Yom Rishon
Sunday
17 Adar II 5782
March 20 2022
The News on the Israeli Street
The daily Corona update . . .
7,783 new cases of Corona were confirmed yesterday bringing to 43,630 the total number of Israelis with an active case of Covid-19.
The positive test rate was 21.17%.
331 Israelis are in serious condition in hospitals with another 163 in critical condition on ventilators.
10,419 Israelis have died of Corona–2 since yesterday.
Corona is back as the number of daily new cases and total active cases are continuing to climb–as are the number of seriously and critically ill. The positive test rate has doubled since Friday. The only reason the number of deaths is so low is that the hospitals do not report deaths over the weekend.
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
A Palestinian terrorist stabbed a policeman in the back of the neck in the Ras Al-Amud neighborhood in Jerusalem. The policeman is in serious condition in Sha’are Zedek Hospital. Click here to see the policeman being wheeled on a stretcher by MADA paramedics.
Another Palestinian terrorist stabbed two Israelis near the corner of David Remez Street and Hevron Road in Jerusalem. Both are in serious condition. Click here to see one of the stabbings as recorded on a bus camera.
Two knife-armed Palestinian terrorists were captured on the Gaza border today as they tried to infiltrate Israel.
Palestinian terrorists attacked Israelis with Molotovs and “rocks” south of the Zif Junction on Mt. Hevron, on Road 55 between Azzun and Karnei Shomron, on the Nabi Elias Bypass Road, near Jaba Tzurif, and at another dozen locations.
Palestinian terrorists attacked an IDF pillbox position near Neve Tzuf with IEDs.
TODAY’S BLOG
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky: May His Memory Be For A Blessing
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky (1928-2022).
Famed leader of the Lithuanian branch of Judaism and in his later life of most of orthodox Judaism, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky has died at the age of 92. He was one of the foremost Torah scholars in the world.
Rabbi Kanievsky was also renowned for his simple lifestyle. Living in a small apartment surrounded by hundreds of religious books in a rundown apartment building in Bnei Brak, he spent his entire life studying Torah from sunrise until late at night only stopping to bless the hundreds of supplicants who came to his door.
His funeral today was attended by more than 500,000 people.
Click here to see a small portion of those who attended his funeral.
Today on Arutz Sheva, a self-professed “secularist” Yuval Albashen wrote the following words about his impressions after numerous visits to Rabbi Kanievsky:
“Two things stood out for me especially. First — that a person of the Rabbi’s stature who learned throughout his life and sufficed with the barest minimum, was the role model for a million people. The contrast between that and the modern-day culture, an empty and fleeting culture that accords importance to people of power and transitory influence, filled me with envy. Second — the fact that this Rabbi utilized his position in order to uplift others, those most in need. I visited the Rabbi a number of times, and each time I saw people leaving there with their faces shining, reassured and uplifted by the faith that the Rabbi instilled within them. That was something truly exceptional to see. If only we in the secular world were able to construct some kind of alternative for the needy, an alternative freely available to everyone, not just to those with plenty of money for mental health treatments of all types.
In the many eulogies that will be written of the Rabbi his greatness in Torah learning will surely be stressed, as well as his great humility and the exceptional way in which he led the Lithuanian stream, and, in the last decade of his life, the haredi community as a whole. Aside from these aspects which I do not know well enough to appreciate, I wish to present this other side of the Rabbi, the aspect that gave freely of his support, his generosity, his time, in order to instill hope and faith in those in need. May his soul be bound up in eternal life and his memory be for a blessing.”
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.