Free Republic

Purim and Yom Kippur appear to be complete opposites but the ancient rabbis say they are really two sides of the same coin.>>>Yom Kippur has many Hebrew names, including the pluralized form: Yom HaKippurim. While the word kippurim literally means atonements, if we adjust one vowel and read it as kappurim, then its meaning becomes “like Purim.” This is a clue, says the Zohar, to the future purpose of Yom Kippur when it will become a day not of affliction, but of delight — just like Purim.>>>The ancient rabbis noted that Purim and Yom Kippur are the only holidays about...

Fifty years after the Yom Kippur War began, Israel is at war again, and preparations are being made right now for an absolutely massive ground invasion of Gaza. According to Google, the Yom Kippur War started on October 6th, 1973. The war with Hamas started on October 7th, 2023, and it could quickly evolve into a major regional war as more parties get involved. Once Israeli troops pour into Gaza, the dominoes will start falling very quickly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be the one that makes the final decision on a ground invasion of Gaza, and he very...

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, Israelis woke up to a sustained attack on multiple southern towns near the border with the Gaza Strip (half of the so-called "Palestinian Authority"). This isn't the usual vicious but random spasm of slaughter in which Hamas likes to engage. It appears to have been very well planned and executed, with thousands upon thousands of rockets barraging Israeli residential areas from the southern border to north of Tel Aviv. It is also an invasion: Hamas used bulldozers to demolish Israeli border barriers, enabling an unknown number of its assets to enter...

<p>Why did Hamas stage a long-planned, carefully executed and multifaceted attack on Israeli towns, soldiers, and civilians—one designed to instill terror by executing noncombatants, taking hostages, and desecrating the bodies of the dead?</p><p>And how were the killers able to enter Israeli proper in enough numbers to kill what could be hundreds and perhaps eventually wound what could be thousands?</p>

As Barack Obama’s number two man, Joe Biden took part in many policies that were damaging to Israel but his duplicity concerning the Jewish state began in his first year in the Senate when he visited Israel. Depending on which version of events he tells, Biden takes credit for transmitting disinformation to the Israeli government in an effort to help Egypt kill more Jewish soldiers, or, as he now tells it, Biden withheld vital information that could have helped Israel defend itself. In 1973, a freshman senator named Joe Biden was sent on his first overseas trip to visit Israel....

Since the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, the holy day of Yom Kippur has been observed with intense prayer and fasting. But the Bible mandates 15 specific sacrifices and many other rituals for Yom Kippur outlined in Leviticus chapter 16. This included the Kohen Gadol (high priest) wearing five different sets of garments, immersion in the mikvah (ritual bath) five times, and washing his hands and feet ten times. The temple service on Yom Kippur was the only time the Kohen Gadol entered the Kodesh Kedoshim (holy of holies) three times, the only day of...

Since the re-establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948, just three short years after the Holocaust, and the recapturing of Jerusalem by the Jews in the Six Day Arab-Israeli War of 1967, the nation of Israel worked hard to reclaim land that was lost to them since ancient (biblical) times. In that time, Egypt took over the Gaza strip, and Syria took over the Golan Heights region. After the 1967 War, the United States tried to spearhead a U.N. Resolution (242) which was designed to broker a peace treaty between the surrounding Arab nations with the condition that Israel...

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been hospitalized after feeling unwell during the Jewish fasting day of Yom Kippur JERUSALEM -- Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hospitalized Wednesday after feeling unwell during the Jewish fasting day of Yom Kippur. Israel's public broadcaster Kan said Netanyahu, 72, was taken to Jerusalem's Shaarei Tzedek hospital after feeling chest pains while attending synagogue services. Local media quoted the hospital as saying he underwent a series of tests that came out normal, but was being kept under observation overnight. In a statement on social media, Netanyahu said, “I feel better and...

Operation Nickel GrassExcerpt: The Arab states had trained well and Moscow had supplied equipment on a colossal scale, including 600 advanced surface-to-air missiles, 300 MiG-21 fighters, 1,200 tanks, and hundreds of thousands of tons of consumable war materiel. By Monday, the Israelis were reeling as missiles supplied by the Soviet Union took a heavy toll on aircraft and tanks. The IDF was running out of artillery shells and the Israeli Air Force warned that its capability to sustain combat would be exhausted within the week... On 12 October, Nixon decided that no more delays could be allowed, and ordered the...

... The attack took place on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur when there were about 80 people in the synagogue. German media named the killer as 27-year-old far-right activist Stephan Balliet and online streaming site Twitch said it was ‘working urgently’ to remove video of the rampage which he broadcast live on its platform. It showed him taking a bomb from his car and trying to blow up a gate at the side of the building. When a woman confronts him, asking if his behaviour was ‘really necessary’, he shoots her dead.

BBC Video At least two people were shot dead on a street in the German city of Halle on Wednesday, police said, with witnesses saying that a synagogue was among the gunmen's targets as Jews marked the holy day of Yom Kippur. One suspect was captured but with a manhunt ongoing for other perpetrators, security has been tightened in synagogues in other eastern German cities while Halle itself was in lockdown. "Early indications show that two people were killed in Halle. Several shots were fired," police said on Twitter, urging residents in the area to stay indoors. Police said the...

Gunmen wearing military fatigues opened fire outside synagogue in the German city of Halle on Wednesday At least two people, including one woman, were killed in the attack and several more were injured Police say they have arrested one man and urged people to 'stay alert' while the manhunt continues Shocking video shows one man dressed in black tactical gear and wearing a helmet firing on the street Attack happened on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, which is traditionally spent fasting and praying At least two people have been killed after gunmen attacked a synagogue in Germany on...

Melania and I wish all Jewish people a blessed Yom Kippur. Known as the “Sabbath of Sabbaths,” Yom Kippur is the holiest of days in the Jewish faith and the culmination of the High Holy Days. Through teshuva, tefilla, and tzedakah, Jews on Yom Kippur reach toward God to reunite and seek spiritual closeness to our Creator. As the day’s services conclude, the final great blast of the shofar signals the end of the Day of Atonement and a strengthening and renewal of the spiritual bond with God. On this day, as Jews around the world stand in front of...

After months of attacking each other and not speaking, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nemesis, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, will meet on Thursday morning at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem. Netanyahu repeatedly told Likud leaders that there is no point in speaking to Liberman, because the Yisrael Beytenu leader is determined to end the prime minister's political career. But after Blue and White leader Benny Gantz canceled a meeting with Netanyahu, he called Liberman on Wednesday evening. "There is no point in wasting the country's time," Netanyahu told Liberman. "We will meet and see if it is...

Washington DC blogger David Hughes writing in his DCRTV.com blog reports on the Free Republic's posts about the absence of Mark Levin: "Levin's Mystery Absence Continues - 9/19 - The mystery surrounding DC area-based national conservative radio host Mark Levin's (right) sudden departure from "The Mark Levin Show" last Thursday continued with his being "MIA" again Tuesday despite his substitute hosts claiming his return by then. According to a post on the Levin friendly Free Republic: "Please accept this post as an observation: explaining, not complaining. Hopefully, Mark Levin's absence from 'The Mark Levin Show' since abruptly departing the third...

Please accept this post as an observation: explaining, not complaining. Hopefully, Mark Levin's absence from The Mark Levin Show since abruptly departing the third hour on Thursday, 9/13 with Dan Bongino finishing the show are not for his own or his parents' health reasons. But after going on six days with no explanation on his web site, Twitter, Facebook or elsewhere, his fans may start to wonder what is going on. Ben Ferguson hosted the Friday 9/14 show and Dan Bongino again hosted the Monday 9/17 show and both said Mark would be back by Tuesday 9/18, but instead the...

Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, begins today at sundown and ends tomorrow at sundown. The evening service begins with the Kol Nidre. It has a haunting melody. Listen. This is the translation from Aramaic: All vows, obligations, oaths, and anathemas, whether called ‘konam,’ ‘konas,’ or by any other name, which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement until the next (whose happy coming we await), we do repent. May they be deemed absolved, forgiven, annulled, and void, and made of no effect; they shall not...

My beloved Jewish friend, may I ask you these very personal questions on the Day of Atonement? Where is YOUR atonement for your transgressions against the Holy Law of Almighty G-d (Lev. 17:11, Isa. 53)? Where is YOUR sin-offering for your cleansing of transgressions against the Holy Law of Almighty G-d (Lev. 4, 17:11, Isa. 53)? Where is YOUR lamb to offer in your place for your transgressions (Lev. 17:11, Isa. 53)? Where is YOUR propitiation that FULLY satisfies the PERFECT RIGHTEOUS DEMANDS OF THE HOLY LAW OF G-D (Isa. 53:10-11, Zech. 12:8-14)? Have you PERFECTLY kept the LAW of...

A Hispanic principal is systematically booting white, Jewish and older teachers from his Midtown high school, current and former staffers allege in lawsuits. “I think he hates us,’’ Peter Cohn, a former teacher at the HS of Art and Design, said of the school’s principal, Manuel Ureña. A Manhattan federal suit filed by teacher Todd Young claims Ureña, who is of Dominican heritage, initiated a mass faculty replacement at the school after being appointed principal in 2016. Young’s suit accuses Ureña of trumping up disciplinary and performance complaints against teachers to clear them out. “Since Principal Ureña has arrived at...

As you know, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, begins today at sundown and ends tomorrow at sundown. The evening service begins with the Kol Nidre. It has a haunting melody. Listen. This is the translation from Aramaic: All vows, obligations, oaths, and anathemas, whether called ‘konam,’ ‘konas,’ or by any other name, which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement until the next (whose happy coming we await), we do repent. May they be deemed absolved, forgiven, annulled, and void, and made of no effect;...