Will there be snow over Shabbat?

Well, the forecast is for snow up North – there maybe snow on motsei shabbat, Sunday in Gush Etzion. There will be certainly be wintery weather in Yerushalayim, but no snow over Shabbat.

There is a greater chance of snow in Yerushalayim on Tuesday – It will certainly be very cold around Tu B’Shvat.

Events:

Pre-shacharit parsha at 8am. ELC, Eretz Chemdah and Shir Chadash in Talbiya – Yaakov Rubin Street #1-on the border of Talbiya & the German Colony.

Special tu bshvat kiddush at Shir Chadash on 43 Emek Refaim, at around 11.15 after davening.

Ramban: shiur with Rav Itiel at 5.10.

Nitzanim: shiur with Rav Shai after mincha at 4.35.

Daf Yomi: Hour before Shabbat out at the Katamon Shteiblech.

Kiddushim after minyanim.

Times:

Shabbat in at 4.42, out at 5.56

Parsha from Rav Alex Israel & Brendan Stern

Rav Alex:

What can you not live without?
Your cell phone?
An internet connection?
Coffee?
Love?
And what does the answer to this question say about you?

In our parsha, the people of Israel “travelled three days in the wilderness and found no water.”
The Talmud says “Water means Torah”. It isn’t water without which we cannot subsist; it is Torah.

But we really cannot physically survive without water. We can survive without Torah!
How do we ensure that the essential things in life, those that are important but not urgent, are built into our lives? CLICK on here to read more.

Brendan Stern:

Beshalach – High Five! “Bnei Yisrael went up “chamushim” from the Land of Egypt” (Shemot 13:18).Rashi explains that the word “chamushim” is etymologically connected to the number five – “chamesh” – indicating that only one-fifth of Bnei Yisrael actually left Egypt, with four-fifths perishing during the plague of darkness.

The Targum Yerushalmi says it means that Bnei Yisrael were armed with “good deeds” when they left Egypt.The Targum Yonatan ben Uziel says it means that everyone went out with 5 children.How do we understand the statistical anomaly that everyone went out with exactly 5 children?

Furthermore, Chazal (Yalkut Shimoni Shemot 195) say that we were so “naked” of mitzvot in Egypt that Hashem had to give us the mitzvot of Korban Pesach and Brit Milah to provide merits through which to be worthy of redemption. That being the case, what were the “good deeds” the Targum Yerushalmi is referring to?The Be’er Yosef explains that it was only four-fifths of the Jewish adults that died in the plague of darkness, leaving 80% of the children as orphans. Hence the one-fifth that actually left took care not only of their own immediate families, but of four other sets of children as well.

Thus the “good deeds” were that they looked beyond their own personal needs and with great self-sacrifice took it upon themselves to adopt and nurture four other families of children. Accordingly, the Targum Yonatan ben Uziel is saying not that they went out with five children each, but rather five sets of children – their own plus 4 additional sets of orphans!The prophet Micah (7:15) tells us that the miracles that happened in Egypt will happen again in the final redemption. The secret to bringing about the final redemption is acts of goodness, sacrificing our own comfort and needs to help others!