43 Comments
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Sk's avatar

What a beautiful letter. So proud yet so worried. May Hashem protect them.

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Chana Siegel's avatar

I work with beautiful young men like this at Shalva every day. They get a few days leave from the front, and choose to spend it wiping the noses of special needs kids and pushing wheelchairs to the gymboree.

Then they go back to Gaza, the Lebanese border, or Jenin and fight like lions. Show me another nation with a generation like them.

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Eric Polly's avatar

Mazal Tov and may HK"B protect all of our valiant Chayalim.

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EKB's avatar

May hashem keep them safe

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Saul Katz's avatar

These few words says it all - on why we need an army and our children need to enlist.

Two thousand years ago, we lost the original Jewish state. And for two thousand years since then Jews were attacked, beaten, robbed, tortured, and killed, in countless places all over the world. And there was NOTHING they could do about it.

May Hashem protect him and all the other Chayalim. The true upstanding Jew is one that does both . learn Torah nd protects his people.

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Gidon Ariel's avatar

beautiful. שיצא לשלום ויחזור בשלום

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Gdalya's avatar

You probably meant "ויחזור לשלום" instead of "בשלום".

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Gidon Ariel's avatar

Yes, I hadn't reviewed this before posting. But here's the Academia that doesn't emphasize the bet for shuv

https://hebrew-academy.org.il/2014/07/22/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%91-%D7%91%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9D-%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%91-%D7%9C%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9D/

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Gdalya's avatar

More than just not emphasizing. It's is a very not good thing (see Brachos 64a in the name of Rabbi Avin.)

All the best.

Chag Sameach, hatzlachah rabba, vichye l'Shalom!

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Zev Kaufman's avatar

Mazel tov ! You should be very proud of your brave son.

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Noah's avatar

You're not celebrating that your son is going into danger, G-d forbid, but that he is reaching such a milestone in his life. מזל טוב and may Hashem protect your son from the dangers of military service

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Jordan Alpert's avatar

G-d should bless, guard and protect your son and all of our soldiers; may their missions be completed successfully and they be brought home safely.

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Eli Julian's avatar

הרבה נחת! שירבו כמותו בישראל!!

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Srully Epstein's avatar

Mazal Tov and much Nachat.

May Hashem protect him and all his comrades, and bring everlasting peace to our country and our nation.

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Mickey Weiman's avatar

May he fight the wars of Hashem and come back safely!!

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A. Nuran's avatar

May Hashem end the war and bring them all home safely.

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David Eisen, Adv.'s avatar

גיוס קל ונעים…עלה והצלח!

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Danny Eisenberg's avatar

יישר כוחך! ה׳ ישמור את בנך בתוך כל חיילינו.

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Yaacov Bar-Chaiim's avatar

What a rush it must feel to parade your family as embodying, in your mind, the Jewish ideal. This may be one of those times that it's wise to tap that non-rational spiritual protection, and say בלי עין הרע

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jrs's avatar

What a weird, bitter, utterly pointless comment.

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Nachum's avatar

What a charming fellow you are.

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Uriah’s Wife's avatar

@Yaacov Bar Chaim,

Now there’s a sensible appeal to your MalOcchio hocus-pocus. You just can’t weather Rav Slifkin’s malicious, envious eyeball causing you serious misfortune and spiritual illness. You’re fortunate that your photo isn’t present on his blog because I wouldn’t want to bestow similar spiritual bad luck upon you. So your mojo and anti-zionist brand remains safe. Just don’t press your luck. My chiloni עין הרע is a powerful truncheon.

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Just Curious's avatar

I can't tell whether you're being sarcastic.

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Natan Slifkin's avatar

Actually I think he's trying to put me down. But it's ironic, because pride is certainly not the dominant emotion for me these days.

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A. Nuran's avatar

Fear is right up there I imagine

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Chana Siegel's avatar

He's jealous. May G-d protect you from such people.

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Yaacov Bar-Chaiim's avatar

Ok... let's see if I can calm the offended reactions.

1. It was not a put-down, Natan. I don't take time to read most of your stuff bc I'm against you. I think you have many important ideas, usually express them eloquently (when you're not grinding your axe), and are definitely a sincere Jew trying to do your part to refine our national ethos. But I definitely don't share all your priorities, nor adore your bandwagon, and I figure it probably offers me more objectivity than most of your commentors.

2. My point about the "rush" is that your important reflection on what it means to have one's son embrace such a dangerous national responsibility seems lost by making it so much about you and your family. Why all the pictures? Why the childhood memories. That's great if you're writing to your cousins. But turning such weighty national issues into a family parade?? Just seems to me a bit uncouth.

3. The suggestion of בלי עין הרע was totally sincere.

חג חרותינו שמח ומרומם מאד - לכולם

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David Ohsie's avatar

“ I don't take time to read most of your stuff bc I'm against you.”

“I figure it probably offers me more objectivity than most of your commentors.”

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Yaacov Bar-Chaiim's avatar

Not sure why you're quoting me here, David. But I hope you understand that I meant "I don't ... bc I'm against you" to say that I am NOT against him. Just have some critical perspectives.

As for trying to fool anyone - I can assure you I'm not. Was just putting out there that publicly sharing a speech praising one's family, that was given in ones home, with friends, and includes pictures, seems uncouth... and not in line with our tradition of עין הרע (as I afterwards shared a few sources for). If you want to belittle that tradition with claims that many frummies invest in photographing their simchas, and their institutions do the same for their websites ... well, I'm surprised by your small mindedness. It's true that our cultural hesitancy to flaunt our blessings has evolved with the advances of photography, but there's still a huge difference between recording special moments for posterity with your loved ones, and documenting an institutions special occasions in order to promote it ... and doing it to praise one's family in the eyes of strangers. Especially for such a weighty, dangerous issue.

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Natan Slifkin's avatar

What's dangerous is that a huge sector of the population are not helping the country during a war and are weakening it instead. Which my posts are intended to address.

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jrs's avatar

NO ONE buys the weird spin you keep pushing that you’re comment wasn’t aggressive, sarcastic, and a put-down—you were merely presenting your weirdly obsessive opinion about “the dangers of ayin hara”.

Torah leaders, or random Jews who just care deeply about other Jews’ welfare don’t express their well-intentioned opinions with such contemptuous disregard for people’s intelligence, and relentless attempts to tell people up is down, and day is night… This is the sort of garbage one expects from antisemitic Lefties on Facebook ranting against Israel, not someone who’s odd game is supposedly lecturing people about ayin hara.

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David Ohsie's avatar

Quoting you because your quotations appear inconsistent.

If you are not trying to fool people, then why did you bother posting something so untrue. Speeches given at frum events are widely shared. No one considers this an example of Ayin Hara nor uncouth. Nor do they believe that publishing picture about frum events is uncouth. No one, group, Jew or Gentile, has it as acceptable flaunt anything, so this claim is just a truism. Nothing was "flaunted" in this post. And the concept of Ayin Hara has little or nothing to do with flaunting.

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Apr 7
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Yaacov Bar-Chaiim's avatar

if that speaks to you - great. It cheapens the issue for me. And honestly, we have a very real tradition about spiritual danger in exposing our family celebrations to any but our closest connections. Especially with pictures. Hollywood loves it, but if you truly want to protect your children, אין ברכה אלא מה שסמוי מין העין

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Natan Slifkin's avatar

An ancient tradition about photographs? Is that from Chazal or the Rishonim?

Meanwhile, regarding the topic of Ayin Hara, you might want to read my chapter in Rationalism vs. Mysticism to see what the traditional interpretations of it really are, and to see who agrees with them today.

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