem what message He wants us to understand from this.

Hopefully, we won't need to suffer anymore tragedies and the Geula will come already, b'ezrat Hashem.

Please see Neshama's blog for a list of names for davening:
Route 443 Accident Victims Need Your Prayers

Also, Hamodia included these names:
Chemdatia Ditza bat Rivka
Tamar bat Rivka
Moshe ben Chana Hendel

May everyone have a refuah shlaima of the nefesh & guf b'toch sha'ar cholei Yisrael.

A summary of events follows (the REAL events, not El Al’s fairy tale of the monstrous penguins)...
 
Here are 4 eyewitness testimonies:

What Really Happened on Flight 002
Yaakov "Ketzaleh" Katz is an Israeli hero.

​While I’m not one of his voters (he’s in the religious Zionist camp while I’m in the charedi one), I have profound respect for the kind of Jew who, as he’s lying wounded on the battleground and almost completely split in two, cares only for his secular comrade’s spiritual progress.
 
(Please see HERE for that whole story.)
 
That’s my kind of Jew!
 
And I’ll certainly believe him over El Al’s Facebook page any day.
 
A Few Thoughts From a Passenger on El Al Flight 002
A very level-headed & convincing account of events.

FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT: El Al Fiasco Ends in Display of Achdus, Kiddush Hashem on Shabbos in Athens
​I think his point about it all maybe being Hashem's way of getting funding for a mikveh is a good one.
 
El-Al Sponsered Shabbos of Unity (also an eyewitness report)
Omigosh, you mean it was some secular people yelling at some of the shomrei Shabbat, and not the other way around?
 
Could it be? But secular Israelis NEVER raise their voice to one another. Hmm…I’ll have to get back to you on this one. (Just kidding.)
 
No, but seriously. It seems that regardless of the passenger’s religious observance, nearly all the Jews on the plane were behaving with achdut and helpfulness.
 
And as many others pointed out, it wasn’t a secular-religious issue as portrayed in the media.
 
I totally agree with Ben Chafetz, that the fiasco could’ve been reported in a very positive way -- to El-Al's benefit.
 
From a religious point of view, it was more of a success than a failure (although I'm very sorry for the inconvenience & stress everyone experienced before & after this amazing Shabbat):
​

• Dozens of different types of Jews being mosser nefesh for Shabbat.
• Wonderful achdus and achvah.
• Monstrous penguins—oops! I mean charedim—and other types of religious Jews sharing their mehadrin meals with their secular brothers and sisters who didn’t receive any food at all.
• Chabad does it again! With only a few hours to prepare for hundreds of people in all different situations (mothers with small children, Chassidic businessmen, rabbis, people with medical issues, etc.), the Hendels merited enormous success & blessing.
• All culminating in an unforgettable Shabbat and a particularly stunning kiddush Hashem.

 
After reading this, I actually felt bad for the committed Sabbath-transgressors who went on to catch another flight on a different airline for Shabbat.

For sure, the frum Jews enjoyed their weekend much more on both the physical and the spiritual levels.

May we all merit to join together in such achdut & chessed around a mitzvah.

​One morning, I was davening as usual. But between prayers, I would drift off into daydreaming.
 
Wasting that time meant that davening stretched a lot longer than necessary—and for no good reason.
 
Furthermore, I knew that for Shemoneh Esrei (the Standing Silent Prayer), I needed to change into more appropriate clothes.
 
One should daven Shemoneh Esrei dressed as one would to open the door to someone—and not in a nightgown (albeit a very tsnius nightgown).
 
So I consciously realized that I needed to change, but decided to daven Shemoneh Esrei anyway because I didn’t feel like wasting any more time and to just jump into Shemoneh Esrei.
 
I just started Shemoneh Esrei when the phone rang.
 
How frustrating! If only I’d gotten a rein on my daydreaming before, I’d have davened surrounded by quiet and be finished already, able to answer—rather than trying to daven while distracted by the phone.
 
A minute after the phone stopped ringing, I heard a knock on the door—more distraction. Was it connected to the ringing phone?
 
And I still couldn’t answer.
 
Yet because in Eretz Yisrael, most Jews feel like family with each other, my dear beloved brother the postman opened the door a crack and said, “Oops, sorry,” laid a package on the cabinet near the door, then closed the door and left.
 
I admit it caused me a fit of giggles as I stood before my Creator.
 
It also caused me strong feelings of shame as a strange man saw me in my nightgown (although there wasn’t anything to see because it’s very modest, but still; it’s not appropriate).
 
What was Hashem trying to tell me?
 
It wasn’t hard to figure out.
 
Number 1:
Had I focused on davening with zerizut (not davening fast, but commit to davening without getting distracted between sections), I would’ve been able to daven in peace and then able to answer the phone and the door.
 
Hashem gave me the quiet space in which to daven, but I didn’t make good use of His Generosity.
 
Number 2:
​I really need to be dressed appropriately—at least how I would dress to answer the door—when I’m davening Shemoneh Esrei. Had I been dressed appropriately, I never would’ve been embarrassed or ashamed when being seen by my dear beloved brother the postman.
 
So I’ve been trying to apply these newfound lessons to my morning davening...

​...except for the times when I forget. ;-)

Recently, a 22-year-old Arab construction worker was killed on site in Beit Shemesh when a construction digger fell on him.

(The digger was held up on supports and the worker had gone down to check the pipes to make sure the pipes hadn't been damaged by the digging. Unfortunately, the workers hadn't secured the supports properly. Furthermore, for extra safety precaution, the worker should not have gone under the digger, but waited until the digger backed up out of harm's way.)

My 21-year-old son happened to be there at the time. (He doesn't know CPR or first aid, so he couldn't help, but the event inspired him to start looking into a course to become a paramedic so he wouldn't need to stand by uselessly if in that situation again, chas v'shalom.)

And this is what my son said happened:

Immediately, the driver moved the digger up off the injured and moved back. Two other Arab workers jumped down into the pit to help the wounded worker. Those 2 were from the same village as the injured and were also his cousins.

The rest of his co-coreligionists whipped out their smartphones and started filming.

(Apparently, poor impoverished persecuted people always have access to the latest technology. And also reliable Internet service.)

Working nearby was an FFB Breslover chassid from Bnei Brak (one of the most despised communities among Israeli Leftists). He rushed to the scene and also jumped into the pit to apply first-aid (something the 2 cousins did not know how to do, so they were standing there crying and shouting helplessly).

Upon seeing that he could not help the injured in such a narrow space, he had the 2 cousins hoist the injured out of the pit.

Now the Breslover started working in earnest on the injured Arab.

This was not easy because, without going into detail, the victim was a mess. He was still alive at this point, but blessedly unconscious. In short, the Breslover ended up with blood all over his bare unprotected hands in an effort to clear breathing space for the victim.

My son also had his smartphone with him, but felt it would be in bad taste to film the event, both because it seems callous to simply film someone's gory dying moments and also callous to treat it like an Instagram-moment when the distraught cousins were right there. (Wouldn't that make the cousins feel even worse?)

However, the other workers did not feel the same and kept their smartphone-cameras centered on the goings-on. They didn't even daven (except for the 2 cousins, of course). Nor did they do teshuvah over not building the supports securely.

O, the glorious display of ahavas Yishmael!

Good thing there was a Breslover chassid around when they needed one.

Anyway, Magen David Adom and Hatzalah arrived, and they worked and worked over the victim. 

The Magen David Adom paramedics were all Jews -- wearing kippahs, mostly. And of course, the Hatzalah guys consisted of the much-despised chassidish chareidi Jews. Also, the Hatzalah guys are volunteers -- meaning, they don't get paid to work in gore and save lives.

Anyway, my son remarked at how impressed he was by the dedication of the MDA and Hatzalah guys. He said they used everything they had to restore the young man back to life and didn't give up on the Arab construction worker until the fatal truth became impossible to deny. Even 20 minutes after everyone was sure he was dead, they kept pumping the blood out of his lungs and doing everything they could to revive him.

Despite the fact that surveys consistently show that at least half of the Mohammedans in Eretz Yisrael are okay with suicide bombing attacks against Jews and other problematic notions, these Jewish (including the much maligned chassidic) paramedics gave everything they had to revive this young Muslim construction worker.

His distraught cousins started crying out "Allahu akhbar!" in their grief.

And the rest uploaded their brand-new video clip to YouTube.

(I'm not joking. My son saw it himself.)

I'm not reporting this to convince anyone who doesn't already know how great Jews -- particularly religious Jews -- are (yes, even with all our wonky faults).

People who hate frummies or Israelis or themselves can't be convinced. 

(I believe that's why some genuinely intelligent Jews -- like the last Lubavitcher Rebbe -- emphasized the need for blanket insistence on our refusal to give up Land, etc., and not try to convince, per se. Just to stand unyielding. Because even the most compelling truth just sounds like a bunch of blah-blah to the close-minded.)  

So I very much believe in preaching to the choir and that's it.

Because the frum community (with a few exceptions) is so self-critical, it's important to remind ourselves that for all our flaws and for everything that's wrong with us, we are still full of zechuyot like a large juicy pomegranate.

​So if you are a frummie (Torah-observant Jew), a wannabe frummie, or a non-Jewish pro-frummie, this post is for you.

And with that, this post will now take a couple of dips into irony...

(I have to state that outright because, somehow, humor -- especially satire and irony -- gets totally lost on the Internet. Maybe it's abducted by aliens.)

It's worth noting: None of the chassidish Hatzalah paramedics nor the FFB Breslover from Bnei Brak ever served in the army.

Yet they clearly aren't "parasites."

(Nor are they apparently racists or self-serving religious fanatics.)

Sure, an Israeli politician who served as "a correspondent" in the IDF and sat around ruminating over whether a verb should be written as "nifal" or "hufal" and did absolutely nothing of use to the actual military...he can write off committed Jews as "parasites" and insist that they perform "army service" instead of Torah learning (even if they NEVER contribute to actual combat or defense, and are one of the hundreds of "soldiers" who contribute absolutely nothing, militarily speaking, and sit around in air-conditioned bases all day watching American cable TV -- I'm not kidding).

Curiously, learning Torah in a yeshivah is a serious problem that apparently threatens Israel's existence and -- even worse in the eyes of Leftists -- Israel's social fabric, but spending your "military" service on a base texting and watching TV is the pinnacle of social and national contribution.

Hmm...

I mean, if we were talking ACTUAL combat soldiers and other ESSENTIAL military roles, that would be one thing.

But that's not the debate among the "Mandatory-Draft-For-ALL" extremists.

​According to military recruit extremists, all Israeli citizens MUST "serve" in the IDF -- even if they do absolutely nothing and only serve every other week (AKA "shavua-shavua") -- otherwise they are "parasites" and not "carrying their equal share of the burden."

And yes, I realize the above politician claims to have served in the armored corps at one point (despite conflicting reports to the contrary), but my point is that he keeps referring to his stint in B'Machaneh (In the Camp) as ARMY service -- as if!

And he thinks EVERYONE must do such "army service."

Just as another example of what non-essential army service is like:

One December a couple of years back during my son's service in the IDF, my son's roommates were non-Jewish Ukrainians who decorated their shared room with shiny colored tinsel & sang with gusto, "We wish you a merry...!"

Of course, you can imagine the great Yiddishe nachas I experienced at hearing that, especially knowing my son was serving in the only Jewish army in the world. So geshmak, let me tell you.

I don't know how savage terrorists respond to robust Ukrainian caroling, but I suppose "Santa Claus is coming to town" could be done in a menacing manner, if sung just right...

But I'll leave it up to B'Machaneh's 1983 correspondent to work that out.

You should also know that according to mandatory-draft-for-all radicals, these caroling Ukrainians are the REAL Israeli citizens who "carry their equal share of the burden" (they watched Friends while wearing authentic IDF uniforms!), while charedim are parasites who do not "carry their equal share of the burden." 

And the guy who penned propaganda pieces for B'Machaneh and later went on to perfect his best imitation of Netanyahu's I'm-Serious-and-Focused-You-Can-Trust-Me one-eyebrow-arch: He considered his military service "contribution" as having "carried his equal share of the burden."

​Mamesh.

But seriously...do you feel safer now?

I mean, now that you know there are caroling Ukrainians who only serve every other week in a position that entails watching TV most of the time, do you feel unconquerable?

Like I said, I suppose "Santa Claus is coming to town" could sound menacing if sung just right: "He knows when you are sleeping! He knows when you're awake!" -- just like Google & Facebook!

Also, do you feel safer now that you know there are IDF graphic designers and writers who wear real honest-to-gosh IDF uniforms to work in their magazine office? 

What can our enemies possibly do against our Photoshop and Word Office capabilities?

Ha! Take THAT, ISIS & Hamas! 

We will airbrush photos of your AK-47s with #FFFOEC PINK!

​We will spellcheck your grammar!

And if we're feeling particularly savage, we might even force you to try saying "P" and thus pronounce your alleged origin correctly.

Beware!

And those who think that Israelis are awful nasty brutes and think that the charedi Jews in particular are hate-filled fanatics whose encroaching growth must be halted at all costs -- and that everyone is a racist except those who hate the religious and the Right -- those radicals aren't going to be convinced that it's they who are the hate-filled racist fanatics...and not us.

Back to the initial true story in this post: Jews going all out to resuscitate someone possibly associated with Jew-killers just because he's a human being?

That's just considered an insignificant fluke by the real haters. In fact, they don't even bother knowing about it.

So this is just to boost you, the Torah-loving Jew, and remind you that you're part of a people who are mostly extremely compassionate (sometimes too compassionate, even) and proactive with chessed. ​​

And our Torah learning and our commitment to Torah values is the real deal.

Don't believe any hype that claims otherwise.

​Ashreinu!

Related links:

B'Machaneh: Do They Roast Marshmallows & Sing Folk Songs around a Camp Fire? 

​Before He Started Perfecting Netanyahu's I'm-Serious-and-Focused-You-Can-Trust-Me one-eyebrow-arch

It's local election-time here in Eretz Yisrael and one of the very gratifying aspects of living in a frum community is the positive difference in priorities.

For example, in some frum areas, you can see large posters in the streets and announcements in the local newspapers with messages like:

I just wanted to point out 2 powerfully positive developments (H/T Yeranen Yaakov):
​
Ben Gurion Airport to Shut Down for Yom Kippur

For the First Time, Kinneret Beaches to be Closed for Yom Kippur

These are steps in the right direction.

​Eretz Yisrael is spiritually sensitive and cannot tolerate desecration, which is why she is described as a Land that can vomit out her inhabitants.

Particularly with the shut-down of a major airport, I'd think that the logistics of doing so are quite complex. 

And of course, there are those who rage against these advances (although the beaches were also closed for Memorial Day and that was fine with these same inconsistent protesters). 

But the truth is that observing halacha ultimately saves lives and only brings blessing in the end, especially when mesirut nefesh is involved.

This is a big zechut for Am Yisrael and may it only increase.

Kol hakavod to all those involved.

May everyone have an easy fast and may we all merit to do complete teshuvah & have our teshuvah accepted by Hashem.

After everyone came from Morocco to Eretz Yisrael, my mother-in-law's widowed mother resided in an apartment in Afula to be near her son and his family.

My mother-in-law, her brother and his wife all took turns caring for the pious elderly lady.

For example, she was strict not to utter one word before netilat yadayim in the morning. Even when she had something urgent to say, she held back until her hands were washed.

Once, she woke up agitated and gestured for my mother-in-law (whose turn it was to care for her in the Afula apartment) to quickly prepare the netilat yadayim because she had something urgent to say.

My mother-in-law washed her hands, then her elderly mother said, "Your mother-in-law just passed away."

My husband's paternal grandmother had been living with my mother-in-law and father-in-law since their marriage (because the paternal grandmother's own husband had passed away a few months before their marriage -- actually, they'd been living with her; it the home of the paternal grandparents home that my mother-in-law moved into after the wedding).

"What?" said my mother-in-law. "How do you know?"

"I was just told in a dream," her elderly mother answered.

And my mother-in-law soon discovered that it was true. My husband's paternal grandmother had passed away early that morning.

Family lore has it that my mother-in-law's parents had been so wealthy that her mother never wore the same dress twice. I don't know if that is literally true. (It could be that she was in robes much of the time and only wore an actual dress for going out. Because otherwise, how you could you have hundreds of dresses you only wear once?)

But after wearing a dress once, she gave it away to the other women in the area. In this way, even the poorest woman from the most struggling family was always beautifully dressed.

But after a profound trauma caused by the Yishmaelites that killed her husband, the double-trauma of sudden widowhood preceded by the initial trauma thrust her into a deep depression. Amid the chaos and confusion, the the family lost all their money. My mother-in-law was only 6 and pulled out of school, never to return and receive an education. ​Her older brothers were sent to family in Algeria.

But back to the apartment in Afula...

One day, my mother-in-law noticed her mother staring out the widow and frowning. Then her mother called to her and asked my mother-in-law to quickly prepare 6 tomato-and-margarine sandwiches.

(That was all they had back then in Israel's immigrant neighborhoods in the early 1970s. My husband took such sandwiches to school every day. Butter and even the current staple of spreadable white cheese on bread was too expensive for the average immigrant in those times.) 

"Now take the sandwiches down to that Arab sweeping the streets," her elderly mother said.

Perplexed yet dutiful, my mother-in-law did so. The Arab streetsweeper responded with joyful surprise and heartfelt thanks, then my mother-in-law went back upstairs to her mother.

When my mother-in-law asked her mother why she needed to do that, her mother answered, "Don't you know that I always keep a lookout for signs of hunger in any living creature? And if I see they're hungry, I feed them. And when I give them food, I always pray that Hashem should behave with my descendants in the same way: Just as I show compassion and feed all who are hungry, so too should the Creator make sure that my descendants are never hungry."

In Morocco, if she passed by even a donkey that looked hungry, she would feed it.

I must admit that sometimes I entertain myself by trying to imagine this extremely refined beautifully dressed pious Jewish lady standing on a dusty road in Tafilalet and putting food in the mouth of a snappish, grumpy donkey. (Don't they bite? Aren't they kind of bad-tempered?) 

Anyway, this is clearly the ideal grandmother. Talk about looking out for your offspring!

Moreover, her method seems to have worked.

Looking at our own family and the offspring of her other sons and my mother-in-law, even if people aren't rich, they also don't suffer any serious lack. In fact, one of my husband's sisters married someone whose family had won the lottery and there are other grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are doing quite well financially.

Her natural Jewish concern for others, whether it was making sure the women in her area felt good about themselves by providing them with beautiful clothing, an act which prevented envy and ensured that even the poorest & most nebbuchy woman still looked beautiful for her husband or actively seeking out signs of hunger in all Hashem's creations in order to nourish them, this woman embodied a good Jewish heart.

(Also, I must commend her that in sharing her own clothing with everyone, it meant that she never stood out as the best-dressed because everyone was dressed like her, which shows an admirable resistence to showing-off.)

My mother-in-law's mother was tried with both the nisayon of wealth and the nisayon of financial struggle, and she dealt with both admirably by holding on to her empathy and compassion no matter what.